On this episode of Health Explorers, Dr. Jay Shah and Michael Kisch speak with Dr. Naomi Fisher,  the Founder and Director of The Brigham and Women’s Hospital Remote Hypertension Service which is internationally recognized as a center of excellence.  Dr. Fisher has been engaged in almost three decades of clinical research at Harvard University, focusing on cardiovascular endocrinology with specific interests in renal denervation and cuffless blood pressure measurement.   She is a graduate of Princeton University, received her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, followed by a fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.  In this episode we challenge the common belief that innovation only comes from the outside, disrupting the status quo and forcing incumbents to change.   Dr. Fisher’s career is a great example of how innovation can, and often does originate from within.   Informed by a deep understanding of patient needs and the business of healthcare. In addition to her clinical role we discuss her approach to partnering with start-ups focused on advancing the diagnosis and treatment of patients suffering from chronic disease.

On this episode of Health Explorers, we talk with Raphael Michel. Raphael is a 2x Health Tech Founder and CEO. His first company, Eargo,  is a pioneer in direct to consumer hearing aids. He led the company from inception through commercialization raising over $70M in financing. Eargo went public in 2020.  He then co-founded Onera Health where he led an international team that  brought the sleep lab into the home. Raphael grew up in France, but has called Silicon Valley his home for over 20 years. He is a graduate of Stanford and the University of California - Berkley. Most recently, he worked at Google X where he led the transition of breakthrough technical projects into commercial companies.  Highlights from this episode: ✓ Being intentional in your career choices in order to train to be an entrepreneur. ✓Understanding the difference between a great idea and a great business. ✓The necessity for a start-up to have an unfair competitive advantage to be successful. ✓Thinking about distribution from Day 1. ✓Front-loading the biggest risks to validate your business as early as possible. ✓In the age of AI, there is still a need for the human touch. ✓Focus on the customers job to be done, not on the competition.

Shireen Yates is an accomplished entrepreneur and CEO who is passionate about connected hardware and consumer health products.  She is a Silicon Valley start-up veteran and a University of Pennsylvania and MIT graduate.  Currently, she is a product leader at Meta. In 2013, Shireen co-founded Nima Labs, leading the company until its exit in 2020.   Nima's mission was to help people with food allergies know what exactly is in their food.  She and her team built an elegant solution that enabled real-time, convenient testing of allergens at mealtime, specifically gluten and peanuts.  Time Magazine and Popular Science recognized Nima as one of the year's best inventions.  In this episode, Shireen shares her founding journey, including her and her new husband moving in with her parents three days after incorporating Nima. Shireen introduces us to the concept of a Nature Bath (it does NOT involve getting wet). She shares her experiences as a female founder and CEO who also started a family while running Nima. Finally, she shares her wisdom on how to shift the power dynamic between investors and founders and the need to focus early on distribution as much as product.