Data Revolution in Healthcare and Lifesciences Industry

If you have been following my posts, you know that in 2016 IFC launched a unique health innovations acceleration program called " TechEmerge ". It is a World Bank initiative to Accelerate the Adoption of Health Technology Innovations in Emerging Markets. The first program took place in India, Brazil and will be launched later this year in East Africa.  I worked as a consultant and Advisor to the program to shortlist innovations, review pilot proposals, bring hospitals onboard and launch pilot projects. I also held webinars and mentoring sessions with startups to help them understand business models, market opportunities and challenges. You can see some info sessions on this link: https://www.slideshare.net/health2dev/techemerge-webinar-understanding-the-basics-healthtech-in-india More on http://www.techemerge.org/ An Open Call for #TechEmergeHealth was announced today at #CES2020 as part of @The World Bank and @CES #GlobalTechChallenge. Take your company to an eme...

Join me in #Dhaka, Bangladesh on 5th and 6th November at the #International Conference on #Big #Data for #Public #Health, a two-day event that will advance and identify promising Big Data applications that could significantly advance health outcomes for the people of Bangladesh. Partner @Bloomberg Philanthropies @D4H - Data for Health Access to Information #Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), #Bangladesh #dhaka #digitalhealth #innovation #bigdata Effective #decision-making about #public #health policies and programs require robust data and rigorous analysis. However, the nature of both “data” and “analysis” are being fundamentally transformed. The explosive growth of smart devices, remote sensing/imaging technologies, and social media are generating streams of electronic data that are voluminous, varied, and high velocity. Deriving #insights from these #emerging sources (generally referred to as “Big Data”) often require #data #mining techniques that are significant...

Genome, Chromosome, DNA all refer to our Genetic material and make us unique. DNA or Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid are molecules that are building entities of the genetic material present in an organism- a plant, a dog or a human being. These DNA molecules form long chains and then termed as a chromosome. A human chromosome may have 30 million DNA units in a chain. The Genome is referred to all of these chromosomes being together, i.e., all the genetic material in an organism. 1 in every 5 healthy adults may unwittingly carry alterations in disease susceptibility genes- Medical bulletin news - 5 hours ago Genome analysis or sequencing relates to finding out the order of DNA nucleotides in a genome-i.e. makeup of an organism's DNA. A Human DNA is made up of over 3 billion of these genetic letters. Just like in astrology, predictions are made about career, life and health based on birth date, time, location (Lat. and Long.), Lagna, Dasha, Nakshatra, similarly using the whole genomic...

“Zika had 'disappeared' because it wasn’t worth worrying about and people weren’t paying attention.” Zika virus was first identified in 1947 in a sentinel monkey that was being used to monitor for the presence of yellow fever virus in the Zika Forest of Uganda. At this time cell lines were not available for studying viruses, so serum from the febrile monkey was inoculated intra-cerebrally into mice. All the mice became sick, and the virus isolated from their brains was called Zika virus. The same virus was subsequently isolated from Aedes africanus mosquitoes in the Zika forest. In 1950, when some serological studies were being done, it was found that we humans developed antibodies against this virus. Further studies revealed evidence of infection in other African countries, including Uganda, Tanzania, Egypt, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, and Gabon, as well as Asia (India, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia). The virus circulating in Brazil is ...

No. 1- Lyme bacteria use the same technique as White Blood Cells to navigate and move in blood vessels In an interesting case of convergent evolution Lyme bacteria use the same technique as White Blood Cells to navigate and move in blood vessels.To zip through the bloodstream and spread infection throughout the body, the bacteria that cause Lyme disease take a cue from the white blood cells trying to attack them. Both use specialized bonds to stick to the cells lining blood vessels and move along at their own pace, biologist Tara Moriarty and colleagues report September 6 in Cell Reports. “It’s really an amazing case of convergent evolution,” says Wendy Thomas, a biologist at the University of Washington in Seattle who wasn’t part of the study. “There’s little structural similarity between the molecules involved in these behaviors, and yet their behavior is the same.” No.2- Wearable Robot for people who lost their hand function This wearable robot helps disabled patients re...

You may have come across sayings such as, “Nothing is permanent but Change.” Also a few others would say, “If Change was permanent, it would have stayed”. We evolve and so does our needs and priorities and in the Indian market it makes so much more sense because as a nation we yearn for access, empowerment and rights. Recently, growing attention has been devoted to the concept of “Open Innovation”, both in academia as well as in practice. Open innovation is “the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation, and expand the markets for external use of innovation, respectively.” The concept has emerged from the belief that growth just like innovation has to be inclusive. Recently, I was at the GE Edison Challenge venue in Bangalore, India where GE invited college/university students to showcase promising innovations that can aid in achieving these goals by a digital-physical solution across industries. The audience and mentor group came fr...

The healthcare industry is currently experiencing change at an unprecedented rate. Change is not only occurring in the technology used in diagnostics and care delivery, but this change is so fundamental that it could, and likely will, fundamentally alter the business model of the industry. Today we have fitness bands, healthcare apps, appointment schedulers, health chats and several such means to access healthcare but one thing that all of this does not necessarily correlate with high quality of care or better outcomes. We need to understand that “Not even a Ferrari will get us to our destination without a driver.” Formula of Driver: Driver = (Need + Incentive) where; Incentive = (Value + Reward) Need = (Gap + Demand) To define the best drivers, we need to first address the need. Need might not make economic or business sense but it is the best opportunity to leave an impact. No one remembers how much business a “Mughal-e-Azam” or “Usual suspects” did but ever...

A few of my interns recently did a brain-storming session with me. They were all enthusiastic to do something of their own and had many questions. Many of them I met at several accelerator competitions and hackathons. I am not an authority or a VC. So far, I have invested in 9 companies globally- all in healthcare or education. One thing that I have come across in almost every transaction is when seed funded companies go for Series A- Investor raise red-flags about 1. Recurring revenue 2. Team 3. Valuation One such situation came in today when I was asked How do you anticipate growth of 15%-20% YOY when in a force of 200 employees you have only 5 sales guys and 2 marketing people. What are you relying on? Most start-ups find it hard to answer such a question. When you cannot rely on sales and marketing to be your driver of growth, you rely on your customer to be your driver of growth. Hence when the service and the product keep evolving imparting better and sustained va...

‘Reverse innovation,’ a principle well established in the business world, describes the flow of ideas from emerging to more developed economies. Reverse innovation refers to the process of first identifying and/or fostering a successful innovation in a LIC that addresses an unmet need in a HIC, then adapting and spreading the innovation from the LIC to the HIC. It is, in a nutshell, learning from and investing in poorer settings as one way to tackle problems in wealthier settings that require out-of-the-box solutions. The realization that the American health care system must simultaneously decrease per-capita cost and increase quality has created the opportunity for the United States to learn from low- and middle-income countries.   At GE Tech Mela, I came across GE's Stripped-down, portable ECG machine- GE Healthcare's MAC i is an ultra-portable, battery-operated electrocardiogram machine, designed for use in rural clinics in India, where mains electricity is e...

I feel proud when my name is included with the leading ladies in India today- Facebook, Walmart, Amazon and others. I however feel equally concerned about the future of IT in India. While I represented as the only lady to represent the healthcare industry, it is indeed a truth and a realization that we need much more of IT across industries. At INTEROP, I had the privilege to meet with Prof F. C Kohli .  "Those were the days when we were provided with Russian computers. These computers used to heat up after every 4-5 hours and then we had to shut them down and let them cool off before we can use them again" , said Mr F. C Kohli recalling his initail days toying with these machines called Personal computers then. Those who have never heard his name- Well! Prof. F. C . Kohli is frequently referred to as the  Father of the Indian Software Industry  due to his significant contribution in Indian IT industry. Padma Bhushan, Faqir Chand Kohli completed 90, on Mar...

Healthcare On Mobiles: Featured post- mHealth fighting malnutrition :  Malnutrition is a byword in the forested hills of the Melghat region inhabited mostly by Korku Adivasis. Every year 400-500 children between the ages of 0 and 6 die in the region, comprising Chikhaldhara and Dharni taluks, according to official figures from 2005. The Problem: Thousands of kids die every year in the tribal area of Melghat (Maharashtra, India) due to lack of medical attention and nutritional support. Increased incidence and rapid spread of infectious diseases such as pneumonia, typhoid, and dysentery are primary cause of high child mortality. Situation worsens during monsoon when the food supplies are low and the communicable diseases are at their peak. Melghat is also a place known for high infant mortality rate. Some reasons for the health crisis in Melghat include lack of infrastructure, under-equipped and under-staffed public health and ICDS centres, the tradition of early marriages ...

From government officials to hospitals administrators to patient advocates, women are making an impact in health IT by leading innovation and change in all facets of healthcare. We asked our readers to nominate the most influential women in health IT for our second annual list. And boy, did they respond--it was tough to keep the list to 10. We received nominations for women who are changing the face of personal health data and patient engagement, advancing nurse informatics, promoting mHealth and tele-medicine, using technology to improve global healthcare, developing healthcare apps and more.  Read more:  10 (More) Influential Women in Health IT - FierceHealthIT   http://www.fiercehealthit.com/slideshows/10-influential-women-health-it#ixzz2es3FJS1D Subscribe at  FierceHealthIT

Inspite of low penetration of Health Insurance in India, inclination towards Prevention and wellness products and services is on the rise. Penetration of private healthcare insurance policies is less than 0.5% in India ( Health insurance penetration in India is as low as 5% ) . If you live in the U.S, you would have come across this tagline many a times "Health Insurance companies investing in Wellness products to reduce claims and cut consumer costs". In India, it is Flipped!!! As there is not enough health cover, more than 70% expenditure on health is out of pocket. Hence the consumer is now becoming more aware of his/her wellness and is taking initiative to invest in prevention and health checks himself. No wonder, there are a million wellness companies that have mushroomed up in the last 3 years and most of them are making money on a B2C/Retail approach for obvious reasons. We are starting to look at some Technology driven wellness companies including mhealth based ...