GHP July 2017

GHP / July 2017 17 NEWS , Dr Darkins has unique experience in taking national and trans-national virtual care delivery sys- tems to scale. Medibio Board member and fel- low physician, Dr Frank Pren- dergast, M.D. said, “Adam is a wonderful addition to the Med- ibio Board. He complements our team, drawing on a wealth of experience gained from the practice of medicine, health care management, and having built one of the world’s largest, tele- health programmes. His proven track-record in tackling one of the current greatest healthcare chal- lenges - how to introduce trans- formational new technologies that demonstrably increase access to care and reduce its cost - is what makes him so unique. “His creativity and rigour, in de- sign, and continuing develop- ment, of innovative care systems will help guide Medibio to meet anticipated milestones in our growth trajectory as we transition from clinical validation to regulato- ry approval, and then commence broader implementations. Adam will help us to lay the strategic foundations for large-scale oper- ations in the pre-eminent health care systems of the future.” Dr Darkins developed an exten- sive understanding of patient care, clinical processes, and outcomes measurement from his physician training at Manchester University Medical School, UK, and further training/accreditation as a neurosurgeon and research- er at UCLA. Studying public health medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and pioneering shared patient decision-making programmes at the King’s Fund, London, ground- ed him in leading transformative change with a talent for safely and effectively taking long-es- tablished hospital-based practice into primary care, community care and non-traditional settings. Thereafter, already renowned for his ability to utilise new informa- tion and telecommunication tech- nologies to empower patients, in- crease access to care and reduce cost, he gained widespread US and international recognition for his leadership of telehealth pro- grammes at the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). At VA he developed health informatics, telehealth and disease manage- ment technologies to enhance and extend care and case man- agement. Together with his team, Dr Dar- kins created a capacity that deliv- ered virtual services to more than 480,000 Veteran patients each year via 1.4 million episodes of care. On any given day, 83,000 Veteran patients were using home-telehealth technologies to live independently at home and avoid institutional care. Dr Darkins comes to Medibio from Medtronic Plc where, as Vice President for Innovation and Strategic Partnerships for the Americas Region, he worked on using new payment mod- els to transform health care. He has been permanently based in the USA since 1997. Dr Darkins serves on the editorial board of Telehealth and e-Health Jour- nal; is a former Medical Director in London; co-founded a start- up telehealth company; and has both written, and spoken widely on how to address the challenges and find solutions in establishing large virtual health care networks that meet major health care prior- ities and deliver high volumes of patient consultation/care as their return on investment. Medibio CEO, Jack Cosentino said, “We are thrilled to have Dr Darkins join the Medibio board. As a visionary leader in telehealth, he shares our company’s passion for solving one of the world’s most significant health epidemics. His experience in building virtual care systems will help us to address the significant, yet under-recog- nised need for mental health sup- port services globally. “His expertise and achievements in the telehealth, IOT and pa- tient care arenas, and leadership experience at organisations, in- cluding the UK National Health Service, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Medtronic, complements an incredible team we are developing at Medibio, to exclusively focus on meeting this global need. We look forward to leveraging his knowledge, in- sights and relationships to height- en Mental Health awareness and identifying ways to reduce the stigma and isolation it can cause.” Medibio Chairman, Chris Inder- maur stated, “We welcome Adam to the board of Medibio and value the addition of his leadership and passion to ours, as we collective- ly serve people with mental health conditions and seek to meet their aspirations for wellness and re- covery.” Further Information: www.medibio.com.au