10. Eolas Medical: the startup powering 80% of NHS trusts

Founder: Dr. Declan Kelly
Year founded: 2019
Website: eolasmedical.com

Doctors need to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the human body. But they would need a mind like a steel trap to memorise the many, many documents stored in each hospital unit.

In just one NHS trust, for example, there are 167 clinical guidelines, each of which can have up to 90 records on how to administer patient care. Most of these are often housed in multiple disparate systems. In fact, one 2020 study found that IT systems in the NHS are so outdated, staff have to log into up to 15 different systems to do their jobs.

Eolas Medical was founded by Dr. Declan Kelly out of frustration with the unwieldiness of this management system. Kelly was constantly finding that the critical clinical information he needed at the point of care wasn’t easily accessible — a pain point for him and his patients.

We have lived the experience and understand the impact that lack of access to medical knowledge has on patient care.

Having diagnosed the issue, he set about treating it. Eolas Medical is a knowledge platform that folds thousands of reems of documents into one online portal.

For healthcare professionals, it’s a godsend. They can get comprehensive information on national and local guidance, hospital protocols, and patient leaflets. Plus, an in-app messenger feature allows them to contact colleagues securely (not on WhatsApp).

Eolas is now used by 80% of NHS Trusts, an astonishing figure given it was founded just five years ago. That buy-in is the result of years of word of mouth marketing utilised through Kelly’s personal network of medics, who also gave feedback on how to improve the platform.

200,000 users across the UK, US, and Ireland are registered with Eolas, and the platform has scaled its monthly active users by 300%. Seeing this growth, investors made an urgent appointment, and the app secured £2m in funding in 2022.

But Eolas’ company mission is to make that one million. Doing so would all but ensure that the platform becomes the standardised knowledge base for every NHS trust; a joined up, digitised approach that is currently missing from the health service.

“We have lived the experience and understand the impact that lack of access to medical knowledge has on patient care,” says Kelly. First came Gray’s Anatomy, then came Eolas; the platform that’s bringing the NHS into a new era of efficiency and effectiveness in 2025.