Vanguards of Health Care by Bloomberg Intelligence

“Doctors don’t want pharma reps to buy them dinner, right? They don’t. They want help in the five minutes that really matter,” Viz.ai’s CEO Chris Mansi and Salesforce’s Frank Defesche explain in this Vanguards of Health Care podcast episode. Mansi and Defesche sit down with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Matt Henriksson to talk about Viz.ai and its agentic AI platform that connects medical scans and images to the right diagnosis and treatment guidelines. Also tune in to learn how the Viz.ai platform aims to partner with Salesforce’s life-science division to improve pharmaceutical point-of-care workflow while providing more personalized care.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Our vision as a company is to help eradicate cancer with tests that prevent it, detect it earlier and guide treatment,” says Kevin Conroy, CEO of Exact Sciences. He joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer on the Vanguards of Health Care podcast to trace Exact’s journey into a cancer-diagnostics leader. From Cologuard’s initial rise to its recently launched Cologuard Plus test, the debut of Cancerguard and expansion into minimal-residual disease (MRD) testing, Conroy shares how science, technology and culture underpin the company’s next decade.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“We've been working with NVIDIA for a number of years now and we integrated a medical grade, GPU in our commercial product”, CEO Anne Osdoit explains to Bloomberg Intelligence in her description about how AI is being incorporated into Moon Surgical’s surgical robot. In this Vanguards of Health Care podcast episode, Osdoit sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview on Moon Surgical, the benefits of its Maestro AI-powered surgical platform, and how Maestro can address the current barriers that have kept penetration rates of robotic surgery low.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Once a scientist, forever a scientist,” says Legend Biotech CEO Ying Huang as he joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Sam Fazeli to share his unconventional journey from the lab bench to Wall Street and back to biotech leadership. Dr. Huang explains how a dream led him from equity research to developing one of the most important CAR-T therapies for multiple myeloma. They explore the science behind BCMA targeting, lessons from the pivotal Johnson & Johnson partnership as well as the company’s ambitions in allogeneic and in-vivo therapies.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“American medicine is the best in the world, but the American health-care system is not,” Akasa CEO Malinka Walaliyadde says. In this Vanguards of Health Care episode, Walaliyadde joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer to explore how Akasa is tackling the chaos of revenue-cycle management with AI. He explains why America’s overlapping payment models create inefficiency, how large-language models read massive patient records in minutes and why custom models built for each health system outperform off-the-shelf AI. They also discuss Akasa’s performance-based business model and the path toward real-time payer-provider communication, as well as the role that grit and conviction play in building a transformative company.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The worst thing that can happen in health-care and biomedical research is politics getting involved in choosing what research needs to be done for what disease, Dr. Elias Zerhouni tells Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Sam Fazeli, explaining how mixing science and politics weakens innovation and public trust. On this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast, Zerhouni, a former NIH director and vice chairman of OPKO Health, unpacks his new book Disease Knows No Politics, warns against cutting US research funding and explains why immigration is vital for scientific leadership. He also dives into OPKO and ModeX’s cutting-edge work on multivalent vaccines and multi-specific antibodies that could change the treatment landscape.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“We are reinventing ourselves. We don’t want to be just a legacy orthopedic company and I think we’re driving with the same enthusiasm as Arnold Schwarzenegger,” Zimmer Biomet Chairman, President and CEO Ivan Tornos tells Bloomberg Intelligence. In this Vanguards of Health Care episode, Tornos sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview about Zimmer Biomet and the strategic initiatives made through internal developments and key acquisitions, including Paragon 28 and Monogram, to accelerate its weighted average market growth rate (WAMGR). He also discusses the current orthopedic landscape and the opportunities arising from the shift to the ambulatory surgical center (ASC) setting, as well as his relationship with Arnold Schwarzenegger as Chief Movement Officer.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“If you can drive the brain’s naturally occurring activity, what you can get is the biologic expression that is important for brains to maintain and protect themselves,” Cognito Therapeutics’ CEO Christian Howell tells Bloomberg Intelligence in this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast. Howell sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson to discuss the company and its Spectris device — a non-invasive therapeutic intervention designed to use gamma waves to preserve brain structure and function, starting with Alzheimer’s patients. He also highlights the promise of Cognito’s Hope study and reflects on how his time in the Navy and at Medtronic under former CEO Omar Ishrak shaped his “fidelity to the mission” leadership mantra.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Unlike radiation therapy that's got toxicity to it as it enters the body and exits the body and leaves large areas of necrotic tissue, histotripsy is very different in that there's generally no damage going in or going out.” HistoSonics’ CEO Mike Blue explains about the Edison system. He then in depth with BI analyst Matt Henriksson on how the Edison histotripsy technology destroys targeted cancer cells, how it differentiates from other cancer treatment options, and how the company plans to expand the use of Edison from lung cancer to kidney, pancreas and prostate indications. Also tune in to learn how the recent acquisition announcement can accelerate its momentum to build out the clinical data and commercialization of Edison.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“We don’t just invest — we bring knowledge, network and opportunity,” says Edward De Nor, partner at GHO Capital, as he joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer to discuss how the firm identifies and scales mid-market health-care companies that enable better, faster, more accessible care. He explains GHO’s investment thesis, its “picks and shovels” strategy and how innovation, not disruption, fuels compounding growth. The two explore case studies like BioAgilytix, the role of AI as an enabler and why boardrooms should obsess over the customer, not just the P&L.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.