In The Arena by TechArena - Scaling AI and Biotech for Global Health Impact

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

In this episode of In the Arena, hear how cross-border collaboration, sustainability, and tech are shaping the future of patient care and innovation.

Welcome to the Tech Arena featuring authentic discussions between tech's leading innovators and our host, Alison Klein. Now let's step into the arena. Welcome in the arena. My name is Alison Klein. I am really excited today because we're talking to Gisela Garcia-Alvarez, co-founder and CSO of Lex Global Minds and ECH Alliance Ambassador in Singapore. Thank you for joining us, Gisela.

It's going to be a great conversation. Thanks for having me. So Gisela, the reason why we've got you on the show today is that you're speaking at Mobile World Congress and we're kicking off our coverage of Mobile World. Just to give a little bit of background, you have a doctorate in biochemistry and a long history of driving health systems research. Can we just spend a couple minutes to provide our audience a bit about your background and how it relates to the topic today.

Yeah. From an early age, I was really drawn to both science and innovation, a bit influenced by my family's background. My father, a business leader in the food industry, was really instilling me a global mindset from very early on. While my mother was a nurse passionate about technology, she's the techie from the family, sparked me deeply interest in healthcare, but also in human center innovation. So this combination of curiosity, global vision, problem solving orientation really led me to pursue a degree in biochemistry and then

further at PSD because I was really focused on basic research to start with. And molecular biology, I started originally in biotech. But PhD level gave us at that point of time, a really international perspective. I saw research as the most international gateway from very early. I wanted to really move away from my birthplace, not because I don't love it. I was very lucky to be born in Barcelona in the beautiful Hospital Sant Pau, so Gaudí architectures, many of you may know. But I was really tackling major healthcare challenges and I was very curious of becoming

a global author. So over the past more than 15 years now, I have worked across pharmaceutical companies, research foundations, hospitals, and industry settings in Europe and Singapore, basically in Asia. During my career though, I transitioned from hands-on scientific research to really more leadership roles, really trying to recognize that it really impact requires bridging the gap between the research, the healthcare systems and the industry itself, and the final user. So this eagerness to make things work brought me to healthcare management strategy and more international collaboration.

It's really a mission to turn this scientific knowledge into a more practical scalable solution. So I move very much from an industry isolated lab environment into more working and having to explain my results to the final users that are easily either patients or family or even professionals. So all to improve healthcare existence. Trying to get things to work, which opened my eyes of why it's so difficult, really led me to become managing director of the Galicia Health Cluster in Galicia, Spain. So that was the first time actually

I went back to Spain to work. That was really a pivotal moment, allowing me to really connect with key players in digital health, biotech and medtech. While I was really working with international organizations, government agencies and in the recent past. So this combination of biotech, medtech and the healthcare research in general, together with this international organization, having to work across different geopolitical challenges. So to say really marked my professional

continuity. And that's what actually I am also entering collaboration with ECH Alliance. While in the cluster really believe in association and collaboration to break through silos, ECH Alliance really made my fit and I became coordinator of the Galician ecosystem for ECH Alliance. So that's how our relation started. And now when I decided to leave the cluster to actually venture into more strategic projects, really bringing both worlds, the Asian world, which has half of my heart, and the European Spanish world, which has the other half, gave me the opportunity to continue working with

this alliance of an international, support and digital health. And I serve as ambassador for Singapore right now to strengthen this global health and innovation partnerships between these two worlds that I'm fortunate to be of. And then in early 2024, in the Chinese new year, I co-founded the Next Global Mind, which is a strategic consultancy really dedicated to internationalization of the innovation, helping the organizations navigate complex global landscapes, great meaningful collaborations

between Europe, UK and Asia-Pacific, but just simplifying things, really coming down to earth, not with the intention of competing with any of the internationalization innovation support programs that are existing worldwide, but rather collaborate with them. And filling the gap using my capillarity and my relations established during all my years of research and innovation management to really continue to trust and exploit the good capabilities of the different stakeholders and key opinion leaders that I've come across during my profession. That's an incredible background. One of the things that I was thinking about is that MWC

does a great job of focusing on the health sector and talking about innovations in health. And I think the reason why there is such a focus at the conference is because health and technology are really on an intersection path to improve both care and outcomes. How have you seen this evolve over time and how do you set your charter in both of the organizations that you're involved with to utilize technology to help with your health and wellness objectives? Yeah, so I have to do a disclaimer here. So, interesting, my other members of the family have always been more advanced in adopting new technology. And I always felt I was too analogic. But while they embrace every new gadget, this analogic part of myself was very focused on whether this technology is really truly integrated into our lives in a positive way without losing this human touch. So I'm always the challenger of the early adopters.

But during my time with CHG, I was really lucky because I collaborate with key opinion leaders and became deeply committed to ensure that this technology really serves real world needs, remaining useful and especially not introducing unnecessary complexity. One thing I've learned in my life is making things simple helps also step back and resolve problems, right? So we also must acknowledge that healthcare is a highly regulated sector. No doubt about that. Healthcare with safety and compliance at its core, of course, and meaning that technology must always align with these principles.

However, we cannot do a paralysis because of the analysis, right? So we have to really leverage both aspects. So ensure these are secure, but also give some space to push innovation through, to be able to maybe solve things, challenge it, move forward to solving it, and also being able to recognize when things are not really working and just stopping it in time. Right. But one of the most remarkable shifts I think have been the transformation from this mechanical based technology to all AI-driven solutions.

And now even if AI doesn't appear in a sentence, it seems it's not eligible for funding even sometimes. So while AI brings tremendous opportunities, no doubt about that. It also requires a deeper level of human oversight and ethical consideration. That's really also a challenge that we are experiencing in all these projects. I'm involved in different projects in which at the end of the day, importance is who is responsible for advice or results for a human outcome. This being able to help the professionals actually release them from this massive amount

of data that is coming out and helping filter it and not of course, withdraw their responsibility because I think of course the humans and professionals need to have this responsibility, but also not making it more difficult because otherwise what happens is that we have this resistance to change. So we really have to also challenge ourselves with our ability to collaborate, adapt, really work across different cultural and regulatory environments, not only the people but the geopolitical situations, the regulatory environments. The challenge, I guess, is maybe combining all this, which seems more simple to say than to do, but that really makes innovation truly

meaningful. But I always think it's good to keep an open path to risk it, right? Of course, not in critical pathways, potentially, but we need to risk it. Otherwise, science wouldn't have advanced and people wouldn't have advanced, and people wouldn't have risked it all. That's incredible. And it shows the complexities in which what we're working with. One thing that I wanted to ask you about is to go a little bit deeper and tell us

about Lex Global Minds and its mission and why you decided to found that just a year ago. Yeah, well, a year ago, I had already announced that I was stepping down from the managing position of the Galician Health Cluster. I had set a group of six persons. We had the strategy all set up and I was really looking forward to be able to focus more in the strategy and not so much in the day to day maybe of cluster management. And I have to say, part of my family is I'm married to a Singaporean

who fell in love with Galicia. That's why we came back. So here's combination of the two worlds. And it was the Dragon year. So I have to say that I am super superstitious, but all the researchers have a bit of superstition. So I am a Dragon myself. So I thought it's a good year, it's a good horror school. So let's set something, if you want something to happen, let's do it yourself.

So we decided to form Let's Know Our Mind, really to bring what we believe. This innovation, trust, network, strong basis that I have found with my interactions with my European and American partners, together with this thrice and speed and capacity that Asia has for me. We just decided to break the silos, facilitate this internationalization of this innovation, support in two worlds that I don't think is so different when you actually mix people that are like-minded. What I'm fascinated about research and innovation is that I have the chance to work with all kinds of paths of life, cultures, nationalities, religions.

So I have been very lucky in being able to be mixed in this turmoil of just special people. So we just wanted to put together this capacity of innovation can thrive no matter where in the world. And it's just sometimes about putting together the people and the right partners in the right moment to thrive in collaborative projects. For me, collaboration is a word I use a lot. So we are kind of a boutique strategy consultancy, if you want to say it like

this, if you want to try to finish it. Really based on partnership development, based on facilitating cross-border in a racial exchange, and of course, identifying how to access funding and market entry support. And this is really based on relations, built efficient collaborations and identifying, I laugh to myself because once I told my husband, no, I'm a biochemist. I do research. I don't sell, I don't develop, I laugh to myself because once I told my husband, no, I'm a biochemist. I do research. I don't sell, I don't develop, I don't commercialize.

And then my husband now laughs every day and said, come on, you would even sell your mother, right? That was like, you see business everywhere you go, right? You identify more than business partnerships. I tend to kind of identify potential partnership to bring, you know, each other. So basically, like Supermind is a framework that allows me to do this, put it into practice and allows me to work with the amount of amazing stakeholders, QoP leaders, partners, colleagues, as in council during my professional

paths and I collaborate with them in different projects. So we are asked to as a team, but our team is really based on collaboration, efficient collaboration for high impact projects. That's awesome. I teach a class in entrepreneurism and I think I might have to invite you to come and be a guest lecturer based on that answer. It sounds like it's been a great journey for you. Now I want to get to the topic and the reason why we're together today, which

is you're speaking at the upcoming MWC event in Barcelona, so your hometown. I know you have many, but this is your first hometown. Can you share a little bit about what you plan to introduce to the attendees of the event? Sure. At the Digital Health Wellness Summit, which is the part where I'm participating in the Mobile World Congress, specifically in the four years from now. So I will be presenting as ECH Ambassador for Singapore also, and

CSO with my two hats really, which is the same person at the end of the day. So as Ambassador for Singapore for ECH Alliance, who gave me the opportunity actually to convey the message and explain our experience of this barely a year that will be marked and also also as yourself, I consider all my partners, all the supporters that I've commented to this opportunity. So it will be a conjoined effort. So we will be representing how we are working with the innovation and different internationalization agencies of Singapore, Asia Pacific,

Southeast Asia basically, and Spain and EU, but really to establish a bi-directional flow of innovation. That's what we call it. And the sexy name that we've called it is Global Innovation Superhighways Initiatives. So this initiative, I must say, is a combination between these learning expeditions are used to establish in the Global Innovation Cluster, which is study trips to identify potential collaboration in new market, but this has been reinforced by a whole scheme that we call the Global Innovation Superhighway to really convey these bidirectional flaws in innovation.

So really make it possible that innovation moves from one border to another cross border. Our approach, as I mentioned before, is not really about creating another accelerated program or another internationalization program or competing with existing tools. Right? So ours instead, we really aim to enhance collaboration among stakeholders, improve the capillarity of innovation initiatives and prepare companies for really an informed internationalization. And we do this in three phases.

We do it in a first phase, which we call explore. And second phase, which is a bit more in deepness. We go more deepness, not so much across in engage. So engage in the ecosystem, more with the stakeholders, with the key opinion leaders, with the regulatory officers, et cetera. And then the phase three will be more an established phase in which we pull hands, so to say, with the teams of the projects, of the companies. And we really walk every step

with them until they are nicely withdrawn. Now I must really say that this internationalization and moving innovation from one country to the other, we are not really encouraging the side of taking out, so to say the innovation from EU and passing it to Singapore because they have money or the other way around because we have the data, right? It's really to establish bridges, real bridges that are sustainable and that are willing to be still bridges in the long future, right?

I always say that our learning studies, our study tweets are really nice, friendly ones, because we are not aggressive in trying to sell products or selling the regional services. We're really trying to encourage long-enduring collaboration. And the way we do that is usually in three ways. That's what we have experienced as more useful. One would be like two different projects or companies or teams want to actually complement each other in the process of innovation. So one has some know-how that is helpful for the other, or even has a way of entering funding, but that of course includes a sharing of IT, et cetera. The other is more, okay, I really want to understand

the market, I really want to deploy there, but of course there are stop downs, there's more SMEs, which is the majority in Spain, and we cannot deploy people there, or the cost of living is extraordinary. We want to do a small interaction of the services or the products, but we want to do it in collaboration with stakeholders from the market of interest, right? So in this case, Singapore, or in this case, Spain.

And that will be licenses of the services and agreement of commercialization of others. And then we do have companies that have a long structure, a big structure, enough revenue to really make a move. However, they don't want to open and market and just suddenly become vinegar and oil, so to say, not really mixing. They really want to integrate it in a good way. And actually they want to create a hub of innovation and collaboration. Usually they're deploying in kind of a hot desk or semi hot desk structure,

but they are more powerful. They have more revenue and they usually look for a co-partner in the market. The way we do Singapore on the other way to Europe that we have been a great demand actually surprisingly for services is really an integration of the know how from the Singaporean companies and maybe a small team of developers into research and innovation groups from Spain. We have two cases where that has been possible and I will present them also during the mobile.

But basically we really believe in joining sectoral multidisciplinary and international delegations to foster an open-minded approach to collaboration. So even our global innovations over highway and learning expeditions are structured in a way that we first prepare the cohort, establish the cohort that is going to go there. So it's a conjunct delegation from a sector usually that is going to go and explore together, and it's either international and interdisciplinary. So you have the providers and you have the demand, maybe in the same cohort of the delegation that goes. From that preparation, you can already see sparks of synergies. So it's really nice to see.

So we really want to drive meaningful and sustainable innovation. Yep. That makes a lot of sense. Now you talked about how the global innovation superhighway is really a confluence of digital health, biotech, and sustainability. Why is this combination so important in terms of the outcomes that you're seeking?

I have to say that this is really my personal experience, I assume. So for me, even if you observe the different clusters or organizations that are around Europe, biotech itself, so what we consider usually the wet lab with the microorganisms, with the different material, et cetera. So what we say wet lab as a biochemist working with cells, either organisms or in vivo or in ex vivo, it really has been evolving like before you asked me about technology. Biotech has also evolved into this digital bar data analysis. So the dry lab is really difficult to actually separate right now.

Even the clusters I mentioned, we know digital health are classically a health cluster, but then we have another cluster of biotech. Alicia, right? And at the end we are converging in the projects, especially. So I don't think digital health can be completely away from biotech. And then of course, everything in life has to be sustainable. So sustainability, it's really an important core of any project in any call. I know the importance of sustainability in every aspect.

So it will be an economic sustainability, also sustainability in the sense of the impact it has on the influence it has on the trajectory it has, even the sustainability of European projects is a big worry that they have. It must have a business model plan to pursue, right? So for me, it kind of works together. It is true that not everything has to be biotech, digital health, but I would really say nothing can go out without sustainability. So actually the last couple there is the sustainability has to be one partner for sure.

And then the other one feeds from each other, I would say. So I think it's super important all these three combined. That makes a lot of sense. I think that one of the things that I've been thinking about as you've been talking is you've dedicated your life to this. What are the things that you've seen that have been implemented that have really caused impact to the communities that you're working in that you're particularly proud of? And how has that shaped health more broadly across the globe? I was going to say I'm young in the market, but I guess I'm not that young in my career. But one of the things that I think has been best is when open innovation process is naturalized

in everything. Because otherwise having a broad spectrum and being humble enough to change course and paths and people, it's a very important thing. I know this is not very scientific or technical, but it's super down to earth. I've gone through all the phases of working for a pharma company, working for a foundation, working for a foundation that's set up by families, working in hospitals and all these settings cannot be isolated. So if we are very narrow minded and we do not challenge ourselves every single day with the initiatives we put together.

We risk crashing big time. So the biggest positive impact is when I've been involved or I've seen projects in where an open innovation process was real and patent. And this has helped them refine constantly an approach based on the client. And I say client on purpose because sometimes we talk about the user, the patients or so, but the clients sometimes is not only one, it's several. The host, so the person or entities that are really going to be there helping. So for example, in the testing and piloting, it will be actually the testing

community, the society, the professionals, many things, and accept the stakeholder sheet that comes with it. Maybe for me, in the case of my projects, it's very difficult to measure a global impact, but I am happy to see in a small scale momentum, right? The process is momentum. So our core belief is innovation again, should be a really democratic process in the good sense of the bureaucracy and involving other states to create real applicable solutions rather than just theoretical ideas. I don't think technology is really a limit. I feel

technology is limitless. The challenge really is being able to ensure that collaboration is not just a buzzword but an active reality and being able to really care, even if it's a small impact, so that we will treat this momentum. I think major impacts, sometimes it has been the simplest things and the simplest technologies. I've seen amazing changes, for example, in models of care, when I've been working closely with different care homes and the users in the care homes. Just simple technology application involving the users, but really involving them. Not just like doing a focus group and there you go, thank you very

much, here you go. But really establishing, that's one of my most proud moments, if I would say, and is that I had the chance to establish a network of living labs of care and joining together for safe with the members of the Galician Health Clusters that were either dedicating from one aspect or the other to the care. So it will be care homes, but also the regulators, people from the government, the agencies of innovation, providers of technology. We managed to get them all together working with a huge cohort of more than nine institutions in Galicia, which is getting them to collaborate together in an efficient and harmonized protocol way to make it reproducible and scalable. Which really generated an amazing impact.

We got not only for the providers to show that it's not only philosophical, oh, how nice people feel, which is nice, of course, but they need revenue and they need numbers. Right? So you could translate that momentum to, okay, we reduce in six months your CE certificate, for example, we managed to get your solution implemented in the care system, public health system, Galician. When they were coming from all over, so there were Estonian, German, Galicians from UK.

So there were solutions from providers coming from Finland also, from different walks of past, and it was really interesting to see that they actually end up enjoying the process, enjoying the process, creating trust, and even among different cultures, which was really fun to see. Another point I think that creates an impact in healthcare is being able to establish correct and workable KPIs. It's extremely difficult how to evaluate the impact on the person's feeling of autonomy from one solution to another, from a Finnish to a Galician to a Spanish to an Asian. It's so difficult. It took us two, three years to actually establish that the megal of the clear KPIs, what the European commission considers this solution scores this amount for feeling

restricted, self-autonomy. This is extremely difficult because these are values, personal values that are sometimes not transferable from one country to another. Right? So it was a really nice experience, I would say. So yes, technology was implemented there, but a real measurement of the technology was in place. So it was not so much about that technology itself, but helping the

technology to be able to integrate and align with a human part of the community, of the society, of what we want in busy door hell. Now you're speaking at MWC where the global tech sector will congregate at the beginning of March. What do you want to see from the tech sector to help with your goals and health? So I think we need tech leaders to be open to new ways of working and truly engage with future users. This takes time. I know everybody says, yes, we're open innovation, we do testing, we do piloting, but it takes time. It's an investment of time and money, of course.

It is true that sometimes it's difficult to make it reproducible from one place to another because it is not always clear, especially in care. It is not clear which are the reproducible protocols, how to do it, or even how to do it, depending even how to differently do it, depending on the ecosystem, right? But it is not really about the best technology, successful innovation. It's really about ensuring the right technology is adopted in the right way. Tech players really need to embrace collaboration and really enjoy the

journey of co-developing solution and really identifying when, like from very early or not, sometimes what happens is that they need to make a change. It's very expensive depending on the point where they have decided to make the testing and accepting that maybe sometimes it's not the final choice, right? Being able to pivot earlier may also help them make a better outcome of the whole scenario. So I think key is adaptability, a user-centered design, and really a global cooperation. That's awesome. I know that folks who are listening online are going to be intrigued. Where will they catch your session at MWC and how can they connect

with you online to continue the dialogue? Connecting online is very easy. As you did through LinkedIn, I'm very active on it. They can email me at lexglobalminds.com. They can follow our website on the register for our news letter, lexglobalminds.com. And also through ECH Alliance. So I really believe in our association, especially ECH Alliance with my whole team. We work together and we have collaboration projects that we will also present at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

I will be speaking in the four years from now stage within the digital health and wellness summit. March 5th, I believe from 11 to 1145, if I'm not really wrong on my exact timing. That will be where they can find me. Or just through the app, they can send me a message and we can arrange a meeting. I will be there for three days there. Since I'm back home, I have to also visit my parents. So I need to stay there all week in Barcelona for sure.

That's awesome. Thank you so much Gisela for spending time with us today. It's a real pleasure and I am very excited to follow along the journey of your Dragon Foundation company. Can't wait to learn more. Thanks and I hope to see you there. Thanks for joining the Tech Arena. Subscribe and engage at our website, thetecharena.net.

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