Faces of Digital Health

In this episode Anne Forsyth, Director of Clinical Applications and Support at Women’s College Hospital in Canada, discusses the challenges and opportunities in optimizing healthcare IT systems, particularly in data management and digital literacy. She shares her experiences transitioning from a policy role to a hospital setting and emphasizes the importance of data governance, workflow design, an...

In healthcare, consultants are present more often than we might realise: they work with healthcare providers to improve clinical efficiency, manage costs, implement new technologies, or streamline administrative processes. They can help with regulatory compliance, help insurance companies design new poducts, governments hire them to help with policy development, program evaluation, and implementat...

Catalonia published a new digitalization strategy in 2017. It set a new path of the healthcare IT infrastructure, based on open-platform approach, focusing on data persistence with the use of openEHR data specification. In this discussion, you will hear from Jordi Piera Jiménez, Director of the Digital Health Strategy Office at the Catalan Health Service and Director at openEHR International, repr...

Artur Olesch is Berlin-based journalist specializing in digital health, the founder of aboutDigitalHealth.com, and the editor-in-chief of ICT&Health International. In this discussion, he shares his thoughts on the European legislation of healthtech, his thoughts on most intriguing books in tech and AI, and more.  His 3 book picks:  Ray Kurzweil - Singularity is nearer  Ethan Mollick - Co-Intellige...

John Halamka is the President of the Mayo Clinic Platform and a leading expert in digital health and AI. He has traveled to 21 countries, helping to scale digital health solutions and address regulatory and ethical challenges in the reuse of healthcare data. Addressed topics in this discussion: 1. Differences in regulatory frameworks and cultural expectations across countries. 2. Comparison of the...

You may not have heard about Prenuvo, but you probably know Kim Kardashian. Or perhaps you know about Prenuvo because of Kim Kardashian. Prenuvo offers whole-body MRI scans for $2500. About 3-4% of people get something discovered, 10% have detected changes that require follow-ups. Opinions about the usefulness of these scans are diverse, with some hesitation on the clinical side. At HLTH Europe, t...

If you ever want to go to a healthcare innovation conference that doesn’t shy away from potentially controversive topics, HLTH is your place to go. In June 2024, the conference, which attracts 12,000 people in the US, came to Europe. At the center of the exhibition hall stood the Heart Stage focused on topics related to women’s health. Around it were the exhibitor booth and other stages, each desi...

Debates around equity and equality, especially concerning men and women and female representation, can become heated and divisive quickly. For a long time, female bodies have been perceived merely as male bodies with different reproductive organs. However, the differences go beyond that: 80% of people with autoimmune conditions are women, 66% of Alzheimer's disease patients are women, and symptoms...

Rome was buzzing with digital health at the end of May as the HIMSS Europe conference took place at La Nuova Congress Center. Delegates from 80 countries and representatives of health ministries of 20 countries marked the event with discussions about the implementation of EHDS, the EU AI Act, and more.  In this episode, a few participants share their impressions from the discussions at the confere...

According to WHO, the global cost associated with medication errors is 42 billion US dollars. Errors can happen at the point of prescribing, transcribing from one system to the other, or administration, when the wrong patient is given either the wrong drug or the wrong dose. Medication administration errors can be prevented with the introduction of closed-loop medication management, where all poin...

The European Health Data Space is around the corner. The legislation is confirmed. How do we get to the next steps? Today you will hear a discussion with Eric Sutherland, Senior Health Economist and Digital Health Lead at OECD, who worked on the pan-Canadian health data strategy before his current role. We discussed the upcoming implementation of the European Health Data Space, what needs to happe...

AI and predictive modeling to understand an individual’s immune system function and predict treatment response are still in very early stages. We dream about precision medicine and getting every answer we can for ourselves when we get sick. However, if we look at genomics, only about 20 percent of human coding genes are well-studied. The remaining 80 percent (about 16,000 genes, along with the pro...

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) brings together six Arab countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates  When one reads about the GCC countries, there’s nothing but the impression of prosperity: high investments, determination, and enthusiasm in tech-supported healthcare.  The spending on healthcare by the GCC governments is on an astronomical rise. From a...

In the last few years, we've witnessed a whirlwind of developments in the world of Digital Therapeutics (DTx) - from FDA approvals sparking optimism for the industry, to the establishment of regulatory frameworks in countries like Germany, France, and Belgium. However, in 2023, the industry faced a stark reality check, marked by the fall of some key players and healthcare systems' hesitancy toward...

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) have become increasingly integral in healthcare for assessing the effectiveness of treatments from the patient's perspective. It sounds like a reasonable step in improving clinical research and care provision, but gathering data can be more difficult then you may think. It isn't easy to get to marginalized communities. There are language barriers in collecting data...

Did you know that Belgium has had an idea for classifying and validating digital therapeutics since 2018? A clear framework was formed with all main stakeholders involved - from health insurance to the industry. So why are we not hearing more about DTx in Belgium? In this discussion you will hear from Dr. Steven Vandeput -  he is the Advisor for Digital MedTech and Services & Technologies Home Ass...

The field of oncology treatments is advancing very fast with innovative therapies and approaches on the market every day. It can get very tricky to support these therapies from an IT perspective, which is what you will hear more about in this discussion. I spoke with Anish Patankar, SVP and GM of Elekta’s Oncology Software Solutions, and we discusses: How to go about the US hospital market,  Devel...

In 2023, Insilico Medicine—a biotech company developing medications with a heavy reliance on AI—used AI to develop an experimental drug for the incurable lung disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The treatment is in mid-stage trials in the US and China, with some results expected in early 2025. Biotech is one of the fields that has been using generative AI for years, even before ChatGPT brought...

HLTH (https://hlth.com/) is an event where you will see a literal forest on one of the stages, be able to take a selfie with a unicorn mascot, and get perks like hlth branded pink nail polist on your entrance. In the last few years, HLTH has become the most flashy, visible and must-go digital health event in the US. In this episode, Richard Scarfo, president of HLTH, talks about HLTH's approach to...

Migraine is 3 times more common in women than in men.  2/3 of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Gender differences are real and they matter.  The Women's Brain Project (WBP) is a Swiss-based international non-profit organization founded in 2016. It comprises a diverse team of academic and social scientists, medical doctors, engineers, patients, caregivers, artists, and AI experts. The WBP focuses...

Laboratory tests provide doctors with crucial information for diagnosis, monitoring disease progression, evaluating organ function, assessing risk factors for diseases and more. Laboratory testing can be reassuring, however, it is often deemed unnecessary. In this short episode recorded at HLTH, we’re going to talk about laboratory test optimization. How can it be done without undermining clinical...

In this episode, you’re going hear about the German market for digital health startups, the innovation approach at Charite, one of Europe's largest university hospitals, the challenges with digital therapeutics in Germany and beyond. I spoke with Dorothée Marie-Louise Döpfer, Deputy Head of Digital Labs and program Manager of the Digital Health Accelerator & Community Building at Charite UMC Berli...

ePrescribing has become a norm in the US healthcare system. Now, the expanded role of pharmacists and the integration of non-physician prescribers into the healthcare system signifies a move towards a more accessible healthcare model, potentially alleviating some of the clinicians' burdens. Surescripts is the national provider of the ePrescribing infrastructure in the US. In this short discussion,...

Digital health funding has fallen significantly since 2020. However, funding for Femtech went from 7,6% inside the digital health investments in 2020 to 13,26% in 2022, according to TechCrunch. The awareness about female-specific health-related characteristic has been on the rise for the last several years, which is evident in the growing healthcare innovation space specifically targeting women. I...

Technically, we've never been more connected or had relationships with as many people as we do today, thanks to social networks on the internet. Yet, while these platforms bring convenience, they are also increasing loneliness and reducing face-to-face interactions. However, technology isn't solely a problem; it can facilitate the easier pairing of individuals who wish to assist those lacking a re...