The people behind healthcare innovation: an interview with Doron Behar, CEO & Founder of Igentify

Published on May 3, 2021

As part of our work, we have the privilege to speak with many inspiring innovators. Although the business community usually focuses on companies, pitches, and valuations—and less on the innovator—we thought it would be interesting to learn a bit more about the people behind healthcare innovation. In this series, we’re sharing some of our conversations with innovators in a condensed format: six questions and six answers about their experience, their opinions, and their learnings.

This latest conversation is with Doron Behar, CEO and Founder of an end-to-end genetic platform Igentify, that provides a suite of digital tools designed to scale the provision of genomic medical services to more people worldwide.

 Gila: What’s your story, and how did you become an innovator in healthcare?

Doron: Some like to climb mountains or ride bicycles. Since I was a kid, I was fascinated by the diversity of life. When I became an MD, I looked at “variation” on a scientific level. Variation across ethnicities sparked my interest in genomics. My PhD mentor had a keen interest in using genetics to better understand the diversity and biology of individuals, and I became interested in looking at diversity from the inside—at the genomic level. 

 At that time, there was a spark in the genomic revolution which led to rapid development of technologies to sequence a genome faster, to understand ethnicities, and for individuals to understand their ethnic backgrounds. It became clear that the original bottlenecks in genomics, which included sequencing a genome and developing bioinformatic pipelines, had now advanced to be able to interpret and report results efficiently. For genomic medicine to scale and be of service to more people, new tools were needed to interpret results and to help genetic counsellors report these results to patients. This was the inspiration to start Igentify.

Gila: Where do you see the field of genomics moving to in the next ten years?

Doron: The genome will become a part of everyone’s medical record. People will “carry their genomic wallet” with them and genomic data will be used for a range of healthcare services. The “genomic wallet” will be a book to open as needed to inform a wide range of health decisions in various areas such as preventative medicine, reproductive health, drug prescriptions, cancer detection, nutritional plans, and medical treatments.  

The genome will become a part of everyone’s medical record.

People will “carry their genomic wallet” with them!

Gila: Looking more broadly, what are the biggest opportunities and obstacles you see impacting innovation in the healthcare environment?

Doron: Privacy is a major obstacle I would like to highlight; it is also a big opportunity. As the digital revolution meets the genomic revolution, we will see even more rapid acceleration in healthcare innovation. However, at the center of many new healthcare technologies and services will be data privacy obstacles.

The issues we are seeing now around online data privacy offer a preview of what we will soon see in relation to healthcare data. Today, people are asking: do social media platforms own all the content of my social media posts? Do online search engines own the data in my search history? How can this information about me be used? Tomorrow, we will be asking: do I own my genomic data, or is my personal genomic data owned by the lab, my doctor, the hospital, my health insurance company? And then who decides what can be done with this data?

Gila: When you look at the health system as a whole (pharma, providers, payers, doctors, patients) who do you see driving innovation the most?

Doron: People, not institutions or companies, will be the most important driver of healthcare innovation. This includes healthcare workers looking to provide enhanced care to more patients, as well as patients seeking more control and convenience in managing their health. For example, genetic counsellors (GCs) are overwhelmed by growing demand for counselling sessions. With the desire to serve more patients, and to spend more time counselling patients at risk, GCs will drive innovation and adoption around digital tools that bring more efficiency to the genetic counselling process, including enrolment, consent, and reporting of results.

Gila: How has COVID-19 affected receptiveness for innovation in healthcare? 

Doron: COVID-19 has accelerated receptiveness for innovation in healthcare. With limitations on the physical delivery of certain medical services, many patients turned to monitoring their health with new digital tools and experimenting with new ways of interacting with healthcare providers. Digital health innovation was already robust, but COVID-19 resulted in even faster consumer adoption, just as it did in other industries such as ecommerce and restaurant food delivery. Our industry should take note of two benefits that are driving this receptiveness to innovation: convenience and control. Moving forward, I believe people will be looking for even more convenience and more control of healthcare services.

Digital health innovation was already robust, but COVID-19 resulted in even faster consumer adoption, just as it did in other industries such as ecommerce and restaurant food delivery.

Gila: What do you know now that you wish you had known when you were starting out as an innovator and entrepreneur?

Doron: What I didn’t know is that it is such a rollercoaster with so many turns, steep climbs, and sometimes inversions. You are responsible for bringing others—family, colleagues, and investors—on this exciting but unpredictable ride. Innovation is different than having an idea: it’s emotionally challenging and requires continuing execution at a high level. Meaningful innovation is not a sprint; it’s a marathon.

Innovation is different than having an idea: it’s emotionally challenging and requires continuing execution at a high level. Meaningful innovation is not a sprint; it’s a marathon.