The 10 Trasformational Leaders of the Healthcare Industry 2018 by Mirror Review

www.mirrorreview.com November 2018

The 10 Transformational LEADERS of The Healthcare Industry, 2018

Back to Basics Top Inventions in Medicine by Nobel Prize Winners

Health Tech

IoT, Big Data & Cloud Computing services, reshaping the e-healthcare system

Don Woodlock

Vice President, InterSystems Corporation

Building A Tech-Driven & Modern Culture of Care

EDITOR’S LETTER Tremendous growth in the healthcare industry! The healthcare industry has become highly important to people around the world as well as to the national economies because of its rapid growth and technological evolution in the recent years. Consuming over 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) of most developed nations, healthcare sector plays an important role as being the largest employer in the global economy if we add up the number of people working in each sector across the world. Featuring the most dynamic personalities who are changing the face of the healthcare industry, the team of Mirror Review welcomes you to the brand new edition of our magazine, “The 10 Transformational Leaders Of The Healthcare Industry, 2018.” On the cover, we have visionary, charismatic, and well-versed Vice President of InterSystems Corporation's HealthShare business unit, Don Woodlock. Came from an impressive academic background in Electrical Engineering from the globally renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Don brings in years of experience of the healthcare industry. Don shares many aspects of his life with Mirror Review, including his personal journey, choice of career in the healthcare industry, roles and responsibility for HealthShare and much more. Inside of our magazine, we have covered exciting expeditions of the healthcare industry leaders, comprising Manabu Tokunaga (Co-Founder and CEO of WinguMD, Inc), Kristine Ashcraft (CEO of YouScript), Andreas Kartapanis (CEO of Hygeia Group), Grace Castillo-Soyao (Founder and CEO of Self Care Catalysts), and Tania Martin-Mercado (President and CEO of Phronetik). From CXO standpoint, we have added the precious viewpoint of Kumar Subramaniam (Founder and CEO of 75Health) and Shelley Saxena (Founder at Sevamob), elaborating the latest health systems. Mirror Review feels privileged to present these prominent healthcare industry leaders and their groundbreaking technological advancements, helping the industry to touch new peak points of success. In each magazine, Mirror Review ensures the readers to acquire the most out of it. Therefore, as a delicious treat to fulﬁll the cravings of our readers, we have presented an article covering the technologies that will change the e-healthcare system for better and gave our tribute to the best Nobel laureates who made an impact on healthcare. We hope that our readers will enjoy this comprehensive magazine issue. Happy reading! Mayur Shewale Assistant Editor

CREDIT PAGE Publisher : Archana Ghule Editor-in-Chief : Vikram Suryawanshi Managing Editor : Anuja Mulmule Assistant Editor : Mayur Shewale Project Manager : Roger Johnson Rohan Yadav Rahul Vishwakarma Art Director : Mark Davis Graphic Designer : Poonam Magdum Sumit Bonage Head of Distribution Aakash Mahajan & Production: Head of Operations: Robert Smith Research Analysts: James Adams Maria Smith David Thomas Advertising: Jacob Eddy

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Don Woodlock: COVER STORY 08

Building A Tech-Driven & Modern Culture of Care InterSystems Corporation

EXPERT OPINIONS

The Role of Electronic Health Systems in Modern Healthcare Industry

Will AI replace Physicians?

ARTICLES

BACK TO BASICS

Top Inventions in Medicine by Nobel Prize Winners

HEALTH TECH

IoT, Big Data & Cloud Computing services, reshaping the e-healthcare system

Andreas Kartapanis: On a Humanitarian Mission to Serve People & Society With Finest Quality of Care in Healthcare Sector

Grace Castillo-Soyao:

Decoding The Science Of Improved Healthcare & Real World Behaviour

Kristine Ashcraft: Unlocking The Power Of Precision Medicine Through YouScript

Manabu Tokunaga:

Bringing Smartest Clinical Image-Management Solutions For Healthcare Industry

Tania Mercado:

Bringing ArtiďŹ cial Intelligence and Precision Medicine to Point-Of-Care Diagnostics Systems

COVER STORY

on Woodlock is the Vice President of InterSystems Corporationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s HealthShareÂŽ business unit. Coming with an impressive academic background in Electrical Engineering from the globally renowned MIT, Don brings years of experience in the healthcare industry and is currently responsible for InterSystems HealthShare business, including strategy, product development, commercialization, implementation, and overall customer success.

The 10 Transformational LEADERS of The Healthcare Industry, 2018

Don Woodlock: Building A Tech-Driven & Modern Culture of Care At InterSystems Corporation

Before coming to InterSystems, he held executive positions at GE Healthcare and IDX Systems Corporation, to name a few. Mirror Review had a tĂŞte-a-tĂŞte with the multi-talented InterSystems Vice President. During our candid chat, we asked Don about his personal journey, choice of career in the healthcare industry, roles and responsibilities for HealthShare, and so much more.

What do you consider the main issues in healthcare today? Today, we have electronic medical records (EMR) in hospitals and clinics around most parts of the world. The main problem is that the data is not truly connected. Moreover, we have silos of

I have been a part of the healthcare industry since my ﬁrst job. When I started my career as a software engineer, I didn’t really care what industry I joined, and, in hindsight, that was a mistake, because I think the industry plays a big part in the challenge and excitement you get from your career. Therefore, I was extremely lucky to have found my calling in healthcare from the start. To begin with, one of the most fascinating and rewarding things about healthcare is that it has a social good aspect to it, where you are helping people to stay healthy and curing diseases. Secondly, modern healthcare is a very high tech industry with new technologies and fresh approaches. And lastly, healthcare is also a very complex industry with numerous challenges. From a business point of view, connecting the different parts of the puzzle is extremely beneﬁcial when it comes to software, because we always have things to do and problems to solve. I have been an active and contributing member of the healthcare fraternity throughout my career, and I intend stay that way because I enjoy it very much. What role do you play in Inter Systems operations and overall growth?

medical records in many locations, so the records are not useful to patients. Mirror Review would love to know about your personal journey. What attracted you to the healthcare industry?

As you know, I work for InterSystems and lead the HealthShare business unit, which is basically a connected suite of healthcare information solutions and an EMR interoperability platform. Essentially, what we are doing is helping customers to solve the problem of connecting all the different medical records that a patient has and allowing that information to ﬂow seamlessly and aggregate. The information, in turn, can be used by physicians or analyzed to

M detect trends. It can also feed machine learning. And that is what the HealthShare product line is all about. This is actually the next foundational step we need in healthcare. Step one is digitizing the paper records, and step two is connecting all the electronic records, so that you as a patient or you as a physician or government minister of health can really get a handle on patient care. In what areas does InterSystems stand apart from its current competitors? We have three business units at InterSystems: InterSystems IRIS Data Platform™, InterSystems TrakCare®, and then we have our HealthShare business. Today, we support the medical records of 500 million patients around the world, and our strength is really about the scalability and reliability of that information, because there is nothing more important than your health and medical records. At InterSystems, we have specialized in supporting large organizations by scaling up their systems safely and securely, as well as making the patient records and information available. In all, we are the principal engine running behind a lot of major EMR vendors, and that has been our company’s specialty in the marketplace. Would you like to share any additional information about InterSystems latest product launch? Absolutely! We recently launched a product called InterSystems IRIS for Health™. The InterSystems IRIS for Health platform combines data management, analytics, and interoperability of our InterSystems IRIS Data Platform with healthcare-speciﬁc features, such as FHIR-based application development, healthcare interoperability standards, and an extensible healthcare data model. With the prevalence of big data, machine learning, and artiﬁcial intelligence, data analysis and detection become equally important. Also, one of the trends that we’ve noticed is the separation of technologies for operational databases from those for analytical platforms.

The 10 Transformational LEADERS of The Healthcare Industry, 2018

We are excited about our latest platform, and I really think that it will help improve healthcare. On a personal note, who are your sources of inspiration? I have learned about business leadership from two mentors: Paul Egerman and Terry Ragon, who also happen to be the cofounders of IDX Systems Corporation, and Terry is also the founder and CEO of InterSystems. Paul and Terry have always focused on customers as the primary and utmost priority of their business. On the other hand, a lot of other people with whom I have worked focused on financial success or profits or predictability in the short-term and other kinds of metrics that are useful but rather secondary. The most important thing that I have learned from Paul and Terry is that you must focus on customers; you must make sure they are successful. This valuable lesson has immensely helped me and continues to be my golden rule. Could you please share your motto with us? What are the key ingredients to success? “Your customers’ success is your success.” The problem in business or any large organization is that there are so many metrics and distractions that define keys to success. If we visit a library for books on management, everyone has a different opinion about the keys to success. However, I feel that the real keys to success are focusing on customers and putting the best team in the field. And if you just have these two pillars, you will be successful. Last question, our readers would love to know about your experience while studying at one of the most renowned educational institutions of the world, MIT. Sure! I loved studying at MIT, and currently, I am sitting next to it. InterSystems is fairly integrated with MIT, and we also recruit MIT students. Recently, we sponsored the MIT Grand Hack, which was a weekend Hackathon. I went to MIT 30 years ago and had a wonderful time. As a lifelong learner and a curious person, I

found my time in the rich academic environment of MIT quite invigorating. I was and still am a rock musician and had a band at MIT. During those days, we played music at all the dorm, fraternity, and sorority parties around town. Additionally, I also found a connection between math-oriented people and musicians, creating a harmonious balance of science and art that was really stimulating and a lot of fun.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our mission is to empower care providers and connect care communities around clearly presented, easy-to-use, and comprehensive health information.â&#x20AC;?

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The 10 Transformational LEADERS of The Healthcare Industry, 2018

Company Name

Company Info

AdviNow Medical James Bates, CEO

AdviNow Medical (ANM) is improving the proﬁtability of existing clinics through artiﬁcial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) enabled automation. www.advinow.com

HealthPay24 Brian Evans, Vice President

HealthPay24, an Invoice Cloud company, is a recognized leader in patient payment engagement innovation and continues to pioneer expert-driven solutions to the ever-increasing patient pay responsibility. www.healthpay24.com

HYGEIA Group Andreas Kartapanis, CEO

HYGEIA Group is a prominent healthcare service provider group has embedded latest technologies based on internationally recognized practices and standards in its backbone. www.hygeia.gr.com

InterSystems Corporation Don Woodlock, Vice President

InterSystems is the engine behind the world's most important applications in healthcare, business and government. www.intersystems.com

Mach7 Technologies Mike Jackman, MD and CEO

Mach7 Technologies delivers an Enterprise Imaging Platform that unlocks disparate archive silos, consolidates patient data, and simpliﬁes sharing and access. www.mach7t.com

Phronetik Tania Mercado, President and CEO

Texas, Phronetik is clearing the cloudy skies in the healthcare industry. www.phronetik.com

Self Care Catalysts Inc. Grace Castillo-Soyao, Founder & CEO

Self Care Catalysts Inc., is a company, deriving value from patient-centered, real world evidence to inform decisions in product life cycle management, clinical care and behavior change. www.selfcarecatalysts.com

WinguMD, Inc. Manabu Tokunaga, Co-founder & CEO

WinguMD, Inc. is a digital health and connected health startup company based in Palo Alto, California, focusing solely on providing efﬁcient and accurate communications between all clinical users. www.wingumd.com

WorldCare International, Inc Nasser Menhall, Founder & CEO

WorldCare International, Inc. (WorldCare) is an e-health services and solutions provider headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts with additional ofﬁce locations in 30 countries including Canada. www.worldcare.com

YouScript Kristine Ashcraft, CEO

YouScript is a leader in precision medication management and clinical decision support analytics. www.youscript.com

“The success of a person is measured by the number of people they have touched with their actions and the satisfaction they draw from what they do.”

Andreas Kartapanis CEO

On a Humanitarian Mission to Serve People & Society With Finest Quality of Care in Healthcare Sector

ocated in Greece, HYGEIA Group owns 3 hospitals in Greece – Hygeia General Hospital, Private, General, Maternity, Gynecological & Children’s Hospital SA and LETO Maternity, Gynecological & Surgical Center SA-, a procurement company-LOGIMED SA, BEATIFIC Research, Production and Trading of Cosmetics SA, and also AlfaLab Molecular Biology & Cytogenetics Center. Hygeia Hospital is the only hospital in Greece, to have received the ‘Gold Seal of Approval by JCI’. The prominent healthcare service provider group has embedded latest technologies based on internationally recognized practices and standards in its backbone. Right from the ﬁrst hybrid operating room with modern medical devices to da Vinci robotic system to Gamma Knife Brain Radiosurgery Department, MAKO Robotic Arm Assisted system, HYGEIA Hospital delivers premium quality of care for all its patients. Mirror Review chats with the compassionate and dynamic CEO of HYGEIA GROUP, Andreas Kartapanis to know about his dedication towards the healthcare sector, his roles and responsibilities towards HYGEIA and a lot more. Here are the excerpts. What is the present day scenario of the healthcare industry? To what extent, does the healthcare sector

define a nation’s progress and economy? The private healthcare market in Greece is quite developed, with its expense consumption being the highest in Europe. This private healthcare sector includes diagnostic centers and hospitals, which constitute primary and secondary healthcare facilities respectively. State-run hospitals have traditionally been the backbone of hospital-based care. However, the public healthcare sector is not yet in a position to fully meet with the rising demands for better quality healthcare services in terms of technical infrastructure, scientific level of staff and upgraded services. Currently, the private healthcare sector includes 170 private hospitals, 31 rehab centers and around 330 private diagnostic clinics. In 2016, the five largest business groups held 53% of the total private healthcare market share, with the four largest groups holding 45% of the market share. Moreover, a large part of the health system budget is allocated to hospitals, which covers around 50% of total expenses. Tell us about your organization and its unique range of services. In the modern era of technology, how Hygeia Group has adapted to those changes in its working ecosystem?

M HYGEIA Hospital is the only hospital in Greece to have received the ‘Gold Seal of Approval by Joint Commission International’. Since 2010, HYGEIA Hospital is included in the 500 hospitals worldwide to have received the Gold Seal of Approval by JCI, so we make it a point of setting the bar higher every time by continuously improving our services, while our remaining focus stays on the patients who put their health in our hands. True to this, HYGEIA Group has traditionally invested in new technologies and quality medical equipment, setting the pace and trend for the next decade in Greece. Looking back at the recent past, it is obvious that HYGEIA Group serves as an example for the entire sector. Likewise, we continue to hold a leading position in terms of investments in advanced technology, demonstrating that entrepreneurship is intertwined with the principles that govern our operation. To name a few of our state-of-the-art technologies and services, we have the first hybrid operating room equipped with latest imaging and medical devices for performing complicated surgical procedures, the da Vinci robotic system which is the most advanced technology in medical robotic systems, the Gamma Knife Brain Radiosurgery Department, the first PET/CT Department and in 2017 all new MAKO Robotic Arm Assisted system is launched in HYGEIA Hospital. Lastly, we have also established the first dedicated private heart center in Greece. Through the Group hospitals, we offer comprehensive services – from prevention and diagnosis to treatment and follow-up – for all cardiovascular conditions and for all ages. Our readers would like to know about your personal journey. What attracted you to start a venture in the healthcare sector? After graduating from the Athens University of Economics, Department of Management and Business Administration, I entered the business arena. Today, my experience in healthcare spans around 18 years and in these years, I have worked in two public and two private hospitals. I was a Director at Sismanogleio Hospital and then at Evangelismos Hospital, the largest public hospital in Greece, during the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. I am also the only director in the history of the hospital to have resigned voluntarily to pursue a career in the private healthcare sector in 2005. I joined HYGEIA Group at the beginning of 2008 as General Manager and later took over the reins as the CEO in the last 3 years. I switched over to the healthcare sector half-way through my professional career as I was driven by my personal moral values, seeing that I wanted to work in an industry that makes a contribution to people and society in

The 10 Transformational LEADERS of The Healthcare Industry, 2018

general. In the last 18 years, I have been managing hospitals – both public and private and I must admit that the healthcare sector is not just a business sector but a constantly evolving entity. Each day offers yet another opportunity and a challenge to balance the sustainable operation and proﬁtability of a group of hospitals while providing superior quality services to patients and making a difference for our fellow citizens. As a leader of a prominent healthcare organization, what role do you play in its operations and growth? How do you tackle professional crisis? In all these years, I have held senior executive positions that were driven by strong sets of moral values. The key principles that I abide by are respect, honesty and integrity. I work by the book and my main concern is to be able to look at my associates in the eye. Ethical management requires power, vision and passion. You must lead by an example, so that everything can be accomplished through teamwork and effort. Our human resources are our largest and most valuable asset. One of my primary considerations is to safeguard meritocracy and focus on team spirit and cooperation, by cultivating a pleasant and friendly work environment, which ultimately leads to a desirable business outcome and the growth of HYGEIA Group. How does your organization stand apart from its competitors? What are your future milestones for Hygeia Group? Our main competitive edge is that through our hospitals, which include general, maternity and children’s hospitals, HYGEIA Group has become a point of reference for the whole family. Additionally, the HYGEIA Group hospitals offer healthcare services to patients of all ages, from fetuses to the elderly. Our vision is to make all the HYGEIA Group hospitals point of references in Greece and among the leading hospitals in Europe in terms of quality health services. This is our goal both in the everyday operations of our hospitals as well as in our long-term strategies. At present, we have shifted out interest towards creating the largest group of healthcare services in Greece. Who was your source of inspiration during the start of your professional career? Whom would you like to dedicate your success? Looking back at the onset of my career, at a time when Greece was trying to ﬁnd its footing in the entrepreneurial arena, I was fortunate enough to have worked next to a remarkable man and a true professional. His kindness, moral values and business integrity served as an inspiration and a valuable lesson in professionalism for me.

Author Bio: Mr. Kumar Subramaniam has always believed and used technology as the means to improve the quality of business processes and enhance people’s life. 75Health is the brainchild of Mr. Kumar Subramaniam. He conceptualized the innovative EMR Software with the objective of digitalizing crucial medical records and empowering medical practices to achieve the best care delivery. He leverages technology to achieve business objectives while serving the community better.

The Role of Electronic Health Systems in Modern Healthcare Industry

sing health information technology (HIT) has become common in the contemporary medical industry. Leveraging innovative technologies that assist healthcare delivery in several ways, HIT is seen to be a growing program of research that is driven by the present transformative healthcare policies such as HITECH. Electronic Heath Record (EHR) is the recent technology that adheres to all compliance requirements and helps enhance quality and efﬁciency of care while

increasing safety. Overall quality of patient care is greatly improved by making use of this modern technology. EHRs: The Positive Impacts on Information Integrity In addition to the intended beneﬁts such as better healthcare under low costs and accuracy and reliability of sensitive health information, adoption of EHR Systems bring in several unintended positive consequences as well.

Expert Opinions Adoption of health information technologies such as EHR Systems enables medical professionals to deliver high-quality care, thus transforming the healthcare system into a safer and more efficient one. A clinical information system, when designed and implemented with a coordinated effort from professionals belonging to varied fields such as information technology, healthcare, and management, takes into account all predictable combinations of conditions, thus making it safe and efficient. Possible exceptions may be handled; reliable decision support recommendations may be achieved that result in better patient outcomes. Significance of Clinical Information Systems in the Contemporary Healthcare Setting In the busy and complex hospital environment today, there’s no wonder in EHRs and practice management systems being deployed as the primary digital information systems of administrative and clinical data. When these systems are optimized, they offer great potential of enhancing the quality, safety, and efficiency of medical facilities. Shift Toward the Cloud With EHRs undergoing constant evolution, there’s possibility of new and unprecedented developments emerging in the healthcare arena. An increasingly more number of healthcare organizations and clinicians are inclined toward health information technologies for providing the most optimal care to their patients. Cloud-based EHR systems and practice management systems are the noted ones among such technologies. Economy of cloud-based solutions is the primary reason for the shift toward cloud-based systems. While relieving healthcare organizations from having to allocate resources for upgrades as well as technology management operations, cloud technology saves them from having to invest on expensive hardware and software as well. Data security and convenient remote access, along with regular data backup save considerable time and efforts on the part of clinicians. EHR Systems – Providing Advance Information Governance

The 10 Transformational LEADERS of The Healthcare Industry, 2018

accurate and high-quality medical information. This helps reform the present way of providing healthcare services. Care delivery will be transformed in such a way that safety is increased, healthcare costs are cut down, and patients are actively engaged in their care. With information integrity, accountability for the availability, reliability, accuracy, protection, and compliance of critical health information can be assured. Clinical decision making and care quality improvement may be achieved with the high-quality, timely information provided by the EHR Systems. To be able to manage information assets effectively and safely, it is essential that not just healthcare organizations, vendors and policy makers as well need to take part in deploying information governance programs and concepts. With effective information governance program, clinicians and medical facilities will be better able to control information assets, while formalizing overall enterprise information management. This leads to optimizing the use of health information technology to its full potential. Making steady progress toward interoperability and sticking to all compliance needs to regulations such as MACRA, the EHR System has brought about great positive changes in the processes in medical practices and their reimbursements. The medical industry, which has been wrestling for seamless and secure information exchange for years, has found the most reliable health information exchange solution in EHRs. Moreover, data standardization and patient safety provided by this system propels the industry not only to make use of this in an extensive manner but also to venture into updating and adding features to this system for making the future of patient care still more efficient. Overall, the current healthcare industry situation looks good to shape into a better and more efficient level in the future, thanks to the innovative electronic health record system. The key element enabling navigating the positive changes will be the robust cloud-based EHR. Enabling healthcare organizations to streamline not just clinical operations, but their administrative and financial processes as well, the cloud-based EHR System facilitates reliable compliance and enables interoperability.

A lot of improvements are envisioned in healthcare, thanks to the modern EHR Systems that assure

Grace Castillo-Soyao Founder & CEO

Decoding The Science Of Improved Healthcare & Real World Behaviour

stablished in Toronto, Canada, Self Care Catalysts Inc., is a patient driven technology and data, company, deriving value from patient-centered, real world evidence to inform decisions in product life cycle management, clinical care and behavior change. Going back to its foundational roots, Self Care Catalysts believes that when patients are informed, respected, and engaged, they make better choices; ultimately leading to better health outcomes. Therefore, its dedicated team gives major importance towards presenting patients’ views in the healthcare ecosystem through the generation of real world evidence using our Health Storylines software.

The Founder and CEO of Self Care Catalysts, Grace CastilloSoyao is a passionate visionary and a strong proponent of citizen science, believing in the participation of ordinary citizens in solving problems, with an impressive corporate background. Currently, Grace is involved in building and growing a team of technologists, healthcare informatics and data scientists at Self Care Catalysts to enable patients to ﬁnally have a voice and be their own advocates in medical decisionmaking and healthcare innovation. She brings an extensive experience from corporate world, along with intellectual

leadership that is responsible for driving the transformation of her prominent company through healthcare innovation and advancement. Mirror Review turns the spotlight on Grace Castillo-Soyao to know more about her perception towards healthcare, professional voyage, source of inspiration and a lot more. What is the present day scenario of the healthcare industry? To what extent, does the healthcare sector deﬁne a nation’s progress and economy? Healthcare is complex, with various stakeholders having goals that are at odds with each other leaving the patient, the ultimate recipient of healthcare, completely almost powerless Until now, they’ve been treated mostly as the recipients of care. To answer your second question, it’s ironic that healthcare is regarded as the foundation of a nation’s progress and economy, with its ties to productivity and outcomes, and yet the patients as people, are not participating in decisions that drive drug development, access, regulation, costs and payments. Economic transactions are opaque. When the very users of healthcare are

M not active contributors to healthcare economic transactions, it ultimately impacts nation’s progress. Tell us about your company and its unique range of services. In the modern era of technology, how Self Care Catalysts has adapted to those changes in its working ecosystem? Self Care Catalysts is a health technology and data company, deriving value from patient-centered, real world evidence to inform personalized care, behavior change intervention, population health, drug discovery and commercialization. We built an integrated, patient focused, customizable digital platform integrated into the eco-system that enables patient engagement, clinical research, behavior intervention and real world evidence generation, all in real time. Our readers would like to know about your personal journey. What attracted you to start a venture in the healthcare sector? Even though I’m not an academically-trained scientist, I love to solve problems and turn ideas into actionable solutions. I’m interested in the intersection of social sciences, basic sciences and technology as they’re applied to the real world. My 25+ years of corporate experience had prepared me to understand healthcare business at a larger, global scale and my entrepreneurial spirit, strong sense of insight and foresight have given me the platform and readiness to start a company.

The 10 Transformational LEADERS of The Healthcare Industry, 2018

customizable and personalizable and a direct to customer RWE solutions that where our platform or drug development, clinical innovation, patient engagement, evidence generation and research. On a personal front, who was your source of inspiration during the start of your professional career? And whom would you like to dedicate your success? As a child, I’ve always looked up to successful personalities, women leaders, the outliers, and the early adopters in their respective fields who made significant contributions to the society. I recall being drawn to reading memoirs and personal histories of people who played pivotal role as innovators and influencers in society. I originally wanted to be a lawyer until I got drawn to business and the corporate world, particularly developing and launching new products, inspiring, collaborating and leading teams. This accomplishment is dedicated to my parents and my son. It is their genes that shaped my resilience and goal orientation. For me, they were examples of people who live for a purpose and for my son, who I think turned out to be better than me. He is someone who has the heart to make a difference for others, while also being really ambitious.

As the Founder and CEO of a leading healthcare company, what role do you play in its operations and growth? How do you tackle professional crisis? As a Founder and CEO, I’m privileged to have built a select team of talent who are comfortable with discomfort and uncertainty because they put value on future rewards more than the risks. So, there is a foundation of staff, committed to build under challenging circumstances and all I need to provide is the vision, plan, capital and infrastructure to grow the company. We all play multiple roles; while I provide the vision, direction, shape business model, secure funding, the rest of the team provides critical steps and necessary pivots to drive the revenue generation, product research, development, validation and commercialization, When I experience operational crisis, or need guidance in vetting leadership decisions, I have a group of experienced advisors whom I turn to for support and advice. Also, I read a lot about people who have gone through this similar journey. How does your company stand apart from its competitors? What are your future milestones for Self Care Catalysts? Self Care Catalysts is unique because we built our company ﬁrst and foremost to empower patients through building, ownership, sharing and control of their healthcare data. We’re both a patient -driven health tech and data company. We built a SaaS product, licensed to enterprises that’s disease-agnostic,

Shelly Saxena: Founder & CEO

cience fiction authors and futurologists often imagine a world where ubiquitous use of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine means the end of physicians. In such a world, omniscient AI bots effortlessly diagnose and treat diseases, while various robots are busy performing lifesaving surgeries. Many physicians, on the other hand, hold the view that medicine is as much an art, as it is science, which makes it unique among other industries. They believe that efforts to incorporate artificial intelligence into healthcare are a fool’s errand. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle, at least in the present and in the near future. The current landscape of medicine reveals shortage of physicians and limited access to healthcare in many parts of the world. The physician density is 3.1 per 1000 people in urban USA as compared to 1.3 in rural USA, 0.767 in South Africa and 0.725 in India. World Health Organization sets the norm as one physician for every 1000 people. The desirable physician density is not the only metric, because even urban

Expert Opinions

that are increasingly being used by patients themselves to monitor health and wellness. As more information is being gathered about interpretation of these data, AI can be used to learn to analyze this information for appropriate action.

USA, which has high physician density, sees problems with access to care due to costs, geographic variability and wait times. A low-tech solution in many countries has been creation of licensed healthcare professionals who are not physicians, such as physician assistants, nurse practitioners and midwives. Most of these professionals are supervised by a physician, depending on local laws, and are often the ﬁrst or the only point of access to healthcare for patients. These practitioners play in important role in healthcare, especially in the areas with limited access, but their limited training does not provide them with the same breadth of knowledge as physicians. Artiﬁcial Intelligence is perfectly positioned to help address this issue in the immediate to near future. Consider the following examples: Ø

Point-of-care evaluation: Large number of people in different parts of the world resides prohibitively far away from a medical laboratory or a facility equipped with diagnostic imaging tools. This may lead to delayed diagnosis and increased morbidity and mortality. Artificial intelligence can help in a variety of such scenarios, where a non-physician provider equipped with a smartphone application can be the first step in a diagnostic and screening process of a variety of conditions, and later refer appropriate patients to a physician or request help remotely from a supervising physician. For example, an AI tool and a simple microscope with DIN achromatic lens can be used to diagnose fungal skin infections. The same setup applied to blood analysis can be used to diagnose anemia and parasitic infections like malaria. A fundus camera used in conjunction with a smartphone and an AI algorithm can be used to screen for vision conditions such as diabetic retinopathy. Patient monitoring: In any given hospital there is a plethora of patient monitoring devices used for various purposes, such as telemetry for monitoring for aberrant heart rhythms, bed alarms to detect falls, numerous variables tracked during surgery. All of these are designed to increase patient safety, but their alerts and alarms currently have to be interpreted by a human. This frequently results in alarm fatigue, which has recently been getting a lot more attention as a real danger. Using AI to analyze alarms and alerts and to filter out noise can greatly improve patient safety, increase staff productivity and lower costs, by allowing care providers to focus on more important tasks. Similarly, there is now a large number of devices

The 10 Transformational LEADERS of The Healthcare Industry, 2018

Medications analysis. All medications come with various side effects and interactions, but unfortunately current databases for cross checking those are cumbersome and still require that medication names be entered manually. An AI tool can be easily trained to automate this task to improve patient safety by increasing awareness of possible interactions.

Applied in appropriate situations, artificial intelligence can help address issues of limited access to care, as well as improve efficiency of care providers by eliminating or reducing menial tasks. By making nonphysician medical professionals more productive, it reduces the risk of errors. The healthcare industry can then utilize increased numbers of physician assistants, nurse practitioners and midwives with higher confidence in more under-served areas. This can result in reduced patient wait times, lower cost of care and increased patient satisfaction. One area of medicine, where physicians are indispensable is clinical decision making. It is used to arrive at a diagnosis and formulate a treatment plan. There are two factors that limit AI’s applicability in this area. The current AI models lack sophistication due to limited patient data. As more data become available to train the AI models and more deep learning techniques are used, AI sophistication will improve. The regulatory framework is another important and more limiting factor. The existing laws and regulations in most countries are lagging far behind developments in the science of artificial intelligence, which makes it very difficult to regulate artificial intelligence products and services and thus restricts innovation. Probably in the next 100 years or more, as some of these issues are sorted out and the science of artificial intelligence continues to develop, AI has the potential to become as disruptive in healthcare as it has been in other industries. Could it replace physicians in this timeframe? Probably yes. Instead of fearing it, however, we can learn to use it to our advantage. If humanity were scared of progress, we would still be riding horse buggies and lighting our homes with candles.

8 LIFE is EASIER on iPhone. www.apple.com

Kristine Ashcraft CEO

Unlocking The Power Of Precision Medicine Through YouScript

ere is an inspiring story of a passionate woman with a mission to end avoidable adverse drug events in the prescriptive healthcare ecosystem. Based in Seattle, the CEO of YouScript, Kristine Ashcraft is a qualiﬁed molecular biologist as well as a proliﬁc author of numerous publications. Spun out of genetic testing lab Genelex in 2016 with over 15 years of IP, YouScript is the leader in precision medication management and clinical decision support analytics, evaluating potential drug-drug, gene-drug, and multi-factor interactions. Backed by a powerful combination of innovative analytics software and expert staff, YouScript has a longstanding commitment to the prevention of dangerous and life-threatening adverse drug events (ADEs). In an exclusive interview with Mirror Review, Kristine reveals the unknown facts about her personal life, professional calling, her source of inspiration and more. What is the present day scenario of the healthcare industry? According to the Journal of the American Medical

Association, one person dies every 5 minutes from adverse reactions to “properly” prescribed medications in the U.S. Half of the medications we prescribe do not work as intended and are therefore wasted therapies. In 2009, we spent 289 billion on medication related issues, and the problem has only grown, as we now have 50 million Americans taking five or more medications daily with the number expected to climb further. Despite the FDA’s statement that drug-gene interaction should be considered as an equivalent of drugdrug interactions, they are typically not taken into account in clinical care. There is an adverse drug event epidemic and until YouScript, we were using binary drug interaction tools that miss over 33% of significant medication issues, providing alert fatigue instead of actionable guidance. Tell us about your company and its unique range of services. In the modern era of technology, how has YouScript adapted to those changes in its working ecosystem? The YouScript Precision Prescribing Software identifies atrisk individuals within patient populations, helps medical professionals interpret pharmacogenetic testing results, and provides expert support for medication management.

M Additionally, it is also the first analytics software tool available to prescribers that predict potential drug-drug, drug-gene, and cumulative drug interactions based on both cytochrome P450 metabolism and genetic testing. Our software is integrated into major electronic health records including Epic, Cerner, & All scripts. Our readers would like to know about your personal journey. What attracted you to start a venture in the healthcare sector? When I applied for college, I planned to focus on genetic research to help find a cure for cancer. I watched my 5’ 8” grandmother wither down to eighty pounds before it took her life, and was determined to do something to stop the ravages of this horrible disease. With this goal in mind, I studied molecular biology. However, it soon became apparent that although I excelled in science and loved the subject matter, the laboratory bench was not the place for me. I felt more in my element using my leadership and communication skills, which both come naturally to me. Bearing this in mind, I left college, headed in a different direction, and got even more committed to making a difference. I was fortunate to secure a job in 2000 with Genelex, one of the first labs to offer pharmacogenetic testing. There, I led the business development team and had the unique opportunity to talk to thousands of pharmacists, physicians, and patients about widespread barriers to the adoption of pharmacogenetic testing and utilization of the results. YouScript was developed to answer the recurring questions of whom to test, how to act on test results, and how to use the information in a busy clinical workflow. We have also completed some vital clinical validation studies to prove that pharmacogenetic testing in conjunction with the YouScript platform improve outcomes and reduce healthcare costs. As a leader of a prominent healthcare company, what role do you play in its operations and growth? How do you tackle professional crisis? I keep a pulse on the industry, represent the company at major conferences and events, as well as play a key role in its business development. I am a passionate champion for our mission to end avoidable adverse drug events and have weathered many challenges over the years in trying to attain this goal. Remembering to celebrate even the smallest victories, staying focused on the importance of our work, and remaining dedicated to make a difference in healthcare, keeps me pushing forward to overcome obstacles. As long as we keep the end game – ending avoidable adverse drug events - in mind whenever we are faced with decisions, things tend to fall in place.

How does your company stand apart from its competitors? What are your future milestones for

The 10 Transformational LEADERS of The Healthcare Industry, 2018

YouScript? YouScript is the only software on the market to include multi-drug and gene combinations, catching 33% more signiﬁcant interactions than current binary tools. Our personalized, actionable interface results in recommendations accepted at 4-7x the current rate. This increase in acceptance shows our commitment to reducing alert fatigue, only surfacing the most critical and important information as curated and managed by our team of clinical pharmacists. YouScript’s risk analysis tools evaluate patient populations to stack-rank and identify patients’ most likely to beneﬁt from pharmacogenetic testing and at highest risk of adverse medication outcomes. In a recent study published in the Journal of Medical

Economics, the University of Utah showed the use of pharmacogenetic testing and reports generated with YouScript’s clinical decision support software reduced hospitalizations by 39-percent and ED visits by 71-percent in elderly patients taking multiple medications in just 4 months. A more recent randomized controlled trial in ≥ 50 years old patients’ released to home health after a hospitalization resulted in a 52-percent reduction in re-admissions and a 42-percent reduction in ED visits with an estimated per patient savings of over $4300 in just 60-days. We are currently live at Premier Medical Associates in Pittsburgh, PA as part of a Highmark BCBS Vital Innovation program and Group Health of South Central Wisconsin in Madison, WI. Additionally, we are being leveraged for Clover Health’s complex care patients and are part of the demos at the Cerner Vision Center where current and prospective customers can view our clinical utility in a live working model. At YouScript, our mission is to end the avoidable adverse drug events and we truly live and breath this through our commitment to patient safety and personalized clinical decision support. On a personal note, who has been your true source of

inspiration? My mother has always been a huge inspiration to me. She attended a night college to get her accounting degree as she was a single mother, later got her MPH while working full-time in her 50s, and eventually became the Chancellor of the entire Oregon University system. She not only taught me the value of hard work and tenacity, but also the importance of treating people kindly, believing in them, and dedicating yourself to making a positive impact in your community.

Top Inventions in Medicine by Nobel Prize Winners The Nobel Prize is a well-known international award based on the fortune of Alfred Nobel, and regulated by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden.

n November 27, 1895, Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833-1896) signed his will at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris.After his passing, when it was opened and pursued; it caused a huge controversy, giving everyone a drastic shock, as he left much of his remaining estate for the establishment of a prize. However, the will had a clause which stated that Alfred's fortune should be used to endow “Prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest beneﬁt to mankind.”

Popularly known as the man with ethics, Alfred Nobel was the Swedish chemist and engineer by trade. He invented the powerful dynamite and played a vital part in the inventions of synthetic rubber, artiﬁcial silk and synthetic leather. Till date, Alfred has more than 350 granted patents. Owing to his love for English literature and poetry, Alfred left his wealth for the establishment of awards for the same genre, including an award in peace. Since then, the Nobel Prize Committee awards people for their exceptional achievements in chemistry, economics, literature, medicine, peace, and physics. Physiology or medicine was the third prize area that Alfred Nobel had speciﬁcally mentioned in his will.

Back to Basics

The 10 Transformational LEADERS of The Healthcare Industry, 2018

The person who receives the Nobel Prize award is called as a Nobel Laureate. The word “laureate” refers to the term laurel wreath, meaning a symbol of victory and honor. In ancient Greece, laurel wreaths were awarded to the winners of Greece Olympics as a sign of honor for their victory. Every October, the Nobel Foundation board displays the list of Nobel Peace Prize winners in Oslo, while the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Economics, Literature, Medicine and Physics are announced in Sweden. Following mentioned are the outstanding individuals whose inventions in Medicine were highly remarkable in the whole history of Nobel Prize winners.

1902: Ronald Ross

Ronald Ross was a multidimensional scientist who was also an epidemiologist, mathematician, sanitarian, editor, novelist, poet, composer, and artist. Served as an Indian Medical Service ofﬁcer in 1981, Ronald Ross began his study of malaria in 1892 in India. After many years of struggle, in 1897, Ross made his landmark discovery on the parasites in mosquito which causes malaria. In his experiment, the mosquitoes were made to (Discovery of parasites in mosquito causing Malaria) feast on a malaria-infected patient four-days prior, which clearly showed the connection of mosquitoes with the propagation of the disease, thereby leading to the successful research and cure for combating the deadly disease of that time.

1909: Emil Theodor Kocher

In 1850’s, there was not enough advancement in thyroid surgery and it was performed on vital indications only. Most of the deaths were caused due to uncontrollable bleeding and infection during the thyroid surgery. After the operation of the thyroid gland, Emil Kocher observed that many of his patients had symptoms of hypothyroidism which caused a stoppage in natural growth called as cretinism. These observations led him not to remove the whole gland during operation. Emil introduced the modern oral therapy in 1892, which resulted in a rapid decrease in mortality of patients from 40% in 1850 to 2.4% in 1889 and 0.18% in 1898. Still today, his contributions have a great impact on thyroid surgery.

(Inventor of Modern thyroid gland surgery)

1923: Frederick Grant Banting and John James Rickard Macleod

In 1921, together with Banting, Charles Best demonstrated that a substance called trypsin blocks the insulin generation in the pancreas. Scientists knew that the lack of insulin causes diabetes in a normal human body, however could not ﬁnd the exact method to eliminate the cause. In MacLeod’s laboratory, they treated dogs in such a way that they could not produce the trypsin and dogs’ insulin could be extracted to treat diabetes in humans. In the history of Nobel Prize winners, Frederick Banting is the youngest

(Invented the procedure for insulin extraction to prevent diabetes)

ever Medicine Laureate, whose age was 32 years at the time of accepting the award.

1930: Karl Landsteiner

Blood transfusions were known to be unsuccessful in the mid-1900 due to the incompatibility between the donor's and patient’s blood. Karl Landsteiner revealed that individuals have three blood groups (now as A, B, and O) and each group has a distinct feature based on the presence and absence of a particular set of molecules which are on the surface of Red Blood Cells (RBCs). These discoveries removed the great risk while making a blood transfusion process. Landsteiner’s work related to blood groups, later prompted blood classiﬁcation and expanded positive transfusion results.

(Classiﬁcation of blood groups)

1933: Thomas Hunt Morgan

An 1890’s Ph.D. holder in Zoology, Thomas Hunt Morgan’s work which was related to Drosophila (the fruit ﬂy) showed that the associations known as coupling and repulsion, is in fact, the two sides of the same phenomenon called as ‘linkage’. He demonstrated the sex linkage of the gene for white eyes in a fruit ﬂy with a male being heterogametic. Further, he elaborated this theory in his book, Mechanism of Mendelian Heredity (1915). This discovery related to chromosomes function in heredity awarded him the Nobel Prize in 1933.

(Discovery of Sex linkages)

M 6

The 10 Transformational LEADERS of The Healthcare Industry, 2018

1945: Sir Alexander Fleming, Ernst Boris Chain and, Sir Howard Walter Florey

Sir Alexander Fleming used to put a bowl ﬁlled with bacteria besides him while working at the desk. He saw that, along with the bacteria, there was a fungal mold growing around it which stopped the growth of bacteria. He concluded that the bacterial growth was disturbed by a substance in the fungal mold, and that substance was Penicillin. However, it was precarious and unstable, which needed to be obtained in a pure form. In the mid-1940’s, Chain and Florey with their colleagues succeeded in

(Discovery of Penicillin)

producing a pure form of penicillin and today, it’s the ﬁrst and still one of the most widely used antibiotic agents.

1990: Joseph E. Murray and E. Donnall Thomas Platelets, which form in the bone marrow, shield the body from ailments. Malfunctioning of bone marrow cells can lead to serious diseases such as Leukaemia. During the 1950’s, Donnall Thomas built up a procedure to replace damaged bone marrow cells by means of blood transfusion. In 1954, Joseph Murray created a strategy utilizing radiotherapy and immunosuppressant to cease the body’s habit of rejecting the transplanted organs. Because of such a huge contribution in the organ transplantation, both the scientist shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1990.

(Invented modern method of Organ transplantation)

2003: Paul C. Lauterbur and Sir Peter Mansﬁeld

Paul Lauterbur and Sir Mansfield revealed that the protons and neutron in the atomic nucleus work like small spinning magnets and their magnetic field can be disturbed by radio waves of certain frequencies. In 1970, they introduced the phenomenon to create images of the human body’s interior by presenting variations in magnetic field between protons and neutrons. The analysts shared the Nobel Prize for their discoveries concerning magnetic resonance imaging.

(Discovery of MRI)

1.2008: Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Luc Montagnier and, Haraldzur Hausen

Researchers characterize the genomes that contain ribonucleic acid (RNA) as Retroviruses. In 1983, Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnier found a retrovirus which attacks lymphocytes- a type of blood cell which is extremely important for the body’s immune system, and was later named as Human Immunodeﬁciency Virus (HIV). HIV causes Acquired Immunodeﬁciency Syndrome (AIDS). This essential discovery prompted enhanced medications for those determined to have AIDS. Concurrently, Hausen exhibited that the papillomavirus formed by malfunction of living cells regulated by genes cause cervical disease. Cervical disease, at that time, was the second most basic reason for female tumors. Hausen’s research made it possible to

(Discovery of HIV)

develop a vaccine against cervical cancer.

2010: Robert G. Edwards

In cooperation with Patrick Steptoe, Robert G. Edwards found the solution for woman infertility which was caused by Fallopian tube blockage or due to a few eggs or sperm cells. Robert Edward introduced a method to remove the eggs from the ovaries, fertilized them in a test tube and later replaced it in a woman. This method is scientiﬁcally called as in-vitro fertilization. As a result, the ﬁrst child was born in 1978 by in-vitro fertilization process.

(Discovery of in-vitro fertilization)

The 10 Transformational LEADERS of The Healthcare Industry, 2018

2017: Jeffrey C. Hal, Michael Rosbash, and Michael W. Young

The most recent Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to three scientists named Jeffrey C. Hal, Michael Rosbash, and Michael W. Young, for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm. Till date (1901-2017), 108 Nobel Prizes in Medicine have been awarded. Out of these, 39 medicine prizes have been given to individual Laureates only. Twelve women have been awarded this prize so far. These great researches in medical or physiological industry have contributed immensely to the human race and changed the conventional medical methods. The exceptional dedication of these scientists and their commitment to the society has led them to ďŹ nd new pathways to achieve goals beyond imagination. This esteemed Nobel Prize is truly an appreciation towards the remarkable scientists and their unimaginable work, making the world to remember them forever.M

(Discovery of molecular mechanisms controlling circadian rhythm)

Manabu Tokunaga Co-founder & CEO WinguMD, Inc

Bringing Smartest Clinical Image-Management Solutions For Healthcare Industry ncepted in 2013, WinguMD, Inc. is a digital health and connected health startup company based in Palo Alto, California, focusing solely on providing efﬁcient and accurate communications between all clinical users.

determined by their profitability, but this model is finally starting to change. New disruptions are now coming from health-conscious consumers as well as large technology companies who are finding ways to manage care, convenience as well as service expenses.

Mirror Review gets candid with Manabu Tokunaga, Cofounder and CEO of WinguMD, Inc. to share his comprehensive journey in the healthcare industry.

Tell us about WinguMD and its unique range of services.

How will you deﬁne the present day scenario of the healthcare industry? In the U.S., our healthcare industry as a whole is in a state of ﬂux. Just as in the pre-iTunes, Amazon, Uber and Airbnb era where the music, retail, taxi and hotel industries were extensively controlled by a set of major players, there also have been companies that have dominated Electronic Health Records (EHR) products and payer networks. Their success has been and is still largely

As, clinicians spend most of their working day; discussing observations, documenting ﬁndings and coordinating patient care with their colleagues, communication becomes one of the most fundamental aspects of healthcare delivery. However, the communication does not end at the point of care, but is also sent to future providers for a patient's entire life. Unlike prescribing more tests, there is no direct proﬁt associated with these activities, so this is the area that is likely to receive the least business-level prioritization. This makes for a frustrating situation for technicians, nurses, and surgeons

M who are all working in the trenches of care delivery. WinguMD is a mobile healthcare platform company that currently focusing on providing efficient and accurate communications between all clinical users. In the modern era of technology, how WinguMD has adapted to those changes in its working ecosystem? Humans are mobile, and not attached to desks or planted in the ground, so mobile is the most natural technology for communication. Our job is to make this work efficiently using a combination of text, audio, and images with the help of AI. We can finally address everyday communication issues for every level of care with a smartphone carried in a coat pocket. Our readers would like to know about your personal journey. When I was a graduate student, I took a tour of a company that made CT and MRI scanners. I was amazed to see that one can visualize people's bodies without physically cutting them open and slicing them. Mathematics, quantum physics and very fast computers were combined to make that happen. This was one of the highest human achievements since the invention of the wheel. What attracted you to start a venture in the healthcare sector? Though I did not originally plan to go into this field, my first job out of graduate school was working for that CT scanner company. This started my radiology informatics career, which continues till this day. As a Founder/ CEO of a leading healthcare company, what role do you play in its operations and growth? From designing the microprocessor for CT image processing to designing workstations for radiologists, then moving on to startup companies, I have learned a lot about making a healthcare IT company operationally successful at all levels. How do you tackle professional crisis? Crises are a part and parcel of every business. When a problem presents itself, I always look at the big picture instead of narrowly focusing on the problem at hand. Often a problem is quite complex, with a deeper and

The 10 Transformational LEADERS of The Healthcare Industry, 2018

many times hidden with a root cause that is not always apparent on the surface. In my industry, an equipment failure is a big deal, especially when a patient is being tested. This is when you get a call from an angry doctor. Learning how not to panic is a very important skill I did not have initially, and had to develop. Hypnotherapy was very helpful, and I eventually taught myself to be in control of my mind in almost every situation. I recommend all execs to learn how to not knee-jerk react, as there will be plenty of crises when you run a startup. How does your company stand apart from its competitors? What are your future milestones for WinguMD? I have learned two important things that set us apart from the other competitors. Firstly, we handle things with conﬁdence and precise execution. A lot of other companies lack this and cannot get their good ideas off the ground. This involves not just building a minimum viable product, but also creating sales, services and, in our situation, regulatory compliance involving functioning and operating processes that are highly scalable. Secondly, our mission is to make our product a natural extension of the healthcare worker as possible. What are your future milestones for WinguMD? Following the Japanese Osaka dialect that says,“Atarimae” meaning just doing what you are supposed to do, my team and I would like to add more speech, vision and text to facilitate clinical communications. Who was your source of inspiration during the start of your professional career? Whom would you like to dedicate your success? The one person whom I look up to is Mr. Kounosuke Matsushita (Founder of Panasonic), who also belongs to my home town of Osaka. He built his electronic empire by selling light bulb sockets, truly depicting a symbol of a successful startup. He often wrote about how luck can be made by working for it. By this, he means that you need to work hard so that you will be exposed to more situations that bring you luck, and you will be able to recognize luck when it comes. In the same way, my career was built upon some hard work and occasional fortunate breaks, like the chance to visit a CT manufacturer and ending up getting a job at that company and starting my career. I am thankful that Mr. Matsushita has left his legacy in his books.

“We believe healthcare is both science and art, with patient care at its center.”

Tania Martin-Mercado PhD, President & CEO / Phronetik

Bringing Artiﬁcial Intelligence and Precision Medicine to Point-Of-Care Diagnostics Systems

owered by the application of information technology and computing disciplines, Health Informatics is one of the fastest growing segments of information technology and computer science. The segment focuses on solving the problems in the field of healthcare. New healthcare concepts are rising with the need to reduce cost and increase efficiency within the healthcare sectors. Such developments create the need for data collection, advanced testing, and analysis. Headquartered in North Texas, Phronetik is clearing the cloudy skies in the healthcare industry. They are advancing precision medicine by leveraging biotechnology, bioinformatics, and artificial intelligence to improve diagnosis, treatment, monitoring, and impacting scientific research with actionable insights. Mirror Review talks with Tania Martin-Mercado, PhD, the President and CEO of Phronetik. Tania always fascinated about the latest technology trends. She completed several degrees and certifications in IT, healthcare and biotechnology. Following are the specific answers by Tania, which expressed her views towards the technological advancements in the healthcare informatics industry and the Phronetik’s contribution towards it.

What is the present day scenario of the healthcare industry? To what extent, does the healthcare sector deﬁne a nation's progress and economy? Now-a-days, clinicians are overburdened with keeping the electronic health record up-to-date and adhering to compliance and regulatory requirements while delivering quality care. Healthcare in this country needs to be changed because medical mistakes continue to result in patient deaths, and healthcare costs are nearly bankrupting the country. Lack of precision is resulting in lower care quality and higher medical error rates. In 2016, an NBC News report stated that if medical errors were considered a cause of death, it would be the third largest killer after cancer and heart disease. Despite being one of the most technologically advanced nations, Americans pay much more for healthcare than people in other developed countries. According to a recent article from The Motley Fool, healthcare spending is 17.9% of the GDP and is expected to increase to nearly 20% by 2020. On the other hand, companies like Phronetik and others are needed now more than ever to make US healthcare effective, affordable and available to all.

The 10 Transformational LEADERS of The Healthcare Industry, 2018

Tell us about your company and its unique range of services. In the modern era of technology, how has Phronetik adapted to those changes in its working ecosystem?

As a small business, Phronetik can handle a professional crisis with more ﬂexibility and agility than a larger company can. We are able to pivot quickly and make faster decisions in response to the unexpected.

Our company’s unique delivery of scientiﬁc research, clinical trial support, vaccine research support, and expertise in computational chemistry, biology, cheminformatics, and bioinformatics helps to improve diagnosis, treatment, monitoring, and positively affect the quality of care.

How does your company stand apart from its competitors? What are your future milestones for Phronetik?

Advancements in biomarker discovery, individualized treatment, and precision medicine techniques offer the promise of faster and more accurate patient care. This landscape is rapidly changing and Phronetik’s genomic, sequencing, and technology services help guide everyday medical decisions and contribute to scientific research. Our proprietary software, iConcordia™, is under development and I am excited to work with such a great group of people and partners to create something innovative that could genuinely transform healthcare delivery. Our readers would like to know about your personal journey. What attracted you to start a venture in the healthcare sector? Because of my personal experiences, unanswered questions, and overall curiosity, I decided to start Phronetik and become a part of the solution. I realized every person I know that experienced any type of serious healthcare issue or had a loved one experience healthcare issues, had many of the same frustrations and questions I did. I have always been attracted to technology. I grew up with technology in my home because both of my parents worked in the IT industry. Healthcare has historically been one of the slowest industries to adopt technology, which I saw—and still see—as an opportunity to significantly impact healthcare delivery for the benefit of many. As a Leader of a prominent healthcare company, what role do you play in its operations and growth? How do you tackle the professional crisis? Like most small business owners, I do a little of everything – from defining and executing the vision and business development, to creating and implementing new technologies, and establishing long-term partnerships. I constantly stay apprised of innovations and growth in the healthcare and life science industries in the US and internationally. Phronetik primarily focuses on government contracting as the government spends the most money on research, development, and technology in healthcare.

One of the primary ways we stand apart is bringing artificial intelligence and precision medicine to point-ofcare diagnostics with our proprietary software, iConcordia™. These areas have traditionally been isolated to research. I would like to see iConcordia™ become standard practice in point-of-care diagnostics. I would also like Phronetik to have a larger footprint in government and commercial contracting in the years to come. We are still a small business, but with a revolutionary technology, we make a big impact. Who was your source of inspiration during the start of your professional career? Whom would you like to dedicate your success? My mother is my largest source of inspiration. Although she passed away from breast cancer when I was a teenager, everything about her still speaks to me. She possessed an inner strength that I continually strive to emulate. My mother not only had a wealth of intelligence and wisdom, she was also compassionate and gracious. She pulled that off without being a pushover or a wimp. Being a female in technology in the early 80’s was not popular, yet she managed to become very successful, influencing not only my life but also the lives of many. I still find it beautiful and amazing that upon her death, she had memorial services in multiple states coordinated by friends and loved ones whose lives she touched. I am a Veteran of the US Army, which I joined at the age of 17 and still consider this as one of the best decisions of my life. As a foundation of my professional career, the US Army provided a deep-dive into technology, cybersecurity, defense systems and more. I learned more in the military environment than in any university. I was introduced to a myriad of cultures and people who shared the uniform and the responsibilities with me. This experience and training helped prepare me to lead Phronetik.

IoT, Big Data & Cloud Computing services, reshaping the e-healthcare system

igital technology is rapidly progressing to provide a better tomorrow. Healthcare is one of the most important sectors where technology has started to play a crucial role. Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data and Cloud Computing are the key players in the techno world. The theory of big data and IoT has been around for many years. However, cloud computing has recently evolved and its emergence with other two platforms has become a commercial necessity. Each disciple, be it IoT, big data or cloud has a different role to play in the health care system. Firstly, theory driven research carried out by scientists and medical professionals can be converted into building of data via Big Data analytics. Secondly, IoT can bridge the gap between physical devices and digital networks by transmitting signals and data to each other. Thirdly, ďŹ ltration of the generated data through research, ďŹ eld work and medical devices requires a bullet proof

platform for storage. This is where cloud computing comes into play. Cloud computing can store massive amounts of data along with provision of accessibility even in the remotest settings. Lastly, this generated data can be used for improving the prognostic, diagnostic and therapeutic services. This will enable the doctors to provide point of care medical services through rapid diagnosis of diseases and appropriate treatment. Following mentioned are the three disciples; IoT, big data and cloud with their respective roles in the health care system. 1. Internet of Things It permits connectivity between mechanical devices and networks through the passing of signals and transferring data. This will help the medical practitioners and doctors to visualize real time data, offer quality care at lower costs and effective treatments.

Health Tech a. Tracking The Health Records On Time: Multiple digital devices can be connected and a patient's health status can be monitored and tracked in real time. A doctor can access this health status at any location. Therefore, it becomes very easy to make changes in the medicine dosage or suggesting a laboratory test within seconds to the nursing staff. This reduces the time, cost and applicability of proper treatment. b. Digital Pills: Pharma companies such as WuXi PharmaTech, Proteus Digital Health, and TruTag are currently working on the development of digitally enhanced pills. These edible smart pills will dissolve in the stomach and send out signals to the sensors attached to the skin. These signals will then be monitored through mobile applications, thereby increasing the health accessibility. The smart bills, therefore, prove to be a boon for the pharma companies who can monitor, improve and change the dosage of medicines as per requirement. c.

Management Of Sugar And Blood Pressure Levels: Digital devices such as Raspberry Pi, Bluetooth monitors and sensor based intelligent systems are programmed to monitor diabetes, anticoagulation of blood and hypertension levels of a patient. d. Assessment Of The Mood Swings: Latest entry of Apple Watch Apps in the market features an assessment of people's mood throughout the day. These apps are designed especially to track a person's sleeping cycle and ﬁtness regime.

in the remote areas and a backup even in case of accidents. Earlier, people used to purchase data storage devices for managing their data. However, with cloud apps, charges are applied only on the accessed data. These apps are cheap and easy to work with. a. Basic Research And Drug Formulation: Cloud computing gives access to data that can prove highly beneficial to the latest research. In addition, it also helps in drug development and manufacturing through its analyzed and stored reports of drug delivery, administration and side effects in patients. b. Marketing The Heath Care Services: Due to the technological advancement, the area of digital marketing is also covered using high quality data. c. Privacy Policy: The medical data of a person is confidential between a doctor and patient. This stored data must be kept under wraps so that it is not misused by anyone else. Cloud computing provides security for these records. With the availability of various services provided by the digital technology platforms, e-health care of the patient is covered. The future of technology now looks promising by each passing day. The world awaits better, more efficient and rapid advancement that can cure the incurable diseases.

2. Big Data Big data analytics are creating an impact on healthcare by improvising health beneﬁts, early prediction of epidemics, enhance quality of life, reduction in mortality and morbidity and provision of disease remedies. a. Future Disease And Epidemics Predictions: These analytical tools through family medical history can provide forecasts of the disease before its actual occurrence in a person at an early age. Undeveloped and developing countries are usually more susceptible to epidemics. On the basis of previously recorded data, geographical location, lifestyle and current health scenario, Big Data can provide updates and future forecasts for impending epidemics. This will aid in gathering the medical help, facilities and insights for preventing them. 3. Cloud Computing This platform provides a storage facility of data, maintenance of medical records, accessibility of data