As we published earlier, MCRO, one of the region’s most reputable software development companies dedicated to improving doctor collaboration and cancer patient care, launched Docviser, the first intelligent oncology healthcare app developer in Romania.

 Here’s the full interview with the Docviser App co-founder.

Interview with Alexandru Lazar

Hello, everyone! We are continuing our interview series with a special guest. His name is Alexandru Lazar, and he is the co-founder of Docviser. A platform that enables doctors to connect with medical peers and discuss challenging cases in a secure environment.

In the interview, we will discuss more on the app, and the challenges faced. Hi Alex, thanks for accepting my invitation and welcome to our interview series for entrepreneurs. How are you?

Alexandru Lazar: Hi Maria, I’m good, thanks. Thanks for inviting me.

To get to know more about Docviser app we would like to know your definition of it, what is Docviser, and what it represents in terms of innovation.

Alexandru Lazar: Docviser is a medical software platform dedicated to oncology centers that are meant to help clinics optimize the oncology practice and improve their performance overall. What it brings is actually clinics will have a flow that allows doctors to use a shared database or treatment protocols that are global, prescribe treatments, set the proper doses based on the calculated warrants and then validate the treatment and then send it to the actual pharmacy of the hospital if there is a pharmacy if there is not, directly to the nurse that would further administer it.

The entire process happens in real-time for everyone, in full transparency. Doctors will be able to oversee everything, the entire flow from prescription to administering the treatment in real-time. That’s the main feature of Docviser.

Other features will include the Tumour Board for the doctors to make the best decision for their patients. They have the option to join offline and meet in the same room and online in a Google meet-like conference room adapted for them to be able to discuss specific case studies, work on a resolution and add anything relevant to them that would make everyone take the best decision. Besides that, we also offer powerful clinic reports that help clinics logistically organize their staff better and be able to determine the exact quantity of drugs to be administered in the following months based on the previous month’s records.

What can you tell us about the beneficiaries of this platform?

Alexandru Lazar: In my opinion pretty much everyone involved in the process will benefit tremendously, starting with patients who are the main actors and the platform is dedicated to making their lives easier, to doctors, clinics, and ultimately to research teams, I think everyone would benefit big time! As I mentioned earlier, the clinic flow will shorten the time for patients to stay in the hospitals, doctors will be able to collaborate more accessible and use the clinic flow to handle even more patients, and clinics will benefit logistically because using the report system they would be able to assess what quantity of certain drugs will be administered based on previous months records, and other statistics like the performance of the medical staff. Because you have an activity at the clinic where you can see who is performing what, and you can assess that as well. Of course, the research part, with its medical data stored securely and efficiently, will enable research to be done properly with solid data with real patients treated at the specific hospitals, compared to fake data on paper and the fact that we require the doctor to send a status, we finalize treatment they have to choose between several statues like ‘’progressive disease, a stationary disease, a partial or a complete response’’, this will further enable us to build a proper milling list on the prescription and use data for research purposes to check if the treatment was weather more efficient than the others and later on why not, build an AI around it to make some sorts of forecasting or treatments where we can get some % on the surviving chances based on several factors. Right now, we don’t have a lot of information collected from doctors other than the level of cretin and the body mass and a few other associated diseases, but later we want to introduce the genetic markers that are probably gonna be very relevant, my co-founder is a doctor he would be able to tell you more about it […]

So would you say this platform is a personal medical assistant for cancer patients?

Alexandru Lazar: Well, I would say it’s much in the future, but it’s not something impossible, so we’re gonna have to work a lot with doctors to analyze data and make sure it’s not biased and make sure we gather the correct results cause it can be very tricky.

Are there any similar apps?

Alexandru Lazar: I don’t think there is an app to contain the full set of features that we offer to close the loop with the clinic needs in terms of patient management, marked prescriptions, tumour boards and everything. I know some other applications that only offer a tool for tumour boards, for instance, that’s not even live conferences as we do. Offer the possibility to collaborate remotely, in a smart secure environment, not WhatsApp, Zoom, or Google Meet that’s not contained by a clinic or a single platform, and it’s definitely not a safe way to handle tumour boards, for instance, and other applications that I know asks doctors to enter their patient data for the sake of research, no, I strongly believe that Docviser has literally no competition out there at the moment.

What were the challenges of creating and developing this platform?

Alexandru Lazar: There were very many challenges, from securing the funds to deliver cause you need money, and money is an important resource, and to convincing clinics to use it. So these are all challenges, we went to several congresses, we’ve been discussing with doctors, we’ve been gathering feedback and all that. I believe the biggest challenge was to transpose what doctors had in their minds into the actual user experience. It’s very difficult to handle this with a non-technical person without distorting the actual need of the hospital, the actual reality. I believe here myself and Alex, my co-founder, together with my UX designer, played a very important role in determining the best way to handle the specific user experience in the application flow. That was the most difficult challenge.

I mean, that’s what we do at MCRO, we are a software company behind this product, and a pretty powerful software company and that was a good starting point which made our lives a lot easier to kick this off, so there were not many technical challenges, I would say more product and user experience challenges.

You mentioned something about money costs and resources at this moment, are we talking about any costs involved in this app, for those who use it?

Alexandru Lazar: Yes and no. It is fully free at the moment, and it will stay free for patients’ management and clinics’ prescriptions meaning the entire clinic flow, we will never charge for that. But we may charge for something like tumour boards as we make it more and more complex, and probably treatment forecasting once we have an efficient A.I. in place, and maybe clinic reports because logistically, that would help them a lot. We may charge for that in the future, but not right now.

How come the government didn’t finance your project?

Alexandru Lazar: We didn’t get any funds from the government, MCRO funded this project, and MCRO is the product development studio that stands behind the initiative, and that was an important factor in terms of receiving the funds. When Alex, my co-founder, a respected oncologist, came to me a year back and asked me if we could build software for him, he was ready to pay from his own pocket. I told him I don’t know if you have the money to pay for it because software costs a lot of money, especially if the developers are really expensive, but we’re probably gonna find a way in which to monetize on this one way or another. The government, I’m sure, has the best interests in digitalization, and the best thing they’ve done so far without needing any money is not to cast any stones in our way.

How do you see the future of this platform in Romania?

Alexandru Lazar: I think it has a very bright future, the plan for Docviser is to onboard all the public hospitals in Romania and the private ones, so why not. It would enable doctors to collaborate efficiently based on a globally shared database of treatment protocols, that would be ideal, right? The plan is to have everyone on the platform for the next years to come and make sure they use it successfully, giving us more courage to explore other markets cause we’re not gonna be limited only to Romania, we want to explore other European markets like Spain, the Netherlands and why not the UK, who is no longer part of Europe anymore but that’s a good market as well and possibly the US.

Thank you very much for accepting our invitation, and we hope that Docviser will be a real game changer in the medical system, and I wish you good luck with your entrepreneurial journey. See you soon.

Alexandru Lazar: Thank you for inviting me, I appreciate it!

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Romania asks for the consolidation of NATO’s presence in the country

Asked what part Romania is playing in this current diplomatic context, the Romanian foreign minister responded that Romania contributes to the Euro-Atlantic dialogue. In this matter, Romania asked for the consolidation of the NATO presence in Romania.

We are very glad that not only USA but also France has decided to deploy more troops in Romania. Actually I would like to share with you the fact that on the 3^rd of February I will host in Bucharest a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Bucharest Nine Format, which is the format gathering all nine allies on the Eastern Flank, together with the French minister of foreign affairs visiting Bucharest on the same day, in order to discuss about the security situation in our neighborhood in the Black Sea region, and the foreign minister of Ukraine will also join us during that meeting, so we will be able to discuss ways and means how to continue to promote dialogue and to reach de-escalation in the region.

Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu

Putin demands NATO to withdraw troops from Bulgaria and Romania

In response to Putin remarks about the Russian security and about withdrawal of the NATO forces from Bulgaria and Romania, Bogdan Aurescu responded:

As I already mentioned, we are ready to allow Russia to check whether there is any kind of offensive missiles in Romania. There are not. That’s for sure. Then, well, he said that Ukraine will become soon a NATO member if I understand correctly his remarks, but this is not on the agenda of the alliance right now. There is no imminent decision to accept Ukraine as a NATO member state.

Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu

Concerns about Russia putting pressure on Moldova

The Foreign Minister explains the geopolitical vulnerability of Moldova and the pressure that exists there from Russia.

Well, Moldova is not a member of NATO, but we have witnessed recently, for instance in October, the gas crisis in the Republic of Moldova, and that was clearly prompted by some Russian actions against this country. It was perhaps a very good case study of hybrid actions against a country in the Eastern neighbourhood and both Romania and the EU have acted decisively in order to support Moldova to cope with such kinds of challenges.

Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu

Here is the full intervention of the Romanian Foreign Minister, Mr Bogdan Aurescu, on CNN.

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Mattson has created some big projects, including a science-fiction script, 2084, and co-wrote The Batman, a Warner Bros. film to be released in 2022 and that will star Robert Pattinson. More than that, he’s also been chosen to write the pilot for an Amazon series based on Rick Remender’s comic The Fear Agent. One of the executive producers is Seth Rogen. He has many other productions to his credit, like Project Power or Little Fish.

Mattson Tomlin’s big directorial debut is Mother/Android, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller streaming on Netflix from January 7. The film is dramatized from real life-story of the screenwriter, and it is an emotional rollercoaster filled with romanticism, drama, and vulnerability. Georgia, interpreted by  Chloë Grace Moretz, is a young pregnant woman who tries to save herself and her baby with her lover Sam on a risky journey (interpreted by Algee Smith). At the same time, America is overtaken by a deadly and violent artificial intelligence uprising. Their journey to a safe place is filled with ups and downs. The two lovers show us that you would do everything to save your child. Georgia is a brave and strong woman who continues to travel at such speed and fight for herself and her baby despite her condition. The future is not so bright for the three of them, but Sam and Georgia will do everything to escape from the harsh reality they live in.

The film’s story is inspired by Mattson Tomlin’s personal experience when his parents made a difficult choice and decided to give him up for adoption.

The Interview offered to Valahia News before the release of Mother/Android on Netflix

Mattson Tomlin offered Valahia News an exclusive interview in which he tells us more about the film and the details behind Mother/Android.

Valahia News: Mattson, we are glad you agreed to answer our questions. Thank you for that! We will start by asking you something… You were born in Bucharest in the aftermath of the Revolution, but you were adopted and moved out to the United States immediately after. You lived almost your entire life in the US. How would you describe Romania as a Romanian-born American? Are the changes accomplished by Romania during the last 32 years visible from the States?

Mattson Tomlin: I mostly know Romania through the very specific lens of my own origins, and my relationship to the country up until recently has been very focused in the past, particularly the Revolution. It’s only been as I’ve gotten older and made friends who have their own relationship to Romania, either being from there, lived there, or visited frequently, that I started to understand the country that it has become today. From an American perspective, one of the reputations that Romania has is that it’s a hidden gem, and I’ve often heard people describe it as the most beautiful country in Europe.

The other, and perhaps more striking observation I can share is how the events of the Romanian Revolution aren’t well known in the US. For America, the spotlight of that era was very much on the fall of the Berlin Wall, which is what most people know. Of course, 1989 was a huge turning point for so much of Europe and these events are not unrelated… But here not so many people are educated on the events of the Revolution. Someday I hope I am lucky enough to make a film set during the Revolution instead of simply being inspired by it. That event and the stories around it have stayed completely relevant over the last 32 years, and are also the events that surrounded my origins, so I am always thinking about it.

Valahia News: Who were the filmmakers or screenwriters who offered you guidance or inspiration? Who made you step on this path and become the artist you are now?

Mattson Tomlin: First and foremost in this particular film is my producer, Matt Reeves. Matt is my mentor and very much helped godfather and guide me through the process of getting my first film made. His movies, from Cloverfield to the Planet of the Apes films, have been huge inspirations for me as a filmmaker, so having the opportunity to work with him and learn from him as I launched my first film was invaluable. Matt was one of the first filmmakers to really understand that I was telling my own story of my biological parents but translating it through genre and was incredibly supportive in helping me find the right way to do that. There are other filmmakers I’ve worked with along the way, either serving just as a screenwriter on movies that someone else directed, or just knowing and developing projects with other filmmakers. Going through that process with another director and seeing how they make a movie was also invaluable because I could learn through observation, from Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman on PROJECT POWER, from Chad Hartigan on our film LITTLE FISH, and many many others, it’s all been a learning experience.

Two of my biggest inspirations as filmmakers are Alfonso Cuaron and Derek Cianfrance. Alfonso I think is an easy one to spot because MOTHER/ANDROID has some obvious parallels to CHILDREN OF MEN, but Cianfrance is very special to me, how honest and vulnerable he gets. When I was pitching MOTHER/ANDROID in the early stages, I would describe it as BLUE VALENTINE meets TERMINATOR, leaning a little bit more towards BLUE VALENTINE.

Valahia News: Romania is quite proud of the new generation of film directors, some of which are already winning important European film festivals, such as Berlinale. Do you happen to know any contemporary filmmaker or screenwriter from Romania? Or maybe you saw some of the films they created. What is your opinion about the new wave of Romanian cinema?

Mattson Tomlin: One of the most profound experiences I’ve had in the cinema came in 2007. I was 16 or 17 at the time and my best friend had read that there was a film by a Romanian filmmaker playing and he took me to it. We had no idea what the movie was or anything about. The film was Christian Mungiu’s 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS and 2 DAYS.

I can remember watching the film and pretty quickly realizing that it was set in the late 80s, following a couple of young university students, and then the kind of sinking, visceral feeling when I realized the story was about pregnancy. I had gone to the cinema thinking we were just going to watch a film by a Romanian director, and suddenly it hit me that I was watching a story that was not that far off from my own story. It was incredible intense, I was absolutely not prepared emotionally, and the film left me stunned, in awe, and very shaken… Which sounds unpleasant, but I quite like having real emotional experiences in my movies. I’ve never experienced anything like it.

I’m a big fan of Mungiu, Radu Muntean’s The Paper Will Be Blue, Radu Jude’s work. The filmmaking coming out of Romania is incredibly strong, both in dramas and comedies. There’s a level of patience and deliberation and realism that is such a different rhythm than Hollywood filmmaking and I try to get my hands on everything I can… Partially as a huge admirer of the craft… But also because it’s a way for me to access the voices of the country.

Somewhat related… Several years ago I met the actor Sebastian Stan, who was born and spent his childhood in Romania. Both working in Hollywood now but with the ties to Romania, we really bonded and have a beautiful friendship that I am quite thankful for. We left Romania around the same time, though he is older than I am and has childhood memories of the country, of course, speaks the language, so getting to know him and learn his story is something I’m very thankful for and I wouldn’t be surprised if sometime in the future we find ourselves working on something in Romania together.

Valahia News: Mother/Android is your directorial debut. We learned you wrote the script with your own experience in mind – this is like an ode to your biological family in Romania. There is an unmistakable resemblance between your birth mother, who lived and survived the problematic events during the Revolution, and the character in the movie. This pregnant young woman is looking for a shelter to give birth. Without revealing anything from the plot before its debut on January 7 on Netflix, can you tell us other similarities between the two women?

Mattson Tomlin: I wanted to take the several things I know about my birth parents, my birth mother, and weave them into a story about love, about loss, about family… I don’t know my birth mother. I know her name and a few details around the circumstances of my birth. Because there’s so much unknown, there’s a tremendous amount of fiction. Chloë Grace Moretz’s character Georgia is fiction. But I’ve taken parts of my own personality and combined them with what I know of the true story to try to paint a picture that feels realized as a young woman pregnant in an extremely chaotic environment trying to do the best she can with the situation. Ultimately the killer robots of the film are there to invite the audience in, but when you look a little bit closer, the film is really a love letter to the parents I never got to know.

Valahia News: As we already mentioned before, Mother/Android will be featured as a premiere on Netflix, on January 7, in just a few days. What do you expect from your directorial debut? And, as we care to find out something we are not familiar with: how do you measure the success level for a movie featured on Netflix? Apart from good critics, of course, you don’t have a box office type of measurement. Do directors get any metrics from Netflix? Will you know how many viewers you have on a specific period? What’s your expectation here, and what results, apart from good reviews, would mean success for you? 

Mattson Tomlin: For this film, it is not about the metrics of the views, it’s not about money, it’s not about the critics. For my future work, of course… And if MOTHER/ANDROID does well and people respond to it, I welcome that and am thankful to be seen… But I am not sure I know how to make a more personal film than this and ultimately I feel the success has already been achieved. As a first film, being able to combine the sci-fi genre with something intensely personal and make a movie entirely on my terms, in order to convey some very real, very deep feelings that I’ve had my entire life… That’s a privilege that not many first-time filmmakers get to have. The success is that the movie was made entirely on my terms I was able to say for myself, and to my biological parents exactly what I need to: I see you, I know you, thank you, I love you.

Instead of conclusion

Mattson Tomlin is a promising young screenwriter who offered this incredible film that for sure will be a great success. Despite his life story, he proved that it doesn’t matter where you were born or if you have been adopted or not. As long as you work hard and dedicate yourself to your purpose, you will undoubtedly create something beautiful.

Here is the trailer for the movie to be released on January 7 on Netflix. Enjoy!

The post Romanian-Born American Filmmaker Mattson Tomlin: ‘I’m a Big Fan of Mungiu, Radu Muntean, Radu Jude’ appeared first on Valahia.News.