We interviewed Maz Khan a key speaker at Digital Hospital of the Future conference for a mini Q&A.
Professional Background
Maz Khan has over 30 years of experience in the international healthcare industry working with multinational pharmaceuticals and healthcare companies in Australia, Baxter, Lilly, Aventis and Wyeth. He contributed to these companies in operations, sales and marketing and market research management
In his last role as Director of the Head of Healthcare Division of Frost & Sullivan in Australia he advised clients on pipeline development, strategy, policy and new business ventures of pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies in Australia and Asia Pacific
Some recent career highlights include:
Establishing a state-of-the-art business intelligence group in Aventis after moving from Lilly. The group became one of the most valued departments in the company that contributed to Aventis tremendous growth between 2000 and 2004 and beyond.
Investigating the impact of Australian short duration term for data exclusivity compared to other OECD countries and its negative consequences on clinical research and development in Australia and its healthcare industry.
Q&A
Without giving it all away can you highlight what you will be discussing at the conference and why you think it is a must-see session?
The HC market includes Pharmaceutical and biotechnology, medical devices, diagnostic devices, patient monitoring and HC information technology. It is growing at a reasonable rate. However, the growth varies in different sectors. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector that dominates the HC market is growing at a much lesser rate than solutions based on healthcare IT. This is the sector which will continue to contribute to HC as the digitalisation of healthcare becomes more imminent.
The growth of HC is also occurring at different pace in different regions. Although, North America, Europe and Japan are the top markets of HC, the growth in these markets is much lower than in some of the emerging markets. Asia Pacific, Latin America and the rest of the world is growing at much faster rate than the developing world. Even with Asia Pacific there are countries like Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand that are growing at much faster rate than the rest of Asia Pacific.
The other digitalisation of HC is the increasing use of wearable devices. Wearable devices have been around over a decade. They belong to mobile devices group. The initial aim of these devices was to provide information and educations on HC to users. Later they became tracking devices for activity level, heart rate, and sleep quality. They are now moving into bigger space, where the functions have traditionally provided by hospitals, doctors rooms and laboratories
Many more wearable devices are coming into market, for example Samsung is developing a device which will measure blood pressure, glucose level and other vital signs. Some of these devices may leap from science fiction; they are capable of monitoring vital signs and diagnosing around 15 diseases, including tuberculosis, stroke, melanoma and strep throat.
This session is must as it will provide an insight into:
- How the traditional healthcare model is evolving with the technological changes
- The impact of technology on global healthcare
- Australian Healthcare System and its complexities
- Telehealth and it’s critical role in addressing key needs of Australian Healthcare system
- Some recent examples of Telehealth in Australia
The conference is called Digital Hospital of the Future. What are the two key challenges that you see coming up for hospitals?
The two most important administrative challenges facing hospitals around the world are the increasing HC cost and the occurrence of clinical errors. Digitalisation of HC will greatly assist in addressing these two big challenges. Digitalisation will increase the productivity of HC system by delivering more outcomes with the existing resources which will counteract the increasing cost. Simultaneously, the digitalisation will reduce the clinical errors especially errors that are related to wrong dosing of pharmaceuticals and misdiagnosis.
What are the two positive changes that you have seen in the system over the past 3-5 years?
The two most important changes observed in the global and specifically in the Australian HC markets are the use of IT, digitalisation of HC in terms of access of HC records, movements of hospital equipment, use of robotics in surgery. Beside the increasing digitalisation, another big trend in the Australian HC market is the co-operation between public and private sectors. Around the country we are seeing more and more where this cooperation is promising and delivering better HC outcome more efficiently and cost effectively to consumers. This trend will continue into the future as these projects are already delivering positive results.
Looking overseas what can we learn from other countries regarding digital hospitals and innovation?
Governments across the world are also placing more emphasis on prevention of diseases through the involvement of their citizen. For example, in NZ smoking cessations messages were sent out to a group of people. The effectiveness of this campaign was monitored by having a control group who did not receive these messages. The cessation rates were more than twice the rate among those groups who receive these messages. These prevention initiatives will not only enhance the health of people but will be able to contain the HC cost which is associated with increasing ageing population and overcome other related challenges facing developing countries like Australia.
Maz Khan is speaking at The Digital Hospital Conference Dec 8 delivering Telehealth – New Care Delivery Model
Digital Democracy is the chosen Social Media Partner for the event
Find out more about the Conference and get your 10% discount by using code L6285DD5
The official hashtag for the conference is #DigitalHospAU16