Faces of Digital Health

Daniel Kraft is a Stanford and Harvard trained physician-scientist, inventor and entrepreneur focused on accelerating much improved future of health and biomedicine at the convergence of accelerating technologies and human innovation. He is the founder of NextMed Health & Digital.Health, Chairs the XPRIZE Health Alliance, and is a sought after speaker on the future of medicine, with 6 TED & TEDMED Talks.  

Join NextMed Health in December 2024 in San Diego: https://www.nextmed.health/

In this discussion, Daniel talks about: 

- Basic Health Practices: The importance of sleep, diverse food, exercise, and social connections as foundational health practices, alongside high-tech tools.

- Longevity vs. Healthspan: The discussion shifts from living longer (longevity) to improving the quality of life in later years (healthspan), through proactive health measures.

- Behavior Change is Key: Digital health innovations, while advanced, still face challenges in encouraging sustained behavior change, which is crucial for better health outcomes.

- Generative Health and Personalization: The concept of "Generative Health" is introduced, where AI-based health coaches personalize advice based on individual preferences, genetics, and lifestyle.

- AI in Healthcare: AI's most immediate impact will likely be in administrative areas, reducing burnout by automating tasks and helping clinicians focus on more critical decisions.

- Hospital-to-Home Care: The shift from hospital care to home care (or "homespital") is a major trend, driven by advances in remote monitoring, telehealth, and AI-based triage systems.

- Barriers to Digital Health: Regulatory, cultural, and business model barriers continue to impede the full integration of digital health solutions, despite technological advancements.

- Future of Healthcare Delivery: As healthcare moves towards more home-based care, the infrastructure and training for clinicians must evolve to support this shift effectively.

- AI and Ethical Considerations: There is a need to balance the use of AI in healthcare with maintaining human cognitive abilities, ensuring clinicians remain skilled in diagnosis without over-reliance on technology​

facesofdigitalhealth.com

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This episode features Dr. Chelsea Sumner discussing NVIDIA's significant role in healthcare, particularly in its work with AI startups. Key areas of focus include NVIDIA’s contributions to medical imaging, genomics, and drug discovery, and its innovative tools like Clara and NIMs. The conversation highlights how NVIDIA collaborates with startups, its global footprint, and insights into AI’s transformative potential in healthcare.

Key Points:

• NVIDIA’s Role in Healthcare:
• GPUs in Healthcare: NVIDIA's graphics processing units (GPUs) power AI and are pivotal in medical imaging, genomics, and drug discovery.
• Clara Platform: A suite of healthcare-focused AI tools supporting genomics (Parabricks), medical imaging (Moni), robotics (Isaac), and drug discovery (BioNemo).
• Collaboration with Startups:
• Inception Program: NVIDIA supports over 3,000 healthcare startups globally, offering them tools, resources, and access to venture capital (VCA).
• Diverse Startup Sizes: Startups range from small two-person teams to large-scale companies with 800+ employees.
• Examples of Partnerships:
• Mendel AI: Improved deployment efficiency by 75% using NVIDIA’s Inference Microservices (NIMs).
• Hippocratic AI: Developing empathetic AI avatars for patient interactions.
• Abridge: AI-powered clinical conversations that can generate clinical notes, saving clinicians time.
• What Are NIMs?
• NIMs (NVIDIA Inference Microservices): These microservices streamline AI model deployment, enabling faster and easier integration of AI models into applications.
• Key Healthcare Innovations:
• Genome Sequencing: NVIDIA set a world record for genome sequencing in under 6 hours, highlighting advancements in personalized medicine.
• GI Genius with Medtronic: AI-assisted colonoscopy tool leveraging NVIDIA’s technology to detect polyps, aiding in colorectal cancer prevention.
• J&J MedTech Collaboration: Connecting digital ecosystems for surgery to provide real-time insights to medical professionals.
• Global Healthcare Impact:
• NVIDIA operates in healthcare ecosystems worldwide, collaborating with startups and partners in North and Latin America, Europe, China, and APAC regions.
• Their technologies are integrated with global academic medical centers, research institutions, and conferences like RSNA and Health U.S.
• Future of AI in Healthcare:
• Digital Biology, Surgery, and Health: Key areas where generative AI will impact healthcare, from diagnostics to personalized treatment.
• Model Transparency (Model Cards): NVIDIA’s trustworthy AI initiatives include model cards, which offer transparency into AI models' development and data, aiding in mitigating bias.

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This episode gives an in-depth insight into healthcare digitalization in Portugal. Cátia Sousa Pinto, Head of Global Digital Health and International Affairs at SPMS - shared services of ministry of health of Portugal talked about healthcare digitalization in Portugal, European Health Data Space (EHDS), patient data and more.

Key Points Summary

• Portugal's Digital Health System Design: To accelerate digital health development, Portugal created a national eHealth agency (SPMS) over a decade ago.
• SPMS Role: SPMS plays a dual role, not only regulating but also developing and maintaining ICT solutions for Portugal's healthcare system. This centralization helps prevent fragmentation and ensures interoperability.
• European Health Data Space (EHDS): EHDS is the EU's regulatory framework for cross-border health data sharing, building on initiatives like MyHealth@EU. The goal is to allow seamless healthcare across Europe, where any EU citizen can access healthcare in other countries as if they were at home.
• My Health at EU: A foundational initiative that enables cross-border exchange of health data like patient summaries and e-prescriptions between EU countries.
• Patient Data: Catia emphasized the importance of patients controlling their health data and being able to share it across healthcare providers. This includes e-prescriptions, laboratory results, and, eventually, medical images.
• Portugal's National Electronic Health Record: A key project for the country is the creation of a unified electronic health record system, allowing citizens to access all of their health data, both public and private, from a single source.
• Use of EU Funding: Portugal has allocated €300 million from the EU's recovery funds for digital health transformation, focusing on infrastructure, citizen-centric services, and reducing the burden on healthcare professionals.
• Challenges and Future Outlook: The integration of digital health into national governance and improving interoperability between systems remain ongoing challenges. Katia stressed the importance of moving towards real-time, structured health data to improve future healthcare outcomes.

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Show notes:

[00:02:00] - Overview of Digital Health in Portugal

[00:06:00] - National-Level Initiatives and Successes

[00:10:00] - European Health Data Space (EHDS) and My Health at EU

[00:16:00] - Cross-Border Care and Digital Infrastructure

[00:20:00] - The Role of SPMS in Portugal’s Digital Health Journey

[00:30:00] - Challenges and Workforce Management in Digital Health

[00:34:00] - Benefits of Centralization in Small Countries

[00:38:00] - Electronic Health Records and Expanding Digital Services, Secondary use of data [00:42:00] - Portugal’s National Electronic Health Record

[00:46:00] - Future Vision for Health Data Integration

In this episode Anne Forsyth, Director of Clinical Applications and Support at Women’s College Hospital in Canada, discusses the challenges and opportunities in optimizing healthcare IT systems, particularly in data management and digital literacy. She shares her experiences transitioning from a policy role to a hospital setting and emphasizes the importance of data governance, workflow design, and continuous improvement in digital health projects.

• Community and Collaboration: Canada’s digital health community is a significant asset in advancing healthcare IT.
• AI and Data Standards: The adoption of AI in healthcare is promising but requires robust data governance and standards.
• Importance of Fundamentals: Good governance, workflow optimization, and training are crucial in creating sustainable healthcare IT systems.
• Digital Health Literacy: Clinicians need focused training on using digital tools correctly rather than deep technical knowledge.
• Cybersecurity Preparedness: Hospitals must prioritize business continuity planning to prepare for potential cyber attacks.

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Show notes:

[00:04:00] Optimism in Canadian Digital Health

[00:06:00] The Role of AI and Data Standards

[00:08:00] Transition from Policy to Practice

[00:10:00] The Fundamentals of IT in Healthcare

[00:16:00] Tackling Unstructured Data

[00:22:00] Continuous Improvement in Healthcare IT

[00:26:00] Digital Health Literacy for Clinicians

[00:34:00] Cybersecurity and Business Continuity

[00:38:00] Closing Remarks and Advice

• The importance of strong relationships with vendors and clinicians in solving technical challenges in healthcare IT.
• Final thoughts on the continuous nature of digital health optimization and the need for sustainable, well-communicated strategies.

In healthcare, consultants are present more often than we might realise: they work with healthcare providers to improve clinical efficiency, manage costs, implement new technologies, or streamline administrative processes. They can help with regulatory compliance, help insurance companies design new poducts, governments hire them to help with policy development, program evaluation, and implementation of new regulations. 

In this episode we take a look under the hood of consultancy work, where governments make biggest mistakes and how consultants approach problem-solving.

Mehdi Khaled is Internal Medicine Doctor and Fortune 50 Health Tech Executive, with over 25 years of international experience. He has helped shaping many large-scale, transformative digital health projects across four continents and within 40 health systems. As a Managing Partner at Seha, he specializes in developing and executing cutting-edge health and digital health strategies, with a strong emphasis on the meaningful use of data to drive health system improvements.

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Topics covered:

00:04 - The Role of Consultants in Healthcare

00:06 - Challenges of Accountability

00:08 - Core Principles for Healthcare

00:10 - Singapore’s Healthcare Success

00:12 - Implementing Technology in Healthcare

00:14 - The Balance Between Technology and Clinical Needs

00:16 - The Importance of Clinical Engagement

00:18 - Managing Technology in Healthcare

Exploration of the concept of "management debt," where poor decision-making leads to the accumulation of ineffective technologies.

00:20 - Cultural Differences in Healthcare

00:22 - Bridging the Knowledge Gap in Digital Health

00:24 - Case Studies and Real-World Examples

00:26 - The Need for Long-Term Vision

00:28 - Lessons from Singapore and Catalonia

00:30 - Technology-Driven Change in Healthcare

00:32 - Overcoming Barriers to Innovation

00:34 - The Future of Digital Health

00:36 - Building Local Capacity

00:38 - Avoiding Dependency on Consultants

00:40 - Final Thoughts on Healthcare Consulting

Catalonia published a new digitalization strategy in 2017. It set a new path of the healthcare IT infrastructure, based on open-platform approach, focusing on data persistence with the use of openEHR data specification.

In this discussion, you will hear from Jordi Piera Jiménez, Director of the Digital Health Strategy Office at the Catalan Health Service and Director at openEHR International, representing organisational members.

He discussed specifics of the Spanish healthcare market, how far Catalonia came since 2017, how is Catalonia building, using and updating a multi-morbidity scoring system for patients which enables easier clinical decision making, cybersecurity attacks and ultimate improvement in information security measures, and more.

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Artur Olesch is Berlin-based journalist specializing in digital health, the founder of aboutDigitalHealth.com, and the editor-in-chief of ICT&Health International. In this discussion, he shares his thoughts on the European legislation of healthtech, his thoughts on most intriguing books in tech and AI, and more. 

His 3 book picks: 

Ray Kurzweil - Singularity is nearer 

Ethan Mollick - Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI

Philip E. Tetlock, Dan Gardner - Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction

Show notes:

03:00 About Ray Kurzweil - Singularity is nearer 

10:00 Ethical use of healthcare data - how sharing is connected to democratic values 

14:00 Data analytics and data use examples and inspiration

17:00 DiGA in the field: do doctors know it 

18:45 Approach to behavioral health improvement and the role of digital

20:00 Book 2: Ethan Mollick - Intelligence 

22:58 Predicting disease - yes or no? 

26:00 Best insights from conference, top topic: ambient intelligence systems 

35:00 Hopes and fears about the future of healthcare digitalization

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John Halamka is the President of the Mayo Clinic Platform and a leading expert in digital health and AI. He has traveled to 21 countries, helping to scale digital health solutions and address regulatory and ethical challenges in the reuse of healthcare data.

Addressed topics in this discussion:

1. Differences in regulatory frameworks and cultural expectations across countries.

2. Comparison of the U.S. and European approaches to AI and data exchange.

3. Risks associated with generative AI and the need for a credibility scores.

4. Observations from various countries on AI adoption. Importance of local tuning for algorithm validation.

5. Data Standards and Future Trends.

6. Advice for Governments and Healthcare Institutions: Encouraging a proactive approach to AI adoption -Starting with low-risk projects and building trust and reliability.

Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com

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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH9qYpFW-W8

You may not have heard about Prenuvo, but you probably know Kim Kardashian. Or perhaps you know about Prenuvo because of Kim Kardashian.

Prenuvo offers whole-body MRI scans for $2500. About 3-4% of people get something discovered, 10% have detected changes that require follow-ups.

Opinions about the usefulness of these scans are diverse, with some hesitation on the clinical side.

At HLTH Europe, the CEO Andrew Lacy explained:

🤔 How Prenuvo uses influencer marketing to attract new customers,

🤔 whole-body MRI scans in light of other preventive whole-body scans and the emerging field of liquid biopsies,

🤔 affordability/ scans as a status symbol,

🤔 the future of prevention,

... and more.

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If you ever want to go to a healthcare innovation conference that doesn’t shy away from potentially controversive topics, HLTH is your place to go. In June 2024, the conference, which attracts 12,000 people in the US, came to Europe. At the center of the exhibition hall stood the Heart Stage focused on topics related to women’s health. Around it were the exhibitor booth and other stages, each designed with a different theme, each like a theatre setup that made speakers feel like stars. Why do people love going to HLTH? Because it’s focused on the experience of the attendees in “a little extra” way. The ticket includes meals, music, there were massage and hair salon in the middle of the exhibition floor, lots of evening networking events, from more formal but still unusual ones, such as the Phillips reception in a museum, to the closing evening with a concert by The Libertines. When the experience is good, and festival-live, it attracts people. When people come, you very quicky attract VIPs of the industry, who many hope to meet and do business with. Win win. In this episode, you will hear impressions and insights from speakers and attendees of the event. You will hear about: partnerships and investment in Europe, women’s health, the German market, what companies don’t understand about patient engagement, and AI. 

Speakers:

• John Halamka, President of Mayo Clinic Platform,
• Sara Schmachtenberg, Digital Health Venture Expert / Head of Data and Analytics, Europe & USA at Galen Growth,
• Simon Phillip Rost, the Chief Marketing Officer at GE Healthcare,
• Jen Horonjeff, PhD, Founder and CEO of Savvy Cooperative, and Ronnie Sharpe, co-founder and COO at Savvy Cooperative,
• Christophe Jauquet, Author & Professional Keynote Speaker on how business & technology shape a healthier, happier, more sustainable future.
•  Dorothée Marie-Louise Doepfer, Deputy Head of Digital Labs / Program Management Digital Health Accelerator & Community Building & Co-organizer Berlin Institute of Health at Charité.

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Debates around equity and equality, especially concerning men and women and female representation, can become heated and divisive quickly.

For a long time, female bodies have been perceived merely as male bodies with different reproductive organs. However, the differences go beyond that: 80% of people with autoimmune conditions are women, 66% of Alzheimer's disease patients are women, and symptoms of cardiovascular diseases present differently in women and men, among other disparities. These health issues significantly impact women's productivity.

In today's episode, you will hear a recording from the Healthcare Business Women Ljubljana meetup focused on women's health.

Joy Rios, founder of HIT Like a Girl Media joined the discussion on women's health and how the unique aspects of women's health are impacting digital health companies and businesses. While less than a quarter of CEOs in digital health companies are women, in femtech companies, 76% of founders, co-founders, and CEOs are women.

Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com

Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/

Show notes:

[00:02:00] Guest Speaker: Joy Rios

[00:03:00] Current State of Women's Health

• Common associations with women's health: menstrual health apps (Clue), pelvic floor training (Elvie), sexual health (Rosy).
• Innovations in women’s health: apps for sexual assault victims, and addressing menopause and ovarian health.

[00:04:00] Research and Development

• Only 4% of R&D budgets historically went into women's health topics.
• Inclusion of women in clinical trials has improved, but gaps remain in medical device trials.

[00:05:00] Challenges and Biases

[00:06:00] Policy and Investment

• White House initiative and Melinda French Gates’ $2 billion investment in removing barriers for women.

[00:16:00] Impact of Abortion Rights on Women's Health

• Roe v. Wade overturned, affecting access to abortion and impacting startups in the field.
• Differences in state laws create challenges in providing consistent healthcare.

[00:22:00] Inspiring Developments

• Policy changes in Mexico leading to increased female representation in politics.
• Mexico’s progressive stance on women in leadership positions.

[00:26:00] Advice for Women in Healthcare Business

• Identify unique opportunities and unmet needs in healthcare.
• Understand regulations and compliance.
• Build a supportive community and collaborate.

Rome was buzzing with digital health at the end of May as the HIMSS Europe conference took place at La Nuova Congress Center. Delegates from 80 countries and representatives of health ministries of 20 countries marked the event with discussions about the implementation of EHDS, the EU AI Act, and more. 

In this episode, a few participants share their impressions from the discussions at the conference and the current state of healthcare digitalization in Europe.

You will hear from: 

• Jordi Piera-Jiménez. Director of the Digital Health Strategy Office, Catalan Health Service, who shared his view and experience on data management and data standards, 
• Rachel Dunscombe , CEO of openEHR foundation and former the UK AI council member leading on AI in digital health and care, who presented the discussions on AI,
• Svava María Atladóttir, Executive Director of Development, Landspítali National University Hospital Iceland, about what it takes to build a new hospital which is what she needs to do by 2030, 
• Nana Odom, Director of Clinical Engineering at the Cleveland Clinic in London, who shared her advice for clinical engineers,
• Diana van Stijn, Chief Medical Officer and co-founder of Lapsi Health and resident of Pediatrics at UMC Amsterdam, who talked about the doctor’s perspective on the use of tech and upskilling, 
• Luke Evason, Consultant and Monica Kleiijn Evason, Leadership Coach and Book Author, who both talked about the patient perspective on gaps in healthcare, particulary at the transfer of children going from pediatric to adult care. 

Data quality is key for quality AI, another big topic globally, with regulation outlined in Europe with the EU AI Act. Where are discussions in healthcare? The EU AI Act is here, and discussions now resolve around implementation and technical questions. 

The potential of data is huge… if the data is of good quality. This doesn’t only refer to clinical notes doctors input in electronic health records, but also how other data from devices, laboratories and more flows into EHR. Oftentimes, hospitals still battle with lack of interoperability and manual transcriptions between systems or from devices for vital signs, infusions pumps, etc. to clinical systems. This creates opportunities for errors. Hospitals that have all the systems connected, need to be mindful of other challenges. Cybersecurity went well beyond teaching employees to spot phishing email. Now, third party devices can pose a cybersecurity risk, creating a whole new set of challenges and requirements.

Care delivery is there for patients. Various topics were addressed at HIMSS about patients - from digital health literacy, concerns and hopes around the European health data space, there was an interoperability showcase on the showfloor which demonstrated the benefits of the European Patient Summary when patients travel abroad, of the impact of cross-border health that gives clinicians in regions outside patient’s residence valuable information about their health state. Many things are still missing though. One of them being improved patient journey, especially at the transit from pediatric to adult care.

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According to WHO, the global cost associated with medication errors is 42 billion US dollars. Errors can happen at the point of prescribing, transcribing from one system to the other, or administration, when the wrong patient is given either the wrong drug or the wrong dose. Medication administration errors can be prevented with the introduction of closed-loop medication management, where all points of medication handling are connected and done electronically; even medication administration is done with the help of barcode scanning of the patient barcode and medication barcode. Three European specialists from the Netherlands, UK, and Belgium recently started a European project, Asclepius, which advocated for the introduction of closed-loop medication management systems in the hospitals. They connected with colleagues from UK, France, Iceland, Belgium, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden to strive for alignment on the European level. So in today’s discussion, you will hear from Patrick van Oirschot, Patrick Koch and Francine de Stoppelaar talk about the need for improved medication safety.

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Show notes:

Main Discussion:

• [00:01:00] Medication administration errors can be prevented with the introduction of closed-loop medication management, where all points of medication handling are connected electronically.

Guest Introductions:

• [00:04:00] Patrick van Oswalt ("Pat"), a veteran in hospital pharmacy with a focus on digitalization and closed-loop medication management strategies.
• [00:05:00] Francine de Stoppelaer, a clinical pharmacist with a 25-year career in healthcare leadership, notably involved in building and operating the Cleveland Clinic London.
• [00:06:00] Patrick, with a background in medical imaging and pharmacy automation, emphasizes the need for digital transformation in hospital pharmacies.

Challenges and Solutions:

• [00:08:00] Discussion on medication safety across Europe, highlighting the significant number of medication errors and associated costs. Specific examples include 19,000 deaths per year in Germany due to medication errors.
• [00:10:00] Explanation of closed-loop medication management and barcode scanning at the bedside to ensure the right medication reaches the right patient.
• [00:14:00] Different approaches to medication management in various countries, focusing on the importance of digital and automated processes.

Implementation Strategies:

• [00:16:00] Discussion on where hospitals should start when considering digital transformation for medication safety, highlighting the importance of electronic prescribing and bedside scanning.
• [00:18:00] The experience of implementing a fully digital hospital at Cleveland Clinic London, including workforce planning and gaining buy-in from healthcare professionals.

Project Overview:

• [00:20:00] Introduction to the Asclepius project and its goals to harmonize medication management workflows across Europe.
• [00:22:00] Highlighting the need for standardization in medication databases and the varying approaches to medication management across different countries.

Impact and Future Directions:

• [00:24:00] The potential impact of digital and automated medication management on patient safety, efficiency, and sustainability.
• [00:26:00] Encouraging adoption of best practices and the importance of measuring and monetizing the benefits of closed-loop systems.
• [00:28:00] Challenges in convincing decision-makers and ensuring effective implementation amidst existing workloads.

The European Health Data Space is around the corner. The legislation is confirmed. How do we get to the next steps? Today you will hear a discussion with Eric Sutherland, Senior Health Economist and Digital Health Lead at OECD, who worked on the pan-Canadian health data strategy before his current role. We discussed the upcoming implementation of the European Health Data Space, what needs to happen next, how do we involve the public, encourage trust in data sharing, and also build capacity for digital health implementation. We are moving into the era of new required data professionals, not just data analysts, but also data controllers, data stewards and more. 

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Show notes:

[00:02:00] - Eric Sutherland's background and transition from Canada to OECD

[00:04:00] - Challenges and solutions in Canadian health data strategy, emphasizing the need for data stewardship and public engagement

[00:06:00] - Importance of data interoperability and policy compatibility across regions

[00:08:00] - Goals of Canadian health data strategy and its impact, focusing on improving healthcare delivery through better data utilization.

[00:10:00] - Governance and collective impact in Canadian healthcare

[00:12:00] - European health data space and public engagement

[00:14:00] - Opt-out provisions and public interest in European health data space

[00:16:00] - Setting standards and policy compatibility in Europe

[00:18:00] - Learning from historical approaches in healthcare data strategies

[00:20:00] - Digital health literacy and public engagement

[00:22:00] - Simplifying communication in digital health

[00:24:00] - Role of patient leaders and public deliberation in health policy

[00:26:00] - Public expectations on health data usage

[00:28:00] - Economics of digital health and ROI

[00:30:00] - Utilizing health data for policy and research

[00:32:00] - Interoperability and investment in digital health infrastructure

[00:34:00] - Shifting towards a prevention-based health system

[00:36:00] - Workforce and capacity building in digital health

[00:38:00] - Automation and the future of health workforce

AI and predictive modeling to understand an individual’s immune system function and predict treatment response are still in very early stages. We dream about precision medicine and getting every answer we can for ourselves when we get sick. However, if we look at genomics, only about 20 percent of human coding genes are well-studied. The remaining 80 percent (about 16,000 genes, along with the proteins they make) are largely a mystery. 

In this episode, you will hear more about the field of immuno-oncology, understand the correlation between tumor development and immune system response, and trends in cancer detection and prevention, especially liquid biopsies - tests for detecting tumors in blood samples. 

Speaker: Brian Hashemi - Executive Chairman and CEO of Novigenix - a Swiss-based biotech company using AI and RNA sequence analysis to capture the cancer immunity cycle during the multi-stage disease progression and response to therapy.

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Show notes:

[00:02:00] The use of AI and RNA sequence analysis in capturing the cancer immunity cycle and disease progression

[00:04:00] Biotech in Switzerland

[00:06:00] The impact of Swiss biotech capabilities on global healthcare and the specific advancements made by Swiss companies in the field.

[00:08:00] Predictions and hopes for the future of healthcare technology, especially in the realms of cancer detection and treatment.

[00:10:00] Challenges and opportunities in biotech, and the role of AI in advancing healthcare.

[00:12:00] Challenges in Colorectal Cancer Screening

[00:14:00] The Impact of Liquid Biopsy on Clinical Trials and Drug Development

[00:16:00] Market Adoption and Patient Accessibility to Liquid Biopsy Tests

[00:18:00] The Future of Liquid Biopsy and Precision Medicine

[00:20:00] Real-world Application and Impact of Novel Biomarkers

[00:22:00] Expanding the Reach of Novel Diagnostics Beyond Switzerland

[00:24:00] Partnerships and Collaborations to Accelerate Adoption

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.

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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.

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.

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Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com

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.

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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

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

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 discusses:

• 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.

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

Show notes:

[00:02:00] The Convergence of Digital Health and Pharma

• Discussion on the role of digital health apps in pharmaceuticals.
• The rise and fall of pharma and tech company partnerships, with examples like Proteus and Peer Therapeutics.

[00:06:00] AI Trends in Biotech and Pharma

[00:08:00] Enhancing Clinical Trials with AI and continuous patient monitoring

[00:10:00] The Importance of Data in Clinical Trials

[00:12:00] The Reality of Oncology Trials and Endpoints

[00:14:00] Quality of Life in Medicine as the Endpoint

[00:16:00] The Rise of Decentralized Clinical Trials

[00:18:00] Pharma's Evolving Digital Health Strategies

[00:22:00] Impact on Digital Health Industry

[00:24:00] Collaboration and Sharing Knowledge in the Pharma Industry

[00:26:00] The need for long-term investment and strategic piloting of digital health solutions

[00:28:00] What Inspires in Pharma and Biotech in Personalized Treatments

[00:30:00] The State of Precision Medicine and Targeted Therapies

[00:34:00] The Role of Pharmacogenomics

[00:36:00] Anticipations for 2024 and Beyond

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, Richard 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. You will also hear 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/

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

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

Show notes:

[00:02:04] - Introduction to Avalon Health Solutions and their role in generating actionable insights from lab results.

[00:02:21] - Discussion on the big picture problem in healthcare: the overuse and underuse of lab tests and the drive towards improving clinical decision-making.

[00:03:25] - Clarification on Avalon's approach to managing unnecessary tests and their non-involvement in claims adjudication.

[00:03:49] - Explanation of how Avalon provides guidance on appropriate test ordering and interpretation based on evidence-based medicine.

[00:04:20] - The learning curve for providers in test ordering and the issue of test misuse.

[00:05:16] - Areas where lab tests are often underutilized, particularly in cancer diagnosis.

[00:05:45] - The potential of using lab data predictively, with a focus on chronic kidney disease.

[00:06:20] - How Avalon creates patient profiles and uses predictive analytics to improve healthcare management.

[00:06:53] - Avalon's ongoing development of predictive models and their impact on healthcare.

[00:07:36] - The challenge of changing the status quo in lab test utilization and the cost savings involved.

[00:07:47] - Avalon's growth and the scale of their operations, with a client base of 33 million members.

[00:08:00] - The role of patient engagement and communication strategies in healthcare management.

[00:08:41] - The importance of accurate and clear communication channels with patients to avoid confusion.

[00:09:08] - The rapidly evolving field of genetic testing and Avalon's role in managing the abundance of available tests.

[00:10:07] - Addressing concerns about over-systemizing lab test ordering and the potential for provider friction.

[00:11:13] - Feedback from clinicians and Avalon's clinical advisory board on the impact of their services.

[00:11:55] - The broader implications of cost savings and sustainability in healthcare through better lab test management.

[00:12:11] - In-depth look at predictive analytics and its application in healthcare outcome improvements.

[00:13:18] - Strategies for Avalon's customer expansion and managing growth.

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

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

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

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

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

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/

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

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 Schrock 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.

Recap: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/fertility-womenshealth-leslie-schrock

Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/

Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com

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

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

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 this episode, Aaron Gani, CEO of BehaVR, a company providing virtual reality solutions to address pain management, anxiety, mental wellness, and social engagement, shares:

• the latest on reimbursement,
• shifts in digital therapeutics companies' business models, which might make VR solutions more widely accessible with direct-to-consumer approaches,
• the impact of VR on decreasing opioid use in pain management,
• 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

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 has many potential applications in healthcare. But at the moment, 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/

Alex Merwin 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/ 

Get in touch with AWS: https://aws.amazon.com/contact-us/?trk=d7b08691-7f65-4c28-8b4e-13f1db4e310c&sc_channel=el

Connect with Alex: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexmerwin/

Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/

Scarsity of resources can be difficult to image: it encompasses the adaptation of clinical guidelines, palliative care instead of treatment, and clinicians accepting that they can’t help everyone, but need to choose who to save and who to palliate.

Khalida Soki is a consultant physician and kidney specialist working in Nairobi. She moved back to Kenya in 2018. She participated in over 20 kidney transplants in Nairobi, successfully run a large hemodialysis unit, grown a clinic for kidney disease and helped write the COVID19 guidelines for the Ministry of Health in Kenya. She is also the organizing secretary for the young nephrologists committee at the African association of Nephrology and an honorary lecturer for the East African Kidney Institute.

In this discussion, she explains:

• how did her transition from NHS to Kenya look like,
• how do clinicians operate on a daily basis with lack of resources,
• how they innovate because they have to,
• how is technology helping educate patients and improve access through telemedicine.

Read the report and health tech innovation in Africa: https://fodh.substack.com/p/jedsy-ilara-nigeria-digital-health

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

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

Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/

Ilara Health: https://www.ilarahealth.com/about-us/

Leave a rating or a review: https://lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth

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/

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/

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. 

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https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/

Jedsy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGaXHdjoQ-Q

https://jedsy.com/

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. 

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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/

The first efforts to establish ePrescribing in the US started in 2001. However, by 2014 only 4% of clinicians had adopted it. Electronic prescribing became legal in all 50 states by 2007. Eight years later, electronic prescribing of controlled substances and prior authorization were well established 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

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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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

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Use the code: digitalhealth20

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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 drugs, we’ve seen in the last year. GLP-1 agonists are drugs that are used for treating diabetes but have become a popular weight loss tool for many people. 

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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 

https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/

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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

use the code DIGITALHEALTH20 to get a discount on your purchase

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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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 Kekic, 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

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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 Willassen, Co-Founder and CEO of Confrere, the leading telehealth company in Scandinavia (acquired by Daily.co 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

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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

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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

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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/

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

Read the summary: https://fodh.substack.com/p/how-are-germany-slovenia-and-the

Website: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/

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

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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

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Read more on mental health:

https://fodh.substack.com/p/mentalhealth

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 innovator Jhonatan Bringas Dimitriades, MD. Jhonatan is based in the Netherlands, and worked across continents as an MD and executive at various tech companies.

Discussed 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

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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)

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. 

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 Docosan 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

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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. 



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/

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

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 Health 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 Health 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).

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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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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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/

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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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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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, MD 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:

fodh.substack.com

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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More on Epic and Epic Cosmos:

epicresearch.org 

cosmos.epic.com 

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 and Co-founder 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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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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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 “beyonce knowles”. Regular English is where speech recognition trips and falls in, in specific medical terminology,” he explained. 

Recap: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/nlp-in-healthcare-suki-voicetech

Suki: suki.ai

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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:

1. will first take a look at the state of symptom checkers and their accuracy today,
2. the development and state of voice tech and natural language processing for structuring data, and end with
3. 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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 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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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 Hejl, CEO of TimelyMD, the leading virtual health and well-being solution for college students, 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 Hejl, 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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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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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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• Browse the full EIT Health Germany-Switzerland series: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/eit-health-germany

*****

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. 

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, 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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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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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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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

Read the transcript in the newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/

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*** Past episodes about DTx in Germany***

How Can A Digital Health Solution Become a "DiGA App" in Germany? https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/eit-health-germany-procarement

How did Germany accelerate the speed of the digitization of healthcare?

https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f095-how-did-germany-managed-to-take-the-lead-in-healthcare-digitization-henrik-matthies-maike-henningsen-maren-lesche?rq=germany

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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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/

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****

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.

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

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/

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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. 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

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.

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. Françoise 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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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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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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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 short 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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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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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

Website:

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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.

TRANSCRIPT: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/medical-device-regulation-mdr-africa

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:

Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/

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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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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.

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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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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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.

www.facesofdigitalhealth.com 

Monthly newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/p/a-glimpse-in-digital-health-and-healthcare 

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.

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).

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, due to 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:

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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

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

facesofdigitalhealth.com 

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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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.

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

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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 

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

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:

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.

Leave a rating or review: lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth

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/

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. 

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 Tech Without Borders. Health Tech 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. 

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

Leave a rating or a review: lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth

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

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

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

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. 

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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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

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 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 

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

Leave a rating or a review: www.lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth

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

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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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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

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/

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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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

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/

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

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 

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/ 

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

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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

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. 

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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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.

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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

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

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

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

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/overdose-documentary

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/overdose-documentary

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

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).

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:

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

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

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

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 

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Learn more about Beaba and how you can support it: www.beaba.org

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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

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. 

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

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:

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

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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:

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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

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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

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

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

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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

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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

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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

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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.  

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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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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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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

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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 

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.