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.

Live from HLTH 2025, Nathan C sits down with six healthcare innovation leaders to discuss the technologies reshaping patient care, clinical operations, and prevention. This rapid-fire speed round captures emerging themes across the industry—from AI-driven diagnostics to workforce transformation and patient-centered design.

The Guests:

• 00:26 Dave Wessinger | PointClickCare – Care coordination
• 06:50 Dr. Patricia Hayes | Imagine Pediatrics – Pediatric primary care innovation
• 13:46 Dr. John Showalter | Linus Health – Early detection and cognitive health AI
• 20:30 Kent Dicks | Life365 – Social determinants of health & elderly care
• 27:40 Dr. Lior Rauschberger | Gene by Gene – Genomic sequencing & precision medicine
• 34:24 Dr. Colin Banas | DrFirst – Medication data & clinical decision support

Key Insights:

AI & Prevention Over Reaction
The collective view is clear: healthcare is shifting from treating disease to predicting it. Early detection tools, cognitive health AI, and genomic analysis are moving the needle on prevention—but only if clinicians actually use them. The challenge isn't the technology; it's adoption and trust.

Workforce Is the Bottleneck
Every leader pointed to the same problem—clinician burnout, staffing shortages, and fragmented workflows. Technology that reduces documentation burden and improves efficiency at the point of care wins. Technology that adds steps loses.

Data Silos Block Better Outcomes
Medication data, genomic data, social determinants—it all lives in different systems. The winners are those connecting these dots, giving clinicians a 360-degree view of the patient. Fragmented data = fragmented care.

Long-Term Care & Seniors Are Underserved
Senior living, pediatrics, and geriatric care all face unique challenges. The organizations innovating here are building for the realities of these populations—not applying one-size-fits-all solutions from acute care.

Patient Activation Is the Missing Ingredient
Data and tools mean nothing if patients don't engage. The leaders bridging clinical innovation with patient behavior change are seeing real outcomes—and real revenue growth.

Why This Moment Matters:

HLTH 2025 revealed a field at an inflection point. The leaders doing well aren't chasing hype. They're solving real problems—clinician time, patient outcomes, data access—with pragmatic solutions.

They're also candid about what AI can and can't do, and how organizational adoption (not just technology) drives impact.

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.

Julie Smithson, Karen Alexander, and Sophia Moshasha are the co-founders of XR Women, a groundbreaking organization celebrating five years of empowering women in extended reality. What started as a pandemic-era virtual meetup has evolved into a global movement spanning 60+ countries with 1,500 members and nearly 240 consecutive weekly immersive events in the metaverse.

Key Takeaways:

• Consistency Builds Community: XR Women has produced nearly 240 consecutive weekly immersive events—not Zoom calls, but full avatar experiences in virtual worlds—creating an unparalleled space for learning and collaboration in spatial computing.
• Global Impact from Day One: Within months of launching, XR Women attracted members from around the world. The community now spans 60+ countries with 4-9 different nations represented at every weekly event, demonstrating the universal hunger for inclusive XR education and connection.
• Five Pillars of Impact: XR Women operates on five core pillars—Leadership, Education, Innovation, Collaboration, and Impact—which guide everything from weekly programming to student chapters, showcasing how structured values drive organic community growth.
• Learning by Doing: The founders emphasize that mastering emerging technology requires constant experimentation. By hosting events across multiple metaverse platforms weekly, they've built expertise in large-scale virtual production that doesn't exist elsewhere in the industry.
• Newly Minted 501(c)(3): XR Women recently achieved nonprofit status, opening doors for expanded programming, partnerships, government collaboration, and educational initiatives including student chapters in Kenya and beyond.

Throughout November 2025, XR Women is celebrating "The Power of Five" with special events highlighting their five pillars, showcasing speakers from their 240+ event archive, and demonstrating the behind-the-scenes magic of producing weekly events across multiple metaverse platforms.

The organization proves that consistent, values-driven community building creates lasting impact. By showing up weekly for five years, by prioritizing education and collaboration over competition, and by building an inclusive space where expertise is shared freely, XR Women has created something rare: a genuinely global community advancing an entire industry.

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.

Please join me in celebrating the 44th, and final episode of Season 1, with a very, very special guest. We'll be back soon with more stories of innovation and entrepreneurship from founders, CEO's and Product Leaders of disruptive and innovative products. - Nathan C.

Leslie Shannon, Head of Trend and Innovation Scouting at Nokia, reveals how a 160-year-old company continues to lead by relentlessly adapting, trend-spotting, and cultivating innovation.

From sawmills and rubber boots to Bell Labs AI and immersive virtual meeting agents, Leslie shows why the “pipes and infrastructure” backstage of global connectivity are more innovative—and more fun—than most people imagine.

Key Takeaways

• Reinvention DNA: Nokia constantly reinvents itself by leveraging core expertise, enabling pivots from sawmills to global telecom infrastructure and beyond.
• Enterprise Innovation: Leslie’s trend scouting bridges the worlds of customers, executives, and technologists by bringing outside insights directly into product and network strategies.
• AI With Safety Nets: Nokia’s unique approach to generative AI—using models for internal efficiency while assuring staff they’ll never be replaced by AI—demonstrates a future-forward, humane corporate playbook.
• Infrastructure as Opportunity: True innovation—whether in network tech, XR, or AI—is built on the patient, modular assembly of “building blocks” and is tested through customer feedback, not just internal enthusiasm.
• Tools for Human Collaboration: Shannon spotlights Arthur, a VR meeting tool with an AI moderator that streamlines feedback, crystallizes friction points, and helps teams focus on creative solutions instead of wasting time on consensus-building.

Leslie’s journey weaves together Nokia’s multi-generational legacy with modern foresight. She surfaces blind spots, diffuses hype with real customer needs, and ensures Nokia (and its customers) make bets that prepare them for what’s next, not just what’s now.

About Leslie Shannon

Leslie Shannon is the Head of Trend and Innovation Scouting for Nokia. A Silicon Valley-based futurist, she focuses on identifying connectivity-related tech disruptions and opportunities, including developments in robotics, drones, visual analytics, cloud gaming, generative AI, and especially augmented and virtual reality, the foundations of the Metaverse.

Leslie has a BA from the University of Virginia, a Master’s Degree from Yale University, and was a five-time champion on Jeopardy!. She does all her daily fitness work in virtual reality.

Leslie is the author of Interconnected Realities, a look at the current and future development of the Metaverse, and, with Catherine D. Henry, Virtual Natives, an examination of how Gen Z and Gen Alpha’s use of digital technologies is revolutionizing how humans relate to both computers and each other.

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.

With over a decade in XR and a career that began in marketing and product development, Thaisa Yamamura is dedicated to bridging the gap between complex engineering and creative user needs, bringing innovative 3D, XR, and spatial computing technologies from prototype to market.

Thaisa Yamamura is the Head of XR Products and Business Development at Sony Electronics, where she leads the creation and launch of XYN, Sony’s new end-to-end ecosystem of 3D tools for creators.

Key Takeaways:

• End-to-End 3D Ecosystem: Thaisa spearheaded the launch of XYN, a suite of creator-first tools including easy 3D capture (using Gaussian splatting, iPhone & Sony cameras), real-time motion capture (mocopi sensors), and high-resolution glasses-free 3D spatial displays—a pipeline designed to bring 6DoF content creation to professionals and beginners alike.
• Customer-Obsessed Product Development: From conducting on-the-ground CES research to incorporating real user feedback (like PC streaming for mocopi), Thaisa’s approach is deeply user-driven and iterative, often involving direct partnerships with engineers, the creative community, and early adopters.
• Versatile Applications: The XYN ecosystem not only supports creators in entertainment and gaming, but is already impacting industries such as virtual production and healthcare (e.g., using Sony’s Spatial Reality Display to view medical DICOM files in true 3D).
• Collaboration & Partnerships: Thaisa advocates for leveraging industry partners and existing tech—rather than “solutioning” for its own sake—to deliver integrated, rapidly evolving products. She sees her role as “the messenger and connector,” translating user insights into engineering action and aligning stakeholders for maximum impact.
• Empowering Women in Tech: As one of the only women at the table for much of her career, Thaisa is committed to mentoring globally and creating more opportunities for women in XR and tech—while celebrating her diverse, women-led team at Sony.

Thaisa’s current focus is on gathering feedback for XYN’s spatial capturing solution and broadening its real-world adoption from virtual film sets to next-gen indie content, with plans for expanded collaboration and community engagement in the near future.

About Thaisa Yamamura - Sony Electronics.

Thaisa Yamamura is the Director of XR Business and Product Development for Sony Electronics, with a career spanning over 20 years across Brazil, Japan, and the United States. She currently leads XR initiatives from Los Angeles, focusing on immersive technology, strategic product and business development.

She played a central role in launching the new 3DCG solution XYN™ (/zin/)—an integrated software and hardware platform that supports the creation of spatial content. Thaisa introduced XYN™ on the main stage at Sony CES 2025, mar

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.

Aidan Wolf is the Co-Founder and CEO of DreamPark, a company reinventing the future of theme parks by bringing massive, multiplayer, mixed-reality experiences anywhere—malls, parks, or even your own backyard.

With a background spanning games, social apps, and AR, Aidan and his team are proving that immersive play can spark joy, community, and real-world revitalization.

Key Takeaways:

• Downloadable Theme Parks: DreamPark turns any large space into a "downloadable" theme park—no physical props, just a handful of headsets and compelling digital worlds. Experiences range from whimsical coin-collecting adventures to wizard duels and mixed-reality races.
• Designing for Immersive Play: The magic is in the details: seamless onboarding (no headset straps), worlds that feel alive whether you’re observing or playing, and player-driven, non-linear exploration inspired by theme park and classic video game design.
• Serious Growth, Real Impact: From all-in bets like forgoing rent to buy more headsets, DreamPark landed a commercialization breakthrough with successful public tests, a Shark Tank appearance, enthusiastic VCs, and rapid expansion into malls and parks in Seattle, LA, and soon, Long Island.
• Community and Accessibility: DreamPark is on a mission to revitalize real communities—bringing families and kids to empty malls and parks and creating new opportunities for play, learning, and belonging in overlooked spaces.
• Lessons in Iteration: The team credits their success to relentless user testing, honest feedback, and learning from customer behaviors in live settings. DreamPark’s vision is about lowering barriers for both players and aspiring creators—the next goal is to let anyone build and launch their own DreamPark.

Aidan’s personal journey—from childhood world-builder to AR founder, to DreamPark CEO—shapes every product decision around creativity, accessibility, and the belief that play can transform both places and lives.

With a growing suite of games and partners, DreamPark is shaping the future of spatial entertainment and the power of collective imagination.

About Aidan Wolf

Aidan Wolf is the award-winning creator behind hit viral AR apps like DoodleLens, Blue Sky Paint, and RPG for Snap Spectacles and is now on a mission to make an Earth Worth Playing at DreamPark, the downloadable theme park company.

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.