Featured episodes of Definitively Speaking

Health equity is a hot topic these days. There’s no question that certain populations have better and more frequent access to healthcare – not to mention sometimes dramatic variations in the quality of care. Health inequities drive roughly $320 billion in annual healthcare spending – money that could be better spent elsewhere if we could just figure out a way to address this issue. While there is no silver bullet to addressing health equity, Squire Servance, founder and managing partner at Syridex Bio, is trying to do his part. Syridex Bio is an impact-driven, life sciences-focused firm investing in therapies that address the needs of underserved communities. Squire joins Justin for the final episode of Definitively Speaking to explore the social and economic costs of healthcare disparity, the challenge of developing treatments for underserved groups, and why investing in health equity is both good business sense and just plain good.

Justin and Squire discuss the root causes of health inequity in the U.S. and examine how Syridex Bio harnesses capitalism to develop treatments for patient demographics that the market has largely ignored. They discuss the challenge of securing market access, the push-pull relationship between on- and off-patent drugs, and why it’s worth being optimistic about health equity.

Plus, Justin says goodbye to the incredible guests, listeners, and production team of Definitively Speaking as we bring this edutaining series to a close.

Most everyone agrees that basic healthcare is a human right, but having a right to care doesn’t necessarily make it easily accessible or reliable for everyone. Charles Nader, CEO and founder of Doc.com, is on a mission to deliver free basic healthcare to the entire world using a foundational philosophy of access, analytics, and transparency. Charles joins Justin to explain how artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, and a business model inspired by brick-and-mortar pharmacies have enabled his company to provide free virtual care consultations to more than 600,000 patients from a platform that can function in any market—all while helping doctors provide the kind of patient-centered care about which they’re passionate.

Justin and Charles explore the challenges of creating a single universal platform for providing telemedicine around the world: Can you sustainably generate revenue from free care services? How do you navigate regulatory differences across state and national borders? And why should providers opt for blockchain data capture over traditional EMRs?

Hospitals might seem like the quintessential healthcare setting, but only about 11% of care episodes actually occur in these facilities, according to the National Institutes of Health. The other 89% of care is delivered through a complex continuum of outpatient settings that span everything from primary care offices to ambulatory surgery centers to long-term care facilities, just to name a few locations. Brian Drozdowicz, SVP and GM of acute and payor markets at PointClickCare, joins Justin to chat about the technological, legal, and incentive barriers to coordinating value-based care (VBC) across the healthcare ecosystem. Brian draws from more than two decades of leadership experience in healthcare tech to share his perspectives on VBC: how accountable care organizations are using data to improve outcomes at lower cost, why the rest of the industry always seems to be just one year away from activating VBC, and why 2024 may be the year that VBC truly, finally takes off.

Justin and Brian ask the questions that may hold the keys to unlocking VBC: Who’s responsible for providing visibility into patients’ journeys—payors, providers, or the patients themselves? What’s the secret to HCIT interoperability? Can healthcare learn anything from the financial industry’s approach to data privacy? Why are payors suddenly open to sharing data? And what big changes are in store for healthcare in 2024?

Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent on medical research and development each year by large corporations, small start-ups, and university labs around the world. If you’re working in a lab, and you discover a game-changing innovation, it can seem daunting to build a business around it. But it doesn’t have to be—and Dr. Matthew MacEwan, chief science officer and co-founder of Acera Surgical Inc., can tell you how he did it. Dr. MacEwan joins Justin to explain how he and his collaborators transformed years of research in material science into Restrata, an electrospun fiber matrix that aims to revolutionize soft tissue repair. Dr. MacEwan walks us through the journey of building a company out of a university laboratory, the lessons he learned from the patent process, and why navigating through complex clinical standards is a bit like steering the Titanic.

Justin and Dr. MacEwan take an up-close look at Restrata to see what makes it such a useful alternative to traditional grafts and wound healing methods. In addition to the fascinating details behind the technology, they dig into the challenges of entrepreneurship from a researcher’s perspective and the importance of cross-discipline collaboration throughout the commercialization process.

Medical professionals are leaving the industry in droves, and those who remain are burning out over untenable workloads and business pressures. Our doctors are responsible for caring for us. But who’s responsible for caring for them? And why do so many doctors not take the time to take care of themselves? Dr. Gail Gazelle, a physician coach, author, and Harvard assistant professor, joins Justin to explain why healthcare professionals are so prone to burnout and how they can – and must – preserve their mental well-being. Dr. Gazelle describes the four signs of burnout, the systemic factors that contribute to it, and how mindfulness can help physicians avoid handing over their happiness.

Justin and Dr. Gazelle look beyond the symptoms of healthcare’s mental health epidemic to raise some questions about its causes: Is a more profit-focused industry leading doctors to lose their sense of purpose? How did we get here, and who’s responsible for fixing it? And what can physicians do to break the cycle?

What’s it like being an investor in the healthcare space? It’s a little like dating for a living, if all your dates only want to talk about work and money. Sam Hendler, managing director of business development at Thomas H. Lee Partners, joins Justin to discuss what’s hot—and what’s not—in the world of healthcare investment, from major M&A activity to the growing challenges of interoperability. Learn what investors really look for in their prospects, why healthcare can’t seem to master revenue cycle management, and how working with the government as a private equity firm is kind of like keeping a pet tiger.

Justin and Sam examine the market from an investor’s perspective and explore trends like healthcare consumerization, the industry’s data explosion, and rapid hospital and IDN consolidation: Are EMR vendors really going to solve interoperability? Can hospitals keep more patients by giving them the freedom to seek care elsewhere? And how do investors balance profit with altruism?

Whether you place the blame on wonky demand curves or misaligned incentive structures, there’s no getting around it: the massive U.S. healthcare system just isn’t delivering on its $4.3 trillion investment. Is it time for a medical Manhattan Project? In this special episode, Justin is joined by Jonathan Bush, founder and CEO of Zus Health, and Robert Musslewhite, Definitive Healthcare CEO, to debate the future of the US healthcare system – what’s broken and who has what responsibility to fix it. Justin, Jonathan, and Robert discuss who’s really at-fault – is it the government, the payors, or the healthcare systems themselves? One thing’s for sure: it’s not the patient’s fault – or is it? They debate ideas for aligning payors, providers, employers, and patients. And they discuss the industry’s long, winding, and never-ending road to IT interoperability, and why that interoperability might not be the panacea that so many people think it could be.

Justin, Robert, and Jonathan openly wonder whether Meaningful Use and the “EMR-ification” of American healthcare was successful or not, and analyze how the emerging era of virtual care is going to change healthcare as we know it. At the end of their discussion, Jonathan lays out his vision for the hospital of the future – one that doesn’t even require a physical building to operate.

It’s tough being an executive at a healthcare delivery network these days. Competition for patients is brutal, doctors are leaving in droves, and insurance companies are squeezing your margins. And by the way, your board wants you to grow your revenues and your profits at the same time. So what’s the magic answer? Well, there isn’t really one, but Bill Moschella has some ideas on what you can do. Bill leverages his experience of building seven successful start-ups for the provider market to expert insights on how to deliver operational excellence amid unprecedented financial and competitive pressures, why it’s more important than ever to lean into innovation, and his no-nonsense formula for succeeding in the dynamic and complex healthcare market.

Justin and Bill raise some important questions about the business of keeping people healthy: How do you balance the humanist mission of healthcare with the need to maintain cash flow and growth? What defines good leadership in healthcare? And what’s the best way for an entrepreneur to identify the next big problem in healthcare and bring a new product to market?

The American healthcare system is far from perfect—which makes it a pretty perfect environment for entrepreneurs and innovators. But it takes more than an unmet need and some startup capital to find success in a crowded market. Lesley Solomon, venture chair at Redesign Health, joins Justin to talk about the joys and challenges of creating news businesses in the healthcare space. She walks through her successes and failures with startups across the care continuum, defends the value of innovating as an insider, and explains what a venture chair really is—and why it’s a little like herding sheep.

Justin and Lesley ask some of the big questions that every healthcare entrepreneur faces: How do you pick which problems to solve? What are the early signs of startup failure—or imminent success? And are we our own biggest barriers to healthcare innovation?