Your Professional Life Must Begin At The End Of Your Comfort Zone
When we think of contractors (at least in Europe) a physician usually not comes up our mind. The plumber across the street or the my best friend’s hairdresser, but …
Author: Lukas Zinnagl
Only When We Learn How To Die Then We Learn How To Live
The headline of this post comes from a book called Tuesday with Morrie. Maybe some of you read it. The quote has been used by a Singapure-based physician named Dr. Richard Teo, who not only millions as a physician but also mingled with the rich and famous. Contrary to that lifestyle he had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and has passed away a couple of months ago. There is a really touching video of him talking to a class of medical students. The quality is rough, but you should go ahead and see it all the way to the end. You can read a transcript here. At one point in the video he says something very substantial: Was the pain, was the suffering the patients went through real? No. Of course I know all the medical terms to describe how they feel, all the suffering they went through. But in truth, I did not know how they feel, not until I became a patient. It is until now; I truly understand how they feel. And, if you ask me, would I have been a very different doctor if I were to re-live my life now, I can tell […]
Europe’s First Award For A Social Campaign in Healthcare
Public Health is definitely not known for cutting edge communication. It’s about time to prove the world otherwise, thus Europe’s largest social network for medical professionals, DocCheck, has put together an award to change this.
Hacking Health
When MedCrunch was started almost two years ago, our goal was to provide a blog from physicians, for physicians. With a variety of topics, ranging from startups, to medical devices and happiness, we set out to create something we didn’t find in the publishing world.
HealthBox Is Coming To Europe – Applications Open
Healthbox, a startup accelerator dedicated to founders who want to build something in and for healthcare, is coming to Europe. Until now, the initiative had only been open to US based entrepreneurs, which major events happening in Boston and Chicago. A so-called “accelerator” is a great idea. An Entrepeneurs problem in the early days if by definition “experience”. With a vast network of mentors an accelerator program, like Healthbox, are often an important starting point for first time founders. Thus, if you are a physician, interested in starting your own business, then this might be just the right place to go to. Here’s a list of startups that have evolved from the US events and we are eager to see the quality of startups here in Europe. Unfortunately, in our experience, the quality, in terms of founders dedication, team, business case, pitching to execution, of healthcare startups is inferior to other tech genres, such as dating or e-commerce. But the spread of accelerators (or comparable “incubation” models such Rock Health, BluePrint Health and various others) is clearly helpful to make the health startup space itself more professional and “investor-friendly”. No matter which accelerator you chose to apply for we suggest […]
The KOL Of The Future
Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) are still one of the most important corner stones for the marketing machines of pharmaceutical companies. Their network, expertise, reach and authority is what pharma is interested in. We’ve written about KOL stardom in the past and how to attain it. In this post I’d like to take a closer look at the implications social media has on KOL’ism. First off, let me tell you one thing – I am sick of the term “social media”, it’s being used so ubiquitously and so often that it doesn’t mean anything anymore. I mean think about it – the whole internet is social. Show me a site where you can’t “like” or comment stuff. That’s the essence of social media and web 2.0. But that’s another story. Let’s put these linguistic talks aside and get real: social media is here to stay and the day will come when even doctors will embrace it as professionals. The future KOL must understand that. She must be able to interact with social media and interact with strategic peers on a far superior level. Usually, authority has always been a regional phenomenon, only a few enter the “stage of the world”, as the […]
We See What’s Possible
Franz and I recently had a short phone call and then Franz said something that struck me: “We see what’s possible”.
As we are doing a lot of times we were discussing what the “digital physician” is and consequently what th…
Healthtap Overhauls Product And Hints To Future Business Model
When Healthtap received $11 million in funding we were excited to see how they are going to use the money on the product side – now we know. Last week the startup has released an entire suite of apps for iPhone, iPad, Android and the Web. The new HealthTap provides people with a faster and more personal way to connect and interact with doctors. The site is moving from a curated Q&A platfrom between physicians and patients, towards a more telemedicine approach and aims to build that virtual doctor-patient bridge many startups have tried to build already, but have failed (i.e. Hello Health). Apart from a visual revamp (which ressembles the current trend of using big photographs as background images) and the enhancement to their core web application, the mobile apps seem to be the primary channel where the company hopes to link both groups. As it reads from the press release, the mobile approach is really interesting, since it comes with micropayments and thus shows and interesting way how Healthtap plans to monetize in the future. Private Health Conversations: Ask specific questions to the doctor of your choice in a HIPAA-secure environment from your iPhone, iPad, Android device, or PC. […]
An Intimate Interview With Jeff Tangney, Founder ePocrates & Doximity
We’ve sat down with one of the most seasoned and respected entrepreneurs and thinkers in healthcare these days. Jeff Tangney, who not only co-founded ePocrates and brought it to the NASDAQ, but who has recently also founded Doximity, a startup that hopefully will eventually replace the physician’s fax machine. Enjoy! MC: When you started your companies, what was the biggest challenge–the market or the competitors in the market? JT: When we founded Epocrates, there wasn’t really a market for mobile applications. No one had created them before, but as physicians and friends-of-physicians we realized that doctors—who go from exam room to exam room, hospital to clinic—needed mobile technology more than anyone. In general, a lot products have been created in health technology that really aren’t designed or made for doctors. Rather, they’re made for the billing administrator at the hospital or for the government to monitor compliance. Our focus both at Epocrates and Doximity really is supporting the physician, and helping him or her save time. MC: So, why healthcare? There are a lot of other areas where you can make money and help people substantially. No question, healthcare’s on top, but why 15 years in healthcare? JT: The more […]
Segway + Wheelchair = Whill
Wheelchairs have been a tremendous help for handicapped people, yet little innovation has happened, except for chunky, big motorized versions of traditional wheelchairs. A Japanese company has introduced something that looks a little like the Segwa…