Lifers with Christina Farr

In Episode 4 of Rounds: Where Healthcare Meets Wall Street, Christina Farr and Stephanie Davis break down the latest healthcare and AI headlines before sitting down with Sam Toole, Partner at Primary Venture Partners, and Sonia Millsom, CEO of Oxeon. 

We'll cover:

Hosts and Guests:

Sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank.

This week on Lifers, Christina Farr is joined by Eric Larsen, President of TowerBrook Advisors and President Emeritus of the Advisory Board, argues that the shift of GDP from labor to capital is already underway, and that healthcare, the most labor-intensive sector in the US economy, will not be the laggard everyone assumes. They get into the $2.9 trillion of healthcare spending that goes to labor, why white-collar work turns out to have no union protection at exactly the moment white-collar work is what gets automated, and what he calls the Orwellian conspiracy of silence on job dislocation. Dive into the Granola notes from this episode: https://notes.granola.ai/t/405c9b0e-a70e-42ec-82b8-b34cc24303d2-008umkv4 

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SPONSORS: Granola & Baker Health

If meetings are eating up your day, Granola is a no-brainer. You can try it totally free - just head to granola.ai/LIFERS

Baker Health delivers concierge primary care focused on prevention, wellness, and lifestyle optimization. Combining personalized care with integrative services—including nutrition, mental health, weight management, and lifestyle medicine—Baker Health provides Members with a holistic, whole-person approach to long-term health and longevity. Through extended visits, seamless access to doctors, and a curated specialty network, Baker Health ensures Members receive proactive guidance and actionable insights to optimize their well-being.

Baker Health serves Members across multiple locations and provides a tech-enabled experience through the proprietary Baker Health app, offering 365-day access to doctors and care teams.

Download the Baker Health App: https://linktr.ee/baker_health 
Learn More: https://www.bakerhealth.com/ 

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LINKS:
Towerbrook: https://www.towerbrook.com/ 
The Citrini memo: https://www.citriniresearch.com/p/2028gic 
Dario Amodei, "The Adolescence of Technology": https://darioamodei.com/essay/the-adolescence-of-technology 
Eric and Dario Amodei: Incumbents and Insurgents in Healthcare: https://www.incumbentsandinsurgents.com/e/dario-amodei/ 
Dan Wang, Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future: https://danwang.co/breakneck/ 

Chrissy Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr 
Chrissy Farr on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cfarr/ 
Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ 
Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books 

—
FOLLOW:
Eric:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-larsen-a4a0461/ 
Chrissy:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ 
https://x.com/chrissyfarr 
Second Opinion Media:
https://www.instagram.com/second.opinion.media/ 
https://x.com/second_op_media 
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TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) Lead In
(00:47) Intro
(01:08) Meet Eric Larsen
(02:52) ChatGPT conversion moment
(04:40) Tech perfectionism debate
(06:52) Citrini memo fallout
(08:23) AI targets knowledge work
(13:46) Healthcare dislocation ethics
(15:35) Why healthcare is vulnerable
(18:11) Sponsor: Granola | Baker Health
(20:21) Automating revenue cycle
(22:29) Universal high income idea
(24:02) Capital vs labor divergence
(25:39) CapEx arms race and layoffs
(27:32) Overhiring or AI shift
(29:38) Regulation and AI power risks
(31:28) Growing smarter models
(32:10) Regulation paradox in healthcare
(34:08) Credentialism meets exponential tech
(35:47) Complexity breaks medicine
(39:09) Risk tolerance and iterative deployment
(42:14) Lawyers and lost apprenticeships
(43:12) Advice for 21 year olds
(46:05) Four powers of synthetic intelligence
(52:11) Human moat and last mile trust
(54:31) Post scarcity and inequality risks
(58:23) Wrap

This week on Lifers, Christina Farr is joined by Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel and Dr. John Whyte, CEO of the American Medical Association, who are longtime friends on opposite sides of the biggest question in health AI: should it ever practice medicine without a human in the loop? After Zeke’s commentary with Vinod and Neal Khosla argued AI performs better autonomously, the two agreed to debate. Zeke cites a Stanford RCT where AI managing insulin beat doctors by weeks; John counters that the evidence leans on simulated cases and that medicine is a trust relationship, not task completion. They clash over whether the "art of medicine" defense is disingenuous, who adopts autonomous AI first, the risk of physician de-skilling, and who should tell you you have cancer. Dive into the Granola notes from this episode: https://notes.granola.ai/t/f04862c0-3ed3-411f-a8dd-85b336356a19-008umkv4
—
SPONSORS: Granola & Baker Health

If meetings are eating up your day, Granola is a no-brainer. You can try it totally free - just head to granola.ai/LIFERS 

Baker Health delivers concierge primary care focused on prevention, wellness, and lifestyle optimization. Combining personalized care with integrative services—including nutrition, mental health, weight management, and lifestyle medicine—Baker Health provides Members with a holistic, whole-person approach to long-term health and longevity. Through extended visits, seamless access to doctors, and a curated specialty network, Baker Health ensures Members receive proactive guidance and actionable insights to optimize their well-being.
Baker Health serves Members across multiple locations and provides a tech-enabled experience through the proprietary Baker Health app, offering 365-day access to doctors and care teams.
Download the Baker Health App: https://linktr.ee/baker_health 
Learn More: https://www.bakerhealth.com/ 

—
LINKS:
Zeke’s JAMA commentary with Vinod Khosla and Neal Khosla: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/10.1001/jama.2026.15380 
Bob Wachter's book A Giant Leap: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/776443/a-giant-leap-by-robert-wachter-md/ 
Stanford diabetes/insulin RCT: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2812420 
Scott Winters v. OpenAI: https://www.inc.com/georgia-fearn/a-pastor-turned-to-chatgpt-instead-of-a-doctor-now-hes-suing-openai/91378175 

Chrissy Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr 
Chrissy Farr on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cfarr/ 
Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ 
Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books 

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FOLLOW:
Zeke:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/zeke-emanuel-6ab78a1b0/ 
https://x.com/ZekeEmanuel 

John:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjohnwhyte 
https://x.com/drjohnwhyte 

Chrissy:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ 
https://x.com/chrissyfarr 

Second Opinion Media:
https://www.instagram.com/second.opinion.media/ 
https://x.com/second_op_media 

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TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) Lead In
(00:46) Intro
(02:53) Zeke's paper backstory
(04:13) Self driving cars analogy
(06:36) John pushback, trust and art
(08:41) Claude diagnosis anecdote
(12:19) Trials and deployment ideas
(13:57) Evidence fight and guardrails
(17:41) Empathy, education and autonomy
(21:43) Sponsors: Granola | Baker Health
(23:53) Human in loop, medication refills
(26:35) Augmented AI and cancer second opinions
(28:36) Debating the right question
(30:09) Licensing and regulation
(31:28) Chatbots in mental health
(37:03) Patient story and self advocacy
(43:29) Liability and ice cream bet
(44:46) Doctors and robots by 2030
(46:37) When humans hurt AI performance
(48:20) Who breaks bad news
(53:13) Wrap

Christina Farr sits down with Kimberly Powell, VP of Healthcare at NVIDIA, an 18-year veteran who built the company's healthcare business from a single cold call in 2008. They dig into the physician replacement debate ("the task is not the job"), why AI agents made the last six months a turning point for healthcare, and Kimberly's prediction that within five years the hospital itself becomes a robot. Plus: the OpenAI lawsuit and techno-perfectionism, payer agents versus provider agents, why 90% of drugs fail in the clinic, and whether Kimberly says please to her LLMs. Dive into the Granola notes from this episode: https://notes.granola.ai/t/01905ea7-a624-4859-8530-80e6e0c46dca-009c2hma 

—
SPONSORS:Granola & Baker Health

If meetings are eating up your day, Granola is a no-brainer. You can try it totally free - just head to granola.ai/LIFERS  

Baker Health delivers concierge primary care focused on prevention, wellness, and lifestyle optimization. Combining personalized care with integrative services—including nutrition, mental health, weight management, and lifestyle medicine—Baker Health provides Members with a holistic, whole-person approach to long-term health and longevity. Through extended visits, seamless access to doctors, and a curated specialty network, Baker Health ensures Members receive proactive guidance and actionable insights to optimize their well-being.
Baker Health serves Members across multiple locations and provides a tech-enabled experience through the proprietary Baker Health app, offering 365-day access to doctors and care teams.

Download the Baker Health App: https://linktr.ee/baker_health 
Learn More: https://www.bakerhealth.com/

—
LINKS:
NVIDIA: https://www.nvidia.com/ 
OpenAI lawsuit (CBS News): https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chatgpt-dangerous-medical-advice-openai-lawsuit/ 
Kimberly's Fortune talk: https://fortune.com/2026/06/10/nvidia-drug-pharma-isomorphic-brainstorm-tech-ai-healthcare-biotech-term-sheet/ 

Chrissy Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr 
Chrissy Farr on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cfarr/ 
Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ 
Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books 

—
FOLLOW:
Kimberly:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kpowell/ 
https://x.com/kpowgerade 

Chrissy:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ 
https://x.com/chrissyfarr 

Second Opinion Media:
https://www.instagram.com/second.opinion.media/ 
https://x.com/second_op_media 

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TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) Lead In
(00:44) Intro
(01:24) Kimberly joins NVIDIA
(05:13) Early healthcare adoption
(08:41) Augment not replace
(14:35) Inside the future hospital
(16:27) Sponsors: Granola | Baker Health
(18:38) Why healthcare matters
(23:25) Agents unlock workflows
(28:53) Clinicians adapting to AI
(33:43) Safety and risk reward
(40:19) Agents across industry
(44:14) Five year predictions
(49:53) AI hireable and ROI
(54:02) Personal tech habits
(55:59) AI etiquette and hacks
(58:52) Wrap

Co-hosted by Christina Farr and Stephanie Davis, this episode digs into what's really driving digital health right now — mega deals, market concentration, and what's building durable advantage as AI becomes table stakes. Megan Zweig, CEO and President of Rock Health Advisory, joins to break down Rock Health's H1 2026 funding and market report, and Arvind Kadaba, CFO of Aidoc, sits down to talk about fundraising, market forces, and what sets a clinical AI company apart.

We'll cover:

Hosts and Guests:

Timestamps:

Sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank.

Dr. Zeyad Baker, a pediatrician who scaled a 24-hour primary care practice, sold it to Optum, and spent five years as their tri-state market CEO, joins Christina Farr to argue that the scarcest resource in healthcare is not data or technology but the doctor-patient relationship itself. He walks through how Baker Health is built around that claim: clinics with no waiting rooms, a 24/7 synchronous chat staffed by board-certified physicians, physicians required to certify in lifestyle medicine, and a specialist network held to three hard rules including a 72-hour access guarantee. The conversation gets into where AI genuinely helped him, including an atypical Crohn's diagnosis that three clinicians had missed, and where he thinks it will not, and Chrissy shares her own recent autoimmune diagnosis and the role an LLM played in it.
—
SPONSOR:
Baker Health delivers concierge primary care focused on prevention, wellness, and lifestyle optimization. Combining personalized care with integrative services—including nutrition, mental health, weight management, and lifestyle medicine—Baker Health provides Members with a holistic, whole-person approach to long-term health and longevity.

Through extended visits, seamless access to doctors, and a curated specialty network, Baker Health ensures Members receive proactive guidance and actionable insights to optimize their well-being.
Baker Health serves Members across multiple locations and provides a tech-enabled experience through the proprietary Baker Health app, offering 365-day access to doctors and care teams.

Download the Baker Health App: https://linktr.ee/baker_health 
Learn More: https://www.bakerhealth.com/ 

The only practice in NY & NJ where you can text your doctor directly and get seen the same-day.
Make a Reservation: https://reservations.bakerhealth.com/medical?utm_source=lifers 

—
LINKS:
Baker Health: https://www.bakerhealth.com/ 
Bob Wachter on Lifers: https://youtu.be/p6U1fX1JgVk 
Midjourney episode on Lifers: https://youtu.be/jigG63wHooE 
Delaware prior authorization episode on Lifers: https://youtu.be/zNVH9O1X8Es 

Chrissy Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr 
Chrissy Farr on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cfarr/ 
Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ 
Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books 

—
FOLLOW:
Zeyad:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/drzbaker 
https://x.com/DRZ_BAKER 

Chrissy:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ 
https://x.com/chrissyfarr 

Second Opinion Media:
https://www.instagram.com/second.opinion.media/ 
https://x.com/second_op_media 

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TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) Lead In
(00:34) Intro
(01:36) 24 hour primary care
(03:16) Lifetime care vision
(04:19) Pediatrics and trust
(07:15) Why pediatrics is hard
(09:40) Async care and texting
(11:59) BakerHealth app workflow
(13:48) One Medical lessons
(16:02) Three pillars tech holistic hospitality
(17:58) Hospitality tricks no waiting room
(21:17) Specialist referrals without chaos
(26:14) Scaling specialist network
(28:04) Wearables data and coaching
(30:40) Patients data doctors together
(31:17) Myth of worried well
(32:21) Patients take the wheel
(35:45) AI listening finds diagnosis
(38:05) Doctors using AI wisely
(41:37) Midjourney scans hype vs harm
(44:45) Primary care shortage math
(47:01) AI cuts admin burden
(50:05) Dashboards value based targeting
(53:19) Messaging and payment fixes
(56:35) Making primary care cool
(59:09) Innovation needs humanity
(01:02:57) Wrap

Matthew Rothstein, VP of Engineering at Akido, joins Christina Farr to talk about what changes when a technology company becomes a health system. He built a credit card, sold it to Goldman Sachs, helped launch the Apple Card, and now works on the AI foundation for a bi-coastal network of nearly 100 clinics and a street medicine program in LA and San Francisco. They get into his case for open weights models over commercial frontier models in medical imaging, why he thinks an AI answer is information rather than care, and whether benchmarking AI against a panel of clinical experts is a fair test when most patients never get access to that panel.

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SPONSOR:
Akido is a technology company re-engineering healthcare around AI. Its AI-native health system frees physicians from the cognitive heavy lifting of medicine and partners on the investigation and discovery, so doctors can focus on judgment and care. This stretches a limited physician supply to reach far more people. Akido operates a national network of more than 1,000 providers across 26 specialties and six markets. Founded in 2015 out of USC's Digital Health Lab, its Series B was led by Oak HC/FT. For more information, visit www.akido.com

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LINKS:
Aikido: https://www.akido.com/ 

Chrissy Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr 
Chrissy Farr on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cfarr/ 
Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ 
Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books 

—
FOLLOW:
Matthew:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marothstein 

Chrissy:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ 
https://x.com/chrissyfarr 

Second Opinion Media:
https://www.instagram.com/second.opinion.media/ 
https://x.com/second_op_media 

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TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) Lead In
(00:37) Intro
(01:23) From NIH to fintech
(03:12) Life inside Goldman
(04:38) Fintech vs health tech
(07:26) AI aha moment
(09:51) How genAI changes teams
(12:31) Staying relevant by building
(14:27) Rebuilding healthcare systems
(17:38) Why care delivery wins
(20:34) Designing for clinicians
(22:37) Prioritizing impactful AI
(23:36) Scaling complex care
(24:33) Open models explained
(27:28) Data access and privacy
(30:01) Synthetic data and twins
(32:52) ChatGPT triage reality check
(36:42) Doctors plus AI tools
(39:28) General vs specialized models
(42:35) Reimbursement and value based care
(45:14) AI reshapes engineering teams
(49:13) Empathy in care delivery
(50:46) Akido rebrand and AI native system
(51:41) Wrap

Mark Bertolini, CEO of Oscar Health, has run healthcare from every seat: CEO of Aetna, co-CEO of Bridgewater, and now head of the insurer he calls a pirate ship among Spanish galleons. He and Chrissy trace how an 80-year-old wartime workaround became the employer-sponsored system nobody is incentivized to fix, and what replaces it: one risk pool, a portable bucket of your own money, and a plan you keep for life. Along the way: the ICHRA mechanism, the $32 shower chair, the system priced at $468, and the personal story behind his hospice reform at Aetna.

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SPONSOR:
Oscar Health, Inc. is on a mission to give people greater power over their healthcare by building a more consumer-driven healthcare system. By leveraging technology to place individuals at the center of their healthcare experience, Oscar is transforming the industry into one that is proactive, personal, and transparent. Through its insurance subsidiary, Oscar Insurance, the company provides individual market health plans, innovative digital tools, and support for models such as ICHRA, helping people make more informed decisions with greater choice and coverage tailored to their needs.

Dive into our conversation on Oscar's blog: https://www.hioscar.com/blog/future-of-healthcare-conversation-mark-bertolini?utm_source=lifers_youtube-organic&utm_campaign=all_null_christina-farr-mark-bertolini&utm_medium=national_all_null&utm_term=future-of-healthcare-blog 

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LINKS:
Oscar Health: https://www.hioscar.com/ 
Lucie Health Marketplace: https://www.luciehealth.com/ 

Chrissy Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr 
Chrissy Farr on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cfarr/ 
Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ 
Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books 

—
FOLLOW:
Mark:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/markbertolini 

Chrissy:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ 
https://x.com/chrissyfarr 

Second Opinion Media:
https://www.instagram.com/second.opinion.media/ 
https://x.com/second_op_media 
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TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) Preview
(00:25) Why employer loyalty doesn't exist anymore
(02:12) How World War II built the system we have
(03:02) Three economic models pushed together
(04:47) The $23,000 question at CNBC
(06:23) Conflating financing and investment
(08:18) The three employer-sponsored insurance markets
(09:57) Pooling every American and giving them their own bucket
(11:09) The churn problem and lifetime value
(14:32) Squaring the morbidity curve
(16:48) What ICHRA is and why Oscar is betting on it
(18:45) Curated pricing, the Lucie Health marketplace
(21:53) What the system refuses to curate
(23:23) Rewriting the hospice program
(26:22) Dignitas and how we talk about dying
(28:25) Why CEOs haven't dropped healthcare yet
(31:03) Machiavelli and the tenure problem
(32:43) Which employers tip first
(34:14) Growing up in Detroit
(34:51) Never count anyone else's money
(37:22) From the Ford assembly line to accounting
(39:05) Why spreadsheets give the illusion of certainty
(40:45) Choosing Oscar
(43:38) Reasons to believe
(46:14) Wrap

Lauren Makler, Co-Founder & CEO of Cofertility, joins Christina Farr to ask why having a baby with medical help now costs as much as a house, and what a fairer system would look like. They get into Lauren's argument that donor "anonymity" has been a lie since the at-home DNA test era, the surge-pricing dynamics of traditional egg donation, and Cofertility's egg-sharing model, where women freeze their eggs for free by donating half to intended parents. The conversation also covers the natalism debate, the eggs-versus-embryos decision, and why Gen Z, 72% of whom already worry about their fertility, will refuse the fax-machine healthcare experience millennials tolerated.
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SPONSOR: Baker Health
🩺 This episode is brought to you by Baker Health. Evidence-based medicine and real holistic care, under one roof, with labs, results, and 24/7 live doctor chat all in one app.
Download the Baker Health App: https://linktr.ee/baker_health 
Learn More: https://www.bakerhealth.com/ 

The only practice in NY & NJ where you can text your doctor directly and get same-day reservations.
Make a Reservation: https://reservations.bakerhealth.com/medical?utm_source=lifers 

—
Join Christina for an upcoming webinar:
• 7/27 - Peptide Therapy: Where Do We Go From Here? - https://streamyard.com/watch/AgaHuDEvjisN

—
LINKS:
Infertility: https://www.cofertility.com/ 

Chrissy Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr 
Chrissy Farr on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cfarr/ 
Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ 
Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books

—
FOLLOW:
Lauren:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenmakler 
https://x.com/laurenmakler 

Chrissy:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ 
https://x.com/chrissyfarr 

Second Opinion Media:
https://www.instagram.com/second.opinion.media/ 
https://x.com/second_op_media 
—
TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) Lead In
(00:33) Intro
(02:19) Why IVF costs keep rising
(03:53) Real price ranges to parenthood
(05:47) Birth rates and pronatalism debate
(08:45) Elon Musk and ethics
(11:15) Cofertility egg sharing model
(13:18) Ending anonymous donation
(15:57) Sponsor: Baker Health
(17:14) Surge pricing and fairness
(20:29) Biological clock and Gen Z
(25:27) Dating culture, eggs vs embryos
(28:58) Future of third party reproduction
(32:23) Guardrails and autonomy
(34:30) Investing thesis, growing the TAM
(38:07) Would you donate, relationship spectrum
(42:46) Gen Z will redefine healthcare
(44:55) Wrap

Healthcare is moving fast — and not everyone agrees on where it's heading. This week, Christina and Stephanie break down the latest in health tech news and data before diving into one of the most provocative debates in modern medicine: is full body scanning actually good for you? The conversation gets a timely twist with Midjourney's recent announcement of a full-body ultrasound scanner built on licensed Butterfly Network technology.

In this episode: Christina Farr and Stephanie Davis are joined by Keaton Bedell, Co-Founder and CEO of Bridge, and Joe DeVivo, President, CEO, and Chairman at Butterfly Network. First, Keaton walks us through the latest data and recent news shaping the health tech landscape — including where virtual care is headed next, as behavioral health and primary care give way to a much richer tapestry of specialties. Then Joe brings the Butterfly Network perspective as we get into it: how Butterfly's tech ended up inside Midjourney's new scanner, the ethics, hype, and reality of full body scans, and what it actually means when AI gets involved in reading them.

We'll cover:

Hosts and Guests:

Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro

Sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank.