Faces of Digital Health

Israel is a country of 8.5 million people, attributing around 7.5 % of the GDP to healthcare. Serial entrepreneurship is the norm here, fueled by military service discipline, high population education and good ties with the best education institutions and big industry players from the USA. Digital Health is taken seriously on the national level in Israel. There is even a special Department for Digital Health inside the Ministry of Health. In this episode Levi Shapiro, entrepreneur, investor and the organizer of the mHealth Israel conference, Eyal Zimlichan, Deputy General Director and Chief Medical Officer of the Sheba Medical Center, Director of Digital Health Department at Israeli Ministry of Health Ronny Shapiro and Head of the same department Shira LevAmi talk about how the ecosystem looks like, where does the success come from and where is digital health in the country headed.

Clinical trials are essential from many aspects. They are needed for assessment of safety, efficacy, and superiority of existing drugs, therapies, equipment. They are essential to an assessment of new scientific findings. However, many challenges surround them. Medicinisto is a young German startup connecting medical experts to the industry. In this episode, its CEO Guido Axman explains how the company is trying to prevent only established researchers participating in clinical trials. Researchers and clinical trial setting are the essential two components of each new project. The next challenge is finding participants. For some patients participation in a clinical trial can be a shortcut to a new therapy or a last resort for their health improvement.  The industry is looking for participants through doctors, internet, patient groups, advertisement. There are many means. One option is a special agency, and this is Viomedo found an opportunity. Viomedo is a platform with a database of clinical trials in Germany, making it easier for patients from Germany to find an appropriate trial for themselves. Alexander Puschilov, the Managing Director of Viomedo, talks about how the company is connected to the industry, what challenges patients are facing when trying to get into clinical trials and how the company is solving this issue.

In this episode Anna Dubovik, a data analyst working for the government of Moscow talks about IMIAS - Integrated Medical Information and Analytical System. It connects more than 660 clinics and over 23.6 thousand medical practitioners in Moscow. The system offers pretty much everything and more you could imagine and expect from a high-tech clinical IT system: electronic health records are stored in the cloud, managers can see real-time analysis of patient flow, online appointments, electronic prescriptions and more. How does the system work? What information are stored in it? How can an IT system be implemented across 600+ facilities? What anomalies have been detected in healthcare management? ...and more! Comments/suggestions welcome at - @zajctjasa

In this podcast, two brilliant women explain applications of blockchain in healthcare. The first expert you are about to hear from is Nadia Thibault Diakun. She was in the team of researches that wrote a whitepaper titled Blockchain and Health IT: Algorithms, Privacy, and Data. The second part of the podcast is an interview with Chrissa McFarlane, CEO and Founder of Patientory. The young startup raised 7,2 million dollars through a so-called ICO — Initial Coin Offering. What’s next? The questions addressed in the podcast are: What and where are are the biggest possible potentials for blockchain and where could it bring most benefit? What is the difference between a blockchain and already existing platforms aimed at connecting different healthcare providers? How does the idea of blockchain technology in healthcare differ from the idea of a uniform EHR system that would solve the problem of interoperability? What are the downsides/dangers of blockchain in healthcare? Who decides, who can get included in a blockchain? In May, the Wannacry virus, which compromised many IT systems around the globe, also hit many hospitals in the UK; apart from the confusion, procedures were canceled, work impossible for a while. How would this scenario be different if the hospitals were using a blockchain solution for data storage? … and more!

Do you, or have you, ever owned or tries a wearable sensor? Wearable devices for healthcare are estimated at 870 million USD today. The market is supposed to grow to 4,4 billion USD by 2019, when the digital health market is estimated to be worth 172 billion USD. In this episode Manesh Juneja talks about his experience with trackers and the issue of data accuracy in wellness and healthcare. He has worked with data to improve decision-making across a number of industries. Suggestion/comment: tjasa.zajc@finance.si or on Twitter: @zajctjasa

According to some estimates, it takes 17 years from a medical innovation to become a part of the standard practice in medicine. Adoption of technologies in healthcare is slow. Investments in digital health are rising - 8 billion USD was invested last year. But what does that even mean? What works, what not? What have we learned in the past years about business models in digital health? This was the topic of a Panel at INFUSE Digital Health Networking Event, organized in Ljubljana in May 2017. Top KOLs talked about why patients are different consumers than payers in other industries, what challenges are specific for digital health startups, and which mistakes are the same here as with the other startups. Speakers:  Dr. Jesus del Valle, Head of Bayer’s Grants4Apps Accelerator Dr. Axel Polack, General Partner at the Joint Polish Investment fund Dr. Klaus Stöckemann, the Managing Partner at Peppermint Venture Partners Dorjan Marušič, Practicing Cardiologist, Former Health Minister of Slovenia Stanislav Sirakov, Partner at LAUNCHub Alex Farcet, Co-founder of Startupbootcamp   Info/comments welcome at: @zajctjasa or tjasa.zajc@gmail.com

When it comes to digitalization on a national level, German eHealth is lagging heavily behind other European countries. Fax machines still have an important place in healthcare, says Dr. Klaus Stöckemann. After obtaining his PhD in biology and pharmacology, dr. Stöckemann held several leading positions in research and development and business development. He then co-founded Peppermint VenturePartners (PVP) in 2009.

Which funding models can digital health and biotech companies count on? This was one of the main topics at the last Charite Entrepreneurship Summit, held in Berlin at the beginning of May. In this episode dr. Klaus Stöckemann, co-founder of Peppermint VenturePartners (PVP), talks about digital health and healthcare digitalization in Germany and challenges startups face when evaluating and proving the usability and value of their solutions. PVP looked at approximately 500 solutions last year. Comments, suggestions welcome on @zajctjasa or tjasa.zajc@gmail.com

In 2004, after 14 years of research, The Human Genome Project was concluded. 99,9% of the human genome was sequenced and we learned that people have between 20,000 and 25,000 genes.  Genes are seen as a map to people’s health and diseases; the ultimate source of our health problems and wellbeing. Expectations of what could be explained with genetic testing are high, however, genes are a universe of the unknown.  Even if a person has a predisposition for something, it is very often the environment which will or will not trigger it. Many diseases are polymorphous — more genes are included in their expression and severity.  We are far from knowing all the correlations. So where are we? Sooraj Ratnakumar is a scientist with a PhD in Biotechnology from the University of Cambridge. He is also the CEO of Swagene — an Indian company for medical genetics. Wondering what he thinks? Listen to the 9th episode of Medicine Today on Digital Health. Comments, suggestions welcome at tjasa.zajc@gmail.com or Twitter @zajctjasa

In this episode, Sachin Gaur, a researcher, and entrepreneur in space of mobile and Internet solutions talks about cybersecurity and innovation in healthcare in India. After working and studying in Finland and Estonia, he returned to India and co-founded InnovatioCuris, a company focusing on connecting healthcare experts and looking at global innovation models and lean management processes to deliver healthcare at an optimum cost. If you just want to know more about cybersecurity, skip the first 20 minutes! Reviews, comments, and suggestions welcome at tjasa.zajc@gmail.com, on Twitter you can find me under @zajctjasa