Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / AI, Misdiagnosis and the Future of Primary Care with Paul Battle

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AI, Misdiagnosis and the Future of Primary Care with Paul Battle · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - There's a small circle of people who truly
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  - understand what it takes to lead a health
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  - system right now. The decisions are enormous.
• 0:08
  - The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
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  - of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
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  - That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
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  - And it's why the most effective c suite
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  - leaders are deliberate about where they go to
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  - pressure test their thinking.
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  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
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  - brings together more than 1,500
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  - executive level attendees
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  - and nearly 400 speakers for four days built
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  - around growth, financial sustainability,
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  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
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  - have easy answers.
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  - Join us November second through the fifth in
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  - Chicago.
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  - For the agenda and event details,
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  - visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  - and click on the events tab in the
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  - upper right.
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  - This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare
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  - Podcast.
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  - Thrilled today to be joined by Paul Battle.
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  - Paul Paul Battle is a long term health
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  - care technology
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  - leader.
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  - He's the founder to the president of Meddome.
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  - Spent about twenty five years combined at Lenovo
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  - and IBM
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  - in the heart of health care and technology.
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  - Paul, can you take a moment and introduce
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  - yourself and and tell us about yourself and
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  - what you do?
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  - Alright. Thank you so much, Scott. First of
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  - all, I wanted to say, huge thank you
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  - for having me on the podcast. Greatly appreciate
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  - it. I look forward to this. So I
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  - actually started
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  - out on the health care side of things,
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  - graduated in biochem, like, biology, did two years
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  - of cancer research,
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  - going to medical school while actually doing computer
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  - engineering, hardware, and software design, got published, and
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  - then decided to go to IBM
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  - and really just enter the technology. Grew my
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  - career there,
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  - but truly grew my career a lot at
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  - Lenovo
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  - and up to a senior exec level. And
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  - I was running a lot of different,
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  - verticals within Lenovo, including health care.
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  - And during this,
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  - I unfortunately lost my late wife to breast
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  - cancer due to a misdiagnosis.
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  - And I I saw myself really
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  - kinda diving in head first into health care
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  - and how I could kind of really improve
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  - health care,
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  - specifically from a misdiagnosis perspective. Tried it within
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  - Lenovo, amazing company, just wasn't the right place
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  - to try and do it.
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  - Ended up on kind of looking outside and
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  - found this incredible
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  - company,
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  - that was truly focused,
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  - and and my cofounder in it was focused
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  - as well on, eradicating
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  - misdiagnosis.
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  - My cofounder is doctor Steven Charlap, a trained
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  - physician, lost his brother, a trained cardiologist,
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  - to a misdiagnosis
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  - and just was an incredible opportunity for me
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  - to to go into the health care technology
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  - space
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  - and revolutionize
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  - kind of how things are being done.
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  - So that leads to kind of the... We
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  - we ended up, soft launching something called MedHome.
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  - You, alluded to it in your kind of
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  - your start up. And medhome.ai
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  - soft launched in November of of last year,
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  - and it was
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  - 100%
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  - focused on saving lives, eradicating misdiagnosis.
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  - It's got,
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  - upfront proprietary
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  - and patented in... Interview and intake
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  - and you can add in scans, lab tests,
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  - genetic testing. You can link your wearables to
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  - it. All sorts of different things
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  - to help the patient advocate for themselves,
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  - and prepare themselves for appointments
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  - and even keep all your health records together
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  - as one. But at the end end of
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  - the day, the mission is very clear. It's
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  - mission driven to save lives.
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  - And talk about in sort of health care
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  - technology today, Paul.
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  - What trends are you watching most closely? What
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  - excites you? What are you seeing that is,
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  - you know, that you view as this is
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  - a game changer? This is exciting? No. I'm
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  - constantly looking at the use of technology
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  - in health care. So I started that many,
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  - many years ago while I was still at
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  - Lenovo.
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  - I was looking at what technology is being
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  - utilized in health care. Now it's really
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  - about AI.
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  - And so from an AI perspective,
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  - it's it's pretty incredible, the numbers. So here's
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  - the the the one thing to to note.
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  - Eighty one percent of US physicians are using
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  - AI ultimately in their daily practice. However,
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  - most of that is administrative
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  - and not care focused. It's more administrative like
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  - billing or notes and things of that nature,
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  - purely administrative. So I'm continuing
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  - to look at the trends in that area,
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  - in addition, FDUAA approvals and the leveraging of
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  - not only devices, but, from a technology perspective,
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  - but the AI, permanent large language model and
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  - what the FDA is ultimately going to approve
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  - in this space. So I'm continuing to look
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  - at those sorts of market trends. And then,
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  - of course, consumer and subsequently patient adoption
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  - of AI and technology,
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  - how kind of... Again, people are leveraging apps
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  - on their phones that use AI, large language
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  - models. A lot of people are asking chat
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  - GBT or or
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  - Claude kind of about their symptoms, etcetera. Those
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  - sorts of things are starting to change. So
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  - I'm monitoring all of that kind of from
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  - a trend perspective,
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  - and it's fascinating
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  - to kinda see. And I don't just do
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  - it also from a North American or US
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  - perspective.
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  - I've looked at it worldwide. Are there countries
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  - that are kind of adopting more quickly than
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  - North America, slower than North America,
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  - etcetera? So it's it's it's really interesting in
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  - the marketplace.
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  - And and let me ask you this question.
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  - Traditionally,
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  - the health system and the physician's office were
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  - sort of the cent... Center of health care.
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  - Yes.
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  - How is that evolving? How is that changing?
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  - Is it gonna be very different five to
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  - ten or twenty years from now?
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  - Absolutely. So great question.
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  - Absolutely, it's going to be different. So we're
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  - seeing,
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  - in my opinion,
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  - the the, primary care or family medicine type
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  - of environment
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  - evaporating
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  - in front of our eyes. Right? So it's
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  - changing dramatically.
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  - Doctors are burned out. Their staff is burned
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  - out. They can't handle the patients. So you're
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  - seeing this huge influx of concierge care doctors
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  - for those who can actually afford it.
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  - While at the same time, there are practices
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  - that just aren't accepting new patients that can't
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  - handle
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  - the the workload or the burden from that
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  - perspective. So I'm seeing technology
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  - ultimately get involved here. And as I mentioned
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  - before,
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  - most of that is around the administrative, but
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  - it's eventually going to turn into
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  - the entirety of a practice being put into
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  - technology and specifically AI. So I can easily
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  - see primary care being fully kind of telehealth
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  - AI,
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  - focused and based, and then you just need
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  - to go somewhere
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  - for a physical examination,
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  - in it with a doctor. And that could
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  - be
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  - some of these urgent cares that have been
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  - set up in the world today. Where that's
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  - gonna come from kind of remains to be
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  - seen, but there is definitely
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  - a massive transition that's taking place in health
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  - care, and it's starting with primary care.
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  - Thank you. Talk about workforce because it seems
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  - like primary care is a great example of
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  - that. Sure. We got a 350,000
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  - primary care physicians, internists in the country. Yep.
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  - 350,000,000
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  - people. Yep. Yep. Are we moving to the
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  - dental model where you're seen by... In the
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  - dental world, it's the hygienist
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  - and then the primary care physician or the
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  - dentist comes in for literally what seems like
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  - a minute or two. Yep. Yep. Is that
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  - the model that we're moving towards in primary
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  - care just by necessity as we,
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  - you know, is
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  - nurse practitioners, PAs are growing at 10% a
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  - year. Physicians are gonna get one percent a
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  - year in our population to aging and growing.
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  - Right. Is that where we're headed? Correct. Yeah.
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  - 100%. That's the direction that we're already heading
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  - and have been heading for quite some time.
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  - So the time frame in which a physician
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  - spends time with you versus your entire visit,
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  - you could spend an hour
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  - ultimately going to a primary care visit,
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  - twenty five minutes or so in the waiting
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  - room, and the remaining
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  - thirty five minutes of your appointment is cut
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  - down by the nurse taking your vitals ultimately.
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  - And then from there, you'd... Again, you you
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  - you typically don't see the doctor right away,
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  - and the doctor comes in for at most
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  - five to seven minutes is kind of the
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  - average now for some of these visits unless
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  - you're coming in for something specific that is
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  - again... And if you're emergency, they send you
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  - to an emergency room. So that's kind of
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  - the other part of this scenario. If it's
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  - emergency and it's not proactive kind of predictive
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  - type of scenario, they are sending you ultimately
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  - to an emergency. Go to emergency room and
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  - sit there.
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  - Quite quite frankly, it's it's... If that's the
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  - way that health care has changed over the
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  - past, in my opinion, five to ten years,
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  - it's already been going that direction. Hence, why
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  - we're now starting to see a shift again
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  - away from what is now traditional kind of
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  - primary care, and that's where these concierge doctors
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  - are kind of opening up. We're allowing more
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  - telehealth
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  - to become the visits versus, again, having to
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  - physically go to a location. That's what's taking
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  - place in this transition. But we see it
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  - differently
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  - whereby MedHome will act as your primary care
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  - from an AI perspective.
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  - Right? So you can be proactive and predictive
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  - about your health versus waiting for something bad
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  - to happen.
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  - And tell us about MedHome.
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  - What's your most focused on and excited about
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  - heading towards the rest of this year into
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  - next year? Yeah. So I'm I'm truly excited
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  - not only about MedHome, but we're launching MedHome
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  - Men
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  - in two weeks focused strictly on men's health.
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  - It it will revolutionize this space.
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  - There's nothing like it, not only from the
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  - health care perspective, but we have AI coaches
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  - that you can leverage.
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  - So it's kind of a health and wellness
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  - all in one
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  - application. Pretty incredible. So I'm truly excited about
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  - that launching soon,
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  - in the next couple weeks. Right? And we're
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  - actually kicking it off with an influencer
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  - campaign, and we're gonna have a a bunch
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  - of influencers
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  - within the men's health care space that will
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  - be kind of going through it themselves, learning
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  - it themselves,
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  - and ultimately kind of sharing that with all
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  - of their kind of people in their world.
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  - So truly excited about that. But I'm also
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  - truly excited about we soft launching MEDDOM in
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  - November of last year, focus on this mission
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  - driven
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  - saving lives by eradicating misdiagnosis.
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  - That is amazing.
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  - And we're working actually with a hematologist,
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  - doctor Charles Greenberg,
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  - and he gave us three cases. Quick little
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  - story, gave us three cases in this space.
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  - And
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  - one, he said, Paul, this is impossible. Like,
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  - you're not gonna get it. Don't feel bad
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  - when your model doesn't get it. I said,
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  - no problem. We ran it through our model.
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  - It took about thirty to forty minutes to
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  - input all the information into the model as
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  - it normally does for an interviewer and intake,
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  - and we have the output. We went, got
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  - back on the phone,
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  - and we went through that impossible case. And
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  - that impossible case, he looked at our top
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  - kinda 10 list, and the most highly probable
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  - number one
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  - was the actual right answer. He had discussed
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  - this case with hematologists
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  - across The United States and students
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  - and not gotten that answer. We got it
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  - in one try.
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  - He's now given us, 28. We've got 18
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  - for 18. We're going through actually the other
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  - 10 today, and we're going to publish. I'm
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  - so excited
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  - that we're not just saying kind of... But
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  - we're actually doing what we said we were
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  - out there to do, which was diagnose effectively,
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  - but predict and proactively get in front of
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  - what people might face, from that perspective in
• 11:20
  - health care.
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  - It's remarkable. And any advice to people going
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  - into health care today or emerging leaders? What
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  - advice do you give to emerging leaders, entrepreneurs,
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  - in terms of, you know, just a career
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  - in health care, the business of health care?
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  - Right. And look, I,
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  - I I constantly give back in this in
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  - this world. I mentor a number of different
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  - people both within health care technology
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  - and even outside. So Penn Stater, so I've
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  - kind of mentor a bunch of Penn Staters.
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  - And and I'll tell you the first thing
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  - I tell any leader or future budding leader
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  - or career,
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  - and it's
• 11:54
  - manage your time like a triangle, right, where
• 11:57
  - you have kind of in one place is
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  - your career, one place is your your immediate
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  - family, your spouse, your kids, and so on,
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  - and then your friends and and kind of
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  - other things that you do like hobbies.
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  - And continue to balance that and make sure
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  - you constantly look at that balance of time
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  - and make sure you're auditing your time and
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  - you're using it effectively. That's the first thing
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  - I tell people before they do anything.
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  - And the second is mentor and give back
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  - yourself.
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  - Right? Pay it forward. Right? Make sure if
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  - you want to, you know, be a solid
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  - leader, you're mentoring, you're coaching,
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  - and make sure you're also getting mentoring and
• 12:31
  - coaching yourself.
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  - You know, don't ever stop learning. Continuous learning
• 12:35
  - is critically important.
• 12:37
  - And then finally, I would say, don't delegate.
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  - Don't just delegate something. That's that's not leadership.
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  - Giving
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  - specific actions to help people grow their skills
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  - is true leadership,
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  - and that builds a rock star team that
• 12:51
  - ultimately will build an incredible
• 12:53
  - kind of group within your company or a
• 12:55
  - total company. And that is... And then setting
• 12:57
  - those activities and skills towards the overall company's
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  - goals.
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  - Right? And how those activities fit in is
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  - also critical. Like, that's what my recommendation would
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  - be about leadership.
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  - Thank you. No. I I love that because
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  - so much of leadership is staying aligned with
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  - your team, working with your team, giving them
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  - freedom, but checking in and trying to help
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  - them thrive side by side with you. I
• 13:19
  - love that, Paul.
• 13:21
  - Again, Paul Battle,
• 13:23
  - founder, president, Meddome, just a brilliant, brilliant technology
• 13:27
  - health care veteran. Fantastic. Paul, thank you for
• 13:29
  - joining us so much today on the Becker
• 13:31
  - Healthcare podcast. Look forward to continuing the conversation
• 13:34
  - with you. Thank you so much, Scott.