Welcome to Talking Precision Medicine (TPM podcast) — the podcast in which we discuss the future of healthcare and health technology, and how advances in data and data science are fueling the next industrial revolution. 

This episode features two guests, Jennifer Goldsack and Yashoda Sharma, of the Digital Medicine Society, or DiMe. We’re going to get into the nitty gritty of healthcare disparities in terms of access and outcomes, and how digital solutions are a big part of the overall solution. 

Come on in and have a listen.

Links:

 

• Digital Medicine Society (DiMe)
• DiMe Project Portfolio and Upcoming Projects
• CancerX
• Jennifer Goldsack on LinkedIn
• Yashoda Sharma on LinkedIn
• DiMe on LinkedIn

 

Episode highlights:

 

Digital Medicine Society (DiMe)

• DiMe is dedicated to advancing the use of digital technologies to transform healthcare into a more effective, equitable, and secure system.
• DiMe actively supports healthcare innovators and institutions by providing resources to navigate the complexities of digital transformation.

“We’re not here trying to shoehorn digital technologies into every nook and cranny of healthcare, and then we’re going to sit here and say, you know, gosh, we’ve been successful. But rather, what we think about is, what are some of the most pressing and persistent challenges in healthcare that we have simply been unable to address despite decades of trying? And how can we use these new digital tools in the toolbox to try and make forward progress?” – Jennifer Goldsack

Jennifer Goldsack’s Leadership and Vision

• As the founder and CEO of DiMe, Jennifer Goldsack champions the strategic use of digital tools to enhance healthcare delivery, focusing on creating models for integrating technology that prioritizes patient outcomes and equity.

“When we think about the digitization of healthcare, we feel strongly that there’s enormous ROI associated with it, whether that’s commercial return to folks investing, whether that return is improved outcomes to the patients that our industry exists to care for, whether that is improved access, improved equity, we believe all that is possible through the digitization of healthcare.” – Jennifer Goldsack

Yashoda Sharma’s Contributions

• DiMe’s Program Director Yashoda Sharma transitioned from academic genetics research to leading programs that tackle the digital divide within healthcare.
• She now leads initiatives at DiMe that are specifically designed to make digital health tools more inclusive and accessible.

“I’m really passionate about the work that’s being done at the Digital Medicine Society and seeing the impact that we can have on transforming healthcare for everyone is what brought me here.” – Yashoda Sharma

Clarifying Digital Medicine and the Digital Divide

• Digital medicine involves integrating digital tools into everyday medical practices to enhance the efficiency and reach of healthcare services.
• Addressing the digital divide includes improving both the physical access to technology and the skills required to use it effectively in healthcare settings.

Stakeholder Engagement at DiMe

• DiMe emphasizes the importance of including a broad range of stakeholders in digital health discussions, such as patients, engineers, healthcare providers, and policy makers.
• Building consensus among these diverse groups is critical to developing cohesive strategies and solutions in digital health.

“Because at the end of the day, we know one entity or one organization cannot solve the health care problems or even the health equity problems alone. We really need to have all these voices acting together.” – Yashoda Sharma

Addressing Health Equity

• DiMe’s projects aim to reduce disparities by ensuring digital health innovations reach all populations, including the customization of clinical trials to include diverse participant groups.
• Partnerships with regulatory bodies like the FDA are crucial for aligning these initiatives with national health standards and policies.

“With the DE&I project, we created resources that help with using digital technologies, digital tools to identify more patients to be recruited in different clinical trials and to be able to better engage those patients or participants, creating different ways of reaching the participants and then continuing to support them throughout the process. And then we also created resources for the clinical team.” – Yashoda Sharma 

The Role of DiMe in Facilitating Industry Collaboration

• DiMe serves as a catalyst for multi-sector collaboration, aiming to reduce barriers and enhance the return on investment for digital health initiatives.
• The organization has been pivotal in guiding projects like CancerX, which uses collaborative efforts to improve cancer care and research outcomes.

“We created a diverse community that represented the best innovators from across the board and the broader Cancer X membership. I’m sure that every founder who applied actually looked at the cancer community and said, gosh, I see someone who looks like me. I see a group of people who hold my values. We didn’t have to try that hard. We just had to make a decision that this is who we are and behave accordingly.” – Jennifer Goldsack

Future of Digital Medicine

• DiMe envisions a future where digital medicine is fully integrated into the healthcare fabric, transforming the current reactive care model into a proactive health management system.
• The goal is for digital health practices to become so ingrained that they are simply regarded as standard healthcare practice, inherently addressing health equity.

“I would like to see us move towards a system where healthcare delivery and clinical research don’t exist in silos because we don’t need two different data sets anymore, because data can flow in the digital era. I would like to see a system that is focused on keeping people healthy and out of the clinic as opposed to how good we are once someone arrives already sick.” – Jennifer Goldsack

 

This has been Talking Precision Medicine. Please subscribe and share our podcast with your colleagues, leave a comment or review, and stay tuned for the next episode. Until then you can explore our TPM podcast archive and listen to interesting guests from our past conversations.