Before the Cure

In stroke care, “time is brain”: every minute without treatment can affect a patient’s recovery. Mobile stroke units can begin treatment before a patient reaches the hospital. In the landmark BEST-MSU trial, treating patients approximately 40 minutes earlier resulted in less disability for 27 of every 100 patients, including 11 additional patients who were disability-free.

Dr. May Nour is a vascular neurologist and interventionalist at UCLA Health. She directs California’s first mobile stroke unit program and helped lead the BEST-MSU trial examining whether specialized stroke treatment delivered in the field improves patient outcomes.

For nine years, Dr. Nour’s team has brought emergency stroke imaging and treatment to communities across Los Angeles County. The program demonstrates what can happen when medical innovation, emergency services, county leadership, and philanthropy work together.

Mobile stroke units combine services the healthcare system normally treats separately, including ambulance transport, medical imaging, specialists, and treatment in the field. Reimbursement policy has not yet fully adapted to this model of care.

In this conversation, Dr. Nour explains how her team built the program, what the research shows, and what it would take to make mobile stroke units a lasting part of emergency care across the country.

Learn more about and support UCLA Health’s Mobile Stroke Unit:

https://www.uclahealth.org/departments/neurology/mobile-stroke/donate

Further reading:

The New England Journal of Medicine: Prospective, Multicenter, Controlled Trial of Mobile Stroke Units

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34496173/

Recognize the warning signs of stroke:

American Stroke Association: B.E. F.A.S.T.

https://www.stroke.org/en/about-stroke/stroke-symptoms

Guest: Dr. May Nour, medical director of the UCLA Arline and Henry Gluck Stroke Rescue Program

Hosts: Timothy Wheeler and David Tsai

Learn more about Before the Cure:

https://beforethecure.org

When the Palisades wildfire destroyed Steve Brown’s home, the displacement forced him into a new health system, where doctors discovered an aggressive blood cancer that had been missed for months. He responded by using AI to analyze hundreds of medical records and help him understand his cancer and treatment options.

Brown is a Stanford-trained physicist and computer scientist who spent decades building technology in Silicon Valley and helped pioneer remote patient monitoring before it became standard care. After his diagnosis, he approached cancer like a founder, creating a swarm of AI agents to examine his case from different clinical perspectives.

The AI did not uncover a new test result. It identified a plasma cell problem that was already sitting in his medical records.

That discovery led Brown to build CureWise and confront a larger question: Could AI help cancer patients understand what the healthcare system has overlooked and make more informed treatment decisions?

Learn more about CureWise:
https://curewise.com

Further reading:

The ASCO Post: Using AI to Ensure That All Patients With Cancer Have Access to Precision Oncology Care
https://ascopost.com/issues/january-25-2026/using-ai-to-ensure-that-all-patients-with-cancer-have-access-to-precision-oncology-care/

Forbes: When Patients Become Innovators Using AI to Improve Their Own Care
https://www.forbes.com/sites/craigsmith/2026/01/21/when-patients-become-innovators-using-ai-to-improve-their-own-care/

Guest: Steve Brown, founder and CEO of CureWise
Hosts: Timothy Wheeler and David Tsai

Learn more about Before the Cure:
https://beforethecure.org

Should prediction markets allow people to bet on clinical trials and drug approvals? When Kalshi introduced these markets, David Tsai launched a petition calling for them to stop—placing him at the center of a national debate about gambling, medical research, and public trust.

We weren’t planning this episode. But when our own co-host’s stand brought The New York Times and NPR to his door, we decided the conversation couldn’t wait.

Supporters argue that prediction markets can reveal useful information about whether a clinical trial will succeed or a drug will receive approval. David believes allowing people to profit from these outcomes could create dangerous incentives and undermine the trust that clinical research depends upon.

In this bonus episode, Timothy Wheeler speaks with David about why he took on Kalshi, the warnings he received, and what happened when staying quiet was no longer an option.

Take action:

Sign David Tsai’s petition calling for an end to prediction markets that allow betting on clinical-trial outcomes:
https://www.change.org/p/ban-prediction-markets-from-betting-on-the-outcomes-of-life-saving-clinical-trials

Connect with David Tsai:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidstsai

Guest: David Tsai
Host: Timothy Wheeler

Learn more about Before the Cure:
https://beforethecure.org

For the first 19 years of her life, Ilana Jacqueline was told that her symptoms weren’t real. Now a leading voice in patient advocacy, she explains how medical gaslighting happens, what it costs when patients are dismissed, and how people can advocate for themselves inside the healthcare system.

Ilana is the author of “Medical Gaslighting: How to Get the Care You Deserve in a System That Makes You Fight for Your Life.” During 15 years of advocacy, her writing and videos have reached millions. In this conversation, she explores why patients struggle to be believed, how medical gaslighting affects access to care, and why patients have more power to change healthcare than ever before.

Learn more about Ilana Jacqueline and explore her patient advocacy resources:
https://www.ilanajacqueline.com

Connect with Ilana:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ilana_jacqueline
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilanajacqueline/

Guest: Ilana Jacqueline, author and patient advocate
Hosts: Timothy Wheeler and David Tsai

Learn more about Before the Cure:
https://beforethecure.org

Days before this conversation was recorded, Dr. Tim Nelson acquired a 600,000-square-foot hospital—for one dollar.

Dr. Nelson, co-founder and CEO of HeartWorks, explains how regenerative medicine could change care for congenital heart disease. HeartWorks is developing patient-specific cell therapies and bioengineered cardiac tissue designed to strengthen and rebuild heart muscle.

He also explains why promising science can stall between the laboratory and patients, and why the $1 hospital is part of his attempt to rebuild the institutions that move potential treatments into clinical trials.

Learn more about HeartWorks and its work to develop new treatments for congenital heart disease:
https://heartworksinc.org

Guest: Dr. Tim Nelson, co-founder and CEO of HeartWorks
Hosts: Timothy Wheeler and David Tsai

Learn more about Before the Cure:
https://beforethecure.org

Before the Cure explores the human stories behind medical breakthroughs, healthcare innovation, biotechnology, patient advocacy, and the search for better treatments.

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Timothy Wheeler and biotech leader David Tsai sit down with scientists, physicians, founders, advocates, patients, and families who are changing medicine and challenging how healthcare works.

Timothy has spent 20 years documenting people pursuing ideas they believed mattered long before anyone knew whether they would succeed. David has spent his career inside biotech and pharmaceutical development, helping navigate the complicated path from promising science to real-world impact.

Together, they ask: What drives someone to pursue a medical breakthrough? What happens before a treatment reaches patients? How can people better navigate the healthcare system and advocate for themselves? And which emerging technologies could change what is possible?

These conversations cover medical research, clinical trials, rare diseases, artificial intelligence in healthcare, patient advocacy, and the persistence required to move medicine forward when the outcome remains uncertain.

Because a medical breakthrough is also a human story.

This is Before the Cure. Follow the show to hear new conversations about the people and ideas changing medicine.