A panel of licensed healthcare professionals preferred ChatGPT responses 79% of the time and rated ChatGPT responses as higher quality and more empathetic. Gulp. Understandably, some doctors are not happy with this study. And many were not pleased with me for not diving deeper into the complexities inherent in the research in my initial LinkedIn post. Message heard. Understood!

The news headlines and the initial study callouts overplay the immediate importance of ChatGPT in the physician-patient relationship. Physicians do not fair poorly.  However, the authors provide an inflection point that should not be ignored and must be acknowledged – Communication is Part of the Care and Cure! Physicians must be trained and have time to deal with patient curiosity and urgencies. #Patientexperience is different. They do not want to sit idle or silent. They are curious and concerned.

As generations have become more familiar with technology in their day-to-day lives, perhaps they place more trust in machines’ “unbiased nature” over humans. That assumption has led to the rise of “#misinformation.” We believe our Twitter feeds if we don’t explore the facts further. But, our screens reduce the press of needing to engage with people at the moment – they give us time to think and check in with this “on-call” information aggregator. To let the information sink in without being confronted about the next step. Doctors are too often pressured into an eight-minute per-patient provider reimbursement model. It’s not their fault – it’s the system that they must co-exist within. But that tilted system leads to the consumer seeking – needing – alternatives. If so, even imperfect ChatGPT4 and beyond will be a go-to.

There are changes afoot that we need to make happen sooner rather than later by moving minds, systems, and behaviors so that life-sustaining and life-saving approaches to patient care may eventually tip the scale of human survival toward health and wellness. However, we see data from a human perspective – sometimes self-interests or emotional needs for control. ChatGPT is the aggregate of data and human input. It is not divorced from us but a faint mirror of the human experience.

Yes, this study is worth reading. Yes, many have criticized its design and the intent of the authors. Yes, many are fearful that machines may replace physicians. But, the latter assumption is doubtful. Reading between the lines reinforces that, as industry colleague Ritesh Patel often says, “If it moves, digitize it!” People get their information in ways that are quick and convenient. That is a reality everyone in the health community must face!

The medical community and health communicators must rise to the moment if they want to harness this technology. Learn about ChatGPT and how it operates – its prompts. Also, read words from experts on the digital health news platform Medika Life including the insightful words by innovation theorist John Nosta. John will rock your boat; however, often, he points to where this is going.  Read the words of Tom Lawry, former head of Microsoft’s AI team, author of the best-seller Hacking Healthcare, and a global counselor on the practical application of AI.

Almost one year ago, I penned a piece titled: Health Possibilities We Cannot Afford to Block. There were 10 ideas/technologies included in that piece – #1 was #AI. That’s the heart of ChatGPT. Fixing one part of the healthcare puzzle is encouraging – but is it transformational? What can we do to make things work better for patients? Medicine can harness the power of ChatGPT to make it work even better for patients seeking healing solutions. Perhaps we can give physicians more time to help patients feel their doctors have and always are among their greatest advocates. We can also bring technology companies and leading medical associations together to talk about ChatGPT influence on trusted people-to-people connections, particularly with physician-patients.

Why do consumers turn to machines instead of people for medical counsel?  Well, we haven’t been able to clone or at least develop teaching models drawing upon the many outstanding physicians who demonstrate incredible patience and empathy for patient woes and questions – doctors like WebMD’s John Whyte and NHS’s and Microsoft’s Junaid Bajwa—many answers to consider. Among the most important are skill, collaboration and empathy.

Consumers may feel that devices are better listeners and work with them in partnership. We should expect this outcome due to the fragmented health ecosystem that consumers must navigate with difficulty. We must recognize that ChatGPT’s interest and popularity among health information seekers didn’t just happen. It is possible to realize that these same information seekers feel they are not getting what they seek.

Keep learning! This is not the end of humanity and the beginning of the Matrix – where people, software and machine battle for survival. The world will be changing in amazing ways in the short years ahead. Collaboration and communications go hand-in-hand as essential tools for healing.

The post Does Artificial Intelligence (#AI) Chatbot Outperform Physicians in Patient Experience? appeared first on Medika Life.

The digital health sector has grown significantly during the past decade, primarily mobilized to address unmet health-system and care needs. From $2 billion invested in 2011, that figure morphed 28-fold to $56 billion in 2021. In the shadow of the COVID pandemic, unprecedented investment poured into digital health during this two-year window, accelerating the adoption of AI, remote patient monitoring, telehealth, digital therapeutics, wearables, VR and more.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT HERE

Galen Growth and FINN Partners have collaborated – for a second time – to offer the entrepreneurial invention and investment industry a wealth of data that can guide financing life-sustain – perhaps saving – enterprises.  With this detailed report, data is shared not as “one-off” ideas but as puzzle pieces assembled to provide actional insight into a dynamic and evolving digital innovation sector that offers the transformative power to find effective detours around health ecosystem fragmentation.

The Damocles Sword of Access and Outcomes

The two companies avoided hype and biases to create this analysis enabling investors or potential business partners to weigh subjective decisions alongside objective facts in recognizing that the fragmented health ecosystem centers around preserving the system itself are vital to helping product innovators and patients navigate the healthcare labyrinth. That economic return on investment is weighted along with patient experience and outcomes.  This is the Damocles sword that inventors and investors must always consider – reimbursement that ensures access to care and meaningful and measurable outcomes.

While digital health venture capital fell short of the exorbitant funding of 2021, it closed ahead of 2020 levels. A closer look at the year-on-year development of funding value by funding stages shows that funding in 2022 nearly maintained the level of 2021 for the Early Stage and Series A funding rounds. However, it lagged behind the 2021 values across late-stage enterprise funding.

Investors learned and began to put their due diligence into action – targeting their energies toward specific geographies, sectors and needs (e.g., clinical trials).  They looked for therapeutic categories receptive to digital health innovation.  Within the disease-specific investments, oncology saw the highest participation of investors (9%), followed by mental health (7%) and women’s health (7%).  C-Suite leaders and their funders will do well to study the report data and to determine next steps.

Just Facts – 250+ Million Data Points Analyzed

While other studies highlight “media grabbers” and numbers disconnected from insight into where the money is going — from the investment stage to disease states— The Global State of Digital Health connected more than 250 million critical analytic dots. This report will guide C-Suite leaders, business development and therapeutic area heads, private equity funds, and financial analysts to make savvy decisions that drive return on investment—whether the goals be financial or patient care.

After an extraordinary two-year pandemic funding spree, there are apparent shifts in how investors place their economic bets. In this year of geopolitical turmoil and uncertain financial performance, digital health remains vital to the future of the health economy and in addressing public health press points. However, the development stages in which funds are directed, therapeutic categories selected, provider systems that demand transformation, and the regions where innovators establish headquarters are now investment factors.

Bottomline, funding levels exceed the pre-pandemic values. Digital health ventures are busy – submitting more than double the number of regulatory filings in 2021 than before the COVID era. There is a dramatic increase in partnering activity over 2021. If dollars and Euros are the only indicators of energy and commitment, it is easy to see why hand-wringing news stories prevail. Look at all the metrics that determine a vibrant sector.

In combining investment, regulatory filings for new product introductions, and partnerships, it is apparent that 2022 has been a formative period. Investors and innovators are putting in place the processes and systems – the people and science – that drive adoption and market traction. Investors are no longer looking at the sector as monolithic.

Putting the Right People and Processes on the Innovation Bus

If 2021 was the year of exuberance, 2022 was, as Jim Collins, author of the classic business bestseller “Good to Great,” dedicated to putting the right people – leaders and digital health sectors – on the bus. For example, medical diagnostics ventures had an exceptional year by representing 12 percent of regulatory filings of Digital Health ventures across the globe, taking the top spot for ventures with significant Clinical Evidence (Evidence Signal >40), and capturing the highest investment volume share (17%), with the total cluster funding value falling short of 2021 by 16 percent.

As the report suggests, 2022 is a turning point for digital health – a shift from Digital Health 1.0 to the 2.0 era, with Digital Health evolving into a more mature ecosystem. The recent data reaffirm that perspective and a fast-paced realignment occurring within the sector.

Looking at the past year, it is evident that investor mindsets matured in 2022, and lessons learned were applied. Obstacles – from regulatory hurdles to payer pushback – made incubators, accelerators and private equity groups much more selective in their investment and partnership decisions. They looked beyond “invention” to innovation – where the market seeks to embrace a new product and rally to Foreword its access within the health ecosystem.

The 2022 “Global State of Digital Health Report” does far more than examine monies invested in the broad digital health category — it offers a guide for decision-makers on how multiple data points translate into market shifts and how to pinpoint trends that provide predictive insight and best practices in investment strategies, across regions, Digital Health categories, therapeutic areas and technologies.

Decisions will be made based on this collaborative effort. This report offers a new perspective – the data this report provides – finding the balance between hype and hope to offer balanced optimism is a guide.

The post Digital Health Innovation Continues to Press Forward at Warp Speed appeared first on Medika Life.

I recently thought about the relationship between video game programming and brain activity. A new study suggests that playing video games is associated with improvements in brain activity and decision-making skills.

We begin with the observation that “historical neuroimaging studies suggest there may be beneficial effects of video game playing on attention, visuospatial, and memory abilities.”

Video games and brain function

A new study of college students provides some insights. For the brain imaging study, researchers recruited 47 subjects. All completed a questionnaire about video game playing for the past two years.

Researchers considered participants who played five or more hours weekly as video game players. Non-video game players engaged in gaming for less than one hour each week.

During functional imaging (MRI), the subjects performed a left-right moving dots task. They pressed a button in their right or left hand to indicate which direction the dots moved — or resist pressing either butting if no directional movement occurred.

The video gamers appeared faster by 190 milliseconds and more accurate by two percent with their responses compared with the non-video gamer group members.

On imaging, these differences appeared associated with changes in particular brain areas (including the thalamus, lingual gyrus, and supplementary motor area).

The researchers concluded that playing video games “potentially enhances several of the subprocesses for sensation, perception and mapping to action to improve decision-making skills.”

My take — Video games and the brain

I am not surprised that video gamers have better cognitive skills in some domains. Still, this study does not represent a randomized controlled experiment. In addition, whether the improvements in cognitive skills are relevant to real-world tasks is uncertain.

How much is video gaming time needed to improve select cognitive skills? And what are the downsides of video gaming besides addiction? The Georgia (USA) researchers are trying to answer these questions.

The researchers offer no conflicts of interest. Georgia State University provided funding.

Thank you for joining me in this look at a cheat code to improve your brain.

The post One Cheat Code to Improve Your Brain appeared first on Medika Life.

Not too long ago, our family joined the rare disease community. For years, our child exhibited a multitude of disconnected symptoms that all seemed to have different explanations, if they had explanations at all. The growing list included dizziness, rapid heart rate, stomach aches, rib pain, joint pain, unexpected dislocations, migraines and others.

Spider-Web-like Health Ecosystem

The symptoms accumulated, along with a cascade of specialist appointments, diagnostic tests and treatments. So did the hours of speaking – and negotiating – with our health insurance carrier. Along the way, we encountered all sorts of personalities in our spider-web-like health ecosystem, most compassionate and wanting to help our child, others bewildered or frustrated, and still others deaf to our worries and requests. The boldest and best among the health professionals we worked with were those willing to confess their uncertainty. In medicine, the response “I don’t know” is now an act of courage.

Fifty years ago, when modern medicine came of age, there were far fewer treatments for common, non-communicable diseases such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases or mental illness. While medicine has become more advanced and specialized, it has also become increasingly fragmented. The important family physician – who should have sufficient time and compensation to coordinate care – is often out-of-the-loop as patients rush to a myriad of medical specialists – each hyper-focused on their piece of the biological puzzle.

Fee-for-service care disadvantages primary care medicine and a patient’s coordinated care.  This financial model may work for simple – in and out – cases, but when it comes to chronic illnesses, it does not. Add to that the complexity of electronic medical record systems with limited interoperability. Now, specialists face “telephone-game” obstacles to accessing colleagues’ clinical notes and diagnostic data for a shared patient.

Now, shift from common non-communicable diseases to needle-in-the-haystack conditions.  It’s baffling for patients, parents and providers.  Over time, doctors may even become frustrated with these patients. People with multiple, disparate symptoms with no “one pill to heal them all” are sometimes labeled problem patients owned by no one. In these circumstances, young female patients often experience gender bias and provider judgments that the puzzling symptoms must be “in their heads.”

Communication is Part of the Care

When you hear hoofbeats behind you, think horses, not zebras. As 14^th-Century theologian and philosopher William of Occam would suggest, the more common explanation is the correct diagnosis. But medical students – and the doctors they become – need to be careful not to develop a foolish consistency.  This is not the Middle Ages of Medicine.  It is the 21^st Century of miracle medicine where patients must have a voice.

While it is easier to treat confusing and contradictory symptoms than to ask why a patient is experiencing them, savvy doctors rely more on their patients’ collaboration to help them solve medical mysteries. Information, communication, and advocacy can build a bridge linking doctors and patients.

Traumatized by the Medical System

But, most often in healthcare, the gatekeepers – providers and payers – feel they know best. This overconfidence can quickly unravel in the face of the challenges of rare whack-a-mole diseases. Physicians trying to help feel helpless and grasp at straws when their initial diagnoses and treatments do not solve their patient’s problems. Over time, many patients are traumatized by a medical system that seeks to help, but is seen as fallible.  As different solutions are sought, the system pays more and more for that same patient over time. The patient’s underlying illness remains unaddressed. No one wins.

This two-decade journey to arrive at my child’s diagnosis (Ehlers Danlos Syndrome) has taught me several lessons.

• TEAM:  Any successes result from the passion of individuals —parents, physicians, payers or policymakers — who are determined to work together to find solutions and willing to listen.

• TECH:  Good health information begins to force our fragmented health system to converge around the patient. When data is accessible, artificial intelligence finds needle-in-a-haystack solutions, uniting the myriad of like cases so that health professionals can learn, engage, and arrive at answers sooner.  Physicians who also engage patients promptly through the EHR system are more than answering the questions of anxious patients; they demonstrate partnership in the care.

• TRUST: I have seen how critical advocacy is. As a health communicator, I have been fortunate to serve on the boards of organizations such as the American Academy of Pain Medicine Foundation, American Heart Association, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, The Marfan Foundation and Let’s Win for Pancreatic Cancer, which unite healers and patients, and participate in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Part D Working Group: all great forums for accurate information that improve public health through informed decisions.

These lessons all point to passionate, informed collaboration as the key to restoring clarity and sanity to the fragmented health system and driving quality care for patients, whether they have common ailments or rare conditions. I integrate these lessons into my work to benefit clients and, most importantly, change the lives of the patients they serve.

Our family’s lives were changed by one cardiologist who dared to utter a simple sentence: “You need a team.” Her idea to put one together should not have been so revelatory, nor so atypical, but it was. She understood collaboration fundamentally and saw patients and their caregivers as her partners in healing.

Collaboration – Overused Word; Underused Strategy

For those whose work touches patient care and public health, I encourage you to collaborate, talk, and merge your experiences with others. Remember, this work directly touches people’s lives. This work makes a difference. Give thought to how you can bond with others to change the course of care. Collaboration is an often-overused word but is too often underplayed as a behavior.

I call on my readers and colleagues to look to the innovators of ideas, products and relationships and recognize that through collaboration with each other, we have an opportunity to recast the health ecosystem. Recognize that our work is a life-saving effort about being part of people’s transformational moments. And be courageous enough to know when you don’t know.  From there, we can begin the journey toward healing, together.

The post Looking for Zebras: Medical Mysteries and Transformational Patient Moments appeared first on Medika Life.

Greg Johnsen, chief executive officer of Lifelink Systems, a technology company focusing on addressing people’s health concerns using conversational AI solutions, puts patients first. Greg is drawing on his more than 30 years of software, technology and health expertise to keep the patient at the center of innovation and the care conversation.  Medika Life spoke with Greg about his vision for putting technology to work to improve people’s health experience and access to care.

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Gil Bashe: Tell me a bit of your vision, why this suite of technologies, and what problem did you want to leap into and solve for people who have pressing health needs?

Greg Johnsen: There’s an emerging class of technology that’s explicitly focused on patient and consumer experience. Conversational AI (artificial intelligence) has two sides; one side of that technology is all about consumers’ huge problems engaging with healthcare organizations in the digital space, whether it’s waiting for somebody online while on hold or trying to download a specific kind of app that is needed for this particular kind of visit and learning how to use it, finding it, and remembering to set up a username and a password, and not knowing how to do that.

The other side is that healthcare organizations have a massive problem delivering that kind of technology. It’s hard. It’s a complex technology and many of these organizations are very strapped for the resources and the capital to spin up these kinds of elegant modern, patient experience technology layers. 

Bashe: This nation’s health system is incredibly fragmented. Navigating between a physician, a payer, and a pharmacy. How do you begin to navigate such a fragmented system? How do you make those connections? And what’s your thought about making the pathway easier for the consumer?

Johnsen: Some of it is the modality itself. Suppose you think about the things that frustrate consumers when dealing with or engaging digitally. Things like setting up an account and getting a username and password. These chunky sorts of frustrating things make the log-on process simple if you just took them and went horizontally. That would be a huge win or just making the download experience disappear.

However, the other side is just the healthcare system or the organization side. They don’t have the people and human brains at scale to have the conversations to connect in real-time with people. We have to find a way to make the rules, smarts, understanding referrals and prescription pickups and questions that a consumer might have about dosing and make those kinds of conversations asynchronous. They can happen anytime; they don’t have to be real-time with them and driven by artificial intelligence. I’ll say automated, and that’s key because there’s no way you’ll get the coverage to give immediate, easy, convenient access to consumers unless you find a way to multiply the workforce by 10, even 100 times.

Bashe: When we deal with something so critical as our health needs, the process should be easy. Why is it so hard for patients who are, in theory, the customer of the system? Why is it that the system is the customer of itself?

Johnsen: Let’s face the music here a bit. That kind of experience is not new in the consumer world. There are industries where, whether it is entertainment, travel, finance, or banking, you are starting to see 24/7 available digital conversations. It can be as easy as chatting or texting with a friend. One of the barriers to the massive change in the patient experience is the healthcare organizations beginning to realize just how strategic and game-changing it can be.

The technology is around. It’s not like we have to spend a decade inventing the technology. There are companies, we are one of them, that have the infrastructure, tooling, services, know-how, and patterns to make big chunks of this work. Healthcare systems, health providers, and healthcare organizations have to get to where they see this as a strategic imperative. I believe that if you aren’t focusing your treasure and your strategic intent on creating this seamless digital experience for your consumer or patients, you are going to lose.

Bashe: I have to say the health system is a system and a culture; that culture crushes innovation. The health system is resistant to change. You just said that all the technologies exist. Can you talk about some of the technologies you are harnessing to work with the more progressive-minded clients in your portfolio?  What are the tools of technology that Lifelink Systems deploy that make a difference in this interaction between the consumer, their wellbeing, and the help and care and information they seek?   

Johnsen: The first thing I’ll say about some of this infrastructure is that in our case, we made a significant commitment that the place to land to the consumer is the mobile phone. That supercomputer that we all have in our pockets, that we are on 3 to 5 hours a day. What we are doing on that thing is texting and chatting. The time a consumer spends on a messaging app is now more than they spend on a social network, so it’s language based.

The technology is language-based conversation engagement on a mobile phone with little to no friction in terms of how you get there. That technology is super helpful in pre-visit prep, appointment reminders, and intake cases. We are doing this at scale, and we are doing this with health care systems and life sciences companies. We have millions of patients who get a text message with a link they click on three days before their appointment, the conversation starts, and it can happen any time they are ready. Instead of getting to a clinic or waiting room where you sit and get a clipboard with papers that you fill out, all this can be done ahead of time virtually with digital assistance.

The mobile phone becomes the worker, and it’s not like the healthcare system gave the patient a bunch of work to do; they sent out a digital worker to help do the job. That technology is conversational, mobile, workflow-based and straightforward, meaning the system knows what’s next. All that knowledge must be in the system to feel like intelligence, but it delivers value to the consumer.

Bashe: The whole vision around consumer experience with medicine is going through a bit of a shift. We are talking about diversity and inclusion. We are talking about senior disparities. We are talking about the future of drug development. Conversational AI has tremendous potential. Do you see conversational AI making remote participation in clinical trials more feasible? How do you see diversity and inclusion cascading? Even more concern for many is senior care. Where do you see this going in the future and making medicine friendlier and more accessible?

Johnsen: You just described another zone of medicine and healthcare where friction is the biggest enemy. You think about drug development and clinical trials, the tens of thousands of people that need to be relocated for a clinical trial not just for one moment, but for many moments over many years in some cases. One of the most telling statistics for clinical trials is the cost that manufacturers and CROs ensure between enrolling a subject into a clinical trial and that subject’s first office visit; sometimes, 50% or more drop out.

Somebody takes the time to find out about a clinical trial, fills an enrollment form, and nobody talks to them for the next 5, 7, or 10 days. It’s all about how you connect with the patient. How do you onboard them? How do you give them this modern experience to feel connected, held, graduated, and guided through this process. Today it’s primarily people, and it’s people calling on phones trying to catch these participants and find them. The answer is digital – mobile and conversational.

We see many opportunities for conversational AI and mobile phones in clinical trials, and in rare drug specialty patient services, hubs where connecting with the patient is critical.

Bashe: During the high of the COVID era, many clinical trials collapsed. Neurology trials and oncology trials did continue but at a significantly reduced rate. Clinical sites have felt concerned or confused about decentralization and remote patient participation. The drug development system was based upon sites and contract research organizations having special agreements with sites. Does conversational AI again expand the influence of set sites to be set and remote? What’s your perspective on that in terms of decentralization and the future of hybrid?

Johnsen: Any interaction, conversation, or protocol that is defined and can be executed by a human is a candidate for a digital equivalent. That goes from scheduling to answering questions to informing consent and collecting data. All these interactions should have a shadow digital equivalent story. The degree to which a site takes advantage of this infrastructure or not depends on the protocol, timing, and sponsor; there are two giant gears at play here: humans and physical sites.

The digital shadow that can handle most of those conversations and those flows can go to the patients wherever that subject is, and then the in-between is humans going to the home. Nurses are deployed to do the blood draw or make it super convenient when the clinic comes to the home, but why not do the intake before the nurse gets to the home? Why not deliver the test result with a digital conversation after the nurse has been at the home? Hybrid is the right concept, but you need the right conversational infrastructure to properly adjust the various digital dials along the care spectrum.

Bashe: Who sets the dial? Is it the site, is it the participant, is it mutual, or is it the trial’s sponsor?

Johnsen: I imagine that at the end of the day, the sponsor is driving and is on the hook, for ensuring that the clinical trial is executed correctly and that it does move through the approval process, and one of the significant inputs to that successful execution is a burden on the site, patient, speed, getting through there and getting high-quality relevant data. Not just the data on the clinical trial itself, but patient experience data so your subsequent clinical trial is better informed and more efficient. Sponsors need to go through their evolution because it’s about to get more complicated. The opportunity is enormous to get super-efficient and great at data collection so that you can transform clinical trials.

Bashe: Many people think of chatbots or conversational AI as the perfection of the voice instead of the epitome of the interaction. When you say conversation, you also mean connection. Is that correct?

Johnsen: Once you know where you are headed, you can begin to test what kinds of interactions and dialogues are most effective for the patient in getting to that outcome. It is open, fascinating stuff, and all these little things that feel stylistic add up to make a difference, and we have seen these things make a difference.

We found out that it is more effective in digital conversion than giving somebody the complete form where you ask all the questions at once. People stay engaged in that dialogue form longer and complete the workflow, even if it takes longer than in a platform where they see everything at once.  That flexibility is critical, and it’s hard to do with a portal, an app, or even by a human.

Bashe: There seems to be a real differentiator here. The emphasis is on technology supporting the journey, not technology as the offer. Can you share a brief story about a customer saying, “I get the fact that the experience the consumer will have through this journey is a reflection on me; it speaks to what our brand and our corporate image is about?” Can you share any insight where a customer says, “we need this because this truly reflects who we aspire to be in the healthcare system?”

Johnsen: We have a customer in the specialty pharma space, and they are a leader. Every time a patient is prescribed one of these costly therapies somewhere along the way, the manufacturer will invest a fair amount to ensure that the consumer gets the support they need.

To get through all the financial hurdles, get to therapy, and start getting well again. This customer took our technology and gave it a persona that reflected the values of their call-center team, like another agent. They gave her a name. She is the one that meets the patient on their mobile phone when that patient gets prescribed medication, and she lets the patient know all the work she is going to do for them, all the work she can perform, what she is available for, she understands how they want to be engaged. I think that persona found a way to create the essence, and the language, and the feel of the service in the way they wanted.

That would be tricky in traditional digital approaches because the technology has to have enough skills to make adjustments. Still, also, she is evolving; she is getting new skills, she started doing a particular set of things, and now she is doing more things. She is front and center for the company because she exudes the brand, feeling, and personality.

Bashe: Let’s look a little bit into the future, but not too far. Six to twelve months down the road, conversational AI is making such a significant headway, and we talked about some of the places where you and your community are helping the health system make those advances. We spoke about provider systems, specialty medication groups, decentralized clinical trials, and pharmaceutical industry sponsors and where this is going. What is the next segment, the next innovation advance you see down the road?

Johnsen: it is less about creating something new. There is a lot of innovation in tech available, and even today, the healthcare systems, pharma sponsors, and CROs, are just on the first pinning. We will see a new set of metrics arrive: what percentage of your total interactions with patients, customers and subjects are digital? How many digital conversations did you launch this year? And what you need to see is a universe in which you are getting a massive scale in which 80% of your interactions are digital, but your total number of interactions is 10 times what they were before.

We see innovation already. Healthcare systems, pharma companies, insurance, employers, and all these sectors that deal with consumers in healthcare need to amplify their digital conversation envelope by orders of magnitude. 

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Conversational AI is transforming many industries into customer friendly conversations and connections – travel, finance, consumer sales and finally health.  Face it. It is still easier to order a pizza online than make a doctor’s appointment.  Through conversational AI, Greg and LifeLink Systems are helping patients describe their symptoms through a series of questions meant to navigate around wait times obstacles.  Will the health ecosystem suddenly become easier to engage?  Will patients be directed to the right medical experts to resolve their concerns?  That is exactly what Greg and his colleagues are working to achieve.

The post When It Comes to Medicine – The Smartest Person in the Room Is the Patient! appeared first on Medika Life.

Healthcare ethnography can help your hospital to discover front-line insights to transform patient care and the patient experience and save money.

In some places, outdated industry standards have become ritualized. A proactive approach to innovation and improvement is not always possible for hospital staff immersed in their daily routines.

Ethnography offers your hospital a solution to achieve and maintain operational efficiency in what is often a disruptive healthcare environment.

What is Ethnography?

Ethnography studies the culture and habits of people in specific situations. In healthcare, it can be applied to:

• Explain discrepancies between what patients say and what they do.
• Identify needs that people can’t articulate explicitly.
• Describe both usage and meaning of healthcare services.
• Put a human face on market data through real-life stories.
• Evaluate current products or services or create brand new ones.
• Help collect and organize multiple viewpoints and represent patients in an unbiased manner.
• Directly provide patient models that can quickly generate many good ideas.

Gaining front line insights from the viewpoint of patients, their families, and carers is essential to improve the quality of patient care. Our ethnographers use this qualitative research methodology to understand how to improve individual departments within your hospital, leading to greater patient and family satisfaction. The care coordination within a bundled payment model is also enhanced.

Our holistic approach involves gathering subjective insights to accompany data analytics and equip your hospital with the tools it needs for continuous innovation and improvement.

Our Process

The first part of the process is to illustrate a Patient Journey Map™ to identify existing challenges within your hospital. Our experienced ethnographers then collaborate with your team to create sustainable solutions.

One pathway to this process (VIE Healthcare), is to adopt a holistic approach that engages employees, patients, and their families by examining and analyzing their behaviors, attitudes and emotions.

The result is the discovery of valuable front line insights to empower your organization with opportunities that innovate and improve products and services to meet those needs.

Our team of ethnographers can uncover and solve hidden, complex issues in the delivery of your care and operational performances across your hospital, which can result in millions of dollars in lost revenue.
Our process involves:

• Engagement with, and interviewing your employees, allowing them to contribute individual insights and ideas. This helps us to recommend improvements and enhance patient care.
• Shadowing surgical cases from the front line to observe the decision-making process and staff performance. This gives us the insight to identify inefficiencies or areas where shortcuts are made often due to a lack of effective training or awareness of regulations.

Benefits of Ethnography in Healthcare

In summary, ethnography offers numerous benefits in your hospital, including:

• Target the actual needs of patients and families, saving valuable time and resources.
• Identify process improvements that have a tangible effect on your staff’s daily activities.
• Improve staff satisfaction by allowing them to be heard and addressing their needs.
• Redesign care through a collaborative approach for patients, families and staff.
• Multi-disciplinary care coordination throughout the care continuum.
• Improve patient satisfaction scores that directly impact bundle payments and reimbursement.
• Transform the patient experience.
• Reduce your hospital purchased costs.

Ethnography for Exceptional Patient Care

The insights we discover during our analysis reveal the unspoken needs of your patients and families to transform the patient experience and deliver a smoother patient journey through your organizational boundaries.

Our insights reduce errors, duplications and delays often experienced during processes such as “hand-offs.”

The result is improved health outcomes and a more enriching experience for patients and their families, positioning your hospital as a thought leader in the healthcare sector. As value-based care comes to the forefront, it becomes an essential part of driving margin improvement for the survival of your hospital.

The post Healthcare Ethnography: Discover Front Line Hospital Insights appeared first on Medika Life.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Aug. 16, 2021 — HealthTap, a leading virtual healthcare provider, today announced that HealthTap Enterprise clients can add Care Orchestration into their HealthTap employee telemedicine plans. Care Orchestration encourages timely use of employee health and wellness benefits, based on personalized recommendations from HealthTap doctors.

“There is no authority more influential, trusted, and effective in deciding which healthcare services you need than your own doctor,” said HealthTap CEO Sean K. Mehra. “Doctors know their patients best. By equipping them with new information about what other benefits their patients can access with Care Orchestration, doctors can be even more effective by routing them to the most clinically appropriate and effective services, exactly when they need them.”

With Care Orchestration, doctors have visibility into the benefits that organizations offer employees, which can range from diabetes management and back pain programs to fertility counseling, dental care, and mental health support. During visits, doctors make relevant recommendations about benefits that address specific concerns and diagnoses, helping employees to take full advantage of resources provided by employers.

For example, HealthTap’s Dr. Geoff Rutledge orders diabetes screening tests for a patient, whose employer provides HealthTap to all team members. The tests indicate prediabetes, which can be treated through lifestyle changes. Dr. Rutledge sees that his patient’s workplace offers a diabetes prevention program, but they are unaware of this benefit. Dr. Rutledge encourages his patient to register for the program to reduce the risk of developing diabetes.

The need for benefits education and awareness continues to grow, and HR leaders are seeking ways to drive meaningful engagement in the programs in which they have invested. According to a 2021 Voya Financial survey, 35% of employed individuals report not fully understanding any of the employee benefits they’re enrolled in. The numbers are higher among younger workers, with 54% of millennials reporting that they don’t understand their benefits.

While many organizations offer comprehensive benefits, most employees don’t take full advantage of what’s available. Some are unaware of their benefits, while others may be confused about them. Both the employer and the employee lose in this situation. Employees don’t get the care and services they need, while employers pay for unused benefits.

HealthTap’s Care Orchestration changes this paradigm, injecting the voice of doctors into benefits communications. By helping people better understand their benefits during visits, doctors can play an even greater role in supporting stronger health and wellbeing for their patients.

About HealthTap

HealthTap is a virtual-first, affordable urgent- and primary-care clinic, providing top-quality physician care nationwide to Americans with or without insurance.  Our proprietary, easy-to-use, and innovative apps and electronic medical record apply Silicon Valley standards to effectively engage consumers and doctors online to increase the equity, accessibility, and efficiency of ongoing medical care for consumers, providers, employers, and payers. In addition, with HealthTap, businesses can offer virtual primary care to employees for less than the cost of free coffee. HealthTap’s US-based board-certified physicians are available throughout North America. For more information, visit www.healthtap.com.

Media Contact:
Jordan Dinneen
media@healthtap.com            
(929) 900-5983

SOURCE HealthTap

Related Links

http://www.healthtap.com

The post HealthTap Launches Care Orchestration to Drive Timely Use of Employee Benefits appeared first on Medika Life.

1. Poor Design

Without a doubt, the most commonly raised issue for existing solutions and new-to-market products that rely on user input, whether patient or provider input. The refrain “the system doesn’t allow me to do x, y, or z” can be heard across every field of healthcare in America. This speaks to one single cause. Poor design based on a limited understanding of the ecosystem you are engaging with and as it’s a frequent refrain, many companies, in fact, the large majority, are at fault here.

You are producing AI and data-driven software that, while efficient at performing its assigned tasks, lack the ability to perform accurately or meaningfully as your data capture is incomplete. You’re not asking the right questions and offering your user the breadth of input they require for their responses. The result is an incomplete picture and as you’re probably all too well aware, in healthcare that can prove fatal at worst, and at best, result in, you guessed it, terrible adoption.

You’ve chosen one of the most complex ecosystems to distribute a product into. Not only is the healthcare sector incredibly diverse with wide-ranging needs to address the most complex piece of machinery on the plant (the patient), this ecosystem is already filled with a multitude of products that you need to be able to communicate with seamlessly. There is no standardized Windows, Apple, or Android platform to base development on. Healthcare is the programmer’s version of data hell and you need to be ready to toss out all your preconceived ideas out the window.

To develop an effective AI or digitally driven software solution for healthcare(we’re not referring to cutting edge medical devices and tools here, but rather the software that drives much of the industry) it’s time to go back to med school 101 and that involves being able to draw on a full picture. One that includes both patient and provider views. Fail either and you’re doomed. This might sound patently obvious, it clearly isn’t and it this lack of a proper appreciation for the issues faced in the day-to-day practices of patients and providers that undoes most new solutions.

Startups need to spend time in their doctor’s and patients’ shoes. Live with them, shadow them and develop systems that solve their problems without creating new ones. Only once you can relate to their experiences can you arguably develop suited tools and solutions. You can’t provide the answers when you’re not even sure which questions to ask. Embed yourself and learn first. Then do what you do best. Build solutions.

2. Inbuilt Bias

I’ve broached this topic before and it’s a critical one that speaks directly to patient safety. Depending on which areas of the United States you’re pushing your services into, you’re addressing a multilingual, multiracial patient and provider landscape. The time for developing solutions for a white middle-class patient has died a well-deserved death and is now ascribed to history. The fact that so few platforms address equitable access to healthcare successfully is almost criminal, not only from an ethical perspective but when viewed from monetizing any solution.

Dude, you just missed half your customers. Seriously. Do you know how many Asians, Hispanics, and other nationalities intentionally avoid using your solution because you’ve built bias into the system? What about the elderly? You’ve forgotten about half your market and that has two major consequences. Let’s examine both.

• You‘ve just cut your income stream in half and potentially rendered your product obsolete by not making it inclusive. It will suffer from poor adoption rates and as users discover its limitations you will hemorrhage clients. Trust me, go ahead and design for privilege, intentionally or otherwise, and let me know how that turns out.
• You‘ve developed a product that is in direct contradiction to healthcare’s much-vaunted goals of equitable and accessible care for all. We’re not there yet, but if your solution is part of the problem rather than seeking to address it, you can see where this is going right? EVERYONE, irrespective of race, color or creed should benefit or be able to benefit from your solution. If not, then it clearly isn’t fit for purpose.

Create products that are inclusive and allow for varying levels of access and when all else fails, still allow for human interaction. Do this well, and in the current market, you are ensured of spectacular success.

3. Flexibility

The ability to change and adapt to a fluid working dynamic like the one posed by healthcare is key to your product’s success. No matter how much homework you’ve done, how inclusive your system is, and how much money you’ve spent on testing, you’re dealing with human beings and ever-changing dynamics in terms of protocols and treatments. Build a rigid system that cannot be easily and rapidly fine-tuned and you will quickly find yourself in customer service hell.

IT companies often adopt an attitude of “fault tolerance levels”, waiting for the reports of glitches and flaws to mount up before they effect system-wide repairs. Healthcare is no different and if you want to really get a leg up on the competition, your ability to respond quickly and meaningfully is key. Not only will you reduce customer service loads, but your solution will also ingratiate itself with providers, who in turn, will ensure widescale adoption and brand loyalty. Win, Win.

Ignore issues, calls for updates, changes, and additions to a system and you’re committing brand suicide. At best, you’re alienating your customer and at worst, your inability to respond to requests for change can cost patients their lives. Neither outcome is desirable Build it so you can change it. Easily and quickly. This one aspect alone, coupled with simple and accessible customer service, will set your product light-years apart from competitors.

4. Understand the problem you’re addressing

This isn’t about poor design, although the two concepts overlap. it is about not correctly understanding the parameters of the problem you are seeking to address and this can have major ramifications when it comes to product adoption. One GP or a hospital that faces an issue is not reflective of the entire industry and problems can often be localized to an area or state. Do your homework. Understand the extent of the problem before you set about creating solutions.

Keep in mind that solutions don’t make users’ lives more complex. This is at odds with the whole idea of a solution and yet, the market is flooded with clever ideas that practitioners don’t need, much less have time for. Does your product address a widespread issue faced by healthcare workers, does the solution simplify their lives, and finally, is it simple to use. Tick all three or head back to the drawing board. Again, these are basics, but basics that are often lost sight of in our eagerness to bring our version of a solution to the marketplace. Any addition to a doctor’s workload that doesn’t translate into time saved and better patient outcomes is doomed to failure. Understand the problem you’re addressing and ensure the solution is appropriate.

Develop working models and consult with your users along every step of development. Changing tack is easily done when you’re in the development phase, less so when your distributing.

5. Accessibility

Possibly the most obvious of all, and yet, applications are still designed that will only function in the chrome browser, require the latest computers to run, and offer users complex and logic-defying UI’s. Dependence on a stable internet connection is another issue faced by many applications. kill the internet and you kill the application. While many solutions require an internet connection for functionality, many don’t, and making a system available offline increases reliability and access. 

Offering your solution across all platforms and browsers also greatly increases adoption and again, for a world that loves digital but doesn’t enjoy total coverage, don’t ignore your users that don’t as yet have access to smart devices. Integrate voice for people who don’t own a smartphone, who may not have internet, or who may simply not be familiar with our technical world. They also require access to medical help and the solutions you are creating. Be innovative and include them.

Ensure application UI’s are user-friendly, that visually impaired users can access the system and that font sizes can be adjusted. Inclusivity is your guiding principle for any healthcare application, particularly patient-facing solutions.

Going Commercial

There are fortunes to be made and lost in healthcare, especially in the trending arena of digital health. That hunger for profit and the need to generate turnover is often achieved at the expense of the patient and the provider. If your sole purpose is revenue, your experience with healthcare will most probably be singular and short-lived. The industry is unlike any other and while commercial interests do currently skew the medical landscape there are moves afoot to set the world to rights,

Idealists, purists, and ethical professionals want to ensure a return to patient-focused medicine, where the patient serves as both the motivation for and the final purpose behind the industry. Again, companies who are perceived as furthering the commercial exploitation of healthcare and patients will be spurned for their more ethical competitors. This patient-focused movement is alive, well, and growing within healthcare. Developers would be well placed to ensure their primary focus is improving the lot of the patient, even if that means occasionally forsaking profits and shareholders.

The post 5 Key Pitfalls That Compromise or Sink Digital Health Startups appeared first on Medika Life.

At a glance

Company Name: Zipline
Established: July, 2011
Company Type: Private, Series D, 233 Million USD
Field: Medical Supply and Logistics, Aviation, Robotics
Location: Half Moon Bay, California, USA
Official Website: FlyZipline.com
Vision: Our mission is to provide every human on Earth with instant access to vital medical supplies.

Core Product/Innovation/Service

Every now and then technology meets innovation and the result is a breathtakingly simple and effective product or service. Zipline may just be the best thing to hit healthcare since sliced bread. Fortune magazine calls the company a 21st-century solution to medicine’s “last mile” problem. It can save lives and deliver emergency medical supplies into remote and inaccessible areas. It works, it is currently being used with huge success in Rwanda and it’s starting to gain traction in remote areas near to you.

In a nutshell, Zipline delivers vaccines, blood, and other life-saving medicines into remote areas using drones. It’s the pharmacy version of Amazon taken to the skies in electrically powered small drones capable of operating almost anywhere and in climate or weather. 

The system works as follows. A doctor orders medicine using his phone, from a remote village based, in theory, anywhere. The village is inaccessible by road, but that isn’t a problem for Zipline. They despatch an autonomous drone, programmed with flight paths and local terrain information to the GPS co-ordinates of the doctor’s phone. 

On arrival at the GPS location, the drone descends to deployment height and drops its payload, a capsule or box attached to a small paper parachute. Minutes later the vaccine or medication is in the doctor’s hands and can be administered to the patient. It’s sheer genius and the best implementation of cutting-edge technology being deployed successfully into healthcare we’ve seen. 

Keller Rinaudo, the CEO and co-founder of Zipline explains the process in more detail.

Zipline has been rolled out in Rwanda and has proven itself, spectacularly so. Currently, a distribution center similar to the one pictured below can deploy more than a ton of medical supplies in one day. Zipline flies more than 40,000 km (over 25,000 mi) each day and they’ve logged over 6,000,000 km flown to real customers.

The little drones can operate in extremes: from the hot California desert to the rainy mountains of Rwanda. Zipline’s drones fly through real-world weather, day and night, carrying a payload of up to 1.75kg ((3.85 lb) each. That’s three units of life saving blood and multiple drones can be dispatched simultaneously to a set of coordinates.

Delivery of Covid vaccines to remote areas, quickly and without the need for extended refrigeration (they’re used as they arrive) is promising to open a whole new sector to these intrepid little aviators. Watch the video below to see just how amazing these drones are.

Meet the founders

Keller Rinaudo
CEO | Co-Founder
Email: None
Bio: Keller C. Rinaudo is an American robotics and autonomous airplane entrepreneur and the CEO and co-founder of Zipline. He was also the CEO and a co-founder of Romotive, a former company established in 2011 with Kickstarter funding that made inexpensive small robots that use mobile phones as their computing system, machine vision system, and wireless communication system. Romotive essentially shut down in 2014 and morphed into Zipline. Keller is a Harvard graduate (magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a 3.9 GPA) and grew up rock climbing. At one point, he was ranked in the top 10 in sport climbing
Connect: Linkedin | Twitter

Keenan Wyrobek
CTO | Co-Founder
Email: None
Bio: Roboticist Keenan Wyrobek’s first career was founding Willow Garage which created ROS (Robot Operating System) that now makes robotic components inter-operable. After creating a foundation to sustain this vital piece of open source software, Keenan went in search of new engineering challenges. He became intrigued with the idea of helping developing countries deliver crucial medical supplies to areas that are poorly served by roads. He co-founded Zipline, the VC-funded venture that is improving the lives of people in rural Rwanda. 
Connect: Linkedin | Twitter

Will Hetzler
Co-Founder
Email: None
Bio: Will Hetzler graduated from Harvard in 2009 as an economist. He worked as a consultant for Oliver Wyman for over three years, advising Fortune 500 aviation companies on engine maintenance, technical sourcing, supply chain and risk management.In 2014, he co-founded Zipline International in Silicon Valley to make drones to deliver critical medical supplies to remote parts of the world. He led the company’s work in Africa and established Zipline’s partnership with the Government of Rwanda. In 2018, he became the head of business development for the US and Canada.
Connect: Linkedin | Twitter

Connect with Zipline

The post Zipline: The New Gold Standard for Technology-Based Innovation in Healthcare appeared first on Medika Life.

At a glance

Company Name: Vitaccess
Established: 2014
Company Type: Incorporated in 2017, Parent Vitaccess SA
Field: Digital Healthcare, Biopharma, Data
Location: 2nd Floor Nucleus House, 2 Lower Mortlake Road, Richmond, Greater London; TW9 2JA
Contact Number: +44 (0) 1865 818 983

About

Vitaccess is a multi-award-winning digital healthcare research scale-up and strategic consultancy, founded in 2017.

A full-service digital research provider with in-house Real-World Evidence (RWE) and Analytics, Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR), Localization, Product and Content Hub teams, Vitaccess offers RWE solutions to the biopharmaceutical market via a product suite comprising a customizable cloud-based smartphone app platform, data analytics and visualization dashboards, and ISO:17100-certified localization into any language, any country.

Biopharmaceutical customers can launch RWE studies rapidly, with the highest levels of rigor, data quality, UI/UX design and security. Commercial and non-commercial researchers can apply for access to datasets. Their digital studies bring together patients, their advocates, and healthcare decision makers, to drive forward real change in care.

Vitaccess boasts almost 50 members on its team, located across the UK, France, Spain, Switzerland, and the East Coast of the USA. Vitaccess has recently been selected to join the prestigious Tech Nation Upscale 6.0 program. 

Core Product/Innovation/Service

Their Datasets include;

• The Melanoma UK digital registry is an observational, non-interventional, longitudinal study that gathers data regarding the impact of melanoma and drug treatment in the real world.
• The CMT&Me app is an international, observational, non-interventional, longitudinal study that gathers data regarding the impact of Charcot-Marie-Tooth and drug treatment in the real world.
• The MyRealWorld® MG app is an international, observational, non-interventional study that gathers data regarding the impact of myasthenia gravis and drug treatment in the real world.

Non-commercial researchers can apply for data access for the Melanoma UK digital registry and the CMT&Me study via the Vitaccess website.

Information includes:

• An overview of the study and its objectives
• Details about study oversight, including a list of SAB members
• Data request form (see below or link directly)

For data requests that require work from our data scientists (e.g. developing a protocol, statistical analysis plan or data extraction), Vitaccess will liaise with the applicant researchers to develop a proposal.

In addition, Vitaccess offers a wide range of related services, including Analytics, HEOR Consulting, Patient-Centered Outcomes, Localization and their Vitaccess RWE Platform

Meet the founder

MARK LARKIN PHD
CEO | Founder
Email: None
Bio: Mark founded Vitaccess in 2017, after more than 15 years in consultancy, with the aims of harnessing the power of digital technology to better represent the voice of patients in drug development and market access, as well as working with fellow experts to provide realistic experience-based market access and HEOR consultancy. Mark has a BA, MA and PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK.
Connect: Linkedin | Twitter

Connect with Vitaccess

The post Vitaccess is Reshaping Digital Health in the U.K. appeared first on Medika Life.