HCF Catalyst reveals healthtech startups taking part in its third program intake

Corporate accelerator Slingshot has revealed the 10 startups taking part in this year’s HCF Catalyst program, the program’s third intake.

With the startups working on technology as varied as virtual reality to telehealth for midwifery services, education for trainees and junior doctors, and artificial intelligence, the launch of the program comes after KPMG Australia this week released a report on ‘healthcare reimagined’, exploring how evolving technology and consumer expectations are already shifting and will continue to shift the way healthcare is accessed and delivered.

Among the drivers of change identified in the report are tech improvements, including expanding data; people and needs, including demographic shifts and trends; the idea of the patient as consumer who demands best-in-class service; market forces, with new entrants and incumbents causing disrupting and convergence; costs; and regulatory reform.

As the space changes, HCF chief Sheena Jack said the program participants were chosen because they align with the company’s vision to drive high quality outcomes throughout the healthcare industry.

“We’re proud that HCF Catalyst continues to attract the brightest minds in the health tech space and we want to continue to lead the market by finding disruptive technologies and solutions that solve the biggest problems in health care,” she said.

The six teams taking part in the startup program are:

Vantari VR – Builds tools to enable new ways to visualise, interpret and understand medical images by pulling together cutting-edge rendering technology to take medical imaging into Virtual Reality (VR)

Birthbeat – Designs Midwifery services delivered via Telehealth to prepare families for birth

Pracway – Captures the patient consent process electronically for the first time in Australia, enabling informed consent which is crucial for safe and ethical medical practice ahead of surgery

Soldierly – Provides veteran soldiers with practical tools and structured exercise programs that strengthen physical and mental health, while also reinforcing personal connections within the veteran community – a program created by soldiers, for soldiers

Mindbodyhealing – Disrupts the management of chronic pain and fatigue with ‘mindbody’ e-medicine innovation

MEKSI – Improves a variety of learning, training and assessment scenarios with simulation, to evolve both the teaching of medicine and how trainees and junior doctors develop their essential skills

The teams taking part in the scaleup program are:

Dresden Optics – Delivers Australian-made, eco-friendly modular eyewear and high quality eye health care globally to customers with vision loss

SleepFit – Provides digital sleep health programs for employers, insurance companies and health providers to improve their employee’s sleep outcomes through personalised awareness, education, screen, diagnosis and treatment programs

Boundlss – Connects members with their health and life insurers directly through a conversational, AI health platform that puts the focus of insurance on helping members live a healthy, happy life instead of on claims and illness

Myhealth1st – Connects patients with their health providers directly through a trusted digital platform to find health providers and schedule appointments 24 hours a day, seven days a week

Image: the HCF Catalyst cohort. Source: Supplied.