In episode 15 of ReBootHealth, I speak with Drs. Singh and Moffat. They co-founded Empirica Therapeutics in 2018 to address glioblastoma and were recently acquired by Century Therapeutics in 2020 to form Century Therapeutics Canada. Sheila and Jason discuss their chance meeting to collaborate, Canadian stem cell research, the challenges they faced as an early-stage biotech venture, and where they feel Canada can do better. We also touched on the great things we’re doing in the biotech space despite all the challenges and finally, for all you aspiring graduate students, you’ll hear how to get invention out of academia and turn it into innovation. As always, I hope you find the episode valuable.

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Episode recorded on January 28, 2022.

09:30—The two Christophers.

14:30—Serendipity and the power of collaboration.

19:55—Canada and stem cell research.

26:08—Starting Empirica Therapeutics.

34:27—Transitioning scientists to entrepreneurs.

43:56—Moving research from the ivory tower.

51:44—Fostering the Canadian biotechnology ecosystem.

In episode 14 of ReBootHealth, I speak with Ali Tehrani. Ali is the co-founder and former CEO of Zymeworks, a publicly listed, clinical-stage, biopharmaceutical company focused on developing biotherapeutics in the oncology space. It was an honour and a joy to have Ali be a guest and share his deep knowledge around building one of the pioneer biotechnology ventures in the Canadian ecosystem.  We could have spent hours on this show but decided to focus on the key passions of Ali including talent in biotechnology, permission to be ambitious, entrepreneurship, and the new world of biotechnology. There’s a lot more I wanted to explore and look forward to having Ali back on the show. For those of you who listen until the very end, a surprise ‘hack’ to quickly connect to one of Canada’s all-star biotech founders. As always, I hope you find the episode valuable.

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Episode recorded on January 24, 2022.

10:15—Starting the Zymeworks journey.

17:22—Diversity of talent in biotechnology.

23:32—Debunking the obstacles in Canadian biotechnology.

30:49—Permission to be ambitious.

33:15—Exploring entrepreneurship.

38:33—“The Last Dance” and leadership.

42:50—The new world of biotechnology

48:07—Reflections.

In episode 13 of ReBootHealth, I speak with Dave Kuraguntla. Dave is the founder and CEO of Alio, a non-invasive, remote patient monitoring start-up focused on chronic conditions.  Telehealth and remote patient monitoring have been hot areas in venture over the last two years and we talk about Alio’s impact in this area. Dave talks about the importance of finding a tribe for founders, focusing on solving problems rather than building technology, the role incentives play in helping (or hindering) a market and the role serendipity can play with a founder’s journey. Dave is a classical “scratch the itch” type of founder who saw a problem and needed to solve it. While it sounds easy, Dave reminds us of many valuable lessons when building ventures in the health care market. If you’re a founder take note of his 4 “P’s”, it’s a good reminder of what it takes to get product adoption for health care innovation. As always, I hope you find the episode valuable.

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Episode recorded on December 15, 2021.

06:58—Aligning incentives to solve problems.

10:25—The importance of finding your tribe and maintaining focus.

23:52—Incentivizing nephrology in the digital age.

34:40—Unlocking remote patient monitoring for scale.

40:10—When to chase serendipity for upside.

In episode 12 of ReBootHealth, I speak with Ali Ardakani. Ali is the founder and managing director of Novateur Ventures a global talent firm of device and drug development experts.  Ali continues our exploration of the Canadian biotechnology ecosystem with a specific focus on British Columbia, a province that has recently been firing on all cylinders. Ali provides insight into what is working in BC and what is not. We chat about entrepreneurship, BC and its talent pool, and the role of capital in the ecosystem. Ali is passionate about a national vaccine strategy, and we talk about its relation to national security. Finally, we touch on the future of growing teams in early biotechnology and finish off with a brief primer on platform technology and its role in growing regional ecosystems. I was thrilled to have been connected with Ali, and hopefully after listening you’ll understand why he is a huge asset to the BC biotechnology ecosystem. As always, I hope you find the episode valuable.

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Episode recorded on November 17, 2021.

06:30—Biotechnology and entrepreneurship.

13:00—Growing the talent pool in BC.

20:30—The search for Canadian capital.

25:55—Biotechnology and national security.

35:00—The future of biotechnology and virtual work.

41:00—Platforms and building ecosystems.

In episode 11 of ReBootHealth, I speak with Peter van der Velden. Peter is the Managing General Partner of Lumira Ventures, a multi-stage life sciences investment firm focused on biotechnology, medical technologies, digital health, and consumer healthcare solutions. Peter is no ‘biotech-tourist’ and so it was great to hear a seasoned veteran’s perspective on the Canadian health ecosystem. We could have chatted for hours, but I wanted to touch on the critical aspects of the innovation ecosystem: people, places, policies, and purse strings (‘capital’) that fuel our system. We explored many topics including Canada’s health innovation status, the role for institutional players and governments, and his perspective on how clinicians can become more involved. Peter has some specific thoughts on what needs to happen to boost our system to the next level. While some may not agree with all his ideas, it was refreshing to hear such a clear and articulate thesis of what needs to be done and where we need to go from here. I do hope some of the players mentioned in this show step up to life sciences, as Canada has a lot to offer the world from its great science! This episode was a pleasure to conduct with many useful nuggets and thought-provoking ideas. As always, I hope you find the episode valuable.

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Episode recorded on November 12, 2021.

05:55—Canada, life science and innovation.

12:55—Sourcing talent and capital to grow biotech.

22:20—Shifting capital landscape and venture models.

28:25—The role of government in life sciences.

40:50—Angels, venture philanthropy and life sciences.

46:53—Roadmap to healthcare innovation.

In episode 10 of ReBootHealth, I speak with James Somauroo. James is an anesthetist and intensivist in the UK who has become a healthtech start-up communication “whisperer”.  He is the founder of SomX, host of the Healthtech Podcast, and editor and chief of Healthtech Pigeon. I was fascinated with James’s journey and felt a kindred spirit in helping to shine a light on all the great founders and activities in the healthtech ecosystem. I was particularly excited to invite James as my first, inaugural ‘across the pond’ guest. We touched on a number of topics including the power of storytelling, the importance of a communications strategy for healthtech start-ups, a high-level overview of the NHS healthtech ecosystem, and where we might go from here for the ecosystem in general. James is a prolific content distributor, and I was honoured to have him share his learnings. As always, I hope you find the episode valuable.

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Episode recorded on October 6, 2021.

10:10—Choosing healthcare policy vs founder route.

18:20—Storytelling and healthcare start-ups.

25:30—Balancing healthcare marketing and evidence.

37:50—Where is health technology today.

42:46—Assessing the UK health technology ecosystem.

54:00—Moving away from ‘hype and hope’.

In episode 9 of ReBootHealth, I speak with Alexandra Greenhill. Alexandra is an emergency care physician and founder of Careteam Technologies. Alexandra has an immense depth of experience as a clinician, administrator in the healthcare ecosystem, and now as a founder and CEO. I crossed paths with Alexandra on a CDL reading club and quickly appreciated her passion for the fields of technology and health. On today’s show, we talk about some of her generalizable heuristics that all founders could benefit from, diversity in the health tech ecosystem, and the role of evidence for early-stage founders. If you’re an early founder in health tech (but particularly a woman) and not already following Alexandra Greenhill, you must add her to your list. As always, I hope you find the episode valuable.

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Episode recorded on August 26, 2021.

06:55—Starting with the “Why?” in healthcare.

11:15—The Greenhill heuristic-perspective, time, and inner happiness.

17:20—7 key tenets for all founders.

33:40—Diversity and gender in digital health ventures.

41:51—Digital health tech and the impact of diversity.

45:33—Is clinical evidence required for early ventures?

53:26—Canada and the innovation ecosystem.

AUTHORS/BOOKS REFERENCED 

Marshall Goldsmith

Good to Great

Mindset

In episode 8 of ReBootHealth, I speak with Muhammad Mamdani. Muhammad is Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and Vice-President of Data Science and Advanced Analytics at Unity Health Toronto. Muhammad bridges advanced analytics including machine learning with clinical and management decision-making to improve patient outcomes and hospital efficiency. I brought Muhammad on for 2 main reasons; one to shine a light on the great work being done by healthcare organizations in AI and health care and the second, to understand the more neglected parts of the exciting health innovation journey--technology evaluation and change management. Muhammad and his team have produced some amazing results through multiple projects at Unity Health. What struck me most was not the emphasis on specific data sets or ML models, but rather the impact of social buy-in and change as one of the most dominant factors for technology success. If you’re entering the field of ML/data helps to remember that this is still a ‘people industry’. As always, I hope you find the episode valuable.

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Episode recorded on August 19, 2021.

08:30—Understanding the data life cycle in healthcare.

16:35—Creating excitement around AI within the health system.

24:45—The ‘social game’ of technology deployment.

27:48—Will change happen outside-in or inside-out?

30:46—What clinicians need to know about the models.

37:33—How does evidence play a role in AI technology.

44:40—How role of regulators and change management.

In the seventh episode of ReBootHealth, I speak with Avi Goldfarb. Avi is Professor of Marketing and the Rotman Chair of Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare at the University of Toronto. He is also co-author of the Book Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence. This interview with Avi was fascinating as he unpacked AI and healthcare through an economic lens. The content in this episode won’t help you build a better AI but it will do one better—help set the context for the profound impact of AI on the business and structure of healthcare. We talked about AI’s impact on the anatomy of a decision, the pace of adoption in healthcare, its potential role in clinical medicine and design implications, and a utopian/dystopian view of the future of health. I highly recommend Avi’s book (linked below) for a novel way to view AI without all the hype and buzz. I must admit that this episode was quite enjoyable to research as it opened a whole new perspective for me. I promise it will do the same for you. As always, I hope you find the episode valuable.

Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence

Avi Goldfarb’s publications

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Episode recorded on August 13, 2021.

05:00—AI and its role in decision-making and healthcare.

15:04—Estimating the pace of change for AI in medicine.

19:20—How to capture value with AI.

27:10—Applying lessons of the past and present to AI adoption.

39:40—Decision support versus automation.

44:15—How to design technology for the task.

47:31—Will 'ship-to-shop’ apply to healthcare?

54:27—Canada’s status in AI/healthcare.

In the sixth episode of ReBootHealth, I speak with Ray Muzyka. Ray is a family physician turned gaming founder (BioWare) turned prolific investor (Threshold Impact). Ray co-founded BioWare in the early1990’s and continued to work with Electronic Arts after they acquired BioWare in 2008. Ray has a wealth of knowledge in so many areas, it was hard to narrow down the show to only a few topics. We eventually decided to dig into his thoughts on qualities that make great founders and the role of mentors and advisors (all 3 areas in which Ray is familiar).  We end the show with a brief chat about Ray’s love of games and specifically his thoughts on poker. This was a particularly enjoyable show as I had the privilege of diving deep with one of the most knowledgeable, humble, and generous angel investors in the Canadian innovation ecosystem. As always, I hope you find the episode valuable.

· Ray’s full bio

· Ray Muzyka’s book list

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Episode recorded on July14th, 2021.

05:40—The founding of BioWare, compatible co-founders and leadership

13:24—Defining the qualities of great founders.

20:24—Building a founding team.

25:08—Potential challenges for new founders.

28:14—The importance of mentorship.

38:15—Where to find a mentor for coaching and support.

40:47—The role of poker in Ray’s life and its relation to entrepreneurship.

50:10—An overview of the Canadian healthcare innovation landscape.