Faces of Digital Health

While discussions about the end of life are not easy, the pandemic opened up space for us to talk more openly about dying and the best possible care in the last days of our lives.This is the third discussion about AgeTech:In the first episode of this series, you can listen to what can we learn about the aging society from Japan.In the second episode, you can hear how an Austrian startup is matching caregivers and the elderly based on their personality profiles.The 4th episode, focuses on advanced care planning.This episode puts the light on innovation in the field of geriatric care. Martina Viduka, a registered nurse by background is Co-Founder of Advosense. Advosense is a Berlin-based startup with the mission to empower clinicians to know when, where, and how best to respond to their patients’ needs. So far, the company developed disposable briefs with smart inlay technology that monitors the patient’s dryness. This makes caring for patients with incontinence a lot more effective and respectful. In this discussion Martina talks about:  Innovation in geriatric care, The future of public perception of aging, Her experience of working as a nurse during the COVID pandemic.  Episode SummaryEnjoy the discussion and to learn more, go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com.

As a part of the currently running series about AgeTech, today’s episode is focused on elderly care and how to best match caregivers and the elderly. You are going to hear from an Austrian entrepreneur, Anja Silbauer. According to OECD, health care coverage is near-universal, and accessibility of services is generally good. Austria is among the countries with the lowest self-reported unmet medical needs in the EU. While life expectancy has increased in recent years, behavioral risk factors remain a major driver of morbidity and mortality in Austria. Smoking among adults has not declined over the past two decades and is now more prevalent than in most other EU countries. Progress with restricting smoking in public places has been slow, and a smoking ban in establishments that provide hospitality was delayed again to late 2019. Although alcohol consumption has decreased since 2000, it remains above the EU average.• In this episode you will hear from Anja Silbaur - co-founder and CEO of Harmony & Care - an Austrian startup that designed a matching platform for caregivers of the elderly. It resembles dating providers: caregivers and the elderly need to fill out a thorough questionnaire. This serves as a basis for finding the most suitable matches. In the past Harmony and Care (https://www.harmonyandcare.com/) worked with Caregivers agencies in Austria. In 2019 they also launched their own https://careplus24.com/ Care+ platform that enables the elderly or their loved ones to find a full-time caregiver that lives with the elderly person at their home. In this way, the elderly can delay or avoid a stressful move to a nursing home facility and stay at home longer. In this discussion with Anja, you will hear some thoughts about the demands of the aging population, the needs of the elderly, and how society can best approach care in our final years of life. This episode is a part of a longer series about AgeTech and peaceful aging. Tune in to other shows as well, and subscribe to be notified about new ones automatically.  Go to: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com Leave a rating or a review: www.lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth

This is the first episode about AgeTech and rethinking the last years of our lives. Over 2.3 million people died due to COVID by February 2021. These were mostly older people. Many of them died alone in the hospital, without the option to say goodbye to their families. Without even someone from the medical staff at their bedside. COVID opened up space for us to start reconsidering on a broader level how we wish to die, lead quality last years of life, and fear death less. This episode looks at a few innovations in Japan. Japan is the nation with the largest elderly population in the world. Over 28% of people in Japan are older than 65. The episode explores: Why do the Japanese live so long? What effect does a longer lifespan have on individuals and caregiving? How can healthy life be encouraged already at younger ages? We will take a closer look into a solution addressing visual impairment and a solution for Aspiration Pneumonia, which is a common issue with the elderly. It refers to food going into the lungs causing an infection that can lead to death from pneumonia. Speakers: Adrian Sossna, VP of global sales at HacarusKenji Suzuki, CEO of Plimes Mr. Yasuro Koizumi, CEO of Finc Technologies  Kazuo Kaneko, CEO of Digital AttendantEpisode SummaryMore at: www.facesofdigitalhealth.comLeave a rating or a review

Hacarus is a Japanese company developing AI Solutions for Manufacturing and Medical Industries. Their Salus platform for medical and life sciences uses Medical imaging data such as CT & MRI scans, time-series data, such as ECG data, and medical record to create precise, complex tools, that aid caregivers and researchers to provide better, faster and safer treatment, based on data-driven insights.In this episode, Adrian Sossna, who is originally from Sweden but has been living in Japan for several years now, shared his insights into life in Japan, the tech ecosystem, and the challenges in developing AI for healthcare and medicine.Episode SummaryLeave a rating or a reviewBrowse through other episodes

Dr. Padmini (Mini) Murthy - Professor and Global Health Director at New York Medical College School of Health Sciences and Practice.Dr. Murthy is a physician and an activist who trained in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She has practiced medicine and public health for the past 28 years in various countries. She worked as a consultant for United Nations Population Fund, she is the Secretary-General of the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) and its NGO representative to the United Nations (UN). She is the global health lead for the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA). In 2020 she published a book titled Technology and Global Public Health, which is a great read if you wish to get a perspective about health and technology, women, and technology in countries like Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Japan, Georgia, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh and more.This episode explores the book’s content, the emphasis on women’s health and the impact of COVID on women’s health, the power of mHealth for public health, especially in developing countries, using apps for gender empowerment. Technology and Global Public Health  - https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030463540Faces of digital health website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com Leave a rating or review: https://lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth 

Diversity is an increasingly debated topic in startup investments, since founders of under-represented backgrounds may it be gender, race, age, and more too often experience inequality in opportunities. US VC funding for female-founded or co-founded companies has been trending up in recent years. However, last year women were impacted by the pandemic also on the funding level. According to Pitchbook, during the first quarter of 2020, 4.3% of VC deals went to companies founded by women, compared to 7.1% during the first quarter of 2019. Crista Galli Ventures Fund is especially attentive to giving an opportunity to founder with under-represented backgrounds. The fund was founded by Dr Fiona Pathiraja who is a radiologist by training. She left medical practice to become a management consultant. After doing that for a year, she became a clinical advisor position at the British Department of Health. After realizing that change comes to healthcare because of technological advancements slowly entering the sector, she got an MBA and became an investor.  Crista Galli Ventures Fund: https://www.cristagalli.com/ Visit www.facesofdigitalhealth.com for other episodes and recaps as well 

Music can change our mood, energize ur, make us feel invincible.It goes beyond that: it can heal. MedRythms is a digital therapeutics company building direct stimulation solutions that use clinical-grade sensors, AI-driven software and music to help restore function lost to neurologic disease or injury. Last year, the company received a Breakthrough Device designation from the FDA for its patented digital therapeutic that treats chronic stroke walking deficits. They are also doing Randomized Control Trials in multiple indications, including stroke, MS, Cerebral Palsy, and Parkinson’s Disease. In this interview, Brian Harris, the CEO of MedRhythms talks about the current findings regarding the power of music as a therapeutic intervention.  

Medication management is a complicated, expensive, and complex healthcare problem. Because taking medications is only a small part of patient’s lives, taking them correctly can be complicated and burdensome. Patients might not take medications because that gives them the sense of having their lives under control and not dictated by medicine. They will get fatigued by pill reminders because getting constantly told that you have a condition, can get emotionally draining. This causes non-adherence and can lead to complications. But some companies are proving that the mission to help patients is not an impossible task.  Jennifer Butler - Chief Marketing Officer at Medisafe,  the world’s leading consumer medication management platform, approaching 7 million users in almost 200 countries, says patients want transparency about their treatments. It’s been clear for years that for medication management solutions to work, they need to go beyond pill reminders. Visit the website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com  Medisafe: https://www.medisafe.com/ Leave a rating or a review: https://lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth

Dr. Dimitri Varsamis is Senior Policy Lead for digital primary care at NHS England. End of 2020 he published a report titled Incentives and levers for digitizing and integrating primary care in New Zealand, Australia, and the USA - lessons for the UK’s NHS. Dr. Varsamis researched primary care digitalisation prior to the global coronavirus pandemic. In Australia, people are not required to register with a GP or a practice. Consequently, they see multiple GP which impacts the continuity/integrity of their medical record. Compared to the USA, the public healthcare systems of Australia, New Zealand and the UK lack the expertise in change management and purchasing support. These are just two findings by Senior Policy Lead for digital primary care at NHS England Dr. Dimitri Varsamis about primary care digitalisation in the mentioned countries. See the full report Incentives and levers for digitising and integrating primary care in New Zealand, Australia and the USA (Dimitri Varsamis) - https://www.wcmt.org.uk/sites/default/files/report-documents/Varsamis%20D%202019%20Final.pdf More about the show: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com 

2021 is finally here, and as with any new year, we wish this one to be better than the previous one. 2020 sure changed the perspective of what that actually means. I am your host Tjaša Zajc and for the first episode of this year, I wanted to prepare an easy-going introduction to the year. You will hear a discussion with John Nosta. John is consistently ranked among the top names in digital health. He is an advisor to many digital health companies and the founder of the NOSTALAB—a digital health think tank. I invited him to the show for a relaxed but deep discussion about where we are at the moment in digital health and healthcare broadly and what we can be optimistic about in the upcoming year. Enjoy the show and to learn more go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com. To be notified about new episodes automatically, subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. May 2021 be your year. Now to the discussion with John. Enjoy the discussion. Let’s dive in. Recap of the episode: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f114-my-hope-is-we-will-mispronounce-covid-in-ten-years-john-nosta John’s podcast TQ: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tq-technology-quotient/id1525894087 Leave a rating or a review: www.lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth