Faces of Digital Health

Estonia has only 1,3 million people but is famous worldwide for its digital governance. If you want, you can even become an Estonian electronic resident and run your business from Estonia, regardless of your country of residence. Healthcare wise, 95% of healthcare data is in digital form, some of it supported with blockchain technology. What does all this mean - is data structured or is information stored in pdf? How supportive is the system for digital health startups? And how did the country, where only 6.5% of the GDP is spent on healthcare, achieve the level of digitization many countries are only dreaming of? Hannalore Taal - digital health specialist and the Chief e-Health Specialist at the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs explains.

This short recording offers a snippet of thoughts about healthcare China, Japan, Germany, Dubai, Israel, Japan, and Bolivia.

ClinicalTrials.gov currently lists 302,091 clinical studies in the US. It is impossible for patients and their doctors to be aware of all clinical trials an individual might be eligible for. While one would expect the trials to be run and supported by sophisticated software, the reality is often far from that expectation. Patients often come to doctors inquiring about trials doctors might not even have been aware of. Trials data is managed manually, in old fashion way — clinical trials are written in a word format, transmitted to sites in pdf files, later on along the process, the data are often manually abstracted from clinical trials to homegrown solutions for analysis in each institution. Data is collected in tailor-made 3rd party systems for different pharma companies and then re-converted to another format for FDA submissions.  There is no doubt: there are plenty of opportunities to improve clinical trials with new technologies. Samuel L. Volchenboum, MD, PhD, MS, is an expert in pediatric cancers and blood disorders, and studies ways to harness computers to enable research and foster innovation using large data sets. He talks about potentials of digital health in clinical trials improvement.

Anyone who wishes to learn about blockchain in general or specifically in healthcare can get overwhelmed by the number of results offered by a Google search. Awareness of the difficulty of finding credible, helpful and nuanced information around blockchain, was among the triggers to create the book Blockchain in Healthcare Innovations that Empower Patients, Connect Professionals and Improve Care. In this episode David Metcalf and Alex Cahana share their view on the current blockchain in the healthcare landscape, accompanied by a comment on industry discussions seen at HIMSS 2019 Global conference, where the book was presented to the public from the first time.  Other episodes on blockchain in healthcare: F021 What is the CDC doing with blockchain? (Jay Jemal, IT specialist) https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/f021-what-is-the-cdc-doing-with-blockchain-36c15dac3603 F020 Blockchain, value of data, and the role of legislation with adoption (Ray Dogum, Health Unchained) - https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/f020-blockchain-value-of-data-and-the-role-of-legislation-with-adoption-ray-dogum-health-80919d909e97 iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/si/podcast/f020-blockchain-value-data-role-legislation-adoption/id1194284040?i=1000421920886&mt=2&ls=1 Podbean: https://tjasazajc.podbean.com/e/f020-blockchain-value-of-data-and-the-role-of-legislation-with-adoption-ray-dogum-healthcare-unchained/ Episode 14 of Medicine today on digital health - What is blockchain and how fast could it be applied in healthcare: iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/014-blockchain-in-healthcare-how-how-fast-could-it/id1194284040?i=1000389721696&mt=2&ls=1 Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-na6nf-7e3965   Episode 23 of Medicine today on digital health - Misconceptions about blockchain: iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/023-misconceptions-around-blockchain-what-it-will-not/id1194284040?i=1000397151361&mt=2&ls=1 Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-3s9bh-7efd59   F007 The hype and the hope around blockchain (SXSW panel discussion): iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/f007-hype-hope-blockchain-in-healthcare-michael-dillhyon/id1194284040?i=1000407073820&mt=2&ls=1 Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-vimnn-8db4e0   F008 How do sex, blockchain and medical anthropology go together: iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/f008-how-do-sex-blockchain-medical-anthropology-go/id1194284040?i=1000408108683&mt=2&ls=1 Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-ew3f9-8e8f7a

Every person is unique and we all differ in our looks, but have you ever wondered, how much do people differ on the inside? This is something surgeons are most familiar with. Rafael Grossmann is known in the digital health community as the VR surgeon. Originally from Venezuela, Rafael has been practicing medicine for a few decades in the US by now. In this episode he talks about technological advancements in surgery - from minimally invasive surgery to robotic-assisted surgery -, followed by his passion towards digital technologies, telemedicine, and VR and in the end comments the national crisis currently happening in Venezuela, and its effects on healthcare.

Hackathons have by today become a popular approach for bringing people with various backgrounds in the same room, offering them a concentrated time, usually during a weekend, to come up with innovative approached for various challenges. The speaker of episode 31 is Annie Lamontagne - Special Projects Advisor and former Head of Global Growth at Hacking health - a global digital health organisation, currently active in 17 countries. Annie talks about how are hackathons evolving through the years, what kind of experiences can Hacking health chapters share among each other, since each chapter is active in a different country with a different culture. Annie also mentioned a few inspiring examples of solutions that were a product of hackathons organised inside the hospitals.

Hal Wolf III became the CEO of HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, the largest global organisation connecting healthcare IT providers) in 2017. While having rich experiences in the healthcare industry, he started his career in a very different sector — the entertainment business. Hal first workes in Sales and Marketing for MTV Networks in the 80s, later as VP of Content at Time Warner. Then, after 20 years, did his professional development shifted to healthcare when he became the Chief Information Officer for Kaiser Permanente in Colorado.  Some questions addressed in the podcast:  What can healthcare learn from the entertainment industry?  What is the price of interoperability, what can we learn from Keiser Permanente, where $6 billion USD was spent to implement a unified system in 10 years time?  What is the role of HIMSS in the interoperability story? How has HIMSS changed since the acquisition of Health 2.0 in 2017? How to stay informed as a health executive in the era of overwhelming amounts of new information about new technologies?  What are the global healthcare challenges?

Investments in digital health have been rising for the last few years, encouraging innovation in applications of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, analytics, and other latest technologies in healthcare. At the same time, the next generations of doctors, who are supposed to embrace and use these inventions, are trained in an outdated model with little room for creative engagement. One of the people passionate about the re-invention of medical education is Dr. Nana Bit-Avragim, a digital health transformer and medical sciences expert. Nana is an MD/PhD, who formerly worked as Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Charité Foundation and was the Head of Digital Health and Life Sciences program at the German hub of Singularity University. In the 29th episode of Faces of digital health, Nana discusses how new cross-disciplinary models within academia in collaboration with industry and startups should be established to upgrade and rethink medical education.

Chris Johnson is a Children’s Anaesthetist with 30 years of experience in clinical practice. Chris was the medical lead for the healthcare IT transformation of the Perth Children’s Hospital in Australia, which was planned after the institution relocated into a new building, approximately 10 years ago.  In the end, the robotics system was bought, but the EHR project had been stopped, leaving the hospital medical records management right where it was — on paper.  Several reasons contributed to the outcome in the huge process of change management. After all, the IT support projects presented only 25% of the budget for transformation.  Some questions addressed: What do anaesthetists do in practice? What are the digital trends in anesthesiology? Will doctors be replaced by automation and precision dosing algorithms? How does a tender for digital transformation of a hospital look like? Who has to be included? How long does it take? How can hospitals be more pleasant for patients? What is the role of architecture and design in the hospital?

The first episode of Faces of digital health offers a reflection on digital health in 2018, followed by a discussion on digital health in Malta. Because the country is small, the adoption of new solutions could be faster compared to bigger countries. Stefan Buttigieg, Specialist Trainee in Public Health Medicine with a special interest in Clinical Informatics, Social Media and Digital Health, and the co-chair of Health 2.0 Malta believes in the bright future ahead, driven by AI, blockchain, and younger generations.  Some questions addressed:  What is the state of healthcare and healthcare IT in Malta? How big is the digital health community in Malta? What is the funding situation like for digital health in Malta? Is the national optimism and plans for digitilization driven by understanding or general hype of technologies such as artificial intelligence or blockchain?