Digital Health Disruptors

Brainwaves & Blood Sugar: The Accidental Discovery That Could Disrupt Diabetes & Lifestyle

 

Every 20 seconds in America, someone develops diabetes. But, what if a subtle wearable device that can read your brain can help? That’s what neurosurgeon and entrepreneur Dr. Casey Halpern is building at SynchNeuro. He discovered that your brain is already tracking your blood sugar 24/7, and he's built a device that decodes these signals.

 

CGMs are exceptional, but they’re always 15 minutes behind. SynchNeuro monitors your glucose using AI & EEG technology in real time, is non-invasive, and sits hidden behind your ear. 

 

With 100 million Americans facing prediabetes, could this become the new must-have wearable? 

 

How does it work? When will it launch? What can it help with? And how did he build this business? 

 

That’s what host Rangani Rangan and Dr. Halpern discuss in this episode.

 

In this episode, we dive into:

 

• How he discovered that the brain can monitor glucose 
• The business and science of wearable technology 
• The devices potential in chronic disease management, metabolism, sleep, and exercise 

 

What we discussed 

 

(00:00) Diabetes every 20 seconds 

(00:47) Who is Dr. Casey Halpern? 

(02:21) Deep brain stimulation (for quality of life improvements)

(04:11) Why our brains make us overeat

(05:58) Prediabetes = brain problem? 

(07:32) Problem with CGMs (Continuous Glucose Monitors) 

(09:21) Brain wearables = CGM alternative?

(12:32) Can brains predict glucose levels? (Stanford study)

(15:14) How the SynchNeuro wearable works

(17:44) 0 grants received  

(18:18) Protecting his IP (dozens of patents) 

(20:09) How to grow your healthtech

(20:37) When will they launch & FDA clearance

(23:19) Reducing bias in their data 

(24:05) Criticism from neuroscientists 

(27:05) Why they're not afraid of competitors

(29:50) Wearable adoption & potential

(32:21) SynchNeuro market penetration strategy 

(33:49) Chronic disease management with wearables

(35:55) Clinicians’ unfair advantage in business 

(37:43) Book recommendations 

 

4 Key Lessons For Digital Health Entrepreneurs From SynchNeuro’s Journey:

• Health tech doesn’t have to route through hospitals

 

Many health founders build with doctors in mind. But doctors are maxed out, and insurance is a slog. Sync Neuro is bypassing all that. They’re seeking FDA-cleared but they’re building to be consumer-loved and designed for consumers. They want their device to be intuitive, cool to wear, and easy to buy without insurance. 

 

2. If it’s not habit-forming, it won’t scale.

 

People abandon wearables because they’re annoying, ugly, or unhelpful. SynchNeuro is focused on making it’s wearable desirable and insightful, not just functional. Not just “not ugly.” People should feel cool wearing it. 

 

3. Your IP strategy is your go-to-market moat

 

It’s not enough to have a great idea when you’re playing in a category that Apple, Dexcom, or Google might sniff around. You need to have exclusive licenses, deep IP protection, and a tight legal framework before you even raise real money.

 

4. Don’t compete with big players. Redefine the category so they can’t follow.

 

Dexcom is the gold standard in CGMs. Sync Neuro isn’t trying to out-CGM them—it’s building a whole new surface-level data stream they can’t touch without rewriting their roadmap. That’s the play: don't go head-to-head. Make their whole model look outdated.

Links 

 

More about SynchNeuro

 

Connect with Dr. Casey Halpern: LinkedIn

Connect with Ranjani (Varadarajan) Rangan: LinkedIn

 

Book recommendations: Hamilton | Untangled 

 

Tune in to Digital Health Disruptors: YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Podbean 

Test, iterate, and grow your healthtech ideas:  marketplace@charmhealth.com 

Patient-First, No Compromises: How One Doctor Built a Game-Changing Oncology Center

When no hospital would hire her, Dr. Shyamali Singhal didn’t wait for permission—she built a $240 million oncology center from scratch with just a 6-page business plan and an unstoppable commitment to patient care.
In this episode, we uncover:
  The 6-page pitch that unlocked $10M in funding
  How she forced institutions to change—by doing it herself
  The hidden patient struggles no one talks about (but she solved)
Dr. Singhal proves that real innovation doesn’t always need a startup—sometimes, it just needs a leader willing to roll up their sleeves.

Why This Surgeon Built a Healthcare 'First Date' App (The UberDoc Story)

When vascular surgeon Dr. Paula Muto read about a woman who couldn't access an orthopedist for a simple ankle injury, she knew healthcare's complex referral system needed disruption. Her solution? UberDoc - a platform connecting patients directly to board-certified specialists for transparent, flat-rate fees.

 

ut what started as a direct-to-consumer healthcare marketplace evolved into something unexpected. Facing prohibitive patient acquisition costs, Dr. Muto had to pivot to save her startup. 

 

This is the UberDoc story.

 

In this episode, we dive into:

 

• Why Dr. Muto let doctors join for free (and still made money)
• The pivot that saved the company
• How being underfunded turned out to be a blessing
• What happens when you strip away healthcare's red tape
• Why specialists are actually eager to see cash-pay patients

 

What we discussed 

 

(00:00) US healthcare is plummeting 

(01:05) Who is Dr. Paula Muto? 

(02:29) Why can’t patients and doctors get directly connected?

(03:31) Birth of UberDoc

(03:46) Healthcare = $23K/yr for families 

(04:32) Why are health prices a secret?

(06:26) UberDoc business model OR How UberDoc works 

(07:21) Uber doc vs. direct primary care

(10:09) How they expanded fast 

(11:10) Revenue & CAC

(12:20) Reducing costs 

(13:21) Female founders need a beard?

(14:52) How UberDoc makes money

(16:39) Becoming a govt marketplace and the Real price of $0 CAC 

(19:43) Why it’s free for doctors

(20:41) What does the money come with? OR The ONLY investment you want

(23:47) Quality, access, price OR No reason for bad healthcare? 

(27:22) Squash! 

 

3 Key Lessons For Digital Health Entrepreneurs From UberDoc’s Journey:

 

1. You could just need 1 big customer 

 

• Many healthtech startups fail by burning money on direct-to-consumer marketing
• UberDoc found that even with good unit economics, the customer acquisition costs were unsustainable
• When B2C marketing costs were killing them, they discovered government contracts
• Look for places where large volumes of patients are already aggregated and funded (VA, Medicare, large employers) rather than trying to acquire them one by one

 

2. Never forget the simplicity rule 

 

• UberDoc built their platform "at a fourth-grade level" intentionally
• Making it "idiot proof" was key to doctor adoption
• Complex features actually reduced platform value

 

3. Data doesn’t have to be your edge 

 

• Unlike most healthtech companies collecting massive data, UberDoc only takes name and chief complaint
• No medical records, no complex integrations
• Used third-party payment processor
• This reduced complexity and increased adoption
• Shows you don't always need big data to create value in healthcare
• Instead, you could focus on solving one of the 2 biggest problems in healthcare: cost & access. 
• You can create value in healthcare without building complex clinical infrastructure

 

Links 

 

More about UberDoc

 

Connect with Dr. Paula Muto: LinkedIn

Connect with Ranjani (Varadarajan) Rangan: LinkedIn

Decoding Delirium and Shaping Cognitive Longevity with Dr. Divya Chander, CEO of Lucidify

Delirium is a deadly, costly, and underdiagnosed syndrome affecting millions of elderly patients, but Dr. Divya Chander, co-founder of Lucidify, is determined to change that. Delirium affects 70-80% of ICU patients over 65, killing 3x as many and accelerating dementia by up to 20 years. 

 

With a background as a physician, neuroscientist, and futurist, Dr. Chander is tackling one of the most critical areas in neuroscience—continuous brain monitoring to detect delirium early and prevent the accelerated onset of dementia.

 

With her team at Lucidify, she’s on a mission to save lives, reduce healthcare costs, and prevent dementia from hitting patients 20 years too soon

 

In this episode, we dive into:

 

• How Lucidify is reducing ICU stays by 6 days using continuous brain monitoring.
• Why untreated delirium costs the U.S. healthcare system $245B annually.
• The key to getting AI-powered health tech through the FDA.

 

What we discussed 

 

(00:32) Who is Dr. Divya Chander?

(02:58) What is consciousness in neuroscience ?

(06:06) Can the ICU accelerate dementia?

(10:30) Why early detection changes everything

(13:54) Most precise delirium detection algorithm (clinical trial)

(14:58) Why they’re involving the FDA

(16:09) How they detect delirium 

(19:49) The future of brain longevity tech

(22:12) Lucidify’s competitive edge

(24:11) How a Stanford mentor changed the course of Dr. Chander's life. 

(28:18) Not selling data to big pharma, losing money (previous startup)

(29:42) Why you shouldn’t collect too much data

(31:34) Why being a generalist has made Lucidify what it is. 

(34:22) Connect with Divya Chandar

Divya Chander's Book recommendation: Goddesses in Every Woman by Jean Shinoda Bolen. 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/divyachander

Website: https://www.divyachander.com/

Top 5 Health Tech Insights You Missed in Season 1 and What’s Coming in Season 2

Digital Health Disruptors is back – and with health tech advancing, Season 2 is set to deliver even bigger stories from the healthcare disruptors shaping the future. If you’re new here, catch up on Season 1 where we brought you raw, unfiltered insights from healthcare’s most forward-thinking leaders.

 

What we discussed 

 

(00:00) Thank you to our listeners!

(01:10) CharmHealth's Fourth Innovation Challenge 

(01:38) Gain exposure to 50,000+ clinicians 

(02:06) Season 1 recap 

(02:21) Getting a license to leave residency behind - Dr. Kyra Bobinet (CEO of FreshTri)

(03:48) Find a $20B market - Professor Shahram Yousefi (CEO of Mesh.ai) 

(05:09) Find a frustration - Dr. Joshua Tamayo Sarver (VP at Vituity and Inflect Health)

(05:56) Know the fund -  Neil Littman (CEO of BioVerge)

(06:51) Keep decision loops short - Alex Lebrun (CEO of Nabla)

(07:47) Season 2 sneak peek

(07:51) Longevity technologies - Dr. Divya Chander (CEO of Lucidify) 

(08:51) Treating obesity ethically - Dr. Paula Muto (CEO of UBERDOC)

 

Links

 

If you’re a health tech startup, reach out to marketplace@charmhealth.com to explore opportunities with CharmHealth.

Missed our first season? Check out previous episodes on all major podcast platforms and YouTube.

 

 

🔔 Subscribe 🔔 to our channel for more videos on a wide range of issues facing healthproviders – from day to day medicalpractice management to improving patientcare and health outcomes through innovative solutions and tools.

CharmHealth is a cloud-based #ElectronicHealthRecords​, #Telehealth​, #PracticeManagement​ and Medical Billing solution that helps healthcare organizations ranging from large multi-speciality groups to small independent medical offices function efficiently.👉 To that effect, CharmHealth’s pricing is simple, unique and helps practices budget and manage the cost of software acquisition.👉 Charm's award-winning API platform integrates with a range of third party healthcare solutions, offering additional functionality to our users.CharmHealth website: https://www.charmhealth.com/​

💽 CharmHealth Innovation Challenge is a recurring competition and a platform for innovators, entrepreneurs and philanthropists in the digital health space to present their ideas, research and innovative health solutions.https://charmhealthchallenge.com/ 

How Clinicians Became Champions- The Nabla AI Startup Success Story

Serial entrepreneur Alexander Lebrun, CEO of NABLA, is disrupting healthcare with an AI co-pilot for doctors - and he's never worked a day in medicine. This is the story of how a fascination with chatbots led to a mission to free clinicians from administrative nightmares.

Doctors are drowning in paperwork, spending half their time on low-value tasks instead of patient care. NABLA's AI co-pilot aims to change that, freeing physicians to focus on what matters most. 

In this episode, we dive into:

• How NABLA went from idea to 46 employees in just three years
• Why running their own clinic was a "very expensive decision" that paid off
• The bottom-up approach that's making doctors champions of their product

We'll explore key questions like:

• Can an outsider really solve healthcare's biggest challenges?
• How is NABLA navigating the ethical minefield of AI in medicine?
• What lessons from Facebook are shaping their growth strategy?

What we discussed 

(00:00) The focus dilemma

(00:32) Meet Alexander Lebrun (CEO of NABLA)

(02:54) Did he fall in love with a chatbot?

(04:10) Solving doctors’ nightmares  

(07:04) Big mistake? 

(11:12) Starting from the tech (big mistake) 

(14:26) Don’t be Sun Microsystems.

(18:14) The 2 minute test (bottom-up approach)  

(22:01) The golden question that he asks (weekly)

(24:00) Medical transcribers

(25:42) No 2 doctors do this the same 

(28:13) Private data sets 

(29:32) How AI works (and what’s wrong with it) 

(34:27) Should we trust AI in healthcare?

(35:01) Racing to stay relevant

(38:34) Don’t judge AI

3 Key Lessons For Digital Health Entrepreneurs From Nabla’s Journey:

• Start with distribution idea, then find problem & tech. That's the ultimate way to build.

While conventional wisdom often suggests starting with a problem, Alex argues that distribution should be the starting point. This approach ensures that you're not just creating a solution, but that you have a clear path to get it to your customers. 

• Ask weekly: Are we doing things we shouldn't? Entropy problem = loss of focus.

It's easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of opportunities and lose sight of your core mission. Alex's weekly self-check is a powerful tool for maintaining focus and avoiding the "entropy problem" that plagues many growing companies. By regularly questioning their activities and ruthlessly cutting unnecessary projects, NABLA stays agile and focused on what truly matters. 

Sometimes, the key to success is not what you do, but what you choose not to do.

• When no one trusts you, get your hands dirty. 

When Alex started, he didn’t know anything about healthcare and had no connections in the healthcare space. When he approached doctors, they didn’t trust him. So, he had to do something extraordinary: NABLA didn't just build tech ; they ran their own clinic to understand healthcare from the inside out. It was expensive. It was risky. It wasn’t the easiest way. But, at the end of the day, it paid off big time. They just secured a $24M series B round. 

Links 

Try Nabla

Connect with Alex LeBrun: LinkedIn

Connect with Ranjani (Varadarajan) Rangan: LinkedIn

Innovating in digital health? Here's an opportunity:

Charm Health is organizing an innovation challenge from August 23-25 in Washington DC. The event provides a platform to present your ideas and network with healthcare providers and companies.

For more information or to participate, CharmHealth Challenge.

Location: Grand Hyatt, Washington DC

Entries close: August 1st

Part 2: A Guide for Investors Entering the Biotech VC Arena | Why impact investing in healthcare yields high returns | What happens when clinicians and innovators collaborate? with Neil Littman

If you're an investor looking to make a significant impact while generating returns, biotech venture capital offers a unique opportunity. By investing in healthcare innovations, you contribute to groundbreaking advancements in medicine and address universal health challenges that affect us all. In this episode with Neil Littman, CEO of Bioverge, we explore the world of biotech venture capital, highlighting how impact investing in healthcare generates returns and drives transformative innovations. Join us and uncover the strategies, opportunities, and unique perspectives that make biotech investing a compelling and rewarding venture for you.

In Today’s Episode with Neil Littman, We Discuss:

1. The world of finance and social impact                   

• [02:45] What is Neil's unique perspective on impact investing and investing for returns?
• [04:17] What is Bioverge’s investment strategy, and how does it work to impact the patient?
• [07:29] How does Bioverge invest in digital health and digital therapeutics to help combat chronic diseases?

 

2. Health Tech Investor returns timeline

• [09:59] What strategies does Bioverge use to grow its LP base and secure high-quality deals?
• [10:47] How has Bioverge built a top-notch deal flow and filter for investing in new deals?
• [12:18] What is the timeline for generating returns in health tech investing based on data?

 

3. Transparency and fund performance in the VC World

• [13:41] What is Bioverge's approach to enhancing transparency within its portfolio companies?
• [17:05] How do quarterly reports force function, and why is this valuable for investors?   
• [18:08] What are Bioverge's typical investor profile minimum requirements?
• [20:51] What are the 3 main benefits investors gain by partnering with Bioverge instead of investing independently?
• [22:43] What funds does Bioverge raise annually, and how does it deploy the capital? 
• [25:02] How does Bioverge help investors build a diversified portfolio to reduce volatility and enhance return potential? 

 

4. Collaboration between Bioverge and CharmHealth 

• [27:54] What is the goal of the Digital Health Transmission Fund model and collaboration?  
• [30:06] What are CharmHealth innovations and initiatives behind the Digital Health Transformation Fund? 
• [33:19] Why is the Digital Health Transmission Fund model very unique?
• [33:49] What is Bioverge building, and where does Neil see it head in the next five years?
• [35:47] How is Bioverge changing its marketing strategy to adapt and maximize its returns in the evolving market? 

RELEVANT LINKS/FURTHER RESOURCES:

• Learn more about Bioverge
• Learn more about Neil LIttman, Founder/CEO of Bioverge
• Learn more about Dr. Venky Chellappa, VP of CharmHealth
• Learn more about CharmHealth Innovation Challenge
• Learn more about Charmalot Conference

If you haven't tuned into part 1 yet, you're missing out on a treasure trove of insights that could redefine your approach to biotech investing.

Part 1: Transforming Biotech investing through Bioverge | Trends shaping biotech investments in 2024 | How can entrepreneurs captivate investors and secure funding? with Neil Littman

Neil Littman is the CEO of Bioverge and one of the driving forces behind its mission to democratize healthcare venture capital, making it more accessible, transparent, and affordable to a wider audience. His journey began with a personal quest to diversify his investment portfolio beyond the public markets, leading to the founding of Bioverge. However, the seeds of his passion for healthcare innovation were planted years earlier when he witnessed the groundbreaking cure of a young girl named Evie from a previously incurable genetic disease. Prior to Bioverge, Neil played pivotal roles at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), managing multimillion-dollar funds and spearheading investments in revolutionary clinical trials spanning cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and rare genetic disorders. 

In Today’s Episode with Neil Littman, We Discuss:

1. Neil's formative years and how they served as a blueprint for his career path

• [2:41] What did the young Neil Littman's ambitions look like?

• [3:30] What was Neil’s pivotal moment that changed his career trajectory to biotech?  

    2. What it is like to work for a philanthropy organization in Biotech  

• [6:52] How did Neil come across CIRM and secure impressive business development opportunities 
• [7:53] What did Neil take away from his encounter with Evie, a girl born with SCID? What impact did they have with the technology they were funding?
• [9:44] How did Evie's story inspire Neil to start Bioverge? What is Neil's vision for biotech?

 

3. How to overcome the entrepreneurial startup hinges

• [11:17] What was Neil's biggest challenge in the early stages of building Bioverge? How did Neil overcome them?

 

4. What holds promise in Biotech investments for 2024

• [14:11] What does Neil perceive as the game changer in seed investing? What investors cannot afford to overlook?
• [18:53] How did Neil identify start-up investment opportunities for significant return?
• [20:32] Why does Neil believe the key to finding top-tier investment opportunities is Founder Market Fit?
• [21:42] Why Neil emphasizes that start-ups should view things from the perspective and expectations of their investors? 

 

5. What Lessons can be drawn from startup setbacks and success

• [25:53] What are Neil’s biggest lessons on transparency and communication from a failed start-up?
• [28:08] What advice does Neil give to start-ups and aspiring entrepreneurs before approaching investors?
• [29:05] How does Neil support the success of the companies they invest in at Bioverge?

• Learn more about Bioverge
• Learn more about Neil LIttman, Founder/CEO of Bioverge
• Learn more about CharmHealth Innovation Challenge
• Learn more about Charmalot Conference

Stay tuned for part 2 and get more insights into the promising trends shaping the biotech industry and the opportunities it presents for the industry and entrepreneurs alike.