We’re thrilled to announce that CardMedic is partnering with software engineering and design company Blüm! Blüm specialises in software development and deployment, and supports pioneering companies with building high-quality, patient-centric digital health solutions that are readymade for healthcare and the NHS. I’m super excited about this partnership, what it means for us, and innovation more widely in healthcare.
The power of networking
I met Blüm Co-Founder and CEO Dr Michael Watts through the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA), a national accelerator programme dedicated to identifying, supporting, and scaling innovative healthcare solutions across the NHS. It was inspiring to be able to connect with someone with the same mission as me and the CardMedic team. After forming a friendship, we decided we could work together to make CardMedic the best it could be for the NHS. It’s fantastic that two companies on the NIA have come together to collaborate and innovate, and I’m delighted that we now have Blüm on board to help us continue to develop our solution. And it just goes to show how important and impactful networking is in this industry!
Who is Blüm?
Blüm’s mission is to connect healthcare excellence with technological innovation, creating a world filled with healthcare-ready software. The team at Blüm are committed to developing world-class software that enables healthcare providers to deliver the highest quality of care, break down barriers, and drive innovation in the healthcare ecosystem.
The great thing about partnering with Blüm is that the company was founded by engineers and clinicians like Michael who have an excellent understanding of digital health regulation, scalability, and patient-centricity. Choosing Blüm was a total no-brainer, given their strong understanding of healthcare challenges and how they need to be solved.
I spoke to Michael about his thoughts on partnering with CardMedic: “The partnership between CardMedic and Blüm is a fantastic example of two companies recognising the greater opportunities that lie within collaboration. The real power of digital health is to find the fundamental, clinically driven, needs that impact people’s lives, and then wrap it in the most robust, compliant, and scalable technology to deliver sustainable benefits to service users, workforces, and the system. This is Blüm’s mission, and so we’re delighted to join forces with Cardmedic as it becomes a key part of our ever-growing digital health ecosystem. I hope the relationship that Rachael and I have formed will inspire others in the SME community to do the same.”
Clinical backgrounds
With Michael an NHS Doctor and Associate Chief Clinical Informatics Officer at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust, and my role as a Senior Anaesthetist at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, Michael and I both have a deep insight into the problems that exist in healthcare. We see them every day in our clinical practice. It’s been incredibly helpful to partner with a fellow clinician, and it means we’ve been able to work collaboratively, understanding the problems that clinicians—our peers—face. Far too often, solutions are built that simply aren’t embedded in healthcare and the NHS. You need to fall in love with the problem you’re trying to solve, not your solution that you’ve created, if you want to create real change. We’re super grateful that Michael shares this philosophy.
The value of the NIA
Our partnership highlights just how valuable the NIA is. It’s created the conditions needed to encourage a step change in attitudes to digital transformation in healthcare, and we’re so grateful that it’s been able to bring our two companies together. We might not have met Michael if it hadn’t been for the programme! So, to all NHS innovators thinking of joining the NIA, I really can’t recommend it enough. If you’re a problem solver, creative thinker, or innovator in the NHS with an idea you’d like to develop and scale, the NIA might be for you. Here are a few reasons why you should join the programme:
> Mentorship and support – participants in the NIA receive mentorship and guidance from experienced healthcare professionals and entrepreneurs. This support can help you refine your healthcare solution, navigate regulatory challenges, and accelerate your solution to market.
> Learning and training – the NIA provides educational and training opportunities for participants. This includes workshops, seminars, and resources to help innovators build their skills and knowledge in areas such as healthcare management, regulation, and business development.
> Scale and spread – the NIA’s focus on accelerating innovation means that successful solutions have the potential to be adopted more widely across the NHS. This gives you the opportunity to improve health outcomes for a larger patient population.
> Collaboration opportunities – similar to Michael and I’s journey to becoming partners, the programme encourages collaboration among participants, leading to the development of more innovative and integrated healthcare solutions.
Joining the NIA has been a transformative experience that’s given us access to peer support which has helped us evolve as a business. Working with Michael and the Blüm team is a major step in our journey, and we hope many more companies partner with the incredible team. We can’t wait to see where our partnership takes us as we continue our mission to improve patients’ lives and reduce health inequalities!
Interested in reading more about how entrepreneurship in the NHS is helping to reduce health inequalities? Check out our blog: https://rb.gy/up2wv.