The Modern MD

Dr. Gabe Charbonneau and Dr. Kirk Crews share their entrepreneurial journey of creating innovative tools, Fluent Systems that allow doctors to spend less time on the computer and more time with patients.

The ModernMD’s: Dr. Gabe Charbonneau and Dr. Kirk Crews

Dr. Gabe Charbonneau and Dr. Kirk Crews are the Founders of Fluent Systems, EMR Automation platform, and small start-up in rural Montana. Gabe and Kirk are both family medicine doctors with a passion for helping other physicians in a new chapter of medicine that we call ‘the EMR era’ and preserving the ‘art of medicine’.

Success Quote:

“Opportunity has knocked and I Answered”- Jim LeFevre

White Coat to Business Suit:

Dr. Charbonneau joined a family medicine practice in rural Montana where Dr. Crews was working and discovered early on that they wanted to optimize their work at a family medicine clinic to make it more efficient. It was a spontaneous journey to the business world as they started a “friendly competition” to see who could create better automation commands using Dragon to improve efficiency in the office. As these doctors profoundly believe problem solving is at the heart of medicine, listen as their quest to answer simple questions such as, “How can we input data better to reclaim patient based care?”, sparked the creation of Fluent Systems.

Advice for medical students and residents interested in Entrepreneurship:

We encourage students and residents to keep practicing in their fields to focus on solutions that help doctors and nurses do their jobs better. Hear why Dr. Charbonneau and Dr. Kirk believe that doctors need to live the problems in order to create the most optimal doctor-centric solutions.

Idea to Venture:

The Idea: How can Electronic Medical Record (EMR) use automation tools? How can we better automate data input to reclaim patient based care? Listen to how this Fluent team built Swiftwire, by physicians for physicians, which uses a customized EMR toolbar for efficient data input.

Failures/Challenges: Listen to hear how a major set back focusing on Dragon software was the impetus for Swiftware’s creation and success.

Also pay attention to why both doctors believe that carving time to focus on innovation while maintaining your practice is a difficult but essential step to improving the medical field.

Success: Dr. Charbonneau and Dr. Crews value hearing how doctors are once again able to have great interactions with patients and preserve the joy in helping others, which is why most doctors enter medicine.

Lesson Learned: Hear why Dr. Charbonneau and Dr. Crews recommend taking a step away to gain perspective and then coming back refreshed with new ideas.

Business Rounds:

Best Advice: We have just as much ability to change the world as anyone else and we need to present.

Daily Success Habit:

Gabe and Kirk share their biggest daily success habits including

1) Exercising

2) Writing down strategies for being happy and grateful.

3) Being a scientist

Healthcare Trends: What are the biggest healthcare trends?

Listen to why both doctors are excited that the pendulum is swinging back to a healthcare system that focuses on people, not data, emphasizing patient care.

Links:

Download a FREE 30 day trial: http://fluent.systems/download.html

Dr. Henry Chueh shares his entrepreneurial journey, passion for using informatics to transform healthcare delivery, and his exciting work at Pri-Med.

The ModernMD: Dr. Henry Chueh

Dr. Henry Chueh, MD, MS, is Chief of the Division of Biomedical Informatics at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). His research focuses on innovations in specialized electronic health records and the use of informatics to transform the delivery of health care. Henry is in on the clinical advisory team for Pri-Med InLight EHR, a completely new type of EHR that thinks like a doctor. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School and is a practicing internist.

Success Quote:

“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.” - Wayne Gretzky

White Coat to Business Suit:

Dr. Chueh was always intrigued by the power of information technology to transform healthcare delivery and pursed a fellowship in clinical informatics at Massachusetts General Hospital. Henry became the Director of the Lab of Computer Science at Massachusetts General Hospital and led many system level Electronic Health Record (EHR) innovation projects. Dr. Chueh saw the potential of a start-up vehicle to translate these innovations from the lab and make them more broadly available.  Listen as he shares his exciting journey launching Pri-Med InLight EHR! 

What is your advice to academics physicians interested in healthcare innovation and entrepreneurship?

Step outside of academic setting and to broadly scale your innovations!

Idea to Venture:

The Idea: Can an electronic health record really think like a doctor? Listen as Dr. Henry Chueh shares his innovative work at Pri-Med InLight EHR as they build a new type of problem based EHR with smart decision support that learns how your practice and helps your more efficiently treat patients.

Challenges: Translating and building the initial core feature sets for all different physician practice models.

Success: Building EHR that efficiently works in Direct Primary Care, Fee-For-Service and Concierge models.

Insights: Most physicians treat patients with a problem based approach. The most important feature set for fee-for-service is EHR that allows you to use the problem-based approach to effectively and efficiently bill. Direct Primary Care and Concierge care are driven by the prized patient-doctor relationship and care more about efficient documentation.

Business Rounds:

Best Advice: In life, there are two kinds of balls, the kinds that bounce and the kinds that shatter. Never loose attention on the glass balls that shatter.

Daily Success Habit: Sets aside morning quite time to focus on tackling his most challenging problems and uses first principles with no assumptions or constraints to think outside of the box.

Healthcare Trends:

Direct Primary Care: Delivering primary care in a direct fashion to patients and consumers without the third party insurer model.

Consumer: Empowering patients to drive outcomes outside of the doctors office that focus on prevention. 

Technology: Interoperability within in healthcare with more openness. 

Links:

http://www.inlightehr.com/

http://www.pri-med.com/

@InLightEHR

Dr. Thomas Tsang shares his entrepreneurial journey and exciting work in behavioral healthcare at Valera Health.

The ModernMD: Dr. Thomas Tsang

Dr. Thomas Tsang, MD, MPH, FACP, is CEO and Co-Founder of Valera Health, an innovative behavioral healthcare company that offers an end-to-end service solution model for leveraging population analytic, digital personalized care plans and integrated approach to behavior health activation. Previously, Dr. Tsang was Chief Medical Officer of Merck Health Service Solutions, Congressional staffer, Medical Director at the Office of the National Coordinator, and Advisor to the Governor of Hawaii.

Success Quote:

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” - Robert Kennedy

White Coat to Business Suit:

Dr. Tsang shares his career evolution from starting an internal medicine private practice, leading and building a community health center, his national and state healthcare policy work, and then his shift into the private sector at Merck and Valera Health.

What is your advice for medical students, residents, or physicians interested in healthcare innovation and entrepreneurship?

Build a network of role models and believe you can do anything.

Idea to Venture:

The Idea: How do you integrate primary care and behavioral healthcare? Listen as Dr. Tsang shares exciting work at Valera Health as they revolutionize behavior healthcare delivery with personalized solutions to benefit patients, payers, providers, and employers.

Early Insights: Traction with new payment models and risk based group. Building a high touch and high tech approach with patient facing content and data to help patients best manage their disease.

Business Rounds:

Best Advice: The most optimal career involves one-third civil service, one-third non-profit, and one-third private sector work.

Daily Success Habit: Rule of three - Do something for another person, do something for your company, and do something for yourself.

Healthcare Trends: Healthcare is at a pivotal moment with delivery system reforms, payment reforms, and the availability of technology. Listen as Dr. Tsang shares his insights on healthcare innovation.

Links: 

http://www.valerahealth.com/

Dr. Gregory Goodman, Founder & Host, shares some of his best insights to help you on your entrepreneurial journey.

The ModernMD: Dr. Gregory Goodman

Success Quote:

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” - Albert Einstein

My Journey:

Dr. Gregory Goodman shares some exciting updates on his current journey as an internal medicine resident and entrepreneur.

Three Biggest Mistakes:

People: Great companies are built with great people - learn to build excellent teams that are passion your vision.

Problem: Work on the biggest problems in healthcare and solve your customers biggest problems.

Perfection: Entrepreneurship rewards movement not perfection.

Business Rounds:

Daily Success Habit: The sprint - Listen to my new success habit!

Healthcare Trends: As a future primary care physician, I am excited about the promise of  Direct Primary Care.

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Ajay Major shares his entrepreneurial journey and passion for helping medical student share their voice and change healthcare!

The ModernMD: Ajay Major

Ajay Major is an entrepreneur, medical student activist, and aspiring physician-journalist. He is Founder and Editor-in Chief of in-Training, the online magazine by medical students and for medical students, at in-training.org. He also Founded in-House, the online magazine for residents and fellows, at in-housestaff.org.  He was a nominee of MedTech Boston's 40 Under 40 Healthcare Innovators Awards. Ajay is currently a 4th year medical student at Albany Medical College.

Success Quote:

“Know when to put it all aside” - Ajay

White Coat to Business Suit:

Ajay was selected for the Leadership in Medicine Program, an eight-year combined BS/MBA/MD program with Union Graduate College and Albany Medical College.  His passion for journalism started with his work as the Editor-in-Chief of the Concordiensis, Union College’s weekly student newspaper. As he started medical school, he saw an opportunity to combine his passion for journalism and Founded in-Training, an online magazine by medical students for medical students, as a platform for experimentation and expression. 

Idea to Venture:

The Idea: Why is it important for medical student and residents to have a voice? Listen as Ajay shares his vision for creating a spectum of publications that span the medical education journey and his exciting work at in-Training and in-House!

Lesson Learned: Do you homework before you launch your venture. Make sure to build a structure for continuity. Continue to write chart your progress with a structure in place that will allow you to stay ahead of the game. 

Business Rounds:

Best Advice: Find a partner in crime, who understands you, and is willing to fully participate as well as operate on your same level.

Daily Success Habit: Before bed, review your email inbox and make a list of what needs to get accomplished in the next 24 hours. Review your list the next morning, and stay mindful of the process. 

Healthcare Trends: Medical school is going through a major revolution which will favor new models to train and educate the next generation of medical students. Physicians will be trained not just clinically but also in new roles of such as advocacy, information technology, quality improvement. 

Links:

http://in-housestaff.org/

http://in-training.org/

http://in-training.org/pager/publications.html

Dr. Samir Qamar shares his entrepreneurial journey building a new model of primary care, and revolutionizing telemedicine with MedWand!

The ModernMD: Dr. Samir Qamar

Dr. Samir Qamar is a board certified Family Medicine physician who is an expert in the fields of Direct Primary Care, concierge medicine, and telemedicine. He is Founder and CEO of MedLion, the nation’s largest Direct Primary Care provider, which manages Direct Primary Care practices in 27 states. Dr. Qamar also serves as Founder and CEO of medical tech startup MedWand, having created a revolutionary telemedicine device that allows providers to remotely perform physical examinations via secure Internet connections. He is Board Chairman of DPC United, a national DPC medical association, and is a faculty member and DPC consultant for the American Academy of Family Physicians.

 

Success Quote:

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”

- Michelangelo

White Coat to Business Suit:

Dr. Qamar completed his medical training at Lancaster General Hospital in Pennsylvania, and during residency realized that the current fee-for-service healthcare system was failing.  Samir started the first concierge medical practice in central California and served as the house doctor for the famed Pebble Beach Resorts.  Listen as he shares his journey from concierge medicine to building one of the nations largest Direct Primary Care practices and founding a medical technology start-up.

What is your advice to medical students or resident interested in entrepreneurship?

Be insatiably curious about all fields directly outside of medicine, widen your horizons, and explore the business of medicine.

Idea to Venture:

The Idea: Why don’t we charge $50 a month per patient for as much primary care as we can give them? How can you examine a patient remotely during a telemedicine video visit? Listen as Dr. Qamar shares his journey starting MedLion, the nation’s largest Direct Primary Care provider, and MedWand Digital Health a revolutionary telemedicine device.

Lesson Learned: Nothing is easy, and it takes time to change a culture especially in healthcare.  Stay the course, be persistent, and continue to get up with each failure.

Business Rounds:

Best Advice: Never give up, keep working, and maintain a good balance.

Daily Success Habit: Samir must accomplish three things daily, one for each company, to keep forward progress. His successful day: Get up early, eat well, stay heathy, and sleep 8 hours a night.

Healthcare Trends:

Biggest shift in healthcare in 25 years with major shift in primary care, and exciting time for healthcare technology investment. Listen as Dr. Qamar shares his insights into the future of healthcare.

Links:

http://medlion.com/

http://medwand.com/index.html

The ModernMD: Dr. Shaan Gandhi

Dr. Shaan Gandhi is the Chief Medical Officer of Wellable, a Boston-based startup focused on mobile incentives to promote health and wellness. Shaan is fascinated by the promise of IT solutions to enhance access, improve quality and reduce cost in health care. During medical school, he was a consultant at the TriZetto Corporation, a health care analytics firm focused on developing IT products for payers and providers.  Dr. Gandhi received his doctoral degree in medical oncology from the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and MD/MBA joint degree from Harvard Business School and Harvard Medical School.  Dr. Gandhi is currently a resident physician in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. 

Success Quote:

“Everyday I organize my actions and to make sure I can point to one person that I helped today.” -Shaan Gandhi

White Coat to Business Suit:

Shaan’s passion for entrepreneurship was inspired by the work of his Principle Investigator during graduate school. Dr. Gandhi believes that entrepreneurship is integral to medicine and to drive improvements to the next generation of therapies for tomorrow patients.  Dr. Gandhi makes enjoys balancing clinical practice and thinking about the broader aspects of medicine. 

What is the best advise to medical students or residents interested in entrepreneurship?

Being in the medical system, you get to experience and see first hand the everyday challenges. Stay open minded and find a challenge that resonates with you. Explore other industries for solutions to healthcare biggest problems.

Idea to Venture:

The Idea: Wellable is focused on increasing access to health and wellness programs for everyone.  Listen as Dr. Gandhi shares Wellable big mission to get people more active and empowered them to stay healthy and fit.

Lesson Learned: Things always take longer and require more work then you expected. The sales cycle can be up to 12-18 months so it is important to stay in close contact with prospects and continue to show the product value to their mission and work.

Business Rounds:

Best Advice: How do you create a great career?  Think about it like a venn- diagram with three circles: World class performance, passion, and create something that society values.- HBS professors

Daily Success Habit: When do you feel most productive? Align your schedule when you are most productive to work on project that are most important to you.  Listen to Shaan’s secrets about world class performance!

Healthcare Trends:

Extreme personalization: With a deeper understanding of biomedical science, each person is more unique than medicine has treated us. As we begin to develop detailed personalized profiles, we can tailor our approach and products treatment.

Universality: Physicians will be able to treat all aspects of someones health and create a more holistic approach!

Links:

https://wellable.co/

Dr. John Moore shares his entrepreneurial journey, passion for empowering patients to lead their care, and the story of Twine Health.

The ModernMD: Dr. John Moore

Dr. John Moore, MD, PhD is Co-founder and CEO of Twine Health, a software platform that empowers patients to lead the management of their chronic diseases through a revolutionary new model of collaboration with clinicians. John is physician and technologist passionate about empowering patients to take the lead in their care and making it delightful for clinicians to support them in reaching their goals. Dr. Moore received his Medical Degree from Boston University School of Medicine and his PhD in Health Information Technology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Success Quote:

“What do I want in a doctor? Perhaps more than anything else - a friend with special knowledge.” - John Steinbeck

White Coat to Business Suit:

John was a biomedical engineer before going to medical school, with a dream of becoming a specialized retina surgeon. After transitioning from internship to residency, he realized that most care was managing chronic diseases in an visit-based system. John decided to leave clinical medicine to build a new type of continuous care and improve the relationship between the patient and physician. Listen as Dr. Moore shares his journey from physician to technologist and his goal of pushing the limits of patient lead care.

Idea to Venture:

The Idea: How can care be more collaborative and continuous? Listen as Dr. Moore shares the journey of Twine Health and their big vision.

Success: Successful collaborative care is about establishing a relationship, improving a patients ability to receive and digest information, and building short feedback loops to reinforce actions and outcomes.

Lesson Learned: Twine’s platform allows the patient to do a lot of the daily work and improve target goal time, outcomes, and cost. Listen as John shares some exciting data and insights. 

Business Rounds:

Best Advice: “ When you are an entrepreneur trying to do something disruptive in healthcare, you will get a lot of attention from a lot of people. The trick is not to get tempted by the huge opportunity that you are not prepared for.” - Jonathan Bush CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of athenahealth

Daily Success Habit: It is really about achieving success one day a time and building on that success. The key is having a strong philosophy in what you do.

Healthcare Trends:

Patient Driven: The future of medicine is about patient driven care; Allowing patients to better understand their disease process, learn about their health, and measure success.

Links:

http://www.twinehealth.com/

Dr. Bradley Hennenfent shares his entrepreneurial journey and his big vision with Treatment Scores to quantify the science of medicine.

The ModernMD: Dr. Bradley Hennenfent

Dr. Bradley Hennenfent is the Founder of Treatment Scores Inc, a start up helping to quantify the science of medicine. Bradley is on a mission to invent the Science of Medicine system for the quantification of the Science of Medicine behind all medical treatments and clinical decisions. Before retiring from clinical medicine, Dr. Hennenfent was Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Success Quote:

The most important quality of a successful physician is impermeability - Dr. Clifford Pilz, University of Illinois College of Medicine.

White Coat to Business Suit:

Brad grew up on a farm with love for science and passion for invention. Listen as he shares his journey accidentally going to Northwestern, graduating medical school, and running and staffing emergency departments.

Idea to Venture:

The Idea: How can we quantify of the science of medicine? Listen as Dr. Hennenfent shares how Treatment Scores improves a patients ability to understand complex medicine, statistics, and the net benefit for particular medical treatment.

Lessons Learned: Do you understand how your doctor makes treatment decisions? Patient have their health and life at stake and want to be empowered with shared decision making and transparency to make the best medical decisions.

Business Rounds:

Best Advice: Always do the right thing, keep learning, and read nonfiction books and autobiographies.

Daily Success Habit: Organization, organization, organization! Brad uses databases, lists, and notebooks to stay organized.

Healthcare Trends: Brad stays up to date with healthcare trends using twitter. @TreatmentScores

Links:

http://treatmentscores.com/tutorial.php

 

*** Please note a minor correction to the podcast recording, Dr. Hennenfent is not a current Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians.***

Dr. Paul McCurry shares his entrepreneurial journey, insights starting axial healthcare, and his big vision for changing the pain management space.

The ModernMD: Dr. Paul McCurry, MD

Dr. Paul McCurry is the Chief Medical Officer and Founder axial healthcare. The axial journey began in 2012 when Paul began assembling literature and developing best practice solutions to address the core drivers that are fueling poor clinical outcomes and the rapidly escalating cost of pain management in the U.S. Prior to his work at axial, he was the Medical Director at Medsolutions and a consultant at Quorum. He completed residency and became a diplomat of the American Board of Anesthesiology and followed later with a fellowship in interventional pain management.

Success Quote:

“Not all those who wander are lost.” - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

White Coat to Business Suit:

Paul received his MBA before entering medical school and began his medical career as a general anesthesiologist. With a passion for entrepreneurship and practice management, he pursued his fellowship in pain management. Listen as Paul shares his journey from corporate healthcare to starting axial healthcare.

Idea to Venture:

The Idea: How can we better manage acute and chronic pain episodically to improve outcomes, enhance the patient experience, and eliminate needless expenses? Listen as Dr. McCurry shares the axial story and their big vision to dramatically improve the pain space.

Insights: Axial's initial focus was on interventional pain procedures, creating an efficient platform for pre-authorization approval, and building a network of pain specialists. With further exploration and new literature on rise of opioids, the big pain opportunity was discovered. Listen as Dr. McCurry shares some exciting insights.

Lessons Learned: Stay open minded and listen to your business partners. It is all about episodes of pain!!

Business Rounds:

Best Advice: Stay the course if this something you are passionate about and believe in! If you don’t do it, someone else will do it if is that good of an idea. Hire really smart people and get out of their way.

Daily Morning Routine: Exercise, Google alerts, and a daily to-do list with focused priorities.

Healthcare Trends: Paul shares his excitement for the fields of addition medicine and genomics.

Links:

http://axialhealthcare.com/http://treatmentscores.com/tutorial.php