Health tech firm gets £1m shot in the arm

An Edinburgh healthcare technology start-up that has developed a device to monitor patients’ vital signs in real time has won a £1 million deal with NHS England that will help fund ongoing clinical studies.

Snap40, co-founded by chief executive and former Universityofdundeemedicalstudent Christopher Mccann, said the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) Healthcare contract will also provide support to develop the technology as it eyes regulatory approval.

The deal follows a £2m cash injection for the firm in October, led by Edinburgh-based investor Par Equity, which marked the largest seed funding round for a Scottish startup in more than a decade.

Snap40 is currently involved in clinical trials with NHS Fife and NHS Lothian’s Emergency Medicine Research Group Edinburgh. Its device straps to a patient’s arm and tracks indicators such as heart rate, blood pressure and temperature, analysing the data to work out which patients are at the highest risk of deteriorating and alerting clinical staff.

Mccann said: “In an ideal world, we’d all have our own dedicated doctor sitting with us, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But, with increasing pressure on healthcare systems and challenges in prioritising competing demands, access to doctors and nurses is at a premium. Our society simply cannot afford one-to-one care – Snap40 changes that.

“It allows our world-class healthcare staff to care for many more patients by helping them to prioritise who needs attention most. This contract is a recognition of the value our product can bring.” 0 Snap40 was co-founded by Christopher Mccann