Digital Health entrepreneur of the month

Image courtesy of angel.co

We don’t usually meet a two-time cancer survivor still working towards the greater benefit of the society. Debra Griffin, though, is a role-model for all those battling cancer right now. A firm believer in providing equitable healthcare services at reduced costs, she has set the pedestal of success high for others to climb. As she reminisces her past days when she was battling cancer, she opines that empowered patients have better health outcomes in the future.

Read her short interview as she walks down the memory lane, tells us about her 30+ years experience in the healthcare sector and how her startup, Patient Data Exchange became a reality.

1. Please tell us a bit about your professional background.

I have spent 30 plus years in healthcare administration where I worked to balance the operation of money and mission when providing care.

It’s my belief that appropriate healthcare is a basic right for all and by facilitating more access, tempering cost by empowering the patients’ with involving them in the ownership of their complete personal health data to be able to present these reports to providers at the appropriate time, quality healthcare services at low cost can be delivered.

2. What inspired you to launch your own healthcare startup?

This rapid technological age, The HITECH ACT, Apple, Google platforms and the use of smart devices gave me this opportunity to deliver PPX as the standard, non-threatening unique approach for a solution to interoperability across various data vendor platforms.

I am a two-time cancer survivor and know for a fact that patients who are informed and advocate for their care have better health comes.

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3. Please tell us briefly about your product and how it fares differently from other products in the market.

PPX is a secure Bluetooth medical management API app. Patients and healthcare providers can pair their devices and experience real-time medical data transference. Both the patient and provider’s vendor must have the app installed on their smart devices and the provider’s app has to be integrated into the software. An 8-digit token is received on the patient’s device from the provider’s device for syncing simply and securely.

The Share Screen unique exchanges are-Bluetooth, Email, Print, Import, Export and Host App (currently hosting a website) to embed other technology, social services and mHealth Apps (sort of like a one-stop shop concept for providers) to SHARE as PPX providing exchange facilities for health and insurance data beyond the internet portal and silos.

PPX is FHIR and HL7 compliant. PPX outputs via PDF, numbers, HTML, XML, CSV, Cloud ready, fully scalable, ingests multiple large structured datasets and identifies and manages the relationship between disparate datasets.

Patients-having difficulty in securing their medical reports in a simple modern way from multiple providers’ vendor platforms to form their comprehensive medical record.

Provider’s-not having complete medical history when a patient present which can lead to overutilization of some tests and procedures, fragmented health care and delay in treatment path.

Electronic Health Records-different and various platforms prohibit universal sharing of usable health reports with patients.

Payers-Current healthcare spending is not sustainable; payers are interested in decreasing cost and improved health outcomes.

Opportunity: Technological advancements, smart devices usage projected to be in the billions by 2027, health reports moved from paper to electronic.

Competitive Advantages– Unique Simple Approach to Exchange Data in a non-threatening way from Technology, Social Services, Electronic Health Record vendors, Insurance and Pharmacology Platforms to promote interoperability in a modern way.

4. What advice would you give to women who want to work in the health IT space as entrepreneurs?

All possible efforts and endeavours in the healthcare space are needed to make health care more accessible, affordable and relatable. Healthcare is a complex space because of all the moving parts, fragmentation, regulations and that the government pays for a large portion.

Just do what you have in your heart-it might be difficult, seem insurmountable-But Not Impossible.

5. Where can we buy or subscribe to your product?

PPX runs on iOS and Android smart devices. Users can download the application and request that their health, social service and insurance vendors be integrated into their platform to exchange their comprehensive medical report seamlessly.

Team Dr. Hempel wishes Debra all the very best in her future endeavours and hope that her dream of easily-accessible, low-cost healthcare services sees the light of the day.