Digital Health Today

How a former F-16 fighter pilot is flying high with new FDA and CE-registered medical applications using VR? ~ Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality – We’ve spoken to leaders about these technologies in our conversations with Dr. Brennan Spiegel, Dr. Ashya Vahabzadeh, Dr. Shafi Ahmed, Dr. Rafael Grossman and Dr. Justin Barad. Those guests, who all happened to be doctors leading in the field, spoke about their work across a wide variety of use cases, such as patient education, treating mental health condition, pain management, surgical training and actual live surgery. In this episode, we discuss what makes VR such a powerful tool in health care, and tips on how to start a medical device company with no previous medical device or startup experience. We also dive into how the business was helped by getting the FDA involved early. Finally, we also discuss how VR bridges therapy from the hospital to the home, and some of the applications for motor and cognitive treatment, disease progression, response

Combining commercial nous with digital tools to deliver universal access to healthcare There are over 1.2 billion people living in Africa, and another 1.3 billion living in India. Together they account for about 34% of the world’s population. These two regions represent some of the highest levels of healthcare burden, and some of the lowest numbers of healthcare professionals. For example, in Africa, there are only 2.3 healthcare workers per 1,000 people. Compare that to the Americas where you’ll find there are more than 10 times as many: 24.8 healthcare workers per 1000 people. To look at it another way, Africa has a deficit of 2.4 million doctors and nurses – so if you’re looking for a place where you can have a really huge impact on a population in need, there are a few big targets for you in the 54 countries of Africa, in addition to another 1.3 billion people in India. In this episode I spoke to Emmanuel Blin. Emmanuel is the founder and CEO of Tech Care for All (TC4A). He grew up in sub-Saharan Africa a

How the Novartis Biome is pioneering new approaches to digital health innovation? Take a look online and you’ll find hundreds of articles proclaiming that Pharma’s business model is broken and that the entire sector is in the middle of an innovation crisis. Whether you agree or disagree, there’s no question that the industry is extraordinarily competitive and the challenge of bringing effective drugs to market is growing. Adapting to new ways of working and driving new tech and innovation across an entire industry is never easy, and with the long development cycles for new drugs and the low drug development success rates, the challenges are even bigger. But where some see a crisis, others see opportunity, and making the most of that opportunity can take many different forms and approaches. In this episode, I speak with Jake LaPorte – someone who sees that opportunity and has developed a new program to give innovative digital health companies a boost. Jake is the Global Head of Digital Development at Novartis

How can better development resources and new business models enable ‘bring-your-own-app' solutions? Application Programming Interfaces. APIs. We hear a lot about them and their use is really taking off in healthcare. Providers want to use them to become more efficient and provide better connectivity across their enterprise. Patients are also demanding the same modern technology, user experiences and access to health information that we’ve come to expect in nearly every other user-facing industry. Despite the focus and investment in digital transformation in healthcare, there still is a lack of shared infrastructure across the industry. When health systems adopt new technologies, interoperability isn’t simply a nice to have, it’s a requirement! But what does interoperability mean anyway? And how can it be achieved without having to start from scratch and repeat the same integrations when thousands of other companies are working to achieve similar results? To maximize efficiency and address market failings in t

In this episode we dive into some of the cities, countries and winning strategies that are leading the transformation of health for the billions of people that live in APAC. Tony Estrella is an investor, advisor, and global digital health expert. He has experience all over the world having lived and worked in Asia, the US, and Europe as a startup founder, investor and corporate innovation leader. One of the things that we like to do on this program is bring an international perspective on the challenges that we’re facing in healthcare systems around the world. We’ve had leaders from California to Israel, and Finland to subsaharan africa, but even still there are huge parts of the world we have yet to cover. One of those major regions is Asia Pacific, and in this episode, we dip our toes in the water – pardon the expression. While everyone knows that there are huge numbers of people in this region, there are also tremendous opportunities for investors and healthcare companies of all sizes. When I was at the Fr

Today we’re diving into the topic of Mental Health. It’s a topic we’ve covered before on this program, like in episode 63 with Dale Beerman of Think Pacifica, and in episode 21 with Dr. Arshya Vahabzadeh from Brain Power. In those episodes, we explored the use of mobile apps and wearables, and we looked at some problems that are being solved using these technologies. We often think of mental health as something that is just that – “mental” health – and the connections to physical health, and even the numbers of people who die due to poor mental health, are often under appreciated. We also know that if we increase activity and physical exercise it can help relieve symptoms of stress and improve aspects of our mental health. Wouldn’t it be great if there were tools available that could help measure and quantify our mental health based on our physical activities and behaviors? Maybe even serve as an early warning system? Well, that’s why I wanted to introduce you to our next guest. His company is doing pioneerin

In this episode, we’re taking on the topic of Digital Therapeutics. At the CNS Summit last year, I had the opportunity to meet our guest: Megan Coder. Megan is the founder and executive director of the Digital Therapeutics Alliance. The Digital Therapeutics Alliance, or DTA as you may hear it called, was launched in 2017 to broaden the understanding, adoption, and integration of clinically-validated digital therapeutic solutions into mainstream healthcare through education, advocacy, and research. Megan has more than a decade of experience in the healthcare industry. She’s held roles that span from direct delivery of patient care, to leading the strategic growth within the digital health sector. Prior to DTA, Megan worked with Voluntis, Iodine, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, and the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board. She’s a qualified pharmacist and a proud graduate from the University of Wisconsin like our guest in episode 63, Dale Beerman. Enjoy this update on digital therapeutics and

Lihi Segal on applying technology and predictive models to manage glucose levels In this episode, we’re diving into the research, and a brand new solution, focused on the growing understanding of the human microbiome – the microorganisms that help protect us against germs, break down food, and produce vitamins. What work is being done to actually enlist the microbiome in the fight against disease? Can we leverage our understanding not just to preserve health but also to actually prevent or treat metabolic disease? Here on Digital Health today, it is our job and privilege to find the leaders who are breaking new ground, and I’m pleased to introduce you to one of those leaders on this podcast. With me on this episode is Lihi Segal, the CEO and Co-Founder of DayTwo. Lihi cofounded Day Two in 2015 to bring personalized health solutions based on the gut microbiome into the consumer mainstream. Before starting DayTwo, Lihi led business and financial operations as the COO and CFO of Sisense, which is a provider of b

Our guest in this episode is Todd Pope, the President and Chief Executive Officer of TransEnterix, a company that is digitizing the interface between laparoscopic surgeons and patients through the use of their robot. Todd shares some of the ways that robotics are changing the landscape of surgery today, and he explains how technologies such as artificial intelligence and computer vision further enhance these capabilities. Todd has more than 25 years of experience in key leadership positions within the medical device industry. He was the Worldwide President at Cordis, which is a multibillion-dollar division within Johnson & Johnson’s medical device sector, and he previously held a number of leadership there at Johnson & Johnson as well as Boston Scientific. He was also named as one of Time Magazine's “50 Most Influential People in Healthcare” for 2018. Are robots really ‘Digital Health'? When people ask me to define Digital Health I normally include a whole host of products, software and technology – everythin

Redesigning Healthcare with a Generational Perspective How do the experiences of different generations of people shape and inform their attitudes, expectations and perceptions of healthcare today and in the future? And if we focus our attention on redesigning healthcare for those current generations of adults who place the highest demands on it today, are we overlooking the needs of younger generations of adults and future generations who don’t yet have similar demands of the system? In this episode we explore these issues with Dr Eliza Filby. Dr. Filby is a historian, author and consultant who understands the differences in values and behaviors across different generations. She is currently writing a book called ‘Our Place in Time’, and she works with companies to address multi-generational challenges such as recruiting Generation Z employees, retaining Millennial talent, and dealing with a multi-generational client or employee base. We dive into how people in Generation Z have an entirely different view and

How deception technology and identification solutions can protect networks from cyberattacks It's likely you remember hearing about the “Wannacry” malware attacks last year. It affected organizations around the world, but no sector was affected as badly as the healthcare sector. The UK was hit particularly hard – that attack forced the NHS to cancel 19,000 appointments, costing about £20m ($25m) during the course of one week, plus an additional £72m ($90m) in the subsequent cleanup and upgrades to its IT systems. We haven’t had a headline like that in a little while, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t still a significant risk. In fact, just last week, December 9, 2018 the University of Maryland Medical System discovered that malware had been installed on its network. The attack was detected at 4.30am, and within 2 1/2 hours its networks and devices had been taken offline and affected devices had been quarantined. The senior VP and chief information officer, Jon P. Burns, of the University of Maryland Medi

Turning autoantibodies into an early-warning system to beat cancer In episode 74, we spoke about early detection of skin cancer with Erik de Heus, the CEO of SkinVision. In that episode we talked about a smartphone app that uses AI to determine the likelihood that a mole or mark on your skin could be malignant. That technology has reviewed millions of images and has helped detect cancer in tens of thousands of people around the world. It’s a great solution and it’s making a huge impact and it will continue to hold a vital place in our fight against skin cancer. But what about cancers below our skin’s surface? What tools do we have to detect and fight those cancers that we can’t see and that may be developing inside us? Is there a way to detect those cancers even before they form a cluster of cells large enough to be detected through a biopsy or scan? What if we could enlist the power of our own immune system to create a sort of early warning system that could alert us when cancerous cells are present. Well, t

In this episode we're rejoined by another veteran of the program. He’s here for an encore appearance to tell us all about a new book that he’s released. He is the one and only, Dave Chase. Dave was the CEO and Co-founder of Avado, which was acquired by & integrated into WebMD & Medscape. Dave was named one of the most influential people in Digital Health due to his entrepreneurial success, his speaking and his writing. More recently he’s been a co-founder of Health Rosetta which is an organization that helps accelerate the adoption of simple, practical, non-partisan fixes to our healthcare system. Dave is the author of a new book entitled “The Opioid Crisis Wake-up Call”. It's no secret that healthcare systems around the world are under immense pressure. Dave has identified dozens of organizations that are working well despite the tremendous challenges, and he shows us how we can learn to replicate those fixes across different areas. In this episode we dive into a couple of the examples contained within his b

SkinVision has added an AI weapon to the arsenal The overall rates of cancer occurrence continues to decline each year, however melanomas of the skin are on the rise. The CDC reports that in the period from 1999 to 2015, the rates of melanomas per 100,000 people increased from 15.1% to 22.1% – about a 50% increase. To battle this deadly disease, many organizations, like the CDC for example, are calling for more community prevention efforts. By combining education, mass media campaigns, and policy changes, the CDC projected that we could prevent an estimated 21,000 cases of melanoma per year, and save $250 million dollars in the US alone from 2020 to 2030. But for millions of people around the world, the damage is already done, so early detection is the best defense. Each year, in the US, more people are diagnosed with skin cancer than all other cancers combined, and it is often first discovered by the patients themselves. Most skin cancers are caused by exposure to the sun. This may be long-term exposure or s

Anne Wellington, Managing Director of Cedars-Sinai Accelerator, answers our six lightning round questions. Tune in to hear Anne's advice for innovators, favorite book and technology, and more. Find all the links and the full interview at digitalhealthtoday.com/73. --- This episode of Digital Health Today is made possible thanks to our sponsors. Thank you! ---

After graduating four classes and 37 companies, this leading accelerator is breaking new ground. Again. In this episode we’re talking about accelerators. Accelerators have been around since about 2005 and in the last 5 or 6 years, we’ve seen the development of new accelerators and programs that focus on the unique needs of entrepreneurs who are working to create new solutions for the healthcare sector. Accelerators are designed to accelerate the development of the ideas and solutions that will make the biggest impact, and, as we will hear about on this episode, they also accelerate failure so that entrepreneurs and investors can save valuable time and resources and apply their talents to other solutions. To get the low-down on what accelerators do to succeed, we reached out to the managing director of one of the best-known health-focused accelerators, Anne Wellington. Anne is the managing director of the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator in Los Angeles. She’s been a part of the accelerator since March 2016, and she sh

In this episode we explore the intersection of wearables, data and behavior change. We all know that behavior change is a key part to managing or reversing the effects of chronic conditions, but how can wearable technology enable people to make better decisions about their activity, diet, and sleep? Or do wearable trackers actually help us justify our bad behavior – like treating ourselves to a pumpkin spice latte as a reward because we hit our 10,000 steps for the day (you know who you are!). Here to share his experience is Dr John Moore. John is a physician, engineer and the Medical Director at Fitbit. John studied biomedical engineering and then medicine at Boston University. He was on a path to become a specialty surgeon in ophthalmology, but left his residency early because he became very interested in the underlying causes of chronic diseases. John earned a PhD from MIT where he focused on the intersection of health psychology, learning science, and human-computer interaction. He went on to co-found Twi

In this episode we’re talking about data. We dive into two key aspects of data access. One aspect is about what happens to our health data when we die. Millions of people die each year and the information stored in their lost to their families and future generations. The other aspect we cover in this episode relates to the popular topic of interoperability – the problem everyone loves to hate! For decades, this has been the subject of countless conferences and meetings and even congressional hearings. We reluctantly accept the fact that our medical records are distributed across various systems and providers, but that poses a real problem both to people who are accessing care, and the people and organizations providing it. It’s not just that it’s inconvenient, it can actually undermine accurate diagnosis and treatment, and negatively impact outcomes. Seqster is a company that is helping people, and their families, integrate, access, manage, and own all of their available health data in a private and secure sy

On his first appearance on Digital Health Today (episode 60), Amir Kalali shared his views on digital therapeutics, drug discovery and neuroscience. During the lightning round, we also touched on some of his advice on how to make travel more enjoyable. We joked that we should do a whole episode on travel tips to survive the conference season…..well, it turns out that people liked the idea!  In this episode, Amir discusses how to improve your travel experience with his top tips and hacks. From apps and websites, to gadgets and pills, Amir shares some great advice as you prepare to head out to the industry events this year! Top Travel Tips and Hacks for Surviving the Conference Season: 10. Know your rights and the best routes to fly Know your airlines and aviation rules, search airline on private mode, use meta engines like ITA Software and Google Flights: Matrix Airfare Search or Google Flights. 9. Choose a good credit card Pick a loyalty program and credit card that maximizes the perks such as Priority Pass

In this episode, we examine the problems faced by millions of people, their families, and caregivers, as they work to maintain their mental and physical health as they age. We look at new in-home technologies that combine Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, sensors and a range of other technologies to create very different solutions that help maintain independence and manage and monitor health. I’m joined on this episode by two guests. Our first guest is Dor Skuler, he’s the CEO and co-founder of Intuition Robotics. Also, joining me is Assaf Sella, the CEO and co-founder of Kytera. We dive into the ways that technology can be used used to solve these problems, and how it can make an impact on people who are aging, and their families. In many parts of the world, the accepted standard is that once someone reaches the age of 65, they’ve automatically and magically been transported to the beginning of old age. Careers end, discounted movie and train tickets begin as people move from being seen as economic ass