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By Kate Prescott
The recent One Health Tech Brighton event showcased the power of patient-centred innovation in healthcare, with a special focus on making medical technology more equitable and accessible. The event featured Helena Binetskaya, Chief Product Officer and co-founder of ChestPal, a MedTech company developing advanced respiratory monitoring devices. Helena's journey, the role of AI in healthcare, and the challenges of equitable innovation took centre stage, offering attendees valuable insights into the future of health technology.
From Personal Experience to Groundbreaking Innovation
Helena Binetskaya’s journey into health technology was born from a deeply personal experience. Her five-month-old daughter had a persistent cough that led to conflicting diagnoses from different doctors. This inconsistency sparked an idea: a digital stethoscope capable of capturing and analysing lung sounds with specialist-level accuracy.
Her innovation, ChestPal, is a smart stethoscope designed to record and monitor lung sounds, identifying abnormalities like wheezes and crackles. The device leverages AI-driven neural networks trained on a vast database of lung sounds, ensuring more accurate assessments and bridging the gap between frontline healthcare providers and pulmonology specialists. By providing a standardised, objective approach to lung sound diagnosis, ChestPal aims to improve early detection and treatment decisions, particularly for chronic conditions like asthma and pneumonia.
Overcoming Challenges: Hardware, Regulation, and Investment
Helena’s entrepreneurial journey was not without hurdles. One of the biggest challenges was developing hardware—an area that she and her co-founders, who had software backgrounds, initially underestimated. The team learned the hard way that outsourcing hardware development without internal expertise can lead to costly delays and quality issues.
Another key challenge was navigating regulatory approval. Initially unaware of the complexities of medical device regulation, Helena and her team engaged regulatory experts too late in the process. She now advises aspiring health tech entrepreneurs to integrate regulatory planning from the very beginning, as different markets (e.g., FDA in the U.S. vs. CE marking in Europe) have varying levels of complexity, cost, and time requirements.
Funding was another obstacle, particularly as a female founder in a male-dominated investment landscape. While health tech solutions for women and families are on the rise, they still receive a disproportionately small share of funding. Helena emphasised the importance of grants and non-dilutive funding in the early stages to mitigate these barriers.
Equitable Health Innovation: Addressing Disparities
Equity in health innovation remains a major challenge. Helena highlighted how biases in medical research and AI algorithms continue to contribute to disparities in diagnosis and treatment. Studies show that women and racial minorities are frequently underrepresented in clinical trials, leading to misdiagnoses and ineffective treatments. Furthermore, AI-driven healthcare tools can unintentionally perpetuate these biases if they are trained on non-diverse datasets.
For true equity in health tech, Helena stressed the need for diverse leadership in research and development. Female-led research teams, for example, are 35% more likely to develop medical treatments beneficial for women, yet they receive significantly less funding than male-led teams. Tackling these systemic issues requires a combination of policy change, financial commitment, and cultural shifts in the investment landscape.
The Role of AI in Personalised Healthcare
Helena expressed excitement about the potential of AI to revolutionise healthcare. From AI-driven drug discovery to automated diagnostics, machine learning is already accelerating medical advancements. For instance, Google's AI Co-Scientist has demonstrated the ability to generate hypotheses for medical research at a fraction of the time it takes human researchers.
Despite its potential, AI adoption in healthcare faces hurdles such as regulatory scrutiny, financial investment, and provider resistance to change. For AI to be effectively integrated into mainstream healthcare, it must be user-friendly, seamlessly fit into existing workflows, and prove its reliability through rigorous testing and validation.
Audience Q&A: Insights from the Discussion
The session concluded with an engaging audience Q&A, where attendees delved deeper into the technical and business aspects of ChestPal. Some key takeaways included:
Validation and Accuracy: ChestPal has undergone clinical validation, demonstrating 94% sensitivity and 96% specificity in detecting lower respiratory tract issues compared to radiological diagnosis.
Hardware-Software Synchronisation: Managing the development of hardware and software simultaneously posed significant challenges. The team overcame this by training their AI on diverse datasets before finalising hardware design.
Regulatory Strategy: Attendees asked about navigating global regulations, with Helena emphasising the importance of early engagement with regulatory experts to avoid costly delays.
Future Market Expansion: While ChestPal is currently available only to healthcare providers in the U.S., efforts are underway to secure over-the-counter approval for broader consumer access in the near future.
Final Thoughts: Advice for Aspiring Health Tech Founders
Helena wrapped up with some invaluable advice for aspiring health tech entrepreneurs:
Find Mentors and Advisors Early – Having experienced health tech founders in your network can provide crucial guidance and introductions to investors.
Engage Regulatory Experts from Day One – Understanding compliance requirements early on will save years of delays and financial setbacks.
Utilise Grants Before Seeking Equity Funding – Non-dilutive funding can help build early prototypes without giving away ownership too soon.
Prioritise User-Centric Design – No matter how advanced the technology, it must integrate seamlessly into healthcare providers’ workflows to ensure adoption.
With the continued growth of AI and digital health tools, patient-centred innovation remains a vital force in shaping the future of healthcare. Events like One Health Tech Brighton provide a valuable platform for these critical conversations, ensuring that innovation remains accessible, equitable, and impactful for all.