It may come as a surprise, but the biggest producer of medical-education apps in the world is Irish company 3D4 Medical. "Most people think we are American, but we are an Irish company," says chief operating officer Robert Cairnduff. "We started off doing 3D images for publications and advertising. We then moved into apps using anatomical models to train medical students. That blossomed into a digital platform to train students in anatomy. We are now the biggest medical app producer in the world."
First-mover advantage has been key to the firm’s success. “We started very early on and we were first to market with our product,” says Cairnduff. “We have held that leadership position ever since. The only way to stay ahead is innovation. We try to stay two years ahead of everyone else. We develop all the technology ourselves. We have a platform which we launched 18 months ago. Content Builder is a version of our own anatomy product but allows universities to create their own curriculums. It is now used by 150 universities around the world and we have had 12 million downloads of the anatomy app.”
Making international waves
Axonista is another Irish company making international waves in this exciting space. "We are in a new niche, interactive video," says co-founder and chief technology officer Daragh Ward. "No one else in Ireland is doing it. We are not in the content-creation space, there are lots of great people around doing that. There is a great start-up culture here for that. Ireland is a very easy place to start a business."
The company turns video into an interactive experience. "It used to be that video was something you watched and consumed passively," Ward notes. "That's because it came from TV. Now you can watch it on other handheld devices. We have worked on shows like Vincent Browne and Exposé to make them an interactive experience for viewers. Audience polls for Vincent Browne were very successful as people just had to touch a button on-screen to vote. With Exposé, we were able to open up new lines of revenue by enabling viewers to click through to a store's website to view or buy an item of clothing or other product. One of our biggest customers today is QVC, the world's largest shopping channel, and we are also working with the IFI on making their film archive interactive."