Asensus Surgical plans to develop augmented intelligence capabilities that digitize surgery to lower variabilities during procedures, drive better results and ultimately expand the adoption of robotics, CEO Anthony Fernando says. In this episode of Bloomberg Intelligence’s Vanguards of Health Care podcast, Fernando sits down with BI health care analyst Matt Henriksson to discuss Asensus, the current barriers that keep robotic surgery’s penetration rates low and its pending acquisition by Karl Storz. Asensus’ product pathway includes the next-generation Luna robotic system, including TrueWrist 5mm instruments as well as enhancements to its Intelligent Surgical Unit.

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Artificial intelligence is touching all aspects of drug development with a lot of focus, and potential noise, on the early stages of drug discovery. In this episode of Bloomberg Intelligence’s Vanguards of Health podcast BI’s Head of Global Industries Sam Fazeli discusses the contributions of machine learning, AI and AlphaFold 3 in drug discovery with Harren Jhoti, cofounder of Astex in 1999. Jhoti remains CEO of the group as part of Otsuka Pharmaceuticals. Astex’s pioneering work in fragment-based drug discovery has lead to three marketed oncology drugs, including Novartis’ Kisqali used for breast cancer. We delve into the steps in which AI can have meaningful impact and what this may mean for saving time in drug development and reducing the risk of drug failure.

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Eko Health realized that the one tool that every doctor has on their neck, the stethoscope, has not been updated for 200 years, and designed a way for AI to be incorporated for early detection of heart failure, co-founder and CEO Connor Landgraf says. In this episode of Bloomberg Intelligence’s Vanguards of Health Care podcast, Landgraf talks with BI analyst Matt Henriksson about how the company was founded and how the Sensora Cardiac Disease Detection Platform can provide early identification of heart failure as a first-of-its-kind non-invasive test. By using algorithms and big data to detect small signals from electrocardiograms that are invisible to physicians, the technology can help shift the overarching trend in health care away from being reactive to patients symptoms, when it may be too late for treatment, and toward detecting disease before symptoms arise.

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Onward Medical is driving the path to help paraplegics with spinal cord injuries (SCI) regain their lives, including one patient who is now able to play his guitar again, CEO Dave Marver tells Bloomberg Intelligence. In this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast, Marver sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview about the company, key takeaways from the recent publication of the Uplift trial by Nature and how Onward’s developments differ from others that use brain-computer interfaces (BCI). The medical-technology provider connects BCI to its ARC platform to restore movement of the human body, instead of simply using the patient’s thoughts to control computer functions.

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 "We analyze vocal biomarkers in near real time and correlate that to a clinical diagnosis and create an algorithm that then can independently identify a range of different diseases in the human voice during conversation," Henry O'Connell, CEO and Co-founder of Canary Speech, tells Bloomberg Intelligence in this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast. O'Connell joins BI analyst Jonathan Palmer to discuss the company's origins, its unique approach to vocal analysis using over 2,500 speech features and its commitment to clinical validation through partnerships with leading healthcare institutions. The conversation touches on Canary's foundational team, extensive patent portfolio and platform approach that enables the development of models for a wide range of diseases. 

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EDAP can treat prostate cancer by focusing ultrasound waves at just the target region, similar to how a magnify glass can focus light from the sun so intensely that it can burn a piece of paper, allowing it to eliminate the cancer while limiting side effects, CEO Ryan Rhodes explains to Bloomberg Intelligence. In this Vanguards of Health Care episode, Rhodes sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson to talk about his path from Intuitive Surgical to lead EDAP, how the Focal One robot uses high intensity focused ultrasound, or HIFU, to ablate prostate cancer without needing an incision or removing the whole prostate and how the HIFI Study shows that Focal One can be a viable alternative to radical prostatectomy.

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Haemonetics, a medical-device maker that focuses on markets including blood and plasma collection, is evolving to expand broadly with more diversification and greater sustainability over time, all with the view that good products win, CEO Chris Simon explains to Bloomberg Intelligence. In this Vanguards of Health Care podcast episode, Simon sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson to talk about Haemonetics and how its has built out its hospital franchise with M&A to include high-growth segments that diversifies the company beyond its traditional blood and plasma collection businesses. He also shares his views on how medtech companies need to have products with competitive advantages as the hospital environment rationalizes and whittles down the number of medtech suppliers they use.

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OrthoPediatrics’ aspiration is to develop anatomically appropriate implants, instruments and specialized braces for children, so surgeons don’t need to “MacGyver” their way with treating a child with adult sized devices, CEO David Bailey explains to Bloomberg Intelligence, referring to the multi-skilled character from the 1980s TV series. In this Vanguards of Health Care podcast episode, Bailey sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview to talk about OrthoPediatrics, how its technology built a cohesive commercial model to aid pediatric orthopedic surgeons, including products and clinical support, and how it has developed a strong M&A platform to add innovation to its portfolio.

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“We’re staking the company on personalization: If you can make the health-care experience more personal to the individual, they’ll be more likely to engage around their health care and take the proper actions to get better outcomes,” Chris Michalak, CEO of Personify Health, tells Bloomberg Intelligence in this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast. Michalak joins BI analyst Jonathan Palmer to discuss the merger of Virgin Pulse and HealthComp, the company’s AI-driven personalization engine and the value proposition for employers. The conversation also covers Personify’s approach to consolidation in health care, the role of navigation and the impact of GLP-1 drugs on the market.

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Bolt Navigation has shrunk the use of a navigation system for spine surgery into an Apple iOS device, using the gyroscope-on-chip technology to make spinal fusion cases more accurate in any surgery setting, CEO Patrick West says. In this episode of Bloomberg Intelligence’s Vanguards of Health Care podcast, West sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson to talk about how the Bolt Navigation Unit leverages the gyroscope and an X-ray acquired once the patient is positioned for pedicle screw placement, with no special imaging required during the procedure. West goes on to say how this technology can penetrate ambulatory surgical centers, that can perform simple spinal fusion cases without a robot they may not be able to afford

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