Health-focused app receives £500k of new investment
A Burnley-based messaging service, described as the ‘WhatsApp of healthcare’ has received a £500,000 funding injection.
The boost will enable Hospify to expand its services even further.
The system is a free messaging platform that allows healthcare professionals to communicate with each other and share patient information safely and securely.
Set up in 2014 by NHS surgeons Neville Dastur and Charles Nduka and media technologist James Flint, the app has emerged as a key weapon for frontline staff battling COVID-19.
It is being used in more than 150 hospitals and the number of new users is growing fast.
Three years ago, Hospify secured £250,000 from angel and private investors to develop the free version of the platform.
But now they’ve been boosted by a fresh investment of £500,000 thanks to investments by Bethnal Green Ventures and several angel investors.
The funding – which was finalised at the end of March – is to support the company as it rolls out theHospify Hub, the premium version of its service designed for clinical teams and communities.
Hospify chief executive and co-founder, James Flint, said: “Timing has accelerated the adoption of theHospify platform across the NHS in the UK, and we couldn’t be prouder that our app is playing a vital part in enabling clinicians and patients to communicate across the battlefield of COVID-19.”
Hospify is a free messaging platform that healthcare professionals can use to communicate with each other and share patient information in a secure, private and data-compliant manner.
Like consumer messaging apps, such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, it offers individual and photo messaging, but also includes enhanced data and privacy protection thanks to features such as unique PIN code access and email and phone number masking.
Crucially, data is stored on a user’s phone rather than in the cloud or an external server and then deleted after 30 days, in line with good data protection practice.
Hospify was approved for inclusion in the official NHS Apps Library at the end of February 2020, after complying with GDPR and stringent NHS information governance and clinical safety standards.
With the outbreak of novel coronavirus hitting Britain at around the same time, adoption of the messaging app across the UK’s network of NHS trusts and surgeries has since rocketed.
Toby Harper, chief executive of Harper James Solicitors, which supported Hospify in its latest funding round, said: “This innovative communications platform is a brilliant example of how ‘tech for good’ can thrive during the most challenging times for business in a generation.”
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