Startups, Innovation, Entrepreneurship

MobiHealth is the 4th International Conference on Wireless Mobile Communication and Healthcare. The 4th edition of MobiHealth proposes to continue and extend the focus areas of the first three editions, emphasizing on specific research and scientific challenges in the Healthcare Technology domain faced in Europe and globally and hence more interactive input from industry. The objectives of the conference are to advance medical diagnosis, treatment, and patient care through application of wireless communications, mobile computing and sensing technologies. Contributions will be solicited regarding the interdisciplinary design of efficient protocols and technologies to help implement and provide advanced mobile health care applications. The essence of the conference lies in its interdisciplinary nature, with original contributions cutting across boundaries but all within the ambit of the application of mobile communications (technologies, standards, solutions, methodologies, …) aiming at the improvement of human health.

MobiHealth 2014

Apparently I have completed >40 interviews which correspond to >10 hours of material as a humble Host at TechTalksCentral.com over 2014. 

I decided to pick a few of my favorites and create this short playlist. Thanks to the TTC production team all the interviewees were of course outstanding, so the choice was made purely on content that I seem to resonate with (also on clips that I didn't hate my speakage too much ;) )

Hope you'll enjoy too. 

Selected Interviews from Tech Talks Central

Innovation & Future Trends interviews grouped together under one playlist

Innovation & Future Trends

Dr Robert A. Stegwee, a Principal Consultant for IT in Healthcare with Capgemini Consulting, explains what we mean by digital Personal Health Record (PHR) and how it extends far beyond hospitals and traditional healthcare services. We also talk about the current status of PHR implementations, adoption, and use cases such as telemedicine; highlighting the central and critical role of PHR in the evolution and realization of eHealth in general. Interviewed by TTC’s George Voulgaris


TTC #55. What is the Digital Personal Health Record?

Dominique Hazael-Massieux, lead of all things mobile at W3C, explains the work the organisation does with keeping most web technologies available to all under royalty free schemes. He talks about HTML5 and how the time for its standardization has finally come; the inevitable fragmentation periods; cross-platforms and more. Interviewed by George Voulgaris for Tech Talks Central.


TTC #32. A 20 year anniversary for the W3 Consortium

A fireside talk with Paul Papadimitriou reveals how he sees trends and announcements at Mobile World Congress 2014. As an unstoppable force he covers the race to the next billion (Facebook), low cost phones, platforms, mobile payments, ecosystems, apps, IoT, education, developers and everything new in the emerging markets. Not to be missed. Interviewed by George Voulgaris for Tech Talks Central.


TTC #36. Paul Papadimitriou analyst & consultant talks mobile trends

The Google I/O keynote was epic in at least one respect, length. For three hours Google laid out the near horizon for all things Google. This included the next version of Android; a new platform for connected watches; Google for your car; yet another Google TV; and a new health platform. Andreessen Horowitz’s Benedict Evans plowed through it all, including what was noticeably absent: Google+ and Google Glass. What the future looks like as the lines between mobile apps and web pages blur, and why Google is the new Microsoft -- in the best possible way.

a16z Podcast: Google I/O -- A Three-Hour Tour (in 30 minutes)

Around the firm we use “software eats the world” as a guide for how technology will impact every industry and every person – from education to healthcare and government. As a16z marks its five-year anniversary, we turned to the fellow who came up with the thesis, Marc Andreessen, to explain how it’s rippling around the globe. And to break down all the implications for building companies and managing people we tapped a16z's cofounder Ben Horowitz. With both “a” and “z” in the room, this segment takes stock of the technology industry and startup ecosystem – from entrepreneurs to investors, and where it’s all headed next.  Part one of two.

a16z Podcast: Ben and Marc Explain (Practically) Everything – Part 1

Professor Gianlucca Lazzi opens the conversation with the renowned ‘bionic eye’, an artificial retina to restore vision to the blind. With over 20 years experience in biolelectromagnetics for implantable devices he mentions his research in hippocampus implants and neurostimulators in general; the role they play in health and how these can affect human lives in the future. In an effort to simplify advancements in sensor technology he explains what liquid metal sensors are and their possible advantages. He goes on to foresee the future in implantable devices and restoring senses to patients. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks central.


More Info

TTC #98 Artificial Retina and Neurostimulators, Dr. Gianlucca Lazzi

Mr. Ioannis Tamposis is a healthcare IT expert working for OraSys that offers innovative healthcare services. They have developed a platform for managing medical imaging workflows in an enterprise level which can be integrated among all radiology equipment and applications. OraSys is also involved in the HPV Guard Project, a decision support system based on advanced clinical theranostics protocols for the cost-effective, personalised management of HPV related disease. Interviewed by Venetia I. Kyritsi for Tech Talks Central.

TTC #97 From R&D to a Healthcare Workflow Management platform, Ioannis Tamposis

Dr. Georgia Chalvatzaki tells us about MOBOT; an ambitious European FP7 project still in evaluation stage, that uses an intelligent robotic walker to assist elderly or reduced mobility people get up from a chair and walk around, during their daily life. It is an easy to use, yet highly sophisticated and self-learning system that gradually recognizes the habits of its user and helps him (or her) overcome most difficulties. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.

TTC #96 An intelligent robotic walker for assisted living, Dr. Georgia Chalvatzaki

Prof. Athanasios Kakarountas combines his deep knowledge of informatics & computing with marketing techniques in order to design and produce marketable products, useful for everyday assisted living. Starting from his commercialised projects, including a pillow with sensors and an insulin injecting automated system, he talks about his new project which aims to assist elderly by making slight design changes to known household devices that can bring technology to their life in a non-invasive way. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.

TTC #95 Disappearing computing for elderly assisted living, Prof. Athanasios Kakarountas

Dr. Themos Kallos, Vice President and Chief Science Officer of MediWiSe, describes two important projects his company is working on, which are based on RF properties. The first one uses special antennas for microwave tomography on cancer patients while the second uses V-band waveguides for glucose sensing, in a non-invasive way thus avoiding the painful needles. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.

TTC #94  RF in Microwave tomography & Glucose sensing, Dr. Themos Kallos

The field of non-invasive Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) is gaining massive momentum as startups, companies and researchers are pushing hard. The race on BCI research is on improvement of the efficiency and the accuracy of the systems, while some of the first commercial efforts are testing the waters with several affordable devices already available to consumers. Professor Bin He, a pioneer in the field of Biomedical Engineering, talks about the ground-breaking research currently being done at the University of Minnesota in decoding brainwaves more accurately and reliably using non-invasive interfaces. We discuss the already impressive results of a  brain-controlled helicopter experiment, some of  the present challenges and the upcoming breakthroughs in the field of Brain Computer Interfaces. Interviewed by George Voulgaris for Tech Talks central.

TTC #109 Your brain as the ultimate controller, Prof. Bin He

Data is changing healthcare. Health information systems deal with the entire pipeline of health related data from data capture/acquisition, information extraction, Data analytics and interpretation, presentation and decision support. We had the opportunity to talk with a distinguished guest Dr May D. Wang, Associate Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. In the first part Dr Wang gives an overview of the role of data in healthcare and some of the key challenges in adopting and exploiting the benefits of new information systems in healthcare. We talk about the increasing role of personal and personalized healthcare solutions, the stakeholder landscape and the importance of managing change in legacy healthcare environments and ecosystems. At the last part of this interview Dr. Wang talks about the extensive educational and training activities that are currently in progress: from online Master-level courses in bio-medical data analytics for young scientists to patient training and hospitals/physicians decision support systems. Interviewed by George Voulgaris for Tech Talks central.

TTC #121 How Data and Data Analytics change healthcare, Dr. May D Wang

Cloud processing, storage and distribution is driving many core operations, services and applications in the IT infrastructures of modern organizations. As a result, public and private cloud deployments are an essential and critical piece of the IT puzzle. We talk with Enrico Mercadante, Cloud and Technical Operation Leader, Cisco South Europe, about Intercloud Fabric: the worldwide network of interconnected clouds. Driven by Cisco and a growing number of partners, Intercloud enables the standardization of hybrid clouds which seamlessly combine public and private cloud deployments. Interviewed by George Voulgaris for Tech Talks Central. 


TTC #135 Intercloud: bridging public and private clouds, Enrico Mercadante

Norbert Sagnard a man of many hats talks about the Northern Ireland pavillion at MWC, what kind of startups they were hosting ie. security; what it takes to succeed in Northern Ireland and how the state is helping startups get off their feet with grants, schemes and accelerators. He goes on to talk about his own investment interests and the opportunities he sees in the mobile and technology fields. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.

TTC #139 Investing in Northern Ireland and Mobile Startups, Norbert Sagnard

Ian Parness and Brad Folkens explain how the difficulty of searching on the mobile led to the creation of Camfind; a mobile application that returns results for anything you snap an image of, ranging from a lady’s handbag to a living animal. Ian mentions the interest they have received from companies to integrate their product into their own platforms, mainly retail for product matching, price comparison, but also stock photography vendors or even applications for the visually impaired. Brad explains how valuable their app is with over 11 patents filed; how it always returns results (successful image recognition 100% to a varying degree of detail); what their revenue model is and how their $5M funding will help the product develop.  The third founder, Dominik Mazur, was mentioned but not present at the interview. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.

TTC #144 Image Search That Always Returns Results, Ian Parness and Brad Folkens

James Tagg, author of the book ‘Are the Androids Dreaming Yet?’ presented in front of an audience his own beliefs on the Singularity issue. He started out by answering his own question ‘Can a Machine think Creatively?’ and argued mathematically on how much artificial intelligence has progressed, which are the crucial parity point dates and why he doesn’t believe that machines can surpass the creativity of humans. The speech was conducted during a Heroes of Mobile event organised by its founder Helen Keegan, on the 2nd of March at the Talent Garden(TAG).


TTC #145 Are The Androids Dreaming Yet, James Tagg

Filip Maertens, Founder and Chief Product Officer of Sentiance a Belgian B2B startup that builds a rich contextual profile on the true behaviour of a user by using the built-in sensors of his/her mobile or wearables. As the company moto goes it makes Smart devices intelligent! Their product is a software development kit with revenues from daily active users. Filip mentions how they were surprised to find that the industry with the biggest interest in their product was the insurance companies since they want to know about our driving behaviour. He goes on to talk about their $2M funding, expanding to Asia and the US, the IPs involved in their product, data, artificial intelligence and the...singularity theory. One of the most interesting interviews to come out of MWC15. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks central.


TTC #154 Context Aware Technology Provider with High Accuracy, Filip Maertens

Privacy and security are important in the digital and data world and especially after Snowdens’ revelations. Phil Zimmermann, the creator of PGP and Zfone and currently the Co-Founder of Silent Circle is the most suitable person to talk about the privacy and security issues we face. How enterprises and their employees can protect their data including an average user. Social media and various devices make it really easy for people to reveal important information about their lives, without them realising it. As we are now entering the IoT era, security and privacy will be even more important as more devices will generate even more sensitive data. Interviewed by Sakis Triantafyllakis for Tech Talks Central.


TTC #167 How Secure are Your Devices, Phil Zimmermann

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