Adam Torres and Dr. Jonathan Baktari discuss e7 Health.
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Show Notes:
e7 Health is a company that leverages technology to offer innovative medical care while providing cost savings for their patients and clients. In this episode, Adam Torres and Jonathan Baktari MD, Founder and CEO of e7 Health and US Drug Test Centers (USDTC), explore the e7 Health story and mission.
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About Dr. Jonathan Baktari
Jonathan has been a clinician, educator, and speaker in the specialty of pulmonary and critical care for over 25 years. He held his teaching positions at three universities, and has served as Medical Director for medical centers and insurance companies. Since 2009 He has been working to revolutionize health care in Southern Nevada as CEO of e7 Health.
Jonathan received my MD from The Ohio State University in 1987, and received the Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship at UCLA from 1990-1993. I was Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at University of Hawaii Manoa from 1995-1997; at University of Nevada, Reno from 1997 to 2005; and at Touro University Nevada from 2006-2009.
About e7 Health and US Drug Test Centers
In three simple steps, individuals can take control of their health with eNational Testing, benefiting from fast, convenient, secure, and actionable diagnostic services. Regardless of their identity, location, or health concerns, eNational Testing serves as a comprehensive resource for laboratory testing services. The secure platform offers a wide range of testing services, eliminating the need for a doctor visit. A team of experienced healthcare professionals is committed to delivering the utmost quality care and service in a private and convenient manner. By utilizing eNational Testing’s complete diagnostic panels and easily comprehensible results, individuals can begin assuming responsibility for their health today. With over 2,000 locations across the nation, eNational Testing ensures accessibility for all.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on VR Guest to apply. All right, so today I have Dr. Jonathan Tari on the line, and he’s founder and c e O of E seven Health and US drug test centers.
Jonathan, welcome to the show. Oh, thank you for having me. What an honor. All right. So excited to learn more about E seven Health and also US drug test centers today. But before we get into that, we’ll start this episode the way that we start them all with our mission matters minute. So we at Mission Matters, we amplify stories for entrepreneurs, executives, and experts.
That’s our mission. Jonathan, what mission matters to you? Well, as a healthcare professional, I think there’s an opportunity that all healthcare workers have to impact people’s lives. And I think the mission to amplify that by, you know, doing things necess, that beyond patient care, you can also impact patients’ lives.
And I think our, our ability to impact lots of people is something that really matters to us. So, As a healthcare provider, yes, you can take care of one person at a time or you, and or you can do other things that impact thousands of people potentially. Awesome. Love, love bringing mission-based individuals on the line to share why they do what they do, how they’re doing it, and really what we can learn and gain from that so we can all grow together.
So great to have Jan. And I guess just to get us kicked off here how did you get started? Of course you’ve been a healthcare professional, you’re a doctor for a long time, but how did you get started or inspired to go the entrepreneurship route as well? Yeah, it was more of an evolution. You know, I think after graduating and, and practicing clinic, clinical medicine, there was opportunities to do administrative work beyond committees.
And I think, you know as I’ve often said, one door opened another door, and as long as you keep crossing doors and letting one door open another, you opportunities sort of present itself if you’re open to it. And I think that’s what probably happened in my case. Hmm. And so as you’ve kind of gone the entrepreneurial route and you’ve, you’ve now grown this business, what kind of things would you tell to maybe other individuals that are, that are kind of in your shoes with the doctors, or they’re, maybe they have this idea or they have this want to where they wanna do maybe a little bit of something extra.
Like what kind of advice would you give them? Well, similar to the answer, I think I, I gave you in the sense that. It’s not like one day you wake up and say, okay, I’m gonna be an entrepreneur. I’m gonna start a company. It’s this process of doing a bunch of other things that head you in that direction. Yes.
Are there people that just wake up one day and say, oh, we’ve got this great idea and let me start a company? Yes. Yeah, I, I guess that happens, but by and large, I think. For most of us, we, you know, we dip our toe in the water a little bit. Get a feel for something, whether it’s just being on a committee, doing something administrative, being in an organization outside of your work that it maybe is related to your work, and let that evolve.
Because you know, you don’t know what you don’t know and you don’t know what you like and you don’t know what you’re attracted to. You don’t know what you’re good at. So I think just sitting there saying, oh, I’m sure I’d be a great ceo. I’m sure I could run a company. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe, you know, different directions, research, entrepreneurship, whatever it is, but.
You have to let it evolve rather than this, you know, like sitting mm-hmm. In the living room couch and you know, some epiphany hit, you know, hitting you over the head. Yeah. Some, some people get it that way, but not all. I completely get it. So you now E seven Health, I want, I definitely wanna spend some time on that.
And so really leveraging technology now, did you have an affinity or did you have a, you know, attraction to technology even prior to starting E seven Health? Or was this kind of like, was it kind of a leap to get into the technology side of things? Well, I think it was an outta necessity because when we started E seven Health and the space we were going in, the technology for what we wanted to do didn’t exist.
You know, we tried to use third party technologies and since we were essentially creating our own field within healthcare, there wasn’t a a suit we could buy off the rack that would fit. Mm-hmm. If that makes any sense. So, Out of necessity, we started just developing small little technologies to, to satisfy what we were trying to do.
And, you know, we became good at it slowly and we put a team together. And then it became obvious that, you know, to just, you know, just drive it forward. You know, just, you know, just there’s a big gaping hole. Let’s just drive right through it. And And it just fed on itself because the more we invested in technology, the more we made the lives of everyone we touched better, including my staff and the clients, patients, everybody.
And so we kept doubling down and bootstrapping it. And we took a lot of our. Ca cash flow revenue, and we, you know, for many years just devoted it to investment in building a technology team and thinking outside the box. You know, not, you know, our kind of, our attitude was, you know, if it takes two clicks to order something on Amazon, You know, why, why is it not that simple when it comes to anything related to healthcare?
You know I don’t think Amazon has any smarter people than, than the healthcare industry. I mean, they’re smart, but I think healthcare has equally smart. So what, what prevents us from, you know, having everything be one click away? And I think that was our approach. Yeah, it’s, it’s a great story. And I wanna, let’s go further into the company itself.
So E seven Health, a preventative health and wellness company. Tell us a little bit more about, about the products and how it’s used. Yeah, so we actually we’re. A actual adult vaccination company was the core of our business. We were sort of almost like a covid company before Covid hit. Now cuz now everyone understands adult vaccinations.
But we got into every field and there were seven different fields that adult vaccinations. Were involved in, including employee health, student health, travel medicine, and a lot of different types of physicals including immigration, executive physicals, all those involved vaccinations. And so we got into those fields to address a need because, you know according to the cdc, there’s at least 50,000 vaccine preventable deaths in the United States annually.
So it was a need that we thought we could try to service. At the exclusion of everything else. So we don’t do primary care. We don’t do urgent care. If you come to our office and you know, your tummy hurts, we send you to, you know, we refer you out. But the goal was if we focus on vaccine related adult medicine, you know, could we make an impact?
And again, this was prior to Covid. We started in 2009 and. So we knew there was a need because doctors had stopped giving out adult vaccinations and, you know, Walgreens and CVS were doing it, but they were also selling diapers and Frito Lays and everything else. Mm-hmm. So, you know, we just wa were wondering if there was an opportunity there to.
Going to adult vaccination, preventative health medicine, and we found out that many sectors, like travel medicine mm-hmm. Student health, employee health, there was really nobody who focused on that. And if they did do it, it was almost like a side hustle to their main business. So we thought, well, why don’t we just focus on this and make this our main thing and then write technology around it.
Yeah. And it, so it seems to me like now that I mean, you’ve been, I, I like that you said this, you were, you were a vaccination company before Covid, before, like everything else in the news. It’s not like you were kind of jumping on a trend. And obviously I’m not against anybody that did that. Mm-hmm. And was trying to figure out how to help and how to pitch in.
So I’m not, I’m not devaluing that effort. But the point being is that this particular company, I mean, you’ve been doing this for, you know, going on 15 years, so you, right. You’re experts in this field and you’ve been focusing on that a a long time. Am I off on that or? No, you’re right. It’s so funny because, you know, during Covid, you know, all these people that were covid experts were, is interesting cuz some of them, yeah.
Mm-hmm. Sure. Were, were, but, you know, prior to covid you know, it wasn’t their thing. And a lot of people pivoted towards covid testing and covid this and covid that for us we, we didn’t pivot on it. We were doing, you know, virus testing for, you know, A whole host of other viruses, chickenpox, measles, herpes.
Mm-hmm. And we’ve been testing for, you know, hiv, we’ve been testing for viruses since 2009. So adding covid to it was like nothing in a sense that we already had the infrastructure. But yes, for a lot of people, a lot of companies pivoted to it, but, For us, it was what we were doing anyway, that actually gave us a running start because we were able to, you know, our software, our technology, our systems was geared up for it already.
Yeah, I, I, I definitely see that. And, and then you also have a a sister company or another company that’s associated, so US Drug test centers how does that kind of work into the mix? Y Yeah. US drug test centers is a sister company because we work as part of supporting. Employee health. Student health.
At E seven we started doing drug testing, but then our technology grew so rapidly that we became a platform for companies and corporations to manage their drug testing program in all 50 states using our platform so they don’t have to sign up locally. Wherever they are, we have Our, our platform connects to 20,000 plus collection centers and people can manage their employee drug testing program through our system without actually contracting out with all 20,000 locations and getting the results and ordering and managing all the data, managing their program on our technology.
So we, we are a drug testing company, but we facilitate and manage it from, you know, just like Uber doesn’t. Drive. You know, like at at Uber headquarters, no one’s really driving a car. They’re driving a technology that allows that to happen. And that’s what we do for the direct testing industry. We, we manage the technology that allows employees, companies, clients to get what they need using our technology.
Hmm. So you have I mean, extremely unique in my opinion, vantage point when it comes to the when it comes to vaccines, vaccine testing and everything else that we’ve talked about so far, especially since again, you were, you were in this way before Covid or any of that came about. So I’m interested to hear your opinion.
So what do you see on the, kind of, on the horizon when it comes to vaccines technology like. The, the next step as as, let’s just say Covid isn’t as in the forefront in the media as much as it’s been in the past, you know, couple years. Like, what do you see that’s interesting? The most interesting thing is I think the mRNA technology that came out of the Covid vaccines.
You know, that technology was sitting on the shelf for 10 years plus. I don’t think it would’ve ever seen the light of day. Where not for this catastrophic, you know, emergency because the idea of injecting, you know, DNA or RNA into someone’s body, you know, would’ve probably been a heavy lift to get past just the stigma of, of that.
And I think that’s why it was sitting on a shelf because the whole idea that we’re gonna inject, you know chromosomes into your body, that will then. Your body will use to generate the protein that will then you know, trigger your immune system to create, create the antibodies that, you know that was thought of already.
Yeah. But I, I don’t know if people had the stomach for it and it only took that emergency to, and now that’s opened up Pandora’s box because not that we know that technology is safe works. I mean, just as you know, safe as any other vaccine. I think it opens the door, you know, for developing the other vaccinations, like things that we’ve been trying for so long, like hiv, malaria, things that we haven’t been able to.
And also anti-cancer therapy because the MRI technology really has a lot of promise in, in being able to create, you know, Antigens on, on specific cancers that then your body could potentially fight by creating antibodies. So as an anti-cancer thing and, and as an anti, you know other virus issues.
I think there’s an opportunity that could save hundreds of millions of lives in the next century if it, you know, if it executes and works like we think it might. Yeah, that’s that’s that’s helpful. And I, that’s a great point. And I as I’m sitting here thinking about what you’re saying, I think that’s, that is like, it, it is very hopeful to see what happens next with that.
And I think we all, we can all benefit from that depending of course on what happens. And I also like the part that you mentioned about you know, the safety side is safe as any other vaccine, even though it’s a different approach and a different thing that we’re doing. But that’s. Great. From the same, same question, same point, but I’m just also on the technology side of things.
I mean, you’re, you are a technology platform and you’re, you’re continuing to push the bounds of, you know, what’s possible, acceptance and also how you know, how people are able to use this. And I love your example about Amazon, the one click come on. Anything, one click in healthcare. Is it possible?
I’m not asking you that question by the way. I’m just saying what, like, what, what’s next for that, like on the technology side and what you’re seeing from your vantage point? Well, I think the main, and I’ve said this before, I think the main issue is the main issue is that in healthcare, It’s complicated because there’s three parties involved in the transaction, right?
So if you view healthcare, and I don’t mean healthcare as a transaction, but mm-hmm. If you mm-hmm. Take the satellite view that, you know, your encounter with your doctor as, as intimate as it is, and it’s beyond any business relationship, but I get it. But in terms of the money trans. You know, changing hands.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. There’s three people involved in that and I think that’s skews the whole technology because you’re trying to satisfy three people, not two, versus you and Amazon. You’ve got a deal. You know, like I click this and you send me that and I send you the money, and that’s our deal. Healthcare is not like that because you’ve got Medicare, Medicaid, blue Cross, you know, Cigna, whatever.
They have a say in it too. So it’s not two, two people. You know, think of it as you’re at a bazaar and you’re, you’re haggling over something. You eventually, you come to some conclusion. And say, okay, I’ll, I’ll take it for that. You’ll give it to me for this under these conditions and, you know, with these, this and that, and you, you negotiate that deal.
But imagine you did that and said, by the way, let’s get a third party to sign off on this deal. Mm-hmm. And so then when you’re trying to write technology to, to take that into account again on a very satellite level, That’s going to make it difficult. It’s not you and Amazon have to come to with a deal like when you’re clicking, but imagine you, Amazon and your wife or your boss or someone else have to also be involved in that transaction.
It’s not gonna be two clicks anymore. Hmm. Well, Jonathan have to say it has been great having you on the show today. I sure learned a lot. I hope our audience did as well. Just have to ask, I mean, what’s next? What’s next for you? What’s next for E seven Health as you grow the company? Yeah, we are actually just launched e national testing, which is our newest project, which is does what E seven Health does, but on a national level cuz it won’t be regional like it is now.
And that we just launched that a couple of weeks ago. And so we just, our next step is to grow it nationally. Fantastic. And if somebody’s listening to this and they wanna learn more about E seven Health or US drug test centers what’s the best way for them to do that? You know, the best way is to go to our, our website, bary md.com because it has links to everything, including our podcast our companies, and All the media stuff we’ve done and it has a lot, a lot of great material on a lot of stuff we’ve been doing and plan on doing.
So that’d be a great place to start. Or on LinkedIn, they could reach out to me at Barari md on LinkedIn. And we’re also on all the social media handles, so. All of that work. Oh, Matt, you’re holding out on me. I don’t know how I missed that. I did, I was not aware you had a podcast. What’s the name of the show?
I definitely want my my audience to go check it out. Holding out on me. Come on. I know, I know, I know. It’s boar md.com. So well boar md.com. It’s a website, but on YouTube, it’s boar MD on Spotify’s Bacteria md. But if you wanna link to it, just go to bmd.com and you can subscribe. And what kind of content do you cover so that our, our audience can know what to expect?
So we’re on, we’re starting season two. First season we sort of, we’re kind of doing some covid stuff and also the inside scoop on healthcare, what your doctor’s thinking, what your insurance company’s thinking. And we talked a lot about technology and healthcare, but season two is gonna be more you know, how to build culture and an organization You know, kind of CEO skills to run a healthcare company or any kind of company, manage employee, build culture, because I get a lot of questions about that, even being guests on shows like this, you know, about running an organization and, you know the dos and don’ts and the mistakes not to make.
And so we’re gonna focus season two on sort of skills that executives and CEOs need. Oh man, that, that’s great. And I guess, so everybody listening definitely wants you to go over there and check that out. We’re going to, and definitely hit that subscribe. We’re gonna put the we’ll put the, the link to the website and the show note so that you can just click on the links, head right on over and check out all the content.
And speaking of the audience, If this is your first time with Mission Matters or engaging with an episode or the platform, we’re all about bringing on business owners, entrepreneurs, executives and experts, and having them share their mission, the reason behind their mission, really why they do what they do, what gets ’em up in the morning, and.
Fired up to go out there and make a difference in not only the marketplace, but also the world. If that’s the type of content that sounds interesting or fun or exciting to you, hit that subscribe button because we have many more mission-based individuals coming up on the line and we don’t want you to miss a thing.
And Jonathan, really it has been a pleasure. Thanks again for coming on the show. Thank you again. It was an honor. Thanks for having me.