Dr Jack Kreindler is a co-founder and the Chief Scientific Officer at Certific, a health-tech platform that enables certified remote medical testing at scale. He will also be taking the stage at this year’s Latitude59 with his keynote, “The Future Of Exponential Technology In Healthcare”.
Besides working on Certific, Dr Kreindler is a physician, a researcher, a recognized public speaker, and an advocate of decentralised healthcare and putting more power into the hands of people. He believes that technology can give patients the superpowers to perform simple medical tasks for themselves, to the same level a medical professional would do it. It’s a win-win situation. People will receive faster and more affordable healthcare, and in turn, we’ll be able to relieve the burden on medical professionals
1. Certific is one of those remarkable startups that skyrocketed from the chaos of a pandemic outbreak. How is Certific doing today and what does the future hold for you?
We were crazy enough to launch in the middle of COVID-19, but the pandemic itself was only a catalyst. For me, Certific is the culmination of 25 years of work in decentralised healthcare. I guess it was one of the good things that came out of Covid, bringing me together with Taavet and Liis (Certific’s co-founders Taavet Hinrikus, also the co-founder of Wise, and Liis Narusk, innovation manager and business mentor), and realising we were thinking of the same thing – how to make healthcare more accessible, faster and cheaper for millions of people around the world.
Fast forward 1.5 years and we have taken our learnings from Covid and are now implementing them on a range of new services – from remote testing for infections and enabling people to receive the quickest high quality treatment to making the lives of chronically ill patients much easier.
2. You have stated that healthcare needs decentralisation and disruption. What does that mean?
Discrepancies in healthcare accessibility have been an issue for a long time. There has been a major divide in the distribution of resources related to the health and proper well-being of individuals. As a result, both developed and developing countries are struggling with monopolies that exist in health institutions, and due to this, healthcare has become very central to only those who can afford it.
There have been numerous studies that reveal how countries that had centralised healthcare were not able to cope with the effects of the COVID-19 situation. Health experts and governments around the world have given their resources into building high-end technologies and equipment for healthcare. This has decreased the availability and accessibility of health at local levels leaving the patients deprived of proper facilities around them.
3. What will the future hold on the path to decentralising healthcare?
In decentralising healthcare around the world, the future will involve innovating ways of distributing services and diagnostic tools to be accessible globally. The future will consist of healthcare provided at the doorstep, cheaper and quicker diagnostics, and shorter supply-chains. This will allow individuals to be local health ambassadors by upskilling themselves to learn the basics of healthcare.
4. As an advocate for technological advancements and startups, what trends and developments are you especially excited to see unfolding in the global future of healthcare?
The world flipped from a self-care species into huge over-dependence on an over-stretched medical profession – partly, and rightly, because of how vastly specialised medical diagnostics have become. Surely we can’t expect patients to meet professional standards? It’s just too technical for them. In many cases such rationale may no longer apply. In the medical profession we are beginning to realise that technological advancements can be channelled to give patients superpowers, to do more things for themselves and on our behalf.
We can now train people just for that moment in time, to a standard sufficient that we can diagnose or prescribe and follow up without needing to see the patient, yet with all the support they need when they need it since we can now have the time. With empathically designed systems and smart, 24-7 support, our patients can become active participants in their own diagnosis and treatment pathways.
5. What role does technology have in providing this solution?
Technology and digitisation plays an enormous role in this. In effect, almost every smartphone can become an extension of an Accredited Medical Lab. Connected technology such as what we are pioneering at Certific and what is being researched by my colleagues at Imperial College London can help prove and improve quality of at-home medical tests just like they are supposed to happen in a medical clinic by a doctor.
COVID did a good thing amidst the turmoil. The whole world now has the confidence to do more medical stuff for themselves. Not alone, but smartly connected to the medical profession thanks to technology. This is the next leap in scaling healthcare – not just digital telemedicine, but technology-enabled self-care. The ultimate mission is to empower patients to be trusted, certified self-carers and turn medicine into a modern, user-centric experience.
Come meet Certific’s team at Latitude59, and don’t miss Jack’s keynote “The Future Of Exponential Technology In Healthcare” at 14:55 on Friday, Purpose Stage.
