AWS Health Innovation Podcast

Latest Episodes:

#95, Boosting Pathologist Productivity with AI, with Joseph (Yossi) Mossel from Ibex AI Jul 24, 2024

Show notes

In this episode of the AWS Health Innovation Podcast, we explore how Ibex AI is transforming cancer diagnosis with artificial intelligence. Host Guy Spigelman, EMEA lead for Healthcare and Life Sciences Startups at Amazon Web Services, sits down with Joseph (Yossi) Mossel, Co-Founder and CEO of Ibex AI, a pioneering company in AI-based cancer diagnostics for pathology.

How did the founders of Ibex AI recognize the potential for AI in digital pathology?

Yossi Mossel and Chaim Linhart had no prior healthcare experience but were driven to start a mission-driven company that could leverage Israel's strengths in tech and digitized health records.
Their "aha moment" came when they learned about digital pathology scanners, leading them to apply AI to pathology diagnosis.

What key milestones did Ibex AI achieve in deploying their AI solution?

Ibex AI deployed its first AI algorithm for prostate cancer diagnosis at Maccabi Healthcare Services in Israel in early 2017, quickly validating its clinical impact by catching a misdiagnosis within days.
Wales was the first country to nationally deploy Ibex's AI across NHS trusts for prostate and breast cancer diagnosis.

How does Ibex AI prioritize seamless integration of their AI into clinical workflows?

Ibex AI focuses on partnerships to integrate its AI into existing healthcare workflows and platforms, recognizing that key factors for successful healthcare AI adoption include innovation, workflow integration, and an appropriate economic model.

Learn more about Ibex AI and their AI-powered cancer diagnostics platform on their website.

Get in touch with AWS here to learn how we can help your organization accelerate healthcare innovation.

Please take a moment and let us know what you think of the podcast, access our feedback survey here.

#94, Decoding Infant Cries to Enable Timely Interventions with Roberto Iannone from Zoundream Jul 17, 2024

Show notes

Imagine if a baby's cries were no longer a mystery, but a window into their needs and well-being. Today we welcome Zoundream to the show, a company focused on transforming infant care through advanced cry analysis. Roberto Iannone, CEO and Founder of Zoundream, joins Alex Merwin, Head of Growth for Healthcare & Life Sciences Startups at AWS, to discuss Zoundream's groundbreaking solution that utilizes AI to analyze infant cries and sounds in real-time, pinpointing reasons such as hunger or tiredness with remarkable accuracy and also detecting digital biomarkers for conditions like autism, with the potential for providing lifelong benefits for babies and their families by enabling earlier diagnosis.

How does Zoundream's AI solution decode baby needs?

Zoundream's pioneering AI solution analyzes infant cries to accurately identify needs like hunger or tiredness. This technology has the potential to improve infant care by providing real-time insights into babies' states before they can communicate verbally.

What progress has Zoundream made in autism early detection?

Remarkably, Zoundream's cry analysis can detect early signs of autism spectrum disorder, enabling timely interventions. This groundbreaking application highlights the potential of vocal biomarkers in diagnosing developmental conditions.

How did Zoundream involve healthcare professionals in developing their solution?

From the outset, Zoundream involved pediatricians and neuropsychologists to ensure their solution addressed valuable clinical applications. This collaborative approach was crucial in building credibility and onboarding hospital partners for data gathering.

What motivated Roberto Iannone's transition from corporate to entrepreneurship?

Roberto Iannone transitioned from a corporate career to entrepreneurship, driven by the autonomy of being a founder/CEO. This pivotal decision enabled him to pursue his vision of transforming infant care globally.

What is Zoundream's approach to regulatory compliance for clinical adoption?

Recognizing the regulatory requirements for clinical applications, Zoundream meticulously tests and versions their AI models.

Learn more about Zoundream here to understand how their innovative solution is transforming infant care.

Get in touch with AWS here to learn how we can help your organization accelerate healthcare innovation.

Please take a moment and let us know what you think of the podcast, access our feedback survey here.

#93, Harnessing Data to Scale Innovations, Part Five of the Health Innovation Compilation Series Jul 08, 2024

Show notes

To scale health innovation, we need to take a broad view and redefine the art of the possible in Real-World Evidence, Data & Population Health. In the fifth and final episode of our Health Innovation Compilation Series, we hear from Mendel, Akrivia Health, Epistemix, Ovation, and Evidation Health, innovative companies that are transforming how we leverage data to drive better health outcomes.

1. How does Mendel reconcile conflicting medical data?

Mendel's AI structures unstructured patient data into coherent journeys, reconciling conflicting information from sources like pathology reports and genomics.
It enables querying consolidated data through intuitive interfaces, providing faster answers backed by evidence.

2. How is Akrivia Health unlocking insights in mental health?

Akrivia Health uses AI/NLP to curate and deidentify unstructured clinical notes from electronic medical records, translating them into structured data for mental health research.
This enables safe data sharing and treatment development for mental health and dementia.

3. How does Epistemix simulate population health interventions?

Epistemix created a synthetic US population to model infectious disease spread, expanding to chronic conditions and social determinants.
Their simulations evaluate cascading effects of interventions like faster testing on community outcomes.

4. How is Ovation bridging genomics and healthcare?

Ovation envisioned being a genomic data company, building a biobank and research network from diagnostic lab data.
Linking genomic and longitudinal patient data enables studying disease origins and advancing therapeutics.

5. How does Evidation Health incentivize healthy user behaviors?

Evidation Health incentivizes users to contribute real-world data from wearables to impactful research studies.
This provides insights into health outside clinical settings for disease prevention and management.

Featured Companies:

Mendel: Karim Galil, Co-founder & CEO (https://www.mendel.ai/about, Full Episode)
Akrivia Health: David Newton, COO & Co-Founder (https://akriviahealth.com/, Full Episode)
Epistemix: John Cordier, CEO & Co-Founder (https://www.epistemix.com/, Full Episode)
Ovation: Barry Wark, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, Curt Medeiros, Chief Executive Officer (https://www.ovation.io/, Full Episode)
Evidation Health: Alessio Signorini, CTO (https://evidation.com/, Full Episode)

Get in touch with AWS here to learn how we can help your organization accelerate healthcare innovation.

Please take a moment and let us know what you think of the podcast, access our feedback survey here.

#92, Uplifting the Clinician & Patient Experience, Part Four of the Health Innovation Compilation Series Jun 26, 2024

Show notes

Think back to the last time you received healthcare, whether it was an emergency or routine checkup - how was your experience? In Part Four of our Health Innovation Compilation Series, we learn about a set of remarkable companies working to uplift the clinician and patient experience. From Aneesh Chopra, President of CareJourney, to Elad Walach, CEO of Aidoc, Adrian Aoun, CEO & Founder of Forward, Paul Roscoe, CEO of CLEW, and Robin Shah, Co-Founder & CEO of Thyme Care, this episode showcases the cutting-edge technologies transforming how we give and receive care.

How are companies leveraging predictive analytics to empower clinicians?

CareJourney utilizes claims data to predict disease progression, providing signals back to providers with actionable steps to close care gaps for over 300M people.
Aidoc's AI platform analyzes medical data across specialties, enabling proactive clinical interventions and aiding care teams in optimizing patient treatment.

How is Forward reimagining healthcare delivery through technology?

Forward envisions healthcare as a scalable product, leveraging technology to enable preventive, data-driven, and self-controlled care, challenging traditional healthcare models.

How is AI being used to improve clinical quality and identify risks?

Clew Medical's AI platform identifies high-risk patients before deterioration, using physiological data and predictive models to alert clinicians, expanding beyond ICUs and FDA-cleared for some models.

How are companies addressing the challenges of navigating cancer care journeys?

Thyme Care partners with health plans, pairing oncology nurses and software to facilitate whole-person cancer care, addressing disparities and aligning treatment with patient goals.

Get in touch with AWS here to learn how we can help your organization accelerate healthcare innovation.

Please take a moment and let us know what you think of the podcast, access our feedback survey here.

Featured Companies:

CareJourney - Full Episode
- Guest: Aneesh Chopra, President
- Website: https://www.carejourney.com/
Aidoc - Full Episode
- Guest: Elad Walach, CEO
- Website: https://aidoc.com/
Forward Health - Full Episode
- Guest: Adrian Aoun, CEO & Founder
- Website: https://goforward.com/
CLEW - Full Episode
- Guest: Paul Roscoe, CEO
- Website: https://clewmed.com/
Thyme Care - Full Episode
- Guest: Robin Shah, Co-Founder & CEO
- Website: www.thymecare.com

#91, Transforming Clinical Trials, Part Three of the Health Innovation Compilation Series Jun 19, 2024

Show notes

Reimagining clinical trials through innovation and technology. In this compilation episode, part 3 of our Health Innovation Series, we explore how Deep6 AI, CEO Wout Brusselaers, Lokavant, CEO Rohit Nambisan, and Science 37, Chief Delivery Officer Darcy Forman, are transforming the way clinical trials are conducted.

How is Deep6 AI revolutionizing patient recruitment for clinical trials?

Deep6 AI leverages AI and natural language processing to precisely match eligible patients to clinical trials by mining real-world data from electronic medical records (EMRs). This enables faster recruitment, fewer dedicated resources, and de-risking of research efforts for hospitals, life sciences companies, and contract research organizations (CROs).
Traditional recruitment methods relied on physicians identifying eligible patients or querying structured data, leading to large pools requiring manual review. Deep6AI ingests all patient data into a cloud platform and uses NLP to create multi-dimensional patient vectors, enabling precise matching by searching a small pool of truly eligible patients.

How is Lokavant transforming clinical trial operations?

Lokavant was founded to solve operational challenges in clinical trials that existing systems could not handle. Their platform ingests diverse data sources and enables configurable analytics across use cases like site/safety monitoring and enrollment forecasting, leveraging data from over 2,000 studies for predictive analytics.

How is Science 37 decentralizing clinical trials globally?

Science 37 brings clinical trial access to diverse patient populations through a virtual/decentralized model, leveraging technology to orchestrate remote visits and engagement. Their network of investigators and mobile nurses enables enrollment of underserved communities matching census data demographics.
Science 37's "meta-site" virtual site enables remote participation through a single app, overcoming roadblocks to drive an innovative, patient-centric clinical trial delivery model. Patients develop strong rapport with nurses, expressing gratitude for in-home care during trials.

Featured Companies:

Deep6 AI - Wout Brusselaers, CEO & Founder
- Website: https://deep6.ai/
- Full Episode: Link to episode
Lokavant - Rohit Nambisan, CEO
- Website: https://www.lokavant.com
- Full Episode: Link to episode
Science 37 - Darcy Forman, Chief Delivery Officer
- Website: www.science37.com
- Full Episode: Link to episode

Get in touch with AWS here to learn how we can help your organization accelerate healthcare innovation.

Please take a moment and let us know what you think of the podcast, access our feedback survey here.

#90, Innovations in Biomarker & Diagnostic Development, Part Two of the Health Innovation Compilation Series Jun 12, 2024

Show notes

In part two of our five part compilation mini-series on health innovation we explore groundbreaking advancements in diagnostics and biomarkers.

1. How is Us2.AI democratizing cardiac care through AI-powered echocardiograms?

Us2.AI is revolutionizing cardiac imaging by automating echocardiogram analysis with AI, enabling non-specialists to perform accurate heart scans. This empowers early diagnosis and treatment in underserved areas.
Co-founders James Hare and Dr. Carolyn Lam share insights on their AI-Echo software, which is utilized globally in clinical practice settings to improve patient outcomes and expand healthcare access.

2. What is Truvian's innovative approach to disrupting blood diagnostics?

Truvian is developing a benchtop system that can provide lab-accurate blood test results in 20 minutes from a small sample, aiming to increase access to routine health screenings.
CEO Jay Srinivasan discusses their proprietary approach, which they are seeking FDA clearance and CLIA waiver for, to deliver accessible blood testing from one small blood sample in minutes.

3. How is Sparta Science optimizing human movement and performance?

Sparta Science's force plate technology captures detailed movement data to identify injury risks and guide interventions, improving human performance across various conditions and clinical trials.
Founder & CEO Dr. Phil Wagner shares insights on their journey from democratizing force plate technology to evolving into a human data platform reshaping the landscape of human measurement.

Get in touch with AWS here to learn how we can help your organization accelerate healthcare innovation.

Please take a moment and let us know what you think of the podcast, access our feedback survey here.

Featured Companies:

Us2.AI - James Hare (Co-founder/CEO), Dr. Carolyn Lam (Co-Founder & Non-Exec Head of Medical Affairs) - Company Website, Full Episode
Truvian Health - Jay Srinivasan (CEO) - Company Website, Full Episode
Sparta Science - Phil Wagner (Founder & CEO) - Company Website, Full Episode

#89, Accelerating Drug R&D, Part One of the Health Innovation Compilation Series Jun 05, 2024

Show notes

Pushing the boundaries of drug research and development, visionary companies are harnessing the power of engineering, artificial intelligence, and novel technologies to revolutionize how we discover and design new therapies. In this compilation episode, we explore the cutting-edge approaches of VivoDyne (Andrei Georgescu, CEO), Seer (Serafim Batzoglou, Chief Data Officer), Ordaōs (Dave Longo, CEO), Insilico Medicine (Alex Zhavoronkov, Founder and CEO), and Alchemab Therapeutics (Young Kwon, PhD, CEO).

1. How is VivoDyne's microfluidic bioengineering platform revolutionizing drug research?

VivoDyne's platform enables growing tens of thousands of human tissue samples at scale, providing precise control over microenvironments to study complex cell interactions and dynamics that drive disease.
This approach overcomes limitations of simplistic cell cultures and animal models, bridging the gap between preclinical results and human responses.

2. What makes Seer's approach to proteomics so powerful?

Seer develops nanoparticle technologies that enable unbiased, deep, and large-scale access to the proteome, the full set of proteins in the body.
Their approach detects 8x more proteins than conventional methods, unlocking insights into complex biological systems and paving the way for new diagnostic and therapeutic breakthroughs.

3. How are Ordaōs' "mini-proteins" transforming drug development?

Ordaos designs "mini-proteins" from scratch, combining advantages of small molecules and antibodies for optimal drug properties like stability, tumor penetration, and oral delivery.
Their AI models complex biological systems to engineer these powerful therapeutic candidates, tackling the high failure rates and costs of traditional drug development.

4. How is Insilico Medicine leveraging generative AI to reimagine drug discovery?

Insilico Medicine leverages generative AI like generative adversarial networks (GANs) to accelerate the traditionally slow and costly drug discovery process.
Their AI-driven approach generates novel small molecule candidates with desired properties, aiming to transform pharmaceutical R&D.

5. What is unique about Alchemab Therapeutics' approach to developing antibody therapies?

Alchemab Therapeutics identifies protective antibodies from resilient patient populations, using machine learning to find rare sequences and predict functional antibodies against hard-to-treat diseases like Alzheimer's and cancers.
Their AI-powered platform accelerates antibody therapy development by combining machine learning with experimental validation.

Companies featured in this compilation:

VivoDyne - Andrei Georgescu, CEO (vivodyne.com)>>Listen to the full episode
Seer - Serafim Batzoglou, Chief Data Officer (www.seer.bio)>>Listen to the full episode
Ordaōs - Dave Longo, CEO (ordaos.bio)>>Listen to the full episode
Insilico Medicine - Alex Zhavoronkov, Founder and CEO (insilico.com)>>Listen to the full episode
Alchemab Therapeutics - Young Kwon, PhD, CEO (alchemab.com)>>Listen to the full episode

Get in touch with AWS here to learn how we can help your organization accelerate healthcare innovation.

Please take a moment and let us know what you think of the podcast, access our feedback survey here.

#88, Reconciling Conflicting Data for Coherent Patient Journeys, with Karim Galil from Mendel May 21, 2024

Show notes

In this episode of the AWS Health Innovation Podcast, Yin He, Principal Business Development for Healthcare and Life Sciences Startups, interviews Karim Galil, Co-Founder and CEO of Mendel. Mendel harnesses the power of AI to structure unstructured patient data, building comprehensive patient journeys that reconcile conflicting data points and empower healthcare professionals with a more objective, data-driven approach to medicine.

How does Mendel unlock the potential of medical data?

Mendel.ai aims to structure unstructured clinical data and reconcile conflicting information to generate comprehensive patient journeys. This approach moves medicine towards more objective, data-driven practices while accounting for physician expertise.

How does Mendel bridge the divide between technical and non-technical users?

Mendel caters to both technical (data analysts) and non-technical (clinicians) users by providing explainable AI systems that foster trust and adoption. Responsible marketing highlighting capabilities and limitations is crucial.

What is Mendel's approach to AI in healthcare?

Mendel combines deep learning with a knowledge graph representation, ensuring explainability and consistency in medical AI outputs. This paves the way for an "Iron Man and Jarvis" collaborative relationship between physicians and advanced AI systems.

What entrepreneurial traits does Karim Galil emphasize?

Karim Galil draws inspiration from personal experiences as a physician, emphasizing resilience, passion for problem-solving, and a mindset of continuous improvement as key traits for aspiring entrepreneurs in the healthcare AI space.

What is Mendel's vision for indexing medical knowledge?

Mendel envisions a future where a company can index and make sense of all medical records, akin to libraries for books and Google for the internet, revolutionizing healthcare delivery through comprehensive data accessibility.

Get in touch with AWS here to learn how we can help your organization accelerate healthcare innovation.

Please take a moment and let us know what you think of the podcast, access our feedback survey here.

To learn more about Mendel, visit their website at mendel.ai.

#87, Modeling Integrated Human Physiology with Microfluidics with Andrei Georgescu from Vivodyne May 14, 2024

Show notes

Pushing the boundaries of human biology, Vivodyne has developed a groundbreaking microfluidic bioengineering platform capable of growing tens of thousands of human tissue samples at scale. Our guest is Andrei Georgescu, the CEO of Vivodyne, whose unique background bridging electrical engineering and bioengineering led him to develop this innovative approach. Hosting the interview is Yin He, Principal Business Development for Healthcare and Life Sciences Startups at AWS, who will explore how Vivodyne's platform combines the principles of organs-on-chips and organoids at high throughput.

How does Vivodyne's microfluidic platform revolutionize drug discovery?
- Vivodyne's microfluidic bioengineering platform enables growing tens of thousands of human tissue samples at scale, providing unprecedented insights into human biology before clinical trials. This approach aims to revolutionize drug discovery success rates by gathering massive human data currently lacking.
What is the key innovation behind Vivodyne's approach?
- Rather than top-down engineering, Vivodyne leverages principles of organs-on-chips and organoids to enable bottom-up self-assembly of complex human tissues at high throughput. This allows studying tissue interactions, systemic effects like immune responses, and linking multiple systems to model integrated physiology.
How does Vivodyne's platform align with ethical principles?
- By producing foundational human data on gene edits, drug metabolism, off-target effects and more, Vivodyne's automated microfluidic platform displaces animal testing facilities while significantly reducing costs. This aligns scientific advancement with ethical principles.
What challenge is Vivodyne tackling, and how?
- Integrating isolated biological knowledge into a holistic, system-level understanding remains extremely challenging. Vivodyne is tackling this immense complexity by combining microfluidics' control with high-throughput human tissue data generation to enable AI modeling of human biology at unprecedented scales.
What advice does Vivodyne's CEO have for biotech entrepreneurs?
- As a biotech entrepreneur, Vivodyne's CEO Andrei Georgescu advises tackling very difficult yet high-impact problems, as the potential upside outweighs incremental approaches despite perceived higher risk. Transformative innovation requires embracing immense challenges.

To learn more about Vivodyne's groundbreaking work, visit their website at vivodyne.com.

Get in touch with AWS here to learn how we can help your organization accelerate healthcare innovation.

Please take a moment and let us know what you think of the podcast, access our feedback survey here.

#86, Unleashing AI's Power to Design Drugs with Medicinal Chemistry, Yann Gaston-Mathé from Iktos May 07, 2024

Show notes

Imagine being able to design novel drug molecules with the same ease as typing words into a computer, and being given the instructions into how to synthesize that molecule in the lab. That's the incredible potential of Iktos, our guest on today's episode of the AWS Health Innovation Podcast hosted by Alex Merwin, Head of Growth for Healthcare & Life Sciences Startups at AWS, and featuring Yann Gaston-Mathé, the Founder & CEO of Iktos.

1. How is Iktos revolutionizing the field of drug discovery with AI?

Iktos' groundbreaking approach harnesses deep generative AI models trained on vast molecular databases to automatically design novel, optimized molecules for drug discovery challenges. This innovative technology promises to accelerate pharmaceutical R&D by rapidly generating promising molecular candidates tailored to specific therapeutic targets.

2. What is the unconventional journey of Iktos' founder, Yann Gaston-Mathé?

Yann Gaston-Mathé, Iktos' founder and CEO, followed an atypical path, publishing his first academic paper at over 40 after diverse experiences spanning engineering, biology, consulting, and entrepreneurship before embracing the AI innovation that became Iktos.

3. What is Iktos' integrated AI-robotics platform, and how does it provide a competitive advantage?

Iktos developed an integrated AI-robotics platform to automate molecular synthesis and generate real-world data for active learning, recursively improving its AI models' performance through continuous feedback loops, a key competitive advantage.

4. How has Iktos demonstrated the transformative impact of its technology in drug discovery?

Leveraging its AI expertise, Iktos successfully optimized drug candidates for a Japanese pharma client, meeting 7-8 out of 8 success criteria within 12 months, demonstrating the transformative potential of its technology in accelerating drug discovery pipelines.

5. How does Iktos foster a culture of multidisciplinary innovation?

Iktos cultivates a collaborative culture promoting cross-team knowledge sharing and brainstorming between AI, computational chemistry, and medicinal chemistry experts, fostering multidisciplinary innovation at the convergence of these fields.

Learn more about Iktos and their AI-driven drug discovery solutions on their website.

Get in touch with AWS here to learn how we can help your organization accelerate healthcare innovation.

Please take a moment and let us know what you think of the podcast, access our feedback survey here.

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