Sep 27 2023
A Boy Scout MD’s Pursuit of Medical Device Innovation | Prof. Dr. Art Wallace, Ph.D.
We speak with Dr. Art Wallace MD, PhD, a cardiac anesthesiologist, Chief of Anesthesia at the San Francisco VA, and a distinguished professor and vice chairman at the University of California, San Francisco.
Dr. Wallace's vision is poised to revolutionize healthcare with a non-contact, remote monitor that promises to reduce the risk of respiratory and cardiac emergencies in hospitalized and nursing home patients.
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KEY TAKEAWAYS:
∙ (01:20) Introducing Our Guest: About Dr. Wallace’s background and his most recent innovation, the Atapir non-contact hospital patient monitoring platform.
∙ (04:50) The Power of AI: How the Atapir platform harnesses machine vision and learning to track crucial vital signs through the use of advanced camera and sound technologies.
∙ (06:51) State of the Art: About Atapir’s groundbreaking SaaS (software as a service) tools – the first significant advance in patient monitoring equipment in decades.
∙ (07:56) Removing the Mystery: What Atapir technology can do to mitigate the sense of powerless, isolation and anxiety many hospitalized patients experience.
∙ (09:15) HIPAA Concerns: Why creating “smart” hospital rooms need not raise red flags with regard to privacy, personal security or confidentiality.
∙ (11:20) Real-Time Tracking: How “smart” technologies can interrupt the slow (sometimes subtle) deterioration of patient health with constant monitoring of vital signs.
∙ (13:06) Vigilance Through AI: About the costs associated with providing machine-driven monitoring 24/7 in-hospital. It’s a subscription-based and affordable technology.
∙ (14:05) Considering Atapir’s Market Challenges:
o Raising capital to support development.
o Bootstrapping expensive, complicated trials.
o Shouldering all the development and go-to-market risk.
o Penetrating with investors who want to hang back until success is assured.
∙ (18:44) About Events that Shaped Dr. Wallace’s Life Journey and Mission:
o His mother’s deadly brain tumor diagnosis when he was just 11 years old inspired Dr. Wallace to pursue medicine and biomedical engineering.
o The callous disregard with which a girlfriend was treated following a cancer diagnosis further propelled Dr. Wallace to change the practice of medicine.
∙ (24:35) About His Work at the VA: How the vast history and epidemiological database offer a potential goldmine of information to support improvements in patient care.
∙ (25:40) Making a Mark: About the structured protocol, education and monitoring Dr. Wallace evolved to enable progress within a medical establishment resistant to change.
∙ (27:50) Next-Gen Mentoring: Why Dr. Wallace is so committed to sharing his passion for medicine and innovation with students who might not otherwise be exposed.
NOTABLE QUOTES:
∙ “Hospitals have all these sensors in the room for property control, but they don’t know that the patient is doing okay. That’s a problem.” (Dr. Wallace)
∙ “People want to give really good care and try to give really good care. But if you don’t give somebody a way to see the data, they don’t get it. They don’t see the problem.” (Dr. Wallace)
∙ “(Investors) want other people to take all the risk in device development, so we’re doing it. It’s painful, but we’re doing it.” (Dr. Wallace)
∙ “Of course I was a Boy Scout … (and) we try to teach people to think about the future, plan about stuff, be prepared!” (Dr. Wallace)
RELEVANT LINKS/FURTHER RESOURCES
∙ More about the American Society of Anesthesiology and their work available at this link.
∙ Click here for a “Nurse’s Eye” video tour of Atapir’s ground-breaking AI-driven monitoring technology.
ABOUT OUR GUEST:Art Wallace, M.D., Ph.D., Chief of Anesthesia Service, San Francisco, CA is a cardiac anesthesiologist, biomedical, control system, and electrical engineer, software designer, and clinical researcher. Dr. Wallace has worked on preoperative risk reduction including design, development, testing, implementation, and quality improvement. He developed and assisted in the implementation of preoperative beta blockade and alpha-2 agonists. Dr. Wallace has also worked on device design including the ECOM & AVD systems, off-pump CABG, and left ventricular aneurysm repair. Art began his research career working on cardiac imaging, then worked on systems based cardiovascular physiology and autonomic control; he then progressed to clinical outcomes, device, and finally implementation research.
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ABOUT OUR HOST:
In the realm of digital health, Ranjani Rangan reigns as a masterful Corporate Storyteller and Marketing and Partner Communications Strategist. As the host of the Digital Health Disruptors podcast, she takes listeners on a captivating journey through the lives of digital health innovators, sharing their trials, challenges, and triumphs.
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