Obtaining funding for your digital health project

We often get approached by individuals who are often healthcare professionals or research students looking for expert help to turn their innovative digital healthcare business plan into a tangible and commercially viable product. However, many of them struggle to progress their business plans to the next level as they lack the capital required to invest in product development. Many small businesses and entrepreneurs will be painfully aware of high hard it can be to secure a loan from a bank or attract private funding from an investment firm or angel investor. So what other sources of funding are out there for healthcare innovators?

I recently attended a workshop called the Biomedical Catalyst Programme (BMC). The event which was organised by the Digital Health Special Interest Group in partnership with the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) gave attendees the opportunity to hear about the BMC funding programme and how it is relevant to innovators in key areas of Digital Health which clearly address unmet clinical need. The objectives of the workshop were to learn how the BMC programme works, explore the types of projects that could fit the programme’s investment criteria and understand some of the important considerations for exploiting products and services into the healthcare sector.

It was interesting to hear that at present only 4% of projects that receive funding are in digital health. I was astonished by how low this figure was, but felt reassured to hear that the TSB panel stated that they want to encourage more digital health investments. To learn more about the scheme visit: www.healthktn.org/digital-health

If you have an idea for a new digital healthcare product and need some expert digital development and marketing assistance to help you bring you product to market, then get in touch. You may also find our white papers and other resources such as our App Business Planner useful documents when producing your business plan.