The Heart of Healthcare | A Digital Health Podcast

Prashant Samant, co-founder and CEO of Akido Labs and EY Entrepreneur of the Year–Greater Los Angeles winner, builds full‑stack care and clinical AI. He describes how AI is embedded in real workflows, training on longitudinal datasets, and operating mobile care pods for the hardest-to-reach patients. Conversation covers scaling care within Medicaid, live learning loops, and why running services matters for adoption.

They unpack a surge in digital health funding and why a few mega-deals hide the real picture. A deep dive into an AI-enabled scam built on fake clinicians and ineffective oral peptides. Debate over whether administrative AI is saving money or quietly inflating costs. A look at peptide safety, supervised use, and how AI might reshape medical specialties into broader disease-focused roles.

Dr. Nate Gross, VP of Health at OpenAI and physician-entrepreneur who co-founded Doximity and Rock Health, discusses AI’s massive role in health. He talks about ChatGPT as a 24/7 health front door, efforts to reduce hallucinations and build safety guardrails, clinician-focused tools like ChatGPT for Clinicians, and where startups should concentrate in the new AI health landscape.

Wendy Barnes, President and CEO of GoodRx with 30+ years in pharmacy and benefits leadership, breaks down the chaos of U.S. drug pricing. She unpacks why prices vary wildly across pharmacies. She explores PBM reform, offshoring rebates, and why pharmacies lag in online adoption. She highlights direct-to-patient pharma moves and the push for real-time price transparency.

Pete McCanna, CEO of Baylor Scott & White Health, leads a customer-focused overhaul of a major not-for-profit system. He contrasts closed legacy systems with open, personalized care models. Topics include shifting from capacity-driven care to customer value, using AI for patient-facing products, new condition-based services, loyalty over short-term ROI, and reimagining primary care and navigation.

A monthly roundup of the biggest shifts in health tech news. Coverage includes turmoil around PBMs and vertical integration, new data on how consumers actually use health AI, landmark rulings holding social platforms accountable for youth harm, and signs of slowing hiring as healthcare chases efficiency and cost control.

Alec Wade Ginsberg, fourth-generation pharmacist and owner/COO of C.O. Bigelow and founder of the Drugstore Cowboy newsletter, breaks down pharmacy business realities. He talks about PBMs and how they squeeze independents. He explains why volume no longer means profit, the rise of compounding, and one policy he’d enact to fix the system.

Chris Klomp, Medicare director and former digital health founder, brings startup smarts to federal health policy. He talks about restoring trust across providers and payers. He explains why value-based care lags and how the Access model aims to be deflationary. He outlines plans to make prior authorization invisible, push strong data interoperability, and reshape drug pricing globally.

Tough funding realities in 2026 and why AI-native health startups are getting attention. Trade-offs between small funds and mega VCs and what pay-to-play actually means. Rebalancing co-founder equity when someone leaves and how many board seats to offer early on. Diagnosing growth plateaus and negotiating health system liability terms.

Helmy Eltoukhy, co-founder and co-CEO of Guardant Health and leader in liquid biopsy innovation, walks through the rise of blood-based cancer screening. He discusses cell-free DNA and methylation-based tests, the pathway from late-stage use to early detection, Medicare coverage implications, and the business and regulatory hurdles shaping diagnostic adoption.