TympaHealth wins GBP £2 million loan for AI ear care
Thu, 21st May 2026 (Today)
TympaHealth has secured a GBP £2 million loan from Innovate UK to support the rollout of Tympa Assist, an AI-based guidance platform for ear and hearing care.
The funding will also support development of clinical diagnostic functions intended for community settings.
TympaHealth develops ear and hearing health technology for providers including pharmacists, care services, audiologists and GPs. Its latest product is aimed at non-specialist practitioners treating patients with non-complex ear and hearing conditions in primary and community care.
The platform centres on a feature called Otoscopy Assist, which assesses image quality in real time and estimates ear wax levels as minimal, moderate or substantial during examinations.
When the findings suggest a patient may need specialist input, the software flags that possibility to support onward referral. The aim is to help practitioners decide when escalation is appropriate while leaving clinical judgement with trained staff.
Community care
TympaHealth is positioning the technology around a broader shift in the health service towards treating more patients outside hospital settings. The loan supports work that aligns with the NHS goal of delivering more care through a Neighbourhood Health Service.
That focus reflects wider pressure on frontline services, including audiology, as health systems look for ways to widen access and manage demand. TympaHealth argues that community providers such as pharmacies can play a larger role if they have tools to support more consistent examinations and referral decisions.
Tympa Assist applies AI across several stages of the ear and hearing workflow, including image quality checks, wax assessment, audiogram assistance and referral support. It also combines digital otoscopy, hearing screening, microsuction and cloud-based referral pathways in a single platform.
While some other products on the market describe themselves as AI-enabled otoscopes, many focus on narrower tasks such as image capture guidance or condition-specific diagnostic tools. TympaHealth is seeking to distinguish its system by linking multiple functions for routine use in primary care.
Founder view
The platform was founded by Dr Krishan Ramdoo, an ENT surgeon.
"AI is often associated with diagnosis, but that's not where the biggest challenge lies in everyday ear and hearing care. The real need at the frontline is consistency, confidence, and knowing when to escalate. Tympa Assist is the first feature to apply AI across the full ear and hearing health workflow, supporting image quality, wax assessment, audiogram assistance and referral decisions, while keeping clinical judgement firmly in the hands of trained practitioners," said Ramdoo, Founder of TympaHealth.
The tool is intended for patients with non-complex conditions. It is not designed for people with known or suspected complex conditions that require specialist ENT assessment.
TympaHealth's wider product set is designed to help clinicians and other trained providers carry out ear examinations, wax removal and hearing checks in community settings. The new loan gives the company government-backed funding to expand that approach as it develops its AI-guided system for broader use.
The funding comes as health technology groups continue to pitch software and connected devices as a way to shift parts of routine care into pharmacies and other local settings, while specialist services handle more complex cases.