One of the biggest ‘service shifts’ in the healthcare sector since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the widespread adoption of telehealth. As well as being a viable option to provide continuity of care and treatment to patients during the coronavirus pandemic, telehealth has transformed how health systems can respond to chronic workforce shortages and optimise their clinical capacities.

So for our first Talking Healthcare podcast in 2022, we have invited Sharon Allen and Dr. Amit Tahkker to discuss the challenges and opportunities of telehealth for Africa’s diverse healthcare systems.

About the Speakers:

Sharon Allen, Co-founder and Executive Director of World Telehealth Initiative (WTI)

Dr. Amit N. Thakker, President of the Africa Healthcare Federation

On March 16th, the IHF and the African Healthcare Federation will host a joint webinar examining how telehealth can be harnessed in healthcare systems in Africa to address disparities of care access and medical expertise.

So our first Talking Healthcare podcast in 2022, we’ll diving into the challenges and opportunities of telehealth for Africa’s diverse healthcare systems.

COVID-19 created tremendous pressure on health systems across the world, leading policy-makers to offer hospitals new flexibilities for digital health to fill gaps in capacity. This episode features the CEO of Digital Healthcare at Aster DM Healthcare, a global health system spanning India and the Middle East region. Listeners will learn about Aster's efforts to internalize digital processes (e.g. administration, operation) and external services (e.g. virtual ICUs, virtual prescription refills) during the COVID-19 pandemic. This episode will also offer insights about the role of public-private partnerships in digital health, the cost and infrastructure requirements for implementation, and trends in innovation in both the Asia and Gulf regions.

Guest: Brandon Rowberry

On March 11th, 2020 a global pandemic was declared. Almost overnight, people went from buzzing around cities to staying in their own homes, under lockdown. Many worldwide healthcare systems mandated the cancellation of non-essential or elective services and most healthcare organizations pivoted to virtual care options, where possible. Maple is a Canadian telehealth company that predates the pandemic but experienced monumental growth as a result of it. This episode details Maple’s services, the telehealth landscape in Canada, and discusses how recent circumstances have nudged the Canadian government to evolve its universal coverage policy to enable better access to virtual healthcare.

Guest: Lana Majid

More information: www.getmaple.ca

COVID-19 disrupted operations at hospitals across the world, requiring managers to rapidly implement new digital tools and transformations to support changes in system operations and service delivery. This episode offers insights about how the Cleveland Clinic—a global health system with facilities in the US, UK, UAE, and Canada—implemented “years worth of automation and digitization in just 2 weeks”. Listeners will hear from the Cleveland Clinic’s enterprise Chief Information Officer, who will describe the system’s experience transitioning to virtual care, offer best practices for designing and implementing system-level changes in IT, and identify key post-pandemic trends in digital health and health care innovation.

Guest: Matt Kull

More information: https://www.intelligentautomation.network/transformation/articles/digital-transformation-by-fire

Most countries put forth significant efforts to identify positive COVID-19 cases, recommend quarantine practices, and aim to flatten infection curves in an effort to keep hospital intensive care units afloat.  But what happens to the people who contracted COVID-19 but then recovered from the illness? This episode describes Post-Covid Care Clinics in Portugal. Digital technologies such as wearable devices for telemonitoring and telehealth solutions allowed clinicians in Portugal to undertake integrated follow-up of COVID-19 survivors - an innovation that is certain to shed light on what kind of medical care may be necessary in the coming years.  

Guest: Miguel Rico     

During the combat of COVID-19, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has leveraged innovation and technology to respond quickly to the fast-changing pandemic situation. Making use of the geo-fencing technology, the locally developed “StayHomeSafe” home quarantine system was launched in March 2020 and monitored over 600,000 people arriving in Hong Kong during their mandatory quarantine period. The Government also launched the “LeaveHomeSafe” mobile app in November 2020 to facilitate contact tracing for community transmission. The principle of “Privacy by Design” was adopted and there were over 6 million downloads. This episode highlights the development of each of these mobile applications and discusses how the Government of Hong Kong overcame challenges such as high density population and privacy assurance.

Guest: Kingsley Wong

More information: https://www.coronavirus.gov.hk/eng/stay-home-safe.html; https://www.leavehomesafe.gov.hk/en/

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged health authorities and hospitals around the world; from swab testing to contact tracing, from quarantine management to shifts in hospital operational management. Many traditional processes and tools have been inadequate in tackling these challenges, which has led to the rapid development of new technological solutions and related procedures. In this episode you will hear about how a combination of three key technological solutions has helped Tampere University Hospital in Finland in the fight against COVID-19.

Guest: Dr. Ville Kaila

Working towards eradication of COVID-19 is a global effort and while many countries have made great gains in vaccination coverage, it is important to recognize that access to medicine and medical record keeping is often more challenging in developing nations. This episode highlights eVAS, an end-to-end digital vaccination administration system that has been developed specifically for use in developing countries.

Guest: Dr. Sampada Deshpande

More information about eVAS: www.samsotech-id.com; https://www.linkedin.com/in/sampada-deshpande-dds-2692a592/

Epidemiologists around the world have raced to try to understand the behaviour of the novel coronavirus. Thinking ahead to how this virus may impact the world in years to come, humankind must begin to appreciate the consequences of our own decisions in the fight against COVID-19. This episode shines a light on the intersection between academic research and policy-making. We speak to Dr. Fyodor Kondrashov, Professor at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria in Vienna, and learn about the development of a mathematical model which simulates SARSCoV2 behaviour and seeks to understand the emergence of vaccine-resistant strains. This technology can help us think critically about the interplay between vaccination campaigns, non-pharmaceutical interventions, and viral mutation.

Guest: Dr.Fyodor Kondrashov

More information: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-95025-3