PocDoc’s Healthy Heart Check stocked in Well Pharmacy following landmark funding raise

Posted on by DigitalHealth.London

In this case study, PocDoc, an alumnus of DigitalHealth.London’s Accelerator programme, share how they are enabling people to test their cholesterol from home and spot the early signs of cardiovascular diseases.

PocDoc was developed with the vision of empowering people to detect and prevent chronic diseases using their smart devices. Cardiovascular disease (CVD), for example, affects over 7.4 million people in the UK. However, The World Heart Federation reports that around 80% of CVDs, including heart disease and stroke, are preventable. This highlights the critical importance of early detection and accessible screening. 

PocDoc’s Healthy Heart Check is a digital diagnostic tool built to tackle the rise in preventable diseases, such as CVD. The simple, five-step process pairs PocDoc’s proprietary microfluidic assay device with cloud-based technology, empowering patients to test their cholesterol at home. The results are delivered to the patient’s smartphone through the NHS App, providing a full cholesterol profile, BMI score, heart age and ten-year risk assessment for heart attacks or strokes in under 10 minutes.  

PocDoc’s Healthy Heart Check is especially effective in disadvantaged or rural areas, as checks can be carried out at home, rather than the patient incurring the costs and difficulties of travelling to GP surgeries.  

A breakthrough moment 

PocDoc recently announced a record-breaking funding round for a UK digital diagnostics company. Through this overly subscribed funding round, PocDoc has raised £5 million from investors including MMC Ventures, Molten VC and Simplyhealth Ventures. The funding also includes investment from the only NHS-anchored venture capital fund, KHP Ventures.  

Tim Irish Partner at KHP Ventures 
“At KHP Ventures, our focus is on investing in innovators and technologies that will deliver the best possible outcomes for patients, staff and health systems, starting with the NHS. PocDoc is demonstrating excellent traction and we’re looking forward to working with the team on the next phase of their growth journey.

The conclusion of this round brings the total pre-A funding raised by PocDoc to over £10 million, the largest raise at this stage for a UK digital diagnostics business. This new investment will support the company’s continued rapid growth, fuelled by its growing list of pharmacy, retail, and corporate partnerships, as well as its deepening relationships with the NHS across the UK. This has propelled our mission to revolutionise access to screenings for cardio, metabolic and renal diseases.  

PocDoc and the NHS 

The aim of the PocDoc Healthy Heart Check is to increase access to cardiovascular disease screenings to help ease the pressure on the overwhelmed healthcare systems in the UK. The NHS spends more treating cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases than any other illnesses – with an annual cost of over £7 billion on CVD alone. 

In 2024, we worked closely with the NHS to: 

  • Scale to deliver digital primary healthcare to every region across the UK;
  • Work on national, regional and local commissions in the NHS, including the largest ever digital home health check;
  • Publish multiple clinical papers, one co-authored with NHS which showed equivalency in the NHS cardiovascular disease pathway; 
  • Demonstrate huge clinical efficacy, including obtaining an uptake rate with the PocDoc Healthy Heart Check of over 92%;
  • Demonstrate through our NHS evidence that PocDoc’s digital technology can play a key role in reducing health inequalities;
  • Secured the largest pre-A funding round for a UK digital diagnostics company of £5 million with support from the first NHS-anchored and backed venture fund for digital health and MedTech venture fund, KHP Ventures. 
Professor Julia Newton NHS Medical Director, NENC HI 
We are identifying significant numbers of people with high cholesterol and high risk of cardiovascular disease, and we are educating them on lifestyle changes they can make. The high levels of user satisfaction and the positive feedback we are getting so far highlight the value of this service.

Engaging with patients directly 

PocDoc is now one of the fastest-growing HealthTech businesses in the UK. Nation-wide partnerships with some of the largest community pharmacy chains, including Asda, Well Pharmacy and the UK’s biggest online pharmacy, Pharmacy2U, mean that more people can access this affordable solution.  

For example, the Healthy Heart Check is stocked in over 700 Well Pharmacy stores, nationwide, and our vibrant in-store branding supports the customer’s journey to find the product. We’ve also been featured by major media outlets, including ITV News, This Morning and The Daily Mail, supporting awareness of this efficient, simple health check to people across the country. 

Steve Regester Well Pharmacy
“People are time-conscious. Picking up a test and doing it at home is a huge benefit instead of booking an appointment.”“The video explains it all—the test is straightforward and simple to do.”“After COVID, people are more comfortable with self-testing, and I can see more tests like this coming in the future.”

Next steps 

As PocDoc continues to expand, our goal is to make these life-changing, accessible health checks available to even more people, helping to prevent heart-related issues before they arise and improving overall public health on a larger scale. 

Learn more about PocDoc and the Healthy Heart Check by visiting their website and connecting on LinkedIn.

PocDoc is an alumnus of the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator programme.

The DigitalHealth.London Accelerator programme is funded by the UK Government via the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). It is delivered by the Health Innovation Network (HIN) South London in partnership with the Office of Life Sciences, CW+, Medicity, NHS England, the Mayor of London and the Levelling Up Fund.

For more information, please visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-
shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus.

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