Adam Torres, Dr. Raja Sannidhi, Dr. Ram Dandillaya, and Dr. Francisco Cidraland discusses the medical longevity sector.
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Show Notes:
Listen to Longevity Leadership Conference coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Dr. Raja Sannidhi, Founder of Capitol Drugs, Dr. Ram Dandillaya, Chair of Cardiology at Cedar’s Sinai and Dr. Francisco Cidral, Chief Science Officer PRUVN, explore trends in the longevity sector.
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Full Unedited Transcript
All right, so this one we’re going to do something a little bit different. So we’ll have a panel and I’m going to leave some time at the end for questions. So definitely as you as you get to know some of the individuals up here, you’re going to have questions because they’re all all stars in their fields.
And we’re going to come at this topic from multiple different perspectives. So I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. So just to get us kicked off, we’ll start with make sure I’m in order. Yep. Dr. Raja Sanidhi, Dr. Ram Dandavalya, and Dr. Francisco Cedro. So we’ll just start with, if I can start with you, Raja just tell us a little bit about what you do and your background.
My name is Raja Sanidhi, I’m a PharmD graduated in 03 from Pharmacy School at Multnomah University and been a pharmacist for about 20, 21 years now. And I’ve just worked on, sort of, for the wellness and anti aging throughout my life. Great. Last few years as the, yeah, as it emerged into the mainstream now.
Yep, and your business, founder of Capital Drugs. Yes, so actually Capital Drugs has been around for about 30 years. I acquired it in 2016 and been in LA since then. Amazing. Ram, please, a little bit about yourself and what you do. Great. First, thanks Adam and Sharad for having me. My name is Ram Dayanalaya.
I’m a cardiologist and internist. I serve as the department head of cardiology at Cedars Sinai. I also have a private practice really focused on prevention and longevity and that’s really been my professional interest for the last few years, so it’s a very exciting time to be in medicine with the breakthroughs, so really that’s been my focus.
Awesome. Francisco. Yeah, I’m I’m a naturopathic doctor, but I did my master’s and a PhD in neuroscience and a post doctorate in health sciences. I became a professor of neurophysiology and integrative medicine. I was a co founder of the lab of experimental neuroscience at a very big university in the south of Brazil.
I’m still an associate professor there. I’m also an associate professor at La Sapienza University in Rome. And I’m in the Neurosciences program. And I do, I was, I was very happy to hear that they are from Hyderabad in India. I’m actually going there in February to learn the function of my trial clinical trial in Hyderabad.
So Jake, for instance, we do a lot of research with AIMS, with all, all of these two medical sciences, and then there’s National Institutes of Neurosciences and Mental Health in in Bangalore as well. So, that’s the background. I’m a co founder with Elias and Veronica. Yeah. And so, what I think is super interesting about this panel is that we have not only their backgrounds, of course, but we’re coming at this from different angles.
So, whether it’s cardiology, whether it’s naturopath, whether it’s the pharmacy side of things. I guess just to open up the the can of worms here, and whoever wants to jump first can. Trends in longevity and what you’re seeing from your perspective in fields. Who wants to go? I think it’s a combination of everything.
There we go. We have to make good use of everything. I really like the approach in terms of longevity because being a naturopathic doctor, I was always concerned about doing things before you actually get sick. Right? And instead of trying to treat a disease or a problem that we absolutely need, because people get sick, physically need that part, we should be very much concerned about not getting sick, and then doing the things that we can in terms of, you know, prevent that, like lifestyle interventions, and we all know about exercising, and diet, and taking the proper supplements, because sometimes we can get it all from the food, right?
And then when we need the cardiologist, then he’s right there to do it. You know, I think Far too long in this country. You know, healthcare has really been sickcare as much to your point. In medical school, I think, you know, we had maybe an hour of nutrition training. So I think we see a real paradigm shift in the last two years.
You know, the explosion of all these influencers health optimization centers, so. You know, there’s this old saying that, you know, the patient is going to see you now as a physician, you know, so patients are more empowered So we’re seeing just more accessibility for complex lab testing which can be sometimes a dangerous thing more more access to Imaging MRI imaging body imaging with Renuvo, for example, so I think you see this incredible Transformation where there’s now data Now, what do you do with that data?
And that’s where I think trends in artificial intelligence, analyzing these complex data sets, that’s going to be the next five to ten years, and I think it’s going to be remarkable what we’re going to see. With the pharmacy side, like you were saying, supplements and everything, I think the knowledge of the right supplements is the key, and also the right product lines, in the sense of the companies that are there, because there’s no, With medication and tests and everything else, the FDA gets involved and there’s some kind of standard.
With vitamins and natural products, there is no official standard. It all comes as a health aid or a neutral natural products. So with that, having the right knowledge of where to get the right product because of the most availability is what’s going to also set your treatment better. And going back to Dr.
Rahm, like what you were saying that patients coming in with the knowledge and asking those questions now has actually helped us get them the proper guidance of what they should be taking, what products are better than the other ones, and how that would help them out. The concern with the proper research and everything else is one of the guidelines that actually stimulated us to start the company because I’ve been in the health and wellness sector For 15 years, even before that, when I was still a student doing my master’s and my PhD, I always had the eye on the market.
I was saying, I want to study something that then people are going to use. That’s going to be of service, right? And, and always in terms of non invasive, complimentary. And then when I came to the U. S., I was born in Brazil, my family is Italian, but I’ve been here for 13 years, so. I actually like to talk about that because I have three passports.
Because they’re in American and in Italian. And I do travel all the time between the three different countries. But I came and I was surprised that in the U. S. you didn’t have to prove before you started selling. And then I was like, oh, this is kind of a disservice to this. Because a lot of people take supplements and they say it didn’t do anything for me.
Yeah, you didn’t take the proper dose. You took something that was not validated. So I thought it was very important that we develop a system that is going to help people. Also, I was very happy to be working with companies that have the ethics to say I wanted to do the research. Right? To prove that what I’m saying actually happened.
And I think that’s how we started, you know, working together. It’s very important. Going back to what you were saying, America was more reactive than proactive, right? So, now I think that concept is changing for the patients and the public saying, I want to feel healthy all the time, not feel healthy when I’m sick, or recover faster.
I want to be on this general line, path line, and then I want to optimize that. And how do I get from here to here, rather than only feel like When I have a cold, I want to get to go in and see a doctor. So now, going back to what you were saying, patients come in and they go, Oh, I bought vitamin C from the local pharmacy, and it was, it’s sundown.
And I’m not trying to make names, but sundown. Not a great product, right? So you got to look at what’s out there and say, okay, because no one’s checking actual vitamin C levels in that. You’re only getting whatever they’re saying it is, but it’s sometimes not true. So you got to get a product that’s actually has some data, some testing that shows the efficiency of the values that are in there.
And that’s where the difference is. Hmm. And I think the other thing is that. Patients can now, from the comfort of their home, get complex labs done, they can get a telemedicine exam, they never have to step into a doctor’s office, and really get a physical exam, which is a big transformation. A lot of this is now acceptable.
They can get on the peptides, trisepticide, and, you know, buzempate, which is gonna be, again, shift in health, I think, for the better. But there’s also some, some careful things, some dangerous things about not having more of that interaction in person with the doctor, and worry about that a little bit.
So one of the things here and one of the things that I’m a fan of is the idea that the general public and that the masses want to be more educated. When I think about our marketing for like this conference, longevity, when you think about the other two days that will happen on Saturday and Sunday, right?
Four days straight. Longevity and health. Some people in here are in the industry, some are here for education, some are here for products and ideas. So I find it super interesting. I’m curious, there was a theme across all of these, which is a more educated client or patient in this case. How do you feel a more educated patient leads to or does it, like better patient outcomes or moving the industry in general?
Like, how does that play its role? I personally think it’s a great thing. I think the double edged sword, I’ll give you an example. I think there was a law that was passed that the hospitals have to release lab results within 24 hours and also progress notes to the patient. And that can create a lot of, Confusion, you know, because patients are now interpreting their own lab results, and then they’re, we get frantic calls within hours of that test being resulted, and we haven’t seen it, and we’re trying to scramble to find out, so now we’re getting, we’re, we’re sort of back to zero.
On the one hand, it’s very empowering, like you, some people are complaining they’re waiting weeks and weeks and weeks to get the lab results from the doctor, but now it’s like you can get it the same day you released it to us or before. You’re too fast or too slow. It takes some time to adapt, I think, right?
You change something, then it goes all the way to the other, you know, side, and then it goes back to the middle, I think. It’s also where the information is gathered for the patient, right? Even if they are watching Depends on where they’re getting that information. They’re following some person that has no medical background, but is preaching all these things online or on Instagram or any of the social media networks, and then we have to address those and take how much validity is actually there in what they’re saying to, regarding this person or regarding their questions.
So, I think that’s a lot that goes on with all of the industries on the healthcare side is that, where are you getting this information, and how are you translating this information into what you need to know. Education, right? Education goes hand in hand with this. Roger, let’s keep it on you for a bit, from the pharmacy side of things.
Helping patients get access to medications based on different categories. Like, any trends or things that are happening there? So, as there’s one, medications are now getting more specific to the needs of the disease or the state of the patient, which is good. The other is that a lot of doctors and a lot of healthcare providers are going off label for the need, for the use of the medications.
So if you’re not in tune with the new protocol or the new longevity or wellness patterns, then a pharmacist. would not be comfortable filling the prescription. And so that’s where the access to medication comes into play for us is that to understand where this person is getting this and why they’re using it.
Just asking them questions, figuring out what their purpose for this is, and going from there. And that’s where I think the difference lies in access to medications. Like, you can get Most of the medications are in the pharmacy, but if the person doesn’t know why this is being given, then that’s where the harm is.
And, and Francisco, does this play into the, I know, I know at Proven, one of the things you’re doing is whether it’s clinical trials or there’s multiple things that you’re able to, that companies and brands approach Proven for to help them get, does this affect it at all? Like, does this, does this play into the mix at all?
Yes, I mean, it’s a, it’s a very complex market right now. Okay. And actually one of the more interesting things that I find is with the people that I started working with is that they, most of the times, they want to make claims that they shouldn’t be making anyways. So that’s the first thing. No examples, please.
No, no, no. Just like you generally go to work with a device, for instance, that’s supposed to, you know, help with all your sleep. And then people say, oh, but it also helps with the stress. So we’re going to market it for PTSD. I mean, you have no clinical trials for that. Do you want to go through all the FDA process and everything else?
Are you, do you want to be in the market to treat a disease or a problem? Or are you more interested in doing something that is going to help everybody? The whole population? Health and wellness, I mean, who doesn’t have problems? Yeah. So why don’t you target the things that make more sense, and that is going to put you in a healthy wellness.
And then, you still do your clinical trials, because now there’s a differentiator in the market, right? Because most of the other companies don’t have anything. But, but do it right. Put it in the proper category. So one of the things that we start doing is looking at the claims. So we have Veronica that has specialized as a lawyer.
She’s been doing this for many years. So she helps us guide through that process. Hmm. And then, we also have to find what are the proper outcomes that make more sense for you that is going to be unique and differentiated. Then we have, you know, Eliza does all that, that has been in the market for many years, that knows what people should be saying, what makes more sense.
And then, I’m the last one. I have to prove this, and let’s do the tribe to see if it really happens. So, we do, we cover the whole, the whole spectrum, and I think that’s, that’s very important. Because people are a little, you know,
So Ram, you have a unique perspective and a unique vantage point. I mean, highly visible role at Cedars Sinai and you, you see a lot, obviously a lot of cases. So I’m just curious from your end on the cardiac, on the cardiac side of things, prevention and longevity, like what kind of advances or are taking place or, or what are you seeing?
Sure. Well, I think one of the biggest things is the Access to high quality cardiac imaging is going to be a big trend now in the next few years. You know, everyone should be getting at least a 48 coronary calcium scan. But now you can do what’s called a CT coronary angiogram to look at plaque in the artery.
Now there’s AI analysis on that plaque. Companies like Parkload clearly, they can actually see that that’s actually going to be a very high risk plaque that’s going to rupture and cause a sudden cardiac event. So unfortunately insurance doesn’t cover some of these advanced testing modalities.
But this is where the field is going is advanced and early detection. So it’s a big, big area. Yeah. So when we think about longevity, what do you think are some of the key things that are going to be leading to the, and this is the kind of dreaming part here, what are, what’s this? So not, not holding you out of this, but what are going to be some of the things that lead to better patient outcomes going forward?
Like, just dreaming for a moment. We’re gonna have to change some of your habits. I said, don’t dream too much. Come on. We heard the joke earlier from Victor, right? We’ll do anything if we want to. It always has to be a lifestyle intervention. It always has to be surgical. Because, like, you go to a therapy, and then whatever therapy, no matter if it really works, it’s great.
You only go like once or twice a week. You have to do something that you do every day. It’s accessibility, I think, also, to be able to do those, have those in value for you, or like be willing to do those. Like, the thing, the changes, the person has to change and want to do it. Yeah. How do you get them to get there?
And I would add on that you have the miniaturization of technology, so you can have continuous monitoring. Through devices, you have whirring and all these different types of technologies. On the hard side, what’s exciting is that, you know, there’s technology being developed. There’s companies out there that are looking at continuous monitoring for droponin, through like a smartwatch.
I mean, it’s still a far away thought, but You know, imagine that we can get to a heart attack patient hours or days before the actual event. I mean, that’s going to dramatically change the landscape. And I think with smartphones, you know, again, there’s just easier and easier access. There was one thing I was reading that was interesting just today about vocal biomarkers.
So, just based on a short conversation, the AI technology can predict if someone’s going to be hypertensive. Wow. And I was like, that’s interesting. That is. You know you know, already just on the basis of an EKG, something that’s very, very simple that we do every day in our office. Technology can predict risk of heart failure, heart attack, atrial fibrillation based on millions of EKGs.
And, and various obscure data points that only the technology can read. So this is the future. Hmm. Hmm. Constant monitoring, things that you can do at home, right? And it will stimulate you to change certain habits. But it’s a combination of the technology and the will of the participant. Let’s give a takeaway here.
What, what, what are some things we can do at home? I like that. That’s a good one. I want a takeaway. Oh, the, the major ones, right? You have to have some stress management. Yeah. Program, right? That was a good one. Nobody made, you know, Right? Meditation, meditative practices, and everything else. And people ask me sometimes, like, Oh, Keith, how long do I have to meditate?
Forever. That’s right. How long does that have to be? Exercising is another one, right? It’s extremely important. So, stress management, meditation is the best, right? And all the other modalities that exist now, with technology. Americans, we’re a little lazy, I guess, to sit down and meditate, so we use technology to do that in a good way, but diet, for sure, and the exercising, and then, you know, some sort of disinvolvement of sleep, I think, is very important.
I think for us, it’s, what you’re saying, Americans, in general, we’re we want instantaneous results. We don’t wait for the results, right? Like going back to India, and if you go back, all these things All the other natural meds and all the alternative therapies, homeopathy, Ayurvedic, Chinese herbs, whatever you take, you gotta take it consistently to get your immune system or your body built up to where you want it.
And America’s never been that kind of mindset. It’s I have a headache. What do I do right now? Take, not prevent the headache, right? So that goes back to what you were saying, stress management, exercising. Change of habits, what’s, what, like, if you go to a homeopathic doctor, their first question is not the problem you have, it’s like, tell me about your whole life.
And they want to know from the day you were born until the day of now, when you’re sitting in this chair, what is causing this problem? They’ll know, go back to the root of it and find out what the issue is. But that change might, that headache might not go away from them. You still might have that headache.
So that’s the difference I think would be like us here, is that we want it now and we want it right now, not a week from now. Yeah. I think you have that with Ozempic. . Think about something. And then Amazon’s dropship. You can’t get better stress than that. Nah. Ram, how do I take care of my health? I want you in on that question too.
My, my, my heart, come on. I, I know you, I know your name for a long time. Give me some tips, man. How much time do you have? Well, you know, I encourage everyone, you know, as a preventative cardiologist, you know, of course the lifestyle is critical. Between diet, exercise, sleep, stress management, all those things, but I think you really need to know your risk.
You need to, and for those of you who follow Peter Itziar, I think he does a good job with really proposing all of these things, but check your LDLa status, get your lipid panel, look at ApoB, get a calcium scan. These are all easy, relatively cost effective things that can be done in almost every community.
Once you have that data set, you can really customize a plan based on that, and then you can see, well, listen, do I need to what do I need to do for the cholesterol? Cholesterol is not the whole story. You know, do I need to get a CT for an angiogram? So you start to, you know, unroll this better once you have those, those fundamentals.
So that’s the keys to get tested. Francisco, I want to know more about Proven in terms of the types of brands and companies that you work with. Like, is there a certain size of company, a certain stage they need to be in? Can you give us a little bit of an overview? Well, it’s, it’s more, we, we very much concentrate in the health and wellness sector.
From supplementation to devices. And even methods. I mean, we worked with specific methods before as well. A specific, a specific approach that a doctor is using, and then wants to validate it and compares it to another method, or methodology, a combination of different things. And the companies don’t have to be like, just starting.
They can have, like a, generally it’s a company that already has a, a medium side, as you say. And, and most of them, as we know, have those things. Right? A lot of them don’t, don’t I mean, our, our friends from Rybacene, as you’ve heard before, right? They had a lot of, a lot of materiality, which is rare in this world.
So we’re very happy to be working with them as well. So, it’s just, it has to be people that have an ethical principle, that want to prove and to validate what you’re doing, that trust that the outcomes are going to be favorable, because you never know. I mean, we’ve tested companies that , we got no results.
Mm-hmm. That can happen. Yeah. Right. So most, most of the time it’s people that really believe in what they’re doing and want do the right thing. Mm. Show that their product is, is effective. Mm-hmm. So I have one more question here and then I’m gonna open it up for the audience as well. So I wanna see some hands raised.
Think about it, just giving you some, some warning here. I’m gonna turn, I’m gonna do it in a minute. Francisco, I wanna keep it on you just a little bit longer. So the so working with different brands, healthcare, that’s a given. What are some of the, and we saw one company that was up earlier, but what are some of the different ways that you’re helping them?
I said it kind of quickly earlier, but I want to make sure that you talk just a little bit about it, whether it’s clinical trials, or there were a couple of different things that you did. We can help them get to clinics. You know, look at clinics and make sure that they are not infringing upon any regulatory, so make sure that the regulatory is in order.
And then we do claims development as well. Right? When we, when we find out that certain things shouldn’t be there, how do we develop? What is the claim that is going to resonate? From, from a, from a regulatory standpoint, but also from a marketing standpoint. If everybody’s saying the same thing, you don’t have to differentiate.
Yeah. We help you with the development of what you should be saying. We do voice of consumer analysis, then we go back to people and then find that. We do scientific competitive analysis, so there’s different people that are competing against each other. We look at what they have in terms of research and what can we do to be different.
And then all types of trials, like from pharmacokinetics, dynamics, from the toxicology, sometimes they don’t have it. You know, and we do all that. And then, efficacy. From manual models to clinical trials and so on and so forth. Decentralized, centralized in, in universities and in clinics and online. I mean, there is a gamut of different ways that we can do it.
Hmm, alright. Alright, let’s let’s open up for questions. Who wants to go first? Oh, there we go. Can you comment on where do you see AI coming into each of your industries? And what are the most concrete examples you’ve seen where it has actually made a tangible difference at the current state? I can Do a crack at it.
You know, Cedars has done actually a lot of work in AI, in our field, in, in cardiology. They have for about the last 10 to 15 years for our new beta cardiology scans, there’s artificial intelligence interpretation. So, these this software is much, they, they’ve looked at this and validated these data sets.
It’s just much better than a human eye, you know, reading these these studies. There’s very subtle differences between these, these stress tests. So that’s one example with reading just heart ultrasounds, echoes AI technology is superior to detecting changes in what we call the ejection fraction because again, you’re depending on a human observer.
And two cardiologists there’s only one of them here you know, disagree on what the ejection fraction is not uncommonly. So and then the last example I’ll say is, again, imaging is a plaque analysis. AI can really look at high risk plaque in a coronary artery and give us direction on whether we need to intensify treatment or take them to the cath lab.
So in my field, those are the best examples. With the pharmacy, with AI, it would be more for us on that data to get more data from the AI, but because they’re going to start getting, for instance, the side effect profile of the medication, and we would only have what It’s given to us, but if we could ask AI saying, hey, what was this drug X and what was the side effects of it and what was the percentage of it, it’s running through all of the side effects that would possibly report it, and that’s where I could see the benefits coming from for us.
More side effects and the new therapy that’s being used, if I didn’t know what it’s for, like being used, and the same Has this medication been used for this disease? And if we could generate that information, then I know it’s coming from where some data is out there for that. What about drug discovery?
Drug discovery is going to be more for me on the industry side. So I did some molecule that’s Bye If there’s a molecule, and if we could ask AI sort of saying, Hey, if we add on another ring or something else to it, how would the outcome be? That’s where I would see that coming in. But drug discovery so far is basically, so far it’s always been a modifying what’s there and then tweaking it to see how the outcome would come out.
So as a new drug, maybe giving that information and see if we come up with a chemical component and creating the drug. I wanted to answer last because I know this is going to be a combination of the two. Because in research, we need to gather all the information that we can And we also need to analyze the results of the outcomes from the study.
So, there you go. Hmm. Awesome. Do you use it in your business right now? How are you using it to gather the data? Correct. Yeah. Before you do any trials, you have to do like an extensive literature review. You have to look at what’s out there. What has methodologies? And in terms of treatment course, you look at something and you know, okay, it was not effective.
Yeah, you took half of those. Or you didn’t do as many as you had to. So we need to analyze all that to come up with the best possible situation. And the information is out there, but I, we have people, like, full time doing literature reviews and everything else, but with AI they can do a lot more. So it’s not like substituting, I don’t think it’s like replacing their jobs or anything, it’s just making them more productive.
That’s great. Who else? Any other questions?
This is a question more for Dr. Rahm, but in your experience, and I know that Janice said is relatively new for people who’ve had COVID 19 and how it relates to heart issues and potential heart risks, heart disease. Do you see this trend, you know, just starting and do you see it continuing in the long run or, and what has been done in the interim from time to time?
Well, it’s a great question. I think in the early stages of the pandemic, as you all know, there was concerns about myocarditis in certain groups of the population. I think as the virus has gotten weaker, we’ve seen less and less of those types of cases. What I will say, and I was just speaking to Barbara here about this before you know, with the, there is still a number of people with long COVID, and I see those folks in the clinic.
And one of those things, one of the manifestations of many with, with COVID is, is something called POTS which is postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, which is a form of what we call a dysautonomia, where there’s imbalance in your autonomic nervous system. So I think that has always been an area that was never well addressed, I would say, by the cardiology community, and now it’s kind of forced us to really figure out what are some of the newer therapeutics, what do we look at?
And this is kind of why many of these technologies for longevity are now looking at things like long covid, you know, things like IVIG, plasma exchange. These are all things that are now being looked at on a longevity basis as well, peptides. So I think it is interesting that you have a disease model that’s now also being looked at for the longevity side, but a lot more research has to be done.
That’s really, really crucial.
Who’s next? I’m going to stand because I’m short. I’m interested in your opinion. We as a collective group are kind of on the cutting edge of what to expect going forward. How do we enhance the customer experience so that they’re not going to go out to Google and finding, you know, information that is either very bad information or misinformation.
How do we educate the public? That’s a very difficult answer, because the information is out there, right? And people, people, some people don’t get their news but from Google, Google or Facebook or, and, and, you know, you can trust the sources. And if we try to, you know, to, to maybe fact chat them, then a bunch of people are going to go against us.
It’s a very, very complicated thing, I think. You know, education is very important. I guess, creating institutes that are going to have like a good reputation and teach people that people are not, they don’t actually have to go to those institutes. They can continue getting their information from other sources.
So it’s very, very difficult, I think. I’ll make one comment. You know, the way that doctors traditionally have been getting their information, for example, there’s a resource called Up To Date. The problem became that the literature was changing so quickly, you know, the, the, the number of papers published every 24 hours is staggering.
You cannot possibly process all of that data. It’s like drinking from a fire hose. And so there’s a company that I’m actually on the advisory board of called Open Evidence. Very brilliant scientist named Daniel Nadler started this company to really solve this issue that we’ve been working with static data sets.
And this is why patients are looking at Google because, you know, this is theoretically a very you know, dynamic dataset. But again, Google just draws from, we draw from different websites with different quality and different validity. So, open evidence, for example, draws on the highest quality literature and so doctors can really quickly answer, get answers to some very complex questions.
So that’s, that’s one example. And I think the other part is that why are patients seeking information on the internet? Part of it is because they can’t get a hold of their doctor, you know? And so this is why concierge medicine has become, you know, really a, quite a it’s been exploding. We have a concierge practice.
It’s just that, you know, getting a doctor on the phone directly and getting an answer versus waiting a week for a response if you can get a hold of them at all. So I think that’s part of the frustrations that patients cannot get a hold of their, their medical team. I think communicating with the patient, actually understanding what they need is the key.
Because a lot of times they might not actually know what they’re looking to treat and they’ll find one thing and that takes them down a rabbit hole and then they just start looking to other stuff and then they come to you with all this information. And you’re trying to peel the layers and figure out what’s the actual root cause.
Why are you here? What is the problem? And that’s where I think the biggest thing is just understanding what the needs of patients are. Like, hey, what’s going on today? What is the problem? What is the cause that you went to Google and asked this question? And that’s where, I think, communication is the biggest factor.
I think that maybe AI can help. In terms, I think so, yeah, in terms of as we develop tools that learn to, you know, double check itself and then look at the, gather information from the higher sources, and then, you know, eventually I think we’re all going to have like a little bot right next to us the whole time.
We already have the phone, but it’s going to be even more advanced than that. If we have a question, we ask it and they’re going to say, this comes from 55 different locations. There’s something like that. And I recall there was a study that looked at physician responses to patient emails and AI responses to the email.
And if you should prefer AVI, we’re going to have to wrap this up. I don’t know what you’re up to, but this is a reflection of what’s happening in the field. We’re now in the field, and doctors don’t have time to answer all of your emails today. And this is where, you know, technology can help you. Yeah, AI empathy, I’m in.
Who else? Please. A follow up question to that. It’s wonderful that patients are educated, they want more information, but there’s so much misinformation out there. I mean, a patient comes to you, if they don’t know anything, that’s one thing, but if they know things that are, they get their information from Dr.
Google, or from, or from some marketing campaigns done by, I don’t know. clinics online, you know what I’m talking about? And they come to you with preconceived notions that are completely misguided. How do you, I mean, which is worse? Which is harder to overcome? No information or complete misinformation?
Right? So you have to unwind all that. So you think like you just said open evidence, but I mean, what do you guys think about how to get Real information people, how do we prevent misinformation? I think what Dr. Romm was saying is the data analysis, like, hey, a person comes in and says I want to go ozempic, alright, and we’re like okay, that’s fine, ozempic has a lot of great value to health right now, it’s showing across numerous disease states, benefits right now and they’re doing a lot of studies on it, which is really good.
Microdosing studies are pretty cool. Microdosing studies. Microdosing studies, really cool. They’re looking at addiction right now for it, they’re looking at dementia, they’re looking at other than weight loss, cardiovascular prevention, they’re showing so much data on it, right? But also, a lot of times it’s, are you, as a patient, able to take the medicine?
So understanding that and talking to them about that and getting their history is a big thing. And them coming with information is great and but making sure that they could actually take the medicine is where I, that’s where I would look at it from. And then talking to the provider and understanding if this is what the reason is and what’s that.
That’s where I think the information is good. But sometimes the problem is there’s too much information. And how do you handle too much information is the question because we’re coming through all these things they’re reading but there’s nothing, sometimes some of them are not valid. So you gotta understand what they’re trying to get is the question.
Hmm. Good. Alright, any other questions? Good? Alright, let’s give the doctors a hand.
