Roberto Ascione (Naples, Italy, August 9, 1973 – ) is an Italian entrepreneur and global thought leader in the field of digital health. He was founder of Healthware International, and on September 28, 2016, he was named as the Top Global Industry Leader by Health 2.0 organization.[1][2]
Roberto Ascione | |
|---|---|
 Roberto Ascione | |
| Born | Roberto Ascione August 9, 1973 Naples, Campania, Italy |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Education | Liceo Scientifico "Tito Lucrezio Caro", Naples, Italy |
| Alma mater | Suor Orsola Benincasa University of Naples |
| Occupation(s) |
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| Board member of | Healthware Group, Oncotech, Biogene, Bio Ricerche 2010. |
Biography
editRoberto Ascione is the first-born son of Antonio, a prominent Italian hepatologist[citation needed] and descendant, from his mother's side, of Raffaele Viviani; and Paola Scialoja, a Communication Sciences professor at Suor Orsola Benincasa University of Naples.[3][4]
He tried the university studies at University of Naples Federico II, where he studied Biological Sciences and Medicine between 1992 and 1999. While a medical student, he became progressively engaged with the connection between digital technology, medicine and communication sciences, and started to think about the way to impact healthcare more largely as an individual physician. In 1997, he founded in Naples the first Healthware company, whose name derived from the merging of the words "health(care)" and "(soft)ware". This startup company provided consulting services in the newborn field of health tech, and became progressively active in the field of digitalization of health records.[5]
Building on the success of the first years, the company expanded to the pharmaceutical marketing services industry, achieving both international expansion and a progressively stronger reputation in the field. In order to sustain Healthware growth, Ascione moved his company from Naples to Salerno in 2001, in near proximity with the local university faculties of Informatics and Communication Sciences.
Following about ten years of economic and capabilities growth at international level, Healthware was acquired by the advertising giant Publicis Groupe in 2007, while Ascione retained the control of operations as president. The new company, rebranded as Publicis Healthware International, rapidly became an integrator for other companies of the Publicis Healthcare Communications Group.[6][7][8][9] He finally integrated Razorfish Health, the healthcare branch of Razorfish, always maintaining his position as Global President and CEO. The resulting company was branded Razorfish Healthware, with bases in the United States, Europe and Far East, with two global hubs in Salerno and New York City.[10]
In 2015, Ascione led the demerging of the original company from Publicis Groupe, and rebranded the resulting entity as Healthware International.[11] During the same year, he launched Healthware Labs in New York City, a company subset devoted to startup incubation and development in the field of digital health, which was labeled as one of the most innovative divisions of 2015.[12]
In addition to his duties with Healthware International, Ascione is a board member of research and education organizations in the field of Oncological Research (Oncotech), Post-genomics and Bioinformatics (Biogene) and Biotechnology (Bio Ricerche 2010).[13]
Thought leadership
editFurther to his entrepreneurial activity, Roberto Ascione is a globally acknowledged thought leader in the field of Digital Health.
He is often invited as a guest speaker at top international conferences of his field of activity, as Lions Health,[14] Health 2.0,[15] Doctors 2.0 & You,[16] Health Tech Summit,[17] Healthcare Businesswomen Association Summit,[18] Frontiers of Interaction.[19]
He is particularly devoted to foster startup development in the field of digital health, and holds an advisory position in Luiss EnLabs, the startup factory of LUISS University (Rome),[20] Digital Magics HealthTech (Milan),[21] Seedcamp (London),[22] Start-up Bootcamp (Berlin)[23] and Junto Health (New York).[24]
Notes
edit- ^ The Health 2.0 10 Year Global Retrospective Awards, accessed on September 22, 2016
- ^ News about Roberto Ascione winning the 10-years Retrospective Awards by Health 2.0
- ^ Prof. Paola Scialoja profile
- ^ Paola Scialoja's family was one of the most known and prominent in Italy, having among its members Antonio Scialoja, a deputy and senator; so as Ministry of Finance and of Public Education of the Kingdom of Italy; and his son Vittorio, also a senator, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Italy.
- ^ MMM Online, accessed on September 22, 2016
- ^ News of the acquisition of Digital District
- ^ News of the acquisition of Digital District Archived April 29, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ News about the merging of iMed Studios Archived July 19, 2012, at archive.today
- ^ News of the merging of iMed Studios
- ^ Razorfish Healthware foundation, access on September 22, 2016
- ^ History of Healthware International from the Company's website. Access September 22, 2016
- ^ Innovators 2015: Divisions. Feature Articles by PM360 Staff on September 22, 2016
- ^ Roberto Ascione profile on the LUISS Business School website. Accessed on September 22, 2016
- ^ Speaker at Lions Health
- ^ Speaker at Health 2.0 Conference, accessed on September 22, 2016
- ^ Speaker at Doctors 2.0 & You Conference, accessed on September 22, 2016
- ^ Moderator at Health Tech Summit 2015, accessed on September 22, 2016
- ^ Moderator at HBA Summit, accessed on September 22, 2016
- ^ Health Track Leader at Frontiers of Interaction, accessed on September 22, 2016
- ^ Advisor at LUISS EnLabs, accessed on September 22, 2016
- ^ Leadership of Digital Magics HealthTech
- ^ Involvement in Seedcamp
- ^ Involvement in Start-up Bootcamp
- ^ Involvement in Junto Health