#329 Combining LLMs and the microbiome for truly personalised health, with Leo Grady from Jona
Nov 15, 2023
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Leo Grady, Internationally recognized for his work in AI healthcare, discusses combining LLMs and the microbiome for personalized health. Topics include: Leo's journey into HealthTech, the history of AI development, fostering collaboration in startups, the power of vision as a CEO, building an AI system in pathology, scaling challenges in HealthTech, and the importance of regulators and the complexity of the microbiome.
Jonah Health aims to personalize health by analyzing the microbiome using AI and large language models.
Jonah Health's technology stack includes AI that analyzes scientific papers, integrates collective knowledge, and generates tailored reports based on microbiome test results.
Scaling Jonah Health's microbiome analysis services requires addressing distribution, robustness, and support while maintaining validation processes and regulatory compliance.
Deep dives
Future of Microbiome Analysis
Jonah Health aims to elevate the microbiome to a new branch of medicine, leveraging AI and large language models to analyze the complex and ever-growing body of microbiome literature. By offering a microbiome test, Jonah Health sequences a person's microbiome and uses AI to generate personalized, actionable insights. The business model currently revolves around a cash pay model, targeting the wellness market and selling through concierge medicine and direct-to-consumer channels. The aim is to generate revenue and data to support the development of clinical-grade solutions in the future.
Technology and Defensibility
Jonah Health's technology stack consists of three key components. First, their AI analyzes scientific papers and extracts relevant information, including study design, patient populations, and findings. Second, the AI integrates and interprets the collective knowledge from these papers to provide insights on a person's microbiome test results. Third, the AI generates tailored reports for individuals based on their goals. While large language models like GPT-4 can assist with report generation, the critical components of understanding and interpreting the scientific literature and integrating it into meaningful insights require specialized and domain-specific technology. Therefore, Jonah Health's defensibility lies in the combination of their AI expertise, proprietary algorithms, domain knowledge, and access to large datasets.
Scaling and Impact
Scaling Jonah Health's microbiome analysis services requires addressing distribution, robustness, and support. The distribution element involves reaching hospitals, doctors, and patients nationally and internationally. Robustness refers to ensuring the AI and tech stack can handle the variability and heterogeneity present in different healthcare environments. Support encompasses addressing feedback, maintaining security and privacy, and complying with local regulations and laws. Achieving scale involves generating revenue and data to fuel the development of clinical-grade products. By focusing on these aspects, Jonah Health aims to have a transformative impact on healthcare by unlocking the potential of the microbiome.
Importance of Robust AI Systems in Healthcare
Building AI systems in healthcare that are robust and reliable is crucial. This requires rigorous sampling of diverse populations, conducting multi-center studies and prospective trials, and thorough validation processes. While it may be tempting to cut corners, such as by assuming a system that works on a few patients will work everywhere, this wishful thinking can be dangerous. The FDA provides a regulatory framework for ensuring the validation and safety of AI products in healthcare. While it requires investment and time, building robust AI systems is possible.
The Significance of Global Variations in Anatomy and Physiology
Doctors usually practice within a limited geographical area, leading to limited exposure to varying anatomies, biology, and physiology. AI technology has the potential to address this gap by encountering and learning from diverse patient populations worldwide. By building AI systems that can handle the variations in anatomy and physiology, healthcare companies can improve their understanding and treatment of different patient populations. This comparative experience across cultures can contribute to the development of more effective and equitable healthcare solutions.
Leo Grady who is internationally recognized for his work to deliver AI in healthcare for 20 years at pioneering bay area startups (HeartFlow), multinational medical companies (Siemens) and, most recently, as CEO of Paige.ai. As CEO of Paige, Leo led the company to become an industry leader, internationally launching groundbreaking products and receiving the first-ever FDA approval for an AI product in pathology. Leo is currently CEO in Residence with Breyer Capital and the Founder and CEO of Jona. https://www.jona.health
