Medopad — the UK-based healthcare tech startup which last week signed £100m worth of projects and partnerships with a number of Chinese companies — said it plans to replicate that success in other countries around the world.
Medopad’s chief executive Dan Vahdat travelled to China last week with UK prime minister Theresa May’s trade delegation.
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He told Verdict:
[The China trip] was a once in a lifetime opportunity for us. Being part of the delegation allowed us to sign the deals in a much quicker timeframe. The trip provided us with credibility… we can aim now aim for projects that wouldn’t have been able to before… We will now have a model that we can use for other countries.
Vahdat has plans to expand Medopad into Germany and the US following partnerships with John Hopkins University and consumer goods giant Johnson & Johnson.
He also said the company is exploring national deals, but declined to name countries.
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By GlobalDataAccording to Vahdat the long-term success of Medopad depends on its ability to scale up to a global level. He said:
The care that is needed is needed worldwide. We all have generally the same bodies and the same health problems.
Medopad signed 15 deals with Chinese companies Lenovo, Ping An Good Doctor, and Actelion.
Lenovo and Medopad will plan to provide wearable technology for doctors to remotely monitor patients while Ping An Good Doctor will combine Medopad’s tech with it’s own artificial intelligence system to better monitor remote patients.
However, Vahdat said he is most excited about Medopad’s partnership with Chinese social media platform WeChat owner Tencent. WeChat has more than 1bn users across China.
Vahdat said:
When you combine our access to data and the solutions, it is possible to create something that is unique. I’m not promising anything, but it is possible to create something that will have a global impact [on the healthcare industry].
Medopad also agreed it would help broker partnerships between Chinese companies and UK based organisations and companies.
Imperial College Health Partner will collaborate with Chinese technology companies and Medopad in developing predictive analytics for a range of disease indications.
Chelsea Football Club will finance the development of solutions to document the health and performance of players in Chinese football academies.
What does Medopad do?
Medopad was co-founded by Vahdat — who trained as a biomedical engineer — in 2011. Medopad collects data from patients and shares it with healthcare providers.
The company’s aim is to help healthcare firms manage costs and improve patient care using data and real time analytics.
One of the company’s earliest projects was with Kings College London. Patients undergoing chemotherapy could record how they were taking medication using a smart watch.
Vahdat describes Medopad’s platform as being “similar to lego” since “you are building different modules — that is what we call them — together to create the finished product”.
The modules can be configured and integrated into the healthcare companies existing platform.
The modules are, according to Vahdat, around 90 percent ready out of the box, meaning they can be installed quicker than something that’s been built custom.
Although currently the algorithms used are relatively simple, Vahdat said:
We hope them to become more complex as time goes on.
Medopad has also expanded beyond the healthcare industry into insurance.
However, Vahdat said:
The pillar behind everything we do is health; even when moving into other industries, the focus is always healthcare.
Medopad has also recently agreed partnership with Chelsea football club and has an agreement with car maker Volkswagen to monitor the health of its truck drivers.
Across all its operations Vahdat said “access to clean data is the key challenge we face”.
He thinks that by working with Chinese companies with access to a huge amount of cusomter data, Medopad can improve its AI tech.
Vahdat said:
China was an important market for us because it is one we have the least experience in. When there is something you know less about then you should learn about it as quickly as possible.
