Faces Of Digital Health

Investments in digital health have been rising for the last few years, encouraging innovation in applications of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, analytics, and other latest technologies in healthcare. At the same time, the next generations of doctors, who are supposed to embrace and use these inventions, are trained in an outdated model with little room for creative engagement. One of the people passionate about the re-invention of medical education is Dr. Nana Bit-Avragim, a digital health transformer and medical sciences expert. Nana is an MD/PhD, who formerly worked as Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Charité Foundation and was the Head of Digital Health and Life Sciences program at the German hub of Singularity University. In the 29th episode of Faces of digital health, Nana discusses how new cross-disciplinary models within academia in collaboration with industry and startups should be established to upgrade and rethink medical education.

Chris Johnson is a Children’s Anaesthetist with 30 years of experience in clinical practice. Chris was the medical lead for the healthcare IT transformation of the Perth Children’s Hospital in Australia, which was planned after the institution relocated into a new building, approximately 10 years ago.  In the end, the robotics system was bought, but the EHR project had been stopped, leaving the hospital medical records management right where it was — on paper.  Several reasons contributed to the outcome in the huge process of change management. After all, the IT support projects presented only 25% of the budget for transformation.  Some questions addressed: What do anaesthetists do in practice? What are the digital trends in anesthesiology? Will doctors be replaced by automation and precision dosing algorithms? How does a tender for digital transformation of a hospital look like? Who has to be included? How long does it take? How can hospitals be more pleasant for patients? What is the role of architecture an

The first episode of Faces of digital health offers a reflection on digital health in 2018, followed by a discussion on digital health in Malta. Because the country is small, the adoption of new solutions could be faster compared to bigger countries. Stefan Buttigieg, Specialist Trainee in Public Health Medicine with a special interest in Clinical Informatics, Social Media and Digital Health, and the co-chair of Health 2.0 Malta believes in the bright future ahead, driven by AI, blockchain, and younger generations.  Some questions addressed:  What is the state of healthcare and healthcare IT in Malta? How big is the digital health community in Malta? What is the funding situation like for digital health in Malta? Is the national optimism and plans for digitilization driven by understanding or general hype of technologies such as artificial intelligence or blockchain?    

In 2012, right after finishing his PhD in neurobiology, Martin Inderbitzin got a rare type of pancreatic cancer. He found his strength in another patient's story. Martin's doctor told him about another young man, who survived and was now skiing in the mountains. For the doctor that was an anecdote, for Martin a mantra that kept his spirits up, every time he received a piece of bad news. He started thinking how impactful stories of others with similar struggles to our own can be. To help other patients like him, he started a media project My Survival Story. In the 25th episode of Faces of digital health Martin shares his knowledge regarding how to be a good presenter, and what is the role of digital health in mental health. 

What mistakes are entrepreneurs making? Why does the US seem like a better starting point compared to Europe in the early stages? How to look for support in the most initial stages of a company? In this episode: digital health investments and opportunities for startups. The speaker in this episode Jack van Lint. He is the Corporate Finance Director at NLC The Healthtech Venture Builder - a healthcare accelerator and incubator from the Netherlands supporting early-stage startups. ***   Additional episodes on financing: Ep. 18:What Forces Are Reshaping Early Stage Digital Health Funding? Recap: http://bit.ly/2Lblw1S iTunes: https://apple.co/2rHsumF Podbean: http://bit.ly/2C9dqEf   Ep. 12: Rethinking the Patient as Customer, Payment Models & Funding OptionsRecap: http://bit.ly/2zYLOjD Podbean: http://bit.ly/2QStm5O iTunes: https://apple.co/2UF4YUk   Ep. 10 and 11: Tackling the German Healthcare System Recap: http://bit.ly/2rx11E3 iTunes: Ep. 10: https://apple.co/2Py87l7 Ep. 11: https://apple.co/2RTK6H7 Podbean

In November 2018, Associated Press shocked the global medical community with a news from China: A Chinese researcher claimed that he helped make the world’s first genetically edited babies. He edited the genes of twins with CRISPR/Cas9 technology, with the aim to make the babies resistant to possible future infection with HIV, the AIDS virus. The medical community was more or less unanimous in condemnation of the act because CRISPR technology is so new. This was not the only news that resonated in global news in December: the startup Nebula Genomics announced it is offering free genome sequencing, in which the ownership and control of the data would be in individual's hands. Furthermore, patients could make money with their data, as the company predicts that companies and research organizations would be willing to pay for the cost of sequencing if in exchange they also get some key medical information about the person involved.  The expert in this episode is Natalie Pankova. Natalie has a medical background b

In the broadest possible sense, patient centricity is a mental shift from WHAT is done for the patient in the healthcare system, to HOW things are done. The HOW may include the used technology but also includes the environment. Walter Werzowa - Austrian composer, producer, and owner of LA-based music production studio Musikvergnuegen, and prof. dr. Klaus Laczika - An Austrian specialist in Emergency Medicine, Anaesthetics and Pediatrics, have been researching the effect of music on patients in the ICU for the last decade. They share their insight into the meaning of the environment in the care setting.  The next indispensable piece of equipment will have to be earphones.  Denise Silber, on the other hand, has been working for more than 20 years in the area of patient centricity and how to raise the patient-includedness in the healthcare system. She and Raquel Correia, a Paris based GP and an advisor to digital health startups share their views on what needs to be changed to prevent doctor burn-outs and enable

This episode is a recap of a few talks at 2018 Exponential Medicine. You will hear thoughts on interoperability, practical use of AI in enterprises, some bold ideas about the future medicine thanks to digital innovation by Vinod Khosla, and lucid thoughts regarding the affordability of novel digital health solutions and how we should reframe our thinking about management and leadership to improve global health. Speakers in episode 22: Shannon Sartin, Executive Director of the US Department of Digital Service at Health and Human Services, Lonnie Rae, the founder of a healthcare startup MEDAL, which is working on gathering patient data from various sources such as faxes, paper, and EHR system, Rajeev Ronanki, SVP & Chief Digital Officer, Anthem, Vinod Khosla, Founder of Khosla Ventures, Dr. David Bray, Executive Director for the People Centered Internet coalition. Other speakers from Exponential Medicine, featured in other episodes of this podcast: Shafi Ahmed - F018 Can Bolivia become the global digital hea

In 2017 media started reporting on promising blockchain projects inside the US Center for Disease Control (CDC). The hopes are that blockchain could help decrease the burden of reporting of epidemics, antibiotic prescriptions and the opioid crisis in the USA. In this episode, health IT specialist Jay Jemal talks about what potentials of blockchain were recognized by the Center for disease control in the USA. Jay Jemal is a solutions architect with the CDC, who is exploring how emerging technologies for data collection and analysis could benefit public agencies. In the past few years, he helped design collection systems for outbreaks such as Ebola, anthrax, E.coli. Recap of this episode: https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/f021-what-is-the-cdc-doing-with-blockchain-36c15dac3603 More on blockchain in healthcare:  F020 Blockchain, value of data, and the role of legislation with adoption (Ray Dogum, Health Unchained) - https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/f020-blockchain-value-of-data-and-the-role-of

An update on the current landscape of healthcare blockchain projects, when can we expect practical implications, what the role of legislation will be, and how genomics research, AI and blockchain make a good combination. Intrigued? Listen to Ray Dogum - the host of Health Unchained - podcast focused on blockchain projects and implementation in healthcare. His background is in Health Sector Management and currently is a project manager at American Well, a telehealth company in Boston.   More on blockchain in healthcare: If you’re a regular listener of this show, you’ve heard quite a few episodes on blockchain in healthcare by now - The basics of what blockchain technology is and how it could be used in healthcare, misconceptions around blockchain, and it’s actual potential around interoperability, I recorded a panel at SXSW where various speakers talked about blockchain in pharma, personal health records and identity management with blockchain.   Here are the direct links to the episodes:   Episode 14 of Me

The key topic of today’s episode is pharmacy related robots, which will be presented by Lea Dias - a pharmacist by profession, who now works predominately as an advisor for international hospitals looking to implement robotic hardware and EHR software solutions to improve patient care. She comes from Australia, so we also touched upon the latest big digital health project in Australia - the digitization of medical records of all Australians.    

In 2014, Shafi Ahmed removed a tumor from the liver and bowel of a patient in what was the first operation streamed live online using Google Glass. The procedure to remove was watched live via computer or mobile phone by 13,000 surgical students, healthcare professionals and members of the public in more than 100 countries. Two years later Shafi performed an operation on a British cancer patient using virtual reality technology, again with a large global online audience. He is undoubtedly a driver of change in healthcare with his next big project of leading the First-Ever Fully Digital Hospital in Bolivia. You heard it right, Bolivia - the South American country with 12 million people, where only 6.3% of the GDP goes to healthcare. Can a country like this become the global digital health leader?

Shawna Butler in an entrepreNURSE. She had a wide range of experiences in emergency medicine, cardiac, critical care, international medical flight transport, and workplace wellness. She is part of the Exponential Medicine where the focus is on the opportunities presented by robotics, AI, VR, machine learning, supercomputing, genetic sequencing, blockchain, 3D printing, drones. With her curiosity and drive towards a better health she has shaped and launched various initiatives: the EntrepreNURSE-in-Residence role in the Netherlands, an enterprise-wide digital radiology solution, an international emergency medicine training rotation between a US medical school and a New Zealand hospital system, and the Cancer XPRIZE focused on early detection.  Listen also to episode 16 with Rebecca Love, the co-founder of hirenurses.com.   Recap of the topic: https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/f016-why-arent-nurses-included-in-innovation-process-more-2a24ffc94e68

Nurses and midwives account for nearly 50% of the health workforce. While being an important group of healthcare stakeholders, they are often overlooked, especially when talking about innovation. However, they are very innovative and creative. According to Rebecca Love, an experienced Nurse Entrepreneur, nurses do around 27 workarounds per shift. This means 27 times per day they use technology or care differently from the innovator's expectation. But to be efficient and deliver the best care possible this is a must. Questions addressed: What are the difference between doctors and nurses regarding salary and liability?How can entrepreneurship be encouraged among nurses?Where can nurses be most entrepreneurial?If nurses get a seat at the table, what power shift could that bring?Hirenurses.com is a mother-daughter company. How does that collaboration look like?

Esther Wojcicki is an accomplished journalist and a teacher with a very successful family. Her husband Stanley is Stanford University professor of physics and together three daughters: Susan (CEO of YouTube), Janet, a Fulbright-winning anthropologist, epidemiologist and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and researcher, and Anne (co-founder of 23andMe). In the short discussion during the Webit festival in Sofia, Bulgaria, Esther talked about how we learn, changes in the way we interact due to technology, the role of parents in education and of course 23andme, a little bit of politics and how the US healthcare system affects society. Esther holds an honorary doctorate from Palo Alto University (2013) and from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) 2016. Among many many other things she is the founder of the Moonshots in Education Movement (MiE). Learn more: http://www.moonshotsedu.com         

  John Nosta has been holding a strong position as the number one influencer in the digital health space for quite a few years. His career started in a research lab at Harvard Medical School, until he redirected his creative energy into marketing. About six years ago John founder of NostaLab — a think tank helping life sciences companies navigate change by addressing their problems through unconventional thinking and leveraging creativity. Before that he worked for MedTech and Pharma companies to help them communicate the right idea to the right audience. Some questions addressed:  Are we losing control over the data?What’s the potential of voice recognition software? Can we avoid data gathering today? What are companies doing wrong when communicating their vision? Can innovation be born in large clinical institutions or do they mostly work as echo chambers?  

AI is the buzzword startups are very keen on using when describing their products. For decades, movies are full of ideas on what artificial intelligence could do in a positive and negative way. What is AI, deep learning or a simple algorithm? What is the dream and what current reality around AI? How does AI look in practice? In this episode, you will hear from Sally Daub - the CEO of Enlitic talk about the market potential of AI, the current state of the market and more. Enlitic is a San Francisco based startup using deep learning to distill actionable insights from billions of clinical cases and help doctors leverage the collective intelligence of the medical community. At the moment, the use of AI is highest in the field of medical imaging and diagnostics, drug discovery and therapy planning, but Accenture predicts that by 2026 150 billion US dollars could be saved annually due to applications to robot-assisted surgery, virtual nursing assistants, followed by administrative workflow assistance, fraud detect

In this episode, two Americans share their insight in the healthcare development of the land with 1,4 billion people. Bay McLaughlin, Forbes contributor on tech in China and the co-founder of Brinc.io, part incubator, part accelerator, part investment fund with headquarters located in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou and satellite offices in mainland China, also London, Berlin, Helsinki, Amsterdam & soon in the USA. Miranda Gottlieb, Master’s student from Beijing, pursuing a career in global health policy and health security in the Asia-Pacific region. 

According to dr. Walter Greenleaf, behavioral neuroscientist and a medical technology developer working at Stanford University, interactive virtual environments significantly reduce pain from as much as 44% during the most painful procedures (ex: burn wound treatment), diverts patient attention away from perceiving and feeling pain, decreases pain-related brain-activity, reduces need for anesthesia, opioid medication. With the decrease in price, VR is getting mainstream. The technology giants such as Facebook and Samsung are making huge investments, according to Statista, 12.4 million units will be shipped worldwide in 2018, more than 5 times as much in 4 years in 2022. Listen to a conversation with dr. Walter Greenleaf, Medical Director for AppliedVR at Stanford University. He is considered a leading authority in the medical VR field with over three decades of research and development experience in the field of digital medicine and medical virtual reality technology.

Virtual reality has a long history. Its applications precede pure fun, by today, many therapies for medical purposes have been designed. Virtual reality has many medical applications, which you can learn about from two experts featured in Facs of digital health podcast. In episode 10 listen to dr. Albert “Skip” Rizzo, the Director of Medical Virtual Reality at the Institute for Creative Technologies at University of Southern California, and episode 12 features dr. Walter Greenleaf, the Medical Director for AppliedVR at Stanford University. Topics: addressed: How does VR differ from exposure therapy, is it more effective? What are the dangers of VR use on perception? How do you treat ADHD or PTSD with VR?  Will FDA regulate VR treatments? What danger do consumers currently face?