Giovanna delivers a three-minute pitch!

Uploading pitch decks and films to investment platforms is hard work, so we thought we’d share our CEO’s speedy pitch here. Our opportunity is fantastic, the delivery of clinical excellence even better and shareholder reward heading for gold. We are enthused by investor response to our opportunity. If you are one of them, contact us today.

Enterpreneurship: women CAN have it all. Just not all at the same time.

Giovanna Forte was invited to deliver a talk about Entrepreneurship to students at her alma mater, Mayfield School for Girls. Speaking alongside counterpart professionals from the RAF, Charities Sector, Army and Structural Engineering, Giovanna outlined the core values of entrepreneurship: changemaking, the realisation of savvy ideas, challenging the status-quo and independence.  Entrepreneurship stimulates creativity and development both personal and societal; it is often responsible for introducing evolved, flexible and better ways of being. Living a life full of flexibility and opportunity can be ideal for 21stC women, whose responsiblities around homemaking, parenting and business can be oneous … but certainly not impossible. We CAN have it all. Just not all at the same time.

Film: Dr Vincent Forte on why and how Peezy Midstream transforms urological health.

When Dr Vincent Forte asked a female patient for a urine sample, she returned to his surgery with a wet bottle and red face. Vincent took her issues seriously … and invented Peezy Midstream, the only urine collection device in the world that captures a reliable clean-catch sample leaving the patient with clean, dry hands and dignity intact. Moreover, clinical outcomes for Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) are significantly improved, unnecessary prescribing is reduced … and patients love the hygiene and dignity.

Hear what Vincent has to say in this short film.

Film credit: Luto Research

Forte Medical Co-Founder: Trailblazing Leader in Women’s Health

Giovanna Forte, our very own CEO and co-founder of Forte Medical has been nominated a Trailblazing Leader in Women’s Health by Women of Wearables, the female-led organisation that promotes just just the women doing the work but their work that is transforming health for millions of women.

Giovanna co-funded the business together with her brother Dr Vincent Forte BA (Cantab), MBBS (Lond), MRCGP, MSc, DA and has led it from single product company transforming women’s urological and prenatal health, to one developing a suite of world-first urine collection systems designed to improve precision diagnostics for all urological conditions from Urinary Tract Infection and Prenatal Screening to early stage cancer diagnoses, STI and evidential forensic medicine.

Read more here.

Medical devices can help prevent sepsis and the rise of AMR

“With between 15 and 20% of cases in high income countries being caused by urinary tract infection, and with resistance to first-line treatment among the most common urinary pathogens running as high as 50% in some regions, any product which improves diagnostic accuracy will not only improve outcomes for individual patients but is also likely to help us counter the threat of AMR,” says Dr Ron Daniels BEM, Founder and joint CEO of The Sepsis Trust.

“Sepsis is a condition responsible for 1 in 5 deaths worldwide. Sepsis is the final common pathway to death from most infectious diseases. It is intrinsically interlinked with antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and lack of diagnostic accuracy hampers efforts not only to treat sepsis but also to deliver responsible antimicrobial stewardship.”

Evidence based Peezy Midstream is one of these devices.  Designed by Dr Vincent Forte, NHS GP for over 20 years, Forensic Physician and medical author to improve women’s urological health it enjoyed ten years of rigorous R&D before entering the market in 2015, generating significant excellent evidence around reduced retesting, reduced prescribing and transformed patient outcoes. #notjustaproduct!

Are women on the AMR frontline due to poor UTI & prenatal urine specimen collection?

Failure to ensure midstream urine collection for urinary tract infection (UTI) and prenatal urine collection combined with failure of clinicians to identify problem bacteria before prescribing, leads to unnecessary or badly targeted antibiotics being prescribed to between 34%-60% of women presenting with UTI – thats between 5.1m – 9m women annually.

Is failure to meet AMR stewardship guideines putting women on the frontline of antimicrobial resistance?

Read the highlights, with reference sources, here.

Accelerate to Excel: why does only 2% of investment reach female founders?

The Entrepreneur’s Network/Beauhurst Accelerate to Excel report highlights the woeful 2% of investment reaching female founders.

Female-founded businesses often last longer and are more successful than those of their male counterparts. The question is: why does this remain the status quo? Like Tessa Clarke of Olio featured in The Observer, Giovanna Forte our CEO has frequently encountered the same unedifying “wall of men”.

Forte Medical seeks £1m investment to bring a gold standard to women’s urological and prenatal health in healthcare and home settings; in the three years since Covid removed turnover and investment interest, Forte Medical has reshaped, now ready to relaunch and transform routine healthcare for women, tackle rising cases of uro-sepsis and urology-related antimicrobial resistance.

Investors: work with us to grow globally, save lives … and see excellent returns.

Womens UTI and maternal health: fact sheet

Global guidance specifies midstream urine (MSU) for Urinary Tract Infections (UTI) and prenatal screening, yet there is no protocol to ensure guidelines are met, leading to unreliable samples, contaminated with bacteria and flora washed from the skin into the urine sample creating an unreliable diagnostic outcome and flushing taxpayer money down the loo.

Peezy Midstream delivers a much needed protocol for urine collection. Designed by a Doctor, Made in the UK.

  • UTI is a significant cause of death accounting for 4835 deaths in England and Wales in 2012
  • Unplanned hospital admissions for UTI cost the NHS nearly £400m to treat
  • For 34-60% of people diagnosed with UTI, antibiotics are prescribed before their diagnosis can be confirmed by the laboratory
  • 7 million antibiotic items were prescribed in primary care in 2019/20 to treat lower UTI at a cost of £47.6 million, and 41% (2.73 million) of these antibiotics were prescribed to people aged 70+ years

Read the full fact sheet here.

Scandal of ignored guidelines impacting women’s health.

The scandal of ignored guidelines for urine collection to diagnose UTI / prenatal screening
Unreliable diagnoses / Unnecessary antibiotics for millions of women / Costly repeat test

  • Simple medical innovation designed by a doctor points to retest and efficiency savings of up to £160m*
  • Reduced unnecessary antibiotic prescribing especially for women
  • Reduced risk of Sepsis
  • Reduced unplanned hospital admissions costing the NHS over £400m annually

Read the full report here.

Forte Medical case study within Imperial College Innovation paper

Commissioned by Lord Sainsbury and authored by Professor James Moore and Yunus Kutlu, Imperial College has published a report on innovation adoption in the UK and wh

at prevents successful adoption of impactful innovation. Forte Medical features as the only case study and outlines issues with silo systems, a disconnect between procurement and fincance all topped off with vested interests from labs and leadership.

The Peezy Midstream case study outlines how adoption of preventative devices and practice are resisted, leading to missed opportunities for improved patient health, prompt diagnoses, prevention and huge cost savings across the patient pathway.

Read all about it here. – see Page 29 and Appendix 2