• Dyania Health uses AI to automate the chart review and abstraction process for clinical trials, saving time and improving efficiency.
• Synapsis AI, Dyania Health’s AI system, analyzes electronic medical records to identify patients who may be eligible for specific clinical trials.
• The match output from Synapsis AI provides a level of compatibility between patients and trials, helping physicians make informed decisions.
• Explainability is crucial in AI, and Dyania Health’s system provides granular explainability to physicians, allowing them to understand the reasoning behind the AI’s conclusions.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

03:00 Automating Chart Review and Abstraction

08:09 Matching Patients with Clinical Trials

12:16 Matching Output and Explainability

13:55 Synapsis AI vs. General Language Models

17:07 Feedback and Learning Over Time

21:52 The Problem of Inefficient Clinical Trials

25:47 Success Stories and Impact

29:43 Building the Dyania Health Team

38:09 Revolutionizing Clinical Trials

"64% of patients were going to avoid taking their medication or take it differently than prescribed because of cost… it's a massive impact on a patient's ability to fill their meds, take their meds to be compliant with that regimen, and treat their condition." Kyle Kiser

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• The number of cancer patients confined to their homes
• Burden of individual health appointments on both patients and providers
• Understanding the patient’s trajectory and their pain points through the treatment process

Our discussion also explored remote patient monitoring and the unique asynchronous models currently being created by the Human Healthcare Factors team. 

• Creating viable solutions to clinical pain points
• Navigating industry regulations
• Determining who in the market is the appropriate “payer” for these solutions

Our conversation includes identifying the values clinicians bring to healthcare startups, the industry’s push for clinical outcomes, and what digitalization holds for the future of healthcare.

Currently the Director of Ecosystem Partnerships at 54gene, a health technology platform company, Dr. Leussa holds a PhD in biochemistry from Stellenbosch University. In addition to her roles in the business world, she has served as a university lecturer and managed an academic research laboratory.  

Dr. Leussa first encountered 54gene as a client—after leaving academia for the business world. Now, she leverages her academic expertise as she manages partnerships between 54gene and higher learning institutions across the African continent.

Episode Highlights  

• The importance of diverse data for precision medicine  

• Historically low patient-centricity as a bottleneck in clinical research

• Why 54gene focuses on genomics data to support drug discovery efforts

• How 54gene helps motivate individuals to donate their genetic data

• Advancements in digital health that can help benefit drug development

• How more inclusive data gathering would benefit the global community as a whole

• Major accomplishments 54gene has managed in just three years

• How 54gene leverages AI and machine learning in its data analysis

• Dr. Leussa’s own podcast, Africa Biotech Conversations, and its mission

Links  

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrienne-leussa/

https://54gene.com

African Biotech Conversations podcast on Spotify

 Episode Highlights 

• The primary driver of digital health progress
• The two sides of AI, and where machine learning falls in this paradigm
• Two key problems Dr. Abidi and his team address using AI and ML for decision support
• How Explainable AI can help build physicians’ confidence in decision support tools
• How an AI decision support system can double as an educational device
• The adoption challenges inherent in black-box models
• Why more data is not necessarily better
• Why Dr. Abidi considers data collection the weak link in data quality
• Distinguishing between biases: which impact a model’s performance and which do not?
• Current NICHE team projects
• How the rise of e-therapeutics grew virtual care, and a crucial clarification of terms
• Barriers to digital health innovation, and countries/entities that are leading the way

Links  

https://www.linkedin.com/in/raza-abidi-73b769111/?originalSubdomain=ca

https://niche.cs.dal.ca

https://niche.cs.dal.ca/raza_abidi/

Quotes  

• “The onset of digital health was the need to collect all the patient information and then make it available at the point of care.”
• “From a mindset standpoint, we have moved from that data-intensive digital health to more knowledge-and-services-oriented digital health.”
• “I think [the target] is: how can we actually use decision support to impact the operationalization of healthcare services?”
• “The entire reason for Explainable AI is to build trust, and once we build the trust, then the uptake of that decision model will actually be high. Otherwise, it will be used on and off, and there will always be ‘can I have a second opinion?’”
• “Biases come at two different levels, which we need to understand: Is it an ethical bias, or is it a bias that would affect the performance of the model?”
• “There are two sides of research: one is fundamental research, and one is applied research. And it is the fundamental research that is supported by these collaborations, because that is where we are asking the hard questions.”
• “One cannot discount the utility and applicability of artificial intelligence in health. It comes from all sides.”

Loreen began her career at the University of Alberta Hospital, where her focus was on kidney disease. She started a private clinical practice, Revive Wellness, in 2006, and entered the digital health space in 2013. At My Viva Plan, Loreen is creating an app that will both empower patients’ self-efficacy and facilitate communications with their healthcare providers.

Episode Highlights

• How Scarlett’s experience growing up as an athlete influenced her professional life
• The most engaging elements of startup work
• How she went from Hydrow beta tester to Vice President of Brand Experience
• Technology as a scale factor rather than a replacement for personal relationships
• Delivering experiences that leverage both the energy of in-person connections and the efficiency of remote models
• Finding the digital equivalent of a “high five”
• How to lead with listening
• Scarlet’s 3 big takeaways from starting her own company
• The entrepreneurial challenge: knowing when to be flexible and when to be steadfast
• The latest sport to capture her heart
• Current industry innovations, and upcoming developments Scarlet’s looking forward to
• Connecting with other female leaders through the Chief network, and the mission behind Scarlet’s new podcast, Brand New Women

Links 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scarlet-batchelor

https://liteboxer.com

https://hydrow.com

https://coeofitness.com

Episode Highlights

• Crucial challenges in integrating both patient and clinician perspectives in design
• The “profit over people” philosophy he’s observed in some systems
• How a “constant review of systems” model could help shift health intervention to be proactive rather than reactive
• Where Juhan sees the future of primary care heading
• How improved primary care benefits society as a whole
• A few of the under-researched areas of health that he sees as top priorities
• How Juhan expects the data-sharing model to evolve over time
• Use cases for a more diversified data pool
• His experience with patients’ willingness to share their data
• How design and UX can help advocate for policy change
• What Juhan thinks customers really want from digital health services
• The All of Us research program from the National Institutes of Health (current GoInvo project)

Links 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juhansonin/

https://goinvo.com

https://allofus.nih.gov

It was through his experience at Halifax VR that Daniel came to realize how far beyond entertainment VR’s applications can go. Now at MARS VR Lab, he combines his experience as a software developer with his thousands of hours of experience guiding others through VR experiences to create a pediatric rehabilitation process patients can actually enjoy.

Episode Highlights

• How Daniel became enamored with developing VR for medical purposes
• Making the most of pandemic-related delays
• Navigating the medical research trial process
• Daniel’s theory about healthcare’s notorious resistance to new tech
• Real-world benefits realized from the process of calibrating a virtual wheelchair
• How VR technology has advanced to an intuitive level of usability
• How MARS VR Lab’s program addresses specific competency criteria
• The emotional investment in the outcome when working with pediatric trainees
• Ethical challenges as a business working with a non-profit
• Instrumental partnership with the IWK Children’s Hospital
• Recommendations for someone who’s never tried VR before
• The charitable institution Mars VR Lab supports
• Exciting ideas he’s come across in his research

Links 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-baldwin-728929175/?originalSubdomain=ca

https://marsvrlab.com

Working with patients in a clinical setting during his surgical training at the University of Toronto, David identified a barrier to recovery that he realized could be mitigated. The technology he developed supports patients through the critical at-home stage of their physical therapy; David founded Halterix to deliver this technology to the patients who can benefit from it. 

https://youtu.be/RgmqRxw8F4w

In this episode, David details the clinical observations that prompted him to create the technology from which Halterix was born, and outlines: 

• The barriers to recovery Halterix is working to address
• How Halterix products help physicians monitor and learn from patient progress
• The particular challenges of getting a new idea off the ground in a healthcare context

David also describes how he built the team at Halterix:

• The benefits of working with an external team on certain items
• Why he does not regret recruiting friends
• How and why Halterix pivoted to a business-to-business model

Contributes some thought leadership insights: 

• The steps involved in taking a technology from the research phase through to implementation in a healthcare system
• Regulatory challenges around AI involvement in decision-making
• The importance of measuring patients according to their own baselines, rather than by a general benchmark

And offers a look ahead: 

• The next potential application for Halterix’s technology
• Projects currently in the works
• Several exciting ideas he’s come across in his research
• Potential future applications of technology now in development

Links 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-burns-b81055aa/?originalSubdomain=ca

https://halterix.com

With Tali.ai, Mahshid and her team have developed a customizable voice-enabled AI for point of care. This cutting-edge interface solves for major challenges facing physicians, freeing them to spend more time with their patients.

In this episode we’ll discuss the healthcare industry need Tali was created to serve, learn how Mahshid and her co-founder combined their expertise and compiled their team, and hear about the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) challenge that led to the founding of Tali.ai. 

We’ll also explore Tali’s unique capabilities, including: 

• How unstructured content complicates prompt information retrieval, and how Tali approaches that challenge
• How the COVID-19 pandemic served as a pilot opportunity for Tali
• Why Tali provides two different interfaces for all physician users

And unpack some key applications and challenges: 

• Specific patient profiles that can benefit from Tali’s service
• Issues inherent to working in cutting-edge technology
• Potential use cases for technology like Tali’s

Later, Mahshid offers some key thought leadership insights: 

• How she believes we can get more women interested in tech careers
• What her workdays look like as CEO compared to her prior work as a computer scientist
• Effective learning processes while transitioning from a technical role to a business ownership role

Lastly, Mahshid shares:

• Her favorite sources for inspiration and learning in the health tech industry
• What she and her team are focusing on over the next year
• What she’s most excited about for the digital health space in the near future

Links 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahshidyassaei/?originalSubdomain=ca

https://Tali.ai

https://www.womenofinfluence.ca/2021/03/25/how-this-tech-entrepreneur-is-changing-the-healthcare-landscape/

Quotes

• “In healthcare, there's always a gap between people on the technology side and people that are deep into the healthcare system. Every side is somewhat intimidated by the other side's expertise.”
• “Even if you can save an hour, or half an hour, of physician time, that’s of great value.”
• “You see a lot of patients just Googling the question. And they're not always armed with the knowledge on how to how to validate if the resource is evidence-based or trustworthy or not.”
• “Really understanding all these use cases and building a product that fits perfectly for what they're looking for, that is the main point of focus for us. Scaling and selling, distributing, and all that comes after that, when we have the perfect solution.”
• “That's the benefit of being a practitioner growing to a business leader: you understand your business to the deepest level. That is a benefit not all business owners have.”
• “I'm very excited about the shift to a healthcare system where patients have more agency. . . . all the virtual care solutions are basically there to deliver the care to where the patient is, not where the provider is, which is our current healthcare system. I think that leads to a healthier population overall. And for that reason, it is a very exciting revolution in the healthcare system...

At RevHealth, Chris brings his unique expertise to bear toward empowering clients to effectively reach and educate physicians and patients exploring therapy options.

Chris outlines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on data usage and nonpersonal communications, describes recent breakthroughs he’s observed in digital therapeutics, and shares what elements of his current RevHealth projects have him most excited. 

Moving Digital Health: Chris Cullmann of RevHealth - MindSea: App Design & Dev Agency, focusing on HealthTech

Key takeaways include specific use cases and examples: 

• How a single API, with the right add-ons, can provide both non-invasive support for a patient and peace of mind for their caregivers—if the necessary data is accessible
• How data from a wearable device like the Apple Watch can create a shared language and change the parameters of a patient-physician dialogue
• Instances where data creates opportunity for intervention and helps solve for the problem of poor patient self-reporting

Challenges around patient perceptions of data sharing: 

• Ethical questions around the ownership of personal health data
• Critical differences between individual data and group data
• “Data philanthropy,” and how physicians can help encourage this modern benevolence among patients
• Viable value propositions for which consumers might be motivated to trade their data

The critical role of storytelling in patient communications:

• Creating a narrative that meets the user in their journey
• Mediums and techniques Chris sees working best for patient communications
• How privacy restrictions have impacted marketers’ ability to reach patient populations

Chris also shares some future-facing insights, such as: 

• Usage possibilities and the vast potential value of high-volume data
• Data integrity and ownership questions that must be resolved
• Why he believes data inoperability will be the next major challenge for the U.S. healthcare market, and what he thinks might be necessary to address it

Links 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cullmann/

https://www.revhealth.com

Quotes

• “What's really interesting about the healthcare market is we have an audience, the prescriber, who's not our end user—the patient is the one we're addressing with therapies—but the decision maker, and one that in some cases rate limits what our actual end user, the patient, is seeing. Because they're making the recommendations against their professional experience and the craft and training.”
• “There's still a lot of opportunity for us to intelligently listen, in a respectful way for privacy, to help lend a narrative that's going to have a more meaningful user experience, and one that's going to really help participate in putting the right materials in front of someone who's in a position to make a decision about either their own therapy or a therapy for their patients.
• “We need to discuss culturally and figure out how comfortable we are and what are going to be the guidelines. I don't mean necessarily federal guidelines, although they are important, but what are the cultural agreements we're going to have about anonymized data, and, in particular, being able to help other people who exist inside of the same patient population that we do, and being able to provide something that is really giving back to the community in the true sense of the word.”
• “If you're a patient suffering from a disease, that's content that is really not only valuable, but that you find personally compelling. And you’re going to be drawn to those people like you who are going through the same kind of experiences.”
• “When we talk about people's perception of data and privacy, I think one of the stumbling blocks is people don't have context to their data . . . they don't know what they're exchanging because they don't know where they fit.”
• “There's going to be a value adjustment against that data model. People are going to start to realize they're giving up a lot in exchange for a little. And there's either going to be a rise of privacy and paying for services, or there are going to be a lot more protection mechanics…put in place in order to allow people to have a clear delineation into what they're putting forth versus what they're getting in exchange for their data.”
• “[Storytelling] has got to be specific to the product. And it's got to be specific to where the product is in the marketplace too. Not every brand’s a hero. Sometimes, being able to have information in front of the patient that's really matter-of-fact is everything that patient needs.”

At FCB, Alexis leverages his expertise gleaned from 10 years working with emerging technologies to create deeply engaging user experiences that educate his clients’ patients. 

The Moving Digital Health Podcast, Episode 1: Alexis Moses of FCB Health - (mindsea.com)

 Episode Highlights:   

• Employ conversational design to create guided user experiences that feel natural
• Meet diverse user needs by designing flexibility into conversational UI
• Leverage WebGL in a digital health context

The critical role interactivity plays in patient education, as well as:

• The benefits of a collaborative templating process
• The value of a close connection between engineering teams and patients
• Why Alexis’ team begins prototypes as early as the brainstorming stage

Industry insights responding to the current moment, including:

• Common adoption barriers specific to healthcare organizations
• Engineering effective experiences while remembering that pandemic measures are temporary
• Why brands should contribute to society outside their primary product, and how to go about it (Alexis proposes a possible model)

Looking ahead, Alexis offers his favorite resources for keeping up with emerging tech, and shares:

• Several emerging technologies he expects to prove highly effective
• His top picks from the 2021 Propelify Innovation Festival
• How he finds joy in his work despite the more sobering aspects of the field

Links 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexis-moses-a1256321/

https://www.fcbhealthny.com

Quotes

• “I think that’s what’s so beautiful about the technology: it’s just another avenue. It’s not made to replace a website; it’s not made to replace human agents, either. It’s just another option.”
• “It’s about designing a flow that can really meet everyone’s needs in order for them to find the solutions that they were initially looking for.”
• “The bigger the canvas, the bigger the picture, and I think WebGL is the natural extension of these web experiences.”
• “An old technology might be obsolete in its functionality, but it’s not necessarily obsolete in its cultural relevance.”
• “Don’t shy away from something that seems like it’s obsolete. The opportunity is there to evolve that.”
• “To see that the health market is getting these new imaginative and innovative technologies and really exploring—it’s an exciting time.”
• “In order for something to eventually come true, we have to play in that space.”