

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

Feb 7, 2018 • 43min
F003 What is the state of digital health adoption in Africa? (Moka Lantum, MicroClinic)
Moka Lantum is an expert on the African healthcare market. We discussed healthcare IT and digital health adoption in Africa. He was nominated as 2016 Top 100 Global Thinker by Foreign Policy Magazine for his work as founder of the non-profit, 2020 MicroClinic Initiative, that recycles t-shirts into baby clothes and donates them to low-income mothers to promote safe delivery and quality post-natal care in rural Kenya. He obtained his Doctor of Medicine training at Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé, Cameroon; a Diploma in Nutrition and International Child Health, from Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; a Doctorate in Pharmacology, from the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York. He is a graduate of the Masters in Health Care Management at the Harvard School of Public Health, among other things.

Jan 26, 2018 • 33min
F002 Is it possible to improve the health and wellbeing of everyone in the world? (Esther Dyson - Way to Wellville; Steven Krein, Unity Stoakes - Startup Health)
The legendary investor Esther Dyson is not a big fan of technology. She is a proponent of big ideas, demanding projects with a long-term positive influence on society. Founders of StartupHealth Unity Stoakes and Steven Krein are serial entrepreneurs, driving positive change with innovators working on technological and other innovations in healthcare and medicine. At its inception, the idea behind StartupHealth was simple and very, very, very optimistic: to improve health and well-being of every person in the world. If that seemed like a fantasy seven years ago, the organisation came a long way by now. StartupHealth connects 200 companies, so-called transformers, listed in 10 categories or as they call them - moonshots.
In this episode, Esther Dyson explains why she invested in the company in its very early days. She shares her thoughts on how she sees problems society faces when it comes to health and wellbeing. Steven and Unity talk about the past, the future and the positive attitude one needs to keep trying even when things in business get tough.

Jan 11, 2018 • 43min
F001 How long can you live with the help of digital health? (Bertalan Mesko, The Medical Futurist)
Dr. Bertalan Mesko, PhD is The Medical Futurist and Director of The Medical Futurist Institute analyzing how science fiction technologies can become reality in medicine and healthcare. As a geek physician with a PhD in genomics, he is also an Amazon Top 100 author. He was featured by dozens of top publications, including CNN, the World Health Organization, National Geographic, Forbes, TIME magazine, BBC, and the New York Times.
He has more than 100 GB of data about his health and fitness and made different lifestyle changes based on the analysis of the data. Wondering how long he predicts he will live?
You can find, listen and subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or Podbean, or use the RSS feed.

Dec 28, 2017 • 25min
024 Japan: where robots are friends of the elderly (Kyoko Watanabe - Defta Partners; Yuuri Ueda - Health 2.0 Asia)
Japan. The land of anime - hand-drawn or computer animations, a technological superpower with a staggering gross government debt. It accounted for 219% of GDP in 2016. The long-lasting trend of worsening fiscal situation in Japan continues alongside the increases in health and pension spending linked to population ageing which puts the upward pressure on government debt.
If this is not very inspiring a lot of others specifics in the Japanese society are admired by western countries. For example unbeatable longevity. Japan is no. 1 in the world when it comes to life expectancy at birth: the average life expectancy is 83.9 years, 87.1 for women, 80.8 for men.
The ageing population requires new policies and political measurements to prevent economic collapse. According to the OECD Health Statistics 2016, Japan’s total health spending accounted for 11.2 percent of its GDP in 2015, ranking third out of 35 OECD members. Only the U.S. and Switzerland spend more.
Two speakers share their views in this podcast - Kyoko Watanabe - a digital health investor from Defta Partners - a leading venture capital firm focusing on innovative technologies in IT and healthcare and Yuuri Ueda, MD and Director of Health 2.0 Asia - Japan.

Dec 12, 2017 • 37min
023 Misconceptions Around Blockchain And What It Will NOT Solve In Healthcare? (Helen Disney - Unblocked; Navin Ramachandran - University College London)
Blockchain is a new technology, still very complicated to understand, leaving a lot of space for misinterpretations and confusion in the public. This is one of the things the 23rd episode of Medicine Today on Digital Health addresses: what blockchain can solve and what the most common misconceptions are.
Questions addressed in the podcast:What are the biggest misconceptions you’ve heard around blockchain so far?What are the best implications for blockchain use in healthcare?Why is blockchain not solving interoperability?Will the patient experience in a system with a blockchain solution be different from the experience in the current system? How much should patients know?How to look at ICO projects in healthcare and what to keep an eye on?
Speakers:
Helen Disney, the CEO and Founder of Unblocked, a hub for Blockchain events, education and information and Dr. Navin Ramachandran, a blockchain expert from the medical world, who understands the technology, its capabilities and follows the development closely. He is a practicing radiology consultant at University College London Hospital (UCLH) and a healthcare data researcher at University College London Centre for Health Informatics & Multiprofessional Education (UCL CHIME).
Read more: https://medium.com/medicine-today-on-digital-health/ep-23-misconceptions-around-blockchain-and-what-it-will-not-solve-in-healthcare-346ff6563dd2

Nov 27, 2017 • 34min
022 What Can We Learn About Technology Adoption from Patients with Diabetes? (David Kliff, Diabetic Investor )
If there is someone you want to ask for an opinion on diabetes management challenges it’s David Kliff, editor of Diabetic Investor — THE source of information when it comes to business aspects of diabetes. He’s been following the field closely ever since he was diagnosed with diabetes type 1 20 years ago. The problem in diabetes is not the know-how, it’s the “want to” desire that is hard to deliver to patients, he says.

Nov 13, 2017 • 44min
021 Is Dubai Going To Become The Global Capital of Digital Health? (Michael Stroud - Dubai Healthcare City; Brian de Francesca - VER2; Mazin A. Gadir & Osama Elhassan - Dubai Health Authority)
Dubai is one of the seven emirates that constitute the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is the most populous city and Emirate in the country with a GDP of 82 billion USD. It is a global business hub that keeps transforming rapidly. In October 2016, Dubai launched a citywide blockchain strategy with the objective of becoming the first blockchain powered city, driving the future economy by 2020. In this episode, you can hear: What are the strong and the weak points of healthcare innovation here? How the use of social media became a quality indicator in healthcare? Why is Dubai striving to become the global center of digital health and how is the way forward being designed? How far is the blockchain strategy in practice?
Speakers:
Michael Stroud — International healthcare executive from the UK, who is currently Director at Dubai Healthcare City,
Brian de Francesca — CEO of a telemedicine company Ver2, based in Dubai,
Mazin A. Gadir — Senior Specialist at The Executive Office for Organisational Transformation at Dubai Health Authority,
Osama Elhassan — Head of e-Health Section at Dubai Health Authority.
Read more: https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/ep-21-is-dubai-going-to-become-the-global-capital-of-digital-health-173006ac929

Oct 27, 2017 • 45min
020 USA Healthcare Leaders - How Far From Collaboration First, Competition Later Relationship...? (Rasu Shrestha - UPMC; Mitesh Rao - Stanford; Ashish Atreja - Mount Sinai)
IT in healthcare is at the moment usually an added layer to existing ways of working, consequently too often a source of frustration and anguish instead of aid for medical professionals. According to CB Insight, US represents 75% of the global digital health market. Hunger for better solutions is being addressed from many sides. How far are big medical institutions in the USA from being collaboration first, competition later relationship? In the 20th episode, you will get a glimpse into the attitude toward digital health solutions in three eminent US healthcare institutions - Stanford Healthcare, Mount Sinai Health System, and UPMC.
Speakers: Rasu Shrestha, the Chief Innovation Officer from UPMC, Mitesh Rao, Chief Patient Safety Officer and Director of the Center for Advancing Patient Safety at Stanford Healthcare, Ashish Atreja, Chief Innovation and Engagement Officer at Mount Sinai.

Oct 15, 2017 • 29min
019 Is The Digital Health Revolution Just Starting? (Indu Subaiya, Health 2.0)
From todays perspective, when we already talk about practical uses of artificial intelligence, machine learning, robots in elderly care, Internet of Things, implantable, digestable and other sensor, the world 11 years ago seems unrecognisable. After all, the first iPhone and Kindle were released hardly in 2007, a year later. Then, three years later, the first iPad was on the market. But for the digital health world, 2006 was an important year. It marked the birth of Health 2.0, a global movement for use, promotion and research of digital technology for wellness, health, medicine and healthcare. Questions in the podcast: - How are new technologies changing medical practice and medical education? - How big are the differences in digital health across the globe? - How much savings can we expect in healthcare with new innovations, since the so called waste is someones revenue, consequenlty meaning that someone needs to be pushed out of the market? - What is the state of healthcare data interoperability in the USA and can it ever be tackled? - If we were listening about “unmentionables” for the last couple of years, it is now time for the so called “unacceptables”. What are they and how are they going to be hacked? More: https://medium.com/p/4021b111939b/edit

Oct 2, 2017 • 24min
018 What Forces Are Reshaping Early Stage Digital Health Funding? (Christian Seale; Matt Storeygard; Kyoko Watanabe; Alexander Hoffman; Clara Leonard)
How are VCs looking at the changing landscape of investment opportunities? This was the topic at the Early Stage investments panel at mHealth Israel Conference, held in Jerusalem in September 2017. The included speakers were: Christian Seale, Partner, StartupBootcamp, USA Matt Storeygard, Investor, Connecticut Innovations, USA Kyoko Watanabe, Managing Partner, Defta Partners, USA Alexander Hoffman, Merck Ventures, Germany Clara Leonard, Partner, Digital Health Ventures, Germany.
The discussed topics in this podcast, are:
- Is digital health really that much different from other industries when it comes to investment?
- How long do investors stay with digital health companies?
- What are VCs looking at in early-stage companies, since investments in the riskiest?
- Which funding models are becoming obsolete?
- According to Coinschedule 2,1 bn USD have been raised this year alone with ICOs by September, the biggest ones worth 265, 230, 185 million USD. What are new forms of funding such as crowdfunding and ICOs bringing to the market?