Faces of Digital Health
A podcast about digital health and how healthcare systems adopt technologies.
All Episodes
Healthtech in the GCC Countries: Focus on Infrastructure and Export Capabilities
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) brings together six Arab countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates
When one reads about the GCC countries, there’s nothing but the impression of prosperity: high investments, determination, and enthusiasm in tech-supported healthcare.
The spending on healthcare by the GCC governments is on an astronomical rise. From a regionwide US$2.4 billion in 2016, it rose to more than US$30 billion in 2021 and is projected to surpass US$104 billion this year, according to a report from the UAE Ministry of Economy.
In this episode, Pilar Fernandez Hermida International Go-to-Market expert with 20+ years of experience launching sales & partner ecosystem strategies, talks about the potential of the Middle East and MENA region for healthtech companies, the culture in the Middle East, how to interpret different style of communication here, what are the common entrepreneurial misconceptions, and where to find opportunities. Pilar says that the entrepreneurial spirit here is 10-times as strong as in the US, and that biotech and drug development are the next thing to watch for in the region.
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
Show notes:
[00:02:00] Pilar Fernandez Hermida, an expert in healthcare market strategies, shares insights from Abu Dhabi.
[00:04:00] Analysis of the healthcare infrastructure development in GCC post-pandemic.
[00:08:00] The role of expats in the Middle East's healthcare transformation.
[00:10:00] Public-private partnerships as key opportunities.
[00:12:00] Cultural considerations for startups in the GCC.
[00:14:00] Misconceptions about the Middle Eastern healthcare market.
[00:18:00] Building long-term relationships in business.
[00:20:00] Navigating diverse cultural communication in healthcare.
[00:24:00] Comparing the entrepreneurial spirit in the Middle East with the U.S. and Europe.
[00:28:00] Strategic advice for healthcare entrepreneurs targeting the GCC.
[00:30:00] Importance of understanding regulations and digital maturity in MENA.
[00:32:00] Future potential in biotech and digital health in the GCC.
[00:36:00] The convergence of digital health and biotech.
April 9, 2024
DTx in 2024: Where Are We With Business and Reimbursement Models? (Andy Molnar)
In the last few years, we've witnessed a whirlwind of developments in the world of Digital Therapeutics (DTx) - from FDA approvals sparking optimism for the industry, to the establishment of regulatory frameworks in countries like Germany, France, and Belgium.
However, in 2023, the industry faced a stark reality check, marked by the fall of some key players and healthcare systems' hesitancy towards embracing and financing these innovations. This turbulence has reshaped strategies and raised critical questions about the future of DTx.
🔍 In this episode learn more about:
📊 The current state of the DTx industry in 2024,
🗣️ Key debates of digital therapies industry players,
🌐 Advocacy efforts pushing the boundaries for global adoption,
🚀 Strategies to accelerate the integration of digital therapies worldwide.
Newsletter: fodh.substack.com
Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
April 2, 2024
What Factors Should be Taken into Account in Designing ePROs – Electronic Patient Reported Outcomes Solutions?
Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) have become increasingly integral in healthcare for assessing the effectiveness of treatments from the patient's perspective. It sounds like a reasonable step in improving clinical research and care provision, but gathering data can be more difficult then you may think. It isn't easy to get to marginalized communities. There are language barriers in collecting data. There are cultural aspects that impact responses. So, how can you design useful electronic solutions for patient-reported outcomes? Hear from Mustafa Ali Syed, Researcher at the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, The University of Manchester, and Ben James, Co-founder/Chief Design Officer at uMotif - ePRO, an engagement platform designed to power clinical and real-world research. Both are co-authors of a recently published paper titled Exploring the Cross-cultural Acceptability of Digital Tools for Pain Self-reporting.
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
Show notes:
00:00:00 Why Do PROs Matter?
00:04:00 Evolution of Data Collection
00:06:00 Importance of Diversity in Clinical Trials
00:08:00 Ethnicity, Culture, and Pain Perception
00:12:00 The Role of Technology in PROs
00:14:00 Designing Inclusive Digital Solutions
00:20:00 Challenges in Engaging Targeted Populations
00:22:00 Language and Communication Barriers
00:26:00 The Future of PRO Research
March 19, 2024
DTx in Belgium: It’s Time to Embed Digital Therapeutics in Clinical Pathways
Did you know that Belgium has had an idea for classifying and validating digital therapeutics since 2018? A clear framework was formed with all main stakeholders involved - from health insurance to the industry. So why are we not hearing more about DTx in Belgium? In this discussion you will hear from Dr. Steven Vandeput - he is the Advisor for Digital MedTech and Services & Technologies Home Assistance in Belgium; he is managing the mHealthBelgium portal and, since 2019, has been a representative for beMedTech, the sector federation that represents the industry of medical technologies in Belgium.
Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
Show notes:
00:00 - Introduction
01:45 - Digital Therapeutics in Belgium
03:50 - Belgium's Healthcare Framework Development
06:00 - The Validation Pyramid and Reimbursement System
08:00 - Fate of Pilot Projects and Their Impact
10:00 - Utilization of mHealth Belgium Portal
12:00 - Challenges in Reimbursement and Financing
14:00 - Prospects for Digital Therapeutic Companies
16:00 - Belgium's Approach to Financing Digital Health
18:00 - Anticipations for the Digital Health Field
20:00 - The Evolving European Frameworks
22:00 - Impact of Political Decisions and Healthcare System Integration
24:00 - The Future of mHealth Belgium Platform
March 11, 2024
In the Rapid Advancements in Oncology Treatments, How Can Healthcare IT Support Clinicians? (Elekta)”
The field of oncology treatments is advancing very fast with innovative therapies and approaches on the market every day. It can get very tricky to support these therapies from an IT perspective, which is what you will hear more about in this discussion. I spoke with Anish Patankar, SVP and GM of Elekta’s Oncology Software Solutions, and we discussed
How to go about the US hospital market,
Development in software for oncology treatments,
Challenges in scaling healthcare IT software across markets.
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Show notes:
[00:00:00] Introduction to Elekta
[00:02:00] Elekta's Global Presence
[00:04:00] US Market Focus
[00:06:00] Growth in Developing Countries
[00:08:00] Segmentation and Technology Adoption in the US
[00:10:00] Untapped Needs and Opportunities in the US
[00:12:00] Elekta's Use of AI
[00:14:00] Patient Feedback and Clinical Decision Making
[00:18:00] Navigating Legacy Software in Healthcare IT
[00:20:00] Modernization and Customer Satisfaction
[00:22:00] Global Standardization and Regulation Challenges
[00:24:00] Interoperability and Open Ecosystem
[00:26:00] Future of Oncology Market Development: the interplay between medications and radiation, and the potential of theranostics.
[00:28:00] Exciting Technologies in Healthcare Beyond Oncology: personalized healthcare, digital twins
[00:30:00] Cautions for the Future: The critical debate on the balance between innovation speed and safety, particularly with generative AI.
March 4, 2024
How Do Pharma and Digital Health Converge in 2024? (Amir Lahav)
In 2023, Insilico Medicine—a biotech company developing medications with a heavy reliance on AI—used AI to develop an experimental drug for the incurable lung disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The treatment is in mid-stage trials in the US and China, with some results expected in early 2025.
Biotech is one of the fields that has been using generative AI for years, even before ChatGPT brought the technology to public view.
Latest technology is essential in drug development. However, the convergence of digital health and pharma seems less clear. Digital health apps started gaining popularity around 2015, and at that time, it seemed all pharma companies were trying to figure out what they could gain from apps, so they financed accelerators and incubators one after the other.
We've seen many ideas about how Pharma should or could use digital health.
In the last few years, there have been many notorious cases when partnerships failed—a seemingly unicorn, Proteus, which designed digital sensors-equipped pills, went bankrupt in 2019 after Otsuka Pharmaceuticals pulled out of a funding round. Pear Therapeutics, the guiding star in the DTx space and the leader in FDA-cleared prescription digital therapeutics, partnered with Novartis, but in the end, the company filed for bankruptcy in 2023. So where is Pharma in relation to digital health and digital therapeutics? In this episode, Amir Lahav shares his thoughts about the impact of AI on biotech, the state of decentralized clinical trials, and the potential of technology for improved drug development, clinical trials, and patient responses.
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
February 20, 2024
Experience Economy: How To Create Healthcare Events the HLTH Way (Rich Scarfo)
HLTH (https://hlth.com/) is an event where you will see a literal forest on one of the stages, be able to take a selfie with a unicorn mascot, and get perks like hlth branded pink nail polist on your entrance. In the last few years, HLTH has become the most flashy, visible and must-go digital health event in the US.
In this episode, Rich Scarfo, president of HLTH, talks about HLTH's approach to making events memorable, why HLTH is taking experience economy as a guiding principle in the investment in the scene at HLTH, networking tips, and why HLTH is coming to Europe in June 2024.
HLTH Europe (17-20 June 2024): https://europe.hlth.com/
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
February 15, 2024
Gender Impact On Health Is Huge – Women’s Health Research Needs More Investments
Migraine is 3 times more common in women than in men.
2/3 of patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
Gender differences are real and they matter.
The Women's Brain Project (WBP) is a Swiss-based international non-profit organization founded in 2016. It comprises a diverse team of academic and social scientists, medical doctors, engineers, patients, caregivers, artists, and AI experts. The WBP focuses on understanding sex and gender differences in brain and mental diseases to pave the way for precision medicine. This involves tailoring medical treatment to the individual characteristics of each patient, including factors like sex, gender, genomic and proteomics, microbiome, ethnicity, and socio-economic status.
In this episode Antonella Santuccione Chadha, medical doctor and CEO of Women’s brain project and Anna De, Head of Stakeholder Engagement at Women's Brain Project explain: where are we with data about women’s health specifics, what is driving research in women’s health, what is the negative health and societal impact on women because of their predominant role in caregiving.
Show notes:
[00:03:01] Antonella Discusses Women's Brain Project:
The gaps in medicine for not considering sex and gender.
The transformation from an association to a foundation.
The need for commitment and support for evidence generation.
[00:05:20] Underrepresentation of Women in Research:
Antonella explains historical exclusion of women and the current need for inclusion.
Addressing biases and the importance of female leadership in medicine.
[00:08:23] Evaluating Existing and New Treatments:
The role of real-world data in addressing the gap in gender responses to treatments.
[00:11:27] Key Findings and Successes:
Antonella passes the conversation to Anna to discuss policy successes.
[00:11:59] Anna Discusses Policy Impact:
How Women's Brain Project informs global policy.
Collaboration with large organizations and efforts to influence policy.
[00:16:01] Migraine Research and Campaigns:
Details on the migraine awareness campaign and insights on how it impacts women specifically.
[00:19:30] Antonella on Scientific Evidence:
The role of female hormones in migraines and other diseases.
The importance of translating science into political measures.
[00:20:38] Alzheimer's Disease in Women:
Discussion on why two-thirds of Alzheimer's patients are women and associated factors.
[00:26:00] Relationship Between Research and Medical Practice:
Antonella shares her experiences as a clinician and the realization of gender disparities in her patients.
The importance of educating healthcare professionals on sex and gender differences.
[00:29:03] Anna Adds to the Discussion:
The need to consider both sex and gender differences in healthcare.
The societal impact of caregiver burden on women.
[00:33:34] Identifying Questions and Approaches for Research:
The conversation turns to the complexities of starting research with the right questions and data.
[00:37:18] Key Changes Needed to Advance Women's Health:
Antonella and Anna discuss the three key changes they hope to see: investment in women-driven innovation, prioritizing sex and gender differences in policy agendas, and empowering women with knowledge about their health.
[00:41:34] Closing Remarks:
The need for more research and better patient management, especially regarding menopause.
The call for the younger female generation to lead change.
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
February 7, 2024
How Can We Reduce Unnecessary Lab Testing?
Laboratory tests provide doctors with crucial information for diagnosis, monitoring disease progression, evaluating organ function, assessing risk factors for diseases and more. Laboratory testing can be reassuring, however, it is often deemed unnecessary. In this short episode recorded at HLTH, we’re going to talk about laboratory test optimization. How can it be done without undermining clinical autonomy, what kind of real-time insights can be offered to doctors with tech and more. You will hear from Pam Stahl, President of of Avalon Healthcare Solutions - American Lab Insights Company, that help payers and providers optimize treatments, improve outcomes, and drive down overall cost.
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
January 23, 2024
Innovation at Charite, The Problems With DiGAs and the Germany Market (Dorothée Marie-Louise Döpfer)
In this episode, you’re going hear about the German market for digital health startups, the innovation approach at Charite, one of Europe's largest university hospitals, the challenges with digital therapeutics in Germany and beyond. I spoke with Dorothée Marie-Louise Döpfer,
Deputy Head of Digital Labs and program Manager of the Digital Health Accelerator & Community Building at Charite UMC Berlin. Dorothee also shared her expectations about the impact of AI on European health systems.
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
January 16, 2024
The Rise of Non-Traditional Prescribers in the US and the role of ePrescribing
ePrescribing has become a norm in the US healthcare system. Now, the expanded role of pharmacists and the integration of non-physician prescribers into the healthcare system signifies a move towards a more accessible healthcare model, potentially alleviating some of the clinicians' burdens.
Surescripts is the national provider of the ePrescribing infrastructure in the US. In this short discussion, I spoke with Dr. Lynne Nowak, Chief Data and Analytics Officer, and Melanie Marcus, Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer at Surescripts, about the importance of ePrescribing on a national level, the changing role of pharmacists, and how it facilitates the redistribution of healthcare provision burdens.
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
January 10, 2024
“Women’s Health Space Is Not Doing Much Better Today Than 10 years Ago” (Marija Butkovic)
Digital health funding has fallen significantly since 2020. However, funding for Femtech went from 7,6% inside the digital health investments in 2020 to 13,26% in 2022, according to TechCrunch. The awareness about female-specific health-related characteristic has been on the rise for the last several years, which is evident in the growing healthcare innovation space specifically targeting women. In this discussion, you will hear from Marija Butković - founder and CEO of Women of Wearables, a Venture Partner at Simsan Ventures, and an advisor for multiple global organizations in the women's health space. Marija talked about:
The challenge of providing appropriate care and support to women (for issues like menstruation, menopause, and conditions like endometriosis) without creating a sense of inequality or sidelining men,
data-driven approaches in addressing women's health issues,
trends in women's health for the year 2023, including a broader understanding of fertility issues.
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
January 1, 2024
Why Human Connection Is Medicine, and How is Tech an Enabler
Technically, we've never been more connected or had relationships with as many people as we do today, thanks to social networks on the internet. Yet, while these platforms bring convenience, they are also increasing loneliness and reducing face-to-face interactions. However, technology isn't solely a problem; it can facilitate the easier pairing of individuals who wish to assist those lacking a real-world social network. Take Papa, for example, a company that provides social support by pairing older adults and families with trained and vetted companions known as Papa Pals. In this brief episode, you will listen to a discussion with Ellen Rudy, the former Head of Research and Social Impact, whom I met at HLTH 2023. Ellen shares her insights on the causes of solitude and the potential of technology to mitigate loneliness.
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
December 27, 2023
US and Europe: A Snapshot of Healthcare Innovation (Jody Tropeano, Henry Stoneley)
HLTH is recognized as the United States' number one health innovation event. Its unique and vibrant approach sets it apart from typical industry conferences. Each stage at HLTH is distinctively themed and designed, featuring motifs like the moon, sky, and earth, creating an awe-inspiring experience reminding of of a child's first visit to an amusement park. Beyond the captivating atmosphere, the core attraction of HLTH lies in its substantive content and guests. These include key stakeholders from top tech companies, including pop stars who entered healthcare, or public figures such as Arianna Huffington or Chelsea Clinton. In 2024, HLTH will also be organized in Europe. The event concept will be the same, but the content will be prepared by a European team to touch upon key topics in the European space. While they were enjoying their team building in Ljubljana, Tjasa Zajc sat down with Jody Tropeano, Head of Content at HLTH US and Henry Stoneley, Head of UK and Netherlands. They discussed Jody’s and Henry’s reflections on healthcare in the US, key trends, and challenges.
Video interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blT9PIJGfuA
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
December 19, 2023
How To Get Patient Feedback That Is Actionable
In patient included or patient centred healthcare approach, patient feedback is key for improved care, and healthcare experience. Pep Health uses a digital platform to collect and analyze patient feedback from various online sources, moving away from traditional, less effective survey methods.
The platform provides detailed scores and insights, allowing healthcare providers to make targeted improvements in specific areas like access and quality within their facilities. The data and insights generated are influencing healthcare policies and practices, leading to changes in areas such as maternity services and mental health care delivery.
At HLTH 2023, founder of Pep Health Meghan Leaver shared more insights behind:
Innovation in the patient feedback gathering,
What actionable insight healthcare providers can get from PEP insights,
Impact patient feedback analysis can have on policymaking
Episode summary: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/why-patient-feedback-is-a-goldmine-for-improvements
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
December 10, 2023
Upside Down: How AI Changed Healthcare in 2023
Generative AI is making waves in healthcare, with an already visible impact in documentation and potential in drug development, medicine, care, and more.
With 2023 nearing its end, it's time to reflect on the impact of AI in 2023.
This episode offers:
🔍 A recap of AI innovation in healthcare in the past year,
🔎 What has realistically changed in clinical practice,
🔍 Where are the practical applications of AI and LLMs in healthcare,
🔎 How is AI regulated so far and what are the upcoming changes,
🔍 What can we expect in the upcoming years?
Speakers:
👉 Shweta Maniar, Director of Global Healthcare & Life Sciences Industry Strategy at Google,
👉 Rachel Dunscombe, CEO of openEHR International Foundation,
👉 Kira Radinsky, CEO & CTO at Diagnostic Robotics,
👉 Harvey Castro, MD, MBA., Clinician, Healthcare Futurist, Public Speaker
See the video recording if this live stream: https://www.youtube.com/live/Aul1vm2lUzQ?si=RBS9RG4hHRZRqxBU
Check out the newsletter for the summary which will be published soon: https://fodh.substack.com/
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
December 1, 2023
Not Just Women’s Health: Trends in Fertility Tech (Leslie Schrock)
Women's health refers to a broad range of medical and wellness services specifically tailored to address the unique health concerns of women. Particular focus is on reproductive health, fertility, and menopause. Technology supporting women’s health can go from EHR records, telemedicine services, medical imaging, diagnostic and IVF technology, wearable devices for monitoring health, menstrual cycles, menopause symptoms, robotic surgery in gynecology, and more.
This episode focuses on the fertility market with investor Leslie Shrock, author, entrepreneur, and angel investor working at the convergence of health and technology. Leslie Shrock wrote two books: Bumpin’: The Modern Guide to Pregnancy, which mixes the latest clinical research with practical advice for working families and Fertility Rules, published in June 2023, which addresses male and female fertility. In this discussion, Leslie shared her insights into:
- key misconceptions and lack of knowledge we have around fertility,
- how is the market developing,
- what technologies she is hoping to see,
- what investment models seem to be working so far.
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
November 19, 2023
How Does AI Work For Medical Note Taking and Risk Scoring? (Augmedix, HDAI)
If you’re still trying to wrap your head around the use of AI in healthcare, this episode will give you an idea about the use of generative AI to create clinical notes during an interaction between a doctor and a patient. Augmedix, a healthcare technology company that delivers ambient medical documentation and data solutions. Their clinician-controlled mobile app uses generative AI to instantaneously create a fully automated draft medical note after each patient visit. I spoke with Manny Krakaris - CEO of Augmedix, about the HOW. How is their data model built, what and what kind of technology do they use in their product? Manny also explains why they’re not covering revenue cycle management or RCM-related codes in their data structuring processes, and what are the biggest challenges in the industry at the moment.
The second part of this episode is unrelated to generative AI, and illustrates how existing medical data can be used to create risk prediction tools for medical care. You will hear from Nassib Chamoun, Founder and CEO of the Health Data Analytics Institute, an analytics company that is developing risk modeling methodology to ease clinical decision-making by assigning patients different risk scores based on their medical history. This enables clinicians to design follow-up protocols based on an individual's potential health deterioration. Both discussions were recorded at HLTH.
Read a longer article about insights related to generative AI from HLTH, which includes an overview of the key player in medical notes generation space: https://fodh.substack.com/p/generative-ai-in-healthcare.
Episode summary: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/ai-for-medical-note-taking-and-risk-scoring-augmedix-hdai
Augmedix: https://augmedix.com/
HDAI: https://www.hda-institute.com/
Discussion summary:
More about healthcare data in the US:
Healthcare data in the US series: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/healthcare-data-series-in-the-us-foundy-epic-komodo?rq=epic%20
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Leave a rating or review in iTunes: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/subscribe
November 6, 2023
How Is Patient Data Consolidated and Presented to Doctors in the US? (Reveleer)
In the United States, individuals' healthcare information is dispersed among various healthcare providers. But many companies have been working on creating consolidated patient views, Reveleer being one of them.
Data fragmentation often occurs because people tend to switch healthcare providers when they change jobs and, as a result, their health insurance plans. Since insurance companies have specific networks of affiliated healthcare providers, a change in insurance necessitates a change in providers. Because providers use different information technology systems, individual healthcare data becomes compartmentalized and difficult to consolidate.
In this episode, Jay Ackerman, CEO and president of Reveleer, a healthcare technology workflow, data, and analytics company, supporting payers and risk-bearing providers in their value-based care programs, explained:
how Reveleer consolidates patient data to give clinicians a single overview of the patient,
what are the biggest pain points in healthcare data management in the US,
how is generative AI affecting Reveleer’s product development?
Discussion transcription: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/healthcare-data-consolidation-reveleer
More about healthcare data in the US:
Healthcare data in the US series: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/healthcare-data-series-in-the-us-foundy-epic-komodo?rq=epic%20
Generative AI in Healthcare: "The biggest challenge is in PR": https://fodh.substack.com/p/generative-ai-in-healthcare
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Leave a rating or review in iTunes: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/subscribe
November 1, 2023
Update on VR in healthcare: Indications, Accessibility, Value Based Care Approach (Aaron Gani, BehaVR)
VR is becoming a well-established tool in healthcare and medicine to help treat pain management, anxiety, mental wellness, and more. Thousands of studies have shown the efficacy of VR approaches for health because of the impact of the immersive experience offered by this technology. We covered VR in medicine in several episodes in the past, and I’m adding the link to those in the show notes. In today’s episode, you’ll hear an update on the field with Aaron Gani, CEO of BehaVR, a company providing virtual reality solutions to address pain management, anxiety, mental wellness, and social engagement. I spoke with Aaron at HLTH in Las Vegas, where he shared the latest on reimbursement, shifts in digital therapeutics companies' business models, which might make VR solutions more widely accessible with direct-to-consumer approaches. I also asked about the impact of VR on decreasing opioid use in pain management and thoughts about VR and psychedelics since both approaches leverage altered states of consciousness.
Enjoy the discussion. You can also read the summary of this chat on our website; the link is in the show notes. And if you haven’t yet, do check out our newsletter at fodh.substack.com. The latest edition focuses on the state of generative AI in healthcare, and the past editions have info on how France is approaching the reimbursement of digital therapeutics. You can find an overview of healthcare and digitalization in Africa, insight into the APAC and LATAM regions, and much more. Do check it out!
Discussion summary: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/vr-healthcare-behavr-aaron-gani
BehaVR: https://www.behavr.com/how-it-works/
https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
Past episodes on VR:
F106 VRx: What has over 5000 studies taught us about the healing effect of VR? (Dr. Brennan Spiegel) https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f106-vrx-what-has-over-5000-studies-taught-us-about-the-healing-effect-of-vr-dr-brennan-spiegel
VR: Promises and Challenges in 2021 (Rafael Grossman, Jennifer Esposito, Aaron Gani): https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/vr-rafael-grossmann-behavr-magic-leap
October 24, 2023
HLTH 2023: Update on Generative AI in Healthcare
Generative AI - a subset of AI technologies that employ advanced machine learning algorithms to generate content, solutions, or outcomes that weren't explicitly programmed into the algorithms. This technology has many potential applications in healthcare. But at the moment, it’s hard the digital health space is filled with noise.
This discussion was recorded at HLTH 2023 in Las Vegas. Justin Norden - Partner at GSR Ventures talks about:
his observes from the investor’s perspective,
what he thinks about the discussions on open-sourced vs. closed AI development,
why everyone should incorporate generative AI in healthcare and more.
Newsletter summary of generative AI in healthcare: https://fodh.substack.com/p/generative-ai-in-healthcare
Interview with Justin Norded - July 2023: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/investors-bet-on-in-generative-ai-in-healthcare
https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/
October 16, 2023
[SPECIAL EPISODE] How Does AWS Support Startups Through the AWS Health Innovation Podcast
Alex Mervin is Head of Growth, Healthcare & Life Sciences Startups at Amazon Web Services (AWS). In this episode, he presents the AWS Health Innovation Podcast, which showcases startups that are advancing healthcare & life science by leveraging cloud computing technology.
In this episode, Alex Merwin and Tjasa Zajc, Host of Faces of Digital Health, discuss:
podcasting,
how AWS supports startups,
what trends is Alex observing in the health innovation space,
key findings from the recent Faces of Digital Health series about entrepreneurship and healthcare in Africa.
... and more.
More about AWS Health Innovation Podcast: https://healthpodcastnetwork.com/show/aws-health-innovation-podcast/
Discussion with Alex Zhavoronkov mentioned in the show: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/2019/05/03/f036-how-is-ai-decoding-aging
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
October 10, 2023
How Can Lack of Resources Spur Innovation? A Nephrologist’s Perspective From Kenya
In this episode, we navigate through the clinical landscape of Kenya with nephrologist Khalida Soki, who, after a tenure with the UK's NHS, chose to return to her native land. Our conversation delves into the stark realities clinicians face in regions constrained by resources. Khalida sheds light on the imperative for innovation amongst doctors, who often find themselves adapting—sometimes in deviation from international clinical guidelines—to maximize the impact of available resources. She also highlights the pivotal role of technology, pointing to the convenience and widespread use of telemedicine facilitated by Kenya's robust connectivity infrastructure. Access to international resources, she notes, is invaluable in offering patients informed clinical advice.
Website: facesofdigitalhealth.com
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
Ilara Health: https://www.ilarahealth.com/about-us/
Leave a rating or a review: https://lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth
October 3, 2023
Kenya: How is Ilara Health Improving Availability and Affordability of Diagnostic Devices?
Kenya has a lot of talent and opportunities for innovation. Access to care is not a problem because plenty of community nurses are present nationwide. However, they have a limited problem and mostly focus on main infectious diseases, leaving serious conditions undiagnosed, says Emilian Popa, Founder and CEO of Ilara Health.
Ilara health equips a network of small healthcare providers with lifesaving and essential diagnostic tools to improve the quality of medical care in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this episode, Emilian Popa talks about:
why health insurance is hard to scale in Africa, where people are concerned with daily costs and survival,
investments and how local VCs mostly invest in sectors like real estate and investments for health tech are supported by foreign investors,
why Ilara Health is expanding on the Kenyan market but not in Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria or Egypt.
Transcript: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/kenya-ilara-health-diagnostics-africa
Website: facesofdigitalhealth.com
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Ilara Health: https://www.ilarahealth.com/about-us/
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September 27, 2023
Startups in Nigeria: The Biggest Challenge is Access to Market (Jennie Nwokoye, Clafiya)
One of the biggest challenges for healthcare startups in Nigeria is access to market.
“In Nigeria, healthcare is fragmented, making it difficult to find distribution channels. We have to be creative and may need to look outside healthcare for distribution channels.” , says Jennie Nwokoye is the founder and CEO of Clafiya - a digital primary healthcare service that connects individuals and businesses to health practitioners to provide convenient, quality, and affordable, on-demand primary care from their mobile phones.
In this discussion, Jennie explains:
What are the healthcare challenges in Nigeria,
How do startups do business in Nigeria and why is it difficult to scale,
How do startups work with local and international investors and more
Transcript: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/primary-care-nigeria-clafiya
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
September 23, 2023
Nigeria: Innovation in One of The Worst Healthcare Systems in The World
One of the speakers at the Nextmed Health Conference 2023 said: “In the past, people didn’t age; they just died.” This is still a daily reality in many low-income countries, which face a lack of workforce, poor healthcare system structure, and lack of resources. In this episode, we will learn about Nigeria. Nigeria has 220 million people which is roughly ⅔ of the population of the US.
While many healthcare-related resources are scarce, the Internet is available and so is the fierce ambition of local entrepreneurs. These use digital tools to bring healthcare information and care closer to patients or to upskill the workforce. So what does care in Nigeria look like? What challenges do startups face? Where do they get investments?
Hear from:
Charles Umeh, Chief Medical Officer of CribMD,
Ossai Ifeanyi CEO of CribMD,
Jennie Nwokoye, CEO of Clafiya and
Christian Chidoziem, Pharmacy Student and Entrepreneur.
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/
September 19, 2023
How Are Drones in Malawi Solving Medical Supply Chain Challenges?
Africa is a huge continent with 1.2 billion people and a diverse set of countries. Healthcare systems are generally poor, with workforce and supply chain struggles, and infrastructure challenges such as power outages.
In this episode you will hear about how drones are used in Malawi for healthcare delivery.
Herbert Weirather is the CEO of Jedsy - a technology company based in Switzerland with the ultimate aim of designing and developing high-end multipurpose drones. Jedsy is present in Switzerland, Malawi, India and Brazil. In this discussion, Herbert explained:
What challenges are present in the medical supply chain in Africa,
Which stakeholders does the company work with, what’s their business model,
and why there is no such thing as competition in the medical supply drone delivery space, because healthcare needs all the help it can get.
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/
Jedsy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGaXHdjoQ-Q
https://jedsy.com/
September 7, 2023
How Is France Executing The Vision To Become The European Digital Health Leader?
In June 2021, France announced a €7.5 billion Health Innovation Plan, as part of a broader financial investment to boost the French industry. This funding goes beyond digital health, it’s aimed at supporting biotech development, startups, medtech, and more. In 2021, The eHealth Acceleration Strategy was launched, a large part of which includes upskilling and training new and existing healthcare experts, and medical and social workers in digital health. In today’s discussion you will hear from Louisa Stüwe is the project director of the Ministerial eHealth delegation at the French Ministry of Health. We discussed how the French strategy was designed, who was involved, and what has been realized to date. She also explains the process for reimbursement of digital therapeutics software medical devices and telemonitoring, how France supports the secondary use of medical data, and more.
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/
Additional resources:
French core information platfom for digital health information: https://gnius.esante.gouv.fr/en
TEHDAS state of digital health in 12 countries in Europe report: https://tehdas.eu/results/member-states-readiness-to-benefit-from-the-ehds-regulation-varies/
Health data hub: https://www.health-data-hub.fr/
August 30, 2023
Bringing ePrescribing To The Next Level: To Patients
The US has had ePrescribing since 2001. However, after four years, only 4% of clinicians had adopted it. Electronic prescribing became legal in all 50 states by 2007. Eight years later, controlled substances and prior authorization were enabled on the singular ePrescribing network. In 2022, a new player entered the market, founded by FDB - a global provider of clinical decision support tools and resources for medication.
FDB Vela sets itself apart with newer technology and additional features. They are also working on building a veterinarian ePrescribing network. In today’s discussion with Lathe Bigler - Vice President of Clinical Network Services at FDB (First Databank) and General Manager of FDB Vela™, you will hear more about what ePrescribing entails under the new network. Additionally, you will learn about FDB's plans to enhance medication information for patients, improve accessibility to pharmacogenomics insights, and more.
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Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
August 22, 2023
(RERUN) Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana: How is Medtronic Labs Redefining Chronic Disease Management (Anne Stake)
A systemic approach to care for non-communicable diseases like hypertension and diabetes is Africa is in its early stages, with the biggest challenge for patients being the price of medications, says Anne Stake, Chief Strategy and Product Officer at Medtronic Labs.
Medtronic Labs is a nonprofit organization that works with governments and local communities in across Africa to create local ecosystems for the management of hypertension and diabetes.
In this episode, Anne Stake explains:
how does Medtronic Labs work,
why are they present in Africa,
how to run successful non-communicable diseases programs in Africa,
why regulation isn't as loose in less developed markets than the West might think,
...and more!
This is a rerun of an episode first published in July 2022.
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Excerpt and full episode with Anne Stake: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/medtronic-labs-africa?rq=medtronic
Herve Mwamba - South Africa & Africa More Broady: What’s The State of Medical Device Regulation? : https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/medical-device-regulation-mdr-africa?rq=herve%20
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August 15, 2023
How Can AI Help Predict Patient Drug Response? (Genialis)
Drug development is undeniably expensive. For years, the pharmaceutical industry cited an estimate of 3 billion US dollars. However, a recent study published in 2020 discovered that the median cost actually falls between 985 million and 1.3 billion US dollars. Even within this range, it remains a substantial amount. The high cost primarily stems from the significant failure rate of new potential medications that never progress beyond clinical trials. Computational biology and AI have already assumed significant roles in drug development. The aspiration is for them to expedite the creation of new, more precise, and tailored medications. Today, we will delve into biotech and explore how technology aids in predicting a specific patient's response to a particular drug. In a conversation with Rafael Rosengarten, the CEO of Genialis - a company using machine learning and high-throughput omics data to capture underlying disease biology and predict how patients will likely respond to targeted therapies, we explored the impact of computational biology on drug development and pricing, the application of generative AI in discovering novel molecules, and the challenges companies encounter in acquiring patient data to advance their work.
Sponsor: Magic Mind
Learn more at: magicmind.com/digitalhealth
Use the code: digitalhealth20
Find more at:
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
August 8, 2023
How Can Digital Tools Aid Long-Term Chronic Care Management? (Omada Health)
Chronic diseases are the result of a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behavioral factors. They require long-term management and often behavioral changes. Achieving long-lasting effects can be extremely difficult, and digital health solutions have since the beginning been seen as an important factor in assuring success, by providing patients with continuous monitoring and feedback. Omada Health is a US digital behavioral medicine company that uses digital tools and personalized support to help individuals living with prediabetes, diabetes, hypertension, and musculoskeletal issues. It’s been present on the market for over a decade, so in this discussion, you will hear the CEO Sean Duffy talk about what exactly does Omada do differently compared to traditional chronic care management providers, we discussed approaches to providing sustainable long-term chronic care management, and touched the topic of the sharp rise in popularity of GLP-1 inhibitors, we’ve seen in the last year. GLP-1 inhibitors are drugs that are used for treating diabetes but have become a popular weight loss tool for many people.
SPONSOR
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For discount, use the code: digitalhealth20
August 1, 2023
How Can Generative AI Superstaff Healthcare? (Munjal Shah)
The field of generative AI companies is evolving fast and many companies, that have been exploring the field for years, are gaining in visibility. However, new companies are popping up as well. One of them is Hippocratic AI, founded in 2023. Hippocratic AI building a safety-focused large language model (LLM) for the healthcare industry. The company raised 50 million US dollars this year. In this episode, Munjal Shah, CEO and Founder of Hippocratic AI talked about what exactly does the company mean by positioning itself as a safety-based LLM, what convinced investors, how are they building the team, and why there are a lot of inefficiencies to be solved before we use generative AI for diagnosis.
This episode will give you a basic understanding of:
how are large language models built,
what’s the difference between horizontally and vertically build models,
where LLMs could replace (yes, “replace” as in cater to the staffing needs in healthcare) the healthcare workforce
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July 25, 2023
What Are Investors Betting On In Generative AI in Healthcare?
Generative AI is definitely the word we will remember 2023 by. Knowing that administrative burden is among the key reason for physician burnout, the idea that AI could tackle this challenge, became a little bit more tangible with the raised awareness and public understanding of generative AI. But where are we exactly, and how is generative AI utilized for clinical use cases, administration, patient care and in biotech?
GSR Ventures and Maven Ventures are two health technology-focused VC firms that analyzed 145 startups across healthcare delivery and life sciences with generative AI solutions. They highlighted their innovations, challenges, and market potential. Collectively, the startups have earned more than $20 billion in funding and have 47,000 employees.
I had the pleasure to chat with Partner at GSR Ventures Justin Norden about the report and details such as: why has biotech raised the most so far, why not are startups working on the administrative issues, how do investors look at liability issues with generative AI, and what exactly are they looking for in startups, apart from a great team?
Full generative AI companies in healthcare report: https://aicheckup.substack.com/p/where-generative-ai-meets-healthcare
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Magic Mind
Go to magicmind.com/digitalhealth
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July 20, 2023
BEST OF 2022: Has The Risk of Becoming a Nurse Become Too Great in the US?
Nurses play a key role in patient care, but their contribution to patient outcomes is often undervalued and underappreciated. It took a pandemic to create a major shift in their job opportunities and power to negotiate. Many nurses left the profession entirely, others switched to better-paid travel or agency jobs. The pandemic is settling down so the question debated in today’s episode, is what is the position the nurses are in today? You will hear from:
Rebecca Love, Thought Leader on Nurse Innovation & Entrepreneurship, experienced nurse executive and entrepreneur, and Chief Clinical Officer of IntelyCare,
Alice Benjamin, nurse, author, and health advocate is affectionately known as America's favorite nurse.
Rebecca and Alice talked about the position of nurses, healthcare technologies that are not designed to make the work of nurses easier, recent criminal cases against nurses in the US, and what needs to change so that being a nurse will be an attractive job opportunity. Let’s dive in, and if you will enjoy the discussion, do leave a rating or a review wherever you get your podcast and subscribe to receive the next episode straight to your podcast inbox. Also, do check our newsletter! It’s published on a monthly basis. Now to Rebecca and Alice.
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Official website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
July 13, 2023
When Does it Make Sense To Get a Pharmacogenomic Test?
Healthcare is one of the rare industries, in which often times, by requesting a service, the work hardly begins for the patient. Especially in complex cases, care is rarely seamless: test are done, drugs are presribed and if all goes well the problem is resolved. But oftentimes months can pass before the right drug and dose is found. Antidepressants are a good example. They are still often prescribed on a trial and error basis, with changes made if the initial regimen proves ineffective.
But what if there was a better way for prescribing? This is where pharmacogenomic testing comes into play. By analyzing genetic variations that influence drug metabolism, efficacy, and potential adverse reactions, pharmacogenomics tests provide valuable insights for personalized treatment decisions. However, despite its potential, implementing pharmacogenomics testing is more complex than it may seem.
In this discussion, you will hear from Adrijana Kekić, Pharmacogenomics Clinical Specialist at the Mayo Clinic. We discussed
the current state of pharmacogenomics,
the optimal timing for individuals to undergo a pharmacogenomics test, to get the right drug and the right dose based on your metabolism,
Why is pharmacogenomics not used more frequently,
Further development of the field.
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
July 11, 2023
Norway: The “pilot illness” – easy to do hospital pilot projects, difficult to get larger deployments
Telemedicine is becoming an archaic term in 2023. It is also too broad. We now have at-home hospitals, virtual wards, remote monitoring, and more. Video consultations and online patient portals saw a spike during the pandemic. While many encounters have returned to the in-person setting, a lot of development is happening in workforce optimization. This aims to reduce the burden on hospital infrastructure and improve patient outcomes by bringing clinical staff back into patients' homes, provided they have the necessary conditions, equipment, and support for at-home care.
In this episode, you will hear from Svein Willasen, Co-Founder and CEO of Confrere, the leading telehealth company in Scandinavia (acquired by Daily in 2022). Svein and I discussed the changing landscape of telemedicine provision, expectations from generative AI, how software providers can sell to hospitals in Nordic countries, and more.
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
July 4, 2023
LATAM Ep.4: Improving Primary Care in Mexico
Mexico has 126 million people which is a bit more than half as much as Brazil in South America, or three times as much as Argentina, which we discussed in one of our previous episodes as well.
Mexico has a predominantly public healthcare system, with workforce shortages - only 2.4 doctors per 1000 people, which is heavily below the OECD average. For comparison, the number of doctors per 1000 people in the US is 2.6, but Denmark or Sweden on the other hand, have 4.3 doctors per 1000 people.
Diagnostikare is a healthcare provider which works with employers to provide primary care, preventative care, and mental health services through a digital platform. It is currently used by over 200.000 people in Mexico.
In this episode, Rafael Lopez, CEO of Diagnostikare shared his insights in the digital patient experience in Mexico, what is the infrastructure like on the national level, how much room for digital innovation the country has, and more.
Other episodes about LATAM:
Healthcare Digitalization in South America Ep. 1: How digital is Peru? (Jhonatan Bringas) https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/jhonatan-bringas-digital-health-peru-lapsi
Argentina: Great Medical Education System and Turbulent Political Instability (Santiago Troncar)
https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/latam-ep-2-argentina-santiago-troncar-digital-health
LATAM Ep. 3: Improving Cancer Care in South America (Pegasi)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/latam-ep-3-improving-cancer-care-in-south-america-pegasi/id1194284040?i=1000617174703
Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
June 22, 2023
LATAM Ep. 3: Improving Cancer Care in South America (Pegasi)
In the last few episodes, you’ve been able to hear two episodes about digital health in South America. We talked about Peru with Jhonathan Bringas, MD and innovator, CEO of Lapsi Health, we dove into Argentina with Santiago Troncar, CEO and Founder or FutureDocs Latin America, and in this episode, we are looking into Chile and cancer Care in Latin America, with Luis Santiago, CEO of Pegasi. Luis was a guest on the podcast already 2 years ago, and I added the link to that episode in the show notes. PEGASI is a healthcare IT company that pivoted from EMR provision to cancer care with their oncology information system that aims to improve the time it takes to diagnose and treat cancer patients in developing countries.
Luis talked about oncology management in South America, changes in healthcare digitalization in South America after the pandemic.
Other episodes:
Healthcare Digitalization in South America Ep. 1: How digital is Peru? (Jhonatan Bringas) https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/jhonatan-bringas-digital-health-peru-lapsi
Argentina: Great Medical Education System and Turbulent Political Instability (Santiago Troncar)
https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/latam-ep-2-argentina-santiago-troncar-digital-health
Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
June 15, 2023
Finland: Room for Improvement in Public-Private Partnerships
In this episode, we’re diving in the Finish ecosysyem. What makes Finland repeatedly achieve the rank of the happiest country globally? In this episode, you will hear from Päivi Sillanaukee, Special Envoy for Health and Wellbeing at the Ministry for Social Affairs and Health. Until recently, Paivi was Ambassador for Health at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Paivi has a strong presence in the international community, She is the co-chair of the Alliance for Health Security Cooperation (AHSC), a member of the Steering Group of the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), and a member of Health Advisory Board of the UN Technology Innovation Lab (UNTIL) Finland.
We discussed the ecosystem in Finland, why should Ministries for foreign affairs care about healthcare, and where does Finland have room for improvement in healthcare digitalization.
Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
June 7, 2023
Europe: How are Slovenia, Germany and the Netherlands Envisioning Future Healthcare Digitalization?
If it seems that the world is moving faster and faster with the rapid evolution of AI and other technologies, the digitalization of healthcare infrastructure is not changing with that speed. However, countries across Europe are ambitiously pursuing digitalization efforts.
On top of that, under the European Health Data Space legal framework, countries in the European Union are building the MyHealth @EU infrastructure which aims to enable cross-border health information accessibility and services.
In this episode, you will get an insight in the state of healthcare and digitalization in Germany, the Netherlands, and Slovenia. All three countries have published their new digitalization strategies in the last 6 months. Slovenia plans to gradually expand the annual budget for eHealth from 6 million EUR to 80 million. Hospitals in Germany received 4,3 billion EUR for digitalization projects and need to demonstrate by 2024, that funded projects have been implemented and are making an impact. The Netherlands passed a new electronic Data exchange in healthcare law in April and plans on spending 1,4 billion for healthcare digitalization by 2026.
The challenge with healthcare digitalization and reforms are complex, due to various data privacy concerns, the digital divide, integration issues among different healthcare information systems, different complexities of healthcare systems’ design, and legal constraints from the past, that now need to be changed.
You will hear more in this discussion with the representatives of healthcare ministries in Slovenia, Germany, and the Netherlands.
Speakers:
Alenka Kolar, Acting Director-General Directorate for Digitalisation in Healthcare at the Ministry of Health Slovenia
Sebastian Zilch, Head of e-Health, Gematik & Telematics Infrastructure at the German Federal Ministry of Health
Bianca Rowenhorst, CIO Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sports in the Netherlands
June 1, 2023
LATAM Ep.2: Argentina: Great Medical Education System and Turbulent Political Instability
South America is a large market, with great potential from the language perspective, since Spanish is the official language in most countries, except for Brazil. But what are the specifics of the region?
In this episode Santiago Troncar, the founder of Future Docs Latin America, shares his insights on healthcare digitalization in Argentina. He discusses the strengths and challenges of the healthcare system, including the high level of human and software resources, but also the economic crisis and disparities across the country. Santiago highlights the importance of electronic health records and patient empowerment and shares an example of innovative AI-powered breast cancer screening technology.
Past episode in LATAM Series: Healthcare digitalization in South America Ep. 1: How digital is Peru? (Jhonatan Bringas) https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/jhonatan-bringas-digital-health-peru-lapsi
Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
May 26, 2023
Cerebral: The Future Potential in Mental Health Lies in Leveraging AI For Care Provision
Access to mental health services wasn’t great before the pandemic. Then two things happened: the need for mental health services increased. But so has access to telemedicine providers of mental health support.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) enabled flexibilities regarding the prescription of controlled medications. In 2020, the Food and Drug Administration announced a pandemic enforcement policy allowing mental health app developers to release certain treatment products without seeking authorization from the agency.
Cerebral is a US online therapy provider, founded in 2019. In 2021, the company raised close to half a billion dollars and was valued at 4.8 billions USD. Even Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, who withdraw from the Olympic games in Tokyo in 2020 due to personal mental health struggles, and became a public advocate for a new attitude and public perception of how we approach mental health, struck a partnership with Cerebral, joining as an investor and its chief impact officer.
But then in 2022, things started to shift in the opposite direction, due to allegations of unsafe prescribing practices. The Wall Street Journal, Insider, and other media publications investigated and reported about these through the accounts of patients and former employees, and the Department of Justice launched an investigation about "possible violations" of the Controlled Substances Act. Eventually, in 2022, the company dropped prescribing of Controlled Substance Prescriptions entirely.
Today Cerebral is moving forward and is betting on quality mental health provision, with high hopes around enhancements that could be achieved with the help of AI. In today’s discussion, you will hear from Cerebral’s CEO David Mou, talk about:
The current state of telemedicine, and the changing legislation about required in-person visits for prescriptions,
Speed and quality of mental health diagnosis and treatment through telemedicine,
The role of AI in mental health
Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
Read more on mental health:
https://fodh.substack.com/p/mentalhealth
May 18, 2023
Healthcare digitalization in South America Ep. 1: How digital is Peru? (Jhonatan Bringas)
After a series about digital health in the APAC region, this is the first episode about healthcare and digital health in South America.
Speaker: Peruvian clinician and innovation Jhonatan Bringas Dimitriades, MD. Jhonatan is based in the Netherlands, work across continents as an MD and executive at various tech companies. We discussed healthcare digitalization in Peru,
Topics:
The state of healthcare digitalization in Peru and other countries in Latin America.
Opportunities and challenges for startups working with public hospitals in Peru.
The need for more education and training in artificial intelligence for healthcare professionals in Latin America.
The potential for technology to address issues of access, high mortality rates, and other epidemiological issues in Peru and other countries in the region.
The importance of validated data in understanding ethnicities and epidemiological components in Latin America.
Past episodes on South America: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/digitalheath-south-america
https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/sleep-and-digital-health-in-brazil
Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
May 13, 2023
Women’s Health Globally: What Does It Mean in Different Cultures?
Women's Health has increasingly garnered attention, with growing research, investments, and discussions surrounding the topic. Although overall digital health investments experienced a decline last year compared to previous years, the proportion of funds allocated to femtech within the digital health budget has seen an upward trend. However, there is still significant progress to be made. Women's health encompasses more than just pregnancy care, breast and ovarian cancer, or fertility. It also includes addressing gender-based violence and promoting pleasure. In today's episode, we will be hearing from Shamala Hinrichsen - Founder and CEO - Hanai, an application providing reliable health information to the underserved communities in Malaysia and Africa and Mariatheresa Samson Kadushi - Founder and CEO of Mobile Afya - the first USSD application in Africa using internet-free mobile technology to provide basic health information in local and native languages starting with Swahili in Tanzania, East Africa.
Mariatheresa and Shamala were already on Faces of digital health in 2021:
Tune in:
F126 How is Tradition Hindering Health Literacy in Kenya, Tanzania and Malaysia? (Shamala Hinrichsen, Mariatheresa Samson Kadushi):
https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/women-health-africa-malaysia-mobile-afya-hanai
The reason this is important is, that, based on the meeting on this show, Shamala and Mariatheresa are now building a new app together. Sheher app aims to address the gap in knowledge about female health, which goes beyond pregnancy-related issues. They bring medical education and access while also bringing women into the conversation through personal stories validated by medical info. Their team brings cultural diversity as well as generational differences to tackle this broad aspect of women's health globally.
More about She Her App: www.sheher.app
Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
Show notes:
Introducing the speakers (00:08-02:49)
Topics covered under Mobile Afia and Hanai (03:33-06:35)
The importance of sharing personal stories backed up by medical information (09:01-14:57)
Differences between the new app and previous projects (15:11-17:48)
Adapting technology to cultural contexts (27:03-31:19)
The impact of the app, investments in research and solutions for femtech (33:05-42:48)
May 7, 2023
APAC Series Ep. 4: What is Fueling Hesitancy Towards Telemedicine in South Korea? (Mira Kang)
In South Korea, life expectancy at birth was 82.7 years in 2017, higher than the OECD average of 80.8. At the moment, Korea has one of the youngest populations among OECD countries, with only 13.8% aged 65 or over. This is expected to increase considerably in the next decades. At HIMSS 2023 in Chicago Mira Kang Vice Chief Medical Information Officer at the Samsung Medical Center in South Korea explained why a country that is an IT powerhouse and has fast-speed internet is widely available, isn't embracing telemedicine. Koreans access a lot of services through their mobile phones, and hospitals are introducing AI, robots and data-driven precision medicine.
The health security system in Korea has two components: mandatory social health insurance, which provides healthcare coverage to all citizens, and is funded through contributions from those who are insured and government subsidies. The second part is the medical aid program, which is a form of public assistance that uses government subsidies to provide low-income groups with healthcare services. While the rest of the world is increasingly looking at virtual care and telemedicine for healthcare sustainability and ease of access to healthcare services, telemedicine will likely be forbidden again soon since the pandemic has ended.
April 30, 2023
APAC Series Ep. 3: Easy Access To Clinicians and At-Home Testing in Vietnam
This is the third episode in a series of discussions about digital health and healthcare in the APAC region.
In this episode, Beth Ann Lopez, a Co-founder and CEO at Docosan, a healthcare marketplace that aims to make it effortless to access healthcare and help find a doctor who is available in Vietnam, talks about the state of healthcare in Vietnam, how did she identify the need for easier search and access to healthcare providers, how is Docusan vetting clinicians on the platform, how to start a business in Vietnam, and more.
Episode 1: What is Roche Keeping an Eye on in Thailand? (Farid Bidgoli)
Episode 2: China From A to Z: Healthcare Policy and AI Development (Ruby Wang)
Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
April 23, 2023
APAC Series Ep.2: China From A to Z: Healthcare Policy and AI Development (Ruby Wang)
This is the second episode in the Digital health in APAC Series.
The first episode featured Farid Bidgoli, GM for Roche in Thailand, who discussed what is Roche looking into in Thailand when it comes to digital health.
In this episode, the focus is on China. Ruby Wang, former Head of Health for the UK Government in China at the British Embassy Beijing; Adviser on Health Policy for the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office in China, who today works as a doctor in the NHS and a consultant to companies interested in entering the Chinese market, talks about:
How is Chinese healthcare system changing,
How to succeed in the Chinese market,
How do the Chinese data privacy laws impact AI development in China.
April 13, 2023
APAC Series Ep. 1: What is Roche Keeping an Eye on in Thailand? (Farid Bidgoli)
This is the first episode in the series of discussions about healthcare and digital health in the APAC Region.
In this episode Farid Bidgoli, General Manager for Roche in Thailand and neighboring countries. Farid talked about the healthcare system situation in Thailand, the state of digital health technologies, what kind of solutions Roche is keeping an eye on and more.
The upcoming episodes feature:
Ruby Wang, health and life science consultant, former Head of Health for the UK Government in China at the British Embassy in Beijing about the Chinese market.
We will be diving into Vietnam with Beth Ann Lopez, a Co-founder and CEO at Docosan, a healthcare marketplace that aims to make it effortless to access healthcare and help find a doctor who is available in Vietnam.
Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/
April 8, 2023
What Exactly is Open Access To AI and Why We Are Not There Yet in Healthcare? (Bart De Witte)
After an intense race in AI development lighted by the release of ChatGPT at the end of 2022, two important things happened in the last week of March 2023: Over 1000 tech workers, such as Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, Twitter and SpaceX, Steve Wozniak, Co-founder of Apple, Yoshua Bengio, Founder and Scientific Director at Mila, Turing Prize winner and professor at University of Montreal,
Stuart Russell, Berkeley, Professor of Computer Science, director of the Center for Intelligent Systems, and co-author of the standard textbook “Artificial Intelligence: a Modern Approach", signed a public letter that urges a pause on AI development before humanity as a society decides how humans can control the development. The first subscribers include:
As the letter states, “Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.”
A day after this letter was published, UNESCO published a press release that calls on all governments to immediately implement the global ethical framework, which 193 Member States of Unesco has unanimously adopted. As warned by Unesco, we need to address many concerning ethical issues raised by AI innovations, in particular discrimination and stereotyping, including the issue of gender inequality, but also the fight against disinformation, the right to privacy, the protection of personal data, and human and environmental rights. And the industry cannot self-regulate, states the press release.
Healthcare is moving from the era of gathering data through digitalized systems, EHRs, sensors, and wearables to the era of mining that data for better patient outcomes and operational efficiency.
However, in order for AI and algorithms to help improve the health of many, we should strive for algorithms to be open and transparent, says Bart De Witte, founder of HIPPO AI Foundation, a renowned expert on digital transformation in healthcare in Europe, who regularly speakers and posts about technology and innovation strategy, with a particular focus on the socioeconomic impact on healthcare.
In this short discussion, recorded at the Vision Health Pioneers Demo Day on 28 March in Berlin, Bart explains: why is open and transparent AI important for the greater good in healthcare, where global medical development is going with different values and regulations about AI and data, and comments on the upcoming European Health Data Space.
Enjoy the show, and if you like what you will hear, subscribe to the podcast to be notified about new episodes automatically. Also, go to fodh.substack.com to read our newsletter, which is published roughly on a monthly basis.
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Transcript: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/open-ai-bart-de-witte-gpt4
Open Letter to pause all AI development: https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/
Unesco Press release: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/artificial-intelligence-unesco-calls-all-governments-implement-global-ethical-framework-without
March 30, 2023
How is Healthcare Re-Shaping (Towards Virtual and Retail Care) Globally, According to NextMed Participants?
Healthcare is facing challenges on all fronts. WHO estimates a projected shortfall of 10 million health workers by 2030, mostly in low- and lower-middle-income countries. Countries at all levels of socioeconomic development face, to varying degrees, difficulties in the education, employment, deployment, retention, and performance of their workforce. Several other factors, such as the aging population and the rising demand for healthcare services, put healthcare systems under pressure to change and adapt. To a degree, with the help of technology. A big topic in many systems, especially in the US, is the move of retail providers such as Amazon and pharmacies, Walgreens, and CVS into primary care. Hospitals are looking at opportunities for virtual care and turning homes into hospital-like environments supported by virtual monitoring.
At this year’s NextMed Conference is San Diego, Rasu Shrestha - Chief Innovation & Commercialization Officer, Executive Vice President at Advocate Health - hospital system of 67 hospitals across six states – Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina and Wisconsin, mentioned that the health system made a deal with Best Buy, the provider of consumer electronics.
In this episode, we will take this news as a starting point for a broader discussion: how is healthcare transforming globally, and what does the shift towards virtual care look like in 2023? You will hear from experts from the US, Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, Kenya, China, and UAE who spoke or attended the NextMed conference.
Speakers:
Rasu Shrestha - Chief Innovation & Commercialization Officer, Executive Vice President at Advocate Health (USA),
Ali Hashemi, investor, CEO of meta[bolic] (UAE),
Bianca Rowenhorst, CIO at the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports in the Netherlands,
Lucien Engelen, thought leader, who operates globally at the convergence of Innovation & Strategy for executive boards, governments, corporates (Netherlands),
Michael Friebe, HealthTEC Inventor/Investor/Entrepreneur and professor (Germany),
Alex Zhavorkonkov, CEO of InSilico Medicine (USA, China, Canada, UAE, Belgium, UK, and Taiwan),
Emilian Popa, CEO of Ilara Health (Kenya)
Zayna Khayat, VP Client Success Teladoc Health in Canada, In house health futurist at Deloitte Canada's Life Sciences & Healthcare team and Adjunct faculty with the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management in the Health Sector Strategy stream (Canada).
March 20, 2023
The Netherlands Ep. 2: Buurtzorg: Redefining Nursing With Self-Managing Teams
One of the biggest global challenges in healthcare at the moment is the workforce crisis.
Workforce shortages are not related to the number of people that get trained for healthcare professionals but the working conditions that they need to operate under.
In today’s episode, we will look at a good practice related to nursing organizations in the community of the Netherlands. I spoke with Thijs de Blok, CEO of Buurtzorg International - an organization of 15.000 nurses that work in self-managing teams and provide holistic care to patients. I asked Thijs, more about the early beginnings of the organization, how it fits in the dutch healthcare system context, and what he observed in terms of care providers globally.
Tune in to the episode about nurses in the US: Has The Risk of Becoming a Nurse Become Too Great in the US? https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/nurse-rebecca-love-nurse-alice
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March 10, 2023
Netherlands Ep. 1: Insights from the CIOs of Three University Medical Centers in the Netherlands
After a series of discussions about healthcare data in the US, we’re now moving to insights and good practices in the Netherlands. The Netherlands has roughly 17 million people. As you will hear, its healthcare is highly digitalized with high digital literacy. You will hear a short panel discussion that was recorded at mHealth Israel in Tel Aviv.
Corne Mulders – CIO University Medical Center Utrecht
Simon Vermeer – CIO Erasmus University Medical Center (Erasmus MC Rotterdam)
Paul Hillman – CIO Maastricht University Medical Center
Shared their views about digital health development in the Netherlands, how their institutions approach innovation, and where they see room for improvements regarding healthcare digitalization on the national level.
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March 4, 2023
Healthcare Data Series 5/5: Seqster – The Operating System For Easier Healthcare Research
This is the fifth and last episode of the Healthcare Data in the US series. In the first one, Arif Nathoo - CEO and co-founder of Komodo Health, described how the company is planning to capture and de-identify every encounter patients have with the US healthcare system.
The second episode featured Phil Lindemann, VP of Business Intelligence at Epic, and Epic’s Clinical Informaticist Dave Little, who talked about Epic Cosmos - a database of EHR data from 178 million patients. In the third episode, Samir Unni, Business Development Lead for Healthcare at Palantir Foundry, explained the principles of Palantir in healthcare, why they support an open-data approach, how knowledge from other industries is transferred to healthcare and more.
In the fourth episode, representatives of four companies working on automating care tasks, providing clinicians with clinical decision support, and creating synthetic data records, four industry experts shared their experience with building solutions on top of EHRs, challenges related to connecting to electronic health records, and the need for better interoperability APIs to really enable data to be used for health outcomes improvement.
In this final episode, Ardy Arianpour, CEO of Seqster, explains for Seqster provides its clients with an operating system for researching of clinical and tracking patient data to create new solutions. Enjoy the discussion and tune into other episodes as well.
This series will be summarized in our newsletter - find it and subscribe at
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Seqster: https://www.seqster.com/
February 23, 2023
Healthcare Data Series 4/5: Synthetic Data, Automation of Care Tasks, and Better Insights from EHR data in Acute and Oncology Care
Electronic health records and digital data gathering have now been around long enough that the focus has shifted from gathering to using the data for research, AI development, and clinical decision support systems. Various companies are trying to build solutions to help clinicians navigate care, and workflows, and have the right information in front of them to make decisions fast without losing time searching through the whole patient’s record. This is the fourth episode in the series about healthcare data management in the US. In the first episode, we heard how Komodo health collects data about various encounters people have with healthcare. In the second episode, we learn about Epic Cosmos - a research environment consisting of clinical data from the electronic medical records of 178 million patients. In the third episode, we heard how Palantir Foundry helps healthcare enterprises, regulatory agencies, and governments optimize their workforce planning and crisis response through an open-data approach and experience from other industries. Today, you’ll hear a panel discussion recorded at HLTH, in which industry experts shared their experience with building solutions on top of EHRs, challenges related to connecting to electronic health record and needs for better interoperability APIs to really enable data to be used for health outcomes improvement. Today, you will hear from: (Kathy Dalton Ford Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Project Ronin, Josh Rubel, Chief Commercial Officer for MDClone, David Lareau, CEO of Medicomp Systems, Inc. , Greg Miller, CGO of Lumeon).
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February 16, 2023
Healthcare Data Series 3/5: Palantir Foundry and Making Data-Driven Decisions Healthcare
This is the third episode in a series of discussions about healthcare data challenges and data management practices in the US. One thing is clear to everybody: regardless of the efforts, patient data is still scattered around in different organizations.
In the first episode, you can listen to a discussion with the CEO and co-founder of Komodo Health, Arif Nathoo. Komodo Health currently has some part of the healthcare data of 330 million people in the US. One of the leading providers of electronic healthcare records systems in the US is EPIC. EPIC holds around a third of the US EHR market share and has some part of the medical data of 250 million patients.
In the second episode, Phil Lindemann, VP of Business Intelligence at Epic, and Epic’s Clinical Informaticist Dave Little, MD explained a bit more about EPic Cosmos - a database built to enable easier clinical research. Epic Cosmos currently combines 178 million de-identified patient records from over 6.5 billion encounters, representing patients in all 50 US states.
In this episode, you’ll hear from Samir Unni, Healthcare Business Development Lead at Palantir Foundry.
Palantir Foundry connects the back-office software systems and analytics teams directly with caregivers. Foundry is used across the healthcare and life sciences value chain, from drug discovery and development, through to manufacturing, marketing, and sales. At the Federal level in the US Palantir is partnering with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and more. In this short discussion recorded at HLTH 2022, Samir Unni, Healthcare Business Development Lead at Palantir Foundy explained the principles of Palantir in healthcare, why they support the open-data approach, how do they choose their customers and more.
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This discussion is part of a broader series of talks about healthcare data management in the US. An in-depth summary will be published in the monthly newsletter:
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February 10, 2023
Healthcare data series 2/4: EPIC Cosmos – Next Step in EHR Data Mining
If you work in healthcare IT, you must have heard the name EPIC. EPIC is a renowned EHR provider, that covers around a third of the US healthcare market. In 2019, Epic launched Cosmos, a special program for data mining of patient records data gathered in EPIC systems. Today, EPIC Cosmos, which was built to enable easier clinical research for contributing EPIC customers, contains over 178 million patient records from over 6.5 billion encounters, representing patients in all 50 states. In this episode’s discussion with Phil Lindemann, VP of Business Intelligence at EPIC and EPIC’s Clinical Informaticist Dave Little, you will hear more about the growth of data in EPIC Cosmos, collaboration with external healthcare IT and app providers that can join EPIC’s App Orchard ecosystem. Dave and Phil also talked about needed improvements for easier collaboration with healthcare IT vendors and innovators outside EPIC, how they hope EHRs will evolve with novel technologies and AI, and more.
This discussion is part of a broader series of talks about healthcare data management in the US. An in-depth summary will be published in the monthly newsletter:
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The January edition offers an overview into natural language processing development in healthcare and the potential of ChatGPT in healthcare: https://fodh.substack.com/p/natural-language-processing-is-the
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February 3, 2023
Healthcare Data Series 1/3: How is Komodo Health Gathering and Analysing Health Data of the Whole US Population?
The words healthcare data carry many associations: from frustrations around data interoperability, outrage about the value and monetization of healthcare data, anger due to poor access to medical records by patients, and we could go on.
In the next few episodes, you will hear a little bit more about healthcare data management in the US healthcare system. We’re starting with a discussion recorded at HLTH 2022, where Arif Nathoo - CEO of Komodo Health describes how the company plans to capture and de-identify every encounter patients have with the US healthcare system. Komodo Health is currently tracking individual encounters with the healthcare system for over 330 million patients. Companies such as Pfizer, AppliedVR, Turquoise Health, Janssen, and others, use Komnodo's de-identified patient-level data and insights to inform drug development, discovery, clinical trials, clinical research, and innovation.
Make sure to subscribe to the podcast to be notified about new episodes automatically! In the next episode, you will hear why Palantir Foundy is betting on open data standards in healthcare, what a few healthcare data management vendors think about the current state of interoperability and data governance, and more.
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January 26, 2023
NLP in Healthcare 3/3: ChatGPT, MedPalm and the impact of NLP in healthcare
This episode is the last on in the series of three discussions about natural language processing in healthcare. In the first episode, I discussed the state of symptom checkers with Jeff Cutler, CCO of Ada Health - the leading symptom-checking provider. In the second episode, CEO of Suki, Punit Singh Soni, explained where voice technology is today in helping doctors better manage their medical records and notes taking. And today’s discussion will give you a comment and critical perspective on using ChatGPT in healthcare and other large language models such as Google’s MedPalm.
OBJECTIVES OF THE DISCUSSION:
To clarify the state of natural language processing in healthcare - to which extent is this moving from research to practical use,
To create a clear, realistic picture of ChatGPT and MedPaLM implications
Speakers:
Alexandre Lebrun - CEO of Nabla - a french company that has created an AI-based medical assistant that makes healthcare professionals more efficient. For instance, it automates clinical documentation and patient engagement.
Israel Krush, CEO of Hyro - mostly present in the US market - the world's first headache-free conversational AI, especially focused on healthcare. It’s used for automation across call centers, mobile apps, websites and SMS include physician search, scheduling, prescription refills, FAQs and more. You're doing this mostly in the US, supporting patient communications for health systems like Mercy Health, Baptist Health and Novant Health.
Video recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzKTcjPX-qg&t=3s
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January 19, 2023
NLP in Healthcare 2/3: The Power of Voice and NLP for Medical Practice Optimization (Punit Singh Soni, Suki)
The promise of voice is great: doctors speak to their patients, while their words get correctly transcribed, interpreted and recorded in a structured way in a clinical system. No more long hours spent on typing clinical notes on the computer. While this may seem futuristic, it’s actually already in use in some places. At HLTH in November, I spoke with Punit Singh Sonu, CEO of Suki, which provides doctors with an AI-powered voice assistant for healthcare designed to save doctors time and energy. We discussed how Suki works, how it translates text to structured data, and how clinically risky is to rely on AI to interpret medication names which can very quickly sound alike correctly.
The biggest issue, says Punit Singh Sonu, is not specialty phrases, it’s regular English. “The problem typically happens not in medical terminology. It happens in regular English. I'll give you a very funny example. The doctor would just say “bilateral knee,” and it would actually understand it as “beyond sandals”. Regular English is where speech recognition trips and falls in, in specific medical terminology,” he explained.
Suki: suki.ai
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January 12, 2023
NLP in healthcare 1/3: The State of Symptom Checkers (Jeff Cuttler, Ada Health)
ChatGPT has been entertaining and amazing the world in the last month, and there’s no shortage of ideas and new inspiration about what AI could do for healthcare. In a short series of three episodes, we will touch upon this topic from three angles:
will first take a look at the state of symptom checkers and their accuracy today,
the development and state of voice tech and natural language processing for structuring data, and end with
a comment on ChatGPT, chatbots and Google’s recently released paper on MultiMedQA, a benchmark combining six existing open question answering datasets spanning professional medical exams, research, and consumer queries; and HealthSearchQA, a new free-response dataset of medical questions searched online.
Today you’ll hear from a discussion with Jeff Cutler - Chief Commercial Officer of Ada Health, whom I spoke with at HLTH.
Ada is the world's most popular symptom assessment app, with 10 million users and 25 million completed assessments. Every three seconds, someone turns to Ada for personal health guidance.
Discussion topics:
the development of accuracy and business models of symptom checkers,
how is Ada improving the accuracy of its algorithms,
their partnership with the likes of Sutter Health to enhance the care patients receive even before entering the doctor’s office.
***
BTW: Did you check our newsletter yet? It only comes out every few weeks with a summary of a specific topic and an overview of past episodes. Go to fodh.substack.com.
Recap: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/nlp-in-healthcare-1-the-state-of-symptom-checkers-jeff-cuttler-ada-health
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January 5, 2023
Healthcare in 2033: “You can only disrupt healthcare in a non-disruptive way” (Mark Coticchia, Baptist Health)
We tend to be very good at overestimating what can happen in a year and underestimating what can happen in a decade. At the last mHealth Israel Conference in Tel Aviv, Mark Coticchia, who is the Innovation, Technology Commercialization, and Venture Development Leader at Baptist Health Innovations, shared his prediction about healthcare systems and healthcare delivery in the US in 2033.
Transcript: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/mark-coticchia-baptist-health
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January 1, 2023
How Can We Improve Mental Health of Students and Young Adults? (Timely MD, Iris Telehealth)
This episode is the second about the evolution of mental health companies. In the previous episode, you could listen to Katie Di Perna Cook - SVP of Partnerships at Headspace Health, and today, we’re continuing the topic with Luke Hejlgl, CEO of TimelyMD, which focuses on the mental health of students in the US, and Michael Maus, CCO of Iris Telehealth, a leading provider of telepsychiatry services for health systems and community health centers across the U.S..
Luke and Michael talked about the state of mental health in the younger population and how the two companies look at digital innovation and digital therapeutics in the mental health space. 9 out of 10 students said they’re dealing with anxiety, said Luke Hejgl, and as mentioned by Michael Maus, 1 out of 4 people that need mental health services actually look for them. So three out of four people needing them do not get help.
Iris Telehealth: https://iristelehealth.com/
TimelyMD: https://timely.md/
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December 26, 2022
Building Mental Health Resilience (Katie DiPerna Cook, Headspace Health)
The pandemic has significantly increased the need for mental healthcare and destigmatized discussing well-being and mental health issues in everyday conversation. Unfortunately, the number of quality providers of mental health services is still much lower than the demand, and the number of people that are seeking help is rising.
At HLTH or Health conference, which took place in November in Las Vegas, I spoke with representatives of 3 mental health-focused companies based in the US. TimelyMD is the ninth-fastest growing health services company in the US, according to Inc., and focuses on the mental health of students,, Iris Telehealth is a leading provider of telepsychiatry services for health systems and community health centers across the U.S. and Headspace Health -the largest digital mental health provider in the world - it is reaching 100 million people in 190 countries across the world.
In this episode, we’ll dive into a discussion with Katie DiPerna Cook - SVP of Partnerships - Headspace Health. The company offers a broad range of services. If was established after a 2021 merger between Headspace - world-class meditation and mindfulness company, and Ginger - the on-demand mental health service provider in the US. In 2022, Headspace Health also acquired The Shine App, a mental health and well-being platform dedicated to providing an inclusive mental health experience for the black, indigenous, and other people of color.
Katie talked about the state of mental health in 2022, how Headspace Health is evolving, and how to build resilience to cope with the broad uncertainty of the current political, economic and environmental stress.
Partial transcript: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/katie-diperna-cook-headspace-health
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December 21, 2022
EIT HEalth Germany-Switzerland Ep. 10: How do AI and VR improve eye care?
If someone told you to get an eye exam, would you associate that with a virtual reality headset? It might be where ophthalmology diagnostics will end up in the near future. Compared to the existing diagnostics tools, a VR approach is much more portable and hence accessible. The Swiss company PeriVision is using AI and VR to enable more efficient workflows and deeper clinical insights to manage eye diseases better. I spoke with the co-founder and CEO of Perivision, Patrick Kessel. Prior to joining PeriVision, Patrick advised Medtech, biopharma, and insurance clients on business development, go-to-market strategy, digitization, and operations optimization at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). We discussed how VR and AI help in eye care, what the competition is in the field, and how did the company evolve. Perivison won EIT Health’s Wild Card program in 2021 and received 1.5 million euros for its further development. Patrick shared his reflection on the wild card program and which startups the program is most suitable for.
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*****
This episode is supported by EIT held in Germany, Switzerland, which is one of the eight knowledge and innovation communities currently funded by the European Institute of Innovation and technology. EIT Health Germany-Switzerland is currently serving 26 leading companies and public health care institutions in Germany and Switzerland, as well as renowned universities and research institutions, to realize EIT Health’s mission of a public-private partnership. To learn more, visit https://eit-health.de/, where you will find more about innovation, acceleration, and education programs.
December 15, 2022
Blockchain and Web3 in 2022: Where Are We? (John Bass, Hashed Industries)
Last year, one of the key buzzwords in healthcare was virtual care; in 2020 it was probably telemedicine. In 2019 it was AI, in 2017 and 2018, it was blockchain in interoperability. There are many others of course, and many of these terms are still popular today. It seems, though, that the one term that got pushed most in the background, is blockchain. And that’s a good thing, says John Bass is the Founder & CEO of Hashed Industries (dba Hashed Health), a healthcare-focused venture studio. John is an internationally recognized author and speaker on value-based care, blockchain, and decentralized healthcare technology. He is the co-author of the HIMSS-published book “Blockchain in Healthcare: Innovations that Empower Patients, Connect Professionals and Improve Care."
This short discussion was recorded at HLTH 2022 conference in Las Vegas. John talks about: where is blockchain in 2022, what can we expect in the future, how it relate to web3, and what could NFT - nonfungible tokens do for healthcare.
Transcript: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/blockchain-and-web3-in-healthcare-hashed-health
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December 8, 2022
EIT Health Germany-Switzerland Ep. 9: What expectations should we have in regard to the European Health Data Space?
The European Health Data Space is supposed to be implemented in a bit more than two years, by 2025. Two goals are at the forefront: to create the infrastructure for a European health data pool for researchers and innovators, and secondly, to enable patients to pick up their medications outside their home country and give doctors across Europe access to their patient information, if in need of medical care while abroad in Europe. On 18 November, EIT Health Germany-Switzerland and EIT Health Spain organized a joint symposium titled Right to privacy vs. duty to protect lives: Health Data Management in Focus. Speakers discussed patients’ perspectives on Health Data use and the EHDS, balancing health data privacy and AI development, ongoing approaches for data solutions, and more. I managed to speak with Nick Schneider, Head of division 511 on new technologies and data use at the Germany Federal Ministry of Health to discuss:
Where is EHDS at the moment
Will it be implemented by 2025
What are still the biggest open questions
And how Germany is advancing with its digital transformation.
Resources:
EIT Health Statement on the European Health Data Space: https://eithealth.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/EIT-Health-Statement-on-the-EHDS-proposal_final-05052022.pdf
Joint Symposium with EIT Health Spain - EIT Health Germany (eit-health.de): https://eit-health.de/en/joint-symposium-2022/
eHealth Services across Europe: https://health.ec.europa.eu/ehealth-digital-health-and-care/electronic-cross-border-health-services_en
This episode is supported by EIT Health Germany-Switzerland, which is one of eight Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) currently funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). EiT Health Germany connects 150 renowned partners from industry, research and education from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Find out more: eit-health.de
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November 30, 2022
Did The Risk of Becoming a Nurse Become Too Great in the US?
Nurses play a key role in patient care, but their contribution to patient outcomes is often undervalued and underappreciated. It took a pandemic to create a major shift in their job opportunities and power to negotiate. Many nurses left the profession entirely, others switched to better-paid travel or agency jobs. The pandemic is settling down so the question debated in today’s episode, is what is the position the nurses are in today? You will hear from:
Rebecca Love, Thought Leader on Nurse Innovation & Entrepreneurship, experienced nurse executive and entrepreneur, and
Alice Benjamin, nurse, author, and health advocate is affectionately known as America's favorite nurse.
Rebecca and Alice talked about the position of nurses, healthcare technologies that are not designed to make the work of nurses easier, recent criminal cases against nurses in the US, and what needs to change so that being a nurse will be an attractive job opportunity. Let’s dive in, and if you will enjoy the discussion, do leave a rating or a review wherever you get your podcast and subscribe to receive the next episode straight to your podcast inbox. Also, do check our newsletter! It’s published on a monthly basis. Now to Rebecca and Alice.
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November 24, 2022
HLTH Recap: From health disparities, sexual health, and patient experience as the key tool for improved patient outcomes
Between 13 and 16 November, HLTH, the largest digital health conference with over 9000 attendees, took place in Las Vegas. Over 400 speakers discussed the current trends and challenges in the industry. This short episode recaps some of the discussed topics - investment trends, holistic healthcare: food as medicine, digital therapeutics, mental health trends, telemedicine decline, patient experience as a determinant of care, health disparities and more.
Speakers:
Smriti Kirubanandan, Healthcare Strategist and Board Member of The World Food Bank,
Lyndsey (McKay) Harper, Ob/Gyn, Founder/CEO of Rosy
Aline Noziet, Digital Health Connector from Barcelona, Spain
Hagai Heshes, Head of Product Marketing at TytoCare
Erica Olenski Johansen, Caregiver and Patient Advocate
Julien de Sallabery, CEO of Galen Growth
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November 18, 2022
Global State of Digital Health presented at HLTH
Finn Partners and Galen growth Asia partnered for a global overview of the digital health investment landscape. More than 200M data points from more than 12,000 digital health ventures worldwide were taken into account when assessing the state of the industry.
In this short discussion, the CEO of Galen Growth Asia Julien de Salaberry, explained the key findings from the report, the state of digital health in China and expectations from next year.
Investment trends globally:
- In the first 9 months of 2022, venture funding across the globe declined by 35% YOY ($25 B compared to $39.23B over the same quarters in 2021)
- 60% of the total volume comes from North America, the Middle East came in second in Q2, and Europe did NOT see a quarter-on-quarter decrease in venture funding seen in North America.
- Top investment categories: oncology (though the funding shrinked by 30%) and mental health
Predictions for 2023:
- Investors are moving from Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) to Fear of Looking Foolish (FOLF)
- Ventures are finding that funding terms & conditions are far less favorable and valuations
are continuing to return to reality.
*****
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November 15, 2022
Connecting Startups With Pharma and Healthcare Providers
For new ideas and solutions to reach the market, startup founders need to find the right partners that are willing to listen to them and take their ideas one step further. Established in 2015, the Health Innovation Hub & Holding provides years of expert knowledge in innovation pathways, paving the way for better healthcare and a sustainable healthcare industry. The European organization better known under the name of Innovation in health has many programs in its portfolio.
In this episode Hannes Toivanen, Lead, Global Digital Ecosystem Engagement at Takeda and Jesus Jeronimo Director of New Digital Services & Products at Sanitas + BUPA ELA.
Jesus and Hannes talked about how pharma, insurance companies and healthcare providers work with startups, what makes a successful partnership, and why their organizations took part in the Innovation in health programs Start-ups Meet Pharma (Takeda) and start-ups Meet Healthcare Providers (Sanitas + BUPA ELA).
More about Innovation in health: https://innovationinhealth.eu/
MONTHLY Newsletter which recaps episodes in the past month: https://fodh.substack.com/
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
****
This episode is supported by EIT Health Germany-Switzerland, which is one of eight Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) currently funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). EiT Health Germany connects 150 renowned partners from industry, research and education from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The unique network helps initiate outstanding innovations in the health sector. If you're a startup working in the field of digital health or biotech and don't know EiT Health Germany yet, I would encourage you to visit eit-health.de, where you will find more about innovation, acceleration, and education programs.
November 10, 2022
How Are Shared Care Records Becoming a Reality in London? (Gary McAllister)
In the previous episode, you had a chance to listen to Dr Phil Koczan, GP in North East London and the Chief Clinical Safety Officer for London, Dr Katherine Buxton, Consultant in Palliative Care Medicine for Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Clinical Director, Palliative and End of Life Care Strategic Clinical Network for London talk about the recently introduced digitized urgent care planning across London.
OneLondon is a project that supports a vision of joined-up health and care. It is a pan-London collaboration between leaders from the 5 Integrated Care Systems in the capital. London’s healthcare system is complex. It covers a population of 10 million people and is connecting 35 NHS Trusts and 1385 GP practices.
In this episode, Gary McAllister, Chief Technology Officer of OneLondon explains how is London approaching the digital transformation of healthcare in London, how complex is the IT infrastructure at the moment, and how the core team of OneLondon works with vendors to try to connect different systems as efficiently as possible.
More about OneLondon: https://www.onelondon.online/
More about Urgent Care Planning: https://ucp.onelondon.online/
MONTHLY Newsletter which recaps episodes in the past month: https://fodh.substack.com/
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
*****
The topic of this episode is supported by Better - a provider of an open data digital health platform, electronic prescribing and medication administration solution, and low code tools that help you rapidly build applications that suit your needs. The company focuses on simplifying the work of health and care teams, advocates for data for life, and strives for all health data to be vendor-neutral and easily accessible. More about the company: better.care
November 2, 2022
How Did London Digitize Urgent Care Plans?
Too often, patients need to repeat their medical history when in contact with different healthcare providers. Consequently, clinicians need more time to make decisions than necessary because they can’t access patient data. London managed to digitize urgent care plans and make them available across 40 NHS Trusts and 1400 GP offices.
This episode presents the Urgent Care Plan Programme, aiming at giving clinicians easy access to patients’ desires about their care, as defined in their care plan. Patients can fill out an urgent care plan at various points in their patient journey. The problem so far has been that accessing these plans by different providers was often difficult. Now the situation is improved with an introduction of a regional platform that stores urgent care plans and enables different care teams to access them when needed.
Urgent Care Plan Programme is a part of OneLondon Portfolio. OneLondon is a project that supports a vision of joined-up health and care. It is a pan-London collaboration between leaders from the 5 Integrated Care Systems in the capital.
London’s healthcare system is complex. It covers a population of 10 million people and is connecting 35 NHS Trusts and 1385 GP practices. As part of the OneLondon portfolio, the Urgent Care Plan Programme led the design and implementation of a new digital care planning solution in 2021. This solution enables Londoners to have their care, and support wishes digitally shared with healthcare professionals across the capital. By connecting all care levels, clinicians can now easily access urgent care plans to guide them in the care they provide to patients based on patient's individual preferences.
This episode presents what urgent care plans are, why they matter, and more as explained by Dr Phil Koczan, GP in North East London, and the Chief Clinical Safety Officer for London, Dr Katherine Buxton, Consultant in Palliative Care Medicine for Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Clinical Director, Palliative and End of Life Care Strategic Clinical Network for London. They explained what the joint urgent care plan means for patients and healthcare providers in London.
More about OneLondon: https://www.onelondon.online/
More about Urgent Care Planning: https://ucp.onelondon.online/
MONTHLY Newsletter which recaps episodes in the past month: https://fodh.substack.com/
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
The topic of this episode is supported by Better is a provider of an open data digital health platform, electronic prescribing and medication administration solution, and low code tools that help you rapidly build applications that suit your needs. The company focuses on simplifying the work of health and care teams, advocates for data for life, and strives for all health data to be vendor-neutral and easily accessible.
October 27, 2022
Cancer Series Ep. 5: Digital Strategy of The Largest Single-Site Cancer Center in Europe
Medical progress is driven by research, and good research requires good data. The largest single-site cancer center in Europe and the biggest chemotherapy center in the UK - The Christie NHS Foundation Trust runs 650 clinical trials at any given time. They recently went live with a new electronic Patient Reported Outcome Measures (ePROMs) service helping to connect patients with the hospital trust through their cancer journey. As explained by Phil Bottomley, EHR Strategic Lead at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, the digitization of ePROMs is only the beginning of the digitalization process of over 600 clinical forms used in the hospital. The hospital’s digital transformation strategy is based on a data-first approach, ensuring that the used data models enable the creation of a longitudinal record. They chose openEHR specification - a product and vendor-independent specification, striving to make data independent of any software provider.
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The topic of this episode is supported by Better - a provider of an open data digital health platform, electronic prescribing and medication administration solution, and low code tools that help you rapidly build applications that suit your needs.
October 20, 2022
Cancer Series Ep. 4: Cancer is Gone, What Happens Next?
We are in the middle of a series of discussions related to cancer care, treatment improvements, data management in oncology, and the promise of AI to find the right treatment for the right patient in the fastest possible manner. As mentioned by Xose M. Fernandez, a genomicist and former chief data officer at Institute Curie, a faster diagnosis could lead to less aggressive treatment and better patient outcomes.
We covered many perspectives so far: accessibility and cost of cancer treatments in the US and Canada in the first episode, genetics, data management, and the science of cancer; we talked about AI treatments and challenges in designing clinical trials in personalized medicine.
This episode focuses on the consequences cancer diagnosis has after patients are cured. Many cancer survivors in long-term remission face restricted access to financial services because of their medical history. Some EU countries have already implemented the right to be forgotten - a right for patients not to disclose their medical history. Changes across Europe are happening slowly and given the rising incidence of cancer on the one hand, and scientific advances on the other, we need improvement in the quality of life of patients after they are cured.
In this episode, you will hear from dr. Francoise Meunier, dr. Francoise Meunier, member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine, former Director General of European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer, and a Scientific Member of the European Cancer Patient Coalition.
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October 13, 2022
Cancer Series Ep. 3: AI, Precision Oncology and Understanding Cancer (Pangea Biomed)
This is the 3rd episode in the Cancer Series.
In this episode, you’ll hear a bit about precision medicine in oncology, drug repurposing and the increasing challenges precision medicine poses for clinical trials. I spoke with Tuvik Beker, CEO of Pangea Biomed, an Israeli-based company tackling oncology drug development and treatment recommendation by not only looking at the single mutations in tumor cells, which the Pharmaceutical industry has already found targeted therapies for. Cancer treatments are evolving very rapidly, but precision and targeted therapies are still only effective in roughly 10% of cancer patients. Pangea Biomed tries to understand broader gene activation patterns inside tumor cells and recommends a therapy that would help exploit cancer cells’ defense mechanisms. As explained in simplified terms by Tuvik Beker.
Cancer Series Ep. 1: Access to Care, Financial Toxicity and Healthcare IT in Oncology
Speaker: David J. Stewart, MD, FRCPC, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Ottawa and The Ottawa Hospital.
Cancer Series Ep.2: Cancer, Genomics and Data Science
Speaker: Xose M. Fernandez, genomicist and up until recently the Chief Data Officer at Institut Curie in France, one of the leading medical, biological, and biophysical research centers in the world.
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October 6, 2022
Cancer Series Ep.2: Cancer, Genomics and Data Science
This is the second episode in a special series about cancer, cancer care, accessibility and technologies related to cancer care.
The first episode focused on the current state of cancer care with a speaker from Canada - David J. Stewart, MD, FRCPC, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Ottawa and The Ottawa Hospital. David explained the current state of cancer care, IT in oncology and financial toxicity of a cancer diagnosis for patients.
This, second episode, dives into genomics, the role of AI, and data science in oncology.
Speaker: Xose M. Fernandez, genomicist and up until recently the Chief Data Officer at Institut Curie in France, one of the leading medical, biological, and biophysical research centers in the world.
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September 30, 2022
Cancer Series Ep. 1: Access to Care, Financial Toxicity and Healthcare IT in Oncology
There were an estimated 18.1 million cancer cases around the world in 2020, according to the World Cancer Research Fund International. According to the Comparator Report on Cancer in Europe 2020, the absolute number of people diagnosed with cancer rose around 50% in Europe over the past 20 years. However, the number of deaths only increased by 20%. The numbers show we’re making great strides in survival and treatments and early screenings. But because of the aging population, cancer care and prevention are rising global public health concerns.
In the next few episodes, we’ll talk about cancer, cancer care, and technology, the role of data and IT for improved care and research, AI in the search for new therapies, but also about cancer survivorship: what happens to patients after they are cancer free, but unfortunately far from back to the life they had before cancer.
Speaker in this episode is David J. Stewart, MD, FRCPC, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Ottawa and The Ottawa Hospital. David recently wrote a book titled: A sort primer on Why Cancer Still Sucks. Find the book: https://www.amazon.com/Short-Primer-Cancer-Still-Sucks/dp/0228871999
David talked about the comparison of financial toxicity of cancer for patients in Canada and the US, and the challenges with drug development and access in the two countries; David also talked about his experience with healthcare digitalization and IT systems.
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September 22, 2022
The Power Of At-Home Diagnostics and Prevention of STDs (Ash Wellness)
This episode explores the role of at-home diagnostic testing in managing and preventing sexually transmitted diseases. More than 1 million sexually transmitted infections (STIs), which include syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, HIV hepatitis, and other infections, are acquired every day worldwide. The majority of STIs are asymptomatic early detection that much more important to prevent the spread of these diseases.
According to WHO, globally, 38.4 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2021. Science has advanced immensively to help treat and manage HIV. For over a decade, populations at risk can take preventative pills, which prevent HIV infections by over 99%. Unfortunately, access to this prophylaxis shouldn’t be taken for granted. In the US, prevention is supposed to be covered by insurance under the Affordable Care Act. However, in September, a district court ruling in Texax potentially endangered this access. A Christian-owned company argued against the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that insurers and employers offer plans that cover PrEP for free. The argument was that this statutory provision “forces religious employers to provide coverage for drugs that facilitate and encourage homosexual behavior, prostitution, sexual promiscuity, and intravenous drug use.” The company won the case, and the ruling opened up concerns about what this will mean for future efforts and coverage for preventative health measures.
In this - which was published before the Texas Court ruling -, you will hear from Emma Rayer is the Head of Strategic Partnerships for Ash Wellness, a remote diagnostics solution. Ash Wellness supports traditional healthcare systems, universities, public health initiatives, and digital health companies in giving patients access to at-home sample collection kits that are then sent and analyzed in laboratories.
Emma talked about the differences in the attitude towards testing for STIs in South Africa, where she grew up in and the US, where she lives now. She also explained how the Ash platform works, how is at-home diagnostics market evolving, and more.
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Recap of this episode: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/std-prevention-through-platform
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September 15, 2022
Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana: How is Medtronic Labs Redefining Chronic Disease Management
This is the second episode where we will discuss healthcare delivery in Africa. In the previous episode, the entrepreneur and regulatory advisor Herve Mwamba from South Africa talked about stereotypes and medical device regulation in Africa (Full transcript: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/medical-device-regulation-mdr-africa).
In this episode, you’re going to hear about an effort to manage non-communicable diseases in Africa better. Medtronic Labs is a nonprofit organization that works with governments and local communities in across Africa to create local ecosystems for the management of hypertension and diabetes. I spoke with Anne Stake, Chief Strategy and Product Officer at Medtronic Labs, who explained, how Medtronic Labs approached the African market, gaining of trust in the local communities and what challenges and innovations they observed on the ground in Kenya, Rwanda and Ghana.
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TRANSCRIPT: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/medtronic-labs-africa
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September 8, 2022
South Africa & Africa More Broady: What’s The State of Medical Device Regulation?
It’s September, it’s time for school and a new season of Faces of digital health podcast episodes. Faces of digital health strives to bring you an insight into digital health development across the world. We’re going to start this season in Africa. In this episode, South African entrepreneur, regulatory, and quality assurance consultant Herve Mwamba discusses the state of medical device regulation in South Africa and Africa more broadly, his observations about the consequences and problems related to the European Medical Device Regulation, his observation regarding innovation in Africa.
This is the first of a few episodes where speakers talked about the African market, so do make sure to subscribe to the show to be notified about other episodes automatically. In the next episode you’ll hear about chronic disease management in Kenya and Ghana, provided by Medtronic Labs, and after that, a discussion about the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and how that can be improved with the rise of at-home testing.
BTW - did you read our newsletter yet? We finally have one! It only comes out monthly, filled with information about insights in the last month. Do check it out here:
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September 1, 2022
What Makes Hospital Medication Management Complex? (Talking Healthtech Summit)
There are “five rights” of medication use: the right patient, the right drug, the right time, the right dose, and the right route. It might seem obvious, but in practice, an error can occur at the level of each of these “right”s.
Unsafe medication practices and medication errors are leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in health care systems worldwide. According to WHO, the cost associated with medication errors has been estimated at $42 billion annually globally. The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare estimates that between 2% and 3% of all Australian hospital admissions are medication-related. In the UK, it is estimated that adverse drug reactions account for 10-20% of hospital in-patient admissions, according to the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer’s National Overprescribing Review, which was published in September 2021.
This episode is a recording of a panel discussion at the Talking Healthtech Winter Summit in Australia in August. The panel session you’re about to hear is focused on medication management in the hospital setting. It will give you an overview of:
the current problems with medications in the hospital setting,
why are decision support systems suboptimal,
what it takes to implement healthcare IT in the hospital setting.
Speakers:
Melissa Fodera, Chief Pharmacy Informatics Officer (CPIO) Western Health Australia,
Božidarka Radović, Better Meds Product Lead at the health IT company Better,
Gidi Stein, CEO of MedAware.
RESOURCES:
Talking Healthtech Winter Summit: https://www.talkinghealthtech.com/summit
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August 25, 2022
EIT Health Germany Series 7/12: How Can A Digital Health Solution Become a “DiGA App” in Germany?
Patients dream about reliable and clinically meaningful digital innovations that would help improve their health in a smooth way. With the digital health market maturing, startups increasingly need to not only offer a good user experience but also comply with rigorous regulatory requirements and test their solutions in clinical trials. They need to go through long certification processes. For a few years now, Germany has in place a clear workflow for making digital health apps reimbursable. France is on its way to adopting a similar framework. In today’s episode, you will hear more about what companies need to do to get certified and reimbursed in Germany. I spoke with Jörg Trinkwalter, the Managing Director at ProCarement, a young startup that developed a telemedicine digital care solution for patients with heart failure.
ProCarement is participating in the current cohort of the EIT Health Diginovation program. The Diginovation program links start-ups with an international consortium to accelerate the reimbursement of digital health apps in Europe. Jorg explained how ProCarement is preparing to have their application included in the DiGA repository, and how they’re working with the regulatory body Bfarm to achieve that goal. There are currently 35 DiGA applications in the repository. I added the link to the DiGA repository in the show notes, so you can browse through what’s approved and can be prescribed by doctors.
In this episode, Jörg talks about ProCarement, telemedicine reimbursement in Germany, the benefits of the Diginovation program and plans for the French market, and how ProCarement is working towards also having a DiGA app.
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Monthly newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com
Diga repository: https://diga.bfarm.de/de/verzeichnis
This is the 7th out of 12 episodes prepared in collaboration with EIT Health.
This episode is supported by EIT Health Germany, which is one of eight Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) currently funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). Find out more about startup opportunities in 2022.
August 19, 2022
How Advanced are Artificial Limbs? (Dima Gazda, Esper Bionics)
In 2017, 57.7 million people were living with limb amputation due to traumatic causes worldwide.
Apart from accidents, a person might need an amputation due to vascular diseases and diabetes. You might have come across increasingly sophisticated prosthetic limbs, which mimic human movements. The problem is, these are extremely expensive. Simple cosmetic prosthetic costs around $5,000, a functional prosthetic with a hook up to $10,000, and the latest myoelectric tech-enhanced ones cost up to $100,000.
In this episode, Dima Gazda, CEO, and founder of Esper Bionics speaks about the development of the market, and how Esper Bionics operates, given that it has facilities in Ukraine.
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August 11, 2022
Best of 2021: Taiwan and its Healthcare Digitalization (Yu-Chuan Jack Li)
This episode was first published in summer 2021, and is one of the most listened-to episodes from 2021.
Taiwan spends only 6.4% of it’s GDP for healthcare, but has high satisfaction rates with healthcare, and is also very digitalized. In this episode, a closer look into healthcare in Taiwan is provided by Prof. Yu-Chuan Jack Li - a pioneer of artificial intelligence in medicine and translational biomedical informatics. Professor Li is Editor-in-Chief for BMJ Health & Care Informatics journal, the elected president of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) and has devoted himself to evolving the next generation of Al in patient safety and prevention ("Earlier Medicine"). He has been deeply involved in biomedical informatics development in Taiwan and international cooperation on various continents, including Asia, America, Europe, and Africa. We spoke about the state of healthcare digitalization and AI in Taiwan.
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August 4, 2022
EIT Health Germany Series 6/12: Crowdfuding Doesn't Work for Healthcare and the Rise of Digital Visual Stress
One of the more prominent news in July was that according to Sifted, healthcare seed investments in Europe surpassed Fintech investments in June, making the health tech industry the industry that’s attracting the most investments. At the same time, in the US, Rock Health reported that digital health startups in the US raised 10.3 billion USD in the first half year of 2022, and StartupHealth reported a lower amount of investments compared to 2021. As StartupHealth noted, the 16B raised globally in Q1 and Q2, is still much more than in the first half of the year 2020. You can tune into a reflection on the current state of digital health globally by listening to the interview with the Startup Health president Unity Stoakes in April:
https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/startup-health-unity-stoakes
This episode takes a look at the European market and how aescuvest invests in digital health startups. We also talk about the rising problem of digital visual stress.
Speakers:
Simon Molitor, Associate Project Manager at Aescuvest,
Michael Mrochern, Member of Investment Committee aescuvest and the CEO of Vivior which offers a novel wearable device – the Vivior Monitor – to objectively measure visual behavior prior to vision correction interventions.
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https://www.aescuvest.eu/
https://vivior.com/
https://eithealth.eu/in-your-region/germany/
This episode is supported by EIT Health Germany, which is one of eight Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) currently funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). Find out more about startup opportunities in 2022.
July 28, 2022
Best of 2021: (OVER)DOSE – How Can We Prevent Medication Errors and Patient Harm?
This is a short documentary about medication-related patient safety. The documentary explores and offers an overview of the current challenges and technical solutions related to medication safety to raise awareness about the need to further improve medication-related patient safety.
Unsafe medication practices and medication errors are a leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in health care systems across the world. Globally, the cost associated with medication errors has been estimated at $42 billion USD annually. Errors can occur at different stages of the medication use process.
More than 237 million medication errors are made every year in England, the avoidable consequences of which cost the NHS upwards of £98 million and more than 1700 lives every year, indicate national estimates, published online in the journal BMJ Quality & Safety.
The documentary premiered on 29 June 2021.
Watch the documentary and full interviews with the speakers: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/overdose-documentary
Learn more about Better Meds: https://meds.better.care/
Speakers in the movie and this episode:
David W. Bates, Medical Director of Clinical and Quality Analysis, Information Systems, Patient Safety Expert and Harvard MD (Clinical & Research Perspective)
Professor John Horn, PharmD, University of Washington School of Pharmacy, coauthor of “The Top 100 Drug Interactions”; A Guide to Patient Management”
Martina Viduka, Practicing Nurse, Co-Founder of Advosense
David Kliff, author and publisher of the Diabetic Investor eNewsletter, former investment advisor, and as a person living with diabetes (Patient Perspective)
Duncan Cripps, Electronic Prescribing and Medication Management Lead at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (Pharmacist Perspective)
Roni Shiloh, CEO of Seegnal, MD degree, specialized in Psychiatry (CDS provider and doctor perspective)
Hicham Naim, Global Head Integrated & Personalized Patient Care Program, Digital Advisory Board at Takeda (Pharma Perspective)
Marinka Žitnik, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School (Research perspective
Lea Dias, Clinical Pharmacist, Founder and CEO of Quaefacta
Abdulelah Alhawsawi, Ex - founding Director-General of the Saudi Patient Safety Center (SPSC)
Roi Shternin, Founder of the patient-led Israeli society for Dysautonomia (Patient perspective).
July 21, 2022
Sleep and Digital Health in Brazil (Renata Redondo Bonaldi)
Brazil had over 200 million people; how many of them sleep well? I hope you’re enjoying summer and resting enough. Many people have issues with sleeping: either not sleeping enough or sleeping poorly. Oftentimes, poor sleep hygiene, such as drinking coffee too late in the day, being exposed to blue light from phones, tablets, or computers right before getting to bed, etc. As listed by the Cleveland clinic, poor sleep results in a lack of alertness during the day, excessive daytime sleepiness, impaired memory, poor quality of life, and relationship stress. And more serious problems associated with chronic sleep deprivation are high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, heart failure or stroke. Other potential problems include obesity, depression, reduced immune system function, and lower sex drive. The Brazilian startup Sleepup is trying to help people with sleep issues with an over-the-counter digital therapeutic. The DTx works on a behavioral change approach determined for each user. The first step is an individual assessment of the causes of poor sleep.
You will hear from Renata Redondo Bonaldi, Co-Founder and CEO of Sleepup. We talked about various aspects of sleep issues and the role of wearables and digital health in improving sleep. If Renata had one piece of advice for sleep improvement, this is what she’d say to you:
More at: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
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July 15, 2022
What Do Patients Really Think About Data? (EPF Congress 2022)
How many times in the last year or two have you heard that patients should own their data or have control over their data? These statements sound simple but are much more complex once you start to look at the implications they might have in practice. In June, the European Patients’ Forum Congress took place in Brussels. The topic was the digital transformation of healthcare, data sharing, and the role of patient organizations in this story. This episode recaps some of the patient opinions at the EPF Congress.
Watch the panel sessions: epfcongress.eu
Read the recap: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/what-do-patients-really-think-about-data-recap-of-the-epf-congress
July 6, 2022
Pakistan: Making The Best of Existing Technology With a Strategic Approach (Zahid Ali)
After several discussions about digital health in the APAC region, we are finishing the exploration in the region with a debate about healthcare digitalization in Pakistan. Pakistan has 242 million people. It’s the 5th largest population in the world. If you look at the website of the US state department, you will see advice to reconsider traveling to Pakistan. Life expectancy is low; the country attributes only 1.1 % of its GDP to healthcare. Yet, as mentioned by Zahid Ali, HIMSS Future50 Health IT Leader 2021, A digital health and innovation thought-leader and Consultant, the strategy Pakistan took in the fight against COVID was recognized by WHO as exemplary. So what is the state of healthcare digitalization in the country, and what can other countries learn from Pakistan? That’s the topic of today’s discussion.
Do check out other episodes about the APAC region: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/digital-health-in-apac-an-overview-keren-priyadashini-microsoft-asia
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June 30, 2022
Digital Health in APAC: An Overview (Keren Priyadashini, Microsoft Asia)
Dr. Keren Priyadashini is Regional Business Lead of Worldwide Health for Microsoft Asia. She leads the company’s healthcare business segment across 17 markets in Asia Pacific. Looking at digital health investments in the APAC region, according to Galen Growth Asia, last year China took the highest amount of funding (58.6%) for digital health, followed by India (22.3%), Australia (5.6%), Soth Korea (4.3%), and Singapore (3.8%). Healthcare expenditure differs a lot among countries: According to the World Bank, China attributed 5,3% of its GDP to healthcare, India 3%, Australia 9.91 %, Singapore 4%. How do these healthcare systems differ and does healthcare expenditure relate to investment in digitalization?
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June 23, 2022
(TRAILER) The State of the Right To Be Forgotten for Cancer Survivors in Europe (dr. Françoise Meunier)
Many cancer survivors in long-term remission are faced with restricted access to financial services because of their medical history. Some EU countries have already implemented the right to be forgotten - a right for patients to not disclose their medical history. In most countries, the requirement is for the patient to be cancer-free for 10 years, France has changed this time limit to 5 years. Changes across Europe are happening very slowly. The understanding of the problem is poor and needs a lot more awareness. The incidence of cancer is increasing, however, at the same time, treatments are becoming more successful, returning long-lasting health to patients. Due to this scientific advancement, social care and policies should be changed as well.
Dr. Françoise Meunier is Member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine, she was Director General of European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer for 24 years from 1991 to 2015. She is also a Scientific Member of the European Cancer Patient Coalition. She has been advocating for the right to be forgotten for almost 10 years.
This is just an excerpt of a broader episode published in autumn 2022.
June 16, 2022
Why is Australia Not a Global Exemplar in Telehealth? (Peter Birch)
In the previous episode we explored healthcare and the position of doctors in Malaysia. Today and in the next few episodes, we will stay in the Asia Pacific region, by peeking into Australia, Pakistan Singapore, and more. My guest today is Peter Birch, creator, and host of Talking HealthTech; an Australian podcast and membership community about technology in healthcare. In the past, Pete has been running clinics, and software companies, he is still company Director at MetaOptima, creating intelligent technology to help doctors detect and treat skin cancer. He is also the company Director of the Medical Software Industry Association (MSIA), representing the software vendors of the healthcare industry in Australia. Clearly, Pete has a good understanding of tech challenges in healthcare which he shared in this discussion. We talked about the current state of My Health Record, why is Australia not a leader in exemplary telehealth solutions, what it means that the government plans to dedicate 107 million Australian dollars to invest in digital healthcare infrastructure, and more.
Other episodes about Australia:
Australia, AI and co-design of digital health solutions (Marie Johnson): https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/australia-ai-and-co-creation-of-digital-health-solutions-marie-johnson?rq=australia
F105 The state of healthcare digitalization in Australia (Louise Schaper, AIDH): https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f105-the-state-of-healthcare-digitalization-in-australia-louise-schaper-aidh?rq=australia
F115 Primary healthcare digitalisation in New Zealand, Australia, UK and US (Dimitri Varsamis): https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/us-new-zealand-australia-uk-primary-care-digitisation?rq=australia
REFLECTIONS: A transocean podcast session (Joy Rios, Bianca Rose Phillips, Tjasa Zajc): https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/reflections-a-transocean-podcast-session-joy-rios-bianca-rose-phillips-tjasa-zajc?rq=australia
June 9, 2022
Doctors and Healthcare in Malaysia (Selina Chew)
In the previous episode, you could listen to Dr. Abeyna Bubbers-Jones - Founder & CEO - of Medic Footprints. Medic Footprints is a UK-based company, with a mission to bring various career opportunities to doctors. The projections of clinical workforce shortages are grim. WHO estimates a projected shortfall of 18 million health workers by 2030, mostly in low- and lower-middle-income countries. The previous and this episode explore the doctor’s perspective on career development and opportunities in and outside of healthcare. In the UK in the previous episode and in Malaysia in this one.
You will hear from Selina Chew - the founder of Medic Footprints Malaysia, which is a franchise of the UK organization. Its mission is the same: to empower doctors to look value their skills and look for new career opportunities if they feel stranded in their current situation. Selina talked about her own experience as a doctor, and the rigidity of hierarchy in healthcare which makes it very difficult for doctors to have autonomy in their work, and have a say in how healthcare should be run. We also briefly discussed the state of healthcare in Malaysia. With this episode, we are diving into conversations about healthcare and digital health in the APAC region. We will start with Malaysia, and continue with Australia and a few other countries as well.
Recap of the two episodes: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/what-do-doctors-want-abeyna-bubbers-jones-medic-footprints
https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/
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June 2, 2022
What Do Doctors Want? (Abeyna Bubbers Jones)
WHO estimates a projected shortfall of 18 million health workers by 2030, mostly in low- and lower-middle-income countries.
However, countries at all levels of socioeconomic development face, to varying degrees, difficulties in the education, employment, deployment, retention, and performance of their workforce.
In a recent survey of 20.000 doctors from 124 institutions in the US 1 in 5 said they plan to exit healthcare in the next 5 years. The pandemic hasn’t only brought different strains to healthcare workers, It has also radically redefined ways in which work can be done. Generations today have different expectations of their working conditions and career development. In this episode, you’re going to hear a bit more about what do doctors want?
Speaker: Dr. Abeyna Bubbers-Jones - Founder & CEO - of Medic Footprints. Medic Footprints is a UK-based company, with a mission to bring various career opportunities to doctors. May it be inside or outside healthcare. In the episode, she talks about what options doctors have and also how to find the right medical professional for your company if you’re hiring someone with a medical background.
Visit the website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
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May 27, 2022
Spelled out: How is Pharma Taking Advantage of Digital Health?
Is it time to stop talking about digital health and just focus on health? Where, in which department, do digital health innovations fit within Pharma? Do we expect too much in terms of the speed of digital health innovation in Pharma?
These were just some of the questions discussed at SPELLED OUT: Digital Health and Pharma event.
SPELLED OUT is a group name of a series of events organised by Curated Health and Faces of digital health, with which we wish to bring clarity to specific digital health-related topics.
The debate was moderated by Tjaša Zajc, host of Faces of digital health and Hicham Naim, the founder of Curated Health, also working at Takeda as Head of Strategy, Transformation & Innovation, Data Digitam & Technology.
Speakers:
Paul Simms, CEO of Impatient Health,
Jennifer Butler, Chief Marketing Officer at Medisafe
Jessica Shull, Director of Digital Therapeutics at Vicore Pharma AB
Christophe Jauquet, International keynote Speaker on making customers healthy & happy.
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
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May 19, 2022
EIT Health Germany Series 5/12: How Can We Help With Medical Aid in Ukraine?
When the war in Ukraine began, Marta Kaczmarek welcomed one of the refugee families to her home. She then thought about how more could be done to help Ukrainians and started an incentive called EIT Health Ukraine. EIT Health, which is a European organsation connecting stakeholders in healthcare, partnered with the Polish Medical Mission. PMM is a 22 years old Polish humanitarian organization that provides medical aid to the countries most in need in the world. Since 1999, the Polish Medical Mission Association has been helping victims of wars, catastrophes and natural disasters. Their volunteers include doctors, paramedics, nurses, rehabilitators, as well as psychologists and medical analysts.
In this episode, speakers: Ewa Piekarska, President of the Board, Head of the Development Aid Program, Polish Medical Mission andMarta Kaczmarek, Coordinator of the EIT Health Ukraine Appeal explain the current needs for medical support, what supplies are in demand and more.
EIT Health Ukraine appeal is ongoing, so if you’re a medical device manufacturer or have the ability to donate medical equipment, please go to the link in the show notes and coordinate with EIT Health to provide help to Ukraine.
Please complete the form on EIT Health’s website: https://eithealth.eu/ukraine-appeal/
This episode is supported by EiT Health Germany, which is one of eight Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) currently funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). If you're a startup working in the field of digital health or biotech and don't know EiT Health Germany yet, I would encourage you to visit eit-health.de, where you will find more about innovation, acceleration, and education programs. And as you will hear from Marta, it doesn’t matter if you’re a startup, a small or a large business. If you would like to contribute to support Ukraine, anything you can do to help, will help.
May 12, 2022
Rethinking Access to Healthcare in Rural America (Jennifer Schneider, Homeward)
Jennifer Schneider used to be the Chief Medical Officer and President of Livongo. In 2022 she started a company focused on improving access to healthcare in rural America. More than 46 million Americans, or 15 percent of the U.S. population, live in rural areas. Now the company called Homeward is on the mission to deliver care to those who don’t have it, starting in rural America. In this discussion, you’ll hear more about the challenges related to rural health, how could care be brought to the community instead of patients needing to travel two to five hours for a 15 minutes visit, and more.
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
May 6, 2022
Voice Tech: How Well Are You Listening To Your Customers? (Amy Brown, Authenticx)
Voice could be called one of the exciting new avenues for medicine and healthcare: first, it is seen as a potential optimization tool, if we used voice tech instead of typing data into software. A few months ago, Julia Hoxha, the CEO of Zana explained how her European startup that provides healthcare organizations with the technology to design and to deploy their own chatbot and voice assistants. In the future, we might discover biomarkers in voice. After all, all the characteristics of voice - how loud or how quiet we speak, what tone do we use, how fast or slow we talk - all these characteristics probably have a correlation with something. But what about starting with something much simpler? Analysing voice recordings that already exist? US company Authenticx listens, analyzes, and activates customer voices. The AI-based software analyzes millions of conversations patients have with customer support agents through phone calls or emails. By analysing these conversations, it unveils recurring trends that healthcare organizations use to make informed, proactive decisions for improved workflows and care.
In this discussion you will hear from Amy Brown, executive with 20 years of public and private sector experience in health care public relations, startup management, policy development, quality improvement and insurance operations.
Enjoy the show and browse through other episodes on: facesofdigitalhealth.com
April 28, 2022
Startup Health: “We Need To Think About Healthcare Globally, Not Locally” (Unity Stoakes)
Investments in digital health have been steadily rising for the last seven years. 6.2 billion dollars were invested in digital health startups in 2015, 44 billion in 2022, according to Startup Health. Startup Health is a US-based organisation supporting digital health innovators across the world and globally spreading optimism about the potential of technology in healthcare. The vision that drives that optimism is the hope that we can bring access to healthcare to everyone in the world, that we can beat cancer and cure diseases such as diabetes or Alzheimer’s. That vision is important because healthcare innovation is not for the faint-hearted and as health indicators show, currently, life expectancy and health are worsening across the world, says co-founder and president of Startup Health Unity Stoakes. The market is maturing, he says, which is also seen in the number of companies that attract investments. The total amount of investments has been increasing for several years, but th number of companies that are invested in, is staying roughly the same - it’s just that some companies are maturing and raising higher amounts of funding. In this discussion you will hear Unity Stoakes talk about his reflection of Startup Health which is already 11 years old, he talked about the global expansion of Startup Health, why we need to think about healthcare innovation less locally, more globally, and also why we still need much more investments in the future.
If you want to go down the memory lane of digital health, you can also tune in to the interview with Unity in 2017: https://podcasts.apple.com/si/podcast/faces-of-digital-health/id1194284040?i=1000380325225
April 21, 2022
Global Health Innovation and the Paradox of Choice in Healthcare (Hassan Chaudhury)
Hassan Chaudhury is a global healthcare expert, he worked in several countries across the world. He currently works at Healthcare UK; a joint initiative of the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and the Department for International Trade (DIT). His global role includes advising commercial teams in over 100 UK embassies. In this discussion, we chatted about the digital transformation of healthcare and social care in the UK and Hassan’s experience with countries across the world. Which innovations are reasonable to implement in healthcare today? And which technologies are currently not ready for prime time just yet. You might be surprised by Hassan’s opinion.
Read an excerpt:
April 14, 2022
What Can Digital Health Innovators Learn from Oncology? (Sean Khozin)
Therapies for cancer are being developed at light speed and upward of 60 gene and cell therapies are projected to reach regulatory approval in the U.S. by 2030, according to the MIT NEWDIGS collaborative. Due to the nature of cancer, readiness for risks in drug development is much higher here than it might be in other medical fields. In this episode you’re going to hear a bit more about what can digital health innovation learn from the mindset present in oncology development.
Sean Khozin is the CEO of CancerLinQ, a non-profit health technology company focused on improving quality of care and health outcomes for all patients with cancer. He was the Global Head of Data Strategy and Data Science Innovation at Johnson & Johnson, before that he co-founded Hello Health, a technology company focused on developing integrated telemedicine, point-of-care data visualization, and advanced analytical systems for optimizing patient care and clinical research. He was also the Founding director of a digital health incubator inside the FDA.
You will hear a little bit about processes in oncology, innovation in oncology, the promise of decentralized clinical trials and more.
April 7, 2022
EiT Health Germany Series 4/12: What Does it Take to Suceed as a Digital Health/Biotech Startup?
In this episode, founders of four very different companies talk about their fundraising experiences. As critically mentioned by Fouad Al-Noor - Co-Founder & CEO - ThinkSono - we should stop talking about the myth that startups search for investors that can offer strategic benefits. It’s true, but fundraising is still primarily about getting money to be able to start a business. The key thing, in the end, is also to find an investor you like as a person. This will be crucial for the investor-startup relationship to survive once things get tough,” he says.
And it does get tough. As mentioned by Kei W. Mueller, he talked to over 90 investors with very limited success because the solution Ebenbuild is creating is so forward-thinking.
In this episode you will hear:
About a mental health app that world with hospitals to give patients timely support after discharge and prevent to early readmissions,
A startup improving mechanical ventilation with the help of digital twins,
How can immunotherapy production be optimized according to a swiss based startup Limula,
Revolution in ultrasound: handheld ThinkSono is shortening the diagnostics time of deep venous thrombosis.
We briefly discussed each of these solutions and also the fundraising side of startups. EIT Health Catapult Program has plenty to offer, but as a startup you should consider which stage you’re in when applying, to get the most value.
Speakers:
Luc Henry – CEO and co-founder – Limula https://limula.ch/
Kei Wieland Müller - Co-Founder & CEO at Ebenbuild https://www.ebenbuild.com/
Fouad Al-Noor - Co-Founder & CEO of ThinkSono https://thinksono.com/
Hans Juergen Stein - Managing Director of mentalis https://mentalis-health.com/
HELP UKRAINE:
If you’re a medical device manufacturer or have the ability to donate medical equipment, EIT Health is facilitating the supply of medical equipment to Ukraine. EIT Health has partnered with the Polish Medical Mission, a leading humanitarian organisation working with healthcare professionals on the border of Ukraine. If you are an organisation with the ability to donate and ship any of the medical equipment please complete the form on Eit Health’s website for Ukraine: https://eithealth.eu/ukraine-appeal/
March 31, 2022
Why is it Difficult to Make a Business Case in Healthcare? (Karim Kershavjee)
SPECIAL APPEAL:
Dear listeners, as the war in Ukraine continues, the need for medical help is increasing.
If you’re a clinician or a telehealth provider, please get in touch with Health Without Borders. Health Without Borders is organising a "Ukraine Telehealth Relief" initiative to provide free of charge telehealth and remote consultations to the people of Ukraine. So if you’re a clinician or telemedicine provider, please contact Health Tech Without Borders: https://www.healthtechwithoutborders.org/ukraine-telehealth-relief
If you’re a medical device manufacturer or have the ability to donate medical equipment, EIT Health is facilitating the supply of medical equipment to Ukraine. EIT Health has partnered with the Polish Medical Mission, a leading humanitarian organisation working with healthcare professionals on the border of Ukraine. If you are an organisation with the ability to donate and ship any of the medical equipment please complete the form on EIT Health’s website: https://eithealth.eu/ukraine-appeal/
In this episode, you’re going to hear about metaverse and healthcare, which conditions need to be fulfilled for health tech to succeed, you will also get a glimpse into how Canada’s Primary Care Chronic Disease Surveillance System was built. And much more. I spoke with Karim Karshavjee, Family Physician with over 25 years of experience designing, developing, and implementing Electronic Health Records/Electronic Medical Records and helping clinicians use them effectively. He is also the Program Director of the Masters of Health Informatics program at the University of Toronto. Enjoy the show and if you haven’t yet, subscribe to the show to be notified about new episodes automatically.
March 24, 2022
What is openEHR and What are Open Ecosystems in Healthcare? (Hanna Pohjonen)
When one starts to wonder about why data-sharing is still more or less cumbersome in healthcare, you quickly get to the challenges with interoperability siloed data and of course, data standards. Sharing of data has improved with the introduction of the messaging standard called FHIR. But throughout the years, debates about open standards and open ecosystems have started to become louder. In this episode, you’re going to hear a little bit more about that and the openEHR standard specification. I was joined by Hanna Pohjonen, eHealth management consultant and founder at Rosaldo Oy. Hanna has worked across the world, as a consultant in various regional and national eHealth projects in 31 different countries across Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia. She consults on healthcare information systems and IT architectures, vendor-neutral archiving, data sharing, and more. In her past, she also represented Finland in eHealth matters in the European Commission. In this discussion, you will hear a little bit more about healthcare digitalization in the Nordics, the complexity, and challenges with national and regional eHealth projects and openEHR, what exactly it is, and where it is used.
Visit the website: www.facesofidigitalhealth.com
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To read a bit more about the history of the show: A reflection after 100 episodes: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-did-i-get-100-digital-health-podcast-episodes-tjasa-zajc-1f/?trackingId=J%2BV0zLmqRSSEgTaklgTkUg%3D%3D
****Sponsor mentioned in the episode*****
Master E-networking live course on Maven. In ten days, you’ll digitalize and build your network. You will learn how to maximize the value of any event you’re attending: Go to Masterenetworking.com Use the code: FACESOFDIGITALHEALTH10
March 17, 2022
How Can You Improve Design in Healthcare? (Tim Peck, IDEO)
Many software solutions for healthcare could be described as lacking empathy. Too often, solutions are addressing products viability and feasibility, but put desirability in the second place of priorities, says Tim Peck is Executive Portfolio Director of Health at IDEO. He is an entrepreneur and a Harvard-trained Emergency Medicine physician, who has been practicing human-centered design for over a decade. He spent 3 months in a nursing home to grasp the reality and problems of this kind of environment before he built Call9 - a health technology company that provided telemedicine for nursing home residents. In this discussion, we talked about design in healthcare. What is human.centered design? How to ask questions in your user research? What are the main mistakes innovators make?
More episodes and recaps: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Leave a rating or a review: www.lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth
****Sponsor mentioned in the episode***
Master E-networking live course on Maven. In ten days, you’ll digitalize and build your network. You will learn how to maximize the value of any event you’re attending: Go to Masterenetworking.com Use the code: FACESOFDIGITALHEALTH10
March 10, 2022
EIT Health Germany Series 3/12: The Impact of Voice Tech in Healthcare (Julia Hoxha, Zana)
Voice tech is one of the tech areas with high potential to optimize healthcare processes for providers and ease chronic disease in management for patients. In reality: How far are we from futuristic ideas where everything would be operated with the help of voice? How do innovators reduce the risk of misunderstandings in designing voice technologies? What does the development of human-like bots look like?
Tune in to the discussion with Julia Hoxha co-founder and CEO of Zana - a healthcare startup that helps organisations to build artificially intelligent voice and chatbot solutions. Julia’s background is in computer science with a heavy focus in machine learning and particularly in conversational AI, which is also the core technology of Zana. We discussed the latest trends in the use of voice in healthcare and how far beyond scheduling appointments with the help of Alexa have we come by 2022.
This episode is supported by EiT Health Germany, which is one of eight Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) currently funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). EiT Health Germany connects 150 renowned partners from industry, research and education from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The unique network helps initiate outstanding innovations in the health sector. If you're a startup working in the field of digital health or biotech and don't know EiT Health Germany yet, I would encourage you to visit eit-health.de, where you will find more about innovation, acceleration, and education programs.
The application deadline for many of these programs is 14th March, so do check them:
Startups meet healthcare providers: https://eithealth.eu/programmes/start-ups-meet-healthcare-providers/
All 2022 opportunities: https://eit-health.de/en/accelerator-2/
Learn more about Zana:https://zana.com/
Past EIT Health Germany series episodes:
EIT Health Germany Series 2/12: Improving Medication Prescribing With Digital Twins (ExactCure): https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/eit-health-germany-medication-prescribing-digital-twins-exactcure
EiT Health Germany Series 1/12: Changing The Paradigm in the Fight Against Antimicrobial Resistance (Alexander Belcredi): https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/phagomed-biontech-antimicrobial-resistance
Also visit: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
March 3, 2022
Healthcare Digitalization in the Middle East 2/2: Ambition and the and Leadership Aspirations (Michele Tarnow)
This is the second episode about digital health transformation in the Middle East. I spoke with Michele Tarnow, a healthcare leader experienced in managing across multi-national geographies, organization boundaries, and matrix organizations. Michelle has been living in UAE since 2016 and shared her insights into how are countries in the Middle East approaching digitalization of healthcare, how does cultural diversity amplify innovation and how is Alliance Care Technologies, the company she is the CEO of, using best available technologies to optimize care and offer clinicians tools for better care, without turning them into data clerks.
Enjoy the show and also tune in to the previous episode with a perspective of Zaid Tabet - healthcare executive who has been living in the Middle East for a decade and worked with government and private organizations to advance healthcare operations, processes, policies and regulations to promote digital healthcare adoption and use.
Enjoy the show and go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com to browse through other episodes as well.
February 24, 2022
Healthcare Digitalization in the Middle East 1/2: What Contributes to Rapid Development? (Ziad Tabet)
In the next two episodes, we’ll dive into healthcare development a digitalization in the Middle East. You’re going to hear from two speakers based in Dubai. The speaker of today’s episode is Ziad Tabet, Chief Customer Officer at Alliance Care Technologies. Ziad is a healthcare veteran with three decades of experience spanning many aspects of the healthcare space. He has extensive experience in operations and financial management of hospital systems, healthcare start-ups, sales and business development, account management, creating and bringing infrastructure and teams from idea to reality. Ziad has been living in UAE for over ten years, first in Abu Dhabi now in Dubai. In this discussion, he shared his experience in the region, commented on opportunities and mindset around digitalization.
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
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February 17, 2022
EIT Health Germany Series 2/12: Improving Medication Prescribing With Digital Twins (ExactCure)
Unsafe medication practices and medication errors are a leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in health care systems across the world. Exactcure is a digital health startup from France addressing the challenge of preventing the negative effects of medications. The company is building a digital twin simulator, that shows the effects and interactions of drugs in the body of an individual. They take into account any data the patient can provide, from basic personal characteristics such as age, gender, kidney status, genotype, if a person smokes or not, or any other individual parameter that has a proven influence on a specific medication. I spoke with Fabien Astic, Chief Business Development Officer at ExactCure, and Margaux Kerhousse, Business Developer at ExactCure, about the company’s journey, partnerships, and how their solution could fit into the existing prescribing workflows.
This is the second out of 12 episodes supported by EIT Health Germany. EIT Health Germany is one of eight Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) currently funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). EIT Health Germany connects 150 renowned partners from industry, research, and education from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. If you're a startup working in the field of digital health or biotech and don't know EiT Health Germany yet, eit-health.de, where you will find more about innovation, acceleration, and education programs.
Exactcure participated in several EIT Health Germany programs. Among others you will hear about is the Startups meet Healthcare Providers programs, which aims to bridge the gap between startups and clinicians. This can help shorten the time it takes for innovators to start testing their solutions in practice. To learn more about this program, go to the link in the show notes. Many application deadlines close in March, so do check out the links for opportunities right for you:
All EIT Health Germany 2022 opportunities: https://eit-health.de/en/accelerator-2/
Startups meet healthcare providers: https://eithealth.eu/programmes/start-ups-meet-healthcare-providers/
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Recap of the episode: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/eit-health-germany-medication-prescribing-digital-twins-exactcure
Leave a rating or review: www.lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth
February 10, 2022
Clubhouse, Digital Therapeutics and How Can We Speed Up Innovation Adoption in Healthcare (Jhonathan Bringas, Diana Van Stijn)
If you took part in the Clubhouse frenzy last year, you probably came across the Digital Health Channel and MedNet club. Digital Health Channel which currently has 6400 members, was among the key digital health topics related hubs on Clubhouse with an active schedule of discussions each week. It was founded by MD Jhonatan Bringas and healthcare expert Amit Goldman. MD Diana van Stijn who was often a speaker in the channel too, founded MedNet, a club targeted at medical professionals.
While the married couple Diana Van Stijn and Jhonatan Bringas are not active on Clubhouse anymore, they are continuing their pursuit of bridging the gap between medical practice and innovation. They work with Medscape and occasionally facilitate digital health-related discussions. They’re the co-founders of Lapsi health, a digital health startup that was first looking at a digital therapeutic solution for asthma in children but is now pivoting in the space of digital biomarkers. Most of the time, however, Diana works as a clinical resident at Amsterdam UMC Hospital and Jhonathan as the digital health consultant and lecturer. In today's short discussion you’re going to hear a bit more about their journey, perspective on digital therapeutics, and bridging the gap between academia and the industry to accelerate healthcare innovation.
More on the website:
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
February 3, 2022
Why Should We Care About Open AI in Healthcare? (Bart De Witte, Hippo AI Foundation)
The positive potentials of AI in healthcare are breathtaking. From smoother processes to more accurate care with fewer medical errors. But if we learned anything from the last 15 years of living with social media, it is that the development of algorithms without proper regulation can have negative impacts on society. In healthcare, AI development is still in the early stages. Many regulation-related questions still need to be addressed. It is not easy to create regulation, because it needs to take into account all sorts of aspects: safety, trust, values of the environment it is designed for. In today’s episode, you’ll hear a discussion with Bart de Witte - Founder of Hippo AI foundation - a non-profit organization that fights for making medical knowledge openly available and AI-based healthcare a common good. This is a diametrically opposing approach to the direction of current medical AI developments — the majority of which focus on the privatization of medical knowledge. Bart and I discussed what exactly does it mean to have open AI models, how can we create an environment to support that, the state of AI regulation in Europe, and more.
Learn more about the Hippo AI Foundation: https://www.hippoai.org/
The European artificial intelligence strategy: implications and challenges for digital health: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(20)30112-6/fulltext
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
January 27, 2022
EiT Health Germany Series 1/12: Changing The Paradigm in the Fight Against Antimicrobial Resistance (Alexander Belcredi)
Antimicrobial resistance is a global problem related to the overuse of antibiotics and the lack of development of new ones. Many solutions are entering the market to address the issue: software solutions to identify, track and predict antibiotic-resistant infections and help prescribers with more accurate prescribing of antibiotics.
Antibiotics are not appealing to the pharmaceutical industry from a business perspective. The reason is that new antibiotics are intended for a fraction of all patients. So if you develop a drug that’s meant to be used as the last resort for clinicians after they've tried all other options, clinicians would more often than not try to avoid using these new antibiotics if not absolutely necessary.
Among the problems with antibiotics is the fact that many are very broad-spectrum, used to kill several different bacteria. So in this episode, we’re going to change the paradigm of antimicrobial treatments: what if you could target harmful bacteria more precisely? You’ll hear from Alexander Belcredi, co-founder and Co-CEO of the biotech startup PhagoMed, which was acquired by BioNTech and renamed BioNTech R&D Austria in October 2021. Phagomed has been researching the field of antimicrobials and also developed an innovative treatment for bacterial vaginosis. In today’s discussion, you’ll hear about the challenges with the development of antimicrobial therapies, and also learn more about Phagomed’s journey before the acquisition.
This episode is supported by EiT Health Germany, which is one of eight Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) currently funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). EiT Health Germany connects 150 renowned partners from industry, research and education from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The unique network helps initiate outstanding innovations in the health sector. If you're a startup working in the field of digital health or biotech and don't know EiT Health Germany yet, I would encourage you to visit eit-health.de, where you will find more about innovation, acceleration, and education programs.
Learn more:
EiT Catapult Program: https://eit-health.de/en/eit-health-catapult-2021/
EiT Health Germany: https://eit-health.de/en/
More about antimicrobial resistance:
How Can We Optimize the Use of Antibiotics? (Oliver Schacht, OpGen): https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f130-how-can-we-optimize-the-use-of-antibiotics-oliver-schacht-opgen?rq=antibiotic
US Clinicians: Reflect on how this Podcast applies to your day-to-day and earn AMA PRA Category 1 CMEs here: https://earnc.me/UpR9lQ
January 20, 2022
How Do You Make Decisions in Healthcare? (Talya Miron-Shatz)
Have you ever had the experience of not knowing how to decide about your medical condition? Or when you went to the doctor’s and haven’t asked half of the things you remembered might be useful to know when you returned home? Maybe you’re an app developer trying to figure out how to prevent churn and have a lasting user engagement with your health app? In today’s episode, you’ll hear from Talya Miron- Shatz, PhD, an expert in medical decision making, and author of a new book titled “Your Life Depends on It: What You Can Do to Make Better Choices About Your Health.” She talks about why physicians and patients need to abandon old behavior patterns that no longer work and learn to help each other make better collaborative choices.
In this discussion, Dr. Miron-Shatz discusses the latest findings about health choices and medical decisions, how can doctors talk to patients so they will leave the doctor’s office informed and we ended the discussion with three questions you should practice before going to see a doctor.
https://talyamironshatz.com/
Leave a rating or a review: www.lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth
Episode recap: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/what-to-ask-the-doctor
January 13, 2022
What are the Current Technology Challenges and Priorities for Healthcare Providers? (Karl Kellner, Venkat Inumella, McKinsey & Company)
The field of healthcare digitalization is maturing and getting increasingly sophisticated, demanding healthcare and technology leaders to think more strategically than they were perhaps required a few years ago. Chief Innovation or Chief Digital Officers are moving more to the executive level, where they need to take into consideration not just which tech solutions are really good, but which make most business sense at a given time for a given institution. In today’s discussion you’ll hear about current top challenges for healthcare leaders, how can healthcare providers do more with less and other findings by McKinsey.
Speakers:
Karl Kellner, Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, New York
Venkat Inumella, Partner at McKinsey & Company
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Leave a rating or a review: www.lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth
January 6, 2022
REFLECTIONS: A transocean podcast session (Joy Rios, Bianca Rose Phillips, Tjasa Zajc)
This is the last episode of Faces of digital health in 2021. Instead of an interview or a string of predictions for 2022, you will hear a reflection about the past year or two which I had with two other podcasters - Joy Rios - the host of HIT like a girl podcast - a podcast and a community supporting women in healthcare IT, and Bianca Rose Phillips - the host of Voice of Law podcast. Bianca is a digital health lawyer, and the author of a recently published book Making The Digital Health Revolution.
This was a cross-continental discussion, with Joy based in Mexico, Bianca in Australia, and Tjasa Zajc in Slovenia, Europe. We exchanged experiences with the pandemic in our environments. We also talked about our learning through our shows in the last year.
Faces of digital health: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com.
HIT Like a Girl Podcast: https://www.hitlikeagirlpod.com/
Digital Health Think Tank: https://www.biancarosephillips.com/
(OVER)DOSE - Documentary about medication errors: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/overdose-documentary
December 23, 2021
VR: Promises and Challenges in 2021 (Rafael Grossman, Jennifer Esposito, Aaron Gani)
A lot has been done in the VR for healthcare space today, especially in the US. The therapeutic potential is undeniable. Over 5000 studies have shown the efficacy of VR for pain management, PTSD, eating disorders, mental health, even helping manage pain during childbirth. In 2020 the FDA gave VR a special designation for virtual reality as a breakthrough device for managing pain. In November 2021 the FDA a prescription-use immersive virtual reality (VR) system that uses cognitive behavioral therapy and other behavioral methods to help with pain reduction in patients 18 years. The regulators are on board with VR, progress is happening on the software and hardware side, so where is VR at the moment in terms of development, challenges and accessibility?
In this episode, three experts answer these questions.
Speakers:
Jennifer Esposito is currently Vice President and General Manager, Health Business Unit at Magic Leap, which is pioneering an augmented reality platform to amplify enterprise productivity. https://www.magicleap.com/en-us
Aaron Gani - CEO of BehaVR which cultivates community with the country’s leading researchers, advocates and clinical domain experts to co-develop solutions https://www.behavr.com/
Rafael Grossman - Surgeon, Educator, speaker and one of the leading voice in medical extended reality space. https://www.rafaelgrossmann.com/
US clinicians: Reflect on how this Podcast applies to your day-to-day and earn AMA PRA Category 1 CMEs here: https://earnc.me/4x7hfK
Listen also:
F106 VRx: What has over 5000 studies taught us about the healing effect of VR? (Dr. Brennan Spiegel) https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f106-vrx-what-has-over-5000-studies-taught-us-about-the-healing-effect-of-vr-dr-brennan-spiegel
Leave a rating or a review: https://lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth
December 16, 2021
Switzerland, Diversity, and Meaningful Impact (Claire Murigande)
Claire Murigande is a Medical Affairs leader born in Burundi, lived in Kenya, and is now based in Switzerland. She is a biologist by background, passionate about empowering team members and bringing value through science. Among other things she recently completed an advance business degree in digital leadership and looked at the future development of digital health, where, as she says, being mindful of diversity. She’s also a TEDx speaker and the host of an award-winning podcast Narratives of purpose, in which she talks with people making an extraordinary social impact in various areas, such as youth empowerment, healthcare initiatives, and sustainable business. In this short discussion, we talked about her journey, healthcare in Switzerland, diversity, and what she has learned about global healthcare through her podcast. Enjoy the show and if you haven’t yet, do subscribe to the podcast to be notified about new episodes automatically. I will add the links to Claire’s TED talk and podcast in the show notes.
TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxSg32Le3kA
Narratives of purpose podcast: https://narratives-of-purpose.podcastpage.io/
3D printed assisted suicide pods approved in Switzerland:
Series about digital health in Africa: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f056-f060-digital-health-in-africa-series-tanzania-nigeria-south-africa-rwanda
December 9, 2021
How Do Nursing And Cybersecurity Go Together? (Marylyn Harris)
Marylyn Harris, RN, MSN, MBA is a Cybersecurity Consultant, Speaker, Writer and Social Entrepreneur. Harris is a decorated (former) U.S. Army Nurse and Gulf War Veteran. She was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army in 1992 and pursued a Master’s degree in psychiatric mental health nursing. After working as a sales rep for pharmaceutical companies she dove into healthcare IT and has been immersed in the cybersecurity space for the last few years. In this episode, she talks about:
how does it feel to work in a war and the consequences a deployment has
how can we as a society improve attitude towards mental health and coping
why are nurses perfect cybersecurity experts
what are the basic cybersecurity practices everyone should know?
More about the podcast: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
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December 2, 2021
Australian Healthcare, Co-design and AI (Marie Johnson)
Marie is the CEO of the Centre for Digital Business. She is a writer, commentator and international speaker on artificial intelligence, digital transformation, cyber, technology, ethics and the human experience. Marie’s expertise is the human interface in complex servicing systems. She is the co-creator of Nadia, the first AI digital human for service delivery and the creator of the AI digital human cardiac coach. She has a rish career behind her - she led the collaborative development of Microsoft’s global e-government strategy, led business authentication, business digital identity and professional digital credential initiatives, was Chief Technology Architect (CTA) of the Australian Government Health and Human Services Access Card program. In this episode, Marie talks about healthcare in Australia, how can we make AI solutions such as coaches more human and her thoughts regarding the future development of AI for healthcare.
More episodes: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Leave a rating or a review: lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth
November 26, 2021
Nordics Series 4/4: Europe Can Learn About Collaboration (Anna Adelöf Kragh)
This is the last episode in a short series about healthcare digitalization in the Nordics. The discussion resolves around healthcare in the Nordics more broadly, data standards and interoperability across Europe, a successful pilot project from the 2000’s called epSOS, in which 12 EU Member states worked on cross-border healthcare interoperability, and what that project tells us about ambitions in Europe to achieve the European Health Data Space by 2025. The speaker in the episode is Anna Adelöf Kragh, Partner at VENZO_Public and Healthcare - an innovative consultancy firm specializing in human-centric digital transformation. Anna has more than 10 years experience working with governance, strategy and project management within the public and healthcare sector. For example she worked on various projects related to healthcare interoperability and digitalization for the European Commission, Nordic Ministerial Coucil in the project for Nordic e-health cooperation group.
www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Nordics series: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/digital-health-in-the-nordics
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November 18, 2021
Nordics Series 3/4: Finland and Secondary use of Data
Finland has well-established regulations and processes for the use of data for secondary purposes. This is overseen by the Social and Health Data Permit Authority Findata, which facilitates data permit processing and improves data protection for individuals.
The secondary use of health data refers to using health data, such as patient records, for purposes other than the primary reason for which they were originally collected. This can include research, decision-making, and innovation.
European Commission has made the creation of a European Health Data Space (open in new window) as a priority for 2019-2025. The proposal stems from the GDPR. There are currently no common practices for the secondary use of health data in Europe.
This episode is a recording of a panel discussion that took place during the eHealth Days, organized as part of the Slovenian presidency to the Council of EU, end of August.
Speakers:
- Minna Hendolin, Leading Specialist – HealthData at the Finish innovation fund SITRA, Finland
Jukka Lähesmaa, Senior Specialist, The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland
Angel Martin (Brussels), chair of MedTech Europe’s Digital Health Committee and AI and Data WG
Dipak Kalra (UK), President of The European Institute for Innovation through Health Data
See the full series:
https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/digital-health-in-the-nordics
November 12, 2021
Nordics Series 2/4: Norway, long and healthy life and data (Nard Schreurs)
This is the second episode about digital health in the Nordics. In the previous episode, you could listen about Denmark, how elderly care is managed there and how EHRs have been in place for years so clinicians and patients can access data digitally.
In this episode, Nard Schreurs, a journalist by background who’s been working with e-health since 2007, and has both started and built up Healthworld and the EHiN conference, talks about why do Norwegians have not only high life expectancy but more importantly a high number of healthy years, what are people satisfied and dissatisfied about the healthcare system, and more.
The Nordics series: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/digital-health-in-the-nordics
eHin conference: https://ehin.no/en/
November 5, 2021
Nordics Series 1/4: Denmark, Elderly Care and 34 Years of Access to Doctor Notes (Erik Jylling)
This is the first out of four episodes about digital health and healthcare in the Nordics. In the next few weeks, you will hear about Denmark, Norway, Finland, and a broader regional overview. Not all countries but there have already been speakers on the show who also talked about Sweden, so I will link those in the show notes as well. The first speaker you will hear from is Erik Jylling, the executive vice president of Danish Regions. In his professional career, Erik has been deeply involved in planning, organizing, and leading the Danish healthcare system with the view from different professional perspectives and positions, practical and political. He earned an M.D. with 25 years of practical experience in anesthesiology and intensive care medicine. He has worked as a consultant, head of the department, and in superior leading positions on hospital and organization levels. In this episode, we discussed the specifics of management in healthcare, how does one achieve organizational chance in a hospital setting, but also healthcare in Denmark: the admirably organized elderly care, the fact that patients have access to doctor’s notes since 1987, yes, 1987, so 34 years.
The Nordics Series will be available at: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/digital-health-in-the-nordics
Sweden: F068 The power of patients 3/4: How can patients influence policy? (Bettina Ryll)
https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f065-f068-the-power-of-patients-4-episodes-series?rq=Bettina
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October 29, 2021
Between Malta and UK: A Radiologists's View (Ryan Grech)
A few years ago Stefan Buttigieg, a digital health evangelist from Malta said that Malta is a great testbed for digital health startups interested in entering Europe (https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/2019/01/03/f027-can-malta-be-a-gateway-to-the-european-market?rq=Malta).
In this episode, we’ll re-visit the island in a discussion with Ryan Grench - Radiology Registrar from Malta who works in the UK. Ryan talked about the benefits of running a digital health startup in Malta, made a few comparisons between healthcare in the UK and Malta, and also shared his views on telemedicine and digital health. Ryan is among other things an advisor to the MedTech World Conference, which we’ll take place between 17-20 November. To visit the conference, listen to the end of the discussion where Ryan shared how you can get a nice discount on your ticket.
Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Leave a rating or review: lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth
MedTech World Conference: https://med-tech.world/
Discount code: DigitalHealth50ST50
October 24, 2021
Israel: How are the Government, Hospitals and HMOs working together?
End of August Days of eHealth were organised as part of the Slovenian Presidency to the Council of EU. In four days a lot of insight was offered about healthcare digitalization in Catalonia, Germany, Portugal, Slovenia, Israel and Finland. In the previous episodes, I published the panel discussions about Germany and Catalonia. This is the panel about Israel.
Israel has had electronic healthcare records for two decades, in 2018. A country of 9 million people, attributes 7,5% of its GDP to healthcare and is home to roughly 1,500 companies operating in the healthcare and life sciences. In the panel discussion you will learn about the national digital health strategy in Israel, how to Health Maintainance Organisations, Government, and Hospitals collaborating to advance healthcare. You will also learn a little bit more about Slovenia with two representatives of the Slovenian healthcare ecosystem.
The speakers:
Esti Shelly, Director, Digital Health at Ministry of Health Israel
Michael Halberthal, General Director of Rambam Health Care Campus
Noa Kedem, Deputy Director, Digital health unit (Medical Informatics) at Maccabi Health Services
Jurij Šorli, CEO of the Hospital Topolšica (Slovenia)
Bogdan Tušar, Acting Director General, Directorate for the Development of the Health System, Ministry of Health, Slovenia
Recap of roundtables at Days of eHealth: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/days-of-ehealth-healthcare-digitalization-in-catalonia-germany-finland-and-israel
Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com.
The European Patient Forum’s Congress happening during 26-29 October: https://epfcongress.eu/
October 15, 2021
Why Are Adolescents and Young Adults Special Patients? (Ivett Jakab)
From the 26th and 29th of October, I will be co-hosting the EPF Congress 2021, brought to you by the European Patients’ Forum. This year’s topic is the digital transformation of healthcare. Speakers from across Europe and organisations such as WHO, German Federal Ministry of Health, European Medicine’s Agency, EIT Health, BMJ and more are going to discuss the state of digitalization in Europe, with a heavy focus on the patient perspective.
The event will be moderated by me and Ivett Jakab, who is the president of the European Patients’ Forum’s Youth group. In this short special episode, you will get to know Ivett, who was diagnosed with a rare disease called Wilson’s disease at the age of 16 and underwent a liver transplant as a consequence.
In this episode, Ivett shared her story, the meaning and power of the EPF Youth group and why patients between 15 and 29 are such an underserved group, what are the specifics of this age group and more.
If you’re working in pharma or digital health and would like to work with the EPF Youth Group, learn more about EPF by visiting www.eu-patient.eu.
To learn more about the EPF YG: https://www.eu-patient.eu/about-epf/about-us/Youth-Strategy/
Young patient employment project (WAYS) results: https://www.eu-patient.eu/about-epf/about-us/Youth-Strategy/ways/
Contact the EPF YG via [email protected]
Registration and Programme details for the EPF Congress 2021 at www.epfcongress.eu
Follow the Congress on Twitter by following #EPFCongress2021
October 7, 2021
Gemany: Hospital Digitalization Initiatives
Slovenia is currently presiding the council of EU until 2022. In the first week of September, the members of the Slovenian health tech ecosystem organized a conference about examples of good practices in healthcare digitalization across Europe. In one of the previous episodes, you were able to listen to the panel discussion on the healthcare strategy in Catalonia. Today’s episode is an adapted recording of the panel about Germany, and the upcoming two episodes will be the adapted discussions about healthcare digitalization in Israel and Finland.
In the past two years, a lot of efforts have been put in place to accelerate the progress on the digitalization of the healthcare digital infrastructure in Germany. Many laws were passed, the country received a lot of international attention about the DIGA process, which enables startups to make their apps reimbursable. The bigger national projects which saw the day of life this year, however, were the introduction of electronic patient records, telemedicine, and e-prescriptions.
On the funding side, the federal ministry of health and the federal states are investing EUR 4,3 billion for concrete projects that work towards the digitalization of hospitals.
In this discussion, we’re going to scratch the surface of the design of the national strategy and digital health infrastructure in Germany. and look at the practical example of the Medical informatics Initiative. Medical Informatics Initiative is a separate project to improve medical research and patient care.
You will hear more from five speakers. The panel discussion was moderated by Maja Dragović, a former journalist for digitalhealth.net, now a Business Developer at Better. She will also present the speakers.
Speakers:
Dr. Michael Marschollek - professor for Medical Informatics at Hannover Medical School (Germany) and executive director of the Peter L. Reichertz Institute for Medical Informatics of TU-Braunschweig and Hannover Medical School.
Johannes Starlinger, an MD, working as an Interdisciplinary Digital Health Consultant, Howto Health GmbH, Germany
Mark Langguth, eHealth Consultant, Former Senior Product Manager at Gematik
Fabien Prasser, Professor of Medical Informatics at the Berlin Institute of Health at the Charite University Hospital Berlin
We were also supposed to be joined by Anka Bolka, Head of Director of Field for Development and Analysis, Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia, but since she couldn’t make it, Tomaž Mračun, who manages the application development department at Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia (HIIS).
Recap of the Days of eHealth: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/days-of-ehealth-healthcare-digitalization-in-catalonia-germany-finland-and-israel
Join the EPF Congress: https://epfcongress.eu/
Podcast Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
October 1, 2021
How Can We Increase Gender Diversity in the PE/VC space? (Yahel Halamish)
Nina Capital, is a specialized venture capital firm investing in early stage startups at the intersection of healthcare and technology. Level 20 is a not for profit organisation founded in 2015 by 12 women working in senior roles in private equity, aligned around a common vision of improving gender diversity in the industry. Nina Capital and Level 20 recently published a report that showed y. In aggregate, women represent 30% of the workforce. Only 17% of senior roles positions are held by women. I spoke with Yahel Halamish, Nina’s Head of Investor Relations and Diversity & Inclusion Officer and she shared her views of the results, why diversity matters and how can we encourage and improve it.
Gender Diversity in the Priate Equity and Venture Capital in Spain Report: https://www.level20.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/ninacapital_Whitepaper-LEVEL20-NINACAPITAL_final_20210830.pdf
Read an opinion piece about the report: https://medium.com/ninacapital/gender-diversity-in-private-equity-and-venture-capital-in-spain-c5d7c80a03d1
Join the European Patient Forum Congress: https://epfcongress.eu/
September 23, 2021
Catalonia: Betting on Open Standards (Pol Perez Sust)
If we look at nationwide successful digitalization projects, we often hear about Estonia, Israel, Denmark, Finland, Slovenia, or Israel. All these countries have less than 10 million people. It is therefore not surprising, that in bigger countries that are divided into regions, successful digitalization happens gradually.
Spain is divided in regions and each one of them manages healthcare on its own. Catalonia, which has 7,6 million people, is driving a 43 million EUR worth regional digital health strategy, in preparation since 2018. The strength of the new model of information systems is to build the electronic health history with the openEHR standard. This will enable semantic interoperability and enable a person center model for information.
This episode is a recording of a conference panel during the eHealth Week, a week of events about good healthcare digitalization practices across Europe, organized during the Slovenian presidency to the Council of EU.
Speakers:
Pol Perez Sust, director of Information System Area of Catalunya, Spain
Bojana Beović, President, Medical Chamber of Slovenia
Blaž Suhač, Assistant to GD for informatics, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia
Moderator: Maja Dragović, Former journalist for digitalhealth.net, Business Development Specialist at Better
EPF congress: https://epfcongress.eu/
Send me a message for a complimentary pass on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tjasazajc/
Visit the website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Leave a rating or a review: www.lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth
September 16, 2021
Taiwan: The State of Digitalization, AI and What Went Wrong With COVID? (Yu Chuan Jack Li)
Taiwan spends only 6.4% of it’s GDP for healthcare, but has high satisfaction rates with healthcare, and is also very digitalized. In this episode, a closer look into healthcare in Taiwan is provided by Prof. Yu-Chuan Jack Li - a pioneer of artificial intelligence in medicine and translational biomedical informatics. Professor Li is Editor-in-Chief for BMJ Health & Care Informatics journal, the elected president of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) and has devoted himself to evolving the next generation of Al in patient safety and prevention ("Earlier Medicine"). He has been deeply involved in biomedical informatics development in Taiwan and international cooperation on various continents, including Asia, America, Europe, and Africa. We spoke about the state of healthcare digitalization and AI in Taiwan.
CLINICIANS FROM THE US: Based on the conversations happening here & how it applies to your day-to-day, please capture your reflections here to unlock AMA PRA Category 1 CMEs: https://earnc.me/cG1EdO
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Faces of digital health website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
September 9, 2021
Canada: How Can Hospital Networks Innovate? (Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg, Danina Kapetanović)
After a summer of discussions about medication safety, medication errors, the role of AI in prescribing decision support, precision medicine, and drug development, we’re moving to explore healthcare systems again. Today, we’ll dive into Canada, more specifically Quebec. You will hear from two speakers: Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg - President and CEO Integrated Health and Social Services University Network for West-Central Montreal (CIUSSS West-Central Montreal) and Danina Kapetanovic the Head of OROT - a Connected Health Innovation Hub inside the network.
The network serves approximately 345,000 people, who are served by more than 30 member facilities. You will first hear dr. Rosenberg talks a little bit about the structure of the healthcare system in Canada and then Danina will explain a little bit more about how the innovation hub works, how CIUSS is encouraging innovation inside the network, and more.
September 3, 2021
How Is AI Improving Medication Discovery and Management? (Marinka Zitnik)
Dr. Marinka Žitnik is a computer scientist from Harvard, studying applied machine learning with a focus on challenges brought forward by data in science, medicine, and health. A large aspect of her work concerns the use of AI for better use of medications - either by analyzing and predicting side effects in polypharmacy or by potentially discovering new indications of combinations of drugs that are already on the market.
Dr. Zitnik joined Harvard as an Assistant Professor in December 2019. Before that, she was a postdoctoral scholar in Computer Science at Stanford University. She was also a member of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub at Stanford. Some of her methods are used by major biomedical institutions, including Baylor College of Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stanford Medical School, and Massachusetts General Hospital.
In this discussion, she talks about the role of AI in the development of COVID vaccines, the role of AI in drug development, realistic expectations of AI tools we can expect in the next 5 to 10 years, and more.
***
This discussion was part of the discussions recorded for the movie OVERDOSE - How can we prevent medication errors, featuring 10 speakers from 6 countries across the world. Find all the details about the movie along with full interviews with speakers in the movie here: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/overdose-documentary
!!!
If you are a clinician in the US, you can actually earn CME credits by listening to this show. Find the link to more details in the show notes. The CMEfy process is powered by Adaptrack - a simple platform to unlock precious time & money, while avoiding malpractice, burnout & administrative risks. CMEfy this topic: https://earnc.me/SneirH
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August 28, 2021
Why Patient Safety is Like Global Warming (Abdulelah Alhawsawi)
According to WHO the occurrence of adverse events due to unsafe care is likely one of the 10 leading causes of death and disability in the world.
Patient harm is caused by several healthcare issues.
Healthcare-associated infections occur in 7 and 10 out of every 100 hospitalized patients in high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries respectively (11). Unsafe surgical care procedures cause complications in up to 25% of patients. Patient harm is caused by unsafe injections practices in health care settings, unsafe transfusion practices, diagnostic errors, radiation errors, sepsis is frequently not diagnosed early enough, Venous thromboembolism (blood clots) is one of the most common and preventable causes of patient harm. On top of the list are medication errors. Medication errors are a leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in health care systems: globally, the cost associated with medication errors has been estimated at US$ 42 billion annually.
Abdulelah Alhawsawi is the Ex - founding Director-General of the Saudi Patient Safety Center (SPSC), and MOH Advisor on Patient Safety. He is a consultant to several national and international quality and safety organizations. has helped introduce Patient Safety as a G20 priority in the 2020 G20 of Saudi Arabia. Currently, Dr. Alhawsawi is part of the WHO’s Global Patient Safety Action Plan Taskforce. He has been trying to help improve patient safety throughout his career. As he says if patient safety becomes a priority as is safety in other industries, we can improve healthcare. At the moment, however, we still lack leadership and advocacy in this field.
In this discussion you will hear an overview of factors obstructing patient safety improvement efforts and why, the secret to improve patient safety according to dr. Alhawsawi is better involved and empowered of patients in care planning and treatment execution.
This discussion was part of the discussion of the movie (OVER)DOSE - How can we prevent medication errors. See the movie and interviews with all the speakers: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/overdose-documentary
Browse through other episodes as well: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com.
US clinicians - earn CME credits: https://earnc.me/xfet5F All the future episodes of Faces of digital health will have links for earning CME credits.
Leave a rating or a review: https://lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth
August 22, 2021
An Insight in Global Medication Safety Approaches (Lea Dias)
Lea Dias is a former Medication Safety Pharmacist at Perth Children’s Hospital, now the Founder and CEO of Quaefacta. In 2013, the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust enabled her to go on a six-week tour around the world, to visit several hospitals in the US, UK, and Israel, and assess how various institutions used technologies for patient safety improvement. Three years later, she went on another tour to get additional insights from hospitals in Bulgaria, France, Spain, UK, Singapore and Thailand. She brought the knowledge back to Australia, where she led the implementation of a pharmacy robotics system. In this discussion, we talked about medication errors she saw in her clinical practice, the causes of those errors, and what were her takeaways from the two world tours related to patient safety. Today, Lea is using all that knowledge to build her company Quafecta, which aims to empower patients to make informed healthcare decisions via ownership of their own health data.
!!For Medical Doctors in the USA: Based on the conversations happening here & how it applies to your day-to-day, please capture your reflections here to unlock AMA PRA Category 1 CMEs: https://earnc.me/Fb5PMc
See the documentary (OVER)DOSE - How can we prevent medication errors? https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/overdose-documentary
August 12, 2021
A Glimpse In The State of Hospital Electronic Prescribing in the UK (Duncan Cripps)
Some say fax machines still exist because of healthcare. Across the world, paper is still heavily used in healthcare. The NHS is on course to eliminate paper prescribing in hospitals and introduce digital prescribing across the entire NHS by 2024. From 2018 until the end of 2020, 216 NHS trusts have received funding to implement systems electronic prescriptions and medicines administration (ePMA).
IT implementations in healthcare take several months. Clinicians need to use several systems, learn about updates of the system. Sometimes digitalization requires more time for documenting patient care. Therefore clinicians can be disappointed that most digital solutions at the moment aren’t high-tech decision support systems that would take away the cognitive load from clinicians. Digital systems still require clinicians to basically not expect the systems to think instead of them. In this discussion you will hear from Duncan Cripps - Electronic Prescribing and Medication Management Lead at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust. Duncan is a pharmacist by background and a lecturer. In this discussion, he outlined the current state of electronic prescribing in the UK, and talked about the challenges he sees in electronic prescribing in hospitals. One of the key things he looks forward to is the increase of interoperability between primary, secondary, and tertiary systems. This has the potential to bring a single source of truth about the patient to the physician. Consequently, transcription errors can be avoided.
Medical Doctors in the USA - EARN CME credits: Based on the conversations happening here & how it applies to your day-to-day, please capture your reflections here to unlock AMA PRA Category 1 CMEs: https://earnc.me/Fb5PMc
See the documentary (OVER)DOSE - How can we prevent medication errors? https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/overdose-documentary
August 8, 2021
Why Aren't Polypills Used and What Are The Limits Of Pharmacogenomics? (John Horn)
Do you know what clinical pharmacists do? For one thing, clinical pharmacists optimize patient’s medications. This can have a big impact on improving patient outcomes and patient quality of life. In today’s discussion, you’re going to hear from Dr. John Horn, Emeritus Professor of Pharmacy and Associate Director of the UW Medicine Pharmacy Services. He is co-author of the reference texts Drug Interactions Analysis and Management and The Top 100 Drug Interactions: A Guide to Patient Management. In addition to over 250 publications related to drug interactions, Dr. Horn has published in the areas of cardiovascular and gastrointestinal therapeutics and pharmacokinetics. You will hear: why are pharmacists integral team members in patient care, why is medication adherence in patients impossible to reach, dr Horn also shared his thoughts about the potential and near future of 3D printing. Teaser: he is very skeptical about seeing that work in practice.
This interview was conducted for the purpose of the movie OVERDOSE - How can we prevent medication errors. If you haven’t yet, do check out the link in the show notes to watch the movie. As part of an awareness campaign about medication safety, full interviews with all speakers from the movie will be published until the end of the summer.
See the movie and related content: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/overdose-documentary
Browse through podcast content blog posts: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog
July 30, 2021
Why Do Doctors Skip Medication Interaction Alerts? (David W. Bates)
Being a doctor can be very gratifying when a life is saved or a patient is cured. However, the number of jobs and skills physicians need to master is increasing with the advancement of technology and science. This makes the medical environment increasingly stressful, also because at the moment, many IT solutions are burdensome and add the bureaucratic workload to the schedules of doctors. Today’s topic is how to doctors approach and manage medication prescribing. I spoke with David W. Bates, Patient Safety Expert and Harvard MD, who is an internationally renowned expert in patient safety, using information technology to improve care, quality-of-care, cost-effectiveness, and outcomes assessment in medical practice. He is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he co-directs the Program in Clinical Effectiveness. He directs the Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and serves as external program lead for research in the World Health Organization’s Global Alliance for Patient Safety. He has published over 700 peer-reviewed papers.
We discussed:
How is patient care changing and impacting medication management,
Why doctors ignore alerts of decision support systems,
What are healthcare IT systems missing in the UX design,
What do doctors hope to see from IT in the near future,
And how should organisations approach patient safety culture improvements?
Enjoy the discussion, go to www.facesofdigitalhealth,com This discussion was part of a series of discussions recorded for the movie (OVER)DOSE - How can we prevent medication errors?
Opportunity: HRSA Announces New Loan Repayment Program for Behavioral Health Providers. Learn more and apply here: https://bhw.hrsa.gov/funding/apply-loan-repayment/star-lrp
July 20, 2021
How Do Nurses See Medication Administration Challenges? (Martina Viduka)
Nurses are the backbone of healthcare. They’re the closest to the patient, they offer support to them and the doctors. Their mission is to make patients feel better and recover as fast as possible. There is a global shortage of nurses and more often than not, nurses are stretched thin. The same as with doctors, mistakes can happen in nursing. You are going to hear from Martina Viduka A practicing nurse and the CEO of Advosense. In this discussion, she presented the nursing perspective on medication management in the hospital setting. This interview was part of the discussions recorded for the movie (OVER)DOSE - How can we prevent medication errors?. Find the link to the movie in the show notes, and see or hear the interviews with other speakers as well. I spoke with 10 experts from six countries across the world to understand why is medication-related patient safety a global problem in which everyone plays a role - the patient and his family, the doctors, the nurses, and the pharmacists.
Watch the documentary (OVER)DOSE - How can we prevent medication errors and the panel discussion on Youtube: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/overdose-how-can-we-prevent-medication-errors
Opportunity: HRSA Announces New Loan Repayment Program for Behavioral Health Providers. Learn more and apply here: https://bhw.hrsa.gov/funding/apply-loan-repayment/star-lrp
July 15, 2021
How Demanding Is Management of Psychiatric Disorders? (Roni Shiloh)
With mental health being at the forefront of our attention in 2020, next to COVID, have you ever wondered, how the work of a psychiatrist looks like? Many clinicians fear psychiatric drugs, but Roni Shiloh firmly believes the fear is unnecessary.
Roni Shiloh is an MD, specialized in psychiatry. He headed a closed Psychiatric Department, was Chief Psychiatric Officer at a large Israeli HMO as well a senior lecturer in Tel-Aviv University, Israel. He then worked in the Pharmaceutical industry before starting his own startup Seegnal, which offers clinicians decision support in medication prescribing. The system takes into account many of a patient’s variables to be as accurate as possible, and more importantly, for the decision support to not overwhelm the doctor with alerts. Electronic prescribing and medication management are very complex and plagued with errors, which I tried to outline in the documentary OVERDOSE - How can we prevent medication errors. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, find the link in the show notes, or find the version adapted for radio in one of the previous episodes of this podcast. A few of Roni’s statements from this interview are also in the movie.
This discussion covers:
How the work of a psychiatrist looks like,
what are the challenges related to medications in psychiatry,
why are decision support systems for medication prescribing currently still mostly frustrating for the users? Various research papers show that 90-96% of alerts get ignored. You’ll be able to hear a little bit more about that in one of the upcoming episodes with the pioneering researcher in the field of the impact of IT on medical professionals - Dr. David W. Bates from Harvard.
Watch the documentary (OVER)DOSE - How can we prevent medication errors and the panel discussion on Youtube: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/overdose-how-can-we-prevent-medication-errors
Opportunity: HRSA Announces New Loan Repayment Program for Behavioral Health Providers. Learn more and apply here: https://bhw.hrsa.gov/funding/apply-loan-repayment/star-lrp
July 9, 2021
F138 (OVER)DOSE Part 2 – after documentary expert panel discussion
This is a panel discussion that happened after the premiere of the documentary (OVER)DOSE - How can we prevent medication errors? which aired on 29 June. You can listen to the adapted audio-only version of the documentary in episode 137.
The documentary explores and offers an overview of the current challenges and technical solutions related to medication safety to raise awareness about the need to further improve medication-related patient safety.
Unsafe medication practices and medication errors are a leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in health care systems across the world. Globally, the cost associated with medication errors has been estimated at $42 billion USD annually. Errors can occur at different stages of the medication use process.
More than 237 million medication errors are made every year in England, the avoidable consequences of which cost the NHS upwards of £98 million and more than 1700 lives every year, indicate national estimates, published online in the journal BMJ Quality & Safety.
This panel further highlights issues related to medication safety.
Watch the documentary and the panel on Youtube: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/overdose-how-can-we-prevent-medication-errors
Speakers on the panel:
Tjaša Zajc, Author of (OVER)DOSE, Host of Faces of Digital Health
Stefan Siekierski, Nurse, Electronic prescribing Project Manager, Better Delivery Manager UK & IE
Katrina Azer, Pharmacist, Patient Advocate, Board Member of the Pharmacy Council of New Zealand
Robert Johnstone, Board Member of the European Forum for Good Clinical Practice (EFGCP) and International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC)
Alexander Jankuloski, CEO at Kuwait Hospital
Hicham Naim, Global Head Integrated & Personalized Patient Care Program, Digital Advisory Board at Takeda
Prof. Yu-Chuan Jack-Li - a researcher of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine and medical informatics, and a practicing dermatologist, the Editor-in-Chief of BMJ Health & Care Informatics
Opportunity: HRSA Announces New Loan Repayment Program for Behavioral Health Providers. Learn more and apply here: https://bhw.hrsa.gov/funding/apply-loan-repayment/star-lrp
July 5, 2021
F137 (OVER)DOSE Part 1 – documentary adapted for radio
This is a short documentary about medication-related patient safety. The documentary explores and offers an overview of the current challenges and technical solutions related to medication safety to raise awareness about the need to further improve medication-related patient safety.
Unsafe medication practices and medication errors are a leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in health care systems across the world. Globally, the cost associated with medication errors has been estimated at $42 billion USD annually. Errors can occur at different stages of the medication use process.
More than 237 million medication errors are made every year in England, the avoidable consequences of which cost the NHS upwards of £98 million and more than 1700 lives every year, indicate national estimates, published online in the journal BMJ Quality & Safety.
The documentary premiered on 29 June and was accompanied by an expert panel discussion which you can listen to in episode 138.
Watch the documentary: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/overdose-how-can-we-prevent-medication-errors
Speakers in the movie and this episode:
David W. Bates, Medical Director of Clinical and Quality Analysis, Information Systems, Patient Safety Expert and Harvard MD (Clinical & Research Perspective)
Professor John Horn, PharmD, University of Washington School of Pharmacy, coauthor of “The Top 100 Drug Interactions”; A Guide to Patient Management”
Martina Viduka, Practicing Nurse, Co-Founder of Advosense
David Kliff, author and publisher of the Diabetic Investor eNewsletter, former investment advisor, and as a person living with diabetes (Patient Perspective)
Duncan Cripps, Electronic Prescribing and Medication Management Lead at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (Pharmacist Perspective)
Roni Shiloh, CEO of Seegnal, MD degree, specialized in Psychiatry (CDS provider and doctor perspective)
Hicham Naim, Global Head Integrated & Personalized Patient Care Program, Digital Advisory Board at Takeda (Pharma Perspective)
Marinka Žitnik, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School (Research perspective
Lea Dias, Clinical Pharmacist, Founder and CEO of Quaefacta
Abdulelah Alhawsawi, Ex - founding Director-General of the Saudi Patient Safety Center (SPSC)
Roi Shternin, Founder of the patient-led Israeli society for Dysautonomia (Patient perspective).
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July 2, 2021
F136 Do You Understand the Psychology of Chronic Disease? (David Kliff, The Diabetic Investor)
David Kliff is the author and publisher of the Diabetic Investor eNewsletter, former investment advisor and as a person living with diabetes. As the author and publisher of the Diabetic Investor eNewsletter, David Kliff has spent the last 20 years analyzing the ups and downs of the diabetes industry. He closely monitors the diabetes biomed, biotech and device market and shares intel on breaking developments in existing and emerging pharmaceutical and tech companies that operate in that space.
In this episode, David talks about improvements in diabetes care and the psychological impacts and challenges contributing to low adherence to medication adherence and other diabetes treatment-related challenges.
This discussion was recorded as part of the research for the documentary (OVER)DOSE - How can we prevent medication errors?
Join the premiere on 29 June:
https://www.linkedin.com/events/over-dose-howcanwepreventmedica6800062280823263232/
More details about the event: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/overdose-how-can-we-prevent-medication-errors
Thanks to our Sponsor: Health Resources and Services Administration:
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June 17, 2021
F135 Why is Medication Price Transparency in the US Complicated and Problematic? (Carm Huntress)
Because US healthcare is private and operates by the rules of the free market, prices for services and medications can differ substantially. Solutions such as GoodRx and Amazon Pharmacy are addressing price transparency for consumers. On the other side are the Real Time Prescription Benefit Providers which help physicians see drug prices for a specific patient even before that patient leaves their office. The challenge with knowing how much a drug will cost a patient lies in the fact that different insurance companies have different policies regarding how much they will pay for medication. Patients might have a plan with high deductibles. But it’s not just the provider and the insurance company: prices depend on the Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PMS) - intermediaries that manage prescription drug benefits on behalf of health insurers. PBMs negotiate prices with drug manufacturers and pharmacies.
In this episode, Carm Huntress, the CEO of RxRevu Real Time Prescription Benefit Provider company, talks about the upcoming challenges of prices related to precision medicine, how drug pricing affects prescribing and treatment, and how price transparency can change the medication prescribing process.
Leave a rating or a review: www.lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth
Episode summary: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/rxrevu-drug-pricing
Watch on Youtube:
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June 10, 2021
F134 What Do You Know About SPACs in Healthcare? (mHealth Israel episode)
Funding in technologies, especially software in healthcare, has been booming in the last few years. Recently, SPACs - special purpose acquisition companies have gained in popularity. SPACs are not a new vehicle that makes it much easier for companies to go public. But it seems like their use has been reborn in the last year.
This episode is prepared in partnership with mHealth Israel. mHealth Israel, led by Levi Shapiro, recently organized a webinar about SPACs. That webinar is adapted for audio in this episode.
This is a three-part episode. First, you’re going to hear about what SPACs are as explained by Keith Townsend from the law firm King & Spalding. Then Sari Kaganoff, General Manager at Rock Health will take you through the state of SPACs in healthcare. The two presentations are followed by a Q&A session. The whole content is moderated by Gil Bashe, digital health thought leader and Managing Partner at Finn Partners marketing agency.
Watch the SPAC webinar on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gnjpZPexQg&t=2854s
Join the premiere of (OVER)DOSE documentary: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/overdose-how-can-we-prevent-medication-errors
Join the chat already before the premiere at the event's site on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/events/over-dose-howcanwepreventmedica6800062280823263232/
Leave a rating or a review: https://lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth
Thanks to our Sponsor: Health Resources and Services Administration:
Receive up to $250,000 in student loan repayment in exchange for service in a community disproportionately affected by the opioid crisis. Learn more and apply to join STAR LRP - that stands for the Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Loan Repayment Program. Applications Close on July 22, 2021
June 4, 2021
F133 How Can You Make Cancer Care Children-Friendly? (Simone Mozzilli, Liliane Dubois, Beaba)
Simone Lehwess Mozzilli and Liliane Dübois both had cancer in their past. Liliane as a child, Simone as an adult. They are both an integral part of the Brazilian non-profit Beaba. Beaba offers support to children with cancer and their families by demystifying cancer and informing in a clear, objective, and optimistic way about the disease and treatment. They do so through various means, for example, a printed book called Beabook which resembles a dictionary and explains more than one hundred and fifty terms about cancer. In this episode, Simone, who is the President of Beaba, and Liliane, who is the Strategy Officer, talked about how to approach children with cancer, what they’ve learned from the app and other products being used across the world and talked a little bit about cancer care in Brazil.
Join the premiere of (OVER)DOSE - How can we prevent medication errors? More info: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/overdose-how-can-we-prevent-medication-errors
Go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com to browse through other episodes as well.
Learn more about Beaba and how you can support it: www.beaba.org
Leave a rating or a review: www.lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth
Thanks to our Sponsor: Health Resources and Services Administration:
Receive up to $250,000 in student loan repayment in exchange for service in a community disproportionately affected by the opioid crisis. Learn more and apply to join STAR LRP - that stands for the Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Loan Repayment Program. Applications Close on July 22, 2021
Recap: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f133-how-can-you-explain-cancer-to-children-simone-mozzilli-liliane-dubois-beaba
May 28, 2021
Trailer 1: (OVER)DOSE – How Can We Prevent Medication Errors?
Unsafe medication practices and medication errors are a leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in health care systems across the world. Globally, the cost associated with medication errors has been estimated at $42 billion USD annually. Errors can occur at different stages of the medication use process. This is the movie trailer, adopted for audio for a short documentary (OVER)DOSE, How can we prevent medication errors? which will air on 29 June 2021.
More about the event: https://www.linkedin.com/events/over-dose-howcanwepreventmedica6800062280823263232/
Video trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPKvDYSm1mI&t=29s
Speakers in this episode:
David Kliff has been living with diabetes for over 20 years. He’s known as the Diabetic Investor, which is the name of the newsletter he’s been publishing for over two decades.
Dr. David W. Bates, Professor of Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Lea Dias is the founder of a healthcare startup called Quaefacta. She is a Clinical Pharmacist by background and in the past worked as the CLinical Safety Pharmacist at the Perth Children’s Hospital.
May 21, 2021
F132 What's The State of Cybersecurity In Healthcare? (Lee Kim)
Phishing, Whaling, and exposure of patient data are a rising occurrence of the increasingly digitalized healthcare systems. 2020 saw more data breaches than previous years. What are the basics to know? Lee Kim is Director of Privacy and Security at HIMSS. In this episode, she talks about the basics of cybersecurity every individual should know, she presents the state of cybersecurity in healthcare and the outlook.
Episode Summary: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f132-whats-the-state-of-cybersecurity-in-healthcare-lee-kim
See the video interview on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv1SM38siyo&t=25s
Thanks to our Sponsor: Health Resources and Services Administration:
Receive up to $250,000 in student loan repayment in exchange for service in a community disproportionately affected by the opioid crisis. Learn more and apply to join STAR LRP - that stands for the Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Loan Repayment Program. Applications Close on July 22, 2021
May 15, 2021
F131 How Can We Better Measure Pain? (Sara E. Berger, IBM)
How would you rate your pain on a scale of 1 to 10? Pain is a very subjective matter and there’s plenty of research done and in progress to understand it better. In this episode Sara E. Berger, a researcher at IBM with over a decade of experience in the pain field talks about how science defines pain in the first place, how can pain be quantified given the variety of factors that impact it, and how does the research so far translate into clinical practice.
Thanks for our Sponsor: Health Resources and Services Administration:
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To read more about other topics as well go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com.
Faces of digital health is now also live on the Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEOzIOl_wIKtmoDmgfePhAQ
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May 6, 2021
F130 How Can We Optimize the Use of Antibiotics? (Oliver Schacht, OpGen)
It is absolutely scary to get an infection and run out of options to treat it. Broadly speaking, existing antibiotics are and are going to keep losing their effectiveness, if antibiotics and antimicrobials are not used effectively. In this episode, you will hear a discussion with Mr. Oliver Schacht, a corporate finance professional and expert in the molecular diagnostics industry. He is the CEO of OpGen which developed cloud-based software to identify, track and predict antibiotic-resistant infections. In this episode, he talks about the factors impacting the global issue of antimicrobial resistance, the role of rapid diagnostics in the process of effective prescribing of antibiotics, and also the political and economic factors impacting the development of antibiotics.
Enjoy the show, and if you’ll like what you hear, subscribe to be notified about new episodes automatically. And if you prefer podcasts, find Faces of digital health where ever you listen to podcasts.
OpGen: https://www.opgen.com/
Episode recap:
Go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com to browse through other episodes as well.
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April 29, 2021
F129 What Is the State of Digital Health Law? (Bianca Rose Phillips)
Bianca Rose Phillips is a Global Digital Health Law theorist from Australia, and the founder of a Digital Health Think Tank. In her legal work, she is focused mostly on Australia and the USA. Many people know her by her framework of the so-called 8 pillars of digital health law-making. Bianca also contributed to the recently published book, Voice Technology in Healthcare, she is a lecturer and she also runs two podcasts - Too nice for law and Digital Health Law series.
In this discussion, she talks about the current state of digital health law in general, why she opted out of My Health Record, why patients need to be responsible about their data, the legal standpoints in data privacy and ownership, and more.
Episode Summary
More about Bianca:
Website: www.biancarosephillips.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/biancaphillips/
Join the Voice for equality event on 28 April
Browse through other episodes as well at www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
April 23, 2021
F128 What Are We Missing About AI Development In Healthcare? (Casey Ross)
Casey Ross is an investigative reporter for STAT News, where he covers AI development in healthcare and medicine. Last year he analyzed over 160 AI product market approval submissions cleared by the FDA between 2012 and 2020. As it turns out criteria for assessment and the dataset submitted differed a lot. Only 7 of 161 AI products cleared by the FDA in recent years, included any information about the racial composition of their datasets. Those devices were cleared to use AI for the diagnosis of a wide array of serious conditions, including heart disease, strokes, and respiratory illnesses.
In this discussion, Casey talks about the state of trust in AI solutions in healthcare, what have we learned from the development of IBM Watson, and more.
Enjoy the discussion, which you can also listen to wherever you get your podcasts. And if you’d like to see other topics and episodes as well, do go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com.
Episode Summary
April 15, 2021
F127 Why Do People Go Bankrupt Due to Medical Costs in the US? (Ric Sinclair)
Two-thirds of people who file for bankruptcy in the US cite medical issues as a key contributor to their financial downfall. It’s understandable since if you get sick, you might lose a job and your health insurance. Even if you have health insurance, you might have high deductibles and face the threat of high costs. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, The number of uninsured nonelderly Americans is increasing. It went from 26.7 million in 2016 to 28.9 million in 2019. Billing claims can get denied by health insurance companies and patients are faces with surprise billing costs. This leads to stressful disputes. Sometimes patients get creative. When Stacey Richter's husband landed in a New Jersey emergency room, she took an unusual step. Instead of simply signing the hospital’s financial and treatment consent form, she first crossed out sections calling for her to pay whatever amount the hospital charged. Instead, she wrote that she would only pay a rate of a “maximum of two times” what the federal government would pay under Medicare. Stacey is the author of the Relentless health value podcast and she explained this situation thoroughly in one of the shows. New York Times also reported the story.
The guest of this show is Ric Sinclair, the Chief Strategy and Product Officer of Waystar. Waystar is a health tech platform helping streamline payments for over half a million healthcare providers across the US. Ric discussed how does billing looks like and what problems are present and addressed in US healthcare.
Episode Summary
April 8, 2021
F126 How is Tradition Hindering Health Literacy in Kenya, Tanzania and Malaysia? (Shamala Hinrichsen, Mariatheresa Samson Kaduschi)
This episode explores health literacy improvement and women empowerment in Malaysia, Kenya and Tanzania.
You are going to hear from two speakers: Shamala S. Hinrichsen, the CEO of Hanai, a company providing health information to the underserved populations in Malaysia and Kenya. The other speaker is Mariatheresa Samson Kaduschi, the CEO and CO-Founder of Mobile Afya, which provides healthcare information to people in Tanzania and slowly scaling to other countries in Africa as well. We talked about the specifics of these three markets, the technology used to serve as wide of a population as possible, and some of the challenges the female founders face when designing and implementing solutions that are critical for society, but less profitable from the investment point of view.
Episode Summary
To explore other episodes as well go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com.
April 1, 2021
F125 Amazon in Healthcare, AI Related Disparities and the Microbiome Challenges (Erin Brodwin)
This episode explores Amazon’s efforts in healthcare, the challenges of increasing transparency in AI development in healthcare, and a little bit about the state of turning microbiome research into business.
There were many doubts that Amazon could succeed because healthcare and drug management are complex etc. It’s 2021 and Amazon is offering a competitive online Pharmacy and expanding its Amazon Care and telehealth offer.
Microbiome space is a hot investment area but a shadow was cast upon it because of the downfall of the startup call uBiome. uBiome first offered a direct-to-consumer gut analysis for wellness. Later they turned it into a clinical test reimbursable by health insurance, which ended in problematic billing practices. In March this year, the Co-Founders were charged with multiple federal crimes including conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit health care fraud, money laundering, and related offenses.
Erin Brodwin is a health tech reporter at STAT News. In her career so far, Erin covered the promise and peril of AI in health care, broken news about health tech companies, and written comprehensively about wearables and their impact on digital health. Before joining STAT Erin was a senior health and tech reporter at Business Insider.
Episode Summary
Enjoy the discussion and to browse through more content, go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com.
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March 25, 2021
F124 AgeTech 4/4: How would you choose to die? (Ryan Van Wert, Vynca)
In January 2021 a jury in Montana delivered what is believed to be the first verdict in a wrongful life case, awarding over $400,000 compensation for medical and emotional costs due to the unwanted treatment of Rodney Knoepfle. In theory, patients have the right and option to draft an advanced care plan, a written document with their preferences about advanced medical treatment, life support and resuscitation in case of a serious health event.
In this episode, Ryan Van Wert, MD, an intensive care physician, Clinical Assistant Professor at Stanford University and CEO and co-founder of Vynca talks about the current challenges surrounding advanced care planning in the US. Vynca provides comprehensive advance care planning technology solutions that enable health care organizations to deliver high-quality end-of-life care consistent with an individual’s preferences. This episode is a part of the AgeTech series. This is a series of discussions about end-of-life care, geriatric care, caregiving, and the aging society.
Episode Summary
More on the website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
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March 18, 2021
F123 AgeTech Series 3/4: Boosting Empathy In Geriatric Care (Martina Viduka, Advosense)
While discussions about the end of life are not easy, the pandemic opened up space for us to talk more openly about dying and the best possible care in the last days of our lives.
This is the third discussion about AgeTech:
In the first episode of this series, you can listen to what can we learn about the aging society from Japan.
In the second episode, you can hear how an Austrian startup is matching caregivers and the elderly based on their personality profiles.
The 4th episode, focuses on advanced care planning.
This episode puts the light on innovation in the field of geriatric care. Martina Viduka, a registered nurse by background is Co-Founder of Advosense. Advosense is a Berlin-based startup with the mission to empower clinicians to know when, where, and how best to respond to their patients’ needs. So far, the company developed disposable briefs with smart inlay technology that monitors the patient’s dryness. This makes caring for patients with incontinence a lot more effective and respectful.
In this discussion Martina talks about:
Innovation in geriatric care,
The future of public perception of aging,
Her experience of working as a nurse during the COVID pandemic.
Episode Summary
Enjoy the discussion and to learn more, go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com.
March 11, 2021
F122 AgeTech Series 2/4: Algorithm-based Matchmaking Of The Elderly And Caregivers (Anja Silbauer)
As a part of the currently running series about AgeTech, today’s episode is focused on elderly care and how to best match caregivers and the elderly. You are going to hear from an Austrian entrepreneur, Anja Silbauer.
According to OECD, health care coverage is near-universal, and accessibility of services is generally good. Austria is among the countries with the lowest self-reported unmet medical needs in the EU. While life expectancy has increased in recent years, behavioral risk factors remain a major driver of morbidity and mortality in Austria. Smoking among adults has not declined over the past two decades and is now more prevalent than in most other EU countries. Progress with restricting smoking in public places has been slow, and a smoking ban in establishments that provide hospitality was delayed again to late 2019. Although alcohol consumption has decreased since 2000, it remains above the EU average.• In this episode you will hear from Anja Silbaur - co-founder and CEO of Harmony & Care - an Austrian startup that designed a matching platform for caregivers of the elderly. It resembles dating providers: caregivers and the elderly need to fill out a thorough questionnaire. This serves as a basis for finding the most suitable matches. In the past Harmony and Care (https://www.harmonyandcare.com/) worked with Caregivers agencies in Austria. In 2019 they also launched their own https://careplus24.com/ Care+ platform that enables the elderly or their loved ones to find a full-time caregiver that lives with the elderly person at their home. In this way, the elderly can delay or avoid a stressful move to a nursing home facility and stay at home longer. In this discussion with Anja, you will hear some thoughts about the demands of the aging population, the needs of the elderly, and how society can best approach care in our final years of life. This episode is a part of a longer series about AgeTech and peaceful aging. Tune in to other shows as well, and subscribe to be notified about new ones automatically.
Go to: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
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March 5, 2021
F 121 AgeTech Series 1/4: Healthcare and technology in the oldest population in the world – Japan
This is the first episode about AgeTech and rethinking the last years of our lives. Over 2.3 million people died due to COVID by February 2021. These were mostly older people. Many of them died alone in the hospital, without the option to say goodbye to their families. Without even someone from the medical staff at their bedside. COVID opened up space for us to start reconsidering on a broader level how we wish to die, lead quality last years of life, and fear death less.
This episode looks at a few innovations in Japan. Japan is the nation with the largest elderly population in the world. Over 28% of people in Japan are older than 65. The episode explores: Why do the Japanese live so long? What effect does a longer lifespan have on individuals and caregiving? How can healthy life be encouraged already at younger ages? We will take a closer look into a solution addressing visual impairment and a solution for Aspiration Pneumonia, which is a common issue with the elderly. It refers to food going into the lungs causing an infection that can lead to death from pneumonia.
Speakers:
Adrian Sossna, VP of global sales at Hacarus
Kenji Suzuki, CEO of Plimes
Mr. Yasuro Koizumi, CEO of Finc Technologies
Kazuo Kaneko, CEO of Digital Attendant
Episode Summary
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February 26, 2021
F120 A Glimpse Into Japan and How to Introduce AI to Clinicians (Adrian Sossna)
Hacarus is a Japanese company developing AI Solutions for Manufacturing and Medical Industries. Their Salus platform for medical and life sciences uses Medical imaging data such as CT & MRI scans, time-series data, such as ECG data, and medical record to create precise, complex tools, that aid caregivers and researchers to provide better, faster and safer treatment, based on data-driven insights.
In this episode, Adrian Sossna, who is originally from Sweden but has been living in Japan for several years now, shared his insights into life in Japan, the tech ecosystem, and the challenges in developing AI for healthcare and medicine.
Episode Summary
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February 20, 2021
F119 How are technologies improving global public health (Dr. Padmini Murthy)
Dr. Padmini (Mini) Murthy - Professor and Global Health Director at New York Medical College School of Health Sciences and Practice.
Dr. Murthy is a physician and an activist who trained in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She has practiced medicine and public health for the past 28 years in various countries. She worked as a consultant for United Nations Population Fund, she is the Secretary-General of the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) and its NGO representative to the United Nations (UN). She is the global health lead for the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA). In 2020 she published a book titled Technology and Global Public Health, which is a great read if you wish to get a perspective about health and technology, women, and technology in countries like Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Japan, Georgia, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh and more.
This episode explores the book’s content, the emphasis on women’s health and the impact of COVID on women’s health, the power of mHealth for public health, especially in developing countries, using apps for gender empowerment.
Technology and Global Public Health - https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030463540
Faces of digital health website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
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February 11, 2021
F118 Healthcare is Diverse. Why Is Healthtech Investing Not? (Dr. Fiona Pathiraja)
Diversity is an increasingly debated topic in startup investments, since founders of under-represented backgrounds may it be gender, race, age, and more too often experience inequality in opportunities. US VC funding for female-founded or co-founded companies has been trending up in recent years. However, last year women were impacted by the pandemic also on the funding level. According to Pitchbook, during the first quarter of 2020, 4.3% of VC deals went to companies founded by women, compared to 7.1% during the first quarter of 2019. Crista Galli Ventures Fund is especially attentive to giving an opportunity to founder with under-represented backgrounds. The fund was founded by Dr Fiona Pathiraja who is a radiologist by training. She left medical practice to become a management consultant. After doing that for a year, she became a clinical advisor position at the British Department of Health. After realizing that change comes to healthcare because of technological advancements slowly entering the sector, she got an MBA and became an investor. Crista Galli Ventures Fund: https://www.cristagalli.com/ Visit www.facesofdigitalhealth.com for other episodes and recaps as well
February 4, 2021
F117 How Music Beats Got a Breakthrough Device FDA Designation (Brian Harris, MedRythms)
Music can change our mood, energize ur, make us feel invincible.
It goes beyond that: it can heal. MedRythms is a digital therapeutics company building direct stimulation solutions that use clinical-grade sensors, AI-driven software and music to help restore function lost to neurologic disease or injury. Last year, the company received a Breakthrough Device designation from the FDA for its patented digital therapeutic that treats chronic stroke walking deficits. They are also doing Randomized Control Trials in multiple indications, including stroke, MS, Cerebral Palsy, and Parkinson’s Disease. In this interview, Brian Harris, the CEO of MedRhythms talks about the current findings regarding the power of music as a therapeutic intervention.
January 28, 2021
F116 Medication Management Goes Beyond Pill Reminders. Patients Want Transparency. (Jennifer Butler)
Medication management is a complicated, expensive, and complex healthcare problem. Because taking medications is only a small part of patient’s lives, taking them correctly can be complicated and burdensome. Patients might not take medications because that gives them the sense of having their lives under control and not dictated by medicine. They will get fatigued by pill reminders because getting constantly told that you have a condition, can get emotionally draining. This causes non-adherence and can lead to complications. But some companies are proving that the mission to help patients is not an impossible task.
Jennifer Butler - Chief Marketing Officer at Medisafe, the world’s leading consumer medication management platform, approaching 7 million users in almost 200 countries, says patients want transparency about their treatments. It’s been clear for years that for medication management solutions to work, they need to go beyond pill reminders.
Visit the website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Medisafe: https://www.medisafe.com/
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January 22, 2021
F115 Primary care digitalisation in New Zealand, Australia and the USA (Dimitri Varsamis)
Dr. Dimitri Varsamis is Senior Policy Lead for digital primary care at NHS England. End of 2020 he published a report titled Incentives and levers for digitizing and integrating primary care in New Zealand, Australia, and the USA - lessons for the UK’s NHS. Dr. Varsamis researched primary care digitalisation prior to the global coronavirus pandemic. In Australia, people are not required to register with a GP or a practice. Consequently, they see multiple GP which impacts the continuity/integrity of their medical record. Compared to the USA, the public healthcare systems of Australia, New Zealand and the UK lack the expertise in change management and purchasing support. These are just two findings by Senior Policy Lead for digital primary care at NHS England Dr. Dimitri Varsamis about primary care digitalisation in the mentioned countries. See the full report Incentives and levers for digitising and integrating primary care in New Zealand, Australia and the USA (Dimitri Varsamis) - https://www.wcmt.org.uk/sites/default/files/report-documents/Varsamis%20D%202019%20Final.pdf More about the show: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
January 14, 2021
F114 “My hope is we will mispronounce COVID in ten years” (John Nosta)
2021 is finally here, and as with any new year, we wish this one to be better than the previous one. 2020 sure changed the perspective of what that actually means. I am your host Tjaša Zajc and for the first episode of this year, I wanted to prepare an easy-going introduction to the year. You will hear a discussion with John Nosta. John is consistently ranked among the top names in digital health. He is an advisor to many digital health companies and the founder of the NOSTALAB—a digital health think tank. I invited him to the show for a relaxed but deep discussion about where we are at the moment in digital health and healthcare broadly and what we can be optimistic about in the upcoming year. Enjoy the show and to learn more go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com. To be notified about new episodes automatically, subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. May 2021 be your year. Now to the discussion with John. Enjoy the discussion. Let’s dive in. Recap of the episode: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f114-my-hope-is-we-will-mispronounce-covid-in-ten-years-john-nosta John’s podcast TQ: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tq-technology-quotient/id1525894087 Leave a rating or a review: www.lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth
January 7, 2021
F 113 Predictions about 2021 (and beyond) by digital health experts from the US, Israel, Mexico, Chile, UK, Italy and South Korea
Recap: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/digital-health-2021-predictions
In this last episode of 2020, we will reflect on the year and look into the future with some of the experts and opinion leaders from the digital health industry across the world. You can hear from experts from the US, Israel, Mexico, Chile, UK, and South Korea. They shared their thoughts about the state and future of digital health globally.
Speakers:
Levi Shapiro, Investor, Digital Health instructor and founder of the mHealth Israel community (Israel),
Gil Bashe, managing partner of FINN Partners Global Health (USA),
Gabriel Alejandro Garza Caro, Co-founder and Managing Director of DocTour (Mexico),
Luis Santiago, the CEO of Pegasi, a healthcare IT company based in Venezuela (Venezuela),
Ogan Gurel, Though leader, MD, Professor, Entrepreneur (South Korea),
João Bocas, The Wearable Expert (UK),
Dr. Brennan Spiegel, gastroenterologist, director of the Cedars-Sinai Center for Outcomes Research and Education and who recently published a book titled VRx (USA),
Robert Miller, Director of Product Management and Strategy at Consensys Health (USA).
Additional resources:
Interview with Ogan Gurel as part of the Digital Health in Asia series: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f041045-digital-health-in-asia-china-india-south-korea-and-singapore?rq=ogan%20gurel Email for interested in the digital health wallet development: [email protected]
Interview with Robert Miller about blockchain trends in 2020: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f110-patient-records-on-the-blockchain-are-still-a-dream-robert-miller
Interview with dr. Brennan Spiegel about the potential of VR: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f106-vrx-what-has-over-5000-studies-taught-us-about-the-healing-effect-of-vr-dr-brennan-spiegel
Interview with Luis Santiago about digital health in Venezuela and Chile https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/digitalheath-south-america
Visit www.facesofdigitalhealth.com for further info on the show
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December 27, 2020
F112 How is regenerative medicine disrupting the MedTech industry (Frank Barry)
Someday in the future, we will hopefully see 3D printed tissues and organs. To see where we are today, I spoke with prof. Frank Berry - Senior Scientist at the UHN Arthritis Programme at the Krembil Research Institute and Professor of Cellular Therapy at the Regenerative Medicine Institute (REMEDI), National University of Ireland Galway.
December 18, 2020
F111 The full circle in telemedicine – adding home delivery of medications and at-home diagnostics ( Sid Viswanathan, Truepill)
The U.S. prescription drug market is worth $400 billion. Companies such as GoodRx, RxSaver and now Amazon Pharmacy are starting to bring pricing transparency. Online pharmacy services are projected to hit revenues of $131 billion by 2025 worldwide. The Amazon Prime prescription savings benefit can save members up to 80% off generic and 40% off brand name medications when paying without insurance. The pharmacy market is evolving and getting disrupted in the US. One of the players revolutionizing the customer experience in the space is Truepill. Truepill helps traditional healthcare companies, plan groups and pharmaceutical manufacturers create customized, digital experiences at scale with their Truepill’s digital platform. In this episode, the Co-Founder and President of Truepill - Sid Viswanathan talks about
- how is digitalization changing the pharmacy industry,
- the rise of modern digital healthcare,
- what healthcare companies need to know about building digital experience for their customers and more.
For more content go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Truepill: https://www.truepill.com/
December 11, 2020
F110 “Patient records on the blockchain are still a dream” (Robert Miller)
In the last two years, the hype around blockchain settled down, and now projects can focus more on development rather than managing attention. Many projects have gone from an idea to a pilot program or an actual implementation. However, we probably won't see patient medical records on the blockchain soon, says Robert Miller - Director of Product Management and Strategy at Consensys Health. ConsenSys Health builds Ethereum-based solutions for cybersecurity, compliance, privacy, bioethics and identity, applying the deep technical capabilities of ConsenSys to advance the healthcare industry. The blockchain community knows Robert because of his regular newsletters about blockchain in healthcare. He is diligently following and reflecting on the development of the industry. We discussed why are patient health records on blockchain currently still a dream and which projects are slowly moving beyond the project phase. An interesting research initiative is MELLODY - (acronym for Machine learning ledger orchestration for drug discovery). MELLODY is a collaboration among 10 major pharma companies that are using a blockchain-based infrastructure and federated learning to speed up drug development. Robert also shared his view on MELLODY - and I also added the link to his analysis in the show notes. We also talked about the potential use of blockchain for vaccination certification and more. Further reading: Robert’s analysis of the data and privacy-related challenges in the MELLODY project. Recap of the show: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f110-patient-records-on-the-blockchain-are-still-a-dream-robert-miller
December 4, 2020
109 How digitally healthy is New Zealand? (Scott Arrol)
When this discussion was recorded on 20th November, New Zealand, which has 4.9 million people, only had 50 reported cases of COVID in the whole country. The reason the country is successful in containing the virus better than most countries in the world, is the discipline of the people, says Scott Arrol, the former CEO of NZ Healtchare IT - an organization connecting insurers, healthcare providers and the healthcare industry. Scott is soon leaving the organization after running if for over 6 years. He talked about the character of New Zealanders, the complexity of the healthcare system, the hurdles related to the digitalization of healthcare, and explained how New Zealand approached the COVID-19 pandemic, so today, unlike most of the rest of the world, people can attend live events. Enjoy the show, and to read the recap of the discussion or browse through other episodes as well, go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com.
Among the discussions about the healthcare system, you can listen to a recently published talk with dr. Louise Schaper about healthcare and digitalization in Australia, before that you can find discussions about Spain and France, episodes 97-100 focused on South America, and there’s been series about Asia and Africa published last year.
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November 27, 2020
F108 What's the value of telehealth consultations for doctors and patients? (Julian Flannery)
In this episode, you will hear a discussion with Julian Flannery - the CEO of. Summus Global. Summus global provides access to specialists and physicians from across the world. The company has a network of over 4,000 specialists and physicians from 48 hospitals and dozens of fields, from oncology to cardiology, psychology, and pediatrics. Their customers come from the US, China, Canada, Philippines, Spain, England, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Turkey, and Ireland. The CEO Julian Flannery and I talked about how the platform works, how do customers differ based on the country of their residence and more. Enjoy the discussion and to browse through other episodes as well, go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com. If you haven’t yet, subscribe to the show to be notified about new episodes automatically. Coming up next are a discussion about the latest development in blockchain in healthcare and an introduction to the digital health landscape in New Zealand.
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Summus Global: https://www.summusglobal.com/
November 20, 2020
F107 AI driven health insurance (Rajeev Ronanki, Anthem)
Rajeev Ronanki is Chief Digital Officer at Anthem, which is striving to become a digital AI-first enterprise. In September Anthem launched a digital incubator where companies can test their solutions on Anthem’s anonymized data. Among other things Rajeev spoke about what kind of mindset shift happened in insurance companies due to COVID, how does an AI-driven insurance policy mindset look like and how will AI shape the future of healthcare.
Anthem's incubator: https://www.anthem.ai/
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November 13, 2020
F106 VRx book discussion: What 5000 studies taught us about the healing power of VR? (Dr. Brennan Spiegel)
We are in the middle of an unprecedented time of anxiety, depression and worries because of the global coronavirus pandemic. It’s affecting people’s jobs, a sense of security, and relative predictability, consequently our relationships and health, especially mental health. I think it’s safe to assume we wish for this to be over as soon as possible and that we could be in a different reality. To a certain extent, that’s actually possible, if you have virtual reality equipment. Virtual reality can have a literally healing effect. Over 5000 studies by today have shown the efficacy of VR for pain management, PTSD, eating disorders, mental health and more. In this episode, you will hear from dr. Brennan Spiegel a gastroenterologist who directs the Cedars-Sinai Center for Outcomes Research and Education. He recently published a book titled VRx in which he explains the applicability of VR and looks at this digital therapy from a philosophical and critical point of view. In this discussion, you will hear him explain what makes VR so healing, what are its potential side-effects and why different patients respond differently to it.
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November 6, 2020
Australia: The state of healthcare digitalization (Louise Schaper, AIDH)
Australia was in the global digital health-related news in 2018 of the national EHR project called My Health Record. The idea behind the project was to digitize the medical records of all the people from Australia. Today, 9 out of 10 Australians have My Health Record. In the discussion you are about to listen to, dr. Louise Shaper, the CEO of Australasian Institute of Digital Health (AIDH), renowned speaker and a dedicated digital health evangelist, shared her deep insight into the state of digitalization of healthcare in Australia, the organizations driving technological progress in healthcare, and also her PhD about technology acceptance amongst healthcare professionals.
Australasian Institute of Digital Health: https://digitalhealth.org.au/
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October 31, 2020
F104 Digital health in Spain and what is the concept of a liquid hospital? (Cesar Morcillo Serra)
Spain has a universal healthcare system, where anyone that pays social security contributions is eligible for healthcare. From the digitalization perspective, Spain does not have a national institution to coordinate digital health projects. Instead, each of the Spanish regions has authorities with their own budgets. One of the most advanced regions is Catalonia.
Cesar Morcillo Serra is an Internal Medicine specialist from Barcelona, who has a strong interest in eHealth. He had lead several Digital Health transformation projects inside the Cima hospital where he works in. In this discussion, he talks about what it takes for a hospital to be digitally advanced, what is a concept of a liquid hospital and how does the Spanish healthcare system works.
Cesar is the speaker at the Barcelona Health Hub Summit (29 October): https://bhhsummit.com/ Join free!
Episode recap: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f-104-digital-health-in-spain-and-what-is-a-liquid-hospital-cesar-morcillo-serra
To learn more about the digital health ecosystem in Barcelona, listen to episode 63 with Aline Noizet: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f063-how-to-build-a-community-in-healthcare-aline-noizet?rq=aline
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October 24, 2020
F103 How are smart garments making remote patient monitoring comfortable? (Laurent Vandebrouck, Chronolife)
Chronolife is a French company innovating in the space of smart garments for remote patient monitoring. Clothes are not the main innovation of the company, their secret sauce is a patented neuromorphic (bio-mimetic) algorithm, HOTS (Hierarchy Of event-based Time-Surfaces). The algorithm detects and predicts deterioration in patients’ state of health and alerts caregivers to allow earlier intervention and avoid costly hospitalizations. The company’s mission is to enable healthcare professionals to have timely information for earlier intervention and to ensure a continuum of care that fills the existing gaps from hospital to home.
In this episode, the CEO Laurent Vandebrouck shares his thoughts about the French healthcare system in terms of digitalization, comments the position of smart garments on the market crowded with other kinds of wearables, and also answered questions like - can you destroy a smart shirt by not washing it currently?
Episode recap: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f103-how-are-smart-garments-making-remote-patient-monitoring-comfortable-laurent-vanderbrouck-chronolife
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October 16, 2020
F102 How are connected health devices becoming increasingly medically relevant (Mathieu Letombe, Withings)
Do you remember the first connected scale? It came to the market in 2009 by a French company called Withings. By today the company created a number of connected health devices and is increasing its efforts to expand its presence in the clinical space.
Withings offers a range of products: a connected scale, a digital thermometer, a wireless blood pressure cuff, a mat to detect sleep apnea, a smartwatch with ECG, and sleep apnea monitoring was released in 2020.
In this episode, the CEO of Withings Mathieu Letombe talks about:
the landscape of connected health devices,
quantification of health
how companies can attract doctors to work with them given the busy schedules clinicians have.
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October 9, 2020
F101 A collection of thoughts about digital health from around the world
This episode is a collection of thoughts giving you a glimpse into the global digital health market. Leave a rating or a review: https://lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth
Speakers:
Dr. Daniel Kraft, one of the top opinion leaders in digital health, nicely summarized the current state of digital health in Episode 81.
Julien de Salaberry, the CEO of Galen Growth Asia emphasized in Episode 41 that is important to keep in mind when thinking about expanding in this area of the world.
Guillem Serra, the CEO of the Spanish based company Mediquo, guest in Episode 84, says that in internationalization and looking at new potential markets, language is the most important factor to consider.
Different countries differ in their culture and how technologies are used. I’d say that different parts of the world “run” on different platforms. In China, society runs on WeChat. In India, the key communication platform in Whatsapp. Abhishek Shah, CEO of Wellthy digital therapeutics company from India, who was the guest of Episode 78, explained how the use of Whatsapp in India differs from the West. It is gaining a similar significance as WeChat has in China. This is why Wellthy conducted some of their clinical studies through Whatsapp.
Have you ever wondered, what is the digital health scene like in Africa? You know, the continent that many people around the world talk about as a country, but actually consists of 54 countries? Among the speakers on the show coming from Africa, was the founder of Mobile Afya - Mariatheresa Samson Kadushi. She is a Tanzanian innovator passionate about disrupting the public health sector, which is in Africa marked by traditional beliefs. In Episode 056 she among other things explained how in Africa, worries about privacy in the digital age are not worries about how are global corporations are exploiting our data.
Moving from Asia to Africa, European healthcare systems are often praised for universal access to care. However, as mentioned by the patient advocate Bettina Ryll in Episode 68, in Europe where you live significantly impacts your access to healthcare. Especially in rare diseases chances of survival of a patient can depend on where the patient resides and are there any clinical trials near her. People move, to get a chance at survival. This very much reminds me of the often-mentioned fact by US experts, that the ZIP code the biggest determinant of health is.
From a business perspective, Europe is a complicated market. You need to tackle language barriers, the diversity of healthcare systems and policies. Kaia Health is a digital therapeutics startup that was founded in Germany and is now operating in the US market as well. In Episode 77 Mark Liber, the VP of business development at Kaia Health, talked about the differences they are noticing between the German and the US.
While we mostly perceive the future of healthcare digitization as a one-way progression street, Luis Santigo, the CEO of a Venezuelan healthcare IT company PEGASI explained how progress can get crushed when the economic situation of a country changes. In the last few years, in Venezuela, many hospitals had to switch from IT back to paper, because IT companies went bankrupt and ceased existing.
October 3, 2020
F100 Digital health in South America 4/4: Venezuela: “Many hospitals went from digital back to paper” (Luis Santiago, Pegasi)
This is the 4th part of a short series about healthcare and digital health in South America. After presenting Brazil, Colombian and Argentina, Luis Santiago talks about Venezuela and Chile.
September 26, 2020
F099 Digital health in South America 3/4: Brazil: “Our goal is to bring specialised cancer management EHR to underserved areas of the world” (Paulo F. B. de Gusmão, OTAWA Health)
This is the third episode of the short series about digital health in South America.
In the previous episodes you could listen to Adrian Turjanski from an Argentinian genomics company there called Bitgenia, another speaker came from Colombia - Javier Cardona, CEO of 1Doc3 talked about how to bring affordable access to healthcare to people in seconds, without the need for an appointment.
See the recap of the shows here: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/digitalheath-south-america
This episode will take you to Brazil to hear from the CEO of OTAWA Health - a 13 years old startup officially founded last year, by an IT team at CCC (Centro de Combate ao Câncer), one of the most respected oncology clinics in Brazil.
The biggest differentiator of Brazil compared to other countries in South America is language. The official language is Portuguese. The country with over 200 million people has had universal healthcare access since the eighties. That sounds great, but as explained by Paulo Fernando Buarque de Gusmão the problem is that the system lacks investments and therefore a lot of people still opt for private healthcare.
The healthcare system is not immune to political pressure - Brazil has prioritized the training of family doctors over specialists. In 2013 a great initiative was designed called More Doctors, with its aim to hire physicians to work in underserved and remote areas. With many Brazilian doctors unwilling to relocate, thousands of Cuban doctors were hired instead. However, in November 2018, Cuba announced their withdrawal after a row over their status with the incoming president Jair Bolsonaro. Leaving politics aside in the discussion with Paulo, you will listen about how an oncology EHR looks like when it’s in development for over a decade in close collaboration with oncology specialists and why that has good potential to scale. OTAWA Health’s mission is to bring the oncology health record to underserved areas of the world, especially other parts of South America and Africa as universal healthcare cannot be universal while the huge gap between health technology assessment in use by high-income and low-income areas remains.
September 18, 2020
F098 Digital Health in South America 2/4: Colombia: “Doctors normally have two or three jobs” (Javier Cardona, 1Doc3)
When Googling the Colombian healthcare system, there’s mostly praise about how good it is! The World Health Organization ranked Colombia’s healthcare system as number 22 in a review of 191 countries. Javier Cardona is the CEO of 1DOC3 - a Colombian company that offers affordable telemedical consultations in seconds; no appointment is needed.
In this episode, Javier talked about the Columbian healthcare system structure, which ranks high according to WHO ranking. He also explained the needs and specifics of telemedicine in Latin America.
This is the second part of a short series about digital health in South America.
Find out more at: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/e0d0c43vvl3kfalkfzu3uribb3d6bp
1Doc3: https://www.1doc3.com/
September 10, 2020
F097 Digital health in South America 1/4: “Only 0.1% of the population has been sequenced so far” (Adrian Turjanski, Bitgenia, Argentina)
After a special series about digital health in Asia and Africa covered in 2019, the upcoming four episodes will present speakers from South America. A shoutout goes to Unity Stoakes and Jennifer Hankin from Startup Health, which connected me to the speakers in the upcoming episodes. All the companies are StartupHealth Transformers.
In this discussion, you will hear Adrian Turjanski, Chief Science Officer at Bitgenia - an Argentinian startup bringing genomics closer to society, explains the current state of genomics research in South America; he talked about the difference between the whole genome and exosome sequencing, and the use of AI in genetic sequencing.
In the upcoming episodes, you will hear from
Luis Santiago - CEO of the Venezuelan healthcare IT company PEGASI,
Javier Cardona, the CEO of the Colombian telemedicine company 1Doc3,
Paulo Fernando Buarque de Gusmão, CEO of Brazilian company OTAWA health.
Digital Health in Asia Series: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f041045-digital-health-in-asia-china-india-south-korea-and-singapore
Digital Health in Africa Series: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f056-f060-digital-health-in-africa-series-tanzania-nigeria-south-africa-rwanda
September 4, 2020
F096 Why can we be optimistic about the vaccine development for COVID-19? (Glen de Vries, Medidata)
Why are clinical trials complicated and how is technology from platforms to AI helping accelerate trial development and data analysis.
August 28, 2020
How did Germany accelerate the speed of the digitization of healthcare? (Henrik Matthies, Maike Henningsen, Maren Lesche)
Germany is one of the European countries with higher healthcare expenditures. 11% of GDP goes to healthcare compared to the 9.6% European average. Patients can be covered under public health insurance, or if they earn more than 5000 euros monthly, they choose from private health insurance providers. Health insurance is mandatory but competitive as there are around 100 health insurance companies on the market.
When Jens Spahn became the health minister In March 2018 Germany quickly became the European northern star of accelerated healthcare digitization. How did they do it?
You will hear from three speakers -
Henrik Matthies, managing director of the health innovation hub of the German Ministry of Health,
Maren Lesche - Head of Incubation at Vision Health Pioneers a pre-seed incubator ‘Vision Health Pioneers’ based in Berlin and
dr. Maike Henningsen - medical doctor, who specialized in OBGYN, oncology, endocrinology and reproductive medicine and who partially still works in the clinical practice but is also involved in Vision Health Pioneers as Head of Medical Business Strategy and involved in several other innovation projects.
August 21, 2020
F094 How can we simplify regulation of digital health apps? (Liz Ashall Payne, ORCHA)
There are well over 300.000 digital health apps on the market. However, only a third of them have been updated in the last 18 months, says Liz Ashal Payne - CEO and Founder of ORCHA - a UK based organization with a mission to distribute validated apps to patients who need them. Liz Ashal Payne - a digital health veteran, who started her career as a speech ad language therapist, worked as Assistant Director of Allied Health Professions (AHPs), she was a Clinical Programme Manager of Academic Health Science Network for the North West Coast, International Outreach Coordinator for ECHAlliance and more. After years of being in the digital health space, she founded ORCHA - an organisation with the mission to distribute digital health apps to people who need them.
See also F062 GDPR, MDR, and what you can do about you medical data (Jovan Stevovic): https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f062-gdpr-mdr-and-what-you-can-do-about-you-medical-data-jovan-stevovi
August 14, 2020
F093 How does a doctor become a VC? (Benedict Evans)
Despite enjoying clinical practice, Benedict Evans still came to a point where he felt he is not passionate enough about what he does, and as a surgeon, he realized he enjoys talking to patients more than treating them when they are under anesthesia. He went to a consulting position at McKinsey, then back to an NHS Trust to drive digital innovation and now to a VC position.
Resources:
InHealth Ventures: https://www.inhealth.vc/
Episode recap: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f093-how-does-a-doctor-become-a-vc-benedict-evans
August 7, 2020
F092 How can blockchain bring back autonomy to the physician-patient relationship? (Leah Houston, HPEC)
Leah Houston is an Emergency Physician who has been following blockchain development since 2012 and now designed a solution that would empower doctors, make their credentialing easier which would simplify transitions from one hospital to the next one if one wished to switch jobs.
HPEC is restoring agency and autonomy to the physician-patient relationship with self-sovereign (physician-owned and controlled) digital identities and verifiable credentials. The key thing is that the solution is returning autonomy to physicians and eliminates third party interference from the doctor-patient relationship.
In this discussion, you will be able to hear how credentialing works in the US, what are the powerful forces that are hurting healthcare, and why doctors and patients should regain control over their communication and treatment choices.
Episode recap: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f092-how-can-blockchain-bring-back-autonomy-to-the-physician-patient-relationship-leah-houston-hpec
July 30, 2020
F090 Nurses 4/4: All the aspects of community care (Mary Lou Ackerman, Canada)
This is the fourth episode in the short series about nurses who moved to entrepreneurship.
Mary Lou Ackerman is Vice President of Innovation and Digital Health with SE Health. Mary Lou is a founding member of SONSIEL (Society of Nursing Scientist, Innovator, and Entrepreneur Leaders) and an active member of CHIEF (Canada’s Health Informatics Executive Forum) with Digital Health Canada. Her background is extensive — she has led the development and implementation of many business transformation projects, innovations and partnerships. Mary Lou joined Saint Elizabeth in 1987 as a visiting nurse, and she has augmented her clinical background with a graduate business degree and significant experience with health informatics and technologies. Mary Lou has a passion for community health care, combined with a desire to advance care, creating innovative service models supported by digital health technologies, to create a future that will provide a personalized, accessible, meaningful health experience for individuals, their families and the service providers that support them.
More about other episodes: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f087f091-series-nurses-the Are you a digital health startups? Check out Health Venture Lab and apply for their next accelerator program: https://hvlab.eu/
July 23, 2020
F089 Nurses 3/4: “If you leave nurses out of your innovation process, you’re making a mistake” (Karmi Soder, Israel)
This is a third discussion in the short series about nurses going into entrepreneurship. Karmi Soder started working as a pediatric clinical care nurse in 1992. Today she is a skilled communicator with over 25 years of healthcare experience in clinical, administrative and tech, which she gained by serving as Chief Administrative Officer at Sutter Health, leading pediatric department for Kaiser Permanente, worked at Google and co-founded NewboRN Solutions — a registered nursing corporation, which aimed at helping new parents get the best care and shared community after the birth of their newborn. Based in Israel Karmi now works as a consultant for program development and strategy, analyzes, designs and executes improved operations and workflows.
More about the series: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f087f091-series-nurses-the
Apply for the Reactor accelerating program: https://hvlab.eu/program/1/reactor-2020
July 16, 2020
F088 Nurses 2/4: Making healthcare holistic (Sherezade Ruano, UK)
Sherezade Ruano is an Arrhythmia Specialist Nurse at Imperial College NHS Trust, Founder of RhythmiaBreath Medical Well-being programme and Co-Founder, CEO of RB Hub Digital Therapeutics. Passionate about the importance of mental wellbeing, stress and trauma in cardiac patients, Sherezade works closely with a team of world-renowned Mental Health specialists and Cardiologists offering outstanding services.
In the interview she spoke about neurocardiology, struggles she came across as a nurse entrepreneur when looking for validators of her solution, she also commented the faster adoption of digital health in the UK because of COVID-19 and more.
July 10, 2020
F087 Nurses 1/4: Do you know what nurses do? (Shawna Butler, USA)
2020 is the year of the nurse and the midwife. What do nurses actually do and why are they still a hidden innovation treasure in healthcare?
In this series consisting of discussions with nurse innovators, you will hear about:
What nurses actually do,
The changing role of nurses in healthcare,
Relationship nurses have with technology — IT systems, new innovations,
Why they should be at the policy making table.
The first episode features Shawna Butler, Nurse Economist and EntrepreNURSE from the US, currently the Host of SEE YOU NOW podcast, focused on sharing perspectives of nurses on healthcare. She is a member of the core team of the Exponential Medicine team at Singularity University. In this discussion, Shawna Buttler, speaks about the current situation healthcare workers have found themselves in due to COVID-19, what she’s learning about nurses through hosting the See you now podcast, we also touched very human aspects of nursing we don’t hear about often, that is the needs and support in end of life care.
Recap of the series: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f087f091-series-nurses-the
July 2, 2020
F086 TikTok 2/2: Interested in weird medical facts? (Karan Raj)
Karan Raj is a "veteran" in online education. He founded TheOSCEstation - an online medical education website with videos explaining different medical topics. TheOSCEstation primarily targets medical students and has been around on Youtube for several years. Dr. Raj works at Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust as a Surgical Registrar, but he is also a Honorary Lecturer at Imperial College London, where he teaches e-learning & undergraduate medicine; he is Honorary Senior Lecturer at Sunderland University. He started using TikTok as a consumer in November 2019 and hardly in February this year, during a discussion with a colleague, he came up with the idea of talking about and explaining weird medical facts on TikTok. Following him, you can learn about embarrassing things he did as a doctor, weird things patients have said, and even more unusual topics such as - Can cheese give you nightmares?
Recap: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f086-tiktok-22-interested-in-weird-medical-facts-karannbspraj
See also: F085 Tik tok 1/2: #MedicineExplained - doctors sharing medical knowledge in a whole new format (Amanda d’Almeida and Dan Villavecer)
June 26, 2020
F085 Tik tok 1/2: #MedicineExplained – doctors sharing medical knowledge in a whole new format (Amanda d'Almeida, Dan Villavecer)
There are three “laws” for successful TikTok posts: make people laugh, tell a personal story people can empathize with, or teach people something. Doctors use the platform to talk about their career paths; nurses use TikTok to record dancing routines during the breaks in their shifts. There’s an MRI image explanatory channel, and specialists from a broad spectrum talk about their expertise or give insight into their working environment.
MD candidates from the US Amanda d’Almeida and Dan Villavecer are the faces behind Medicine Explained. Medicine Explained is a channel with over 1.1 million of followers, explaining everyday issues such a “What is a brain freeze? How do menstrual cups work? What is scoliosis? Can women exercise, bathe or swim during their period?” etc. Dan and Amanda started creating content as a way to fight medical misinformation on the internet. Medicine Explained was started to decentralize medical information by making it understandable to everyone, acting as preventative health education to people around the world who may never have access to proper healthcare, but have access to social media.
In less than 6 months, the TikTok channel has amassed over 1.1 million followers and over 100 million views worldwide. The hashtag #MedicineExplained has over 100 Million views on the platform.
Dan and Amanda don’t show their faces but use drawings to get their point across.
Dan Villavecer is a current Doctor of Medicine (MD) candidate in the US, where he is the President of Medical Entrepreneurship. He received his Masters of Science in Cellular and Molecular Biology. Prior to starting his medical education, he worked at Forward (goforward.com) in San Francisco, which was among the first primary care practice providers with a truly patient-centered design, at Forward doctors sit next to the patient in the doctor’s office, not behind the computer screen etc. Forward is an exemplary case of how the doctor-patient relationship can look like in the modern era and was listed as a Top 25 Inventions of 2017 by Time Magazine for reinventing primary care. Amanda d’Almeida is a current dual Doctor of Medicine (MD) and Master of Public Health (MPH) candidate. She was part of Nature published Beat AML program, which created the largest-to-date dataset on primary acute myeloid leukemia (AML) samples offering genomic, clinical, and drug response data. Amanda and Dan currently also work as interns at Lumos - AI-powered search tool for doctors that gives direct answers to clinical questions, using trustworthy sources. In this discussion, you will hear more about their thinking. They offered insight into the current state of medical education, their creative process, content strategy on TikTok and more.
More on: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
June 19, 2020
F084 Doctors in digital health 4/4: Mediquo: Whatsapp for healthcare (Guillem Serra)
This is the fourth and final episode of a short series of discussions with doctors that moved from full-time clinical practice to work in digital health. Guillem Serra is a serial entrepreneur coming from a family of doctors. His mother, father, grandfather, and great grandfather were doctors, which made it easy for Guillem to go study medicine given his familiarity with the profession. Besides medicine, he studied math and during his medical studies, discovered, that for him, medicine was actually boring. Today, he is a Physician and Mathematician with deep knowledge in the eHealth market, MedTech, and startups in the field of medicine. He founded several digital health startups and is an investor and board member to many startups. His first company MediQuo is a "Whatsapp for healthcare" - a platform enabling patients to chat with doctors and specialists 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in a secure way, with all the tools and compliance needed for healthcare.
Summary of the episodes in the series: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f081-084-doctors-and-digital-health Presented in the series:
Daniel Kraft: https://danielkraftmd.net/
Exponential Medicine: exponential.singularityu.org/
Digital.Health: https://www.digital.health/
Mediquo: https://www.mediquo.com/
Dock.Health: https://www.dock.health/
Cinapsis: https://www.cinapsis.org/
June 12, 2020
F083 Doctors in digital health 3/4: Connecting specialists and primary care doctors for faster, better patient care (Owain Rhys Hughes)
This is the third discussion in a short series about doctors who left clinical practice to work as entrepreneurs in digital health. In the previous episodes, Daniel Kraft talked about a new idea for more precise dosing of medications chronic patients with comorbidities have to take daily, he also shared his thoughts about COVID-19 management in the US and innovation efforts to aid the pandemic, Michael Docktor, former full time pediatric gastroenterologist and Clinical Dir. of Innovation Boston Children's Hospital talked about better task management in hospital settings and healthcare suited app called Dock-Health which he co-founded. Today, we are moving from the US to UK. You will hear from Owain Rhys Hughes - NHS surgeon who left clinical practice to build an advice and guidance platform for clinicians. In this discussion, you will hear why are referrals from primary to secondary care suboptimal how can they be improved with one solution that can impact GPs efficacy in referring patients to specialists, it, optimizes care specialists give to patients once they see them, it can drive down costs and most importantly, offer patients an incredibly improved experience with the healthcare system.
Cinapsis: https://www.cinapsis.org/
Summary of the series: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f081-084-doctors-and-digital-health
Other speakers/prrojects presented in this series:
Daniel Kraft: https://danielkraftmd.net/
Exponential Medicine: exponential.singularityu.org/
Digital.Health: https://www.digital.health/
Mediquo: https://www.mediquo.com/
Dock.Health: https://www.dock.health/
June 5, 2020
F082 Doctors in digital health series 2/4: Managing task management in healthcare – “It’s about the patient, not paperwork” (Michael Docktor)
This is a second episode from the short series about why doctors leave clinical practice to work in digital health. GI pediatric specialist Michael Docktor was, until recently, one of the driving forces of digital health innovation at Boston’s Children’s Hospital. In this episode, he shares his insight into how paperwork is complicating the coordination and management of patient care. To solve that, he helped design Dock.Health - a simple, HIPAA compliant task management and collaboration platform designed for healthcare. Michael still partially works in clinical practice but is spending most of his time as the CEO of Dock.Health. In this episode, Michael commented on the changes in healthcare due to COVID-19 and talked about the meaning of tech solutions for increased empowerment of patients.
Summary of the series: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f081-084-doctors-and-digital-health Dock.Health: https://www.dock.health/ Other solutions presented in the series: Daniel Kraft: https://danielkraftmd.net/ Exponential Medicine: https://exponential.singularityu.org/ Digital.Health: https://www.digital.health/ Mediquo: https://www.mediquo.com/ Cinapsis: https://www.cinapsis.org/
May 29, 2020
F081 Doctors in digital health series 1/4: The Digitome, Digital Health for COVID-19 and a new approach to medication adherence (Daniel Kraft)
This is the first part of a special 4 episode series about doctors who left full-time clinical practice to develop new solutions for healthcare improvement.
As Faces of digital health is a podcast exploring global perspectives, you are going to hear from doctors from different countries: the US, UK, and Spain.
Many doctors who go into entrepreneurship are trying to solve systemic issues plaguing healthcare. You will hear UK surgeon Owain Hughes explain, how he started building a company and platform that connects GPs to specialists, to enable GPs to refer patients more accurately. Consequently, patients can receive better care already on the primary care level, which makes the work of specialists much more efficient once patients reach them, making specialists and GPs much more satisfied with their work, because they don’t lose time with patients with poorly defined conditions or because patients have better outcomes since part of the urgent treatments have been begun by GPs based on specialist’s recommendations.
Cinapsis: https://www.cinapsis.org/
You will hear GI pediatric specialist Michael Docktor from Boston’s Children’s Hospital explain, how he designed a task management app to enable better coordination of healthcare and administrative workers around all the bureaucracy and care entailed in the treatment of every patient.
Dock.Health: https://www.dock.health/
Guillem Serra is a serial entrepreneur coming from a family of doctors - his mother, father, grandfather, and great grandfather were doctors, which made it easy for Guillem to go study medicine given his familiarity with the profession. Besides medicine, he studied math and during his medical studies, discovered, that for him, medicine was actually boring. So he went to found what is called a “Whatsapp healthcare app” connecting doctors and patients in Spain, South and Latin America.
Mediquo: https://www.mediquo.com/
This episode features Daniel Kraft, one of the top authorities in digital health. Daniel Kraft is the founder and Chair of Exponential Medicine - a program with the goal to 'un-silo' thinking and unleashing cross-disciplinary innovation across healthcare by bringing together thought leaders and forward-thinking clinicians and innovators to explore potentials to reshape health and medicine with technology. Daniel is a Stanford and Harvard-trained physician-scientist, inventor, and innovator with over 25 years of experience in clinical practice, biomedical research, and healthcare innovation.
We discussed:
his journey from the medical practice to digital health,
his mission to turn his website digital.health into a medical digital health formulary, where doctors could search for clinically approved and reliable digital health solutions to prescribe to their patients,
Daniel also shared his views of COVID-19 related innovation, some broader societal problems that are arising in the US because of imposed measures to manage COVID-19.
We also talked a bit more about how to improve medication adherence in patients with chronic conditions and co-morbidities, that take five or more different pills daily. The idea behind his company Intellimedicine is to provide patients with a device that would keep all medications of a patient in separate cartridges and would produce only one pill the patient would need to take. The pill’s structure would be based on the patient’s daily various health measurements supported by AI analysis.
Summary of this series: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f081-084-doctors-and-digital-health Daniel Kraft: https://danielkraftmd.net/ Exponential Medicine: exponential.singularityu.org/ Digital.Health: https://www.digital.health/
May 22, 2020
F080 How far are we with digitising mental health support? (Christopher Molaro)
On April 15th this year a panel of experts published a position paper online in the Lancet Psychiatry, where they outlined a proposed government response to curb the long-term "profound" and "pervasive" impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health. Undoubtedly, the global lockdown caused a lot of anxiety in some individuals, depression in others, it is fair to assume some medical professionals will suffer from PTSD after the worst is over. The positive news is, that by today we have many validated digital tools and programs to help patients deal with mental health problems remotely. In this episode, Christopher Molaro, talks about why is access to mental health care still problematic, how can digital tools support providers and patients, and what trends are already visible because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chris is co-founder of NeuroFlow - a health care technology company whose goal is to bridge the gap between mental and physical health in all care settings. Chris first started thinking about the need for better mental health support and care coordination when he was still working for the US army. Upon return from his mission in Iraq, he started noticing how veterans and civilians alike face too many barriers when it comes to receiving appropriate, timely care.
One of the things that CDC, WHO and other authorities advise us of doing in case of stress, anxiety, fear, sadness and loneliness in this unprecedented times, is to get plenty of sleep, avoid alcohol and drugs, try to eat healthily, keep in contact with your friends, colleagues, and family, and try to destress with deep breaths and meditation.
Read WHO recommendations for mental health issues management, as well as the CDC guidelines to ease difficulties occurring during this pandemic.
Summary of the show: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/s080-how-far-are-we-with-digitising-mental-health-support-christopher-molaro
The background music in this show was composed by the pop artist based in New York Cheryl B. Engelhardt. Cheryl suffered from debilitating panic attacks her entire life, tried many coping strategies and in the end composed an album called Luminary and started a daily meditation practice with it. If you wish to find inner calm with her music, you can access it for free on all streaming platforms and meditation apps Insight Timer and Simple Habit. Listen to “Luminary” here
May 15, 2020
S079 Women's health and the dream but real healthcare setting (Carolyn Witte)
Healthcare is anything but relaxing once you're a patient. But what if you could look forward to your appointments as you look forward to a wellness visit?
This was among the guidelines designers of Tia - the next generation women's healthcare platform - are operating under in their product development.
Tia was first a search-engine like support companion for women interested in anonymous search of reliable health information. By today, Tia is an ecosystem of services: a personalized women's health information provider, a brick and mortar clinic in New York City. Listen to co-founder and CEO of Tia Carolyn Witte explain what patient-centered care looks like and how can healthcare be made more affordable, as in the case of Tia.
Summary of the show: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/s079-womens-health-and-the-dream-but-real-healthcare-setting-carolyn-witte
More about Tia: https://asktia.com/
May 8, 2020
S078 DTx series 5/5: Diabetes clinical trials on Whatsapp? (Abhishek Shah)
Wellthy is one of Asia's leading digital therapeutics companies that inspires and enables patients to prevent, reverse and control chronic diseases. It works with pharmaceutical, medical devices companies, payors and healthcare providers to improve health outcomes. With active therapeutic areas in diabetes and cardiology, it has published real-world evidence across 20 publications in leading peer-reviewed journals and global conferences. In this episode, the last one of the 5-part series about digital therapeutics, Abhishek Shah, the CEO and Founder of Wellthy, on of the largest DTx companies in Asia, talks about the importance of understanding that healthcare is always local and shared some vivid examples of different rules of engagement with users in India compared to the West.
Recap: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/s078-dtx-series-55-chronic-disease-management-in-india-abhishek-shah
Wellthy: https://wellthytherapeutics.com/about
May 1, 2020
F077 DTx series 4/5: Want to get rid of chronic pain? (Mark Liber, Kaia Health)
In any given year, 12% to 14% of the adult population in the US will visit their physician for back pain. In the UK muscosceletal conditions (MSK) affect 1 in 4 of the adult population.
MSK are very expensive to treat, as patients require medical imagining, medications, sometimes surgery and physical therapy, explains Mark Liber, VP of Business Development at Kaia Health - a digital therapeutics company offering a solution for mitigating musculoskeletal diseases such as chronic back pain. Kaia Health works by offering the user an AI-supported motion sensor guided exercises, which means that an individual not only tries to follow the video instructions but can get feedback if he is executing the positions correctly or not. The app is additionally supported by an actual coach the user can connect with.
Recap of the show: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/s077-dtx-series-45-want-to-get-rid-of-back-pain-mark-liber-kaia-health Kaia Health: https://www.kaiahealth.com/
April 24, 2020
F076 DTx series 3/5: Are you drinking? (Jamie Moore)
According to WHO, 3 million deaths every year result from harmful use of alcohol. These deaths represent 5.3 % of all deaths. Australian organization Hello Sunday Morning has been tackling alcohol abuse for over a decade, with a digital approach, that has by today been developed to the level of a soon to be a digital therapeutic (DTx). Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and lock-down across the world, Hello Sunday Morning has been noticing an increase in alcohol consumption.In this episode, Jamie Moore who is a General Manager & Daybreak Co-Founder of Daybreak program at the Australian organisanition Hello Sunday Morning, talks about the early days of Hello Sunday Morning, the drinking culture in Australia and the meaning of community support in tacking alcohol addiction. When the organisation was founded over ten years ago, the emphasis was on binge drinking. By today, the user structure has changed and Daybreak members are predominantly dependent drinkers, they are very much on the heavy end of drinking with 40+ drinks per week, while some users are moderate drinkers.
Recap of the show: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/s076-dtx-series-35-are-you-drinking-jamie-moore Hello Sunday Morning: https://www.hellosundaymorning.org/ DTx Alliance: https://dtxalliance.org/
April 17, 2020
F75: Healthcare innovation financing in times of COVID-19 (Part 2/2)
On April 9th, Slovenian health tech community and Faces of digital health organised a webinar about healthcare innovation funding in times of COVID-19. We asked four experts from Slovenia, Italy, Germany and Israel to join us in the discussion about the effect of the pandemic on health tech business. What you will be able to hear is the webinar adapted for radio.
The event is divided into two podcast episodes - in the first one you can listen to the presentations of Levi Shapiro, founder of mHealth Israel talk about the current trends in digital health and future expectations. Nana Bit Avragim shared an overview of the innovative business models. In the second episode, you can listen to the recording panel discussion. The panellists agreed tough times are ahead and offered their advice as to where opportunities lie and how existing companies should adopt to survive the coming economic crisis.
Webinar agenda:
14:05 - 14:20 Overview of the global digital health scene up until now, COVID-19 related investments (Levi Shapiro, mHealth Israel (Israel))
14:20-14:35 Collabetition: New Possibilities to Create, Co-Create and Rethink Healthcare Businesses (Nana Bit-Avragim, Digital Health Business Architect (Germany))
14:35-15:10 Round table: Effects of COVID-19 on business (Nana Bit-Avragim, Levi Shapiro, Giovanni Loser, investor (Italy), Blaž Triglav, healthcare executive (Slovenia))
15:10-15:20 Q&A with the audience
Webinar summary: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/special-episodes-7475-healthcare-innovation-financing-in-times-of-covid-19nbsp
April 11, 2020
F074 Healthcare innovation financing in times of COVID19 (Part 1/2)
On April 9th, Slovenian health tech community and Faces of digital health organised a webinar about healthcare innovation funding in times of COVID-19. We asked four experts from Slovenia, Italy, Germany and Israel to join us in the discussion about the effect of the pandemic on health tech business. What you will be able to hear is the webinar adapted for radio.
The event is divided into two podcast episodes - in the first one you can listen to the presentations of Levi Shapiro, founder of mHealth Israel talk about the current trends in digital health and future expectations. Nana Bit Avragim shared an overview of the innovative business models. In the second episode, you can see the panel discussion. The panellists agreed tough times are ahead and offered their advice as to where opportunities lie and how existing companies should adopt to survive the coming economic crisis.
Webinar agenda:
14:05 - 14:20 Overview of the global digital health scene up until now, COVID-19 related investments (Levi Shapiro, mHealth Israel (Israel))
14:20-14:35 Collabetition: New Possibilities to Create, Co-Create and Rethink Healthcare Businesses (Nana Bit-Avragim, Digital Health Business Architect (Germany))
14:35-15:10 Round table: Effects of COVID-19 on business (Nana Bit-Avragim, Levi Shapiro, Giovanni Loser, investor (Italy), Blaž Triglav, healthcare executive (Slovenia))
15:10-15:20 Q&A with the audience
Webinar summary: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/special-episodes-7475-healthcare-innovation-financing-in-times-of-covid-19nbsp
April 11, 2020
F073 DTx series 2/5: What's Pharma got to do with digital therapeutics? (Paul Simms)
Paul is the CEO and Founder of Eyeforpharma - international hub connecting senior-level pharma executives, patient groups and other health stakeholders to exchange ideas and observe shifting trends and practices at events, in reports and conferences. In this second episode of a short series about digital therapeutics, Paul talks about the relationship between Pharma and DTx and Pharma development as an industry in general. As an Advisor to Hu-manity.co Paul also discussed the concept of people owning their data and managing it as property.
Webinar about innovation financing in times of COVID-19: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/healthcare-innovation-financing-in-times-of-covid-19-tickets-101653044994
Recap of the show: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f073-dtx-series-24-whats-pharma-got-to-do-with-digital-therapeutics-paul-simms
April 3, 2020
F072 DTx series 1/5: How do DTx differ from medications or digital health apps? (Jessica Shull)
Digital therapeutics (DTx) are clinically validated digital solutions with proven positive effects on disease management and outcomes. in this episode, Jessica Shull, European Lead for the Digital Therapeutics Alliance, shaping advocacy and organizational engagement for the DTx industry in European countries, explains what DTx are, why are they relevant clinical interventions, how do clinical trials for medications differ from clinical trials for digital therapeutics. Jessica also explains what digital therapeutics are and how they should be differentiated from digital diagnostics and more.
As written by the Digital Health Alliance, DTx have immense potential in the coronavirus pandemic, because patient access to and utilization of digital therapeutics could improve health outcomes, consequently reducing chronic disease-related hospitalizations, mitigating additional pressures on healthcare providers during the COVID-19 outbreak. Their use could reduce vulnerable populations’ potential coronavirus exposure.
Announcement: Jessica Shull will be at the Eyeforpharma virtual conference taking place between March 30th and April 3rd! Go to: https://www.eyeforpharma.com/barcelona/
Resources:
Recap of the show
Apple COVID-19 screening toolWHO Whatsapp service for COVID-19 informationDTx and COVID-19
March 28, 2020
F071 Why is St. Louis a hidden digital health ecosystem gem in the US and the latest about digital health efforts for COVID-19
When Europe became the new epicentre of the COVID-19 spread, and with the steady rise of infected in the US, tech companies offered their knowledge to curb the pandemic: COVID-19 triage and self-assessment apps are available, the US is seeing a rise of telemedicine use, in the US, in Italy 3D printing company aided a crisis cause by the need for new respirator valves, etc.
The British based Organisation for the Review of Care & Health Application ORCHA, which has in place a high-standard review process, warned on March 13, that app stores are unregulated, and 85% of apps do not meet ORCHA's quality threshold. This episodes names a few relevant digital health solutions and trends, coming from the US, Europe and China. The short report is followed by a discussion about the healthcare ecosystem in St. Louis, Missouri. St. Louis is a regional health care powerhouse, home to the largest non-profit hospital system in the U.S - Ascension., Washington University/BJC Healthcare, the #1 pharmacy benefits manager in the U.S. Express Scripts.
Luke Blackburn - Business Developer at GlobalSTL - a section of BioSTL - which has laid the foundation for St. Louis' innovation economy with a comprehensive set of transformational programs that elevate St. Louis’ leadership in solving important world challenges in agriculture, medicine, health care, and other technology areas. explains who GlobalSTL is working with, what are they learning based on collaborations with 15 countries around the world and more.
Episode recap: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f071-why-is-st-louis-a-hidden-digital-health-ecosystem-gem-in-the-us-and-the-latest-about-digital-health-efforts-fornbspcovid-19
Node.health webinars: https://nodehealth.org/
Orbita’s virtual assistant: https://go.orbita.ai/orbita-launches-screening-chatbot-covid19-patient-education-triage-virtual-navigation
ORCHA recommended Covid apps: https://www.orcha.co.uk/news/coronavirus-apps-to-help-self-management/
The Journal of Gastroenterology: https://gi.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/ACG-AJG-Media-Statement-COVID19-Hubei-Pan-et-al-FINAL-03182020.pdf
DreaMed Diabetes: https://dreamed-diabetes.com/
Mediately: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mediately/
March 20, 2020
F070 Why is getting sick in the US financially toxic for many people? (Christopher T. Robertson)
As of 2017 healthcare is the leading category of the 78,5 billion in consumer debt collected each year, which is more than 40 times the size of credit card debt. While the number of uninsured is reducing, it is being replaced with the issue of underinsurance. 3 in 10 people reported costs caused them not to take their medicines as prescribed in the past year, writes law professor Christopher T. Robertson in his last book Exposed: Why Our Health Insurance Is Incomplete and What Can Be Done About It. This is especially critical in situations as the current Covidvirus crisis. New York Times and Financial Times warn that the US is at high risk for a fast spread of Covid-19, because many people don’t have the option to work at home + the uninsured, and there are 27 million of them, are reluctant to seek healthcare.In the following discussion with dr. Robertson, you will hear more about what kind of costs patients are exposed to in the US, what the role of technology could be in curbing those costs or at least make prices transparent and clear before a patient get the bills, and how could the healthcare system be improved.
Recap: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f070-why-is-getting-sick-in-the-us-financially-toxic-for-many-people-christopher-t-robertson
March 13, 2020
F069 What else is there to learn about pitching digital health solutions? (Beth Susanne)
"Each investor sees about 1200 pitch decks per year, meets 500 founders, and invests in 10 companies. So when preparing for your pitch, you need to be aware that investors are looking for reasons to say NO to you," says Beth Susanne. The key thing to consider when preparing presentations, says Beth, is what investors could say YES to. In healthcare, that is: traction, clearly identified payor and partners that show the scalability of your product.
Beth Susanne is an international pitch coach from the US, based in Spain, who coached over 3000 teams so far, over 200 in digital health. No matter if you are a startup or a corporation, team communication is key to success - either for company growth or fundraising.
Summary of the show: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f069-what-else-is-there-to-learn-about-pitching-digital-health-solutions-bethnbspsussane
Beth Susanne: https://bethsusanne.com/
March 6, 2020
F068 The power of patients 4/4: What skills do you need as a patient? (Grace Cordovano)
Grace Cordovano is an expert healthcare navigating solutionist and award winning, board-certified patient advocate specializing in the oncology space. She is the founder of Enlightening Results and Unblock Health - a suite of services that finally provides patients and carepartners with a way to level the playing field and demand access to the critical information needed to make informed, engaged, and empowered decisions about their care. In this episode, she talks about challenges patients faces because of the complexity of the healthcare system in the US, she shares her view about the need of patients getting access to their data and more.
Recap of the discussion: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f065-f068-the-power-of-patients-4-episodes-series
Enlightening Results:https://www.enlighteningresults.com/
Unblock Health: https://www.unblock.health/
February 28, 2020
F067 The power of patients 3/4: How can patients influence policy? (Bettina Ryll)
Clinical advocacy has many different shapes. In the US, says Dr. Bettina Ryll, patient advocates work as patient’s navigators in the healthcare system. In Europe, they have a more activist/policy influencing role. When a patient’s interest in his disease grows beyond his personal interest, he becomes a patient advocate, says Mr. Ryll, when asked about how she would define patient advocacy.
This episode presents the role of patients in improving care, the influence of patient advocacy and needs of patients with serious conditions.
Summary: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f065-f068-the-power-of-patients-4-episodes-series
Melanoma Patient Network Europe: http://www.melanomapatientnetworkeu.org/
February 21, 2020
F066 The power of patients 2/4: Patients need more than medical treatment (Marina Borukhovich)
In the second episode of the short series about the patient perspective of healthcare Marina Borukhovich, born in Belarus, raised in US and living for the past 8 years in Netherlands and Germany shares her story of being diagnosed with breast cancer at 37 years old. 3 years later she lost her father to pancreatic cancer. She founded YourCoach, a startup giving coaches client management and accountability tools in order to help heal their clients holistically, with a vision of having health coaches accessible to everyone. YourCoach aims to become the ultimate authority for health coaches.
Recap of the show: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f065-f068-the-power-of-patients-4-episodes-series
YourCoach: https://yourcoach.health/
February 14, 2020
F065 The power of patients 1/4: What do you do, when the system gives up on you? (Roi Shternin)
Roi Shternin had medical ambitions while he was still a student. Before he turned 20 however, his physical health started deteriorating to the point where he couldn’t get up from his bed. He visited 33 doctors. “The 33rd doctor told my parents that I will never get married or have a career, so they should just get me an as comfortable bed as possible, so I can die with dignity,” Roi remembers today.
Because he did not get a diagnosis, and consequently treatment, he lost a lot of his faith in healthcare. And after doctors gave up on him, he decided to try to find out the cause of his deteriorating health himself.
Summary of the show: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f065-f068-the-power-of-patients-4-episodes-series
Roi Shternin: http://roi.shternin.com/
February 7, 2020
F064 Fighting loneliness in older people with robots (Richard Marshall)
Social isolation and loneliness are linked to several health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, a weakened immune system, anxiety, depression, cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s disease, and even death. Can these problems be alleviated with the help of robots?
A group of French innovators created Cutii — a robot for the elderly that looks like a screen on a stand that moves around in the environment. It supports speech recognition and vocal synthesis so the users can send written messages using their voice, the robot allows remote control for family caregivers, detects falls. The robot is an IoT device that enables the elderly to meet new people — caregivers in the Cutii community. Caregivers are usually younger volunteers that share their activities (for example cooking, hiking, visiting the gallery) while being connected to an elder in real-time. The robot is currently available in France, Switzerland and the US.
The average age of Cutii users is between 72 and 74. As explained by Richard Marshall, VP of Business Development at Cutii, the aim of the company is to increase the years of happy living to those that wish to age in their homes. Most people do, due to the emotional attachment they have with their home.
Show summary:
https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f064-fighting-loneliness-in-older-people-with-robots-richard-marshall
Cutii: https://www.cutii.io/le-concept/
January 30, 2020
F063 How to build a community in healthcare? (Aline Noizet)
Building communities is time-consuming and demands special soft skills. Aline Noizet is a digital health connector with rich experiences of building and getting to know communities in digital health. She started her digital health journey working for the digital health startup Doctoralia in Barcelona in 2011. She later became an important part of Health 2.0, followed by a position at Bayer’s G4A. She now works globally as an independent consultant, based in Barcelona.
More: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Recap: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f063-how-to-build-a-community-in-healthcare-aline-noizet
Aline's website: www.digitalhealthconnector.com
January 25, 2020
F062 GDPR, MDR, and what you can do about you medical data (Jovan Stevovic)
In May 2020, Medical Device Regulation goes into effect. Digital health companies providing software intended for medical use will need to comply with new requirements. According to Jovan Stevović, CEO and Co-Founder of Chino.io, companies are much better prepared for MDR than they were for GDPR. In general, medical devices are products or equipment intended for medical use. These include long-term corrective contact lenses, surgical lasers, defibrillators, hearing aids, diagnostic ultrasound machines, hip-joint implants, prosthetic heart valves. There are three classes of medical devices: Class 1, Class 2a and 2b, and Class 3. The classification depends on the intended use. Medical devices class I have the lowest perceived risk for health, those in Class 3 the highest. MDR also defines software which is designed for medicinal purposes, to be a medical device.
Recap of the show: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f062-gdpr-mdr-and-what-you-can-do-about-you-medical-data-jovan-stevovi
Chino.io: https://www.chino.io/
Free eBook: How to build MDR certified eHealth applications: https://www.chino.io/a/chino-io-ebook-medical-device-regulation-ehealth-applications
January 17, 2020
F061 Why do so many data breaches and cyber attacks happen in healthcare? (Chris Bowen)
According to Clearwater cyberIntelligence Institute, one of the key issues in data breaches are user authentication deficiencies. These include password strength requirements, single sign-on controls, and locking accounts after too many failed login attempts are the three primary risks around user authentication - generic password use, physically posting passwords on a workspace, and or unencrypted emailing of credentials over external networks. If the key issue of data security and privacy protection in the past was how to archive data and prevent unauthorized access to archives, the cloud brought a whole new set of challenges. For one thing, security measures required from the personnel are getting increasingly complex. Additionally, while several advances have been made on the technological level of data protection - from different methods of encryption to high hopes stemming from AI and quantum computing, the bad guys are also using these technologies, says Chris Bowen, the Founder of and Chief Privacy & Security Officer of ClearDATA - US based company offering technology and services to assist organizations with their healthcare cloud security needs. We discussed the trends in cybersecurity in healthcare, the future, and what organizations should be mindful of when it comes to healthcare data protection. Enjoy the show, find the transcript on our website www.facesofdigitalhealth.com, and do subscribe to the show if data privacy, security and protection is on your interest. In the next episode, you will hear about GDPR and upcoming Medical Device Regulation from Jovan Stevović, Co-Founder of Chino.io.
Recap:https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f061-why-do-so-many-data-breaches-and-cybsecurity-attacks-happen-in-healthcare-chris-bowen
ClearDATA: https://www.cleardata.com/
Chris Bowen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cbowen1/
January 9, 2020
F60 2020: Redefined experience, further progress of DTx and new expectation about investments, quantum computing
Nine opinion leaders in digital health - John Nosta, Rafael Grossmann, Aline Noizet, Brian de Francesca, Irma Rastagayeva, Eugene Borukhovich, Maneesh Juneja and Nana bit Avragim and Levi Shapiro - answered a seemingly simple and open-ended question: What are your predictions about trends in digital health and healthcare in 2020?
1. Experience shift
2. Positive future for digital therapeutics
3. Tech giants moving forward, on-premise healthcare increasing in the US
4. Europe: retail health and new innovation efforts
5. Rethinking of knowledge transfer and fundraising models in digital health
6. Quantum computing and telecommunications regulators
7. 3D printing is on
8. Shifts in the mindset about innovation, knowledge transfer and financing
Recap: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f60-2020-redefined-experience-further-progress-of-dtx-and-new-expectation-about-investments-quantum-computing
Twitter: https://twitter.com/zajctjasa
December 20, 2019
F059 Digital health in Africa 4/4: Doctor's appointments made easy in South Africa (Sheraan Amod)
South Africa is a restless country with Race and ethnicity still causing a lot of tension in the society. On the healthcare side, there are only 0.9 doctors per 1000 people in the country. Out of 59 million people, 9 million people access healthcare through private providers; the rest are in the public system. Soon, however, the system might change with the introduction of National Health Insurance, as you will hear from Sheraan Amod - CEO and founder of South Africa’s largest and fastest growing online healthcare booking platform. Over 100,000 patients and 1,500 providers connect with each other every month via RecoMed.
In this discussion, Sheraan talks about his transition into healthcare, shares his views on the development of healthcare in the country and plans for RecoMed, which allows patients to leave positive recommendations about providers on the platform. Negative reviews are sent to providers privately.
Recap: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f056-f060-digital-health-in-africa-series-tanzania-nigeria-south-africa-rwanda
Podcast website: www.facesofdigitalheath.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/zajctjasa
RecoMed: https://www.recomed.co.za/
Sheraan Amod: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheraanamod/
December 13, 2019
F058 Digital health in Africa 3/4: Bringing Babylon to Rwanda (Patrick Singa Muhoza)
In 2016, the UK based company Babylon Health, radically transforming access to primary care in the NHS in the UK, opened a subsidiary in Rwanda. The Rwandan version ob Babylon is called Babyl, and has by today attracted over 2 out of 12 million people in Rwanda. Out of 2 million people, 700.000 consulted Babyls healthcare workers, says Patrick Singa Muhoza, Medical Director at Babylon health Rwanda.
Rwanda has 12 million people and a severely understaffed healthcare system with 0.1 doctors per 1000 people. According to some locals, the problem is not only a lack of doctors but also poor knowledge, which can cause extreme differences in second opinions, among other things.
Recap: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f056-f060-digital-health-in-africa-series-tanzania-nigeria-south-africa-rwanda
December 9, 2019
F057 Digital health in Africa 2/4: Telemedicine can't save healthcare in Nigeria (Ocoche Ubenyi)
As of 2016, Nigeria was Africa’s largest economy and most populous nation. By 2050, Nigeria is expected to be one of the ten largest economies in the world. Healthcare wise, the country is in dire need of reform and reinforcement in medical forces. According to the World bank, there are 0.4 doctors per 1000 people and 1.5 nurses and midwives per 1000 people.
Ocoche Ubenyi is one of the country’s doctors eager to improve the situation in healthcare. He is the founder of Nimedix Ecosysyem - a blockchain project aiming to improve healthcare in Nigeria through technology and online solutions, enabling patients to own their healthcare data and share it to whom they wish in the healthcare sector.
Written recap: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f056-f060-digital-health-in-africa-series-tanzania-nigeria-south-africa-rwanda
November 30, 2019
F056 Digital health in Africa 1/4: Spreading health information in Tanzania (Mariatheresa Samson Kadushi)
Africa has 54 countries, that differ a lot in terms of their quality of care, political situation, and innovation. This short series explores healthcare in 4 African countries: - the most populous African country Nigeria with 200 million people, presented by a medical doctor and entrepreneur Ocoche Ubenyi, CEO of Nimedix Ecosystem,- South Africa with 59 million people is presented by a serial entrepreneur Sheraan Amod, currently the CEO RecoMed - South Africa’s largest doctor’s appointment booking platform. - Rwanda - a country with 12,6 million people and less than 700 doctors is presented by Patrick Singa Muhosa, Chief Medical Officer of Babyl - the Rwandan version of the UK company Babylon, offering online or phone consultations with doctors.
This first part explores Tanzania, with 58 million people. Mariatheresa Samson Kadushi is an ICT specialist and an entrepreneur, with rich experience running a tech company in Africa, while participating in country-level initiatives reforming communities; and also assisting small businesses, corporate companies and investors flourish. At the moment, Mariatheresa is fully engaged in building Mobile Afya (M-afya), a company trying to increase access to accurate medical information in Africa. She explains the current state of healthcare in Tanzania, and the challenges women face as entrepreneurs and seekers of medical information and help.
More about Mobile Afya: https://www.mobileafya.com/
November 21, 2019
F055 What do pink socks have to do with digital health? (Nick Adkins)
If you go to digital health conferences, you might have noticed people wearing pink socks. Or a guy with a long beard and a kilt caught your eye. That was Nick Adkins - the Co-Founder of Pinksocks Life, a nonprofit organization focused on promoting authentic human connection around the world. Pinksocks was founded five years after Nick attended Burning man in 2010. For those who don’t know it - Burning man is a special community, which gathers once a year in the Black Rock desert in Nevada. Where there is nothing most of time in the year, 70.000 people come each August to enjoy life according to ten principles - radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, participation, immediacy, and leave no trace. Many people that have been at Burning man say, it transformed them. They consequently take some of the lessons with them to the real-default world, Nick being one of them. Nick talks about the background behind the kilt, impact Pink Socks have had so far and the general encouragement to everyone to fear people less, and see the good in them. If you’re interested in seeing pink socks energy in action, go to Twitter and search for #pinksocks.
Website: https://pinksocks.life/about-us/
November 11, 2019
F054 What on Earth is up with space health? (Ilaria Cinelli)
Less than 600 people traveled to space by today. What do we know about space health so far, and why does it matter for the broader population? A discussion with Ilaria Cinelli - a biomedical engineer with a structured PhD in neural engineering. While she’s not an astronaut, she is very passionate about space and has completed the Space Studies Program of the International Space University at TU Delft (The Netherlands). She is an Associate Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association, President-Elect of the Aerospace Human Factors Association, and Member-at-Large of the Life Sciences and Biomedical Engineering Branch.
November 3, 2019
F053 How well do you sleep? (Richard Jacobs)
What are the basics of sleep hygiene, the importance of sleep and harm lack of sleep causes to our health? Richard Jacobs is the host of Future Tech Podcast and Future Tech Health Podcast. By now, he has interviewed 1800+ companies in artificial intelligence, stem cells, 3D printing, gene editing, bitcoin, blockchain, the microbiome, quantum computing, virtual reality and space exploration and more. He conducted over a hundred interviews about sleep with various sleep experts, which he did due to his personal problems with sleep. He later turned his knowledge in The Good Night’s Sleep Project, making custom-tailored-pillows based on an individual’s 14 personal characteristics.
The Good Night Sleep Project: https://www.goodnightssleepproject.com/
The Future Tech Health Podcast: https://www.futuretechhealth.com/
October 25, 2019
F052 AI in healthcare 6/6: What if AI gets out of control? (Bart De Witte)
The sixth and final episode of a short series about AI in healthcare features Bart de Witte and a discussion about data privacy, the future of AI models in healthcare and the issue of a potentially dystopian future if we decide to let monetization of healthcare data get out of control. Bart is a digital health tech expert who worked as an executive director for the world largest technology vendors such as IBM and SAP. He has been intimately involved as a mentor in the formation and growth of a dozen digital health startups, and lectures at different universities in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Austria. Lately, he has been on a mission to harness the power of artificial intelligence to help to solve current and future inequalities in healthcare.
Other episodes in the series: 1- The potential benefits for the patients in the first episode:https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f047-ai-in-healthcare-giving-patients-their-lives-back
2- AI development in radiology with Chief Medical Information Officer at Nuance Woojin Kim: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f048-ai-in-healthcare-part-25-radiology-disrupted
3- prof. Dr. Tadej Battelino, world renowned diabetologies and endocrinologist and Chief Clinical at DreaMed Diabetes about AI in diabetes: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f049-ai-in-healthcare-35-impacts-in-diabetes-tadej-battelino
4- CEO of Orbita - BIll Rogers about the development of voice technologies thanks to AI: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f050-ai-in-healthcare-46-the-power-of-voice-bill-rogers
5- stroke research in AI with Vince Madai PhD in Neuroscience, and Michelle Livne, PhD in Machine LEarning from Charite University Hospital in Berlin:https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/ai-in-healthcare-56-decision-support-for-stroke-therapy-michelle-livne-vince-madai
October 18, 2019
F051 AI in healthcare 5/6: Decision support for stroke therapy (Michelle Livne, Vince Madai)
AI models in the field of stroke with Vince Madai and Michelle Livne from Charite hospital in Berlin, who work on predictive models for decision support systems for the treatment of strokes. Vince is a senior medical AI researcher at Charité with an M.D., a Ph.D. in Medical Neuroscience and an M.A. in Medical Ethics, and Michelle is a PhD machine learning engineer with extensive experience in applying predictive algorithms in healthcare. After obtaining a B.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering in 2012 at the Technion Technological Institute of Israel, Haifa she concluded her Master degree in Neuroscience at Charité University Medicine in 2014.
Apart from the current state of stroke treatment research and development, we talked about the state of digital health in Germany compared to Israel and ethical issues surrounding AI, such as data bias and data privacy. In healthcare challenges in data acquisition are reducing the opportunity to save lives and are opening many ethical dilemmas.
Some questions addressed:
Signs of strokes are well known: numbness in the arms, problems with speaking fluently. The brain is not getting enough blood. Someone calls an ambulance. What happens when a patient reaches the hospital?
How many types of strokes are there?
Time is crucial in stroke treatment - what are the current support systems available to doctors when a patient hit by stroke is brought to them? What kind of systems are in development?
Even if you are having a stroke, it might not be seen on a CT scan. A lot of AI at the moment is based on pattern recognition. If there is nothing visible on a CT - what does this mean for the development of AI supported decision support systems?
One of the discussion topics in AI is interpretability. Complex models are harder to understand and the more accurate an AI model is, the less interpretable it is. For example, a decision tree is easily interpretable, but has lower accuracy, compared to deep neural networks, that have higher accuracy and lower interpretability. Why is that important?
Opinions are divided between Yes, interpretability is needed and No, interpretability is not needed if the network proved to be effective. Where do you stand on that?
A lot of companies are working on AI, but most of the development and testing ATM happens with retrospective studies. How big of an issue is in your view lack of clinical studies done on patients? What does this mean in terms of time needed for AI support systems to come to regular clinical practice if everything needs to be validated through clinical studies which take years to finalize?
If you wanted to apply your knowledge on another field in healthcare - what could be the next frontier you could focus on that is closest to stroke research?
October 13, 2019
F050 AI in healthcare 4/6: The power of voice (Bill Rogers)
Voice applications in healthcare are used in telemedicine, for remote patient monitoring, clinical trials, and more. Bill Rogers, CEO of Orbita - a leading provider of conversational AI for healthcare - explains the current state of voice assistants in healthcare. Orbita helps healthcare organizations tap the power of voice assistants, chatbots, and other conversational AI technologies to engage patients, improve care, and reduce costs.
October 4, 2019
F049 AI in healthcare 3/6: Impacts in diabetes (Tadej Battelino)
In 2016 FDA approved the so-called artificial pancreas - Medtronic’s MiniMed 670G system (Medtronic) a hybrid closed-looped system for glucose measurement and insulin delivery. A lot of companies are developing AI supported decision support systems for doctors and patients. This episode dives in the complexity of diabetes, how it is treated, what role does glucose have on health and how is technology improving the lives of patients with diabetes. Speaker: prof. Dr. Tadej Battelino, the head of Department of Pediatric endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at the UMC - University Children’s Hospital Ljubljana, Slovenia. Prof. Battelino is among other things co-organizer of Advanced Technologies and Treatment of Diabetes Conference - that provides a world-class platform for clinicians and scientists to present, discuss and exchange insights on the most rapidly evolving area of diabetes technology and treatments. He is also Chiel Clinical at Dreamed Diabetes - Israeli based developer of personalized diabetes management solutions. DreamedDiabetes Advisor Pro decision support system received an FDA approval in 2018.
September 27, 2019
F048 AI in healthcare 2/6: Radiology disrupted? (Woojin Kim)
The idea that AI will replace radiologists comes from the fact that today’s AI models models are very good at pattern recognition. But in reality, the “rich data” coming from radiologists is in the radiology reports, which are to a large extent unstructured. As elsewhere, the 80:20 rule applies here, says Woojin Kim. So the interesting thing are the NLP models mining radiology reports, he said in this interview. So what do radiologists actually do, are they going to start talking to the patients more, why they will not be obsolete anytime soon and more. Woojin Kim is the Chief Medical Information Officer at Nuance, former Chief of Radiography Modality, Director of Center for Translational Imaging Informatics, Associate Director of Imaging Informatics, and Assistant Professor of Radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
September 19, 2019
F047 AI in healthcare 1/6: Giving patients their lives back
Short series about AI in healthcare: 1 - the potential impact of AI on patients
When reading about how digital health and AI are improving disease management, waiting times in decision making healthcare, we don't only read about cost savings. These novelties show how patients are becoming more and more equal to healthy people and how diseases are affecting the quality of lives less and less due to
less time spent in the healthcare systems, faster diagnosis, faster treatment and recovery.
Of course, this is not going to happen tomorrow, but when has any progress ever happened fast, especially in healthcare? Yes, AI applications are still in the early stages of this, algorithms and studies currently based on retrospective studies. But the trend is what it's crucial - the hype is annoying, but it attracts talent. And more people means more knowledge and faster advancements.
Other upcoming episodes in the series: 2- the current state of AI in radiology as explained by Woojin Kim3- the complexity of diabetes and development of algorithms as explained by prof. dr. Tadej Battelino,4- AI in stroke management.
September 11, 2019
F046 Nurses are innovators – why they should be more involved in solution design (Shawna Butler)
No matter which country you go, the predictions about the healthcare workforce estimate that we will encounter significant shortages of doctors in the future. It’s less often heard that the prediction for shortages of nurses is much higher compared to doctors. So today, the spotlight is on them. Shawna is an entrepreNURSE with a wide range of experiences in emergency medicine, cardiac, critical care, international medical flight transport, and workplace wellness. Shawna is an important member of the Exponential Medicine Team. With her curiosity and drive towards a better health she has shaped and launched various initiatives: the EntrepreNURSE-in-Residence role in the Netherlands, an enterprise-wide digital radiology solution, an international emergency medicine training rotation between a US medical school and a New Zealand hospital system, and the Cancer XPRIZE focused on early detection. She explains what are challenges nurses are faced with in terms of working conditions and paving the way to acknowledge their important role in healthcare.
F016 with Rebecca Love:
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/si/podcast/f016-why-arent-nurses-included-in-innovation-processes/id1194284040?i=1000416488011
Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-h2mjf-95cfb0
https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/2018/08/07/f016-f017-why-arent-nurses-included-in-innovation-process-more-rebecca-love-shawna-butler
August 30, 2019
F045 Digital Health in Asia 5/5: Telemedicine is illegal in South Korea (Ogan Gurel)
South Korea is famous for many things - worldwide, the Republic of Korea has by far the highest robot density in the manufacturing industry, the third-largest market for virtual currency, behind the United States and Japan. South Korea is called the plastic surgery capital, because of the cultural beauty obsession. According to a recent Gallup poll, one in three South Korean women has undergone cosmetic surgery between the ages of 19 and 29. South Korea’s government is even trying to limit the stars’ presence. South Korea also managed to pull off what many other countries crave for: a substantial healthcare reform in early 2000s. Health care is financed through National Health Insurance covering the entire population. To establish big data in the medical field, the nation is currently gathering the medical records of about 50 million people from 39 hospitals nationwide by 2020. Alongside all the technological progress, telemedicine is illegal in South Korea. You will hear why from today’s speaker Ogan Gurel, a doctor, professor, entrepreneur, who has been living in South Korea for the last nine years. His teaching experience includes cellular & molecular biology, neuroanatomy, bioinformatics, mathematical modeling, and technology marketing at Columbia, Roosevelt, Harvard, SAIHST and DGIST. He has also served as an independent consultant to several medical device firms in which he was specifically involved with both European and FDA clinical trial development and oversight. Enjoy the discussion, and research more at www.facesofdigitalhealth.com
Blog post with key points from all episodes about Asia: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f041045-digital-health-in-asia-china-india-south-korea-and-singapore
August 22, 2019
F044 Digital Health in Asia 4/5: Singapore and lucid dreaming (Tony Estrella)
Singapore, also known as Asia for beginners, is a 5.6 million people country, offering an encouraging environment to tech companies and expats. The government in Singapore is promoting IT adoption and innovation in healthcare. National Electronic Health Record system was rolled out in 2011. Combine that with countrywide connectivity, mobile-first population, and a lot of openness for collaboration with the private sector, and you get a healthtech epicenter in Asia.
Excluding China and India, Singapore took the lead by deal volume share in Asia in 2018 with 30%, followed by Japan with 27% and South Korea with 13%, according to Galen Growth.
Tony Estrella is a startup founder, investor, corporate innovation leader, and strategic advisor, with work experiences in the US, Europe and Asia. He is partnering with Asia-focused companies who are developing solutions to change the face of cancer and human longevity with core IP stemming from AI, Genomics, Blockchain, and smart devices. He recently published a fiction novel Comatose, which opens many ethical dilemmas regarding the future of healthcare technology development.
Some questions addressed:
Given that you lived all around the world, what are your observations of Asia?
Singapore offers universal healthcare coverage through a mixed financing system. How does the government support digital health development?
What drives innovation in Singapore?
The Accenture digital health in Singapore 2016 survey found that two-thirds (66%) of consumers who believe they should have EHR access want to see exactly what the doctor sees — not a summary. Opinion?
Your novel Comatose book opens up several ethical questions concerning patient data privacy, clinical trials and involuntary inclusion in medical research, hacking, medical ethics etc. How do you see the future of these issues and the actual fear from unintended consequences?
What has the process of writing a book taught you about business? (perseverance, dedicated time, did you ever get stuck. How did you design the outline of the story etc.)
**Annual End of Childhood report published by non-governmental organisation Save The Children, ranking Singapore and Slovenia as top countries for children: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/singapore-ranked-best-country-for-children-to-grow-up-in
August 15, 2019
F043 Digital Health in Asia 3/5: India & reinvention of medical education with Project ECHO (Sunil Anand, Kartik Dhar)
If anyone, India is in dire need to increase access to quality care. According to WHO, the density of doctors of all types (allopathic, ayurvedic, unani and homeopathic) in 2001 was 8 doctors per 10,000 people, and the density of nurses was 6 nurses per 10.000 people.
Project ECHO® is one of the players with an important role in bringing patients quality care with the help of a revolutionary medical education project. The ambition of Project ECHO is to touch the lives of 1 billion people by 2025. The project works by connecting doctors on the local level, allowing them to share and discuss their clinical cases through the lens of the latest clinical guidelines.
In this podcast episode, the executive director of Project ECHO India — Sunil Anand and Kartik Dhar, Leading the ECHO Digital technical solutions development and India based product teams, talk about
the current state of healthcare in India,
government’s plans for “Modicare” - insurance coverage of ₹500,000 (7200$) per year per family, for 500 million people,
Digitization progress and governmental plans for an integrated approach to electronic health records.
Observations regarding mobile health: many startups are trying, penetration is not visible yet. More and more startups are shifting towards solutions in local language and there is a visible focus on mental health.
August 8, 2019
F042 Digital health in Asia 2/5: What drives the incredible pace of development in China? (Julie Wang)
China’s population is larger than the population of the US and Europe combined. The country is becoming the leader in AI development. The enabling factor for China’s rapid advancement in AI is that Chinese Tech giants and government agencies are investing heavily the most important fuel for AI development - data infrastructures. In healthcare, for example, the company Yitu has a team of about 400 doctors, most of whom work part-time for about 10 hours a week to help label data. One-fifth of the healthcare team’s full-time employees have a medical background.
Asian countries were lagging behind in digitization in the past, which enabled them to leapfrog development with mobile phones. The consumers here use Tencent’s WeChat for shopping, paying bills and more. Understandably, Tencent’s new strides into healthcare are highly anticipated. According to Technode, Tencent is testing real-time clinic services in its WeChat wallet, and as reported by mobihealthnews, Tencent Trusted Doctor is among a number of technology-driven firms looking to shake up China’s overburdened public healthcare market.
According to Phillips Future Health Index 2019 China is an outlier in terms of healthcare professionals encouraging their patients to track healthcare data.
Julie Wang talks about Chinese culture, entrepreneurship, and values driving digital health in China.
Also listen to: How advanced is China in digital health?
August 1, 2019
F041 Digital health in Asia 1/5: An overview (Julien de Salaberry)
Asia is the second-largest digital health ecosystem in the world. 2018 ended with a record-breaking 6.8 billion US dollars invested. According to IBC Asia, the digital health market is expected to reach $379 billion by 2024. Asian countries are leapfrogging the west in tech adoption. Many countries are turning into cashless societies where all transactions are done through mobile phones. At the same time, the culture in Asia is very different compared to the West. For a light start, this first episode will give you a broad overview of the region, with Julien de Salaberry, CEO and Founder of Galen Growth Asia. But before that, a few interesting thoughts about China, India, Singapore, and South Korea, from speakers in the upcoming episodes.
The latest Gale Growth report about H1 of 2019 in Asia: https://bit.ly/2ZbgeKf
July 25, 2019
F040 Slovenia (Part 1): What to learn from Slovenia about drug regulation?
This episode is the first part of a two-part series about healthcare in Slovenia. Given that drug prices are a consistently controversial topic in the US healthcare system, the first part of the series explains European regulation. Why are drug prices in Europe more affordable? How does drug pricing and medication management work in Europe and Slovenia? Why is it hard to imagine that an opioid crisis or widespread use of ADHD drugs would happen in this part of Europe? The speaker explaining the topics is the Head of the medication management department at the Healthcare Insurance Institute of Slovenia Jurij Fürst.
July 11, 2019
F040 Slovenia (Part 2): How strong is the digital health community?
This is the second part of a two-part series about healthcare in Slovenia. Slovenia is a country of 2 million people, with a universal healthcare system, where electronic medical cards have been in place since the nineties. The interoperable backbone for main patient documents such as discharge letters has been in place since 2012. On the index of the digital economy and society 2018 prepared by the European Commission, Slovenia was ranked 6th according to the use of eHealth solutions. Tina Vavpotič, healthcare business strategist and consultant, with rich experience in healthcare policy design, healthcare IT product design and implementation, shares her thoughts about eHealth and digital health.
July 11, 2019
F039 Patient behavior: what to consider when designing solutions? (Claire Kamoun)
Patients are getting increasingly engaged in their treatments, becoming the decisionmakers not just recipients of care. But to design a successful solution for patient support with high user retention is, to put it mildly, an art. Every patient lives in a different home environment, has different personal goal and challenges, therefore a good disease management solution for patients needs to be highly personalized. The discussion you will hear today is focused on exactly that: what aspects to take into account when we’re addressing patient behavior and patient empowerment, to which extent can technology decrease the need for real-life human coaches, since last years have shown that apps work best in combination with coaches. I spoke to Claire Kamoun - executive director of patient innovation at the French company MedClinik. Claire also shared her thoughts on technology adoption in France.
June 28, 2019
Coming soon: Digital health in Asia series
Asia is the 2nd largest digital health ecosystem in the world. Investments in the sector totaled 6.3 billion in 2018. 5 Faces of digital health episodes are going to be published in July, offering an overview of the region, and some insights provided by speakers from China, Singapore, South Korea and India.
June 19, 2019
F038 What do you know about the African healthcare market? (Moka Lantum)
Developing countries are often seen as ideal test hubs for innovation: there's no existing infrastructure to disrupt, the regulation permits a faster speed of adoption. However, like any market, African countries have their own specifics. How can you scale in Africa? Can you reduce the price of your consumer solution to the affordability of African consumers? Moka Lantum, based in Kenya, is an expert on the African healthcare market. He obtained his Doctor of Medicine training at Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé, Cameroon; a Diploma in Nutrition and International Child Health, from Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; a Doctorate in Pharmacology, from the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York. He is a graduate of the Masters in Health Care Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. He has rich entrepreneurship history of developing solutions for the African market.
May 31, 2019
F037 G4A and the evolution of the digital health ecosystem (Eugene Barukhovich, G4A)
G4A, formerly known as Grants4Apps is probably the most famous digital health accelerator inside a Pharma conglomerate. For a few years, the program was designed to support a handful of startups by offering them office space, various entrepreneurship skills training and network expansion. As the digital health market evolved, so has the program, with Eugene Barukhovich taking over the global head of G4A digital health development at Bayer in 2016. At the moment, G4A is present in some form or another in 35 countries. 8 accelerators/incubators run around the globe. This discussion explains how a global pharmaceutical corporation with almost 120.000 employees launched a digital health accelerator, what are the specifics of this year's application process, how are business scandals of digital health and biotech startups from the Silicon Valley affecting the ecosystem, Eugene briefly comments the Dutch and German digital health system.
To learn more about this year's G4A program and application, see this link: http://bit.ly/2JL1gWo You have until May 31st to apply!
May 17, 2019
F036 How is AI decoding aging? (Alex Zhavoronkov, Insilico Medicine)
Longevity, eternal youth or even immortality have been an aspiration in religion and culture throughout history. Today, people adopt all sorts of approaches to increase their wellbeing, delay aging and avoid diseases. Efforts are increasingly quantified with sensors, wearables, or even biohacking - interventions to influence body biology. The new hope for advancements in longevity is seen in artificial intelligence, which is becoming increasingly powerful. Alex Zhavoronkov has been researching the use of AI in aging for years. He is the CEO of Insilico Medicine, a Baltimore-based leader in the next-generation artificial intelligence technologies for drug discovery and aging biomarkers discovery. He truly is a well of knowledge - since 2012 he published over 130 peer-reviewed research papers and 2 books including "The Ageless Generation: How Biomedical Advances Will Transform the Global Economy" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
In this episode, he talks about the complexity of aging as a biological process, types of artificial intelligence and the role of AI in research advancements.
Some of his latest research articles include:
Blood Biochemistry Analysis to Detect Smoking Status and Quantify Accelerated Aging in Smokers - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-35704-w#author-information
Artificial intelligence for aging and longevity research: Recent advances and perspectives - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S156816371830240X?via%3Dihub
Artificial Intelligence for Drug Discovery, Biomarker Development, and Generation of Novel Chemistry - https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.8b00930
Listen also:
F013 What to expect from artificial intelligence in healthcare in the next 10 years? (Sally Daub, Enlitic)
https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/f013-what-to-expect-from-artificial-intelligence-in-healthcare-in-the-next-10-years-fdaf2edf32f8
May 3, 2019
F035 Estonia: To which extent does the digital infrastructure support healthcare? (Hannalore Taal)
Estonia has only 1,3 million people but is famous worldwide for its digital governance. If you want, you can even become an Estonian electronic resident and run your business from Estonia, regardless of your country of residence. Healthcare wise, 95% of healthcare data is in digital form, some of it supported with blockchain technology. What does all this mean - is data structured or is information stored in pdf? How supportive is the system for digital health startups? And how did the country, where only 6.5% of the GDP is spent on healthcare, achieve the level of digitization many countries are only dreaming of? Hannalore Taal - digital health specialist and the Chief e-Health Specialist at the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs explains.
April 19, 2019
Digital Health in Japan, China, Israel, Dubai, Germany and Bolivia
This short recording offers a snippet of thoughts about healthcare China, Japan, Germany, Dubai, Israel, Japan, and Bolivia.
April 15, 2019
F034 How are AI and wearables disrupting clinical trials? (Dr. Sam Volchenboum, University of Chicago)
ClinicalTrials.gov currently lists 302,091 clinical studies in the US. It is impossible for patients and their doctors to be aware of all clinical trials an individual might be eligible for. While one would expect the trials to be run and supported by sophisticated software, the reality is often far from that expectation. Patients often come to doctors inquiring about trials doctors might not even have been aware of. Trials data is managed manually, in old fashion way — clinical trials are written in a word format, transmitted to sites in pdf files, later on along the process, the data are often manually abstracted from clinical trials to homegrown solutions for analysis in each institution. Data is collected in tailor-made 3rd party systems for different pharma companies and then re-converted to another format for FDA submissions.
There is no doubt: there are plenty of opportunities to improve clinical trials with new technologies. Samuel L. Volchenboum, MD, PhD, MS, is an expert in pediatric cancers and blood disorders, and studies ways to harness computers to enable research and foster innovation using large data sets. He talks about potentials of digital health in clinical trials improvement.
April 5, 2019
F033 Blockchain in Healthcare – a new book guide (David Metcalf, Alex Cahana, Editors)
Anyone who wishes to learn about blockchain in general or specifically in healthcare can get overwhelmed by the number of results offered by a Google search. Awareness of the difficulty of finding credible, helpful and nuanced information around blockchain, was among the triggers to create the book Blockchain in Healthcare Innovations that Empower Patients, Connect Professionals and Improve Care.
In this episode David Metcalf and Alex Cahana share their view on the current blockchain in the healthcare landscape, accompanied by a comment on industry discussions seen at HIMSS 2019 Global conference, where the book was presented to the public from the first time.
Other episodes on blockchain in healthcare:
F021 What is the CDC doing with blockchain? (Jay Jemal, IT specialist)
https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/f021-what-is-the-cdc-doing-with-blockchain-36c15dac3603
F020 Blockchain, value of data, and the role of legislation with adoption (Ray Dogum, Health Unchained) - https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/f020-blockchain-value-of-data-and-the-role-of-legislation-with-adoption-ray-dogum-health-80919d909e97
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/si/podcast/f020-blockchain-value-data-role-legislation-adoption/id1194284040?i=1000421920886&mt=2&ls=1
Podbean: https://tjasazajc.podbean.com/e/f020-blockchain-value-of-data-and-the-role-of-legislation-with-adoption-ray-dogum-healthcare-unchained/
Episode 14 of Medicine today on digital health - What is blockchain and how fast could it be applied in healthcare:
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/014-blockchain-in-healthcare-how-how-fast-could-it/id1194284040?i=1000389721696&mt=2&ls=1
Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-na6nf-7e3965
Episode 23 of Medicine today on digital health - Misconceptions about blockchain:
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/023-misconceptions-around-blockchain-what-it-will-not/id1194284040?i=1000397151361&mt=2&ls=1
Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-3s9bh-7efd59
F007 The hype and the hope around blockchain (SXSW panel discussion):
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/f007-hype-hope-blockchain-in-healthcare-michael-dillhyon/id1194284040?i=1000407073820&mt=2&ls=1
Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-vimnn-8db4e0
F008 How do sex, blockchain and medical anthropology go together:
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/f008-how-do-sex-blockchain-medical-anthropology-go/id1194284040?i=1000408108683&mt=2&ls=1
Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-ew3f9-8e8f7a
March 22, 2019
F032 Tech advancements in surgery, VR and the healthcare crisis in Venezuela (Rafael Grossmann)
Every person is unique and we all differ in our looks, but have you ever wondered, how much do people differ on the inside? This is something surgeons are most familiar with. Rafael Grossmann is known in the digital health community as the VR surgeon. Originally from Venezuela, Rafael has been practicing medicine for a few decades in the US by now. In this episode he talks about technological advancements in surgery - from minimally invasive surgery to robotic-assisted surgery -, followed by his passion towards digital technologies, telemedicine, and VR and in the end comments the national crisis currently happening in Venezuela, and its effects on healthcare.
March 8, 2019
F031 Hacking global health through hackathons (Annie Lamontagne, Hacking Health)
Hackathons have by today become a popular approach for bringing people with various backgrounds in the same room, offering them a concentrated time, usually during a weekend, to come up with innovative approached for various challenges. The speaker of episode 31 is Annie Lamontagne - Special Projects Advisor and former Head of Global Growth at Hacking health - a global digital health organisation, currently active in 17 countries. Annie talks about how are hackathons evolving through the years, what kind of experiences can Hacking health chapters share among each other, since each chapter is active in a different country with a different culture. Annie also mentioned a few inspiring examples of solutions that were a product of hackathons organised inside the hospitals.
February 22, 2019
F030 What role does HIMSS play in the global healthcare transformation? (Hal Wolf, CEO of HIMSS)
Hal Wolf III became the CEO of HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, the largest global organisation connecting healthcare IT providers) in 2017. While having rich experiences in the healthcare industry, he started his career in a very different sector — the entertainment business. Hal first workes in Sales and Marketing for MTV Networks in the 80s, later as VP of Content at Time Warner. Then, after 20 years, did his professional development shifted to healthcare when he became the Chief Information Officer for Kaiser Permanente in Colorado.
Some questions addressed in the podcast:
What can healthcare learn from the entertainment industry?
What is the price of interoperability, what can we learn from Keiser Permanente, where $6 billion USD was spent to implement a unified system in 10 years time?
What is the role of HIMSS in the interoperability story?
How has HIMSS changed since the acquisition of Health 2.0 in 2017?
How to stay informed as a health executive in the era of overwhelming amounts of new information about new technologies?
What are the global healthcare challenges?
February 7, 2019
F029/Xpomet ep.1: How should medical education be reinvented? (Nana Bit-Avragim, Digital Health Transformer)
Investments in digital health have been rising for the last few years, encouraging innovation in applications of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, analytics, and other latest technologies in healthcare. At the same time, the next generations of doctors, who are supposed to embrace and use these inventions, are trained in an outdated model with little room for creative engagement.
One of the people passionate about the re-invention of medical education is Dr. Nana Bit-Avragim, a digital health transformer and medical sciences expert. Nana is an MD/PhD, who formerly worked as Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Charité Foundation and was the Head of Digital Health and Life Sciences program at the German hub of Singularity University. In the 29th episode of Faces of digital health, Nana discusses how new cross-disciplinary models within academia in collaboration with industry and startups should be established to upgrade and rethink medical education.
January 24, 2019
F028 Anaesthesiology and the challenge of change management in hospitals (Chris Johnson, anaesthetist)
Chris Johnson is a Children’s Anaesthetist with 30 years of experience in clinical practice. Chris was the medical lead for the healthcare IT transformation of the Perth Children’s Hospital in Australia, which was planned after the institution relocated into a new building, approximately 10 years ago.
In the end, the robotics system was bought, but the EHR project had been stopped, leaving the hospital medical records management right where it was — on paper.
Several reasons contributed to the outcome in the huge process of change management. After all, the IT support projects presented only 25% of the budget for transformation.
Some questions addressed:
What do anaesthetists do in practice?
What are the digital trends in anesthesiology? Will doctors be replaced by automation and precision dosing algorithms?
How does a tender for digital transformation of a hospital look like? Who has to be included? How long does it take?
How can hospitals be more pleasant for patients?
What is the role of architecture and design in the hospital?
January 15, 2019
F027 Can Malta be a gateway to the European market? (Stefan Buttigieg, Health 2.0 Malta)
The first episode of Faces of digital health offers a reflection on digital health in 2018, followed by a discussion on digital health in Malta. Because the country is small, the adoption of new solutions could be faster compared to bigger countries.
Stefan Buttigieg, Specialist Trainee in Public Health Medicine with a special interest in Clinical Informatics, Social Media and Digital Health, and the co-chair of Health 2.0 Malta believes in the bright future ahead, driven by AI, blockchain, and younger generations.
Some questions addressed:
What is the state of healthcare and healthcare IT in Malta?
How big is the digital health community in Malta?
What is the funding situation like for digital health in Malta?
Is the national optimism and plans for digitilization driven by understanding or general hype of technologies such as artificial intelligence or blockchain?
January 2, 2019
F026 Cancer and the healing power of storytelling (Martin Inderbitzin, My Survival Story)
In 2012, right after finishing his PhD in neurobiology, Martin Inderbitzin got a rare type of pancreatic cancer. He found his strength in another patient's story. Martin's doctor told him about another young man, who survived and was now skiing in the mountains. For the doctor that was an anecdote, for Martin a mantra that kept his spirits up, every time he received a piece of bad news. He started thinking how impactful stories of others with similar struggles to our own can be. To help other patients like him, he started a media project My Survival Story.
In the 25th episode of Faces of digital health Martin shares his knowledge regarding how to be a good presenter, and what is the role of digital health in mental health.
December 21, 2018
F025 How to raise money in the digital health space? (Jack van Lint, NLC Healthtech Ventures)
What mistakes are entrepreneurs making? Why does the US seem like a better starting point compared to Europe in the early stages? How to look for support in the most initial stages of a company? In this episode: digital health investments and opportunities for startups. The speaker in this episode Jack van Lint. He is the Corporate Finance Director at NLC The Healthtech Venture Builder - a healthcare accelerator and incubator from the Netherlands supporting early-stage startups.
***
Additional episodes on financing:
Ep. 18:What Forces Are Reshaping Early Stage Digital Health Funding?
Recap: http://bit.ly/2Lblw1S
iTunes: https://apple.co/2rHsumF
Podbean: http://bit.ly/2C9dqEf
Ep. 12: Rethinking the Patient as Customer, Payment Models & Funding OptionsRecap: http://bit.ly/2zYLOjD
Podbean: http://bit.ly/2QStm5O
iTunes: https://apple.co/2UF4YUk
Ep. 10 and 11: Tackling the German Healthcare System
Recap: http://bit.ly/2rx11E3
iTunes:
Ep. 10: https://apple.co/2Py87l7
Ep. 11: https://apple.co/2RTK6H7
Podbean:
Ep. 10: http://bit.ly/2C8maKU
Ep.11: http://bit.ly/2rwsaqB
December 13, 2018
F024 Gene editing, gene therapies, and genome sequencing on blockchain (Natalie Pankova, Shivom)
In November 2018, Associated Press shocked the global medical community with a news from China: A Chinese researcher claimed that he helped make the world’s first genetically edited babies. He edited the genes of twins with CRISPR/Cas9 technology, with the aim to make the babies resistant to possible future infection with HIV, the AIDS virus. The medical community was more or less unanimous in condemnation of the act because CRISPR technology is so new.
This was not the only news that resonated in global news in December: the startup Nebula Genomics announced it is offering free genome sequencing, in which the ownership and control of the data would be in individual's hands. Furthermore, patients could make money with their data, as the company predicts that companies and research organizations would be willing to pay for the cost of sequencing if in exchange they also get some key medical information about the person involved.
The expert in this episode is Natalie Pankova. Natalie has a medical background but currently work as a COO of SHIVOM - a global genomics blockchain company, targeting developing countries first, to discover the genetic specifics of various ethnicities, which could improve drug development and help uncover, why certain ethnicities don’t respond to specific drugs.
December 4, 2018
F023 Patient centricity: music for patients, time for doctors (Walter Werzowa, Klaus Laczika, Denise Silber, Raquel Correia)
In the broadest possible sense, patient centricity is a mental shift from WHAT is done for the patient in the healthcare system, to HOW things are done. The HOW may include the used technology but also includes the environment. Walter Werzowa - Austrian composer, producer, and owner of LA-based music production studio Musikvergnuegen, and prof. dr. Klaus Laczika - An Austrian specialist in Emergency Medicine, Anaesthetics and Pediatrics, have been researching the effect of music on patients in the ICU for the last decade. They share their insight into the meaning of the environment in the care setting.
The next indispensable piece of equipment will have to be earphones.
Denise Silber, on the other hand, has been working for more than 20 years in the area of patient centricity and how to raise the patient-includedness in the healthcare system. She and Raquel Correia, a Paris based GP and an advisor to digital health startups share their views on what needs to be changed to prevent doctor burn-outs and enable them the basic conditions to offer their patients time and empathy in treatment.
November 27, 2018
F022 Thoughts on AI, interoperability, and better society from the Exponential Medicine 2018
This episode is a recap of a few talks at 2018 Exponential Medicine. You will hear thoughts on interoperability, practical use of AI in enterprises, some bold ideas about the future medicine thanks to digital innovation by Vinod Khosla, and lucid thoughts regarding the affordability of novel digital health solutions and how we should reframe our thinking about management and leadership to improve global health.
Speakers in episode 22:
Shannon Sartin, Executive Director of the US Department of Digital Service at Health and Human Services,
Lonnie Rae, the founder of a healthcare startup MEDAL, which is working on gathering patient data from various sources such as faxes, paper, and EHR system,
Rajeev Ronanki, SVP & Chief Digital Officer, Anthem,
Vinod Khosla, Founder of Khosla Ventures,
Dr. David Bray, Executive Director for the People Centered Internet coalition.
Other speakers from Exponential Medicine, featured in other episodes of this podcast:
Shafi Ahmed - F018 Can Bolivia become the global digital health role model? https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-ei4fi-9a22c0
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/si/podcast/f018-can-bolivia-become-global-digital-health-role/id1194284040?i=1000420000966&mt=2
Shawna Butler - How are nurses shaping healthcare? https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-fzgvh-96c074
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/si/podcast/f017-how-are-nurses-shaping-healthcare-shawna-butler/id1194284040?i=1000417338206&mt=2
Walter Greenleaf - F011 Will VR decrease drug expenditure? https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-jexte-9151db
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/si/podcast/f011-will-vr-decrease-drug-expenditure-walter-greenleaf/id1194284040?i=1000411634982&mt=2
Rasu Shrestha - F006* Rasu Shrestha at SXSW: “Healthcare shouldn’t be about survival but about thrival” https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-i7hfx-8d4b05
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/si/podcast/f006-rasu-shrestha-at-sxsw-healthcare-shouldnt-be-about/id1194284040?i=1000406445223&mt=2
Ashish Atreja - 020 USA Healthcare Leaders - How Far From Collaboration First, Competition Later Relationship…? (Rasu Shrestha - UPMC; Mitesh Rao - Stanford; Ashish Atreja - Mount Sinai) https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-z627w-7e395f
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/si/podcast/020-usa-healthcare-leaders-how-far-from-collaboration/id1194284040?i=1000394079542&mt=2
Recap of all the episodes: https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health
November 13, 2018
F021 What is the CDC doing with blockchain? (Jay Jemal, IT specialist)
In 2017 media started reporting on promising blockchain projects inside the US Center for Disease Control (CDC). The hopes are that blockchain could help decrease the burden of reporting of epidemics, antibiotic prescriptions and the opioid crisis in the USA. In this episode, health IT specialist Jay Jemal talks about what potentials of blockchain were recognized by the Center for disease control in the USA. Jay Jemal is a solutions architect with the CDC, who is exploring how emerging technologies for data collection and analysis could benefit public agencies. In the past few years, he helped design collection systems for outbreaks such as Ebola, anthrax, E.coli.
Recap of this episode: https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/f021-what-is-the-cdc-doing-with-blockchain-36c15dac3603
More on blockchain in healthcare:
F020 Blockchain, value of data, and the role of legislation with adoption (Ray Dogum, Health Unchained) - https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/f020-blockchain-value-of-data-and-the-role-of-legislation-with-adoption-ray-dogum-health-80919d909e97
iTunes: https://lnkd.in/g9sbdnp
Podbean: https://tjasazajc.podbean.com/e/f020-blockchain-value-of-data-and-the-role-of-legislation-with-adoption-ray-dogum-healthcare-unchained/
More on blockchain in healthcare:
If you’re a regular listener of this show, you’ve heard quite a few episodes on blockchain in healthcare by now - The basics of what blockchain technology is and how it could be used in healthcare, misconceptions around blockchain, and it’s actual potential around interoperability, I recorded a panel at SXSW where various speakers talked about blockchain in pharma, personal health records and identity management with blockchain.
Here are the direct links to the episodes:
Episode 14 of Medicine today on digital health - What is blockchain and how fast could it be applied in healthcare:
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/014-blockchain-in-healthcare-how-how-fast-could-it/id1194284040?i=1000389721696&mt=2
Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-na6nf-7e3965
Episode 23 of Medicine today on digital health - Misconceptions about blockchain:
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/023-misconceptions-around-blockchain-what-it-will-not/id1194284040?i=1000397151361&mt=2
Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-3s9bh-7efd59
F007 The hype and the hope around blockchain (SXSW panel discussion):
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/f007-hype-hope-blockchain-in-healthcare-michael-dillhyon/id1194284040?i=1000407073820&mt=2
Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-vimnn-8db4e0
F008 How do sex, blockchain and medical anthropology go together:
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/f008-how-do-sex-blockchain-medical-anthropology-go/id1194284040?i=1000408108683&mt=2
Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-ew3f9-8e8f7a
October 30, 2018
F020 Blockchain, value of data, and the role of legislation with adoption (Ray Dogum, Health Unchained)
An update on the current landscape of healthcare blockchain projects, when can we expect practical implications, what the role of legislation will be, and how genomics research, AI and blockchain make a good combination. Intrigued? Listen to Ray Dogum - the host of Health Unchained - podcast focused on blockchain projects and implementation in healthcare. His background is in Health Sector Management and currently is a project manager at American Well, a telehealth company in Boston.
More on blockchain in healthcare:
If you’re a regular listener of this show, you’ve heard quite a few episodes on blockchain in healthcare by now - The basics of what blockchain technology is and how it could be used in healthcare, misconceptions around blockchain, and it’s actual potential around interoperability, I recorded a panel at SXSW where various speakers talked about blockchain in pharma, personal health records and identity management with blockchain.
Here are the direct links to the episodes:
Episode 14 of Medicine today on digital health - What is blockchain and how fast could it be applied in healthcare:
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/014-blockchain-in-healthcare-how-how-fast-could-it/id1194284040?i=1000389721696&mt=2
Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-na6nf-7e3965
Episode 23 of Medicine today on digital health - Misconceptions about blockchain:
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/023-misconceptions-around-blockchain-what-it-will-not/id1194284040?i=1000397151361&mt=2
Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-3s9bh-7efd59
F007 The hype and the hope around blockchain (SXSW panel discussion):
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/f007-hype-hope-blockchain-in-healthcare-michael-dillhyon/id1194284040?i=1000407073820&mt=2
Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-vimnn-8db4e0
F008 How do sex, blockchain and medical anthropology go together:
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/f008-how-do-sex-blockchain-medical-anthropology-go/id1194284040?i=1000408108683&mt=2
Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-ew3f9-8e8f7a
Unity Stoakes interviews:
From the StartupHealth Festival, with Esther Dyson and Steven Krein: https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/f-002-is-it-possible-to-to-improve-the-health-and-wellbeing-of-everyone-in-the-world-9f37553371d5
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/f002-is-it-possible-to-to-improve-health-wellbeing/id1194284040?i=1000400746280&mt=2
Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-ghm4h-853c2e
Episode 003 of Medicine today on digital health - How did a digital health vision end up in the oval office
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/003-how-did-digital-health-vision-end-up-in-oval-office/id1194284040?i=1000380325225&mt=2
Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-xp5r5-7e3972
October 16, 2018
F019 Will robots eradicate medication management errors in hospitals? (Lea Dias)
The key topic of today’s episode is pharmacy related robots, which will be presented by Lea Dias - a pharmacist by profession, who now works predominately as an advisor for international hospitals looking to implement robotic hardware and EHR software solutions to improve patient care. She comes from Australia, so we also touched upon the latest big digital health project in Australia - the digitization of medical records of all Australians.
October 3, 2018
F018 Can Bolivia become the global digital health role model? (Shafi Ahmed)
In 2014, Shafi Ahmed removed a tumor from the liver and bowel of a patient in what was the first operation streamed live online using Google Glass. The procedure to remove was watched live via computer or mobile phone by 13,000 surgical students, healthcare professionals and members of the public in more than 100 countries. Two years later Shafi performed an operation on a British cancer patient using virtual reality technology, again with a large global online audience. He is undoubtedly a driver of change in healthcare with his next big project of leading the First-Ever Fully Digital Hospital in Bolivia. You heard it right, Bolivia - the South American country with 12 million people, where only 6.3% of the GDP goes to healthcare. Can a country like this become the global digital health leader?
September 18, 2018
F017 How are nurses shaping healthcare? (Shawna Butler, EntrepreNURSE)
Shawna Butler in an entrepreNURSE. She had a wide range of experiences in emergency medicine, cardiac, critical care, international medical flight transport, and workplace wellness. She is part of the Exponential Medicine where the focus is on the opportunities presented by robotics, AI, VR, machine learning, supercomputing, genetic sequencing, blockchain, 3D printing, drones. With her curiosity and drive towards a better health she has shaped and launched various initiatives: the EntrepreNURSE-in-Residence role in the Netherlands, an enterprise-wide digital radiology solution, an international emergency medicine training rotation between a US medical school and a New Zealand hospital system, and the Cancer XPRIZE focused on early detection.
Listen also to episode 16 with Rebecca Love, the co-founder of hirenurses.com.
Recap of the topic: https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/f016-why-arent-nurses-included-in-innovation-process-more-2a24ffc94e68
August 7, 2018
F016 Why aren’t nurses included in innovation processes more? (Rebecca Love, Hirenurses.com)
Nurses and midwives account for nearly 50% of the health workforce. While being an important group of healthcare stakeholders, they are often overlooked, especially when talking about innovation. However, they are very innovative and creative. According to Rebecca Love, an experienced Nurse Entrepreneur, nurses do around 27 workarounds per shift. This means 27 times per day they use technology or care differently from the innovator's expectation. But to be efficient and deliver the best care possible this is a must.
Questions addressed:
What are the difference between doctors and nurses regarding salary and liability?How can entrepreneurship be encouraged among nurses?Where can nurses be most entrepreneurial?If nurses get a seat at the table, what power shift could that bring?Hirenurses.com is a mother-daughter company. How does that collaboration look like?
July 24, 2018
F015 Education, health and how to raise independent children (Esther Wojcicki)
Esther Wojcicki is an accomplished journalist and a teacher with a very successful family. Her husband Stanley is Stanford University professor of physics and together three daughters: Susan (CEO of YouTube), Janet, a Fulbright-winning anthropologist, epidemiologist and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and researcher, and Anne (co-founder of 23andMe). In the short discussion during the Webit festival in Sofia, Bulgaria, Esther talked about how we learn, changes in the way we interact due to technology, the role of parents in education and of course 23andme, a little bit of politics and how the US healthcare system affects society.
Esther holds an honorary doctorate from Palo Alto University (2013) and from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) 2016. Among many many other things she is the founder of the Moonshots in Education Movement (MiE).
Learn more: http://www.moonshotsedu.com
July 11, 2018
F014 Big data, AI, and the meaning of communication skills in digital health (John Nosta, Nostalab)
John Nosta has been holding a strong position as the number one influencer in the digital health space for quite a few years. His career started in a research lab at Harvard Medical School, until he redirected his creative energy into marketing. About six years ago John founder of NostaLab — a think tank helping life sciences companies navigate change by addressing their problems through unconventional thinking and leveraging creativity. Before that he worked for MedTech and Pharma companies to help them communicate the right idea to the right audience.
Some questions addressed:
Are we losing control over the data?What’s the potential of voice recognition software? Can we avoid data gathering today? What are companies doing wrong when communicating their vision? Can innovation be born in large clinical institutions or do they mostly work as echo chambers?
June 25, 2018
F013 What to expect from artificial intelligence in healthcare in the next 10 years? (Sally Daub, Enlitic)
AI is the buzzword startups are very keen on using when describing their products. For decades, movies are full of ideas on what artificial intelligence could do in a positive and negative way. What is AI, deep learning or a simple algorithm? What is the dream and what current reality around AI? How does AI look in practice?
In this episode, you will hear from Sally Daub - the CEO of Enlitic talk about the market potential of AI, the current state of the market and more. Enlitic is a San Francisco based startup using deep learning to distill actionable insights from billions of clinical cases and help doctors leverage the collective intelligence of the medical community.
At the moment, the use of AI is highest in the field of medical imaging and diagnostics, drug discovery and therapy planning, but Accenture predicts that by 2026 150 billion US dollars could be saved annually due to applications to robot-assisted surgery, virtual nursing assistants, followed by administrative workflow assistance, fraud detection and dosage error reduction, to name the first few areas with most significant savings.
June 12, 2018
F012 How advanced is China in digital health? (Bay McLaughlin & Miranda Gottlieb)
In this episode, two Americans share their insight in the healthcare development of the land with 1,4 billion people. Bay McLaughlin, Forbes contributor on tech in China and the co-founder of Brinc.io, part incubator, part accelerator, part investment fund with headquarters located in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou and satellite offices in mainland China, also London, Berlin, Helsinki, Amsterdam & soon in the USA. Miranda Gottlieb, Master’s student from Beijing, pursuing a career in global health policy and health security in the Asia-Pacific region.
May 29, 2018
F011 Will VR decrease drug expenditure? (Walter Greenleaf, Stanford)
According to dr. Walter Greenleaf, behavioral neuroscientist and a medical technology developer working at Stanford University, interactive virtual environments significantly reduce pain from as much as 44% during the most painful procedures (ex: burn wound treatment), diverts patient attention away from perceiving and feeling pain, decreases pain-related brain-activity, reduces need for anesthesia, opioid medication.
With the decrease in price, VR is getting mainstream. The technology giants such as Facebook and Samsung are making huge investments, according to Statista, 12.4 million units will be shipped worldwide in 2018, more than 5 times as much in 4 years in 2022.
Listen to a conversation with dr. Walter Greenleaf, Medical Director for AppliedVR at Stanford University. He is considered a leading authority in the medical VR field with over three decades of research and development experience in the field of digital medicine and medical virtual reality technology.
May 15, 2018
F010 Can VR help treat addiction, PTSD, ADHD and other mental health issues? (Skip Rizzo, Institute for Creative Technologies at University of Southern California)
Virtual reality has a long history. Its applications precede pure fun, by today, many therapies for medical purposes have been designed.
Virtual reality has many medical applications, which you can learn about from two experts featured in Facs of digital health podcast. In episode 10 listen to dr. Albert “Skip” Rizzo, the Director of Medical Virtual Reality at the Institute for Creative Technologies at University of Southern California, and episode 12 features dr. Walter Greenleaf, the Medical Director for AppliedVR at Stanford University.
Topics: addressed:
How does VR differ from exposure therapy, is it more effective?
What are the dangers of VR use on perception?
How do you treat ADHD or PTSD with VR?
Will FDA regulate VR treatments? What danger do consumers currently face?
May 1, 2018
F009: How actionable is precision medicine data today? (Subha Madhavan, Innovation Center for Biomedical Informatics)
The two largest determinants of health are the zip code and credit scores. What does that have to do with precision medicine and genetics?
Big data combined with AI hold a lot of hope on prevention and more effective disease treatments. The current reality though is that large a lot of gathered data is not actionable yet. How far is precision medicine then, today? How does precision medicine based medical care look like?
Tune in episode 9 of Faces of digital health with dr. Subha Madhavan. Dr. Madhavan is the Director of the Innovation Center for Biomedical Informatics (ICBI) at the Georgetown University Medical Center in the States. She is active in several national and international research projects, and one of her latest projects is a partnership with the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to develop evidence bases for pharmacogenomics and vaccine safety.
April 19, 2018
F008: How do sex, blockchain and medical anthropology go together? (Samson Williams, Axes & Eggs)
A sex hunting anthropologist walks into a mortgage finance institution and out into the world to lead health initiatives globally; this is the fascinating tale of Samson Williams’ health career journey.
Samson Williams is an entrepreneur and fintech guru. He has been an epidemiologist for the State of Florida, an Anthrax and WMD expert for DC Dept of Health and currently splits his time between serving on the DC Dept of Health’s Institutional Review Board (IRB), and as the Irish Ambassador for Crowdfunding to the EU and partner at Axes and Eggs, a blockchain and cryptocurrency consultancy based in Washington, DC.
Topics addresses:
How does one go from medical anthropology to a cryptocurrency mining company?
How can digital health solutions help in disaster situations?
Potential of blockchain in healthcare?
April 3, 2018
F007 The hype and the hope: blockchain in healthcare? (Michael Dillhyon – Healthbank; Samson Williams – Axes & Eggs; Eugene Borukhovich – Bayer)
This is a recording of a panel discussion on blockchain in healthcare, which took place at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, during the Future for health conference at SXSW. You will hear about some interesting ongoing blockchain projects such as the CDC attempts to use blockchain in epidemiology or the Austin program using blockchain to track medical records of chronically ill homeless people.
Panelists:
Michael Dillhyon, Founder of Healthbank
Samson Williams, Partner at Axes & Eggs, Board Member at DC Department of Health
Eugene Borukhovich, Global Head of Digital Health Incubation & Innovation at Bayer
March 21, 2018
F006* Rasu Shrestha at SXSW: “Healthcare shouldn’t be about survival but about thrival”
“Most startups are in a hurry, most of healthcare not so much. How do we deal with that?” was one of the first questions with which Rasu Shrestha, CIO at UPMC addressed his audience during the Future for health at SXSW conference in Austin, Texas. With the keynote titled “Everybody wants to innovate, nobody wants to change,” Rasu Shrestha offered his reflection on the barriers to innovation implementation.
The organizer of the conference was Future for health (FTR4H), a global organization trying to bridge the robust established Medtech world with young startups. To understand FTR4H a little bit better, a short talk with the co-founder of Future for health Tom Mitchell, president of Messe Dusseldorf North America is included in the podcast. Tom talked on stage at the Future for health conference at SXSW, right before Rasu’s keynote.
March 15, 2018
F005 How to make employees value health? (Kathleen Harris, Time Warner)
In this episode, you will hear how Time Warner, a global leader in media and entertainment with businesses in television networks and film and TV entertainment, is approaching employee health. Time Warner has more than 25.000 employees around the globe, meaning that the company faces many different country-specific regulations when it comes to the health of employees, what programmes they can offer them and what kind of analysis they can do with the data of the employees.
his year's big question in healthcare is - can big corporations be the disruptors of the rigid and risk-averse industry as healthcare is?
Amazon partnered with JPMorgan Chase and Warren Buffett, Apple is designing medical clinics, and Uber wants to disrupt ambulances. The healthcare industry is worth close to 9 trillion dollars globally by 2020, and some say tech giants most of all wish to get a piece of this pie. However, the critical potential for the US is a decrease in cost with new solutions and the different approach companies can have towards their employees' health.
In this episode: Kathleen Harris, Vice President of Benefits at Time Warner.
March 8, 2018
F004 Tackling mental health with digital health? (Dean Ornish – UCSF; Ritvik Singh – Psyinnovations; Richard Lee – Bravely)
According to WHO mental health disorders are generally characterized by some combination of abnormal thoughts, emotions, behaviour and relationships with others. Examples are schizophrenia, depression, intellectual disabilities and disorders due to drug abuse. Most of these disorders can be successfully treated. This episode explores the characteristics of mental health disorders and why it is so hard to treat them. Hear from three speakers:
Dean Ornish, Clinical Professor in Medicine, President and Director of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute at University of California Sans Francisco talks about the critical aspect of depression, which is the changes in perception that prevent a depressed person to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The Co-founder and CEO of Psyinnovations Ritvik Singh talks about the broadness of mental health challenges and to which extent digital solutions can help address them.
Richard Lee, the CEO of a startup called Bravely, believes regular 5-minute power calls with peers can have a significant positive effect on individuals wellbeing. This is what Bravely does: short, peer to peer phone support as a replacement traditional psychotherapeutic counselling.
February 21, 2018
F003 What is the state of digital health adoption in Africa? (Moka Lantum, MicroClinic)
Moka Lantum is an expert on the African healthcare market. We discussed healthcare IT and digital health adoption in Africa. He was nominated as 2016 Top 100 Global Thinker by Foreign Policy Magazine for his work as founder of the non-profit, 2020 MicroClinic Initiative, that recycles t-shirts into baby clothes and donates them to low-income mothers to promote safe delivery and quality post-natal care in rural Kenya. He obtained his Doctor of Medicine training at Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé, Cameroon; a Diploma in Nutrition and International Child Health, from Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; a Doctorate in Pharmacology, from the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York. He is a graduate of the Masters in Health Care Management at the Harvard School of Public Health, among other things.
February 7, 2018
F002 Is it possible to improve the health and wellbeing of everyone in the world? (Esther Dyson – Way to Wellville; Steven Krein, Unity Stoakes – Startup Health)
The legendary investor Esther Dyson is not a big fan of technology. She is a proponent of big ideas, demanding projects with a long-term positive influence on society. Founders of StartupHealth Unity Stoakes and Steven Krein are serial entrepreneurs, driving positive change with innovators working on technological and other innovations in healthcare and medicine. At its inception, the idea behind StartupHealth was simple and very, very, very optimistic: to improve health and well-being of every person in the world. If that seemed like a fantasy seven years ago, the organisation came a long way by now. StartupHealth connects 200 companies, so-called transformers, listed in 10 categories or as they call them - moonshots.
In this episode, Esther Dyson explains why she invested in the company in its very early days. She shares her thoughts on how she sees problems society faces when it comes to health and wellbeing. Steven and Unity talk about the past, the future and the positive attitude one needs to keep trying even when things in business get tough.
January 26, 2018
F001 How long can you live with the help of digital health? (Bertalan Mesko, The Medical Futurist)
Dr. Bertalan Mesko, PhD is The Medical Futurist and Director of The Medical Futurist Institute analyzing how science fiction technologies can become reality in medicine and healthcare. As a geek physician with a PhD in genomics, he is also an Amazon Top 100 author. He was featured by dozens of top publications, including CNN, the World Health Organization, National Geographic, Forbes, TIME magazine, BBC, and the New York Times.
He has more than 100 GB of data about his health and fitness and made different lifestyle changes based on the analysis of the data. Wondering how long he predicts he will live?
You can find, listen and subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or Podbean, or use the RSS feed.
January 11, 2018
024 Japan: where robots are friends of the elderly (Kyoko Watanabe – Defta Partners; Yuuri Ueda – Health 2.0 Asia)
Japan. The land of anime - hand-drawn or computer animations, a technological superpower with a staggering gross government debt. It accounted for 219% of GDP in 2016. The long-lasting trend of worsening fiscal situation in Japan continues alongside the increases in health and pension spending linked to population ageing which puts the upward pressure on government debt.
If this is not very inspiring a lot of others specifics in the Japanese society are admired by western countries. For example unbeatable longevity. Japan is no. 1 in the world when it comes to life expectancy at birth: the average life expectancy is 83.9 years, 87.1 for women, 80.8 for men.
The ageing population requires new policies and political measurements to prevent economic collapse. According to the OECD Health Statistics 2016, Japan’s total health spending accounted for 11.2 percent of its GDP in 2015, ranking third out of 35 OECD members. Only the U.S. and Switzerland spend more.
Two speakers share their views in this podcast - Kyoko Watanabe - a digital health investor from Defta Partners - a leading venture capital firm focusing on innovative technologies in IT and healthcare and Yuuri Ueda, MD and Director of Health 2.0 Asia - Japan.
December 28, 2017
023 Misconceptions Around Blockchain And What It Will NOT Solve In Healthcare? (Helen Disney – Unblocked; Navin Ramachandran – University College London)
Blockchain is a new technology, still very complicated to understand, leaving a lot of space for misinterpretations and confusion in the public. This is one of the things the 23rd episode of Medicine Today on Digital Health addresses: what blockchain can solve and what the most common misconceptions are.
Questions addressed in the podcast:What are the biggest misconceptions you’ve heard around blockchain so far?What are the best implications for blockchain use in healthcare?Why is blockchain not solving interoperability?Will the patient experience in a system with a blockchain solution be different from the experience in the current system? How much should patients know?How to look at ICO projects in healthcare and what to keep an eye on?
Speakers:
Helen Disney, the CEO and Founder of Unblocked, a hub for Blockchain events, education and information and Dr. Navin Ramachandran, a blockchain expert from the medical world, who understands the technology, its capabilities and follows the development closely. He is a practicing radiology consultant at University College London Hospital (UCLH) and a healthcare data researcher at University College London Centre for Health Informatics & Multiprofessional Education (UCL CHIME).
Read more: https://medium.com/medicine-today-on-digital-health/ep-23-misconceptions-around-blockchain-and-what-it-will-not-solve-in-healthcare-346ff6563dd2
December 12, 2017
022 What Can We Learn About Technology Adoption from Patients with Diabetes? (David Kliff, Diabetic Investor )
If there is someone you want to ask for an opinion on diabetes management challenges it’s David Kliff, editor of Diabetic Investor — THE source of information when it comes to business aspects of diabetes. He’s been following the field closely ever since he was diagnosed with diabetes type 1 20 years ago. The problem in diabetes is not the know-how, it’s the “want to” desire that is hard to deliver to patients, he says.
November 27, 2017
021 Is Dubai Going To Become The Global Capital of Digital Health? (Michael Stroud – Dubai Healthcare City; Brian de Francesca – VER2; Mazin A. Gadir & Osama Elhassan – Dubai Health Authority)
Dubai is one of the seven emirates that constitute the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is the most populous city and Emirate in the country with a GDP of 82 billion USD. It is a global business hub that keeps transforming rapidly. In October 2016, Dubai launched a citywide blockchain strategy with the objective of becoming the first blockchain powered city, driving the future economy by 2020. In this episode, you can hear: What are the strong and the weak points of healthcare innovation here? How the use of social media became a quality indicator in healthcare? Why is Dubai striving to become the global center of digital health and how is the way forward being designed? How far is the blockchain strategy in practice?
Speakers:
Michael Stroud — International healthcare executive from the UK, who is currently Director at Dubai Healthcare City,
Brian de Francesca — CEO of a telemedicine company Ver2, based in Dubai,
Mazin A. Gadir — Senior Specialist at The Executive Office for Organisational Transformation at Dubai Health Authority,
Osama Elhassan — Head of e-Health Section at Dubai Health Authority.
Read more: https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/ep-21-is-dubai-going-to-become-the-global-capital-of-digital-health-173006ac929
November 13, 2017
020 USA Healthcare Leaders – How Far From Collaboration First, Competition Later Relationship…? (Rasu Shrestha – UPMC; Mitesh Rao – Stanford; Ashish Atreja – Mount Sinai)
IT in healthcare is at the moment usually an added layer to existing ways of working, consequently too often a source of frustration and anguish instead of aid for medical professionals. According to CB Insight, US represents 75% of the global digital health market. Hunger for better solutions is being addressed from many sides. How far are big medical institutions in the USA from being collaboration first, competition later relationship? In the 20th episode, you will get a glimpse into the attitude toward digital health solutions in three eminent US healthcare institutions - Stanford Healthcare, Mount Sinai Health System, and UPMC.
Speakers: Rasu Shrestha, the Chief Innovation Officer from UPMC, Mitesh Rao, Chief Patient Safety Officer and Director of the Center for Advancing Patient Safety at Stanford Healthcare, Ashish Atreja, Chief Innovation and Engagement Officer at Mount Sinai.
October 27, 2017
019 Is The Digital Health Revolution Just Starting? (Indu Subaiya, Health 2.0)
From todays perspective, when we already talk about practical uses of artificial intelligence, machine learning, robots in elderly care, Internet of Things, implantable, digestable and other sensor, the world 11 years ago seems unrecognisable. After all, the first iPhone and Kindle were released hardly in 2007, a year later. Then, three years later, the first iPad was on the market. But for the digital health world, 2006 was an important year. It marked the birth of Health 2.0, a global movement for use, promotion and research of digital technology for wellness, health, medicine and healthcare. Questions in the podcast: - How are new technologies changing medical practice and medical education? - How big are the differences in digital health across the globe? - How much savings can we expect in healthcare with new innovations, since the so called waste is someones revenue, consequenlty meaning that someone needs to be pushed out of the market? - What is the state of healthcare data interoperability in the USA and can it ever be tackled? - If we were listening about “unmentionables” for the last couple of years, it is now time for the so called “unacceptables”. What are they and how are they going to be hacked? More: https://medium.com/p/4021b111939b/edit
October 15, 2017
018 What Forces Are Reshaping Early Stage Digital Health Funding? (Christian Seale; Matt Storeygard; Kyoko Watanabe; Alexander Hoffman; Clara Leonard)
How are VCs looking at the changing landscape of investment opportunities? This was the topic at the Early Stage investments panel at mHealth Israel Conference, held in Jerusalem in September 2017. The included speakers were: Christian Seale, Partner, StartupBootcamp, USA Matt Storeygard, Investor, Connecticut Innovations, USA Kyoko Watanabe, Managing Partner, Defta Partners, USA Alexander Hoffman, Merck Ventures, Germany Clara Leonard, Partner, Digital Health Ventures, Germany.
The discussed topics in this podcast, are:
- Is digital health really that much different from other industries when it comes to investment?
- How long do investors stay with digital health companies?
- What are VCs looking at in early-stage companies, since investments in the riskiest?
- Which funding models are becoming obsolete?
- According to Coinschedule 2,1 bn USD have been raised this year alone with ICOs by September, the biggest ones worth 265, 230, 185 million USD. What are new forms of funding such as crowdfunding and ICOs bringing to the market?
October 2, 2017
017 Why Is Israel Called the Second Silicon Valley? (Levi Shapiro – mHealth Israel; Eyal Zimlichan – Sheba Medical; Ronny Shapiro, Shira LevAmi – Ministry of Health)
Israel is a country of 8.5 million people, attributing around 7.5 % of the GDP to healthcare. Serial entrepreneurship is the norm here, fueled by military service discipline, high population education and good ties with the best education institutions and big industry players from the USA. Digital Health is taken seriously on the national level in Israel. There is even a special Department for Digital Health inside the Ministry of Health. In this episode Levi Shapiro, entrepreneur, investor and the organizer of the mHealth Israel conference, Eyal Zimlichan, Deputy General Director and Chief Medical Officer of the Sheba Medical Center, Director of Digital Health Department at Israeli Ministry of Health Ronny Shapiro and Head of the same department Shira LevAmi talk about how the ecosystem looks like, where does the success come from and where is digital health in the country headed.
September 19, 2017
016 How Is Digital Health Industry Reshaping Clinical Trials? (Guido Axman – Medicinisto; Alexander Puschilov – Viomedo)
Clinical trials are essential from many aspects. They are needed for assessment of safety, efficacy, and superiority of existing drugs, therapies, equipment. They are essential to an assessment of new scientific findings. However, many challenges surround them. Medicinisto is a young German startup connecting medical experts to the industry. In this episode, its CEO Guido Axman explains how the company is trying to prevent only established researchers participating in clinical trials. Researchers and clinical trial setting are the essential two components of each new project. The next challenge is finding participants. For some patients participation in a clinical trial can be a shortcut to a new therapy or a last resort for their health improvement. The industry is looking for participants through doctors, internet, patient groups, advertisement. There are many means. One option is a special agency, and this is Viomedo found an opportunity. Viomedo is a platform with a database of clinical trials in Germany, making it easier for patients from Germany to find an appropriate trial for themselves. Alexander Puschilov, the Managing Director of Viomedo, talks about how the company is connected to the industry, what challenges patients are facing when trying to get into clinical trials and how the company is solving this issue.
September 5, 2017
015 Healthcare IT System Beyond Imagination: The Russian Way (Anna Dubovik, Government of Moscow)
In this episode Anna Dubovik, a data analyst working for the government of Moscow talks about IMIAS - Integrated Medical Information and Analytical System. It connects more than 660 clinics and over 23.6 thousand medical practitioners in Moscow. The system offers pretty much everything and more you could imagine and expect from a high-tech clinical IT system: electronic health records are stored in the cloud, managers can see real-time analysis of patient flow, online appointments, electronic prescriptions and more. How does the system work? What information are stored in it? How can an IT system be implemented across 600+ facilities? What anomalies have been detected in healthcare management? ...and more! Comments/suggestions welcome at - @zajctjasa
August 8, 2017
014 Blockchain in Healthcare: How and How Fast Could It Be Applied? (Nadia Thibault Diakun, Chrissa McFarlane)
In this podcast, two brilliant women explain applications of blockchain in healthcare. The first expert you are about to hear from is Nadia Thibault Diakun. She was in the team of researches that wrote a whitepaper titled Blockchain and Health IT: Algorithms, Privacy, and Data. The second part of the podcast is an interview with Chrissa McFarlane, CEO and Founder of Patientory. The young startup raised 7,2 million dollars through a so-called ICO — Initial Coin Offering. What’s next? The questions addressed in the podcast are: What and where are are the biggest possible potentials for blockchain and where could it bring most benefit? What is the difference between a blockchain and already existing platforms aimed at connecting different healthcare providers? How does the idea of blockchain technology in healthcare differ from the idea of a uniform EHR system that would solve the problem of interoperability? What are the downsides/dangers of blockchain in healthcare? Who decides, who can get included in a blockchain? In May, the Wannacry virus, which compromised many IT systems around the globe, also hit many hospitals in the UK; apart from the confusion, procedures were canceled, work impossible for a while. How would this scenario be different if the hospitals were using a blockchain solution for data storage? … and more!
July 10, 2017
013 Consumer Trackers, Sensors, Health Monitors – How Useful for How Long? (Manesh Juneja)
Do you, or have you, ever owned or tries a wearable sensor? Wearable devices for healthcare are estimated at 870 million USD today. The market is supposed to grow to 4,4 billion USD by 2019, when the digital health market is estimated to be worth 172 billion USD. In this episode Manesh Juneja talks about his experience with trackers and the issue of data accuracy in wellness and healthcare. He has worked with data to improve decision-making across a number of industries. Suggestion/comment: [email protected] or on Twitter: @zajctjasa
June 20, 2017
012 Rethinking Business Models in Healthcare. Patients as Consumers? (Jesus del Valle, Axel Polack, Klaus Stöckemann, Dorjan Marušič, Stanislav Sirakov, Alex Farcet)
According to some estimates, it takes 17 years from a medical innovation to become a part of the standard practice in medicine. Adoption of technologies in healthcare is slow. Investments in digital health are rising - 8 billion USD was invested last year. But what does that even mean? What works, what not? What have we learned in the past years about business models in digital health? This was the topic of a Panel at INFUSE Digital Health Networking Event, organized in Ljubljana in May 2017. Top KOLs talked about why patients are different consumers than payers in other industries, what challenges are specific for digital health startups, and which mistakes are the same here as with the other startups.
Speakers:
Dr. Jesus del Valle, Head of Bayer’s Grants4Apps Accelerator
Dr. Axel Polack, General Partner at the Joint Polish Investment fund
Dr. Klaus Stöckemann, the Managing Partner at Peppermint Venture Partners
Dorjan Marušič, Practicing Cardiologist, Former Health Minister of Slovenia
Stanislav Sirakov, Partner at LAUNCHub
Alex Farcet, Co-founder of Startupbootcamp
Info/comments welcome at: @zajctjasa or [email protected]
May 31, 2017
011 Tackling the German Healthcare System (Klaus Stöckemann, Peppermint Venture Partners, part 2)
When it comes to digitalization on a national level, German eHealth is lagging heavily behind other European countries. Fax machines still have an important place in healthcare, says Dr. Klaus Stöckemann. After obtaining his PhD in biology and pharmacology, dr. Stöckemann held several leading positions in research and development and business development. He then co-founded Peppermint VenturePartners (PVP) in 2009.
May 19, 2017
010 Tackling the German Healthcare System (Klaus Stöckemann, Peppermint Venture Partners, part 1)
Which funding models can digital health and biotech companies count on? This was one of the main topics at the last Charite Entrepreneurship Summit, held in Berlin at the beginning of May. In this episode dr. Klaus Stöckemann, co-founder of Peppermint VenturePartners (PVP), talks about digital health and healthcare digitalization in Germany and challenges startups face when evaluating and proving the usability and value of their solutions. PVP looked at approximately 500 solutions last year. Comments, suggestions welcome on @zajctjasa or [email protected]
May 10, 2017
009 What Do Your Genes Say About You?
In 2004, after 14 years of research, The Human Genome Project was concluded. 99,9% of the human genome was sequenced and we learned that people have between 20,000 and 25,000 genes. Genes are seen as a map to people’s health and diseases; the ultimate source of our health problems and wellbeing. Expectations of what could be explained with genetic testing are high, however, genes are a universe of the unknown. Even if a person has a predisposition for something, it is very often the environment which will or will not trigger it. Many diseases are polymorphous — more genes are included in their expression and severity. We are far from knowing all the correlations. So where are we? Sooraj Ratnakumar is a scientist with a PhD in Biotechnology from the University of Cambridge. He is also the CEO of Swagene — an Indian company for medical genetics. Wondering what he thinks? Listen to the 9th episode of Medicine Today on Digital Health. Comments, suggestions welcome at [email protected] or Twitter @zajctjasa
April 19, 2017
008 Cybersecurity in Healthcare (Sachin Gaur, InnovatioCuris)
In this episode, Sachin Gaur, a researcher, and entrepreneur in space of mobile and Internet solutions talks about cybersecurity and innovation in healthcare in India. After working and studying in Finland and Estonia, he returned to India and co-founded InnovatioCuris, a company focusing on connecting healthcare experts and looking at global innovation models and lean management processes to deliver healthcare at an optimum cost. If you just want to know more about cybersecurity, skip the first 20 minutes! Reviews, comments, and suggestions welcome at [email protected], on Twitter you can find me under @zajctjasa
March 31, 2017
007 Is India the mHealth Paradise and How Much Improvement Can Digital Health Bring To The Country? (Prabhu Guptara, William Carey University)
It is hard to imagine the size of the country with 1.3 billion people. That is the approximate population of India. In healthcare, the country faces many challenges: a big shortage of doctors, especially in rural areas, big differences in access to healthcare, the influence of pollution and environment on population health. The healthcare system is private, the majority of expenses - 60 to 70 percent - are out of pocket. But when it comes to digital health, India looks like a promise land for developers. According to GSMA, India is now the world’s second-largest smartphone market, overtaking the US in the first half of 2016. By 2019, a third of that population - which amounts to 430 million people - is supposed to own a smartphone. Estimates of the number of mobile internet users by 2019 vary from 500 to 600 million people. In this episode, Prabhu Guptara - a Distinguished Professor of Global Business, Management & Public Policy at William Carey University, India, a Member of Boards of different companies in the UK, Germany, and Switzerland - talks about societal, political and technological challenges in terms of digital health influence on population health. Suggestions, feedback & comments welcome at: [email protected] finance.si or TW: @zajctjasa
March 21, 2017
006 Biosensors, Not Simple Wearables Are The Way Forward In Digital Health (Anthony Turner, Linköping University Sweden)
Wearables and measurements. Which Point of Care devices are just gadgets and which ones bring actual better outcomes for patients? British researcher prof. dr. Anthony Turner, Head of The Biosensors and Bioelectronics Centre at Linköping University Sweden: “we haven’t yet made the sensors we really need, we are using the sensors that we happen to have.” That is why in recent years investors have been more interested in other sensors: ingestibles, implantables, etc.
Feedback welcome on Twitter @zajctjasa
March 6, 2017
005 Online Health Communities: A Secret Treasury of Information on Patients (Gregor Petric, Faculty of Social Sciences Ljubljana)
Internet forums have been here before smartphones and somehow, despite all the apps, they are still very much alive, especially for health information. They give patients information, support, psychological empowerment, and self-confidence. They offer doctors and developers an insight into behavior and thinking of patients. One big advantage of online forums is anonymity which gives users a certain level of confidence about the safety of their shared information. The perception, retention, and dynamics of interaction in online health communities differ from health apps and other digital health solutions. Do you know what useful data can be extracted from conversations on forums? Comments and suggestions: [email protected], Twitter: @zajctjasa
February 21, 2017
004 Where and How Can Doctors Prescribe Apps? (Ashish Atreja, Mount Sinai)
In 2012 Cleveland Clinic experts designed the Medical Innovation Playbook – a detailed report on the diverse and rapidly evolving technology commercialization programs of the USA’s top medical centers. It includes an overview of nearly 10,000 invention disclosures, 6,400 patent applications and almost 2,000 issued patents. Many saw the opportunity in this technological revolution, by establishing incubators and accelerators inside institutions, to give their doctors a supportive environment for innovation. Not only did they get new reliable solutions, they also generated a new revenue stream. In this episode, Ashish Atreja, the Director of Sinai AppLab - a sort of incubator/accelerator inside Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York explains how they are designing and testing apps. Through clinical trials and thorough evaluation. Your feedback is valuable. Questions, comments, suggestions can be sent to [email protected] or on Twitter @zajctjasa
February 7, 2017
003 How Did a Digital Health Vision End Up in The Oval Office? (Unity Stoakes, Startup Health)
In 2010 an idea was born: to build an army of entrepreneurs to improve health care worldwide. Only a year later the founders of StartUp Health pitched their vision to former U.S. president Barack Obama. On their January festival this year, former vice president in the Obama administration Joe Biden was one of their main speakers. According to their data, in five years, StartUp Health grew to an allegiance of more than 30.000 investors, entrepreneurs, customers from all over the globe. They are backed by Google, Amazon, Keiser Permanente, Cleveland Clinic, Allianz, SAP and other prominent institutions. 4000 startups tried to get in Startup Health so far, only 180 made it. Are you curious about their mindset and interests? Co-founder Unity Stoakes explains. Your feedback is valuable. Send questions, comments, suggestions to [email protected] or on Twitter @zajctjasa
January 24, 2017
002 Why Is It So Hard To Integrate IT Into Healthcare? (Tomaz Gornik, Marand)
Remember how if you go from central Europe to the UK or US, you can’t plug your charger into a socket, because they are different? They are not compatible. This is how a lot of medical data looks like. Data from devices in hospitals or from sensors and trackers cannot be transferred to your medical record automatically unless they are in a proper format. This can be done if systems are interoperable or compatible. In this episode, Tomaž Gornik, the CEO of an IT company Marand explains, how they managed to make the Slovenian University Children's Hospital the first paperless hospital in the country and why digitisation of healthcare is happening so slowly. Your feedback is valuable. Send questions, comments, suggestions to: [email protected] or on Twitter @zajctjasa
January 12, 2017
001 How Useful Are Digital Health Solutions in Reality?
Healthcare and medicine are overwhelmed by innovation. There is a lot of excitement around digitization: convenience of telemedicine, electronic health records, apps, new devices. However, don't be overly excited. As Esther Dyson, a U.S. investor and opinion leader says, doctors, have values. Nurses have values. Digital solutions will not solve all the problems. But a lot of potential is there. A good example is Babylon - one of the top digital health startups enabling reliable medical advice with the help of artificial intelligence. Your feedback is valuable. Send questions, comments, suggestions to [email protected] or on Twitter @zajctjasa
January 12, 2017
About Faces of Digital Health
Faces of Digital Health explores the speed at which healthcare systems around the world are adopting digital transformation. Specially curated discussions with carefully selected speakers challenge overtly hyped assumptions about the modern state of healthcare innovation. The podcast’s primary goal is to share the insight required to facilitate the necessary discussion that will start improving healthcare on a global scale.
Host
Tjasa Zajc
Tjaša Zajc is a former healthcare journalist with a passion for digital health. She regularly explores how different cultures and people alike, approach the complexities of healthcare around the world. She has a Masters degree in healthcare management and economics from the University of Ljubljana.
After years of experience in healthcare journalism and event management, she started exploring the effects of IT adoption in the digital health industry through business development and communications management in healthcare IT, currently as part of the OPENeP ePMA team at Better.
She is also an ambassador of FTR4H Global Hub for Digital Health, and active member of the Slovenian digital health community Healthday.si was a mentor in Startupbootcamp Digital Health Berlin and a contributor to MedTech Engine, among other things.
After years of experience in healthcare journalism and event management, she started exploring the effects of IT adoption in the digital health industry through business development and communications management in healthcare IT, currently as part of the OPENeP ePMA team at Better.
She is also an ambassador of FTR4H Global Hub for Digital Health, and active member of the Slovenian digital health community Healthday.si was a mentor in Startupbootcamp Digital Health Berlin and a contributor to MedTech Engine, among other things.
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