"Innovation and Creativity - The search for a higher life quality" with Olga Donica - Part 1

Olga Donica is in conversation with Jonathan Humphries, your host.  Olga is Head of Innovation, Research and Longevity at Clinique La Prairie. 

In part 1 of this podcast, they explore the role of innovation and Olga’s passion and curiosity towards innovation and longevity. In innovation, we only need the three C’s: Curiosity, Creativity and Creation.

Listen to Part 2!

Join us for this enlightening conversation! Follow our journey and our discussion with some of the most renowned and influential people of our time.
 
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Transcript

Olga CLP podcast part 1.mp3

Jonathan Humphries [00:00:01] I am your host, Jonathan Humphries. Welcome to the HoCoSo Conversation. These are unfiltered conversations with people sharing their life journeys and learnings to help us become better versions of ourselves. Welcome to the HoCoSo Conversation. Today I will be in conversation with Olga Donica. She is the head of Innovation, Research and Longevity at Clinique La Prairie. Clinical La Prairie has over 90 years of innovation and research and in the fields of longevity and prevention. Today, we will be discovering and exploring the role of innovation and Olga's passion and curiosity around innovation. And we will be touching on the latest thinking and product that has come out of Clinique La Prairie, which is the holistic health supplements which are designed to improve our quality of life, reduce inflammation. And it is based on a whole research into the field of genetics and epigenetics, which is around the environmental impact on our genes. What we will also be looking at is the overall aspects with regards to stress, the effects of cortisol, the emphatic system, gut, health, sleep. We will look at balance and performance, now obviously a lot of our audience are in stressful situations; they need that to perform. And however, there are tools available and the holistic health supplements are one of the leading edge in the world in order to have a balanced lifestyle, in order to have a better longevity of life. We will also be touching on centenarians, and we will be looking at what it means to live longer and better. The recent studies are saying that one in two children born today have the chance of reaching 100 years old, depending on, obviously, location and environmental factors. And therefore, it's even more important that we focus on both our mental health and our physical health and our overall well-being. And holistic health supplements is one of the tools to address that. It is an absolute privilege to be working with Clinique La Prairie and helping communicate this wonderful product to our audience. So without further ado, I'm going to introduce you to Olga Donica. Thank you very much. So hello, Olga. It's an absolute pleasure to have you here this morning on the HoCoSo Conversation. I really look forward to our discussion together. We're going to be exploring lots of different topics. First of all, for the audience and to kind of set the scene, obviously, you're Head of Innovation and Research and Longevity at Clinique La Prairie. And Clinique La Prairie has a long history of innovation and I was wondering if you could just share some of the innovations that have happened with Clinique La Prairie over the years to set the scene of what we're going to be focusing on today, which is around holistic health. 

Olga Donica [00:03:11] Well, thank you, Jonathan, for having me here. It's a pleasure to always share some part of our universe of Clinique La Prairie and of course, my own experience in the field of, as you say, longevity. And it would be a big pleasure to bring more insights of our daily life here, which, by the way, it's a cloudy day today. So you were asking about innovation in the context of Clinique La Prairie environment? Well, it all started actually more than 90 years ago with a professor called Niehans. He was actually a doctor, specialized in immunology, extremely passionate about the impact of aging in the body. And already by the time he was quite keen about developing treatments that actually will help to kind of delay this age related damage and to have kind of a cell therapy intervention focused on immune system. What he could conclude by that time is that when it comes to aging mechanisms, it seems that the immune system is deeply affected and we lose this performance of our defense barriers or mechanisms. And he was the one actually working in the field of cell revitalisation and developing kind of advanced treatment by that time. So the legacy of innovation has continued over 90 years. I believe that Clinique La Prairie can be considered a pioneering institution in the field of longevity treatments and is probably, we believe so, the only private institution in the world to have achieved such significant work in understanding age related changes and precisely how to reverse them. And today, I'm super happy to share with you some of my experience in the innovation here. You know, when it comes to innovation, people might think that it should be a complex process. But actually innovation can really start at the very micro and small level. I believe that in innovation you need only three things and those I call the circle of three Cs. So it's actually about Curiosity. You really have to have a spirit of curiosity to look for more things. I believe this is kind of you know, we are all born with this strong nature to question, to search, to explore this overwhelming curiosity about everything that surrounds us. However, I believe that not all of us are able to hold this unique characteristic of humankind, of curiosity, because we are constantly shaped by a system, I believe, that melts away kind of the Creativity, the spirit, and forces us to follow kind of pre-established paths socially and culturally. I've always been very curious about things around me and that leads you to be creative. And once you are creative, you can create. So Creation gives place to innovation. And as I was saying, innovation can be very simple. It's very small steps. You can actually do innovation on an existing product and existing concepts and existing treatments. You don't even need to go that further to innovate from scratch. So at Clinique La Prairie, we have different types of innovation; can be innovation based on the needs, innovation based of existing products that needs to be improved. So we made kind of screening to understand what's happening around, what kind of technology we can make use in order to update the existing services or even concepts and treatments. And also innovation can be based on prediction, what the future is preparing for us, which direction the future will take and we should be there. So definitely innovation happens at micro level and then can go and can be complexified according to the need or according to the service that we're looking for and innovation can take place in creating a product, creating a service, creating a treatment, creating a concept, a specific diet... By the way, my field is food, nutrition sciences, so definitely in nutrition you have space for a lot of innovation. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:07:21] That's wonderful. Olga And what's the third C? So there is Curiosity, Creativity and the third one?

Olga Donica [00:07:26] Creation.

Jonathan Humphries [00:07:27] Creation. And that's different from Creativity?

Olga Donica [00:07:32] Yes. You need to be creative to create something.

Jonathan Humphries [00:07:36] Ah wonderful, And I'd like to explore this Curiosity, because it's something that, as you said, we all start life with. You know, all children are curious. They want to explore. 

Olga Donica [00:07:44] Absolutely. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:07:44] And as we get older, actually, as you mentioned, there's a kind of gravity towards or a pull towards the path most followed rather than the path least followed. And I've always enjoyed trying the path least followed myself. But actually it's not for everybody. And it requires I think obviously society requires both kinds of people, those that are curious, really curious, but also those that help move things forward in the right way and keep stability. So there's this kind of balance that we need in society between constantly creating new things and actually maintaining the things are actually pretty helpful to us. I'm actually curious about when did you discover your curiosity and then how do you keep your curiosity going? Are there certain things that you like to do or is it something that's kind of just in your nature, or is it something that you're consciously aware of, that you, you know, want to explore more and more? 

Olga Donica [00:08:48] Well, definitely this is a good question, but it's very easy to reply because I believe this is part of my essence. I always, since very little, I was super curious about things at school. I was that, you know, little kid or student that'll go always farther to learn more, to you know, in biology I was super passionate about all this biologic mechanism. What happens in your heart, in your immune system, in your liver? I would, for example, in math, I would go and do exercises. I was just passionate about where this can take me. And I learned that actually intelligence is, well, definitely scientifically speaking, we kind of receive some genetic heritage from our parents. But I truly believe, and this is my own experience, is that intelligence has to be achieved and built by learning. Learning is really important; the input that we get all the time. But to get the input, you really need to be curious about things and go always one step further to look for things that might not be given to you in schools or even in universities. You know, one thing that I learned in universities, that universities is kind of institution that gives you the tools how to do things. They don't teach you things. I mean, they teach you how to have a critical posture, how to analyze, how to analyze things around you and what kind of tools you need to go farther in order to complexify your knowledge and to integrate the knowledge. And when I did my bachelor's degree in nutrition sciences, I was already kind of prepared. I believe, you know, success is kind of much between opportunity, but also preparation. So in order to get the success, you really have to be the right moment with these two tools; so preparation and opportunity and it happened to me a lot of time. So I would say that, because of this, since ever little curiosity that I had in my private life, academic life, it led me to where I am today. When I finish my graduation in nutrition sciences, I applied for an institution that specialized in rheumatology, and they were actually working with rare autoimmune diseases. And these rare, you know, you say the word rare and my brain is already wiring all my new neuronal connections, what's rare? So I really wanted to get this experience in working in a very particular clinical field which is autoimmune diseases, of course, in the context of rheumatology. And there, part of my activities was focused on research, again, feeding a lot of curiosity to my own, let's say, input. And it was a very simple institution with not that much of sponsoring, but the whole team was very, very good to find sources and resources to support all the research work. And we've done incredible, incredible things. You know, sometimes again, research can be also taken in a very simple way and it can actually give a lot of interesting and impressive results. I remember we ran once a study and it was about the population intake of Vitamin D and Calcium and that was in Portugal. And you might think that Portugal is a tiny country with more than 300 days of sun, of sunny days per year. And the conclusion of that study was, is that despite the sun exposure that happens all year round to the Portuguese population, 80% of our sample was deficient in Vitamin D. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:12:29] Incredible. 

Olga Donica [00:12:30] So we're running actually questionnaires, food questionnaire about very detailed way of what food they would take daily. We were running blood assessment. We were running lifestyle assessment in terms of movement, in terms of stress, in terms of sleep, in terms of medication intake, because as a medical institution, we would always have access to the medical profile of the patient and then nutritional part. So we're kind of making a fusion together. And it was impressive that some of the findings that we were not expecting at all were actually quite surprising in this case of simple Vitamin D. And the deficiency of Vitamin D in population continue still today, even in sunny countries. The problem is that we are covering our bodies, so we don't expose our body to sun, we apply sunscreen, so there's no way that sun can actually convert the purpose of vitamin D into real vitamin D and then, of course, the intake of vitamin D it's way lower than that of our needs are so. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:13:26] So that was the reason they had the low dosage of Vitamin D. 

Olga Donica [00:13:30] And you know coming back to the innovation part, what is really challenging but also rewarding about innovation is that innovation brings progress and helps us to evolve. Us as an individual, as a population or as institutions. It kind of make impossible possible. If you are creative enough and you are curious enough, sometimes lead to things that you conclude that the entire process in the entire work was not necessarily for nothing that actually allows you maybe to fail, but then to learn. When you fail, you learn. So not all the time, you know, innovation can be rewarding, but most of the time it makes part of the progress and makes part of the evolution. So helps you to evolve and I believe this is very important aspect of professional life, but also personal life. I can give you the example of genetics.

Jonathan Humphries [00:14:21] Yeah, yeah, please. 

Olga Donica [00:14:23] A few years ago, genetics was kind of this unlocked, you know, nobody could access it. It was only in the research, we were able only to screen a few genes. Today you run in the clinic, you come to Clinique La Prairie, you do a genetic test, and in only five days you have your results. It's quite impressive what technology can do and you know, innovation in the technological part, it's amazing. And it allows us to unlock system and mechanisms and better understanding of body biology and how we are built and how our inner mechanism are really working. And it's impressive that we can actually detach science from technology from innovation. They are quite linked together. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:15:06] Absolutely. Absolutely. I think there's so many things here that I would like to explore with you. The first, I guess my observation on this is what I liked about what you were saying in your experience in Portugal was that the innovation doesn't need to be a huge, expensive project. It can actually be something that is done on a micro level and it can be done thoughtfully and it can be done with limited resources. And I've worked on projects which have been, you know, significant budgets and tons of people and many years. And at the same time, I've also worked on projects with pretty limited resources and actually still achieved clients. You know, quite incredible results. So I think that creativity from what I, at least my observation and the like, give a kind of response on it. The creativity is around also the process that you undertake, given the constraints that you have and trying to work within the constraints, whether they're financial or whether they are access to expertise. Maybe you can't get access to the expertise that you need. Maybe you can't conduct all the kinds of different research that you need because of whatever it might be, timeframes. So there's always constraints and it's how can you within those constraints still find a way? So I think, the creative, it's also the process that you undertake as well. I'm just curious about what your response to that as well. So when we're creating something, it's how can we also figure out a way to get to some kind of new way of thinking, whether it's an experience or a product or service or whatever it might be through a process that is, let's say, bespoke, completely bespoke. Is that your approach to how you innovate as well? Because I guess even with Clinique La Prairie, they don't give you unlimited budget, unlimited resources, unlimited timeframes. I'm sure they give you certain things that you have to kind of work within. 

Olga Donica [00:17:15] Of course, we kind of have lines of how we want to do the innovation, which of course, we have budgets per year that we can use strictly for innovation part. But I can actually kind of tell how the process is done internally here of innovation. So it all happens, so it's generating an idea and happens in the micro level in the department. So we have several departments from the medical, from the nutrition, fitness. We have the spa department, we have our guest relations department. So the idea is actually to kind of brainstorm among the individuals in a team. They agree on one idea or one need that they might have, one problem that they are facing daily and they really have this urgent need to change or to improve or restructure and then they decide together if the subject is something that they all want to explore. And then the research part goes on. So one or the entire team would start to make kind of looking what's going on in that specific concept or need or product, what's available right now in the market, collecting all this information put it together in a picture that we can together explore. Then they apply for our innovation committee and then the subject has the submission goes through a one week screening. So the idea seems to us interesting. Most of the time it is. Then we validate and they actually come to present to our innovation committee in a defined day, which we call the innovation meeting happens once in two months here at La Prairie. And the funny thing is that after sharing this whole picture of this new idea or new concept or new product, we start the testing and prototyping phase, where actually if it's something that comes externally, a device or a technology. So the company provides us one of those devices and we spent between one and three months exploring the potential of that device, actually doing our own tests with our own people, and then collecting feedback, collecting also inputs and information, then analyzing this information and taking a decision. Once the decision is positive, so meaning that we'll move forward with that idea, then goes the implementation phase and it's all training the teams how to use correctly designing protocols or visual protocols for that specific product concept therapy or device and then integrate it strategically in one or more programs that we have here at Clinique La Prairie. So, you know, it's a process that takes, comes from the micro-level, but then goes progressively through the Innovation Committee, important members of Clinique La Prairie, the medical director and medical team that can validate and together we agree if we move forward or not with that specific proposal. And, you know, it's a very, very nice and enriching experience because it's a learning process. You bring something that is totally new in the market. For example, I can give an example of epigenetic screening. This was one of the projects that I had the pleasure to work on. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:20:39] For the audience just give a little bit of background what epigenetic screening is. 

Olga Donica [00:20:44] So epigenetics is the new science in the medical field that actually, if I can say it in a simple way, it's what is on top of your genes. So we have genetic screenings that allows us to understand genetically what is already defined by nature, what kind of genetic markers you will have, and how that will be represented in your body. Epigenetics is a science that studies the impact of environment on your genes expression. And you know, we know in our body, we all have protective genes that can be switched on and off all the time. And this process of switching on and off, it's actually, chemically it's a mutilation reaction. So goes and mutilate specific genes, switching them off or on all the time. And this process can be quite persistent. The case, for example, of pollution of tobacco is kind of a mutilation that lasts for many years. And even if you are quitting smoking, it will take a while to unmutilate those protective genes. Same thing, for example, the impact of diet in your body, the impact of physical activity, stress, sleep, all can be measured. And it's just impressive how powerful the environment can be in your genes expression. Switching off protective genes so we're losing the protection, meaning that we can age faster. I'm bringing you again in the context of longevity in aging, because this is our expertise. It's just impressive how powerful and how significant that means for internal mechanisms and how this can reshape deeply the way how we age. So epigenetic screening at Clinique La Prairie is based on several markers that with, of course, the appropriate algorithm that is provided by an external company which we work, gives you kind of insights size about your biological age so we can measure the impact of the environment on your genes expression, leading us to understanding how old you are inside even may say in this way. It's just amazing how science can really bring such information to our daily life and how actually we can take action. It's actually a call to action when you see that report, you know, you really know, okay, I really need to improve diet. I really have to stop alcohol. I really need to move better and maybe move to countrysides because there's less pollution that is very harmful to us. Yes. So epigenetics' an example of, you know, exploring the potential of technology. Being a bit bold because sometimes we are all looking for this evidence based science and studies being 100% sure that this is really clinically and scientifically validated. I believe in innovation. You really have to be bold about your choices and the path that you want to take. And we were the first clinic in the world performing epigenetic screening and we still are doing it in only five days. We've been scouting several epigenetic companies existing across the planet, if I may say. And we have identified two one in the UK and one in Switzerland. And because the Swiss company were providing us, actually the screening in only 5 days, for us is really important to get the results while the client is here during their seven days program.

Jonathan Humphries [00:24:24] Absolutely. So that's the background to epigenetics. What was the project that you were working on that you said you were really excited about? That was the bringing epigenetics to Clinique La Prairie and making it available within a short time frame? 

Olga Donica [00:24:38] Yes, absolutely. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:24:39] For your clients? 

Olga Donica [00:24:40] Definitely. And also the challenge to the process of integration, because you might have a technology, but you really need to know how that will be put in place in the context of clinical nutrition follow up and how the patient in this case, because it's all universal what we provide to our patients or to our clients or our guests, we can call them as we want, to bring the real value of those screenings and medical assessments and how actually we drive after precision medicine and precision nutrition, highly personalized intervention and long term. There's no longevity in seven days. Longevity is a long term intervention. Here, at Clinique La Prairie's starting point, what I like to call induction phase. But the part of longevity is actually a lifestyle. It's a long term intervention. 

Jonathan Humphries [00:25:30] So this is around continuous improvement as well, isn't it? And commitment. Thank you for listening to the HoCoSo Conversation. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please do share us with your friends and community. Take a look at our previous episodes and look out for our next ones. We look forward to you joining us on this unique exploratory journey.