Irish healthcare data start-up Cushla seeks to raise €3m

An Irish health technology start-up called Cushla, which has developed an app to allow individuals access and store their healthcare information and share it with doctors and other medical staff, is currently in the process of raising €3 million in early-stage funding as its platform is being piloted in the Republic and the UK.

The fundraise is expected to be completed next month, having attracted interest from family trusts and high-net-worth individuals familiar with the healthtech space, said Cushla’s founder and chief executive Richard Egan, a former executive with Vhi Healthcare.

Cushla, which was registered in late 2020 and currently has 11 employees, plans to target venture capital money at a later stage as it continues to grow, said Mr Egan, who was the head of change delivery at VHI between 2014 and last year.

The app is currently being piloted in St Michael’s Hospital in Dún Laoghaire after Cushla was one of the winners of Health Innovation Hub Ireland’s 2022 competition to pick the best market-ready healthcare products or services. It is also being trialled on a small basis in the UK.

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It comes as the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) said in a report published last week that a citizen health portal should be established in the Republic to provide the public with access to and control over their health and social care information.

The report on the collection, use and sharing of health information said there needed to be a major change to improve information sharing, quality of care and transparency about how health information is used.

Rachel Flynn, Hiqa director of health information, told RTÉ's News at One last week that health staff cannot easily access patient health information where and when they need it and this can lead to repeated tests and delays in care.

Mr Egan said the Cushla platform meets what Hiqa is calling for, while also making a patient’s information accessible internationally. Crucially, the company’s system allows patients to control who can have access to medical information and for how long, he said.