Explore every episode of the podcast Impulse | Meeting Healthcare Pioneers

What if we treated obesity not as a failure of willpower, but as the complex, chronic medical condition it truly is? With over half of the global adult population expected to be living with overweight or obesity by 2035, according to the World Obesity Federation, traditional "eat less, exercise more" advice has proven fundamentally insufficient. The widespread arrival of GLP-1 receptor agonists has marked a dramatic shift in metabolic care, offering unprecedented efficacy in weight management, diabetes treatment, and cardiovascular risk reduction. Yet, as these therapies gain global momentum, critical questions remain around their long-term management, side effect mitigation, and equitable access. Among those leading the charge toward comprehensive, patient-centered care is Dr. Kim Boyd, Chief Medical Officer at Weight Watchers. A primary care doctor trained in integrative medicine and an early leader at One Medical, Kim sits at the intersection of modern pharmacology, behavioral science, and digital health technology. In this episode of Impulse, Kim breaks down the pathophysiology of obesity as a chronic disease associated with over 200 health conditions across the cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic (CVRM) spectrum. We explore the rapidly expanding therapeutic landscape—from established injectables like Wegovy and Zepbound to oral formulations, amylin combinations, and muscle-sparing agents in the pipeline. Kim shares why medications alone are not a magic bullet and details how companion digital programs, strength training, and tailored nutrition are essential to preserving muscle functionality and achieving lasting health outcomes. We also discuss how digital health tools and AI can distill overwhelming physiological data into daily actionable habits, the challenges of global health coverage and pricing dynamics, and the future of sustainable obesity management. A timely and eye-opening conversation on the evolution of metabolic health and the future of comprehensive obesity care! Timeline: 00:00:00 - Kim's background and role as Chief Medical Officer at Weight Watchers 00:04:15 - Redefining obesity as a chronic medical condition 00:15:05 - Mapping the therapeutic landscape: GLP-1s, oral formulations, and pipeline agents 00:24:00 - Managing side effects, preserving muscle functionality, and the role of companion care 00:27:50 - Integrating AI, wearables, and digital health into Weight Watchers' companion programs 00:39:50 - Global access barriers, generic availability, and the future of sustainable obesity care What we also talked about with Kim: Saxenda Orforglipron CagriSema Retatrutide Amylin Body Mass Index (BMI) Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) Bariatric surgery This episode was made possible with the support of HLTH Europe! As mentioned by Kim during the episode, we invite you to read Ground Truths by Dr. Eric Topol and his recent book Super Agers, offering exhaustive and evidence-based insights on the science of longevity. Kim recommends following the work and upcoming book “Food Is Medicine” by Cardiologist and Nutrition Scientist Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian. You can also check out the research and publications by NIH Nutrition Scientist Dr. Kevin Hall on metabolic regulation and energy balance. You can get in touch with Kim via LinkedIn, and follow Weight Watchers’ activities on their website, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me on LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! You can also support my work by making a PayPal donation @ImpulsePodcast! Lastly, don’t forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode, type "#59 - What’s next for obesity care in the GLP-1 era - Kim Boyd - Weight Watchers" on your preferred streaming platform

One third of all data generated globally comes from the healthcare sector, yet a staggering 97% of it remains unused, trapped in siloed systems. This "big crime" of wasted potential is exactly what Simon Rost and his team at GE Healthcare are determined to solve. As the Global Marketing Officer for Enterprise Imaging, Simon sits at the helm of a business that touches over a billion patients a year. In a world where medical imaging is the bedrock of diagnosis, the challenge isn't just about capturing the image anymore—it's about what we do with the intelligence hidden within it. In this episode of Impulse, Simon breaks down the transition from "Big Iron" hardware to the invisible power of enterprise medical imaging software. We dive into the rise of Agentic AI—AI that doesn't just analyze but takes action—and how GE Healthcare is moving toward a future of autonomous imaging to free up clinicians for what matters most: the patient. We also explore the critical shift in commercial models from CapEx (capital expenditure) to SaaS (software-as-a-service), the necessity of an open ecosystem over "walled gardens," and why interoperability must be the innovation of the decade. Simon even shares a personal anecdote about how GE's technology bookended the birth of his son, bringing the scale of MedTech down to the most human level. Whether you are a radiologist, a healthtech entrepreneur, or a data enthusiast, this conversation is a masterclass in how a global giant is retooling for the AI-first era of medicine! Timeline: 00:00:00 - Simon's journey in MedTech and enterprise imaging software at GE Healthcare 00:05:50 - The trends of AI in healthcare from Simon's perspective 00:12:04 - Where AI and hardware meet in medical devices 00:14:35 - Positioning GE Healthcare's portfolio along the end-to-end patient journey 00:20:27 - How GE Healthcare builds the value proposition and commercial models of its enterprise imaging software 00:28:15 - GE Healthcare's philosophy regarding partnerships and building ecosystems 00:33:37 - Simon's predictions for the future of medical imaging What we also talked about with Simon: Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) GE Healthcare's Hello AI Program We mentioned with Simon some of the past episodes of the series: #16 - Making ultrasound portable to transform medical imaging - Ohad Arazi - Clarius #32 - Accelerating radiology with AI - Amine Korchi - Radiologist #36 - Turning healthcare preventive with full-body MRI scans - Andrew Lacy - Prenuvo #47 - Pushing responsible AI in health - Dr. Ricardo Baptista Leite - HealthAI As mentioned by Simon during the episode, you can have a read at Ground Truths by Dr. Eric Topol and his recent book Super Agers, offering exhaustive and evidence-based insights on the science of longevity and the role of medical imaging in it. Simon also recommends checking out The Medical Futurist website by Dr. Bertalan Meskó, a bible for everything around medical technology and the latest innovations in the space. You can get in touch with Simon via LinkedIn, and follow GE Healthcare's activities on their website, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! You can also support my work by doing a PayPal donation @ImpulsePodcast! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode, type "#58 - Leading at scale in the medical imaging business - Simon Rost - GE Healthcare" on your preferred streaming platform.

Which care models will handle the scourge of metabolic disorders? Here are a few figures to understand the extent of the problem: Close to 1 in 4 people live with some form of metabolic disorder (according to the NIH). It accounts for more than 13 million deaths annually (according to the Global Burden of Disease). The economic burden it represents is expected to go beyond $4 Trillion USD by 2035 (according to the World Obesity Federation). Beyond the societal questions raised by this public health phenomenon, the real concern is whether traditional care models are capable of managing this group of conditions effectively and sustainably. This largely because traditional care models are episodic and put little focus on behaviour change that is dearly needed to reverse the trend. Among those who have realized it and are striving for alternatives, Ihsan Almarzooqi and his team at [meta[bolic]](https://glucare.health/) stand out. Based in Dubai, they have developed and deployed a unique care model, which they aim to replicate in Europe, starting with the UK. Their approach blends cutting-edge diagnostic technology, remote monitoring, and a care pathway involving frequent interactions with medical staff—enough to drive long-term behavioural change. And its efficacy has been demonstrated through numerous studies published since its inception. Beyond this hybrid care model, what is striking about Ihsan and the meta[bolic] philosophy is their relentless focus on improving outcomes for patients and incorporating the latest care innovations to raise the bar. Up to the point of reducing their operational margin to extend their knowledge of each patient, as long as it improves the level of care. In this episode of Impulse, we discuss what makes this care pathway unique, its implementation, the results, and how we can leverage traditional reimbursement schemes while still delivering a continuous and outcome-oriented care experience. An inspiring and thought-provoking conversation on what care models for metabolic disorders can be, despite the constraints posed by most health systems! Timeline: 00:00:00 - What led Ihsan to pioneer new care delivery models 00:06:03 - The extent of the metabolic diseases pandemic 00:10:39 - Why traditional care models fail to address metabolic diseases 00:16:49 - The components that make up the meta[bolic] care model 00:23:37 - How the meta[bolic] care model is funded in the UAE 00:30:57 - Ihsan's philosophy about evidence generation and how it is lived at meta[bolic] 00:33:28 - Scaling the meta[bolic] model to other geographies beyond the UAE 00:38:45 - How to keep patients engaged throughout their care journey 00:41:55 - Ihsan's wishes for the democratization of value-based care What we also talked about with Ihsan: Continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) GLP-1 agonists Labcorp p-Tau217 VO2 max test PromarkerD test As mentioned by Ihsan during the episode, you can have a read at Ground Truths by Dr. Eric Topol and his recent book Super Agers, an encyclopedia of the latest medical knowledge around longevity. Ihsan also recommends listening to Dr. Peter Attia's podcast The Drive, which investigates everything from exercise and nutritional biochemistry to cardiovascular health, cancer, cognitive health, mental and emotional well-being, and beyond. You may also read Ihsan's publication in NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery alongside Hala Zakaria, and Ali Hashemi, on their hybrid care model to manage diabetes in the UAE. You can get in touch with Ihsan via LinkedIn, and follow meta[bolic]'s activities on their website, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! You can also support my work by doing a PayPal donation @ImpulsePodcast! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode, type "#57 - Reimagining care for metabolic disorders - Ihsan Almarzooqi - meta[bolic]" on your preferred streaming platform.

What will our interactions with our healthcare system look like in the age of AI? Whether you are a patient, a doctor, or any other stakeholder in that system, the question is worth asking. In a world where healthcare costs continue to skyrocket, it is clear we need a radical solution to reverse the trend. The broader challenge is to restore the balance between demand and supply of care, limited by our capacity to train new doctors. Among those relentlessly working on this task are Ali Parsa and his team at Quadrivia. A true veteran of healthcare entrepreneurship, Ali founded Circle Health Group, now the largest chain of private hospitals in the UK, and Babylon Health, the fallen European digital health technology unicorn that once pioneered the use of AI for remote medicine, symptom checking, and patient triage. Despite all the highs and lows and whatever may have been said about his journey, Ali remains driven by the same mission: making healthcare more accessible and affordable at scale. Today, his efforts are focused on building Qu, which he aims to establish as the gold standard for clinical AI assistants, serving patients, doctors, and the broader ecosystem of actors in the space. In this episode of Impulse, Ali reveals the inner workings of this formidable tool, showcasing its ability to automate repetitive tasks that healthcare professionals face daily, and the opportunity it offers patients by being available around the clock to advise, educate, and ensure continuous medical supervision. We also discuss the key role of healthcare professionals in the validation of Qu, how to approach the risks and European regulations to make it widely available, and finally, the time and caution required to confidently integrate AI into patients' lives and routine clinical practice. A fascinating conversation that outlines the future of our interactions with the healthcare world! Timeline: 00:00:00 - Ali's journey as an entrepreneur building healthcare institutions and digital health solutions 00:11:52 - Why healthcare is not affordable nor accessible in the current system 00:16:17 - The interactions where AI will play a crucial role in healthcare (including a demo of Qu!) 00:25:06 - An approach to validate clinically the behaviour of AI in healthcare 00:29:54 - Ali's observations on the current struggles around AI regulation in healthcare 00:37:22 - Making AI customisable to accommodate different clinical care practices for similar use cases 00:40:01 - Judging a clinical AI's performance relative to the real performance of healthcare professionals 00:45:10 - Ali's ambition and Quadrivia's plans for the next few years What we also talked about with Ali: Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) Bakul Patel FDA Lovable Modality Partnership We cited with Ali some of the past episodes of the series: #47 - Pushing responsible AI in health - Dr. Ricardo Baptista Leite - HealthAI As mentioned by Ali during the episode, you can have a read at Thinking Machines Lab's publication "Defeating Nondeterminism in LLM Inference" from September 2025, to dive deep into the nondeterminism problem around the use of LLMs. You can get in touch with Ali via LinkedIn, and follow Quadrivia's activities on their website and on LinkedIn. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! You can also support my work by doing a PayPal donation @ImpulsePodcast! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode, type "#56 - Building the one clinical AI assistant - Ali Parsa - Quadrivia" on your preferred streaming platform.

Do you know how organs are traditionally transported for transplantation purposes? In a cooler filled with ice. When I learned that this approach was the most widespread method, I admit I was quite shocked... We talk here about "living" organs whose preservation is crucial for the success of their transplant! And as you can imagine, these transplants are often vital. The good news is: some people have racked their brains and rolled up their sleeves to change all that! And one of them is none other than Lisa Anderson, Co-Founder and President of Paragonix Technologies. With her team, she has literally redefined how organs could be transported, wiping the slate clean of an archaic, despite standard method. Last year, their technology was named one of TIME's 200 Best Inventions in the Medical Care category. A technology that allows organs to be preserved and monitored under ideal conditions of temperature, pressure, and perfusion. Since its creation in 2010, the company has enabled the transport of over 10,000 hearts, lungs, kidneys, livers, and pancreases combined to date. A paradigm shift, which not only allows for better preservation of these tissues during transport, but is also accompanied by a surprising improvement in transplant outcomes, and helps democratise access to them. In this episode of Impulse, we talk about all of this with Lisa, from the complexity of developing such a system to the change management required to lead to its acceptance in the medical field. And everything that this changes for the patients who benefit from it every day. A conversation that dusts off a long-established medical practice and lifts the veil on a unique MedTech success story! Timeline: 00:00:00 - How Lisa got into the transplantation and organ transportation space 00:05:54 - The criticality of organ preservation before a graft 00:08:27 - The parameters to control when transporting organs 00:11:38 - The benefits of improved organ preservation on graft success 00:19:01 - Paragonix Technologies' clients and commercial models 00:21:20 - Sustainability considerations in the organ transportation business 00:25:29 - Paragonix Technologies' plans for geographic expansion 00:28:00 - The journey from A to Z of an organ between its donor and recipient 00:30:56 - Changing practices and mindsets around organ transportation 00:33:20 - The engineering challenges around the creation of Paragonix Technologies' first products 00:40:07 - Matching better the demand and supply of organ transplants What we also talked about with Lisa: Getinge As mentioned by Lisa during the episode, you can have a read at Paragonix Technologies' latest publications here and find out more about their products and technology on their website. You can get in touch with Lisa via LinkedIn, and follow Paragonix Technologies' activities on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, and YouTube. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! You can also support my work by doing a PayPal donation @ImpulsePodcast! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode, type "#55 - Reinventing organ transportation - Lisa Anderson - Paragonix Technologies" on your preferred streaming platform.

While studies have yet to prove a direct causal link, the correlation between smartphone use and declining mental health is well-established, a trend especially concerning among young people. But what if the same technology contributing to the problem could also be the solution? It turns out the therapeutic potential of our smartphones for mental health is no longer up for debate, and one company at the forefront of this revolution is HelloBetter. In this episode of Impulse, we dive into the fascinating world of digital cognitive behavioural therapy with Hannes Klöpper, its Co-Founder and CEO. Hannes breaks down how his team developed one of the world's most extensive portfolios of digital mental health therapies, covering conditions from depression and burnout to panic attacks and vaginismus. These treatments demonstrate how digital-first solutions can be remarkably effective, prescribable by healthcare professionals, and accessible anytime, anywhere. We also explore the game-changing potential of AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) in mental health, and how they are opening new frontiers for preventing and detecting mental health symptoms early! Timeline: 00:00:00 - What drew Hannes to the cause of HelloBetter 00:05:55 - The power of delivering cognitive behavioural therapy through a smartphone 00:11:50 - How HelloBetter supports patients as an intervention for mental health distress 00:16:20 - The mental health conditions for which HelloBetter provides digital therapeutic programs 00:20:24 - How the therapeutic performance of HelloBetter's programs is evaluated 00:25:39 - The duality of smartphones as vectors of mental illnesses and vehicles for their treatment 00:28:54 - What AI and LLMs change for mental health care 00:39:15 - How Hannes keeps his own mental health in check What we also talked about with Hannes: Vaginismus Panic attacks ChatGPT Technical University of Munich Stanford University As mentioned by Hannes during the episode, you can have a read at Exits & Outcomes, Second Opinion, and Healthtech Off The Record, three newsletters that provide in-depth insights and news about the healthtech business. You can get in touch with Hannes via LinkedIn, and follow HelloBetter's activities on their website, LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and Facebook. This conversation is part of Impulse's exploration of how science, medicine, and technology are transforming mental healthcare. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! You can also support my work by doing a PayPal donation @ImpulsePodcast! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode, type "#54 - Making the smartphone a psychiatrist - Hannes Klöpper - HelloBetter" on your preferred streaming platform.

Is there a future where we will manufacture entire organs? If that's the case, it's not tomorrow. Yet, the era of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering is very much real and happening now! In some fields, like in dentistry, we are already 3D printing implants that are placed in patients' mouths. In others, like in orthopedic or plastic surgery, cells are harvested from patients to be modified and placed back into their bodies. But what we can't do yet is create complex, functional tissue constructs that can actively remodel and integrate with the human body to restore physiological function. This is the challenge that Simon Mackenzie and his team at Cellbricks Therapeutics are striving to overcome. The technology they have developed is fascinating, sitting at the crossroads of biomaterials, cellular engineering, and 3D printing. A discipline that aims to create the first "tissue therapeutics." The prospects it opens up are incredible: building grafts to heal complex wounds, functional implants for the liver, pancreatic islets for insulin production, and much more! In this episode of Impulse, we explore the inner workings of this fascinating field and the road ahead before the first tissue therapeutics are used routinely in the clinic, from a technical and regulatory perspective. A thought-provoking conversation offering a glimpse into what a truly "regenerative" medicine could look like in the future! Timeline: 00:00:00 - Simon's background as a Biochemist and seasoned executive in the life sciences industry 00:08:28 - Defining bioprinting, biofabrication, and tissue therapeutics 00:12:56 - Cellbricks' mission to recover tissue loss thanks to engineered tissue therapeutics 00:20:52 - Current evidence on the therapeutic potential of biofabricated tissues 00:24:55 - Cellbricks' biofabrication platform to engineer living tissues 00:30:33 - The challenges around the transport of biofabricated tissues 00:35:36 - The path toward broad use of biofabricated tissues in medicine What we also talked about with Simon: Erik Gatenholm Cellink BICO Aspect Biosystems Daniela Marino Cutiss Organoids L'Oréal Lisa Anderson Paragonix Technologies As suggested by Simon during the episode, you can learn more about biofabrication and tissue engineering on the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute website. You can get in touch with Simon via LinkedIn, and follow Cellbricks Therapeutics' activities on their website, and LinkedIn. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! You can also support my work by doing a PayPal donation @ImpulsePodcast! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode, type "#53 - Engineering living tissue therapeutics - Simon Mackenzie - Cellbricks Therapeutics" on your preferred streaming platform.

Is there a simple way to know your hydration level? Not really. It's a surprising reality, considering our bodies are composed of roughly 60% water. When you consider that half of all people drink less than recommended and that chronic dehydration leads to an increased risk of chronic diseases and premature mortality, it becomes clear that monitoring this parameter daily is a public health imperative. The good news is that Mark Kendall and his team at WearOptimo have developed a technology that could be a game-changer. It's a wearable sensor, similar to a continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) patch, capable of continuously and non-invasively measuring our body's water content at any given moment—a technological feat that relies on one of our largest water reservoirs: our skin. In this episode of Impulse, we unpack how Mark and his team developed this sensor and explore the science behind how it works. We discuss what this could change for our understanding of human physiology, not only in extreme situations for elite athletes but, more importantly, in our everyday lives. Join us for an episode on the fundamental role of water in the body, the skin's critical role in its regulation, and the window of opportunity this organ opens for sensing other essential molecules right from its surface! Timeline: 00:00:00 - Mark's journey as a biomedical engineer creating technologies for drug delivery and sensing through the skin 00:05:10 - The dehydration pandemic and the opportunity around hydration sensing 00:12:34 - Building a skin patch to monitor hydration levels with clinical-grade precision and no needle 00:22:47 - Relevant use cases for the WearOptimo sensor and complementarity with other wearables 00:25:40 - Going toward one wearable platform to measure multiple biomarkers at once 00:27:20 - The next steps for WearOptimo and scaling up its commercialisation efforts 00:29:55 - Working alongside ex-Formula 1 driver Mark Webber to understand hydration in elite athletes 00:34:10 - Mark's tips and tricks to stay hydrated What we also talked about with Mark: Gates Foundation Nanopatch Continuous Glucose Monitoring Whole-body impedance Formula 1 Mark Webber Oscar Piastri Prof. Robert Langer Moderna We mentioned with Mark some of the past episodes of the series: #39 - Crafting the best connected health experience - Matthieu Menanteau - Withings #23 - Disrupting the smart wearables industry - Leo Grünstein - Spiden #11 - Turning the lab into a wearable platform - Esmeralda Megally - Xsensio As suggested by Mark during the episode, you can learn more about the long-term health outcomes associated with hydration status by reading the paper from Natalia I. Dmitrieva et al. published in Nature Reviews Nephrology in 2024. You can also watch Mark's TED Talk about the Nanopatch, the needle-free immunisation technology that he pioneered, on YouTube. You can get in touch with Mark via LinkedIn, and follow WearOptimo's activities on their website, LinkedIn, and X. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! You can also support my work by doing a PayPal donation @ImpulsePodcast! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode, type "#52 - Sensing hydration through the skin - Mark Kendall - WearOptimo" on your preferred streaming platform.

Three years after the 2022 "crypto winter" severely damaged public confidence in these technologies (even among healthcare leaders), the term Web3 is conspicuously absent from the current healthtech space. So, what happened? And where do we really stand with the adoption of these technologies within our healthcare systems? Anca Petre is perfectly positioned to give us answers. A trained pharmacist, she has been exploring Web3 and its healthcare applications for over eight years, speaking on the international stage to educate and share key insights on using these technologies to improve health outcomes. Her assessment is stark: while the core value proposition of Web3 in health remains intact—offering breakthroughs in traceability, security, and patient control over data—its adoption by key players is still marginal. In this episode of Impulse, Anca shares her analysis of the current landscape, her belief in the untapped potential of these technologies, and a preview of what tomorrow's medical research could look like, powered by decentralised science. Tune in for a conversation with a true health geek, one with her feet firmly planted in the realities of today's systems! Timeline: 00:00:00 - Anca's journey at the interface of healthcare, Web3, and content creation 00:04:14 - Today's value proposition and use cases for Web3 in healthcare 00:07:02 - Why we hear less about Web3 in healthcare these days 00:13:51 - Making the Web3 user experience flawless in healthcare 00:16:50 - Where Web3 did not live up to its promises in healthcare 00:18:32 - The interplays of Web3 and AI in healthcare 00:24:39 - Healthcare innovation and its dependencies on systemic changes 00:33:49 - Paving a new way for medical research with decentralised science What we also talked about with Anca: Jim Nasr MedShake Studio ChatGPT Metaverse NFTs Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO) DeSci Nordics We cited with Anca some of the past episodes of the series: #10 - Applying blockchain technology to healthcare - Eberhard Scheuer - dHealth Foundation As suggested by Anca during the episode, you can learn more about Web3 and its applications in healthcare through the podcast Tech Anatomy that she is hosting and producing. For further information on the topic, she recommends consulting IEEE.org, following Allie K. Miller's work, and looking at Molecule.xyz in case you want to dive deeper into decentralised science. You can follow Anca's activities on LinkedIn, X, and YouTube, and discover the other podcasts she is producing for healthcare clients with MedShake Studio! If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! You can also support my work by doing a PayPal donation @ImpulsePodcast! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode, type "#51 - Bridging web3 and healthcare - Anca Petre - Tech Anatomy" on your preferred streaming platform.

What's the link between quantum physics, AI, and drug discovery? Maximilien Levesque might be the perfect person to answer. A former theoretical physicist, he realised his research could transform drug development by fundamentally understanding how molecules interact at the atomic level. In 2019, he co-founded Aqemia with Emmanuelle Martiano Rolland to turn that vision into reality. Their mission is bold: to design new molecules, atom by atom, capable of binding "undruggable" therapeutic targets. Unlike AI models that base themselves on existing compounds, Aqemia's generative engine creates novel structures, opening up a new universe of possibilities. In this episode, Maximilien pulls back the curtain on one of TechBio's most promising medical technology startups. With passion and clarity, he breaks down their approach to drug design, explaining how these "digitally-native" compounds go from the numeric world to real-world testing. A conversation to understand the ins and outs of an ongoing revolution in the pharmaceutical industry! Timeline: 00:00:00 - Maximilien's background as a researcher in mathematics and quantum physics 00:03:46 - What drew Maximilien to drug discovery 00:05:43 - The link between quantum physics and drug discovery 00:10:27 - Aqemia's technology to design new molecules atom-by-atom 00:18:36 - Aqemia's pipeline and ongoing preclinical programs 00:20:27 - The difference between AI-based drug discovery and physics-based drug discovery 00:27:55 - Striking a balance between internal development programs and external collaborations 00:32:35 - Aqemia's approach to talent recruitment at the interface of biology, mathematics, and computer science 00:34:23 - Maximilien's wish to enter clinical trials in 2026 What we also talked about with Maximilien: HIMSS Europe École Normale Supérieur (ENS) Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (CEA) Ornstein-Zernike equation American Institute of Physics Sanofi Institut Gustave Roussy We cited with Maximilien some of the past episodes of the series: #40 - Cracking biology through AI - JP Vert - Owkin #33 - Building the next TechBio venture - Mati Gill - AION Labs #13 - Catalyzing drug discovery using organ-on-a-chip models - Bas Trietsch - Mimetas You can learn more about Maximilien's publications here and prompt ChatGPT, as he suggested, to find out more about quantum physics, AI, and their applications in the field of drug discovery! You can reach out to Maximilien via LinkedIn and follow Aqemia's activities on their website and LinkedIn page! This conversation is part of Impulse's exploration of how science, medicine, and technology are transforming drug discovery. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! You can also support my work by doing a PayPal donation @ImpulsePodcast! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode, type "#50 - Scaling drug discovery with quantum physics and AI - Maximilien Levesque - Aqemia" on your preferred streaming platform.

Can we learn from extreme cancer survivors to develop new treatments? This is the bet that Nicolas Wolikow and his team at Cure51 are making. Backed by the world's top cancer centers and specialists, they work around the clock to build the largest-ever health dataset of patients who defied the odds—people diagnosed with stage 4 cancer who were given a few months to live, yet survived more than five years. The goal is to understand what makes their biology unique and what characterises their incredible response to the treatments they received. A unique approach to identify new therapeutic targets and enrich our arsenal against a disease whose incidence continues to grow day by day. In this episode, Nicolas lifts the veil on the rigorous method they follow to achieve this feat, from the collection of clinical and multi-omics data to the identification of these targets and their validation in clinical trials. A method to reverse-engineer cancer survival, founded on the latest progress in computational biology and medical science, and whose success depends on the close collaboration between patients, hospitals, and industrial partners! Timeline: 00:00:00 - Nicolas' background as an entrepreneur at the interface of healthcare, technology, and digital innovation 00:06:45 - Understanding the mechanisms behind cancer thanks to exceptional survivors 00:10:24 - Stories of patients in full remission after a stage 4 cancer diagnosis 00:12:21 - Building the platform to host the largest dataset of cancer survivors ever made 00:14:36 - Making sense of the survivors' data to identify underlying biological mechanisms 00:19:28 - Early findings and novel therapeutic targets investigated so far 00:28:18 - The economic model behind Cure51 00:30:45 - Convincing hospitals and health systems to join Cure51's mission What we also talked about with Nicolas: HLTH Europe Cancer stages Chemotherapy Rosalind Franklin Variant.bio We cited with Nicolas some of the past episodes of the series: #40 - Cracking biology through AI - JP Vert - Owkin As Nicolas mentioned during the episode, you can learn more about Cure51's activities on their website, and follow their latest news on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. You can reach out to Nicolas via LinkedIn and find more details about the ROSALIND study in this abstract. To hear Camille Moses' incredible story as a cancer survivor, we invite you to listen to her testimonial on the Project Purple podcast. This conversation is part of Impulse's exploration of how science, medicine, and technology are transforming cancer care. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! You can also support my work by doing a PayPal donation @ImpulsePodcast! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode, type "#49 - Reverse-engineering cancer survival - Nicolas Wolikow - Cure51" on your preferred streaming platform.

Disclaimer: Blythe and I both work for Roche; nevertheless, all opinions expressed in this episode are our own and do not necessarily represent the position of our employer. What's really behind the term "real-world data" in clinical science? And what can it actually be used for? I asked Blythe Adamson of Flatiron Health to find out the answer. It turns out real-world data is all the medical data collected in the "real world", meaning outside of any clinical trial. In other words, it's the vast majority of medical data that exists! This includes everything from the results of blood tests, scans, and vaccinations to doctors' handwritten notes. While the idea of using it to develop new treatments seems obvious, the reality is far from simple. Because access to this data is disparate and varies from one country to another. Because the diversity of their modality renders their interpretation complex. And because until recently, we did not have the computational technology to make it work. But now, in the age of AI and mass digitalisation of healthcare, all of this is changing at lightning speed. Drawing on her expertise at the intersection of epidemiology, data science, and health policy, Blythe walks us through the immense challenges and opportunities of real-world data, and how they are poised to revolutionise the development of tomorrow's therapies. An episode to understand precision medicine and the central role of real-world evidence! Timeline: 00:00:00 - Blythe's background at the interface of epidemiology, data science, and health policy 00:09:33 - The power of real-world data in medicine and drug development 00:17:11 - The barriers to accessing and leveraging real-world data at scale 00:20:26 - Two examples where AI can help make sense of real-world data 00:25:46 - Traditionally overlooked real-world data modalities in medicine 00:27:52 - Breaking down language barriers across real-world datasets 00:35:10 - Some predictions on the next AI-driven breakthroughs in oncology What we also talked about with Blythe: Operation Warp Speed Resilience Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) Trusted Research Environments De-identification American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) American Heart Association European Society of Cardiology We cited with Blythe some of the past episodes of the series: #40 - Cracking biology through AI - JP Vert - Owkin As Blythe mentioned during the episode, you can visit her blog at blytheadamson.com for more information about her work. The book recommended by Blythe is Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen. You can get in touch with Blythe via LinkedIn, and follow the activities of Flatiron Health on LinkedIn, X, and Instagram. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! You can also support my work by doing a PayPal donation @ImpulsePodcast! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode, type "#48 - Driving precision medicine with real-world data - Blythe Adamson - Flatiron Health" on your preferred streaming platform.

How can we solve the puzzle of regulating AI in healthcare? This is the question that Dr. Ricardo Baptista Leite and his team at HealthAI - The Global Agency for Responsible AI in Health ask themselves every day. Their goal? To help international organizations, governments, and local stakeholders strike a balance between regulation and access to the latest innovation in the field. A thorny equation, considering the speed of progress in AI and the time it takes to establish a regulatory framework that, by definition, applies in the long term. With passion and enthusiasm, Ricardo shares the approach they are taking to achieve their mission: by fostering a global community to share best practices and adverse events, by building tailored in-country mechanisms aligned with international guidelines, and by curating the most comprehensive directory of registered AI solutions, which countries and innovators can consider. One thing seems certain: we must evaluate these new technologies from a risk-benefit perspective, drawing on the well-known methods of post-market monitoring that have been applied to pharmaceutical products for decades. A way to remain critical of their use, grant patients and healthcare professionals access to them, and to drive this transformative shift with confidence and security. Timeline: 00:00:00 - Ricardo's background at the interface of medicine, research, and health policy 00:04:55 - Why we are at a turning point in healthcare 00:08:33 - HealthAI's role in translating international guidelines for AI use in healthcare to local realities 00:13:08 - Bridging long-term regulation and rapid technological progress 00:21:55 - Curating the right AI solutions in healthcare 00:25:55 - Building trust and adoption among clinicians and patients 00:32:26 - The parallel between elevators and AI in healthcare 00:37:30 - The potential of AI for predictive population health management What we also talked about with Ricardo: HIMSS Europe Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) Stéphanie Allassonniere Agentic AI Ambient AI Elisha Otis As Ricardo mentioned during the episode, you can learn more about HealthAI here and follow their activities on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube. The books recommended in the episode include AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell the Difference by Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor, Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia, and Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson. We both strongly recommend the newsletter Ground Truths by Dr. Eric Topol, a reference for staying up to date on the latest advances in medicine. You can get in touch with Ricardo via LinkedIn. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! You can also support my work by doing a PayPal donation @ImpulsePodcast! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode, type "#47 - Pushing responsible AI in health - Dr. Ricardo Baptista Leite - HealthAI" on your preferred streaming platform.

When we think of the term "medicine," one of the symbols that comes to mind is the stethoscope. Its use in almost every physical examination by healthcare providers makes it one of the most iconic and widely recognized medical devices. Despite the emergence of digital technologies and the first electronic stethoscopes, their operating principle and design still rely heavily on the patent filed by Dr. David Littmann in the 1960s. But in the era of miniaturization and artificial intelligence, there is a reason to believe that the stethoscope is ripe for a true transformation. Among those who share this opinion are Lapsi Health and the team of Diana van Stijn. Inspired by her experience as a pediatrician and the central role of body sounds in her profession, Diana envisions a new kind of stethoscope—without tubing, fitting in the palm of a hand, and leveraging the latest technological advancements to better equip physicians. This vision gave birth to Keikku, a next-generation digital stethoscope. Beyond rethinking the format and use of the stethoscope for doctors, Diana and her colleagues imagine a future where patients can use it themselves, paving the way for continuous auscultation. In this episode, we explore how Diana and her team are turning this vision into reality, and what it could mean for the prevention, detection, and monitoring of diseases, extending far beyond pediatrics. With humor and enthusiasm, Diana also shares a few secrets about her approach to balancing clinical practice, motherhood, and entrepreneurship in healthcare! Timeline: 00:00:00 - Diana's background as a Pediatrician, startup Co-Founder, and former National Team Swimmer 00:11:10 - The role of body sounds in medicine 00:15:08 - Early ideas on disrupting traditional stethoscopes 00:22:21 - Building Keikku, a portable, intuitive, and radically modern stethoscope 00:26:43 - Incorporating AI in the interpretation of body sounds 00:30:50 - Moving toward continuous auscultation and getting Keikku into the hands of patients What we also talked about with Diana: Shavini Fernando MedTech World Cirque du Soleil Jhonatan Bringas Dimitriades Magnetic Resonance Imaging Computed Tomography As Diana mentioned during the episode, you can learn more about Keikku here and the other devices in Lapsi Health's pipeline via their official website. To dive further into some of the topics mentioned in the episode, Diana recommends reading Intelligence-Based Medicine: Artificial Intelligence and Human Cognition in Clinical Medicine and Healthcare by Anthony C. Chang and the article published on JMIR Publications that she co-authored, Promises, Pitfalls, and Clinical Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Pediatrics by Bhargava H. et al. You can follow Lapsi Health's activities on LinkedIn, and get in touch with Diana via LinkedIn too! This conversation is part of Impulse's exploration of how science, medicine, and technology are transforming everyday healthcare tools. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! You can also support my work by doing a PayPal donation @ImpulsePodcast! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode type "#46 - Rethinking the stethoscope and its use - Diana van Stijn - Lapsi Health" on your preferred streaming platform.

Do you have to come close to death to invent a groundbreaking medical device? That's certainly not something we would wish upon every medtech entrepreneur. But it is the story of Shavini Fernando and the connected medical earring OxiWear that she developed. Shavini lives with Eisenmenger syndrome, a condition where the two ventricles of her heart communicate. This condition dramatically increases the pressure in her pulmonary vasculature and severely limits the oxygen carried in her blood. It's a critical situation that has already caused her four cardiac arrests and three strokes, all of which she has survived. Constantly reliant on supplemental oxygen to live, she dreamed of a way to measure her oxygen levels in real time while staying active. This would allow her to anticipate sudden variations in the future and the life-threatening risks they bring. And she made that dream come true by creating the first connected earring, FDA-certified, capable of measuring blood oxygen saturation in real time. All in a discreet format, lighter than an AirPod, and designed for use during everyday activities, including sports. In many ways, this innovation has transformed her own life, as well as those of hundreds of patients who have benefited from it so far. In this episode, we revisit her story as a patient and survivor. Shavini opens up about the immense challenges of living with Eisenmenger syndrome and developing OxiWear, sharing her vision for this technology and the potential it holds for the future of cardiorespiratory monitoring. A touching and sincere conversation with a truly exceptional figure in the healthtech ecosystem! Timeline: 00:00:00 - Shavini's story as a pulmonary hypertension patient surviving four cardiac arrests and three strokes 00:19:13 - Building the first smart earring to continuously measure oxygen levels while staying active 00:25:20 - The design behind OxiWear and the challenges to bring it to life 00:31:24 - The blessing of COVID to access funding and educate the general public about cardiorespiratory health 00:36:57 - Making OxiWear the ultimate cardiorespiratory device for remote patient monitoring 00:39:47 - The business model behind OxiWear from a medical and consumer perspective 00:43:10 - Overcoming the torture of creating a medical device from scratch What we also talked about with Shavini: MedTech World Georgetown University Johns Hopkins University Leonsis Family Entrepreneurship Prize "Bark Tank" created by Ted Leonsis MassMEDIC Renal cholesteatoma Sickle cell anemia Photoplethysmography.aspx) As we mentioned during the episode, you can watch here the recording of the panel I hosted alongside Shavini at MedTech World in 2024. As Shavini shared in the episode, you can learn more about OxiWear at Oxiwear.com. Although we did not explicitly talk about it, I also recommend you watch Shavini's TEDx Talk recorded in 2019. You can follow OxiWear's activities on LinkedIn, Facebook, X, TikTok, and get in touch with Shavini via LinkedIn too! This conversation is part of Impulse's exploration of how medicine, science, and technology are transforming patient care. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! You can also support my work by doing a PayPal donation @ImpulsePodcast! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode type "#45 - Measuring oxygen with a smart earring - Shavini Fernando - OxiWear" on your preferred streaming platform.

One of the greatest fantasies in medicine is to one day be able to offer any patient a therapy perfectly adapted to their profile and needs. A "personalized" medicine. The term was introduced to the public in 1999 through an article in The Wall Street Journal titled "New Era of Personalized Medicine: Targeting Drugs for Each Unique Genetic Profile." The enthusiasm for these next-generation therapies was fueled by advances in DNA sequencing, which hinted at future discoveries in genomics and rapid progress in medicine. Twenty-five years later, it is clear that personalized medicine has become a reality (e.g., for the treatment of cancer or rare diseases), and technological progress continues to bring us closer to this ideal. But while developing new personalized therapies is one approach, identifying the most effective current therapies for each patient is another, equally powerful one. And thanks to the multimodal analysis capabilities enabled by AI, this field is rapidly expanding. Andre Esteva is one of the pioneers in this area, having significantly advanced medical research in this direction before venturing into entrepreneurship to make this technology available broadly.In less than three years, his company Artera has already achieved many things that most healthtech startups take much longer to reach: The launch of the first AI-based predictive test to evaluate treatment response to hormonal therapy in prostate cancer. The inclusion of the test in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines nationwide. The obtention of federal reimbursement for the test. In this episode of Impulse, Andre shares his vision of predictive medicine in the AI era, the potential of this technology for complex diseases such as cancer, and the keys to their success and recognition on the international medical scene! Timeline: 00:03:24 - Andre's background as a researcher and entrepreneur in medical AI 00:06:01 - The origins of Artera and the vision of personalizing therapy for cancer patients 00:09:29 - Why AI is so relevant for predictive and prognostic medical applications 00:11:51 - How the ArteraAI Prostate Cancer test works 00:19:57 - Getting the test included in national guidelines within a year 00:24:16 - Developing further therapy prediction tests for cancer and beyond 00:26:03 - Lessons learned from securing national reimbursement within two years 00:29:22 - Andre's view on current and future applications of AI in medicine What we also talked about with Andre: Salesforce UC San Francisco H&E stain Prostate-specific antigen Chemotherapy Computer vision Large Language Models (LLMs) AI agents AlphaFold NeurIPS Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference Marc Benioff We cited with Andre some of the past episodes of the series: #43 - Rethinking medical prescriptions to save lives - Emmanuel Bilbault - Posos #41 - Making sense of the gut microbiome - Leo Grady - Jona #40 - Cracking biology through AI - Jean-Philippe Vert - Owkin #36 - Turning healthcare preventive with full-body MRI scans - Andrew Lacy - Prenuvo As Andre mentioned during the episode, you can read their landmark paper published in npj Digital Medicine in 2021 to dive deeper into the technology they have developed. For further information about Artera's publications and all the scientific work they do, take a look at the News & Insights section of their website. You can follow Artera's activities on LinkedIn and X, and get in touch with Andre via LinkedIn! If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! There's now a bi-monthly newsletter around the podcast where you will be informed of the latest episodes and kept posted on the latest medical tech progress, subscribe here! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode type "#44 - Predicting cancer treatment response - Andre Esteva - Artera" on your preferred streaming platform.

According to the WHO, unsafe medication practices and medication errors are a leading cause of avoidable harm in health systems across the globe. In the European Union alone, this translates to nearly 200,000 deaths annually. The magnitude of this problem has led to global initiatives such as "Medication Without Harm," launched in 2017, aiming to reduce medical errors by 50% over five years. Although there is a need for more data on the results of this initiative, we are far from having reached the goal. The key lies in our ability to access medical information, specifically related to prescriptions. Direct access to reliable information, accounting for individual patient characteristics, and able to fit with the tools used by healthcare professionals. A next-generation medical database, incorporating all known information about medications in structured and interoperable bricks capable of supporting caregivers in safer and more effective prescribing practices. It turns out this database exists and has been developed by Pharmacist Emmanuel Bilbault and his team at Posos! Approved less than a year ago by French health authorities, it offers a new perspective on how to approach medical prescriptions in the era of AI, medical science, and digital health technology. A way to give back time to every healthcare professional and ensure an unprecedented level of care quality for patients. In this episode of Impulse, we talked with Emmanuel about the creation of this new tool - used today by more than 85,000 healthcare professionals in Europe - and what it changes in our fight against medical errors. Timeline: 00:02:56 - What pushed Emmanuel to quit the Pharma industry and found Posos 00:11:11 - The first multilingual, structured, and encoded drug database to streamline medical prescribing 00:16:31 - How Posos is leveraging AI to supercharge its platform 00:22:54 - Keeping the drug database up to date across geographies 00:24:37 - The impact Posos has on healthcare professionals, patients, and health systems 00:29:59 - Toward providing patient access to Posos' drug database 00:32:40 - Lessons learned from scaling Posos in France and abroad 00:40:47 - Emmanuel's view on the current healthcare transformation What we also talked about with Emmanuel: Teva Pharmaceuticals IBM's Watson Health Electronic Health Records SNOMED CT ICD-10-CM ATC MedDRA Named Entity Recognition Optical Character Recognition Word Embedding Machine Learning Pharmagest Ambient AI Nabla We cited with Emmanuel some of the past episodes of the series: #1 - Measuring your arterial age to prevent heart diseases - Ted Baldwin - Imageens As mentioned by Emmanuel during the episode, we recommend taking a look at this page to learn more about the SNOMED CT clinical terminology, as the most comprehensive, multilingual clinical healthcare terminology in the world. You can follow Posos' activities on LinkedIn, Instagram, and X, and get in touch with Emmanuel via LinkedIn! If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! There's now a bi-monthly newsletter around the podcast where you will be informed of the latest episodes and kept posted on the latest medical tech progress, subscribe here! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode type "#43 - Rethinking medical prescriptions to save lives - Emmanuel Bilbault - Posos" on your preferred streaming platform.

What will the future of surgery look like? According to Dr. George Papagiannakis, we must count on virtual simulation. After all, simulators are an integral part of professional training in highly demanding fields like aviation or F1. So why not medicine? In this episode of Impulse, the approach might seem futuristic, but George and his team at ORamaVR share a vision that makes a lot of sense. Integrating extended reality in surgery means increasing the volume of hours spent operating. It means preparing each surgery on a virtual patient with properties close to the real case. It means simulating complications and unforeseen situations safely. And it means reducing the risk of errors in the real world. Following his motto "never first time with the real patient", George immerses us in the universe of extended reality and reveals its potential for medicine and surgery. What is extended reality? What makes a good virtual medical simulation? And what is the impact of this technology today and in the future? Many questions that George addresses with passion and enthusiasm, in a conversation reminiscent of Ready Player One! Timeline: 02:49 - Addressing the millions of fatal medical errors worldwide 05:20 - Defining extended reality and underlying technologies 07:31 - Medical applications of extended reality 10:52 - The impact of extended reality on medical training and practice 16:25 - What makes a virtual medical environment feel real 23:32 - How to recreate the feel of touch and dexterity virtually 29:28 - Enabling all healthcare professionals to create virtual environments with AI What we also talked about with George: Prof. Shafi Ahmed Apple Vision Pro Magic Leap Microsoft HoloLens NHS The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt IKEA Global illumination Dall-E ChatGPT NotebookLM Frost & Sullivan Meta We cited with George some of the past episodes of the series: #9 - Creating the Gran Turismo of surgery - Raimundo Sierra - Virtamed #12 - Unleashing the power of digital health - Daniel Kraft - Digital.Health #32 - Accelerating radiology with AI - Amine Korchi - Radiologist #36 - Turning healthcare preventive with full-body MRI scans - Andrew Lacy As mentioned by George during the episode, we recommend taking a look at some of the simulations available on the official YouTube channel of ORamaVR, it will bring to life many aspects that we discuss in the episode! You can follow ORamaVR's activities on LinkedIn, Instagram, and get in touch with George via LinkedIn! If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! There's now a bi-monthly newsletter around the podcast where you will be informed of the latest episodes and kept posted on the latest medical tech progress, subscribe here! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode type "#42 - Extending reality to transform surgery - George Papagiannakis - ORamaVR" on your preferred streaming platform.

Our gut contains a world of microorganisms that impact many aspects of our health, well beyond the gastrointestinal system. In fact, more than 30 trillion bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses live in the digestive tract of every human, a number that is higher than the number of human cells that make up our body! Each microbiome is unique to an individual, and its genetic heritage represents approximately 100 times that of the human genome. This field is fascinating and science is advancing rapidly, as evidenced by the 2,000 publications generated monthly on the subject. A better understanding of this remarkable ecosystem might bring critical answers to address numerous pathologies and health disorders. In this episode of Impulse, this is the mission of Leo Grady and his team at Jona, whose technology enables microbiome analysis based on an at-home test, combined with artificial intelligence to reveal what the current literature says about each person's microbiome. Unveiling the propensity for certain disease risks, along with individual nutritional preferences, Jona can model the body's reaction according to potential changes in the microbiome, and provide valuable insights on behaviors and nutrition that can ultimately improve one's health. A dive into the heart of the microbiome and its secrets, which today's technology is about to unlock! Timeline: 02:32 - Leo's journey from his PhD in computer vision to AI applications in medicine 06:47 - The idea behind Jona and understanding the microbiome better 10:33 - What we do know and ignore about the microbiome 13:05 - The Jona test kit and what it can interpret from one's microbiome picture 20:17 - The volume and complexity of studies around the microbiome 22:11 - The impact of Jona and Leo's son's story 25:38 - Who is Jona for 29:00 - Leo's vision for the future of Jona and AI in healthcare What we also talked about with Leo: Neural networks Siemens HeartFlow Paige AI Memorial Sloan Kettering Crohn's disease Thomas Clozel We cited with Leo some of the past episodes of the series: #32 - Accelerating radiology with AI - Amine Korchi - Radiologist #35 - Making surgery smarter and safer - Björn Von Siemens - Caresyntax #36 - Turning healthcare preventive with full-body MRI scans - Andrew Lacy - Prenuvo #40 - Cracking biology through AI - Jean-Philippe Vert - Owkin As mentioned by Leo during the episode, we recommend looking at the Jona Journal which sheds light on the latest findings on the microbiome fueled by their research platform, and understanding the current literature. Leo also recommends listening to The Mind-Gut Conversation Podcast by Emeran Meyer to find out more, and We Contain Multitudes by Sarah Henstra as a complementary read. You can follow Jona's activities on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube, and get in touch with Leo via LinkedIn. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! There's now a bi-monthly newsletter around the podcast where you will be informed of the latest episodes and kept posted on the latest medical tech progress, subscribe here! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode type "#41 - Making sense of the gut microbiome - Leo Grady - Jona" on your preferred streaming platform.

All experts agree: if there's one sector that AI will transform, it's healthcare. Whether it's understanding pathologies, developing personalized treatments, the doctor-patient relationship, diagnostic methods, or creating tools to facilitate the work of healthcare professionals, everything is affected by the ongoing transformation! This revolution raises many expectations and questions about the real impact these new technologies will have on tomorrow's medicine. One of the leading figures in this movement on the international scene is none other than the French-American company Owkin, which aims to be "the first end-to-end AI biotech company," whose R&D activities are overseen by Jean-Philippe Vert, himself a true pioneer in the field of machine learning and computational biology. The first "AI-first" biotech company of its kind, bringing a breath of fresh air to an industry known for being extremely costly and time-consuming. So how does AI accelerate the development of new therapies? What is its role in identifying new molecules and targets? How can it be used to create new diagnostic tools? Can we leverage patient data without compromising their safety and privacy? And what can we expect from future models and their impact on our understanding of biology? In this episode of Impulse, these are all fascinating questions that Jean-Philippe breaks down with pedagogy and realism, shedding light on one of the most exciting fields of medicine in this era! Timeline: 04:21 - Jean-Philippe's background at the interface of mathematics, computer science, and life sciences 07:10 - Owkin's mission to become the first end-to-end AI biotech firm 09:48 - Leveraging AI for drug discovery and new treatment modalities 14:35 - Selecting target indications and therapeutic areas 17:13 - Changing the way we run clinical trials through AI 22:03 - Unlocking patient data across hospitals while preserving safety and privacy 25:40 - Developing AI-based diagnostics and driving clinical adoption 34:50 - Towards the first AI foundation model to understand biology What we also talked about with Jean-Philippe Google DeepMind Large Language Models (LLMs) Digital twins External control arms Federated learning Digital pathology MSIntuit CRC Bioptimus Neural networks As mentioned by Jean-Philippe during the episode, we recommend taking a look at Owkin and Bioptimus websites as well as their respective Publications & News section to learn more about their technology and stay posted on their latest activities. If you are a data scientist or machine learning enthusiast, you can tackle one of the many biology-related challenges proposed by Kaggle on their platform. To learn more about Owkin's portfolio and the diversity of biomarkers and health conditions they cover, take a look at their Pipeline section. You can follow Owkin's activities on LinkedIn, X, and YouTube, and Bioptimus on LinkedIn and X.To get in touch with Jean-Philippe, contact him over LinkedIn. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! There's now a bi-monthly newsletter around the podcast where you will be informed of the latest episodes and kept posted on the latest medical tech progress, subscribe here! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode type "#40 - Cracking biology through AI - Jean-Philippe Vert - Owkin" on your preferred streaming platform.

Among pioneering companies in connected health devices, few have been as forward-thinking as Withings, a flagship of French technology. Their first connected scales date back to 2009 (when smartphones were still emerging!) and remain the industry standard today. For that time, it was a subtle blend combining sleek design, intuitive user experience, and medical precision. A formula that Withings has successfully applied and developed in many other areas, from smartwatches to sleep sensors, thermometers, blood pressure monitors, or even a urinalysis device for your toilet! Their portfolio covers a wide range of medical parameters and helps hundreds of thousands of individuals manage their health daily. Matthieu Menanteau is one of the minds behind Withings' creations over the past 8 years. In this highly insightful episode of Impulse, he shares Withings' philosophy and approach to creating the ultimate connected health experience, one that allows everyone to better understand themselves and take control of their health journey. We discuss: Withings' philosophy to innovate successfully in today's connected health sector Three development pillars that form the essence of Withings products The ongoing integration of consumer health with health systems and telemedicine The power of continuous medical data in the age of AI and big data A conversation that brings new perspectives on the future of connected health, and how technology can integrate into our daily lives to guide us toward healthier behaviors! Timeline: 03:45 - Withings' origins and vision for connected health 07:18 - Providing the ultimate health companion 10:03 - Biomarkers and indications covered by Withings 13:11 - A home urinalysis laboratory 17:44 - Bringing the medical check-up at home 21:11 - A dual approach to driving innovation in connected health 26:20 - Towards an overwhelming mass of connected health devices? 31:47 - Withings' three pillars of product development 38:05 - The role of AI in creating the ultimate connected health experience What we also talked about with Matthieu: Type 2 diabetes Lean mass Visceral fat Hydration pH Vitamin C Ketones Oxygen saturation Cuffless blood pressure measurement Apple CE mark FDA Edge computing Doctolib Alan CES We cited with Matthieu some of the past episodes of the series: #21 - Transforming hypertension care with a bracelet - Jay Shah - Aktiia #23 - Disrupting the smart wearables industry - Leo Grünstein - Spiden As mentioned by Matthieu during the episode, we recommend taking a look at the Research section of the Withings website, to learn more about current and future publications surrounding their products. To learn more about their portfolio and the diversity of biomarkers and health conditions they cover, take a look at their Products section. You can follow Withings' activities on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube, and get in touch with Matthieu via LinkedIn. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! There's now a bi-monthly newsletter around the podcast where you will be informed of the latest episodes and kept posted on the latest medical tech progress, subscribe here! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode type "#39 - Crafting the best connected health experience - Matthieu Menanteau - Withings" on your preferred streaming platform

Medical biology and laboratories play an essential role in any health system. No wonder that 70 to 80% of all medical decisions are based on laboratory test results. But even within the most advanced healthcare systems, the communication and analysis of lab data remain archaic. Processing times can be lengthy, even after the analysis is completed. Results are expressed as "out of range" or "in range", without complementary or actionable information. An experience still far from current technological standards, and a gap that Alexandre Guenoun and his team at Kiro intend to solve by redefining our experience of medical biology! Through faster and more personalized results for patients. With a suite of integrated clinical decision support tools for healthcare professionals. And a longitudinal database to accelerate biomedical research. A key service of any health system, at a turning point in France and beyond. In this episode of Impulse, we talk with Alexandre about: The importance of engaging each individual in their health journey The shift from disease-centered medicine to service-centered The Kiro experience for patients and healthcare professionals The role of technology in matching healthcare demand and supply The criticality of change management in healthcare innovation A key episode to understand the future of medical biology! Timeline: 02:57 - What drew Alexandre to healthcare and entrepreneurship 08:41 - How technology can make clinical biology smarter and more personalized 11:24 - The Kiro experience for patients and healthcare professionals 24:56 - Interpreting medical biology data with AI 28:16 - Matching demand and supply in health systems 31:01 - Scaling Kiro in Europe and beyond 34:01 - Leading change management with healthcare professionals What we also talked about with Alexandre: ZEBRA MEDICAL ESSEC Business School UC Berkeley Agoranov GPT-4o Sacha Loiseau This episode is brought to you in collaboration with Health.Tech, the heartbeat of healthtech! As mentioned by Alexandre during the episode, you can have a look at Kiro's Product page to understand better their technology and stay posted on their latest progress. Alexandre also recommends reading The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz. You can follow Kiro's activities on LinkedIn and get in touch with Alexandre via LinkedIn. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! There's now a bi-monthly newsletter around the podcast where you will be informed of the latest episodes and kept posted on medical tech progress, subscribe here! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

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Can the attention economy be harnessed to serve health? Paradoxical as it may seem, this is the thesis of Tryggvi Thorgeirsson and his team at Sidekick Health.As a medical doctor trained in Iceland in the 2000s, Tryggvi experienced rural medicine firsthand and what working as a general practitioner in a remote setting means. And he quickly found himself confronted with the limitations posed by the healthcare system at the time: Prescribing medications at the expense of other therapies where patients are guided toward healthier behaviors. The silos and impossibility of establishing a care plan that simultaneously takes into account multiple conditions. A purely reactive approach based on a brick-and-mortar model running out of steam. The emergence of smartphones and their potential as health companions became obvious to him. Based on this intuition, he co-founded Sidekick Health alongside his fellow physician and colleague Saemundur Oddsson. The company is now one of the leaders in digital therapeutics, offering a vast portfolio of therapies accessible from each patient's pocket, prescribed by thousands of doctors in Europe and the US. In this episode of Impulse, we talk with Tryggvi about the principles behind how these digital therapies work, how attention levers can be used to support long-term behavior change, and the growing impact these solutions have on individuals and healthcare systems.In the era of social media and the mental plague they represent, this episode brings a refreshing perspective on how dopamine can be used to put the health of individuals back in their own hands. Timeline: 02:35 - Tryggvi's background as a medical doctor and electrical engineer 04:05 - What felt missing in Tryggvi's rural medical practice 07:14 - Seeing early the potential of smartphones for healthcare 11:08 - Tryggvi's definition of digital therapeutics 13:44 - The impact of digital therapeutics on clinical outcomes and cost of care 16:44 - Driving behavioral change and medical education through timely bite-sized pieces and gamification 18:40 - Sidekick Health's approach to designing tailored and impactful digital health programs across multiple conditions 27:46 - Putting AI at the center of digital health programs and their usage 30:13 - Tryggvi's vision for the future of healthcare What we also talked about with Tryggvi: PINK! Prof. Pia Wülfing Pear Therapeutics Daniel Kahneman Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health We cited with Tryggvi some of the past episodes of the series: #7 - Redefining motor rehabilitation with digital neurotherapeutics - Naveed Ejaz - MindMaze #17 - Coaching as the key to a better health - Eugene Borukhovich - YourCoach.Health #30 - Building the Shopify of digital health - Dan Vahdat - Huma As mentioned by Tryggvi during the episode, we recommend reading Exits & Outcomes by Brian Dolan as well as Second Opinion by Christina Farr, two newsletters that will keep you posted on the latest in digital health.To dive further into the programs and use cases around Sidekick Health's technology, take a look at their website. You can follow Sidekick Health's activities on LinkedIn and X, and get in touch with Tryggvi via LinkedIn. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! There's now a bi-monthly newsletter around the podcast where you will be informed of the latest episodes and kept posted on the latest medical tech progress, subscribe here! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode type "#37 - Hacking the dopamine system for good - Tryggvi Thorgeirsson - Sidekick Health" on your preferred streaming platform.

Making healthcare preventive and better able to catch serious conditions earlier is a recurring topic for governments, health systems, and ultimately patients. As healthcare resources become scarce while chronic conditions and their burden on society grow larger, a preventive and more proactive approach to healthcare is undoubtedly part of the solution. There are many ways to go about it, with one emerging trend over the past few years focusing on holistic check-ups, providing a large set of scans, biological assays, and complimentary exams all at once on the same day, helping to give a broad snapshot of one's health status. One approach that has triggered debate within the medical community focuses on full-body MRI scans delivered to individuals who can afford it, as the ultimate disease prevention tool. A detailed view of the inside of one's body, based on one of the most widely used medical imaging methods. Some criticize the lack of evidence around the true benefits these scans bring to patients and health systems, pointing to the high price charged for them. Others testify to the diagnostic help these scans offer, lifting the veil on previously unexplained patient cases, and highlighting the possibility of taking action long before certain symptoms are expressed. One way or another, these reactions reflect an approach to medical screening that challenges traditional practices and raises questions. In this episode of Impulse with the Founder and CEO of Prenuvo, Andrew Lacy addresses the main questions raised by this practice, offering new perspectives on how to apprehend these scans as a medical analysis tool, how they can complement existing care practices, and the complexity linked to the evaluation of the impact that these scans can have on health systems. An eye-opening conversation on what might constitute a part of future preventive healthcare! Timeline: 00:02:47 - Andrew's background as a serial tech entrepreneur and his move into healthcare 00:04:15 - The idea behind Prenuvo and full-body scans as an early medical screening method 00:06:49 - What the Prenuvo experience looks like compared to a typical medical check-up 00:10:11 - The Prenuvo scanner and what it can see inside the body 00:14:41 - Can Prenuvo scans diagnose certain conditions? 00:18:44 - For whom are these scans for? 00:21:35 - Building the case for full-body MRI scans benefits toward health systems 00:25:39 - Making full-body MRI scans more affordable 00:27:30 - How Prenuvo leverages AI throughout its operations 00:30:21 - Empowering patients to drive long-term behavioral change 00:34:43 - Prenuvo's plans for geographic expansion and growth What we also talked about with Andrew: Dr. Raj Attariwala This episode was made possible with the support of HLTH Europe! As mentioned by Andrew during the episode, we recommend taking a look at the Research section of Prenuvo's website, to be informed about the latest in multi-parametric MRI studies and its applications across multiple disease areas. You can also find out more on PubMed for further studies on these topics. To dive further into the technology behind Prenuvo's scans, head out to The Scan section of their website. You can follow Prenuvo's activities on LinkedIn, Instagram, and X, and get in touch with Andrew via LinkedIn. This episode illustrates how medical imaging technology and science are reshaping the future of preventive medicine. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! There's now a bi-monthly newsletter around the podcast where you will be informed of the latest episodes and kept posted on the latest medical tech progress, subscribe here! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode type "#36 - Turning healthcare preventive with full-body MRI scans - Andrew Lacy - Prenuvo" on your preferred streaming platform.

Modernizing surgery by making it smarter, safer, and more predictive. This is the mission of Björn Von Siemens and his team at Caresyntax. By developing a platform that integrates into hospitals' infrastructures and leveraging their data flows throughout the planning, execution, and follow-up of surgeries, the company has established itself as a leader in connected surgery. Their impact on health systems worldwide is massive and continues to grow at pace: +3000 equipped operating rooms +30,000 surgical teams served +3 million surgeries assisted each year In a world where healthcare resources are growing scarce and where access to surgery is highly unequal, Caresyntax aims to be one of those enabling a profound change in medicine at scale, for the benefit of patients, healthcare professionals, and hospitals. By helping them optimize the use of operating rooms, staffing, and costs. By providing video oversight and intelligence for each operation performed, tracking every step of their execution. By enabling continuous improvement of medical teams and surgeons through detailed case reviews. In this fascinating episode of Impulse, we delve into the world of cutting-edge surgery in the era of robotics, AI, and automation. Björn opens up about the inside story of this unique healthtech entrepreneurial adventure, revealing the challenges and successes that have made Caresyntax a pillar of modern surgery! Timeline: 00:02:45 - Bjoern's story as an aspiring surgeon who shifted toward healthcare entrepreneurship 00:08:14 - The idea behind Caresyntax and solving major needs for surgery 00:14:16 - The functioning of Caresyntax's platform 00:18:07 - Helping surgeons get better at what they do 00:26:45 - Giving transparency to hospitals on their operations and opportunities for improvement 00:31:55 - The role of AI in Caresyntax's platform 00:34:44 - Helping hospitals fight the burn-out crisis 00:39:08 - Setting the right expectations from patients prior to surgery 00:42:39 - What excites Björn for the future of surgery What we also talked about with Björn: Quantum Surgical Intuitive Surgical Radical prostatectomy Total knee arthroplasty Neuralink General Catalyst We cited with Björn some of the past episodes of the series: #2 - Treating liver cancer with surgical robotics - Lucien Blondel - Quantum Surgical This episode was made possible with the support of HLTH Europe! As mentioned by Björn during the episode, we recommend reading The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande. To dive further into the applications and use cases around Caresyntax's platform for surgery, take a look at the Resources section of their website. You can follow Caresyntax's activities on LinkedIn and X, and get in touch with Björn via LinkedIn. This conversation underscores how science and technology are converging to make modern medicine, and surgery in particular, safer and more data-driven. If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email! And if you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! There's now a bi-monthly newsletter around the podcast where you will be informed of the latest episodes and kept posted on the latest medical tech progress, subscribe here! Lastly, don't forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and our website!

To discover the whole episode type "#35 - Making surgery smarter and safer - Björn Von Siemens - Caresyntax" on your preferred streaming platform.