How It’s Med

Med Tech Talks Ep.79: Kevin Jones Pt. 2

Big data 📊 is on everybody’s mind. But how are healthcare systems coping up with the ever-growing need for this data, without compromising on patient data privacy?
Welcome back to our conversation with Kevin Jones, Managing Partner at Odyssey Medical. This time, we talk in depth about the need and lack thereof, of data in healthcare, and how healthcare systems and governments must go about it without compromising on the standard of care or the patient’s right to data privacy.
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Timestamps
01:31-04:55 - Figuring out the chinks in the armour of event healthcare management, using extensive data and healthcare information.
04:56-06:03 - The parallels between mass gathering medicine and disaster response medicine.
06:03-07:54 - The role of a mass-gathering medicine company in chalking out the plans for an “event”.
07:55-12:47 - The age-old question of technology being a boon or a bane - how are Odyssey Medical, and healthcare in general, gearing up for the latest tech in the biz?
12:48-14:11 - Patient data privacy - the other guillotine hanging over the health-tech industry.
14:12-18:50 - Kevin’s two cents on the latest updates in healthcare innovation that he has his eyes on.
 
 
 
 

Med Tech Talks Ep.79: Kevin Jones Pt. 1

Did you know that ketchup🍅 can be used as a sunscreen? Kevin Jones certainly knows about it👀
Welcome to this week’s episode of Med Tech Talks. This time, we chat with Kevin Jones, the Managing Partner of Odyssey Medical Inc. Kevin has been a lifelong teacher, and advocates the importance of on-ground and real-life education alongside standard classroom education. He also tells us about his beginnings as a teacher, and how he further ventured into the world of insurance and event medical management.
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Timestamps
01:01-02:24 - Desert island condiments.
02:56-04:34 - Intro(spection)s, and favourite t-shirt colours.
04:34-09:42 - Kevin’s unique way of combining outdoor recreation and teaching during his time at Georgian College.
09:45-13:24 - The role of an educator in risk assessment at Gougeon Insurance, and how the two are closely related.
13:25-17:54 - How Kevin managed to bring his real-life experience into the classroom, as he elaborates on the perception of risk.
17:55-22:04 - Kevin’s story of stumbling into the world of event medical management.
22:05-23:40 - Can you prepare for every eventuality?
23:40-26:49 - Real-life instances that an event medical management company experiences, through Kevin’s lens.
26:50-29:35 - Kevin tries to explain his job to a five year old.
29:35-33:25 - The intricacies and extensive planning that go into the preparation for every event.
 

Med Tech Talks Ep.78: Linh Le Pt. 2

Eliminating plastics to save the turtles🐢. And the future generations too.
That’s probably the motivation Linh has to do what he does.
Welcome back to our conversation with Linh Le. This week, on part 2 of this episode, Geoffrey chats to Linh about his role at UBC and how the entire process of obtaining and commercializing a patent works. They also get into the role Linh plays at BUYO Bioplastics, and why working for the environment is something that is majorly overlooked and yet direly needs to be done.
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Timestamps
01:57-03:59 - The different role that tech transfer offices play at various universities across the USA and Canada.
04:00-05:28 - Linh’s obviously biased towards Vancouver BC, and for the right reasons as well!
05:28-10:28 - Commercialization of university spun-off patents- the whole process of raking in the dough💰
10:28-14:09 - The minutest of details, the right time to file a patent application, and the right time to leave an incubator space; Linh answers all these questions.
14:13-18:34 - Providing the money to the right causes- Linh’s role in the Commercialization Advisory Board for the advancement of innovations in nano-medicine.
18:35-23:55 - What’s in a name? Linh talks about the origin and motivation behind BUYO Bioplastics, and the impact they aim to create in healthcare.

Med Tech Talks Ep.78: Linh Le Pt. 1

Flexing his ability to run a marathon 🏃‍♂️ with little to no training, talking to Linh is quite the treat for us.
On this week’s episode of Med Tech Talks, Geoff chats with Linh Le, the founder of Flextrapower and BUYO Bioplastics, as they navigate through Linh’s entrepreneurial journey. Linh talks about founding Flextrapower, the challenges he faced, working with patents at the tech transfer office, and much more from the past 10 years of his life.
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Timestamps
00:51-04:01 - Introductions - Getting a PhD. Running a marathon. Flexing on Geoff. Etc.
04:02-06:15 - Realizing the flexibility of graphene, and founding Flextrapower during his PhD.
06:15-09:30 - Go for tenure or entrepreneurship? Linh explains why he went for the latter.
09:31-13:05 - Linh’s role as a tech transfer associate, working with patents, and shortlisting potential future partners at Flextrapower.
13:05-17:42 - Choosing the right patent, as well as the right people to work with.
17:43-21:27 - Comparing an entrepreneurial undergrad’s opportunities 10 years ago versus now; the growth, the support, and everything in between.
21:28-23:58 - The challenges that budding entrepreneurs face when building something new’ and Linh’s perspective on how to face them.
23:59-25:35 - Linh’s two cents on what new entrepreneurs need to correct about their approach towards building their businesses.
26:05-28:28 - How to handle the commercialization of intellectual property from the university level to a large scale market - Linh puts forth his point of view.

Med Tech Talks Ep.77: Scott Phillips Pt. 2

You should never ever give up.
“Well that’s dumb advice.” - Scott Phillips 👀
He is definitely against giving up on yourself. He is however, very pro-giving up on bad ideas.
This week, on part 2 of our conversation with Scott Phillips, President of StarFish Medical, Scott tells us about the tricks of his trade. He enunciates on the importance of a well-timed exit strategy for entrepreneurs, as he sheds light on the ever-expanding field of med-tech and how clinicians are adapting to the change.
 
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Timestamps
02:36-08:00 - The role of StarFish Medical as a consultant company to emerging start-ups, and the importance of an well-timed exit.
08:00-13:04 - The influx of more and more physicians in the med-tech arena, and the different roles they play in this new and emerging field.
13:05-15:20 - Are you a clinician looking to get into med-tech? THEN THIS SEGMENT IS SPECIFICALLY FOR YOU!
15:21-20:55 - The successes, and failures of StarFish Medical over its two decade lifespan so far.
20:55-24:10 - Giving constructive criticism and meaningful advice doesn’t always bode well for Scott, and he tells us how.
24:10-26:10 - The next big thing according to Scott - bio-tech!?

Med Tech Talks Ep. 77: Scott Phillips Pt. 1

Building machines is hard. Building medical devices is even harder. But Scott Phillips and his company, StarFish Medical do it with laser-sharp precision, and have been doing so for the better part of the last two decades now.
On part 1 of this week’s episode of Med Tech Talks, we chat with one of the pioneers of the medical device design industry, Scott Phillips. An engineer by profession, Scott is one of the most revered personalities in the field of medical device design, and has a lot of stories to tell about how he’s got to where he is today.
Timestamps
01:15-03:15 - What’s in a name? What’s in a shape?
04:05-06:42 - Scott’s experiences working as an engineer, prior to StarFish Medical.
06:43-08:30 - Life as a contract engineer, and how it was a precursor for the things to come.
08:31-11:25 - The origin story of StarFish Medical, with a special cameo of a sleeping baby 👶
11:26-14:14 - Working with other engineers vs. working alone; what's the difference?
14:15-16:25 - The initial challenges of running StarFish Medical, and how Scott navigated his way through them.
16:26-19:55 - Shifting the company's focus on a particular niche in the medical industry, and establishing StarFish as a design company.
19:56-23:16 - The importance of having highly-skilled professionals in an extremely regulated industry, such as the medical devices industry.
23:17-24:41 - The evolution of Scott Phillips Engineering into StarFish Medical.
24:42-31:10 - The “Pathfinder Process” - What exactly it is, and its utility in the work that StarFish does.
 

Med Tech Talks Ep. 76: Dr. Vipan Nikore Pt. 2

Doctor👨‍⚕️. Professor👨‍🏫. Health-tech innovator👨‍💻. Vipan Nikore is a man of many hats.
On part 2 of Geoffrey Ching’s conversation with Vipan Nikore, co-founder of Homecare Hub, we get to know more about his professional endeavours such as founding UFLOW, his role as an assistant professor at UofT, his work at TD Bank, and last but not the least, co-founding Homecare Hub.
 
Timestamps:
02:06-06:15 - How UFLOW came into existence, and the role that a sense of community among the youth of inner cities played in it.
06:15-10:13 - Taking his learnings and experiences from UFLOW to UofT, where Vipan teaches medical students and future physicians about leadership.
10:14-17:26 - Vipan’s work with TD Bank, and how the pandemic thrust him into two years of non-stop work.
17:26-22:15 - Starting Homecare Hub right before the pandemic hit, and the impetus that drove Vipan to do so.
22:15-23:34 - Describing the concept of Homecare Hub to a 5-year-old.
23:35-29:36 - The successes, the failures, and the challenges of running Homecare Hub, as Vipan explains on what he visualizes the future of Homecare Hub to be like.

Med Tech Talks Ep. 76: Dr. Vipan Nikore Pt.1

When you look for lifelong innovators in the health-tech field, the first name that will pop up will always be Vipan Nikore. This time around, we welcome Vipan to our podcast, who brings with him a massive amount of knowledge about innovation in the field of healthcare.
On part 1 of this week’s episode, Geoffrey has a lengthy conversation with Vipan about his days at IBM, his time at medical school, and how technology and healthcare together can change the world for good.
Timestamps:
03:41-06:30 - From Citibank, to Sun Microsystems, to IBM, Vipan had quite an interesting start to his career.
06:31-08:17 - Health? Or tech? Why not both, answers Vipan.
08:17-11:40 - Coming “back” to healthcare after working in IBM, and Vipan’s outlook towards health equity.
11:40-14:30 - The challenges that under-served communities face when it comes to access to healthcare services.
14:31-16:47 - The importance of quality training across spectrums, across countries, for the improvement of healthcare systems around the world.
16:48-18:12 - Vipan elaborates further the gaps that he observed in the system, during his time at UCLA.
18:12-20:45 - Vipan lists some of his favourite spectacles of innovation, including one involving just a megaphone.
20:45-23:50 - Finding his passion, and exploring his options; Vipan’s experiences during medical school.
23:51-26:18 - Choosing the right technologies to work on, and Vipan’s process of introducing innovation to the health-tech sector.
26:19-28:53 - The challenges of new technology - and how collaborations between various sectors can solve this problem.

Med Tech Talks Ep. 75: Arpan Grover Pt. 2

A device that looks like an astronaut’s helmet and helps you breathe, but not in space, instead, in a hospital… is it science fiction? Arpan and his team at Clarivent will certainly disagree!
On the second part of Med Tech Talks with Arpan Grover, our co-hosts Geoff and Abdo dive deeper into Arpan’s professional trajectory, as he delves into his time at COSMIC during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how Clarivent came out of it as a by-product, and now a full-time job for Arpan.
 
Timestamps:
01:43-07:44 - Arpan explains the concept of what Clarivent does, the details of the product they’re building, and how they plan to improve it further.
07:45-11:30 - Dealing with the legal aspect of business, and trying to patent the technology that Clarivent is building.
11:30-14:41 - Finding the product-market fit for a product built specifically for COVID? No big deal!
14:45-17:30 - Arpan explains the innovation that Clarivent brings with their helmets, and how they solve the discomforts of the traditional CPAP masks.
17:31-19:32 - Scaling up; and the challenges that a new medical device faces during its initial trials at hospitals.
19:33-22:35 - Arpan comments on his choice of building his own start-up and going through that struggle, instead of taking the short route and working at an already established company.

Med Tech Talks Ep. 75: Arpan Grover Pt.1

Buildings and biomed do not have anything in common, unless Arpan Grover figures out the connecting link between the two.
On part 1 of this week’s episode of Med Tech Talks, our co-hosts Geoffrey Ching and Abdo Elhosary chat with Arpan Grover, CEO of Clarivent Medical. Arpan tells us about his childhood influences, his inclination towards biomedical devices, and how Clarivent took birth in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Timestamps:
02:31-04:11 - What does a normal day at the office look like for Arpan?
04:12-06:48 - Architectural dreams from childhood, interning under a civil engineer, and finally choosing biomed.
06:48-09:14 - A potential link between architecture and biomedical engineering?
09:25-11:55 - Enrolling in an entirely new program at UBC, and what that experience was like for Arpan.
11:55-15:13 - So what really attracted people to biomedical engineering? Arpan gives his take.
15:14-17:17 - Arpan’s personal story of why he went into biomed, and his particular areas of interest in the field.
17:53-22:52 - The whole story behind COSMIC, Arpan’s association with it, and how Clarivent spun-off from it.
22:53-27:16 - How Clarivent was born, and the learnings so far; 2 years since its inception.