Healthcare

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 23 sep 2014

Technology's potential to transform healthcare is accepted by all the stakeholders of the healthcare ecosystem. Stanford MedX is one of the conference where thought leaders, physicians, academics and entrepreneurs participate to discuss this technology facilitated transformation and the related issues and challenges. Dr. Robert Pearl, the CEO of The Permanente Medical Group & a Stanford University professor, shares his views on slow adoption of some healthcare technologies in American healthcare system - (1) Many New Technologies Don't Address The Real Problem: Entrepreneurs & innovators should focus on goals of the end-users; Few of the currently available wearable devices & apps have demonstrated that they solve major health problems (2) No One Wants To Pay For New Technologies: Financial difficulties are inherent in the currently used fee-for-service payment model. Doctors & hospitals will resist the adoption of technologies that lowers costs or reduce patient visits as they are rewarded for volume & cost of provided services; Pay-for-value model would be more conducive for faster technology adoption (3) Physicians Are Reluctant to Show Patients Their Medical Information: In past most doctors believed that sharing information with patients could be harmful. But this is changing with EHR (Electronic Health Records) and information technology. But most exam-rooms still don't have user-friendly computers to easily share information with patients; The solution could be tablet computers with fast data entry & mobility alongwith providing easy access to sharing data with patients (4) Technology Slows Down Many Physicians: Data entry in structured format of EHR is helpful in the long run as it prevents medical errors but at present it is adding to physician's time; Effective approach would be to reduce physician's data entry time by creating software applications that include macros & smart lists and medical errors can by reduced through apps with alerts (5) Many Physicians See Technology As Impersonal: Baby boomer physicians still consider 'human-touch' & 'personalized-care' as synonymous; Personalized-care' from a patient's perspective is about being able to decide how, when and where they obtain information and treatment and today's busy and working people seek healthcare through technology enabled alternatives that saves both time & money. Read on...

Forbes: 5 Things Preventing Technology Adoption In Health Care
Author: Robert Pearl

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 aug 2014

'Digital Transformation' is happening in the pharmaceutical industry with 'Internet of Things' getting personalized with wearables, injectables and even plantables. As pharma landscape is going through turbulent times, with fewer chances of blockbuster drugs coming to market and hightened competition with cheaper generic drugs, big pharma is looking for new opportunities beyond the drugs that is termed as 'beyond-the-pill' strategy. According to Joseph Jeminez of Novartis, 'Beyond-the-pill is a logical and inevitable path forward for all. Creating value by embedding products into a holistic offering with the aim to improve patient outcomes and provide tangible competitive advantages.' Companies intend to pursue long-term relationships with patients through holistic offerings like telehealth servies, wellness programs and improved chronic disease management. Big data plays an important role in 'beyond-the-pill' strategy as devices create large amount of information. This information facilitates the higher level of engagement between the pharma companies and individual patients. Joseph Kvedar of Center for Connected Health at Partners Healthcare says, 'The engagement becomes the product. The therapeutic is almost a giveaway or marketing expense. There aren't many better ways to develop a relationship with a patient than through a prescription for a medication to treat a chronic illness.' For success of the strategy companies have to overcome challenges related to patients feeling comfortable with sharing their private medical information, internal organizational changes that require multidisciplinary approach and collaboration, successfully managing increased interactions with customers and achieving improved long-term health outcomes. Read on...

Forbes: Digital Transformation Moves Pharma 'Beyond the Pill'
Author: Jason Bloomberg

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 26 jun 2014

Oxford University's Global Health Network has created a technological tool (SiteFinder) to assist scientists involved in global health to find and collaborate with other research groups around the world. Researchers working in low income and developing countries will now find it easier to find collaborators that were previously out of their reach. According to Trudie Lang, Director of Global Health Network, 'What's tended to happen is that teams like the Gates Foundation's product-development partnerships stick with the sites they know, and go back to the same sites again and again. But we would like to see greater equity in research, with wider access to these collaborations, and this would empower more people to have the confidence to take part in research.' Read on...

Women News Network: Global collaborative research on disease can strengthen regional healthcare
Author: NA

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 31 may 2014

Researchers from MIT, Lisa Freed and Martin Kolewe, used fabrication techniques from microelectronics industry to make thin sheets of biorubber with microscale rectangular holes of uniform dimensions and then stacked these with precise positions of pores one over the other. The stacking process was done with the help of a programmable machine adapted from electronics industry used to stack thin material layers to build circuit boards and integrated circuit (IC) packages. Researchers demonstrated pore patterns that could produce 'interwoven musle-like bundles' out of mouse muscle cells and rat neonatal heart cells. According to Professor Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic of Columbia University, this new scaffolding allowed the researchers to form tissue that mimics an important structural quality of heart tissue called 'anisotropy'. Freed and Kolewe say that their research provides unprecedented level of control over arrangement of pore networks and can lead to 'a whole new design space' to further experiment the 3-dimensional factors that influence cell alignment and tissue formation and could serve as a platform for the development of implantable organ tissue. Read on...

MIT Technology Review: A Manufacturing Tool Builds 3-D Heart Tissue
Author: Mike Orcutt

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 25 may 2014

Eric Topol, in his book 'The Creative Destruction of Medicine', explores and explains the transformatory shifts taking place in healthcare with more democratization and power in the hands of patients as compared to caregivers and healthcare providers. Present state of our world with technological advancements and digital devices becoming part of our daily lives, has totally altered and transformed our communications and interactions. In other words, our world has been 'Schumpetered', based on the theory of 'creative destruction' by Joseph Schumpeter that describes transformation that is brought about by radical innovation. Similar transformations are beginning to happen in healthcare. The digitization process of human life is made possible due to the convergence of digital technologies and processes - remote and continuous health monitoring with wearable smart devices, three dimensional reconstruction of any part of the body, hand-held high resolution imaging devices to capture information anywhere, determination of a person's genome sequence, advance health information systems, availability of downloadable laboratory reports and medical records etc. The healthcare can now be individualized and personalized contrary to the traditional population-level model of practicing medicine. With genome and DNA sequencing, it is possible to dissect, decode and define individual granularity at the molecular level, from the beginning to the end of life. David Gelernter introduced the concept of WikiWatson computer that could bring the world's medical literature and clinical expertise at one platform for global health improvement. Medical community, government and life science industry have to converge and consolidate their efforts to embrace, adopt and facilitate healthcare innovation for the benefit of society. Read on...

US News & World Report: How Technology Is Transforming Health Care
Author: Eric Topol

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 28 apr 2014

Most robotic components that are currently used are hard, large and heavy and therefore limit their speed and motion. But researchers like Saul Griffith are trying to change that. He is using soft, inflatable materials that are lighter, faster and even substantially strong. Soft in this context would signify lighter weight, lower cost, more efficient, more resilient, higher dynamic range, and tunable. Some of the examples of soft engineered robots in the current research include gripping eggs (George Whitesides at Harvard University), inflatable robotic arm, inflatable vehicle etc. Moreover the research have potential to be utilized in medical applications - prosthetics, aiding stroke victims, lessening spinal cord injuries, soft external muscles for aging population etc. Read on...

Engineering: Rethinking Rigidity in Design
Author: Tom Spendlove

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 27 apr 2014

Healthcare collaborations work towards bringing academia and industry together by pooling their resources and expertise to save costs and to bring breakthrough research, products and services for the benefit of society. To create such a collaborative ecosystem, three entities - Spectrum Health, Michigan State University and Van Andel Research Institute - have come together. A new lab is being developed to have basic and translational research to already existing Spectrum's competence in patient care and clinical trials. It brings academic focus as biomedical research is essential for medical advancements and developing novel treatments. According to Jeff Dwyer of Michigan State University, 'Life sciences and biomedical research linked to the clinical healthcare environment has really been growing already. It's been going so well, there is just need for more of this kind of space.' VP of research for Spectrum, Dr. Sandra Rempel says, 'The ability for us to bring new doctors opens up the door for future growth. The whole aim is to be able to come up with new discoveries we can publish and disseminate to the world and bring new information to enhance the field and cure illness.' In addition to their duty as clinicians they would now have an opportunity to focus more on research as principal investigators. Another goal is to create and build an academic framework for physician-scientists, medical students and graduate and undergraduate students to work together through established partnerships with VARI and MSU's College of Human Medicine. Dr. Rempel further explains, 'One of the things that really attracted me here is a very strong collaboration that already exists between all of the institutions. That kind of synergy allows us to grow beyond what each of us can do on our own. From collecting data to securing grants, the collaborations go beyond practical lab experience. We now have researchers who can take them into their labs. We see this as a great win-win situation for all the institutions involved. The whole idea is that when we collaborate, we get together as a group and exchange all our clinical and scientific ideas. We can write papers together, put grants together. MSU might get a grant, or we might get the grant and they would help... If we had a project, postdocs and students would come in and work on that project.' Read on...

Rapid Growth: Good Medicine - Medical research collaboration booms
Author: Marla R. Miller

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 27 mar 2014

Access to timely and effective healthcare in developing countries, particularly in the remote and underpriviledged areas, is challenging with prevalence of smuggled and counterfeit drugs, the inefficient supply chains, insufficient resources and poor economic conditions. A panel of experts suggest ways to enhance global healthcare delivery: David Jamieson (Crown Agents, USA) - Multi-sector partnerships bring together unique qualities and boost project's capacities. Tamsin Chislett (Living Goods, Uganda) - Make logistics technology easy to use for consumers and healthcare workers. Andreas Seiter (World Bank, USA) - Create new drug payment systems that ensure against corruption. Simon Berry (ColaLife, Zambia) - Partnerships with governments should run down to the community level. Rose Reis (Center for Health Market Innovations, USA) - Emerging pharmacy chains lead to better, cheaper drugs; Don't overlook informal healthcare providers. Mandy Sugrue (mHealth Alliance, USA) - Work at the community level. George Jagoe (Medicines for Malaria Venture, Switzerland) - New technologies should be adapted to fit broader needs. Read on...

the guardian: Healthcare logistics - delivering medicines to where they're needed most
Author: Name

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 12 mar 2014

Wearable devices have the potential to become a part of human lifestyle, but for their sustained use they should be able to induce long-term healthy behavioral changes in users. According to Michael A. M. Davies of MIT, companies developing wearables have to understand the importance of three factors of behavioral science - habit formation, social motivation and goal reinforcements - to overcome the challenge of sustained engagement and provide long-term health benefits. Research by Endeavor Partners found that 1/10th of the US comsumers above the age 18 owns a modern activity tracker but half of them no longer use it. A large percentage of wearable devices have fatal user experience flaws and fail to fulfil one or more of the nine baseline criteria of product design (selectability, design, out-of-box experience, fit/comfort, quality, user experience, integration ability, lifestyle compatibility and overall utility). For successful and effective wearable devices and related services, companies have to incorporate the insights provided by the science of behavior change. Read on...

VentureBeat: How to make wearables stick: Use them to change human behavior
Author: Name

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 25 feb 2014

American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), representing more than 100,000 medical professionals, is developing programs to contribute and improve the healthcare in India. According to AAPI president Dr. Jayesh Shah, the plan is underway to collaborate with government and launch Swasthya India platform to utilize the expertise of the Indian origin doctors for better healthcare to India's population. In a recent meeting with various stakeholders of the Indian healthcare system, the priorities that were discussed include - improving overall quality standards and accreditation process for hospitals; standardization of protocols and strong audit and tracking system; improved collaboration between hospitals and academic institutions; promote medical research. Read on...

PharmaBiz: American physicians of Indian origin extend support to improve healthcare quality in India
Author: Joseph Alexander

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