Heather Ames Versace

Some VC investors believe that brick and mortar - referring to a physical presence of some kind - should be avoided at all costs. Yet, the track record of clinic and hybrid care businesses in health care indicates otherwise. ==> One Medical (sold for $3.9 billion to Amazon), Oak Street (bought by CVS for $10.6 billion), Lifestance (IPO at $7.5 billion market cap), and PE-backed Premise Health (acquired by OMERS Private Equity for $1.1 billion) If a clinic is indicated as the optimal way to deliver care for that patient population, there are creative ways to build and operate them. Full article below with advice and strategies on how to build and operate hybrid clinics from my teammate Anarghya Vardhana from Maveron, Amir Dan Rubin from OneMedical Group, Steven Eidelman from Modern Animal and more!

13

1 Comment

What do bio and health applications mean for the next wave of AI -- specifically about compute? (I'm talking to you NVDA longs!) LifeX Ventures is hosting a super roundtable with some serious techbio leaders tomorrow along with Analog Century Management's Val Zlatev -- come hear Thomas Clozel Sean McClain Chetan Patel at 11am ET For the survey results based on asking 100 techbio CTOs and CEOs, join the call. Here, my own speculations after wrapping up the report: -- Amazon needs to have a GPU program on warp drive right now -- Nvidia needs to have a data center / cloud business in the works -- Edge AI chips are about to be everywhere -- in your watch, car, sneakers, thermostats, gene sequencers, spectroscopes -- All this compute needs way more data: expect a boom in sensors of all types -- Remember human genome moonshot that sequenced one person once? Now you can sequence your every cell one by one. Expect that for protein folding (AlphaFold was that moonshot) and other simulation uses, a full "twin" model of you, cell by cell -- Google has no angle here -- worse chips, worse cloud, worse models, worse phones / edge devices -- Specialty silicon for unique use-cases, lower-power, lower-memory are surely coming fast - like back in the day for mobile phones when Qualcomm, Broadcomm, Infineon, Mediatek, etc duked it out.

26

5 Comments

One conversation we should be having more, especially in healthcare: is this an AI problem or a policy problem? A big challenge in American healthcare stems from the reality that our healthcare strategy changes with every administration. Throwing AI at problems that are well-addressed by policy innovation (e.g., AI for payer-provider RCM war) feels like a gross misallocation of resources. Solution sets are rarely zero sum – in truth, most problems will require policy, tech, and human interventions, but it's worth asking ourselves whether AI is the best solve when we have a multitude of options.

86

22 Comments

Excited for this one. Congrats to Alex Cohen and Hello Patient on their seed round announcement. Hello Patient stands to change the communication paradigm between patients and providers forever. Their generative AI call agent technology is tackling the tremendous admin burden of patient facing comms (scheduling, follow ups, referrals, prescription refills, etc). Massive opportunity and we think Alex and his team are expertly positioned to become market leaders. Max Ventures is thrilled to co-lead the seed round with 8VC and Bling Capital A great quote below from Alex highlighting the concept of "service as a software". Healthcare is a heavily service oriented industry - so the opportunity for step change is even more profound. The startup's approach is part of a paradigm shift where AI companies are offering service as software. "I'm a big believer that the right way to do this is through a managed services business. We're not building SaaS. I believe we can do this services as software where what was traditionally a services business now has software margins because I don't have to go employ a whole bunch of people to do the services under the hood," Cohen noted. https://lnkd.in/ehNN2AmW

24

2 Comments

“Folks have moved the goalpost on earlier stage companies and are requiring clinical data and are requiring you to go longer with less,” says Cain McClary, MD of KdT Ventures. Who's paying attention to those earlier stage companies? The smaller, more focused #venturecapital firms. Just like we see in #clinicalresearch technology, pioneering, early-stage #biotechs, #medicaldevice, and other #lifesciences companies are best served by an entirely separate ecosystem of funders.

15

On the latest Vital Signs, Nikhil Krishnan and I had a ton of fun chatting with Dr. Atul Butte. Dr. Butte is a professor at UCSF, Chief Data Scientist of the UC Health System, and a co-founder of numerous healthcare startups. In our conversation, Dr. Butte shared his takes on healthcare AI opportunities, challenges, hype, and more. A few highlights: ⚡LLM use cases, data, and growth LLMs are already helping to solve the “drudgery” aspects of medicine, such as automatically drafting SOAP notes and patient messages. Dr. Butte is excited about future applications of LLMs that can help with the “cognitive” aspects: with difficult medical problems an LLM might be able to stitch together disparate pieces of information to generate a potentially novel solution. He also highlights that prompt engineering will become the next “coding language” as so much of leveraging LLMs is knowing how to ask them the right questions. Additionally, Dr. Butte discusses how since 2016, UCSF has been working to deidentify its patient notes so that it can query them to answer clinical questions and ultimately enhance patient care. ⚡The need for patient-facing AI As patients are increasingly able to access their own personal health data in nicely structured formats (e.g., EHRs, wearables), they desperately need more tools to help them interpret and make decisions using that data. Dr. Butte understands that these patient-facing solutions are challenging to get funded but he emphasizes that patients need to receive the benefits of AI sooner. ⚡Evaluating healthcare AI solutions In order to evaluate AI solutions, we often put human specialists – such as medical professionals – on the same tasks. Understanding that specialists often disagree with each other, a significant challenge arises in figuring out how we can evaluate AI considering we can’t just “average” all the specialist opinions. Dr. Butte points out that there still remains a massive gap in AI evaluation tools. Additionally, there are so many organizations that want to have a say in how healthcare AI is regulated that the landscape is uncertain. An awesome conversation with an expert on all things AI meets healthcare. Listen to the full episode below: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wr3643 Apple: https://apple.co/4acwgan

82

8 Comments

What's been buzzing the loudest for me so far at HLTH Europe? AI, AI, and more AI, of course. Tongues have been tripping over those two letters in every conversation I've had today or listened to including these nuggets: Michael Chen of Nuclera: "Generative AI is wonderful because it brings more hypothesis-making power for the drug discovery researcher. But ultimately, we all know that AI isn't enough. You need to have the power at the wet lab benchtop in order to validate experiments and bring hits and needs into the local trials, and the quality of these hits and leads that ultimately will help the success rates in phase one through three clinical trials, which often don't rear their ugly heads until it's too late." Geraldine O'Keeffe of EQT Group: "There's a huge amount of investment opportunity in terms of AI-, SaaS-based models, in big data and machine learning in diagnostics, precision medicine...delivering the care you need better, faster, cheaper." Karen DeSalvo of Google: "The availability of AI, the ubiquity of it, and just how quickly that is moving [has been significant in the evolution of AI in healthcare]. What I'm hoping now is the next generation of this technology allows us to democratise access to health for people all over the world, and that we can start to do that much more quickly and much more equitably." Chiara Bucciarelli-Ducci, MD, PhD and Marlies Schijven on clinicians' take on AI: "To scale up adoption of AI in healthcare, industry needs to demonstrate to clinicians and healthcare providers the cost effectiveness and cost efficiencies that the technology can bring at every level." "More often than not, we find that AI does work and helps to bring efficiencies, but it also carries risk. So it needs to be properly explained." Agree, disagree, or follow-up comments on these soundbites? #genAI #AIeverywhere #medicalAI #healthtech #digitalhealth #AIfordrugdiscovery #techbio #healthAI #clinicalAI

17

3 Comments

Shout out to Clark Valberg at Tiferes Ventures for sharing this article in his weekly AI briefing. "When clinicians are analyzing brain or tumor scans, instead of only looking at one patient’s image, they can now compare it simultaneously with those from millions of other patients...The cancer types that will derive the most benefit from AI assistance are those dealing with imaging data or high-dimensional data" https://lnkd.in/ec8UTJCn

12

2 Comments

Hot off the pre-print server – an important publication authored by the Atropos Health team exploring the performance of LLMs in answering real-world clinical questions. LLMs excel at summarizing and contextualizing existing literature, but cannot generate de novo medical evidence today. The results of the study highlight performance gains attributable to injecting novel, relevant, and up-to-date medical evidence into LLM-powered clinical decision support systems. Brigham Hyde Nigam Shah Saurabh Gombar Read the study here: https://lnkd.in/ecuU25Pq

49

2 Comments

Linxin Gu great article. thanks for sharing. Pls let us know folks in Boston area can help with your journey

5

3 Comments

🎙️ Thrilled to share that V. Tyrone Lam, COO of GATC Health, was recently featured on the Innovation Wave Podcast! In this insightful 20’ episode with Bob McGriff and me, Ty delves into how AI-driven predictive analytics can transform our approach to disease treatment, making it more proactive and less risky. He shared compelling insights on the future of healthcare and how predictive tools can lead to earlier interventions and better patient outcomes. A must-listen for anyone interested in the cutting-edge of medical technology and AI! 👉 Check out the episode to learn more about Tyrone's vision and GATC Health's pioneering work in this exciting field. Let's discuss how these innovations are reshaping the landscape of healthcare! #HealthTech #AI #PredictiveAnalytics #Innovation

31

11 Comments

I recently sat down with Michael Batko, CEO at Startmate and Founder of Puddle Pod for Episode 11 of Insane Ambition. Startmate has invested in 230+ startups, much of it under Michael's leadership, and now has $3.5b in value across its portfolio companies. In this episode, we discussed: - Michael's journey from consulting, then living in the Amazon rainforest, to leading Australia's biggest startup accelerator - The future of Australia's startup ecosystem - The labour government's very stupid plan to make it harder for people to qualify as sophisticated investors (now thankfully shelved) - Startmate City! Startmate's plan to build Australia's first startup city. Probably the most ambitious idea I've ever heard from a startup accelerator. - The balance between visionary thinking and traditional startup advice (think Elon Musk's plan to colonise Mars, vs Y Combinator's problem/customer obsession) - "The Courage to Be Disliked", and its influence on Michael's approach to life and business. Links in the description below 👇

61

4 Comments

I am very excited to share the pre-print study on Atropos Health ChatRWD beta results(link to paper below). ChatRWD beta outperformed ChatGPT 3.5, Google Gemini 1.5 Pro. and Anthropic Claude 3 on answers to clinical questions when reviewed by independent physicians. OpenEvidence also outperformed the Big Tech LLMs by a wide margin. Most important to us, ChatRWD performed highest on Physician trust and Best Answer and was able to answer questions asked 94% of the time. As the Gen AI cycle continues to move at a rapid pace we firmly believe that "Trust" and "Accuracy" are going to be critical, and that publishing your performance on both is table stakes. It is also clear to me that in the quest to be able to answer 100% of questions with Clinical grade accuracy training LLMs solely on the literature will not be enough. We need to produce new evidence in the form of high-quality transparent studies using appropriate methodology. We are adding beta users post this announcement, so please sign up to try it, and we will have more to come on full launch this summer. Exciting times and hope everyone has a great July 4th. https://lnkd.in/es5gWK84 #generativeAI #LLM #Realworldevidence

225

13 Comments

Of note: Your health records are coming to new apps This in an interesting change, and a somewhat Epic change. All puns intended. If you don’t know, the leading medical record storage solution in the US is operated by Epic. A rather critical problem is that if you walk (well drive) between two hospital in the US, the medical records tend not to follow you, unless you carry a large Manila envelope. Having Epic (and others) via TEFCA allow export of records arguably allows you to only carry your phone, which is a very siginificant change. This also (arguably) opens up a huge new innovation sector. Epic is one of the organizations that has been helping the US federal government establish the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, or TEFCA. The goal being to iron out both the legal and technical requirements for sharing patients' data at scale. Health-care data in the U.S. has historically been siloed and difficult to move around. Clinics, hospitals and health systems can store their information in a variety of formats across dozens of different vendors, and there hasn't been a trusted nationwide mechanism in place for transporting it securely. This means if a patient moves to a different state or visits a new hospital, their medical records tend not follow. PS. If you want appreciate how profitable the US medical sector is, Epic HQ has a restantant designed to look like Kings Cross from the Harry Potter movies. https://lnkd.in/g8NaWza8

1

3 Comments

For NY Tech Week we'll be demo-ing Substrate at the South Park Commons Science Faire on Thursday: https://lnkd.in/e5JwDKKX There are so many incubator-shaped things out there these days, but there's nothing quite like SPC. It's like a chill, small-batch, locally-sourced alternative to YC, where you can either hang out as a member forever - or choose the VC-funded adventure. The -1 to 0 phase [0] they talk about at SPC is real, and it made a real difference for us to have a home at SPC. It takes a lot to quit your job and do something new, especially when it isn't entirely clear what you're doing. (1) Do it – take the leap! and (2) consider joining SPC. Though the core vision has remained the same, many of the important turns in our squiggle at Substrate (including the graph framework) came from those early days at SPC. If you're here for tech week and can't catch us at SPC on Thursday, DM me if you want to meet up! [0] https://lnkd.in/e6KEMr9V

33

1 Comment

📈 ‘Founder mode’ -  This has suddenly become the buzziest buzz term in the tech world, coined by @Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator. It’s about running a company like a founder would, vs. ‘manager mode,’ where professional managers take over. Graham argues founder mode is far superior, especially in early-stage startups. He criticizes VCs and MBA graduates for mismanaging companies. 🧠 “Hire good people and give them room to do their jobs. Sounds great when it’s described that way, doesn’t it? Except in practice, judging from the report of founder after founder, what this often turns out to mean is: hire professional fakers and let them drive the company into the ground.” https://lnkd.in/eyWtgWEH 📍The piece reminds me of an interview with Vinod Khosla, then at Khosla Ventures, where he castigated venture capitalists for sitting on boards and attempting to manage companies without any real understanding of how to grow a business. 🤔I agree—founder mode is crucial in the early days, but once a company hits 100+ employees, the balance between founder and manager modes may begin to shift. And the transition can be hard. ❓Fellow agrifoodtech entrepreneurs, do you think this applies to our sector as well?

21

1 Comment

My deepest gratitude to Sarah Kaufman, Paul Cherukuri, and Chethan Sarabu, MD for sharing their time and expertise at Luminary Labs' Climate week Lab Session. All too often, the climate conversation falls prey to oversimplification, labeling some industries, technologies, or interventions as "good" for the planet and others "bad." While there are certainly examples of actors causing extreme harm, more often this assertion conceals a more complex duality: Essential sectors of our society and economy — from education to transportation — contribute to climate change while also facing the impacts of rising temperatures and extreme weather. As a society, we must align on the acceptable tradeoffs of the technologies we have today AND continue to innovate to improve upon what is possible today. For example: 🏥 Healthcare's reliance on single-use materials and high consumption of gasses and power contribute to the sector’s significant environmental footprint. But it’s not as simple as reusing and recycling; disposable syringes are wasteful, but have saved millions of lives — and few patients and providers are willing to return to times when life expectancies were shorter and patient outcomes were more precarious. 🚘 Transportation is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions –– and at the same time, our aging transportation infrastructure is ill-equipped to handle current and worsening climatic extremes.  High temperatures and flooding frequently disrupt multiple modes of transportation, and urban sprawl makes implementing more sustainable interventions difficult. Looking to the future, the experts on the panel also recognized that these sectors will play a key role in driving climate solutions – from mobility wallets to rethinking hospital supply chains. As each panelist explored this duality, a central question emerged: How can leaders advance sustainable innovations while also ensuring that essential aspects of our society and economy are resilient and thriving? https://lnkd.in/evn3qJ2p Image courtesy of April Renae.

46

2 Comments

Generative AI and Medically Unexplained Symptoms - a marriage made in heaven, or just another complexity in the lives of this underserved patient group? I’ll be talking about this subject a little later today at the Forgotten Patients: Overlooked Diseases event here in Limehouse. Having been primed by a brilliant meal last night, I’m focussing on the patients themselves. You can check out more here: https://lnkd.in/gvQhJXpT What do you think? Could GenAI help where other tech has failed? Any particular areas or use cases you know about you can share? Move fast and you’ll get a shout out on stage from me ;) #RareDiseases #MedicalDiseases #LLM #GenerativeAI #GenAI #DigitalHealth

27

2 Comments