Latest / Get Real with Jim Weiss / What's Next In Digital Health? Jim's Asking Lee Shapiro, Partner at 7wire Ventures and Board Member at the American Heart Association

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What's Next In Digital Health? Jim's Asking Lee Shapiro, Partner at 7wire Ventures and Board Member at the American Heart Association · Get Real with Jim Weiss

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is get real with Jim. Why I'm so happy
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: to keep it real with Kate. We're going to get
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: into it today on a number of topics related to
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the most important muscle in the body, the heart.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Well, Jim, that was something else. Lee is next level accomplished. Wow.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Well, you know what I love about him? And I
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: feel akin you know, he just comes to everything with
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: such a positivity. Just his attitude is what I think
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: sets him apart. It's optimistic, it's positive. He gets communications,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: you know, he understands that. And look, I say, leadership
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: is communications. Communications is leadership, and he's great at putting
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: the message across. So I think watching what he's doing
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: in this two worlds right the for profit nonprofit is
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: kind of exciting and interesting.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: It's fascinating. I mean, these health startups wouldn't exist without
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: VC funding. I'm wondering, because you've known him for so long.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Has he always been an investor and a leader who's
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: focused on health tech and on the consumer?
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah? I mean Levongo and all Scripts they changed the game.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: They were the more unicorny first things. But unlike in
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: tech where we saw such immense impact, healthcare has just
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: gone slower. But it is really on the cusp. I've
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: never felt more like it's going to really change than
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: I do now.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: It's almost like there is a tie between this wave
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: of personalized healthcare and VC. It's just power to the individual.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Whether it's the startup or the pursuit of a virtual doctor,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: there's some like intersection going.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: On, and you and I are bringing those people on
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: and it made me think, oh, we've got to get
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: more and more people tuning into us with the goal
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: that if they hear this or they hear that, they
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: connect those things.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm grateful that I got a chance to even
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: meet Lee, So thank you for that and tune in.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: It'll be a good one. Yeah, let's do it. There's
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: nothing more important than your health, but probably nothing more
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: important than your heart health. That's the number one. It's
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: that muscle feeds it.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: Without Jim, thanks so much for asking me to do this.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: This is really fun.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Well I'm psych Yeah, you know, any excuse to talk
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: to you and catch up. I have such a long
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: history personally with the Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: and so many because I started my career at genen
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Tech in the nineties working on TPA for heart attack
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: and stroke and working with the National Heart, Lung, and
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Blood Institute, and there's just so much new tech and everything,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: and that aligns with all the millions of things that
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: you do. So I just thought it'd be a timely
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: conversation with the rise of the GLP ones and I
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: just went on Rapatha and I had my own various
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: forms of plaque testing done, so all that was important.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: So Lee, welcome to Get Real. Really, your career has
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: so many touch points, but throughout what seems central is
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: you bridge business and philanthropy. Clearly we have a lot
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: of big stuff to cover. You're a change maker. I
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: guess the question is how do you do all the
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: things you do, especially now taking on this chairman job?
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Or should I say why do you do it all?
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's more a better question.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: Jim, thanks so much for having me on Get Real.
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: And I love the question because what I do isn't
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: really work. Someone once said that if you love what
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: you do, you'll never work a day in your life.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: And for me, the ability to work with founders to
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: help build companies, it's a privilege and we have the
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: opportunity to sit with them at the beginning of what
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: is a tremendous journey that hopefully is changing lives. You
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: call that we invest only in healthcare and it's a
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: place where you can do well by doing good, and
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: so we have that double bottom line to what it
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: is we do. So that inspires me on the day
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: to day work, and then my philanthropic work with the
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: American Heart Association in many ways as an extension of that,
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: because they've been a leader for over hundred years in
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: helping to improve lives with a vision of removing heart
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: disease and stroke is a cause of death in this
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: country and around the world and allowing everyone to live
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: better and healthier lives.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: What drew you to I mean, I assume you were
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: involved with them before, right.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: So we've been involved first as volunteers in heart walks
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: and then attending heart balls. We sponsored heart balls for
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: our companies and various offices that we were in around
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: the world. And at one point in time I had
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: joined a board. I was serving on an advisory board
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: for Qualcom and sat next to the CEO of the
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: American Heart Association, Nancy Brown. She's an amazing human being.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: She's a force in nature, tremendous level of energy and
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: also great devotion to the mission. And as I learned
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: more about it from her, I got more and more
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: involved and ultimately was invited to join the national board.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Congrats, and I'm so glad you're there. Do you think
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: your discipline brings to it? How will you potentially help
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: shift or change the way AHA might approach or think
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: about things.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: As an organization now in its one hundred and first
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: year that has been serving the community for as long
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: as they have, you evolve with the times. We have
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: tens of millions of volunteers around the country that every
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: day are doing some of the great work, whether it's
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: in schools or hospitals, whether it's scientists who are doing research,
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: or people who are staffing various events. And I think
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: it's being in tune with what some of the needs
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: are and how science evolves that allows an organization like
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: ours to maintain its relevancy under current circumstances. This coming weekend,
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: we have the Super Bowl of Science going to New Orleans.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: It's called the AHA Scientific Sessions. There'll be ten thousand
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: plus cardiologists there, researchers from all over the world leading
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: life sciences companies and medical device companies all showcasing some
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: of the great science that they're bringing forward to help
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: save lives. And what we've done through providing funding. Since
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: nineteen forty nine, we've funded over six billion dollars for research,
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: and you start to see the fruits of that research
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: coming forward when you attend these types of events. So
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: it's very exciting, but that research evolves. We're always looking
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: for new and exciting scientists that we can back and
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: bring their advances forward into the market, and that's what
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: allows us to continue to serve the way we have.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Well, you know you've been funding brands, like you said,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: for so long. There's an AHA Ventures right which sounds
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: similar to what the Cancer Society did. How long has
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: that been around and how does that work?
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: HA Ventures is an oversight board that I serve on
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: in my role and it really sits on top of
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: four different funds each have had their own evolution. The
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: first is called Cardiation Capital, really focused more medical device
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: and life science. We have been involved in that with
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: other funders like Phillips and UPMC marches Sea Ventures that
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: have provided backing along with the Heart Association and we
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: co invest together. That's been involved for I'd say close
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: to ten years. We also have a group of social
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: impact funds. The best of those known is the Bernard J.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: Tyson Social Impact Fund, and we have other funds in
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: a variety of cities that are doing great work backing
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: social entrepreneurs through grants but also through investments, sometimes as loans,
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: where we work with them to make a difference in
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: the community. The newest additions to that is the Go
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: Red for Women Fund that's been in existence for a
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: little over a year. Of the forty plus billion dollars
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: that's been invested in healthcare venture funds, only two percent
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: of that went to women's health. And what we're trying
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: to change is the focus around women's health through the
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: go Red for Women Fund, The Heart Association is the
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: first major nonprofit to step into venture at such scale.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: And what we're doing is we're trying to back science
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: into solutions that can be brought to market to help
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: impact the trajectory of health. Especially when you think about
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: the disproportionate impact that women face when it comes to
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: heart disease and stroke.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Well, it sounds like you're bringing the seven wire ethos
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: to this big org, right, this big wonderful historical org
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: that's done so much. I mean, it's hard to argue
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: with the impact AHA has had. So you focus more
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: on trials that test different things in women and men.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, what's the general focus of that go Red Fund.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So really, you know, when you start thinking about
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: the fact that women are probably seven times more likely
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: than men to have a heart condition misdiagnosed, so we
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: focus on the fact that women are different than men.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: Women are not little men, and so when we look
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: at congestive heart failure, you need to understand those differences
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: and bring that science into practice with solutions that can
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: help treat it differently. So we do look at things
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: that can be done differently and also areas where women
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: are impacted disproportionately. Twenty percent of women between the ages
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: of fifty five and seventy five are in danger of
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: having a stroke. Women are more likely to have autoimmune
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: conditions that can lead to heart disease. When you think
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: about the fact that women account for sixty six percent
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: of people living in the US with Alzheimer's. We try
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: to work on areas where women are also disproportionately impacted.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: And then of course there are things that happen exclusively
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: to women, like menopause and pcos and preclampsia and andrometerosis,
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: and so we look to invest in solutions that improve access, diagnosis,
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: and treatment for women in large accessible markets, total addressable
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: markets that are large. And when we look at the
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: the areas that we work in, we think kind of
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: broadly because it's a whole health approach. It's mental health
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: and physical health. So when you start dealing with these
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: various disorders, there's a lot of targets for us that
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: go beyond where kind of traditional femtech or reproductive health have.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Been, right, Yeah, well, it's also very heart related.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: Well, what we want to do is make sure that
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: everything we do is rooted in science and that we
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: have the ability to build companies. And in fact that
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: one of the areas Jim, that I didn't mention, kind
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: of the fourth pillar of AHA Ventures is called Studio red.
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: So we will also have an accelerator that will help
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: spawn companies in areas where we see white space and
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: an opportunity to build a company that could help address
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: some of these challenges that may not be viable in
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: the market today, but where we see the science can
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: now be put into practice and build a company around.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: It as party of osculo science keeping up with AI,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: for example, or I'll tell you I just had clearly tesked,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: so that is an AI driven test. Where is cardiovascor
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: science going with respect to AI?
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: It's great that you asked. Just in July, we made
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: grants totaling twelve million dollars to three separate research teams
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: looking at AI approaches to advanced cardiovascular and brain health.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: And we're focusing on using AI to take the image
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: that doctor James Min and the team it clearly did
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: for you, and analyze those images to see if we
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: can't detect heart disease more rapidly, and use information that
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: may have fallen off the shelf, so to speak, left
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: on the cutting room floor, and use that information to
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: better diagnose heart disease. We're also looking at through the
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: AI grant's predictive modeling to better understand what we know
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: about data about you from your lab tests and your
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: diagnoses to model whether or not you're likely to have
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: heart disease, and two more personalized care. What we think
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: is that AI isn't going to replace doctors, but AI
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: when used by doctors will replace those doctors who aren't
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: using AI, and you need to have kind of a
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: human centered approach to make sure that you're building the
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: AI in the right way. We're going to release some standards,
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: ethical standard space ways for using AI and AI is
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: kind of happening right now, and we're starting to look
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: at ways that we can be using it responsibly to
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: help direct research and make sure that it's being put
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: into practice.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: You're investing at the intersection and have been at healthcare
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: and tech. Which of your consumer health investments right now
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: excites you the most? This space is so incredibly exciting
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: and hot. I wear my aur ring and my Apple watch,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: and I have so many things telling me what to do.
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: Jim, we have over twenty any portfolio companies were on
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: our fourth fund, and I have to say I love
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: all my children equally, so when I speak about a
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: few of them, we don't have enough time on get real.
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: I'll have to come back again and talk about more
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: of them. But a few of the companies that I'm
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: excited about. You had mentioned that you're taking a GLP one.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: What we know about GOLP one's is that it's an
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: amazing new class of drugs that is helping people not
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: only to lose weight, but there's now demonstrated positive effects
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: on heart disease and on other conditions as well. And
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: it's not just from losing weight, but independently from losing
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: the weight, there are also some benefits from a cardiovasculer standpoint.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: And what we've done is help build a company called
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: nine AM Health that surrounds an individual with the right
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: types of resources that they need in order to manage
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: their life taking these types of medications. Nine Am is
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: partnered with Lily to provide Lily Direct and no to
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: provide Novo Directs, so they're direct to consumer sites.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: That's good that they're both okay cool.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: And what you're able to do there is you meet
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: with a pharmacist, you meet with a clinician, and then
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: we provide support that involves nutritional support with a dietitian.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: It involves clinical support with regard to your side effects
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: and also helps you manage some of the behavioral change
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: that you need to make, because you don't want to
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: think of a GLP one as being that silver bullet
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: where you still come home at night and drink a
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: six pack and eat a bag of door Ritos. Second
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: company I'll mention is called Paysen, and the setup here
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: is that medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: in the US, and most individuals don't have five hundred
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: dollars saved from medical emergency. Paysen works with leading health
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: systems like Common Spirit and Geysinger Endeavor Health here in
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: the Chicago area. They provide a zero interest loan to
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: any individual who presents at the point of care that
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: needs support to pay for their out of pocket medical expenses.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: And with more and more people having high deductible health plans,
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: there's a big burden associated with those costs, and in
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: working with these health systems, pays End finds ways to
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: allow them to afford care that they might otherwise defer.
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: And we know that when people are deferring care, they're
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: going to end up being sicker and present in a
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: condition that is going to be even more costly than
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: if they had done some of the preventative care that
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: they need. So we're trying to get out in front
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: of that problem and work with people to make sure
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: the healthcare can be affordable. And the third one I'll
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: mention is transcarrent Transcarrent is helping to address the confusion
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: that exists in healthcare right now. Care is just too
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: costly to confusing, and people have so many questions about
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: what do they do for themselves or a loved one
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: when they don't feel well. Transcarrent provides the tools to
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: help navigate people and get them the answers that they need,
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: mostly working with large self insured employers eighteen hundred of
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: them across the US. Many of the brand names that
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: you would know, including some of the appliances that you're wearing,
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: and their teams are working with Transparent to help address
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: these challenges. And what you're basically able to do is
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: through the work that they're doing across the country with
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: their national provider network is direct people to sites of
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: care where they can get high quality service that's first
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: and foremost at prices that are meaningfully reduced to the
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: employer because they're now directing a number of groups to
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: get care at these various organizations. They do that across
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: surgical care and oncology care. They're doing it for pharmacy benefits.
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: They're saving employers meaningful amounts of money in terms of
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: helping to reduce the burden of employers that are trying
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: to do the right thing for their employees, but they're
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: faced with fifteen, eighteen, twenty percent increases in their healthcare costs.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: And now you have companies like GM who say, we're
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: a healthcare company that happens to make automobiles because there's
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: so much of the Costs've.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: Been there as a larger employer, Yeah, I got it.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: They're spending more on healthcare than they are on steel,
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: and so what you need to do is find ways
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: to help reduce that burden. And that's where Transparent steps
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: into work with employers.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Well I've heard about them so that they must be
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: moving and shaking. You obviously helped pioneer all this through
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: your original work at all Scripts and La Loongo. What
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: did you learn there that's informing now?
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: What we learned all Scripts is more focused inside the
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: four walls of hospitals and doctors' offices, and we learned
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: that even great technology is not going to be successful
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: unless you can find a way to fit into the
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: workflow and partner with providers in being able to use
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: that technology to improve care of their patients. And the
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: other lesson we learned there is that so much of
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: where health occurs is outside of the doctor's office. Health
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: is something that we aspire to every day, and so
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: if we're going to find ways to keep people healthy
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: as we did at Lavongo, when people are testing for
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: their blood sugar and they're looking at what their numbers
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: are telling them on their glucometer, how do you give
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: them advice in the moment to get in range and
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: to stay in range so that they don't become hyper hypoglycemic,
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: too high or too low with their blood sugar and
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: end up in the emergency room. And we were successfully
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: giving people support and guidance when they needed it around
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: the numbers that they were seeing on a daily basis,
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: because they needed someone to be their guardian angel and
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: work with them to support their healthcare needs. Many of
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: our companies provide that same model, which is first, create
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: a great compelling consumer experience, second measurably demonstrably improve outcomes
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: of care, and third do it at a price point
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: that delivers a return on investment. Who's ever at risks
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: for the cost of care? The government, self insured employer
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: health plan, at risk medical group And if you can
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: do those things, you can build successful businesses in this space.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: I think all of us as consumers of healthcare would
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: prefer not to consume any healthcare. What we want, the
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: job that we want healthcare to do is to be healthy.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: Stay out of the system. That's my big message on
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: this podcast. Don't get stay away like you got to
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: prevent the events. You know, you just don't want to
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: go there.
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: Jim, You're so right. And so if we're going to
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: do that, technology provides a big part of that. Solutions.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Are we going to just see more in wearables than ever?
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, you were the forefront of all this.
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: I think you know. The challenge that's existed with wearables
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: is the value that they deliver to the user on
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: a day to day basis. There were many step trackers
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: that came out and people were trying to walk through
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: ten thousand steps a day, and they'd have the device
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: for a few months and then they'd forget to recharge
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: it and it would end up in a drawer and
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: it just wasn't giving enough value. And I think what
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: makes RR rings and whoop bands and your Apple watch
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: and my Garbine watch and these other tools so compelling
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: is that they're helping to provide ongoing guidance as your
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: body's vital narrative kind of changes and you're giving new information.
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: The more you can pare information about what types of
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: conditions did you have and what are your lab tests showing,
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: And the more integrated all that information becomes, now the
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: advice that you can get is even better than it
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: was before. That's where back to our earlier discussion around
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: artificial intelligence, the ability to integrate and provide insights from
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: data is going to continue to expand in a meaningful way.
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: And I think that these tools I believe Aura and
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: Woop have both provided AI coaches.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: Yah, yeah, no, I get coach.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: And that coaching is what gives you the motivation to
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: continue to wear it and to charge it because you're saying,
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: I'm getting something that's really valuable feedback from that, And
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: that's that great consumer experience that I was talking about
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: as a key element of building a successful company, because
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: you'll continue to use it if you see value. Once
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: the value stops, you're gonna put it on the shelf
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: and you'll go to the next thing.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Right, That's right. Although I've warned this one a long
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: time plus, it's a reminder, you know, when you wear
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: rings like this. I know they do that in AA
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: and stuff. When you have that touchdone, it kind of
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: reminds you to, oh, right, I'm supposed to make the
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: numbers on this look better than they have, you know,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: especially around sleep. I want to talk about two areas sleep,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: but more importantly mental health. Are you guys investing in
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: anything interesting in and around mental health? We have because
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: that's another area to prevent.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: And let me say that mental health is a key
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: component of most of the companies that we invest in
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: because we do have this whalth framework, it's very hard
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: to address. For example, we have a company that focuses
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: on oncology care navigation services. The mental health component in
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: terms of helping an individual who's addressing a cancer diagnosis
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: is pretty significant. It's not a behavioral health company, but
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: behavioral health is integrating everything we do. We have another
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: company that helps individuals who are living with chronic pain.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: It's not just about prescribing medications. It's about diet, nutrition, exercise,
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: and the mental health component. How do you respond to
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: pain signals and what can you do to change the
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: way your brain is wired to respond to that. There's
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: a behavioral health component in addition We have a company
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: called NOCD and OCD that's focused in the severe mental
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: illness space, helping individuals get diagnosed and treated more quickly
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: when they present with OCD. And the average time from
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: onset of symptoms to diagnosis has been close to seven years.
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: We're moving that back to seven months with our company
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: and getting people into the flow more quickly so that
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: they don't spiral towards behaviors that might lead to a
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: dangerous situation. That company is also working now in post
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: traumatic express disorder and eating disorders and other mental illness
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: conditions to provide people with support, therapy and treatment that
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: can be done from the convenience of their home and
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: on their phone or on their computer, with exercises that
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: can be doing to kind of stay in control and
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: better manage their health. We too long in this country
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: separated behavioral health from physical health. It needs to come
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: together in a way that these companies are now doing.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: That's great. So I'm going to ask you one last
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: venture question. But with NIH and some of the other
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: areas you know under I think challenge and I think
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: some of it's quite appropriate. So I don't want to
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: make it sound like I don't believe we shouldn't be
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: prudent in how we spend government money on research that's important.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Do you see vcs leading a larger share of healthcare
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: R and D in the future as a result, or
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: the same doesn't really change much? You know, what are
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: you guys seeing or more guys coming to you?
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: It's really hard to fill the gap left by the
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: shortfall now in NAH funding is we were talking about
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: all the research, the billions in research that we funded
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: at the Heart Association. In the nonprofit world, the American
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: Heart Association is the NIH for cardiovasslar science, and so
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: philanthropic organizations are going to fill some of the gap.
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: Venture will fill some of the gap. As you've seen
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: in the biotech market, it's pretty challenged right now.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: It's super challenged.
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and NIH funding allowed us to be the leader
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: in terms of scientific advances, and from a competitive standpoint,
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: I think we need a robust funding platform at the
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: NIH level that will allow us to maintain that edge
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: that we've had in the world for so many years.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: There will be industry. I think life sciences industry will
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: step in with some additional funding there, but it's going
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: to take a village in order to make up for
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: the shortfall that comes from an age. We just can't
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: do it through venture alone.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: We need to make sure everyone's listening, you know, in
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: the government to get real. I mean, I made the
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: points to anyone I can talk to, but we got
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: to go storm the hill and make sure they get
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: this one right going forward. I mean, obviously there's a
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: lot of other things ahead of that that have come
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: up with the shutdown. But the point is, I do
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: think our government does position us as a leader in
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: the world, and we want to stay.
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: There exactly right, And I think that there is alignment
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: on the fact that we want the United States to
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: continue to be a leader in scientific advances, and if
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: we're going to make that happen, we have to not
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: only fund research, but we have to encourage global research
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: leaders to want to be in the United States to
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: conduct that research and not do it elsewhere.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: So, moving away from Sevenlire and all the things with AHA,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: your board member of the World Innovation Network, the University
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: of Chicago Innovation Fund, Samsung's Digital Advisory Board, are there
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: any game changers and health or health tech brewing from
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: that work that you're doing.
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: Part of the work that I've done, and some of
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: those I had been on and had moved off of
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: over the years. But what I'd say is that the
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: ideas that surface in these types of forums. I'll give
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: you just a shout out to the World Innovation Network.
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: It is a group of leaders from a variety of
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: industries that come together and exchange ideas. So when you
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: hear what leaders that Herman Miller are thinking of when
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: they're talking about furniture design and how they are thinking
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: about health of individuals, that leads you to start thinking
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: differently from a healthcare perspective. For what people who are
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: thinking about changes in Verizon and how they're thinking about connectivity,
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: the way which they're looking at new ways of connectivity
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: and how do you bridge gaps in connectivity can also
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: lead to changes in health. What I'd say, the areas
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: that are really exciting that are coming forward are the
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: advances that are happening in personalizing healthcare. How are we
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: able to share data securely in a way that allows
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: for better information so that you have a certain set
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: of attributes that you bring to a situation. We can't
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: necessarily treat you the same way. And Jim again with
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: all the years you've been in life sciences, it's amazing
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: to me that we say to people, everybody takes this
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: particular dose of medication. You take it at this time
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: of the day, and you take it with this food,
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: or maybe you take it before food or after food.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: Your metabolism works differently than mine. Maybe the way in
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: which you need to take medication should be I'm going
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: to alternate your dose during the course of the day.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: There's adherence issues that kind of create complexities there, But
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: to make the medication work for you differently, there might
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: need to be a personalized regime and there might need
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: to be a personalized dose for you. We're going to
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: get to the point where those doses can be delivered
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: you in your home in the right amount at the
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: right time, based on what the data is saying about
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: your health. And I think that's really exciting in terms
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: of what we're going to see going forward.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: It's so funny, you know, it's always been all about
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: the data. You have to follow the data to get
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: to the right outcome. This is all stuff I learned
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: it's an entech in ninety two and it's all still
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: true now, maybe more than ever.
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: With so much of it, and yet you know, I've
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: had senior executives at large global life sciences companies say
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: that every day there are millions of people who are
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: taking their medications and they know nothing about And so
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: these direct to consumer offerings, these wearables, the surround the
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: pill strategy with services that help enhance the treatment offered
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: by that medication will allow for life sciences companies to
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: have better insights that will allow them to personalize treatments
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: in a different way. And so these technologies kind of
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: coming together with the molecule as well as the technology
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: could lead to some really exciting breakthroughs going forward for
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: improvement of health.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Well, thanks for being a pioneer for so long to
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: make that reality happen. I think we're going to see
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: it in the next few years, so we'll drop the
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: mic on that one. I wanted to ask you a
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: question about mentorship and entrepreneurship because we both share that
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: and they go hand in hand. There's always people to
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: help us get where we are. Who are your mentors
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: who inspired you to go this route?
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: Well, I have to say first and foremost was my dad.
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: He's no longer with us, but he was an entrepreneur,
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: he started his own business, and from him I learned
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: the importance of listening to the customer, understanding what they're
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: needs are. There's so much benefit and that when I
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: mentor people, you know, I talk about the importance of
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: getting out from behind the desk, being with customers and selling.
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: And every job in every company we back, we say,
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: everybody sells because you learn so much by being a
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: great listener. The old adage. You know, God gave us
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: two years in one mouth for a reason, and so
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: double the amount of listening and you know, reduce the
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: amount of talking. And that was a great lesson from
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: my dad, and he built his business into what became
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: globally recognized. In the small field that he was in,
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: it was because of the attention he paid to detail,
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: the focus he on in the customer experience, the high
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: degree of service that he gave. And that's a formula
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: that I think can work across so many businesses. And
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: then early in my career i'm a recovering lawyer. One
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: of the partners at the firm I joined coming out
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: of law school taught me the importance of paying attention
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: to detail and after slaving, you know, through nights, no sleep,
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: working on an appellate court brief and delivering a document
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: that I think is my opus that this partner is
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: going to use for the arguments. As he starts leafing
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: through the pages and he finds a typout on you know,
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: page four and says, you know what, come back to
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: me when you can give me a document that I
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: can trust. And it wasn't about the content. It was
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: about paying attention to all the detail and learning that
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: everything that you do in terms of how you present
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: the information is important if you want to get your
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: message across. So that was early in my career something
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: that I learned about making sure that you're doing things
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: the right way and not kind of taking shortcuts in
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: terms of the way you approach it. I'm fortunate, as
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: I mentioned, I don't work. I love what I do,
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: and I get to work with really exciting young founders,
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: sometimes older founders, but young founders and people are pursuing
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: their dreams. Many of our founders, the founder of nine
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: a M Health, for example, started the company he has
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: type one diabetes. He wanted to help reduce the burden
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: of cardio metabolic disease and diabetes on as many people
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: as he could, and so he started a company with
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: a vision. Helping him with that vision is really rewarding
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: for me as well. The individual who started our company
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: that's focused in cancer care, you know, has dealt with
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: cancer in his family and is now this is his
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: third oncology focused company that he's building, and every one
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: of them, he says, I measure it in terms of
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: if we can help save one life, if we can
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: help one family live a little bit longer together with
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: their loved ones, that's so rewarding. And so I love
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: being able to share with them the mistakes that we've
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: made building companies along the way, and we've made plenty.
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: Sometimes they want to make them on their own, that's okay.
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: But if we could help them avoid a couple and
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: speed up the time that they can get these solutions
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: to market and help people, that's great.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: We got to keep connecting the dots, bro, no doubt
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: about it to be working. I'm glad we're connected again here.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: I always ask the question, if you're going to a
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: desert island and you could only bring one album, what
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: would it be?
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: Kadie Live Steely Dan?
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: Okay? Wow? Is that? I think that's the second Steely
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: Dan reference we've had in a while, right, I mean
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: that one, Okay, I'd always I love Steely Dan. So yeah,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: how about your dream vacation. Do you take vacations?
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: I guess you do happy places at the beach and
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: I love going out for a long run on the
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: beach and the like. So give me a good beach
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: someplace and hardpacks.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Well don't you have one on Lake Michigan. I thought
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: you did, and.
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: I'm happy now. Our beaches aren't. So we're pretty like
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: narrow beaches, and what little beach we have here is
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: pretty soft sand. So I need a good heart pack
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: sand and a nice place to go running, and that
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: would be great. But Jim, I'm curious your favorite album.
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: What would you take?
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: Well, I've said this, you know, so I it's a
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: toss up, right, But I think at the end of
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: the day, I would bring Europe seventy two in the
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: Grateful Dead, So it's going to be something Grateful Dead.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: The other one that I used to think would be
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: fun to have, just because you know, you could dance
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: around on the beach and stuff was Madonna's Immaculate Conception.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: You know that that whole compendium album of hers Clastic
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: a real classic. So I don't know. I always want
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: to take a couple of things, and I have this
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: crazy wide range of things that I like. I love
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: Steely Dan too, So anyway, I can't wait to see
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: you in Chicago soon.
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: Looking forward to seeing you, Jim. Thanks so much, good
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: to see.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: You at you. Hey everyone, thanks for joining me on
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: the Get Real podcast. You know, I hope you feel
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: a little healthier hanging out with me. You know it's
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: going to be a lot of fun. Passing this along
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: to others, Please subscribe below, Please share. I'm excited not
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: just to talk about healthcare, but a lot of other
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: fun topics. It's about making healthy. Talk about healthcare is
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: not a lecture. This is supposed to be fun. And
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: look forward to spending more time with you in the future.