Evergreen Life is now a household name in business circles after it was revealed as the UK’s fastest-growing private software firm in the inaugural Sunday Times 100 Tech on Friday.
However the Salford company and its founder Stephen Critchlow are well-known to those covering the HealthTech beat.
Evergreen Life has developed an app which empowers people to improve their health and lifestyle by providing them with insights and connecting them with more effective, joined-up care. It has seen an average of 554% annual sales growth over the last three years. Its workforce has expanded from 50 to 500 over the same period.
Critchlow founded Evergreen Life in 2009 to help people to own and control their health and wellbeing. His previous business Ascribe, a pharmacy and e-prescribing software specialist based in Bolton, was sold to health technology giant EMIS in 2015 for £60m after growing to serve 75% of UK hospitals as well as overseas markets.
“I have a strong passion for technological advancements in health, having first introduced electronic patient medication records into NHS hospitals,” the qualified pharmacist tells BusinessCloud.
“I believe in using technology and data for good, to treat each person as an individual, and not as simply a number.
“My ambition is to empower people with their own health knowledge and alleviate the strain on the NHS waiting list crisis.”
Revolution
Executive chair Critchlow, who spoke on our recent roundtable focused on data in healthcare and called for a “complete revolution” in how healthcare is delivered in the UK, says his intention is to give people a greater understanding of how diet, lifestyle, genetics and medical history can impact health and wellbeing.
“I hope Evergreen Life enables them to make more informed personalised choices about how they live their lives through a personal wellness score and individual insights through our NHS-assured app,” he explains.
“When your health data is accessible wherever you are in the world, not only will our healthcare system be completely transformed, but the health and happiness of the population will also dramatically improve.”
DNA
A cornerstone of its data-centred approach is understanding a person’s own DNA.
“Widespread testing – ideally at birth – would enable everyone to understand how their DNA impacts on their wellness, and know what diet, exercise and medication would be best for them,” says Critchlow.
“DNA data and information about any health-related assessment or intervention would be recorded in one place, and accompanied by information about the diet and lifestyle changes that are made.
“From this, individuals and medical professionals will get a full picture of a health position, what’s influenced it, likely outcomes and what can be done to change the outcome.”
Critchlow says everybody should have the opportunity to volunteer their data for research to help them and others like them – in effect ‘data donors’.
“No longer would it be necessary for clinics to recruit people onto trial and request records from GPs,” he expands. “Instead, it will be easier to select and engage with data donors, whose health information would be stored online, enabling small trials for rare diseases up to high volume programme research.
“Where this approach materialises is irrelevant – whether it be through an app, the cloud, or maybe in the future a virtual reality headset. What’s important is the accessibility of the data so that it can be easily shared, when and where needed.”
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AI
It’s estimated that 70% of people in hospital are impacted by an error in relation to healthcare professionals not having access to the full picture.
“As our ability to do more diagnostic testing increases, so does the amount of data that is produced,” says Critchlow. “But our limitation at the moment is our knowledge of what to do with that data.
“No individual can deal with the sheer volume. However, AI can translate it into a usable format that enables us to take positive action.”
Critchlow also serves as chair of the National Institute of Health Research (AI in healthcare phase 1).
“The potential benefits of intelligently applying AI are twofold,” he continues. “Firstly, people will know more about themselves than ever before. I’m not just talking about the facts, but also what they mean for them and what action they can take to improve their own situation.
“And secondly, medical professionals will have all of the information needed for effective decision making, in a language they understand. Together, this will prevent disease, improve outcomes and reduce pressure on our struggling NHS.”
Challenges
Critchlow says health professionals will soon enjoy better access to more complete records and they will be able to ask patients: ‘Have you got your personal health record with you?’
“Earlier in my career as a pharmacist, different departments were rarely motivated to speak with each other about findings and consequently, systems didn’t talk to each other and levels of care suffered,” he says.
“Today solutions are being integrated, however, with over 200 different department systems the challenge is immense.
“This was central to my move to build Ascribe to help solve this problem and later in setting up Evergreen Life – down to the realisation that the answer lies in putting the patient at the centre of everything.”
Over a million people have downloaded the Evergreen Life app so far.
“I fully expect people-powered health to be the norm in about 10 years,” says Critchlow, who also founded renewable energy firm Evergreen Energy.
“There is no need for us to be content at imagining a world where all data about your health is accessible by you. Together we can make it happen, simply by putting the person at the centre of all health information.”