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The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is not in the best shape by any reckoning, suffering from chronic underfunding and staffing shortages, which have resulted in extremely long waiting times and mass bewilderment of healthcare professionals.
But in the midst of chaos, opportunity is often delayed. A growing number of start-ups are investing in the UK’s struggling healthcare system, raising funds for platforms that offer personal medical imaging services or going some way to solving labor shortages.
And then there’s MedShout, a London-based company that describes itself as a “one-stop app” for reporting malfunctions in hospitals, allowing staff to track status updates and new orders via an Uber ride or Amazon order.
In the year Founded in 2013 by Dr. Ash Kalaraya, MediShout unifies all help desk and medical providers in one app. It started as a side project while Kalraya continued his role as a full-time orthopedic surgeon, but Kalraya brought on Dr. Ali Bahsu as co-founder and chief product officer (CPO) in 2020 to launch MediShot as a full-time business. The startup went on to raise £167,000 ($211,000) in angel funding before closing a £1 million ($1.25 million) pre-seed round of funding in September 2020.
Calraya told TechCrunch that Medishout expects to be profitable next year and has now raised an additional £4.3 million ($5.4 million) in seed funding to fuel the next phase of growth.
MediShout founders Ash (CEO) and Ali (CPO) Image credits: MediShout
‘Order like on Amazon’
Under the hood, MediShout essentially integrates providers, help desk and operations departments, and seeks to replace existing tools such as faxes, emails, paper forms and help desk software (eg ServiceNow).
“As a surgeon on the front lines, I see operational problems that prevent optimal patient care every day,” Calraia said. Patient care is routinely delayed or canceled due to preventable problems such as broken light bulbs, broken printers, or lost equipment.
At a time when healthcare providers are under tremendous pressure, equipment failure is an added burden they don’t really need. For example, a faulty endoscope can take up to nine hours to fix across multiple staff members due to the workflow of multiple departments and equipment suppliers. This can involve paperwork, phone calls and countless logistical steps to coordinate the delivery and collection of the device. And that’s all before even considering unexpected obstacles and setbacks.
“The biggest issue is not only the waste of staff time, but often (medical) procedures are canceled because the communication is too slow and equipment is not returned fast enough,” Kalraia said.
In this case, MediShout can halve the reporting time to 4.5 hours by digitally recording all reports and updates through the app and letting all stakeholders know immediately, Kalraiya says.
“The provider sends real-time messages and status updates that all hospital staff can see,” Kalraia said. “No paperwork is required, and employees don’t need to call their supplier to chase. This process is now like ordering on Amazon where everything is digitized and data can be viewed in real time.
Medishout app Image credits: MediShout
The main problem MediShout is trying to solve is that hospitals typically use hundreds of different systems from different vendors, each with very different processes and communication approaches – this includes facilities, porters, equipment, sterile services, IT, HR and more.
“This makes healthcare ecosystems extremely complex and difficult for staff to navigate, so they can’t provide efficient care to patients,” Kalraya said. We solve this problem by providing the world’s first application that unifies all help desks, vendors and operations departments.
MediShout’s biggest customers are medical device and facility management companies, who pay MediShout monthly subscriptions to access the platform and then digitize and bridge their services to hospitals, many of which are part of the NHS.
“One supplier we are currently growing to more than 100 hospitals in the UK and abroad,” said Calraya. We sell directly to hospitals, particularly the NHS.
Kalraya says it currently has some AI work in its R&D phase, which — when commercialized — will help predict when future issues will arise. For this, the company can look at all the medical equipment data received from hospitals, including defective equipment, in the last 15 years.
“Based on the frequency of use and maintenance, we began to predict when equipment such as ECG (electrocardiography) machines are likely to break down,” Kalaria said. “Then you can do scheduled maintenance to prevent breakdowns It’s happening.He said.
Today, MediShout, which has 22 employees, currently operates in the UK and Ireland, although with the new cash injection it is looking to expand into mainland Europe.
“I have worked as a surgeon in many countries, and these are the ones. [operational] Problems are everywhere,” Kalaria added.
MediShoud’s seed round was led by Nickleby Capital, with participation from KHP Ventures, Episode1 and several individuals from Atomico’s Angels Program.
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