HealthUnlocked

Last updated
HealthUnlocked
Type of site
Social networking service
Available inEnglish, Spanish and Portuguese
URL www.healthunlocked.com
Current statusActive

HealthUnlocked is a social networking service for health. The company uses health-specific artificial intelligence to support patients to better manage their own health, by recommending relevant and tailored health content, information and services to patients [1] The site enables peer support for various health conditions and promotes patient empowerment by actively engaging people with their healthcare. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Communities

The social network hosts online communities within a dedicated health web platform. There are currently over 700 different health communities on the HealthUnlocked website, for a wide range of health and wellbeing conditions. After registering to use the site, users can create a user profile and join one or more of these online communities. Many of the online communities are run in partnership with health organizations, non-profit organization's (NPO) and charities worldwide, including Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), British Liver Trust, Endometriosis UK and The Multiple Sclerosis Association Of America. Each month over 4M people from across the world come to the platform, the majority of which are from the UK and US. HealthUnlocked is in the top 20 private health websites globally according to Alexa Internet. HealthUnlocked is also available through an app for iPhone [5]

A study (2017) by University of Manchester concluded that use of the HealthUnlocked platform positively affects a person's Patient Activation Measure and research (University of Warwick, 2016) found use of platforms such as HealthUnlocked helps people to come together and cope with illnesses and diseases such as diabetes, cancer and mental health problems. [6]

The network was identified as a technology that will change health and care by the Kings Fund, [7] a tech startup that is on track to become one of Britain's next billion dollar companies, [8] and won an award in the Axa PPP Health Tech & You Awards (2017) while being named as a truly standout, disruptive innovation. [9]

HealthUnlocked was one of the first companies selected to join NHS England's, NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) programme, [10] which aims to have proven innovations adopted faster and more systematically through the NHS, delivering on the commitment detailed within the Five Year Forward View.

HealthUnlocked works with organisations including think tanks and the pharmaceutical industry to better understand long-term health conditions and to recruit people from its online health communities to surveys, advisory boards and panels, as well as clinical trials. An academic review into patient involvement in drug development found that social media and peer networks are evolving to play a much deeper role in innovation and clinical research in industry and changing opportunities for patients to participate in research and development of new therapies. [11] A study into patients experiences on steroids taken from data on the health platform found that the timing of glucocorticoid administration varies significantly in patients, potentially influencing effectiveness and side effects. [12]

The company has also worked with the Institute for Public Policy Research, surveying its users to better understand the attitudes and activities of people with long-term conditions. [13]

Reception

HealthUnlocked was named one of "13 Startups in London You Should Know About" by Business Vibes [14] as well as one of "London's 7 Fast-Growing & Disruptive Startups" by The Huffington Post. [15] It was also named one of Business Cloud's 101 Top Healthtech Innovators, [16] noted as one of Evening Standard's 5 best apps for mental health [17] and also named in FT 1000's 3rd annual list of Europe's fastest-growing companies. [18]

Validation

A research study which followed newly registered users to HealthUnlocked concluded that Patient activation seems to increase over time. Activation increased the most in those with very high engagement with HealthUnlocked and in those with low activation at baseline. [19]

History

HealthUnlocked was founded in 2010 by Jorge Armanet (CEO) and Dr Matt Jameson Evans (Chief Medical Officer), to transform how information and data are used and treated in healthcare and support people with health conditions to connect together online. Jameson Evans, a doctor in the NHS, had previously been chairman of Remedy UK. [20]

Initially, the company focused on building self-reporting trackers for symptoms and treatment outcomes. [21]

The main HealthUnlocked website, was launched in 2011, focused on building online support groups in which patients can give each other insight about their conditions, in a way that healthcare professionals are not able to. [22] Since this time, the site has grown exponentially with the number of conversations occurring increasing from 1.4 million in 2012, to 5.1 million in 2014. [23]

In 2015, HealthUnlocked was chosen as 1 of 17 successful entrepreneurs to join the NHS Innovation Accelerator, a scheme to give support to new technologies that could revolutionise healthcare for patients, hospitals and GP's. [24] [25] [26]

In July 2019 it formed a partnership with Patients Know Best, integrating its eSocial Prescription capability with their award-winning digital platform to enable more-holistic, personalised care plans in the form of a social prescription. [27] [28]

Related Research Articles

A business incubator is an organization that helps startup companies and individual entrepreneurs to develop their businesses by providing a fullscale range of services, starting with management training and office space, and ending with venture capital financing. The National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) defines business incubators as a catalyst tool for either regional or national economic development. NBIA categorizes its members' incubators by the following five incubator types: academic institutions; non-profit development corporations; for-profit property development ventures; venture capital firms, and a combination of the above.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Netcare</span> South African health care company

Netcare Limited is a South African private healthcare company. It operates through a number of subsidiaries and employs just over 21 000 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Case</span> American businesswoman

Jean Case is an American businesswoman, author, and philanthropist who is chair of the board of National Geographic, CEO of Case Impact Network, and CEO of the Case Foundation. She is married to AOL co-founder Steve Case.

Athenahealth, Inc. is a privately held American company that provides network-enabled services for healthcare and point-of-care mobile apps in the United States.

Sandbox Industries is a venture capital firm located in Chicago. The firm focuses on connecting established corporations with disruptive startups via strategic corporate investment funds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rahul Panicker</span> Indian technologist

Rahul Alex Panicker is a technology leader and entrepreneur, formerly Chief Innovation Officer at the Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and best known as the President and Co-founder of Embrace Innovations and Embrace, a social enterprise startup that aims to help premature and low-birth-weight babies, through a low-cost infant warmer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sleepio</span> Digital sleep-improvement program

Sleepio is a digital sleep-improvement program featuring cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques developed by sleep scientist Colin Espie and ex-insomnia sufferer Peter Hames.

Ryan Bethencourt is an American scientist, entrepreneur, and biohacker best known for his work as co-founder and CEO of Wild Earth, Partner at Babel Ventures and cofounder and former Program Director at IndieBio, a biology accelerator and early stage seed fund. Bethencourt was head of life sciences at the XPRIZE foundation, a co-founder and CEO of Berkeley Biolabs, a biotech accelerator, and Halpin Neurosciences, an ALS therapeutics-focused biotech company. Bethencourt co-founded Counter Culture Labs, a citizen science nonprofit, and Sudo Room, a hacker space based in downtown Oakland, California.

Pedro Oliveira is a Portuguese innovation scholar who is Dean of Nova School of Business and Economics for the period 2023-26, succeeding Daniel Traça. He is also Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Chair Professor for the Impact Economy and Full Professor at Nova School of Business and Economics, professor with special responsibilities at Copenhagen Business School, and an entrepreneur. Previously he was a professor of Technology and Innovation Management at Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics. He is best known for his work in the notion of patient innovation and for founding the Patient Innovation platform. He is also an Academic Scholar at the Cornell Institute of Healthy Futures. Pedro was Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research at the Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics and an International Faculty Fellow at MIT Sloan School of Management, where he worked with Eric von Hippel. He received his PhD in Operations, Technology and Innovation Management from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Fast Forward is the first startup accelerator to focus solely on nonprofit-based technology enterprises, it was founded by Shannon Farley and Kevin Barenblat in 2014. The accelerator provides support, mentorship, and access to financial capital for emerging companies that aim to improve the world, by focusing on poverty, education access, improving health, and environmental degradation.

Push Doctor was the UK's first platform to offer video consultations with patients online and via smartphone. It is a GP provider and remote consultation enabler in the UK with a reach of 5.4 million patients. Push Doctor is a NHS-commissioned technology provider compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Mahiben Maruthappu is a British physician, entrepreneur, academic researcher and health policy specialist. He co-founded Cera, a home healthcare company and one of the largest social care providers in the UK. He was the founder and first President of the United Kingdom Medical Students' Association (UKMSA). He co-founded the National Health Service (NHS) Innovation Accelerator (NIA), a program that accelerates the adoption of new healthcare technologies, and served as NHS England's Innovation Adviser. He has contributed to more than 60 research papers in peer-reviewed journals.

The National Security Innovation Network is a United States Department of Defense (DoD) program office under the Defense Innovation Unit that seeks to create new communities of innovators to solve national security problems. NSIN partners with national research universities and the venture community to reinvigorate civil-military technology collaboration. As opposed to making investments in specific technologies, government research and development programs, or startups, NSIN focuses on human capital innovation – i.e., developing and enabling innovators and human-centered networks to solve national security problems. In support of this mission, NSIN provides tools, training, and access to DoD assets that enable entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs to develop and commercialize high potential products in the national interest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cera Care</span> UK home care company

Cera Care is a digital-first healthcare-at-home company delivering care, nursing, telehealth and repeat prescription services in people’s homes via technology. Founded in 2015, the company provides elderly and vulnerable communities with care in their own homes, and allows families to arrange the care.

Lantum, formerly Network Locum, is an English company based in Shoreditch, London producing a platform and suite of tools for healthcare organisations to find and manage their clinical staff.

SBRI Healthcare is a programme based in Twickenham, established to support technological innovations that tackle unmet needs within the NHS. It awards development grants to innovative companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BETiC</span>

BETIC based at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay is an inter-disciplinary multi-institution initiative for medical device innovation. Established in 2014 with support from the government of Maharashtra, it comprises a network of 14 engineering and medical institutes across the state. The BETIC team have developed 50 medical devices as of 2019, and licensed 20 of them to startup companies or industry for mass production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata</span> Nigerian technology entrepreneur and TV presenter (born 1979)

Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata Jnr. also known as CFA is a Nigerian journalist and a former television presenter at Channels TV. He is into digital marketing and known as a technology entrepreneur with focus on business coaching and public speaking. He hosted the first virtual telehealth conference of Nigeria’s telemedicine company, CareClick with the theme ‘The Future Of Healthcare Today’ on 24 September 2020. He was involved in various ICT-related companies that contributed to the development of the Founder Institute. He is known as the founder of Pacer Venture and has links with Climate Action Africa. He is the MD/CEO of Anambra State ICT Agency.

Divya Nag is an American stem cell biologist, biotechnology entrepreneur, and a leader of Apple's Health and Research initiatives. At the age of 20, Nag co-founded Stem Cell Theranostics which uses patient-specific stem cells in a drug discovery platform. Nag is also the founder of StartX Med, Stanford University's healthcare accelerator program. At Apple, Nag leads a team designing tools that help ease communication between healthcare professionals, researchers, and patients to guide scientific innovation and improve health outcomes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CIIE.CO</span> Indian startup accelerator

CIIE.CO is an Indian startup accelerator and incubator that supports early-stage startups located at IIM Ahmedabad in Ahmedabad, India. It was founded in 2002 to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in India. It is a Center of excellence set up at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad with support from the Government of India's Department of Science and Technology and the Government of Gujarat.

References

  1. "Building a digital business in healthcare" (PDF). Tech Page One. Retrieved 16 September 2016.[ permanent dead link ]
  2. "Why I turned to social media for help after a double lung transplant". The Guardian. March 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  3. "Crowdsourced service to revolutionise long-term NHS care". 7 September 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  4. "Don't suffer period pain in silence, says woman whose endometriosis was misdiagnosed". 10 March 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  5. Lomas, Natasha. "HealthUnlocked support social network app goes global". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  6. "Social networks could revolutionise patient care". Archived from the original on 1 June 2017. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  7. "The digital revolution: eight technologies that will change health and care" . Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  8. "Here are 58 tech startups that are on track to become Britain's next billion dollar companies" . Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  9. "AXA PPP Health Tech & You - 2017 The Wow! Award". www.axappphealthcare.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  10. "NHS selects 17 healthtech innovators for Innovation Accelerator". Archived from the original on 15 September 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  11. Anand A, Brandwood HJ, Jameson Evans M (November 2017). "Improving Patient Involvement in the Drug Development Process: Case Study of Potential Applications from an Online Peer Support Network". Clinical Therapeutics. 39 (11): 2181–2188. doi: 10.1016/j.clinthera.2017.10.004 . PMID   29096919.
  12. Costello R, Patel R, Humphreys J, McBeth J, Dixon WG (March 2017). "Timing of glucocorticoid administration: a cross-sectional survey of glucocorticoid users in an online social network for health". Rheumatology. 56 (3): 494–495. doi:10.1093/rheumatology/kew421. PMC   5410988 . PMID   27994092.
  13. "Patients in control: Why people with long-term conditions must be empowered" (PDF). Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  14. Maida, Jesse (2014-09-23). "13 Startups in London You Should Know About". BusinessVibes. Archived from the original on 2019-09-20. Retrieved 2019-09-20.
  15. "London's 7 Fast-Growing & Disruptive Health Tech Startups". HuffPost. 2014-09-18. Retrieved 2019-09-20.
  16. "101 HealthTech Innovators". BusinessCloud.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2019-06-26. Retrieved 2019-09-20.
  17. "Best mental health apps for sleep, anxiety and depression". Evening Standard. 2019-05-13. Retrieved 2019-09-20.
  18. Smith, Ian (2019-03-01). "The FT 1000: third annual list of Europe's fastest-growing companies". Financial Times. Retrieved 2019-09-20.
  19. Costello, Ruth E.; Anand, Amrutha; Jameson Evans, Matt; Dixon, William G. (2019-08-29). "Associations Between Engagement With an Online Health Community and Changes in Patient Activation and Health Care Utilization: Longitudinal Web-Based Survey". Journal of Medical Internet Research. 21 (8): e13477. doi: 10.2196/13477 . ISSN   1438-8871. PMC   6740167 . PMID   31469082.
  20. "A 'Tory front'? Hardly... Remedy UK speaks up - Under the ScopeUnder the Scope" . Retrieved 2019-09-19.
  21. "HealthUnlocked – a powerful social media platform for patient market research". engagementstrategy.com. Archived from the original on 2019-09-20. Retrieved 2019-09-19.
  22. Baum, Stephanie (2014-07-21). "LinkedIn for patient communities, HealthUnlocked, expands to U.S." MedCity News. Retrieved 2019-09-19.
  23. "HealthUnlocked – a powerful social media platform for patient market research". engagementstrategy.com. Archived from the original on 2019-09-20. Retrieved 2019-09-19.
  24. "HealthUnlocked report reveals health websites reducing visits to doctors in people with chronic health conditions". NIA. 2017-10-06. Retrieved 2019-09-19.
  25. "NHS England » NHS Innovation Accelerator success has led to more than 300 organisations offering innovative healthcare to NHS patients". www.england.nhs.uk. Retrieved 2019-09-19.
  26. Sheppard, Emma (2016-12-14). "Working with the NHS: 'doors are opening for innovative small firms'". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2019-09-19.
  27. "Health tech pioneers come together to improve social wellbeing". Building Better Healthcare. 23 July 2019. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  28. "Patients Know Best secures partnership with social prescribing company". Digital Health. 2019-07-25. Retrieved 2019-09-19.