Symposium #2 Digital Health Industry
August 26, 2021 | 10:00 am – 1:30 pm EDT |
Co-Chairs: Jack Ming Po, M.D., Ph.D. and Bruce Hecht, M.S. |
Kow Ping, M.S.
Well Being Digital
Kow Ping is a co‐founder and director of Well Being Digital, a Hong Kong company that won numerous international awards for its technology. He has a Master’s degree in International Management with Distinction from Royal Holloway, University of London, a B.A.Sc from Nanyang Technological University and holds five patents in his name.
He was previously the Vice President of Strategic Accounts at Perception Digital Ltd. from 2006 to 2012, managing strategic customers including Philips, Motorola, OSIM and Creative Technology. In addition, he has held various project management and marketing managerial roles at electronics/semiconductor companies like Cornice Inc, National Semiconductor, VIA‐Cyrix Inc. and Texas Instruments where he worked in Singapore, Taiwan and Texas (USA) and have a strong network in the semiconductor segment across these regions.
Jeffrey S. Palmer, Ph.D.
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Jeffrey S. Palmer is the Assistant Head of the Biotechnology and Human Systems Division at Lincoln Laboratory. In this role, he shares responsibility for research, development, evaluation, and technology transfer of advanced technologies and systems for chemical and biological defense, human health & performance, and global resilience to climate, conflict, and disaster threats. Prior to holding this position, he was the leader of the Human Health and Performance Systems Group, which focused on AI-enabled biomedical tools, human performance enhancement, objective neurocognitive analytics, and biosensing via a wearable, ingestible, and implantable devices. He has given presentations at international conferences and authored book chapters and technical articles on DNA biometrics and forensics, biomechanics, cell biology, materials science, soldier nanotechnology, biological-chemical defense, polymer science, high-energy lasers, microelectronics packaging, wearable biomedical sensing in extreme environments, and neurocognitive technologies. He has served on editorial boards for journals in biomechanics, molecular science, biomedical informatics, and biosensors. He has chaired technical conferences for the National Science Foundation, Department of Homeland Security, and the IEEE. Currently, he is the chairman of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society’s Technical Committee on Wearable Biomedical Sensors and Systems and on the editorial board for the IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology. In addition, he has served as an advisor on U.S. and NATO military studies for enhancing health and performance and led a multi-agency U.S. government effort to develop automated rapid human DNA analysis capabilities for field biometrics and forensics applications. He currently serves on the faculty for the NIH RADx initiative, a standing committee for the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, and as an mHealth study subcommittee co-lead for the Massachusetts General Brigham Center for COVID Innovation. Prior to working at Lincoln Laboratory, he worked at research laboratories at IBM and GE, and at the Physical Sciences Laboratory at New Mexico State University. He holds a bachelor’s degree with a minor in mathematics from New Mexico State University, a master’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a doctorate with a minor in bioengineering from MIT, all with majors in mechanical engineering.
Zen Chu, MBA
AccelMed Venture
Zen Chu serves as Faculty Director of MIT’s Hacking Medicine Initiative, and is a Senior Lecturer in Healthcare Innovation for both the MIT Sloan School of Management and Harvard-MIT Health Sciences & Technology program.
In partnership with Professors Martha Gray and Bill Aulet, Zen created and directs HST.978 MIT Healthcare Ventures, a graduate course that teaches entrepreneurship, business models, and venture creation around technology that can transform healthcare. Zen actively consults companies in pharma, health tech, and healthcare systems struggling to adapt to global digital healthcare transformation and emerging markets.
As managing director of Accelerated Medical Ventures, Zen specializes in building early-stage medical technology and healthcare service companies, usually serving as cofounder and first investor. AMV’s portfolio spans Boston, Silicon Valley, and China, including PillPack.com, Call9.com, Figure1.com, NuRx.com, 3D-Matrix Medical [JASDAQ: 7777], Sofi.com, Curoverse Genomics (acq Veritas Genomics), BitGym.com, DirectDermatology.com, and a few companies still in stealth mode.
Alongside MIT professors Shuguang Zhang, Alex Rich, Alan Grodzinsky, and Bob Langer, Zen cofounded and served as ceo for 3D-Matrix Medical Inc., a venture-backed MIT regenerative medicine company with a successful IPO in 2011. 3D-Matrix has wound-healing and drug-delivery products on the market outside of the US and multiple human clinical trials in process.
He has managed and led new ventures for Harvard Medical School, Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Bioengineering, NetVentures, and Hewlett-Packard. Zen earned a BS in biomedical/electrical engineering from Southern Methodist University and an MBA from Yale University.
Heidi Dohse, M.S.
Tour de Heart
Heidi Dohse is passionate about improving patient outcomes and uses her athletic events to inspire people living with heart issues. She partners with physicians and researchers worldwide to provide insights regarding the patient experience and ideas for engagement. In addition, she travels globally, educating audiences on digital health, data, and healthcare. Heidi recently retired from her position as Sr. Program Manager for Google Cloud Healthcare & Life Sciences organization to focus on her non-profit organization Tour de Heart.
In 1982, Heidi was diagnosed with a rare heart arrhythmia and underwent a successful AV ablation procedure leaving her heart 100% pacemaker dependent. Unfortunately, due to pacemaker lead extraction complications in 2006, she experienced reduced heart muscle function and was diagnosed with heart failure. After Heidi had open-heart surgery in 2010, and with the help of her pacemaker data, wearable devices, and mobile apps, she had the insights she needed to get from the hospital bed to the finish line of her first bike race. Since then, she has completed multiple road and mountain bike endurance races in many countries. Most recently, she crossed the finish line of IRONMAN Arizona in November 2019.
She is a member of the MDIC Science of Patient Input working group, selected as a member of the NESTcc Active Surveillance Methodology Working Group, and Heart Rhythm Society’s Cardiovascular Digital Health Journal editorial board.
Kevin Zhao, M.S.
Harmonize, Inc
Kevin Zhao is the Founder and CTO of Harmonize, Inc., a company he founded in 2019 to make at-home monitoring extraordinarily easy for high-risk patients and to help busy clinicians make better data-driven decisions.
Harmonize takes modern digital health products, ranging from sensors to analytics tools, and integrates them into intuitive clinical workflows with triage logic and decision support. Its remote care platform consistently generates improved patient outcomes, such as 50% reduction in hospitalizations and 40% reduction in ER visits.
Before Harmonize, Kevin created and led the firmware, software, and cloud efforts at Profusa, Inc, a start-up focused on continuous monitoring of health states with tissue integrating sensors. Kevin also served as systems engineer for high throughput screening at Roche Diagnostics.
He received his Masters in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University and a Bachelors from UC Berkeley. He never quite finished his MBA from the University of Chicago.
Julien Penders, M.S.
Bloomlife Inc
Julien Penders is co-founder and COO at Bloomlife, where he’s building the future of prenatal health using wearable technologies and predictive analytics. Julien is a passionate entrepreneur with 15-year experience in R&D and product development for the medical device and digital health industry. He led international teams through the development of wearable and digital health products covering hardware, software, analytics and clinical validation. He has (co-) authored over 60 papers and 14 patents. He has been a keynote or invited speakers at multiple events including TEDx and the Creativity World Forum. He serves on the IEEE Technical Committee on Biomedical Health Informatics and sits on the Program Committees for several international conferences. Julien was a 2004/2005 fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation. He holds a M.Sc. degree in Systems Engineering from University of Liege, Belgium (2004), and a M.Sc. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University, MA (2006).
Steve Xu, M.D., M.S., FAAD
Northwestern University
Steve Xu MD, MSc is a physician engineer, academic, entrepreneur, and board-certified dermatologist. He is the Medical Director of the Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics, and an Assistant Professor in Dermatology, Biomedical Engineering, and Pediatrics at Northwestern University. He is also the cofounder and CEO of Sibel Health – an award winning medical technology company developing ICU-grade wearable sensors for all patients. He received his undergraduate degree in bioengineering from Rice University summa cum laude, completed his medical training at Harvard Medical School, and a Masters in Health Policy from The London School of Economics where he was a Marshall Scholar. Dr. Xu has authored more than 110 peer-reviewed publications and listed as an inventor on 13 pending and granted patents in medicine. As both an NIH and DoD funded investigator, he leads complex engineering and clinical development efforts worldwide. His publications have appeared in Nature, Science, The Proceedings of the National Academy of Medicine, and the New England Journal of Medicine garnering press attention from The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times.