5 minutes with Katie Bell, founder and CEO, Kidney Beam

Navigating regulatory compliance presents a significant hurdle for emerging #digitalhealth innovators. To bring simplicity and robust advice, we’re asking leading entrepreneurs to share their advice. This week we're talking with Katie Bell , founder and CEO, Kidney Beam :

What is your innovation, who does it help and how?

Kidney Beam is the worlds-first, research-backed exercise and lifestyle management platform for people with kidney disease. By offering cost-effective specialist rehabilitation, it helps to ensure people with kidney disease have access to tailored support to live well with their chronic condition.

Participants join programmes, live and on-demand exercise classes, and community support, specifically designed for people at all stages of kidney disease. The content is in-line with the world-class kidney health programme developed by Kings College Hospital, and the platform also gives people the opportunity to connect with others also living with kidney disease. 

What markets do you sell into, and what standards do you need to enter these markets? 

Kidney Beam works with providers in all regions of #NHS England, and we are in discussions with providers in wider regions of the UK, US and Europe. 

In terms of standards, this means #DTAC is our primary compliance requirement. As we expand outside of England, there are additional standards we will need to meet, such as #HIPPA for the US, and we are exploring this and others at the moment.

What part of compliance did you find most painful?

For many standards, the measure of what will be sufficient to meet the criteria isn’t always very clear. For example, we have quotes for penetration testing that range from 1k to 25k. Clarity would help us to balance our investment with the requirement. 

Also understanding how the different components of international standards fit together and where they overlap has been hard to understand. To bring clarity, the dream would be one global central compliance certification, or even in the UK, a DTAC certification would be ideal. 

What compliance advice would you give other innovators? 

Meeting DTAC can feel like a big hurdle and big effort. But when you break it down, you’ve probably got all of the elements needed. Even where you don’t, its actually a very useful and fair way of bringing a company into line. For example, in terms of data standards, DTAC helps ensure you have data practices that will help your company moving forward.   

Break it down, achieving a bit week by week and you’ll get there. Also realising there is cross over in the different compliance standards, will help you see the task as less burdensome. 

What will change now that Kidney Beam is part of the NIA? 

The NHS Innovation Accelerator is a true accelerator to get us to where we want to get to. As established as we are, there still seems to be a brick wall between here and getting commissioned. The NIA connect you with alumni who have done it before, allowing you to learn from others. It helps to find the right people who can help companies like ours, to answer our questions, and find the pathway through to reach our goals.