Bren Sambunathan

Billions of Canadian tax dollars have been spent on proprietary medical software, leading to inefficiencies and high costs in the healthcare system. This has resulted in longer wait times and difficulties in accessing medical care for many Canadians. A new study suggests that adopting free and open-source software (FOSS) could save millions and improve healthcare by eliminating redundancy and promoting interoperability across provinces. Unlike proprietary software, FOSS can be shared and improved upon by anyone, which increases innovation and reduces vendor lock-in. Implementing FOSS in Canada’s healthcare system could lead to significant cost savings and better patient care, freeing up resources for doctors, nurses, and hospital infrastructure. https://lnkd.in/e96RvHz7 How do you think the adoption of open-source software could impact the quality and accessibility of healthcare in Canada? #HealthcareInnovation #OpenSourceSoftware #MedicalTechnology #CostSavings #PatientCare

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Progressive healthcare agenda, what it means in USA Canadian Medicare spending was $250 billion USD in 2022, about $6,500 USD per person. In 2021, national health expenditures in USA were $4.3 trillion, or $12,914 per person, twice as much... hefty margin ! Of the 11 countries included in the Commonwealth Fund study, the United States spends by far the most on healthcare—18.3% of its gross domestic product (GDP). But Americans also get by far the least return on their investment. The U.S. healthcare system finished 11th out of 11 in the rankings. Canadian Medicare ranked 10th overall—one spot ahead of the last-place health system of the United States. Note that Norway, the Netherlands, and Australia ranked one, two, and three, respectively. A government has more leverage to deal with pharmas... and when the government buys for the entire healthcare system, they have to play fair. USA had the most deaths from COVID, with the biggest healthcare cost of all

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✨ Case Study: Real-World Strategies to Optimize Clinic Workflows ✨ I’m thrilled to share a recent case study from Occiden and Company. It’s designed to help medical directors and clinic owners uncover actionable ways to streamline their operations and provide better patient care. 📊 In this PDF, you’ll find: 1. Real-world examples from Canadian clinics 2. Tips on leveraging Med Access for efficiency 3. Tangible outcomes that clinics can achieve 💡 Takeaway: Small improvements can make a big difference! Download the case study to explore ideas for optimizing your clinic. 👉 Follow me for more insights on elevating healthcare operations. 📖Check out our website and invest in expertise to elevate your clinic's operations. View or download the full case study today! #HealthcareInnovation #MedAccess #WorkflowEfficiency #InvestInExpertise

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How to tackle the challenges of appointment scheduling in infusion therapy? Interesting to see some answers in Ontario Health | Santé Ontario's recommendation report: “Optimizing ambulatory systemic treatment models of care”.  Here are the key points. I’ll add the link to the full report in the comments. #AIforCancerCare #CancerCareOps #SystemicTherapy #GrayOS

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Entrepreneurship is booming, and it's not just for a select few anymore. In both Canada and the U.S., business ownership is becoming more accessible, with people starting companies driven by the desire for meaningful work. In fact, 93% of Canadian business owners in a 2024 poll cited purpose as their main reason for starting a business, even more than financial gain. As entrepreneurship grows, it’s opening new markets and opportunities for both countries, creating industries that benefit everyone involved. This shift shows how business ownership is evolving into something that's bigger than just profit. #Entrepreneurship #WorkTrends #BusinessGrowth

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Observations & Predictions (Top 10) Three biggest telecom giants have ceased to exist as telecom companies as they have reinvented themselves! As 2024 ends and 2025 begins - Another sign that we live in an era of software defined industries (SDI). I would go further and say it is a Software Defined World. I borrowed this term from SDV (Software Define Vehicles). This world is marked by millions and zillions of IOT devices in cars, human wearables, warehouses, energy plants, transmission systems, in house smart devices and plethora of sensors ...(the list goes on and on across every industry/vertical i can think of) everywhere around us transmitting data streams in realtime. It is a great relief that some companies like Telus are trying to transform healthcare for people (even though charging us) saving us from an excruciating dysfunctional system teetering on the edge of complete collapse. My observations & predictions going into 2025: 1) All the business domains (better phrase than "verticals") will end up re-inventing themselves. 2) This re-invention will be characterized by CX focussed value streams more than traditionally defined verticals. For example there will be convergence of new businesses that will straddle retail, CPG, supply chain all at once to bring efficiency of scale with digital first in mind. 3) These new companies will straddle digital, physical and virtual seamlessly and effortlessly. 4) All these companies will have a backbone based on a robust customer data platform designed to support - products and apps eco-system that work extremely well with each other while focussed on specialized value streams for specific segments. 5) Competitors will partner with each other while competing in core areas. The CDP platforms will create monetization mechanisms that will make these opportunities impossible to ignore. 6) Every successful company (irrespective of vertical/domain) will actually become custom software platform and product development company working intensely on 1-2 year roadmaps. The competition will be won or lost in software factories that produce, innovate and scale the quickest quarter after quarter. 7) For CIOs & CDOs choice of cloud will become increasingly less relevant as compared to cloud based service characteristics. 8) This is why AI integration into the factory will be critical. This will give businesses unprecedented speed and cut the time between strategy and GTM. The reaction time will be realtime. 9) Future COOs will be technologists with deep understanding of platform architectures, cloud and online service charging mechanisms. This is where massive efficiencies will be gained or lost for all. 10) All the big monolithic ERPs & packaged softwares will slowly become irrelevant. Just like AS-400 & S-390 mainframes; they will be everywhere but will be relevant nowhere sitting in enterprise basements with minimal focus/spending. #techblocks #transformation #SDI #SoftwareFactories

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PTN raw deal data 24/09/2024: Scribenote / $8.2M / Canada / AI-powered medical scribe for veterinarians / Andreessen Horowitz, Inovia Capital, Velocity Fund Pyka / $40M / USA (Alameda, CA) / Autonomous electric aircraft / Obvious Ventures, Piva Capital, Prelude Ventures, Metaplanet Holdings, Y Combinator Invizius / £950k / UK (Edinburgh, Scotland) / Biotech treatments for dialysis patients / Mercia Ventures, Calculus Capital, Syensqo, University of Edinburgh’s Old College Capital, Scottish Enterprise Letta / $10M / USA (San Francisco, CA) / Generative AI / Felicis, Sunflower Capital, Essence VC, Various Angels MetOx International / $25M / USA (Houston, TX) / High-temperature superconducting wire / Centaurus, New System Ventures Jump / €11M ($12M) / France (Paris) / Freelancer benefits / Breega, Index Ventures, Raise Ventures Fal.ai / $23M / USA / AI-generated audio, video, images platform / Andreessen Horowitz, Kindred Ventures, Robin Rombach, Aravind Srinivas mbue / $1.8M / USA (Austin, TX) / AI-first construction tech / Techstars, Geek Ventures, 2045 Ventures, Spatial Capital, Factorial Capital David Energy / $23M / USA (NYC) / Grid technology / Cathay Innovation, Union Square Ventures, Keyframe Capital, Equal Ventures, BoxGroup HavocAI / $11M / USA (Providence, RI) / Autonomous uncrewed surface vessel technology / Scout Ventures, Trousdale Ventures, Outlander VC Kestra Technologies / $8M / France (Paris) / Event-driven orchestration platform / Alven, ISAI, Axeleo Capital, Various Angels Integrum ESG / £3.4M / UK (London) / ESG data insights platform / YFM Equity Partners Sparrow BioAcoustics / $13M / Canada (St. John’s) / Bioacoustic AI technology / Killick Capital, Klister Credit, Pelorus Ventures Vicebio / $100M / UK (London) / Novel vaccines for respiratory infections / TCGX, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Avoro Ventures, venBio GPDQ / £1.2M / UK (London) / Primary healthcare provider / IW Capital FluoRok / £7.7M / UK (Oxford) / Fluorochemical reagents and battery electrolyte salts / BGF, Green Generation Fund arqu / $10M / USA (San Francisco, CA) / Wholesale insurance brokerage / Crosslink Capital, Intact Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Foxe Capital, Nationwide Ventures GC Therapeutics / $65M / USA (Cambridge, MA) / Cell therapy-based medicines / Cormorant Asset Management, Mubadala Capital, Andreessen Horowitz Bio + Health Alan / €173M / France (Paris) / Health insurer / Belfius Bank, Teachers’ Venture Growth, Temasek, Coatue, Lakestar Amnis Finance / $2M / USA / Liquid staking protocol on Aptos blockchain / OKX Ventures, Aptos Labs, Arkgrow Pte Ltd, Ambush Capital, Gate Ventures, Turneo / €2M / UK (London) / Travel tech startup / Bessemer Venture Partners, Underline Ventures Permissionless Labs / $10M / USA (San Francisco Bay Area) / Content delivery network (CDN) on Solana / Multicoin Capital, Robot Ventures, Sorted Wallet / $1.5M / Hong Kong / Cryptocurrency access platform / Tether Operations Limited

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Community Care Connection Inc. (C3) brings you Connect Health XR- the Living XR Lab: A living XR lab is an immersive, interactive, and interconnected environment that leverages Extended Reality (XR) technologies like Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality (MR). This cutting-edge lab combines physical and digital spaces to facilitate innovative healthcare solutions, research, and training. It's a dynamic, collaborative hub where healthcare professionals, researchers, and developers can experiment, learn, and create together. Connect Health XR -This living XR lab's interoperability and multi-device capabilities enable seamless communication and data exchange between various devices, platforms, and systems. This allows for: - Real-time data sharing and analysis - Collaborative research and training - Remote access and telemedicine - Integration with Electronic Health Records (EHRs) - Compatibility with various XR devices and wearables *Game-Changing Impact in Healthcare:* 1. *Enhanced Training and Education:* Healthcare professionals can practice complex procedures and scenarios in a realistic, immersive environment, improving their skills and confidence. 2. *Personalized Patient Care:* Interactive, 3D visualizations enable patients to better understand their conditions and treatments, leading to increased engagement and empowerment. 3. *Streamlined Research and Development:* Interoperability and multi-device capabilities accelerate innovation, reducing costs and time-to-market for new medical devices and treatments. 4. *Improved Patient Outcomes:* Enhanced data analysis, real-time monitoring, and remote access enable early detection, timely interventions, 5. *Increased Accessibility:* Telemedicine and remote access capabilities expand healthcare services to underserved communities and remote areas. Connect Health XR -The living XR lab is an innovative ecosystem has the potential to transform healthcare by fostering collaboration, driving innovation, and improving patient care #XR #healthcare #innovation #interoperability #behaviour #mentalhealth #BCBA #socialwork #occupationaltherapy #AR #VR #MR

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The latest generation of Sanctuary AI’s Phoenix, boasting human behavioral data capture technology known as Carbon. This advancement provides unparalleled training data quality, enabling significant improvements in robot performance and capabilities: - Enhanced uptime ensures robots are available for training and data capture, improving efficiency. - Accelerated build and commissioning speed enables quicker deployment of units. - Reduced bill of materials lowers manufacturing costs. - Substantial hardware improvements, including increased range of motion and durability in wrists, hands, and elbows. - Miniaturized hydraulics reduce weight, power consumption, and complexity while exceeding safety standards. - Improved visual acuity and tactile sensing enhance data fidelity for AI control system training. - Automation of new tasks now takes less than 24 hours, a major advancement in task automation speed and autonomous system capability. #robot #robots #humanoidrobots #ai #robotics

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New experiment and data show how business leaders use generative AI. If you don’t, or doesn’t train your employees on how to use AI properly, they are already less productive but mostly, might may make errors that harm the bottom line.

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The durable competitive advantage I feel most confident in is community. Network effects and brand are right up there as well.

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Lots of wisdom shared by Karim Nassar, here is his response to the question: What advice do you have for founders trying to raise capital for a healthcare startup? In this podcast we talk about: 1. His strategy around scaling Mednow and its business model. 2. The biggest problem in Canadian healthcare regulation. 3. The payvidor model of healthcare. 4. His decision to open pharmacies as opposed to partnering with them to scale Mednow. 5. B2B vs a B2C model for growing a healthcare startup. #healthcare #canadianstartup #innovation

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Good discussion on investing in AI. A good VC needs to be a historian.

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As a founder, have you ever been curious about this whole angel investing thing? This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on an investor who's an expert in it you simply have to know: Matt Wilson, MBA from Allied Venture Partners. He: 🇨🇦 Is Calgary based 😇 Manages one of Canada's largest angle investor syndicates (now at 1,800+ members!) 🏒 Worked as a professional ice hockey referee, which he says shares remarkable similarities with investing Amongst founders, Matt Wilson, is known for bringing empathy and perspective as a former founder himself. Aside from financial support, his goal is to be the 'right' investor - one that aligns with a founder's vision, shares his network, and provides strategic insights when asked. ✉️ Make sure to pitch him, invest, scout, advise and more at https://linktr.ee/alliedvc For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with Allied Venture Partners' profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).

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The size of Canada combined with the geographic distribution of health conditions make the country ideal for multi-channel healthcare (e.g., Telehealth). Despite the significant demand for healthcare broadly, those business models haven't been able to achieve exponential growth or ideal unit economics just yet -- they've certainly grown and many are profitable, but millions of Canadians still lack primary care. It's a problem that's on the cusp of being solved (e.g., AI, integrated care) and could unlock significantly more access to care for Canadians. 

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Today at Antler VC Toronto, we had Michael Kravshik, CPA, CA, the founder of LumiQ come speak to us. The cohort is in week 5 of the 10-week residency. We’re still very much in the process of solidifying our cofounders and searching for product market fit. So Michael’s speech was timely, informative, and inspirational. Here were my key take-aways. 𝐎𝐧 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐭  🔸 Ideas don’t matter, the iterative test approach does; it’s more painful in the present but saves you lots of time in the future 🔸 Start with really broad assumptions, start validating those broad ideas, and then through the process of speaking to customers to get to the really narrow concepts 🔸 At one point Michael and his co-founder went through invalidating 25 ideas, which would seem discouraging but they grew and developed a lot through this process (even though they didn’t know it at the time) 🔸 At one point they did a mind-boggling 500 one-on-one interviews in the span of 6 weeks 🔸 The only sustainable advantage you can in a startup is knowing your customer better than anyone else 🔸 PMF is a moving target 🔸 PMF is treated as a verb at LumiQ 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 🔸 Be curious, open-minded, and be willing to kill your babies 🔸 If you keep going, you will eventually create your own luck 🔸 Lots of people get stuck in sunk-cost fallacy land, but you should listen to your gut and pivot when it doesn’t feel right 🔸 Founders have a reputation for being like cockroaches, and rightfully so, shamelessness can take one quite far I also asked Michael during the QA on what his emotionally compelling reason was for overcoming so many challenges to get the company to where it is today, and his answer was really insightful and relatable. He said that 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞. Furthermore, if you’re not crazy AND stupid you probably shouldn’t do this! Thanks for bestowing your wisdom on us Michael Kravshik, CPA, CA and I hope I captured your words and sentiments correctly! 😃 #startups

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We are raising $250,000 to fuel the growth of our retail automation startup Afiari Inc. to onboard at least 10,000 paying businesses over the next 18 - 24 months. Firstly, what is Afiari and what are we building? Afiari is enabling retail (physical) businesses to sell online and automate operations from purchasing to point-of-sale. Our long-term goal is to be able to connect data points from points of sale back to manufacturing and this we will do by first, creating a path for digitization by providing the tools that will help retail businesses manage not just their inventory but also purchasing processes, supplier management, receiving invoice payments automatically, and of course selling their products via our marketplace. It’s an ecosystem and we are ready to push the boundaries of the market. So why should you invest in us?  The first is that, we don’t die! We have been in the space for the past three years, learning, experimenting, pivoting, and repivoting. We have also built out the solution that we are beginning to see adoption for, we now want to grow massively while generating real-time revenue from across our products. Today, we have 8 paying businesses and 22 businesses onboarded in total. Our strategy is to get enough businesses to use our solution as ERP for their businesses while we gradually derive the potential of online sales via our marketplace by driving demand to these vetted businesses. The final reason to invest is that we know that this is incredibly hard and that is what gets us excited. We don’t just want to build for the sake of it, we always work from the ground up and attack the problems from the root. It is a more difficult approach but it is also incredibly rewarding. So, if this makes sense to you, then let’s have a chat about it. I am available to meet in person or virtually depending on your location. Reach out to me via DM, email at [email protected], or call +2347062029656

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