Digital Health is a Long and Winding Road – from R&D to the Patient

Short Bio: Clive Smith is CEO and Founder of Thinklabs Medical, which develops and manufactures digital stethoscopes, used worldwide in clinics, for telemedicine and remote patient monitoring, and by researchers developing cardiac and pulmonary AI diagnostics.

Smith was born in South Africa, did a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering at Wits University in Johannesburg, and an MS in Electrical Engineering at Caltech.

He plays acoustic guitar and considers his passion for music to be essential to perfecting the acoustics of electronic stethoscopes.

He has been designing stethoscopes for almost 30 years, making him either the most experienced, or the craziest, engineer in that sector.

Leading a medical device company from startup to market growth has made him both a participant in, and observer of, the dynamics and challenges of the healthcare industry.

Synopsys: A business/industry perspective will be presented on the challenges and opportunities that we face getting widespread adoption of consumer/home health technologies – the design requirements, clinical value proposition, economics and commercialization. But we need to be cognizant of the very real roadblocks and barriers to entry. Yet despite all these barriers, consumer and home health is both inevitable and absolutely essential for the future of healthcare.