The Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show

Why do promising healthcare startups struggle to bring their innovations to patients? And what separates founders who make real progress from those who get stuck?

On this episode of the Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show, Michael Stamatinos sits down with Megan Kane, Executive Director of Rellia Health, to explore what it really takes to build and grow a medical device or digital health company.

Megan has spent much of her career navigating FDA regulations, quality management, and the complexities of bringing healthcare technology to market. Today, she's helping entrepreneurs overcome those same challenges through a growing network of 81 founders and more than 250 advisors.

Her journey into entrepreneurship wasn't exactly planned. What started with an invitation to judge a healthcare hackathon eventually led her to build an organization focused on helping founders turn promising ideas into measurable progress.

In this conversation, we explore:

* Why FDA regulation doesn't have to be the enemy of healthcare innovation

* Common mistakes medical device and digital health startups make

* How founders can approach regulatory strategy and clinical validation

* The importance of mentorship, relationships, and access to the right people

* Why startup accelerators need to focus on outcomes, not just advice

* How Rellia Health is helping founders navigate the path from concept to commercialization

Rellia Health: https://www.relliahealth.com/about

What great healthcare founders and leaders have in common

One of the most interesting stories Megan shares involves a simple introduction between a telehealth founder and a rural healthcare network. That connection helped launch a pilot program and eventually inspired something much bigger.

It's a reminder that sometimes the right relationship can move an idea forward faster than months of planning.

Whether you're building a healthcare startup, investing in medical technology, working in digital health, or helping bring innovation into health systems, there's plenty to take away from this conversation.

Chapters:

00:00 Why Great Healthcare Innovations Struggle

03:23 Megan Kane's Journey Into Healthcare

05:34 From Microbiology to FDA Regulatory Strategy

07:02 Understanding Medical Device Regulations

08:08 Common Misconceptions About the FDA

09:37 Discovering the Healthcare Startup Ecosystem

12:04 How One Introduction Launched a Telehealth Pilot

13:52 The Unexpected Journey to Founding Relia Health

15:38 Helping 81 Healthcare Founders Make Progress

17:32 What Makes Relia Health Different

19:28 Lessons Learned Building a Healthcare Startup

21:58 The Future of Relia Health

23:38 What Great Healthcare Founders Do Differently

25:14 The Leadership Lesson Every Founder Needs

26:56 Advice for the Next Generation of Healthcare Innovators

28:00 Final Thoughts and Closing

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About the Show

The Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show is hosted by Michael Stamatinos, a nationally recognized connector, strategist, and advocate for innovation with purpose. Each week, Michael interviews healthcare leaders who are driving meaningful change—highlighting stories of access, resilience, equity, and transformation.

The AHI Show started with the idea of wanting to highlight stories of what healthcare innovation truly looks like in action. Our mission, highlight real people who are really innovating within healthcare. Guests include healthcare entrepreneurs, providers, payers, and professionals from the investment community. We showcase little wins as well as valuable lessons learned from setbacks through these interviews. The real innovators in healthcare are often the ones in the trenches doing the work with razor-sharp focus. We find these innovators and bring their stories to light.

🔗 Michael’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstamo

🎧 Subscribe for more episodes that move beyond theory and into the heart of what’s really possible in healthcare.

Join our group, Advancing Healthcare Innovation Forum on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7056196/

What if a clinical trial wasn’t a last resort, but a chance to access tomorrow’s medicine today?

Dr. Jad Chahoud, Chief Scientific and Innovation Officer at Orlando Health Cancer Institute, joins the Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show for a conversation about the rapidly changing future of cancer care, clinical trials, precision medicine, immunotherapy and patient access.

For Dr. Chahoud, clinical research isn’t separate from cancer care. It is part of cancer care.

In this episode, Dr. Chahoud shares how he evaluates experimental therapies, why geography and insurance can still determine access to cutting-edge cancer treatment, and what health systems need to build if they want clinical trials to reach more patients closer to home.

The conversation also gets deeply personal.

Dr. Chahoud shares the story of deciding as a child in Lebanon that he would become a physician in America, the chance encounter that led him toward oncology, and what it feels like to sit across from a patient and tell them they have Stage IV cancer.

He also explains why he has never accepted the idea that oncologists need to emotionally detach from their patients.

And near the end of the conversation, Dr. Chahoud tells the remarkable story of a 37-year-old patient who arrived for a clinical trial with only weeks to live. Three years later, that patient is alive and in complete response.

This is a conversation about cancer research and innovation, and ultimately about something much bigger: giving patients more options, more access and more time.

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Clinical trials as access to tomorrow’s medicine

04:46 – Why clinical trials belong in everyday cancer care

07:36 – A childhood dream of becoming a doctor in America

08:43 – The moment that led Dr. Chahoud to oncology

11:38 – Taking on a rare cancer few researchers were studying

15:44 – The emotional weight of being an oncologist

18:23 – What it feels like to deliver difficult news to a patient

20:55 – What’s happening in cancer treatment that most people don’t know

24:52 – How many patients never know another treatment option exists?

26:48 – Geography, insurance and access to advanced cancer care

28:31 – How Dr. Chahoud evaluates a clinical trial

32:29 – Building a better clinical trials engine

34:16 – Why expanding clinical trials across health systems is so difficult

35:24 – Following the work at Orlando Health Cancer Institute

36:50 – Lightning round

37:22 – The cancer trial Dr. Chahoud is watching closely

39:12 – If he weren’t an oncologist, what would he be?

39:36 – The patient given weeks to live who is alive three years later

42:04 – Innovation, access and hope

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About the Show

The Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show is hosted by Michael Stamatinos, a nationally recognized connector, strategist, and advocate for innovation with purpose. Each week, Michael interviews healthcare leaders who are driving meaningful change—highlighting stories of access, resilience, equity, and transformation.

The AHI Show started with the idea of wanting to highlight stories of what healthcare innovation truly looks like in action. Our mission, highlight real people who are really innovating within healthcare. Guests include healthcare entrepreneurs, providers, payers, and professionals from the investment community. We showcase little wins as well as valuable lessons learned from setbacks through these interviews. The real innovators in healthcare are often the ones in the trenches doing the work with razor-sharp focus. We find these innovators and bring their stories to light.

🔗 Michael’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstamo

🎧 Subscribe for more episodes that move beyond theory and into the heart of what’s really possible in healthcare.

Join our group, Advancing Healthcare Innovation Forum on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7056196/

Why do some promising healthcare startups scale while others never make it out of the starting blocks?

In this episode of the Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show, Michael Stamatinos sits down with Warren Templeton, Managing Director at Health 2047, and Jill Miranda, Strategic Consultant at Health 2047, to unpack what it really takes to build, fund and scale a healthcare company.

Health 2047 was founded with backing from the American Medical Association to bring clinical insight and entrepreneurship together.

And building in healthcare is hard.

A founder can have great science and a compelling product and still face regulatory risk, technology risk, fundraising pressure and healthcare sales cycles that can stretch 18 to 24 months.

Warren and Jill share what Health 2047 has learned working alongside founders, why understanding the problem matters more than falling in love with the solution, and why the first customer can become one of the most important relationships a healthcare company ever builds.

The conversation also explores:

• What Health 2047 looks for in healthcare founders

• Why some healthcare startups fail

• The difference between a “vitamin” and a true “painkiller”

• What founders underestimate about selling into health systems

• Why trust and relationships matter when scaling

• How AI could change the economics of building a startup

• Where women's health innovation and investment are headed

• Why coachability and adaptability separate founders

For healthcare founders, investors, clinicians and health system leaders, this is a candid look at what happens after the idea.

Because having a great idea in healthcare is one thing. Building something that survives long enough to matter is another.

📣 LIKE, COMMENT & SUBSCRIBE

About the Show

The Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show is hosted by Michael Stamatinos, a nationally recognized connector, strategist, and advocate for innovation with purpose. Each week, Michael interviews healthcare leaders who are driving meaningful change—highlighting stories of access, resilience, equity, and transformation.

The AHI Show started with the idea of wanting to highlight stories of what healthcare innovation truly looks like in action. Our mission, highlight real people who are really innovating within healthcare. Guests include healthcare entrepreneurs, providers, payers, and professionals from the investment community. We showcase little wins as well as valuable lessons learned from setbacks through these interviews. The real innovators in healthcare are often the ones in the trenches doing the work with razor-sharp focus. We find these innovators and bring their stories to light.

🔗 Michael’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstamo

🎧 Subscribe for more episodes that move beyond theory and into the heart of what’s really possible in healthcare.

Join our group, Advancing Healthcare Innovation Forum on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7056196/

Melissa Lederer has seen thousands of startups.

After enough reps, you start to see the patterns.

Why some founders make it. Why others struggle. Why great technology alone isn’t enough. And why trying to build a healthcare company by yourself can become a major liability.

Melissa has had an unusual front-row seat to all of it.

She was part of the founding team at 1871, helped build MATTER’s healthcare innovation community, and today serves as Chief Experience Officer at mHUB, where entrepreneurs are building medical devices, hard tech, and physical products.

In this episode of the Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show, Melissa and Michael Stamatinos get into what she has learned from watching founders up close.

They talk about what mHUB looks for before investing, why coachability matters, the danger of single-founder companies, what separates great founders from great storytellers, and why access to the right people can completely change a company’s trajectory.

They also get into something that may surprise people.

Hardware is getting interesting again.

After years of venture dollars pouring into software, Melissa believes the combination of AI, compute, medical technology, and physical products is changing the equation. In her words, “hardware is the moat.”

And the Midwest may have more of the ingredients needed to win that race than people realize.

This conversation is about founders. It’s also about something bigger: what happens when you intentionally build environments where talented people, capital, industry, mentors, and opportunity collide.

Because innovation rarely happens alone.

If you’re building in healthcare, investing in early-stage companies, or trying to understand what separates promising ideas from companies that actually make it, this episode is worth your time.

Learn more about mHub: https://mhub.org/

Timestamps:

00:00 – Welcome to the Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show

04:18 – Meet Melissa Lederer

04:52 – From Flint, Michigan to the innovation world

08:58 – Building 1871 from the ground up

11:17 – What people don’t see about building innovation ecosystems

14:26 – Why healthcare led to MATTER

16:42 – The founders Melissa still thinks about

18:10 – Inside mHUB: What Melissa looks for

20:15 – Why founders struggle to ask for help

22:23 – What mHUB looks for before investing

25:12 – The patterns you see after thousands of startups

27:34 – Great technology vs. a great storyteller

28:45 – Why building physical products is different

31:04 – Why Melissa is bullish on the Midwest

35:02 – Access, impact and building something bigger than yourself

37:18 – How to get involved with mHUB

38:17 – Rapid fire: The most underrated founder quality

39:40 – Closing thoughts

📣 LIKE, COMMENT & SUBSCRIBE

About the Show

The Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show is hosted by Michael Stamatinos, a nationally recognized connector, strategist, and advocate for innovation with purpose. Each week, Michael interviews healthcare leaders who are driving meaningful change—highlighting stories of access, resilience, equity, and transformation.

The AHI Show started with the idea of wanting to highlight stories of what healthcare innovation truly looks like in action. Our mission, highlight real people who are really innovating within healthcare. Guests include healthcare entrepreneurs, providers, payers, and professionals from the investment community. We showcase little wins as well as valuable lessons learned from setbacks through these interviews. The real innovators in healthcare are often the ones in the trenches doing the work with razor-sharp focus. We find these innovators and bring their stories to light.

🔗 Michael’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstamo

🎧 Subscribe for more episodes that move beyond theory and into the heart of what’s really possible in healthcare.

Join our group, Advancing Healthcare Innovation Forum on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7056196/

Every medical breakthrough begins with a clinical trial. Yet for millions of patients, participating in one has never really been an option.

Only 12% of U.S. hospitals are currently equipped to run clinical trials, leaving most patients dependent on where they live, where they receive care, and whether they can travel to one of the relatively few centers offering research.

Heather Grey believes we’ve been asking the wrong question.

Instead of asking how we get more patients to clinical trials, what if we brought clinical trials to the patients?

In Episode 200 of the Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show, Michael Stamatinos sits down with Heather Grey, CEO and co-founder of Elixir Trials, to explore her effort to rethink how clinical research reaches patients, physicians, community hospitals, and underserved health systems.

Heather has spent more than 15 years working across clinical trials, pharmaceutical partnerships, and healthcare. The idea behind Elixir Trials came into focus during a dinner with the leadership team of a safety net hospital struggling just to make nursing payroll.

The hospital wanted to participate in clinical research. The patients were there. The physicians were there.

What they didn’t have was the money, people, technology, regulatory infrastructure, and operational support required to build a clinical trial program.

Heather saw a problem worth solving.

Elixir Trials is building a model designed to turn community hospitals into research-ready sites without forcing each organization to recreate the infrastructure of a major academic medical center.

The conversation goes well beyond clinical trials.

Heather shares the unlikely path that took her from kindergarten teacher and single mother to pharmaceutical sales, clinical research executive, and eventually founder and CEO. She talks about the grandmother who taught her that nobody else gets to decide what she is capable of, why building LEGO helps her think through difficult problems, and why she never set out to become an entrepreneur.

Michael and Heather also unpack two of the biggest bottlenecks in clinical research today: patient enrollment and patient adherence.

When participating in a trial means repeatedly traveling hours away from home, leaving the physician you trust, and adding appointments while already dealing with a serious illness, access becomes more than a logistical problem.

It becomes a human one.

In this episode:

00:00 – Welcome to Episode 200 of the Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show

04:24 – Why Heather builds LEGO when she gets stuck

07:05 – What Heather was like as a kid

08:01 – The grandmother who shaped how Heather sees possibility

11:17 – From kindergarten teacher and single mom to healthcare

14:52 – The problem Heather could no longer ignore

15:07 – Why only 12% of U.S. hospitals can offer clinical trials

17:13 – The dinner that became the origin story of Elixir Trials

20:59 – Using philanthropy to expand clinical trial access

22:45 – Leaving a successful career to build something new

24:13 – Where the traditional clinical trial model breaks down

26:46 – Building Elixir Trials like a LEGO set

27:42 – The two biggest bottlenecks in clinical research

29:21 – Why bringing trials closer to patients matters

31:26 – Technology vs. trust: which is harder to build?

34:12 – How becoming CEO changed Heather’s view of leadership

36:37 – Where AI can actually improve clinical research

40:05 – A message for community hospitals considering research

41:26 – Where to follow Heather and Elixir Trials

42:09 – Lightning round

Learn more about Elixir Trials: elixirtrials.com

📣 LIKE, COMMENT & SUBSCRIBE

About the Show

The Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show is hosted by Michael Stamatinos, a nationally recognized connector, strategist, and advocate for innovation with purpose. Each week, Michael interviews healthcare leaders who are driving meaningful change—highlighting stories of access, resilience, equity, and transformation.

The AHI Show started with the idea of wanting to highlight stories of what healthcare innovation truly looks like in action. Our mission, highlight real people who are really innovating within healthcare. Guests include healthcare entrepreneurs, providers, payers, and professionals from the investment community. We showcase little wins as well as valuable lessons learned from setbacks through these interviews. The real innovators in healthcare are often the ones in the trenches doing the work with razor-sharp focus. We find these innovators and bring their stories to light.

🔗 Michael’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstamo

🎧 Subscribe for more episodes that move beyond theory and into the heart of what’s really possible in healthcare.

Join our group, Advancing Healthcare Innovation Forum on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7056196/

Every health system seems to be investing in AI.

The bigger question is whether they’re actually building the foundation to use it.

In E199 of the Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show, Michael Stamatinos sits down with Dr. Justin Norden, CEO and co-founder of Qualified Health, to talk about what happens when healthcare moves beyond experimenting with AI and starts building it into the way the organization actually operates.

Justin brings an unusual perspective to the conversation. He’s a physician, computer scientist, former Apple team member, venture capitalist, healthcare AI entrepreneur and, yes, a three-time world champion in ultimate frisbee.

Their conversation gets into one of the biggest challenges facing health systems right now: AI tools are multiplying faster than many organizations can integrate, govern and measure them.

Justin explains why Qualified Health approaches the problem from the infrastructure level, creating a common foundation that can support use cases across revenue cycle, clinical care, operations and the workforce instead of continually adding another disconnected solution.

They also dig into:

• Why trust may be the most important currency in healthcare AI

• What health system leaders should look for when evaluating AI companies

• Why customer outcomes matter more than AI marketing

• How one health system generated significant financial impact in less than six months

• Using AI to identify gaps in guideline-driven patient care

• Why healthcare AI requires infrastructure, governance and measurable outcomes

• How AI could change health system margins, workforce and operations

• Why Justin believes health systems could soon begin separating into two very different groups

• What happens when AI stops being a “project” and becomes part of how a health system operates

Timestamps:

00:00 – Why Health Systems Are Losing Control of AI

03:16 – Meet Dr. Justin Norden

03:26 – From World Champion Athlete to Healthcare AI

05:22 – Why Medicine + Computer Science

08:41 – The Trust Problem in Healthcare AI

11:20 – What Qualified Health Actually Does

14:16 – How AI Created $15M in Health System Impact

18:00 – How Health Systems Can Separate AI Hype From Reality

21:07 – Why Customer Results Matter More Than Marketing

22:38 – What Healthcare Could Look Like in Five Years

26:08 – AI Can’t Just Be Another Project

Justin also shares why some of the healthcare problems that interest him most aren't things medicine doesn't know how to solve.

They're the things we already know how to solve, yet patients still fall through the cracks.

That may be where AI ultimately creates some of its greatest value.

If you work in healthcare leadership, digital health, AI, clinical operations, or health system innovation, this is a conversation worth hearing.

📣 LIKE, COMMENT & SUBSCRIBE

About the Show

The Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show is hosted by Michael Stamatinos, a nationally recognized connector, strategist, and advocate for innovation with purpose. Each week, Michael interviews healthcare leaders who are driving meaningful change—highlighting stories of access, resilience, equity, and transformation.

The AHI Show started with the idea of wanting to highlight stories of what healthcare innovation truly looks like in action. Our mission, highlight real people who are really innovating within healthcare. Guests include healthcare entrepreneurs, providers, payers, and professionals from the investment community. We showcase little wins as well as valuable lessons learned from setbacks through these interviews. The real innovators in healthcare are often the ones in the trenches doing the work with razor-sharp focus. We find these innovators and bring their stories to light.

🔗 Michael’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstamo

🎧 Subscribe for more episodes that move beyond theory and into the heart of what’s really possible in healthcare.

Join our group, Advancing Healthcare Innovation Forum on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7056196/

What happens when $50 billion is put toward transforming rural healthcare?

The money may be available. The need is certainly there. But Sunny Lu Williams believes the real question is whether rural communities will have a meaningful voice in deciding what transformation actually looks like.

In Episode 197 of the Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show, Michael Stamatinos sits down with Sunny Lu Williams, President of TechServe Corporation, to explore the future of rural healthcare, community-based access, population health, and the Rural Health Transformation Program.

Sunny’s story begins long before healthcare.

Her grandmother immigrated to the United States from Taiwan, learned English, and started TechServe in 1992. Three generations later, Sunny is leading the family business and pushing it into an entirely different chapter.

Their conversation explores why schools, faith-based organizations, community groups, and local leaders may become critical pieces of the healthcare infrastructure in rural America.

Sunny also explains why simply putting more money into the existing healthcare system may not create transformation.

The bigger challenge is making sure rural communities have a seat at the table.

In this conversation:

• How Sunny became the third generation of her family to lead TechServe

• What she learned about leadership from watching another family business

• Why TechServe moved from traditional IT into population health

• Why schools can become a powerful front door to healthcare

• How StatWatch supports community health, case management, and patient monitoring

• What happened when nearly $20 million in contracted federal awards were rescinded

• Why data and measurable outcomes matter when funding disappears

• The opportunity behind the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program

• Why governance may be one of the biggest barriers facing rural communities

• The connection between rural health and economic development

• Why transformation has to be built with communities, not simply delivered to them

• Sunny’s vision for community-based healthcare access five years from now

One idea from Sunny captures much of the conversation:

“You can only be strategic on the outcomes.”

This episode is about rural healthcare, but it’s also about something bigger: who gets a voice when systems are redesigned, where healthcare actually happens, and what it takes to build something that lasts.

If you care about rural health, population health, healthcare access, community health, health innovation, or the future of healthcare delivery, this conversation is worth your time.

Timestamps:

03:51 Why Rural Healthcare Transformation Matters

04:26 The Immigrant Story Behind TechServe

08:15 Becoming the Third Generation to Lead the Family Business

11:00 Changing the Culture of a Family Business

12:07 Why TechServe Moved Into Healthcare

13:10 Schools as a Front Door to Healthcare

16:09 How StatWatch Works

17:23 Bringing Healthcare Into the Community

21:01 Measuring the Impact of Community Health

22:00 When Nearly $20 Million in Federal Funding Disappeared

25:32 Why Outcomes Matter More Than Intent

26:57 The $50 Billion Rural Health Transformation Opportunity

28:48 Where TechServe Fits Into Rural Health Transformation

30:57 What Could Keep Rural Communities From the Funding

31:15 The Governance Problem No One Talks About

35:00 What TechServe Actually Does Today

36:42 Lightning Round

39:40 What Rural Healthcare Could Look Like in Five Years

41:46 Closing Thoughts

📣 LIKE, COMMENT & SUBSCRIBE

About the Show

The Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show is hosted by Michael Stamatinos, a nationally recognized connector, strategist, and advocate for innovation with purpose. Each week, Michael interviews healthcare leaders who are driving meaningful change—highlighting stories of access, resilience, equity, and transformation.

The AHI Show started with the idea of wanting to highlight stories of what healthcare innovation truly looks like in action. Our mission, highlight real people who are really innovating within healthcare. Guests include healthcare entrepreneurs, providers, payers, and professionals from the investment community. We showcase little wins as well as valuable lessons learned from setbacks through these interviews. The real innovators in healthcare are often the ones in the trenches doing the work with razor-sharp focus. We find these innovators and bring their stories to light.

🔗 Michael’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstamo

🎧 Subscribe for more episodes that move beyond theory and into the heart of what’s really possible in healthcare.

Join our group, Advancing Healthcare Innovation Forum on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7056196/

He was bleeding through his shirt, called six doctors' offices, and not one of them picked up. That single moment — not a whiteboard session, not a pitch deck — is why Oakkar Oakkar built Keona Health.

Oakkar is the CEO of Keona Health, an AI engineer, a surfer, and a jiu-jitsu dad who's spent over a decade trying to fix the most overlooked part of healthcare: what happens before you ever see a doctor. In this conversation, we get into why patient access is a 23-million-pathway problem, why most "AI wrapper" tools fail patients at the exact moment it matters most, and what surfing and jiu-jitsu taught him about building through years of "we thought this would take way less time than it did."

If you've ever been stuck on hold, transferred five times, or repeated your symptoms to four different people — this episode is for you.

🕐 TIMESTAMPS

00:00 – Introduction: Why access is where healthcare actually starts

04:14 – What surfing taught Oakkar about patience, chaos, and control

07:56 – The origin story: how Keona Health actually started

14:16 – "We thought it'd take a few years." Reality: 3-4x longer.

19:00 – What "access" actually means (and why we've watered the word down)

20:15 – The 23 million pathways problem in primary care

22:40 – Where healthcare is getting AI wrong right now

25:06 – Hallucination, handoffs, and why "ChatGPT wrappers" fail in healthcare

31:42 – The moment Oakkar questioned everything

34:11 – The AI "renaissance" — why it feels like starting the company over

37:00 – What building Keona taught him about people, not machines

40:15 – Advice for founders staring down a problem that feels too big

Learn more about Keona Health: https://keonahealth.com/

Follow Oakkar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oakkar/

📣 LIKE, COMMENT & SUBSCRIBE

About the Show

The Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show is hosted by Michael Stamatinos, a nationally recognized connector, strategist, and advocate for innovation with purpose. Each week, Michael interviews healthcare leaders who are driving meaningful change—highlighting stories of access, resilience, equity, and transformation.

The AHI Show started with the idea of wanting to highlight stories of what healthcare innovation truly looks like in action. Our mission, highlight real people who are really innovating within healthcare. Guests include healthcare entrepreneurs, providers, payers, and professionals from the investment community. We showcase little wins as well as valuable lessons learned from setbacks through these interviews. The real innovators in healthcare are often the ones in the trenches doing the work with razor-sharp focus. We find these innovators and bring their stories to light.

🔗 Michael’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstamo

🎧 Subscribe for more episodes that move beyond theory and into the heart of what’s really possible in healthcare.

Join our group, Advancing Healthcare Innovation Forum on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7056196/

Bryan Hunt, CFA, General Partner at Relevance Ventures, joins host Michael Stamatinos on the Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show to break down what two decades of grilling CEOs on Wall Street taught him about spotting the founders who are built to last, why he'd rather back a missionary than a mercenary, and how a $6-psychiatrist startup grew to 800 in five years by solving access instead of chasing headlines.

For over twenty years, Bryan Hunt sat on the other side of the table from CEOs, founders, and leadership teams as one of Wall Street's top-ranked analysts at Wells Fargo Securities, asking the question that actually matters: is this a great story, or is this a great business? He's since moved to the other side of that table entirely, investing in healthcare, medical technology, and wellness companies through Relevance Ventures.

In this episode, Bryan and Michael get into the framework Bryan uses to separate missionaries from mercenaries, the origin story behind Talkiatry, a telepsychiatry company that scaled from six psychiatrists to 800 in five years after its founder couldn't get access to his own mental health care, and the investing mistake that made background checks a permanent part of Relevance's process. Bryan also shares the founder story behind Chobani, why nearly half of early-stage venture bets fail, and the economics behind why preventative medicine may be the biggest untapped opportunity left in American healthcare.

⏱ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 — Introduction: Who is Bryan Hunt and what is Relevance Ventures?

3:57 — Two decades on Wall Street: what 20 years of grilling CEOs teaches you

6:42 — Missionaries vs. mercenaries: the filter Bryan uses to evaluate every founder

9:15 — Inside Talkiatry: from 6 psychiatrists to 800 in five years

15:31 — Spotting an exceptional CEO: obvious immediately, or does it take time?

19:40 — Visionary or just confident? The difference between conviction and delusion

23:23 — The founder story behind Chobani, and what made him a missionary

24:36 — The investment mistake that changed Relevance's process for good

31:37 — Reading the exit: when it's time for a founder to sell

34:26 — Why preventative medicine might be healthcare's biggest missed opportunity

In This Episode

→ How Bryan Hunt spent 20+ years as one of Wall Street's top-ranked analysts before becoming a venture investor

→ The "missionaries vs. mercenaries" filter Relevance Ventures uses to evaluate every founder

→ The real story behind Talkiatry's growth from 6 psychiatrists to 800 in five years

→ Why Relevance Ventures started running background checks on founders, and what changed their mind

→ The economics of preventative care, and why every dollar spent there returns $5.60 later in life

→ What separates a true visionary from someone who's simply confident and wrong

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-hunt-cfa-17677087/

Website: https://www.relevanceventures.com/

📣 LIKE, COMMENT & SUBSCRIBE

About the Show

The Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show is hosted by Michael Stamatinos, a nationally recognized connector, strategist, and advocate for innovation with purpose. Each week, Michael interviews healthcare leaders who are driving meaningful change—highlighting stories of access, resilience, equity, and transformation.

The AHI Show started with the idea of wanting to highlight stories of what healthcare innovation truly looks like in action. Our mission, highlight real people who are really innovating within healthcare. Guests include healthcare entrepreneurs, providers, payers, and professionals from the investment community. We showcase little wins as well as valuable lessons learned from setbacks through these interviews. The real innovators in healthcare are often the ones in the trenches doing the work with razor-sharp focus. We find these innovators and bring their stories to light.

🔗 Michael’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstamo

🎧 Subscribe for more episodes that move beyond theory and into the heart of what’s really possible in healthcare.

Join our group, Advancing Healthcare Innovation Forum on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7056196/

Three out of every four healthcare workers are burning out. And it's not for the reason you think.

Dr. Katherine Meese spent 15 years building the science that most healthcare leaders have never had access to. In this episode, she sits down with Michael Stamatinos to challenge everything the industry thinks it knows about why its people are leaving and what it actually takes to keep them.

This is not a burnout episode. This is an episode about systems. About trust. About the human margin.

Before Katherine became the leading voice on healthcare workforce in America, she started her career in oil and gas — working across 10 countries on four continents.

Why does an industry built entirely on human beings treat its people worse than the oil industry treats its equipment?

Katherine breaks down the real answer, and it will change how you lead.

TIMESTAMPS

01:45 — The 75% burnout stat every leader needs to sit with

04:42 — Katherine's background and why she jumped from oil and gas to healthcare

07:34 — The 30-hour shift moment that changed her career trajectory

09:37 — The paradox: why the most mission-driven industry has the worst track record for its own people

11:21 — What the research actually showed was causing burnout (it was not what anyone expected)

13:56 — The 6 drivers of burnout across industries and why workload is only one of them

17:21 — The game of telephone inside organizations and the cost of misalignment

19:51 — The one question every leader should be asking their managers right now

22:01 — "What matters to me is safe with you" — the most powerful definition of trust in healthcare

24:34 — Where the phrase Human Margin came from and why it needs to sit alongside financial margin

26:37 — The eyeball story and the physician CEO who finally got it

28:40 — The two types of leaders Katherine cannot reach (and one of them will surprise you)

31:24 — Genfluence: the biggest myth about Gen Z in the healthcare workforce

33:22 — The iPhone, social media, and the rewiring of an entire generation's brain

36:39 — Disrespect as the number one predictor of toxic culture

38:03 — Stereotype threat and how words alone can actually change performance

41:37 — The formula for shutting down gossip and toxic behavior on your team

44:50 — The bucket vs. the umbrella: the mindset shift that changes everything for frontline leaders

IN THIS EPISODE

Why resilience training is not the answer — and what the data actually shows is driving burnout

The six factors that cause burnout across industries (and why leaders only fix one of them)

How to measure workforce health beyond turnover numbers

Why trust in senior leadership is now predicting more than trust in direct supervisors

The selective filtering problem inside organizations and how to fix it

What Gen Z is actually dealing with and why calling them fragile misses the science entirely

The stereotype threat research that proves words change performance

ABOUT DR. KATHERINE MEESE

Katherine Meese, PhD is an award-winning researcher, author, and CEO of HUmargin Group. She has spent over 15 years studying healthcare workforce, organizational behavior, and what it actually takes to keep people well inside complex health systems. She is the co-author of five books, including The Human Margin: Building the Foundations of Trust and her most recent, Genfluence: How to Lead a Multigenerational Workforce. Her organizational behavior textbooks are used in over 160 schools nationwide and she has delivered over 130 keynotes and workshops across the globe.

She is on a mission to rehumanize the work of healthcare. Using science. Using data. One leader at a time.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherineameesephd/

Website: www.katherinemeese.com

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About the Show

The Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show is hosted by Michael Stamatinos, a nationally recognized connector, strategist, and advocate for innovation with purpose. Each week, Michael interviews healthcare leaders who are driving meaningful change—highlighting stories of access, resilience, equity, and transformation.

The AHI Show started with the idea of wanting to highlight stories of what healthcare innovation truly looks like in action. Our mission, highlight real people who are really innovating within healthcare. Guests include healthcare entrepreneurs, providers, payers, and professionals from the investment community. We showcase little wins as well as valuable lessons learned from setbacks through these interviews. The real innovators in healthcare are often the ones in the trenches doing the work with razor-sharp focus. We find these innovators and bring their stories to light.

🔗 Michael’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstamo

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