If you follow the work being done in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) - you probably have already seen the work being done by today's guest: Dr. Brennan Spiegel. In this episode, Brennan gets real about the applications for virtual reality in healthcare, and what is needed to drive adoption throughout the healthcare system and around the world. Brennan Spiegel is the Director of Health Services Research at Cedars-Sinai Health System. He’s also a Professor of Medicine and Public Health at UCLA, and Co-Chair of the VR/AR Association Digital Health Committee. He has published numerous best-selling medical textbooks and has more than 170 articles in peer-reviewed journals. His work has been featured in Bloomberg, Forbes, Huffington Post, LA Times, NBC News, NPR, PBS, Reuters, and the Wall Street Journal and now we’re adding Digital Health Today to that esteemed list of media outlets!

You can often find Brennan at major conferences around the world including HIMSS, Connected Health, Exponential Med, Health 2.0 and CES - actually it was CES where I heard him speak for the first time. And now, he’s founded a new conference call Virtual Medicine which was held last week at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. It was the first international symposium dedicated to medical virtual reality. Tickets were sold out for this debut event, and if you weren't there, fear not, because in true pioneering fashion, Brennan worked with the team over at Samsung to get the event filmed and streamed live in 360 - the recordings aren't up yet, but you can grab your goggles and transport yourself back in time and over to Los Angeles and watch the event as if you were there. Find the videos when they go live at virtualmedicine.health.

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We are joined by Dr Rasu Shrestha, an incredibly gifted individual in the health and technology space. He was recognized by Becker’s Hospital Review as one of the 26 “Smartest People in Health IT” and InformationWeek said he was one of the “Top 20 Health IT Leaders Driving Change”. He holds two roles at UPMC in Pittsburgh. He's both the chief innovation officer for UPMC and he's also the executive vice president of UPMC Enterprises, which is the innovation and commercialization arm of UPMC - we’re going to dive into that group, what they do and how they do it.

And, the latest news, this was just announced on March 19, Rasu has been named by the US Department of Veterans Affairs to lead the work mapping the electronic medical record to the FHIR APIs, and to create common data standards through industry partnerships. This could bring about the end of the interoperability problem that’s been the bane of EMRs since they came into existence.

Rasu is also the co-chair of the Health Datapalooza meeting which is being held on April 26 and 27 at the Washington Hilton in Washington DC. He shares why this meeting is important and what you can expect if you head out there too. 

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Eren Bali is the CEO and Cofounder of Carbon Health a San Francisco-based company that has its sites set on building the world's largest connected care network. If Eren was just any aspiring entrepreneur entering the healthcare space, then the chances of reaching that goal might be very small. But Eren isn't just any entrepreneur - he's also the founder of what will soon become the world's largest school. He founded Udemy, an online learning platform, in Turkey and relaunched it in the US a few years later. He's here to tell us about his experience and how he's started from scratch in connecting patients with care in the Carbon Health healthcare network.

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Video:

Carbon Health App: Reimagining How We Experience Healthcare.

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In this episode, we dive into a topic that is changing rapidly and that is the topic of reproductive health. I invited the founders of two companies that have developed technologies to help women and men to measure and improve their reproductive health, and they made a terrific duo on this topic. Lea von Bidder is the co-founder and president of Ava Science, which is the company behind the women’s wearable called Ava Women. Also on the call is Greg Sommer, he’s the founder & chief science officer at Sandstone Diagnostics, that’s the company behind the men’s health product Trak. Between the two of them we cover both sides of the reproductive health equation. They share some great insights on the topic, and the new solutions available to help women and men with easy-to-use, discrete, home-based products that you’ll find interesting.

I always learn something from our guests, and one of the things I learned on this episode is that for men, our overall health is so closed tied to reproductive health that sperm count is actually being called by some the sixth vital sign. Even if you’re not trying to conceive and those days are ahead of or behind you, I’m sure you’ll also learn something from our guests.

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Video:

The First Ava Baby!

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What does it take to become a world leader in the health tech space? Cities around the world, and even entire countries, are battling for the chance to be the digital health capital of the world. In addition to Silicon Valley, there are the usual suspects of Boston and San Diego, and we also have some up-and-comers such as Denver with people like Mike Biselli and many others leading the charge. There's Chicago with organizations like Matter, and cities in the south like Atlanta leveraging their strong corporate base. In Europe you have London, Barcelona, Naples, Helsinki. And even entire countries like Israel and Estonia are working to make themselves the premier destination for investors, startups and health tech innovation. And that’s without going further east to China, Japan and other Asia-pac countries.

My guest today is Christian Seale, he’s the founder and general partner of Startupbootcamp in Miami. He’s also the Founding Partner of NextGen Venture Partners, he’s a Global Shaper at the World Economic Forum, and a mentor at Mass Challenge. Christian is working to make Miami the top destination for companies working to access the Americas - North, South and Latin America. You may be asking, why Miami? The home of Crockett and Tubbs? The playground of the rich and famous? The scene of a terrible but popular song by Vanilla Ice? And now, the destination for digital companies? Seem impossible? Christian tells us exactly why this city is so popular for innovators with big ideas, and it isn’t about the beaches. There’s plenty of success to point to, and some companies you probably didn’t realize that are based right there.

Christian and I recorded this interview in person, which is something I don’t do very often (we normally do interviews over Skype) - which gave me an opportunity to see the area and its thriving innovation community. We also had the chance to hear about a program that he’s working on to help promote prenatal health for pregnant women. The program is called Square Roots and Christian explains how they are working to make cities, countries and companies better and healthier places to be carrying a child. 

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2017 was a banner year in digital health on multiple levels, and one key metric is investment in digital health companies. Startup Health reported $11.5 billion in investments in digital health startups in 2017, topping 2016’s record of $8 billion. Series A funding grew it’s share of overall funding for the third year in a row; it is now 36 percent of the total funding in digital health. While seed funding has grown in terms of real dollars, it’s share of the funding pie has continued to decline since 2015, but it still makes up 29 percent of the total funding. See the full report from Startup Health below.

Seed funding plays a key role in developing the companies, leaders and innovations that are needed to transform health and wellness. We spoke with Fred Toney to learn more about how his company is leading and succeeding in this challenging and dynamic market. Fred is the CEO & Co-Founder of Launchpad Digital Health, which is the most active institutional lead investor in digital health at the seed stage in the U.S. He has more than 20 years of financial and executive management in the digital health, medical, life sciences and financial sectors. He’s served in executive and Board capacities for 30 public and private companies, and he’s founded, funded, managed and sold numerous companies. Fred is currently a board member or board observer for over 20 digital health companies.

Fred and I recorded this interview over the holidays so we didn’t have the full 2017 numbers to discuss, but we covered some of the tips for companies looking for seed funding, some of the areas they focus on at Launchpad Digital Health, and the success they’ve had in identifying and supporting female-led startups. He’s also shared some information about their Ground Zero program – which you can access below. Enjoy!

Episode Download:

Information about LDH's "Ground Zero" Program

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About Launchpad Digital Health:

Launchpad Digital Health Portfolio Companies:

* Indicates companies with female CEO's

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Roberto Ascione is the CEO of Healthware International, a next-generation healthcare consultancy, combining a unique blend of marketing and creative services with innovation and technology capabilities. Under Roberto’s leadership, Healthware International has evolved into a cutting-edge, innovation-driven company working with some of the leading players in health, and many smaller ones too. Roberto is very active in the digital health start-up ecosystem and is an advisor to several companies both in Europe and in USA. He’s also the Chairman of Frontiers Health – one of the leading global conferences on digital health innovation that I was able to attend last year. It’s being held on November 15-16, 2018 in Berlin so put that on your calendar.

Roberto shares his insights on some of the exciting changes happening in health innovation, and what he thinks we will see in 2018 and beyond. So sit back and tune into the discussion with Roberto Ascione.

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Video:

Pioppi Protocol

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Bayer is launching the G4A Generator program and opening for applications the week of January 8th, 2018. Tune in to hear how Bayer is creating commercial opportunities for early stage businesses - and they are delivering! To get the scoop on this new program, and also give an update on some of the programs that ran in 2017, I spoke to three people at Bayer that are bringing the G4A Generator program to life. My guests on this program are Eugene Borukhovich, Global Head, Digital Health Incubation & Innovation, Barton Warner, Vice President of Strategy and Portfolio Management, and Anna-Lena Lorenz, the Global Innovation Manager and Ecosystem Coordinator.

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In this episode, we discuss five innovators and the virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and Mixed Reality solutions they are implementing in healthcare. These types of deployments are succeeding clinically and commercially, which is a promising sign for continued and accelerated growth. Tune in to hear how these VR/AR/MxR technologies are solving real challenges and laying the foundation for what's coming next.

Today's Topics (See each section below):

Dr. Justin Barad and Osso VR:

Dr. Brennan Spiegel of Cedars-Sinai

Dr. Ned Sahin and Brain-Power

Dr. Rafael Grossmann

Professor Shafi Ahmed

Video:

Connecting a billion minds | Shafi Ahmed | TEDxGoodenoughCollege

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In this episode we talk about healthcare solutions using augmented reality and virtual reality. It wasn’t that long ago that holograms and immersive environments were only found in Hollywood science fiction, but the technology is now finding its way into everything from video games and movie theaters to operating rooms and in-patient wards.

As the cost of hardware and software drops and handset capabilities increase, many companies are developing creative solutions to address problems in healthcare. Products like Oculus Rift and Microsoft Hololens have set a high standard, and the industry just got a further push by Apple’s recently launched ARKit.

Here to tell us about it is Dr Rafael Grossmann, he is a general, trauma, advanced laparoscopic and robotic surgeon practicing in Maine, USA. Rafael has been working to advance the use of AR/VR/Mixed R technology and advises companies in this space. In addition to his full time role as a practicing surgeon, Rafael is also an alumnus of Singularity university and faculty of Exponential Medicine. He tells us about some of the great work being done to develop solutions using tools like ARKit and the Hololens platform.

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Videos:

Insight Heart - Expotential Medicine 2017

Insight Heart - ARKit

OK Glass - disrupt healthcare: Rafael Grossmann at TEDxDirigo

AVVR & Visioning The Future Of Medical Education | Rafael Grossmann & Shafi Ahmed

Rafael Grossmann at TEDxBermuda 2013

Microsoft HoloLens: Partners make it real

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