The Heart of Healthcare | A Digital Health Podcast

Dr. Elisabeth Potter, a microsurgical breast reconstruction surgeon and healthcare reform advocate, joins Trina Spear, FIGS co-founder and CEO. They unpack the fallout from Potter’s viral insurance confrontation, risks clinicians face when speaking up, and FIGS’ push for political advocacy. They also explore the Speak Free Act, healthcare-worker tax credits, mental health support, and unconventional partnerships for reform.

Tyler Shultz, scientist, entrepreneur, and Theranos whistleblower, shares what he found inside the company’s secretive labs. He recounts the fear, retaliation, and personal risks behind speaking up. The conversation explores Holmes’s carefully crafted image, ethical leadership, evaluating workplace culture, protecting whistleblowers, and whether Theranos’s legacy is repeating itself.

David Vivero is a three-time founder behind RentJuice, Amino Health, and Lution. After mold was discovered in his home, he began exploring how indoor environments affect health. He discusses Lution’s vision for a “nutrition label for air,” the gaps in traditional mold testing, environmental justice, and how AI is transforming indoor-air research and prevention.

Kyunghyun Cho, Ortet founder and CEO, NYU professor, and pioneer of modern AI, shares his ambitious blueprint for healthcare’s own foundation models. He discusses solving healthcare’s cold-start problem, connecting biological, clinical, and operational data, and building tailored intelligence with providers. He also reveals why Ortet raised $500 million early, the surprising economics of AI compute, and how his cancer experience shaped his vision for more predictable care.

A court ruling challenges patients’ access to ambient AI medical recordings. Oura delays its IPO amid shifting digital health markets and fierce wearable competition. Patients arrive with AI-generated medical requests, while AI-driven billing pushes healthcare spending higher. Meanwhile, the FDA considers how to regulate constantly evolving medical AI and assign liability when foundation models change.

Javier J. Rodriguez, DaVita CEO and longtime kidney-care leader, explores why he’d welcome the end of dialysis, the barriers blocking more transplants, and the realities of bringing treatment into patients’ homes. He challenges Wall Street’s fixation on metrics, shares a hard-earned leadership lesson, and discusses healthcare’s clinical progress, fragmented data, and path toward more human-centered care.

Dr. Azita G. Hamedani, Chief Clinical Officer at Bunkerhill Health and veteran physician executive, explores what comes after checklists and protocols. She discusses AI-driven quality measurement, chart summarization, and event-triggered care orchestration. The conversation also examines health system adoption, AI literacy, clinician productivity, and the irreplaceable human side of medicine.

Sarah Russell, a physician, healthcare technology leader, and Anthropic executive, explores the company’s healthcare strategy. She discusses “non-regrettable primitives,” AI agents and HIPAA, access to care, richer patient histories, and the regulatory tradeoffs shaping health AI. She also reflects on why clinicians still matter, building high-performing teams, and redesigning care around patients.

Dave Chase, Health Rosetta founder and former Microsoft healthcare leader, examines why rising medical costs erode workers’ pay. He explores community-owned health plans, transparent pricing, direct primary care, portable benefits, and cutting out costly middlemen. Chase also discusses self-funding, stop-loss protection, healthcare technology, and how open-source standards could reshape employer coverage.

A fast roundup of the month’s biggest digital health stories. They discuss betting markets for clinical trials and the ethical risks that creates. The fallout from a major tech settlement and new youth protections make headlines. AI is linked to rising near-term healthcare costs. Lawsuits challenge wearable accuracy and a celebrity-backed mental health startup. A study ties GLP-1 use to shifts in female employment.