Digital Health Today

We think a lot about the things we put into our bodies but there is a relatively new field coming into the spotlight as we learn more about the things that are already in, and on, our bodies. That field is research into the human microbiome. Our guest today tells us about some of the early and most recent developments, and how the data being gathered about the micro organisms living in our bodies can help to develop new treatments to existing conditions, and prevent developing others. Our guest is Azza Gadir, a scientist working on the Immunology of food allergies at Harvard University/Boston Childrens’ hospital. Her research is focused on the role of the Gut Microbiome in preventing and treating disease. In addition, she is currently serving as a scientific advisor for the startup, Adeo Health Science, a company focused on translating food allergy research into trusted products for parents. Azza was introduced to me by Daisy Robinton, also a researcher at Harvard, who was a guest on episode 23 about gene edi

What do you do when you get bad news? Do you moan and complain about it? Maybe you steel yourself and decide not to let it dominate you and carry on, taking the setbacks in stride. Or maybe, you're one of the group of people who takes that decision even further and resolves to declare war on the obstacles before you. You dedicate your work, energy and resources to not just to overcome those challenges, but to completely transform the situation and experience of others who are facing and will face similar challenges. Considering you’ve self selected into this digital health community, I’m guessing that you’re in one of the two latter groups, and let’s face it, you’re likely in the last group: The group that Unity Stoakes would call the change makers and transformers. People in this group not only refuse to accept the status quo, but go to work to change the way the world works, create new paradigms and shape new ways of thinking. My guest today definitely falls into this group. And I think there’s a super powe

In this episode we address the role of digital health in managing antimicrobial resistance. We hear about antibiotic resistance in the mainstream media. It pops up on the news now and then, people talk about it and then things go back to the way they were. Patients still demand their antibiotics, hospitals and clinicians lack the solutions to have effective oversight to make changes, and the problem grows. Today, resistant bacteria causes about 50,000 deaths per year in Europe and the US. To address this urgent problem, various bodies have put together standards and programs to improve the use of medications. For example, in the US, the Joint Commission has implemented an Antimicrobial Stewardship Standard which just came into effect on January 1, 2017. But no matter where you are, people and protocols alone can’t fully address this problem: We need tools to collect and compare data and provide actionable information on the use of antimicrobials. Here to talk to us about this massive problem is Dr. Brandon Pa

In this episode, we speak with another game developer turned healthcare professional. You may remember back on episode 8 we spoke with nurse and master gamer Anna Sort. She’s now running a company based in Barcelona that is helping healthcare companies develop fun and effective tools to engage users. If you haven’t done it yet, I encourage you to go back and listen to that episode, she gives some insights and techniques to achieve what she calls epic wins. You can grab that on digitalhealthtoday.com/8 Today, we’re speaking with a surgeon, an orthopaedic surgeon in fact. You may have heard me mention him on the episode 43 with Professor Stefano Bini, a professor of Clinical Orthopaedics at UCSF who runs the DOCSF meeting. In that episode we were talking about digital health tools being developed for orthopaedics, and our guest today is the founder of one of the companies that is doing exactly that. Our guest is Dr. Justin Barad, he’s the founder and CEO of OssoVR. He’s taken his skill at gaming and game develo

In this episode, we talk about telemedicine 3.0 and humanizing healthcare. We spoke with Jamey Edwards, the CEO and founder of Cloudbreak, a company delivering telemedicine solutions to hospitals across the US. Cloudbreak provides more than one million minutes of telemedicine consultation through over 75,000 encounters each month. Cloudbreak invests heavily in creating engaging experiences through their products, and it is clearly working. Their solutions are being used in over 700 hospitals, including two of the top 20 hospitals in the US (Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, #11, and NYU Langone Medical Center, #19). To top it off, they are achieving 50% annual growth and have just joined Startup Health as a portfolio company. Jamey is very concerned about physician burnout and the clinicians working at the coal face of healthcare delivery. As a result, he is highly focused on improving the healthcare environment for the people that work in it. In our discussion, Jamey shares how their work has been shaped through

In this episode I spoke with Professor Stefano Bini, he’s an Orthopaedic Surgeon at UCSF and the Chair of the Digital Orthopaedics Conference. That’s right: "Digital Orthopaedics". I met Professor Bini through Nick Adkins and Mike Ryan (both of whom were previous guests on this program episodes 34 and 36 respectively) and they told me that Prof. Bini was working on some really forward thinking approaches. He is taking things to a new level by focusing on digital tools specifically in the orthopaedics vertical. We all know orthopaedics is a very resource intensive and expensive area of healthcare, and Prof Bini believes it is a great place to drive innovation in the clinical care system. Need proof? Well, on this episode, he tells us exactly why orthopaedics is a great place to focus our digital efforts, and he goes through some of the work being done by companies to transform the delivery of orthopaedic care. We dive into virtual reality (VR), telemedicine, 3d printing, artificial intelligence (AI), wearables

In this episode, we dive into patient expert collaboration with lifelong health marketer, serial entrepreneur, and internet pioneer Jack Barrette. Jack is the founder and CEO of WEGO Health, and he is a frequent public speaker, blogger, twitterer (@healthyjack) and author. Jack has been recognized as "One of the Most Inspiring People In The Industry" by PharmaVoice Magazine. Jack and I take on one of the big challenges facing innovators which is focused on these two key words: "Patient Centric". We talk about it all the time, and no one is going to argue that it's not a priority, but how do we actually do it? Some would say that you simply engage patients in your business challenges, but if you've ever tried that, you know it's harder than it sounds. But if patients are a part of the solution, how do businesses get patients involved in achieving business objectives? Jack has some ideas, and he shares his 7 secrets of successful patient expert collaboration. Take a listen, check out WEGO Health, and be sure to

This is part 2 of the conversation with Matthew Holt of Health 2.0. In episode 40, Matthew shared his experience as a healthcare researcher, beach bum, travel blogger, health tech entrepreneur, and then health tech catalyst when he and Indu Subaiya started Health 2.0 in 2006. That organization has grown massively with conferences all around the world, and this October marks the 11th anniversary of the annual Fall conference. In fact, if you haven’t signed up yet, you should definitely check it out. Their Summer Savings ticket is still available until September 6th, so got to Health2con.com or visit the link below. The conference will be held October 1-4, 2017 in Santa Clara, California. In this episode, Matthew is going to make his case for rebranding Digital Health as SMACK Health, and while I don’t like the sound of it (sounds kind of painful) I’ll keep an open mind. Let me know what you think. Is SMACK a better description for what we’re working on to innovate in health? We also take on some of the questio

Matthew Holt went to work in 2006 to create an event that focused on health tech innovators. That event was the first Health 2.0. Now, 11 years later, thousands of health innovators have taken to the Health 2.0 stage to present their solutions that improve and transform healthcare. Matthew tells us about the evolution of the organization, and the opportunities for innovators to share their stories to tens of thousands of people around the world. Matthew co-founded Health 2.0 with Indu Subaiya. I’ve known Matthew for several years - I’ve spent time with him at Health 2.0 conferences (and nearby bars) in the US and Europe, but until I had this discussion with him, I didn’t really have an appreciation of the background that eventually led to the creation of the Health 2.0 series of conferences. We cover how Health 2.0 serves as a tremendous catalyst for accelerating the creation and adoption of new health technologies. We also dive into Matthew's own experience as a researcher and his experience as part of a sil

This is the second part of a two-part interview with the batteries included health transformer Unity Stoakes. I gave Unity a full introduction in the previous episode, and now we’re going to pick up where we left off. Unity had just raced across town for a meeting at the White House in 2011, and then launched startup health at Health Datapalooza the very next day. In this episode, we find out what impact Startup Health is having and where they are headed. And you’re also going to hear a superb Yoda impression - you gotta hear that. Today's Topics: How the current political climate in the US will affect health tech innovation How the Internet boom in the 1990s is similar to the current digital health market The 4 things they focus on in Startup Health: The Startup Academy Establishing a Peer Network The Network of Investors, Customers and Organizations A Promotion Engine to Promote and Share the Stories How startups should evaluate and compare accelerator and incubator programs The role of philanthro

  In this episode I speak with Unity Stoakes, co-founder and president of Startup Health. Unity has a great story and a great job. His mission is to improve the well-being of everyone in the world. You read that right. He is working to improve health not exclusively for his community, not for a few hundred million people not for people with a certain physical condition or income level. Nope,not Unity, he just wants to improve the well-being for everyone in the world. Just everyone. Just 7.4 billion people. I walked away from this conversation and realized the most exciting part of his journey, is that it still is just the beginning! He’s got 20 something years under his belt, and now he’s set out a 25 year vision...he’s still in the first half! Unity and I spoke about his experiences that took him from Iowa to Boston and from New York to the Oval Office. He’s an innovator, a batteries-included change-maker, a health transformer, a successful entrepreneur and he is leading a charge to reshape our future. On th

Our guest in this episode is Kevin Lyman, an extremely talented entrepreneur and computer scientist based out in San Francisco. He’s worked at companies including Microsoft and SpaceX, and he’s even founded several companies as well. Now he’s applying his ability to create leading products to the healthcare sector- and he’s the COO and Lead Scientist for Enlitic, a startup that develops deep learning products to make doctors faster and more accurate. He’s going to help us break down some of the details and capabilities of Artificial Intelligence, and explain the differences between machine learning and deep learning. Don’t worry - you don’t have to be a computer scientist to understand it, but with so many terms floating around for a set of technologies that is on track to be the most significant development of our lifetime - we need to peel back the curtain a little bit to understand them a bit better. Then we get into how all this is making an impact on healthcare, and how people and organizations are colla

In this episode we are joined by Mike Ryan. He is a widely recognized startup guru and has decades of experience across roles ranging from envelope-stuffer to CEO. In this episode, we talk about the role of resilience, creativity, collaboration and drive in creating successful companies. Mike Ryan has served as Vice President, President and CEO within some of the largest health systems in the US including Ascension Health, HealthTrust and HCA. He is a board member of several organizations and a trusted advisor and mentor for dozens of individuals and companies focusing on delivering health solutions. In fact, he has served as a founder, advisor, investor, board member or CEO of 60 companies including TransCare, Salorix, Proteolix, Calithera Biosciences, HealthOnline and healthcare.com. He has built an incredible network of relationships and is one of the most connected people on Linkedin with about 22,000 connections. He’s also been on the receiving end of life-saving healthcare, and he can tell us how that e

In this episode I spoke with John Pugh. John is the Health and Life Science Team Leader for Accenture. He describes himself as 100% digital innovator and entirely committed to transforming the Life Science and healthcare industry. We talk about redefining the rules of healthcare, and what he and his colleagues are working on in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Analytics, Blockchain, Innovation and more. We dive into the program he’s heading called the HealthTech Innovation Challenge and how startups and corporations can participate and benefit. We also talk about some of the information and resources that Accenture has produced and made available to businesses and organizations of all sizes. John started his career in the music business and got involved in the tech scene when he joined a startup during the first tech boom. He's here to share his perspective on collaboration, innovation and how creativity can thrive in a constrained and regulated environment. He also shares some insights into the HealthT

If you’ve spent any time on the health innovation threads on Twitter, you will no doubt have seen the emoticon-filled tweets of Nick Adkins and the thousands of tweets made around the world with the hashtag #pinksocks. With thousands of tweets, retweets and posts about #pinksocks, it leads many people to ask "what is the real meaning of #pinksocks?" On this podcast, we find out the answer. Nick Adkins is a former suit wearing executive at Vanderbilt Health Plans and a serial entrepreneur in Nashville. After attending the famous Burning man gathering in Nevada, he traded in the suit and tie for a kilt and his famous #pinksocks. He now resides in Portland, Oregon, where he serves on advisory boards, mentors startups, and you can often find him traveling the world speaking about the importance of making personal connections. Join in the discussion as Nick talks about the transformation he's taken over the past 7 years, and the insights he provides on how to make healthcare, and life, meaningful and full of impac

In this episode, we talk about the internet. You know it’s being used to enable great things, but with so much information available at our fingertips, the internet can also be a very confusing place when it comes to finding trusted and reliable health related information. Simple searches produce millions of results, and just 10 make it to the first page. How do consumers find health-related information, and how do we as professionals in the health field help reach those consumers in an effective and clear way? The answers may surprise you. Today's guest has answers to these questions and the results of a nationwide survey that was done in the US in June of this year. With me is Jen Lannon, also known on Twitter as HealthTechJen, and she’s the director of brand development for DotHealth, the domain registry for the .Health top-level-domain. Jen and I share more than just a similar twitter handle, Jen is very passionate about entrepreneurship, innovation in healthcare, and diversity in tech. She is also the co

Alright, our guest today is Richard Corbridge, he is both the Chief Information Officer for the Health Service Executive in Ireland and he’s the CEO of eHealth Ireland. Richard has a wealth of experience in the Health and Clinical Research sector leading business change, benefits management and Information security projects. He originally planned to be a school teacher, but after a role as a quality analyst with Perot Systems, he went on to specialize in IT development, procurement and implementation across national and local health care arenas in the UK. Over the last 15 years, Richard has delivered a wide range of technology in health systems and he’s had some great success, and he also has success with perhaps the most complex systems in healthcare: the people. Richard and I spoke about what can be learned from the UK’s National Program for IT, a program that is largely criticized as a £12billion pound failure but that did provide some key infrastructure and systems to modernize the UK’s health system. We

As we release this episode we are days away from the end of the first half of 2017. 2018 is right around the corner, which means that the coming months will see companies firming up their plans and goals for the next calendar year. New products, sales teams, R&D projects, acquisitions, are all part of the strategies to succeed and grow – and no matter what your business is, there’s always one common need across all organizations – and that is the need for great people. Today we cover some of the changes and opportunities for growing businesses and finding talent in the digital health sector. Paul Budd is a co-founder of Salus Digital. He trained as an engineer before moving into the executive recruiting business where he specialized in med tech sales and marketing roles. At Salus Digital, he’s focused on engaging talented professionals in the digital health sector through their media platform while also providing companies the opportunity to stand out in the increasingly crowded digital health space. He’s see

Today we’re going to talk about aging. It’s a condition that everyone experiences and indeed, one thing is certain: when it comes to aging, our condition is terminal. Our guest today is challenging that and fighting aging head on. Today we’re speaking with Liz Parrish, the CEO of BioViva,a biotech company dedicated to advancing gene and cell therapies to treat the diseases of aging. We’ll dive into her work and learn about the results of the treatment that she received to slow and maybe even reverse the effects of aging. Liz is a passionate advocate for patient access to these revolutionary treatments, and a couple years ago, Liz decided to take her own medicine - literally. In September 2015, Liz underwent genetic therapy with the aim of slowing and even reversing the effects of aging. She believes that aging should be classified as a disease to open up entirely new and untapped pathways to extend human lives and allow us to be healthier, longer. Gene therapy to treat aging as a disease. Is this something th

There are about 300,000 mobile health apps on the market, about double what there was a few years ago. With these apps being downloaded more than 3 billion times per year, one would hope that there would be a corresponding trend in continued and sustained use; that at the very least the data would be used to provide better insights into research and clinical encounters. Unfortunately, that isn’t often the case, and most of the apps (even the ones that are compliant and interoperable) they often aren’t integrated with any sort of analytics platform. So, the data that they produce exist in a vacuum. en years after the launch of the iPhone, mobile health apps really aren’t fulfilling their potential. There needs to be an ecosystem that allows rapid development of compliant and interoperable apps, and that includes better, and easier to use analytics. Over the past few years we’ve seen innovations like Apple’s Care Kit and Research Kit, and Research Stack for Android, but even with these tools there are still hun