I recently had the opportunity to travel to Berlin Germany for the Bayer G4A Signing Day event. This was their official launch of the 11 inspiring companies that are the most recent additions to the G4A family. While I was there, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to speak with their keynote speaker for the evening. From the stage, he shared the story behind the success of his company, the impact it's having in real and powerful ways, and the focus on the company following their IPO in July...
Oct 25, 2019•39 min•Season 10Ep. 94
In this episode we dive into mental health. More specifically, the treatment of major depressive disorder, also known as clinical depression. It is an area of tremendous need and one can be very well served through the solutions and approaches that are being developed and being made available to users around the world. So, how big of a problem is severe depression? More than 300 million people of all ages suffer from depression, and at it’s worse, it can lead to suicide. Fewer than half of those...
Sep 25, 2019•27 min•Season 10Ep. 93
“Don't fall in love with the solution, fall in love with the problem”…..Really? In this episode we look at needs-based innovation, and to get a better understanding I spoke with Marta Zanchi, PhD. Marta spent 13 years at Stanford University, first as a doctoral student then as a faculty member and founding director of digital health at the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign. Her experience spans from designing software and hardware devices to walking the full process of health technology innova...
Sep 12, 2019•34 min•Season 10Ep. 92
Our guest is Francesca Wuttke, PhD, the Chief Digital Officer of Almirall. Almirall is an international pharmaceutical company founded in 1943 and based in Barcelona – which is where Francesca is based. Francesca is responsible for developing and executing an end-to-end company-wide digital transformation. In her role, she is responsible for finding use cases to apply digital solutions and services across the business and bring efficiencies that save time, lower costs and open up new business ch...
Sep 06, 2019•27 min•Season 10Ep. 91
The topic: Have you ever wondered how much more secure - or perhaps less secure - your organization is compared to your peers in the industry? This could have a significant impact on your business not simply the operational performance of your organization, but on the commercial opportunities as well. With the risks and threats surrounding healthcare data, the stakes are high to make sure that organizations, and all their partners, vendors and clients, are proactive and compliant with the latest...
Sep 03, 2019•23 min
The World Health Organization reports, based on statistics from the end of 2018, that about 38 million people are living with HIV around the world. While about 62% of those – about 23 million people – were receiving antiretroviral treatment by the end of 2018, another 21% of them did not even know their HIV status. That’s about 8 million people who didn’t even know they are infected, and who are at risk of infecting others. The epidemic has impacted different regions of the world disproportionat...
Aug 28, 2019•34 min•Season 10Ep. 90
Our first State of the Podcast episode! We've been going for 3 years, and we've experienced a lot of growth and success. In this episode, we cover four key topics to shed some light on where we’re focusing our efforts and how we’re having an impact. 1) Metrics - Our shows have had over 200,000 downloads, 15,000 followers 2) Community - We've developed a network of Ambassadors and a global, engaged audience 3) Partnerships - Dozens of partners supporting our growth, relationships and content crea...
Jul 17, 2019•14 min
“We really love this new positioning of high tech meets high touch, to truly change health and well-being.” ~ Dr. Rajiv Kumar We’ve all heard the numbers regarding the healthcare spend in the United States. When compared to other developed countries, per capita healthcare spending in the US ($9,892 in 2016) is 145 percent higher than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) median of $4,033, and yet when comparing outcomes and process measures, the US lags behind. In some...
May 22, 2019•29 min•Season 9Ep. 89
Overcoming challenges and accelerating change with Jen Goldsack of the (new!) Digital Medicine Society The use of the term ‘digital health' is continuing to grow, with new subsets of products and services being grouped within it: digital doctor’s visits, digital clinical trials, digital therapeutics, and digital medicine – these are just some of the terms that have burst onto the scene. In this episode, we’re diving into one of the terms in the digital health lexicon: ‘digital medicine'. We expl...
May 14, 2019•31 min•Season 9Ep. 88
Welcome to Coffee Talk! In this episode, we speak with two leaders from one of the companies that help make our platform possible, and we’ll learn more about the work they’re doing to move the industry forward. My guests are from none other than Bayer G4A. Bayer G4A was officially launched as “Grants4Apps” in Berlin in 2013, originally with the aim of funding healthcare mobile apps. Now, six years later, this program has shortened its name to simply ‘G4A’, while also extending it’s global presen...
May 09, 2019•20 min
How a former F-16 fighter pilot is flying high with new FDA and CE-registered medical applications using VR? ~ Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality – We’ve spoken to leaders about these technologies in our conversations with Dr. Brennan Spiegel , Dr. Ashya Vahabzadeh , Dr. Shafi Ahmed , Dr. Rafael Grossman and Dr. Justin Barad . Those guests, who all happened to be doctors leading in the field, spoke about their work across a wide variety of use cases, such as patient education, tre...
May 03, 2019•28 min•Season 9Ep. 87
Combining commercial nous with digital tools to deliver universal access to healthcare There are over 1.2 billion people living in Africa, and another 1.3 billion living in India. Together they account for about 34% of the world’s population. These two regions represent some of the highest levels of healthcare burden, and some of the lowest numbers of healthcare professionals. For example, in Africa, there are only 2.3 healthcare workers per 1,000 people. Compare that to the Americas where you’l...
Apr 16, 2019•25 min•Season 9Ep. 86
How the Novartis Biome is pioneering new approaches to digital health innovation? Take a look online and you’ll find hundreds of articles proclaiming that Pharma’s business model is broken and that the entire sector is in the middle of an innovation crisis. Whether you agree or disagree, there’s no question that the industry is extraordinarily competitive and the challenge of bringing effective drugs to market is growing. Adapting to new ways of working and driving new tech and innovation across...
Apr 11, 2019•38 min•Season 9Ep. 85
How can better development resources and new business models enable ‘bring-your-own-app' solutions? Application Programming Interfaces. APIs. We hear a lot about them and their use is really taking off in healthcare. Providers want to use them to become more efficient and provide better connectivity across their enterprise. Patients are also demanding the same modern technology, user experiences and access to health information that we’ve come to expect in nearly every other user-facing industry...
Apr 04, 2019•32 min•Season 9Ep. 84
In this episode we dive into some of the cities, countries and winning strategies that are leading the transformation of health for the billions of people that live in APAC. Tony Estrella is an investor, advisor, and global digital health expert. He has experience all over the world having lived and worked in Asia, the US, and Europe as a startup founder, investor and corporate innovation leader. One of the things that we like to do on this program is bring an international perspective on the ch...
Mar 22, 2019•29 min•Season 9Ep. 83
Today we’re diving into the topic of Mental Health. It’s a topic we’ve covered before on this program, like in episode 63 with Dale Beerman of Think Pacifica, and in episode 21 with Dr. Arshya Vahabzadeh from Brain Power. In those episodes, we explored the use of mobile apps and wearables, and we looked at some problems that are being solved using these technologies. We often think of mental health as something that is just that – “ mental ” health – and the connections to physical health, and e...
Mar 15, 2019•35 min•Season 9Ep. 82
In this episode, we’re taking on the topic of Digital Therapeutics. At the CNS Summit last year, I had the opportunity to meet our guest: Megan Coder. Megan is the founder and executive director of the Digital Therapeutics Alliance. The Digital Therapeutics Alliance, or DTA as you may hear it called, was launched in 2017 to broaden the understanding, adoption, and integration of clinically-validated digital therapeutic solutions into mainstream healthcare through education, advocacy, and researc...
Feb 28, 2019•33 min•Season 9Ep. 81
Lihi Segal on applying technology and predictive models to manage glucose levels In this episode, we’re diving into the research, and a brand new solution, focused on the growing understanding of the human microbiome – the microorganisms that help protect us against germs, break down food, and produce vitamins. What work is being done to actually enlist the microbiome in the fight against disease? Can we leverage our understanding not just to preserve health but also to actually prevent or treat...
Feb 21, 2019•36 min•Season 9Ep. 80
Our guest in this episode is Todd Pope, the President and Chief Executive Officer of TransEnterix, a company that is digitizing the interface between laparoscopic surgeons and patients through the use of their robot. Todd shares some of the ways that robotics are changing the landscape of surgery today, and he explains how technologies such as artificial intelligence and computer vision further enhance these capabilities. Todd has more than 25 years of experience in key leadership positions with...
Feb 14, 2019•32 min•Season 8Ep. 79
Redesigning Healthcare with a Generational Perspective How do the experiences of different generations of people shape and inform their attitudes, expectations and perceptions of healthcare today and in the future? And if we focus our attention on redesigning healthcare for those current generations of adults who place the highest demands on it today, are we overlooking the needs of younger generations of adults and future generations who don’t yet have similar demands of the system? In this epi...
Feb 08, 2019•30 min•Season 8Ep. 78
How deception technology and identification solutions can protect networks from cyberattacks It's likely you remember hearing about the “Wannacry” malware attacks last year. It affected organizations around the world, but no sector was affected as badly as the healthcare sector. The UK was hit particularly hard – that attack forced the NHS to cancel 19,000 appointments, costing about £20m ($25m) during the course of one week, plus an additional £72m ($90m) in the subsequent cleanup and upgrades ...
Dec 19, 2018•44 min•Season 8Ep. 77
Turning autoantibodies into an early-warning system to beat cancer In episode 74, we spoke about early detection of skin cancer with Erik de Heus, the CEO of SkinVision. In that episode we talked about a smartphone app that uses AI to determine the likelihood that a mole or mark on your skin could be malignant. That technology has reviewed millions of images and has helped detect cancer in tens of thousands of people around the world. It’s a great solution and it’s making a huge impact and it wi...
Dec 13, 2018•26 min•Season 8Ep. 76
In this episode we're rejoined by another veteran of the program. He’s here for an encore appearance to tell us all about a new book that he’s released. He is the one and only, Dave Chase. Dave was the CEO and Co-founder of Avado, which was acquired by & integrated into WebMD & Medscape. Dave was named one of the most influential people in Digital Health due to his entrepreneurial success, his speaking and his writing. More recently he’s been a co-founder of Health Rosetta which is an or...
Dec 10, 2018•34 min•Season 8Ep. 75
SkinVision has added an AI weapon to the arsenal The overall rates of cancer occurrence continues to decline each year, however melanomas of the skin are on the rise. The CDC reports that in the period from 1999 to 2015, the rates of melanomas per 100,000 people increased from 15.1% to 22.1% – about a 50% increase. To battle this deadly disease, many organizations, like the CDC for example, are calling for more community prevention efforts. By combining education, mass media campaigns, and polic...
Nov 15, 2018•24 min•Season 8Ep. 74
Anne Wellington, Managing Director of Cedars-Sinai Accelerator, answers our six lightning round questions. Tune in to hear Anne's advice for innovators, favorite book and technology, and more. Find all the links and the full interview at digitalhealthtoday.com/73 . --- This episode of Digital Health Today is made possible thanks to our sponsors . Thank you! --- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Nov 14, 2018•9 min•Season 8Ep. 74
After graduating four classes and 37 companies, this leading accelerator is breaking new ground. Again. In this episode we’re talking about accelerators. Accelerators have been around since about 2005 and in the last 5 or 6 years, we’ve seen the development of new accelerators and programs that focus on the unique needs of entrepreneurs who are working to create new solutions for the healthcare sector. Accelerators are designed to accelerate the development of the ideas and solutions that will m...
Nov 09, 2018•37 min•Season 8Ep. 73
In this episode we explore the intersection of wearables, data and behavior change. We all know that behavior change is a key part to managing or reversing the effects of chronic conditions, but how can wearable technology enable people to make better decisions about their activity, diet, and sleep? Or do wearable trackers actually help us justify our bad behavior – like treating ourselves to a pumpkin spice latte as a reward because we hit our 10,000 steps for the day (you know who you are!). H...
Oct 31, 2018•33 min•Season 8Ep. 72
In this episode we’re talking about data. We dive into two key aspects of data access. One aspect is about what happens to our health data when we die. Millions of people die each year and the information stored in their lost to their families and future generations. The other aspect we cover in this episode relates to the popular topic of interoperability – the problem everyone loves to hate! For decades, this has been the subject of countless conferences and meetings and even congressional hea...
Oct 12, 2018•29 min•Season 8Ep. 71
On his first appearance on Digital Health Today ( episode 60) , Amir Kalali shared his views on digital therapeutics, drug discovery and neuroscience. During the lightning round, we also touched on some of his advice on how to make travel more enjoyable. We joked that we should do a whole episode on travel tips to survive the conference season…..well, it turns out that people liked the idea! In this episode, Amir discusses how to improve your travel experience with his top tips and hacks. From a...
Oct 09, 2018•28 min•Season 8Ep. 70
In this episode, we examine the problems faced by millions of people, their families, and caregivers, as they work to maintain their mental and physical health as they age. We look at new in-home technologies that combine Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, sensors and a range of other technologies to create very different solutions that help maintain independence and manage and monitor health. I’m joined on this episode by two guests. Our first guest is Dor Skuler, he’s the CEO and co-found...
Sep 25, 2018•28 min•Season 7Ep. 69
