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Tech Tonics — Health & Fitness
Tech Tonics

Tech Tonics, the Podcast, is a twice-monthly program focused on the people and passion at the intersection of technology and health. Hosted by Lisa Suennen and David Shaywitz (the co-authors of “Tech Tonics: Can Passionate Entrepreneurs Heal Healthcare With Technology?”) the show draws on their experience in business, medicine, and health-IT.

The Tech Tonics podcast seeks to bring the people in the digital health field to life and, ideally, elevate humanism in a healthcare world captivated by technology. “We deeply believe in what Robert Coles, an inspiration to us both, has termed ‘the call of stories,’” David Shaywitz says. “Our aspiration is to bring the spirit of Coles and Michael Lewis to the world of digital health.”

Together, Suennen and Shaywitz engage a range of intriguing guests in discussions that enable listeners to appreciate the stories behind the startups and the people behind the passion.

Lisa Suennen is the Managing Partner of Venture Valkyrie Consulting, LLC, a firm that provides advisory services to corporate and independent venture capital funds and to large and small companies around investment and product strategy, innovation spin-outs, market development, partnerships and financing. She is currently a member of the Qualcomm Life Advisory Board, the Sanofi Integrated Care Advisory Board, the Dignity Health Foundation Board, and an Advisor to the California Health Care Foundation Innovation Fund and a member of several private company Boards of Directors.

Dr. David Shaywitz is the Chief Medical Officer of DNAnexus, a company that makes it easier to work with genomic data using advanced bioinformatics and scalable compute systems based on the cloud. He received his M.D. from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health, Science, and Technology at Harvard Medical School, and his Ph.D. from the Department of Biology at MIT. He trained in internal medicine and endocrinology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and conducted his post-doctoral research in Doug Melton’s lab at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

Tech Tonics, the Podcast is produced by Jason Lopez and syndicated by Connected Social Media. You can also find out more at venturevalkyrie.com and connectedsocialmedia.com.

Copyright: © ConnectedSocialMedia.com

Latest Episodes:

Tech Tonics: Sometimes You Just Need to Start Things – Marcus Osborne and the Transformational Role of Intrapreneurship Aug 20, 2018

Show notes

A capitalist colored by a deep streak of social consciousness, Marcus Osborne, the leader of Health Transformation at Walmart, grew up in the South and planned on a political life. But experience in the White House and later at the Clinton Foundation made him realize that entrepreneurship more effectively matched his internal clock speed and that the best path to an improved health system was through the commercial world, particularly where you could parlay large platforms into market power and real innovation.

In fact, Marcus came to the conclusion that the real entrepreneurs aren’t the kids in dorms or at Starbucks, they are the ones turning big platforms to better use. Walmart, Amazon, Google and others, say Marcus, have the best chance to truly change the system.

Marcus joined Walmart in 2007 and has been at the forefront of living that philosophy, working at what is now considered to be one of the organizations best poised to change the way healthcare is consumed, delivered, and financed. While Arkansas isn’t usually considered to be the front line of innovation, when you look at the work that Walmart has done, particularly in healthcare, it’s clearly time to reconsider. Marcus has worked on all sides of the healthcare innovation front while at Walmart, from building new clinical delivery systems to rethinking pharmaceutical pricing to looking at new ways to use data for clinical quality improvement.

Marcus says that transformation is not for the faint of heart or the risk averse and that “sometimes you just need to start things,” meaning that it’s important to take leaps of faith to get ahead in business.

We are grateful to GE Ventures for sponsorship of today’s episode. GE Ventures – Multiple Paths to Big Impact.

Tech Tonics: Sam Blackman, Translation With Heart Aug 06, 2018

Show notes

Story teller, writer, drug developer – Sam Blackman is all three, a philosophy major who became a pediatric oncologist and then a creative drug developer with a penchant for imaginative solutions to translational challenges.

Although he was the son of a doctor, Sam’s journey to the leading edge of translational research was far from inevitable. His career path took him from the philosophy department at the University of Chicago (where he worked on the side as a computer repairman) to a role a research assistant in an anesthesia lab to a Grand Rounds presentation at the Mayo Clinic, Florida (at the age of 23) and finally to medical school.

Sam seemed on track to become a leading academic pediatric oncologist, but then decided to pursue drug development in biopharma, focusing in particular on translational research, the often hazy but increasingly important interface between laboratory science and clinical trials. He is especially excited about the opportunities generated by emerging tools and technologies.

A gifted writer and a natural story teller, Sam developed a devoted following for the blog he wrote while in Boston, including a deeply moving account of his efforts, ultimately successful, to adopt a baby from Kazakhstan. More recently, he has garnered considerable acclaim for his spoken word stories, delivered as part of the Moth competition in Seattle; links to several of these performances are below.

We’re delighted to welcome Sam to Tech Tonics, and are grateful for the opportunity to share his stories with our listeners.

Today’s show is sponsored by Medidata, whose Intelligent Platform for Life Sciences closes the loop between clinical development and commercialization to power smarter treatments and healthier people.

Tech Tonics: Owen Tripp – Grand Founder Jul 23, 2018

Show notes

Owen Tripp, Founder and CEO of Grand Rounds, was brought up by parents who taught him that you could do whatever you chose to do and that there was not one clear path to the right door. Owen has taken this to heart, starting adult life as a Spanish major and working his way through tech to healthcare as an avowed entrepreneur, ultimately yielding to the siren song of unbridled optimism present in Silicon Valley.

Owen was an early employee at eBay where, among other things, he became an avowed collector of Wheaties boxes adorned by New England’s greatest athletes. He also became fascinated by entrepreneurship and went on to co-found Reputation.com, a company now serving customers in 100 countries around the world and which he now realizes was well ahead of it’s time.

Owen started Grand Rounds in 2011 and learned the hard way the difficulty of consumer-paid business models in healthcare. He has built a business known for creativity and especially for his leadership, the trait for which he wishes to be most recognized. Owen aspires to create the next “Pay Pal Diaspora” where the leadership of Grand Rounds ultimately goes on to become the next cadre of great leaders of the best of the new supply of healthtech companies.

We are grateful to GE Ventures for sponsorship of today’s episode. GE Ventures: Multiple Paths to Big Impact.

Tech Tonics: Matthew Stoudt – Real Empathy in a Virtual World Jul 11, 2018

Show notes

He’s one of those tech people that came to healthcare to find a career of significance, but Matthew Stoudt has actually been destined for the health tech world since his youth.

Matthew Stoudt aspired to be a lawyer, then a senator, before he realized he was an entrepreneur at heart. A foundational experience of losing a beloved and accomplished father taught him that he should never waver in pursuing his dreams; that has been his guiding principle since early in his career. He has had highs and lows along the way and has had many interesting work experiences (innovation team of McDonalds, founder of Outcast Media), but has always kept a focus on what his dad taught him about curiosity and the importance of an expansive view of the world. This helped him further his quest to visit every country on earth, as well as amass a combination of entrepreneurial skills and a personal commitment to empathy which have become the perfect recipe to bridge the tech and medical worlds. After a successful exit of Outcast Media to Verifone (we can all thank Matthew for those broadcast flatscreens screens at gas pumps), Matthew realized his next job was meant to involve a more meaningful way of helping people. That, and a chance airplane encounter, led to the founding of AppliedVR with colleagues Josh and David Sackman.

As the CEO of AppliedVR, a company that uses virtual and augmented reality technologies to reduce the pain and suffering of patients, Matthew has tapped into an emerging market opportunity to apply this frontier gaming technology to making a meaningful difference for patients with challenges that are rarely addressed through traditional means. Importantly, the company has applied serious clinical rigor to this effort, developing a strong base of clinical research which has led to adoption of the company’s products at nearly 200 hospitals, building the foundation for a virtual reality “formulary.” And yet, when you speak with Matthew, it’s always about the patients. He cites this as one of the many examples of why and how therapeutic VR can improve outcomes for real people:

We welcome Matthew to Tech Tonics and are delighted to have him on the show.

We are grateful to GE Ventures for sponsorship of today’s episode. GE Ventures: Multiple Paths to Big Impact.

Tech Tonics: Molly Coye’s 360 View of the Healthcare System Jul 09, 2018

Show notes

Dr. Molly Coye comes from a family who was obsessed with innovation and had a high tolerance for risk. They also had a history of commitment to anything that would disrupt unjust social paradigms and passed that down through the generations. Molly has packed all of these qualities and more into a healthcare career marked by making real change, not just talking about it.

In fact, Molly has worked on all sides of the healthcare system. She has spent many years in governmental leadership roles, been on both the payer and provider side of the table, and in both academic and commercial environments. But Molly has had a consistent theme throughout her career – to make healthcare accessible and relevant for underserved populations and to use technology and data to accelerate that outcome. Today Molly is actively engaged with numerous companies serving the underserved populations about which she has long-cared and she is also a 15-year board member of Aetna and an entrepreneur-in-residence at Avia. But mainly she is the healthcare whisperer, helping entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate executives figure out what actually matters.

Few have the healthcare pedigree that Molly has, with joint public health and medical degrees from Johns Hopkins, and a career that spans health systems such as SF General Hospital, Good Samaritan and UCLA, where she was Chief Innovation Officer; governmental leadership roles such as Commissioner of Health in New Jersey and Director of the California Department of Health and a gig at the CDC in the 1970’s where she was among the first to lug around a massive Osborne portable computer into the field in Asia. She tells a story about the helicopter pilots who ferried her around saying that they “love to see a little lady flying with her sewing machine.” Molly has also been an entrepreneur in the health technology field, first at HealthDesk and then as the founder of HealthTech, which was established in 2000 to help health systems figure out how to deal with rapidly evolving technology. Molly is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and also serves on the newly created Founder’s Council of United States of Care.

In addition to all this, Molly is a fluent Chinese speaker and has published two books about Chinese history. She also is a member of the board of directors of San Francisco Jazz (SFJAZZ), and has scuba dived all over the world.

We are so thrilled to have Molly on Tech Tonics today!

We are grateful to GE Ventures for sponsorship of today’s episode. GE Ventures: Multiple Paths to Big Impact.

Tech Tonics: From Maine to Mainstream – The Noah Craft Story Jun 25, 2018

Show notes

Raised in a small town in Maine, and passionate about infectious diseases in the developing world, Noah Craft may not seem like your typical health tech entrepreneur – but on today’s show, we’ll hear how he’s channeled his passions into Science37, a high-flying startup the brings clinical trials to patients.”

Growing up, Noah might have admired the doctor in his hometown – but his hometown didn’t have a doctor, so he looked up to the doctor who ran the solo practice in the neighboring town, and started to envision himself as physician himself.

During college, he discovered translational research and began to consider a career at the interface of science and medicine. He started a MD/PhD program at UCLA, but as he was became increasingly immersed in the laboratory component, he faced a crisis of purpose, asking himself why he was doing this. He stepped away and traveled around Mexico, ultimately returning with a renewed sense of conviction.

After gaining experiences leading clinical trials himself, and developing expertise with both enterprise computing and telemedicine (acquiring what he calls “website manner”) , Noah then integrated all these capabilities in a new company called Science37, delivering clinical trials via smart phones and pioneering the concept of virtual/site-less clinical trial. The company has earned partnerships with a number of leading pharma companies, including Novartis, whose CEO took to twitter to promote “our alliance with @Science_37” and the launch of “site-less trials” that will enable researchers to “gather deeper insights into the patient experience that will drive medical innovation.”

We are delighted that welcome Noah to today’s show!

This episode of Tech Tonics is sponsored by GE Ventures: Multiple Paths to Big Impact.

Tech Tonics: Amalio Telenti, International Man of (Genetic) Mystery May 21, 2018

Show notes

In the course of his fascinating career, physician-scientist Amalio Telenti has had the opportunity to work in two imiscible centers of excellence in genomics: Eric Lander’s Broad Institute and Craig Venter’s Human Longevity Institute (HLI); on today’s show, we’ll learn what he’s taken away from these two exceptional and distinct organizations – and why he’s so grateful for both experience.

Born in Spain to a long line of physicians, Amalio chose to become (wait for it) a physician, completing his internal medicine and infectious disease training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. He then returned to Europe, and conducted what he’s described as some of the most impactful research of his life, elucidating the genes underlying multi-drug resistant tuberculosis; the laboratory test used today for this infection is based on Amalio’s original discovery.

Amalio’s career led him back and forth across the Atlantic several times, including a Sabbatical year at the Broad Institute and Harvard. Several years later, Amalio met Craig Venter, and after a whirlwind courtship – Amalio was persuaded to gather up his family and join Venter’s new enterprise, HLI. A few weeks later Amalio was on his way to Southern California, to start what he’s described as a “wild ride.” Today, Amalio is a professor focused on genomics and data science at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla. #Winning.

Today’s show is sponsored by DNAnexus, the secure and compliant cloud platform that enables enterprise users to analyze, collaborate around, and integrate massive amounts of genetic and other health data.

Tech Tonics: Scott Barclay of Data Collective, Journeying Down the Data Stream May 07, 2018

Show notes

Scott Barclay is a nearly ubiquitous presence around the healthcare IT world, standing at the intersection of technology and health since 2005. He has journeyed down the data stream from CVS to startup whisperer to venture capital investor over the last several years, always searching for ways to combine information and empathy.

But it wasn’t always so. Scott started out in a small town in rural Virginia, the child of the first female engineer at Auburn University (who was also the first female pilot in Florida) and an entrepreneur who owned and operated a Styrofoam factory. Scott was supposed to turn a coveted Presidential appointment to West Point into a military future. Instead he left town and signed himself up for a liberal arts education at UVA and never looked back.

Though he started his career in finance, traveling throughout the US and Europe for Montgomery Securities in its heyday, then joining Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Scott ended up taking a job at BCG client CVS having heard the siren song of health IT. Scott has been wading knee-deep in the health technology and entrepreneurial scene ever since, working with numerous companies including Syapse, naviHealth, Lumiata and the precursor to Propeller Health (Asthmapolis), among many others.

Recently Scott became an investment partner at venture capital firm Data Collective after a stint as operating partner at the firm. He loves technology but firmly believes that “it’s not about the technology.” The real question is ‘what is the simplest thing that solves a problem,’” cautioning health tech entrepreneurs not to fall to in love with their own handywork. Scott firmly believes that his liberal arts background is what enables him to keep his focus on empathy and outcome before AI and other technologies du jour. It is this zeitgeist that he seeks to impart to the four children he and his wife are raising in the thick of Silicon Valley.

We are delighted to have Scott on Tech Tonics today!

We are grateful to GE Ventures for sponsorship of today’s episode. GE Ventures: Multiple Paths to Big Impact.

Tech Tonics: Eric Leuthardt… neurosurgeon, inventor, playwright, book author, clothing designer and father of two Apr 23, 2018

Show notes

Eric Leuthardt, MD, is quite the Renaissance Man. An accomplished neurosurgeon, inventor, playwright, book author, clothing designer and father of two, Eric has built a career with and around brains in a way no one would have imagined early in his life. Teachers thought he was a slow learner, but it turns out they just weren’t yet capturing his imagination. When, as a teen, he got an opportunity to work in the lab of neuroscientist Keith Crutcher (his mom wanted him to do something), the spark was lit.

Today Eric is an accomplished neurosurgeon and professor of neurosurgery and biomedical and mechanical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, where he also leads the Center for Innovation in Neuroscience and Technology and the Brain Laser Center. He is also the inventor of a myriad of healthcare products and has over 1700 issues and pending patents, including some for a variety of brain-computer interface technologies that enable people to control computers with their thoughts alone. He has started six companies from the technologies he has invented. Among his inventions are the underlying technology that drives Pear Therapeutics, robotic exoskeleton that helps stroke victims recover hand movement by helping the brain rewire itself, and neurostimulation product that can treat depression and other mental health conditions through ear buds.

But, as they say on the infomercials, that’s not all! Eric has written two non-fiction techno- thrillers that capture the excitement and anxiety of the future of mind-machine interface (available on Amazon). He has also written and acted in a play called Brain Works: Your Mind On Life, which is about how the brain operates in day to day situations (falling in love, having children, fear of dying, etc). The play won an Emmy and Eric is now collaborating with PBS on his next story. And to top it all off, Eric even has a clothing line that features neuroscience-related designs. Eric is also the single parent to two young children. Lisa met Eric when they were both Fellows in the Aspen Institute Health Innovation inaugural class, and she has been fortunate to get to know him better over the years. Since Eric is quite confident that the near future will bring minimally invasive neuro implants to make people smarter, she is hanging around him to be sure she is first in line.

Thanks to Eric for joining us on Tech Tonics today!

We are grateful to GE Ventures for sponsorship of today’s episode. GE Ventures: Multiple Paths to Big Impact.

For more information see:
Eric Leuthardt’s Video Blog
Eric Leuthardt’s Personal Blog on Psychology Today
Full Play of Brain Works by Eric Leuthardt

Tech Tonics: Katherine Chou – How A Quintessential Googler Wraps Her (Deep) Mind Around Healthcare Apr 09, 2018

Show notes

Katherine Chou is in many ways the quintessential Googler – super smart, a passion for computer science, an engineer through and through. On today’s episode of Tech Tonics, we’ll learn how this rock star at Google decided to turn her talents to healthcare, and hear what she’s discovered about healthcare, and herself, along the way.

The daughter of two aerospace engineers, Katherine had her first computer (a 32 bit Amiga 1000) when she was four, and apparently figured out how to program it not long after that. A whiz kid, she seems to have excelled in most everything in and out of the classroom. She took math and science courses in college while still in high school, while also pursuing piano, ballet, tae kwon do, and Science Olympiad, among other pastimes.

She attended Stanford, where she double-majored in economics and computer science (CS), which she discovered was her true passion. She continued on to a Masters in CS at Stanford, and after an initial role at Microsoft – which she chose because she wanted to manage, and not just code – she joined Google (pre-IPO) in 2004, and has been there ever since, in roles of increasing responsibility. Today, she Head of Product for Health Research and Medical Brain, and closely involved with many of the high profile efforts (such as analyses of retinopathy and of EHR records) that have attracted so much popular attention.

On today’s show, Katherine shares her vision and her passion, as well as the (very structured) approach she’s taken to many of the key choices she’s faced along the way. We are delighted to welcome Katherine to Tech Tonics!

Today’s episode is sponsored by DNAnexus, the secure and compliant cloud platform that enables enterprise users to analyze, collaborate around, and integrate massive amounts of genetic and other health data.

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