Vanguards of Healthcare by Bloomberg Intelligence

What is earned wage access and who should regulate it – the states or the federal government? Should it be regulated as a loan or something else, and why does that matter? How has the Trump administration approached this product and what is Congress doing about it? Kevin Lefton, global general counsel of Stream, one of the country’s leading earned wage access providers, joinsBloomberg Intelligence’sElliott Stein andNathan Dean on this episode of the Votes and Verdicts podcast to discuss these and other questions. Lefton also discusses how he and Stream navigate political uncertainty and what earned wage access looks like in five to 10 years.

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“If you look at the tubeless market, you know, we're seeing growth rates in excess of 25% annually,” Tandem Diabetes CEO John Sheridan explains to Bloomberg Intelligence about the growth opportunities in insulin pumps. In this episode of Vanguards of Health Care, Sheridan sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview about Tandem’s pending launch of Mobi Tubless, an insulin pump designed to wear on the body for discretion and the AI-powered Control-IQ Plus algorithm for simplicity. The conversation also touches on the company’s pay-as-you-go business model and future product development, including the next generation Mobi pumps utilizing Sigi technology from its AMF acquisition and a new closed loop algorithm.

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“It’s not about the technology itself, it’s about the form factor,” says Dr. Toyin Ajayi, co-founder and CEO of Cityblock Health. She joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer to explain how the company is redesigning care for complex Medicaid and Medicare populations around medical, behavioral and social needs. Ajayi details Cityblock’s value-based model, which rewards better outcomes and lower costs, and explains how AI is increasingly shaping care. One surprising finding: seniors and Medicaid members are willing to engage with technology when it comes through familiar channels like voice and text. The conversation also explores Cityblock’s use of real-world data to guide next-best actions and its ambition to expand nationally.

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“Clinical data is the key to being successful in diagnostics,” Steve Chapman, CEO of Natera, tells Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer as he explains how an early bet on evidence helped turn a small genetic-testing company into a broad diagnostics platform. Chapman traces Signatera from a side project into a leading minimal residual disease (MRD) test and details Natera’s nearly $1 billion R&D investment to push into genome-based testing, early cancer detection and new indications. The conversation also explores the next layer of value from Natera’s platform — millions of longitudinal data points, AI-enhanced test results and patient experiences, more efficient biopharma trials and the potential to use neoantigen prediction algorithms to support personalized cancer vaccines.

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“I almost think of, you know, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and these other areas as verticals. Sleep is a horizontal and it can impact all of the above,” Resmed CEO Mick Farrell explains to Bloomberg Intelligence. In this Vanguards of Healthcare episode, Farrell sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson to discuss how Resmed became the market leader in sleep apnea treatment and how it’s investing in assets like Noctrix Health to expand its sleep-health presence into restless legs syndrome. Farrell also goes into detail about his career path and the skills it takes to transition from being an expert in one role to managing an entire team of experts.

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“Only about 7% of healthcare data is available to the frontier models,” says Kyle Armbrester, CEO of Datavant. He joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer to discuss why healthcare’s AI opportunity starts with solving its fragmented-data problem. Armbrester explains Datavant’s role connecting providers, payers, life sciences, legal and insurance customers; why scale and tokenization are critical to linking data securely; and how the company is moving beyond records and dashboards toward AI-powered finished products. He also reflects on lessons from Athenahealth, Signify Health and CVS, Datavant’s acquisition strategy and the company’s ambitions as it considers a potential public-market future.

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“HIFU (high intensity focal ultrasound) is very valuable as a therapeutic treatment, but histotripsy may have some added value. We can develop a platform that can do HIFU or histotripsy or combine the two on a single platform,” Focaltherics explains to Bloomberg Intelligence. In this Vanguards of Healthcare episode, CEO Ryan Rhodes and CFO Ken Mobeck sit down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview to talk about 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. We also dive into how the team plans to expand into other cancerous and benign diseases, including benign prostate hyperplasia and endometriosis, and develop histotripsy — a focused-ultrasound technique that mechanically destroys targeted tissue — capabilities into the platform.

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“Whenever you look at these adjacencies…these are areas that we think plays to Stryker’s strengths, we have some innate know-how or some ability to be able to think to win with our commercial offense and the way we’re organized”, CEO Kevin Lobo and COO Spencer Stiles explain to Bloomberg Intelligence. In this Vanguards of Health Care podcast episode, Lobo and Stiles sit down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview on Stryker’s robust M&A track record, and key steps to successfully integrate all kinds of acquisitions as part of the long-term strategy for above market growth. One of the key factors is Stryker’s corporate culture, which combines the insight and learnings built from over 60 deals as well as an appetite for risk and pure grit to achieve what other peers have not been able to duplicate.

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“Our approach is to miniaturize the robot, make it more economical and make it more seamless in terms of how it integrates into the operating room environment,” Think Surgical’s CEO Stuart Simpson tells Bloomberg Intelligence. In this Vanguards of Healthcare episode, Simpson sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson to discuss how the company developed the TMini robot based on understanding what the surgeon was trying to achieve and working backward. This resulted in a handheld robot that provides optionality over the large form factors of other robotic systems while giving surgeons the choice of knee implant. Both features are well suited for the shift of knee replacement procedures to the ambulatory surgical setting. We also dive into the planned launch of Think Surgical’s TMini 2.0 in the first quarter of 2027.

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“We don't want to follow the crowd, we want to steer our own path into what we think are the most exciting opportunities for patients.” says Fiona Marshall, President of Biomedical Research at Novartis, joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Sam Fazeli to explain the biology-first, modality-second philosophy shaping R&D. Marshall details how Novartis is building radioligand therapy beyond Pluvicto into a broad portfolio across tumor types, while treating delivery as the bottleneck for expanding siRNA beyond the liver. The discussion also explores neuroscience as a growth bet built on earlier diagnosis and intervention, plus why AI productivity depends on embedding data scientists across the organization and training models on Novartis's proprietary data.

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