

Faces of Digital Health
Tjasa Zajc
Faces of Digital Health is a podcast about digital health, exploring how different healthcare systems adopt technologies in healthcare. Its aim is to satisfy curiosity about different cultures, identify barriers to success in different countries and finding answers and advice for accelerating the success of digital health entrepreneurs.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Nov 26, 2021 • 57min
Australian Healthcare, Co-design and AI (Marie Johnson)
Marie is the CEO of the Centre for Digital Business. She is a writer, commentator and international speaker on artificial intelligence, digital transformation, cyber, technology, ethics and the human experience. Marie’s expertise is the human interface in complex servicing systems. She is the co-creator of Nadia, the first AI digital human for service delivery and the creator of the AI digital human cardiac coach. She has a rish career behind her - she led the collaborative development of Microsoft’s global e-government strategy, led business authentication, business digital identity and professional digital credential initiatives, was Chief Technology Architect (CTA) of the Australian Government Health and Human Services Access Card program. In this episode, Marie talks about healthcare in Australia, how can we make AI solutions such as coaches more human and her thoughts regarding the future development of AI for healthcare.More episodes: www.facesofdigitalhealth.comLeave a rating or a review: lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth

Nov 18, 2021 • 31min
Nordics Series 4/4: Europe Can Learn About Collaboration (Anna Adelöf Kragh)
This is the last episode in a short series about healthcare digitalization in the Nordics. The discussion resolves around healthcare in the Nordics more broadly, data standards and interoperability across Europe, a successful pilot project from the 2000’s called epSOS, in which 12 EU Member states worked on cross-border healthcare interoperability, and what that project tells us about ambitions in Europe to achieve the European Health Data Space by 2025. The speaker in the episode is Anna Adelöf Kragh, Partner at VENZO_Public and Healthcare - an innovative consultancy firm specializing in human-centric digital transformation. Anna has more than 10 years experience working with governance, strategy and project management within the public and healthcare sector. For example she worked on various projects related to healthcare interoperability and digitalization for the European Commission, Nordic Ministerial Coucil in the project for Nordic e-health cooperation group. www.facesofdigitalhealth.com Nordics series: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/digital-health-in-the-nordics Leave a rating or a review: lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth

Nov 12, 2021 • 57min
Nordics Series 3/4: Finland and Secondary use of Data
Finland has well-established regulations and processes for the use of data for secondary purposes. This is overseen by the Social and Health Data Permit Authority Findata, which facilitates data permit processing and improves data protection for individuals.The secondary use of health data refers to using health data, such as patient records, for purposes other than the primary reason for which they were originally collected. This can include research, decision-making, and innovation. European Commission has made the creation of a European Health Data Space (open in new window) as a priority for 2019-2025. The proposal stems from the GDPR. There are currently no common practices for the secondary use of health data in Europe. This episode is a recording of a panel discussion that took place during the eHealth Days, organized as part of the Slovenian presidency to the Council of EU, end of August.Speakers:
- Minna Hendolin, Leading Specialist – HealthData at the Finish innovation fund SITRA, Finland
Jukka Lähesmaa, Senior Specialist, The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland
Angel Martin (Brussels), chair of MedTech Europe’s Digital Health Committee and AI and Data WG
Dipak Kalra (UK), President of The European Institute for Innovation through Health Data
See the full series: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/digital-health-in-the-nordics

Nov 5, 2021 • 44min
Nordics Series 2/4: Norway, long and healthy life and data (Nard Schreurs)
This is the second episode about digital health in the Nordics. In the previous episode, you could listen about Denmark, how elderly care is managed there and how EHRs have been in place for years so clinicians and patients can access data digitally. In this episode, Nard Schreurs, a journalist by background who’s been working with e-health since 2007, and has both started and built up Healthworld and the EHiN conference, talks about why do Norwegians have not only high life expectancy but more importantly a high number of healthy years, what are people satisfied and dissatisfied about the healthcare system, and more. The Nordics series: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/digital-health-in-the-nordicseHin conference: https://ehin.no/en/

Oct 29, 2021 • 48min
Nordics Series 1/4: Denmark, Elderly Care and 34 Years of Access to Doctor Notes (Erik Jylling)
This is the first out of four episodes about digital health and healthcare in the Nordics. In the next few weeks, you will hear about Denmark, Norway, Finland, and a broader regional overview. Not all countries but there have already been speakers on the show who also talked about Sweden, so I will link those in the show notes as well. The first speaker you will hear from is Erik Jylling, the executive vice president of Danish Regions. In his professional career, Erik has been deeply involved in planning, organizing, and leading the Danish healthcare system with the view from different professional perspectives and positions, practical and political. He earned an M.D. with 25 years of practical experience in anesthesiology and intensive care medicine. He has worked as a consultant, head of the department, and in superior leading positions on hospital and organization levels. In this episode, we discussed the specifics of management in healthcare, how does one achieve organizational chance in a hospital setting, but also healthcare in Denmark: the admirably organized elderly care, the fact that patients have access to doctor’s notes since 1987, yes, 1987, so 34 years. The Nordics Series will be available at: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/digital-health-in-the-nordics Sweden: F068 The power of patients 3/4: How can patients influence policy? (Bettina Ryll) https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f065-f068-the-power-of-patients-4-episodes-series?rq=BettinaLeave a rating or review: www.lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth

Oct 24, 2021 • 24min
Between Malta and UK: A Radiologists's View (Ryan Grech)
A few years ago Stefan Buttigieg, a digital health evangelist from Malta said that Malta is a great testbed for digital health startups interested in entering Europe (https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/2019/01/03/f027-can-malta-be-a-gateway-to-the-european-market?rq=Malta).In this episode, we’ll re-visit the island in a discussion with Ryan Grench - Radiology Registrar from Malta who works in the UK. Ryan talked about the benefits of running a digital health startup in Malta, made a few comparisons between healthcare in the UK and Malta, and also shared his views on telemedicine and digital health. Ryan is among other things an advisor to the MedTech World Conference, which we’ll take place between 17-20 November. To visit the conference, listen to the end of the discussion where Ryan shared how you can get a nice discount on your ticket. Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.comLeave a rating or review: lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealthMedTech World Conference: https://med-tech.world/ Discount code: DigitalHealth50ST50

Oct 15, 2021 • 1h 19min
Israel: How are the Government, Hospitals and HMOs working together?
End of August Days of eHealth were organised as part of the Slovenian Presidency to the Council of EU. In four days a lot of insight was offered about healthcare digitalization in Catalonia, Germany, Portugal, Slovenia, Israel and Finland. In the previous episodes, I published the panel discussions about Germany and Catalonia. This is the panel about Israel. Israel has had electronic healthcare records for two decades, in 2018. A country of 9 million people, attributes 7,5% of its GDP to healthcare and is home to roughly 1,500 companies operating in the healthcare and life sciences. In the panel discussion you will learn about the national digital health strategy in Israel, how to Health Maintainance Organisations, Government, and Hospitals collaborating to advance healthcare. You will also learn a little bit more about Slovenia with two representatives of the Slovenian healthcare ecosystem. The speakers:
Esti Shelly, Director, Digital Health at Ministry of Health Israel
Michael Halberthal, General Director of Rambam Health Care Campus
Noa Kedem, Deputy Director, Digital health unit (Medical Informatics) at Maccabi Health Services
Jurij Šorli, CEO of the Hospital Topolšica (Slovenia)
Bogdan Tušar, Acting Director General, Directorate for the Development of the Health System, Ministry of Health, Slovenia
Recap of roundtables at Days of eHealth: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/days-of-ehealth-healthcare-digitalization-in-catalonia-germany-finland-and-israelWebsite: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com. The European Patient Forum’s Congress happening during 26-29 October: https://epfcongress.eu/

Oct 7, 2021 • 27min
Why Are Adolescents and Young Adults Special Patients? (Ivett Jakab)
From the 26th and 29th of October, I will be co-hosting the EPF Congress 2021, brought to you by the European Patients’ Forum. This year’s topic is the digital transformation of healthcare. Speakers from across Europe and organisations such as WHO, German Federal Ministry of Health, European Medicine’s Agency, EIT Health, BMJ and more are going to discuss the state of digitalization in Europe, with a heavy focus on the patient perspective.The event will be moderated by me and Ivett Jakab, who is the president of the European Patients’ Forum’s Youth group. In this short special episode, you will get to know Ivett, who was diagnosed with a rare disease called Wilson’s disease at the age of 16 and underwent a liver transplant as a consequence.In this episode, Ivett shared her story, the meaning and power of the EPF Youth group and why patients between 15 and 29 are such an underserved group, what are the specifics of this age group and more. If you’re working in pharma or digital health and would like to work with the EPF Youth Group, learn more about EPF by visiting www.eu-patient.eu.To learn more about the EPF YG: https://www.eu-patient.eu/about-epf/about-us/Youth-Strategy/Young patient employment project (WAYS) results: https://www.eu-patient.eu/about-epf/about-us/Youth-Strategy/ways/Contact the EPF YG via youthgroup@eu-patient.eu Registration and Programme details for the EPF Congress 2021 at www.epfcongress.euFollow the Congress on Twitter by following #EPFCongress2021

Oct 1, 2021 • 48min
Gemany: Hospital Digitalization Initiatives
Slovenia is currently presiding the council of EU until 2022. In the first week of September, the members of the Slovenian health tech ecosystem organized a conference about examples of good practices in healthcare digitalization across Europe. In one of the previous episodes, you were able to listen to the panel discussion on the healthcare strategy in Catalonia. Today’s episode is an adapted recording of the panel about Germany, and the upcoming two episodes will be the adapted discussions about healthcare digitalization in Israel and Finland. In the past two years, a lot of efforts have been put in place to accelerate the progress on the digitalization of the healthcare digital infrastructure in Germany. Many laws were passed, the country received a lot of international attention about the DIGA process, which enables startups to make their apps reimbursable. The bigger national projects which saw the day of life this year, however, were the introduction of electronic patient records, telemedicine, and e-prescriptions. On the funding side, the federal ministry of health and the federal states are investing EUR 4,3 billion for concrete projects that work towards the digitalization of hospitals. In this discussion, we’re going to scratch the surface of the design of the national strategy and digital health infrastructure in Germany. and look at the practical example of the Medical informatics Initiative. Medical Informatics Initiative is a separate project to improve medical research and patient care. You will hear more from five speakers. The panel discussion was moderated by Maja Dragović, a former journalist for digitalhealth.net, now a Business Developer at Better. She will also present the speakers. Speakers:
Dr. Michael Marschollek - professor for Medical Informatics at Hannover Medical School (Germany) and executive director of the Peter L. Reichertz Institute for Medical Informatics of TU-Braunschweig and Hannover Medical School.
Johannes Starlinger, an MD, working as an Interdisciplinary Digital Health Consultant, Howto Health GmbH, Germany
Mark Langguth, eHealth Consultant, Former Senior Product Manager at Gematik
Fabien Prasser, Professor of Medical Informatics at the Berlin Institute of Health at the Charite University Hospital Berlin
We were also supposed to be joined by Anka Bolka, Head of Director of Field for Development and Analysis, Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia, but since she couldn’t make it, Tomaž Mračun, who manages the application development department at Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia (HIIS).
Recap of the Days of eHealth: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/days-of-ehealth-healthcare-digitalization-in-catalonia-germany-finland-and-israel Join the EPF Congress: https://epfcongress.eu/ Podcast Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com

Sep 23, 2021 • 23min
How Can We Increase Gender Diversity in the PE/VC space? (Yahel Halamish)
Nina Capital, is a specialized venture capital firm investing in early stage startups at the intersection of healthcare and technology. Level 20 is a not for profit organisation founded in 2015 by 12 women working in senior roles in private equity, aligned around a common vision of improving gender diversity in the industry. Nina Capital and Level 20 recently published a report that showed y. In aggregate, women represent 30% of the workforce. Only 17% of senior roles positions are held by women. I spoke with Yahel Halamish, Nina’s Head of Investor Relations and Diversity & Inclusion Officer and she shared her views of the results, why diversity matters and how can we encourage and improve it. Gender Diversity in the Priate Equity and Venture Capital in Spain Report: https://www.level20.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/ninacapital_Whitepaper-LEVEL20-NINACAPITAL_final_20210830.pdf Read an opinion piece about the report: https://medium.com/ninacapital/gender-diversity-in-private-equity-and-venture-capital-in-spain-c5d7c80a03d1 Join the European Patient Forum Congress: https://epfcongress.eu/