Alloutcoach

#MEDICALINNOVATION #OLYMPICSWIMMING #championmindset

This is an inspirational keynote presentation on October 6, 2025, at the Opening Ceremony of the 2025 Medical lnnovation Olympics from Chris Cook, double Olympian swimmer, double Commonwealth Games Champion, World Championship Bronze Medalist, motivational speaker at companies such as Microsoft and some of the largest health systems across the globe, and consultant to the U.K.'s government's National Health Service.Chris shares three specific personal stories that span Olympic level training, building the next generation of Olympic champions, and transformation of teamwork across a Healthcare system with psychological safety.

0:00 Timeline - Highlights

2:12 - Intro: 3 Key Messages - Evidence-based Confidence, Clarity, and Psychological Safety

3:28 - Biggest lesson on Confidence during the Toughest Season (2006)

4:57 - Measure what Matters: Heart Rate, Stroke Rate, Time, Perceived Exertion

5:35 - Challenge: Beat the Average from Previous Week

5:51 - Turning Point: Started to be obsessed with Progress

7:10 - Leadership Phase after Retirement

7:27 - Ambition Programme - Team Great Britain - less than 8% of first time Olympians medal, intense build-up, media attention of the Olympics

8:35 Pilot Project of First-time Olympians Created environment for potential stars to feel like Olympians, media mock-interviews, etc.

9:41 Ambition Programme Alumni & Results307 athletes have finished this program40% represent Team GB 11% of the athletes in the program win a medal

10:12- When we get clear we level up certainty

Ask it, answer it, and action it - the last one drives certainty

10:50 - Collaboration with the National Health Service in the UK

New programs: 1) Creating Psychological Safety to share, contribute, and debate; 2) Radical Candor. In less than 18 months, the pilot transformed one department, then started to spread

12:34 - Teamwork thrives on Psychological Safety

12:56 - Keynote SummaryConfidence is built from evidenceWhen we are unclear, things become uncertain - Challenge to the audience!True teamwork starts when we are safe to take risks

On October 6, the Host of the 4th annual global, virtual Medical Innovation Olympics, recognized as one of the top 4 innovation challenges across the globe by Fierce Pharma in 2025, Tim Mikhelashvili, CEO and Co-Founder of Amedea Pharma, welcomed all the guests and competitors at this 16-day competition along with two industry executives on the Board and Expert Judges - Melissa Norcross, Vice President, Corporate Strategy, Hyland Software, and Eddie Power, CEO, emPower medical.

0:00 Welcome - Tim Mikhelashvili, CEO, Amedea Pharma, Host #MIO2025

1:38 Power of Gathering Leaders who do not usually Interact Together

1:58 Layer the Science - Horizontal Innovation to Master Consistency

2:21 Power of Creating Momentum - Lorne Whitehead's Domino Experiment

3:13 Leap with Defiance - Healthcare Ecosystem is hostile to Innovation

3:47 Advances in Neurocircuitry, Alzheimer's biomarkers, Wearable Devices

4:58 Why Humans are Resilient and Innovators by Design

5:36 Today We have to be More Responsible than ever, not only Resilient

6:14 Innovation in Medicine is like Building a Tall Jenga Block Tower6:54 Why MIO2025 requires Competitors to Present Multiple Times x 16 days

7:54 Goal = Feel Like Healthcare Champions Ready for Future Challenges

8:25 Melissa Norcross, PhD - Peer Group to Bring out Your Best

9:20 Eddie Power, CEO, emPower Medical - Power of Learning, Curiosity

On this episode of Alloutcoach, host Tim Mikhelashvili, CEO, Amedea Pharma convenes a panel you rarely hear in one room: a policy-minded biohacker and investor (John Hemming, CEO of Cirrostratus, Biohacking Team Leader), a strategy and operations leader who reshapes patient journeys (Bart Zoni, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Woven Health Collective), and an early-stage investor focused on medical technologies (Chris Piedmonte, Managing Director, Neoterra Capital) as well as a senior pharma thought leader in Medical Affairs and Health Economics, Janelle Hardisty. Their catalyst? Fresh takeaways from the 2025 Financial Times US Pharma summit — and an honest look at what’s truly accelerating innovation, what’s stalling it, and where capital and talent should go next.

00:00:00 Cold Open - Episode Highlights: AI accuracy and access
00:03:43 Host Intro and Why This Episode
00:04:41 Guest Intros
00:08:06 State of Innovation - Tailwinds and Headwinds
00:12:41 What’s Really Accelerating Innovation?
00:19:27 Drug Discovery - Reducing the 90% Failure Rate
00:22:01 Clinical Trials - Modernize or Stall
00:25:11 Access, PBMs, and Direct-to-Patient
00:27:03 Longevity and Prevention - Can We Measure It?
00:36:52 Data Culture Maturity and Pilot Fatigue
00:45:52 Training the Future Workforce
00:51:09 Investing - Where Should Capital Flow?
00:57:08 Regulatory Reality and Time-to-Access
00:59:27 Closing and Invite to Medical Innovation Olympics

Ellie Holbert, founder and principal of Empact Advisory Services, is a scientist, researcher and organizational change expert who has mastered unlocking full potential of organizations including transforming some of the largest health systems in the U.S. as well as large enterprises with over 250,000 employees. In this latest episode, she highlights the key factors to her system of discovering the human potential to perform in organizations with KPI structure, culture, and habits that drive results.

0:00 Episode Highlight 1 - Redefining Failure & Circle of Safety

0:42 Episode Highlight 2 - Case: Wrong KPIs harmed Customer Satisfaction in a Large U.S. Healthcare System

03:34 Personal Inspiration: Lessons from Motherhood & Reading
“Redefining strength, resilience, and inspiration.”

04:53 Academic Excellence & Early Career Discipline
“Why structure, early mastery, and emotional intelligence shaped her career.”

07:46 Metrics vs. Culture: Avoiding the Wrong Incentives
“How poorly designed KPIs can backfire—and what to measure instead.” Importance of balancing individual and team metrics. Measuring trust, approachability of leaders and emotional intelligence factors is linked to observable leadership that drives business outcomes.

10:30 Unintended Problems of Procurement KPIs in Largest US Health System. Created Customer Dissatisfaction despite opposite intentions.

11:40 When to Invest in Team Effectiveness Interventions
“Times of change, fear, and stagnation demand cultural investment.”

Employees are operating from self-protection which is slowing innovation, and performance.

16:42 Today's Need to Protect Top Performers & Measure ROI
“Why high performers deliver 8X output and how to retain them.”

19:49 Building Self-Driven Teams That Last Beyond Consulting
Ellie anchors specific techniques to “Psychological safety, retrospectives, and boldness as cultural cornerstones.”

20:30 Leadership Power of Describing Reality Accurately without BlameSelf-regulation is a norm in the most successful teams, centered on creating structure with clarity, safe environment and analysis of emotional intelligence.

24:48 Keys to Thrive in Uncertainty: Mindset, Delegation & Letting Go

27:57 Redefining the Modern Organization
Ellie reacts to Netflix custom to encourage executives to make $1 million dollar mistakes. Failure is a critical part of our success, as well as sharing lessons from failures because of the benefits of learning. “The four pillars: psychological safety, belonging, clarity, and purpose.”

33:03 Case Study: From Chaos to Clarity in 8 Weeks
Ellie tells how she created champions in a financial services organization with 5000 employees handling a major cybersecurity initiative, pressure and uncertainty. “How one healthcare team improved ROI by 45X and revenue by 11X.”

37:35 – Final Words & Team Health Assessment
“Start small: measure and improve team health."

Watch my first-ever conversation with a political leader on the Alloutcoach show who has also transcended business, entrepreneurship, community service, women's rights advocacy and sports science. This episode uncovers a personal story and manifestation of character and integrity of an inspiring, dynamic, and powerful leader, Hon. Leela Aheer, former Canadian Minister of Culture, Multiculturalism, and Women's rights, musician, and activist throughout her journey of transformation into becoming a business executive, entrepreneur and expert in optimizing athletic performance.In addition to lessons on sportsmanship-centered leadership in business, you will discover the difference precision medicine with multi-omics and slightest variance in our microbiome DNA can have on creating gold medalists in sports, and champions in health, training, rehabilitation and recovery. 🎧 Genomics, Grit & Team-First Leadership with Hon. Leela AheerElite sport precision meets everyday leadership: integrity, listening, and multi-omics that turn guesswork into wins.

00:00 Highlight 1 - Cold open — integrity & sport’s “magic”

00:53 Highlight 2 - Sports magic and translation into business

02:04 Highlight 3 - From Silver to 2X World Championship Gold

03:36 Intro — welcome to ALLOUTCOACH & Episode

04:53 Guest greeting

05:03 “Politics found me” — grassroots to public service

11:20 Business → politics: budgets, messaging, listening

12:12 Integrity as a non-negotiable

15:21 Music and mindset — choirs, Stampede, and learning

19:49 Mentors & lifelong learning (Gandhi insight)

21:04 Career Pivot to sport & BioSport — How it Started

23:59 BioAero → BioSport: DNA, microbiome, vagus nerve

26:16 Personalization over averages — why your plan must be yours

26:50 SPEED-SKATER GOLD MEDAL CASE STUDY — meet Hayden Mayeur

27:04 DNA → microbiome: the real unlock

27:21 Carb-loading vs protein-first for Hayden

27:42 Why protein timing mattered; energy systems explained

27:59 Short-burst vs long-release energy — matching sport to physiology

28:31 Recovery & injury-risk flags — ending guesswork with data

29:11 Multi-omics 101: proteomics, supplements, transcriptomics

29:43 Sequencing 100 athletes + capital raise → building the app

34:59 Team culture — elevate the assist, build trust

37:00 Closing — Discipline & Teamwork

Celebrate the start of your busy summer with an inspirational conversation that will drive you to see the bigger goals more clearly and celebrate your smaller wins more often. This episode is full of real-world stories and case studies with a gifted healthcare innovator, scientist and sports athlete turned Sales executive, Graham Long, Chief Commercial Officer, Tobin Scientific. Graham is a Commercial Leader specializing in sales, marketing, and business development within high-growth life science research, drug discovery, and diagnostic sectors who had previously worked for BioPharma (Glaxo Group Research ,Ciba-Geigy) and biotech (Biotal Ltd.) companies in various research roles. He is an expert in building winning teams and transforming life science companies such as SmartLabs with a proven track record in revenue generation, portfolio management, global product launches, and strategic partnerships.

0:00 Episode Highlight #1 - How Data Transparency Inspires Meaning and Performance

1:24 Episode Highlight #2 - Detailed Data Analysis Driving an Underdog to Win

3:19 Speaker Introduction

5:27 Key Lessons from the Career of a Scientist Athlete-turned Biotech Sales Executive

7:13 Early cancer research highlights in oncogene and pharma transition

9:53 Career Turning Point

Industry first technology from a Harvard spinout

12:13 How Graham continues to be an innovator regardless of the tough journey

Power of giving voice and psychological safety to unlock human creativity and superpower in teaming and using technology.

16:10 Critical value of curiosity, desire for learning, adaptability to address blind spots

17:14 Qualities of mentors that influenced Graham to

18:20 Identifying small windows of opportunity to scale companies like SmartLabs

Timing of the interaction between the client and vendor have happen at the

Identifying end-user journey

Why end-users can benefit from the product

Communication of benefits

Reaching end users

Processes to identify recurrent patterns in type of clients and needs

21:25 Metrics details necessary in manufacturing and high stakes regulatory scenarios

Regulatory environment does not leave any room for error and calls for right metrics

Log and track where errors occur

Constant process improvement mindset

SOP is fixed in manufacturing but root cause analysis

26:05 John McNeil - former Sales/Mktg President @Tesla: Innovation by Subtraction

26:50 How Performance Analytics transformed the Oxford vs. Cambridge Boat Race

29:13 From a Personal Sports Background to Scaling Companies: See the Bigger Goals, and Celebrate Small Wins along the Journey

31:08 Individual Recognitions in Teams are critical

33:07 Ultimate benefits of Data on Individual Motivation and Team Progress

34:47 Shifts in Mindset necessary to transform into a Winning Commercial Leader

36:22 Technical shifts to drive Commercial Success - validation, research, and insights

38:55 Game-changing steps of financial modeling, viability and economics

40:30 Bridge from R & D to Commercial through a Tech Transfer Scientist role

42:27 Final Thoughts - Maintain Excitement and Curiosity for Healthcare Advances

In late 2024 I spoke with an academically trained cardiologist expert in cardiometabolic risk prevention and obesity medicine, educator, Dr. Eldad Einav, from Beverly Hills, CA about the ongoing controversy about the shortage and patient access to the exciting new weight loss treatments such as GLP1 agonists. He shared many practical, clinical insights and research that are important to revisit today for patients, physicians, and payers who are seeking to provide the best solutions and learn from some recent shortcomings.

0:00 Highlight #1 - Distinguishing the quality of weight loss solutions

1:26 Highlight #2 - Providing reliable 503B Facility source for patients w/ no access to GLP1

3:18 - Speaker Introduction

6:14 - Why Dr. Einav decided to specialize in obesity / weight loss

9:38 - Why should cardiologists focus on weight management - preventive care?

11:58 - Not many cardiologists manage weight

12:34 - Patient preferences to treat weight vs hypertension or cholesterol

14:34 - Problem of maintaining long-term weight loss

15:00 Look AHEAD study - well-controlled lifestyle study of weight loss with

16:19 Drugs meeting newer targets of 15% or higher weight loss

16:57 - Select Trial: weight loss reduces risk of heart attack, stroke by 20%

19:07 - New drugs approaching efficacy of bariatric surgery

21:29 - 2024 Shortage and patient access to new GLP1 drugs

23:11 - Specialty pharmacy compounding GLP controversy

26:06 - What doctors should know about choosing compounded drug alternatives

27:54 - What patients should know about choosing their weight loss drugs

31:22 - Reality of types of compounded medications used by US hospitals

32:11 - Removing the double-standard of compounded medications to improve patient access

33:46 - Helpful resources to learn how to access the right weight-loss medication

37:47 - Final Advice to Patients and HCPs to make better decisions, consolidate fragmented care

The first Alloutcoach episode of 2025 is a powerful and honest conversation from an unforgettable Expert Panel at the 2024 Medical Affairs Innovation Olympics about a much needed modern view of leadership in Medical Affairs, pharma, healthcare and beyond. The thought-provoking discussion will certainly challenge you and offer practical solutions. It features some of the most dynamic, accomplished leaders who provide intriguing, candid, and diverse perspectives across pharma and biotech, Medical Affairs, ESG, finance, technology, and life sciences backgrounds. Speakers: Melissa Norcross, AVP, Corporate Strategy and ESG, Hyland SoftwareChristopher Piedmonte, Managing Director, NeoTerra Capital, Tech Executive, Angel Investor Natasha Hansjee, Integrated Medical Enabling Catalyst, Roche

Topics

1. Leadership & Talent: What are the current gaps in innovative Medical Affairs leadership approaches from a talent management perspective – how do we maximize the power of medical decisions from a skillset and mindset perspective (AI savviness, critical thinking, innovative, digital HCP engagement)?

2. Measuring and Improving Impact on Patients: How can Medical Affairs continue to reinvent itself with emerging challenges, technology, or competitive sources of information that drive clinical decisions to instead utilize them appropriately yet demonstrate its independent value and impact in the future?

3. Decision-Driven Analytics – what case studies or best practices can we learn from in decision-driven analytics and excellence in internal decision-making and strategy across the different life cycles of products, devices, etc.4. How do we stimulate problem solving and adaptive performance, not only tactical performance to drive innovation in Medical Affairs?

0:11 Episode Highlights

8:20 Introduction of Panel

9:50 Moderator's Introduction - What Gaps are there in Medical Leadership?

What does it mean to lead well? Provide not only skillsets but toolsets.

Celebrate and stimulate failure.

Emphasize customer experience

15:46 Gaps in Clarity of vision, Access to Resources

18:35 Setting the right foundation of trust and mindset as LeadersLeader's job is to help team members to avoid trouble, resolve problems and not assign blame.

21:59 Empowerment comes through accountability, which is missingPerformance Feedback is critical

23:57 Unlocking Innovation and Critical ThinkingPsychological safety is effective only when combined with AccountabilityTeaching others how to think in order to maximize performance

25:20Leaders Drive Business PerformanceTrust and accountability fall along a spectrum, and are not opposites

27:26 How do the greatest leaders drive more effective innovation?

31:44 Innovation through accidental discovery accelerated by Generative AIIn many ways AI stands for artificial intern vs artificial intelligenceHow critical collaboration is as well as competition

33:45 At the edge of performance, athletes learn from other competitors who have superior skills.

34:45 Case Studies of Utilizing Analytics to Drive Better Decisions

36:45 Get diverse perspectives, from relevant and large groupsBeware of making assumptions based on data

39:31 Take data you have available, match the quality of the data to make best decision. It is never perfect. Do more with less resources - innovation.

43:14 Last Call to Action to Lead differently tomorrow in Medical AffairsClarity - Objectives, Timelines, Resources, Performance metricsVoice of Customer + Voice of Employee

46:53 Find Someone to Compensate for your Blind Spots

This last Alloutcoach podcast episode of 2024 is the most

0:00 Episode Intro Music

0:07 Highlight #1 – Three Times I was fired / laid off

2:45 Highlight #2 – Noah Lyles’ loss of gold medal at his

3:35 Highilght #3 – Recipe for Consistency of High

6:13 Episode Introduction – Summary of the 2024 Medical Affairs

7:52 Detailed Episode Outline

8:49 Current State of Competition in Medical Affairs and

External and Internal Pressures of Competition and their

Major Layoffs due to changing workflows and inaccurate forecasting.

Need of Medical Affairs to discover new power in medical decisions

2024 Medical Affairs Innovation Spectrum – collaborating with

12:20 Our Perceptions of Competition vs Reality in Sports vs

Life Compass with only two directions – Progress and Success

14:03 Why I have always gone to work as if it were a sport I

15:07 Case Study – Leading Medical to grow a Pharma Startup

18:07 Personal Reflection and Analysis – Why I was fired / reorganized

23:14 Paris 2024 Olympics Lesson #1 – Respect Your

Noah Lyles’ claims of superiority in an event he dominated

Recent personal observation and outcome of a child celebrating

Gary Hall Jr, 5-time Olympic Gold Medalist – won his first Olympic

27:58 Paris 2024 Olympics Lesson #2 – It is the Final Lean

Noah Lyles’ closest margin of gold medal victory in the 100-meter

Dominant Italian national teams in volleyball and water polo

29:51 Paris 2024 Olympics Lesson #3 - Recipe of Consistency

Carl Lewis’ remarkable consistency of winning 4 consecutive

Greek Long Jumper Miltiadis Tentoglou and Women’s South

Personal application of mastering cooking pasta

33:20 Paris 2024 Olympics Lesson #4 – Never Bypass the

US Men’s 4 x 100 Sprint Relay Team’s Inefficient Baton Pass

Marquis Dendy, US veteran, best current long jumper’s

Damian Warner, Canadian decathlete Olympic gold medalist’s

35:13 Paris 2024 Olympics Lesson #5 – Adapt to New Rules and

The judge or new competition format led to an unpredictable

Celebrate Competition in Medical Affairs to stay competitive

Clinical research is undergoing a revolution in light of new demands for speed and opportunities from a technological standpoint. These trends have given rise to a debate about the quality and clinical meaning of traditional methods of investigations versus modern types of clinical studies to collect real world evidence.

0:09 Episode Highlight

3:09 Innovation Olympics Introduction

4:44 Debate Rules & Introduction

6:30 RCTs are the Gold Standard for Research and Learning - For the Motion - Sana Syed

24:48 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) - ~17 yrs to translate data into real world

49:31 Final Comments - Against the Motion, Rashad Massoud

53:14 Live Voting Results