frogHealth Round Up: Making

Love What You Make. That’s the frog credo. Which is why the frogHealth practice focuses on what it takes to actually bring health products and services to market. For years, healthcare clients have been asking the right questions about how to leverage data and technology for better value and healthier outcomes. But all too often, fears of our regulated industry leave life-changing innovations in powerpoint decks instead of in people’s hands. The truth is, healthcare needs less talking and more making. By looking at models of success in other markets like finance and hospitality, and leveraging emerging technology, frogHealth is committed to turning healthcare talk into action.

What We’ve Made

Embrace^™: Neonatal MRI by Aspect Imaging

The Embrace^™ Neonatal MRI, a newborn baby scanner that is easily integrated into neonatal hospital settings, recently received FDA approval. Developed by frog and Aspect imaging, the machine dramatically decreases the time and preparation involved in a typical MRI because newborns don’t have to be taken out of intensive care. MRI’s are typically located in basements due to their weight and are built with safety shields around them. It’s a challenge to transport and prepare babies for this environment. For example, changing the tubing can take up to two hours. But the Embrace^™ MRI is built specifically for newborns.

Flow: Air Quality Sensor by Plume Labs

Over a six-week period, frog worked with Plume Labs to create a consumer-facing smart device that would humanize their air quality sensor technology. The result was the industrial and interaction design, and go-to-market strategy for ‘Flow,’ a stylish tie-on smart product that allows users to be informed about their own air quality exposure. The frog team was committed to not creating another typical wearable, usually worn around the wrist. Instead, Flow’s tactile body can be attached almost anywhere—a backpack, an apartment window, a baby’s stroller—to help people navigate air quality in their urban environments. Preorders are now being accepted.

The Process Of Making

Expanding the Boundaries: Pfizer + frog Design Collaborative

frogHealth US practice lead Lindsey Mosby teams up with members of Pfizer to talk about the impact of The Design Collaborative. The Design Collaborative was a partnership between frog and Pfizer Consumer Healthcare to create new solutions to navigate personal health and wellness journeys. It applied frog’s Venture Design approach for envisioning, concepting and bringing to market new products and services.

Inspiration For The Future

The North Star implant, by Grindhouse Wetware

Interaction designer Fabiola Einhorn wonders what the evolution of the bodyhacking trend holds in her Design Mind article, Bodyhacking, Designing for New Senses. As the term includes everything from piercings to pacemakers, many of us are considered bodyhackers in one way or another. However, some individuals represent a growing subculture of people who aim to push the limits of what the human body can adapt to by implanting different input/output mechanisms through chips and sensors into their bodies. Bodyhacking opens doors to advance the human experience by enhancing or enabling entirely new senses. After all, we are increasingly designing for the medium of life.

FROGHEALTH IN THE WORLD

Huntington Study Group (HSG) Annual Meeting, Nov. 2-4

Drew Miller, Executive Principal Director out of our Austin studio spoke at the Huntington Study Group annual meeting. He participated in a panel on the topic of “New Models of Care” for Huntington’s Disease. Drew shared a focused set of learnings from frog’s research around the opportunity to better support the abundant needs of primary caregivers. He also spoke about ways to ‘super-power’ the community advocates that are so fundamental to the ecosystem of care.

Digital Health Conference

Lindsey Mosby, VP of Strategy and our US healthcare practice lead, led a panel on SAFE, HEALTHY, HAPPY AGING: THE FUTURE OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT at the d.Health Conference. Alongside such industry leaders as Joseph Kvedar MD, Vice President, Connected Health, Partners Healthcare and Sarah Szanton, Assoc. Prof. & Director, PhD Program, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, Lindsey and the panel discussed how our digital and physical environments might better support longer living at home.

TEDMED, Nov. 1-3

Lindsey also attended the TEDMED conference. This year’s theme at TEDMED was inspired by the future possibilities of health and wellness exploring the tension between “what is” and “what if.” TEDMED attendees hail from all types of sectors from both inside and outside of healthcare, including science, business, government and the arts. Topics at this year’s event ranged from how librarians like Chera Kowalski find themselves on the front line of the opioid crisis, and policy renegades like Amitabh Chandra believe precision medicine will help fix the Healthcare debt spiral. All talks are available online. Check them out. Be inspired.

Frontiers Health Conference, Nov. 16-17

Thomas Sutton, VP and frog’s Europe healthcare practice lead attended Frontiers Health Conference in Berlin. With a focus on digital health, the conference explored the latest digital therapeutics trends and how technologies like Artificial Intelligence are changing healthcare. Much of the talk centered on the European launch of the Digital Therapeutics Alliance, a new global industry body to help the development of this nascent sector. New therapies for pain and mental health also drew Thomas’ attention.

HealthXL, Sept. 14

Thomas also attended the HealthXL Global Gathering in Dublin, which brought together healthcare providers and technology partners around digital health solutions. The exciting theme was music as medicine, with solutions using music therapy for pain management, physical therapy and dementia care.

Health 2.0, Oct 1-4

David Steuer, Executive Director and healthcare practice lead immersed himself into what’s transforming health care at Health 2.0. David’s biggest takeaway was how digital platforms that inspire behavioral change are evolving into true care providers for people with chronic conditions. Examples include Vida Health, a digital coaching service equipped with medical professionals on staff that has shown to reverse hypertension; Livongo’s combination of technology and diabetes specialists to help members manage blood glucose levels; and Omada Health, offering outcomes-based pricing for its digital program, which can be billed through medical claims.