Faces Of Digital Health

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 gove

This episode explores health literacy improvement and women empowerment in Malaysia, Kenya and Tanzania.    You are going to hear from two speakers: Shamala S. Hinrichsen, the CEO of Hanai, a company providing health information to the underserved populations in Malaysia and Kenya. The other speaker is Mariatheresa Samson Kaduschi, the CEO and CO-Founder of Mobile Afya, which provides healthcare information to people in Tanzania and slowly scaling to other countries in Africa as well. We talked about the specifics of these three markets, the technology used to serve as wide of a population as possible, and some of the challenges the female founders face when designing and implementing solutions that are critical for society, but less profitable from the investment point of view. Episode Summary To explore other episodes as well go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com.

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 fa

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 socie

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

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 Aus

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 lun

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 Leave a rating or a review Browse through other episodes

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, es

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, sh

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.  

Medication management is a complicated, expensive, and complex healthcare problem. Because taking medications is only a small part of patient’s lives, taking them correctly can be complicated and burdensome. Patients might not take medications because that gives them the sense of having their lives under control and not dictated by medicine. They will get fatigued by pill reminders because getting constantly told that you have a condition, can get emotionally draining. This causes non-adherence and can lead to complications. But some companies are proving that the mission to help patients is not an impossible task.  Jennifer Butler - Chief Marketing Officer at Medisafe,  the world’s leading consumer medication management platform, approaching 7 million users in almost 200 countries, says patients want transparency about their treatments. It’s been clear for years that for medication management solutions to work, they need to go beyond pill reminders. Visit the website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com  Medisafe:

Dr. Dimitri Varsamis is Senior Policy Lead for digital primary care at NHS England. End of 2020 he published a report titled Incentives and levers for digitizing and integrating primary care in New Zealand, Australia, and the USA - lessons for the UK’s NHS. Dr. Varsamis researched primary care digitalisation prior to the global coronavirus pandemic. In Australia, people are not required to register with a GP or a practice. Consequently, they see multiple GP which impacts the continuity/integrity of their medical record. Compared to the USA, the public healthcare systems of Australia, New Zealand and the UK lack the expertise in change management and purchasing support. These are just two findings by Senior Policy Lead for digital primary care at NHS England Dr. Dimitri Varsamis about primary care digitalisation in the mentioned countries. See the full report Incentives and levers for digitising and integrating primary care in New Zealand, Australia and the USA (Dimitri Varsamis) - https://www.wcmt.org.uk/site

2021 is finally here, and as with any new year, we wish this one to be better than the previous one. 2020 sure changed the perspective of what that actually means. I am your host Tjaša Zajc and for the first episode of this year, I wanted to prepare an easy-going introduction to the year. You will hear a discussion with John Nosta. John is consistently ranked among the top names in digital health. He is an advisor to many digital health companies and the founder of the NOSTALAB—a digital health think tank. I invited him to the show for a relaxed but deep discussion about where we are at the moment in digital health and healthcare broadly and what we can be optimistic about in the upcoming year. Enjoy the show and to learn more go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com. To be notified about new episodes automatically, subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. May 2021 be your year. Now to the discussion with John. Enjoy the discussion. Let’s dive in. Recap of the episode: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog

Recap: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/digital-health-2021-predictions  In this last episode of 2020, we will reflect on the year and look into the future with some of the experts and opinion leaders from the digital health industry across the world. You can hear from experts from the US, Israel, Mexico, Chile, UK, and South Korea. They shared their thoughts about the state and future of digital health globally.    Speakers:  Levi Shapiro, Investor, Digital Health instructor and founder of the mHealth Israel community (Israel), Gil Bashe, managing partner of FINN Partners Global Health (USA), Gabriel Alejandro Garza Caro, Co-founder and Managing Director of DocTour (Mexico),  Luis Santiago, the CEO of Pegasi, a healthcare IT company based in Venezuela (Venezuela), Ogan Gurel, Though leader, MD, Professor, Entrepreneur (South Korea), João Bocas, The Wearable Expert (UK), Dr. Brennan Spiegel, gastroenterologist, director of the Cedars-Sinai Center for Outcomes Research and Education and who recently published

Someday in the future, we will hopefully see 3D printed tissues and organs. To see where we are today, I spoke with prof. Frank Berry - Senior Scientist at the UHN Arthritis Programme at the Krembil Research Institute and Professor of Cellular Therapy at the Regenerative Medicine Institute (REMEDI), National University of Ireland Galway.

The U.S. prescription drug market is worth $400 billion. Companies such as GoodRx, RxSaver and now Amazon Pharmacy are starting to bring pricing transparency. Online pharmacy services are projected to hit revenues of $131 billion by 2025 worldwide. The Amazon Prime prescription savings benefit can save members up to 80% off generic and 40% off brand name medications when paying without insurance. The pharmacy market is evolving and getting disrupted in the US. One of the players revolutionizing the customer experience in the space is Truepill. Truepill helps traditional healthcare companies, plan groups and pharmaceutical manufacturers create customized, digital experiences at scale with their Truepill’s digital platform. In this episode, the Co-Founder and President of Truepill - Sid Viswanathan talks about  - how is digitalization changing the pharmacy industry,  - the rise of modern digital healthcare,  - what healthcare companies need to know about building digital experience for their customers and more.

In the last two years, the hype around blockchain settled down, and now projects can focus more on development rather than managing attention. Many projects have gone from an idea to a pilot program or an actual implementation. However, we probably won't see patient medical records on the blockchain soon, says Robert Miller - Director of Product Management and Strategy at Consensys Health. ConsenSys Health builds Ethereum-based solutions for cybersecurity, compliance, privacy, bioethics and identity, applying the deep technical capabilities of ConsenSys to advance the healthcare industry. The blockchain community knows Robert because of his regular newsletters about blockchain in healthcare. He is diligently following and reflecting on the development of the industry. We discussed why are patient health records on blockchain currently still a dream and which projects are slowly moving beyond the project phase. An interesting research initiative is MELLODY - (acronym for Machine learning ledger orchestration f

When this discussion was recorded on 20th November, New Zealand, which has 4.9 million people, only had 50 reported cases of COVID in the whole country. The reason the country is successful in containing the virus better than most countries in the world, is the discipline of the people, says Scott Arrol, the former CEO of NZ Healtchare IT - an organization connecting insurers, healthcare providers and the healthcare industry. Scott is soon leaving the organization after running if for over 6 years. He talked about the character of New Zealanders, the complexity of the healthcare system, the hurdles related to the digitalization of healthcare, and explained how New Zealand approached the COVID-19 pandemic, so today, unlike most of the rest of the world, people can attend live events. Enjoy the show, and to read the recap of the discussion or browse through other episodes as well, go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com. Among the discussions about the healthcare system, you can listen to a recently published talk

In this episode, you will hear a discussion with Julian Flannery - the CEO of. Summus Global. Summus global provides access to specialists and physicians from across the world. The company has a network of over 4,000 specialists and physicians from 48 hospitals and dozens of fields, from oncology to cardiology, psychology, and pediatrics. Their customers come from the US, China, Canada, Philippines, Spain, England, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Turkey, and Ireland. The CEO Julian Flannery and I talked about how the platform works, how do customers differ based on the country of their residence and more. Enjoy the discussion and to browse through other episodes as well, go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com. If you haven’t yet, subscribe to the show to be notified about new episodes automatically. Coming up next are a discussion about the latest development in blockchain in healthcare and an introduction to the digital health landscape in New Zealand.   Leave a rating or a review: https://lovethepo