Alan Cohen has built companies, sold companies, started a price war between tech giants and now invests in what he calls "tech med" at DCVC, a $4.5bn deep-tech fund.

The distinction matters: tech med starts with data and computational methods, not hardware. 

In this conversation, Alan unpacks the investments that excite him, from real-time surgical guidance to AI-powered ultrasound and the pitches that don't make the cut.

He and Henry dig into hospital bottlenecks, the promise and peril of Health GPT, and his vision for a future where every treatment is personalised to a "circle of one."

Key Topics:

• The distinction between "med tech" and "tech med"  and why it matters

• How computer vision, autonomous vehicle tech, and AI are entering the operating room

• What DCVC looks for when investing in healthcare startups

• The "circle of one" vision for personalised therapies

• Why data strategy must be foundational, not an afterthought

Related Insights:

• The real bottleneck in hospital systems isn't technology it's workflow and staffing

• LLMs like Health GPT have promise, but also serious risks for untrained users

• Surgeons and specialists are the scarcest resource tech should augment, not replace

Core Challenges:

• Healthcare costs are reaching unsustainable proportions, forcing new thinking

• Personnel shortages mean hospitals can't scale with demand

• Switching behaviour in medicine is slow  new entrants need a 10x improvement to break through

🎧 Tune in now to hear how one of Silicon Valley's sharpest deep-tech investors sees the future of surgical robotics, AI diagnostics, and the quantified self.

The Crux of MedTech podcast is brought to you by Cruxx, a specialist surgical robotics recruitment agency.

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A big thank you to our sponsors on this season of the podcast;

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&

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠KUKA⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ is a global leader in robotics with over 25 years of experience partnering with medtech companies on their journey to market. Their reputation is built on robust technology, reliability and long term collaboration and being more than just a supplier.

KUKA provides trusted support throughout the product life cycle, from development to integration and beyond. 

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