Talking Healthcare

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

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, health and technology industry employees all over the world worked hard to rapidly stand up pandemic management systems. In a period of just 10 days, Nearform developed the Covid Tracker mobile app to lead contact tracing efforts in Ireland. In this episode, not only do we learn about app development and use in Ireland, but we are also introduced to the Linux Foundation for Public Health - an organisation that endeavours to connect public health authorities anywhere in the world with open source software solutions in an effort to improve global health outcomes.

Guest: Larry Breen

More information: www.nearform.com; https://www.linkedin.com/in/larry-breen-23927611/; https://www.lfph.io/

Through 2020, everyone all over the world awaited the development of a lifesaving COVID-19 vaccine. When vaccines were approved for distribution, a clear public health message was heard globally: get whatever vaccine you can, as soon as you can. Distribution strategies varied from country to country and in Canada, individuals could book a vaccination appointment through multiple avenues - directly through a hospital, at a pharmacy, through Provincial government portals, via local public health authorities, etc. In an effort to help connect people with available doses, Canada’s Vaccine Hunters emerged. This episode tells the story of how hundreds of volunteers outside of the healthcare system came together to support fellow human beings through the use of digital technologies. Open source code for appointment optimization is now available to anyone who needs it.

Guests: Andrew Young and Eric Herscovich

For the 5th and final episode of the 44th IHF World Hospital Congress podcast series, Walt Vernon and Dr. Elizabeth Baca sat down to share how we can achieve and build sustainable healthcare environments. They also shared knowledge on the impacts of Climate Change and discussed the best-in-class solution towards reducing carbon emissions in the healthcare sector.

About the Speakers:

Dr. Elizabeth Baca

For the 4th episode of this podcast series, we have invited Richard Stubbs and Dr. Anne Snowdon to sit down and discuss how healthcare systems and services have fundamentally changed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and how digitally enabled healthcare is now a mainstay of many hospital services around the world.

About the Speakers:

Dr. Anne Snowdon

Richard Stubbs

For the 3rd episode of the WHC Podcast series, Thomas Cueni, Director General of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations, shares light on vaccine management during a global pandemic. He further emphasized how the collaboration between government and pharmaceutical companies is different for the COVID-19 vaccines.

Thomas Cueni is the Director-General of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations - the global association of pharmaceutical research companies and Secretary of the global Biopharmaceutical CEO Roundtable. He was instrumental in creating the AMR Action Fund, a ground-breaking partnership that has raised nearly $1 billion to bring 2-4 new antibiotics to patients by 2030. He also Chairs the Business at OECD Health Committee and the Board of the cross-sectoral AMR Industry Alliance. He represents the innovative biopharmaceutical industry on the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator - a unique global collaboration to accelerate development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines.

For the 2nd episode of this series, our guest Bertrand Levrat, Chief Executive Officer at Geneva University Hospital (HUG), shares his experiences in leading his organization during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He also talks about the qualities a leader should have in order to effectively manage a public health crisis.

About the Speaker: