The Heart of Healthcare | A Digital Health Podcast

📣 Digital Health Download: September 2026

It's our monthly Digital Health Download, and September's stories all circle the same tension: technology keeps promising to fix healthcare's problems, but just as often

From Early Struggles to Billion+ Exit | SmarterDx Founders Michael Gao & Joshua Geleris

We don't talk enough about how hard it actually is to build a healthcare startup. Behind SmarterDx's story, now one of the biggest health AI exits to date, were 18 months

Training Doctors for the Next 40 Years | Stanford Medical School Dean Dr. Lloyd Minor

It's back-to-school szn, and while some kids are stressing over earlier wake-ups, this year's incoming medical students have a bigger question to answer: how do you train

Can Oura Become the Doctor in Your Pocket? | Oura CEO Tom Hale

We're on summer break and replaying one of our favorite episodes. This episode originally aired on September 22, 2025. A wearable can collect endless data, but it only m

📣 Digital Health Download: August 2026

This month is about the gap between what a system offers and what people actually get from it: drugs that work better with support nobody's paying for, AI that's already

Why We Demand Perfect Machines Yet Tolerate Human Carnage | Dr. Jonathan Slotkin

Every day, roughly 100 Americans die in crashes caused by human drivers. Yet when a self-driving car hesitates at an intersection or makes the news for an unusual mistake

Shareholder Primacy Is Breaking Healthcare | Eric Ries

Healthcare companies are built to improve patients' lives. So why do so many prioritize shareholders over the people they're meant to serve? This week, Halle sits down w

Can AI Build the First New Pharma Giant in Decades? | Formation Bio CEO Ben Liu

Over the last decade, the number of drug candidates entering development has doubled, yet the number of successful drug approvals remains flat at ~50 per year. This week

Building A Healthcare Unicorn In Three Years | Assort Health Founders Jeff Liu and Jon Wang

They built a $1.2 billion healthcare AI company in under three years, but they say the hardest part of healthcare AI isn't the AI. This week, Halle sits down with Assort

📣 Digital Health Download: July 2026

July marks five years of The Heart of Healthcare, and we're grateful for every listener who's tuned in. If you've enjoyed the show, please show your love by leaving us a

Healthcare’s Oppenheimer Moment | Listener Q&A

Back by popular demand, 3x Heart of Healthcare guest Eric Larsen joins Steve to answer listener questions on healthcare's AI revolution. Drawing on the ideas behind his l

How AI Changed Healthcare Fundraising and Venture Capital

Healthcare AI funding is booming, but the money is flowing to fewer companies than ever before. As investors pour capital into a small group of breakout winners, founders

What Healthcare Can Learn From Waymo | Qualified Health Founder and CEO Justin Norden

Autonomous vehicles may be the closest real-world example of AI operating in life-and-death situations at scale. Justin Norden believes healthcare has a lot to learn from

📣 Digital Health Download: June 2026

Healthcare is simultaneously propping up the US economy and facing one of its most uncertain moments in years. This month, Halle and Steve unpack the growing contradicti

Investing in “Whole Person Care” | Lance Armstrong

Most careers don’t follow a straight line. But few require starting over in full view of the public. This week, Halle sits down with Lance Armstrong to discuss how he re

How AI Will Finally Make Healthcare Deflationary | Eric Larsen

AI in healthcare may be entering a new chapter, one where the biggest question is no longer whether the technology works, but who is willing to deploy it, measure it, and

What It Takes To Scale Care With AI | Akido Labs CEO Prashant Samant

Medicaid reimbursements are shrinking, providers are pulling back, and vulnerable populations are losing access to care. Akido Labs is betting that AI can expand care cap

📣 Digital Health Download: May 2026

AI is everywhere in healthcare, and May's big question is whether it's actually delivering. The money is flowing, the promises are bold, but some cracks are starting to s

Is ChatGPT Now the World's Largest Health App? | OpenAI VP of Health Nate Gross, MD

Forty million people use ChatGPT for health-related questions every day, making it one of the most widely used tools for health information in the world. So what is their

The Chaos Of Drug Pricing in the US | GoodRx CEO Wendy Barnes

Nearly one billion prescriptions are abandoned at the pharmacy counter every year, often because patients are blindsided by the cost. This week, co-host Halle Tecco is j