 Hi everyone. My name is Tina McGrath and I am the Global Engagement and Quickfire Challenge Senior Manager at Johnson & Johnson Innovation JLabs. I'm responsible for marketing, communications, and events associated with our Quickfire challenges, which is the JLabs platform for the scientific community to apply diverse perspectives to solving some of healthcare's biggest challenges. Thank you for joining us for the GIST Tech Connect on Global Healthcare Communications, which is co-hosted with JLabs at Washington DC. Johnson & Johnson Innovation is a global network of open innovation ecosystems, enabling and empowering innovators across a broad healthcare spectrum, including pharmaceuticals, med device, consumer, and health tech sectors to create and accelerate the delivery of lifesaving, life-enhancing health and wellness solutions to patients around the world. Across the globe, governments, corporations, universities, and startups are feverishly working to develop new health tech, biotech, and med tech solutions to address our most pressing global challenges. This degree of innovation and collaboration is unprecedented. Today's web chat will be a discussion from leading experts across the healthcare innovation industry, who will share their diverse perspectives and thoughts on the future of healthcare. We really want to know your thoughts, though, and accept your questions, so please ask in the chat space next to the video player, or you can engage on Twitter by using the hashtag GIST Tech Connect. So before we get started, I just want to share with you a few open Quickfire challenges that are currently open from Johnson & Johnson Innovation JLabs. These offer grant funding, lab space, and mentorship opportunities. So first up, we have our sole innovation Quickfire challenge for healthcare in the new normal. This closes in just a few days on August 31st. Our next is the next in naturals Quickfire challenge on immune support, which closes on September 18th. And finally, we have our nurses innovate Quickfire challenge in COVID-19 patient care. And this one closes on September 29th. There are always new Quickfire challenges launching, so please check out jlabs.tv slash Quickfire for all of the latest opportunities. Now, without being said, let me welcome our panel of experts. So first, we have Dr. Lola Adiyami, who is the founder and chief operating officer of Magna Carta Health. She is also a physician and public health professional, with extensive entrepreneurial experience. At Magna Carta Health, she is improving health in Nigeria by bridging gaps in healthcare access through technology. Christina York is the founder and chief executive officer of Spellbound, an augmented reality platform that uses immersive 3D technology to increase patient cooperation with treatment by reducing perception of pain, creating engaging patient education simulations, and digitally transforming the hospital environment to encourage rehabilitative movement. Dr. John Collins is the chief operating officer of the consortia for improving medicine with innovation and technology, which is a network of academic and medical institutions that partner with industry and governments to foster collaboration among clinicians, technologists, and entrepreneurs to accelerate innovation and catalyze the discovery, development, and implementation of innovative healthcare technologies. So thank you all for joining me today. I'd like to start off the conversation by asking each of you to share a little bit about what excites you most about innovation in healthcare. So I'm going to start off with Lola. Thank you very much, Tina. Thank you for the introduction. So it's great to be here, and I'm going to start by saying that there are a lot of solutions out there that may not necessarily be innovative in itself, but their application and how they're impacting lives and how they're adapted to healthcare are really innovative and that they have done, they're really shifting to healthcare narrative right now. And I'm going to start off by mentioning drones. Drones are not in itself innovative. They've been around for a year. They're amazing, right? They've been around for a long time, but their application right now in this day is phenomenal. Zipline, for instance, has been able to use drones to make a difference in Rwanda and in Ghana. During the COVID, during COVID, during this COVID pandemic, they've most recently been using it to move critical supplies, PPEs from point A to point B, thereby increasing access to care, reducing, limiting patient to patient transmission and things like that. I know Google is using it too. UPS is using it as well in their Flight Forward program, and that is truly innovative. Other, something else that I'm really excited about is artificial intelligence. The power of artificial intelligence, IBM Watson has revolutionized the power of artificial intelligence, like a second pair of eyes, and using that to be able to impact healthcare. We're able to diagnose faster. We're able to diagnose more accurately and thereby increasing outcomes. Google is also utilizing artificial intelligence. They're helping us accurately diagnose cancers, like lung cancer, which is a particularly aggressive type of cancer. What that is doing is that it's precisely giving us more precision and diagnoses, thereby helping us promptly diagnose better, quicker, faster, and giving us better outcomes as well. Google is also helping with other diseases, such as ocular diseases. They've really utilized artificial intelligence to make a difference. We're using data and the analysis of data with artificial intelligence. That's making, helping us make better decisions and more informed decisions. There are other things like virtual reality, which I know one of my colleagues, one of my panelists is going to talk about, so I'm not going to go in there. Point of care diagnostics, which is something that we use in Magna Carta Health. That makes a difference because at the point of care, when it is needed, we're able to get the information that we accurately need to make a difference in somebody's life. It really saves lives. The butterfly IQ is one of the tools that is new in medical imaging that we're the only ones that we've been able to get that in Nigeria, but it's making a difference, not only in Nigeria, but around the world, where we're putting medical imaging in the palm of somebody's hands to accurately help with diagnosing something in a person. I'll just finally say so that other people can get a turn. Telehealth. Telehealth has been around for a long time, but due to the current situation, we have been able to use it in more innovative ways when people are getting more access and people are more in tune to utilizing it than ever before. Those are just some of the exciting opportunities and innovative ways that technology has been able to impact healthcare to get better outcomes. Thank you. I couldn't agree more that those are just some of the ways and it's obviously a really exciting time. I'm going to turn it over to Christina to share some thoughts on what's exciting you the most right now. Thanks, Tina. Hi, everyone. As somebody who has an augmented reality company, it's no surprise that I'm very interested in non-pharmacological, non-invasive use of technology to support medical staff in improving patient outcomes and also to support patients to their journey. I was super excited in June of this year when I heard, read about that the FDA approved the first prescription video game to help treat ADHD. I think that these opportunities of looking at, as Dr. Adeyami was saying, things that already existed in our world. Video games and maybe you're most familiar with the zombie effect of the video game, whether the parent is calling the child, the child is not listening, not responding. If we can harness the power that in some circumstances are viewed as negative, if you can harness the immersive power of technology and apply it in situations where it's needed most in stressful situations and painful situations, then you've opened up a whole new opportunity for that technology. I've been really excited in how healthcare has been open to looking at these existing technologies and reapplying them. So that video game prescription, super excited. Yeah, I love that. We had a winner from a quick fire challenge, one of our nurses, who actually came up with a video game concept to help children who were being put under going into surgery to help them feel calmer about actually breathing in, which is often a very scary process. So also exciting to see how technology is converging in so many aspects of healthcare right now. And John, I'm going to go to you and ask what's really exciting you right now. Well, it's tough to go last with something like that. But actually, you had taken exactly what I was going to say. Well, I think what's most exciting is the convergence issue, particularly now as I think the recognition of the social determinants of health lifestyle issues play such a huge role. And at the same time, we're able to put data in the hands of individuals. So they can make health decisions in real time that hopefully will turn our system into a healthcare system instead of a sick care system. So between the genomics and all the IA, all of those things, many of them obviously started well outside of healthcare. And I think the important thing here is to be able to, particularly from an innovation perspective, is reach out to those other industries and bring in collaborators to take advantage of these great advances. Yeah, I love that in terms of preventative care and really starting to empower that through convergence. And, you know, at JLabs, through my role with the quick fire challenges, I'm lucky to get to see so many different sectors and early innovators who are really doing some cutting edge things. Lola, you reminded me of one that has been particularly exciting over the last few months, which is something we did for our DRTB lifeline quick fire challenge where we were focused on getting solutions to some of the high burden countries who are really being impacted by COVID-19 right now. And your joyed example, I think is just one of the ways that people are really getting creative and accelerating things at an unprecedented pace. So it's really, that is very exciting. So for those of you who are just joining us, we are talking about global innovation in healthcare and our experts just shared a little bit about what excites them most within innovation in healthcare. So I'm going to move on with Christina. As a startup founder using augmented reality to improve patient outcomes, you're on the cutting edge of healthcare innovation. So what excites you the most about the direction that the industry is moving in? Yes. I think there are two things. The first is just seeing increased usage of 3D technologies all throughout healthcare, all throughout the patient journey, whether it's staff training, training surgeons, how to do a surgeon or training medical professionals on how to handle rare uncommon but urgent situations. It might be about pain management or physical rehabilitation, helping patients motivate movement. But there's not a hospital that I talked to that hasn't encountered a 3D technology, either augmented or virtual reality in some form and is using it in some way. And I think that's really positive because you can have all the innovation in the world, but if you don't have uptake and if it's not sticky enough to stay around and solve the problem long-term, then that's the downfall of innovation. The second thing is, I think a lot of this usage has led to increased validation of the technology. And so I mentioned that example of the FDA approving that video game. So having the FDA approve a video game is a huge step forward. I think in opening the possibility is an application of technology. But the NIH has been backing virtual reality for years and they just gave up my company a very large grant this year to study the application of augmented reality in managing pain for post-surgical cancer patients. Can we get them out of bed walking sooner? Can we get them recovering faster at home? Are they stronger when they discharge and are they using fewer opioids when they're recovering? And so these big institutions like the NIH and FDA starting to understand the technology and invest in it, I think is a really big exciting thing that's happening in the industry right now. Congratulations on the grant. That's really exciting. And just a follow-up question. I can imagine that patient adoption has really shifted a lot probably each year. Can you talk a little bit about how that has progressed over the last few years? Yeah. I'm going to say first that before patients could really adopt it, we needed devices to be able to have the power to deliver those 3D experiences. And so virtual reality is solely headsets. We do augmented reality with mobile devices because we really and a lot of augmented reality companies are really thinking about accessibility. And so if you need a device to see that experience and the majority of households in the United States, whether regardless of socioeconomic status, have a smartphone, we think about that level of accessibility. And so just making sure that that hardware is available for those patients to use. But you know, Pokemon Go, I think really teach the world a lesson about unexpected or unanticipated results of engaging with technology. And so it got people walking, it got people in better health situations. And it got people discovering new areas, new businesses in their town, whatever it might be. And so when you can pluck that example and start putting in the hospital setting, helping patients be able to discover services that have always been available to them, but they just were underutilized, that's a huge thing, I think, and a big benefit for patients. Amazing. Yeah. Interesting how, you know, something like that can be a catalyst in a totally different world. So, John, I'm going to turn over to you. And, you know, you're really working at the intersection of so many different stakeholders that are addressing global health issues and gaps in health care, really across the world. So I want to ask you what's exciting you most? Yeah, I think without doubt what I, what I see, I'm old enough now to remember when innovation was done, you had a team and that team worked together, today it's done very collaboratively. You can bring together people from all over the world, experts in one area, different disciplines, you can form teams very quickly, migrate those teams over time. So I really do think this, again, most of the innovations I believe really come from looking at the overlaps of these different disciplines and having these diverse collaborative teams is really, is really critical. And I can't think of a better example than the program that Simon is running right now for the NIH point of care technology research network together with the venture well. It's a program called RADX Tech. And this is to enable the country to be able to produce millions of testing or conduct millions of tests per day upwards of 10 million per day of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and do so this year. The NIH allocated $500 million to that activity. And so far we've had 3,000 teams apply and obviously we need to help and we reached out to the innovation community. We had over 500 experts, clinical experts, technical experts, regulatory experts put up their hands. Listen, I'm willing to put my stuff aside to help these teams. It's really one of the most impressive things that I've seen in my professional career when really mobilized a network to fight a very important problem. Wow, that's amazing to hear that so many people have, you know, really been willing and I know that's a huge, can imagine that's a huge undertaking right now. So it's really exciting to watch that from the outside and excited to see where it goes. And Lola, so you're increasing access to healthcare in Nigeria through technology and we've talked a lot about technology today. Can you share a little bit more about your mission and impact with Magna Carta Health, you know, specifically in Nigeria? Sure, so Magna Carta Health is a preventative health organization and we're focused on providing disease management and chronic and preventative health services to individuals, organizations, and the government. And our mission really is to make sure that members of the health year longer and improve the quality of life. And we do this by, we want to make sure that our members are healthy and help them manage their chronic diseases like hypertension, diabetes, asthma, and help them screen for cancer. And why it is imperative to us is, like John said, Nigeria is a secure system and not a welfare system. So people come to the hospital when they're actually critically ill and what we're trying to do is change that narrative and get people to come when they're seemingly well. And that's changing and that has been changing. And when we started years ago, people didn't know what we're talking about. Our focus is preventing disability, death, and disease. And now people walk in on their own and tell us, hey, we're well, but I need to see you and make sure everything is okay. And what we rely on a lot is data and technology because we use a lot of point of care diagnostics and like I alluded to earlier we use the butterfly cue, but besides from that, we get tests done at the right time. We get the right tests done at the right time. So we get the results earlier and we analyze your data and we analyze your risks for certain diseases. And so we use a lot of predictive modeling and to identify what your risks are so that we can prevent these diseases and so that you can have better outcomes. And that has made a difference for people's lives. And that's what we're trying to do, make a difference to people's lives earlier and faster. And all that, what that does entirely is that because we don't have the healthcare insurance like the United States does, for instance, a lot of people pay out of pocket, we want to make sure that you're healthier and so that because it's cheaper to prevent things. And at the end of the day, we're reducing healthcare costs and we're saving lives. So that is really, really critical for us. I'm curious given Christina's example of adoption and kind of Pokemon Go and what that did with society and John's example of Radex and how that is an example of this great collaborative environment. Is there one thing that you can point to that sticks out in your mind as a stimulus for adoption or a big change in your world? Yeah, people just want to live how people, I think it's the perception of fair and people don't want to die. The mortality rates and the life expectancy in Nigeria is about 50, 57 on average. And that is really poor, the indices are poor. And so people can see that their counterparts in the United States that left life expectancy is much, much higher, at least 20 to 30 years higher. And so people want to live longer. And they know that with technology, they can do that. And so people are right now ready to rely on technology at Magna Carta Health for continually innovating. We launched and we're still working on clinic go to, which helps healthcare providers connect to patients where they can consult with their patients with their extra consulting rooms. And we're working on a laboratory health management information system to help make the laboratory data and results more efficacious. So people are appreciative of that. And they know that, hey, if I get better healthcare services, potentially I can get better outcomes and I can live healthier and longer. So there's an impetus for people to want to buy into things like that. It makes sense. And I have a follow-up question for John as well. Lola and Christina have both talked about technology really empowering a lot of the changes they're seeing. And you talked about collaboration. Do you, can you talk a little bit about the technology specifically that you think has really maybe driven that shift from more of a team environment for innovation to the broader collaboration? Do you think that is largely driven by technology? And if so, you know, what types of advances? Well, yeah, without without question, communications technology makes people effective at a distance. Absolutely no question about it. And one way that we're using technology is to basically capture the experience that Simmons had over the years. And we believe innovation in healthcare is a learnable, teachable process. And unfortunately, most innovators only learn that by trying. They're really, they're all type A personalities, you know, top of their class and medical school and whatever university they went to. And how hard can this business thing do, right? I mean, what's what's the problem? So as a result, they end up making oftentimes unforced errors, give up the IP, pick the wrong regulatory pathway, whatever all else it might be. So what we'll try to do is to capture our experience in a platform we call Gates, it's an answer guidance and impact tracking system. And there's a free version of that on the on the web that we have to get access to. And what that what it does, and again, we've used this with the Radix tech program. Now the question is, how do you bring together 500 people to work on hundreds of projects? It's a logistical nightmare without a common framework language to be able to say, I've reached this maturity level, I've covered these regulatory angles to be able to share that with each other. So that's been a huge impact for us and being able to help spend money much more efficiently and help teams. Again, the sciences is going to work or not. But the worst thing to do is to have an unforced error that presents a great science from making it to patient care. So that's our that's our job is to de risk these projects and avoid unforced errors. These are such insightful answers really appreciate kind of, you know, everyone bringing their unique perspective here and I want to make sure that we have time to get some questions from the audience. So I'm going to turn it over and start fielding some of those questions as well. So first up, we have a viewer who asks, which aspects of the healthcare industry are you seeing the most innovation in? And maybe I'll add on to that in terms of where do you see the most opportunity? So I'm going to start with Christina. I think Dr. Adiyami touched on this, but you know, because of the pandemic, there has been a shift to, you know, telehealth and all the technologies that support that. But it's not just about like the baseline telehealth that we had, there's been there's all kinds of ways like diagnostics remotely, as well as using augmented and virtual reality remotely to engage the patient to better have that clinician better interact with their patient. It's not just about baseline exchange of data or a face, you know, video chat anymore. I think, you know, we had established the baseline before the pandemic and now COVID really accelerated innovation around that. So I think that's, it's making technologies that allow interaction between care provider as well as a patient is anything that makes it more efficient or better is high demand. And hospitals, you know, we can talk about the economic strain on hospitals, but many hospitals are trying to get ahead of this now and say before we have another problem, how can we invest in this technology to not only help us adapt now, but to set us up in the future for the way healthcare is going to change because of this pandemic. So I think that technology is an innovation in that space is probably the biggest, biggest thing right now. Definitely. And I'll turn it over to Lola as well, because I want to hear your perspective, you know, from a global, is that the same thing that you're seeing in your experience in Africa? Or is there maybe something else that rises to the top? I think definitely, as Christina said, telehealth is one of them because the only difference in Africa is that access to telehealth is not as widespread as here in the United States in the more developed countries. There is a need for it, but there are a lot of gaps that will not make it as efficient, but the opportunities are there. And when we're talking about opportunities, the opportunities to fill those gaps. And that's actually something we're looking into because like you're seeing, instead, once you see the patient, if you see a physician face to face, what about the lab tests that the patient has to do and et cetera, et cetera. So there are opportunities for growth around the telehealth, okay, of services. But there are other things that I'm interested in, because a lot of it in healthcare, I think prevention is a big deal in Africa or in places that need a lot more healthcare. They have a lot more healthcare needs, because if we can focus on prevention, then I think we can get a lot more done. But part of it is behavioral change. And I'm very excited to see how we can use the current day things that younger people are excited about, like social media, for instance, how does that impact healthcare? That's a lot of things people are into right now. And so I'm excited to see what kind of impact that has to play in healthcare. Yeah. And to your point, things are changing every day, you know, your example of social media and the new tools that people are using to communicate. So there's no shortage of different aspects to look at and, you know, the power they may have in terms of behavior. We have another question from a viewer who is asking specifically about the current pandemic and how that really has shown the need for collaboration and cooperation among the healthcare innovation industry. So, John, I'm going to ask this one for you. Where are you seeing the most collaboration happening right now? Well, you know, there's so much collaboration going on over the place. I'm not going to try to represent that I know at all. The part of the world that I know is in the diagnostics, the point of care diagnostics. And it's just been amazing for me to see kind of the rapid advances technologies had made during a pandemic and how hard individuals had been working and again collaborating amongst, because when you think about trying to deploy tests at the scale of tens of millions per day, that's not a technology solution. As Lola said, I mean, there is behavioral change. There's information technology. There's a whole issue around how you give me this. I mean, that's a huge undertaking. And it's really been tremendous to see that the community really focused on not which one's going to win, but how do we increase the likelihood that we'll have a number of solutions that will work for very different use cases, be it in a school or at home or an airport. There isn't a one size fits all. Tina, I think there's also been a lot of collaboration, not just between medical professionals or researchers, but between the patients and the general public and healthcare providers. I just, I can't say how many friends I know that have had COVID or volunteering to donate plasma or whatever to be studied and how people are really coming together across communities to address the issue. And so I think that's a, and then that even isn't touching on the collaborations between small businesses in communities and healthcare. So I think that there's, it's just really, if there is a bright spot, it is that. Go ahead. Yeah, I just wanted to say that to follow through, the question is, where have we seen the most collaboration? It is with COVID right now because of the severity and the magnitude of it. Everybody's working on it because it has devastated all of us and we don't really understand it. So yes, COVID, but then the consequences or the benefits, so to speak, it's been devastating, but what I've seen is it's an infectious disease. So there's so much research going into infectious disease, not just COVID, but the others as well. So there's so much more research into it and it will continue to be, so I hope. So there's so much collaboration there, vaccines and, and all that kind of stuff. And do you think that collaboration that we're seeing with COVID is expanding really to other disease states and, and types of innovation in your experience, Lola? Yes, it's helpful because now people are listening more. They're more interested in prevention, but my worry is that once COVID is over, will they go back to normal? You know, that's something because that happened with Ebola, for instance, when there was Ebola, a lot of people were collaborative or working together. And then things went back to normal, even though it was not as widespread as Ebola, but in Africa it was significant and everybody was up in arms and working together. And here we have COVID. So I'm just hopeful that after COVID, the unintended beneficial, the benefits that we've seen with collaboration and working on infectious disease, the preventative health and preventative medicine interests and successes that we're seeing will continue post COVID. And that was really my next follow up question as well, because Christina, you mentioned preparedness earlier. And I wanted to get your thoughts as to whether you thought that shift that we're seeing now, you know, while we are seeing it go into preparedness work right now, what do you think we need to do to make sure that that spirit continues on? I think that we've seen hospitals changing policies on how they work with outside groups. So whether it's a tech company like us or, you know, how they form partnerships or collaborative teams or cross-functional teams, we've seen some shift in more openness or more variety in how hospitals can engage with us as we're tackling a problem. So I think that is a step into not falling back into the same old pattern, as Lola mentioned, but I feel like administratively hospitals and research centers need to think, you know, one, do you have the tools to be able to collaborate effectively? And then once you are using those and you've kind of changed the rules about how you do that, and I think it's just operationalizing it, you know, at that point. And I think it does make a difference when it is as global as it is, no pandemic is positive. But, you know, the fact that everybody is dealing with the challenge, I think one of the things I'm concerned about is while there is so much focus here, and this speaks to prevention, I think, maybe not prevention, but so like we do a lot of work with pediatric oncology and so really thinking about the impacts and other areas of care where I think now healthcare has to work with the general population to help them understand, say, like, if you are sick or not feeling well and it has nothing to do with COVID, you still need to be seeing somebody so that cancers aren't diagnosed too late or that, you know, it's progressed to a point where it's a very different treatment you would be dealing with or a very different mortality rate that you would be dealing with. And so I think some of the impacts of COVID right now on other disease areas like oncology are that, you know, tests are being put off, patients are hesitant to go to their healthcare provider when something seems off and they're, or even when it's normal because they are afraid of catching it. So I think that there's got to be a lot of collaboration still in terms of public education and how to manage those relationships with the public around that. And John, I wanted to get your thoughts, you know, given the conversation about diagnostics, you know, specifically what you're working on with RADx and COVID, but also beyond, do you have any thoughts on what Christina just talked about in terms of ensuring people are, you know, adequately equipped and prepared to be able to receive diagnostic services? No, I think she's a spot on with that. But I did want to come back here to the fire point and really reinforce the point that was made about engaging outside of the medical community. And I would argue in particular schools, not just the superintendents, but the teachers, et cetera. I mean, right now we have a another epidemic, which is obesity. And the whole idea of having the level of attention that's paid to COVID and keeping kids safe, I think if we can use that model to really focus on making sure kids are eating healthy, et cetera, et cetera, to address this other pandemic, I think would save a lot more lives. So I think, the point around the engagement where so much in-quote care or prevention is provided outside of the medical community is something that I hope is sticky. I want to shift the conversation a little bit to the topic of disruption. You know, we've talked about a lot of disruptive events and technologies today, but I'm curious where you feel there's the most kind of room for disruption and need for disruption right now in healthcare. Is there something that sticks out? And I'm going to turn it to Lola first to see if you have any thoughts. The room for disruption, I'm trying to think real quick, room for disruption. I think it's for innovations that have to do with low-cost innovations. The lower the cost, the better. Because a lot of the healthcare innovations that we have, well, there are quite a number of low-cost innovations, but not just low-cost, low-cost and amazing innovations that are impacting lives, I think they're very important. So I think there are ways, there's opportunity there because we have these ginormous artificial intelligence innovations like the IBM Watson, but you know, and they're doing amazing things, but then we need the low-cost ones that can be the hands of everybody. So I think there's opportunity for disruption there. Definitely accessibility. Anyone else have thoughts on where they think maybe there's the most opportunity? Well, I think the combination of kind of at the junction of behavior, change and mental health are both things that really have a significant opportunity. We've seen a lot of technologies that have come out that focus on behavior change and you see them get great traction for a week and then things fall off, but then an innovation is a call head space. I think that's the name, that's the mindfulness that's really in this pandemic caught on to help, obviously, with the stress of a lot of people dealing with. So I think those two areas are the ones that I'm not sure what the solution is, but I think solutions in those two spaces would have the biggest impact. I think from my perspective, it's really focused on the patient experience or patient journey and continuity of care. So whether the patient is, and as we think however healthcare evolves after this pandemic, whether it's in hospital or at home or in a clinic or you know, it's ambulatory care or emergency, like how patients move between different healthcare settings and how that shifts over time, how can you provide them continuity and continuity of expectations, continuity of contact and communication, those kind of things I think are really important for patients to be able to navigate the changes healthcare are going through. So, you know, rethinking that whole model of, you know, as a parent, you know, my children had well child visits with a very specific frequency, more frequent when they were younger, annually when they're older, is an annual wellness visit the right thing? Or do we shift up that model to have many smaller visits or in their remote and just thinking about how those things are going to evolve, which ever way it is that continuity of care is the most important thing? All such great answers. And, you know, I think Christina, to your point, even beyond that, what is exciting to me is the ability for us to make data informed decisions about what is that right decision and really pull together so much more information than we ever had before. Yeah, both John and Lola talked about behavioral change and I'm very excited to because I think the things we're seeing with augmented and virtual reality is having when patients engage in a virtual environment, we're shifting away from self-recorded data. Yeah, I did my PT exercises, right? Oh, yeah, I did them three times last week to now like behavioral data that comes from the technology, how the patient was engaging with the technology. And so I think this is a very exciting shift and a big opportunity for like small companies like us to collaborate with larger research institutions who better understand how to leverage the data we're collecting and put it to use, whether it's for prevention or for improving patient outcomes. I think that's where the exciting collaborations are going to come in. So these have been really great questions so far and we're going to get to more soon. But for anyone who maybe is checking in, I just want to do a quick reminder that we are currently accepting questions from the audience. Our experts are here to answer your question so please go ahead in the chat, which is right next to your video player and you can ask questions there or you can ask us on Twitter using the hashtag just tech connect. So we're going to go on to our next question and this one I think really, go ahead Lola. To your last point question, I really wanted to say there's a big it's a ginormous intersection of health and nutrition and there's not been in my mind a lot of disruption there. I think John mentioned obesity and that's a significant problem in how obesity impacts your health in so many ways. So that's a major way that's a that's a major avenue where there can be disruption that I've always I've always searched for health and nutrition. Yes, definitely a really great point and I think we've talked about it a few times here today, preventative care and kind of the real opportunity there for well care instead of sick care. So I think that is such an exciting avenue and this one's going to shift a little bit to John I think really is probably the person this one is for and it's really about collaboration with regulators right now. How can innovators in health care collaborate with regulators to ensure their products and services are approved. I'd love to get your kind of a point of view on this but then also turn it over to Lola and Christina maybe from the startup perspective of your experience. Yeah, from my personal experience, which is primarily US based, the FDA has really done a tremendous job recently in reaching or being responsive to requests. So my strong recommendations reach out and they'll respond. I've got to say too with the COVID SARS testing. They have been so helpful in these emergency use authorizations and being able to provide us very clear guidance that we can then give to our teams that we're supporting around things that they need. So I think they're being very clear, they're being very responsive. So it's been a great change from my perspective over the last few years. So reach out. That's the advice I give you. That's great advice. I think so many people often hesitate to do that and overthink what's the best first step and maybe just taking that first step sometimes is the most important thing. And Christina, I'd like to hear a little bit about kind of how you navigated that, especially in such a new disruptive area. Oh, we did exactly what John said to do. So we literally reached out to, we're not sure that we're trying to go on an FDA approval path. We are a low risk technology application. And if that's beneficial to healthcare in general, we will absolutely consider it, but we wanted to make sure we were informed. So we just reached out to the FDA for a pre submission meeting. We haven't submitted anything to be considered. But they put together a panel of experts that were experts for our area, which was pediatrics and pain. And there was like several experts in that area. And we were able to go through with them and get the feedback we needed before we embarked on either further product development, spending more money without assurance. But for us, we received a large grant. And as a small company navigating that system, we wanted to make sure that whatever effort we put into that grant and coming out of it, whatever outcomes we had, that we have the option that we didn't do something wrong or forget some pathway because we're a tech startup that FDA guided us in how we were going to be collecting that data or some of the protocols. So that was really useful, knowing that not only had we gotten the feedback from the NIH, but that the FDA had weighed in. And so we reached out, asked and we got an hour meeting. It was an hour of a panel of experts time that was priceless. And I'm curious, did you have a similar experience with the private sector or were you more engaging with the public sector so far? Mostly the public. We mostly engage with the public sector. Got it. And Lola, in terms of navigating, I can imagine you're dealing with a lot of layers that are really unique to your business. Can you talk a little bit about how you started off doing that and some of your lessons learned? Yes. A lot of it was a lot of speaking and talking to people and educating them on why what we do is really important. That took a lot of education. But a lot of lessons learned is patience. But even with the regulator question that you asked earlier, everybody's on the same side. The regulators want your novel invention to get to the public. It's just that they want to make sure it's done correctly and it's the safety of the individuals or the safety of the public that they care about. So that's the reason why they're there. So I think their role is extremely important. And for us getting our business off the ground or even our services to the public, it's work getting the people so it's where we to be and be to see. So we work with the government and other companies. It's getting people to understand why we're here and the impact that we're going to make in their lives and getting organizations to understand what we can do for their employees and their bottom line. So if you have employees that are healthier, they're more productive, this less absenteeism, more presenteeism and they will work better and live healthier and they're grateful to you for paying attention to what matters most to their health and their well-being. And so it's a lot of educating and telling people why we're here and why we matter and making them understand. And so really that was it. So another question that we received is specifically on funding and I'm going to put this out to the whole panel for thoughts, but really if you're seeing shifts in funding right now, you know, do specifically to the pandemic and how you think that may shift trends for investors and funding in the future. John? So this is, do you think primarily about commercial investment or government investment or both? I think both. Yeah, well, unfortunately, I think we have continued to see a trend where financially motivated investors are kind of waiting longer and longer and longer to have the startups be able to show that there is a market, not just that their technology works, but there is a market. So I think, you know, that early stage funding, the SBIR type level funding is going to continue to be very important. And we are seeing more in the angel investors coming in, but frankly, they're also kind of shifting later and later. So my strong recommendation is that you keep writing government grants, you look for more translational things. And when you write a, when you write a government grant, clearly, you've got to advance the technology. There's no question about it. That's, that's what the money is for. But at the same time, you should be asking yourself, all right, how does this fit in a commercial setting? So you could be doing it within an academic setting or whatever. But there's no reason why you're not in parallel thinking about the regulatory issues, the go to market strategy to minimum viable product, all of those things. So that would be my recommendation to use the government funding as effectively as you can to advance the technology, but then put the sweat equity in to make sure you're doing all the other things at the same time. And make sure you got someone on your team that's really, you know, thinking about this from a business perspective, because you're a smart professor, because you're a smart postdoc doesn't mean you know how to do a startup business. Christina? So we, you know, I, I've seen a lot of companies, startup companies fold during this time in the pandemic. And I feel like, you know, we were already a venture backed company. And the pattern that I've seen is that investors are tending, at least in my neck of the woods to reinvest in the companies that are showing promise during this time period. And so maybe not a lot of new investments are being made, say in the Midwest, but doubling down on the companies who have shown promise or have shown traction in any sense. But that doesn't mean that they're, we've also raised new money since the pandemic. So we've raised more than 2 million since March. So this is, it's not impossible. It is, but to John's point, like we have a product that maybe we set out with one very specific purpose. But since this has been going on, we've been spending a lot of time understanding how the market's shifting and how our product can serve purpose in this new world, maybe this interim world as well as the future and looking toward trends. And we've shown traction even during the pandemic, hospitals are seeking. There is going, there is an economic crisis, there is no doubt, but innovation that works is being funded, whether it's by government agencies, angel groups or VCs, this is still happening. And it's not, I don't think anywhere near as bad as some of the crashes since the early 2000s. So I think we've got a long way to go. I think we have other areas that are going to be offshoots, not just healthcare innovation, but I think around ag tech, we're going to have a, you know, the food crisis that could be impending because of the issues of people not being able to work or being unemployed or being sick. So when you think about the other areas that are follow on areas, that as long as you're developing innovative solutions that are going to show how it moves the needle, that it's possible. And there have been a lot of economic development agencies that have been doubling down on their regional areas. So I'm in Michigan in the Midwest, and there were multiple groups that received government funding that their sole intent was to invest in startup companies that to help them not have a survival investment, get through it, but also innovation investment. Are you actually tackling problems that are a result of this worldwide change in healthcare? So those are some of the, I think that's what I've been seeing. We maybe, I understand we are super fortunate, but we are laser focused also on understanding, constantly engaging with the market with our customers with healthcare professionals, because we are a healthcare company, but on understanding your market and tracking closely how it's changing and how you can make an impact is there should be no major barrier to funding at this time. Those are some really great tactical tips on how to really approach this and look for opportunities. And I would add to that what we're seeing at JLabs, we are definitely continuing to launch more quick fire challenges, even more I would say than some other years. So looking for those opportunities in the public sector and private sector. And like you're saying, it may be even the regional level to really uncover those opportunities that might be specific for your business is a really great tactic. And just as a, I know we're running low on time. So I want to give everybody a chance to give some final thoughts. And I'd like to kind of add in, I guess one of the questions trying to get in as many questions as possible. And one was in terms of your advice for someone who's just starting out. I know we have a lot of people out there who maybe are considering a startup or they're just starting out and there's always that overwhelming feeling of how do you start out. And I think we've already talked today about not being afraid to pick up the phone and have a conversation. But as everybody goes around with their final thoughts, I'd love to also add that layer that question for you in terms of what your biggest piece of advice would be. So I'll start off with Lola. I think my advice would be find a need, find a significant gap, especially something that maybe you might have experienced yourself. So it's something that you know that you possibly would pay for. So it's something that is not there. And if you would pay for it, somebody else will. And if it's a need for you, it most likely is for somebody else and find the solution to that. That's a good thing to do. That's an important way to start something that is meaningful. And you would probably get a lot of early adopters and it could spread that way. And with regards to funding, you need a way to get funding. So that's my advice. Find something that you have your personal need for and go for it. And just do it. You just need to do it. You can find experts. Coming to a session like this is important because you hear advice, you get resources and find who can help you, who has done it before, a final mentor, find a coach, who has done it before, and sort of they can guide you along the way on how to do it. And I just want to say like I alluded to earlier, it's not always about the innovation. It's not about a healthcare innovation. It's how we can adapt other innovations or other things, other solutions into healthcare. That in itself is in an innovative way. And I think that can also make a difference and potentially stabilize. Thank you. Thank you. And John, I'm going to go to you next. Yeah, I'd really like to reinforce the point that Lola made about starting with an important on that medical need. We see so many times that government grants fund technologies and then I go look for a place to deploy my technology and that often doesn't fail. Let's call that tech push versus clinical pull. And I think one of the key things is when you look at what an unmet need is, make sure you look at a number of different settings. Don't just look at your local hospital, your own personal experience. What you really need to do is to validate that this is an important unmet need and indeed that there would be economic value as well as clearly patient value, but someone at the end of the day is going to pay for it. And if you can't see your way to demonstrating economic value, then it will never go anywhere. Cutting .3 of a FTE of a nurse isn't going to happen. So you really have to understand economics. And last but not least, kind of my key takeaway is it comes back to what I said before. Innovation in healthcare is a learnable, teachable process. Treat it like a discipline like any other discipline. There are many methods out there. The one that CEMET advocates is what we call GAITS, guidance and impact tracking system. There's a free version of that on the web, www.gaits.org. So go to it. I look forward to any feedback. We're adding other solution types as we go forward. So I hope it's useful for anyone in the audience. Thank you. And Christina? Thanks. I think the first thing is you're not just building a technology or product or service. You're building a business. So innovation without sustainability doesn't serve anybody, right? So thinking about not just building that solution, but building sustainability around it. And then it's not just building a business. It's building a community. And I think one of the things that I have seen is it's not just, you know, it's a community of supporters. It's a community. Like Sean was saying, you got to talk to a lot of healthcare professionals. You got to understand the need. You got to understand the economics. That's all building community around a solution. But I think what this pandemic is also teaching us because, you know, underserved populations are hardest hits. And that there is a lot of inequity in healthcare, particularly in a pandemic, that innovation really needs to be inclusive. So if you are thinking about a solution that is going to serve only the wealthiest hospitals or the top research institutions, like something that only people in the 2% can afford, that these are no longer necessarily the desirable innovations that are going to be adopted and use long term, that really thinking about whether you're, we have a presence in Kenya as well. We've learned a lot about how technology infrastructure impacts usage of technology, but even at home learning, understanding rural areas or underserved populations and how your solution can impact in those areas I think is a great start because I see the trend from the pandemic and we're not just looking for one off expensive, you know, the issue with like insulin, like kind of thing that we're looking for a solution that can save everybody. So that is my plea for inclusivity. Such an important one. So thank you. Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts. And I also want to thank everybody who's watching this around the globe and for bringing your questions to us. And even though today's program is just about over, we don't want the conversation about entrepreneurship to stop. So please continue it. We will always be available on Twitter. You can use hashtag just tech connect to ask questions and continue the dialogue. And you can also check back here at just network.org for information about other upcoming events, including programs like this. So thank you so much to our panelists. I learned so much today. I hope everybody else did as well. And, you know, we look forward to continuing the dialogue. All right. Thank you, Tana. Thank you. Thank you.