‘Meet the Team’ – Anthony Holmes, Managing Director

Get to know Rinicare’s Managing Director, Anthony Holmes, and the reasons he believes in AI-driven healthcare technology.

I have been Managing Director at Rinicare since October 2020, but I had actually worked with the team on a consultancy basis beforehand, so I came in with a good knowledge of what Rinicare was trying to achieve. It’s exciting to be involved in a clinician-led company who have a desire, passion and vision to see clinical risk prediction transform healthcare.

Before joining Rinicare, I was the CEO at Optasia Medical, a computer vision company identifying patients with previously undiagnosed vertebral fractures in CT scans. It was exciting to steer the company towards providing both software and clinical services to the NHS powered by AI. After I left in 2018, I then also had the opportunity to use some of what I’d learned to help other SMEs translate their ideas into clinical use through consulting.

I would describe my job working with Rinicare as engaging, collaborative, and rewarding, and the Rinicare team is without a doubt a huge part of that. It is a pleasure and privilege to work with passionate individuals who want to make a real difference

Reasons to be excited about healthcare technology

One of the reasons that it is such an exciting time for Rinicare at the moment is the fact that healthcare technology is developing and advancing so quickly. For me, the rise of health wearables has been astonishing. Although I feel more work still needs to be done on ensuring data are sufficiently protected, having far more data available from wearable tech can only be beneficial for clinical risk prediction scope and performance.

I am a self-confessed health technology evangelist – I believe I was one of the first patients in my GP practice to sign up to the NHS App! Even something so apparently simple has real benefits for, say, ordering repeat prescriptions or booking a GP appointment. The lesson for me is that solutions don’t have to necessarily be clever or sophisticated; they just have to offer a real benefit!

Another reason we at Rinicare are so excited about the future is that the UK has a real opportunity to be a global leader in digital health. We have a strong combination of university research, innovative SMEs and world-leading National Health Service, and I think we’re very good at technology transfer – getting the ideas out of academia and into SMEs.

However, we are less advanced in helping SMEs deploy those ideas into the NHS. The NHS landscape is extraordinarily difficult to navigate in order to find the right places to deploy innovative solutions, but I think the work of NHSX will improve things here in the coming year.

We have sometimes been frustrated by the NHS’s dated and diverse infrastructure – many trusts are still using paper records! We have had several false dawns with trying to unify infrastructure across the NHS but I sense that things are now moving in the right direction.

Without unifying solutions, each Trust requires customisation of products to fit their infrastructure, which slows adoption.

Just for fun: Anthony’s recommendations and inspirations

Sean Carroll’s Mindscape podcast gives my brain a thorough workout. In contrast, the Adam Buxton podcast is consistently interesting and funny.

I am inspired by anyone with a passion to make a positive difference and who isn’t afraid to stand out! The bravest voice is often the loneliest.