50% Don’t Take Their Meds: Inside Elfie’s Mission to Fix Adherence

50% Don’t Take Their Meds: Inside Elfie’s Mission to Fix Adherence

Medication non-adherence costs Europe €125 billion and over 200,000 premature deaths every year — yet roughly half of patients still don’t take their treatment as prescribed. In this episode of Rethinking Health, Grace McNamara sits down with Emilie Cristini, one of Elfie’s first employees and now head of global pharma partnerships and country operations. Emilie shares how Elfie grew from a single hypertension product in Brazil into a holistic, multi-morbidity health platform now operating across Southeast Asia, Africa, Turkey, Latin America and beyond. The conversation covers why non-adherence is a system failure rather than a motivation problem, the published evidence behind Elfie (including a 37% adherence increase in the Engaged study), an upcoming RCT with the European Society of Cardiology, and how AI features like face-scan blood-pressure measurement, body scans and nutrition analysis are reshaping the patient journey. They also dig into the realities of clinician trust, data privacy, the EU AI Act, and why it still takes 17 years for best practice to become standard practice in healthcare — plus a look ahead at Elfie Care for doctors, WhatsApp-based health AI, and new Ministry of Health partnerships. Follow us: LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elfie⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/elfieco] Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elfie.en⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/elfie.en/] Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elfie Global [https://www.facebook.com/elfie.global]

Beyond the Pill – the AI and architecture of the future.

The future of healthcare won’t be won in the lab alone — it will be won at the patient’s side. Beyond the Pill, hosted by Grace McNamara, goes inside the shift transforming pharma and digital health: how companies move past the product to deliver real outcomes through adherence, patient engagement, and technology that meets people where they already are. Each episode brings on the leaders making it happen — pharma executives, clinicians, founders, and changemakers — for candid conversations on market access, AI in the clinic, emerging-market growth, and the human side of digital transformation. Practical, forward-looking, and grounded in what actually works, Beyond the Pill is for anyone building the next era of patient care. Follow us: LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elfie⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/elfieco] Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elfie.en⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/elfie.en/] Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elfie Global [https://www.facebook.com/elfie.global]

Scaling the Doctor: Inside Elfie’s First Government MOU for AI-Powered Care

What does it take for a government to put its name behind an AI health platform? In this episode of Elfie Voices: Rethinking Health, Grace McNamara sits down with Elfie co-founders Ofir and JF to unpack a landmark moment: their first Memorandum of Understanding with a government to deploy ELFIECARE across doctors and hospitals — free of charge. After five years proving the hardest thing in digital health — patient engagement — Elfie’s data surfaced a defining insight: the doctor is the single biggest agent of change, with doctor-referred patients showing double the adherence and double the impact. That insight reshaped the company’s next move: empowering clinicians with conversational AI that plugs into existing workflows on WhatsApp, never replacing the systems already in place. Ofir and JF lay out the economics that make Ministries of Health pay attention — exploding chronic-disease costs, the urgent need to “scale the doctor,” and a model that delivers controlled, compliant AI with local data residency in markets the big cloud providers don’t even serve. They explain why Elfie’s moat is the difficult path most vendors avoid: free deployment, ministry authorization, demonstrated medical impact, and a real-time epidemiologic data layer that finally lets governments and pharma see whether their spending actually works. For leaders in government and pharma, this is a candid look at how to align short-term incentives toward long-term population health — and how rigorous AI governance Follow us: LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elfie⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/elfieco] Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elfie.en⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/elfie.en/] Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elfie Global [https://www.facebook.com/elfie.global]

The Unexpected Cost of Ignoring Venous Disease

Venous disease doesn’t have to be just a cosmetic concern—it's a hidden indicator of broader cardiovascular health that’s often overlooked. Why are we failing to measure and prioritize venous health at the system level—and what’s at stake if we don’t change? In this eye-opening episode, Dr. Vito Ademe, an interventional vascular cardiologist and passionate phlebologist, reveals how under-measurement and under-recording of venous disease leave millions at risk of costly, preventable complications. You’ll discover how venous disease is more prevalent than many realize and how it silently contributes to heart failure, strokes, and systemic inflammation. Dr. Vito breaks down the critical link between venous health and cardiovascular risk, emphasizing the importance of systemic measurement and early detection. Learn about groundbreaking concepts like “wellness phlebology,” where understanding the root causes of venous issues can prevent systemic health decline long before crises occur. Follow us: LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elfie⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/elfieco] Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elfie.en⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/elfie.en/] Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elfie Global [https://www.facebook.com/elfie.global]

Dropout: Rethinking Pharma's Next Growth Lever with Mohamed El-Zayat

What if the biggest threat to your blockbuster isn't a competing molecule — but the patient who quietly stops refilling after month two? In this episode, Grace McNamara sits down with Mohamed El-Zayat, Elfie's new Country Manager for Egypt and the Middle East and a 22-year pharma veteran (Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Merck) across marketing, global brand leadership, and patient access. Mohamed breaks down the three hidden competitors every chronic-disease brand faces — therapy dropout, the shrinking HCP-patient consult, and the post-prescription data blackout — and explains why a connected patient ecosystem, not another standalone app, is the strategic unlock. Inside the conversation: * Why adherence, not rival brands, is the real battleground in chronic care * How Elfie Care is positioned to be "the most significant launch in healthcare in the next 10 years" * Why longitudinal, patient-reported + wearable + lab data is pharma's next real-world evidence goldmine * The economics of replacing 65 fragmented PSP apps with one ecosystem spanning pharma, payers, ministries, HCPs, and pharmacies * What insurers, ministries of health, and brand teams should be asking now A sharp, strategic listen for pharma executives, patient access leaders, RWE teams, and payer innovators. Follow us: LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elfie⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/elfieco] Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elfie.en⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/elfie.en/] Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elfie Global [https://www.facebook.com/elfie.global]