AWS Health Innovation Podcast

Latest Episodes:

#46, Unlocking the Potential of Human Genomic Data: A Conversation with Curt Medeiros & Barry Wark from Ovation Apr 26, 2023

Show notes

In this episode of the Healthcare and Life Sciences podcast, Curt Medeiros and Barry Wark from Ovation join Eric Zimmerman from AWS Startups to discuss genomic data's importance in advancing precision medicine. They share insights on how to build a successful healthcare data business, including the risks of not putting enough resources behind data initiatives. They also highlight why precision medicine is making outsized progress in oncology, and other areas that are ripe for progress. Finally, they emphasize the importance of mapping genomic data to longitudinal phenotypic data to derive insights that improve care and outcomes.

"Data is not inherently valuable. Answers and insights that come from that data could be very valuable. So, thinking from the beginning - What is the product? What's the answer that we are going to help our customers derive? This is pretty key."

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#45, Heather Mirjahangir Fernandez, Solv Health Apr 19, 2023

Show notes

In today's episode, we talk to Heather Mirjahangir Fernandez, CEO and Co-Founder of Solv, a healthcare startup on a mission to empower consumers to simplify their healthcare needs. With over a decade of executive management experience with leading consumer startups, Heather knows how to create a transparent and simple consumer experience that can change industries for the better.

Heather talks about how Solv is building the largest and most-loved convenient care network to unlock same-day access to high-quality healthcare providers. She shares how Solv is eliminating friction before, during, and after the visit, simplifying the process and striving to delight consumers.

Heather also discusses Solv's aim to give consumers greater clarity into their insurance coverage and expected costs by using words that we can all understand.We also dive into the challenges Solv faces in the healthcare industry, such as the lack of transparent and clear information, common consumer technologies, and difficulty in making a simple or fully informed healthcare decision.

Heather shares her insights on the importance of convenience in healthcare and how Solv is addressing this issue.If you're interested in healthcare and how Solv is transforming the industry, this episode is a must-listen.

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

#37, New Year’s Special – HLTH Conference (re-release) Mar 27, 2023

Show notes

Episode Re-Release. Alex Merwin hosts a group of health innovation leaders from startups, investors, media and startup enabling organizations for a special HLTH compilation episode. We asked each innovator two questions: what is special about convening in-person at events in this post-covid world, and if they could wave a magic wand to eliminate any hurdle to health innovation what would they change and why. Thanks to our guests from Redesign Health, Maven Clinic, Luma Health, Health Gorilla, Matter, Mission Based Media, Keep Labs, Memora Health, Unseen Capital, BioFourmis, and Brightside Health. Learn more about how AWS enables healthcare & life sciences startups to grow and thrive at https://aws.amazon.com/startups/ and https://aws.amazon.com/health/.

#39, Seth Sternberg, Honor (re-release) Mar 20, 2023

Show notes

On this re-release, Alex Merwin is joined by Seth Sternberg, Co-Founder & CEO from Honor who runs the world’s largest home care network and care platform for older adults. As the world’s aging population continues to explode, it’s imperative that we develop the means to deliver quality care to older adults everywhere. To meet the need, Honor built an advanced care platform and the world’s largest home care network. Their platform combines local care, centralized operations, and best in class technology to deliver the highest quality care. We discuss the need to care for care professionals and how they’re developed, how to acquire & integrate a company into a high-growth startup and lessons learned managing a two-sided marketplace in the digital health space. Learn more about Honor (https://www.honorcare.com/) and how AWS enables healthcare & life sciences startups to grow and thrive (https://aws.amazon.com/startups/ and https://aws.amazon.com/health/).

#33, Michelle Wagner, Mindstrong (re-release) Mar 13, 2023

Show notes

On this re-release, Joe Shonkwiler is joined by Michelle Wagner, CEO of Mindstrong, a company that helps thousands of members manage anxiety, depression, PTSD, and serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, with quality care and cutting-edge technology. Michelle and Joe discuss why integrating data collected between treatment sessions can be a game changer for behavioral health, why selling digital health products via large employers can look a lot like direct-to-consumer sales, and why entrepreneurs in healthcare must learn to embrace iterative change as part of a large and complex system. Learn more about Mindstrong (https://mindstrong.com/). You can also learn about healthcare and life science startups on AWS (https://aws.amazon.com/startups/ or https://aws.amazon.com/health/)

#18 Dr. George Church & Barghavi Govindarajan, Digid8 (re-release) Mar 06, 2023

Show notes

On this re-release, Joe Shonkwiler is joined by Dr. George Church and Barghavi Govindarajan, co-founders of Digid8, a company creating a seamless, affordable DNA-first decision making platform. Dr. Church is a pioneer in the world of synthetic biology and Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School as well as Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Barghavi is a seasoned technologist and the CEO of Digid8. Dr. Church and Barghavi discuss how technology, innovation, and education can come together in a single product, to what extent users need to understand a complex technology to use it effectively, and how basic science researchers can leverage startups to speed up the time to making a massive impact on the world. Learn more about Digid8 (https://www.digid8.com) and learn more about healthcare and life science startups on AWS (https://aws.amazon.com/startups or https://aws.amazon.com/health)

#34, Ken Mayer , Safe Health Feb 28, 2023

Show notes

Alex Merwin is joined by Ken Mayer from Safe Health which enables healthcare innovators to launch apps in weeks, not years, with their digital health and connected diagnostics platform. Ken, Safe Health’s Founder & CEO, a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years experience scaling high-growth businesses across digital media, high tech and healthcare. We discuss how cloud computing helps startups develop faster and in a more agile way, the importance of aligning your business model to solutions that are reimbursable, and how to improve provider and patient workflows as they interact with digital health solutions. Learn more about Safe Health (https://safehealth.me/) and how AWS enables healthcare & life sciences startups to grow and thrive (https://aws.amazon.com/startups/ and https://aws.amazon.com/health/).

#27, Dr. Jean Drouin, Clarify Health Solutions Feb 28, 2023

Show notes

Joe Shonkwiler is joined by Dr. Jean Drouin, co-founder and CEO of Clarify Health Solutions, a company helping payers, providers, and life sciences companies deliver better care, therapies, and outcomes by delivering the most actionable patient journey insights and value-based payment platform. Dr. Jean Drouin discusses how a fee-for-service model combined with actionable data can lead the healthcare system toward value-based care, why building a system to understand every patient journey is important, and what baseball can teach us about optimizing value-based arrangements. Learn more about Clarify Health Solutions (https://clarifyhealth.com (https://clarifyhealth.com/)) and learn more about healthcare and life science startups on AWS (https://aws.amazon.com/startups/ or https://aws.amazon.com/health/)

Season Two Wrap Up Feb 28, 2023

Show notes

We want to hear your feedback about the Podcast! Let us know what you think here: https://airtable.com/shrF0QmQUU8xGvlIO --------- This week we're doing something different, as we wrap Season 2 and get ready to launch Season 3 later in the spring. Given we'll be taking several weeks off to cook up our next season of content, this is a great opportunity to showcase a few episodes from our catalog by republishing them on the feed over the coming weeks. Joe and Alex talk about why they selected these episodes, share some other highlights from season 2 and a give listeners a sneak peek for what we have planned for Season 3. --------- We want to hear your feedback about the Podcast! Let us know what you think here: https://airtable.com/shrF0QmQUU8xGvlIO --------- Learn more about how AWS enables healthcare and life science startups to grow & thrive (https://aws.amazon.com/startups/healthcare-life-sciences/) and how healthcare & life sciences industry leaders leverage the cloud to accelerate health innovation (https://aws.amazon.com/health/)

#44, Jonathan Bush, Zus Health Feb 20, 2023

Show notes

Joe Shonkwiler is joined by Jonathan Bush, CEO and co-founder of Zus Health, a shared health data platform designed to accelerate healthcare data interoperability by providing easy-to-use patient data at the point of care. Joe and Jonathan discuss why he sees duplication as core to what frustrates so many with the US health system, how his experience leading athenahealth has shaped his team’s approach at Zus, and what his advice is for first time founders in health tech. Learn more about Zus Health (https://zushealth.com/) and how AWS enables healthcare & life sciences startups to grow and thrive (https://aws.amazon.com/startups/ and https://aws.amazon.com/health/).

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