It was at ESCP in Paris that Clarissa Gorin’s passion for the intersection of healthcare management and technology began to blossom. During her MSc Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Management programme, she teamed up with former fellow students from the Faculty of Pharmacy on a project to tackle the proliferation of counterfeit medicines in Africa.
The students’ solution? Blockchain technology. “At the time, blockchain was making a lot of noise, and its application to the health tech sector was very promising,” Gorin recalls. This distributed ledger technology offered a secure and transparent platform for tracking the journey of pharmaceutical products from manufacturer to end-user. With its immutable nature, blockchain helped to curb the circulation of fake medicines and to safeguard patients.
The project underscores how healthcare technology offers a unique opportunity to make a tangible and meaningful impact on the lives of individuals and communities. After graduation, Gorin joined Ad Scientiam, a Parisian startup from the Paris Brain Institute focused on tracking and monitoring how serious chronic diseases progress in real life, helping healthcare practitioners to manage them better and accelerating clinical research. “We work mainly on neurological and rare diseases,” explains Gorin, the company’s head of medical affairs.
I’ve seen lots of media noise about AI replacing human doctors, but I think AI will become a critical tool to augment the practice of medicine and reduce the burden for healthcare practitioners.
Digital biomarkers: revolutionising patient care?
Those are two exciting fields of work (neurological and rare diseases), among many promising opportunities for innovation within the health tech sector today. Gorin singles out Ad Scientiam’s work on digital biomarkers. These hold promise for improving healthcare by enabling continuous, remote monitoring of patients, providing real-time feedback, personalising treatment plans, and facilitating early detection of diseases. “They also have the potential to improve clinical trials by providing objective, reliable measures of outcomes and enabling more efficient and cost-effective drug development processes,” she adds.
These biomarkers can include a wide range of physiological, behavioural or environmental data — heart rate variability, sleep patterns, physical activity levels, voice/speech parameters, cognitive function, and more. And they’re derived from data generated by digital technologies such as smartphones, wearables, sensors and other software medical devices.
Embracing emerging technologies in healthcare
Gorin sees these emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and virtual reality, as playing a critical role in the future of health tech.
“I’ve seen lots of media noise about AI replacing human doctors, but I think AI will become a critical tool to augment the practice of medicine and reduce the burden for healthcare practitioners. For example, diagnostic tools can improve real-time decision-making for clinicians, by analysing data from patients’ medical records, as well as medical guidelines and drug interactions to improve treatment recommendations,” she explains.
When it comes to VR, Gorin says the sci-fi technology could make a strong impact in the field of digital therapeutics, which are interventions driven by software programmes to prevent, manage, or treat medical disorders and diseases. “For instance: VR can be used to treat chronic pain or aid in rehabilitation by incorporating sensors and AI technology to provide real-time feedback and guidance to patients during their rehab exercises,” says Gorin.
Addressing key challenges in health tech adoption
However, before such solutions can be widely adopted there are key challenges that the tech sector and professionals like Gorin will need to overcome. First among them, she highlights patients’ scepticism. “Patients feel they are being flooded with tonnes of new digital tools that arrive on the market. And they don’t know which device or application to choose. This can lead to miscomprehension and frustration.”
To counter this, Gorin says that healthcare authorities need to develop systems that provide reliable information and recommendations about digital health tools, helping individuals make informed decisions about which ones to utilise. “By centralising trustworthy information and guidance, these referencing systems can help bridge the gap between patients, clinicians and emerging digital health technologies,” she adds.
One way to foster trust and credibility among users is to improve diversity and inclusion. It’s critical in every industry but Gorin says it’s perhaps even more so in health tech, because companies in this space need to better understand the needs of patients and create solutions that address those needs.
“The majority of participants in clinical trials identify as white, which can lead to a lack of understanding about how treatments affect other racial and ethnic groups,” says Gorin, adding this can result in ineffective treatments or unknown side effects when new drugs are released to the general population. It also perpetuates health inequalities by limiting access to cutting-edge treatments for minority populations, she adds.
The majority of participants in clinical trials identify as white, which can lead to a lack of understanding about how treatments affect other racial and ethnic groups.
Navigating the future of health tech
On the flip side, she notes that health tech advancements have improved access to clinical trials, reducing the need for patients to visit physical sites, thereby alleviating burdens associated with travel and increasing participation. But Gorin says that improving digital accessibility, especially for elderly populations with hearing or sight impairments, presents significant challenges. “Therefore, it’s logical to prioritise technologies that are user-friendly and cost-effective, such as smartphones. This approach helps make digital resources more inclusive and accessible to a broader range of users.”
Such a focus will be critical for any aspiring young professional hoping to enter this field. What other advice does Gorin have for them? “It’s crucial to remember that developing a health tech project requires a different approach than creating a standard tech product. For example, it’s essential to focus on developing technology that brings clear benefits to either the organisation or the patient.”
In other words: prioritise solutions that are practical and directly address the needs of people or healthcare providers, rather than solely focusing on flashy or complex technological features.