CardMedic is an innovative digital patient communication tool, designed in response to the global communication crisis in healthcare. CardMedic has quickly evolved into a flexible IT tool to overcome communication barriers in healthcare, for instance: foreign language, blindness, illiteracy and learning disabilities.
CardMedic is available for patients and staff to use in any healthcare setting, on an app. It hosts an A-Z library of pre-written scripts replicating clinical conversations between healthcare staff and patients around common healthcare topics.
"I urge businesses wishing to grow, to seek and access DBT's wealth of advice and support to help their business accelerate, and to access overseas markets.”
Dr Rachael Grimaldi created CardMedic when reading about a patient who was suffering difficulties in communicating with healthcare staff wearing PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). She recognised the need for a better software tool designed for the needs of both patient and healthcare staff. Ease of use was a priority, but so was global access.
Rachael launched CardMedic within 72 hours of concept. Within 3 weeks the app had 8,000 users in 50 markets, growing to over 55,000 users in 120 markets and 22,000 app downloads since April 2020.
CardMedic has been recruited for endorsement by NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence). It was also fast-tracked through the Ministry of Defence’s Clinical Research and Innovation Gateway COVID-19 Taskforce for dissemination to MoD clinicians across the UK.
Getting the advice to achieve success
CardMedic has received a Points of Light Award from the Prime Minister, the Patient Safety Award from the Safe Anaesthesia Liaison Group, and was shortlisted in the Medilink UK Healthcare Business Awards for ‘Collaboration with the NHS’.
Among many other recent awards, CardMedic received a $50,000 platinum award from US accelerator MassChallenge, and Rachael won the global finals of She Loves Tech, the world’s largest start-up competition for women in tech.
Estelle Dingley, International Trade Advisor at Department for Business and Trade’s (DBT) South East office, was instrumental in helping CardMedic to grow their business. Estelle provided bespoke export support and advice to the company, and arranged market introductions. She gave support in developing CardMedic's website, branding and app development. Estelle also provided help with understanding UK and US intellectual property (IP) protections.
Further support from DBT included working with other government departments, and helping CardMedic seek funding streams to help the business grow further.
With CardMedic's continuing success, DBT has recruited the company for inclusion into their Digital Health Export offer, as well as incorporating them into DBT’s ‘First 100 Digital Playbook’ for overseas trading.
CardMedic has been named in DBT’s ‘Top 25 Ones To Watch List For International Expansion’.