Faces of Digital Health

As of 2017 healthcare is the leading category of the 78,5 billion in consumer debt collected each year, which is more than 40 times the size of credit card debt. While the number of uninsured is reducing, it is being replaced with the issue of underinsurance. 3 in 10 people reported costs caused them not to take their medicines as prescribed in the past year, writes law professor Christopher T. Robertson in his last book Exposed: Why Our Health Insurance Is Incomplete and What Can Be Done About It. This is especially critical in situations as the current Covidvirus crisis. New York Times and Financial Times warn that the US is at high risk for a fast spread of Covid-19, because many people don’t have the option to work at home + the uninsured, and there are 27 million of them, are reluctant to seek healthcare.In the following discussion with dr. Robertson, you will hear more about what kind of costs patients are exposed to in the US, what the role of technology could be in curbing those costs or at least make prices transparent and clear before a patient get the bills, and how could the healthcare system be improved. Recap: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f070-why-is-getting-sick-in-the-us-financially-toxic-for-many-people-christopher-t-robertson

"Each investor sees about 1200 pitch decks per year, meets 500 founders, and invests in 10 companies. So when preparing for your pitch, you need to be aware that investors are looking for reasons to say NO to you," says Beth Susanne. The key thing to consider when preparing presentations, says Beth, is what investors could say YES to. In healthcare, that is: traction, clearly identified payor and partners that show the scalability of your product. Beth Susanne is an international pitch coach from the US, based in Spain, who coached over 3000 teams so far, over 200 in digital health. No matter if you are a startup or a corporation, team communication is key to success - either for company growth or fundraising.   Summary of the show: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f069-what-else-is-there-to-learn-about-pitching-digital-health-solutions-bethnbspsussane  Beth Susanne: https://bethsusanne.com/

Grace Cordovano is an expert healthcare navigating solutionist and award winning, board-certified patient advocate specializing in the oncology space. She is the founder of Enlightening Results and Unblock Health  - a suite of services that finally provides patients and carepartners with a way to level the playing field and demand access to the critical information needed to make informed, engaged, and empowered decisions about their care. In this episode, she talks about challenges patients faces because of the complexity of the healthcare system in the US, she shares her view about the need of patients getting access to their data and more.   Recap of the discussion: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f065-f068-the-power-of-patients-4-episodes-series Enlightening Results:https://www.enlighteningresults.com/ Unblock Health: https://www.unblock.health/

Clinical advocacy has many different shapes. In the US, says Dr. Bettina Ryll, patient advocates work as patient’s navigators in the healthcare system. In Europe, they have a more activist/policy influencing role. When a patient’s interest in his disease grows beyond his personal interest, he becomes a patient advocate, says Mr. Ryll, when asked about how she would define patient advocacy.  This episode presents the role of patients in improving care, the influence of patient advocacy and needs of patients with serious conditions.   Summary: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f065-f068-the-power-of-patients-4-episodes-series Melanoma Patient Network Europe: http://www.melanomapatientnetworkeu.org/

In the second episode of the short series about the patient perspective of healthcare Marina Borukhovich, born in Belarus, raised in US and living for the past 8 years in Netherlands and Germany shares her story of being diagnosed with breast cancer at 37 years old. 3 years later she lost her father to pancreatic cancer. She founded YourCoach, a startup giving coaches client management and accountability tools in order to help heal their clients holistically, with a vision of having health coaches accessible to everyone. YourCoach aims to become the ultimate authority for health coaches.   Recap of the show: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f065-f068-the-power-of-patients-4-episodes-series YourCoach: https://yourcoach.health/

Roi Shternin had medical ambitions while he was still a student. Before he turned 20 however, his physical health started deteriorating to the point where he couldn’t get up from his bed. He visited 33 doctors. “The 33rd doctor told my parents that I will never get married or have a career, so they should just get me an as comfortable bed as possible, so I can die with dignity,” Roi remembers today. Because he did not get a diagnosis, and consequently treatment, he lost a lot of his faith in healthcare. And after doctors gave up on him, he decided to try to find out the cause of his deteriorating health himself. Summary of the show: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f065-f068-the-power-of-patients-4-episodes-series  Roi Shternin: http://roi.shternin.com/

Social isolation and loneliness are linked to several health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, a weakened immune system, anxiety, depression, cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s disease, and even death. Can these problems be alleviated with the help of robots?  A group of French innovators created Cutii — a robot for the elderly that looks like a screen on a stand that moves around in the environment. It supports speech recognition and vocal synthesis so the users can send written messages using their voice, the robot allows remote control for family caregivers, detects falls. The robot is an IoT device that enables the elderly to meet new people — caregivers in the Cutii community. Caregivers are usually younger volunteers that share their activities (for example cooking, hiking, visiting the gallery) while being connected to an elder in real-time. The robot is currently available in France, Switzerland and the US. The average age of Cutii users is between 72 and 74. As explained by Richard Marshall, VP of Business Development at Cutii, the aim of the company is to increase the years of happy living to those that wish to age in their homes. Most people do, due to the emotional attachment they have with their home.   Show summary: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f064-fighting-loneliness-in-older-people-with-robots-richard-marshall Cutii: https://www.cutii.io/le-concept/

Building communities is time-consuming and demands special soft skills. Aline Noizet is a digital health connector with rich experiences of building and getting to know communities in digital health. She started her digital health journey working for the digital health startup Doctoralia in Barcelona in 2011. She later became an important part of Health 2.0, followed by a position at Bayer’s G4A. She now works globally as an independent consultant, based in Barcelona. More: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com Recap: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f063-how-to-build-a-community-in-healthcare-aline-noizet Aline's website: www.digitalhealthconnector.com

In May 2020, Medical Device Regulation goes into effect. Digital health companies providing software intended for medical use will need to comply with new requirements. According to Jovan Stevović, CEO and Co-Founder of Chino.io, companies are much better prepared for MDR than they were for GDPR. In general, medical devices are products or equipment intended for medical use. These include long-term corrective contact lenses, surgical lasers, defibrillators, hearing aids, diagnostic ultrasound machines, hip-joint implants, prosthetic heart valves. There are three classes of medical devices: Class 1, Class 2a and 2b, and Class 3. The classification depends on the intended use. Medical devices class I have the lowest perceived risk for health, those in Class 3 the highest. MDR also defines software which is designed for medicinal purposes, to be a medical device.   Recap of the show: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f062-gdpr-mdr-and-what-you-can-do-about-you-medical-data-jovan-stevovi Chino.io: https://www.chino.io/ Free eBook: How to build MDR certified eHealth applications: https://www.chino.io/a/chino-io-ebook-medical-device-regulation-ehealth-applications

According to Clearwater cyberIntelligence Institute, one of the key issues in data breaches are user authentication deficiencies. These include password strength requirements, single sign-on controls, and locking accounts after too many failed login attempts are the three primary risks around user authentication - generic password use, physically posting passwords on a workspace, and or unencrypted emailing of credentials over external networks. If the key issue of data security and privacy protection in the past was how to archive data and prevent unauthorized access to archives, the cloud brought a whole new set of challenges. For one thing, security measures required from the personnel are getting increasingly complex. Additionally, while several advances have been made on the technological level of data protection - from different methods of encryption to high hopes stemming from AI and quantum computing, the bad guys are also using these technologies, says Chris Bowen, the Founder of and Chief Privacy & Security Officer of ClearDATA - US based company offering technology and services to assist organizations with their healthcare cloud security needs. We discussed the trends in cybersecurity in healthcare, the future, and what organizations should be mindful of when it comes to healthcare data protection. Enjoy the show, find the transcript on our website www.facesofdigitalhealth.com, and do subscribe to the show if data privacy, security and protection is on your interest. In the next episode, you will hear about GDPR and upcoming Medical Device Regulation from Jovan Stevović, Co-Founder of Chino.io.  Recap:https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f061-why-do-so-many-data-breaches-and-cybsecurity-attacks-happen-in-healthcare-chris-bowen  ClearDATA: https://www.cleardata.com/ Chris Bowen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cbowen1/