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For 352 million women worldwide the pain associated with Endometriosis and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) often falls on deaf ears. And for the millions more experiencing Menopause, the disruptive symptoms are written off as “normal.” Women’s pain has long been pushed aside, ignored, downplayed, even relegated to an apparition or a mental health issue. 

The two terms that make up ‘empathetic technology’ seem like antonyms, but their intersection is proving to be a rich opportunity for innovation. At its essence Empathetic Technology strives to bring humans and technology into greater symbiosis than ever before.

The Social Determinants of Health, as a phrase, is polite - a synonym for how income inequality dictates health status. As a concept, it is more complex, encompassing the myriad social structures around us, many that influence our ability to reach actualization. Basic services and our access to them is fundamental (Maslow), beginning with the physiological - air, water, food, sleep, shelter, clothing, reproduction - and safety - personal security, employment, resources, health. The methods for which we fulfill our basic needs is more or less dependent upon financial security. Money pays for safe housing, buys healthy groceries, affords a good education. But sometimes it doesn’t. Or it can’t. Because there isn’t enough of it to go around. And this is when income and healthcare become inextricably intertwined, setting into motion a feedback loop between poverty and chronic disease that only targeted and widespread distribution of resources can break. Public health initiatives, robust data sets, and technology to connect it all helps, but in the wake of COVID-19, the ecosystem relies on a few new players too, like private citizens and increased access.

Bubble baths, long walks on the beach, farm-to-table meals…. As it turns out, these self-love activities are also good for the heart. Stress reduction, quality time in nature, proper movement, and eating well are all part of a heart-healthy regime that your heart will thank you for. Self-love is truly cardiac love. 

This is especially good news because it’s squarely within our power to live well. It’s when the heart isn’t well, however, that cardiac disease can strike. Cardiovascular disease, broadly defined as “heart conditions that include diseased vessels, structural problems, and blood clots,” claims a life every 37 seconds in the United States. Globally, the figure looks more like 17.9 million deaths per year.

Now that we’re well settled into 2020, and the frenzy that is CES and JPM Week are behind us, we have a few predictions about how the next months will go. It’s a unique time in the world. The political climate has pushed us into a state of extreme discourse in which our values must become increasingly precise, while in parallel, the digital health sector has matured significantly. The weight of collective accountability has sparked new avenues for innovation strategy, investment dollars, and ultimately is in service of the patients, the people. At G4A, we anticipate seeing an emphasis on historically underrepresented sectors of the healthcare space, namely, women’s health care issues, addiction, and social factors in big ways in 2020. 

Not too long ago the digital health sector looked a lot like the wild west. Best practices and protocols were established as we went along, both reacting to and establishing a new paradigm of how care could be delivered to the masses. It was much in response to the invention of the internet as to gaps in the healthcare continuum one could drive a truck through, while it simultaneously influenced policy. Today’s maturation of the digital health space has led to remarkable funding growth and more than a few notable IPOs in the last 14 months.

For three days each Fall, the Santa Clara Convention Centers is transformed into a healthcare wonderland, complete with 1,000 of your closest friends in health tech. The on-stage sessions, curated and hosted by Indu Subaiya and Matthew Holt of Health 2.0 fame, are always a hit. Their finely tuned sense of how the past informs the future has been cultivated over decades of paying attention, and being in the audience at the Health 2.0 Annual Fall Conference is a crash course in healthcare transformation. 

One audience favorite is a session called Fireside Chats: Executive Views (the session formerly known as 3 CEOs). It’s a series of pithy, back-to-back personal interviews between a notable CEO and a prominent journalist. Lively, personal, and slightly unscripted, this year’s lineup featured: Glen Tullman (of Livongo, that IPO’d last month), Jonathan Bush (after a controversial departure from athenahealth last year) and Josh Stevens (of DayTwo, who recently raised a solid sum of $50 million.) Here are the highlights…. 

Time travels fast, but innovation is faster. Cultural adoption lags in comparison to the pace of innovation. Every day industry media breaks the news of a technology that can alter an image using your mind. Or entire forests that grow on the sides of buildings. Or Elon Musk sending people to vacay on the moon. What seems outlandish one day becomes normal, seemingly in the blink of an eye.

In all the ways in which digital health elevates care delivery and the patient experience there is one area that seems to universally unite the cause: Oncology. Cancer affects 100% of Western populations, either directly or through a friend or family member. The near-ubiquitous nature of the disease has led to $4.6 billion in funding from the American Cancer Association alone. Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed followed by Lung and Colon. The chances of getting cancer hovers around 39% for men and 37% for women, and yet, the disease remains a mystery. While curing cancer is the dream, many of us would settle for learning how to manage cancer the way one might manage a chronic disease, like diabetes. We are getting closer - but the journey is not without obstacles.