What will we do with all this data?
Posted 16th April 2018 by Jane Williams
The amount of data we are creating every day has increased exponentially to match the rise in use of smart and connected devices. The internet of things has connected every aspect of our lives to the digital realm: most of these devices operate by tracking your habits, movements, preferences, voice, and more, then logging those habits online. Specifically, the collection of health data has become abundant, because most people now have or wear some sort of device to track daily patterns, steps, cycles, and more. Even our phones often default to track these things for us, whether we choose to enable the function or not.
How Standards & Standardised Infrastructure Fuel Innovation
Posted 4th April 2018 by Jane Williams
It might surprise a lot of people to learn that standards can be viewed as a tool to support innovation, to set businesses free and to focus on the core of their product where their expertise lie. When working with the use of electronic communication systems within the entire healthcare sector, the main focal point is often ensuring a good support for collaboration and work processes.
The Development and Commercialisation of Robust Circulating DNA & RNA Tests
Posted 21st March 2018 by Jane Williams
Precision medicine in oncology requires matching each patient with treatment personalised to their genes and often the proteomic profile of their cancer. Liquid biopsies continue to gain grounds as a tool for diagnostic testing in oncology.
The Coming Marriage Between Open Pharma Research and Blockchain
Posted 13th March 2018 by Jane Williams
The pharmaceutical research industry is suffering from a lack of innovation, yet we see an exponential increase in new science and technologies. Open innovation, in the truest meaning, is a disruptive model that will greatly increase our joint chances of translating new research into treatments, but we need new ways of sharing and participating in collaborative drug research. Blockchain technologies can provide the digital infrastructure that allows trusted and secure transactions of research assets. Applying smart contracts on top of such infrastructure will further increase the speed of the life science ecosystem allowing exploration, co-creation, and transaction of research assets to happen in an unprecedented manner. In fact, we can’t afford to object to such a marriage between pharma open innovation and blockchain technologies.
Cyber Crime In The Digital Age
Posted 26th February 2018 by Jane Williams
When I joined my first corporate IT-security department two decades ago (Electronic Data Processing Safety Department), I was presented with a memo between the department and the CEO.
Cyber Security Challenges in the Pharma Industry
Posted 19th February 2018 by Jane Williams
In general, the pharma industry has not been cutting-edge in terms of maturity in information security practices.
The Blockchain: The First Steps Toward its Healthcare Transformation
Posted 7th February 2018 by Jane Williams
What is the blockchain?
According to a recent Forbes article: the blockchain is one of the most misunderstood technologies of 2017 (1). While most healthcare professionals have heard the term “blockchain” and are aware of the innovations in financial technology, few understand the fundamental principles behind the technology in order to speculate the impacts it will have on the healthcare industry, at hospitals, and for patients. This inability is common across sectors and can be attributed to the absence of any standard definition of blockchain technology. However, it is important that industry leaders have a firm basis for understanding it in order to foresee its impacts on their business. What follows is a list of key points for understanding the blockchain and enabling speculation on its impacts in healthcare:
Distributed Ledger Technology: Applications and implications
Posted 31st January 2018 by Jane Williams
This article was originally published on the Surrey CoDE blog in January 2018, and is published here with permission.