Covid-19 has thrown the world into chaos, but the Asia Healthcare Podcast is back with some updates. We talk about the coronavirus outbreak, why you should sign up for a China newsletter from STAT News, and the latest from Hong Kong's very own Hutchison China MediTech (Chi-Med).

Chi-Med (renamed as HutchMed since March 2021), is an innovative biopharmaceutical company aiming to become a global leader in the discovery, development and commercialisation of targeted therapies and immunotherapies in oncology and autoimmune diseases. We caught up with CEO Christian Hogg, who was Chi-Med's first employee and has been with the company since 2000. 

Topics we explored:

- Chi-Med's origin and Christian's first year with the company.

- Why Chi-Med is focused on the China healthcare market.

- Chi-Med's drug pipeline, and the role of partnerships.

- How Chi-Med dealt with the Covid-19 China shutdown.

- Christian's 20th year with Chi-Med and his favorite moment so far.

Resources mentioned:

STAT News website - https://www.statnews.com/

Sign up for the STAT China newsletter - https://www.statnews.com/signup/stat-china/

Follow Hutchison China MediTech (Chi-Med):

Website – https://www.chi-med.com/

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/hchimed/

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Twitter: @jchanpharma

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Do you like to google your own symptoms before forcing yourself to see a doctor? Well I do, but I should know better so don't do it.

Seriously though, in this day and age, it's pretty common for us to want to stay informed about our health (which is good), but to self-diagnose after reading online content from a google search is a step too far. According to a news report from November 2019, 2 out of 5 Americans do this, and I suspect we in Asia face the same temptations.

Most people in North America would agree that websites like Mayo Clinic and WebMD are reliable sources for healthcare information, but where should we turn to in Asia?

Enter Hello Health Group, a healthtech startup based out of Singapore.

Chris Clarke, COO & SVP of Hello Health joins me in this episode to talk about why they want to democratize access to healthcare information in Southeast Asia, and just as importantly, how they are doing this one website at a time.

Topics we explored:

- How search engine aggregate data can help us understand what people are searching for, thereby identifying a population's gaps in knowledge. 

- How population search data can help various stakeholders (government, pharma, hospitals, etc) plan strategically to address unmet needs.  

- How to develop online healthcare content that is highly accessible and highly relevant to a population's search queries.

- Data privacy concerns related to collecting people's online search activity.

- Plans to personalize and customize online search experience to the individual level. 

Resources mentioned:

Medtech Intelligence article - https://www.medtechintelligence.com/feature_article/the-future-of-diabetes-management-in-asia/

Healthline article - https://www.healthline.com/press/should-health-content-lead-or-follow 

Hello Health's Medical Tourism Platform - www.go.care

Follow Hello Health Group:

Website – https://hellohealthgroup.com/

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/hello-health-group

Chris’ email – [email protected]

Follow the Asia Healthcare Podcast!

https://siryn.co/asia-healthcare-podcast

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Twitter: @jchanpharma

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Soundbites from the International Diabetes Federation Congress 2019, held in Busan, Korea.

Hear from Tommy Kim, Country Head of Roche Diabetes Care in Korea

Tommy shares:

- Diabetes epidemic numbers in South Korea

- How our Asian culture and ‘consumer mindset’ for healthcare affects our health literacy and awareness

- All stakeholders need to be transparent and work together to improve a country’s overall population management

- Is Asia ready to adopt to innovation brought in from the West?

Shared with permission from Roche Diabetes Care.

Follow me on twitter @JChanPharma

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Soundbites from the International Diabetes Federation Congress 2019, held in Busan, Korea.

Hear from Julia Mader, Associate Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology & Diabetology) at the University of Graz, Austria

Prof. Mader discusses:

- What is 2 vs 8760?

- Challenges of continuous glucose monitoring back in 2005

- Does iPDM add to the physician’s workload? Does it improve the patient-physician relationship?

- The importance of teaching patients the advantages of iPDM and using new technologies

- How some patients find it hard to stick with iPDM and adhere to their diabetes management program

- Disease outcomes of patients using iPDM vs patients sticking with traditional care

- What's next for drug development for type 1 and type 2 diabetes

Follow me on twitter @JChanPharma

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Soundbites from the International Diabetes Federation Congress 2019, held in Busan, Korea.

Hear from Dr. Rolf Hinzmann, Head of Global Medical and Scientific Affairs in Glucose Monitoring and Science at Roche.

Dr. Hinzmann talks about:

- What is Integrated Personalized Diabetes Management (iPDM)

- Why integrating data can generate important insights for patients and his/her stakeholders

- Why do we have this tsunami of diabetes

- How stakeholders, such as politicians, can play a role in addressing the diabetes problem

Shared with permission from Roche Diabetes Care.

Follow me on twitter @JChanPharma

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I'm in Busan, Korea for the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) Congress. 

Short recap on how I ended up here on short notice (sorry for raw audio, and my morning voice), and what is Integrated Personalized Diabetes Management (iPDM).

Special thanks to Roche Diabetes Care.

Follow me on twitter @JChanPharma

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Abhishek Shah was a venture capitalist interested in the healthcare space. The problem of chronic disease in Asia really hit home when his parents were diagnosed with diabetes. Leveraging his experience in healthcare, consumer tech, and entrepreneurship, Abhishek set up Wellthy Therapeutics, a digital therapeutics company that helps people live healthier lifestyles and reduce their risk of chronic disease.

- Tackling chronic conditions in a fragmented market

- Why diabetes is the perfect condition to start with

- How the Asian lifestyle and culture relates to the development of diabetes

- Behavioral change happens when motivation meets ability meets trigger

- How the app learns about your habits and helps report back to your physician

- Getting support from different healthcare stakeholders

- Wellthy’s expansion plans

Follow Wellthy Therapeutics:

Website – https://wellthytherapeutics.com/

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/wellthytherapeutics/

YouTube – https://youtu.be/NfaSkVxalq8

Abishek’s email – [email protected]

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https://anchor.fm/asiahealthcare

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In 2011, Doug moved to China, worked three jobs (including clinical research in a military hospital), before starting his own company to help HealthTech startups find commercialization opportunities in China. We discussed:

- Working in a Chinese military hospital, and learning the business of healthcare in the private sector

- Setting up Beijing Health Forum and DHB Global

- Mentoring with Chinaccelerator, Endeavor Global, and Antler

- Questions to ask yourself when bringing your technology to China

- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of China healthcare reform

- How the prolonged trade war is impacting China healthcare investments

- Belt and Road Initiative, Made in China 2025, Healthy China 2030

Follow Doug:

DHB Global - https://www.dhb.global/

Twitter - @dcorleyne

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglascorley/

Learn more:

2019 USCIPP China Trek Beijing | Oct 15–18 - http://www.uscipp.net/chinatrek2019

World Economic Forum Annual Meeting; 21—24 Jan 2020 Davos-Klosters, Switzerland - https://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2020

Leaders in Islamabad - https://twitter.com/leadersinisb?lang=en

Chinaccelerator - https://chinaccelerator.com/

Endeavor Global - https://endeavor.org/

Antler - https://www.antler.co/

Peking University National School of Development; Prof Li Ling -  http://en.nsd.pku.edu.cn/faculty/fulltime/l/239507.htm

Just a quick summary of China's National Reimbursement Drug List update, pulling in what I've read from the gov websites and Chinese media.

China adds 148 drugs to key insurance list: state media - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-pharmaceuticals/china-adds-148-drugs-to-key-insurance-list-state-media-idUSKCN1VA1MG

National Health Security Administration's Notice of the National Basic Medical Insurance Drug List (CHN) - 

http://www.nhsa.gov.cn/art/2019/8/20/art_37_1666.html

How did a New Yorker working in finance end up doing consulting with science and technology leaders in Southeast Asia? In this episode, I talk to Will Greene, founder of Tigermine, to discuss how he found his way into Asia's healthcare and technology scene:

- Will’s journey to the East

- Helping clients with investigative research and content development

- Healthcare journalism, and how furiously note-taking at a medtech conference paid off 

- Working with Singapore Biodesign on Diabetes in Asia whitepaper

- Asia’s Lab Diagnostics space

Follow Will:

Tigermine - https://tigermine.com/

LinkedIn - https://sg.linkedin.com/in/willgreene1

Twitter - @tigerminer

Learn more: 

Singapore Biodesign -  http://www.ssbiodesign.org/ 

Diabetes in Asia (whitepaper) - http://www.ssbiodesign.org/news-detail/64/

APACMed - https://apacmed.org/