Key Insights and Takeaways: GIANT Health Conference in London

GIANT stands for ‘Global Innovation and New Technology’ show. The yearly event brings together individuals and companies in the healthcare innovation space through a 2-day exposition with 4 thematic presentation programmes. This year’s presentations were focused on Digital Pharma, the Future of Hospitals, Mental HealthTech and the new Integrated Care Structure in the NHS. The event aims to improve health and well-being of people around the world by facilitating healthcare innovation and supporting health-tech entrepreneurs and investors.
The types of exhibitors present at GIANT Health 2022 can be segmented into the following categories, albeit not exclusively:

Figure 1: Lumeus app which uses music to encourage positive emotions (lumeus-app.de)
- Offering a service through an online platform or phone app. Examples of this included mental health apps which support patients with chronic depression or anxiety, or platforms which allow patients with complex conditions to combine records from all their physicians in one platform, and to connect these physicians to share information and facilitate more integrated care.
- Providing an app which links to a medical device or physical service. In this case, the companies are using technology for tracking and monitoring purposes but are collecting data through a physical device. This includes start-ups which are producing wearable devices for a specific patient group (e.g., Parkinson’s or Kidney disease) with the aim of alleviating symptoms, tracking essential daily markers or facilitating remote monitoring and communication, with the aim of assisting the care and treatment of a patient. These devices link to a platform or app, which is used for data collection, monitoring, communication and assistance.

Figure 2: The CUE1 is a wearable device designed by Charco Neurotech to help decrease symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (charconeurotech.com)
The companies that exhibited at GIANT Health in 2022 were on a spectrum of maturity. Some were newly created start-ups and still in development phases, while others were more mature companies with demonstrable success in one country looking to expand to new markets to find new patients or customers. A large proportion of companies were in-between, with a well-established offering but looking for investment and further support.
Our Key GIANT Takeaways
S&S sat in on various panels and industry discussions about the current challenges for MedTech and digital therapy companies and in particular the challenges new health technology companies have to navigate. We took the following lessons with us.
There is a lack of funding for implementation for MedTech and digitally enabled therapeutics
Across countries, but particularly in the UK, we are currently seeing an under-funded and under-staffed healthcare system. One remedy would be new technologies and innovation to supplement care with digital systems which provide support, monitoring and/or treatment to patients who are unable to access other forms of care. The challenge, however, is that while funding is readily made available for research and development of innovative technologies, this does not extend to implementation in the UK. This results in a large pocket of innovation, which is followed by brain drain, in which start-ups are seeking to launch somewhere they will receive more support. Consequently, the UK is losing out on many of the good ideas it helped foster.
Reimbursement is highly challenging for MedTech, particularly due to the need for real-world and clinical data

Figure 3: The PL Mini is a point-of-testing device which offers 37 different tests (premalabsdiagnostics.com)
There is a lack of understanding around the value of MedTech and digital therapies

Figure 4: Moonbird is an app-linked device which helps with anxiety by helping a patient control their breathing (moonbird.life)
Overall, most healthcare systems are not designed to be open to digital therapies and MedTech, and fail to take into account how their approach needs to be adjusted to bring them into the fold.
We can help guide you through the MedTech landscape
Sector & Segment has extensive experience working with Medtech companies to tackle the challenges we identify above. Challenges of funding, reimbursement and awareness are key pain points faced by most companies in the healthcare space. We have successfully worked with MedTech clients to identify whether public reimbursement is the best solution or if direct-to-consumer channels are more lucrative; whether a product is not being used due to awareness or due to negative perceptions; whether new market entry is an attractive strategy. Our experts could help you:
- Map out drivers and inhibitors in the market
- Size market demand and identify key client segments
- Develop a go-to-market strategy tailored to your company and products
- Concept test a new platform or product with healthcare professionals or patients
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