CardMedic has been crowned the winner of Digital Health Rewired Pitchfest 2022.
The company has designed an app which aims to reduce health inequalities through improving communication between healthcare staff and patients.
Dr Rachael Grimaldi, co-founder and CEO of CardMedic, said: “Thank you all for this amazing opportunity. We wouldn’t be where we are today without all the incredible volunteers from the NHS, frontline healthcare professionals, allied healthcare professionals and industry giving up their time to help translate content.
“We work with refugees in Kenya to do some of our translation work. It really kind of speaks to our core mission of making a positive social impact globally, improving health inequalities globally for everybody.
“We want our CardMedic foundation to support that in the long run, to support humanitarian crises, female entrepreneurs and developing countries,” she added.
“Coming back to where we are now, this is just a phenomenal prize to help take us to the next step. Thank you so much.”
As winner of the Pitchfest competition, CardMedic will be offered the opportunity to have their innovation tested and scaled at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust through the CW Innovation Programme – a collaboration between the trust and its charity CW+.
For the third consecutive year, the CW Innovation Programme has offered the winners a real-world test bed in whichever care setting their concept or start-up is based.
Chris Chaney, CEO of CW+ and co-lead of CW Innovation, said: “A huge congratulations to CardMedic for winning this year’s Pitchfest, which was as competitive as ever.
“The last two years has catalysed a surge in new thinking and innovation, and through our flagship CW Innovation programme, we are delighted to have the opportunity to work with CardMedic to test and scale their innovation at the Trust, transforming patient services with this new and entrepreneurial solution across our organisation and beyond.”
The Pitchfest entries were whittled down to the final 16 before Rewired, with the competitors split into four heats.
The intention was for one start-up from each online heat to be selected and move through to the live final at the Business Design Centre in London, however following a tie in the second heat two entrants progressed, meaning five competed in the live final.
The four runners-up were:
- Healthtech 1 – a system which automates away admin tasks in primary care
- Little Journey – a digital eSupport tool that psychologically prepares, informs and supports children and families before, during and after healthcare procedures through a mobile application
- Sapien Health – a digital clinic for surgery that helps people prepare their mind and body for surgery through sustainable lifestyle changes
- Sweatcoin – an app where your everyday steps convert into currency to spend on cool products, services, and charities.
The final ran during the afternoon of day two of Digital Health Rewired 2022, live on the Integrated Care Stage. It was hosted by Digital Health’s CEO, Jon Hoeksma, who was joined by a panel of judges who questioned each start-up about their innovation and what makes it stand out from others on the market.
The judging panel consisted of:
- Dr Chris Bates, director of research and Analytics, TPP
- Chris Chaney, CEO, CW Innovations
- Jon Hoeksma, CEO, Digital Health
- Megan Morys-Carter, director, The Hill
- Dr Mridula Pore, co-CEO and co-Founder, Peppy Health
- Lloyd Price, CEO and co-Founder, Hive Health
- Dr Jon Shaw, director of clinical strategy and Design, System C
- Joe Stringer, partner (health), Octopus Ventures
- Jenny Thomas, programme director, DigitalHealth.London