what you're working on and the field that you're
in, if you don't mind. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Thank you so much for having me. My name is Maria
or Mary. Well, I'm based in London and I've been
a healthcare product designer, healthcare user,
experienced product designer for the past seven
years. And I had a chance to work with several
health tech companies, primarily American, Canadian.
and australian healthcare companies helping them
shape innovative products and create experiences
for people so they can manage their disorders
better live lives full of joy and escape the
need to work so much with our hospital and healthcare
system and have better preventative healthcare
as well I love that. I love that. And as I've
mentioned to you before, I'm not very knowledgeable
in this area. So I'm glad to actually have this
conversation with someone who has a major experience
in this. So if you wouldn't mind just defining
or informing us what healthcare product design
is. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So healthcare product
design, in my case, means all of the products.
that are used by patients and in clinical setting.
Let's break it down this way. You go to the hospital
and your doctor is using something. So they are
likely using some software, for example, software
to store your data or maybe the software that
is used to analyze your results, your MRI scan
or anything else that is also healthcare. And
also we have patient -based healthcare. Or even
preventative healthcare, which means you may
upload an example to track your blood sugar if
you have issues with diabetes or anything else.
So apps like that are also part of this healthcare
industry. apps and products and services that
help people with serious disorders, even cancer,
managing your patient journey, communicating
with your provider, managing your bills, financial
aspects of your journey as a patient, and many
more. So by and large, it is a huge industry
that practically covers all use cases. Starting
from the very moment you are diagnosed or even
before that to the moment while you are cured,
being cured. And after that, so you don't get
sick again. And, you know, what's crazy is now
I have an aha moment as you put it all together.
So me knowing that I'm a patient, I know. Back
in the day, so I'm 46 years old, so I remember
not having an app to communicate with my provider.
I remember having to go to the office and have
that conversation to schedule another appointment
for the appointment that I have. So now I'm having
that aha moment, realizing how you're making
it more hands -on for us to be able to have that
access to our healthcare provider. Not to mention,
I think about when we get prescriptions. it doesn't
take them long to send it off to the prescription
place. So you are the technology behind us having
more an effective, cohesive healthcare communication,
as well as, as you mentioned, if you're diagnosed
with something, you want to be able to figure
out how to manage that. So you're the key behind
all of that. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And
it's fantastic that you mentioned communication
with your doctor, because on the side of the
doctor, imagine that you have a normal consult,
so appointment with a doctor, and you're providing
them with information about your state for the
past weeks, years, right? And also on top of
that, some blood work results, right? So anything
that you have really collected. and brought to
the doctor and they have to analyze all of this
information the question is how do you analyze
it so it doesn't take more than five minutes
and you do not miss important detail right so
that is very innovative technologies like ai
actually help because ai is able to detect patterns
and help doctor in our case analyze what was
happening to you in the past and make a decision
much faster maybe even they would recommend a
few treatment programs based on the protocols
that are currently practiced so by and large
it is a digital doctor anyway but obviously we
still need a doctor to check everything's all
right but still yeah it's much much more efficient
than going over all of your records maybe The
big files they would have to go through, you
know, like, okay, you know, they lick their finger
and just go through the file. Like, I remember
that like it was yesterday. And now they could
just swipe up. And, you know, I really enjoy
having this conversation because I tell you,
it's just the most interesting thing how innovation
and things that you do that we don't see, we
feel that it's definitely more. available to
us and that we can now have a real conversation
now, you know, say all that we need to say in
a dialogue and hoping that they're reading it.
So it's, like I said, I'm super excited because
now I'm like, oh, I got it, Mary. I got it. I
know what we're talking about now. So with that
being said, is there, now that we're having this
conversation, as I'm acting as the listener,
is there ever going to be a time where a patient
would think that it's more of the AI or the tools
that's diagnosing us rather than the human physician.
Like, have you come across that question before?
I think there is also a big question that we
have not touched, which is the legal barrier.
Obviously, a doctor is quite limited in terms
of how much AI on a daily basis they can use.
at least legally, maybe in their private practice,
it's more flexible. But with that being said,
there is an aspect of being safe, staying on
the safe side. So AI does not push the doctor
to make a decision that will not benefit the
patient, right? So definitely, if we're talking
about the mental health space, and for example,
right now we have chatbots that act as a therapist.
And sometimes the user cannot even understand
that they are talking to a chatbot, not a real
human, which means that right now we are already
at a place where chatbots are so good, even emotional
intelligence -wise, that even if the chatbot
is suggesting you something, even doing cognitive
therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, it might
be not significantly worse than a real therapist.
Got it, got it. so um it is also a matter of
objection to using the technology in itself because
many patients just don't want to be treated by
ai right so we didn't trust it enough yeah it's
still stupid and human human is responsible for
for the result right so with that um sometimes
people are more apprehensive of using ai as a
therapist that will be rapidly changing. And
that is changing these days because it's much
cheaper to use AI -based solution much faster.
And the quality might be not significantly worse.
I'm not talking about all cases, but for example,
in mental health space might be the case. And
as did you tell me about your vision and all
this, how did you get to this journey to loving
something so completely different? Yeah, absolutely.
So when I have started exploring healthcare industry
70 years ago, I was a CMO in the biggest medical
tourism provider in Eastern Europe. And at that
point, I wasn't really able to influence the
product that we are building, because I was responsible
for marketing. And that's when I decided to change
my career. and start working on the product instead
of only marketing it. And that's how I got into
healthcare and then obviously health tech, so
health technology, and working in digital products
and services supporting digital products. May
I ask if this is, are you degreed in actual product
design or in technology? And then you were able
to choose where you wanted to go? No, my background
is in marketing and economics. Nice, nice. After
that, I received extra education, additional
education to work in product design seven years
ago. But primarily, I got my degree from marketing.
Wow, that is it. It's such a big difference,
in my opinion. Do you feel like it's a big difference
going from marketing to healthcare product design?
I wouldn't say so because primarily I'm working
with small to mid -sized companies. Sometimes
we are working on innovative projects for big
corporations, but quite often we are working
on product that we must also understand how to
sell it. So that is an integral part of my job.
to understand how whatever we are creating will
be adopted by the market, which includes also
product market fit. So meaning the product that
I'm creating or we are creating is actually accepted
by the market. So you actually get an opportunity
to help enhance lives behind the scenes. And
now I can see the marketing side of everything.
I guess when you're developing and marketing,
you pretty much analyze and know what the people
want or need, but you're doing pretty much the
same thing in this area. Am I right? Am I on
the same? Yeah, yeah, absolutely agree with you
because when you're developing a product, generally,
you have an idea of what you want to create,
but you do not know exactly what would work for
the patient. That's why when we are working on
the prototype, on the first version of the product,
we are collecting feedback. So just like we're
having right now this conversation, I will be
having a conversation with another patient and
showing them the first version of the product,
collecting their feedback. Based on this feedback,
we will be iterating, so creating new versions,
obviously optimizing the product, improving the
product. And as a result, there will be a final...
more or less final product that will be shipped
and marketed directly ads or any any other means
yeah so in you they have the best of both worlds
exactly yeah i like that making you uh an asset
to the company i love that so another question
i would love to ask is now that you've been in
this for seven years so many things change what's
your why I think why was exactly the same seven,
eight years ago. And I had a banner which said,
if you lived your life, actually, yeah, let me
remember this banner because I remember the meaning
and the feeling that it's a walk. But the core
message was that if you help somebody live one
day without pain, your life wasn't wasted. And
exactly the same why is why I'm doing what I'm
doing right now. So helping a person to live
a life with less pain or ideally no pain, that
is a goal of mine. And through our products,
they definitely achieve it. You know what's interesting
is the fact that you're in product design and
you're a human being, and I'm sure you go to
the doctor and receive all the other services
that we have the benefit of. When you go, I'm
sure you're like, oh, I have something to do
with that. Do you ever have that moment like,
oh, I did good? Unfortunately, no. No? Because
majority of the services are not as innovative,
unfortunately, at least here in London, because
we use NHS. It is state -owned healthcare system,
unlike American one. So American market is a
little bit more innovative. We have innovative
solutions here as well. definitely i've used
many of them but still it is a little bit different
and the nuances and aspects that i have applied
in in american markets will not necessarily be
very useful here but patient -wise definitely
definitely if the doctor is really into tech
they are using modern technologies Apps, that
definitely is the case in private. Thank you
for being here today. I'm really happy that you
tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward
to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue
to move forward. This is going to get more and
more fun. We'll have more and more engagement
as well. We'll invite people to participate in
the show. And thank you for giving us your time
and attention. Have an excellent time building
out your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself.