Hacking Healthcare: Intelligent Decisions and Mobile Health
A chat with Shivie Mannshahia, VP & CTO of Walkingspree
Healthcare innovation is at an all-time high. 2014 had record breaking investments in digital health, and 2015 is keeping pace. According to Rock Health’s mid-year report, funding in this space is growing faster than VC funding overall for the second year in a row.
Despite all of the noise in the healthtech world, we’re at a crossroads. Software is eating the world, as Marc Andreessen noted years ago, but healthcare is still lagging behind for a variety of reasons — expensive, legacy systems, a difficult regulatory environment, or the simple fact that people don’t always do what’s best for them.
At BaseHealth, we believe that the developers and engineers behind today’s most promising technology are the ones who will forge the road ahead, invent new solutions to legacy problems, improve the healthcare experience, and ultimately create a healthier future.
That’s why we’ve started this series — to recognize and celebrate the people who are making healthcare better via behind-the-scenes innovation. We are giving them the spotlight they deserve.
Our third interview is with Shivie Mannshahia, VP & CTO of Walkingspree. Walkingspree is a multi-device, digital-health platform that uses wireless mobile and computer connected activity trackers to record physical activity, and an active social network to keep members motivated and engaged.
Shivie has over two decades of experience in Information Technology. A skilled, hands-on technologist, Shivie has led and managed teams at Fortune 500 companies, Internet Startups and dotcoms. He successfully built his own organization, FeeDisclosure, and his entrepreneurial spirit informs his work at Walkingspree, where he manages and develops progressive technology solutions. You can find him @shivie.
What is the most promising sign in healthcare today? What gets you out of the bed in the morning?
Mobile health will continue to be among the strongest growth groups in healthcare. People are downloading thousands of paid healthcare and fitness apps every day. Easy to use on a daily basis, fitness trackers are catching on fast among consumers, from office workers to healthcare professionals to athletes and even the elderly. That’s why I’m so excited about Walkingspree’s “Mobile First” strategy, which will make Walkingspree a leader in the health & wellness industry. With our singular vision backed by proven technology, we are on track to claim our niche in the healthcare & wellness verticals.
What are you working on right now and how will it impact healthcare and/or the developer world? What are you most proud of in your work?
We have just finished overhauling our health & wellness platform so our users can have a fantastic experience on our site, which will translate to real-time step/calorie information at their fingertips. This data will help users make intelligent decisions regarding their health & wellness. I am proud of the open platform we’ve created. Partners like healthcare insurers or platforms like Apple Health & Google Fit can easily integrate with our platform and take advantage of our rich datasets. As enterprises are adopting mobile and creating a space alongside their core ERP environments, it’s becoming increasingly necessary to support their vision. Walkingspree’s Mobile/SaaS is designed to fill that space and scale with the enterprises’ needs by creating robust and easy to integrate APIs.
3. How will data and privacy issues evolve or change as healthcare continues to innovate?
Privacy will be managed by robust security practices at the provider end and by engaged consumers who have an inherent interest in protecting their data sets. This will be accomplished by implementing security best practices from the get-go in both application design and database architecture.
What do you think it will take to overcome the regulatory challenges healthcare IT faces?
Technology companies who are just getting their feet wet in the healthcare industry are finding that it takes longer to develop and bring healthcare products to market. Even companies like Apple, Google, and Amazon, who have recently developed healthcare apps and devices, are finding themselves unusually tied down by regulation and inspection. To develop ideal solutions for digital health, we have to understand the regulatory environment and effectively manage data privacy and security issues.
Innovative ideas for tackling regulations and agile software development will lead the way to smoother implementations. The most successful companies will invest in processes like internal reviews, which reduce time to market. Healthcare IT will have to keep up as technology advances, and agile development processes will be essential. Continual employee training and career development will be key in maintaining standards of care.
Besides regulation, what else is holding healthcare IT from truly modernizing?
Health IT systems are trapped in legacy infrastructures and self-contained solutions. It’s not that engineers don’t know how to create the right technology solutions or that we’re facing a big governance problem.
The real industry issue is more pernicious: the approach and the methods chosen for integration are opaque and they reward closed systems. Cloud computing will play a big part in unshackling this mindset and moving Health IT towards a better, secure, cheaper, and nimbler toolset for managing healthcare’s complex tasks.
At Walkingspree we’re building our platform to serve our end-clients; meanwhile, we’re developing solutions for partners who want to provide integrated digital-health solutions.
How would you explain your job to your grandmother?
We are part of a digital-health revolution that is making it simpler to understand and less costly to manage our own health. I’m part of an exciting team that has created an easy-to-use application for your mobile phone, which will bring you peace of mind by tracking and managing your health and fitness on a daily basis. My job is to provide a simple tool that everyone can use to lead healthier lives.
How will APIs transform the healthcare industry? If you could create any API for healthcare in an instant, what would it be and why?
APIs will radically change the healthcare industry by allowing data to freely flow into the analytics domain. With better data we can develop a clearer picture of an individual’s health. To some extent, we can predict future ailments and suggest precautionary measures. Healthcare organizations can analyze datasets to proactively combat future epidemics.
I would create an API that provided real-time data regarding the benefits of daily activities. A proactive approach to healthy living is a must these days: healthcare insurers are rewarding people who make daily health a priority by offering them cheaper insurance products.
What advice do you have for young developers getting into the healthcare world?
Many good ideas fade away in the healthcare industry because they don’t fit well enough into clinical workflow or because they appear so disruptive that healthcare professionals won’t embrace them. It’s important to understand the obstacles, behaviors, and cultures that must be corralled if you hope to develop a sustainable, scalable, IT solution for the healthcare industry.
Want to be featured next? Leave a comment about the work you’re doing in the comments below or gives us a shoutout @BaseHealth. We can’t wait to hear from you!
