Faces of Digital Health

The pandemic has significantly increased the need for mental healthcare and destigmatized discussing well-being and mental health issues in everyday conversation. Unfortunately, the number of quality providers of mental health services is still much lower than the demand, and the number of people that are seeking help is rising. At HLTH or Health conference, which took place in November in Las Vegas, I spoke with representatives of 3 mental health-focused companies based in the US. TimelyMD is the ninth-fastest growing health services company in the US, according to Inc., and focuses on the mental health of students,, Iris Telehealth is a leading provider of telepsychiatry services for health systems and community health centers across the U.S. and Headspace Health -the largest digital mental health provider in the world - it is reaching 100 million people in 190 countries across the world. In this episode, we’ll dive into a discussion with Katie DiPerna Cook - SVP of Partnerships - Headspace Health. The company offers a broad range of services. If was established after a 2021 merger between Headspace - world-class meditation and mindfulness company, and Ginger - the on-demand mental health service provider in the US. In 2022, Headspace Health also acquired The Shine App, a mental health and well-being platform dedicated to providing an inclusive mental health experience for the black, indigenous, and other people of color. Katie talked about the state of mental health in 2022, how Headspace Health is evolving, and how to build resilience to cope with the broad uncertainty of the current political, economic and environmental stress. Partial transcript: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/katie-diperna-cook-headspace-health Subscribe to the newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/Leave a rating or review: lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth

If someone told you to get an eye exam, would you associate that with a virtual reality headset? It might be where ophthalmology diagnostics will end up in the near future. Compared to the existing diagnostics tools, a VR approach is much more portable and hence accessible. The Swiss company PeriVision is using AI and VR to enable more efficient workflows and deeper clinical insights to manage eye diseases better. I spoke with the co-founder and CEO of Perivision, Patrick Kessel. Prior to joining PeriVision, Patrick advised Medtech, biopharma, and insurance clients on business development, go-to-market strategy, digitization, and operations optimization at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). We discussed how VR and AI help in eye care, what the competition is in the field, and how did the company evolve. Perivison won EIT Health’s Wild Card program in 2021 and received 1.5 million euros for its further development. Patrick shared his reflection on the wild card program and which startups the program is most suitable for.   www.facesofdigitalhealth.com Subscribe to the monthly newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/ Leave a rating or review: lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth Browse the full EIT Health Germany-Switzerland series: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/eit-health-germany *****This episode is supported by EIT held in Germany, Switzerland, which is one of the eight knowledge and innovation communities currently funded by the European Institute of Innovation and technology. EIT Health Germany-Switzerland is currently serving 26 leading companies and public health care institutions in Germany and Switzerland, as well as renowned universities and research institutions, to realize EIT Health’s mission of a public-private partnership. To learn more, visit https://eit-health.de/, where you will find more about innovation, acceleration, and education programs. 

Last year, one of the key buzzwords in healthcare was virtual care; in 2020 it was probably telemedicine. In 2019 it was AI, in 2017 and 2018, it was blockchain in interoperability. There are many others of course, and many of these terms are still popular today. It seems, though, that the one term that got pushed most in the background, is blockchain. And that’s a good thing, says John Bass, Founder & CEO of Hashed Industries (dba Hashed Health), a healthcare-focused venture studio. John is an internationally recognized author and speaker on value-based care, blockchain, and decentralized healthcare technology. He is the co-author of the HIMSS-published book “Blockchain in Healthcare: Innovations that Empower Patients, Connect Professionals and Improve Care."This short discussion was recorded at HLTH 2022 conference in Las Vegas. John talks about: where is blockchain in 2022, what can we expect in the future, how it relate to web3, and what could NFT - nonfungible tokens do for healthcare.Transcript: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/blockchain-and-web3-in-healthcare-hashed-health www.facesofdigitalhealth.comSubscribe to the newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/ Leave a rating or review: lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth

The European Health Data Space is supposed to be implemented in a bit more than two years, by 2025. Two goals are at the forefront: to create the infrastructure for a European health data pool for researchers and innovators, and secondly, to enable patients to pick up their medications outside their home country and give doctors across Europe access to their patient information, if in need of medical care while abroad in Europe. On 18 November, EIT Health Germany-Switzerland and EIT Health Spain organized a joint symposium titled Right to privacy vs. duty to protect lives: Health Data Management in Focus. Speakers discussed patients’ perspectives on Health Data use and the EHDS, balancing health data privacy and AI development, ongoing approaches for data solutions, and more. I managed to speak with Nick Schneider, Head of division 511 on new technologies and data use at the Germany Federal Ministry of Health to discuss:  Where is EHDS at the moment Will it be implemented by 2025 What are still the biggest open questions And how Germany is advancing with its digital transformation.  Resources:EIT Health Statement on the European Health Data Space: https://eithealth.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/EIT-Health-Statement-on-the-EHDS-proposal_final-05052022.pdf Joint Symposium with EIT Health Spain - EIT Health Germany (eit-health.de): https://eit-health.de/en/joint-symposium-2022/eHealth Services across Europe: https://health.ec.europa.eu/ehealth-digital-health-and-care/electronic-cross-border-health-services_en This episode is supported by EIT Health Germany-Switzerland,  which is one of eight Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) currently funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). EiT Health Germany connects 150 renowned partners from industry, research and education from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Find out more: eit-health.dewww.facesofdigitalhealth.comMonthly newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/

Nurses play a key role in patient care, but their contribution to patient outcomes is often undervalued and underappreciated. It took a pandemic to create a major shift in their job opportunities and power to negotiate. Many nurses left the profession entirely, others switched to better-paid travel or agency jobs. The pandemic is settling down so the question debated in today’s episode, is what is the position the nurses are in today? You will hear from: Rebecca Love, Thought Leader on Nurse Innovation & Entrepreneurship, experienced nurse executive and entrepreneur, and Chief Clinical Officer of IntelyCare, Alice Benjamin, nurse, author, and health advocate is affectionately known as America's favorite nurse. Rebecca and Alice talked about the position of nurses, healthcare technologies that are not designed to make the work of nurses easier, recent criminal cases against nurses in the US, and what needs to change so that being a nurse will be an attractive job opportunity. Let’s dive in, and if you will enjoy the discussion, do leave a rating or a review wherever you get your podcast and subscribe to receive the next episode straight to your podcast inbox. Also, do check our newsletter! It’s published on a monthly basis. Now to Rebecca and Alice. Monthly newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/Leave a rating or a review: lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealthOfficial website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com

Between 13 and 16 November, HLTH, the largest digital health conference with over 9000 attendees, took place in Las Vegas. Over 400 speakers discussed the current trends and challenges in the industry. This short episode recaps some of the discussed topics - investment trends, holistic healthcare: food as medicine, digital therapeutics, mental health trends, telemedicine decline, patient experience as a determinant of care, health disparities and more.Speakers: Smriti Kirubanandan, Healthcare Strategist and Board Member of The World Food Bank,  Lyndsey (McKay) Harper, Ob/Gyn, Founder/CEO of Rosy  Aline Noziet, Digital Health Connector from Barcelona, Spain Hagai Heshes, Head of Product Marketing at TytoCare  Erica Olenski Johansen, Caregiver and Patient Advocate  Julien de Sallabery, CEO of Galen Growth Read the transcript in the newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/Leave a rating or a review: lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealthOfficial website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com*** Past episodes about DTx in Germany***How Can A Digital Health Solution Become a "DiGA App" in Germany? https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/eit-health-germany-procarement How did Germany accelerate the speed of the digitization of healthcare?https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f095-how-did-germany-managed-to-take-the-lead-in-healthcare-digitization-henrik-matthies-maike-henningsen-maren-lesche?rq=germany

Finn Partners and Galen growth Asia partnered for a global overview of the digital health investment landscape. More than 200M data points from more than 12,000 digital health ventures worldwide were taken into account when assessing the state of the industry.  In this short discussion, the CEO of Galen Growth Asia Julien de Salaberry, explained the key findings from the report, the state of digital health in China and expectations from next year.Investment trends globally:- In the first 9 months of 2022, venture funding across the globe declined by 35% YOY ($25 B compared to $39.23B over the same quarters in 2021)- 60% of the total volume comes from North America, the Middle East came in second in Q2, and Europe did NOT see a quarter-on-quarter decrease in venture funding seen in North America.- Top investment categories: oncology (though the funding shrinked by 30%) and mental healthPredictions for 2023: - Investors are moving from Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) to Fear of Looking Foolish (FOLF)- Ventures are finding that funding terms & conditions are far less favorable and valuationsare continuing to return to reality.*****MONTHLY Newsletter which recaps episodes in the past month: https://fodh.substack.com/www.facesofdigitalhealth.com

For new ideas and solutions to reach the market, startup founders need to find the right partners that are willing to listen to them and take their ideas one step further. Established in 2015, the Health Innovation Hub & Holding provides years of expert ​knowledge in innovation pathways, paving the way for better healthcare and a sustainable healthcare industry. The European organization better known under the name of Innovation in health has many programs in its portfolio.In this episode Hannes Toivanen, Lead, Global Digital Ecosystem Engagement at Takeda and Jesus Jeronimo Director of New Digital Services & Products at Sanitas + BUPA ELA.Jesus and Hannes talked about how pharma, insurance companies and healthcare providers work with startups, what makes a successful partnership, and why their organizations took part in the Innovation in health programs Start-ups Meet Pharma (Takeda) and start-ups Meet Healthcare Providers (Sanitas + BUPA ELA).More about Innovation in health: https://innovationinhealth.eu/MONTHLY Newsletter which recaps episodes in the past month: https://fodh.substack.com/www.facesofdigitalhealth.com**** This episode is supported by EIT Health Germany-Switzerland, which is one of eight Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) currently funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). EiT Health Germany connects 150 renowned partners from industry, research and education from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The unique network helps initiate outstanding innovations in the health sector. If you're a startup working in the field of digital health or biotech and don't know EiT Health Germany yet, I would encourage you to visit eit-health.de, where you will find more about innovation, acceleration, and education programs.

In the previous episode, you had a chance to listen to  Dr Phil Koczan, GP in North East London and the Chief Clinical Safety Officer for London, Dr Katherine Buxton, Consultant in Palliative Care Medicine for Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Clinical Director, Palliative and End of Life Care Strategic Clinical Network for London talk about the recently introduced digitized urgent care planning across London. OneLondon is a project that supports a vision of joined-up health and care. It is a pan-London collaboration between leaders from the 5 Integrated Care Systems in the capital.  London’s healthcare system is complex. It covers a population of 10 million people and is connecting 35 NHS Trusts and 1385 GP practices. In this episode, Gary McAllister, Chief Technology Officer of OneLondon explains how is London approaching the digital transformation of healthcare in London, how complex is the IT infrastructure at the moment, and how the core team of OneLondon works with vendors to try to connect different systems as efficiently as possible. More about OneLondon: https://www.onelondon.online/ More about Urgent Care Planning: https://ucp.onelondon.online/ MONTHLY Newsletter which recaps episodes in the past month: https://fodh.substack.com/ www.facesofdigitalhealth.com *****The topic of this episode is supported by Better - a provider of an open data digital health platform, electronic prescribing and medication administration solution, and low code tools that help you rapidly build applications that suit your needs. The company focuses on simplifying the work of health and care teams, advocates for data for life, and strives for all health data to be vendor-neutral and easily accessible. More about the company: better.care

Too often, patients need to repeat their medical history when in contact with different healthcare providers. Consequently, clinicians need more time to make decisions than necessary because they can’t access patient data. London managed to digitize urgent care plans and make them available across 40 NHS Trusts and 1400 GP offices. This episode presents the Urgent Care Plan Programme, aiming at giving clinicians easy access to patients’ desires about their care, as defined in their care plan. Patients can fill out an urgent care plan at various points in their patient journey. The problem so far has been that accessing these plans by different providers was often difficult. Now the situation is improved with an introduction of a regional platform that stores urgent care plans and enables different care teams to access them when needed. Urgent Care Plan Programme is a part of OneLondon Portfolio. OneLondon is a project that supports a vision of joined-up health and care. It is a pan-London collaboration between leaders from the 5 Integrated Care Systems in the capital.  London’s healthcare system is complex. It covers a population of 10 million people and is connecting 35 NHS Trusts and 1385 GP practices. As part of the OneLondon portfolio, the Urgent Care Plan Programme led the design and implementation of a new digital care planning solution in 2021. This solution enables Londoners to have their care, and support wishes digitally shared with healthcare professionals across the capital. By connecting all care levels, clinicians can now easily access urgent care plans to guide them in the care they provide to patients based on patient's individual preferences. This episode presents what urgent care plans are, why they matter, and more as explained by Dr Phil Koczan, GP in North East London, and the Chief Clinical Safety Officer for London, Dr Katherine Buxton, Consultant in Palliative Care Medicine for Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Clinical Director, Palliative and End of Life Care Strategic Clinical Network for London. They explained what the joint urgent care plan means for patients and healthcare providers in London. More about OneLondon: https://www.onelondon.online/More about Urgent Care Planning: https://ucp.onelondon.online/MONTHLY Newsletter which recaps episodes in the past month: https://fodh.substack.com/www.facesofdigitalhealth.comThe topic of this episode is supported by Better - a provider of an open data digital health platform, electronic prescribing and medication administration solution, and low code tools that help you rapidly build applications that suit your needs. The company focuses on simplifying the work of health and care teams, advocates for data for life, and strives for all health data to be vendor-neutral and easily accessible. More about the company: better.care