Brian de Francesca
Brian de Francesca is a Johns Hopkins educated expert in the use of digitalization and connectivity to improve healthcare quality, access and efficiency. Most specifically, in the use of platform technologies to increase, optimize and improve healthcare human resources – for which there is a significant global need. This has broad implications on healthcare staffing and facility design, development, number, location and the scope of services to be offered.
Brian was first exposed to the tremendous potential of “digitalization and connectivity” in 1993, with the success of the world’s first tele-radiology program in his home town of Baltimore, Maryland at the Veterans Administration Medical Center. Brian has been a “super user” of digitalization and connectivity (aka - telemedicine) ever since. He was deeply involved with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce e-commerce IBEX (International Business Exchange) project and conducted the some of the first pilots of Digital Pathology. His company participated in the “Whole System Demonstrator Project” in the U.K., which was the largest randomized control trial of telehealth and telecare in the world and demonstrated the significant benefits of telemedicine; and also, remotely monitored over 35,000 patients in Europe for post discharge and chronic disease management. Brian has won awards for his TeleStroke program in Asia, Tele-medical education programs in Africa, the Frost and Sullivan 2018 “Telemedicine Leadership Award” and the 201 International Life Sciences Awards for ‘Best Healthcare Staffing Solutions Provider,” for the services provide Ver2 in human resource capacity building, optimizing and quality improving. Brian maintains a full roster of international speaking and writing engagements, covering a wide array of healthcare topics and most recently appeared on the cover of the July issue of “Middle East Medical” magazine.
Brian has over 20 years international healthcare experience. He lived in Thailand for over a decade, where in addition to founding the region’s first biomedical engineering company – Asia Bio Systems; he also worked with Bangkok Hospital and Bumrungrad Hospital – both of which receive large numbers of medical tourists each year that benefited from his innovative use of telemedicine to support inbound and outbound medical travel. He later worked for Johns Hopkins in Abu Dhabi, where he was responsible for a wide network of healthcare facilities. It was during this period that he refined his vision for a Virtual Healthcare Service Platform, which eventually became Ver2. He is an advisor to :IRYO – a European company that is developing one of the first cloud-based electronic health records, incorporating a full Blockchain technology foundation. He is an advocate for the formation of global research collaborative exchanges – to include not only humans, but synthetic intelligence (AI) as well. Brian is also an active member of The World Future Society.
In 2015, Brian founded Ver2 – an innovative telemedicine services platform, that received an Expo2020 Global Innovator’s Grant for its “Connecting Minds” medicaleducation work in Africa. Ver2 was the first company in the world to successfully use Blockchain to support tele-medical education; and they are in the process of incorporating various artificial intelligence applications into their diagnostics platform modules. One of Brian’s personal goals, is to connect 700 refugee camps to healthcare and education resources over the Ver2 Platform. Brian is a graduate of Johns Hopkins and Loyola Universities, a Fellow of The Advisory Board Company and holds a Certificate in Company Direction from “The Institute of Directors” (IOD). Brian presently resides in Dubai, UAE.
