Health

All Posts
Quantum
Regulation
AI
Start-ups
People
Health

Children raise five sense icons. Only the eye and half the ear connect to a computer screen. Smell, touch and taste are marked not measured.

Children can still beat AI at four of the five senses

Five senses AI: machines now see and hear, but none can smell, touch or taste. What ARC-AGI-3 and ARIA reveal about the gap between AI and superintelligence.

Simon Rasalingham

3 days ago8 min read

Three-panel diagram: one hospital's night shift unaffordable, two hospitals sharing one radiologist, then ten hospitals after NICE guideline NG39.

When the Rules Change, Sometimes You Are Sitting on a Network Effect

How to Build a Start-up, Part 6, Author: Simon Rasalingham, 2026 The product you launch with is rarely the one that makes the money. Ours took off a decade later, on the back of a single guideline. MEDICA started as a chest x-ray reporting business. The logic was easy to understand. As x-rays moved from pieces of film, which could be hidden in a cupboard, to images sitting on a system, radiology managers across the NHS suddenly discovered how many chest x-rays had never been

Simon Rasalingham

Oct 56 min read

"Why set up a company in Britain?" Illustration of a football pitch split by a chasm labeled "the valley of death," with a team ("we build the best teams in the world") lined up at one end. A bridge made of UK R&D funding mechanisms — paid monthly against payroll, 43.5% refundable, grants against the plan, state fund no interest, refund eighteen months later — spans the gap toward a goal captioned "an exit worth reaching." A red arrow labeled "sold halfway across" cuts across the bridge partway over, and a spirit level on the near side reads "level the pitch." Scale figures at bottom read "1 team across, $1bn / 100 teams, $100bn / 1,000 teams, $1 trillion," with captions "science works" and "pays for itself" near the chasm.

The Trillion Dollar Question in This UK Budget.

Why Set Up a Company in Britain? Two asks from a British entrepreneur who wants to. Neither requires rejoining the EU, neither is a subsidy. Author: Simon Rasalingham, 2026 Foreword A founder starting a frontier life sciences AI technology company today has no rational reason to do it in Britain. I am asking for two changes in this Budget, neither of which requires us to rejoin the EU. The prize for getting it right is a trillion dollars of economic impact. I have been involv

Simon Rasalingham

Sep 3012 min read

"Two ways in. No way out." Illustration of a "Great Britain" gateway with three storefronts: "International Reliance," where personified regulatory-approval cards (FDA, Health Canada, TGA — all stamped "Admitted") walk in freely; "UKCA," shown boarded up and cobwebbed with a sign reading "Still open, no queue"; and "CE Recognition — to 2030, indefinite under consultation," where an EU-badged card is admitted. A UKCA card stands outside holding a ticket, captioned "Obtainable. And increasingly unnecessary." In the background, US/EU/Canada/Australia gates are shown with shutters down, labeled "No exit for UKCA." Caption at bottom: "I do not expect UKCA to be a commercial requirement for most devices by 2030."

EU MDR, FDA or UKCA: Where should a British SME start?

Author: Simon Rasalingham, 2026 On my first visit to the FDA, driving up to the entrance, I wondered why there were men with semi-automatic weapons at the gate. Then I took my shoes off to get through security, to attend a meeting about clearing an algorithm. The meeting was my team on one side and two rows of FDA people on the other. For a first meeting. That is where most British founders' regulatory strategy gets decided. It is very intimidating, and it can put you off for

Simon Rasalingham

Sep 236 min read

"The report opens the door. The road stops at liability." Illustration of a road paved from a stack of recommendation-report pages, past lampposts labeled post-market surveillance, change-control plans, and device traceability, ending at a broken bridge over a chasm reading "Industrial strategy 0 · Reimbursement 0 · Sovereign AI 1" and "Who is liable when an autonomous system is wrong?", with the FDA shown as the route British SMEs take instead.

UK AI in Healthcare Report 44 Recommendations What British SMEs Need Next

44 Recommendations, and Still Nobody Owns the Liability Author: Simon Rasalingham, 2026 The National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare has reported. I gave evidence to it in January. The result is 44 recommendations across 119 pages, and it is serious work. Across those 119 pages: Industrial strategy — no mentions. Reimbursement — no mentions. Sovereign AI — one mention, and that was about the risk of relying on foundation models owned outside the UK. And the

Simon Rasalingham

Sep 147 min read