Digitally Curious

I've always been fascinated by how technology can improve healthcare, and over the years at my keynote talks, audiences have asked me for my view of what's next.
Finally, I managed to grab two leading figures on this subject: Dr Simon Wallace, Chief Clinical Information Officer at Nuance Communications, and Umang Patel, Chief Clinical Information Officer at Microsoft to help explain this important topic.

Simon is a GP & public health doctor providing consultancy services to healthcare organisations. He has 20 years of commercial experience modernising & improving the delivery of healthcare.

Previously he was at Hutchison 3G, AXA, GSK & Worldcare UK.

Umang has worked across commercial and public sectors in healthcare both from payor and provider perspectives and was an early employee at Babylon Health, commercial leader at Aviva, and a NHS Leadership Academy Fellow and practising clinician at Frimley Health.
On the back of the news that Microsoft has agreed to acquire Nuance Communications for $19.7 billion and the transaction is now approved and complete, I spoke to Simon and Umang about how significant this alliance is for the future of digital health.

They are both passionate clinicians and have a deep understanding of how healthcare will be improved with the use of the latest technologies.
I managed to ask many of my "What's the future of healthcare" questions I've wanted to ask for a while, and also confirmed some of my futurist predictions.
In this wide-ranging chat, we covered:

• The Nuance & Microsoft Alliance
• Nuance & conversational AI
• Future health plans from Microsoft
• Can technology restore the NHS to full health?
• Open data vs patient privacy
• The power of AI in transforming healthcare
• What we've learned from the pandemic about driving innovation
• The success of the NHS app
• Importing fitness data into health systems
• The untapped power of speech & AI in healthcare
• What does the Healthcare Professional of the future look like?
• What does the Hospital of the future look like?
• The promise of a "digital pill"
• Using voice to establish patient wellbeing
• Simon's & Umang's proudest projects
• 3 Actionable things to better understand the benefits of digital health solutions

Resources mentioned on the show
United Nation The Case for Integrating Ireland
Better Off Dead: Jack Reacher
Karen Jacobsen - "Aussie Karen" Siri voice
More on our guests

Thanks for listening to Digitally Curious. You can buy the book that showcases these episodes at curious.click/order
Your Host is Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill
For more on Andrew - what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com
Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
@AndrewGrill on Twitter
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches here
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In Episode 9 we speak with James Varga, who co-founded The ID Co in 2011 with a mission to create convenience allowing consumers to sign up to new products and services in seconds.

He is active in a number of local and global efforts to help people do more online, including the Fintech Delivery Panel, the Open Banking Excellence where he is Co-founder and Trust In Digital Life.

As one of the first to call for Open Banking in the UK, James has a wealth of experience in this space. Having previously built a personal finance management and aggregation service, he has a unique perspective that highlights the importance of customer convenience in the overall success and adoption of Open Banking.
Among other things we discussed:

• What is Open Banking?
• Applications for Open Banking
• The identity challenges
• Matching the right person to the right product
• GDPR and Open Banking
• Data ownership is key
• 2018 - the year of regulated disruption
• Giving the consumer back control
• Why has Open Banking been slow to take off?
• Is Open Banking good for banks?
• The real opportunity for Open Banking
• What's the Open Banking silver bullet?
• Account aggregation is just the start
• Using data for customer onboarding
• Consumer behavioural change
• The balance between convenience and reward
• Banks are bad at using data
• Being a B2C Fintech isn't easy
• Monzo's IFTTT integration
• Consumer data ownership is key
• We need to give consumers an incentive to use Open Banking
• Instant loans - 45% revenue increase & 7% fraud reduction
• The Australian Open Banking scene
• The open data approach is a risk
• Getting the regulators involved
• 3 things for next week

Thanks for listening to Digitally Curious. You can buy the book that showcases these episodes at curious.click/order
Your Host is Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill
For more on Andrew - what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com
Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
@AndrewGrill on Twitter
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches here
Order Digitally Curious

Finance, meet Sustainability. On this episode of the podcast, I spoke with Andromeda (Andie) Wood who is Vice President for Regulatory Strategy for Workiva.
She is an expert in the role of technology in corporate reporting, taxonomy design and data modelling, and holds a wealth of knowledge and deep understanding of the impact of EU and UK regulation on global firms, particularly in the areas of corporate transparency and ESG.
There is an undeniable global shift towards greater standardisation in reporting ESG initiatives across markets.
As it stands, corporate reporting comprises the financial statements and management reports of companies, including non-financial and corporate governance statements, as well as country-by-country reporting.
Under the new directive, reports would also include sustainability information.
While new standards consolidate several diverse formats previously used for reporting on ESG progress, Andie explains why transforming standards will cultivate a more hygienic reporting culture that will champion ESG results.
We covered a lot of ground in this podcast, such as:
Push for improvement: These new standards address a worrying lack of clarity on how to report on sustainability, including information on methodology requirements, to more accurately highlight failure points
Future-proof ESG reporting: They will help businesses to mitigate challenges and prepare for the unknown by implementing processes that establish flexibility and control
Acknowledging that ESG plays a direct role in top-line growth: New standards establish critical business success factors, highlighting the role of ESG and encouraging businesses to integrate it into the overall business strategy
Moving towards international comparability: An incremental, but mindful, transition towards transparent reporting will help to build up a rich history of reporting across regions which investors can use to better judge business progress, both individually and competitively
This was an interesting podcast and introduced me to the link between finance and sustainability.

More on Andie

Andie on LinkedIn
Andie on Twitter
Andie’s insights at Workiva

Thanks for listening to Digitally Curious. You can buy the book that showcases these episodes at curious.click/order
Your Host is Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill
For more on Andrew - what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com
Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
@AndrewGrill on Twitter
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches here
Order Digitally Curious

What’s the future of finance?

To answer this question I spoke with James Butland, Vice President of Financial Partnerships, EMEA for Airwallex.
Airwallex was founded by four friends, Jack Zhang, Max Li, Lucy Liu, and Xijing Dai, in Melbourne, Australia in 2015 and was inspired by real-life experiences.
Out of their love for good coffee, engineering-banking friends Jack Zhang and Max Li started Tukk & Co, a café in Melbourne.
As small business owners, they recognised first-hand the impact of high foreign exchange (FX) fees and banking costs on their profit margins, and sought out to build a better solution for businesses operating cross-border, improving on the constraints of the current global financial system.
Specifically they wanted to solve the pain points surrounding cross-border transactions and empower businesses of all sizes to operate anywhere, anytime.
What's the future of the financial services industry?
The financial services industry is undergoing a radical transformation, partly through the forces demanded by regulation, as well as the needs of consumers and small and large enterprises.
New Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platforms can help to drive improved customer experience and business growth, and also could be the key to unlocking the future of the financial services industry.
Increasingly companies are now investing in incorporating financial products and services into their core business models.
To meet this rising demand for embedded finance, traditional financial institutions and challengers are increasingly offering BaaS options.
But where do you start?
James answers these questions and more, including how new banking platforms can empower a “talent anywhere” strategy for a reimagined workforce, allowing the best people to be hired no matter where they live, even if a company doesn’t have a physical presence in that country.
More on James
James on LinkedIn
Airwallex website

Thanks for listening to Digitally Curious. You can buy the book that showcases these episodes at curious.click/order
Your Host is Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill
For more on Andrew - what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com
Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
@AndrewGrill on Twitter
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches here
Order Digitally Curious

With the rise and rise of online shopping can the high street survive? To answer this question and others on the future of retail I asked Julian Fisher, CEO of Retail platform Jisp for his expert views.

Julian has enjoyed a varied background in technology, payments and new media, and in 1994 he launched the UK’s first internet exhibition.

Since then his work has remained inexorably linked to the internet and improving sales, payment and issues with compliance together with information solutions for a wide and diverse group of blue-chip companies.
In this episode we discussed:

• Can the high street be saved from the threat of Amazon?
• The High street vs the internet
• What can high street retailers do to prevent extinction?
• The last Blockbuster on the planet
• Sainsbury's and Argos
• The John Lewis online strategy
• The problem with showrooming
• Meeting consumer demands in-store
• John Lewis in-store iPhones
• The Apple retail experience
• Removing the pay-desk
• The John Lewis Partnership model
• RetailTainment - Retail + Entertainment
• Today at Apple - why it works so well
• Why a helpful store assistant will make you buy more
• How to double transaction revenue
• How delivery services are disrupting restaurants
• The delivery channel is not important - it's all business
• The dark kitchen concept
• The latest retail innovations
• Using retail data to create better experiences
• What will the high street look like in 5-10 years?
• The role of cash in retail
• How mobile is key for retail
• The future retail mix
• Three practical tips for retailers

1. Talk to your staff and customers
2. Be bold & innovative & fail fast
3. Make your customers the focus

Thanks for listening to Digitally Curious. You can buy the book that showcases these episodes at curious.click/order
Your Host is Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill
For more on Andrew - what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com
Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
@AndrewGrill on Twitter
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches here
Order Digitally Curious