George Eleftheriou, CEO at Feel. 
Feel: A Digital Therapeutic Solution for Mental Health Feel developed by Sentio Solutions Inc. took part in the 34th Edition of the WT | Wearable Technologies and proudly won the “Top Public Award”. The disruptive start-up founded in 2015 impressed the wearable audiences and jury of the Innovation World Cup Series with the emotion-sensing wristband and app, that allows continuous monitoring and real-time personalized interventions for individuals suffering from anxiety and depression. Feel made a big leap to the Semi-finals of the 11th IoT/WT Innovation World Cup®, stand among the promising winners of the WellTech Challenge and top the Healthcare category. Check out their story of success and explore how mental health issues can be solved with Feel. 
1. HOW DID THE JOURNEY BEGIN?
Back in 2015, the co-founders of Feel, George Eleftheriou and Haris Tsirbas, both struggled with their mental health. Depressive burnouts and panic attacks led them to start psychotherapy. Even though it was a good investment in themselves, they quickly realized that there are many flaws in the healthcare system.
Psychologists, psychiatrists, and patients rely on outmoded forms of analysis to diagnose, evaluate, monitor, and intervene in the treatment process. Unlike all physical disorders that can be monitored e.g. measure glucose in the case of diabetes, there are no objective data and tools for mental health and no mental health support outside the therapist office. More than that, an appointment at the psychologist most of the times is expensive. Therefore, many people end up without getting help. And this is what they decided to change together.
2. WHAT ARE THE MOST MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS SO FAR?
Feel has been awarded and recognized as “TransTech 200” in 2016, “Pioneers Athens”, “Insurance Shaper of the Year 2017”, MITEF Greece Startup Competition and “Top Public Vote” Award at the 2019 US WT | Wearable Technologies Conference. Moreover, we have closed our seed round and have raised a total amount of $1.8 million from Anthemis Exponential Ventures, SOSV, Make in LA and angel investors.
3. WHAT WERE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES YOU FACED IN YOUR JOURNEY?
We would say that stigma was a great challenge. We had prospective investors suggesting that we shouldn’t talk about personal experiences because it would hurt our chances of getting an investment or asking if we are still in psychotherapy to understand if we are “sane” or capable enough. The lack of objective metrics exacerbates this stigma, since mental health remains as something ineffable, something that cannot be quantified.
5. WHAT IS COMING IN THE NEAR FUTURE?
The development of biomarkers for management and evaluation of mental illness, indicators of relapse, mood swings, depressive episodes, panic attacks and more.
6.  WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS?
We want to elevate the digital era, in which even though there is plethora of solutions, there is still subjectivity, self-diagnosis and stigma. We strive to bring to life the Augmented Mental Health era. Our next step is to begin deployments with major Health Plans and Employers in the US and Europe.
6. HOW WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE IN THE IOT/WT INNOVATION WORLD CUP®?
We are very excited to have won the “Top Public Vote” Award at the 34th WT | Wearable Technologies US. It shows that people really need such a solution. The Innovation World Cup® gave us the chance to spread our idea and vision to many more people. It was a great opportunity.
7. DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS FOR THE FUTURE IOT HEROES COMING FROM THE INNOVATION WORLD CUP®?
Choose a cause that you really care about. And choose people who care as much as you do for the cause to make a team.
Explore further: 
Understand how Feel Wristband works and acknowledge the power of technology in recognizing human emotions. Enhance individuals’ mental well-being and learn to obtain a fulfilled life. 
​www.innovationworldcup.com

Accenture has named 11 companies as finalists for the Accenture HealthTech Innovation Challenge, which brings together leading-edge startups with prominent health companies to tackle some of North America’s greatest health challenges.
Attracting more than 2,200 startup applicants in its first three years, the Accenture HealthTech Innovation Challenge supports innovative approaches and solutions for improving the way people access, manage and finance healthcare in North America.
“This annual HealthTech Challenge creates an exciting opportunity to connect healthcare incumbents with emerging businesses to drive health system evolution focused on improving the lives of consumers and clinicians by enhancing access, affordability, quality and experience,” said Brian Kalis, managing director of digital health and innovation services at Accenture. “We are all looking forward to the final round and awards ceremony on February 6, 2020 in Houston when the finalists will present to an exclusive panel of healthcare executive judges.”

Among the innovative solutions being developed by this year’s finalists is a digital coaching program that uses evidence-based methodology to monitor and motivate people working through drug addiction, as well as a solution that harnesses social determinants of health (SDoH), economic, behavioral and environmental information to help payer and provider organizations achieve profitable growth while optimizing healthcare delivery and outcomes.
The finalists were selected by a panel of leading executives from some of the world’s largest health companies during regional events held recently at Accenture’s Innovation Hubs in Boston and San Francisco. The finalists are:

• Capital Rx. New York City-based Capital Rx is a pharmacy benefit manager redefining prescription drug pricing for employers, unions and government entities. Capital Rx’s Clearinghouse Model connects pharmacies and employers to establish a marketplace for drug pricing to reduce costs and create a better experience for both plan sponsors and patients.
• Carrot Health. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Carrot Health provides consumer data analytics to highlight SDoH, engage healthcare consumers, close gaps in care, and optimize performance for payer and provider systems. Its MarketView platform leverages a consumer database — which includes social, economic, behavioral and environmental information — and predictive modeling to deliver a 360-degree view of individual patients/members.
• Cleo. Based in San Francisco, Cleo combines technology with human assistance to provide a support system that fills gaps within the healthcare system to help guide families through the journey of parenthood.
• DynamiCare Health. DynamiCare Health’s digital coaching program uses evidence-based methodology to monitor and motivate people struggling with drug, opioid, alcohol and tobacco/nicotine use. Based in Boston, DynamiCare provides a comprehensive suite of services — tailored to the individual and accessible anytime, anywhere — that address the underlying factors of use and retrains the brain, breaking the cycle of addiction.
• InsightRX. San Francisco-based InsightRX helps hospitals and health systems transition from one-size-fits-all drug dosing to individualized dosing based on patients’ unique pharmacology. With an end-to-end precision dosing solution, InsightRX provides tools to predict and optimize dosing regimens, reach and maintain clinical targets, measure performance, and monitor clinical outcomes.
• Lantum. A company that has had success in the UK’s National Health Service and now doing business in North America, Lantum provides a workforce management platform for healthcare and helps hospitals and hospital systems reduce overtime spend, improve staff utilization and retention.
• Mira. Washington, D.C.-based Mira is building the next-generation health delivery network starting with preventative and urgent care. The company teams with urgent care and primary care clinics to bring affordable prices to its members, who typically can’t afford health insurance and don’t qualify for state-based Medicaid programs.
• Orderly Health. Denver-based Orderly Health uses machine learning to identify and repair inaccuracies in healthcare provider directories, providing up-to-date information to inform healthcare decisions.
• Paloma Health. Based in New York City, Paloma Health is an online medical practice helping hypothyroid patients better manage and treat their chronic condition. Paloma offers the over 25 million Americans diagnosed with hypothyroidism access to thyroid testing, specialized treatment, and ongoing management.
• TCARE. St. Louis-based TCARE is an evidence-based family caregiver support program that reduces long-term care claims for Medicaid and Life/LTC insurance carriers by delaying and preventing nursing home placement.
• Xealth. Based in Seattle, Xealth scales digital health programs, enabling clinicians to integrate, prescribe and monitor digital health tools for patients from their electronic health record workflows.

Already, there are high expectations for 2020. The start of this next decade will see the election of a new president in the United States, the expiration of the United Kingdom’s membership in the European Union, the launch of NASA’s Mars 2020 Mission, and undoubtedly many significant advances in the healthcare space.
Before we look ahead, it’s important to take a moment to reflect on 2019. This year saw notable disruptions in the healthcare industry–many of which were spurred by companies outside the healthcare space.
Here are a few of healthcare’s biggest moments of 2019:
Amazon Launches Healthcare Clinic
One of the biggest tech players expanding its footprint in healthcare is Amazon. This year, Amazon launched Amazon Care, a pilot healthcare service for its employees in the Seattle, Washington area that offers in-person services and a virtual primary care clinic. With the tagline, “Healthcare built around you,” the service aims to provide personalized health services and improve access to care for its employees. The initiative grew out of Haven, Amazon’s joint venture with Berkshire Hathaway and J.P. Morgan which was announced in 2018 as an effort to reduce healthcare costs without compromising quality.
Related: Amazon Launches Medical Transcription Service
Some industry experts speculate that the service is a way for Amazon to test healthcare products in its own clinics; others believe it is a way for them to explore new market opportunities in population health management. Both may be accurate. Amazon has already invested significantly in this project, having recently acquired the company Health Navigator whose services will be rolled into the Amazon Care offering. 
In addition to Amazon Care, the company began rolling out its PillPack pharmacy service to Amazon Prime members in 2019. The service provides free home delivery of prescription medicines; the only cost is the user’s co-pay. Amazon reportedly has another healthcare product in the works as well: Alexa wireless earbuds that integrate with a fitness tracker. Look for more to come on this development in the year ahead.
Apple Unveils ECG-enabled Watch
Apple’s annual new product announcement is one of the most anticipated events of the tech calendar year, and 2019 did not disappoint. Usually the announcement by Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces the company’s latest smartphone, but this year a new Apple Watch took the spotlight, with the company touting the device’s ability to detect irregular heart rhythms and other health issues. The watch is the first consumer wearable with a built-in electrocardiogram (ECG) monitor–software that was cleared by the FDA. By holding a finger on the device, users with the new Apple Watch can access a feature to identify atrial fibrillation, a common form of an irregular heart rhythm. The watch’s ECG app will notify users if it detects an irregular rhythm.
It is important to note the Apple Watch’s new tool has limited capabilities. It will not help detect most heart rhythm abnormalities or worsening heart failure and will not reliably detect the electronic changes associated with a heart attack. If you think you are having a heart attack or any other serious medical condition, always call 911.
The new Apple Watch also contains a feature targeted at the elderly; those 65 and older. A built-in tool recognizes when a user falls and automatically notifies their emergency contact. Experts describe the device as a “game-changer” that can potentially make patient monitoring easier and more regular.
Google Acquires Healthcare Wearables Pioneer
Google also made significant headway in healthcare this year, most notably with its announcement to acquire Fitbit. With Google’s resources and global network, the acquisition is expected to accelerate the company’s innovation in healthcare wearables. Through collaborations with academic medical centers and pharmaceutical companies, FitBit has been studying applications that may potentially enable the device to detect atrial fibrillation, assess sleep quality, and track menstrual cycles among other health applications. The deal, valued at $2.1 billion, equips Google with a device to more directly compete with the Apple Watch’s healthcare capabilities. The FitBit acquisition is expected to close in 2020, pending regulatory and shareholder approval.
We can expect the momentum seen from Amazon, Apple, and Google in 2019 to increase in 2020 as these companies and others seek to further integrate digital technologies in healthcare offerings. With growing industry focus on personalized care and tech disruptors continuing to make waves in the market, the next decade promises to bring a new age of innovation in healthcare. The ‘Big 3’ of tech may very well soon become some of the biggest players in the healthcare space.
Amit Phull, Medical Director and VP of Strategy and Insights at Doximity

With 2020 just around the corner, and value-based care steadily encroaching upon fee for service, the omnipresence of digital health technology can't be ignored as the industry remains laser focused on enhancing healthcare delivery even as it reduces costs. Health technology's increasingly wide adoption brings with it vast opportunities for providers looking to harness it and for patients who find themselves no longer observing as much as participating in their own care as partners.
The broad umbrella of health technology covers categories including mobile health, robotics, wearables, remote monitoring, 3D printing, electronic health records, big data, virtual and augmented reality, telemedicine, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence (AI).
Just as Philips' Future Health Index 2019 proclaimed, evolution and developments in digital health technology really can help pave the way to achieving the Quadruple Aim—usually defined as enhancing the patient experience, improving health outcomes, lowering the cost of care, and improving the work life of care providers. Sounds like a win-win all around.
Managed Healthcare Executive® spoke to three health technology leaders about what they're doing and why they do it in their respective industry categories and gleaned their advice on how to profitably embrace this disruptor now and during the next evolving decade.
Telemedicine: Answer this technology's call
"We do what we do because every life matters," says Joel Barthelemy, CEO of GlobalMed, a telemedicine company in Scottsdale, Arizona. He says the company powers the world’s largest, most advanced virtual health programs by designing and manufacturing integrated software and hardware telemedicine solutions that support a patient at any point in the continuum of care, and at any place, because that's what the marketplace demands.
To hear him describe it, telemedicine has come a long way from humble beginnings in the late '60s. Now, telemedicine's goal is to make primary care available right when patients need it.
"The population isn't going to wait long when we can do so much with technology," he says, forecasting that even better evidence will be attained more quickly without attachment to wires.
By nature, telemedicine has to be everywhere. "That means in Haiti, on Air Force One, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, at overseas military bases, at Johns Hopkins Medicine, or at [Veterans Affairs] locations everywhere," he says. To that end, the company has developed a simple dashboard that integrates and aggregates relevant information—and not just from vitals machines. It includes cameras, and not just video conferencing, as well as precision general instruments that capture images from a patient exam.
With more than 15 million virtual visits, and more than $100 million invested in research and development (R&D), GlobalMed's goal is virtual care "touch points" across the continuum for patients from early-stage symptoms to end-of-life hospice care. "It's the only platform capable of consolidating disparate systems with the integration of hospitals, homes, and clinical locations," he says.
Healthcare is moving away from solely symptoms-based diagnoses, to those with rich data behind them and augmented intelligence, says Barthelemy. Smart health technology executives should always be looking to invest in areas such as AI, as well as dental telemedicine, service lines, and vital signs systems that don't need connectivity, and in technology opportunities in pain management and opioid and substance abuse solutions. GlobalMed, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, most recently acquired TreatMD and ORCAS.
Technology is here to stay, so welcome it with open arms and be flexible, Barthelemy suggests. "This healthcare system will collapse due to high costs if we keep doing things the same way expecting different outcomes," he says.
The Internet of Things (IoT): Something big is happening here
The IoT is considered a system of interrelated computing devices. The advantages of hospitals and health systems using that kind of connectivity technology for better outcomes are huge, but security still has to be intact, says CEO and co-founder Jonathan Langer of Medigate, a medical device security firm, with locations in Tel Aviv, Israel, New York and San Diego, considered an IoT trailblazer, with main bases in Tel Aviv and New York.
"Executives know that part of 'taking care' of patients means ensuring there's no risk posed to them anywhere, and that poses a great challenge," he says. It also means protecting every clinical network from cyberattacks.
According to HealthITSecurity, as of July 2019, more than 25 million patient records were breached, most due to third-party vendors and phishing attacks against well-known companies such as Quest Diagnostics and American Medical Collection Agency.
Managing medical devices demands the highest levels of complexity while being connected to networks, along with more sophisticated equipment, more specialized maintenance, more challenging vulnerability tracking and remediation, and heightened compliance and safety requirements, he says.
Covering the bases, says Langer, means "looking for deviations in patterns from a simple network-level message like, 'Hey, computer, I'm on the network,' to patients' health data needing to get from company A to company B." 
So executives must consider the wide array of devices inside and outside of the hospital: radiation machines, blue code meters, patient monitors, security cameras, and infusion pumps.
"It's not just one central computer," says Langer. "A cyberattacker can not only steal medical records but also place ransomware and find a really good network route to do more damage."
In spite of inherent risks, he's a big proponent of data networking overall. "If we're to harness the true power of data analysis, we can provide better care, better doctors' decisions, and faster diagnoses, and make it all more affordable. Using telemedicine for home health—especially in rural areas—is also very promising."
To effectively and safely use all the options technology presents also means cybersecurity is definitely here to stay.
AI: Be smart about this technology
Just like its name implies, AI can facilitate behaviors associated with human intelligence. As president of Acorn AI by Medidata (a Dassault Systèmes company) and the executive vice president of AI and digital solutions for Medidata, which helps life science companies and academic researchers accelerate value, minimize risk, and optimize outcomes, Sastry Chilukuri leads the charge to analyze clinical trial data in real time and deliver actionable insights to life science clients conducting trials—and there are plenty of those.
It's a father–son kind of organizational structure, since Medidata has provided data management and technology platform capabilities to R&D organizations in the pharmaceutical industry for 20 years.
"We have access to more than 18,000 clinical trials involving 5.2 million patients," says Chilukuri. "As we start to use this data, we can build AI solutions on top of it that can make data 'liquid' across the entire lifecycle and answer the most important questions." That's definitely a plus.
He believes four major categories can fundamentally change the trajectory of a company entering 2020, and executives might want to keep these top of mind:

1. What drugs do you want to double down on and move into clinical trials, considering costs and time? Pick wisely.
2. Once you decide to move and run clinical trials on particular drugs, how do you do that faster and cheaper?
3. In a world with so much data available, how do you demonstrate the value of a product to regulators, insurance companies, and patients?
4. In this era of personalized medicine, how do you help deliver the right treatment to the right patient at the right time?

To fill those needs in a "value-conscious world," Acorn AI, like others in the AI space, has scientists, physicians, technologists, and ex-regulatory officials constantly honing a suite of products.
Chilukuri envisions health technology offering up much earlier disease detection with targeted AI algorithms powering diagnoses, along with smartly tailored treatments for precision medicine, and filling the need for the right body of evidence to drive reimbursement for value.  
At the rate technology is advancing, innovation will continue to be the name of the game, and this is clearly no time to get left behind.
Stephanie Stephens, MA, is a journalist, producer, and host in Orange County, California.