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Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare

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Cardiology

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podcast. My name is Jacob Emerson.

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Really appreciate you taking the time to join

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us on the podcast today where we're joined

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by a special guest. Doctor. Jeff Wessler is

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a cardiologist

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at Northwell Health in New York, and the

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founder and CEO of Heartbeat Health. Doctor. Wessler,

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thanks so much for taking the time to

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sit down with us on the podcast today.

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Thank you, Jacob. Nice to be here.

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So, Jeff, before we dive into everything we

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wanna talk with you about, can you tell

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us a little bit more about yourself? What

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your background in health care is and what

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it is that you're doing today at Northwell?

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Yeah. Sounds good. So,

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really great to be here. So I I'm

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a general cardiologist,

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based out of New York. I practice at

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Northwell Health out in Long Island,

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and about 8 years ago, started a company

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called Heartbeat Health, which is a decentralized,

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virtual cardiology group.

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Things have

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taken off and, grown quite a bit since

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then, and,

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excited to talk a little bit more about

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what we're doing in the space and the

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virtual care space.

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Yeah. Absolutely. And we're excited to hear a

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little bit more about heartbeat health. But before

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we do that, can we zoom out more

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broadly and talk a little bit about the

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top trends that you, as a cardiologist,

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are are currently watching within the cardiovascular

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care space?

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Yeah. So, you know, I I think there

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are there's quite a lot going on in

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cardiology today,

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and I'll focus on a few different areas

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that I think are

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particularly

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timely and,

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taking off in ways that I certainly have

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not seen over the last decade.

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The first is in the device and diagnostic

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space.

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This if you had,

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if we'd had this conversation a decade ago

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or 15 years ago,

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most cardiac

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diagnostics

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were effectively locked behind a cardiologist door. You

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had to go to a brick and mortar

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cardiology office,

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get see an have an appointment, get an

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order, likely go back to that same office

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to get

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almost any sort of a cardiac test.

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Fast forward to now, and the

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diagnostic space for cardiology is completely different. You

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can get almost any test without going into

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a cardiologist's

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office,

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and many of those tests can now be

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brought directly to your home, and some of

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them are even worn on your wrist every

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day. So it's a it's a

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rapidly changing and vastly different

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landscape for how you get the diagnostic test

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done for cardiology.

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The second space that I'd I'd note,

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is the cardiometabolic

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space. So if you think about the landscape

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of cardiology diseases,

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is also quite broad, and we're taking care

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of

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everything from prevention

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to advanced care and advanced illness across multiples

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many spectrum of disease.

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Within that, this cardiometabolic

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space,

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has grown faster than any other. And a

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large part of that is due to the

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therapeutics that are available, and I'll call out

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GLP ones as a prime example of this,

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which are really changing the way we're thinking

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about managing

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early risk and

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ideally taking care of patients to get in

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front of their disease process before it progresses.

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I'll probably say more on this in in

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the

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some upcoming,

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in a few minutes when we get into

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other topics. But if you had to pick

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one area that is distinctly changing

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in the disease category space, cardiometabolic

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is on a path like, like none other.

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And then the the last thing is I'll

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call out that I'm not saying is value

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based care.

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So, you know, there's so so much talk

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about value based care and cardiovascular disease right

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now, and I'll I'll make the point and

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make the,

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specific note that I think there there is

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still time to go before we're really ready

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to be talking about true value based care

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in cardiology.

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There is there is definitely work that's being

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done on how we improve outcomes at lower

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costs while keeping quality

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up and improving quality.

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But the idea of a full value based

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care model in cardiovascular disease, I think we're

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several years away from that. And I think

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understanding

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that timeline and that we have to take

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baby steps to get there is probably gonna

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be key to any

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strong intervention or any strong program in the

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cardiology landscape today.

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Sure. Absolutely. So just to recap for for

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our listeners of those top three trends, Jeff,

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that you mentioned, cardio devices and diagnostics are

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becoming more mobile or have become more mobile.

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The cardiometabolic

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space is changing fast, especially with the rise

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of GLP-1s

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and care models are evolving, albeit slowly, to

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become more values based.

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You mentioned you had a lot more to

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say about the GLP ones and the effect

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that they're having

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on cardiovascular

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care. Can you expand on that a little

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bit? Obviously that's a big topic of conversation

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across a lot of,

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pieces of the healthcare industry right now.

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So so how is this impacting your patients

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and the kind of care that that you

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provide?

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Yeah. So it is it is almost impossible

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now to

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have a cohort of patients or be managing

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patients and not have GLP ones be part

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of that conversation.

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And in my view, and I think where

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the evidence is bringing us and bringing me

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to this view, what started as a medication

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for

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diabetics and weight loss, is quickly becoming,

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probably one of the best cardiac medications that

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exists.

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And that's for a fairly simple reason, which

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is that it may be the first medication

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that patients and people who who need it,

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actually want to take because it has this

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amazing side effect of losing weight. There are

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certainly some downstream issues with it, but adherence,

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which is a prime issue for many cardiac

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meds that work really well in a clinical

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trial setting,

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adherence is not really the issue for this

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drug. People wanna take it. They like the

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effects of weight loss. It's it's,

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it it is really transforming,

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how I think about managing a a an

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early stage cardiometabolic

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patient.

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And I think as we

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continue to face supply issues with these medications

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and who should be getting them, the cardiac

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patients in whom the outcomes are just tremendous

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with these, we're gonna be seeing more and

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more uptake, more and more studies coming out

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just showing what benefit they show for clinical

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outcomes compared to other therapies available.

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Absolutely. And what you're saying really does match

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alongside what we're hearing from from other,

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clinicians in in different specialties. But it's fascinating

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to hear you talk about the the impact

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of these of these drugs, Jeff.

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So if we were gonna talk about you

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more more personally, what would you say you're

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most proud of over the last 12 months

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of your career in terms of achievements

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or or new initiatives?

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Anything that's really, stood out to you over

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the last year or so.

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Yeah. So as I mentioned about 8 years

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ago, I started I founded a company called

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Heartbeat Health. This was a pre COVID telehealth

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startup, that effectively was

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is doing decentralized care, meaning we have a

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cardiology practice in the clouds providing

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care for risk bearing organizations and provider groups,

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primary care across the country in all 50

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states now.

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The last year, the last 12 months has

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been by far the most exciting,

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year of our journey, and it's for a

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couple reasons. Number 1, patient care. The patient

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outcomes are have been tremendous. We're now doing

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many, many we're seeing many, many patients,

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you know, many tens of thousands of patients

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every month,

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And having this effect at a national broad

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scale,

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that's really the reason I

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I went into this and what I was

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hoping for. And so crossing that chasm to

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actually get to scale where you're actually helping

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lots of people every day has been immensely

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rewarding, not just for the business, but for

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me personally.

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And then the second thing is, I've I've

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always been an academic at heart and, really,

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interested, and,

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I think it's been critical for my personal

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journey to

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demonstrate that we can bring new evidence to

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the table for how we should be caring

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for patients, how we should be delivering cardiovascular

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care.

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And heartbeat has done something that I am

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very proud of. Probably my most, pride comes

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from it, which is bring a new evidence

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base to the table for,

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how to how to do virtual cardiovascular care.

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Does it work? Does it not work? Which

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populations does it work for,

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in which settings, and how to do it

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best? So we've been

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fairly rigorous about studying what we do with

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the main hypothesis that,

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you have to actually prove and demonstrate that

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your care model works if it's gonna be

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able to survive past just the business model

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success, but actually create an intervention that can

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live on decades decades into the future.

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So we've done our first, we've we've done

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many studies, but we completed our first randomized

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control trial,

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and brought the the results forward and and,

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presented them at a conference. And this was,

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really rewarding to see that we could actually

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contribute to the evidence base showing different care

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models can work.

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Wow. So clearly a lot of major growth

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and and results coming out of of Heartbeat

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Health. And to personify that, Jeff, you you

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recently announced a a series c funding round

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into the company.

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Can you tell us a little bit more

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about that and what that means

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for the company's trajectory overall?

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Absolutely.

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So Heartbeat's been around since 2017,

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and

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we've, at this point, done a fairly remarkable

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thing, which is that we're still here.

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Many, many companies, including great companies with great

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founders and great teams, have not been able

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to stick around, and everyone knows the startup

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financing and funding environment has been particularly rough

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over the last couple years.

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So we have been very, very fortunate at

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Heartbeat. Number 1, our economic

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hygiene and our financial hygiene has been really,

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important to the company, meaning we we have

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tried to stay,

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careful about how we spend resources, what what

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our care model looks like, making sure that

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we have good economic growth. And and then

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most importantly,

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have done a good job of being able

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to still be at the table

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when the market was really ready for our

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solution.

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And this past year, things finally did take

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off. Our growth has been the strongest that

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we've seen over the last,

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8 months, frankly, that we've we've ever seen.

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And this was quite fortunate because when we

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went out

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to the market for a financing, we were

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in a very favorable position,

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especially compared to what we're seeing out there.

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And, so we had a we'd had a

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competitive round and a lot of interest in,

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invest for investors joining our team.

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Ultimately,

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we chose to move forward with a series

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c that was led by an investor called

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Cressey and Co, which has been a tremendous

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partner for us. And then,

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our our existing board and investors,

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I wanna note or particularly call out 406

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Ventures, Echo Health Ventures, Optum Ventures, and Kindred

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Ventures.

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These groups have been they've been with us

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for the long term. They they get and

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believe in the mission. They've been, you know,

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really strong supporters, helped us figure out how

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to approach this market, how to make this

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virtual,

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specialty care model work.

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And

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what we feel now is that we needed

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this capital, and we wanna use this capital

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to focus on growth. So we think we

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believe

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we're the really the you know, one of

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the best virtual care cardiology groups out there

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right now. And in cardiology,

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our goal now is to grow, grow, grow,

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push to become to hit scale, get to

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as many primary care providers as we can,

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as many health plans,

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as we can to offer this model, which

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ultimately will be beneficial for patients across the

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US.

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Amazing. Well, clearly, a lot of exciting things

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to come on the horizon with heartbeat health.

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So I appreciate you sharing a little bit

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more details about that, Jeff. Before we go,

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any any final thoughts or pieces of advice

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you would wanna offer,

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all of our listeners right now while you

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have the ear of a lot of cardio

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leaders from all over the country?

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Yeah. I think what I'd say is,

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maybe 2 things. Number 1, now's the time

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to innovate. There there is so much opportunity

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in the cardiovascular

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space, everything from

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prevention to advanced disease, many specific disease classes

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that are underserved,

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so many new diagnostic tests, so many new

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therapeutics coming out that there really is an

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opportunity

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to bring a model to market, try it

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from a new way of getting that care

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to patients. And if you keep patient care

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as the prime focus and patient outcomes as

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your prime focus, then

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you're more likely to either be successful or

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learn something that's gonna inform the next model,

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that you try.

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The second thing I'd say is that given

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how vast this space is, you've gotta find

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a niche to focus in.

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So so figuring out whether that's the way

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you deliver care, the specific disease you're focused

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on, the specific diagnostic or therapeutic or population,

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those niches really drive the early

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traction, the early adoption, the early findings that

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are gonna let you know if there's a

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model there.

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And it's very, very easy to get distracted,

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so staying focused to a core goal tends

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to yield the best success in the long

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run.

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Fantastic. Well, doctor Wessler, thank you so much

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for taking the time to sit down with

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us and for sharing your insights with our

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listeners. We truly appreciate it. Thank you, Jacob.

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Appreciate it. If you'd like to listen to

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more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare, you can visit

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00:15:16,909 --> 00:15:17,409
beckershospitalreview.com.