The 10 Eminent Leaders in Healthcare For 2020 | Insights Care by insightscare

10 EMINENT THE

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LEADERS IN HEALTHCARE FOR 2020

CEO

Dr. Stefan Schreier

DR.

STEFAN SCHREIER Innovating Liquid Biopsy

hat according to you are the quali es that a leader should possess? Is it humility, resilience, vision, inﬂuence, or posi vity? Certainly, a leader inculcates numerous traits that inspire people to do things that they never imagined to do. An eﬀec ve leader harbours quali es which makes them the masters of business.

The Power of

Empathy

The key a ribute of a successful leader is the ability to make a quick decision in cri cal situa ons. He/she needs to be visionary, confident, persistent and enthusias c. A visionary business leader helps a company or a venture to decrease costs, gain efficiency, increase employee reten on and earn the customer's loyalty. Over the years, due to the changing dynamic of this compe ve world, compassion, kindness, and empathy have been lost somewhere. Leaders are less benefi ed being empathic which, in turn, leads to monotonous career growth. However, this is not the case in the healthcare sector which sets it apart from the rest of the world. The healthcare sector is defined by crea ng a posi ve impact on society by providing life-changing and life-saving services. It is reflected in the Hippocra c Oath taken by doctors, who happen to play a major role in serving the society. Kindness and compassion are inculcated in the

Editors Column

leaders of the healthcare space. It helps them connect with the pa ents instantly. Empathy is a hallmark to any healthcare professional. Leaders with empathy empower others and fuel their ideas which lead them towards their goals. They support their employees and help them adapt to the changing situa ons throughout the journey. In the healthcare space, empathy and kindness help build the rela onship between the pa ent-physician and the healthcare professionals and their clients. Building trust is important in this sector and pa ents can trust a doctor when he/she is comfortable. This not only helps the pa ent to be calm during the en re process but also helps the doctors. It leads to a be er outcome and more meaningful work. Having said that, in this edi on of The 10 Eminent Leaders in Healthcare For 2020, we have featured extraordinary personali es who are bringing an aﬃrma ve change to this world. On the cover, we have Stefan Schreier, CEO of SanoLiBio, who is se ng a benchmark through his consistent eﬀorts in cell separa on and diagnos c test development. We have also featured Claudiu Leverenz, the CEO of

Munevo; Kai Eberhardt, the CEO of Oviva; Liz AshallPayne, the Co-Founder & CEO of ORCHA ; Magnus Liungman, Founder of Doctrin; Markus Dahlem, Managing Director of Newsenselab. Along with this, we have featured Carsten C. Mahrenholz, the MD, Co-Founder and CEO of COLDPLASMATECH; Timothé Laforest, the Founder and CEO of Earlysight. We are pleased to men on Stefanie Veraghtert, the Founder of Big C; Sónia Ferreira - Founder and CEO of BestHealth4u. Apart from this, we have featured a CXO ar cle on “Solving Rheuma c Disease Challenges: Personalized Digital Therapeu cs” by the igneous mind, Chris ne Peine, the Founder & Product Development Head of Taia Care. In addi on, our talented in-house writer has published an interes ng ar cle on “10 Ways to Age Healthily”. Happy Reading!

Shambhavi Mhetre

etre

Shambhavi Mh

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Anish Miller Managing Editor Shambhvi Mhetre Publishing Control Team Rahul, Shruti Quality Assurance Team Darshan, Abhishaj, Sneha Contributing Editor Shreevarshita Gupta Visualiser David King Art & Design Head Amol Kamble Art & Design Assistant Poonam Mahajan Co-designer Paul Belin Art & Picture Editor Karan Gaikwad Business Development Manager Mark Williams Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza Business Development Executives Amy Jones, John Smith Technical Head Jacob Smile Assistant Technical Head Pratiksha Patil Technical Consultants David, Robert Digital Marketing Manager Alina Sege Assistant Digital Marketing Manager Prashant Chevale SME-SMO Executives Manoj, Gemson, Uma Research Analyst Eric Smith Circulation Manager Tanaji sales@insightscare.com

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Contents Cover Story

Dr. Stefan Schreier Innovating Liquid Biopsy

10 ARTICLE

CXO

Helpguide

Digitalhealth Insights

10 Ways to Age Healthily

Solving Rheumatic Disease Challenges: Personalized Digital Therapeutics

Carsten Mahrenholz Revolutionizing Healthcare Space through Innovative Medical Devices

Claudiu Leverenz A Compassionate Personality Helping the Differently Abled Live a Normal Life

Kai Eberhardt Digitizing Healthcare with Results

Liz Ashall Payne

Leading the way to Demystify the Healthcare App Market

Magnus Liungman An Embodiment of Perseverance and Innovation in Health-Tech

Markus Dahlem Helping Migraine Patients to Live Carefree

Timothe Laforest Eyeing to Develop Ophthalmology at a Cellular Level

“We are pursuing a company building strategy of 3 phases that supports rapid growth in the right direction”

DR.

STEFAN

SCHREIER

Innovating Liquid Biopsy

Cover Story

DR. STEFAN SCHREIER CEO

1 T h e

ancer Care has become a major industry with a three-digit billion dollar market size wherein big pharma and medical companies are on top. Despite all good efforts, cancer diseases are detected too late in patients and remain incurable. Good diagnostics with respect to early detection and correct stratification are most certainly part of a notable solution. But the reality of cancer diagnostic tests is that it is not being up to the task. It faces many problems such as insensitivity at an early stage, inconclusiveness about malignancy, false-positive detection, an unhealthy degree of diversification of diagnostic tests and testing, etc. Yet, last but not least the health risks (including cancer) incurred by invasive and radiological diagnostic procedures. In other words, there is ample room for innovation. One innovator having a similar approach and a Ph.D. in Pathobiology is Dr. Stefan Schreier, the CEO of SanoLiBio. He is setting a benchmark through his consistent efforts in cell separation and diagnostic test development. Basically, he wanted to develop assays in the field of general magnetic particle-based cell separation technology. His journey in the field of medical technology pertaining to cell based liquid biopsy has opened new opportunities and potentials that will accelerate liquid biopsy progression. Initially, he worked on some Malaria related projects being part of a previous start-up team but soon he encountered the topic of cancer. His mindset quickly shifted towards entrepreneurship after the cell separation technology gained more attention for liquid biopsy. At that time the start-up managed to raise funds by making a pitch at the Y-combinator in the US at the end of 2014. However, the team lost its cohesive approach towards the work. It led to the dissolution of the team in 2015, which then pursued Dr. Stefan to work independently on his own field related ideas. Against all odds and voices of his friends and family, Dr. Stefan convinced about the feasibility of two inventions continuously conducted laboratory work on his own expenses. Eventually, in 2016, his efforts bore fruits in the form of a patent. This marked the intent to commercialize one invention and was reason enough for his current partners to be on board for kick-starting the project, later called SanoLiBio.

EMINENT LEADERS IN HEALTHCARE FOR 2020

CTCs are seen as the early-stage cancer biomarkers. These biomarkers are commonly expected to be the first detectable sign of cancer in the human body. The SanoLibio project is mainly centered around cancer. The project intends to spearhead diagnostic innovation in biomedical technology initially focusing on blood cell purification applicable for cancer diagnostics, as the most basic step of cancer liquid biopsy. This Medtech start-up is currently at an infant stage in the liquid biopsy industry. It is blessed with good genetics and apt parents and is seed funded. The project was born in 2016 out of the idea to improve general cell enrichment and then incorporated in 2017 with the ambitious goal to evolve health care diagnostics. Advanced Liquid Biopsy Technology Hailed as the holy grail in cancer diagnostics, the liquid biopsy was born out of the finding of tumor cells or free tumor DNA in the blood of cancer patients. Nevertheless, after more than 2 decades in R&D, the field mostly struggles with the same old low sensitivity problem. One problematic issue is the paradigm of marker selectivity, preventing an overall picture of the cancer system in afflicted individuals. This is perhaps best represented by John Saxe’s parable of ‘The blind men and the elephant’. Another big issue is the loss of desired information along with sample processing as such being an inherent technological problem. “There has to be a better way and we think we may have found it!,”shares the team of SanoLiBio. It is all in the blood. It is well expected that blood holds a lot more information about the health status than we as humans are currently able to read. The key to more accurate information is held by a cell population that in sum reflects and determines health and is referred to as circulating rare cell population occurring in concentrations often not more than a few cells per ml blood. The most famous representative within the rare cell spectrum is the circulating epithelial cell, that is in the setting of cancer patients often referred to as circulating tumor cell. Current knowledge about this rare cell population is the tip of the iceberg and its gain is mostly hindered by unawareness or inapt technology that prevents access to it.

A Life-changing Project SanoLiBio is a german based start-up that is focused on the enrichment of rare cells in general and circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in particular taken from the liquid biopsy.

Nevertheless, the high potential of this rare population in biomedical applications has been recognized that include diagnostics, regenerative medicine, non-invasive prenatal testing, and pharmacodynamics. According to the research

A Distinguished Personality “I consider myself foremost as an inventor and innovator, constantly questioning the status quo in any aspect,” states Dr. Stefan. In his personal life, he is a family man. In view

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We will make a turn into the professional diagnostic market by seeking joint ventures with entities in cancer and prenatal IVD and biomarker development industry, which heralds the second phase

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conducted by SanoLiBio, its composition is extremely diverse up to the individual level. It is almost like a fingerprint and highly sensitive to any physiological imbalance, ideal for the detection and characterization of early cancer and pre-malignancies. With regard to diagnostics, such a blood test would be of undoubted improvement in cancer as part of a bigger picture being general health care. “We have spent most of our efforts in the past 3 years to firstly develop and optimize technology primarily aiming at loss-free ultra-high enrichment, now allowing us unhindered access to this desired cell population and secondly to develop methods to maximize information output,”says Dr. Stefan. SanoLibio’s proprietary automated rare cell enrichment platform called “Walderbach I” has been validated by expert audit and is now in use since 1.5 years. The SanoLibio technology is entering the market this year with a next generation device called Walderbach II, bound to be utilized at two customer sites for validation and clinical trials in Germany.

of the voyage as steps in the right direction, the significant role of his parents laid the ground for a beneficial education path. When asked who has been Dr. Stefan’s role model is, he said, “There is none, and there is everybody.” It is certainly not wrong to say that almost anybody would have something to teach for someone, and accordingly many people influenced his thinking directly or indirectly as well as inspired him along the way. As far as his source of motivation is concerned, there is so much to it. “I get a lot of motivation out the ‘set in stone’ belief in the success of the project,” describes Dr. Stefan. He also gets a thrill out of discovering new things or creating new knowledge, achieving the goal and at the same time enjoying the reward, which generates the love for the activity itself. “Despite the financial insecurity when starting up a business, I felt quite comfortable basing livelihood on my own wits and terms,” he adds further. Industry Dynamics Sharing his opinion on industry scenario, Dr. Stefan explains, “Main players, particularly in cancer diagnostics are histopathology, imaging, and blood analysis. Blood analysis is mainly separated into serum markers, freecirculating DNA and intact rare cells, the latter two being denoted as liquid biopsy. Giving an outlook in a very undifferentiated perspective, the highest potential for

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As a peer of the budding entrepreneurs, I have nothing to advise rather share some ideas. It is certainly not wrong to say that most start-up problems are rooted in team functionality rather than the product itself

improvement has the cellular blood test that still can be considered as a revolutionary innovation. This view is based on the insight that whole intact blood cells are noninvasively accessible and carry health-relevant information that is most of all complete, as in contrast to imaging data, reading DNA fragments, quantifying proteins, or fishing out signal transporters called exosomes. Therefore, particularly, the cell-based liquid biopsy may come out of the shadows and prevail in some aspects of pre and postclinical diagnostics and most likely in therapy monitoring. It is, first of all, a question of technological advancement. Whoever comes up with adequate technology that allows complete analysis, will lead the field. However, disruption in terms of replacement of established methods, such as histopathology is unlikely for their proven reliability and the potential improvements when used in combination.” The industry is without a doubt complex and challenging, as is well known to investors considering early start-ups such as SanoLiBio, a high-risk business. On top of that, the liquid biopsy’s premise of a simple and accurate cancer blood test lost credibility and perhaps can be ascribed to the so-far unachieved realization of truly early detection and prevention. As to pour oil in the fire, developers need to keep on labeling their progress with buzzwords such as breakthroughs, new era, or outperformance, revolutionizing etc. to gain much needed public attention. Yet, in the long run, an unfavorable notion has been prevalent for a very long time is making it harder for the firm to gain open ears for its quest. At the technological level, a great challenge is to work with live matter such as cells in biomedicine. The existence of countless parameters for the biological system forces developers such as SanoLiBio to focus on reproducibility in assay development. This makes a start-up venture extremely laborious, lengthy and costly when compared to for example the very popular Software App development. Although, Dr. Stefan’s past experience only helps to avoid a small portion of the problems, yet the start-up environment constantly produces new challenges that can only be handled by a creative and open mindset. Most certainly, the teamwork is critical for progression. Hence, the requirement of good communication practice with respect to frequency, tone, and detail is necessary thereby creating a motivated and healthy environment.

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Carsten Mahrenholz Revolutionizing Healthcare Space through Innovative Medical Devices

ince a very young age, all of us have been acquainted with the art of science and fiction. From RoboCop to Alita: Battle Angel, the sci-fi space has impacted the world tremendously. At some point in time, we all have imagined creating a masterpiece that could help the common people. However, no one would have expected that one day, the love for sci-fi movies would lead to developing a medical device that will revolutionize the universe of healthcare. Carsten Mahrenholz is one such real-life hero who is leading COLDPLASMATECH GmbH through his superpowers of delivering world-class medical devices. Through this excerpt, Carsten unfolds the journey of COLDPLASMATECH. • Can you brief us about the services and products COLDPLASMATECH offers? At COLDPLASMATECH we have developed a Star Trek-like medical device that provides the solution to killing multi-resistant bacteria and treating chronic wounds. We use our newly developed, technology to generate the 4th state of matter – cold physical plasma. Our product, a thin wound dressing, connected to the PlasmaCube generates this blue glowing, bioactive gas on a large scale, easy to use and mass-market compatible. Sounds like science fiction? Yes, it does but we’ve made it a reality - a class 2b medical device. • Can you help us understand your journey throughout the years? A young medtech company is like a ship navigating through unknown waters. Through a proper vision to develop and build an organization, I ensure the production and market growth are upscale. Hence, it’s

my role to plan our journey and steer – even tied to the steering wheel – through the often rough sea. As someone with a Masters in Biology and Economics and a Doctorate in Chemistry, I’ve also had to learn to also master my role as a leader of my company and my team. I enjoy learning new systems and don’t hesitate to challenge them. • Being a successful leader, how do you deal with the challenge? What keeps you motivated? I am a very curious, enthusiastic and resilient individual. Being a scientist by heart, it helps me to stay motivated, even if results take some time. Recurring and ongoing problems can be very challenging and hugely demotivating. Growing a company sometimes feels like opening pandora’s box. However, I try to make problemsolving a mental challenge and define my job inside the company as a troubleshooter – making sure everyone can perform. This way a problem is no longer an obstacle but an anticipated event that builds the basis for creativity and unconventional solutions. • What word best describes your personality? I would say, ‘bold’ is the perfect word that defines me. • What advice would you give to the upcoming entrepreneurs and healthcare professionals? My usual advice to everyone would be to find what you love and start working on it. You will notice that your performance and endurance will go up when you like what you do. A friend once told me I was a dreamer because my goals and visions are often unrealistic to achieve. That bothered me for a while until I understood that I actually was a dreamer. However, as soon as I started dreaming about

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EMINENT LEADERS IN HEALTHCARE FOR 2020

Through a proper vision to develop and build an organization, I ensure the production and market growth are upscale

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Carsten Mahrenholz Co-founder & CEO something, I started to think of ways how to make that dream a reality. I now understand that bridging the gap between visions and the real world is something I am very good at. So, yes, I’m a dreamer and my advice would be to not be afraid to build bridges to your dreams. So, yes, I’m a dreamer and My advice would be, to not be afraid to build bridges to your dreams instead of seeing dreams as unrealistic ideas. • What is your opinion regarding the current landscape of the healthcare market your company caters to? We are addressing the advanced wound care market. Potentially opening up a complete new ﬁeld of medicine: Plasma medicine.

Interestingly the advanced wound care market is still a rather non-innovative market with huge turnovers for stabilizing products. This is a huge disadvantage for health care systems. More eﬀective technologies and innovations are needed and should be fostered. We are personally and professionally highly distinguished to hold more than 20 awards. Lately, we even received the prestigious German Innovation Award. • Please tell us about your achievements and accomplishments I’d rather let others talk about them and concentrate on my mission! However, it’s very encouraging to see that ideas that no one believed in initially are now getting noticed and seem to inspire others.

Our main focus is on chronic wound infections and treatment. Two of the biggest problems in modern medicine. Unfortunately, there is a huge trend to manage chronic conditions rather than healing them. I understand the business case-aspect of this approach; however, I find it morally eyebrow-raising to maintain current methods rather than adopting solutions that can actually permanently heal. This is why COLDPLASMATECH fights to treat and finally heal patients. • How is the advancement in technology changing the healthcare space? | February 2020 |

• Where do you envision yourself and your company in the near future? We are working on spearheading a new area in wound care. As a result, the COLDPLASMATECH team are trying to solve a problem that not many people have had the privilege to do — how to bring completely new technology to the world. The X-ray did it, the laser did it and plasma deﬁnitely has the potential to become one of the next big standards in modern medicine. But to get there is like navigating in unknown waters — a journey that I very much enjoy taking. To sum it up with a famous Star Trek quote: “To boldly go where no man has gone before.”

CLAUDIU LEVERENZ A Compassionate Personality Helping the Differently Abled Live a Normal Life

oday, there are many inspirational leaders who are changing the world through their vision. However, there are a few personalities who are actually taking everyone on the path of success. Claudiu Leverenz is one such leader, who inspires others by working with people with disabilities. Talking about Claudiu’s childhood, he and his family moved to Germany when he was 7 years old. His family moved to Germany at a time where Romania was recovering after the revolution and still trying to reach an economic condition where people have good work and a future perspective. He graduated in 2016 from the Technical University of Munich with a master’s in information systems. Previously, he also studied in the US and Australia for a shorter term. During his studies at the TU Munich, he had been exposed to entrepreneurship and how to work on ideas and validate them. This made him focus on business administration and management skills. Through this excerpt, Claudiu Leverenz, the CEO of Munevo speaks about his extraordinary journey and life story. He explains to us about how he and his team at

Munevo help bring a change the world is in need of. • Can you please tell our readers about your journey with Munevo? Until I started Munevo, I was working always as a parttime consultant and was sure to continue this path. As a consultant, I learned to work in an analytic way and process information effectively. In my last role, I was already responsible for the opportunity management in three countries for a specific technology. However, my motivation changed when I started working with people with disabilities which was an inspiration within itself. My motivation now encompasses work with social characteristics. My role at Munevo is to help people with certain diseases or disabilities to become more independent. It also leads the team at Munevo towards creating new solutions in order to reach our goals. Helping people with innovative technology has been at the core of the startup. All of our team joins with a mindset of helping people. I am most proud of our international and diverse team that achieved already so much that I couldn’t have dreamt off when starting this journey.

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• Being a successful leader, what difficulties and challenges do you face? What keeps you motivated? As a leader, we face many challenges. But in times of challenges, I often seek advice and work together with many different people from different backgrounds. Often, I feel motivated and inspired by the different perspectives that allow you to look at things from many angles. The motivation comes not only from this but also from our clients and users themselves. When you see how much a person can achieve, even if there is some form of limitation, in the end, it just enables people more to become the most amazing person. I have seen people drawing beautiful portrait just by using their mouth, starting to study medicine while only being able to move his/her head. Stephen Hawking has amazed people all around the world with his ability to imagine the most complex situations.

EMINENT LEADERS IN HEALTHCARE FOR 2020

I am very open and like to be together with people. At the same time, I can adapt very easily to changing situation. I would also describe myself as driven and motivated. • Describe in brief about your company and its products and services. Munevo has started as a university project and has been developed according to the wishes and inspiring ideas of people that in the end require help. Munevo has today become a full-fledged company that provides a different solution to help people become more independent. We focus on innovative technology and making it accessible to people that often are overlooked. Munevo DRIVE is the first-ever control system that allows the user to drive a power wheelchair hands-free. It is based on smart glass technology and connects to all your surrounding devices. The smart glass serves as a platform for different features and thus can create more independence for the user.

• What word best describes your personality? | February 2020 |

• What advice would you give to the upcoming entrepreneurs and healthcare professionals? Pick up the phone and call. We often tend to write a mail rather than getting in direct contact and discuss it over the phone. Another advice would be not to stop being passionate and don’t give up. • What is your opinion regarding the current landscape of the healthcare market your company caters to? Currently, we see many good things happening and we are proud that we are part of the change. Technology has advanced so fast and sometimes we overlook certain communities. As of now most of the market for wheelchairs is very traditional. We also see healthcare systems change from traditional healthcare to valuebased healthcare. From curative to preventive healthcare. I see technology being a key aspect of the change and if we just take into account all communities and all perspectives, then we can create great things. But we still have a long journey. • How is the advancement in technology changing the healthcare space? It changes very fast. Sometimes maybe too fast and that is when we have to sit together with everyone at one table and talk about how we can use technology to create better experiences, a better life and outcomes for everyone. Not just for one country but for every human living on this planet. Technology has shown its impact on our world and we are still not yet understanding the impact that it can create. Technology should enable us but not be used in a harmful way. We should be the ones in charge of it and not vice-versa. While data has become our greatest asset, we need to make sure that we know who owns the data and what we are allowed to do with it.

We won several other prizes and even got funded by the federal government in Germany. The biggest milestone was when we ﬁnally achieved to certify our solution as a medical product and got our ﬁrst user which meant to be 100% reimbursed by public insurance in Germany. Seeing people using the solution and being happy with the solution is the biggest achievement and that’s what we want to continue to do everywhere in the world. Personally, I am proud to also be part of the Global Shaper Community, an initiative by the World Economic Forum, that supports local projects and creates impact in various areas like climate, education and inclusion. • Where do you envision yourself and your company in the near future? My vision of Munevo is to really help more and more people worldwide. We are still at the very beginning of our mission and have a lot of work to do.

• Please tell us about your achievements and accomplishments I am the ﬁrst in my family to graduate from university and straight after that start a company. During my studies, I have been able to travel the world, which was the ﬁrst eye-opening experience that helped me move forward. After developing the idea and a prototype of Munevo DRIVE, soon, we received lots of great feedback. I was selected Forbes 30under30 in the healthcare space in Europe.

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Solving Rheumatic Disease Challenges Personalized Digital Therapeutics

aking up with swollen and stiff joints, experiencing painful sensations all day long, being restricted in everyday life; that’s how inflammatory rheumatic disease patients are feeling every day. Approximately two per cent of the world population suffer from these chronic autoimmune conditions and treating them continues to be a challenge for patients, doctors and the healthcare system. Combining digital therapeutics and machine learning predictive algorithms is a promising solution to tackle the burden of chronic diseases. Rheumatic diseases are a complex medical and structural challenge Inflammatory rheumatic diseases are arguably some of the most complex medical conditions. Part of their complexity lies in the fact that they are not completely understood. What we know is that complex interactions between a multitude of environmental and genetic factors affect disease development and progression. Though, it is unclear what all of these factors are and how they work together. The ordeal of the affected starts with receiving the diagnosis, which can take several years. Right after the diagnosis begins a long process of finding the right treatment. Even though treatments have improved substantially in the last decades, there is no one solution fits all. Which medication works for which patient is highly individual and requires a lot of trial-and-error over many years. Even then, finding the right treatment is not enough.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Christine Peine has many years of professional experience in the healthcare sector. She specializes in developing and implementing solutions for complex medical and clinical problems. Christine holds a Bachelor’s degree in Healthcare Management and a Master’s degree in Business Engineering with a specialization in Business Intelligence. Christine has founded Midaia and leads to product development. Midaia is a digital health company providing therapy support for rheumatic disease patients and caregivers. Using an intelligent chat service, patient health data is collected to predict personalized therapy plans, accelerate behavioural change and support doctors in making medical treatment decisions.

Inﬂammatory rheumatic diseases require a comprehensive

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Digitalhealth Insights

Christine Peine Founder

| February 2020 |

overview of the patient’s life. Medication adherence, healthy diet, physical activity, smoking or not, getting adequate sleep and practising self-care are just some of the factors that play a role in disease management. These actions can be motivated by the doctor, but ultimately, they are dependent on the patient’s own behaviour change outside of the clinical setting. Even for those behavioural changes, it is not clear yet which ones are the most beneficial in disease management. Successful treatment requires that caregivers and patients work together in a healthcare system that was not designed for chronic conditions, but with acute diseases in mind. Acute care is episodic, requires general rather than personalized treatments and interventions happen in a clinical setting. The management of chronic disease does not fit well into this structure. Effective solutions for chronic diseases require ongoing and consistent behavioural support, frequent communication with the caregiver and personalized interventions. A 10-minute visit every 6 months with a doctor is just not enough to create longlasting behaviour change and identify the most effective medication. Digital therapeutics and Machine Learning are not there yet Traditional medicines and the healthcare system have reached their limits in effectively managing chronic diseases. In an effort to find solutions, patients and healthcare providers are looking at digital therapeutics and machine learning predictive tools. Digital therapeutics are evidence-based therapeutic interventions for patients, which come in the form of highquality software to prevent, manage, or treat chronic conditions. Some products are aimed at controlling the activity of the disease or the treatment safety, others are used to improve compliance, diet or physical activity. Many are used without a clear link to a specific disease, using the same algorithms without taking into account specific disease pathology and patient population. Thus, digital therapeutics are not yet fit for the many challenges of complex chronic diseases. The other possible solution is machine learning algorithms, which can help develop personalized medication and treatment plans best suited for the individual characteristics of a patient. In the study of rheumatic diseases, machine learning has been employed only recently. Previous riskprediction models for disease development and outcomes based on population-wide databases work well on average, but in terms of precision medicine, many of the diagnostic and management needs of patients with rheumatic diseases

are still unmet. One reason for this is missing data. Healthcare data is stored in decentralized and unstructured ways in various clinical settings making it hard for Machine Learning specialists to acquire and analyze it. Digital therapeutics and Machine Learning predictive tools combined in an innovative approach Digital therapeutics and machine learning predictive tools will help ease the burden on the healthcare system; their capabilities will only unfold if combined. Digital therapeutics can help collect the data that is required to calculate personalized medicines for individual patients. In the form of a mobile app, digital therapeutics can be an everyday companion that supports patients on one hand and collects the required data on the other. In this case, data not only applicable to medication but to a patient’s entire life can be collected. Instead of just predicting the right medication, a personalized treatment plan focusing on every aspect of a patient’s life can be created. Dietary interventions, exercise recommendations and mental health measures can be tailored taking the patient’s needs and wishes into account. The digital therapeutic will then become the vehicle of delivering that treatment plan to the patient offering long-lasting and frequent support to execute behavioural change, which is missing in the current healthcare system. This will help to guide patients between doctor appointments and give them a sense of empowerment. In order to be successful, treatment providers have to be included in this system and doctors should get access to a patient’s everyday life activities and the calculated therapy plan. This would close the gap preventing doctors from making informed decisions on the most effective interventions. In this way, doctors can transfer some of their own assessments to the patient via digital therapeutics and thus use their time to provide the right treatment. Transforming chronic disease management Personalized digital therapeutics and machine learning prediction tools complement each other's capabilities. New products that integrate disease-specific software and the predictive power of big data analysis are able to generate real value for patients, doctors and the healthcare system. Their development using high-evidence medical guidelines, best usability practices, and clinical validation have already begun in many areas, including rheumatology. One question remains: how will existing technologies be combined to unleash their true potential? |February 2020 |

Kai Eberhardt Digitizing Healthcare with Results

with photos. Other options like recording the activity, tracking weight, and asking questions are available. Their dietitian then provides tailored feedback, support and advice to help people achieve their goals.

One such company, helping the healthcare sector to progress, is Oviva. With the use of medical technologies, Oviva focuses on providing personalised support to help make long-term improvements to the patient’s health.

When compared to other face-to-face therapy, Oviva’s technology-supported treatment has consistently demonstrated higher patient uptake, retention and outcomes at lower costs. Having treated around 90,000 patients todate across the UK, Germany, France, Switzerland and the UAE, it is consistently doubling each year for the last 3 years.

Patient-Centric Services

The Journey

A digital health company, Oviva helps people with conditions such as obesity, diabetes and food allergies. It focuses on improving the overall health conditions of these people through medical nutritional therapy. Oviva has recruited a brilliant team of professional dietitians who ensure such conditions are reversed back to normal.

Kai Eberhardt, the CEO of Oviva is an insightful personality who is working towards providing exceptional services through Oviva. He is constantly working on the goal to revolutionise access and outcomes for people with health conditions related to diet, whilst improving value to the health system by lowering the costs of delivery. The journey of Oviva has been inspirational.

echnology is reshaping the dynamics of the entire world including healthcare. Today, due to advancement in technology, the medical sector has been able to serve the common people with smooth and quick facilities. Research and development in the healthcare sphere have evolved with time and this has beneﬁtted various organizations, hospitals and related ventures.

Oviva currently is the leading digital provider of type 2 diabetes treatment in Europe. The aim of this treatment is to offer an evidence-based digital solution to stop the progression of type 2 diabetes and obesity-related conditions. Further, it is said to aid in reversion of these conditions. Oviva offers both, face to face sessions as well as remote support to the clients. Through a secured smartphone app, the professional dietitians guide the client and keep a track on the progress. Tailored nutrition advice and personalised coaching are offered to the patients through the phone. Another benefit of the app is that the client can log meals

Kai started taking an interest in healthcare when he was diagnosed with cancer, while he was pursuing his degree in physics. Luckily, he was treated successfully and thereafter has led a healthy life. After that Kai started working in medical technology. He worked on medical imaging technology from the technical side. He also wrote numerous publications and gained a patent as well. Later, he joined McKinsey and supported primarily medtech companies in gaining reimbursement, launch and distribution for their products. |February 2020 |

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Oviva has the potential to transform the lives of millions of people across the globe for the better

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Kai Eberhardt CEO After 5 years and as a junior partner, Kai started Oviva with a technical and a medical co-founder. The idea came from the medical co-founder who saw the patients’ unmet needs every day, in particular, the barriers to access helpful therapy. Speaking about driving motivation, Kai mentions, “I am motivated to help patients live healthier and happier on a large scale. How technology has changed our lives already is the big innovation of our day and it has much to offer in improving healthcare. It’s great to be at a time where I feel I can contribute to that innovation and improve the status quo.” Growing through Challenges The biggest challenge faced by any budding company in the healthcare domain is to satisfy regulations and the needs of multiple stakeholders. They are always involved in decision making of any new technological update, research and development or implementing new strategies. In the current healthcare space, if a company cannot offer something unique yet efficient, there is no option to sustain the everdeveloping healthcare domain. \

the doctors. In the case of Oviva, human therapists. Each business has its own incentives and constraints, not all are perfectly aligned and can differ from country to country, especially reimbursement and regulations. The greatest achievement for Kai is the trust of patients. He says, “We have treated over 90,000 patients now with great outcomes compared to conventional therapy. We could evidence that with now 6 peer-reviewed publications. And we are just getting started.” Keeping the creativity and motivation high within Oviva’s team is also a requirement for success. This can be achieved most by being very close to the patient, doctor and the rest of the market. Day-to-day meetings with decision-makers are the most important, granular insights. Otherwise, exchange with peers and reading whatever between the lines also becomes important. In the near future, Kai envisions Oviva to provide greater benefits to many more patients with better technology and granular data on what is effective. Oviva has the potential to transform the lives of millions of people across the globe for the better.

One needs to navigate and have a beneﬁt to regulators and payers for reimbursement for the patients to actually access the treatment. That’s when patients will be recommended to | February 2020 |

Liz Ashall Payne Leading the way to Demystify the Healthcare App Market

n an average, adults spend around two-to-four hours on their smartphones in a day. These devices in our pockets, with thousands of apps to help everything from banking to travelling, have significantly changed our lives. With over 325,000 health apps in app stores, and more than five million downloaded every day, mobile apps have the ability to change the health and social care industry. However, healthcare organizations face several hurdles to adopting these apps. The apps need to be evaluated for safety, effectiveness, usability and system integration, not to forget ROI. The first question that comes to a healthcare professional’s mind is, finding the right app. How can you find the right one in such a crowded space? Secondly, trusting an app. How do you know it is effective, safeguards data, and will be easy to use for the patient? Lastly, integrating into care. How can apps work along with other services you use? Liz Ashall Payne, CEO, ORCHA has built a unique platform and service to help answer all of these questions. Her brainchild, ORCHA tests more apps than anyone worldwide, covering more conditions, and on top of new releases. Under her leadership, the organization has reviewed almost 6,000 apps to date. ORCHA is home to the world’s only library that lets people find and compare the evaluations of health apps. Users can search from a range of criteria such as health condition, price or phone platform; and are given the relevant top scoring apps. It helps health professionals and patients to find or recommend the right app with confidence.

An Idea to Help Masses After Liz’s early years as a speech and language therapist, she led a range of transformation projects across the NHS. And that too across the digital health agenda. Within the digital space, Liz learned that 93% of health professionals believe that digital health will enhance NHS services. Driven to help them safely realise this, Liz created ORCHA to overcome the barriers. Keeping Pace in a Fast-Growing Market According to Liz, in a fast-growing market, every new day brings new opportunities. She spends her time involved in market studies, sales leads, product, and service development options and team growth. Here, she cites her biggest hurdle, juggling her and ORCHA’s priorities. Liz understands that it’s impossible to pursue all opportunities, but also appreciates that this challenge is born out of a good situation. Keeping market scenarios in mind, Liz makes the decision with the best information she has. She ﬁnds it tough but has learnt that she can’t wait for all data to come to her for some decisions but must make the best of what she has. Further, Liz cites the universal work-life balance to be another challenge. She is grateful for her amazing family and although frequently travelling to multiple countries each week, Liz makes sure that she maintains a balance between her work and personal life. Liz motivates herself and ORCHA through its mission to unlock the power of digital health. She asserts, “It’s a real opportunity to change the health of people and to improve our health services. There are incredible mHealth solutions |February 2020 |

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The power of digital health keeps me motivated. It’s a real opportunity to change the health of people and to improve our health services

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Liz Ashall Payne, CEO out there; we help to ﬁnd these and connect them with the systems and patients that will truly beneﬁt from them.”

STEM and Child Health agenda with highly interactive and engaging materials and modules.

ORCHA- Assisting Health Bodies and Organizations

Transforming Lives

ORCHA helps organisations to drive the uptake of health apps, often targeting speciﬁc communities. It provides intelligence reports on speciﬁc markets, for national health bodies across the world, and delivers national health app accreditation schemes.

Liz is proud of the achievements ORCHA has made by enabling health organisations to ﬁnd health apps. Its unique approach has enabled organisations to pinpoint and integrate apps quickly. Further, Liz is happy about the approach being recognised internationally. ORCHA now works with health bodies around the world, especially those with limited healthcare infrastructure, where health apps make an immense impact.

At a local level, the company provides locally branded and tailored app libraries to Clinical Commissioning Groups and NHS Trusts. This can include a recommendation tool, to enable health professionals to recommend health apps directly to patients. To help bring more quality apps to the market, ORCHA also provides services to app developers. It provides assessment reports, advice and introduction to special providers to improve their apps. Further, to educate the next generation, the company works with the local authorities and schools to deliver the ‘Digital Healthy Schools Programme’. It engages and motivates pupils to stay healthy with lesson plans, learning resources and interactive tools. Digital Health Schools supports the

| February 2020 |

A Promise for Tomorrow ORCHA will continue to grow and work with more health bodies and organizations. The firm will adapt as technology evolves and will continue to help overcome the industry’s challenges. On the personal front, Liz will continue to lead the amazing team at ORCHA, which includes IT experts, data scientists, clinical leads and health economists. She will also work on more collaborations to build international offerings. With an office in the Netherlands, Liz envisages having many more worldwide, as ORCHA grows.

Magnus Liungman An Embodiment of Perseverance and Innovation in Health-Tech

mong all the traits and abilities that can lead one to success, passion stands atop. Unlike other factors such as skill, knowledge, and creativity, passion is innate. It is something that cannot be learned or acquired but is always present. It powers and drives determination, creativity, and hard work making great accomplishments possible. Starting with directors, celebrities, CEOs, athletes and everyone who has risen to the top, all of them possess motivation and an unstoppable zeal. This gives them the wherewithal to work extraordinarily hard at something even when it’s uncertain if they will enjoy rewards for the efforts they put in or not. Despite its importance, passion is relatively a difficult term to explain. In order to identify the true meaning of passion, one should look into motivation. The key here is to examine ‘why’ instead of ‘what’. Why did someone accomplish what he or she wanted? Why does success only come to a few among thousands? We at Insights Care, in our pursuit of finding the true meaning of passion, crossed paths with Magnus Liungman, the Co-founder of Doctrin. His desire and capacity to go above and beyond the call of duty have helped the company achieve superlative outcomes. However, what intrigued us was the ‘why’ factor behind his success. Following is his story to the zeniths of success, why he succeeded in accomplishing what he wanted to, and all about his revolutionary company. History in Making The proverb, ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ suits this context very perfectly. Before we talk about the foundation and features of Doctrin, let us have a look at the events that led to founding this company. Liungman began his professional journey from a consultancy, McKinsey and thereafter Health Navigator in the UK. As a consultant, he used to solve any problem the clients had. However, the problems were never-ending and

were mostly repetitive, that disturbed Liungman. He wanted to do more, ﬁnd a better solution to all problems. “I realized I wanted to be part of solving the future of healthcare on a bigger scale. I approached several companies but didn’t meet anyone that envisioned the solution the same way I did,” he quotes. Change is not easy and often is accompanied by new problems, Liungman too had many problems to face. “The problem is that if you improve medical quality it tends to be at the expense of productivity, or if you want to streamline the operations, you will end up with unhappy patients or personnel,” adds Liungman. “I wanted to create a comprehensive communication and collaboration system that would improve medical quality, increase productivity and raise patient satisfaction while saving time for healthcare professionals. And I realized that the solution was not to create a parallel digital healthcare system alongside the traditional one. The key was to amplify the capacity of existing healthcare providers creating a digi-physical healthcare environment,” expresses Liungman. Knowing More about Doctrin Now that we have established the purpose behind building Doctrin, lets us see how it is diﬀerent from other healthtech companies. Established in 2016, Doctrin helps existing healthcare providers to intelligently digitize the patients’ journey, enabling a digi-physical healthcare environment. Its platform includes a digital medical history tool with +400 questionnaires of the highest medical quality, tools for triage as well as a communication system for online consultations and collaboration between professions and care units. “We are the biggest platform provider in Sweden with private providers Capio and Praktikertjänst as our biggest clients. Currently, 500,000 patient contacts per year run |February 2020 |

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Intelligently contributing to digitizing the patient journey

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Magnus Liungman Co-founder through our platform Flow with 4000 healthcare professionals representing 18 diﬀerent professions working in it,” Liungman adds.

December 2018 the care center was struggling with low phone availability, an overcrowded walk-in clinic, and a high-stress work environment.”

The Remarkable Feat Liungman’s quest to reform the healthcare sector and founding a company with the same mission was just one of his problems. His actual struggle was to ﬁnd like-minded people who shared the same passion and would uphold the mission.

“Overnight they closed the walk-in clinic and referred patients to their website to be further guided to either selfcare, a digital consultation or a physical visit. One year later the number of patients that get the same day response has increased from 73% to 95%. The waiting time for a physical visit has gone down from 4-6 weeks to 1-3 days! And productivity increased, with 33% more patients being helped per hour. In addition, patients are extremely satisﬁed – 89% would recommend the care unit to others after using the digital service”, he adds.

However, after 4 years of its inception, Liungman proudly boasts of finding such people as one of Doctrin’s achievements. He comments, “The thing I am most proud of is that we have managed to gather +40 extremely talented people consisting of medical doctors, ex-management consultants, data scientists and designers who all share the same passion for radically improving healthcare. The fact that this amazing team in four years has been able to make Doctrin the industry leader in Sweden, helping 450 000 patients annually, makes me very proud.” The most remarkable achievement is yet to come. Today, driving Doctrin towards the zeniths of success, Liungman could not be more satisfied and happier than seeing that his vision of better healthcare service is in motion. “The other thing that I am very proud of is that it works! We have recently finished evaluating the digi-physical implementation of the platform at a primary care center in Stockholm, Capio Ringen with 28 000 patients. In | February 2020 |

Towards A Glorious Odyssey Passion is the fuel that inspires people toward specific goals, no matter how unlikely or difficult they might be. Here, while the need to improve healthcare service drives Liungman, he is the driving force that generates the enthusiasm within his team. The growth of the company is now destined over a chain of events which will include hard work, teamwork and eventually success. Scaled up for new dimensions and breakthroughs, Liungman and his team plan on expanding Doctrin’s services to new markets specifically in Europe. “My focus in the near future is also to make sure that we partner with healthcare providers that share our vision for how to radically improve healthcare through intelligent digitalization,” he concludes.

MARKUS DAHLEM DAHLEM

Helping Migraine Patients to Live Carefree

Dr. rer. Nat. Markus Dahlem

|February 2020 |

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igraine is a prime example of a general class of chronic diseases. These are diseases that begin early in life with an enduring predisposition to attacks. The attack frequency and severity can vary considerably, making migraine a highly individual condition. As an additional complication, many of the heterogeneous disease forms do not respond to first-line therapies. Unfortunately, in many cases, diseases like migraine are progressive and may become extremely refractory to any treatment. This depends on the patient’s previous history, the underlying lifestyle and environmental conditions they are exposed to. Hence, Newsenselab is one such company with a mobile application, M-sense that helps migraine patients discover personal trigger factors and learn how to avoid attacks. Dr. rer. Nat. Markus Dahlem, the Executive Director and Co-Founder is a physicist turned migraine researcher turned digital medicine entrepreneur. As the managing director of Newsenselab, he is responsible for science, medical and regulatory affairs along with technology and product development. Through this excerpt, Dr. rer. Nat. Markus explains to us about how he and his teammates are helping patients improve their lives through M-sense. • Being a successful leader, what difficulties and challenges do you face? What keeps you motivated? Company culture profoundly influences performance. The speed at which we advance at Newsenselab depends on how well we collaborate in tiny but crossfunctional and interdisciplinary teams – consisting sometimes of only two people. The whole company of about 20 employees has to rely on each other and cooperate flawlessly, all the while understanding how we move towards a goal that is not static. This successive approximation is an exciting learning process. We have developed practices that combine agile software development and informationtechnology operations with medical expertise. To do this well is one of our challenges. Over the course of my academic career, then in a grant-sponsored spin-off, and finally while securing | February 2020 |

EMINENT LEADERS IN HEALTHCARE FOR 2020

substantial seed funding for a startup, I always needed to adapt my leadership style. As the company grew, I added to my more affiliative leadership style one that mobilizes people towards my vision of digital medicine. Learning is what motivates me the most. • Describe in brief about your company and its services Newsenselab is a pioneer in digital medicine. Our goal: to treat patients with migraine better. With M-sense, we accompany patients with a migraine for a prolonged period of time. Over the course of their treatment, we offer incremental interventions in order to produce lasting progress toward an improved condition. To this end, M-sense documents symptoms, lifestyle and environmental factors before, during and after headache attacks. M-sense drives the clinical decision-making processes – in particular, to aid diagnosis and monitor drug treatment. Furthermore, M-sense provides datadriven behavioural therapy using education, relaxation exercises and stress management methods in conjunction with physical exercises as an adjunct non-drug-treatment to standard drug treatment. • What advice would you give to upcoming entrepreneurs and healthcare professionals? With the EU creating much stricter regulations due to the Medical Device Regulation and the FDA in the US de-regulating certain low claim medical apps, I’m afraid upcoming entrepreneurs in the digital healthcare domain in Europe face a tough situation. Look for other markets, e.g. Asia! • What is your opinion regarding the current landscape of the healthcare market your company caters to? Players in the emergent field of digital therapeutics (DTx) need a differentiated mode of action as well as a distinctive patient experience for each DTx application. So besides integrating data-intensive science, the healthcare of the future will have to focus

even more on the needs of those aﬀected. Moreover, the channels of supply will become more eﬀective and tightly interlinked.

Today, there are already far too few doctors to help all patients; there is a particular lack of specialists. Simultaneously, our healthcare system is becoming more complex as an increasing number of players want to help those affected. Thus the interrelation of all these players and communication between them will surely be central to the coming years. • How is the advancement in technology changing the healthcare space? Due to the increasing complexity of our healthcare system, mobile applications like M-sense can make a decisive contribution. We guide the affected patients through their entire patient journey, from the first symptoms to finding an effective treatment. This helps our users to make educated choices and take agency in regards to their health. In addition, we enable doctors to use their time more effectively and meaningfully. With the implementation of the digital care act (Digitale-Gesundheit-Gesetz) in Germany, medical apps will be refunded by statutory health insurances. This means that patients can receive apps through prescription. This will undoubtedly spread the use of digital health applications to parts of the population who did not have access before. We look towards the effects of this change with hope, as this law has the potential to rejuvenate the German healthcare system, as medical practitioners modernise and digitalise their approach to effective treatment. • Please tell us about your achievements and accomplishments! Before founding Newsenselab I was a migraine researcher and conducted academic research in the

field of dynamical diseases for 20 years. As a theoretical physicist by training, my expertise lies in mathematical modelling. I have developed various approaches for digital therapies. Amongst these were a model-based approach for personalized rewiring of the brain by magnetic field using neuromodulation, the design of preemptive biomarkers based on resonance-like interactions of the migraine brain with environmental conditions, as well as a project on predictive digital biomarkers of drug super-responders based on topical tests that gives insight into a space-time limited blood-brain barrier permeability. Such inventions highlight the need to utilize innovative methodologies to gather useful data sets. • Where do you envision yourself and your company in the near future? Currently, our focus is on preparing our product according to the regulations specified in the digital care act. This is a long-haul project as regulatory requirements are as of yet unclear and thus delay an immediate integration of medical apps into standard care. Equally unclear are the requirements for demonstrating the effectiveness of the digital health app. Our plan is to prove the efficacy of M-sense with the clinical study SMARTGEM, which is essentially a project on forms of cross-sectoral and integrated care. Under the consortium of the Charité Berlin, SMARTGEM will be carried out in cooperation with the Clinic for Neurology of the University Medical Center Rostock, the Clinic for Neurology of the University Medical Center Halle (Saale), the Institute for Public Health of the Charité and six statutory health insurance companies. Aside from these challenges, and most immediately, we envision for the first migraine patient to receive Msense via prescription by a physician in Q4/2020.

|February 2020 |

TIMOTHE LAFOREST Eyeing to Develop Ophthalmology at a Cellular Level

ore than 200 million people worldwide are aﬀected by blindness and severe vision impairment consecutive to eye diseases. In fact, due to late diagnosis and treatment, many times, people have to face severe consequences. The major reason behind this is the diﬃculty of assessing the disease state. However, EarlySight has invented a cellular-level imaging modality with remarkable contrast to detect minor structural changes of the retina within a few seconds. EarlySight was co-founded by Timothe Laforest along with his fellow researcher Mathieu Kunzi. Timothe, the Co-founder and CEO of EarlySight is an engineer by profession who is passionate about technologies for life sciences. He obtained his PhD in optoelectronics for biomedical applications in 2015. He then started to develop the EarlySight technology at EPFL as a postdoc together with a former PhD student, Mathieu Kunzi, now CTO at Earlysight. Through this excerpt, Timothe elaborates his journey through various struggles to ultimately attain success.

• Being a successful leader, what difficulties and challenges do you face? What keeps you motivated? The challenge as a startup is to keep focused on our core business bringing the most value to the company. Running a medtech business is an everyday challenge that includes understanding the user needs and the regulatory pathway in order to reach the market as fast as possible. The enthusiasm generated so far in the ophthalmology clinical research and the potential benefit our technology could bring to patients is definitely what keeps me motivated.

EarlySight is developing a medical device to help doctors detect and treat eye diseases at an early stage thanks to precise measurements of the eye condition. Our instrument – Cellularis – can provide a ten times more precise image of the retina than the standard of care. Many ocular diseases (e.g. AMD, glaucoma) are starting with the degeneration of the retina cellular structure which is invisible to current examinations. Our instrument takes pictures and quantiﬁes the retinal cells. According to ophthalmologists, it will greatly improve the diagnosis and treatment follow-up by providing objective evidence of the disease progression.

• What advice would you give to the upcoming entrepreneurs and healthcare professionals? As a young entrepreneur, my advice to upcoming entrepreneurs would be to keep in mind the long-term goal and orient the development with user needs.

• What is your opinion regarding the current landscape of the healthcare market EasrlySight caters to? Ophthalmology is rapidly changing both technology-wise and treatment-wise. It is a medical ﬁeld driven by imaging, where key opinion leaders and pharmaceutical companies are eager for new technologies. Diagnosis, treatment follow up and the development of new molecules rely a lot on imaging technologies to make a decision on the treatment course or to assess the eﬃcacy of new drugs. Even if the outcomes are still based on functional endpoints, which take longer to obtain, regulatory authorities are progressively accepting imaging endpoints.

• How is the advancement in technology changing the healthcare space?

• Describe in brief about your company and its products and services.

|February 2020 |

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The medtech companies are facing the challenge of the artiﬁcial intelligence revolution. A hardware advancement needs now to be coupled to a software advancement in order to ﬁt the new model of diagnosis in ophthalmology. The tremendous added value of AI has nonetheless to be implemented with caution to be widely adopted. As a starting business, since AI models require an enormous amount of data, it is a challenge to collect data from scratch in order to implement such a model.

EMINENT LEADERS IN HEALTHCARE FOR 2020

Mathieu Kunzi Founder & CTO

• Please tell us about your achievements and accomplishments While the first-in-human study performed in 2019 generated huge interest in the research community (Nat Photonics, April 2020), we expect the clinical study starting in April 2020 over 100 patients and control groups to be the first step towards the regulatory certification of Cellularis. This clinical study will be implemented at Jules Gonin Eye Hospital – Fondation Asile des Aveugles in Lausanne, a world-class centre in ophthalmology research. The goal is to investigate different pathologies and describe their effect on retinal tissues at the cellular level. Another outcome of the study will be the database of images on healthy participants.

Timothe Laforest Founder & CEO

During the ﬁrst year of activity, EarlySight won a European grant, EIT Health Headstart.

• Where do you envision yourself and your company in the near future? EarlySight is expected to enter the market in 2021. Cellularis will be ﬁrst sold in the EU, followed by the US market. This ﬁrst market phase will help in gathering clinical data and prove the diagnosis power of the technology. We expect Cellularis to be used in routine examination and progressively adopted in clinics within a few years. We are planning a fundraising round for the end of 2020 to expand the team, enter the market and increase the production of Cellularis. | February 2020 |

10 WAYS

|February 2020 |

Helpguide

S TO AGE HEALTHILY Aging is a natural phenomenon that cannot be avoided. Many of us have fears regarding the process of aging. A common misconception among people is that, looking young means they are healthy, which is not actually true. Staying physically and mentally ﬁt means that one is healthy. We all know that it is not about how long we live, but it is about how healthy and happily we live. It is our decision of how we want to ease the process of aging. Here are some ways that can help you to age healthily.

Eat Healthy

Live An Active Life

Having a healthy diet is very important for a healthy lifestyle. Every individual needs the right amount of proteins, calories, vitamins, etc. Eating fruits, vegetables, pulses, etc. everyday is necessary. Eating healthy keeps your body fresh and active. The healthier you eat the more you can stay away from medicines. During the old age we should try avoiding oily, spicy, and slow digestive foods.

Start an active and healthy lifestyle. Exercise should be included in the daily routine. The exercises could be simple like walking, stretching, using stairs, etc. Studies say that people who are physically ﬁt live longer and better. Living an active life will help you to be independent and perform your own activities. It also helps boost self esteem, improve sleep patterns and give more energy.

Tips: Consulting a doctor for suggestions regarding the right diet plan would be helpful. We should keep in mind that every person has diﬀerent dietary needs.

Tips: Doing something you enjoy is the key to stay active. Any physical activity like walking, riding a bike, swimming, aerobics, etc. can be incorporated in your daily routine.

Get Enough Sleep

Reduce Stress

In order for the body to rejuvenate, it needs proper rest. Older adults need just as much sleep as the younger adults – seven to nine hours per night. Lack of proper sleep can cause depression, frustration, stress, and memory issues.

With age the types of stress and the ability to deal with stress changes. The eﬀects of stress on the body are vast, from causing premature aging to heart disease. Long term stress can lead to brain damage, memory loss, fatigue, etc. It is estimated that, 90% of illnesses are caused due to stress.

Tips: Insomnia can be avoided by cutting down daytime naps. Making a proper bedtime schedule and going to bed at the same time everyday can be helpful.

| February 2020 |

Tips: The situations of stress cannot be entirely avoided but we can cope up with it. Accepting and adapting to things can help reduce stress. Not always is the situation in our hands to control. Trying some relaxation techniques like yoga, meditation, etc. can be beneﬁcial.

Take care of Your Mental Health

Find New Hobbies

It is vital that you engage your brain and keep it active always. Research shows that keeping the brain active may delay memory issues and brain related problems. Staying happy and staying away from stress helps maintain mental health.

Finding new and meaningful hobbies helps one stay busy. When you have a sense of purpose, you tend to be happier. Evidence shows that people who stay engaged in hobbies or social activities experience less depression.

Tips: Keeping your mood elevated is the best way. Spending time doing things you love or with the dear ones of your life could keep the mood up. Take dance lessons, learn music, or learn to play an instrument.

Tips: Engaging in social activities or learning something new could be useful to stay occupied. Volunteering in NGOs can be done too.

See a Doctor Regularly

Cultivate Your Relationships

Seeing a doctor regularly can help ﬁnd problems before they even start. If any health issue is detected very late it will become diﬃcult to treat. In early stages it would be less expensive and less risky to treat any issues.

During old age, the best medicine is love and care. Many older adults tend to stay alone. Staying connected with loved ones is important. Having a support system and a social network helps mental health. Loneliness can cause various health risks.

Tips: A proper schedule of monthly general checkups with the doctor should be made. A family doctor should also be ﬁxed, so that they know the health history completely.

Tips: You should maintain regular communication with family and friends. You should attend gatherings, family parties, etc.

Practice Prevention

Give Up Smoking and Drinking

We all know that 'Prevention is the best Cure'. Many accidents, general health issues, depression, chronic illnesses, etc. can be prevented. If proper care is taken, you can lead a healthy life.

Smoking and drinking both increase the chances of premature aging and the risk of diseases. It is not easy to quit smoking, however there are resources available to help. We keep hearing how bad smoking is for our brain and body. And after a certain age, quitting smoking would be a good option.

Tips: Think about ways to improve your lifestyle to a healthy one. Contact your family doctor and consult regarding things that can be done to stay healthy according to your health conditions.

Tips: Drinking occasionally in limited quantities can be considered. Although, smoking should be completely avoided. Regardless of age, the lung capacity and energy levels will improve if you give up smoking.

- Shreevarshita Gupta 44

|February 2020 |