Scottish sports medical app secures £400k funding from former Rangers footballer

A Scottish firm that aims to transform the way sports and event medicine patient care is delivered is aiming to operate on an international scale after being administered a major funding boost by a former Rangers player-turned top sports medic.

Professor Gordon MacKay and wife Jackie have invested £400,000 in ScribePro, an innovative medical app platform that records medical interactions in real-time for clinicians working in team sports. Professor MacKay, who has been credited with pioneering sports career-saving surgery, has given his backing to the business, believing it will become a world leader in its field.

Founded in April 2018 and commercially launched at the start of 2021, ScribePro was set up to improve the welfare and safety of patients by making their medical information instantaneously accessible and transparent to all clinical staff in any location.

The concept is the brainchild of Jonny Gordon, a consultant in emergency medicine at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and the first team doctor for the Scotland National Team, and David Lowe, an academic consultant in emergency medicine and co-director of the EmQuire Research.

Explaining the concept, 50-year-old CEO Gordon, who is currently working with FIFA at the World Cup in Qatar, said: “The platform improves player welfare and safety with transparent, instantly accessible medical information available to all clinical staff. It can be accessed by anyone linked in a player’s medical team, anywhere in the world. It is also a tool for minimising risk to clinicians who are open to legal action.

With the significant six-figure inward investment, ScribePro, which currently has five full-time employees and is growing, will accelerate its market entry and route to internationalisation while furthering its product development and research, with a predicted revenue of £4.5m in 2025.

Professor MacKay, a renowned consultant orthopaedic sports surgeon who has held roles as the official surgeon for both Celtic and Rangers, the Scottish Rugby Union, Commonwealth Games and Ryder Cup, switched his focus towards medicine after suffering serious ligament damage which brought his playing days to a premature end in 1990.

He’s since saved countless careers of sportsmen and women thanks to his world-leading technique to repair traumatic ligament injuries, adopted by elite surgeons across the globe.

The 58-year-old footballer-turned-surgeon, who played in the Rangers reserve team alongside Ally McCoist and Graeme Souness, feels ScribePro will also be a trailblazing force in sports medicine, believing its use will bring ‘massive’ benefits towards improving players’ safety and their treatments.

Commenting on his and his wife Jackie’s decision to invest £400,000 into ScribePro, he said: “When I was a footballer, I realised the insecurity of injury and just how devastating it can be. Simple problems can become a serious disability if they’re not addressed or identified at the appropriate time.

“I was also very aware of the lack of continuity or recording or evidence-based advice for players, not just in the footballing world, but in other sports and other disciplines.”

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

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