AEE7: 9 Experts From Across the Industry Weigh In on Digital Medicine Solutions From the NODE.Health Digital Medicine Conference

If I was going to sum up the summaries, I might put it this way, liberally co-opting the words and sentiments of my articulate guests: The intent here is to help doctors care for patients, patients care for themselves, and all of us care for each other (thanks for that concise statement, Jim Barr). If we want to do this well, we want to and need to standardize the way that digital medicine suppliers express their value so that providers and other purchasers can make informed choices not derailed by who has better marketing. And health systems and other large stakeholders are starting to come around to the inevitability of digital medicine and also the need for evidence to separate the winners from the not-so-greats in a field of literally thousands of health tech options.

You can learn more at nodehealth.org or by emailing info@nodehealth.org.

Megan Coder, PharmD, MBA, is executive director of the Digital Therapeutics Alliance (DTA), whose mission is to broaden the understanding, adoption, and integration of clinically validated digital therapeutic solutions into mainstream health care through education, advocacy, and research. With more than a decade of experience in the health care industry, Megan’s expertise extends from strategic growth and partnership development within the digital health sector to the direct delivery of patient care. 

James E. Barr, MD, is vice president of clinical intelligence at Atlantic Health System and medical director for the Optimus Healthcare Partners and Atlantic Health System Accountable Care Organizations. He is a board-certified family physician with an active clinical practice. He is an assistant clinical professor at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and has worked with Aveta Health Solutions (North American Medical Management) as vice president of medical services. 

Katie D. McMillan, MPH, has dedicated her career to imagining and building technology to improve health care for patients and providers. Her experience spans multinational global health organizations, lean software start-up companies, and large academic medical centers. Katie’s latest venture is the creation of the Mobile App Gateway (MAG) at Duke University Health System. The MAG serves as the hub for digital health at Duke and provides product consulting services to clinicians and researchers, monthly events and workshops, and content exploring the many facets of the health tech industry. 

Naomi Fried, PhD, is an innovative and digital health thought leader and founder and CEO of the boutique advisory firm, Health Innovation Strategies, which focuses on innovation program design and digital health strategy. Naomi was the first vice president of innovation and external partnerships at Biogen, the first chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital, and vice president of innovation and advanced technology at Kaiser Permanente. She served on the board of directors of the American Telemedicine Association and the Governor of Massachusetts’ Innovation Council. 

Louis Morrow is regional director of sales for Intelligent Retinal Imaging Systems (IRIS), the leading comprehensive solution provider of diagnostic telemedicine services committed to ending preventable blindness due to diabetic eye disease. Louis was one of the earliest builders at IRIS and has played a major role in saving the eyesight of over 55,000 patients (so far) through the partnerships built with major health systems and integrated delivery networks across the country. He’s an award-winning consultative sales team leader with more than 20 years of successful experience in the eye care space and has held senior sales leadership positions across multiple companies. 

Adnan Iqbal is the cofounder and CEO of Luma Health, a digital health company solving the biggest challenge in health care: getting patients in front of the right provider and to the best health care outcome quickly. Adnan previously held leadership roles at Genentech across research and development, finance, operations, and market analysis and strategy. Prior to Genentech, Adnan cofounded a medical device start-up working to develop an inexpensive diagnostic test for tuberculosis and several other infectious diseases. 

Roylyn Fernandez, RN, has more than 15 years of combined experience in clinical and informatics roles integrating technologies such as electronic health records (EHRs), virtual desktop infrastructure (VDIs), and mobile applications into system processes. Her passion for nursing and health care enable her to leverage her clinical, operational, and informatics knowledge to design and execute technology adoption strategies that support organizational goals related to quality, patient safety, and revenue capture initiatives. In 2016, Roylyn joined DeLappe Consulting after leading enterprise-wide technology implementation and optimization projects for Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health, and Cottage Health Systems. 

Jay Fischer, MBA, as an executive, management consultant, and entrepreneur, has earned a reputation for achieving business growth in challenging consumer and business markets in diverse industries. He has broad-based experience in marketing, business and channel development, sales, customer management, and operations. He has created strong brands from start-up through revitalization stages, developed and sold innovative solutions for diverse customer groups/distribution channels, and built team commitment for sustainable growth in organizations. Jay is a visionary and strategic thinker who has demonstrated a consistent record of translating plans into results in the face of difficult market, financial, and organization conditions. 

Jitendra Barmecha, MD, MPH, is chief information officer and senior vice president of information technology, health care data and analytics, and clinical engineering at SBH Health System in the Bronx, NY. He serves on the health care advisory panel for Salesforce, Health Connect Partners, and the American College of Physicians (physician payment reform). He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, senior fellow of hospital medicine, and fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine. While continuing his passion for bedside patient care as a hospitalist, he enjoys teaching clinical staff and routinely provides lectures on health care management, technology innovation, and policy. 

02:50 Megan explains the Digital Therapeutics Alliance. 03:04 What actually is a digital therapeutic and how do you define it? 03:58 “The goal really is to make sure that there’s cohesion across this industry.”—Megan 04:32 “It’s okay to be targeted.”—Megan 05:42 “We need to find what doctors need and what patients need through data.”—Jim 05:54 What the conference confirmed for Jim. 06:14 Utilizing the abundance of health care data. 07:18 Helping physicians care better for their patients. 08:02 Helping patients care better for themselves. 09:40 How companies are looking to gather enough data. 12:45 The small stuff vs tackling the “medium stuff.” 13:08 “Are we making the same mistakes that the EHRs made?”—Adnan 14:10 “The concept of a PCP [primary care provider] is really dying.”—Adnan 15:47 "The script is being written as we talk."—Jay

You can learn more at nodehealth.org or by emailing info@nodehealth.org.