Member Article

Healthtech platform Cera wins prestigious healthcare accolade

Healthtech platform Cera, which allows people to book senior care ‘on demand’ in the UK, has beaten 1000 + entrants from across the world to be crowned ‘Healthcare Startup of The Year’ at The Healthcare Startup Awards in association with Virgin Limited Edition. Selected by a prestigious panel of judges from the likes of NHS Digital and Octopus Health Investments, the independent awards recognise those startups that are pushing the boundaries in healthcare innovation.

Cera, which launched nationally in November 2016, was up against shortlisted startups including Sense.ly, Health Unlocked, Lumeon, Live Smart and Doctify, but was crowned overall winner following a robust selection process assessing the following three areas: idea – benefit to health, healthcare and patients; product – quality of the product created to tackle the health or healthcare problem; and impact – the growth and traction the startup or entrepreneur has shown in the last 12 months.

The highly coveted awards, which are hosted by non-profit organisation Healthcare Startup Society (HS.), are the largest awards for early stage startups and businesses involved in health and healthcare products. Cera’s co-founder Marek Sacha, a renowned internet entrepreneur, was also shortlisted for Health Entrepreneur of The Year in HS’s most competitive awards to-date.

Cera is the only service in the UK to get a carer to a patient’s door or hospital bed within four hours, and uses state-of-the-art technology to match each carer with the right person, at the right time, in the right place. The health-tech venture, which is CQC regulated, already has projects in the pipeline with leading charity Age UK, and is actively speaking to councils and hospitals to discuss integrating its services into the public care system.

The company is also trialling artificial intelligence (AI) technology to help predict bigger healthcare issues, based on carer feedback on whether a patient hasn’t been eating, has a fever, or isn’t walking normally, to pre-empt more serious illnesses. The concept is that patients’ GPs will soon have access to this information, so that they can proactively prescribe any necessary treatment, reducing emergency admissions to hospital.

Dr Ben Maruthappu, Co-founder and President of Cera, said: “This is an exciting achievement for the Cera team and we’re delighted that our hard work has been recognised in this way. Modernisation through technology has the ability transform a sector that is currently disjointed and overcrowded, we’ve spent this year trying to make care more transparent, reliable and responsive. Ultimately, our aim is to create a digital doorway to the over 65s, and curate services with partners to help them live more independently. In addition to rolling out partnerships with councils and hospitals, we are actively looking at other avenues including retail, food delivery, transportation and wearables, and how we might be able integrate them with our health-care technology.”

Marek Sacha, Co-founder and CEO of Cera, said: “The current care system is broken. The market is served by archaic intermediary agencies, with inefficient operations, underpaid staff and poor quality care. Cera is here to challenge this. Through technology and more streamlined logistics, we can transform the service patients receive, use artificial intelligence to advise them on their conditions, while valuing carers and the great work they do. Winning this award is a great reflection of how far we’ve come in so little time, and I’m excited to see what 2017 brings.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Cera .