How It’s Med

Med Tech Talks Ep. 74: Dr. Morad Hameed Pt. 2

A robust health-system inspired from of a mountain of paper records. That is basically a condensed definition of how T6 Health Systems came into existence.    On part 2 of our conversation with Morad Hameed, we delve deeper into his professional life, as Geoffrey Ching chats more about T6 Health Systems, a boisterous health system, built exclusively for trauma patients. The inspiration, the stories, the failures, the successes; we get to know about them all.
 
Timestamps:
01:55-03:04 - So what is T6 Health Systems? Morad gives us a 30-second explainer.
03:05-08:03 - The intersection between injury and geography, and how that took Morad’s research to South Africa.
08:03-09:40 - The origin story of T6, courtesy of a mountain of paper records in South Africa.
09:41-12:18 - The impact of T6’s enormous data collection on the trauma patients.
12:19-17:18 - Playing the balancing act between trauma surgery, teaching, and building a business from scratch.
17:18-20:15 - The most cliched, yet the most important takeaway - Learning from your failures; be it surgery or business.
20:16-22:12 - Morad’s definition of success, in the context of T6.
22:13-24:43 - The cross-applicability of Morad’s experience as a trauma surgeon and his work in public health, in working at T6.

Med Tech Talks Ep. 74: Dr. Morad Hameed Pt.1

Trauma care and public health might not seem to have anything in common, but Dr. Morad has good reason to believe otherwise.
On part 1 of this week’s episode of Med Tech Talks, Geoffrey Ching chats with Dr. Morad Hameed, trauma surgeon at Vancouver General Hospital, and CMO and co-founder of T6 Health Systems. Geoffrey and Dr. Morad discuss a variety of topics, ranging from his early days in medicine, to his MPH days, and how general surgery has evolved over the years.
 
Timestamps:
02:05-03:30 - Morad shares the story of his biggest role model - his aunt.
03:30-06:36 - Morad’s motivation(s) to pursue a career in medicine, more specifically, surgery.
06:37-09:22 - Wanting to work more for public health, and how that led Morad to pursue trauma surgery in conjunction with an MPH.
09:22-11:48 - Making the connection between clinical surgery and public health, courtesy of the experiences of his professor in MPH.
11:49-15:49 - Morad highlights the grave importance of combining clinical medicine and public health, and how trauma care specialists also play a hugely significant role in the same.
15:50-21:25 - Morad explains what the three waves of innovation in surgery are.
21:25-24:25 - The creation of “Learning Health Systems” as an outcome of medical innovations, and how they are starting to influence results at the ground level.

Med Tech Talks Ep. 73: Brendan Byrne Pt.2

Building out an entire company out of a “virtual gym”🤸‍♂️ - Brendan Byrne might not have thought of that when he first conceptualized the idea of LifestyleRx.
On part 2 of our conversation with Brendan Byrne, he tells the story of how LifestyleRx was born, what they aim to achieve with the whole program, and their master plan to do it on as large a scale as an entire province. Brendan also share snippets from the last 2 years as the Chief Medical Officer of LifestyleRx.
 
Timestamps:
01:35-05:13 - Taking a break from work, and then finding the right reasons to come back to medicine.
05:14-09:44 - The impact that COVID had on Brendan’s $10,000 “gym”, and how LifestyleRx was born out of it.
09:44-14:56 - Brendan’s favourite stories from LifestyleRx over the past 2 years.
14:57-18:58 - Relentlessness- Brendan explains how this principle has helped him build LifestyleRx into what it is today.
18:58-23:34 - Focusing on a very peculiar health issue, and how LifestyleRx aims to build the necessary EMR infrastructure for it.
23:35-25:09 - Being a generalist by working on a particularly niche problem? Brendan clears Geoff’s doubts about it.
25:10-29:16 - Working as a board member, and working for them - Brendan, who’s experienced both, explains the difference between the two.

Med Tech Talks Ep. 73: Brendan Byrne Pt.1

Maintaining paper records📜 has never been fun, and Brendan Byrne thought, “Well I oughta do something about it”. And he did!
On part 1 of this week’s episode of Med Tech Talks, Geoffrey Ching sits down to chat with Brendan Byrne, Chief Medical Officer and co-founder of LifestyleRx. Brendan, who founded one of Canada’s largest cloud-based Electronic Medical Records (EMR) provider, chats candidly about his early days at Yale and McGill, wanting to pursue orthopaedics, and how Wolf Medical came into being.
 
Timestamps:
02:10-04:27 - Brendan tells us about his time at Yale and McGill, and how that shaped up his business outlook.
04:28-07:20 - Wanting to pursue orthopaedic surgery for a very long time, then not doing so, and the challenges that followed.
07:24-12:17 - Brendan tells the story behind Wolf Medical Systems.
12:18-17:03 - The rise and rise of Wolf Medical, and how it got bought out successfully, followed by a stint as VP at TELUS for Brendan.
17:03-18:08 - Back from sabbatical, and the things Brendan then learned after taking on the role of Chief Information Officer at TELUS.
18:08-21:55 - The differences between working at a start-up like Wolf Medical, and working at a big corporate entity like TELUS.

Med Tech Talks Ep. 71: Giovanni Lauricella Pt. 2

How important is building connections with impactful VCs and having a refined recruitment process in Giovanni’s field? According to the man himself, it’s almost similar to building a medical device, with a plethora of intricacies involved in the process.
On part 2 of our conversation with Giovanni Lauricella, the Managing Partner of Lifeblood Capital, we find out more about his work and his process, as he highlights how important the minutest of details can be in his line of work.
 
Timestamps:
01:52-04:22- An explainer as to what Giovanni really does in the medical device industry.
04:24-09:14 - Realizing the gaps that start-ups face in getting funding, and stepping in to fill those gaps himself, Giovanni’s pivot towards acquiring funding for med-tech start-ups.
09:14-11:42 - The process of recruiting, and the nitty-gritties of the trade.
11:50-16:20 - “Money + People = Milestones.” Giovanni’s primary equation for a successful business.
16:35-19:00 - What’s in a name? The story behind the name “Lifeblood Capital”.
19:10-23:27 - The impact and influence of money, as Giovanni analogises raising capital as being equal to a marriage.
23:33-25:13 - Big things to look forward to for Giovanni, coming up in 2023.

Med Tech Talks Ep. 71: Giovanni Lauricella Pt.1

A four-year-degree in finance. Followed by a never ending degree in extravagant life experiences, from the “University of Life”. That’s the short version of Giovanni Lauricella’s incredible academic and professional journey so far, and it is an exhilarating conversation to have.
On part 1 of our latest episode of Med Tech Talks, Geoffrey Ching sits down to chat with Giovanni Lauricella, Managing Partner of Lifeblood Capital, as he tells us about his absolutely incredible life story, and how a curly wig has defined the first question he’s always asked in a professional setting.
 
Timestamps: 
01:11-06:40 - A short story about hair and wigs.
06:57-10:11 - From snowy beginnings in Buffalo to the Sunshine state of Florida.
10:17-16:17 - Dabbling in finance, after graduating early from college, and an impromptu trip to Costa Rica.
16:18-19:16 - Getting a job out of a vacation in Costa Rica, and how the tables turned for Giovanni in the span of two weeks.
19:18-20:22 - Coming back home after working with a “ghost!?” and then starting and selling a medical tourism company in Colombia.
20:23-22:36 - Giovanni’s entry into the medical device field, via South America and a short layover at a Starbucks in Florida.
22:42-26:58 - Going back to school and tackling a job and a distance-learning degree at the same time.
26:58-31:20 - Giovanni explains his love for regulatory affairs in the medical device industry, and his absolute fascination with the field.

Med Tech Talks Ep. 70: Leah Sarich

What do stories about Christopher Plummer, CityTV, and saving lives at scale share in common? 🤔 Easy: storyteller extraordinaire Leah Sarich.
This time around, Leah Sarich, Head of Story at Thin Air Labs joined Geoffrey Ching to chat about the role of stories in health VC. They chatted not only about Leah’s journey through journalism making news you can use, but also about how to make strong health tech pitches, what it takes to translate knowledge well, and why going to the “dark side” with communications in venture capital to save lives at scale might not be so bad after all.
Discover more at - https://www.howitsmed.com/
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Timestamps:
01:39-03:13 - Christopher Plummer - Leah’s favorite story - but the fact that she favours the variety of stories she helped tell throughout her career.
04:05-04:42 - Summary of what Leah does, as explained to a five-year-old.
04:43-05:31 - Leah’s journey into journalism and broadcast journalism.
05:47-06:56 - How Leah found her way into health journalism.
07:01-08:04 - What has kept Leah in health reporting - teaching “news you can use”.
08:15-09:49 - What is unique about health journalism? Leah loves the knowledge translation - specifically the challenge and building trust.
09:50-11:00 - How to maintain trust in journalism despite the pace mandatory in the field. Leah states that getting it right and taking time to understand how to best convey the information accurately to a lay audience.
11:00-13:08 - How do you make stories most compelling and relatable? Leah asks for a patient from a study/with a certain disease so that she has the patient's perspective, but finds it a common problem that she has to rein in the jargon that experts speak in.
13:08-14:31 - Why it is helpful for a journalist to stay on the same beat for a long time - the body of knowledge for a beat is quite useful to do journalism efficiently and effectively.
14:31-16:08 - “I like to say that I specialize in relationship building” - the importance of building relationships in storytelling.
16:09-19:11 - Leah reveals the pivot that she took, like other journalists have done, to go into communications. The twist? Her pivot was into healthcare venture capital. Leah tells the story of how and why she joined Thin Air Labs.
19:12-20:47 - What does Leah do with Thin Air Labs? Leah shares the importance of storytelling with the companies and investors under the Thin Air Labs umbrella.
20:48-22:22 - What’s a story to a pitch? Leah shares some news you can use when it comes to making a pitch golden.
22:23-24:43 - Why emotion when data is so important? Leah reiterates the importance of emotion in remembering start-ups and their pitches.
24:48-26:46 - Leah details her feelings about “going over to the dark side” in communication, and the role of scalability in her decision process.
27:01-29:09 - Leah’s love of challenge makes it easy for her to absorb the new language of VC, despite the remarkable differences between VC and broadcast journalism jargon.
29:09-31:13 - Where are young journalists going? Is communications to more travelled path now with the fall from grace of broadcast journalism as a major industry?
31:27-33:00 - How can journalists make the leap into VC to help companies make scalable impact more efficiently and effectively?
33:00-34:15 - What is the difference between a communicator and a marketer? Leah explains that the two specialists target different outcomes, and how she classifies the work she does.

Med Tech Talks Ep. 69: Sidney Collin Pt. 2

Raising money, publishing pivotal research, building valuable alliances, all for the improvement of people with motor-neuron diseases. Sidney Collin and De Oro Device’s NexStride is a game-changer indeed.
On part 2 of our conversation with Sidney Collin, co-founder and CEO of De Oro Devices, we learn more about the business end of things, as Sidney elucidates about the impact NexStride is creating, out in the real world.
Discover more at - https://www.howitsmed.com/
If you like what we do, follow us on Twitter!
 
Timestamps:
01:45-04:33 - Forming important relationships with physicians, and how that has helped to get NexStride to the people who need it the most.
04:34-06:20 - The importance of publishing research work, and the role it plays in building credibility of the product.
06:20-09:05 - Sidney elaborates on the hard numbers that De Oro Devices could influence with the work that they do.
09:05-12:44 - The difference between pitching to an angel investor and pitching to a VC.
12:45-16:15 - Establishing distribution and selling channels for NexStride, be it D2C, B2B, or via a third-party representative such as the VA.
16:15-19:20 - Sidney explains the reasons as to why she decided for her employees to work remotely full-time.
19:20-22:02 - Working in California and working in Texas - Sidney sheds light on the difference in work culture in the two states.

Med Tech Talks Ep. 69: Sidney Collin Pt. 1

Tricking the brain via audio-visual cues to make it send signals via a different set of neurons and make the body move a certain way. Sounds a lot like hypnosis, doesn’t it? Well it might not be hypnosis, but it does help a lot of people with degenerative motor-neuron diseases to move with ease.
 
On the latest episode of Med Tech Talks with Sidney Collin, CEO and co-founder of De Oro Devices, we chat at length about De Oro, what it does, and the inspiration behind it. Sidney tells us how a simple technology using audio-visual signals has been helping people with Parkinson’s move more comfortably and lead a less dependent life.
 
 
Discover more at - https://www.howitsmed.com/
 
If you like what we do, follow us on Twitter!
 
Timestamps:
01:15-02:35 - California rolls? Texas barbeque? For Sidney, it’s tacos that seal the deal.
02:35-05:00 - Making progress, moving forward in leaps and bounds; Sidney tells us what’s new with De Oro.
05:01-07:40 - Explaining De Oro’s work to a five-year-old: Sidney’s pitch.
07:41-10:20 - Sidney explains the what, where and how of De Oro Devices’ working, and how their targeting mechanism actually works inside the brain.
10:22-12:04 - The motivation behind De Oro, and how it is bringing a change in the lives of people with motor-neuron disorders.
12:05-15:36 - Sidney’s experience and learnings from her days in ballet, and the routine she has since followed thereon.
15:40-20:40 - Slow-progressing incremental growth, or industry disruption; what Sidney thinks about the impact of the advancements in her field of work specifically.
20:40-22:50 - Regular trial and testing, community feedback, and other mechanisms behind the manufacturing of De Oro devices.
22:50-25:52 - Meeting Jack Brill, his influence over Sidney, and how his experience as a Parkinson’s patient himself has helped Sidney in developing De Oro Devices over the years.
 

Med Tech Talks Ep. 68: Anish Kaushal Pt.2

Do healthcare VC’s carry a bad rep in medical circles?👨‍⚕️ Anish Kaushal says no, and he has got his reasoning spot-on!
On part 2 of our conversation with Anish Kaushal, investment analyst at Amplitude VC and founder of A Niche Experience, we get to find out more about his life and work as a VC, his decision making process, and the differences in a career in medicine and a career in VC.
Discover more at - https://www.howitsmed.com/
If you like what we do, follow us on Twitter!
 
Timestamps:
01:25-05:20 - The day-to-day in the life of an investment analyst at a VC firm.
05:21-06:51 - “Learning to learn quickly” - the tricks of the trade.
06:52-09:25 - The common elements of working in medicine and working as a VC.
09:26-13:36 - Tackling the negative connotation attached to the world of VC, and how Anish believes he is working for the greater good of healthcare.
13:37-17:38 - The difference in risk appetite as a physician and as a VC, and the real-world impact of a higher risk appetite of a VC.
17:38-20:07 - Anish talks about his lack of clinical experience, and whether or not he’d gain some if he had the chance to do so.
20:08-24:21 - Recent health-tech trends that Anish has his eye on.