Investment support for Software to increase Patient Safety

A new healthcare system which helps clinicians and hospital staff to track patients’ behaviour whilst they recover from brain trauma, has raised £500k to address potentially adverse episodes in healthcare settings.

James Burch and James Chapman, co-founders of Manchester-based company Decently, received backing for its Melo platform from the GMC Life Sciences Fund by Praetura, which is supported by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Cheshire & Warrington LEP and Bruntwood SciTech, with SFC Capital participating in the round. Its lead

The funding will be used to help launch Melo across the NHS and private rehabilitation care centres by scaling its team and grow awareness of this software technology, which is being piloted by three strategic northern NHS Trusts; the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Melo works by simplifying and streamlining the data capture process, using artificial intelligence to spot trends and behaviour escalation patterns in patients suffering acquired brain injuries (ABI) and injuries caused by non-birth related incidents, such as accidental trauma or a coma.

Clinicians can upload patient data based on observations and are given a real-time dashboard along with reporting tools that make sharing information easier.

James Burch said: “Acquired brain injury is not a new problem, but the statistics show it is a growing issue, which is causing a strain on both the public and private health sectors. With Melo, our focus is to provide a duty of care to staff who are responsible for looking after ABI patients who may, due to brain injury, express challenging behaviour.  

“By using Melo, we can help ease the manual and time-consuming burden of data capture and incident logging on an already stretched workforce, which we know from working closely with various NHS teams over the last 18 months can make a real significant difference. We’re incredibly grateful for the support of the GMC Life Sciences Fund by Praetura and SFC Capital which helps us develop the business to the next level.” 

Jessica Jackson, investment manager at Praetura Ventures, who joins Decently’s board as an investment director, said: “Decently’s launch of Melo is set to have a significant impact on both clinician and patient safety and is yet another example of how tech innovation can drive improvements within the NHS, which continues to face cost and staffing pressures on a major scale. As well as providing investment from the GMC Life Sciences Fund by Praetura, we will be supporting Decently’s founders with more than money support to help scale its team and connect the company with key healthcare stakeholders.”

The investors also plan to connect the company with operational partner Mark Horncastle, previously a partner and the UK Head of Healthcare at PA Consulting, where he spent 12 years driving innovation and transformation which included the scaling of primary care services across Greater Manchester.” 

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