Faces Of Digital Health

Rajeev Ronanki is Chief Digital Officer at Anthem, which is striving to become a digital AI-first enterprise. In September Anthem launched a digital incubator where companies can test their solutions on Anthem’s anonymized data. Among other things Rajeev spoke about what kind of mindset shift happened in insurance companies due to COVID, how does an AI-driven insurance policy mindset look like and how will AI shape the future of healthcare.   Anthem's incubator: https://www.anthem.ai/  Leave a rating or a review: www.lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth 

We are in the middle of an unprecedented time of anxiety, depression and worries because of the global coronavirus pandemic. It’s affecting people’s jobs, a sense of security, and relative predictability, consequently our relationships and health, especially mental health. I think it’s safe to assume we wish for this to be over as soon as possible and that we could be in a different reality. To a certain extent, that’s actually possible, if you have virtual reality equipment. Virtual reality can have a literally healing effect. Over 5000 studies by today have shown the efficacy of VR for pain management, PTSD, eating disorders, mental health and more. In this episode, you will hear from dr. Brennan Spiegel a gastroenterologist who directs the Cedars-Sinai Center for Outcomes Research and Education. He recently published a book titled VRx in which he explains the applicability of VR and looks at this digital therapy from a philosophical and critical point of view. In this discussion, you will hear him explain

Australia was in the global digital health-related news in 2018 of the national EHR project called My Health Record. The idea behind the project was to digitize the medical records of all the people from Australia. Today, 9 out of 10 Australians have My Health Record.  In the discussion you are about to listen to, dr. Louise Shaper, the CEO of Australasian Institute of Digital Health (AIDH), renowned speaker and a dedicated digital health evangelist, shared her deep insight into the state of digitalization of healthcare in Australia, the organizations driving technological progress in healthcare, and also her PhD about technology acceptance amongst healthcare professionals. Australasian Institute of Digital Health: https://digitalhealth.org.au/  Leave a rating or a review: http://www.lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth 

Spain has a universal healthcare system, where anyone that pays social security contributions is eligible for healthcare. From the digitalization perspective, Spain does not have a national institution to coordinate digital health projects. Instead, each of the Spanish regions has authorities with their own budgets. One of the most advanced regions is Catalonia. Cesar Morcillo Serra is an Internal Medicine specialist from Barcelona, who has a strong interest in eHealth. He had lead several Digital Health transformation projects inside the Cima hospital where he works in. In this discussion, he talks about what it takes for a hospital to be digitally advanced, what is a concept of a liquid hospital and how does the Spanish healthcare system works.    Cesar is the speaker at the Barcelona Health Hub Summit (29 October): https://bhhsummit.com/ Join free!  Episode recap: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f-104-digital-health-in-spain-and-what-is-a-liquid-hospital-cesar-morcillo-serra  To learn more about

Chronolife is a French company innovating in the space of smart garments for remote patient monitoring. Clothes are not the main innovation of the company, their secret sauce is a patented neuromorphic (bio-mimetic) algorithm, HOTS (Hierarchy Of event-based Time-Surfaces). The algorithm detects and predicts deterioration in patients’ state of health and alerts caregivers to allow earlier intervention and avoid costly hospitalizations. The company’s mission is  to enable healthcare professionals to have timely information for earlier intervention and to ensure a continuum of care that fills the existing gaps from hospital to home. In this episode, the CEO Laurent Vandebrouck shares his thoughts about the French healthcare system in terms of digitalization, comments the position of smart garments on the market crowded with other kinds of wearables, and also answered questions like - can you destroy a smart shirt by not washing it currently?    Episode recap: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f103-how-are-smart-

Do you remember the first connected scale? It came to the market in 2009 by a French company called Withings. By today the company created a number of connected health devices and is increasing its efforts to expand its presence in the clinical space. Withings offers a range of products: a connected scale, a digital thermometer, a wireless blood pressure cuff, a mat to detect sleep apnea, a smartwatch with ECG, and sleep apnea monitoring was released in 2020.  In this episode, the CEO of Withings Mathieu Letombe talks about:  the landscape of connected health devices, quantification of health how companies can attract doctors to work with them given the busy schedules clinicians have.   Leave a rating or a review: https://lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth 

This episode is a collection of thoughts giving you a glimpse into the global digital health market. Leave a rating or a review: https://lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth  Speakers:  Dr. Daniel Kraft, one of the top opinion leaders in digital health, nicely summarized the current state of digital health in Episode 81.   Julien de Salaberry, the CEO of Galen Growth Asia emphasized in Episode 41 that is important to keep in mind when thinking about expanding in this area of the world. Guillem Serra, the CEO of the Spanish based company Mediquo, guest in Episode 84, says that in internationalization and looking at new potential markets, language is the most important factor to consider.   Different countries differ in their culture and how technologies are used. I’d say that different parts of the world “run” on different platforms. In China, society runs on WeChat. In India, the key communication platform in Whatsapp. Abhishek Shah, CEO of Wellthy digital therapeutics company from India, who was the guest

This is the 4th part of a short series about healthcare and digital health in South America. After presenting Brazil, Colombian and Argentina, Luis Santiago talks about Venezuela and Chile.

This is the third episode of the short series about digital health in South America. In the previous episodes you could listen to Adrian Turjanski from an Argentinian genomics company there called Bitgenia, another speaker came from Colombia - Javier Cardona, CEO of 1Doc3 talked about how to bring affordable access to healthcare to people in seconds, without the need for an appointment. See the recap of the shows here: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/digitalheath-south-america This episode will take you to Brazil to hear from the CEO of OTAWA Health - a 13 years old startup officially founded last year, by an IT team at CCC (Centro de Combate ao Câncer), one of the most respected oncology clinics in Brazil. The biggest differentiator of Brazil compared to other countries in South America is language. The official language is Portuguese. The country with over 200 million people has had universal healthcare access since the eighties. That sounds great, but as explained by Paulo Fernando Buarque de Gus

When Googling the Colombian healthcare system, there’s mostly praise about how good it is! The World Health Organization ranked Colombia’s healthcare system as number 22 in a review of 191 countries. Javier Cardona is the CEO of 1DOC3 - a Colombian company that offers affordable telemedical consultations in seconds; no appointment is needed.  In this episode, Javier talked about the Columbian healthcare system structure, which ranks high according to WHO ranking. He also explained the needs and specifics of telemedicine in Latin America.  This is the second part of a short series about digital health in South America.  Find out more at: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/e0d0c43vvl3kfalkfzu3uribb3d6bp  1Doc3: https://www.1doc3.com/

After a special series about digital health in Asia and Africa covered in 2019, the upcoming four episodes will present speakers from South America. A shoutout goes to Unity Stoakes and Jennifer Hankin from Startup Health, which connected me to the speakers in the upcoming episodes. All the companies are StartupHealth Transformers.  In this discussion, you will hear Adrian Turjanski, Chief Science Officer at Bitgenia - an Argentinian startup bringing genomics closer to society, explains the current state of genomics research in South America; he talked about the difference between the whole genome and exosome sequencing, and the use of AI in genetic sequencing.  In the upcoming episodes, you will hear from  Luis Santiago - CEO of the Venezuelan healthcare IT company PEGASI,  Javier Cardona, the CEO of the Colombian telemedicine company 1Doc3, Paulo Fernando Buarque de Gusmão, CEO of Brazilian company OTAWA health.   Digital Health in Asia Series: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f041045-digital-heal

Why are clinical trials complicated and how is technology from platforms to AI helping accelerate trial development and data analysis.

Germany is one of the European countries with higher healthcare expenditures. 11% of GDP goes to healthcare compared to the 9.6% European average. Patients can be covered under public health insurance, or if they earn more than 5000 euros monthly, they choose from private health insurance providers. Health insurance is mandatory but competitive as there are around 100 health insurance companies on the market.  When Jens Spahn became the health minister In March 2018 Germany quickly became the European northern star of accelerated healthcare digitization. How did they do it? You will hear from three speakers - Henrik Matthies, managing director of the health innovation hub of the German Ministry of Health, Maren Lesche - Head of Incubation at Vision Health Pioneers a pre-seed incubator ‘Vision Health Pioneers’ based in Berlin and dr. Maike Henningsen - medical doctor, who specialized in OBGYN, oncology, endocrinology and reproductive medicine and who partially still works in the clinical practice but is also

There are well over 300.000 digital health apps on the market. However, only a third of them have been updated in the last 18 months, says Liz Ashal Payne - CEO and Founder of ORCHA - a UK based organization with a mission to distribute validated apps to patients who need them. Liz Ashal Payne - a digital health veteran, who started her career as a speech ad language therapist, worked as Assistant Director of Allied Health Professions (AHPs), she was a Clinical Programme Manager of Academic Health Science Network for the North West Coast, International Outreach Coordinator for ECHAlliance and more. After years of being in the digital health space, she founded ORCHA - an organisation with the mission to distribute digital health apps to people who need them.    See also F062 GDPR, MDR, and what you can do about you medical data (Jovan Stevovic): https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f062-gdpr-mdr-and-what-you-can-do-about-you-medical-data-jovan-stevovi

Despite enjoying clinical practice, Benedict Evans still came to a point where he felt he is not passionate enough about what he does, and as a surgeon, he realized he enjoys talking to patients more than treating them when they are under anesthesia. He went to a consulting position at McKinsey, then back to an NHS Trust to drive digital innovation and now to a VC position.  Resources: InHealth Ventures: https://www.inhealth.vc/ Episode recap: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f093-how-does-a-doctor-become-a-vc-benedict-evans

Leah Houston is an Emergency Physician who has been following blockchain development since 2012 and now designed a solution that would empower doctors, make their credentialing easier which would simplify transitions from one hospital to the next one if one wished to switch jobs.    HPEC is restoring agency and autonomy to the physician-patient relationship with self-sovereign (physician-owned and controlled) digital identities and verifiable credentials. The key thing is that the solution is returning autonomy to physicians and eliminates third party interference from the doctor-patient relationship.    In this discussion, you will be able to hear how credentialing works in the US, what are the powerful forces that are hurting healthcare, and why doctors and patients should regain control over their communication and treatment choices.   Episode recap: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f092-how-can-blockchain-bring-back-autonomy-to-the-physician-patient-relationship-leah-houston-hpec

This is the fourth episode in the short series about nurses who moved to entrepreneurship.   Mary Lou Ackerman is Vice President of Innovation and Digital Health with SE Health. Mary Lou is a founding member of SONSIEL (Society of Nursing Scientist, Innovator, and Entrepreneur Leaders) and an active member of CHIEF (Canada’s Health Informatics Executive Forum) with Digital Health Canada. Her background is extensive — she has led the development and implementation of many business transformation projects, innovations and partnerships. Mary Lou joined Saint Elizabeth in 1987 as a visiting nurse, and she has augmented her clinical background with a graduate business degree and significant experience with health informatics and technologies. Mary Lou has a passion for community health care, combined with a desire to advance care, creating innovative service models supported by digital health technologies, to create a future that will provide a personalized, accessible, meaningful health experience for individual

This is a third discussion in the short series about nurses going into entrepreneurship. Karmi Soder started working as a pediatric clinical care nurse in 1992. Today she is a skilled communicator with over 25 years of healthcare experience in clinical, administrative and tech, which she gained by serving as Chief Administrative Officer at Sutter Health, leading pediatric department for Kaiser Permanente, worked at Google and co-founded NewboRN Solutions — a registered nursing corporation, which aimed at helping new parents get the best care and shared community after the birth of their newborn. Based in Israel Karmi now works as a consultant for program development and strategy, analyzes, designs and executes improved operations and workflows.    More about the series: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f087f091-series-nurses-the Apply for the Reactor accelerating program: https://hvlab.eu/program/1/reactor-2020

Sherezade Ruano is an Arrhythmia Specialist Nurse at Imperial College NHS Trust, Founder of RhythmiaBreath Medical Well-being programme and Co-Founder, CEO of RB Hub Digital Therapeutics. Passionate about the importance of mental wellbeing, stress and trauma in cardiac patients, Sherezade works closely with a team of world-renowned Mental Health specialists and Cardiologists offering outstanding services. In the interview she spoke about neurocardiology, struggles she came across as a nurse entrepreneur when looking for validators of her solution, she also commented the faster adoption of digital health in the UK because of COVID-19 and more.

2020 is the year of the nurse and the midwife. What do nurses actually do and why are they still a hidden innovation treasure in healthcare?   In this series consisting of discussions with nurse innovators, you will hear about: What nurses actually do, The changing role of nurses in healthcare, Relationship nurses have with technology — IT systems, new innovations, Why they should be at the policy making table.   The first episode features Shawna Butler, Nurse Economist and EntrepreNURSE from the US, currently the Host of SEE YOU NOW podcast, focused on sharing perspectives of nurses on healthcare. She is a member of the core team of the Exponential Medicine team at Singularity University. In this discussion, Shawna Buttler, speaks about the current situation healthcare workers have found themselves in due to COVID-19, what she’s learning about nurses through hosting the See you now podcast, we also touched very human aspects of nursing we don’t hear about often, that is the needs and support in end of life c