ReBootHealth

In episode 25 of ReBootHealth , I speak with Cory Janssen. Cory is unique compared to previous guests with a background in finance as the founder of Investopedia and now operating AltaML. I’ve spoken to Cory on several occasions and really enjoy how he uses his business and founder experience to create a lens of AI/ML in healthcare. Today’s conversation focused on several high-level concepts inclu...

In episode 24 of ReBootHealth , I speak with Frank Rudzicz. There’s been so much ‘hype’ around the use of artificial intelligence/machine learning in life sciences that I wanted to get a solid footing for where we are and what’s possible. Now this is a big topic and one show cannot do it justice, but as they say, you have to start somewhere. Frank and I started out with his own journey, moved to s...

In episode 23 of ReBootHealth , I speak with Mith Jones. Mitch was referred to me by a previous guest of the show and as a Canadian in the US life sciences ecosystem, I was curious to get a bit more on his perspective. I’ll admit this show won’t be for everyone, but during our pre-show chat, I came to quickly appreciate the depth of knowledge and skill that Mitch brings to the therapeutics arena....

In episode 22 of ReBootHealth , I speak with Zain Kassam. Zain was a co-founder and former CMO of Finch Therapeutics , a publicly listed, therapeutic microbiome company in Boston. I’ve known Zain for a little over a year now and he’s probably the closest I’ll ever get to a ‘Kendall Square cluster founder’. I wanted to explore Zain’s thoughts from his unique lens of building ventures and how to do...

In episode 21 of ReBootHealth , I speak with Sanjana Basu, Investor at Radical Ventures. In her time at Radical, Sanjana has focused on AI/ML innovation across multiple sectors including health. We all know that this is a hot area and see its eventual value in healthcare, so I wanted to get a sense of where we are in this journey, especially as the capital markets take a breather.  With that...

In episode 20 of ReBootHealth , I speak with Anne Woods, Managing Director of Life Sciences and Healthcare, Silicon Valley Bank Canada. Anne is also a Board member at Life Sciences Ontario and has a bird’s eye view of the life sciences ecosystem across the country as well as our neighbours down south (…think chowder). We talk about how she meandered into the industry having an open mind, the role...

In episode 19 of ReBootHealth , I speak with Dr. Karen Cross, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon and co-founder of Mimosa Diagnostics . I was keen to chat with Karen on several fronts and get her thoughts on transitioning between academic medicine and entrepreneurship, balancing various roles, perspectives on clinician founders, strategies for addressing diversity challenges in medicine and ventur...

In episode 18 of ReBootHealth , I speak with Crystal Phillips, Health Lead of Thin Air Labs. This pod was a bit different from my normal format. Crystal kindly agreed to have a meandering chat on a few topics that I wanted to dive deeper into. She was willing to talk about her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) and how it impacted her Olympic speed skating hopes, her journey into the healthcare...

In episode 17 of ReBootHealth , I speak with Frank Baylis and Kris Shah, co-founders of Baylis Medical Technologies. These two founders are clearly operating experts—no hype, no exaggeration--just hyper-focused on executing their way to a great business. The most interesting aspect of this show was chatting to two co-founders who started and ‘finished’ running a business successfully. We jump thro...

In episode 16 of ReBootHealth , I speak with Dr. Pieter Cullis, professor at UBC and co-founder of Acuitas Therapeutics. This was a masterclass in personalized medicine. Pieter has a wealth of knowledge but I spent the entire episode reviewing his 2015 book, Personalized Medicine. We start with his impetus for writing the book and move into areas that in 2015 were nascent but are now in full view....

In episode 15 of ReBootHealth , I speak with Drs. Singh and Moffat. They co-founded Empirica Therapeutics in 2018 to address glioblastoma and were recently acquired by Century Therapeutics in 2020 to form Century Therapeutics Canada. Sheila and Jason discuss their chance meeting to collaborate, Canadian stem cell research, the challenges they faced as an early-stage biotech venture, and where they...

In episode 14 of ReBootHealth , I speak with Ali Tehrani. Ali is the co-founder and former CEO of Zymeworks , a publicly listed, clinical-stage, biopharmaceutical company focused on developing biotherapeutics in the oncology space. It was an honour and a joy to have Ali be a guest and share his deep knowledge around building one of the pioneer biotechnology ventures in the Canadian ecosystem. &nbs...

In episode 13 of ReBootHealth , I speak with Dave Kuraguntla. Dave is the founder and CEO of Alio , a non-invasive, remote patient monitoring start-up focused on chronic conditions.  Telehealth and remote patient monitoring have been hot areas in venture over the last two years and we talk about Alio’s impact in this area. Dave talks about the importance of finding a tribe for founders, focus...

In episode 12 of ReBootHealth , I speak with Ali Ardakani. Ali is the founder and managing director of Novateur Ventures a global talent firm of device and drug development experts.  Ali continues our exploration of the Canadian biotechnology ecosystem with a specific focus on British Columbia, a province that has recently been firing on all cylinders. Ali provides insight into what is workin...

In episode 11 of ReBootHealth , I speak with Peter van der Velden. Peter is the Managing General Partner of Lumira Ventures , a multi-stage life sciences investment firm focused on biotechnology, medical technologies, digital health, and consumer healthcare solutions. Peter is no ‘biotech-tourist’ and so it was great to hear a seasoned veteran’s perspective on the Canadian health ecosystem. We cou...

In episode 10 of ReBootHealth , I speak with James Somauroo. James is an anesthetist and intensivist in the UK who has become a healthtech start-up communication “whisperer”.  He is the founder of SomX , host of the Healthtech Podcast , and editor and chief of Healthtech Pigeon . I was fascinated with James’s journey and felt a kindred spirit in helping to shine a light on all the great found...

In episode 9 of ReBootHealth , I speak with Alexandra Greenhill. Alexandra is an emergency care physician and founder of Careteam Technologies . Alexandra has an immense depth of experience as a clinician, administrator in the healthcare ecosystem, and now as a founder and CEO. I crossed paths with Alexandra on a CDL reading club and quickly appreciated her passion for the fields of technology and...

In episode 8 of ReBootHealth , I speak with Muhammad Mamdani. Muhammad is Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and Vice-President of Data Science and Advanced Analytics at Unity Health Toronto. Muhammad bridges advanced analytics including machine learning with clinical and management decision-making to improve patient outcomes and hospital efficiency. I brought Muhammad on for 2 mai...

In the seventh episode of ReBootHealth , I speak with Avi Goldfarb. Avi is Professor of Marketing and the Rotman Chair of Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare at the University of Toronto. He is also co-author of the Book Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence. This interview with Avi was fascinating as he unpacked AI and healthcare through an economic lens. The con...

In the sixth episode of ReBootHealth , I speak with Ray Muzyka. Ray is a family physician turned gaming founder (BioWare) turned prolific investor ( Threshold Impact ). Ray co-founded BioWare in the early1990’s and continued to work with Electronic Arts after they acquired BioWare in 2008. Ray has a wealth of knowledge in so many areas, it was hard to narrow down the show to only a few topics. We...

In the fifth episode of ReBootHealth , I speak with Arash Zohoor, founder of Inkblot Therapy, a digital mental health platform designed to deliver convenient, affordable, and confidential mental health services. Inkblot Therapy was founded in 2015 and was acquired by Green Shield Canada in 2021.  Arash is a family physician and in many ways was well ahead of the curve with digital mental heal...

In the fourth episode of ReBootHealth, I speak with Jehangir Appoo, Founding Partner of AIoT Health , a physician led syndicate investment partnership. Jehangir has recently transitioned from cardiovascular surgeon to early-stage start-up investor and advisor. We talk about a broad range of topics on the show including his transition from clinician to investor, his sources of learning and his advi...

In the third episode of ReBootHealth, I speak with Sachin Aggarwal, CEO of ThinkResearch . Sachin was successful in taking the company public recently and I wanted to get him on the show to talk about the journey from startup to public company. Rather than a high-level overview we focus on two central elements and how they change through a company’s growth: KPI’s and culture. This episode will dig...

In the second episode of ReBootHealth, I interview Noah Crampton, CEO/founder of Mutuo . We cover a fair bit of ground in this episode including how to balance life as a clinician and a founder, the impact of computers in examining rooms, natural language processing (NLP) and its role in healthcare, the mindset of clinician versus entrepreneur and thoughts on Canadian healthcare innovation.  ...

In the first episode of ReBootHealth, I interview Joshua Liu, CEO/founder of SeamlessMD . We touch on a lot of points in this podcast with Joshua including how he got started, navigating the pull of healthcare customers, early wins, and the role of peer-review evidence in supporting your venture. Joshua had a lot of great insight as an early-stage entrepreneur and hopefully, his learnings can help...