My guest today is Brian O’Connor. Brian is chair of the European Connected Health Alliance, or ‘ECH Alliance’, which is a not-for-profit membership organization that, despite it’s name, works with stakeholders around the world to facilitate collaborative working and to bring about meaningful change in health and social care.

Brian was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and has spent his career as a consultant, manager and investor in both private and public companies. As head of the ECH Alliance he is creating a platform for change and disruption across Europe, China, and most recently, they’ve started work in North America working in both the US and Canada, in the interview, he sheds more light about that.

Brian O’Connor lived and worked in Hong Kong for twelve years first as a corporate consultant – then he went on to create the largest private healthcare company in Hong Kong with over 700 GP practices and 3 million patient consultations a year covering everything from general practitioners and dentistry to traditional Chinese medicine and surgery.

He understands that overcoming cultural and other barriers within healthcare is a key component of solving the problems faced around the world. He’s got a great way to deliver news that can otherwise be difficult and frustrating to hear, but he does it in a way that encourages and excites the change that is so badly needed in health care systems around the world.

I’m very pleased to announce that ECH Alliance and Digital Health Today have teamed up and are working together to facilitate and promote the work being done globally to improve health and social care. There’s so much to be done, and ECH Alliance members are a core part of the Digital Health Today Community, so we are working together for the greater good to amplify the work each of our teams are doing.

Before I sign off, I just want to give a shout out to Aline Noizet and Nick Adkins of the #pinksocks tribe. Nick Adkins out in Portland, Oregon sent me a few pairs of his famous pinksocks, and it was Aline Noizet who suggested that I receive some, so thanks to you both. I love them, I’m wearing them and sharing the pinksocks tribe far and wide. If you are not familiar with pinksocks and the GSD movement, click on the link to visit his site, and check out his Twitter feed. Let’s go #Pinksocks and #GSD (Get Stuff Done)!

Today's Topics:

• The biggest obstacle to progress in healthcare…
• How permanent, multi-stakeholder ecosystems work to create change
• Lessons and insights shared between New York eHealth Collaborative and ECHAlliance
• Similarities between the Canadian and many European health systems
• How Virtual Reality is being used to treat people with phobias
• The implications of Brexit on UK health organizations, competitiveness, and funding
• How to be a part and benefit from the ECH Alliance

Links and Resources Mentioned:

• New York eHealth Collaborative
• The Canadian Integrated Health Alliance
• South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
• Horizon 2020
• Brian on LinkedIn
• ECHAlliance LinkedIn
• ECHAlliance on Twitter
• Pinksocks
• Digital Health Events
• Dan Kendall @ HealthTechDan
• Dan [@]digitalhealth.com
• Join Digital Health Today