In this issue of Healthcare Digital, we caught up with TeleTracking Technologies, Honeywell, Scopio Labs, Automata and more to hear how they plan to uplift healthcare professionals and their patients
Happy New Year! We say that every year, don’t we, with no clue as to what lies ahead?
2022 was interesting, and I have no doubt 2023 will contain a few surprises for us. Yet, whatever is coming, we know already that the ramifications of world events over the past few years will continue to stunt the healthcare sector and its supply chain. But the industry is witnessing collective pushback, using such circumstances to innovate, differentiate and go further for patients than ever before.
Sonia Jassi, Drug Discovery & Synthetic Biology Lead at Automata, explains how automation increases efficiency in gene therapy laboratories, while Itai Hayut, CEO of healthtech company Scopio Labs, discusses how AI helps in the detection of blood related cancers.
Chris Johnson, meanwhile, shares how TeleTracking Technologies reduces operational inefficiencies by acting as an operation foundation for hospitals & health systems, and Robert Robinson, Vice President & General Manager for the Healthcare Solutions at Honeywell, shares how he is enhancing the patient experience with digitalisation. Enjoy!
HELEN ADAMS helen.adams@bizclikmedia.com
“The ramifications of world events over the past few years will continue to stunt the healthcare sector and its supply chain. But the industry is now witnessing collective pushback”
At the end of 2022, the world reached 8 billion people and India is set to overtake China to be the most populous country.
Due to advances in healthcare, people are surviving previously deadly ailments and living longer – yet this is putting pressure on the healthcare sector to care for what is an ageing population that’s gradually expanding.
Bruno Rizzuti Head of Data Management, Boehringer Ingelheim
“I consider myself as accountable for the healthcare supply chain”
Jérôme Lesenechal CPO, LivaNova
“You cannot survive in pharma if you don't innovate. You must innovate in new therapeutic areas”
Onyeka Nchege SVP and CIO, Novant Health
RINGCENTRAL
Software development company RingCentral supports telemedicine solutions to increase staff retention and meet patient needs. Telemedicine solutions also keep the data of residents safe and secure.
Robert Robinson is the Vice President and General Manager for Honeywell Solutions at Honeywell, which is looking for ways to help companies from the perspective of digitisation.
“How do we enable companies to do some of these things automatically? How do we enable companies to do some of these things remotely?” asks Robinson.
Honeywell Healthcare has an upgraded nurse call solution system that is digitised and can sort through different patient requests, providing nurses with guidance to escalate each of these requests based on the clinical emergency.
“We enable digitisation in the hospital space by really providing solutions, clinical flow solutions, or workflow solutions that are able to drive efficiency through the process,” explains Robinson. “Healthcare facilities can track the reduction of errors to see for themselves. This has a significant impact on the amount of time a patient stays in the hospital.”
Florence provides care for healthcare professionals, with its end-to-end workforce system that can hire, train, onboard and roster staff within the platform and then use it to fill all the shift vacancies.
GlobalData has called upon the medical device sector to reduce its waste. According to the World Health Organisation, 85% of healthcare waste is non-hazardous, but the remaining 15% is infectious, chemical, or even radioactive.
On World Mental Health Day, clinical psychologist Dr. Monica Vermani discussed how parents could support children who are being bullied, as well as help children who are bullies.
The largest specialty pharmacy in the USA started out as a single store, where CVS Health established its dedication to the heart of a patient's health. Through a combination of a local presence, digital channels and more than 300,000 physicians, pharmacists and nurses, CVS Health has spent 50 years transforming communities.
1963
The first CVS store opens
The first CVS shop, ‘Consumer Value Stores’, was opened in Lowell, Massachusetts, by brothers Stanley and Sidney Goldstein alongside their partner, Ralph Hoagland. The store sold assorted health and beauty products, soon going on to open another 17 stores, before being bought by Melville Corporation.
By the 1970s, CVS was running over 100 stores across the Northeast, especially following its acquisition of 84 Clinton Drug and Discount Stores. The brand, which started out as a single shop, transformed into a household name.
In 1978, CVS Health continued to stand out from its contemporaries by opening stores inside shopping malls.
As the AIDS crisis raged around them, CVS Health continued to support customers in meeting their health and beauty needs.
Co-Founder Stanley Goldstein is named President and COO of the Melville Corporation, and then becomes chairman – running 750 stores by CVS Health’s 25th birthday, with sales of an astonishing US$1.6bn in 1988.
While not responsible for creating vaccines, CVS Health was a familiar brand many looked to for answers during a frightening time. The company became America’s largest private provider of COVID-19 testing and donated US$50mn to support those in need due to the impact of the pandemic.
In September last year, CVS Health announced that it would eliminate the ‘tampon tax’ in some states, reducing the costs of some menstrual products by 25%.
Michelle Peluso, CVS Health’s CCO, said she hoped that other businesses would be inspired to follow their example and help women on their path to better health.
CVS Health’s response to the COVID-19
Chris Johnson is an expert in medical strategy design and execution, and public health leadership – but at his core, he is a leader of transformational opioid change.
A widely recognised expert on the opioid and heroin epidemic, Johnson has spoken publicly on the topic, advising healthcare professionals on ways to manage their patient care and answering questions from those working outside of the sector. He has also listened to those who have suffered with addiction, and heard the stories of family members who have been affected by or lost those they love to the disease.
Johnson has called for the medical industry to radically reform for the sake of patient safety. As such, he has spoken at FDA Advisory Committees and legal task forces, as well as with workers' compensation professionals, law enforcement organisations and patient advocacy groups – supporting the wide range of people seeking change amid this destructive crisis.
From 1988 to 1992, Johnson studied Political Science and Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia. Later, at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Johnson studied healthcare between 1996 and 2000, going on to become a Doctor of Medicine. Then, from 2000 to 2003, Johnson undertook an Emergency Medicine Residency Program at Hennepin County Medical Center.
This was then followed up by 12 years working as a staff physician at Methodist Hospital Emergency Center in Greater Minneapolis.
“In addition to achieving competence in managing such a wide array of patient problems, the Emergency Department experience helped me understand that part of my ongoing role as a physician is to be an advocate for the patient,” said Johnson of his time there.
“Heroin and Fentanyl are intimately related and following on the heels of the increase in opioid prescribing”
In 2011, the CDC declared that opiate abuse was an “epidemic”, and the sector tried to grasp a hold of the rapidly proliferating disease. The following year, Johnson became a member of the Minnesota Medical Association’s Prescription Opioid Management Advisory Task Force. The group works with political leaders, health insurers and clinics to create ways to reverse the trend.
At the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement (ICSI) – which Johnson joined in 2013 – the group gained expertise in emergency medicine, spine and back pain, and more to develop best practice guidelines for prescribing opiates.
The Steve Rummler Hope Foundation was founded by Bill and Judy Rummler after the death of their son Steve, who died from an opioid overdose after prescription addiction resulted from failed treatments for his back pain.
• The opioid and heroin epidemic claims more than 25,000 American lives each year.
• 3 out of 4 heroin users started with opioid pills.
• Between 2018 and 2019, the number of opioid-related deaths (namely heroin and fentanyl) across New York, Massachusetts, Kentucky and Ohio stayed the same or decreased for Hispanic and non-Hispanic White communities, while increasing 38% for non-Hispanic Black individuals – suggesting that Black communities are not benefitting equally from intervention programmes.
“As a member of the Board of Directors, I am directly involved in projects to help achieve the group’s mission of raising awareness of the problem of opiate abuse and fighting ways to combat that problem and find patients and families with alternatives,” said Johnson.
As a board member of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, Johnson takes part in the advocacy work in holding pharmaceutical companies to justice.
Outside of his healthcare roles, Johnson gives presentations to inform and engage with his audience – from medical professionals, to those in the grip of addiction, to their family members. To each of them, Johnson sends a clear message: that the medical industry must reform to put patient needs over business interests.
Andrew Hollister, Deputy CISO and Vice President of LogRhythm Labs, shares how the company is mitigating cyberattacks on healthcare organisations.
Security intelligence company, LogRhythm, was founded with the ambition to save the world from cyber threats. The founders saw the importance of equipping network defenders with the tools they needed to quickly see what threat actors were doing and to be able to respond to those activities.
LogRhythm supports small businesses through to multi-national enterprises, offering them a wide range of services. One of the main sectors it works with is healthcare.
Andrew Hollister, Deputy CISO and Vice President of LogRhythm Labs said: “Healthcare organisations are in a unique position. They’re holding huge quantities of sensitive data making them prime targets for bad actors that are directly focused on compromising patient data and critical hospital technologies.”
Hollister outlined ways in which LogRhythm assists healthcare in the fight against cybercrime. Its primary way of helping is with threat detection, explaining that they help detect threat actors in their customers’ environments early to mitigate risks, and provide support to meet compliance requirements.
“Typically, healthcare organisations don’t have massive cyber security budgets. Through our platform, we can help our healthcare customers get the most value from the resources that they have. We’ve also developed the Security Operations Maturity Model that helps organisations of all types develop their security operations and improve their resilience to cyberthreats. Security is not a step; it is a journey, and we want to provide guidance to organisations to help them.”
Speaking on the importance of partnerships, Hollister noted that the company seeks to make it a bidirectional effort. “We’ve worked with many healthcare organisations over the years and as a result, we’ve gained insight into how those organisations work and where their priorities are. We’ve been able to develop specific content that helps healthcare organisations with the challenges they have in the cybersecurity space.”
LogRhythm’s overall focus continues to be on reducing the time that it takes to detect and respond to cyberattacks and provide solutions that evolve with the ever-changing threat landscape.
LivaNova’s CPO,
Lesenechal,
LivaNova is a global medical technology company built on decades of experience and a strong commitment to their patients. Their focus is on transforming lives with products and therapies for the head and heart, operating in Cardiopulmonary, Neuromodulation and Advanced Circulatory Support technologies.
For LivaNova, it’s health innovation that truly matters
Their diverse product portfolio and pipeline include the following therapeutic areas:
• Advanced Circulatory Support
• Cardiopulmonary
• Difficult-to-Treat Depression
• Drug-Resistant Epilepsy
• Heart Failure
• Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Their Chief Procurement Officer (CPO), Jérôme Lesenechal, has spent his entire career in Procurement, coming from 17 years’ experience in Automotive, through multiple categories, before joining LivaNova in February 2018.
Lesenechal leads the global Procurement team in charge of strategic sourcing activities, both for indirect services and for direct material, as well as new product development.
Jérôme
chronicles what it takes to provide life-changing medical services through technology, procurement and innovation
When LivaNova needed a medically certified touchscreen computer to communicate with their new revolutionary perfusion system monitors they turned to Teguar, who assembled a team of product design specialists and developed a custom computer meeting every single requirement of LivaNova’s requests.
Medical computers manufacturer Teguar on why its latest work on LivaNova’s heart & lung machine was so rewarding
It might be said a healthy bottom line is the most gratifying thing for a business leader, yet for organisations working in the medical sector, saving and improving lives offers rewards that are on another level entirely. Teguar builds medical and industrial computers, and its CEO, Jonathan Staub says one recent project in particular “felt extremely important” – its contribution to the development of the hardware component of the Essenz Patient Monitor, a medical device that is used by clinicians during Cardio-pulmonary bypass procedures.
The project saw Teguar working with LivaNova, a global medical technology company that specialises in products and therapies for the head and heart. LivaNova tasked Teguar with providing the hardware
component of the Essenz Patient Monitor, a medical device that provides continuous, advanced and insightful data to show the key parameters at all times during a case. “Cardiopulmonary bypass perfusion supports patients during open heart surgical procedures, by taking over the function of the heart and lungs,” Staub explains.
Teguar developed an all-in-one touch-screen PC that met the exacting specifications that all medical electrical equipment have to satisfy, for the performance of highly invasive procedures. But as well as this, Staub says it was hugely important that the PC was also pleasing on the eye. “We pride ourselves on the elegance of our products,” he says. “Elegance is an important part of who we are and what we do.”
Product not approved in all geographies. More information on the Essenz Patient Monitor as well as important safety information available on the LivaNova website.
Among the important services Teguar provides to customers is long-term availability of computer components – vital for healthcare equipment that customers might not be able to afford to replace for many years. The company also has “an experienced and agile” global team that can meet customers’ needs.
So what was it about the LivaNova opportunity that drew Teguar in?
“LivaNova’s mission is to support perfusionists and their patients during lifesaving procedures,” says Staub. The Essenz Patient Monitor is the realisation of this mission.
“That we could be a crucial part of the development of such a cutting-edge medical computer was an exciting opportunity and a challenge to us.”
“This means our responsibilities go from clinical studies to spare parts management, through serial production and corporate services,” he says.
The relationship between a MedTech company like LivaNova and their suppliers is, of course, crucial: in the end, the quality of those relationships will determine patient outcomes.
JÉRÔME LESENECHAL CHIEF PROCUREMENT OFFICER, LIVANOVA
“Suppliers share our values,” says Lesenechal, “especially our purpose to improve the lives of patients (which speaks to one of our core values, ‘patients first’).
“I consider myself as accountable for the healthcare supply chain, and our suppliers are doing so, too.”
Supplier relationship management, in MedTech and beyond, has been growing to a level of importance higher than ever before. Contract obligations or Purchase Price Management are not enough to manage ongoing supply chain disruptions anymore, and it’s not only about the power dynamic between the company and its suppliers.
"There is an urgent need to extend the company's borders to external partners,” Lesenechal says, “because together, we are stronger and more creative in anticipating and fixing problems.
“The CPO especially needs to orchestrate brainstorming sessions with suppliers; this can be to get support for a
“I CONSIDER MYSELF AS ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE HEALTHCARE SUPPLY CHAIN, AND MOST OF OUR SUPPLIERS ARE DOING SO, TOO”LivaNova
difficult-to-source component, to drive a game-changing design evolution, or to influence business decisions.”
Lesenechal expresses that he has, on several occasions over the last few years, seen that the value coming from that type of co-working is very high, compared to a standard purchase price discussion.
Regarding internal stakeholders, he believes that procurement must play a strong role in Product Lifecycle Management.
From supplier selection in a new product design phase to the phase-out of another one through the proactive management of the obsolescence risk, Lesenechal maintains that procurement’s partnership with R&D and marketing can have a massive impact on the sourcing agility, as well as the profitability per product – and that this is what procurement must drive.
Developing second sources, having a dynamic process of redesign for electronics, and revisiting specifications to make them easier to source are key.
“What we call ‘Sustaining R&D’ must now be fully integrated into procurement´s strategy, as well as to the daily management of supply issues,” he says.
People development ‘beyond resilience’ Resilience is becoming quite a common topic, and not only in business circles.
“Resilience remains super important, and management must keep working on it, but I
TITLE: CHIEF PROCUREMENT OFFICER
INDUSTRY: MEDICAL EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURING
LOCATION: MUNICH, GERMANY
Jérôme Lesenechal was named CPO of LivaNova in August of 2020. His role includes leading the global team responsible for the success of Liva Nova‘s Material and Services Procurement, ranging from contract negotiations to supply chain remediations, delivering consistent operational results for LivaNova customers.
In January of 2021, his role was expanded to include Replenishment Process transformation to answer to the global disruptions in Supply Chain. With this added responsibility, he works with teams across Production Planning, Tactical Purchasing and Logistics to continue the modernisation of critical supply processes that team members use to deliver a reliable and predictable replenishment.
“Procurement can leverage its new image and influence to move from an ‘instructions-taking’ department to a ’decision-making’ one.”
Before this, Jérôme was Global Director of Procurement for New Product Development at LivaNova, where he led multi-year sourcing projects to increase LivaNova‘s portfolio. He began his career in the automotive industry at Peugeot SA by leading multiple categories, as well as global sourcing activities.
believe the new profile of a strategic buyer must go beyond that, to reach a kind of ‘extreme ownership’,” he says.
Lesenechal understands that, first, procurement needs to realise that its role is now a key to success in troubled times. “Yes, it comes with many responsibilities, but it is also a noble purpose to secure the healthcare supply chain. Procurement must be super proud about that!”
Second, he holds that procurement can leverage this new image and influence to move from an ‘instruction-taking’ department to a ’decision-making’ one.
He says: “For those who were able to navigate across the 2020-2022 period with success, the gain in credibility to the executive leaders opens new possibilities of challenging the status quo.
“Then, the coaching that procurement can provide to a cross-functional team can be very valuable, for example to speed up the implementation of a new design, giving the supplier a seat in this cross-functional team. The ‘new-gen buyer’ is now a mix of programme manager and marketing influencer, on top of the traditional skills of negotiations and strategic leadership.”
On one side of the value stream, it’s important for procurement executives to leverage the suppliers’ own market intelligence to predict the unexpected. Lesenechal thinks that all these risk assessments and information are very valuable intelligence that can be used at the highest level of the company to orient the global strategy.
On the other side of the value stream, you have the customer, or ‘the user’. Here, too, there is a need to develop and quickly reinforce the relationship with the company's sales organisation, and with the final user.
“You will collect amazing data (about competition, about new needs, new market insights etc) that can influence your procurement strategy,” says Lesenechal. “I can tell you that you behave very differently when you know that a hospital has been waiting months for oxygenators for children, or that your main competitor is not predictable with its delivery plan anymore”.
Another layer of complexity is for LivaNova to procure, and thereby provide, these
“AS LONG AS WE STAY CLOSE TO THE PATIENTS, THE USERS AND THE CLINICIANS TO UNDERSTAND THEIR NEEDS AND TRANSLATE THEM INTO SPECIFICATIONS, THE MEDICAL DEVICE INDUSTRY WILL KEEP ITS HIGH-PERFORMANCE STANDARD”
critical medical services, whilst balancing that against its Net-Zero ambitions.
And procurement is not only screening the current state: LivaNova also includes ESG considerations in each decision, in collaboration with corporate leaders.
Suppliers represent a large portion of their products’ bill of materials (BoM), and their customers also rely on them to control supplier engagements.
LivaNova’s next step will be to set up targets together with their suppliers internally, (travel, company cars, etc) for the commodities that are under management by procurement.
Continuous improvement on processes such as logistics can also help considerably. Redesigning the packaging, revisiting the supplier’s footprint to avoid long lead-time logistics – every decision can decrease the carbon emission of their sourcing activities
and make their BoM more compliant with new and emerging regulations.
Customers are prepared to reward companies that make ESG a central part of their mission.
“Procurement needs to act in a similar way and award business to the best suppliers in ESG,” says Lesenechal. “I believe that selecting a supplier with a very good rating can lead to better business for LivaNova and make us even more competitive in tenders.
“Given the way we need to balance deviations with additional action items to put us back on track, it’s easy to see why
“FOR THOSE WHO WERE ABLE TO NAVIGATE ACROSS THE 2020-2022 PERIOD WITH SUCCESS, THE GAIN IN CREDIBILITY TO THE EXECUTIVE LEADERS OPENS NEW POSSIBILITIES OF CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO”
procurement needs to develop the right battle plan with stakeholders and suppliers.”
LivaNova’s partnership with Teguar
LivaNova’s partnerships are crucial to helping them achieve their goals. One of their main partners is Teguar, an industrial and medical computer company.
Jonathan Staub (CEO of Teguar) and Lesenechal have been working very closely for many years to drive a new development.
The collaboration keeps LivaNova’s configuration as standard as possible, both to contain costs and to ensure the right design-to-source.
Lesenechal says: “There is no way that LivaNova or Teguar can influence
market trends in consumer goods technology like laptops, but, together with the cross-functional team, we were able to limit customisation and other exotic specifications. This leads to better profitability on both sides, as well as better material availability for the sub-components.
“I need here to underline the great collaboration with our marketing and our programme management. Our team always managed the relationship with a dynamic and constructive approach.
“On its side, Teguar always challenged our requirements and design changes in the right way – and this is exactly what I expect from all my suppliers – helping us to bring to the market a product that will be sustainable both in terms of supply and costs of goods.”
Lesenechal is confident that LivaNova´s pipeline will match with customers’ expectations. “As long as we stay close to the patients, to the users and to the clinicians in order to understand their needs and translate it into specifications, the medical device industry will keep its highperformance standard.”
LivaNova’s products and therapies are used worldwide. With a presence in more than 100 countries, their team of approximately 3,000 talented people works to improve and sustain patients’ quality of life each and every single day.
Orienting to the future, Lesenechal says: “I believe the supply chain disruptions will remain my biggest focus in 2023, especially in electronics, costs containment and logistics management.
“We will continue our transformation of the replenishment process, and reinforce our partnerships with our strategic
suppliers further. More than ever before, the integration of our suppliers into the company's strategy can make a difference in the design of sustainable products that fit with the market's expectations and in remaining predictable in lead-times despite all the headwinds.
“The last discussion I had some weeks ago with perfusionists and scientists from Belgium convinced me that these are procurement´s main missions for the near future. I am confident that LivaNova´s pipeline will match with customers’ expectations. As long as we stay close to the patients, to the users and to the clinicians in order to understand their needs and translate them into specifications, the medical device industry will keep its highperformance standard.”
Major changes in technology, as well as the industry as a whole, are opening doors for important transformations.
In closing, Lesenechal says: “Areas we expect to grow or continue to grow in importance in the Medical Device industry are: 1) direct-to-consumer engagement, which has been a key for pharmaceuticals for years, but is just starting to gain traction in our market; 2) a continued shift toward less invasive/wearable diagnostics that can be used in the home setting; 3) better connectivity between implantable devices and patients and physicians with apps and the cloud; 4) more effective ways to meet with and train physicians remotely, including the use of AR/VR technology; and 5) a continued shift toward more investment in clinical evidence to drive awareness, adoption and reimbursement”
“WHAT WE CALL SUSTAINING
MUST NOW BE FULLY INTEGRATED INTO PROCUREMENT’S STRATEGY, AS WELL AS TO THE DAILY MANAGEMENT OF SUPPLY ISSUES”
WRITTEN BY: HELEN ADAMS
The Honeywell Healthcare Solutions business is a line of work within Honeywell Sensing and Safety Technologies. It is fundamentally a technology business that designs and develops sensor based components and solutions to enable medtech companies and hospitals to deliver better healthcare outcomes. Solutions go into several systems, such as ventilators, respirators, CPAP machines and breath analysers. All of these solutions are designed to enable providers and hospitals to drive better patient outcomes.
Robert Robinson is the
General
for Healthcare Solutions at Honeywell. He’s been with the company for seven years, starting out as a Product Manager before going on to work on the sensors.
“I’ve had significant experiences within Honeywell – and across the sensor portfolios, in general – to work my way up to where I am today.”
Robinson has always been drawn to technology and initially began his career as an engineer.
“Through college, I had an experience of working on a hybrid electric vehicle a few
Vice President and
Manager
years back,” he says. “I was the control’s team leader and built battery packs. That was how I encountered sensors the first time, falling in love with them and their capabilities.”
This love has carried Robinson across multiple industries and led him into the healthcare space.
save healthcare workers’ time Honeywell is enabling healthcare companies to support digitalisation across the global market in a range of ways.
“There's a number of things that we're seeing that are changing the healthcare landscape,” said Robinson. “Nurses and providers spend 30% of their time directly interacting with the patients. We also know that many nurses and providers in hospital settings spend one to two hours per shift working on transferring information, or getting information to their counterpart who's coming on to take on the next shift.
“30-40% OF NURSES WILL QUIT IN THE FIRST THREE YEARS OF THEIR WORKING EXPERIENCE, PARTICULARLY THOSE IN THE ICU”
This includes writing data down on paper manually, but another statistic shows that, on average, a nurse will be interrupted 10 times in one hour. Because of this workload and the propensity for interruption, a vast swathe of nurses and providers are not tremendously happy with their working environment.
NELSON MANDELA“In fact, 30-40% of nurses will quit in the first three years of their working experience, particularly those in the ICU.”
A high turnover rate of employees is bad for business. So, Honeywell looks for ways that they can help companies, but from the perspective of digitisation.
“How do we enable companies to do some of these things automatically? How do we enable companies to do some of
these things remotely,” asks Robinson.
Of the times a nurse is interrupted across an hour, there will often be a call from a patient's room, 70% of which are unrelated to clinical issues. They may range from finding a remote control to needing a glass of water. But how does the nurse differentiate between a clinical emergency versus a room service request?
Honeywell has an upgraded nurse call solution system that is digitised and can sort through different requests, providing nurses with guidance to escalate each of these requests based on the clinical emergency.
“We enable digitisation in the hospital space by really providing solutions, clinical flow solutions, or workflow solutions that are able to drive efficiency through the
“HEALTH CANNOT BE A QUESTION OF INCOME; IT IS A FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHT”
process,” explains Robinson. “By helping nurses and healthcare providers sort through data logically and categorise it, they're able to make smarter decisions faster and more efficiently across their daily operations in the hospital.”
Enhancing the healthcare experience and improving operational agility through digitisation
If Honeywell can optimise the nurses' ability to address non-clinical issues, the nurse now has more time to focus directly on patient
Nurses and providers spend 30% of their time directly interacting with the patients. 10
On average, a nurse will be interrupted 10 times in an hour.
care. There are also a significant volume of errors that come from all of the nonclinical escalations that nurses have to deal with.
“Approximately 50% of medication-related issues in the hospital are driven primarily by error,” says Robinson. “If we reduce the nonclinical escalations to nurses and providers, we also directly impact the errors that nurses see.”
In one example, when a nurse is handing over a shift, Honeywell can automate that process. All of that documentation and data is streamlined, then there's very limited potential for error.
“Patients see a tremendous value in that,” says Robinson. “Healthcare facilities can track the reduction of errors to see for themselves. This has a significant impact on the amount of time a patient stays in the hospital. It also has a significant impact on patients not returning back to the hospital because of errors, infections, or any type of issue that can result from those errors.”
But this work cannot be done alone –Honeywell has had tremendous success over the past 30-plus years working with OEM partners, designing advanced solutions and smart technologies to help doctors, hospitals and patients. In any partnership, there needs to be a transparent, open collaborative engagement. But, between Honeywell and its OEM partners, Robinson values working with those who are looking for specific solutions to specific problems.
“What defines our success is when we see those problems and we can offer a Honeywell solution that solves the specific issue to drive value for that partner. That’s what we call success.”
“WE
IN THE HOSPITAL SPACE BY REALLY PROVIDING SOLUTIONS, CLINICAL FLOW SOLUTIONS, OR WORKFLOW SOLUTIONS THAT ARE ABLE TO DRIVE EFFICIENCY”
ROBERT ROBINSON VICE PRESIDENT & GENERAL MANAGER FOR THE HONEYWELL
In 2023, there are many exciting things that Honeywell is looking forward to.
“I’m excited about the projects that we're piloting and working on with Med-Tech companies and customers,” says Robinson. “As we look forward to the next 12 months, there are a few things that we are expecting to do. One of them is to re-anchor our portfolio around not just Med Tech solutions, but also around hospital-based solutions. That is the key thing that we're going to be looking for as we approach the next 12 months.”
So, expect new products, solutions and partnerships. Getting those results and seeing the level of productivity that they’re able to provide to hospitals is important to Robinson and the Honeywell Healthcare team, as is building its team and existing partnerships.
“THERE'S
WRITTEN BY: JOSEPHINE WALBANK
PRODUCED BY: TOM VENTURO
ovant Health is a not-for-profit integrated network of hospitals, physician clinics, and outpatient facilities delivering healthcare to communities in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia in the US.
Its expansive network consists of more than 1,800 physicians and over 35,000 team members who provide care at more than 800 locations, including 15 hospitals and hundreds of outpatient facilities and physician clinics.
“Our core mission at Novant Health drives everything that we do. We exist to improve the health of our communities one person at a time, one community at a time,” explains Onyeka Nchege, SVP and CIO of Novant Health.
“Our values are compassion, diversity, inclusion and equity, personal excellence, teamwork, courage and safety. And that's how we go about things, with a recognition that we have one purpose: we exist to improve the health of our communities.”
Staying true to this guiding purpose, Novant Health’s pioneering use of sophisticated medtech sets it apart from competitors, providing its communities with significantly enhanced services. These include industryleading AI technologies improving the pace and breadth of radiologists’ diagnostic power.
For Nchege, not only do these technologies help the company to maintain its pace of growth, but they actually prove instrumental in attaining this core mission: “From a technology perspective, my organisation
Novant Health is utilising the full scope of next-gen technologies – spanning everything from AI to the cloud – to better meet its patients’ needs
has its hand on the pulse, if you will. That's probably one of the things that's most fulfilling for me.”
Digital transformation at pace, propelled by COVID-19 As is the case with countless companies – both within and outside of the healthcare sphere – the global COVID-19 pandemic proved critical in accelerating Novant Health’s digital transformation plans.
“If we go back to when Novant Health first started on its digital transformation journey, we completed a thousand or so virtual visits prior to COVID-19; then, starting at the height of COVID-19, we were doing 200,000 per month.”
“Think about how technology has allowed us to reach our patients without having to overextend a patient's reach. Are they able to get to the hospital? Are they able to get to a clinic? Well, we've been able to take that off the table and say, ‘No, we come to you’.”
Driven by unprecedented challenges and the need to pivot almost overnight, the pandemic saw the technology deployed in healthcare evolve at a phenomenal pace.
“COVID-19 presented numerous challenges, and it pushed providers to move quickly on some large-scale changes, which normally would have taken years, or even decades, to accomplish,” Nchege says.
And, in the weeks and months since, this pace of change has shown no signs of slowing. “At Novant Health, we’d already built agility into our system. So teams have been able to quickly and seamlessly pivot to serve our patients’ most pressing needs.
“Novant Health offers home-based virtual technologies, like TytoCare, that help patients capture basic diagnostics – including heart and lung sounds, heart rate, temperature, and images of inner ears, throat, and skin – for their primary care visits, remotely.
LOCATION: UNITED STATES
Onyeka Nchege is a business-oriented and transformational leader focused on successful digital transformations to enable enterprise growth. As Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Novant Health – a superregional healthcare system with one of the largest medical groups in the US – he oversees growth initiatives and the delivery of worldclass consumer capabilities, differentiating technologies and advanced clinical solutions that allow the integrated healthcare system to provide remarkable patient care.
Nchege has a purposeful commitment to mentoring and developing leaders, and an unwavering dedication to empowering teams to innovate and unleash their potential. As Chief Information Officer for Toyota Industries Commercial Finance, The Cooper Institute, Interstate Batteries and Coca-Cola Bottling Company Consolidated, he led team members, leaders and executives through the development and implementation of digital strategies resulting in successful information technology and digital business transformation and integration that accelerated corporate purpose and strategy and created sustainable value.
At RVO Health, our mission is to give people a better way to health & wellbeing.
We help nearly 100 million people a month seek information, find a doctor, save money, and take action around their health & wellbeing through Healthline Media, Healthgrades, Optum Store, Optum Perks, and more. We are making health easier to navigate, more accessible, and more affordable for everyone.
The ageing and expanding population requires a more robust and inclusive approach to healthcare. This is because access to healthcare is a major concern for individuals, particularly when a lot of patients lack trust in their healthcare providers or those they seek support from in the future.
According to RVO Health1 , a health platform backed by Red Ventures and Optum, around 40% of patients lack confidence that they are able to receive adequate medical care. This leads them to wonder how they should best approach their health and wellbeing to meet their own needs.
The websites, products and services that RVO Health offers does exactly that. From finding the right medical professional for their needs to saving money on healthcare, the company provides the tools to do so through the United States’ largest health and wellbeing platform.
“Our portfolio of industry leading websites, products, and services touches every part of the journey, and we’re excited to do even more to help people on their way to better health and wellbeing,” says Courtney Jeffus, President of the Healthline Group—a division of RVO Health.
Jeffus leads projects to formalise partnerships with healthcare organisations to allow patients access to its service, which is how the collaboration between RVO Health and Novant Health came to the fore.
As explained by Jeffus, RVO Health is “helping create and innovate their digital journeys.” She continues, explaining the benefits to both Novant Health and its patients. “We’ve helped streamline their digital media, their web experiences, appointment scheduling, and audience growth to increase new patient acquisition and ease the patient journey.”
“We’ve doubled patient yield, driven an 80% reduction in cost per acquisition, and driven a nine times improvement in digital patient growth.” 1According to a Healthline Media Landscape Segmentation Study, Dec 2020
Learn more
Courtney Jeffus boasts great success in improving patient yield and healthcare performance, partnering with Novant Health to provide digital care services“Going forward, even more technology will be available to empower patients in receiving more care, probably even acute care, at home through virtual visits, home care, you name it.”
The pace of change kickstarted by the pandemic has fuelled Novant Health’s ongoing investment into healthcare technologies, with the company rapidly expanding its outreach into other spheres, including AI and advanced analytics.
In 2019, Novant Health began a multi-year journey to modernise many of its corporate and clinical technology platforms, thus laying the groundwork for improved efficiencies and future expansion.
“Novant Health is optimising and expanding our technology and advanced analytics capabilities to provide actionable and secure information, while also innovating to drive organisational results,” Nchege explains.
“We’re using technology to improve patient experience and outcomes by using an omnichannel approach. This creates a seamless patient experience, making healthcare extremely personal as well as improving quality and speed through both emerging and advanced technologies.”
These include creating a digital health platform to engage patients in their entire health and wellness journey, redefining how patients think about health management, building next-generation digital channels for care delivery, and digitally enhancing traditional physical care delivery channels.
The numerous benefits of AI are, these days, evangelised by businesses spanning
“We continue to invest in in-house capabilities to design and develop digital tools that are driven by consumer data and insights”
ONYEKA NCHEGE SVP & CIO, NOVANT HEALTH
a broad remit, from mining and manufacturing through to cybersecurity. It’s in a healthcare context, though, that it becomes apparent just how transformative AI technologies are.
Automating laborious manual processes can benefit almost every sector. But when deployed in healthcare tasks, the improved efficiencies that AI software achieves don’t just translate to revenue saved: they actually have direct links to saving more lives. A primary example of AI benefits in healthcare can be witnessed in Novant Health’s radiology diagnostics.
A partnership with Aidoc has enabled Novant Health to instantly – and to an extremely high degree of accuracy – highlight acute problems in real-time. The AI specialist's products assist radiologists in shortening turnaround times, while improving the quality and efficiency of care.
“We were one of the first in North Carolina to adopt Aidoc’s FDA-cleared platform for triage and notifications of patients with acute medical conditions, such as intracerebral haemorrhage or pulmonary emboli.
“We went live at two of Novant Health's largest facilities in early December 2021. We wrapped up our pilot in early May, and now, every CT scanner in the Novant Health system, including in the new coastal market region, also sends images to Aidoc and its AI technology.”
“It serves as a second set of eyes for radiologists with its ability to detect abnormalities. The patient will come in as normal for their CT, and the scans will be uploaded to the cloud where AI technology quickly scans for any anomalies. No additional time is needed or even added to the patient's appointments,” Nchege outlines.
“Then, if the technology detects an anomaly, it will quickly notify the care team
Whether your goal is to decrease length of stay or reduce turnaround time, Aidoc’s team of engineers will customize an AI platform to meet your facility’s needs, ensuring it is scalable, seamlessly integrated and secure from day one.
Join the more than 1,000 hospitals worldwide that have already shifted to faster, more efficient health care with Aidoc’s pioneering operating system and FDA-cleared algorithms across multiple pathologies.
and, if additional treatment is needed, it can be done right away while the patient is still on campus.”
In turn, the extra AI-enabled capabilities help management to better support its teams. “We're hearing from our emergency department radiologists that burnout is lower, just based on the work that we're doing with Aidoc,” says Nchege.
“They were going through scans in the order that they were received, and they were just sitting on a ticking time bomb. But now, the most urgent patient scans go to the top of the stack so they can be quickly triaged using AI technology. These digital capabilities, while they will never replace our providers, will augment our team’s incredible skills to deliver the best care possible.”
“Our strategy for everything that we do at Novant Health really begins with the patient. So we have a patient in mind, and we start to ask questions like, ‘How can we eliminate their pain points?’, ‘What do they need and how can we change to meet those needs?’. It's a balanced approach to the things that we consider paramount,” Nchege states.
In December 2021, Novant Health launched a new digital care platform, designed to connect consumers to expert support and real-time health information. Now, these goals are being achieved and expanded through an ever-advancing system of technologies.
“Now, the two new digital tools involve a virtual assistant and a physician matcher, which leverage automated communications and artificial intelligence to help people make more informed decisions about from whom to receive care.”
One recent, key milestone for Novant Health was implementing its new tele-ICU programme. This communications solution rapidly exchanges health information between hospital critical care and other units, creating an interlinked ecosystem of vital patient information. In short, it all but eradicates human error from the process.
“We have developed a robust tele-ICU programme with custom-built ICU carts, right from a race car – a race car design team actually put this together, and they’re another unconventional partner of ours. They helped build this for us to support a surge in intensive care patients.
“Market-leading capabilities extend our physical reach digitally in our acute facilities. Essentially, a tele-ICU allows highlyspecialised intensive care physicians and nurses to support local care teams virtually via remote monitoring technology, with high-def audio visual capabilities to enhance this,” Nchege explains.
“The technology improves overall outcomes by shortening the length of stay times, reducing the length of time that people might be on a ventilator, and giving patients the option to stay in their local hospital – because we can connect to you, as opposed to them always feeling like they've got to come to us.”
Business transformation remains a key organisational focus for Novant Health, with the company using technology to drive improvements across its entire operations.
“We are modernising, stabilising and scaling our people and culture, as well as supply chain finance, digital products and services, while streamlining all those functions through the implementation of a cloud-based platform.”
“Secondly, through the implementation of a cloud-based platform, we are consolidating our clinical and revenue cycle technologies to have a more unified medical record and patient MyChart account. Then we're going to be developing
transformational clinical capabilities, continuing expansion into non-acute settings and commercialising digital solutions through our Novant Health Enterprises.”
Alongside this, Nchege says that the company is gearing up to prepare itself for what he believes will be an industry-wide shift towards remote technologies.
“When I think about the healthcare industry in general, we're seeing an evolution in monitoring devices, with sensor capabilities becoming so much more sophisticated.
I think it's reasonable to expect that a lot of the things for which we'd normally have to go into a hospital can be monitored at home.”
“We have unprecedented access to data, and I believe we'll be able to combine the data streams from those sensors and monitoring devices and, coupled with our available computing power, make decisions in the moment.”
ONYEKA NCHEGE SVP & CIO, NOVANT HEALTH“Our core mission at Novant Health drives everything that we do. We exist to improve the health of our communities, one person at a time, one community at a time”
TeleTracking is a 32-year-old integrated healthcare operations platform that combines comprehensive technology solutions with clinical expertise to improve access to care, streamline care delivery and connect care settings.
The solutions TeleTracking brings to the market build true operational visibility, regardless of the EMR, which allows hospitals and health systems to create a shared situational awareness at the enterprise level, while improving workflows, better utilising scarce resources, and attracting and retaining patients.
Chris Johnson shares how TeleTracking Technologies reduces operational inefficiencies by acting as an operation foundation for hospitals & health systems
Chris Johnson is the President and Co-CEO at TeleTracking Technologies. He received his B.A. in Political Science from George Mason University, before going onto the University of Virginia for his MBA.
“I always found the combination of social science and business to be fascinating, applicable to all the professional opportunities I’ve had over the years,” he says. “From a career perspective, I’ve always considered myself a technologist with a love for strategy and team management.”
Johnson started his career in financial services, providing technology solutions for some of the largest global banks. While he enjoyed his work in the industry, Johnson felt that something was missing.
optimises staff productivity & strengthens quality of care
T-Pro is global leader in clinical documentation improvement software, digitally transforming 600+ healthcare organisations across Ireland, the UK and the APAC region with over 85,000 active users. Our cloud-based solutions enable workflows for efficient and accurate speech recognition, medical transcription and messaging.
“Soon after, I worked with a small technology start-up in healthcare, and I’ll never forget the first time I walked into a hospital and saw the technology live,” Johnson recalls. “It was in this moment that I realised my calling and where I could make the greatest contribution – professionally and personally.”
Johnson has spent the past seven years with TeleTracking Technologies and has held various roles including: Chief of Staff, Chief Technology Officer, Chief Solutions Officer, and now, President and Co-Chief Executive Officer.
“Prior to TeleTracking, I was the CTO at General Electric Healthcare, where I was focused on developing disruptive technologies in the healthcare market specifically targeted at improving the operating efficiency of healthcare organisations. It was here that I met the TeleTracking team and – as they say – the rest is history!”
Several years after starting, Johnson is more excited than ever about the endless possibilities that exist through technology in healthcare.
“We’ve seen a real sense of urgency from global health system leaders who see the opportunity to help centralise operations as a game-changer”
“We
CHRIS JOHNSON PRESIDENT AND“TeleTracking is the place where I feel I can make the greatest difference to the global challenges facing the industry,” he says. “We work with customers across North America, Europe, and in the Government sector to optimise staff productivity, strengthen the quality of care, improve financial performance, and
integrate operational data across often desperate systems.”
TeleTracking's core mission for hospitals and health systems
TeleTracking’s focus has always been around expanding the capacity to care, so patients do not have to wait for the care they need because of operational inefficiencies.
“We reduce those operational inefficiencies by acting as the operation foundation for hospitals and health systems, helping them to improve staffing workflows and capacity management, decrease wait times, and ensure that a patient gets the right bed, with the right resources the first time,” says Johnson.
For TeleTracking, the greatest challenge has been patience. As a 32-year-old
reduce those operational inefficiencies by acting as the operation foundation for hospitals and health systems”
CO-CEO, TELETRACKING TECHNOLOGIES
healthcare technology company, it has remained focused on healthcare operations for over three decades, watching the market grow and evolve to meet the challenges hospitals and health systems face today.
“The market has historically been slow to adapt to new ways of thinking about expansion outside of simply adding more physical space,” says Johnson.
Many healthcare systems still don’t realise the power of operational interoperability and the role that a purpose-built operational platform plays in addressing capacity constraints, patient flow and financial performance.
“Over the years, we’ve remained laserfocused and committed to helping our clients realise that they can, in fact, expand their capacity of care outside of the
hospital’s traditional four walls by creating new collaboration opportunities and leveraging hidden capacity in non-traditional locations not able to be seen through the EMR,” explains Johnson.
“We’ve seen a real sense of urgency from global health system leaders who see the opportunity to help centralise operations as a game-changer, and we are now starting to work with them to help prove this on a larger scale.”
Throughout his career, Johnson has worked in large corporations, start-ups, and a mega multi-national business, fielding different niches within the business arena. During his time at TeleTracking, though, his biggest lesson has been that a private, focused and mission-driven organisation can outpace and outlast the other models.
“We will continue to play defence and offence simultaneously, focusing on supporting our team and our clients whilst continually growing a healthy pipeline of new opportunities”
CO-CEO, TELETRACKING TECHNOLOGIES
“I’ve had the single greatest mentor in my career with Michael Zamagias, the owner of TeleTracking, but if I had to narrow it down to one lesson I’ve learned, it would be the power of commitment alongside the sincere dedication of a company and its people to its mission when facing seemingly insurmountable challenges.”
TeleTracking’s impact and 32-year history of steady growth and client outcomes is a testament to this.
What 2023 holds for the healthcare sector 2023 is going to be a busy year for the healthcare sector as it continues to recover from COVID-19. Johnson, meanwhile, will be spending a significant amount of time abroad in both the United Kingdom and Germany as the company continues to grow its international market.
“In the US, we are excited about the work we are doing with our 1,000+ clients, coming to us as a partner to expand their capacity of care, and think in non-traditional ways about our platform and its reach,” says Johnson.
For TeleTracking and its clients, the healthcare sector is hearing a common sentiment: this is perhaps the most challenging environment management teams have ever faced – from staff shortages to elective care backlogs to crippling financial performance, healthcare globally is in a fragile state.
“We are, however, seeing the emergence of offence and defence leaders. These leaders are thinking about the next decade, not the next month. Many of them are coming to TeleTracking to rethink opportunities and reset the strategic gameboard considering the current volatility,” says Johnson.
As a company, TeleTracking will continue building on its 32 years of investment and large client footprint. It has three markets with diversified opportunities and a proven track record in each one. “We will continue to play defence and offence simultaneously, focusing on supporting our team and our clients whilst continually growing a healthy pipeline of new opportunities.”
Humanity faces serious challenges in 2022: climate change threatens the planet; global health crises have exposed vulnerabilities in society; communities are being marginalised; and demographic trends are creating new pressures on healthcare worldwide. To meet these challenges, pioneering familyowned Boehringer Ingelheim is working on breakthrough therapies with the hope of transforming lives.
First established in Germany in 1885 and now one of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies in the world, Boehringer Ingelheim specialises in areas of unmet medical need in three business areas: Human Pharma, Animal Health, and Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing.
Boehringer Ingelheim strives to develop improved therapies, healthcare products and services to ensure we all live in a better world. The company has plans to increase the scope of its social and environmental ambitions, aiming to explore what more can be done to contribute to a sustainable world and a healthier future.
The company attributes its success to scientific innovation, including investments in sustainable healthcare and technology to accelerate industry improvements. Boehringer Ingelheim is currently pursuing more than 390 research collaborations in the
Boehringer Ingelheim’s Head of Data Management, Bruno Rizzuti, explains how Big Pharma builds a better world with tech innovation throughout the enterprise
The Dataland program was initiated to create the end-2-end data ecosystem that powers Boehringer Ingelheim's needs for data-driven decisions and to enable the use cases that drive innovation and efficiencies now and in the years to come. Capgemini supported Boehringer on their journey to the AWS cloud and in the implementation of use cases across all business domains. Learn more
Ruth Lütticken, Director of Life Sciences, Data Science & AI, Capgemini, explains how data management is helping Boehringer Ingelheim to transform lives
Pioneering family-owned Boehringer Ingelheim is making use of cutting-edge data management services provided by Capgemini in its work on breakthrough therapies.
Boehringer Ingelheim specialises in areas of unmet medical need in Human Pharma, Animal Health, and Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing. As part of its Dataland program, Boehringer Ingelheim invests in data-related initiatives to strengthen its foothold in the digital world. Leveraging data has the potential to transform drug development and the patient experience. Several units within the organisation were already successfully working with data, but Boehringer Ingelheim wanted to scale its usage across the entire company. This ambition required a strong technology foundation and modern infrastructure, as well as clear processes and responsibilities in the area of data governance.
“It is a cloud-based ecosystem that we’re building for our data needs not just for today but the years to come in the future,” explains Boehringer Ingelheim’s Head of Data Management, Bruno Rizzuti. “This project is designed to create a trusted environment not only for our regular use cases but also for those that require more, let’s say, flexibility and the capabilities that the technology in the cloud can provide.”
“There are many exciting use cases for data and human pharma,” says Ruth Lütticken, Director of Life Sciences, Data Science & AI, Capgemini. “I think since Covid 19, everybody knows how important that step is in developing new tracks.
Here the change was for the global feasibility managers at the country level to select a certain trial site for a certain trial phase.
So many factors and data will have to be considered, and this gives them a predictive modelling solution which is using internal but also external data to allow them to have data-driven site identification, which means they can reduce the time for the trial.”
life sciences' community – representing more than 50% of its pipeline projects – and the company’s animal health business is now the second largest in the world, with more than 200 products for dogs, cats, horses, pigs, cattle and poultry.
To add to this, Boehringer Ingelheim is also investing €35bn in health innovation to tackle non-communicable diseases, as well as an additional €250mn in partnerships to combat emerging infectious diseases. Through its flagship initiative Making More Health, it has partnered with Ashoka, the largest global network of social entrepreneurs. To mitigate the environmental impact of its growing business, Boehringer Ingelheim has
BRUNO RIZZUTI HEAD OF DATA MANAGEMENT, BOEHRINGER INGELHEIMcommitted to becoming carbon neutral in its operations and halving its resource footprint by 2030.
Boehringer Ingelheim is driving innovation across the enterprise and has focused on advanced technologies to discover new ways of introducing technology to core business processes. Big Data and analytics powered by AI allows the company to build new models and predictive tools that can have far-reaching impact on production processes, improving the quality, connectivity and availability of patient solutions.
“WE WORK TO MAKE HUMANITY BETTER, RIGHT? TO MAKE THE LIVES OF PEOPLE AND ANIMALS BETTER EVERY DAY”
Bruno Rizzuti joined Boehringer Ingelheim in 2014 and took up his role as Head of Data Management in 2020. "I moved into the pharmaceutical industry when I was very young," says Rizzuti. "I had been working as a consultant on analytical processing systems, working with many clients in the pharma industry – which is how I got to know the industry so well – and then moved to Boehringer Ingelheim."
Inclusiveness in the industry has been a draw for Rizzuti, being one of the main reasons he joined the industry. “Big Pharma companies listen to their employees, as well – this is something you can immediately tell when you join a pharma company,” says Rizzuti. “Whether at Boehringer Ingelheim or another company, the standard in the industry is that the employee's voice is heard, based on the notion that this is important because happy people give better results."
Innovation is another attractive, industrywide aspect of the profession, according to Rizzuti. "You cannot survive in pharma if you don't innovate. You must innovate in new treatments and in new therapeutic areas. This is an industry that has innovation at its essence. And that also makes it a wonderful place to grow; you always have new challenges."
TITLE: HEAD OF DATA MANAGEMENT INDUSTRY: PHARMACEUTICAL
LOCATION: BARCELONA, SPAIN
Bruno Rizzuti is currently the Head of Data Management & Data Engineering at BoehringerIngelheim with an extra passion about working culture, data-driven mindsets and technology scouting. His studies include Data Engineering, Data Science, Project Management and a little bit of Economics. In his free time, he exercises, studies technology, reads and plays videogames. With over a decade of experience in Data & Analytics in the Big Pharma Industry and viscerally passionate about technology, he has his focus every day in what he considers the two most valuable assets of any organisation: People and Data.
52,000
Global workforce 130 Markets served by Boehringer Ingelheim
One of the biggest tech-related challenges facing the industry today is migrating to the cloud, not only from a technology perspective but also from a cultural perspective, says Rizzuti.
"When you embark on a journey to build an ecosystem and a data analytics platform that will serve you for the next five to 10 years, that’s a huge paradigm shift in comparison to how we've been doing things in analytics since the 80s and 90s."
BRUNO RIZZUTI HEAD OF DATA MANAGEMENT, BOEHRINGER INGELHEIMThe industry needs the kind of mindset changes that have already been introduced by data-driven professionals. “But you can't expect everybody in every position to have that mindset. One of the biggest changes that we're seeing nowadays is that it used to be enough for IT people to be on top of technology. Now, you need everybody on board to make such a change. And that requires an educational and cultural component in our IT roles.”
Rizzuti plays a key role in the area of data ingestion, which includes crucial data governance issues that should be incorporated into business planning at all stages.
“YOU CANNOT SURVIVE IN PHARMA IF YOU DON'T INNOVATE; YOU MUST INNOVATE IN NEW THERAPEUTIC AREAS”
"Who will consume this data, for what purpose, and for how long? What are the different usages of this data? Having that in mind beforehand is key,” he explains. “Sometimes, people will jump into action without having a clear definition of who the data owner is, what the usage of this data will be, and what is the intended purpose – but all of that information is needed to provide the best tools to make the best of it. Otherwise, you end up having a 'data swamp' instead of a 'data lake', which eventually replicates errors from the past."
Boehringer Ingelheim has a workforce of more than 52,000 employees serving over 130 markets. In Germany, the company's New Therapeutic Concepts team in Biberach is introducing data and analytic tools to the early-stage drug discovery process. By working with some of the early findings and connecting those across projects, Boehringer Ingelheim can identify patterns that have the capacity to help multiple product teams uncover ideas and solutions that speed up the development process.
“THIS IS AN INDUSTRY THAT HAS INNOVATION AT ITS ESSENCE. AND THAT ALSO MAKES IT A WONDERFUL PLACE TO GROW”
In Ingelheim, the company's Farmer team works with devices, data collection and systematic analytics to identify and isolate early signs of health problems that risk spreading through animal herds. The underlying data generated will simultaneously help identify inefficiencies that impact yields and farm productivity.
Meanwhile, the Mobinostics team is working with vets to develop mobile diagnostic and treatment solutions that allow greater reach and greater speedto-treatment for remote farms all over the world.
Ingelheim is also home to the company's BRASS (Benefit Risk Assessment System) project, which uses AI to conduct an initial analysis of adverse reactions to medications that have already been approved –identifying potential side effects and undesirable events – and offer a valuable decision-making tool for those working in pharmacovigilance, helping them process each case more quickly.
In Vienna, Austria, Boehringer Ingelheim's Smart Process Design team is leveraging the power of data to strengthen yields in previously unpredictable biopharma manufacturing.
Also in Vienna, the Biomarker-Based Patient Population project empowers experts within the company to identify biomarkers to better characterise patient populations for clinical studies. Being able to process and analyse large amounts of data creates the potential to select the right drug for a patient.
Based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, PetPro is one of the company's first digital products that directly addresses end users’ needs. PetPro Connect has been developed in close collaboration with the company's Animal Health business to connect pet owners and veterinarians, organise follow-up appointments via video chat, quickly and easily order medication refills, and benefit from bonus programmes.
Over in Spain, the company's Pathological Speech Processing team – based in Sant Cugat del Vallés, Barcelona – develops digital tools that facilitate the process of speech and language processing (SLP) by using machine learning and disease-customised algorithms. This will be used to analyse speech and language patterns, which can consequently be analysed to predict the development of mental diseases, such as the risk of dementia.
More Health, More Potential and More Green at Boehringer Ingelheim Boehringer Ingelheim has defined three areas: More Health, More Potential and More Green – which are at the heart of a framework the
company calls Sustainable Development For Generations. The framework incorporates established initiatives, building these into more ambitious goals to increase the company’s impact on health, society and the planet. In doing so, Boehringer Ingelheim generates greater long-term economic and social value for stakeholders, the communities they serve and employees.
Through these focus areas, Boehringer Ingelheim can contribute to the creation of solutions for global challenges and help enable sustainable change. The impact in each area reflects its core business and aligns with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Sustainable development goes hand-in-hand with the company’s planning principles of taking responsibility for communities and the environment.
Big Pharma has big aims and ambitions, providing a daily incentive for everyone working in the industry at every level. "We work to make humanity better, right?" asks Rizzuti. "To make the lives of people and animals better every day. That's a difficult model to reject. It's definitely something that immediately gives you a sense of purpose when you're working in such an industry. It's a life science; it's all about taking care of people, taking care of animals.”
“IT USED TO BE ENOUGH FOR IT PEOPLE TO BE ON TOP OF TECHNOLOGY. NOW, YOU NEED EVERYBODY ON BOARD”
Itai Hayut, CEO of healthtech company Scopio Labs, on how AI & digitalisation help in the detection of blood-related cancers, anaemia & allergies
WRITTEN BY: HELEN ADAMS
Scopio Labs is a healthtech company that’s transforming cell morphology analysis, offering a suite of fully digital diagnostic applications and platforms that enhance clinical workflows, turnaround times, and lab efficiencies for the benefit of patients.
CEO and Co-founder of the transformational healthtech company is Itai Hayut. In his role, he leads the vision, strategy, roadmap and global team of R&D, AI, regulatory and product specialists in the company’s mission to bring high-quality data and advancements in deep learning to the practice of haematology, moulding the future of disease detection and diagnosis into something better.
Scopio Labs transforming healthtech Scopio is changing the standard of healthcare and revolutionising first-line diagnostic testing through Full-Field Cell Morphology™ analysing haematological samples at a scale that was impossible until today.
“Back when I was studying physics, I was drawn to biology and medicine,” Hayut explains. “To me, the human body is the most complex and amazing physical machine.”
Co-founder Erez Na’aman and Hayut both studied Applied Physics at the Hebrew University. After witnessing the evolution and power of AI, the two wanted to see how they could harness this to make an impact on the world.
“We spent a lot of time in hospitals observing laboratory professionals in the haematology lab who still rely on analogue, outdated and labour-intensive practices,
like counting cells manually and using traditional microscopes.”
They knew that with their backgrounds in physics, IT and medical device technology –along with the timely evolution of computer vision – they could use AI-powered analysis to bring microscopy and haematology into the digital age.
In 2015, they got to work: all Na’aman and Hayut needed was to find a scanner to digitise slides at the highest resolution and then apply AI tools to the resulting image. However, at the time, no such scanner existed.
“We realised we would need to build one ourselves – and that’s where the Scopio story began.”
Scopio Labs is the first (and only!) company to solve the tradeoff between
“Suddenly, things that used to be rare or accidental findings, become methodical and quantifiable”
field-of-view and resolution. The company has succeeded in developing a digital Full-Field imaging and AI-powered platform that’s able to scan blood samples at the highest resolution needed for haematological cell morphology analysis.
“The fully digitised sample can be explored, scrolled, and zoomed in and out by the clinician at 100x magnification – to the very fringes of the sample – without missing any details,” enthuses Hayut. “Scopio has
also developed AI-based decision-support solutions to then analyse these digital blood samples. Scopio eliminates the need to ever go back to the manual microscope: lab professionals, haematologists and hematopathologists can access the FullField digital image and results at 100x resolution from anywhere over a secure hospital network – even from the comfort of their own homes.”
The company’s FDA-cleared, CE-marked Full-Field Peripheral Blood Smear (FullField PBS) Application™ supports detection, pre-classification and pre-quantification for blood cells. Scopio recently launched the CE-Marked Full-Field Bone Marrow Aspirate™ Application in Europe, the first platform to enable a complete digital workflow for bone marrow samples.
“We are very proud to have introduced the market to telehaematology,” says Hayut. “Scopio helps alleviate challenges in an industry facing major staff shortages, it
“To me, the human body is the most complex and amazing physical machine”
increases workflow efficiency by up to 60%, and thereby quickens the time for clinicians to make treatment decisions and initiation.”
Scopio has not only created a superior workflow solution, but has broken the barrier
of what is humanly possible with the age-old analogue, manual approach – and the positive impact of this cannot be overstated.
“Currently, Scopio’s first FDA-cleared application, the FullField Peripheral Blood Smear Application, allows for PBS scanning, creating high-resolution images combined with a powerful AI-based Decision Support System to detect, pre-classify, and prequantify the cells,” explains Hayut. “Enabling the expert to view and analyse up to 200 cells with significantly greater speed and consistency, Scopio allows for complete remote review capabilities. In essence, Scopio has created a complete digital transformation of cell morphological analysis which completely supplants or replaces the manual microscope.”
“The fully digitised sample can be explored, scrolled, and zoomed in and out by the clinician at 100x magnification – to the very fringes of the sample – without missing any details”
ITAI HAYUT CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, SCOPIO LABS
While enabling complete digital transformation of the lab workflow, this application completely aligns with both human capabilities and the capabilities of a manual microscope. For Scopio, the next logical step is to break the barriers of human capabilities by harnessing the power of AI to analyse millions of cells.
Hematopathologists hold expertise on how morphology is related to cancers, precancerous conditions, anaemia, infections, coagulation and more, though this knowledge base is limited to qualitative information. Current knowledge, then, relies on the experiences of individuals or groups of experts using analogue microscopy – manual methods with just a small number of cells.
“A computer is not limited to this number. It can take a single blood smear, look at 10,000 white blood cells, and start asking much deeper questions,” says Hayut. “Suddenly, things that used to be rare or accidental findings, become methodical and quantifiable.”
These are the concepts that guide Scopio’s research and development efforts as the team works to bring a pipeline of products to the market in the near future.
“By breaking these barriers for imaging and combining with clinical-grade AI, one can start to see the potential of viewing millions of cells in the sample and the unique deep analysis that AI can support, unlocking a world of new diagnostic opportunities for drastically earlier detection and diagnosis of bloodrelated cancers, anaemia, and infections. This provides the clinician with a new, revolutionary approach to first-line laboratory testing,” says Hayut.
Following FDA clearance of its smaller, 3-slide device at the end of 2020, Scopio Labs has since obtained FDA clearance for its high-throughput 30-slide device, expanding its capabilities now to larger labs, networks and medical facilities.
“Scopio is currently developing applications that leverage the groundbreaking Full-Field imaging technology, going beyond the limitations of the human eye and manual microscopic examination,” Hayut says. “Scopio will enable lab professionals to analyse not hundreds, but tens of thousands and even millions of cells at a scale and depth that has never been done before, transforming the future of blood-related disease detection and diagnosis. ”
“We are very proud to have introduced the market to
ITAI HAYUT CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, SCOPIO LABS
PRODUCED BY: TOM LIVERMORE WRITTEN BY: HELEN ADAMS
In a post-pandemic society where there’s an increased focus on physical and mental health, healthcare organisations around the world have found themselves under the spotlight. Whether this relates to the integration of tech and automation, clinical effectiveness, or patient care depends on the organisations themselves.
Althea Australia is a part of the Althea Group, a global organisation working across 16 countries. The Group operates as an outsource technological partner that provides managed services and multivendor maintenance across an entire spectrum of medical equipment – both in public and private portfolios.
But over at Althea Australia, based in Melbourne, things are slightly different.
“We provide consultancy and procurement services across a full range of diagnostic imaging equipment, including CT, X-ray, and MRI, up to 13 modalities,” says Monique Gaspar.
“The procurement function really is the integral component of our business operations, and we’re really committed to delivering best outcomes and best benefits for our customers.”
Head of Business Operations and Procurement at Althea Australia, Gaspar runs its day-to-day operations and manages customer supply relationships. She is, however, a radiographer by trade.
With aspirations to be the preferred group procurement organisation for radiology across ANZ, Althea Australia’s Phil Barber & Monique Gaspar explain why
“I have 20 years of clinical experience in radiology in all different modalities,” says Gaspar. “I'm a subject-matter expert, responsible for the maintenance of our ISO 9001 accredited governance and framework. I'm also a procurement specialist.”
At Althea Australia, the team is small with multiple portfolios. Within this team, Phil Barber functions as the Senior Product Procurement Specialist and Business Development Manager.
“We aid in helping our partners to adhere to our rigid framework, our model, and our processes in procuring equipment,” says Barber. “I'm also responsible for the growth of the business, seeking out external opportunities with other groups, such as major corporations or private hospitals, and growing our business.”
Over his 30+ year career in the industry, Barber has become an experienced subject-matter expert across all facets of diagnostic radiology, led into the healthcare
PHILIP BARBER SENIOR RADIOLOGY PRODUCT/PROCUREMENT ALTHEA AUSTRALIAindustry because of a desire to utilise all learnedskills from the full span of his career.
“This for me, was a challenging new role. It gave me a new burst of life, and it was the first time I was on the customer or purchasing side, not with equipment sales and marketing,” says Barber.
In contrast, Gaspar has spent 20 years in a variety of hospital and private healthcare settings, having also done some teaching within this remit.
SPECIALIST,
“Because of our transparency, it opens the gate and gives us very open communication between the suppliers, which is a good strength”
LOCATION: AUSTRALIA
Philip Barber has worked Althea Australia since August 2021 as a Senior Product/ Procurement Specialist. Prior to Althea, he had a 30+ year successful career at GE Healthcare, progressing from GE Australia’s 1st In-house CT Applications Specialist, through various Sales/Marketing positions within their CT/MR Modalities; Thailand Country Manager and AsiaPacific CT Product Marketing Manager, based in Bangkok, Thailand. His last role at GE was within their ANZ Service Business, prior to joining Althea.
Phil is a Medical X-Ray Technologist by training from the University of South Australia and graduated from at Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide. Phil’s strengths are his passion, knowledge, and experience, coupled with roles that have involved intense customer interaction. He has strong customer focus and balances the technical aspects/knowledge with clinical outcomes.
Phil is an Australian Citizen and resides in Gold Coast, Queensland. He lives with his Asperger’s son, aged 22 years.
LOCATION: AUSTRALIA
Monique Gaspar came to Althea Australia in 2020 as a Radiology Product Specialist and has since risen to become Head of Procurement and Business Operations, overseeing every aspect of Althea’s business.
Monique commenced her career as a graduate radiographer in Melbourne and quickly entered a managerial role before being recruited to educate radiographers at the prestigious Monash and RMIT Universities in Melbourne. After a distinguished career in academia, she completed her MBA and later began working for Althea.
Monique is valued by Althea’s clients for her detailed understanding of their operational and capital needs, and how those needs are best answered by the various equipment vendors operating within radiology. She is appreciated by her colleagues for her enthusiasm, warmth and leadership.
Monique lives in Melbourne with her husband Andrew and their 3 children.
When our customers speak up, we listen. So when customers around the world told us they needed a fully featured room that’s both versatile and scalable, we got to work.
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MONIQUE GASPAR HEAD OF BUSINESS OPERATIONS AND PROCUREMENT ALTHEA AUSTRALIA
NAME SURNAME JOB TITLE, COMPANY NAME
“With Althea, I was looking for a new challenge. I'd previously worked in a different role in admin and HR, with a bit of procurement involved. So when this job came up, I saw that it was a role where I could combine my healthcare and radiology background with my business experience,” she says.
Procuring high-value medical equipment
Althea Australia aspires to be the preferred group procurement organisation for radiology and healthcare providers across ANZ – Australia and New Zealand.
“We really want to be a centre of excellence for procurement,” says Gaspar. “We provide professional and strategic targeted procurement to Radiology – using our best practices – and to the market. This results in significant savings and operational
benefits to our healthcare providers. We provide fresh new ideas to the marketplace that drive competitive tension, which is best for everyone.”
Althea Australia is the only company doing this in the ANZ market, specifically in Radiology, which Barber sees as a huge competitive advantage.
“Our model has helped us drive capital expenditure down, so it benefits our clients,” Barber says.
Traditionally in the ANZ market, medical equipment has been purchased based on long-standing, preferred supplier relationships.
“New suppliers find it difficult to penetrate, even if they have superior specifications or more cost-effective equipment,” says Barber. “Equipment procurement times were lengthy and often drawn out, with repeated
“We really want to be a centre of excellence for procurement”
back-and-forth negotiations, which wastes time and money. Corporatisation of the private market is still ongoing and growing, and more and more smaller groups are consolidating.”
Corporate organisations desire structured and streamlined procurement processes rather than just operating as individuals.
Private companies and public sector organisations that purchase medical equipment individually are often limited by the scale of their organisation.
Althea Australia utilises strategic procurement processes, aligned with the organisation business objectives. The company is actively marketing to healthcare providers that will drive the benefits of scale.
“Essentially,” says Gaspar, ”in our core team of 4 personnel – of which 3 are subject-matter experts – we have the experience and technical skills across all modalities within diagnostic imaging, remaining neutral and unbiased with respect to all the different vendors.
“With regards to our expertise in specification and functionality, part of our process is designed to save the customer time and money because we procure fit-for-purpose equipment and match their clinical requirements of the sites, to their budgets. We use our expertise and experience to bring down their capital expenditure on equipment procurement and reduce the total cost of ownership over the life of the system, including servicing.”
“Our model is ideal for corporates as well as individual purchasers,” says Barber, “where the same business objectives are to minimise unnecessary overspending to improve their balance sheets, whereas previously, individuals were purchasing
based on brand names and/or repeat replacements. Whilst we understand brand loyalty and other factors exist in choosing equipment, we offer alternative options to the customers with equipment that fits their clinical needs, but not necessarily just re-ordering the brand they've bought for years.
“We're very transparent in the process. We've opened the game up to all suppliers that have equipment that match the specifications and clinical needs of that site. I think that's a good thing for the industry.”
PHILIP BARBER SENIOR RADIOLOGY PRODUCT/PROCUREMENT SPECIALIST, ALTHEA AUSTRALIASupporting suppliers and upholding partnerships
How healthcare businesses have managed their supply chains and partnerships has evolved over the past two years. At Althea Australia, Barber believes that the key to their success has been their relationship with suppliers.
“We need to be able to best-fit their products to our clinical needs and our end users,” he says. “We rely on those supplier relationships to educate us and update our knowledge-data continuously.”
This is not just a once-a-year type of activity; Althea Australia’s suppliers are constantly updating with new products, innovations and technologies. Radiology
“Equipment procurement times were lengthy and often drawn out, with repeated back-and-forth negotiations, which was a waste of time and money”
equipment improvements and innovations are constantly changing healthcare.
“Because of our transparency, it opens the gate, which gives us very open communication between our suppliers – it’s a core strength,” says Barber.
The company has worked with medical equipment supplier Quantum Healthcare who distributes and services equipment from Carestream Health Inc, and other OEM’s.
“We've renewed – and actually strengthened – the relationship between Quantum Healthcare and our clients with recent successes in their x-ray products, and the potential with expanding their portfolio with ultrasound systems,” continues Barber. “We did this by providing constructive
feedback to Quantum on what they did well and what could be improved with their tender offerings via our debrief sessions. They acted on our feedback, which enabled Quantum to attain success within our procurement tender process. They listened to what we've had to tell them as a customer, we've informed them how we believe they can become successful, and they've acted on that. A win-win for both parties.”
Another customer supplier who has also enjoyed recent successes with their tender offerings to Althea Australia has been Fujifilm Asia Pacific, with recent wins for their x-ray, OPG and mobile x-ray products.
“We’ve had successful installations and positive feedback from our end-users
regarding the Fujifilm products, which are well supported by their service teams,” says Barber. “Globally, they recently released new ultrasound products that are now being introduced locally, so we're trying to open doors to our customer-base for them to demonstrate their products. We are also excited with their soon-to-be-released CT Scanner systems, which can further expand their coverage and footprint for Fujifilm. We offer consultancy and advice to them on their product ranges, suitability and positioning across the ANZ market whilst serving our customers’ needs.”
But what is it that makes such partnerships work? What does a partnership have to have to be successful?
“I think it's like any good relationship,” says Barber. “Understanding and trusting our framework and processes. They've got to understand how we work and how they work with us – and to do that, good communication is required between all parties.
“100% what Phil said,” concurs Gaspar. “You definitely have to be open and transparent; it really is key because then there's no misunderstanding of what's happening.”
In the past, it has taken some suppliers a long time to understand Althea Australia’s processes, with some even slipping back into previous modes of procurement.
“But once we installed our framework and explained how we work, they quickly adapted to become competitive,” says Barber.
That then allowed Althea Australia to fulfil product features while driving cost advantages for clients at the same time.
Too often, breakthroughs in healthcare are stamped as ‘science fiction’ – a step too far for humans – yet the results of such breakthroughs have recently pushed the planet to its eight billionth person. Healthcare technology has moved medical mountains that seemed insurmountable a decade ago: 3D-printed body parts, robotic surgery and, of course, the COVID-19 vaccine.
Looking ahead, then, where next? At Automata, a London-based automation machinery manufacturing company, it’s lifesaving cell engineering.
Automata was founded with the aim of unlocking human potential with automation.
Through its collaboration with leading pathology labs, it has developed the most comprehensive lab automation platform in existence, helping labs to create new opportunities for life scientists.
“With rare, genetic diseases like cancer, part of a patient's DNA is not giving the right instructions to produce the right protein. Scientists engineer that bit of DNA that's not working properly,” explains Sonia Jassi, Drug Discovery and Synthetic Biology
Lead at Automata. “Once we have the right part of the DNA transferred into a cell, we grow the cells in gene therapy vectors and deliver them to the patient to express in the target cell.”
Over the past 18 months the NHS has faced unprecedented demand and pressures due to COVID-19. The response to the pandemic was launched on many fronts - treating the ill, test and trace to minimise the spread of the virus and then the vaccine program.
Scotland faced unique challenges in trying to manage at pace such a geographically disperse population, so it remained imperative that NHS Scotland had the ability to rapidly record and process data in real time.
With NHS Scotland facing such an urgent problem, we approached them with a solution: working with Apple to acquire 1,600 iPads, which we then deployed with connectivity, dedicated software, mobile device management, logistics, support and crucially, network security, in partnership with Check Point Software Technologies.
The iPads allow NHS staff to easily and securely record people who have registered for the vaccine, update details to the central database (via wifi and our 4G network), record which vaccine they’ve had and when their next appointment is due. We manage the full solution under our Digital Workplace portfolio, so they don’t have to - allowing NHS staff to focus on their day-to-
day work. Updates are immediate, ensuring that everyone always has the very latest information – essential for an effective, fast-moving rollout.
Working closely with Check Point, we were able to ensure that the security embedded in this deployment aligned to what NHS Scotland uses in other areas - every device needs to be locked down, secure and protected from a malware, spam and data security perspective.
With time ticking away, we distributed iPads all around the country in the three weeks leading up to Christmas, with Logan Air stepping in to deliver to the Islands on Christmas Eve. We ramped this up to 2,750 iPads by the end of January, ensuring NHS Scotland could get up to their full capacity of vaccination efforts.
The programme was a direct aid to helping to put Scotland at the top of the European vaccination league.
By Simeon Maurer O2 Business - Client Manager, Scotland
Automata’s role in treating genetic diseases is to automate the processes involved that are laborious and highly error prone and therefore accelerate drug discovery.
It’s a big step for healthcare.
Jassi had a keen interest in science from a young age. During her time in the laboratory, she worked in crystallisation and x-ray diffraction, then spent 11 years at a pharmaceutical company. Now, Jassi heads up synthetic biology and drug discovery at Automata.
“I manage teams that are customerfacing, so understanding what their needs are is a part of my job. I look at where the challenges are and what the goal is to achieve in their laboratories.”
“THAT'S WHAT'S AFFECTING THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY – HOW DO YOU MAKE THESE THERAPIES QUICKER AND BRING THEM TO MARKET FASTER, BUT ALSO MAKE THEM MORE COSTEFFECTIVE?”
JASSI DRUG DISCOVERY AND SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY LEAD, AUTOMATA
Gene therapy is a precise and slow process, making it expensive; Jassi is aware that any inconsistencies in the development of the drug used can result in further expenses, followed by the cost of manufacturing. As such, Jassi believes
that the healthcare industry needs to fully understand what is happening with these therapies to continue supporting them.
“I think one of the main issues in gene therapy is that when the viral vectors are used, we don't exactly know what's going on or what's happening with them in the body. You have lots of side effects and adverse effects, in addition to delivery problems.”
Viral vectors are a type of gene therapy used to modify viruses, turning them into vehicles by which genetic material is introduced into cells’ specific DNA sequences.
In the wider healthcare industry, Jassi is concerned about long-term efficiency of patient trials for gene therapies.
“Even after a very small trial, we have to think about what side effects there will be over the next few years,” she says. “Until you get more patients on larger trials, only then will you be able to see the effects of what these therapies will do.”
“THESE SCIENTISTS ARE HUGELY PASSIONATE ABOUT WHAT THEY DO; IF YOU TALK TO ANY OF THEM, THEY'RE THERE BECAUSE THEY WANT TO MAKE A CHANGE”
SONIA
Cancer is one of the many genetic diseases that Jassi would like to see eradicated.
“When you're treating things like leukaemia, patients have to wait a long time for treatment and take really horrific medications – like chemotherapy – which actually, in themselves, cause additional health problems. Chemo can affect the organs, and I think what's really hard to see is where children are involved in this.”
Every year, 400,000 children and teenagers develop cancer, most commonly leukaemia, brain cancer or solid tumours. According to the World Health Organisation, there is a cure rate of 80% for those living in high-income nations, but for those in lowto-middle-income countries, that figure sits at just 30%. Cancer can be cured with a range of medicine, surgery and radiotherapy, but low-to-middle-income countries report that avoidable childhood cancer deaths arise from obstacles to accessing care.
“That's what's affecting the healthcare industry: how do you make these therapies quicker, bring them to market quicker but also make them more cost-effective?” Jassi says.
The Automata team is powered by the idea that automated gene therapy labs can help to treat patients all over the world more
effectively, speeding up therapies and saving costs in the long-term.
The engineering path for growing the right cell in gene therapy is very labour intensive. Yet, with automation, scientists can automate some of the processes –particularly earlier on in the culture of developing cell lines.
“You can run the engineering without the need of people doing the laborious work of pipetting and moving plates from one instrument to another; these automations would allow labs to work 24/7,” explains Jassi. “You can get to the target cell lines that you need much quicker.”
On the other side is the manufacturing process, where many companies in the sector are trying to build instruments for gene therapy.
Genes hold data for the features passed on to each human from their parents. Each cell in the human body has up to 35,000 genes.
The DNA contained within a gene has instructions for making proteins in the cell, such as the size of your bones or hair texture.
“If we can automate, it's getting drugs to patients faster and generally doing things quicker. But the other thing that's really important with automation is what it allows you to do: it allows you to do things where you reduce human error and achieve consistency, while your experiments are more reliable and accurate, which in turn makes you a lot more accurate and able to repeat processes successfully.”
Automata has just opened an office in Boston, US, to further drive its work and expand its vision to ensure scientists are empowered to focus on the work that really matters with truly hands-free automation, while the Automata system delivers more and better quality data. Looking ahead, the team will continue to share their insight with scientists and encourage them to trust automation, instead of fearing that the technology will take their job away from them.
“These scientists are hugely passionate about what they do; if you talk to any of them, they're there because they want to make a change,” explains Jassi. “They want to make a difference to patients’ lives. But some manual processes are very mundane – automation can help with that.”
“WITH RARE, GENETIC DISEASES LIKE CANCER, PART OF A PATIENT'S DNA IS NOT GIVING THE RIGHT INSTRUCTIONS TO PRODUCE THE RIGHT PROTEIN. GENE THERAPY ENGINEERS CREATE THAT BIT OF DNA THAT'S NOT WORKING PROPERLY”
SONIA JASSI DRUG DISCOVERY AND SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY LEAD, AUTOMATA
MDA, Amgen, Fifty One Apparel, Alcon & more utilised space technology for healthcare purposes – here are our Top 10 medical breakthroughs made in space
WRITTEN BY: HELEN ADAMSWhile astronauts living in space are themselves subject to unhealthy lifestyles that result from a lack of gravity and sunlight (muscle and bone loss, sleep deprivation, and even depression), scientists back on earth have nevertheless used the extraordinary elements in space to make huge technological advances in healthcare.
MDA, Amgen, Fifty One Apparel, Alcon and more worked among the brightest stars of space exploration on earth and in space to keep astronauts safe and help people live healthier lives. Here, we look at the Top 10 medical breakthroughs made in space, for all mankind.
Billions of people suffer with some kind of eye disorder, with up to 4 billion wearing glasses. Many others choose to use contact lenses while some opt for laser-eye surgery to correct their eyesight.
Aided by the research of laser technology used in space, medical equipment manufacturer Alcon developed its Alcon LADARVision® 4000, used by opticians on Earth to monitor a patient’s eye and operate the laser scalpel.
One of the most unpleasant symptoms of the menopause are hot flashes, when a woman suddenly feels unbearably and inexplicably hot. Aside from being acutely uncomfortable, some women feel insecure and/or embarrassed by the visibility of this symptom, increasing anxiety and low self-esteem.
Luckily, retail company Fifty One Apparel manufactures clothing designed with specific material to uphold temperature-regulation, which is based on spacesuits.
In the 1980s, NASA’s Johnson Space Center worked together with the Triangle Research and Development Corporation to experiment with new materials that would maintain a steady temperature for spacesuits.
Patients suffering from a stroke, spinal cord injuries or motor decline need additional support with their balance – as do astronauts in zero gravity.
NASA’s preflight and postflight study of eye movement reactions (EMR) has led to quicker, inexpensive identification and treatment of patients with balance problems. What’s more, patients and astronauts can be trained to manage dizziness with a non-pharmacological, computerised method.
In the USA, over 1 million people a year are diagnosed with shingles, a condition affecting the nervous system caused by the chickenpox virus.
Scientists from NASA and the University of Colorado teamed up to work together and find a cure. Together, they detected VZV DNA, which causes chickenpox, in the saliva of astronauts during spaceflight and built a virus detection kit. Now, detection of the virus can be completed in less than one hour and the technology is being used to detect other viruses, too.
“Scientists from NASA and the University of Colorado detected VZV DNA, which causes chickenpox, in the saliva of astronauts during spaceflight and built a virus detection kit”
06Founded in 2013, Telstra Health works to improve lives by delivering digitally-enabled care to its communities by providing software products, solutions and platforms to governments and healthcare providers throughout Australia.
On Earth, bone health can be affected by injury or malnutrition. In space, bone health deteriorates due to loss, which accelerates in the zero-gravity atmosphere with the lack of normal weight-bearing activities human bodies are used to. Astronauts follow a specific nutritional programme and follow strict exercises to reduce the impact. Researchers have studied bone loss data carefully, not only to support astronauts in space, but also to aid lives on earth.
Telstra Health was chosen as a key partner of Gold Coast Health Services, providing their virtual health consultation platform as a way to deliver patient care remotely. “Traditionally, you might go to see a specialist at a hospital and, after a five minute conversation, be sent home,” Jamie Spencer, Regional General Manager Business Development at Telstra Health says. “Someone living in rural Queensland might drive for up to four to six hours for that five minute appointment. Now, rather than people having to make those long journeys to see a specialist, we can provide that consultation to people in their own homes, in a way that leads to a richer conversation, which results in better feedback and, ultimately, a better standard of care.”
Experiments using the Commercial Biomedical Testing Module (CBTM) have studied bone remodelling with Amgen, a California-based biopharmaceutical company, investigating bone loss and muscle atrophy.
Telstra Health’s virtual care technology adopts a twofold approach. First, using Bluetooth connected devices, clinicians
Ultrasounds are most commonly used to examine pregnant women and unborn babies, but ultrasound technology is also used to assess various conditions, such as kidney stones, bone fractures and collapsed lungs.
can monitor patients’ blood pressure, pulse oximetry, temperature and weight remotely. These baseline metrics are then combined with a virtual appointment in which the clinician can follow-up with the patient to discuss and provide results.
The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) built ultrasound technology used by astronauts, allowing doctors in space to care for their fellow passenger patients without needing the help of doctors on Earth.
“We’ve found that our service has helped to dramatically reduce readmission rates, and enabled early discharge, which means that patients get to be at home sooner,” enthuses Spencer, who also notes that, “The overarching monitoring aspect can also help people who need readmission get back into hospital sooner, which can make a huge difference in some cases.”
Spencer, who works closely with Sandip Kumar, Gold Coast Health’s Executive Director of Transformation and Digital, emphasises that the relationship between Telstra Health and Gold Coast is far more than that of vendor and client. “We’re looking for a real partner, not just a customer.”
Canadarm was developed by MDA for the US Space Shuttle Program, which can lift heavy weights and complete complicated maintenance on board the International Space Station. This led to the creation of the neuroArm, a robot that is able to perform surgery within magnetic resonance machines (MRI scanners).
Space manufacturing company MDA worked with a team from the University of Calgary to develop the technology to allow surgeons to perform surgeries while a patient was inside an MRI machine, using a robot hand as capable as a human one.
Our world is a blue planet from space – but water is one thing space is largely lacking.
Sadly, many humans on earth still lack access to clean water. However, research for ensuring astronauts have a supply of clean water has helped communities on earth, too. The Water Security Corporation teamed up with NASA to use its water filtration and purification system technology, developed for use on space stations, across the world.
One thing scientists must look out for prior to spaceflight is the health of the astronauts. If one member of the crew has an illness that spreads to the rest of the passengers during their mission, everyone could be at risk of becoming sick.
Scientists discovered that certain bacteria found in Salmonella could become more infectious during spaceflight. Salmonella kills over 400 people in the USA each year, as well as causing many hospitalisations.
Space scientists researched Salmonella and how to combat its deadly bacterial pathogens in confined, low-gravity spaces – which led to a wider understanding of Salmonella’s genetic pathway and general microbial vaccine development.
“Scientists discovered that certain bacteria found in Salmonella could become more infectious during spaceflight”
The second leading cancerrelated cause of death in women is breast cancer. Every year, though, treatment for the disease becomes increasingly efficient.
The Canadian Space Agency uses robotic arms for heavy-lifting and complex manoeuvring on its space station – and an opportunity was spotted for the space equipment to be used in surgery for patients with breast cancer. The Image-Guided Autonomous Robot (IGAR) has been refocused inside MRI machines to assist healthcare professionals in the location of breast cancer. IGAR can help increase surgeons’ precision during biopsies.
“The
