Redefining Early Stage Investments at JP Morgan Healthweek

The ACCESS Health Southeast Asia office participated in the Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) conference series during JP Morgan Healthweek in San Francisco this month. ACCESS Health Director of Startup Alliance, Tript Bhatia, participated on the panel Tales from the Road, which included a discussion about first hand experiences navigating the fundraising process and raising capital. The panelists discussed common stumbling blocks for first time entrepreneurs, practical tips and tricks in identifying and finding potential investors, and expectations during the term sheet negotiation and the due diligence process. Fellow panelists included US based serial entrepreneurs including Alan Lucas, CEO, Navigation Sciences, Nancy Briefs, Co-founder, President & CEO, AltrixBio and Tim Lawrence, CEO, Co-founder, Oralucent. Greg Mannix from Life Science Nations moderated the panel.

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ACCESS Health International Announces Charitable Donation of $2.5 Million from Chair and Founder William A. Haseltine

ACCESS Health International Announces Charitable Donation of $2.5 Million from Chair and Founder William A. Haseltine Contribution will Support Efforts to Strengthen Healthcare Systems Worldwide Press Release – NEW YORK, Jan. 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — ACCESS Health International, a global health nonprofit, today announced a donation of 2.5 million USD from noted scientist, businessman, and philanthropist William A. Haseltine. The donation from the William A. Haseltine Charitable Trust Foundation for Science, Health and the Arts is expected to have a profound impact on ACCESS Health’s work to help countries achieve universal health coverage through digital health technologies and health systems strengthening. Dr. Haseltine co-founded ACCESS Health in 2007 as a nonprofit think tank and advisory organization dedicated to the vision that all people have access to high quality, affordable healthcare and a right to lead a healthy, productive life. Over the course of the last decade, Dr. Haseltine has donated more than 4 million USD to the organization, helping ACCESS Health grow from a single office in Hyderabad, India to a global organization with activities in many of the major cities around the world. “The impact ACCESS Health International has made on government policies and care practices on a global scale has far exceeded my early hopes and aspirations for the organization,” said Dr. Haseltine upon making the donation. “I am convinced our impact will only increase in the coming years. Advances in digital technologies are creating powerful new opportunities to streamline the flow of information between patients and providers, improving digital financial service models for health, and ensuring accountability and continuous quality improvement across healthcare systems. I am excited about the possibilities that lie ahead.” Dr. Haseltine’s career spans more than forty years at the forefront of medical research and application. He has educated a generation of scientists and physicians at Harvard Medical School, designed the strategy to develop the first treatment for HIV/AIDS, and led the team that pioneered the development of new drugs based on information from the human genome. As Chair and President of ACCESS Health International, Dr. Haseltine continues to dedicate his time and energy to ensure that progress in digital and medical technology and health system design translate to improved health outcomes around the world. Dr. Haseltine’s donation will be spread over a period of five years and will provide seed funding for new initiatives within ACCESS Health and in partnership with governments and other leading healthcare agencies worldwide. For more information contact: Anna Dirksen @ anna.dirksen@accessh.org.

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ACCESS Health Launches Three New Books on Aging and Elder Care

Today, ACCESS Health announced the publication of a new series of books on a subject of critical importance: aging and elder care. Though aging is inevitable, the physical and mental suffering that often accompanies the aging process is not. The three new books explore ways to transform our culture to eliminate the unnecessary pain older adults face and to capitalize on the opportunities that come from keeping seniors actively engaged in their communities. Aging Well: Solutions to the Most Pressing Global Challenges of Aging is a must-read for every person caring for aging relatives or loved ones with disabilities. The book is a comprehensive study on how to support the health and wellbeing of older adults. The book offers lessons for delivering high quality elder care that any healthcare leader or person caring for an aging loved one can apply. Voices in Dementia Care: Reimagining the Culture of Care distills those lessons even further, with a focus on caring for those living with dementia or other cognitive disorders. While there is an increasing amount of medical research on dementia care, there is a lack of firsthand knowledge about the experience of living with cognitive disorders and caring for people with dementia. The voices of those living with dementia and professionals caring for people with Alzheimer's or other disorders come together in Voices in Dementia Care to describe best practices in dementia care that can be adapted and applied in the home and in institutional settings. The third book in the series, Stay Young Navigators: The Pursuit of Active Aging and Seniors Caring for Seniors, explores an innovative approach to elder care created by elders themselves. Based on discussions with the younger old and the older old, Stay Young Navigators describes a community of care and support that is made up by seniors caring for other seniors. The book reframes common perceptions of aging and demonstrates the benefits of keeping seniors actively engaged in their communities. The books follow ACCESS Health’s previous book on aging, Aging with Dignity: Innovation and Challenge in Sweden. The Swedish long term and social care systems have remarkable strengths, including innovative training models for nurses, cutting edge dementia services, and passionate leaders who make a difference in their own organizations and beyond. The book is available for free to download on our website.  

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ACCESS Health India Perspectives: Digital Will Drive Access to Healthcare

India's Healthcare system is fragmented, the country is too diverse and large for a single unified system. Each state has its own healthcare programs. The central government provides the majority of the funds but the implementation largely rests with the states. States that are better off are independent in their decision making and show better outcomes. However, India can still aim for standardized protocols and interoperability across states. Interestingly, digital technology is proving to be a binding force between the three important stakeholders of healthcare namely, payer, provider and people. The new Ayushman Bharat national health insurance program is becoming the melting pot for public and private healthcare and emerging as the biggest driver for digital health. Healthcare in India has lagged in adoption of technologies, but digital technologies are now pushing the country in the right direction. Technology driven transformation has happened in many sectors like Mobile and Telecom, Aadhaar based eGovernance, Fintech and Banking. Healthcare is likely to go through a digital transformation now. Technology has already taken its toll on the Hospital Information Systems [HIS] market. Large HIS vendors have exited the market. Either they have lost interest and exited or have been acquired. On the other hand, many tier-II incumbent players are not able to shift out to cloud because of their long term negotiated contracts in client-server model. The newer cloud-based players are comparatively smaller in size and yet to reach size and scale. The HIS market is ready for complete disruption by Digital Health! Now is the Era of Mobile-First Apps. Small Data ^ = Big Data. The time has come when you don't need big monolithic HIS software to run hospitals. Now you can do a lot with small mobile based Apps for every function. Clinical evidence-based medicine has got a new meaning with Digital devices run on Artificial Intelligence being introduced. These devices can automate Laboratory Reports, read Radiology reports better, do accurate differential Diagnosis, pin point relevant Order sets, send Referrals, drug refill alerts and follow-up reminders. Disease management has gone Digital and the devices are learning fast and outcomes getting better with every new patient. However, the old HIS and EMR systems or even the new breed Digital Health Apps lack credible Global Digital Health Standards. Hence, they exist in silos and don't interact with each other or the larger Healthcare ecosystem. The data cannot be referred for any meaningful analysis. For example, we still don't know clearly the size, scale and depth of the Dengue, Chikungunya and H1N1, Flu epidemics that strike us every year. Hence, we are always left gasping for breath when the seasonal spike starts. India is already the Diabetes capital of the world with 70 million cases and counting. We still don't have standard protocols based Digital Disease Management Platform. The HIS/EMR market in India requires EHR and Meta Data Standards based XML wrapper objects that can help the existing systems to communicate with the external world in a Standardized format. We need centralized Registries for uniquely identifying the Patient, Provider and the Facility where the treatment was carried out. We need Reference data dictionaries for standardizing the Diagnosis, Prognosis, Procedures, Laboratory tests, Radiological examinations, Drug prescriptions. This should be the common lookup so that everyone can be interoperable. The need for such Central Registries and Lookup Dictionaries is of paramount importance. Though the vital question remains, as to who will build and manage it. Should it be privately owned and controlled or publicly funded and managed. Health Insurance sector has similar challenges. Private Health Insurance covers about 3% of India Population. There are 17+ Private Insurance companies that also do business in Health Insurance. 4 Public Sector Companies also cover Health Insurance. Four Private Insurance companies whose core business is only Health Insurance. Public Health insurance covers about 10-17% of India Population. 80+% is Out of Pocket expenses. About 2% of India's population falls below the poverty line every year due to unaffordable hospitalization expenses. Now the Central Government Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) has come to the rescue of most of the uninsured population. PMJAY is set to cover 40-50% of India's Population. In absolute numbers the market is set to expand from the current 150 million people and go up to 500 million people. Obviously, the TPA business which has been servicing only the private health insurance i.e. 3% of India's population, must gear up to support PMJAY covering over 40% of India's population. Hence TPA business is ready for disruption. The number of daily claims is set to go up by multiple times. All these claims pipelines cannot be processed manually. We need to use high end technology to process the claims. We need a Standardized Claims format. The TPA market in India requires XML based standard Claims wrapper object that can help the existing systems to communicate with the Hospital HIS/EMR world and the Health Insurance world in a Standardized format. Globally, winds of change are evident. Digital is totally changing the way Health Insurance business has been run in the past. CVS has been building retail Primary Care centers and Diagnostics in its Pharmacies. Now with CVS Purchasing Aetna! John Hancock is shifting from traditional Life Insurance model to incentivize longer, healthier lives. In brief, they will move away from Life insurance model to Disease management and Precision medicine. Blockchain based Unique Identifiers are emerging. AI based start-ups are working on meta data driven Discharge Summary, Hospital Billing and Claims, Intelligent Claims Adjudication and Fraud detections. The Digital Tech Giants are becoming Healthcare companies. The lines are beginning to blur. Is India far behind? Not really, India has a habit of leapfrogging stages, specifically with regard to Telecom and FinTech sectors. It will now happen to Healthcare. A Digital Healthcare Ecosystem is already taking shape.

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Health Futures Held Healthcare and Finance Innovation Forum in China

The 3rd International Healthcare and Finance Innovation Forum was held in Shanghai from November 23 to 24. Shanghai Health Development Research Center, Fudan University School of Management, and Health Futures China team jointly organized the event. The Forum also received supports from industry partners such as Pfizer, RGAX, Neusoft Viewhigh, and Nuohui Medical to discover the cutting edge topics related to social health insurance reform and health payment innovation. The Forum consists four sessions: innovation on drug reimbursement policies, innovation on healthcare service payment, commercial insurance innovation, and disease based financing and payment innovation. More than sixty guest speakers shared their respective insights and innovative practices, including Representative of World Health Organization in China Dr. Gauden Galea, Director of Shanghai Municipal Health Commission Dr. Jinglei Wu, and Dean of School of Management of Fudan University Dr. Xiongwen Lu. The total audience exceeded four hundred and more than thirty journalists attended the event. Health Futures research team together with Fudan University Healthcare and Finance Research Institute launched a white paper on Value Based Healthcare in China. It is the first white paper in China focusing on the cross sector collaboration and health system transformation built on the concept of value based healthcare. By documenting and analyzing innovative cases in China and abroad, the report reveals the key factors of value oriented health innovation in three sectors of drug and medical device, commercial insurance, and health information service. The report concludes with a detailed landing map for value based healthcare innovation in China. Please find the Chinese report HERE (https://accessh.org.cn/vbhc-report/)

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Aging With Dignity: Interviews with Elder Care Providers

Aging with Dignity: Innovation and Challenge in Sweden – The Voice of Care Professionals is available to download for free now, or to order in hard copy or in ebook form on Amazon. Read the full interviews and reports on long term care on which the book is based: Patient Centered Swedish Healthcare: An English summary of the Swedish Forum for Welfare report The Most Fragile Elderly Project: An interview with Maj Rom The Most Fragile Elderly Project: An interview with Dr. Eva Nilsson Bågenholm, National Coordinator for Elder Care Coordinating Care for the Elderly: An interview with Carina Kumlin and Pia Lagerström Elder Care Entrepreneurship: An interview with Stéphanie Treschow Government Efforts to Improve Long Term Care: An interview with Erik Weiman Integrated Elder Care: A five part case study on the TioHundra care company Mobile and Home Based Care: A case study on the Lidköping close care system Mobile and Home Based Care: A case study on the mobile emergency team in Uppsala eHealth Technologies and the Future of Healthcare: An interview with Henrik Ahlen Technology for the Elderly: An interview with Raymond Dahlberg How Technology is Revolutionizing Homecare in Sweden: An interview with eHomecare manager ?...sa Löwing New Technologies An interview with Magdalena Marklund Technology for the Elderly: A Swedish focus group study Is the Use of Welfare Technology Profitable? A lecture from Åke Dahlberg Technology and eHealth: A case study on the Estonian eHealth and eGovernance system Digitizing a Nation: An interview with Patrik Sundström A Palliative Approach to Dementia Care: An interview with Lotta Roupe on Stiftelsen Silviahemmet Improving Dementia Care and Care of the Elderly: An interview with Linda Martinson on Aleris Telecare Technology: An interview with Markus Merne and Everon upporting Relatives and Informal Caregivers: An interview with Christianne Simson In the Name of the Law: A lecture by Jeanna Thorslund

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9th US-China Health Summit Held in Boston and Wuhan

The annual U.S.-China Health Summit is dedicated to the advancement of global health by promoting the exchange of knowledge, ideas, and experiences of healthcare leaders from the United States, China, and other countries through high level strategic dialogues, leadership development programs, and applied research. Each year the summit takes place in either China or the…

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ACCESS Health Chair and President Delivers Keynote Address the 2019 Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators Conference

In October 2019, William A. Haseltine presented a workshop on medical management and leadership at the annual Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators Conference in Adelaide, Australia. He also delivered a keynote speech. Haseltine's interest in improving human health has taken him from the halls of Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, where…

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ACCESS Health India Helps Celebrate One Year Anniversary of India’s Biggest Health Program

ACCESS Health India has been working closely with the government of India as it rolls out its flagship health insurance program in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, known locally by its acronym PMJAY, is a fully sponsored government health insurance program launched in 2018 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.…

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ACCESS Health Board Member Diane Morris Steps Down

ACCESS Health Chair and President, William A. Haseltine, and the entire Board of Directors of ACCESS Health extend their deep gratitude to Diane Morris, the chairman and chief executive officer of Morris Capital Management, who is stepping down from her role as director as of November 1, 2019. As an active philanthropist in the arts,…

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