Healthredesigned

We may be living longer, but that doesn’t mean we’re ageing well. Thanks to medical advancements, people now have longer life expectancies, albeit living with more medical conditions. In the UK, the average 75-year old has seven conditions. As the ageing population grows, there is an increasing need for senior adults to be able to live at home without resorting to social care. Besides easing financial pressure for government healthcare systems like the UK’s National Healthcare System (NHS), the majority of elderly people do not want to live in formal care—90% of older people surveyed by the NHS prefer to stay at home. Supporting the older population in ageing at home also means designing user-friendly products that improve their quality of life and help them stay independent and safe. But how do we make that happen? In this episode of HeathRedesigned, we chat with Eric Kihlstrom, the UK ambassador of Aging2.0, a global volunteer network that supports innovators and entrepreneurs who are taking on the challeng

We can track everything from the number of steps we’ve walked to our heart rate, so why not a woman’s fertility? With more and more women wanting to interpret their menstrual cycles from understanding their bodies to becoming pregnant, there’s a need for comprehensive fertility care solutions that aren’t just convenient, but also reliable. Based in Zurich and San Francisco, Ava Women has designed a bracelet, app and self-learning algorithm that tracks women's menstrual cycles, giving them accurate and reliable data about their fertility and how their cycle fits into the bigger picture of their reproductive health. On this episode of HealthRedesigned, we chat with Allison Sarno, Head of Design and User Experience at Ava Women. She shares how Ava Women is using technology to revamp women’s health and helping women understand their bodies better, whether they’re tracking their cycles or determining the right moment to conceive. Listen to this HealthRedesigned podcast episode on Hanno's website Links mentioned in

What if you could take a blood test without leaving your home? Getting regular checkups and tests at the local GP may seem like a beneficial idea, but the reality is that people in the UK rarely book appointments to see a doctor unless they’re feeling unwell. In a bid to get more people to take charge of their health, London-based startup Thriva, is giving people easier access to preventative healthcare through a finger-prick blood test kit that can conveniently be taken at home before being posted to a lab to be analysed. In this episode of HealthRedesigned, we chat with Hamish Grierson, CEO and Co-founder at Thriva who tells us why he and his co-founders started the health service that’s empowering consumers to take proactive steps towards better health and what’s in-store for Thriva’s future. Listen to this HealthRedesigned podcast episode on Hanno's website Links mentioned in this episode: Thriva Twitter Facebook Instagram

Determining which supplements to take can oftentimes become a guessing game. With hundreds of thousands of different sources out there on the different vitamins and supplements that can boost health and prevent diseases, how does one decide which of that information is actually relevant to them or which experts to trust? This is where New York startup, Care/of, leaps in to get to know their users through an A.I.-powered quiz before providing vitamin recommendations that are tailored to a person’s specific needs, health goals and lifestyle choices, which can then be customised into a monthly vitamin subscription. In this episode of HealthRedesigned, we chat with Akash Shah, co-founder and Head of Product at Care/of who tells us how this vitamin subscription company for the modern age is guiding consumers to understand which supplements are right for them and how they plan to complement their products with tools that build positive habits. Listen to this HealthRedesigned podcast episode on Hanno's website Links

A woman’s body goes through various sensations throughout pregnancy, which is their body’s way of communicating the progression of their pregnancy. However, understanding most of these signs, like contractions, can be a puzzling experience for women, often sending them into a state of worry and wondering if they should go to the hospital—which can be timely and costly if it turns out to be a false alarm. Bloomlife is the first pregnancy wearable that automatically tracks contractions and provides real-time data and patterns to help pregnant women and their partners interpret contractions better, reducing anxiety and taking the guesswork out of going into labour. On this episode of HealthRedesigned, we meet Molly Dickens, the Head of Content and Community at Bloomlife. She shares how Bloomlife is helping pregnant women to better connect with their bodies and see how it’s naturally preparing them for birth, redefining the future of prenatal care. Listen to this HealthRedesigned podcast episode on Hanno's websit

For many women, getting access to birth control safely and on time is a vital healthcare need. Even with health insurance, the cost of getting birth control can be a deterrent and can prevent some from accessing the drugs they need to enable them to take control of their health and ultimately, their lives. Dr. Edvard Engesæth and Michael Rurka share how Nurx is providing women in the U.S with more convenient access to birth control and PrEP from online consultations with physicians to delivering the drug right to the user’s doorstep. Listen to this HealthRedesigned podcast episode on Hanno's website Links mentioned in this episode: Nurx Twitter Facebook

Marius Aabel is a co-founder and CTO at No Isolation, a Norwegian startup that’s tackle social isolation and loneliness by designing digital solutions that bring people together. Marius tells us why social isolation is such a pressing problem and how they’re designing solutions to solve an important problem can affect everyone regardless of age. Listen to this HealthRedesigned podcast episode on Hanno's website Links mentioned in this episode: No Isolation Twitter Facebook Instagram

Jean Anne Booth is the CEO and Founder of UnaliWear the makers of the Kanega watch. This watch is a self-contained voice controlled watch that offers emergency assistance, guide me home assistance, medication reminders, and fall detection. It helps seniors to be more independent, active, and safe. This idea came about when Jean Anne wanted to create a simple, easy, and convenient way for her mom to stay safe while still maintaining her style. Current Personal Emergency Response Systems on the market were big, bulky, and had limited functionality while still requiring charging. There wasn’t a device that was a good solution for her mom, so she made one. Episode Highlights: Unaliwears mission is to extend independence to seniors with dignity and independence. They have now extended the service to vulnerable people overall. Jean Anne’s mom was turning 80, but she didn’t want to wear an emergency alert. Jean Anne wanted a way for her mom to maintain independence and still be safe. She decided to build the Kanega

Imran Cronk is a co-founder and CEO of Ride Health, a platform that helps patients get rides to and from their medical appointments. There is a transportation barrier. It not only affects patients, it also affects health care providers. Imran has an amazing story of how human compassion and empathy turned into an idea. He was a volunteer in a hospital and a patient was discharged around midnight with no ride home. This man was also older and had compromised vision, yet he was planning to walk 8 or 9 miles home since he didn’t have any other options. Imran gave the man a ride home. This not only helped a fellow human in need. It also sparked the idea for Ride Health. Episode Highlights: How critical barriers to transportation include having lower incomes, being elderly or disabled, and living in rural areas. How there are great resources for emergencies, but non-emergency resources are what Ride Health focuses on. One of the problems with the existing NEMT system is that the payer system is very fragmented. I

Adam Diehl is the lead product designer at Headspace which is an app that teaches guided meditation and helps people live more mindfully. The mission of Headspace sounds simple, but it is far from it. It is to improve the health and happiness of the world. Headspace knows that this is an ambitious and broad goal, but that is intentional because it starts with changing behaviour and perspective. As people become aware of how they feel physically, emotionally, and mentally, they become more aware of the world around them and learn to empathize, and that makes the world a better place. Episode Highlights: The lofty goal of Headspace to create a domino effect of change through awareness. How Andy Puddicombe, Headspace co-founder, moved to Tibet and became a monk for 10 years. He realized he could apply what he learned to a modern day lifestyle. The other co-founder, Rich Pearson, met Andy and they decided to create the Headspace app and reach people digitally. They have 18 million downloads. Things have come a l

Louis Pinot is the Co-Founder and Head of Product at Implicity a platform that allows healthcare professionals to remotely monitor medical devices for patients who have chronic diseases. It uses artificial intelligence to analyze data from high-risk patients with devices like pacemakers. It is their goal to improve the lives of people with chronic diseases. Louis explains that big data is providing a huge opportunity to provide people with better health care. The two main sources are genomics and connected medical devices, so they are trying to build better tools for physicians. We talk about the existing market for heart implant devices, the benefits of monitoring these devices, and how this new cloud-based platform can improve patient care. Episode Highlights: Their initial product is for devices implanted in patients hearts. This is one of the most mature verticals. They also have a lot of clinical proof that monitoring these devices improves patient care. The original idea was to use AI as a service for

Today’s guest is Ali Namdari. He is the co-founder and product designer at MedPics. This is an app that allows healthcare professionals to share clinical cases and get advice from their peers. It is being used by over 30,000 users including doctors, nurses, medical assistants, and students in France. MedPics was inspired by a doctor that Ali knew who worked in an emergency room. She would take pictures of interesting cases and share them with her peers. This resulted in a long and unruly email feed. They also experimented with creating a LinkedIn format for chat and photo sharing. Ali and his co-founder eventually created a simple Instagram-like version that evolved into MedPics. Episode Highlights: It took about 5 or 6 months after Ali and his co-founder partnered with a student to get the first iteration of their app created. They now have a full-fledged branded app. Design challenges they have faced included working and testing remotely. Designing for medical users was also a design challenge. Ali also us

Today, I am talking with Sydney Johnson a Human Factors Research Associate at W21C a health systems research and innovation initiative based at the University of Calgary’s O'Brien Institute for Public Health and Alberta Health Services. W21C researches and tests prototypes for hospital design, new approaches to healthcare, human factors, and other medical technologies to improve the delivery of healthcare. Sydney also has a background in UX design and service design. W21C is a university-based non-profit with a vision of making care better and defining the future of health. In 2004, the idea of creating the ward of the 21st century was born. The Foothills Campus is inside of Foothills hospital, so it is a real medical ward and they have access to a patient care setting. They also have the W21C research and innovation centre and a simulation lab. Today, Sydney shares how the organization is moving forward with healthcare innovation and design. Episode Highlights: The W21C has a 40 person interdisciplinary tea

Today’s guest is Scott Sundvor the co-founder and CPO of Nima a portable gluten sensor that tests your food and detects whether it contains gluten. Scott and his co-founder both have food issues and sensitivities. The two of them bonded over the idea of giving people more information about what is in their food. They started focusing on gluten, but they have a long-term goal of helping people connect the dots between their food and health. In the US, there are about 3 million people with celiac disease along with about 20 million with gluten intolerance. Plus, about a third of the population is trying to avoid gluten. The awareness of gluten and issues revolving around it are increasing. Incidences of allergies and intolerances are also increasing. Scott shares how they started their business and product and a lot of great information that revolves around food, diet, allergies, sensitivities, and health. Episode Highlights: How Scott and Shireen bonded over the thought of connecting people to food and health

Tech is everywhere which is amazing, but it is starting to get in the way of work and personal relationships. The result is that people are feeling distracted, stressed, and are trying to multitask more and more. People are also having communication issues and trouble disconnecting. In personal relationships, people are not as present with family and friends as they should be. Today, we interview Andrew Dunn who is working on a tool to help people resist digital dependency. Andrew Dunn is the Co-founder and CEO of Siempo a San Francisco based company with a mission of helping people build better relationships with technology. They are the designers of the “phone for humans” which is a new phone that helps people gain control over their time and attention while living more in the present. Too much screen time is something we can all relate to, and this is a wonderful idea. Episode Highlights: How tech can do so many amazing things, but we aren’t always able to achieve our personal goals. The way Andrew and Si

Welcome to the Health Redesigned podcast by Hanno. We invite changemakers in health and wellness to share their stories about how they're using design and technology to build life-changing digital products. My name is Laila and my guest today is Pieter Doevendans. He is the co-founder of Ava, a startup based in San Francisco with a mission to empower deaf and hard of hearing people with total accessibility. Ava has created an app that transcribes what people say into text messages, making it easier for deaf and hard of hearing people understand conversations and communicate with others. In this episode, Pieter shares his co-founders story of growing up in a deaf family, the difference between deaf and hard of hearing people, some of the early attempts and challenges of designing their app, and much more. Episode Highlights: Pieter shares the mission of Ava and how there was a gap in solving the communication issues of group conversations. The story of Thibault and his deaf family, and how he is culturally de