Editor's Note
The missing piece
This week I was in Nice for the cancelled Ironman.
Not walking away with a medal was frustrating, but we still had a great time, and managed a self-supported climb up the Col de Vence in blistering heat. Easily one of the hardest things I've done.
What struck me was watching other athletes plan their fuelling so carefully. For most people that meant carbohydrates and caffeine. Beyond the pros, almost nobody was paying attention to hydration, other than filling their bottles and hoping for the best.
Everything else was being tracked. Heart rate monitors, power meters, Garmins, bike computers. But nobody had any idea what their actual sweat data looked like, or how it was affecting their performance.
I recently sat down with Stefan van der Fluit to talk about how FLOWBIO is building to solve exactly that. Real-time sweat sensing that lets athletes build a proper hydration strategy, and fill in the missing piece in performance.
Will tracking hydration soon be as natural as tracking HR? Find out in this week's episode.
Industry News
Emm secures UK approval for its smart menstrual cup
Emm has become the first company to get a smart menstrual cup approved by UK regulators. The cup passively tracks how much you bleed, your daily flow and your cycle patterns, then syncs to an app when you drop it in its charging case, giving women real data on their cycle instead of rough estimates. The London company is now working towards US approval ahead of a wider rollout. (FutureFemHealth)
Why it matters: Menstrual health tracking has always been a case of guesswork around things like "light" or "heavy" cycles. A device that actually measures flow gives women and their doctors something real to work from for the first time.
NHS App adds AI triage after a Sussex trial
The NHS App is getting an AI triage tool to help people reach the right care faster. It asks about your symptoms and learns over time, adapting its questions as you answer before pointing you to a GP, a pharmacy, A&E or self-care. In early trials one GP practice in Sussex cut phone queues by 29%. Roll out will reach every NHS App user by April 2028. (NHS England)
Why it matters: Booking a doctor's appointment in the UK has become almost impossible. The 8am phone scramble creates a real bottleneck for people that need urgent care, and cutting that queue by nearly a third would be a meaningful step forward.
Xella Health launches a women's diagnostics platform for 130+ conditions
Xella Health has launched an AI platform built to catch conditions specific to female biology that often go missed or diagnosed late. It reads genetic, protein and hormone data alongside your medical history to screen for more than 130 conditions, including PCOS, endometriosis and perimenopause. (Femtech Insider)
Why it matters: Women are diagnosed on average four years later than men for the same conditions, and closer to a decade later for endometriosis. Pulling scattered tests into one baseline will give women more confidence that they can access the care they need when they need it.
Oura and a GLP-1 manufacturer join forces
Oura has partnered with Eli Lilly, one of the world's biggest GLP-1 manufacturers, to help people build more sustainable lifestyle habits while using the weight-loss medication. Oura has introduced a range of GLP-1 specific tools to help people understand more about their sleep, weight and side effects while using the drugs. (MobiHealthNews)
Why it matters: GLP-1s work best when people stay on them, and a lot of people don't. Giving people a clearer view of how the drugs are affecting them day to day is a bet that understanding is what makes the change stick.
Investment Updates
Alan - the French health insurer raised a €480m ($550m) Series G led by Prosus, valuing the company at €5.5bn as it builds out its prevention-first insurance model across Europe and Canada.
Prosper AI - the New York and Madrid-based startup raised a $30m Series A led by a16z for its AI agents that handle scheduling, insurance verification and billing across the patient journey.
Assort Health - the San Francisco patient-access company raised a $120m Series C led by Menlo Ventures at a $1.2bn valuation, reaching unicorn status for its AI voice agents across scheduling, intake and referrals.
Vanna Health - the San Francisco company raised $17m co-led by a national insurer and AlleyCorp to expand its community-based care model for people living with serious mental illness.
Ognomy Sleep - the Buffalo-based virtual sleep-apnea platform raised a $20m Series A led by Catalyst Investors to grow its AI-enabled clinical platform and wearable integrations.
The Health Stack Podcast
Episode #08 - Full Episode
Stefan van der Fluit, Founder of FLOWBIO
Stefan van der Fluit is the founder of FLOWBIO, building real-time hydration analysis for the everyday athlete. We get into why hydration is the last pillar of performance still running on guesswork, and how a small team built the sensor the giants couldn't.
Listen on Spotify | Watch on YouTube
Roles Worth Knowing About
Head of Behavioural Care - Numan Remote, UK Numan is a digital health platform combining diagnostics, medication, supplements and doctor consultations for hundreds of thousands of UK patients. The role leads behavioural care across Numan's programmes, shaping how clinical and coaching support is delivered to patients on weight and lifestyle treatments. (Apply here)
Senior Product Manager - Patchwork Health London, hybrid Patchwork Health builds workforce management software co-created with the NHS, now used across more than 200 healthcare organisations. The role owns a product area's roadmap end to end, from discovery through go-to-market, working across engineering and client teams. Salary is £80,000 to £85,000. (Apply here)
VP Product - Lindus Health London, hybrid Lindus Health is an anti-CRO running clinical trials end to end for biotech and pharma, backed by a $55m Series B from Balderton. The role owns product strategy and the roadmap for Citrus, its trial delivery platform, and leads a product and design team of five-plus. (Apply here)
Head of Sales UK - Tandem Health London, on-site Tandem Health builds an AI clinician copilot and ambient scribe designed by clinicians, and is scaling across European markets. The role owns UK commercial growth across private healthcare and the NHS, building and leading a sales team of SDRs and AEs. (Apply here)
Staff Systems Architect - Sava London, on-site Sava is developing biosensing technology to read health signals through the skin painlessly and in real time. The role drives system-level architecture across mechanical, chemistry, software and manufacturing teams, focused on interfaces and technical risk. It suits a broad generalist comfortable moving across disciplines. (Apply here)
That's it for Issue #15.
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