We are pleased to announce that DefinitiveDx has been selected as one of the top 32 SMEs to join the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator.

“We are delighted to have been selected. We have already received invaluable support from the Health Innovation Network, so we are really grateful for the opportunity to work more closely with them, DigitalHealth.London and their founding partners.”      

     Felix Jackson, Founder of DefinitiveDx

The year-long Accelerator programme will support 32 innovative SMEs from September 2016. The chosen SMEs have been selected due to their high potential to use digital health technologies to benefit patients and provide solutions for the challenges faced by the NHS.

DefinitiveDx is a digital health technology that enables doctors to share and discuss complex patient cases, to find a definitive diagnosis and best treatment for every patient.

This is an incredible achievement for our team and DefinitiveDx, enabling us to help establish the greatly needed GP Paediatric Advisory Service in Lambeth and Southwark while expanding this advisory service to more specialties.

Sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date with our participation in the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator, and our work with their great team and partners.

In the consumer world we live in, we’re constantly surrounded by messages from advertising that acquiring more products/services will make us happier and somehow improve our lives. This is particularly true for the smartphone industry who use clever branding as well as improvements in functionality and design to convince you that you need the latest model.

However, when looked at objectively, there have been relatively few significant improvements to phone technology over the last few years that are likely to make a real difference to your average phone user. Yes a little bit more battery life would be useful but in my experience most people still have to charge their phones throughout the day such are the high power demands of the modern smartphone. Do we really need an even bigger screen? Gone are the days of the desirable pocket sized Nokias – bigger is now better or so the manufacturers would have us believe.

The question is, do smartphones actually enhance our lives and make us happier than we would otherwise be without them? Opinion is divided but there is a large consensus that they don’t and can actually adversely affect our well-being. Reasons for this include the inability to unwind and “switch off” from the outside world (including work), reduced sleep quality, a distorted perception of social reality through constant access to social media and any as yet unknown effects of mobile phone radiation.

Of course the pros of owning a smartphone are obvious – for me I’d be literally lost without Google Maps and clever apps such as Uber make aspects of my life much slicker and less stressful. The issue comes when smartphones replace other forms of communication or prevent us being present to what is going on around us – you only need to walk into any restaurant and see the number of people looking down at their phones whilst sat opposite someone to illustrate this point. I went to a festival last month and was amazed at the number of people who had brought numerous power packs with them to keep their phone juice constantly topped up over the weekend – when did the experience of an experience cease to keep us fully engaged?

As a little experiment, earlier this week I went abroad for a short four day break and decided to turn off my phone for the duration of the trip. Being out of touch with what was going on with the world and not feeling the need to look at my phone was far more restorative and liberating then you would expect. That was of course until I landed and desperately turned on my phone to find out if I could catch the next train…hard earned serenity evaporated!

Ultimately, the degree to which a smartphone positively or negatively impacts your life is a personal one and as such most of us will know whether we have got the balance right.

Find out about the big changes that experts predict will transform the NHS, as explored by Journalista’s James Tout.

Felix Jackson, founder of medDigital and DefinitiveDx discusses ‘Seeing Clinicians as Innovators’, alongside other experts predicting NHS change, including: Dr David Rose from Dr Foster, Dan Moulin from Sitekit, Simon Hudson from Cloud2, Dr Mark Davies from Mede Analytics and Robin Vickers from Digital Life Sciences.

Even though London is an encapsulating melting pot which stirs away at the inner entrepreneurial core of those privileged enough to work within it, finding time to sit back and enjoy the views of the ‘big smoke’ are rare to say the least. Our busy lifestyles coupled with the need to have everything done by yesterday, mean that we often struggle to keep up with the pace set by the high-flyers in the city. Well, medDigital decided that enough was enough! High off of successes from Q2 of 2016, the medDigital team embarked on a wonderful evening in none other than the shard. Although you could be forgiven for feeling slightly jealous, the opulence and decadence that oozed throughout the venue was simply breathtaking at times. One of medDigital’s newest recruits, Ronak Lakhani, was clearly overwhelmed by a trip to the men’s restroom and uttered “even the toilets have good views!”. 

As the team sat down and were treated to champagne with impeccable service on the 32nd floor, three months of hard work and a few sleepless nights felt like a minor price to pay. Unfortunately, Felix Jackson (one of the founders of medDigital) would beg to differ as he had to foot the bill…ouch! But, it was a timely reminder that your efforts are noted in this forward-thinking and progressive company that has now not only taken on, but conquered the shard.

Written by Victor Odumosu (Scientific Advisor at medDigital)

What is virtual reality?

Virtual reality (VR) is about making an imaginary environment feel very real – real enough to fully immerse you in a simulated world.

VR is achieved using a head-mounted display (HMD). VR simulations can include visual, tactile, auditory and sometimes even olfactory experiences – you could be fully immersed in a virtual Tuscan garden in the summer, with the wind in your hair, and the smell of jasmine and freshly-cut grass around you.

Lifelike virtual experiences can be enhanced by using omnidirectional treadmills to allow free 360 movement; wired gloves can provide haptic feedback – you could be physically walking around your virtual environment in any direction without bumping into your coffee table; you could even hover your fingers near a virtual fireplace and feel the heat.

How does virtual reality work?

Virtual reality headsets or head-mounted displays (HMDs) are made of two video feeds sent to the screen within the HMD, powered by a device or computer

• Lenses are placed over the display to focus and reshape the picture for each eye

• The video feed provides a slightly different video angle in front of each eye. This is needed to create a stereoscopic 3D image.

• The speed of video frames (frame rate) required for VR is higher than that required for normal TV/movie viewing, at a frame rate of between 60 and 120. This makes the experience realistic and immersive; it also avoids causing simulation sickness (similar to travel sickness).

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Ahmad & Steph at the GAT conference.

The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland had their annual meeting for trainee anaesthetists in Nottingham this year.

At the event, the DefinitiveDx team had the chance to discuss the benefits of using DefinitiveDx to solve difficult or unusual cases with trainee anaesthetists, first year consultants and medical students.

During the conference, a case sharing competition in conjunction with the European Society for Paediatric Anaesthesiology (ESPA) gave medics a chance to win a trip to the next ESPA congress in Belgrade, Serbia!