Medical Intelligence Group (MIG) is a health-tech company with the goal to transform healthcare using AI technology to provide patient-centric systems that are dependable and cost-effective.
Founded in 2020 based on the core principles to provide cost-effective and reliable solutions that also address healthcare inequalities. MIG received backing from Innovate UK (grant), Innovate UK EDGE and Enterprise Europe Network, within its first 3 months of formation, spring boarding its mission to provide preventative healthcare solutions. Its current focus is combining 3D scanning technology with AI to perform remote monitoring to drive down diabetic foot ulcers prevalent among people with diabetes, a prominent issue across the UK that can lead to foot amputations.
Their main challenge has been navigating the NHS to find the right contacts and protocols for engagement. Understanding the requirements, communicating with the relevant NHS stakeholders and the time taken for approvals can be challenging. NHS adoption is vital as it presents the gold standard of care and benefits most from their technology due to the sheer number of patients affected. As a result, it has been imperative that they correctly communicate the multiple value propositions to each stakeholder namely the patients and medical staff groups involved with evidence-based research. Building the right connections to perform studies in this space has therefore been necessary.
Innovate UK EDGE and Enterprise Europe Network have provided support to MIG since 2020 and have been integral to the growth of the company by offering support to onboard new collaborators and helping to define the business proposition for growth and scale. In addition to this, Innovate UK EDGE and Enterprise Europe Network offered tailored support through regular workshops which were instrumental for product development and led to engagement with key collaborators. For example, Innovate UK EDGE and Enterprise Europe Network linked MIG with members of our extensive network, offering the opportunity to connect with high profile clinical collaborators across NHS and Diabetes UK. The result landed MIG’s first pilot trial with the NHS.
The impact of working with the Innovate UK team has been significant in the company's position and growth. From a strategic level, as their technology is proprietary, it is imperative that they adopt a clear IP strategy that protects the business. Focused workshops allowed them to create a strong IP strategy critical to the MIG's success. In addition, bespoke strategy workshops defending funding streams and development across the UK and global markets helped ensure the vision of the company is clear and gives direction for their ongoing developmental work. From a business development level, winning an InnovateUK grant has enabled the company to grow its roadmap from concept to a product technology that can be clinically tested, and abides by the necessary healthcare protocols. The result has led to an expansion of MIG’s talented team which includes research engineers, software engineers and UI/UX designers.
“As a new company we have some great expertise however there are aspects of business that will always contain unknown unknowns. Working with Giulia and Charlotte from Innovate UK EDGE and Enterprise Europe Network has been instrumental in uncovering these gaps in our knowledge of the landscape of the healthcare industry. From an outsider looking in the NHS can appear as one entity but when presenting a product/service we have learnt so much more about how different value propositions are required when comparing the CCG, Doctors and Patients.”