Cardiac monitoring “is a space that hasn’t seen disruption or innovation for 50 to 60 years, and we’re trying to disrupt that with our AI-powered Zio platform,” iRhythm CEO Quentin Blackford tells Bloomberg Intelligence. “And really, the focus is on how do we enable an earlier, more accurate diagnosis while reducing the workflow effects for our physicians?” In this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast, Blackford sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson to talk about iRhythm, how its Zio-platform technology powered by its AI network allows patients to be monitored without disrupting their everyday lives, and how its clinical data could support a more proactive screening of patients to find arrhythmias before a catastrophic adverse event occurs.

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"The first decision I had to make when I joined was whether to continue this anito-cel progam that now looks to be potentially best-in-class in myeloma," Rami Elghandour, CEO of Arcellx, shares with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Sam Fazeli. The company embodies the dream of biotech investors -- raising a small amount of capital while on the cusp of getting a drug to market with a highly credible partner. Arcellx and Gilead aim to take on the leader in multiple myeloma, Johnson & Johnson, targeting its engineered T-cell therapy (CAR-T) Carvykti with their own unique CAR-T, anito-cel. The discussion covers topics from the company's inception to Elghandour's journey through healthcare and how it has a real chance of launching a product after raising just $240 million. Oh, and Spider Man makes a cameo appearance too. 

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“We decided to come to the table with a health-plan model that enables what we like to call radical affordability,” said Ashok Subramanian, CEO and co-founder of Centivo, in this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast. Subramanian joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer to discuss how Centivo’s approach to self-funded employer plans focuses on reducing costs without sacrificing quality. By leveraging direct-provider partnerships and emphasizing primary care, the company aims to keep 75% of members’ out-of-pocket costs below $200 per year. The conversation covers how Centivo differentiates itself from traditional insurers, its expansion into new markets, and how it helps employers navigate high-cost treatments like GLP-1 drugs while maintaining sustainable benefits for workers.

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“As US biotech companies, how do we continue to differentiate and create novel breakthrough assets? I think it’s leveraging AI,” said Sean McClain, founder and CEO of Absci. McClain and Christian Stegmann, senior vice president of drug creation, sit down with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Andrew Galler in this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast to discuss Absci’s generative AI platform and developing best-in-class biologics.

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"The mission of Capital Rx is to give our country the infrastructure we need for the healthcare we deserve." AJ Loiacono, CEO and co-founder of Capital Rx, shares with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer how his company is reshaping the pharmacy benefit management (PBM) industry by eliminating hidden costs and conflicts of interest. He explains how traditional PBMs profit from inflated drug prices, creating a system where the most expensive drugs are preferred over more affordable alternatives. Capital Rx aims to disrupt this model by using technology to reduce administrative costs and promote transparency. The discussion also covers regulatory reform and how AI-driven claims processing, with a unified approach to medical and pharmacy benefits, could unlock massive cost savings.

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"The conversation is the treatment in behavioral health, but clinicians spend too much time documenting instead of caring,” says Alon Joffe, CEO and cofounder of Eleos Health, in this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast. Joffe joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer to discuss how Eleos is revolutionizing behavioral health care with AI-driven solutions that reduce administrative burdens by 80% while enhancing clinical outcomes. He shares how Eleos leverages multimodal AI to automate documentation and improve decision-making, enabling clinicians to provide better care. The conversation explores Eleos’ expansion into psychiatry, substance-use treatment and long-term care, as well as its vision to become the AI-native operating system for compassionate care.

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“There’s no digital feedback loop in health care, you have it in Tesla, in Netflix, in Amazon — but not in the industry that impacts every life,” Terry Myerson, CEO of Truveta, explains to Bloomberg Intelligence in this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast. Myerson joins BI analyst Jonathan Palmer to discuss Truveta’s mission to aggregate and analyze health data across 30 major US health systems, covering one-third of Americans. He details the company’s work in regulatory-grade safety and efficacy research, the launch of the Truveta Genome Project with partners like Regeneron and Illumina, and the power of AI-driven insights to accelerate medical discovery. The conversation explores Truveta’s efforts to address data fragmentation, privacy, and interoperability challenges that must be solved to revolutionize patient care and life sciences.

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"We talk about the S-curve for technology and in the past we've said it can be 10 or 20 years before you reach the top. I think what's going to be really different about AI is that time frame is going to be massively compressed," Dr. Tony Wood, Chief Scientific Officer at GSK, explains to Bloomberg Intelligence in this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast. Dr. Wood joins BI analyst Sam Fazeli to address the disconnect between market expectations for its future drugs in the context of GSK's R&D strategy and technology leverage. The company has five potential new drug approvals in 2025 and sees its early stage investments in AI and ML holding huge potential to catalyze future drug discovery and development.

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“We sit at the intersection of those large-scale incumbents and entrepreneurs, to help bridge the gap,” Josh Flum, managing partner at LRVHealth, tells Bloomberg Intelligence in this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast. Flum joins BI analyst Jonathan Palmer to discuss how LRV’s purpose-built model looks to identify and capitalize on durable long-term trends emerging in health care. With only strategic investors as limited partners, LRV believes it has a differentiated perspective on where the market is headed. The conversation delves into the evolution of pharmacy services and why it’s important to build high-performing teams. The exchange wraps up with the state of the IPO market and key takeaways from the JPMorgan Healthcare conference.

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“The average benefit value for supplemental benefits was about $155 per member. Five years later, it was over $1,500 per member,” Robby Knight, CEO and cofounder of Soda Health, tells Bloomberg Intelligence in this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast. Knight joins BI analyst Jonathan Palmer for a wide-ranging discussion on the rapid evolution of the supplemental-benefits market and the challenges Soda faced in building in a new platform that creates incentives for members, retail partners and plan sponsors. The conversation touches on why Medicare Advantage plans were in an arms race to offer unsustainable benefits, why the correction is an opportunity for the company and how the future will bring optimized benefits at the member level.

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