The Beat

In this episode Sandy Vance sits down with Dr. Kenneth Stein, Senior Vice President and Global Chief Medical Officer at Boston Scientific, to explore how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing cardiology from diagnosis to treatment.Dr. Stein shares how Boston Scientific is tackling one of healthcare’s biggest challenges: too much data and too little insight. From AI-driven heart monitors that detect dangerous rhythms before doctors can see them, to tools that democratize expert-level cardiac imaging, to predictive algorithms that warn clinicians of heart failure weeks before hospitalization. Tune in to hear how AI is not replacing doctors but empowering them, why clinical rigor still matters in the age of algorithms, and what it means for the future of cardiology.In this episode, they talk about:What it means to have too much dataThree key use cases for AI in cardiologyScaling expertise with BeatLogicDemocratizing Expertise with Avigo PlusPredicting outcomes with HeartlogicAI transforms raw data into actionable insights that improve patient outcomes.Radiology and cardiology are examples of how AI enhances (not replaces) medical professionals.Clinicians who embrace AI will outperform those who don’t.Ongoing education on AI’s role, limits, and evidence base is crucial for healthcare providers.A Little About Kenneth:Kenneth Stein is senior vice president and global chief medical officer at Boston Scientific. In this role, he has oversight for the clinical trials, medical safety and medical affairs functions and is responsible for ensuring a cohesive clinical community of practice across the company. Prior to Boston Scientific, Stein held the position of associate director of clinical cardiac electrophysiology at Weill Cornell Medical Center and associate professor of medicine at Cornell University. Stein is a graduate of Harvard College (in economics) and New York University School of Medicine. He is widely published, having authored more than 160 papers in the peer reviewed medical literature.  

About Harpaul Sambhi:Harpaul Sambhi is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Magical, where he’s building Agentic AI for healthcare to transform how people and systems interact in one of the world’s most vital industries. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Harpaul combines a deep technical background with a passion for human-centered innovation. Before founding Magical in 2020, he built and sold Careerify to LinkedIn, where he later led product initiatives within LinkedIn Talent Solutions and Microsoft, helping shape the future of talent acquisition and HR technology.Alongside building companies, Harpaul has served as Entrepreneur in Residence at Bain Capital Ventures, Advisor at On Deck, and a Limited Partner in leading VC funds, including Bain Capital Ventures, iNovia Capital, and OnDeck. Earlier in his career, he authored Social HR (published by Thomson-Reuters) and lectured at the Schulich Executive Education Centre on innovation, technology, and the evolving workplace.At his core, Harpaul is guided by simple principles—striving to be a good human and a dedicated father, husband, son, brother, and friend—while working with great people to build great products that make a difference. A graduate of the University of Waterloo with a degree in electrical engineering, he continues to live by curiosity, humility, and the drive to create technology that serves people, not the other way around.About Doug Hires:Douglas Hires is a seasoned healthcare executive, consultant, and entrepreneur with over 35 years of leadership experience across the healthcare and information technology sectors. Based in Dallas, Texas, Douglas has built a distinguished career driving operational excellence, business transformation, and financial performance for some of the nation’s leading healthcare organizations. His expertise spans providers, payers, government, and life sciences, and his track record includes accelerating growth, restructuring operations, and guiding organizations through strategic reinvention.Currently, Douglas serves as Executive Advisor at Magical, Managing Partner at JD Hires Advisory Group, and Founder & President of New World Wine Designs, where he combines his business acumen with his passion for fine wine and craftsmanship through bespoke wine cellar design and building. He also advises healthcare and sales organizations through roles with Healthcare IT Leaders and SalesSparx LLC, lending his strategic insight to help teams scale with precision and purpose.Previously, Douglas held multiple senior leadership roles at Optum, including Chief Operating Officer for OptumInsight Provider and COO of the Hospital Services Division, overseeing end-to-end revenue cycle operations for Dignity Health’s 36 hospitals. His earlier career includes executive roles at Santa Rosa Consulting, 3M Health Information Systems, SoftMed Systems, and First Consulting Group, where he earned recognition as a respected thought leader and sought-after industry speaker.Things You’ll Learn:Agentic AI surpasses automation by reasoning, adapting, and executing end-to-end workflows, thereby freeing healthcare workers from repetitive tasks.Healthcare organizations are already seeing results, such as doubling prior authorization volume while cutting staff needs and decision times in half.The shift from RPA to agentic AI mirrors the evolution from MapQuest to autonomous vehicles, smarter, smoother, and self-correcting.Successful AI adoption requires attention to change management and staff reallocation, not just technology deployment.Evaluating AI vendors using six key pillars (reasoning, adaptability, interoperability, agility, scalability, and fault tolerance) helps cut through the hype and identify real solutions.Resources:Connect with and follow Harpaul Sambhi on LinkedIn.Connect with and follow Doug Hires on LinkedIn.Follow Magical on LinkedIn.Visit Magical’s website.

About Charlie Harp:Charlie Harp is the CEO of Clinical Architecture, where he has led the company for over 16 years in its mission to revolutionize healthcare data quality and interoperability. Under his leadership, Clinical Architecture has become the industry’s leading provider of healthcare terminology management solutions, empowering organizations to enhance the accuracy, usability, and value of clinical data across systems. With deep expertise in electronic health records (EHR) and healthcare information systems, Charlie has spearheaded the development of cutting-edge software products and driven major initiatives in process improvement, project management, and data strategy—boosting efficiency and profitability across the organization.Before founding and growing Clinical Architecture, Charlie held senior technology and leadership roles at First DataBank, Zynx Health, Medi-Span, Covance, and SmithKline Beecham Clinical Labs, where he consistently delivered innovative solutions that advanced healthcare IT infrastructure. Beyond his executive work, Charlie is a healthcare data quality evangelist and host of the Informonster Podcast, where he explores the evolving intersection of healthcare, technology, and data. A graduate of California State Polytechnic University–Pomona and the Hearst Management Institute, Charlie remains deeply committed to enhancing the healthcare ecosystem through improved data and advanced technology.Things You’ll Learn:AI in healthcare is only as good as the data it’s trained on; poor data leads to dangerous outcomes and lost trust.The Patient Information Quality Improvement Framework (PIQI) aims to measure and improve healthcare data quality through an open-source, industry-wide standard.Data quality has a direct impact on everything from reimbursement accuracy to clinical decision-making and patient safety.Healthcare’s transformation won’t come from disruption but from gradual, data-driven evolution focused on interoperability and usability.Investing in data quality is like adopting a healthy lifestyle; it’s hard work, but the long-term benefits far outweigh the short-term effort.Resources:Connect with and follow Charlie Harp on LinkedIn.Follow Clinical Architecture on LinkedIn.Visit the Clinical Architecture website. Listen to Charlie’s previous interview on the podcast here.Check out The Informonster Podcast here.

About Patrick Schinzel:Patrick Schinzel is the Chief Operations Officer at Strive Pharmacy, where he has been instrumental in driving operational excellence and patient-focused innovation since 2023. With over two decades of experience in pharmacy leadership, Patrick brings a deep understanding of both clinical care and business strategy. Before stepping into his current executive role, he served as a pharmacist at Strive Pharmacy and Walgreens, where he spent nearly 20 years ensuring top-quality patient care and operational efficiency. Beyond pharmacy, Patrick has also demonstrated entrepreneurial drive as the long-time owner of Potential Home Buyers LLC, a real estate venture he has led since 2008. He earned his PharmD and bachelor’s in pharmaceutical sciences from South Dakota State University, following his studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and Clarke Community. Based in Mesa, Arizona, Patrick combines his expertise in healthcare and business to advance Strive Pharmacy’s mission of delivering accessible, personalized, and high-quality pharmaceutical care.Things You’ll Learn:Usage analytics revealed five consistently effective testosterone formulations from 370 variations, enabling faster fulfillment, lower prices, and maintained clinical autonomy.A thoughtful cash-pay strategy can enhance affordability today, even as broader reimbursement for underserved populations remains a significant industry challenge.Proactive potency testing on sterile lines (including GLP-1s) goes beyond basic safety to verify therapeutic effectiveness.“Preferred” formulations can coexist with precision medicine, extracting bulk efficiencies without eliminating personalization.The next leap is software that coordinates interdepartmental nuance, paving the way for robotics to deliver true “lot size of one” at scale.Resources:Connect with and follow Patrick Schinzel on LinkedIn.Follow Clinical Architecture on LinkedIn and visit their website. Email Patrick here.

About Lori Logan:Lori Logan is the president and CEO of NASCO, where she leads with a vision to merge innovation with a strong foundation in healthcare. Based in Englewood, Colorado, she brings over two decades of leadership across healthcare’s payer, provider, and technology sectors. Known for her curiosity, analytical mindset, and collaborative leadership, Lori has consistently driven growth, transformation, and measurable impact. Her career includes leading multimillion-dollar projects, overseeing teams of hundreds, and managing large-scale integrations and mergers, and acquisitions (M&A) initiatives. Previously, she held senior roles at athenahealth, Geneia, Paladina Health, TriZetto, UnitedHealthcare, Cigna, and McKesson—where she launched groundbreaking products and strategies that improved care coordination and operational efficiency. Recognized for her strategic acumen and results-driven approach, Lori has earned industry accolades, including the TriZetto CEO Pinnacle Award and the Thomson Reuters Healthcare Advantage Award. Her mission remains clear: to reimagine healthcare and create healthier outcomes and lives.Things You’ll Learn:Legacy infrastructure hinders scalability; health plans require a modern administrative “chassis” to package benefits, administer payments, and operationalize innovation. This goes well beyond traditional claims systems.Analytics must merge claims, clinical, and engagement data with medical economics precision. Insights then have to reach providers and advocates so care is both effective and reimbursable.A significant amount of value now resides outside of claims in disease management, digital tools, and condition management programs. Members need clear navigation and transparency on what they have, where to go, and what it costs.Provider enablement is essential for value-based care. Success depends on aligned incentives, shared operations, coaching, and trust between plans and providers.Strategic investments should prioritize scalable administration, robust operations, and data pipelines. These foundations let plans attribute value, manage risk, and drive affordability at scale.Resources:Connect with and follow Lori Logan on LinkedIn.Follow NASCO on LinkedIn and explore their website.

About Dr. Julie Schulz:Dr. Julie Schulz, MD, MPH, is a physician executive and product leader based in Los Angeles with a proven track record of driving innovation at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and business. Over the past 15 years, she has built and led teams developing healthcare decision support, analytics, and consumer health products across value-based care, women’s health, and life sciences. As VP of Product at Avalon Healthcare Solutions, she leads strategy for next-generation diagnostics platforms. Previously, at HALO Diagnostics and Doctor Evidence, she guided product and business development efforts that integrated imaging, laboratory, and evidence-based analytics to improve patient and physician experiences. Earlier roles at Lumere and Sg2 honed her expertise in clinical data, product-market fit, and scaling evidence-driven solutions. Published in leading journals, Dr. Schulz combines deep clinical insight with strategic leadership to advance innovations that improve healthcare outcomes and drive measurable business impact.Things You’ll Learn:Diagnostic intelligence can transform diagnostics from a cost center into a strategic asset that improves quality and lowers costs.Physicians face overwhelming volumes of new tests and guidelines, and AI-powered decision support can ease their cognitive burden.By removing prior authorization barriers, patients can transition from diagnosis to treatment in just 15 days, rather than the typical 60 days.Data shows that healthier patients are more likely to receive GLP-1 prescriptions, revealing a need for better risk-adjusted care strategies.True innovation in healthcare depends on communication, simplifying complexity and aligning clinicians, payers, and technologists toward shared goals.Resources:Connect with and follow Dr. Julie Schulz on LinkedIn.Follow Avalon Healthcare Solutions on LinkedIn and explore their website.Read Avalon Healthcare Solutions’ Annual Lab Trend Report here.

In this episode, host Sandy Vance sits down with Haris Shuaib, the CEO at Newton's Tree to explore how AI is transforming healthcare. Newton’s Tree partners with leading health systems and AI vendors to make AI adoption safe, effective, and scalable. Haris shares practical insights on where health systems should begin, how to design for agility, and what it takes to evolve alongside rapidly changing technology. Together, they look ahead to the future of AI in healthcare, where innovation and compassion go hand in hand because helping people still remains at the heart of every advancement.In this episode, they talk about:The birth of Newton’s TreeHealth systems should start small and design for agilityTechnology adoption best practicesNewton’s Tree’s four-step framework to aid health systems through their entire life cyclesBalancing the need to implement quickly and properly at the same timeThe future of standards for AI in healthcareWe must evolve with technologyA Little About Haris:Haris Shuaib is Founder and CEO of Newton’s Tree, a startup dedicated to AI transformation at scale in health and care. He is Director of the Fellowships in Clinical Artificial Intelligence, the world’s-first clinical training programme for healthcare professionals to develop practical AI skills. He is also a Consultant Clinical Scientist and former Head of the Clinical Scientific Computing section at Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS FT. Finally, he also holds a NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship, where he is leading a national multi-centre trial to see whether AI can improve the treatment of glioblastoma. 

In this episode, host Sandy Vance sits down with Dr. Bilal Naved from Clearstep Health to explore how AI is transforming the patient experience. From improving access and engagement to streamlining provider workflows, Clearstep’s AI agents are helping healthcare organizations deliver care more efficiently and effectively.It’s a pivotal moment for the industry: AI isn’t here to replace expertise, but to amplify it. When developed responsibly, these tools can become powerful partners by reducing friction for patients, supporting providers, and ensuring care reaches those who need it most.In this episode, they talk about:How Clearstep uses AI to balance patient access with provider capacityWhat it really means to leverage expert AI systemsTangible benefits for provider organizationsCutting call center volume, boosting patient care, and seeing 3–10x ROIFlexible deployment: from pre-visit automation to call center efficiency to data insightsA Little About Bilal:Dr. Bilal Naved co-founded Clearstep while completing his MD/PhD at Northwestern University. With a passion for blending engineering and medicine, he’s dedicated to pushing the boundaries of how care is delivered. Today, Bilal focuses on using advanced informatics to both optimize healthcare systems and measure real-world outcomes: work that’s making healthcare more efficient, effective, and patient-centered.

In this episode, host Sandy Vance sits with Derek Lo, CEO and Founder at Medallion, to explore how technology is reshaping one of the most overlooked but critical parts of healthcare: managing provider networks. Derek shares the story behind Medallion, why he set out to tackle the complexities of credentialing, licensing, and provider management, and how his team is using automation and AI to make life easier for both providers and organizations.Medallion builds software that simplifies the complexity of running a provider network. From credentialing to licensing, the platform helps organizations get providers seeing patients faster while offering greater efficiency, visibility, and control.In this episode, they talk about:How Medallion helps accurately manage provider networks with AI automationThe complicated and complex process of credentialing—and why it sparked Derek’s journeyWhere Medallion comes into play in recruiting and hiring providersHow this benefits organizations beyond the administrative processThe future of AI management software in healthcareHow Medallion is helping drive transformation across the industryA Little About Derek:Derek Lo is the CEO and Founder of Medallion, the leading platform for provider network management. Since launching in 2020, he’s grown the company to over 300 customers, built a 150+ person team, and raised $140 million from top investors like Sequoia Capital and Optum Ventures. A second-time founder, Derek previously built and sold Py to Hired.com in 2019. He’s a Yale graduate in Computer Science and Statistics, a two-time Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, and is driving Medallion’s mission to simplify healthcare operations with AI-powered automation.

In this podcast, Vishal Iyengar, Principal at Deloitte\, and Mike Stimpson, CTO at enGen, discuss the strategic value that AI Agents can unlock to transform healthcare outcomes, operations, and stakeholder experience. They explore the practical use of Agents to answer foundational questions and address requests for information from members and providers that routinely cause abrasion, confusion, and administrative overhead. Vishal and Mike also highlight what is needed for these Agentic solutions to be deployed and adopted for organizations to achieve the expected results – data integrity, cyber security, governance and compliance, and targeted talent. In this episode, they talk about:How AI has grown from traditional machine learning to GenAI to today’s Agentic capabilitiesA simple 3-layer setup: domain agents (specialists), reasoning agents (the organizer), and an enterprise model (the professor)Real-life use cases, like “Is this service covered?” or “Why was my claim denied?”What enGen focuses on to succeed: fresh thinking, outside perspectives, curiosity, a willingness to rebuild, and the right teamenGen’s vision is transforming healthcare by supporting members on their whole health journey and creating seamless experiencesSmarter data with AI-enabled APIs that make information easy to use across different needsWhy speed matters but not at the cost of security and trustA Little About Vishal and Mike:Vishal brings over 2 decades of technology and business transformation experience in the Health Care industry. He specializes in the infusion and adoption of new-age technologies into today's complex ecosystem that enables Payers and Providers to manage, deliver, and reimburse for care. Most recently, he has focused on real-world use of AI to augment technologists, operators, and business experts to meaningfully change how Health Care systems support their stakeholders. Mike comes to enGen with over 25 years of experience in technology and operations within both the health care and financial services industries. For the past 20 years, he consulted with health care organizations in transforming their businesses through technology-enabled solutions and large-scale business transformations specifically focused in core administration and service transformation . Mike leads enGen’s person-centric solutions focused on digital, clinical and provider transformation that puts the member and patient at the center of their healthcare journey.