Technology in Healthcare

Saudi Arabia built the world's largest virtual hospital, and we haven't even heard of it. It connects 224 hospitals and treats 400,000 patients a year without a single physical bed. It's called Seha Virtual Hospital in Riyadh, and it just earned a Guinness World Record for being the largest virtual healthcare provider in the world. But how can a hospital be “virtual”? How does it work? → Imagine you live in a small town with only a basic local hospital. → It has doctors and equipment. But if you need a cardiologist or neurologist, you travel 6+ to a bigger city. In urgent situations, people lose lives. → With Seha, specialists treat you remotely through your local hospital - reviewing scans, diagnosing conditions, prescribing treatment - while local staff execute it. That's the model. Specialist expertise delivered through existing hospitals. And here's what makes it work: ▶️ AI prioritizes urgent cases - analyzes CT scans and imaging to rank who needs immediate intervention ▶️ IoT monitors patients remotely - heart failure patients wear devices that alert doctors before hospitalization is needed ▶️ Integrated health records - manages prescriptions and reports across all 224 hospitals in real-time The results? - ICU patients now stay an average of 4 days instead of weeks.  - Stroke patients get CT scans within 25 minutes of arrival. - Treatment starts in 28 minutes.  - Radiology reports in 2 hours. This isn't telemedicine where you video-call a doctor from home. This is expertise delivered through your local hospital without the specialist being physically there. It proves you don't need cardiologists and neurologists in every town. You just need good internet and hospitals willing to collaborate. Do you think virtual hospitals could solve specialist shortages in rural areas? #Entrepreneurship #healthtech #innovation

Some technologies don’t just solve problems — they give people their independence back. I rediscovered Liftware, and I was genuinely moved by what it can do. It looks simple: a smart handle connected to everyday utensils. But inside, it’s a powerful piece of engineering designed for people with hand tremors (Parkinson’s, essential tremor, and more). Here’s how it works: 🔹 Sensors detect tiny hand movements in real time 🔹 Micro-motors instantly counteract the tremor 🔹 The spoon or fork stays stable — even if the hand doesn’t The result? Up to 70% less shaking. And for many people, that means eating soup again… without help. This is technology at its best: invisible, intelligent, and deeply human. 💡 My take Most people don’t know this, but Liftware was developed by a small startup before being acquired by Google’s life sciences division (now Verily). What makes it remarkable is the engineering challenge: the device doesn’t try to stop the tremor — it predicts and cancels it. It’s basically a tiny real-time AI system… hidden inside a spoon. This is the future I love: not just smarter devices, but more compassionate ones. If you’ve seen other innovations that genuinely improve people’s lives, I’d love to discover them. What’s one piece of tech-for-good that inspired you recently? #techforgood #innovation #technology #healthtech #accessibility #assistivetechnology #futureofhealth #inclusiveDesign #AI #impact

Today in Cell, we published new research showing how AI can help accelerate cancer discovery. With GigaTIME, we can now simulate spatial proteomics from routine pathology slides, enabling population-scale analysis of tumor microenvironments across dozens of cancer types and hundreds of subtypes.   Developed in partnership with Providence and the University of Washington, our hope is that this work helps scientists move faster from data to insight, revealing new links between genetic mutations, immune activity, and clinical outcomes, and ultimately improving health for people everywhere. https://lnkd.in/dSpPdtzz

Your HealthTech startup is not a tech company. And treating it like one will kill it. I’ve seen brilliant founders come from SaaS, fintech, and AI. Only to crash in healthcare. Why? Because they assume healthcare works like other industries. It doesn’t. Here’s what makes HealthTech different: You are selling to institutions, not individuals. Hospitals, insurers, and regulators move slowly. Their decisions are driven by risk, not hype. Trust is everything. In healthcare, one misstep, whether clinical, ethical, or regulatory, can destroy your credibility overnight. Adoption is a long, uphill battle. Clinicians are overworked. Patients are overwhelmed. If your product doesn’t fit seamlessly into existing workflows, it won’t get used. So how do you survive? Act like a healthcare company. Learn the regulations, build trust with providers, and design for safety over speed. Solve a critical problem. “Nice-to-have” solutions don’t last in healthcare. If no one is desperate for your product, rethink your idea. Validate relentlessly. Evidence wins. Clinical studies, peer-reviewed research, and real-world results matter more than press coverage. HealthTech is not a place for fast hacks or growth-at-all-costs mindsets. It’s a place for those who play the long game. P.S.  Building a HealthTech business is easy. Scaling it is hard. I help HealthTech CEOs, Boards and Investors unlock potential, growth and scale.

We reviewed 800+ health startups in India this year. Met 200+ founders in person. These are entrepreneurs building across health tech, fitness, nutrition, software for doctors, diagnostics, healthy food, longevity, sports, elder care, women health, lifestyle management & more. This is a long post on everything we've seen and observed in 2024 at Rainmatter by Zerodha. If you're an entrepreneur, investor of health enthusiast, this is for you. 1) There is a telemedicine fatigue- The post-pandemic boom in telemedicine has plateaued. While accessibility improved, sustainable consumer engagement still remains a challenge due to weak doctor-patient relationship and lack of differentiation. Patients want emotional and personalised engagement. Most companies are overusing AI in the disguise of scale. Opportunity is to solve for depth (chronic disease management) rather than breadth (generic consultation marketplaces). 2) Overload of premium fitness and wellness Apps- Apps targeting high-income urban users are oversaturated. Most startups overestimate the willingness of users to pay for digital fitness content. Opportunity is to focus on communities, hybrid models (offline + online), or affordable mass-market solutions. India is still not ready for Peloton content. We breathe YouTube. 3) Selling SaaS tools to Doctors- Doctors in India are notoriously price-sensitive. Most SaaS products fail due to limited willingness to adopt technology and low ROI visibility. Maybe companies should emphasise on simplicity and immediate value delivery. Job of a Doctor is to deliver treatment to patients and not learn how to use software. Need to humanise software in primary and secondary health care 4) Longevity buzz- Longevity startups sound exciting but cater to a niche. Everyone loves the idea of a pill or device that adds 50 years to life. But longevity is 80% lifestyle and 20% intervention. Startups chasing the 20% often overpromise and underdeliver. Without a strong clinical base or mass appeal, they will remain limited to aspirational urban elites. Opportunity is in integrating into broader wellness solutions rather than standalone ventures 5) Healthy food & nutrition- Overcrowding of “healthy snacks” and “superfoods” where differentiation is low and margins are squeezed by Quick commerce and logistics. Maybe companies should move beyond buzzwords like “organic” or “keto” and solve for authentic, local, and culturally aligned nutrition. India is a country of a million palates 6) Chronic disease management- Diabetes, hypertension, Weight loss and mental health requires long-term engagement and behaviour modification. While the space is competitive, there is room for solutions that prioritise patient journeys and retention over time. Driving outcome has to be the focus. Everything else is a vanity feature that doesn’t earn trust. Paid marketing will get expensive customers who won’t stick around Sharing the remaining notes in the comments section. Read below

This isn’t a luxury. This is a $200 wheelchair redefining what’s possible. For millions, standing wheelchairs have always been out of reach. Until now. At R2D2, IIT Madras, a team dared to ask: What if mobility wasn’t a privilege, but a right? Their answer is a simple innovation -no Big Tech: A wheelchair that lets you stand—on your terms Ingenious gas-spring technology for seamless movement: -Supports up to 242 pounds -Priced at $200 (when others cost $2,000 or more) But the true breakthrough isn’t just in the engineering. It’s in the lives transformed. → Physical freedom is restored. Stand tall when you choose. Reach the top shelf. Cook your own meals. Keep your body strong and active. → Health is protected. Standing improves circulation. Strengthens bones. Prevents pressure sores. Aids digestion. Reduces heart risks. → Social inclusion becomes reality. Converse at eye level. Join meetings—no barriers. Participate fully in community life. Experience true belonging. Ask yourself: When was the last time you had to look up just to be heard? For millions, that’s every day. This isn’t only about standing. It’s about dignity. It’s about independence. It’s about living fully. And for the first time, it’s within reach for those who need it most. When innovation meets accessibility, lives change. This is technology for humanity. Follow me, Dr. Martha Boeckenfeld for more stories of tech that matters. ♻️ Share with your network to learn more about how simple innovation can change people's live. #TechForGood #Innovation #Healthcare

You don’t have to log in to the workstation — because your phone 𝗜𝗦 the workstation. That’s the headline that knocked me sideways at this year’s UGM. Epic is famously tight-lipped and private, but one of the things they do really well is listen, and understand healthcare's problems. I’ll often think "I wish Epic did X" — and a year later, they've added it. So UGM usually feels like déjà vu: things I’ve wanted, and now they're delivering. Useful, but not always surprising to me. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦. Demo’d inside Epic’s “Hospital Room of the Future,” the concept is so simple it feels obvious in hindsight (which is a sign of great innovation): 1️⃣ Take your Android phone (they said Apple support is in the works). 2️⃣ Plug it into a monitor with a keyboard and mouse — but no computer. 3️⃣ Full Epic Hyperspace appears on the monitor. You’re logged in. It’s your exact session. It's not running on the cloud. The phone isn’t just a phone. It’s THE workstation. No generic logins. No typing passwords with sweaty gloves. No hijacking someone else’s session. You plug in, you chart, you unplug, you go. This is what real innovation looks like: not just shiny tech, but reimagined workflows. And that’s rare for companies this big. It’s built for nursing right now. But I want it for the ER, too. (If anyone knows the tech behind this, I'd love to hear details)

At Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), I saw how India’s homegrown innovations are saving lives. Fetal monitoring systems are helping mothers and newborns, real-time TB detection is catching cases sooner, and streamlined delivery systems are bringing medicine to remote communities faster. These breakthroughs aren’t just changing health outcomes in India—they have the power to change the world.

Just as routine stress tests help us understand our own health, medical technology goes through its own set of trials to earn its place in a clinical setting. An MRI, for example, faces a battery of stress tests: steel balls dropped on heated surfaces to check for cracks, robotic arms repeatedly plugging and unplugging connectors to make sure all signals work properly, patient tables loaded with hundreds of kilograms to measure strength and endurance, vibrating floors to test precision and quality. Our factory teams scrutinize every detail – and imagine every scenario – to ensure the device will meet the daily demands of patient care in any kind of environment. Safety, reliability, and quality are non-negotiable. We must be absolutely confident that our systems will perform not only on day one, but also when faced with unexpected and urgent situations. This trust is more than a technical requirement – it’s fundamental to healthcare. When clinicians know their technology can handle challenges, they can fully focus on their patients and on delivering care with comfort and hope. For patients, this assurance means peace of mind and being able to focus on the truly important task at hand: healing.

AI in the Biomedical field - There's a scientific research area called 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐁𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲, where scientists study the structure of proteins. It is important for all living creatures because the function of a protein depends on its shape. Despite years of relentless effort, we humans have uncovered only a minute fraction of protein structures—less than 1%—out of 100 to 200 million proteins in total. Then AI comes. In just two years, the AI system called 𝐀𝐥𝐩𝐡𝐚𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐝 predicted the structures of nearly all proteins in the world, now saved in the open database online. This breakthrough isn't just about proteins, AlphaFold has opened up new avenues for research in various fields, including 𝐝𝐫𝐮𝐠 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲, 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐠𝐧𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞. 2 years later, 𝐀𝐥𝐩𝐡𝐚𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐝 2 came (2020). This time, it introduced an end-to-end deep learning approach, delivering atomic-level accuracy (often indistinguishable from experimentally determined structures). It has been open-sourced since 2021, providing researchers worldwide with access to predictions for nearly all known proteins in the human proteome and beyond. The impact is beyond for example, it predicted the structure of the SARS-CoV-2 ORF8 protein during the COVID-19 pandemic, accelerating therapeutic development;  provided insights into amyloid proteins implicated in Alzheimer's and Parkinson’s diseases, accelerating drug development... __________________ I share my learning journey here. Join me and let's grow together. For more on AI and Data Science, please check my previous posts. Alex Wang