The digital medicine sector is thriving: technological developments designed to prevent errors in prescription drug dosages, making relevant medical information accessible for every patient, and kinetic games for physiotherapy purposes are the types of medical technologies that will very soon facilitate accessible medical treatment for patients and improve the work of doctors, clinics, and hospitals.
Three years have passed since entrepreneur Ziv Ofek's company, dbMotion, was sold to US medical technology giant Allscripts for $235 million, following which the Allscripts opened an R&D center in the high-tech park in Beer Sheva. Since that time, Ofek founded the Center of Digital Innovation (CDI) - a center for technological innovation in digital health - near Allscripts' center.
This week, a delegation Allscripts executives visited Israel and held workshops for Israeli digital health startups. "Since the acquisition of dbMotion, we have been working with Israeli software companies, and we are very impressed at the level of talent, the quality of ideas, and the development community in Israel," said Allscripts chief innovation officer and delegation member Stanley Crane.
"Globes": What does Allscripts actually do?
Crane: "Allscripts is an open platform for health technologies. We give developers and entrepreneurs tools through which they can connect to our system and general apps for various needs. In contrast to companies operating in the digital medical documentation field, we understand that the future lies in cooperation between companies. While our competitors insist on building everything themselves, we're building bridges to entrepreneurial companies, and believe that this is the fastest way of bringing new ideas into hospitals and clinics."
What is your opinion about digital heath in the US, and where does it stand in comparison with the rest of the world?
"That's a very complicated question. In Israel, for example, there is a database of all the patients and their medical records; we want the same thing for the US. It will help the doctor make decisions much more quickly if they have electronic access to the patient's complete medical record. In the US, many visits to the doctor begin with the patient manually filling out a paper questionnaire, because no such database exists. If you look at the cost and quality of the final product for the US health system, it is clear: a comparison of the US with the other Western countries in measures of life expectancy and infant mortality, for example, shows that the US is far from the best according to any criteria. For us, this situation is an opportunity to think how we can provide better and better tools for patients and those who treat them."
Digital health offers many advantages for doctors and patients, but transparency also exposes them to cyber attacks and harmful use of medical information. What are the scenarios in this area, and how is it possible to defend against them?
"Patient records and health data must be secure and protected. It's critical to use the best and strongest data protection technologies. In the US, for example, we implement an authentication process for generating prescriptions. We have assembled a team of security experts that reviews our customers' systems and equipment. They also advise them how they can secure their networks in the most effective way."
What innovations are expected in this sector, and how do you see the development of digital health affecting medical treatment 10 years from now? Will it affect the speed, quality, and effectiveness of medical treatment?
"I think that applying technologies from diverse fields to the digital medical sphere will help improve all the systems. Things like turning video chat into medical chat will make a difference in the entire system's effectiveness. We've met companies here like MedAware, which is applying a technique from the credit card fraud sector to help spot medical errors before they occur. EmergeCDS helps doctors find any document in the diabetes record of a patient in seconds, enabling the doctor to make better and faster decisions."
Do you believe that Israel will become a global leader in digital health?
"Certainly. There are two critical features in innovation that eventually lead to a ground-breaking product: a good idea and the courage to take the ideas and work to make them come alive. One of the reasons why I really love working with Israelis is that they have both of these essentials to an astounding degree. They have a lot of great ideas and an enormous belief in themselves, plus world class technical abilities.
"That's one of the reasons why the partnership between Allscripts and CDI works so well. We have an open platform and a tool kit for programmers and entrepreneurs that make it easier for them to connect their ideas to Allscripts products. It creates a ready market for their products within our customer base."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 25, 2016
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