More of Nathan C's conversations with 2 healthcare leaders solving what happens when medical devices talk to each other, and what happens when patients have real choice.

Bilal Muhsin, EVP Connected Care at BD, is building infrastructure that moves healthcare beyond disconnected devices. With expertise from his first company where he scaled embedded device providers into solution platforms, Muhsin now oversees pharmacy automation, infusion dispensing, and patient monitoring—all communicating within a unified ecosystem.

BD's new Incada platform does what healthcare infrastructure hasn't done yet: connects products so clinicians see the whole patient picture, not fragmented alarms. His philosophy centers on trust and safety, using physiological models to guide AI rather than black-box algorithms, validating everything before patient contact, and learning offline before reintroducing improvements.

Lathe Bigler, head of FDB Vela, the E-prescribing Network at First DataBank,, tackles the last-mile problem: once doctors prescribe, patients need to actually get their medications. For 15 years, Bigler has been a patient advocate focused on transparency and choice. Vela connects EHR systems to pharmacies through a neutral network, giving patients real agency—they don't just tell doctors "send it to the pharmacy by my house"; they can see pricing, check drug availability, compare options, and choose where to pick up their prescription.

FDB's database has protected patient safety for years through drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction screening, but Vela extends that mission to the entire patient journey.

Highlights from Bilal Muhsin at BD:

• Leads BD's Connected Care segment spanning pharmacy automation, drug dispensing, infusion, and patient monitoring—now unified through new Incada platform
• Philosophy: AI guides within physiological models, not black-box algorithms; validate before patient contact; learn offline, reintroduce improvements only after full validation
• Origin: NICU nurse showed him a premature baby monitored by BD sensor, saying "What you do saves these babies' lives"—redirected his entire career toward outcomes-focused healthcare infrastructure

Highlights from Lathe Bigler at FDB Vela:

• Runs First DataBank's e-prescribing network (Vela) connecting EHRs to pharmacies, enabling patient transparency and choice around pricing, drug availability, and pharmacy location
• Patient advocate for 15 years; focused on transparency, choice, and consumer agency in healthcare; using AI to detect fraud, waste, abuse, and anomalies in prescription patterns
• Spicy take: 720+ healthcare data breaches in 2024; advocating for redundant networks as patient safety infrastructure so one breach doesn't shut down the entire prescription system

The result: healthcare infrastructure that works because it listens to data, validates everything, keeps humans in control, and gives patients real agency in their own care.

A "glow up" signifies a positive transformation, reflecting the journey of becoming a better, more successful version of oneself.

At The Tech Glow Up, we humanize the startup and innovation landscape by focusing on the essential aspects of the entrepreneurial journey. Groundbreaking ideas are often ahead of their time, making resilience and perseverance vital for founders and product leaders.

In our podcast, we engage with innovators to discuss their transformative ideas, the challenges they face, and how they create value for future success.

If you're a founder or product leader seeking your own glow up, or a seasoned entrepreneur with stories to share, we invite you to join our guest list via this link.

From translating medical jargon into human language to using AI to keep healthcare human—conversations with two founders solving opposite sides of the same problem live from HLTH 2025.

Aaron Patzer, CEO of Vital.io, is the founder of Mint.com and former head of product at Intuit. Seven years ago, he started Vital with his brother-in-law Dr. Justin Schrager to guide 7 million patients through urgent care, emergency room, and hospital journeys by translating medical language into terms patients actually understand. His "doctor-to-patient translator" converts medical jargon like "cerebral infarction of the left hemisphere" into "stroke" and transforms lab results into human terms based on each patient's reading level, language, and education.

Growing to 15 million expected by end of 2026, Vital meets people exactly where they are—available in Spanish, Armenian, Somali, and Haitian Creole—with 80% adoption at children's hospitals and 65% average use in emergency departments.

Michael Oleksiw, founder of Pleio, spent a decade in fashion and tech before his wife's pancreatic cancer diagnosis at age 33 redirected his mission to healthcare. Pleio uses AI not to replace humans, but to inform them—analyzing patient conversations retrospectively to identify emotional peaks and valleys, fear, stigma, and loneliness that prevent medication adherence.

With humans always in the loop, Pleio's approach focuses on behavioral change triggers and removing barriers that get in the way of patients actually following through with their care. His "tech glow up" is about finding where technology crosses with humanity, keeping the person at the center.

Highlights from Aaron Patzer at Vital.io:

• Founded Mint.com (25M users), sold for $175M; former head of product for Intuit; now growing Vital to guide 7 million patients through hospital experiences
• Built a "doctor-to-patient translator" that adapts medical language to each patient's reading level, education, and language preference in Spanish, Armenian, Somali, Haitian Creole and more
• Achieved 65% average use in emergency departments, 80% use at children's hospitals, and expects 15M patients by end of 2026—about 10% of all US hospital visits

Highlights from Michael Oleksiw at Pleio:

• Wife's pancreatic cancer diagnosis at 33 (3% five-year survival rate at the time) inspired shift from fashion innovation to healthcare; she's thriving 18 years later
• Uses AI retrospectively to analyze patient conversations, identifying emotional barriers like fear, stigma, and loneliness that prevent medication adherence—always with humans in the loop
• Building behavioral models to empower healthcare professionals to work at the clinical level they thrive on, removing the burden of translating complex information while patients stay centered and supported

The result: healthcare communication doesn't just need better tech—it needs tech that remembers why it exists—to kee

A "glow up" signifies a positive transformation, reflecting the journey of becoming a better, more successful version of oneself.

At The Tech Glow Up, we humanize the startup and innovation landscape by focusing on the essential aspects of the entrepreneurial journey. Groundbreaking ideas are often ahead of their time, making resilience and perseverance vital for founders and product leaders.

In our podcast, we engage with innovators to discuss their transformative ideas, the challenges they face, and how they create value for future success.

If you're a founder or product leader seeking your own glow up, or a seasoned entrepreneur with stories to share, we invite you to join our guest list via this link.

Thanks for tuning in to these conversations with two founders changing the future of healthcare live from HLTH 2025.

Zachary Ziegler, co-founder of OpenEvidence, built a platform that reached 40% of practicing clinicians in just two years by centering a simple principle: every answer includes citations to peer-reviewed research. With access to 40 million papers updated daily with 10,000-20,000 new studies, doctors can verify every claim instantly. Growing 30-40% month-over-month and adding 60,000-70,000 clinicians monthly, Ziegler challenges conventional wisdom—EHRs are already a top burnout driver, forced integration isn't the answer, and physicians prefer autonomy over mandates.

Dr. Aditi Joshi, founder of Ardexia, tackles a different crisis: healthcare organizations waste $87 billion annually on contracted technology doctors never use. A former emergency medicine physician who experienced burnout twice, she moved into telemedicine and discovered the core insight—most builders don't understand how physicians actually work. You can't mandate adoption. You can only solve real problems. She's building Ardexia with validation first, burnout prevention as a foundational business strategy, and clinician expertise leading product decisions from day one.

Highlights from Zachary Ziegler at OpenEvidence:

• Started with a Harvard PhD studying language models before ChatGPT; built "ChatGPT for doctors" with complete citation trails to peer-reviewed research
• Reached 40% of practicing clinicians with daily active usage; adding 60,000-70,000 new clinician users monthly (30-40% month-over-month growth)
• Philosophy: "Trust, but verify"—every answer sources from original papers so doctors can verify claims against peer-reviewed research

Highlights from Dr. Aditi Joshi at Ardexia:

• Former emergency medicine physician who discovered during telemedicine work that technology adoption is a people problem, not just a technical problem
• Identified the $87 billion annual cost of unused healthcare technology—five-year contracts continuing whether clinicians ever use the tools
• Building Ardexia with burnout prevention as a foundational business strategy; validation-first approach to understanding specific pain points before scaling

The result: healthcare's AI transformation doesn't happen in the lab—it happens when builders center the people actually using the tools.

A "glow up" signifies a positive transformation, reflecting the journey of becoming a better, more successful version of oneself.

At The Tech Glow Up, we humanize the startup and innovation landscape by focusing on the essential aspects of the entrepreneurial journey. Groundbreaking ideas are often ahead of their time, making resilience and perseverance vital for founders and product leaders.

In our podcast, we engage with innovators to discuss their transformative ideas, the challenges they face, and how they create value for future success.

If you're a founder or product leader seeking your own glow up, or a seasoned entrepreneur with stories to share, we invite you to join our guest list via this link.