Faces of Digital Health

This episode is a collection of thoughts giving you a glimpse into the global digital health market. Leave a rating or a review: https://lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth Speakers: Dr. Daniel Kraft, one of the top opinion leaders in digital health, nicely summarized the current state of digital health in Episode 81.  Julien de Salaberry, the CEO of Galen Growth Asia emphasized in Episode 41 that is important to keep in mind when thinking about expanding in this area of the world.Guillem Serra, the CEO of the Spanish based company Mediquo, guest in Episode 84, says that in internationalization and looking at new potential markets, language is the most important factor to consider.  Different countries differ in their culture and how technologies are used. I’d say that different parts of the world “run” on different platforms. In China, society runs on WeChat. In India, the key communication platform in Whatsapp. Abhishek Shah, CEO of Wellthy digital therapeutics company from India, who was the guest of Episode 78, explained how the use of Whatsapp in India differs from the West. It is gaining a similar significance as WeChat has in China. This is why Wellthy conducted some of their clinical studies through Whatsapp. Have you ever wondered, what is the digital health scene like in Africa? You know, the continent that many people around the world talk about as a country, but actually consists of 54 countries? Among the speakers on the show coming from Africa, was the founder of Mobile Afya - Mariatheresa Samson Kadushi. She is a Tanzanian innovator passionate about disrupting the public health sector, which is in Africa marked by traditional beliefs. In Episode 056 she among other things explained how in Africa, worries about privacy in the digital age are not worries about how are global corporations are exploiting our data. Moving from Asia to Africa, European healthcare systems are often praised for universal access to care. However, as mentioned by the patient advocate Bettina Ryll in Episode 68, in Europe where you live significantly impacts your access to healthcare. Especially in rare diseases chances of survival of a patient can depend on where the patient resides and are there any clinical trials near her. People move, to get a chance at survival. This very much reminds me of the often-mentioned fact by US experts, that the ZIP code the biggest determinant of health is. From a business perspective, Europe is a complicated market. You need to tackle language barriers, the diversity of healthcare systems and policies. Kaia Health is a digital therapeutics startup that was founded in Germany and is now operating in the US market as well. In Episode 77 Mark Liber, the VP of business development at Kaia Health, talked about the differences they are noticing between the German and the US.  While we mostly perceive the future of healthcare digitization as a one-way progression street, Luis Santigo, the CEO of a Venezuelan healthcare IT company PEGASI explained how progress can get crushed when the economic situation of a country changes. In the last few years, in Venezuela, many hospitals had to switch from IT back to paper, because IT companies went bankrupt and ceased existing.

This is the 4th part of a short series about healthcare and digital health in South America. After presenting Brazil, Colombian and Argentina, Luis Santiago talks about Venezuela and Chile.

This is the third episode of the short series about digital health in South America. In the previous episodes you could listen to Adrian Turjanski from an Argentinian genomics company there called Bitgenia, another speaker came from Colombia - Javier Cardona, CEO of 1Doc3 talked about how to bring affordable access to healthcare to people in seconds, without the need for an appointment. See the recap of the shows here: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/digitalheath-south-america This episode will take you to Brazil to hear from the CEO of OTAWA Health - a 13 years old startup officially founded last year, by an IT team at CCC (Centro de Combate ao Câncer), one of the most respected oncology clinics in Brazil. The biggest differentiator of Brazil compared to other countries in South America is language. The official language is Portuguese. The country with over 200 million people has had universal healthcare access since the eighties. That sounds great, but as explained by Paulo Fernando Buarque de Gusmão the problem is that the system lacks investments and therefore a lot of people still opt for private healthcare. The healthcare system is not immune to political pressure - Brazil has prioritized the training of family doctors over specialists. In 2013 a great initiative was designed called More Doctors, with its aim to hire physicians to work in underserved and remote areas. With many Brazilian doctors unwilling to relocate, thousands of Cuban doctors were hired instead. However, in November 2018, Cuba announced their withdrawal after a row over their status with the incoming president Jair Bolsonaro. Leaving politics aside in the discussion with Paulo, you will listen about how an oncology EHR looks like when it’s in development for over a decade in close collaboration with oncology specialists and why that has good potential to scale. OTAWA Health’s mission is to bring the oncology health record to underserved areas of the world, especially other parts of South America and Africa as universal healthcare cannot be universal while the huge gap between health technology assessment in use by high-income and low-income areas remains.

When Googling the Colombian healthcare system, there’s mostly praise about how good it is! The World Health Organization ranked Colombia’s healthcare system as number 22 in a review of 191 countries. Javier Cardona is the CEO of 1DOC3 - a Colombian company that offers affordable telemedical consultations in seconds; no appointment is needed.  In this episode, Javier talked about the Columbian healthcare system structure, which ranks high according to WHO ranking. He also explained the needs and specifics of telemedicine in Latin America.  This is the second part of a short series about digital health in South America.  Find out more at: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/e0d0c43vvl3kfalkfzu3uribb3d6bp  1Doc3: https://www.1doc3.com/

After a special series about digital health in Asia and Africa covered in 2019, the upcoming four episodes will present speakers from South America. A shoutout goes to Unity Stoakes and Jennifer Hankin from Startup Health, which connected me to the speakers in the upcoming episodes. All the companies are StartupHealth Transformers.  In this discussion, you will hear Adrian Turjanski, Chief Science Officer at Bitgenia - an Argentinian startup bringing genomics closer to society, explains the current state of genomics research in South America; he talked about the difference between the whole genome and exosome sequencing, and the use of AI in genetic sequencing.  In the upcoming episodes, you will hear from  Luis Santiago - CEO of the Venezuelan healthcare IT company PEGASI,  Javier Cardona, the CEO of the Colombian telemedicine company 1Doc3, Paulo Fernando Buarque de Gusmão, CEO of Brazilian company OTAWA health.   Digital Health in Asia Series: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f041045-digital-health-in-asia-china-india-south-korea-and-singapore Digital Health in Africa Series: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f056-f060-digital-health-in-africa-series-tanzania-nigeria-south-africa-rwanda

Why are clinical trials complicated and how is technology from platforms to AI helping accelerate trial development and data analysis.

Germany is one of the European countries with higher healthcare expenditures. 11% of GDP goes to healthcare compared to the 9.6% European average. Patients can be covered under public health insurance, or if they earn more than 5000 euros monthly, they choose from private health insurance providers. Health insurance is mandatory but competitive as there are around 100 health insurance companies on the market.  When Jens Spahn became the health minister In March 2018 Germany quickly became the European northern star of accelerated healthcare digitization. How did they do it? You will hear from three speakers - Henrik Matthies, managing director of the health innovation hub of the German Ministry of Health, Maren Lesche - Head of Incubation at Vision Health Pioneers a pre-seed incubator ‘Vision Health Pioneers’ based in Berlin and dr. Maike Henningsen - medical doctor, who specialized in OBGYN, oncology, endocrinology and reproductive medicine and who partially still works in the clinical practice but is also involved in Vision Health Pioneers as Head of Medical Business Strategy and involved in several other innovation projects.

There are well over 300.000 digital health apps on the market. However, only a third of them have been updated in the last 18 months, says Liz Ashal Payne - CEO and Founder of ORCHA - a UK based organization with a mission to distribute validated apps to patients who need them. Liz Ashal Payne - a digital health veteran, who started her career as a speech ad language therapist, worked as Assistant Director of Allied Health Professions (AHPs), she was a Clinical Programme Manager of Academic Health Science Network for the North West Coast, International Outreach Coordinator for ECHAlliance and more. After years of being in the digital health space, she founded ORCHA - an organisation with the mission to distribute digital health apps to people who need them.    See also F062 GDPR, MDR, and what you can do about you medical data (Jovan Stevovic): https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f062-gdpr-mdr-and-what-you-can-do-about-you-medical-data-jovan-stevovi

Despite enjoying clinical practice, Benedict Evans still came to a point where he felt he is not passionate enough about what he does, and as a surgeon, he realized he enjoys talking to patients more than treating them when they are under anesthesia. He went to a consulting position at McKinsey, then back to an NHS Trust to drive digital innovation and now to a VC position.  Resources: InHealth Ventures: https://www.inhealth.vc/ Episode recap: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f093-how-does-a-doctor-become-a-vc-benedict-evans

Leah Houston is an Emergency Physician who has been following blockchain development since 2012 and now designed a solution that would empower doctors, make their credentialing easier which would simplify transitions from one hospital to the next one if one wished to switch jobs.    HPEC is restoring agency and autonomy to the physician-patient relationship with self-sovereign (physician-owned and controlled) digital identities and verifiable credentials. The key thing is that the solution is returning autonomy to physicians and eliminates third party interference from the doctor-patient relationship.    In this discussion, you will be able to hear how credentialing works in the US, what are the powerful forces that are hurting healthcare, and why doctors and patients should regain control over their communication and treatment choices.   Episode recap: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f092-how-can-blockchain-bring-back-autonomy-to-the-physician-patient-relationship-leah-houston-hpec