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Copyright: © Richard Jacobs
When Jeff Dachis was unexpectedly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2013, he was given nothing more than a short conversation with a nurse practitioner, an insulin pen, and a prescription. He was shocked by the life-threatening diagnosis and left with so many questions and concerns that all he could do in those moments was break down. But after a few days, he decided to make a change. With a background in technology, Dachis began brainstorming the ways in which he could obtain all of the data related to his health and new diagnosis, and make use of it in a way that would allow him to make better choices and prevent negative events from happening in the future; this is when One Drop began.
One Drop is a diabetes management platform that uses mobile computing and data science to help people make sense of and utilize their health and lifestyle data in ways that enable them to live their best lives. The app makes it easy for people to enter their data on the One Drop platform, and once they do, that data not only benefits them but the entire community of One Drop users. The One Drop glucose meter is wireless with the ability to automatically sync all glucose data into the One Drop app, automatically track a user's every step, and integrate seamlessly with any wearable fitness tracker on the market. It automatically integrates information such as weight, blood pressure, medication intake, and more.
The One Drop app focuses on accomplishing three goals: harnessing the power of predictive data science to benefit their users, providing dedicated, personal care and coaching to every user, and ensuring an ecosystem of connected devices and supplies. Dachis makes for a fascinating episode, discussing the details of all this and more.
Tune in and check out https://onedrop.today/pages/mobile-app to get the app for yourself.
When Dana Lewis was 14 years old, she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and that's when her interest in the pancreas and how it functions in the body began. While there's technology like insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors (CGM) that help people manage type 1 diabetes, Lewis quickly learned the drawbacks associated with the fact that these devices don't communicate with each other and are not automated; those dealing with type 1 diabetes still have to do a lot of work to manage their condition.
This compelled Lewis to leverage open source code so that she could access her glucose data in real time from her devices, build a set of predictive alarms that would alert her to impending events related to her glucose levels, and create an algorithm which would allow for her insulin pump and CGM to interoperate in a closed loop system and communicate with a phone or computer in order to tell her when she needed more or less insulin. Enjoying the relief from having access to this technology, Lewis wanted to share what she'd created with everyone who could benefit from it.
She joins the podcast today to discuss why this technological capability has not already been made available in the health care sector, the challenges inherent in the development and widespread implementation of this type of technology, the details behind how the closed-loop system works, the results of studies looking at the effectiveness of the system she's built, misconceptions about how insulin pumps work, how the technology has drastically improved her sleep, level of energy, and clinical outcomes, and much more.
Tune in for the full conversation and visit https://openaps.org/ to learn more.
THC and CBD-infused gummies are popular and available in dispensaries throughout the US and Canada, but there's something that you may not know about them until it's too late: there is no guarantee that you're going to get a specific amount of THC, which means there's no guarantee that you're not going to get a super-saturated gummy that's going to result in an unpleasant experience involving paranoia, perceived heart palpitations, or a number of other unsettling effects.
Shoogies is a sugar-based company that's changing this by employing advanced engineering and a tertiary testing system in the production of THC and CBD-infused sugars. The result? Individualized packages that are guaranteed to contain exactly five milligrams of THC, which means you can rest assured that you won't be hit with way more than you bargained for. This product was made to be easily integrated into your daily life; no bongs, papers, or other devices are required to use it, it comes in child-proof, inconspicuous packaging, and can be added to whatever it is you already add sugar to, such as your morning coffee or tea.
Latham Woodward is the CEO of Shoogies, and he joins the podcast to discuss all the details of this new product that's a guaranteed good time.
Tune in and check out www.shoogies.com to learn more.
Dr. Jeffrey A. Morgan, a cardiac surgeon and Chief Medical Officer for BIOLIFE4D, provides an overview on surgical therapies currently used to treat patients with heart failure and overviews the current and future direction of bioprinted hearts.
In this episode, Dr. Morgan explains what causes heart failure, the physiology of a healthy and diseased heart, and outlines the most common surgical therapies currently available to patients with heart failure. He explores the benefits and drawbacks of current surgical therapies such as the total artificial heart (TAH) and left ventricular assist devices (LVADs). Dr. Morgan also discusses the current challenges with heart transplants, which leads us to a discussion on bioprinted hearts as a therapy currently undergoing development.
Dr. Morgan provides insight on why using bioprinted hearts would be superior to traditional heart transplants and explains what challenges scientists currently face in developing these technologies. His insight as a practicing surgeon and as a figure in the biomedical technology industry offers a unique perspective on how bioprinted hearts can be useful in every stage of treating heart failure – from drug research and development to clinical use. Tune in to discover how this technology has the potential to save thousands of lives.
Aubrey de Grey, Ph.D., Chief Science Officer and Co-founder of SENS Research Foundation, delivers an overview of aging and the many health problems that develop in our advanced years.
Dr. de Grey is a respected member of the science community; he is the noted biomedical gerontologist who devised the innovative SENS platform and co-founded the SENS Research Foundation to further it. Dr. de Grey has written about his work and as an established researcher, he has been appointed to the editorial and scientific advisory boards of many journals, organizations, etc. Dr. de Grey is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America as well as the American Aging Association. He holds a BA in Computer Science and a Ph.D. in Biology from the prestigious University of Cambridge.
Dr. de Grey discusses his research in aging and the motivations for tackling the career. As he states, aging is the number one medical problem as it causes more suffering. He was motivated to research in this area because he found that not enough was being done to focus on aging and the myriad of problems that come with it. He talks about the many excuses that are given as reasons to simply accept aging as it is, or not focus on it at all, such as "it's inevitable…everything ages," or the philosophical—"death gives meaning to life," or social—"maybe we could do this, but it would create new problems worse than the problem we are solving." And as the Ph.D. states, none of these excuses stand up to even the faintest scrutiny, however, they still remain quite popular.
Dr. de Grey explains that 'why' and 'how' we age are fairly well understood, but it is the understanding of what we already know that is important, to take the information we know to be true and utilize that to design and implement therapies that will prevent the health problems of old age. And this is the core of what Dr. de Grey's foundation, SENS Research, seeks to accomplish. SENS Research Foundation works to create, promote, and provide wide-ranging access to all kinds of therapies that can cure and prevent the diseases and detrimental disabilities of aging by essentially repairing the damage that builds up within our bodies over long periods of time. SENS Research seeks to change the way the world researches and thus cares for age-related ill health.
The Ph.D. discusses stem cell therapy and its ability to repair the damage, loss of cells, etc. As he explains, stem cells can be injected that target areas within the body and repair damage, replace lost cells, and thus keep the body area, organ, etc. functioning in a healthier state. He explains in detail how cells function and the processes used to make genetic modifications. Additionally, Dr. de Grey expounds upon the kinds of complex research they engage in at his foundation, and the types of conditions that they seek to bring more understanding to in order to combat them.
Carlos R. Ponce, MD, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Washington University School of Medicine discusses his work studying conscious understanding.
Dr. Ponce's research program seeks to explain and elaborate on how various brain regions interact to solve motion processing as well as visual object recognition, by utilizing a combination of reversible deactivation and sophisticated microstimulation techniques, and computational modeling. Dr. Ponce holds an MD-PhD from Harvard Medical School and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Utah.
Dr. Ponce talks about what motivated him to study and research the brain, cells, and signals, and he explains how the interaction happens that creates a consciousness of vision. Building upon fifty to sixty years of work in vision, Dr. Ponce seeks to learn more about the brain's hierarchy of visual areas—groups of neurons. As he explains, cells in the occipital lobe respond to basic information, lines and dots, but these cells communicate with other cells that respond to slightly more complicated information such as corners and curvature, and then these cells project to other cells that respond to texture, and so on, in a systematic way that ultimately provides conscious understanding.
The physician-scientist explains the process and the stages that take place as light enters the eye, from light hitting the retina, to the center of the brain, to the primary visual cortex cells, and eventually the temporal cortex, which completes visual comprehension. He expounds upon his thoughts on how his research is related to AI, and how neural networks respond to complex shapes. He details how neural networks receive information and how they learn, and compares that to how the human brain learns. As he explains, the human brain has much-unsupervised learning, which is different than AI. Dr. Ponce explains his thoughts about the human brain, and how it is a form of a neural network.
Dr. Ponce cites some examples that explain his theories and research. He details generative adversarial networks (GANs), which are a class of machine learning systems, and he explains evolutionary algorithms, and then outlines how they utilize this combination to find and extract information that is hidden by a cell.
The Harvard Ph.D. explains the state of machine learning, and he discusses some subtleties of machine vision. And Dr. Ponce cites examples of early experimentation in machine vision, discussing symmetry and other factors.
Dr. Sam Rodgers, Medical Director for Medichecks (medichecks.com), provides a thorough overview of his company and their mission.
Dr. Rodgers joined Medichecks as their Medical Director in 2017. He has worked extensively as a GP in the London area for over a decade. The Medichecks mission is to deliver advanced laboratory blood screening options to everyone. By connecting the top pathology laboratories with innovative consumer technology Medichecks offers blood testing that is efficient and simple to utilize.
The Medichecks director discusses the background and history of his company. He explains the process and the methods for sampling they use. Medichecks offers convenience in that users have the option of collecting their blood samples through simple-to-use, at-home finger pricks or the standard doctor's office venous sampling. Results are provided online replete with a doctor's report. As Dr. Rodgers states, the essence of the service is easy to use and provides tremendous convenience.
Dr. Rodgers talks about the many benefits that their system offers, such as getting some early results before a doctor's visit, because visit scheduling is such that it may be three weeks or so before most people can get in to see their doctor in the UK. And as Dr. Rodgers communicates, at Medichecks they are particularly interested in focusing on the lifestyle measures that people can take to improve their health and wellness.
By looking at results, individuals can help themselves to make better choices and potentially avoid some health problems down the road. And he talks about their early experimentation with AI as a means to further improve their successful system that is currently in place. While he hesitates to say that AI will ever replace doctors, it can certainly enhance and augment their diagnostic skills.
The diagnostics innovator discusses how different types of people can utilize their system, such as athletes, for example, who can use the Medichecks platform to improve health and performance. Whatever the goal of the individual… to feel better than they currently do, to strive to live longer, or exercise harder, etc., the Medichecks system, with its easy, at-home testing options makes health monitoring simpler than ever before.
Sharmin Habib, OD, optometrist, wellness advocate, and Co-Founder of Umay provides an overview of digital eye strain and how her company is working to reduce it for everyone.
The innovative, patented technology developed by Habib's company is predicated upon years of thermal therapy research with a focus on restoring eye health. Umay's proprietary 'Thermal Meditation' can assist digital device users who seek to reset the effects of screen time via relaxation of the mind and restoration of the organic function of our eyes. Umay was selected as a finalist of the Global Accelerator program.
The eye doctor and relaxation innovator discuss how she and her brother combined their skills to launch Umay. Habib states that many of us may have regular symptoms such as itchy, red, burning or dry eyes, which could very well be an indication that digital eye strain is occurring. With daily average screen usage times accelerating up to nearly 11 hours per day, Habib says that digital eye strain puts excess stress on the oil glands found along the eyelid margin. Remarkably, our blink rate is reduced by up to 70% when we are looking into screens. And as she states, it is these needed blinks that help pump out healthy oils from those glands that help keep our tears from evaporating or drying out. Heat, Habib states, is the way to get those oil glands working again to do their job in protecting the eyes. Habib's brother's own eye problems were the inspiration for them to find a better way to apply heat, in a controlled manner, that would be efficient and easy, and allow those suffering from eye strain to find relief.
Habib states that most eye doctors who direct patients to use warm compresses over their eyes for eye strain report that many of their patients are noncompliant. With the difficulty in regulating temperature, mess, and impracticality, patients just simply were not making the effort. These problems of use were important considerations in the design of Umay's device.
Habib talks about the sensory experience and she explains the many benefits of their device, providing feedback they have received from their users. She explains their other device integrations such as meditation experiences with the guided breath, and she details how their device can vary the temperature and how it can help users enhance focus, at the moment, on their sensory experience. And Habib discusses how this mindfulness before sleep can create a relaxed state that can improve sleep quality.
Umay's product is designed to easily fit into an individual's bedtime, wellness routine, or during the day whenever they feel the need.
Joana Vaz de Castro, ORL, discusses the research and treatment of diseases of the ears, nose, and larynx, as well as sleep disorders.
Joana Vaz de Castro is an Otorhinolaryngology (ORL) Specialist, commonly referred to as an ear, nose and throat surgeon, or ENT. Joana earned her Masters in Medicine from the Nova Medical School, went on to complete her specialist degree in ORL, then began her work in the Ph.D. Neuroscience Program of the University of Lisbon Medical School. Additionally, Joana trained for certification in sleep medicine at the European Sleep Research Society in the Centre of Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology (CENC).
The Ph.D. talks about her background and her particular interest in sleep-disordered breathing. She explains how snoring and sleep apnea affects the body. She discusses the obstructions to breathing and elaborates on how they work with patients to treat the whole problem, not just one element. And she talks in detail about the anatomical disorders and options for treatment.
ENT doctors can provide advanced medical and surgical care for patients who suffer from many issues related to the proper functioning of the ear, nose, and throat areas of the body, including but not limited to chronic allergies, facial pain, headaches, sleep disorders or other sinus or ENT conditions.
The sleep doctor details some of the current issues with insurance and the types of evaluations sleep doctors should engage in with all their patients, and the discussions doctors should have pre and post surgery.
The sleep expert and Ph.D. further discusses how insomnia and sleep apnea often go together, especially with women. She states that both must be treated at the same time in order for treatment to be most effective. Joana provides valuable information on some of the various breathing masks that are available and some of the issues that users occasionally have with them.
Additionally, she discusses mild sleep apnea and how it may progress as patients get older, put on additional weight, etc.
William M. Hang, MSD, has been an orthodontist for 47 years now. He was trained in a conventional way like everyone else; taught to focus on the straightening of the teeth and not pay much attention to the structure of the face. But in the early 80s, he began noticing differences between the way his patient's faces looked before and after tooth extractions, realizing many of these patients were made worse off by the procedure. He also started hearing about the procedure leading to problems such as chronic headaches and neck pain. That was when he started travelling the world in search of a new way of doing things. In 1989, he started reopening extraction spaces for people who had previously had bicuspid teeth removed, and this was resulting in restored facial balance and relief from headaches and neck pain. For the past 20 years, Dr. Hang's focus has been on another issue associated with all of the problems that extractions and traditional orthodontic approaches can cause: breathing problems and sleep apnea.
He joins the podcast today to offer an in-depth look at what's wrong with the traditional approach in orthodontics, the effects of retraction, the growing number of children being diagnosed with sleep apnea and why this is, the possible misdiagnosis of sleep apnea as ADHD in children, why the advent of agriculture marked the beginning of the development of the facial features we see today, a technique called orthotropics, myofunctional therapy, the importance of optimizing facial growth in young children, the services offered at his practice, Face Focused, and so much more.
Press play for the full conversation and visit https://facefocused.com/ to learn more about Dr. Hang's practice.
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