Artificial Intelligence (AI) will disrupt healthcare’s destiny for good. Here are five steps digital health startups can take to find the premier talent to get the job done. 

Not too long ago, AI was the topic of futuristic movies. What was once a fictional draw at the Box Office is now a reality in offices worldwide. AI is everywhere and rapidly transforming the way we work. What remains scarce though is the technical talent in healthcare to see this tech revolution through. 

AI is quickly expanding into the technical infrastructure of the U.S. healthcare system. Its transformative potential is incredibly promising, from enhancing clinical workflows and streamlining administrative and payment processes to extracting life-saving insights from EHR data and genomic research. As the trust in AI grows, so does its perceived value in the healthcare space.  

Today, we are on the cusp of a digital disruption in healthcare management and delivery – similar to how digital technology has disrupted a wide variety of fields in the last decade from communication to retail. Patients are generating an unprecedented amount of continuous health data across varied sources reflecting their health. New generation wearables, such as the Apple Watch and smart patches, can now collect this data at medical accuracy.  

The whole world is coming together to help put an end to the COVID-19 pandemic. Innovative startups are integral to the fight. Their solutions could help to address a wide range of healthcare needs, such as timely and convenient diagnostics and cost-effective interventions. Furthermore, they are coming up with exciting ways to help better understand the coronavirus disease spread and the success of containment and eradication efforts.

Plug and Play is an early stage investor and innovation platform that brings together startups and the world’s largest corporations such as Roche, Johnson & Johnson, Deloitte and many more, with the aim of helping new technology get to market fast. 

In this article, we take a look at 14 startups and their innovative ideas pitched to Plug and Play in an effort to tackle COVID-19 and future pandemics. 

We are all born with a genetic code that essentially does not change over time. Contained within, is a wealth of data pertaining to the health of an individual; such as in the diagnosis or predictive risk of developing a certain condition, or in assessing their ability to respond to certain treatments and dosages. 

It is unavoidable and perhaps a hard truth that, as humans, we all have mutations or specific sections of DNA that encode for something that will negatively impact our health at one stage in our life. As we grow and our body is exposed to different risk factors that can exacerbate those already present in our DNA, a decline in health is inevitable. 

For some, this is attributed to a lifestyle choice, such as smoking, alcohol, or a lack of exercise. For others, it can be the simple intake of a particular amino acid that causes detrimental effects, such as in patients diagnosed with phenylketonuria – an inherited metabolic disease that increases the levels of phenylalanine in the blood. If left untreated, this disease can lead to mental disability and serious health outcomes. However, simply controlling phenylalanine intake from the early weeks of life can allow patients to lead a normal life. 

Artificial intelligence in cardiology tools can help ensure timely, accurate diagnosis for the early initiation of key life saving therapies.

Timely and accurate diagnosis is crucial to enable early initiation o`f key life saving therapies and to reduce hospitalizations.

Us2.ai is automating the fight against heart disease by using artificial intelligence (AI) software to simplify and democratize ultrasound of the heart – the most commonly used tool for the detection of cardiovascular risk. The founders, Carolyn Lam and James Hare, share their insights on why delivering high-value solutions will transform healthcare.

Turning on the lights: A better understanding of our own heart health 

HT: What unmet medical need did you set out to address with your start-up?

Us2.ai: Heart failure (HF) is a global public health problem, affecting over 64 million people worldwide.1 The cost worldwide is estimated at $108 billion per year with a large bulk of the costs due to hospitalization.2 Despite advances in management, HF remains as malignant as some common cancers3 and survival post-diagnosis is only around 50% at 5 years.4 

Healthcare and data science were made for each other. Accessible, informative patient data is critical to good care. When healthcare and data science are combined, the result is electronic health records (EHR). EHR use data science for the benefit of medical treatments and procedures. Additionally, healthcare provides the perfect input for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms. Streamlined workflows, improved database maintenance and more accurate result reporting are all within reach when AI/ML and EHR form a powerhouse technological team.

Gene therapy involves using specific genes to treat cancer. Learn more about how it works for non-small cell lung cancer, plus other treatment options.

Gene therapy is a promising new method for treating non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). It allows doctors to target specific genes to prevent cancerous cells from growing and spreading.

NSCLC is a common form of cancer. It causes cancerous cells to form in the tissues of the lung. NSCLC is a serious condition. However, many people receive treatment and survive for years.

Treating NSCLC typically involves interacting with multiple specialists and receiving a combination of therapies. Specific treatment plans depend on factors that include the tumor size, type of NSCLC, and the extent of its spread to other organs.

Medical research goes through peer review before publication in a journal to ensure that the findings are reliable and suitable for the audience. Peer review is important for preventing false claims, minimizing bias, and avoiding plagiarism. It helps ensure that any claims really are 'evidence-based.' 

Peer review is a quality control measure for medical research. It is a process in which professionals review each other’s work to make sure that it is accurate, relevant, and significant.

Scientific researchers aim to improve medical knowledge and find better ways to treat disease. By publishing their study findings in medical journals, they enable other scientists to share their developments, test the results, and take the investigation further.

Peer review is a central part of the publication process for medical journals. The medical community considers it to be the best way of ensuring that published research is trustworthy and that any medical treatments that it advocates are safe and effective for people.

In this article, we look at the reasons for peer review and how scientists carry them out, as well as the flaws of the process.
 

We have put together the top 10 artificial Intelligence courses for healthcare executives all over the globle. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) and cognitive computing are projected to empower patients, transform the practice of medicine and generate savings of over $150 billion in the healthcare industry by 2025.1

If implemented correctly, it is estimated that AI could improve health outcomes by up to 40 percent while reducing treatment costs up to 50 percent from improving diagnosis, increasing access to care and enabling precision medicine.2

As if AI wasn’t already transforming the healthcare industry at a rapid rate, the pace has been accelerated since the onset of Covid-19.

With more changes to healthcare delivery methods and more focus on providing quality healthcare and better management of patient and employee experiences, understanding how AI applications and strategies are being used and implemented is key to reaching these transformational goals.

To equip you for this next industrial revolution – the digital revolution3 – we have put together the top 10 AI courses for health executives. 

of the future of healthcare to our readers.

Patient medical records have long been viewed as inflexible, difficult to use, archaic and costly to configure.1 However, these records are critical to improving the patient experience throughout their care journey. They provide healthcare professionals with the information needed to help make good clinical decisions and evaluate care management plans across the entire continuum of care. Other benefits include ensuring accuracy and timeliness of payment for services performed, and helping to mitigate malpractice risks.2 

AKASA revenue cycle management benchmarks are some of the first for the revenue cycle industry and accurately forecast how to measure.

What You Should Know: – AKASA™, an automation company for healthcare revenue cycle management, released a report titled, “New Productivity Benchmarks For The Healthcare Revenue Cycle” that includes the first-ever publication of the average time it takes health system staff to complete critical tasks within revenue cycle operations based on AKASA’s proprietary data.

• – These revenue cycle management benchmarks are some of the first for the revenue cycle industry and accurately forecast how to measure productivity for tasks within focus areas, like financial clearance, billing, and denials.
• How AKASA Is Helping Create Benchmarks AKASA works with provider organizations of all sizes (with operations in all 50 states) to automate revenue cycle functions.
• These benchmarks will also help managers set goals and forecast their staffing and resource needs.”

Data science in healthcare is becoming increasingly important to the evolution of healthcare systems. Dr. Atul Butte shares his insights.

In the first part of the interview, Dr. Butte gave us an overview of the role of data science in today’s healthcare industry and how it will be used in medicine and healthcare.

• Data and the future of healthcare systems HT: To make data useful to better patient outcomes, do you see the need for a new business model to access and use shared data that’s required to improve the outcomes of patients?
• Certainly, we’ve seen many changes in the last 5 to 10 years.
• Physicians are going to be guided more and more with digital decision support tools, or decision support systems, because there are so many data elements now, computational tools are going to be needed to really help guide the physicians to figuring out the right choice from many.
• If a physician has to switch to another tool or to pick up their phone when they’re using the computer, that’s going to make it much harder to actually get good uptake of those tools.
• Now I know not every doctor is going to be wanting to do this, but I think for those that can think about entrepreneurism and innovation, this is a great time to be starting to think about how to fix the healthcare system from within.

• Dr Constantinos Koshiaris has developed clinical prediction models for use in primary care with the aim of accelerating myeloma diagnoses.
• Using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (GOLD version), a primary care database containing electronic health records for more than 11 million patients in the UK, the team identified the most common symptoms and full blood count results recorded for patients with myeloma.
• The most predictive of these were included in the models they developed and the new tools were validated against a set of test data.
• Decisions made using their prediction models resulted in fewer false positives and more true positives when compared to single tests or symptoms alone.
• By identifying patients at highest risk of myeloma in primary care, these new prediction rules have the potential to reduce diagnostic delays by a substantial amount.
• Further research is now needed to understand more about the feasibility and implementation of this tool in the primary care setting and the impact it will have on the diagnostic pathway and patient outcomes.

As work-from-home guidelines accelerated the office-based workforce towards a hybrid-working future, so the adoption of hybrid digital healthcare is growing as healthcare providers are enabled to compose the right experience for the right patient at the right time, writes Dave O’Shaughnessy, Healthcare Practice Leader – Avaya EMEA & APAC In its work with healthcare providers across the globe, Avaya has used its expertise in enhancing and simplifying communications and collaboration to solve pressing challenges in building the right solution for each patient journey. From AI and chatbots, to building vaccine roll-out apps and easing the burden on physical hospital space, every solution has been carefully composed to ensure we deliver the best outcome for the healthcare provider experience and the […]

 

Chris Yeowart, general manager, business development at Wellbeing Software, discusses how integrating diagnostic services can address the cancer care crisis.

• Recent research suggested that a 25% backlog in patient referrals caused by the pandemic could lead to 181 additional lives lost as curable diseases become terminal while waiting for treatment.
• So, how can technology help address the need for faster and more efficient diagnosis?
• For example, with integrated radiology and pathology systems communicating directly into an oncology information platform, any clinician involved in a patient’s case – from radiologists to oncologists - can access all the information they need to make an informed decision from diagnosis to treatment plan.
• The argument for the use of artificial intelligence is further strengthened by the fact that there is a national shortage of radiologists.
• According to research from the Royal College of Radiologists only 55% of vacancies will be filled by trained consultants this year.
   

Workday software can help hospitals implement a supply strategy that reflects diversity, equity and inclusion values and shields supply chains from future shocks, says Stan Garber, vice president of Spend Management Go-To-Market.
 

Francesco Patalano on why PROs empower patients and improve clinical decision-making, thus driving improved outcomes and better health care.

Here is what Francesco Patalano has to say: I am a physician, a Pharma R&D executive and, from time to time, a patient – we all are.

• However, they are only known to the patients who experience them and cannot be measured by a laboratory test.
• Only a patient can describe an episode of migraine affecting the ability to work or the relationship with other family members.
• More efforts are needed to develop PRO instruments in areas of unmet needs.
• In considering PRO a critical part of the Health Data – free to flow, but ultimately owned by the patients – the IMI H2O Project will improve communication between individual patients and their physicians and will facilitate value-based healthcare decisions.

• Healthcare industry trends that we witness today are new technologies and solutions that address the requirements for clinical diagnosis, treatment, and disease management.
• Cognitive IoMT (CIoMT), a recent development, which integrates sensory information, automatic processing, and communication through networks for real-time diagnosis, monitoring, tracking, and disease control.
• The platform offers a fully customizable proprietary dashboard, providing a snapshot of all ICU patients and beds to relay time-critical information demonstrating their need for care.
• Exiom develops Reusable Support Device Exiom is a US-based startup that uses 3D scanning and printing technology to produce customized solutions to heal fractures and sprains.
• The startup designs patient-specific implants (PSI) with informed evidence from nearly 100 successive case studies on complex surgeries.
• Discover all Healthcare Technologies & Startups The Healthcare Industry Trends & Startups outlined in this report only scratch the surface of trends that we identified during our in-depth research.

Digital health solutions can dramatically improve patient care and slow rising costs. Yet achieving that at scale still has obstacles to overcome.

In this episode of the McKinsey on Start-ups podcast, Daniel Eisenberg speaks with McKinsey partners Jennifer Rost and Tobias Silberzahn about the current state of digital health solutions and tools. An edited transcript of their conversation follows.

How the leaders at The Health Plan of West Virginia began a journey to move to higher performance, leveraging data analytics to identify the right strategies the right strategies for improvement and to provide support to close gaps in care

By Rachael Jones and Brenda Cappellini, R.N., CMCN This year, 77% of those enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans with drug coverage are in plans with 4 or more stars, up from 69% in 2017, a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) analysis shows.

• To surmount these hurdles, in 2019 The Health Plan became an early user of Cotiviti’s Star Navigator, a quality improvement tool that uses data to determine the most direct path to Star Ratings improvement.
• A Data-Based Foundation for Success The Health Plan’s experience in using data analytics to achieve a higher rating amid the pandemic provides lessons learned that could help other plans bolster their results, even as Star Ratings criteria change.
• Make sure they indicate the time of day at which they are most likely to be available as well.
• As monthly reports point to gaps in care or services, appointing a single person to review the recommendations, prioritize opportunities and lead actions that could drive improvement strengthens efficiency.
• Brenda Cappellini, RN, CMCN, is Assistant Vice President, Population Health for The Health Plan.

13min Leading positive psychology expert, Shawn Achor, shares simple interventions and daily habits that can help improve patient experience and employee engagement.

• The same thing is true with how people were walking up and down the hallways.
• The very first thing we told them was in order to improve the guest experience, we need to work with the staff who would be on the cruise ships beneath the guests because that’s actually the bedrock of someone’s positive experience.
• What I find fascinating about this is oftentimes when I talk about happiness, as soon as you find out somebody’s negative, people are immediately trying to run away from that person or we isolate them, which exacerbates the problem.
• In some of the literature, we found that social connection is as predictive of how long someone is going to live as obesity, high blood pressure, or smoking.
• One of the things that he was recognizing is that we get people to brush their teeth in terms of a global health habit, but aside from that – aside from vaccines – there’s pretty much not anything that we do as routine in somebody’s life to create global health.

Hospitals need to undergo major transformation to address today’s healthcare needs. How can we achieve more sustainable and patient-focused care?

Hospitals for the sick have existed for centuries; places of refuge and healing that developed to become pillars of their local community. However, in today’s changing healthcare landscape, they are, in many ways, no longer sustainable and not ideally designed to address some of today’s most urgent healthcare needs.1

Factors influencing the changing role of the hospital

• Increasing prevalence and economic burden of chronic diseases:
  Chronic diseases, or noncommunicable diseases, are collectively responsible for almost 70% of all deaths worldwide.2 According to the World Economic Forum, the cost of treating five leading chronic diseases – cancer, diabetes, mental illness, heart disease, and respiratory disease – could reach $47 trillion over the next 20 years.3  The overwhelming burden of patients with noncommunicable diseases in no longer feasible to manage in hospitals.4
• Scientific and technological achievements: 
  Due to the advancement of medical knowledge, coupled to the rapid development of technologies, patients are now provided with alternative care pathways. Health conditions that used to require lengthy hospital stays can now be treated on an outpatient basis, or with a much shorter stay in the hospital.5  By necessity, hospitals are moving from being solely centers of inpatient treatment towards diagnostic and treatment services,5 and need to continue to find novel ways to add value.
• Advancement of personalized healthcare: 
  The increase in available data, testing capabilities and technologies mean that the age of personalized healthcare is arriving. Prevailing business models need to be rethought to identify new growth fields, such as digital products and services, that are tailored to patient-centered health information.6
• Shifting from fee-for-service (FFS) to value-based care (VBC): 
  Healthcare delivery systems are increasingly adopting VBC over the traditional FFS model as a means to improve inefficiencies and patient outcomes. This shift to reward providers for helping patients to live healthier lives in an evidence based way promotes preventive healthcare over reactive, or “sick” care.7