Faces of Digital Health

If there is someone you want to ask for an opinion on diabetes management challenges it’s David Kliff, editor of Diabetic Investor — THE source of information when it comes to business aspects of diabetes. He’s been following the field closely ever since he was diagnosed with diabetes type 1 20 years ago. The problem in diabetes is not the know-how, it’s the “want to” desire that is hard to deliver to patients, he says.

Dubai is one of the seven emirates that constitute the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is the most populous city and Emirate in the country with a GDP of 82 billion USD. It is a global business hub that keeps transforming rapidly. In October 2016, Dubai launched a citywide blockchain strategy with the objective of becoming the first blockchain powered city, driving the future economy by 2020. In this episode, you can hear: What are the strong and the weak points of healthcare innovation here? How the use of social media became a quality indicator in healthcare? Why is Dubai striving to become the global center of digital health and how is the way forward being designed? How far is the blockchain strategy in practice? Speakers: Michael Stroud — International healthcare executive from the UK, who is currently Director at Dubai Healthcare City, Brian de Francesca — CEO of a telemedicine company Ver2, based in Dubai, Mazin A. Gadir — Senior Specialist at The Executive Office for Organisational Transformation at Dubai Health Authority, Osama Elhassan — Head of e-Health Section at Dubai Health Authority. Read more: https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/ep-21-is-dubai-going-to-become-the-global-capital-of-digital-health-173006ac929

IT in healthcare is at the moment usually an added layer to existing ways of working, consequently too often a source of frustration and anguish instead of aid for medical professionals. According to CB Insight, US represents 75% of the global digital health market. Hunger for better solutions is being addressed from many sides. How far are big medical institutions in the USA from being collaboration first, competition later relationship? In the 20th episode, you will get a glimpse into the attitude toward digital health solutions in three eminent US healthcare institutions - Stanford Healthcare, Mount Sinai Health System, and UPMC.   Speakers: Rasu Shrestha, the Chief Innovation Officer from UPMC, Mitesh Rao, Chief Patient Safety Officer and Director of the Center for Advancing Patient Safety at Stanford Healthcare, Ashish Atreja, Chief Innovation and Engagement Officer at Mount Sinai.

From todays perspective, when we already talk about practical uses of artificial intelligence, machine learning, robots in elderly care, Internet of Things, implantable, digestable and other sensor, the world 11 years ago seems unrecognisable. After all, the first iPhone and Kindle were released hardly in 2007, a year later. Then, three years later, the first iPad was on the market. But for the digital health world, 2006 was an important year. It marked the birth of Health 2.0, a global movement for use, promotion and research of digital technology for wellness, health, medicine and healthcare. Questions in the podcast: - How are new technologies changing medical practice and medical education? - How big are the differences in digital health across the globe? - How much savings can we expect in healthcare with new innovations, since the so called waste is someones revenue, consequenlty meaning that someone needs to be pushed out of the market? - What is the state of healthcare data interoperability in the USA and can it ever be tackled? - If we were listening about “unmentionables” for the last couple of years, it is now time for the so called “unacceptables”. What are they and how are they going to be hacked? More: https://medium.com/p/4021b111939b/edit

How are VCs looking at the changing landscape of investment opportunities? This was the topic at the Early Stage investments panel at mHealth Israel Conference, held in Jerusalem in September 2017. The included speakers were: Christian Seale, Partner, StartupBootcamp, USA Matt Storeygard, Investor, Connecticut Innovations, USA Kyoko Watanabe, Managing Partner, Defta Partners, USA Alexander Hoffman, Merck Ventures, Germany Clara Leonard, Partner, Digital Health Ventures, Germany.   The discussed topics in this podcast, are: - Is digital health really that much different from other industries when it comes to investment? - How long do investors stay with digital health companies?  - What are VCs looking at in early-stage companies, since investments in the riskiest?  - Which funding models are becoming obsolete? - According to Coinschedule 2,1 bn USD have been raised this year alone with ICOs by September, the biggest ones worth 265, 230, 185 million USD. What are new forms of funding such as crowdfunding and ICOs bringing to the market?

Israel is a country of 8.5 million people, attributing around 7.5 % of the GDP to healthcare. Serial entrepreneurship is the norm here, fueled by military service discipline, high population education and good ties with the best education institutions and big industry players from the USA. Digital Health is taken seriously on the national level in Israel. There is even a special Department for Digital Health inside the Ministry of Health. In this episode Levi Shapiro, entrepreneur, investor and the organizer of the mHealth Israel conference, Eyal Zimlichan, Deputy General Director and Chief Medical Officer of the Sheba Medical Center, Director of Digital Health Department at Israeli Ministry of Health Ronny Shapiro and Head of the same department Shira LevAmi talk about how the ecosystem looks like, where does the success come from and where is digital health in the country headed.

Clinical trials are essential from many aspects. They are needed for assessment of safety, efficacy, and superiority of existing drugs, therapies, equipment. They are essential to an assessment of new scientific findings. However, many challenges surround them. Medicinisto is a young German startup connecting medical experts to the industry. In this episode, its CEO Guido Axman explains how the company is trying to prevent only established researchers participating in clinical trials. Researchers and clinical trial setting are the essential two components of each new project. The next challenge is finding participants. For some patients participation in a clinical trial can be a shortcut to a new therapy or a last resort for their health improvement.  The industry is looking for participants through doctors, internet, patient groups, advertisement. There are many means. One option is a special agency, and this is Viomedo found an opportunity. Viomedo is a platform with a database of clinical trials in Germany, making it easier for patients from Germany to find an appropriate trial for themselves. Alexander Puschilov, the Managing Director of Viomedo, talks about how the company is connected to the industry, what challenges patients are facing when trying to get into clinical trials and how the company is solving this issue.

In this episode Anna Dubovik, a data analyst working for the government of Moscow talks about IMIAS - Integrated Medical Information and Analytical System. It connects more than 660 clinics and over 23.6 thousand medical practitioners in Moscow. The system offers pretty much everything and more you could imagine and expect from a high-tech clinical IT system: electronic health records are stored in the cloud, managers can see real-time analysis of patient flow, online appointments, electronic prescriptions and more. How does the system work? What information are stored in it? How can an IT system be implemented across 600+ facilities? What anomalies have been detected in healthcare management? ...and more! Comments/suggestions welcome at - @zajctjasa

In this podcast, two brilliant women explain applications of blockchain in healthcare. The first expert you are about to hear from is Nadia Thibault Diakun. She was in the team of researches that wrote a whitepaper titled Blockchain and Health IT: Algorithms, Privacy, and Data. The second part of the podcast is an interview with Chrissa McFarlane, CEO and Founder of Patientory. The young startup raised 7,2 million dollars through a so-called ICO — Initial Coin Offering. What’s next? The questions addressed in the podcast are: What and where are are the biggest possible potentials for blockchain and where could it bring most benefit? What is the difference between a blockchain and already existing platforms aimed at connecting different healthcare providers? How does the idea of blockchain technology in healthcare differ from the idea of a uniform EHR system that would solve the problem of interoperability? What are the downsides/dangers of blockchain in healthcare? Who decides, who can get included in a blockchain? In May, the Wannacry virus, which compromised many IT systems around the globe, also hit many hospitals in the UK; apart from the confusion, procedures were canceled, work impossible for a while. How would this scenario be different if the hospitals were using a blockchain solution for data storage? … and more!

Do you, or have you, ever owned or tries a wearable sensor? Wearable devices for healthcare are estimated at 870 million USD today. The market is supposed to grow to 4,4 billion USD by 2019, when the digital health market is estimated to be worth 172 billion USD. In this episode Manesh Juneja talks about his experience with trackers and the issue of data accuracy in wellness and healthcare. He has worked with data to improve decision-making across a number of industries. Suggestion/comment: tjasa.zajc@finance.si or on Twitter: @zajctjasa