#10 - Making surgery smarter and safer !
Understanding TechBio, a masterclass on global healthcare event management, and more!
Episode 33: Understanding TechBio and What It Changes for Drug Discovery 🧬
AI and computational science are revolutionizing the biotechnology sector!
From identifying new therapeutic approaches to shortening their time to market, the entire value chain of this sector is impacted. These recent advancements have given rise to a new field in the industry: TechBio.
But what lies behind this futuristic term? And how exactly do these technologies accelerate the development and introduction of new treatments?
These two questions are at the heart of our conversation with Mati Gill from AION Labs!
With a background in law and the pharmaceutical industry, Mati is the CEO of this venture builder focused on this field, at the cutting edge of computer science and biology. A true startup factory for TechBio, formed around partnerships with the world's largest tech and biotechnology companies.
We talk with Mati about the ins and outs of this transformation, what it means for biotechnology and healthcare in general, and how an ecosystem approach can accelerate the emergence of the next big players in TechBio!
Episode 34: Launching a Healthcare Conference on a Mediterranean Island 🏝️
Imagine leaving your surgical training to create a healthcare conference from scratch on a small Mediterranean island!
This was the vision of Dylan Attard when he founded MedTech World five years ago.
Starting with an online event in 2020 during COVID-19, MedTech World has rapidly evolved into a global healthtech staple, promoting genuine connections among entrepreneurs, investors, and healthcare professionals.
This year, over 2000 participants will gather at the historic Mediterranean Conference Center in Valletta, featuring 300 startups and 100 investors!
But how do you organize an event of this scale? What are the strategies for curating valuable content? How do you build a strong community around medical innovation? And what makes MedTech World stand out from other conferences?
These are all things we discuss with Dylan, as he shares the keys to MedTech World's success and an open invitation to join us in Malta next month!
A few tickets are still available, and with the code MTWMaltaMathieuChaffard150OFF you will get 150€ off your booking! Will we meet there? 👋
Episode 35: Transforming Surgery with Smart Technology 🏥
Welcome to the future of surgery!
Björn Von Siemens and his team at Caresyntax aim to make surgery smarter, safer, and more predictive. Their proprietary platform integrates into hospitals, leveraging data throughout the surgical process—from planning to follow-up.
The firm has equipped over 3000 operating rooms and supports more than 3 million surgeries annually. As healthcare resources dwindle and access to surgery remains uneven, Caresyntax strives to drive meaningful changes for patients and professionals, optimizing operating room usage and providing detailed oversight for each procedure.
In this episode, we delve into the world of modern surgery amid robotics, AI, and automation, as Björn shares the challenges and successes that have established Caresyntax as a leader in modern surgery!
It’s happening right now ⚡️
🌱 Rethinking the Medical Check-Up and Preventive Care
You might have heard about the Parisian deep-tech startup Zoï, which opened a whole new kind of medical check-up center in Paris last year, giving a glimpse of what the future of preventive care might look like!
Their ambitious €3,600 check-up program evaluates 200 biomarkers across an extensive set of scans and assays, with the aim to assess in-depth risk factors for several conditions, and potentially prevent diseases before symptoms arise.
Combining cutting-edge data analytics and the expertise from certified healthcare professionals, Zoï offers personalized insights to help patients extend their healthspan, meaning the number of years they can stay healthy throughout their lifetime. The detailed follow-up they provide aims to guide patients with a tailored action plan to drive long-term outcomes.
The launch of Zoï comes amid a recent trend where many companies like Neko Health, Prenuvo, or Ezra offer holistic evaluations of one’s health status at a very high price. It raises questions about the real benefits of these new practices on the long-term, and the accessibility of this “luxurious” approach to medicine.
Time will tell if these approaches will be here to stay, but we will keep an eye on the first studies showing the potential benefits they can bring for patients and health systems!
It might be the future 🔮
🤖 The Rise of Multimodal AI in Healthcare
One thing that keeps many AI enthusiasts excited for healthcare’s future is the emergence of multimodal models, a new modality of AI technology that will be able to read, see, hear and sense beyond the current models focusing on one type of data only (e.g., text).
That’s one of the many things we talked about with Dr. Amine Korchi in episode 32, if you recall.
These models appear as extremely powerful, as they might be able to support healthcare professionals in navigating the ocean of information they are dealing with each day, potentially acting as sparring partners for all their diagnostic and care provision decisions.
This article published in Oral Oncology Reports explores the unprecedented capabilities that such models might bring, from providing comprehensive patient histories to aiding in differential diagnosis.
An important field to keep under the radar, with much progress ongoing as we speak!
A jump back in time 📼
📠 Or a Relic of the Past
Once a revolutionary tool, it has now become a limitation for many health systems in their journey toward digitalization, which still use it extensively.
The fax machine theory was born in 1843 by a Scottish inventor, Alexander Bain. However, it was Giovanni Caselli who created a few years later the first practical fax machine, successfully sending the first text message across France.
Caselli’s pantelegraph mechanism. Source: Les Merveilles de la Science by Louis Figuier, 1866.
This hallmark in modern communication, which emerged even before the telephone, gained rapid adoption in healthcare as of the mid 20th century, and has maintained a remarkably persistent presence in medical offices and healthcare organizations worldwide.
But this reliance on fax technology isn't without its problems, with 30% of faxed orders going missing or lost, and 80% of serious medical mistakes resulting from poor communication, including fax-related issues. No need to mention as well the lack of compatibility with the latest digital technology.
After so many years of services, many initiatives across the globe are now trying to phase out fax machines from health systems, with limited progress to say the least…
#conference - Mathieu will be speaking at MedTech Malta on November 7! Dylan Attard and his team at MedTech World invited me to moderate the panel “Young Visionaries: Under-30 CEOs Shaping Tomorrow” where we will talk about medtech entrepreneurship with three emerging leaders! To secure your ticket, head over to med-tech.world/get-tickets and use the code MTWMaltaMathieuChaffard150OFF to get 150€ off on any Premium or Platinum tickets! See you there! ✌️
#support - As you might know, the Impulse Podcast and all the content we produce around it is the fruit of a voluntary passion project, and we are always keen to receive your support to grow the show and make sure we can sustain our activities in the long term! That’s why we would encourage you to subscribe to the podcast, leave a 5-star review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and share it with your surroundings or colleagues who might be interested in the subjects we cover!
🙏 Have a great day,
Mathieu