Digital Health Rewired Pitchfest, the fast-paced digital health competition for early stage start-ups, innovators and entrepreneurs, has opened applications for its third edition for 2021.
Applicants have a unique opportunity to showcase their start-up or idea in front of the unique Rewired audience of NHS IT leaders and investors.
The competition is taking place during the Digital Health Rewired, with zoom-hosted heats from 15-18 March with grand final on Friday 19 March.
Last year 95 applications were received for the 2020 edition of Pitchfest. The overall winner was Celsium, which has created a device which is said to give temperature readings accurate to 0.05 of a degree.
Alex Blakoe, chief operating officer at Celsium, said: “Pitchfest was a fantastic experience. The event gave us the opportunity to present our solutions to clinicians and decision-makers, not only helping elevate our brand but also enabling us to have conversations with exactly the people we should be speaking to.”
New judges added for 2021 include Jenny Thomas, Programme Director, DigitalHealth.London and Richard Corbridge, CIO, Boots.
Also, for the second year running, the CW Innovation programme – run jointly by Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and their charity, CW+ – will offer winners a real-world test bed in whichever care setting their concept or start-up is based.
Chris Chaney, CEO of CW+, said: “We are delighted to partner with Digital Health again to provide a real-world test bed for the winner of PitchFest 2021. Since PitchFest 2020 in March, we’ve witnessed unprecedented advances in healthcare innovation in response to the greatest healthcare challenge of our generation.
“It’s been a year like no other. The Covid-19 pandemic has been a catalyst for a rapid increase in the adoption and use of digital health technologies.
“Patients expect these advancements to continue as a part of day-to-day care, and look to us to adopt the latest technologies. We very much look forward to meeting this year’s cohort of entrants whose innovations have the potential to make patient care more streamlined and comfortable as the world we live in continues to evolve at pace”
Rewired 2021 has been reimagined as a week-long virtual festival showcasing and celebrating the best of digital health and care across the UK and internationally. Rewired 2021 brings together 11 different festival events, including the Digital Leadership Summit, Digital Transformation Summit, and AI and Data Summit.
Entrants should be start-ups or registered businesses that have been established for less than three years. And health and social care services, medical devices, consumer health and wellbeing or life sciences must be their primary focus of activity.