Thailand gave its entire population healthcare in 10 years

Saw this story on the World Economic Forum website. Universal healthcare should be free and available to all:

Video: <Here>

Article <Here>

The future of ehealth

Found this on  the Canada Health Infoway "A Healthy Dialogue" website: https://www.ahealthydialogue.ca/add-your-voice/forum_topics/join-the-discussion

e-patient Dave Ted Talk

There is a more recent (October 2019) update from Dave on the JMIR:https://www.jmir.org/2019/12/e16368

eHealth news, feeds, business and intelligence sources

There is a lot of information about ehealth and health informatics. I am not talking specifically about academic research journals - that is a whole other sort of information. Sometimes it is difficult to sort out information about healthcare in general from information that is specific to ehealth, as both are so intertwined. I have been following ehealth news sources for over a decade. My inner ehealth journalist would feed on these sources for material - as would a blogger.

Here are "some" of the main sources of information that I have been receiving:

1. Blogs
2. Healthcare Technology Newsletters
3. Health Informatics Association Newsletters
4. Twitter and Facebook
5. Google News
6. Journal subscriptions
7. Business Intelligence

Blogs

• John Halamka - The Geek Doctor - Now blogging about role at Mayo Clinic - Dispatch from the Digital Health Frontier
• Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence (not specifically an ehealth blog but a fascinating science and technology blog that explores potentialities for health living and futurism)
• Informatics Professor
• HealthCare Security and Privacy
• KevinMD (also on social media)
• Medical Futurist 

Healthcare Technology Newsletters

• Canadian Healthcare Technology 
• Canada Health Infoway Exchange Access 2022

Health Informatics Association Newsletters

• AHIMA (American Health Information Management Association - SmartBrief

Twitter and Facebook

• Eric Topol
• John Halamka
• Exponential Medicine
• KevinMD.com 

Journal Subscriptions

• Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) - perhaps the only journal to subscribe to for eHealth information in my opinion. I get 3 bundled emails a day - you could potentially get a lot more.

Business Intelligence

• CB Insights - not at all an exclusively Healthcare focused research and business intelligence group but it is an exciting source of market trends
• Fard Johnmar 
• Business Insider Intelligence - subscribe to Digital Health Briefing

Google News

• Set a search criteria on "Health Informatics" in favourites

CB Insights - Digital Health 150: The Digital Health Startups Redefining The Healthcare Industry

I have been trying to follow all the news from CB Insights: Technology Market Intelligence. They have extremely rich information on digital health. Here is a sample or intro:
https://www.cbinsights.com/research/

The most promising 150 private digital health startups working to transform the healthcare industry with new models of primary care to emerging tech solutions for providers.

Where is this data coming from?

Start your free trial today

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CB Insights’ first ever annual cohort of Digital Health 150 startups is a list of 150 of the most promising private companies creating innovative products and services in the $5T+ healthcare industry, according to CB Insights’ Industry Analyst Consensus.
Our research team selected the 150 startups from a pool of 5K+ companies based on several factors, including patent activity, investor profile, news sentiment analysis, proprietary Mosaic scores, market potential, partnerships, competitive landscape, team strength, and tech novelty.
For the purposes of this report, digital health is defined as companies in the healthcare space that use technology/software as a key differentiator from their competition. This includes everything from disease diagnostics to tech-driven health insurance platforms to AI tools for drug discovery, and more.

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Startups are categorized by their main focus areas. Categories in the market map below are not mutually exclusive.
Please click to enlarge.

Table of contents

• 150 startups in different stages of R&D
• Most well-funded companies
• Startups outside the United States
• Most active investors
• Themes & trends
• Table of the Digital Health 150 companies

150 startups in different stages of R&D

The Digital Health 150 companies span a wide spectrum of categories that involve all three key stakeholder groups for the healthcare industry — providers, payers, and patients.
These companies range from emerging startups to established unicorns (companies with $1B+ valuations). The selected companies represent a mix of startups at different stages of funding and product commercialization.

For example, China-based We Doctor has a valuation of $5.5B and provides primary care services that leverage its tech platforms and provider network.
In contrast, RDMD is an early-stage company specializing in drug discovery efforts for rare diseases. The company plans to aggregate data to help develop treatments for a range of conditions.
A total of 17 companies on the list are unicorns (private companies valued at $1B+). Of these, 12 companies are US-based, 3 are based in China, 1 is based in France, and 1 is based in the UK.

2019 Digital Health 150 Unicorn Startups

Company	Category	Country
We Doctor	Providers: Primary Care	China
GRAIL	Genomics	United States
Oscar Health	Insurance & Benefits	United States
Tempus	Drug R&D: Real-World Evidence	United States
GoodRx	Pharma Supply Chain	United States
23andMe	Genomics	United States
Babylon Health	Providers: Primary Care (Virtual-Only)	United Kingdom
Devoted Health	Insurance & Benefits	United States
HeartFlow	Diagnostics: Imaging	United States
Proteus Digital Health	Digital Therapeutics	United States
Butterfly Network	Diagnostics: Imaging	United States
Doctolib	Providers: Primary Care (Virtual-Only)	France
Hims	Pharma Supply Chain	United States
Calm	Consumer Health & Wellness	United States
LinkDoc Technology	Drug R&D: Clinical Trials	China
One Medical Group	Providers: Primary Care	United States
Tencent Trusted Doctors	Providers: Primary Care	China

Most well-funded companies

The most well-funded companies on the Digital Health 150 list span a broad range of categories. The top-funded company is genomics startup GRAIL, followed by insurance tech player Oscar Health and then China-based We Doctor.

Startups outside the United States

Of the 150 selected digital health startups, 116 are headquartered in the US. Those based outside the US include 17 from Asia, 16 from Europe, and 1 from Canada.

After the US, China is the second most-represented country on this list, with 7 of the selected companies, and Israel is third with 4 companies.

Most active investors

Over 850 unique investors have funded this year’s Digital Health 150 cohort, including corporations, CVCs, VC firms, and angel investors.
Below, we highlight the top 10 most active investors among the companies selected.

Investor	Number of deals
F-Prime Capital	31
New Enterprise Associates	30
Google Ventures	29
Venrock	28
Founders Fund	27
Khosla Ventures	27
GE Ventures	22
Social Capital	20
.406 Ventures	19
Andreessen Horowitz	18

Track all the Digital Health 150 Startups in this brief and many more on our platform

The 150 private digital health startups working to recreate how healthcare is delivered. Look for The Digital Health 150 in the Collections tab.

Digital Health 150

150 items

CLONE

Collections is the first collaborative work management solution purpose-built for corporate growth teams responsible for managing build, buy, or partner decisions.

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Themes & trends

Across our 150 selected companies, we identified key themes and trends that highlight their efforts to transform the healthcare industry.
Below, we discuss a selection of these trends across different categories.

Artificial intelligence

Many companies on our list are leveraging AI and machine learning to help develop their respective software platforms.
From consumer health companies to imaging & diagnostics startups, AI is at the forefront of their products and services.
One example here is pathology — an area that AI has begun to transform. For instance, startups such as PathAI and PAIGE.AI are using AI to help speed up patient diagnosis.

Source: PAIGE.AI
AI is also being leveraged through drug discovery & development — accelerating the identification of new targets and therapeutic candidates.
An example here is OWKIN, a startup that develops algorithms to help interpret disease-related data and predict treatment outcomes.

Women’s health

As investments to women’s health startups have increased, we’ve seen startups targeting everything from egg freezing services to emerging tech for managing menopause.
In particular, fertility has gained traction as one of the main area of interest for women.
Startups such as Ava Science (fertility tracking device) and Carrot Fertility (fertility supplemental insurance) are providing novel services that aim to boost accessibility and convenience.
Virtual care clinics such as Maven Clinic are also helping women gain better access to providers that cater specifically to women’s health needs and concerns.

Source: Maven Clinic
Maven raised a $27M Series B round in September 2018 with participating investors including Sequoia Capital and Oak HC/FT Partners, among others.

Senior care

The growing size of the aging population is creating an increased demand for tech that aims to improve their health management.
This includes services targeted at both home care solutions and care coordination between providers.
One example here is ClearCare — a home care platform that aims to facilitate everything from administrative tasks to tracking patient hospitalizations.

Source: ClearCare

Social determinants of health

Population health has been generating a lot of buzz in healthcare. In particular, there’s a growing emphasis on leveraging social determinants of health (SDoH) to generate better health outcomes.
An example here is Unite Us, a New York-based startup working to build care networks that integrate SDoH into how healthcare is delivered.

Source: Unite Us
Its approach is to provide care coordination software that can handle external referrals and track patient outcomes, helping to connect healthcare with social services.

Value-based care

As more healthcare stakeholders look to collaboration to spur innovation in the industry, value-based care has come to the forefront.
In particular, payers and providers have established new care coordination networks to help reduce overall healthcare costs — with the goal of delivering care that provides better value to patients.
An example here is Vim, which provides patients with access to both payers and providers to make it easier to find appropriate care options.

Source: Vim
Vim raised a $24M Series B round in September, with participating investors including Optum Ventures, Premera Blue Cross, and Sequoia Capital, among others.

Concierge medicine

Concierge medicine startups, such as One Medical or Parsley Health, use a membership model to help offer patients an elevated healthcare services experience.
The approach aims to offer faster health visits with providers and more predictable associated costs.

Source: Galileo Health
Recently, Galileo Health — started by the founder of One Medical — launched an app-based concierge medicine platform geared towards providing a comprehensive level of care, including for chronic disease management.
It raised funding from Oak HC/FT Partners in May.

Telehealth

Telehealth services have expanded in recent years to become more differentiated.
Primary care platforms such as Ada Health and 98point6 are helping patients access more tailored care from their smartphones.
For instance, 98point6 offers a subscription on-demand telemedicine platform — touting 24/7 access to board-certified physicians — that’s delivered via a mobile app.

Source: 98point6
The startup raised a $50M Series C in October 2018 from Goldman Sachs and Frazier Healthcare Partners.
Another example is Talkspace, which offers psychotherapy services delivered virtually. It has raised $109M in total disclosed funding from investors including Compound, Norwest Venture Partners, Spark Capital, and SoftBank, among others.
Other companies in this category use remote monitoring technology to supplement virtual care services.

Table of the Digital Health 150 companies

2019 Digital Health 150 Companies

Company	Category
Ava Science	Consumer Health & Wellness
Calm	Consumer Health & Wellness
CarePredict	Consumer Health & Wellness
Ciitizen	Consumer Health & Wellness
Dreem	Consumer Health & Wellness
Headspace	Consumer Health & Wellness
higi	Consumer Health & Wellness
Oura Health	Consumer Health & Wellness
TytoCare	Consumer Health & Wellness
Aidoc Medical	Diagnostics: Imaging
Arterys	Diagnostics: Imaging
Butterfly Network	Diagnostics: Imaging
eXo Imaging	Diagnostics: Imaging
HeartFlow	Diagnostics: Imaging
icometrix	Diagnostics: Imaging
IDx	Diagnostics: Imaging
Lifetrack Medical Systems	Diagnostics: Imaging
Lunit	Diagnostics: Imaging
Niramai	Diagnostics: Imaging
Viz.ai	Diagnostics: Imaging
VoxelCloud	Diagnostics: Imaging
Zebra Medical Vision	Diagnostics: Imaging
Athelas	Diagnostics: Other Diagnostics
Cue Health	Diagnostics: Other Diagnostics
Healthy.io	Diagnostics: Other Diagnostics
Letsgetchecked	Diagnostics: Other Diagnostics
Deep Lens	Diagnostics: Pathology
PAIGE.AI	Diagnostics: Pathology
PathAI	Diagnostics: Pathology
Proscia	Diagnostics: Pathology
Akili Interactive Labs	Digital Therapeutics
Biofourmis	Digital Therapeutics
Cara Care	Digital Therapeutics
Click Therapeutics	Digital Therapeutics
CureApp	Digital Therapeutics
Glooko	Digital Therapeutics
Kaia Health	Digital Therapeutics
Lark Health	Digital Therapeutics
Neurotrack Technologies	Digital Therapeutics
Noom	Digital Therapeutics
Omada Health	Digital Therapeutics
Pear Therapeutics	Digital Therapeutics
Pivot	Digital Therapeutics
Proteus Digital Health	Digital Therapeutics
SWORD Health	Digital Therapeutics
Vida Health	Digital Therapeutics
Virta Health	Digital Therapeutics
Vivante Health	Digital Therapeutics
AiCure	Drug R&D: Clinical Trials
Emulate	Drug R&D: Clinical Trials
LinkDoc Technology	Drug R&D: Clinical Trials
Teckro	Drug R&D: Clinical Trials
Atomwise	Drug R&D: Drug Discovery & Development
Benchling	Drug R&D: Drug Discovery & Development
Insitro	Drug R&D: Drug Discovery & Development
OWKIN	Drug R&D: Drug Discovery & Development
RDMD	Drug R&D: Drug Discovery & Development
Recursion Pharmaceuticals	Drug R&D: Drug Discovery & Development
Vineti	Drug R&D: Drug Discovery & Development
Aetion	Drug R&D: Real-World Evidence
Evidation Health	Drug R&D: Real-World Evidence
GNS Healthcare	Drug R&D: Real-World Evidence
Medbanks Network Technology	Drug R&D: Real-World Evidence
Syapse	Drug R&D: Real-World Evidence
Tempus	Drug R&D: Real-World Evidence
TriNetX	Drug R&D: Real-World Evidence
Verana Health	Drug R&D: Real-World Evidence
23andMe	Genomics
Color Genomics	Genomics
Freenome	Genomics
Genome Medical	Genomics
GRAIL	Genomics
Luna DNA	Genomics
Nebula Genomics	Genomics
Sophia Genetics	Genomics
Viome	Genomics
Accolade	Insurance & Benefits
Alan	Insurance & Benefits
Beam Dental	Insurance & Benefits
Bend Financial	Insurance & Benefits
Bright Health	Insurance & Benefits
Carrot Fertility	Insurance & Benefits
Cedar	Insurance & Benefits
Collective Health	Insurance & Benefits
Devoted Health	Insurance & Benefits
Grand Rounds	Insurance & Benefits
LEAGUE	Insurance & Benefits
Modern Health	Insurance & Benefits
Nomad Health	Insurance & Benefits
Oscar Health	Insurance & Benefits
Stride Health	Insurance & Benefits
GoodRx	Pharma Supply Chain
Hims	Pharma Supply Chain
Nurx	Pharma Supply Chain
Pill Club	Pharma Supply Chain
Ro	Pharma Supply Chain
TruePill	Pharma Supply Chain
ClearCare	Providers: Administrative Tools
ClearDATA	Providers: Administrative Tools
HealthVerity	Providers: Administrative Tools
Human API	Providers: Administrative Tools
Jvion	Providers: Administrative Tools
Kyruus	Providers: Administrative Tools
Notable	Providers: Administrative Tools
Olive	Providers: Administrative Tools
Protenus	Providers: Administrative Tools
Redox	Providers: Administrative Tools
Solv Health	Providers: Administrative Tools
SYNYI.AI	Providers: Administrative Tools
Weimai	Providers: Administrative Tools
DocPlanner	Providers: Clinical Tools
Gauss Surgical	Providers: Clinical Tools
KenSci	Providers: Clinical Tools
MDClone	Providers: Clinical Tools
MORE Health	Providers: Clinical Tools
Oncology Analytics	Providers: Clinical Tools
PatientPing	Providers: Clinical Tools
Quartet Health	Providers: Clinical Tools
Solera	Providers: Clinical Tools
Suki	Providers: Clinical Tools
Unite Us	Providers: Clinical Tools
Welkin Health	Providers: Clinical Tools
Vim	Providers: Clinical Tools
Cityblock Health	Providers: Primary Care
Iora Health	Providers: Primary Care
One Medical	Providers: Primary Care
Parsley Health	Providers: Primary Care
Tencent Trusted Doctors	Providers: Primary Care
We Doctor	Providers: Primary Care
Galileo Health	Providers: Primary Care (Virtual-Only)
Halodoc	Providers: Primary Care (Virtual-Only)
98point6	Providers: Primary Care (Virtual-Only)
Ada Health	Providers: Primary Care (Virtual-Only)
American Well	Providers: Primary Care (Virtual-Only)
Babylon Health	Providers: Primary Care (Virtual-Only)
Buoy Health	Providers: Primary Care (Virtual-Only)
Doctolib	Providers: Primary Care (Virtual-Only)
Doctor On Demand	Providers: Primary Care (Virtual-Only)
K Health	Providers: Primary Care (Virtual-Only)
Kry	Providers: Primary Care (Virtual-Only)
Lyra Health	Providers: Primary Care (Virtual-Only)
MDLIVE	Providers: Primary Care (Virtual-Only)
Zava	Providers: Primary Care (Virtual-Only)
Cricket Health	Providers: Specialty Care
DispatchHealth	Providers: Specialty Care
Kindbody	Providers: Specialty Care
Xiaolu Yiguan	Providers: Specialty Care
AbleTo	Providers: Specialty Care (Virtual-Only)
Maven Clinic	Providers: Specialty Care (Virtual-Only)
Talkspace	Providers: Specialty Care (Virtual-Only)

Licensing and Reuse of Content: Contact our official partner, Wrights Media, about available usages, license fees, and award seal artwork at cbinsights@wrightsmedia.com. Please note that Wright’s Media is the only authorized company that we’ve partnered with for CB Insights materials.

Axe the fax

From the Globe and Mail December 2018 Health reporter Andre Picard:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-the-british-are-axing-the-fax-will-canada-follow-suit/

It’s not often that a seemingly mundane ministerial announcement reduces one to jealous tears, but this one fits the bill.

On Sunday, Matt Hancock, the British health and social care secretary, banned the purchase of facsimile machines by the National Health Service effective Jan. 1, 2019. He also ordered that faxes be phased out completely in hospitals and physicians’ offices by April, 2020.

Oh, but how Canada – a country even more in the poisonous grip of the fax than Britain – could use this common sense initiative.

“We don’t underestimate the enormity of the challenge to remove all our machines in such a short time, but we cannot afford to continue living in the dark ages,” Mr. Hancock said in the release.

Amen.

In July, the Royal College of Surgeons released a report that revealed the NHS, the country’s publicly-funded national healthcare system, had more than 8,000 fax machines in service. A group of hospitals in Newcastle Upon Tyne had a mind-boggling 603 facsimile machines in use.

To cap it all off, the NHS had the dubious distinction of being the largest purchaser of fax machines in the world.

Richard Kerr, chair of the committee that prepared the report called the situation “farcical” and called on government to invest in 21st century technology.

The government actually listened.

In addition to the fax ban, there are two other important aspects of Sunday’s announcement. Come 2020, communication will be by secure e-mail or apps and, just as importantly, all communication technologies will have to meet a standard that ensure that they can talk to each other across organizational boundaries. 

There will also be some additional money for hospitals and physicians to replace their fax machines – £200-million (about $340-million) – in addition to what the NHS is already spending on IT. 

But we do know that the fax machine is still ubiquitous. A 2017 survey found that two-thirds of Canadian physicians use the fax as their primary means of communication with other health care professionals, such as doctors, pharmacists, and hospitals.

So why do we continue to use technology that is almost universally acknowledged to be absurdly outdated?

Some claim that the fax is more secure than alternatives like e-mail. Our privacy rules also consider the fax the safest form of communication. That’s simply not true, especially with readily available encryption. The continued use of fax machines is bad for privacy and bad for patient safety.

A principal reason the fax endures is habit. Change is always slow in the ultra-conservative health system, especially when it costs money.

But the single biggest impediment to banning the fax is that the computer systems and electronic health records that we have are rarely able to communicate with each other. Interoperability has not been a priority and that has left us beholden to largely paper-based technology.

Many will look at what is going on in Britain with envy. But, in true Canadian fashion, we will find countless excuses for not doing the same.

Expect to hear that, because Britain has a centralized national health-care system, ministerial directives are a lot easier to issue and implement. There is some truth to that; Canada’s 14 ministers of health can barely agree on the time of day, so an initiative to ban fax machines may be a stretch.

But we shouldn’t forget that Britain’s “axe the fax” campaign was a grassroots initiative. The College of Surgeons gave the initial push by providing data that generated a lot of media coverage and made it easy for government to act.

There were also hospitals that showed impressive initiative. For example, the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust committed to eliminating its 340 fax machines within three months, sending a message to others that it was doable.

There is no doubt that fax machines can be eliminated, and they must be, sooner rather than later. The only question is who is going to show leadership? What health care organization, hospital, or politician is going to make axing the fax their legacy and drag Canada out of the dark ages?

Carlo Domeniconi-Koyunbaba