Vanguards of Healthcare by Bloomberg Intelligence

Epizódy

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  Datavant is Building the Data Layer AI Needs in Healthcare 17.09.2026 49min

  “Only about 7% of healthcare data is available to the frontier models,” says Kyle Armbrester, CEO of Datavant. He joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer to discuss why healthcare’s AI opportunity starts with solving its fragmented-data problem. Armbrester explains Datavant’s role connecting providers, payers, life sciences, legal and insurance customers; why scale and tokenization are critical to linking data securely; and how the company is moving beyond records and dashboards toward AI-powered finished products. He also reflects on lessons from Athenahealth, Signify Health and CVS, Datavant’s acquisition strategy and the company’s ambitions as it considers a potential public-market future.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  FocalTherics Incorporates Therapeutic Ultrasound Across an Expanding List of Pathologies 03.09.2026 48min

  “HIFU (high intensity focal ultrasound) is very valuable as a therapeutic treatment, but histotripsy may have some added value. We can develop a platform that can do HIFU or histotripsy or combine the two on a single platform,” Focaltherics explains to Bloomberg Intelligence. In this Vanguards of Healthcare episode, CEO Ryan Rhodes and CFO Ken Mobeck sit down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview to talk about how the Focal One robot uses high-intensity focused ultrasound, or HIFU, to ablate prostate cancer without needing an incision or removing the whole prostate. We also dive into how the team plans to expand into other cancerous and benign diseases, including benign prostate hyperplasia and endometriosis, and develop histotripsy — a focused-ultrasound technique that mechanically destroys targeted tissue — capabilities into the platform.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Stryker Recipe For Market Leading Growth Starts With Its Culture and Learnings 27.08.2026 55min

  “Whenever you look at these adjacencies…these are areas that we think plays to Stryker’s strengths, we have some innate know-how or some ability to be able to think to win with our commercial offense and the way we’re organized”, CEO Kevin Lobo and COO Spencer Stiles explain to Bloomberg Intelligence. In this Vanguards of Health Care podcast episode, Lobo and Stiles sit down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview on Stryker’s robust M&A track record, and key steps to successfully integrate all kinds of acquisitions as part of the long-term strategy for above market growth. One of the key factors is Stryker’s corporate culture, which combines the insight and learnings built from over 60 deals as well as an appetite for risk and pure grit to achieve what other peers have not been able to duplicate.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Think Surgical Miniaturizes it Robot to Broaden Its Use in Knees 20.08.2026 38min

  “Our approach is to miniaturize the robot, make it more economical and make it more seamless in terms of how it integrates into the operating room environment,” Think Surgical’s CEO Stuart Simpson tells Bloomberg Intelligence. In this Vanguards of Healthcare episode, Simpson sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson to discuss how the company developed the TMini robot based on understanding what the surgeon was trying to achieve and working backward. This resulted in a handheld robot that provides optionality over the large form factors of other robotic systems while giving surgeons the choice of knee implant. Both features are well suited for the shift of knee replacement procedures to the ambulatory surgical setting. We also dive into the planned launch of Think Surgical’s TMini 2.0 in the first quarter of 2027.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Novartis Puts Biology Before Modality in Its Next R&D Chapter 18.08.2026 58min

  “We don't want to follow the crowd, we want to steer our own path into what we think are the most exciting opportunities for patients.” says Fiona Marshall, President of Biomedical Research at Novartis, joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Sam Fazeli to explain the biology-first, modality-second philosophy shaping R&D. Marshall details how Novartis is building radioligand therapy beyond Pluvicto into a broad portfolio across tumor types, while treating delivery as the bottleneck for expanding siRNA beyond the liver. The discussion also explores neuroscience as a growth bet built on earlier diagnosis and intervention, plus why AI productivity depends on embedding data scientists across the organization and training models on Novartis's proprietary data.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Innovaccer’s Bet on the Data Layer Powering Autonomous Healthcare 13.08.2026 50min

  “Your doctor has more outdated technology than your Uber driver does,” Abhinav Shashank, co-founder and CEO of Innovaccer, tells Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer in this episode of the Vanguards of Healthcare podcast. Shashank explains why fixing healthcare’s fragmented data infrastructure is the foundation for the industry’s AI future and why long-term value will accrue to companies that own the data layer rather than the user interface. He also traces Innovaccer’s evolution from a data startup into a platform spanning 80 million patient lives, and argues that “autonomous healthcare” could strip hundreds of billions of dollars of administrative waste. The conversation explores the economics of AI, the danger of poorly designed automation, how acquisitions are filling gaps and Innovaccer’s ambition to reach $1 billion of annual recurring revenue.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Vektor Medical Applies AI to ECGs to Expand Arrhythmia Treatment Pathway 06.08.2026 45min

  “We started using AI to enhance algorithms and software to better be able to understand the data that’s in each patient’s ECG. And our goal with that was to bring forward personalized medicine in arrhythmia therapy and improve patient outcomes,” Vektor Medical CEO Rob Krummen says while discussing vMap. In this episode of the Vanguards of Healthcare podcast, Krummen sits down with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Matt Henriksson to discuss the expansion of the vMap system, which uses standard 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) readings to help physicians treat arrhythmia cases, including atrial fibrillation. He also covers the company’s strategy to democratize electrophysiology and get patients to ablation treatment as early as possible.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  ProKidney Aims to Stave Off Dialysis 30.07.2026 33min

  “Our focus is really on patients who’ve lost a lot of kidney function, 70 to 75% or even 80% of their kidney function,” says Bruce Culleton, CEO of ProKidney. “They’re on the path to needing a transplant. Despite all the advances in treating patients with newer products over the last few years, patients continue to progress. Our goal is to intervene directly before dialysis and keep patients off dialysis for as long as possible.” In this Vanguards of Healthcare podcast episode, Culleton sits down with Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst Ann-Hunter van Kirk for an in-depth discussion about how the company’s cell therapy could help delay dialysis and slow the progression of kidney disease.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Why HC9 Believes Operators Make Better Venture Investors 23.07.2026 1h

  “We are not a passive capital partner.” Richard Lungen of HC9 Ventures, joins fellow co-founder and general partner Charlie Falcone to explain why their venture firm is built around operators, not financiers. The pair sit down with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer for a wide-ranging discussion of the firm’s operator-led approach to venture investing. They explain how relationships with hundreds of healthcare executives provide unique insight into where the industry is heading, why they spend as much time creating commercial traction as writing checks and how AI is reshaping everything from administrative workflows to clinical decision support. The conversation also examines the venture environment, healthcare’s biggest structural challenges and how their own cancer journeys have strengthened their mission to back companies capable of meaningfully improving patient care while generating strong investment returns.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  SR One Highlights Biotech's Latest Comeback Cycle 16.07.2026 59min

  “I think this is an incredible time to be investing in biotech.” Dr. Simeon George, founder and CEO of SR One, joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Sam Fazeli to explain why biotech’s next cycle will be global, selective and unforgiving. George traces SR One’s evolution from one of pharma’s oldest corporate venture arms to an independent firm with more than $2 billion raised. The conversation explores why AI’s real test is cutting development time and attrition, not just discovering targets, while also laying out SR One’s view on oncology crowding, neuro’s blood-brain-barrier challenge, China’s accelerating role in drug innovation and the importance of building companies around medicines that can truly change standard of care.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Carrum Health Is Rewiring Specialty Care Around Value 09.07.2026 52min

  “You show me the incentive and I’ll show you the behavior,” says Sach Jain, founder and CEO of Carrum Health. Jain joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer to explain why misaligned incentives sit at the heart of specialty care’s cost problem. Jain details how Carrum built a value-based marketplace around curated centers of excellence, surgeon-level quality data, bundled payments and provider risk, giving employers more predictable costs while offering patients a guided care path with fewer surprise bills. He also discusses specialty care’s $2.5 trillion annual spending, Carrum’s reach across almost 7 million lives, its expanding health-plan partnerships and why AI can either intensify the fee-for-service arms race or help providers prevent complications when incentives are aligned.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Butterfly Leads the Drive on Semiconductor to Make the Most Out of Ultrasound 02.07.2026 43min

  “It’s not just gonna be about image quality. It’s gonna be about image quality and interpretation”, Butterfly Network’s CEO Joe DeVivo explains to Bloomberg Intelligence. In this Vanguards of Healthcare podcast episode, DeVivo sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview to talk about Ultrasound-on-Chip imaging module and the potential of using semiconductor chips to streamline ultrasound as point-of-care option that allows immediate scans and diagnostics. They also discuss the development of Butterfly’s Apollo, a machine designed to be 20x more powerful than its current iQ3 that will create images closer to how the anatomy looks and power its recently announced partnership with Midjourney for a full-body tomographic-imaging machine that utilizes Butterfly’s Ultrasound-on-Chip imaging modules.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Citizen Health’s Plan to Put an AI Advocate in Every Patient’s Pocket 25.06.2026 50min

  “The number one thing that results in a better outcome for someone who is sick is actually, ‘Do you have an advocate on your side?’” says Farid Vij, co-founder and CEO of Citizen Health. Vij joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer to explain how Citizen Health is building an AI-powered advocate for patients with rare and complex diseases. He discusses the company’s mission to aggregate longitudinal health data, support caregivers, accelerate research and create a future where personalized guidance replaces one-size-fits-all medicine.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Distalmotion’s Approach to Spread Surgical Robots to More 18.06.2026 36min

  “It’s designed to be simple in a way, even though it’s an incredibly complex device”, Distalmotion CEO Greg Roche explains to Bloomberg Intelligence. In this Vanguards of Health Care podcast episode, Roche sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview on the company, how its Dexter Robotic Surgery System and single-use instrument platform differentiates itself from others in the robotic market and how it can shorten the learning curve that can increase adoption of robots in ambulatory surgical centers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Bristol Myers on Why Neuroscience Could Be the Next Oncology 16.06.2026 1h 3min

  “Neuroscience is what oncology was 20 years ago,” says Cristian Massacesi, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Development at Bristol Myers Squibb. Massacesi joins Bloomberg Intelligence pharmaceuticals analyst Sam Fazeli to discuss Bristol Myers’ push into neuroscience, including Alzheimer’s therapies aimed at tau, a protein tied to brain tangles in the disease. They also explore the company’s oncology pipeline, including PD-L1/VEGF bispecifics, next-generation antibody-drug conjugates and advances in multiple myeloma. Massacesi explains how Bristol is balancing internal innovation with external partnerships and why AI could fundamentally change the economics and success rates of drug development.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Restor3D Combines AI with 3D Printing to Create Personalized Ortho Solutions 11.06.2026 40min

  “If you plan, the cases can go much more smoothly. And if you have patient-specific instrumentation, they can go much more quickly” says restor3D’s CEO Kurt Jacobus in this episode of Vanguards of Healthcare. He sat down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson to elaborate on personalized orthopedic implants, outlining how the win then for the surgeon is the capacity to complete more cases, with better patient outcomes reputationally, and the win for the facility is getting another case into the operating room.  The in-depth interview covered restor3D’s AI planning and 3D printing capabilities, its path in integrating the Conformis acquisition to allow it to compete against larger companies in the knee-replacement market and the upcoming launch of its patient app. He also discussed how his drive to use technology to solve problems led him from the consulting world to leading medtech companies. Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  AstraZeneca’s ASCO Readout on Oncology’s Next Wave 09.06.2026 57min

  “I think it’s the most exciting period in cancer discovery and development that I’ve experienced over the last 25 years,” says Susan Galbraith, executive vice president of oncology R&D at AstraZeneca. Galbraith joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Sam Fazeli fresh from the ASCO conference to unpack how ctDNA, earlier intervention and next-generation oncology platforms could reshape cancer care. They discuss AstraZeneca’s Stride regimen in liver cancer, Serena-6 in breast cancer, progress in pancreatic cancer and the company’s push across ADCs, bispecifics, CAR-T and radio conjugates.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Ocular Therapeutix Cuts Blindness Toll 28.05.2026 23min

  “Forty percent of patients in this country alone in the first year drop out [of current retinal disease treatments] and every one of those patients ends up going blind. By far the most expensive disease in the world is blindness and the reason for that is really quite simple. It’s because the mortality doesn’t change, the use of resources skyrockets, but the mortality doesn’t change. In this country, every blind patient costs over $66,000 a year,” says Pravin Dugel, CEO of Ocular Therapeutix. “If we reduce that dropout rate by even 10% with Axpaxli, and I’m sure we’ll do even better, we’re talking about a quarter million fewer patients in this country alone who will not go blind. The impact of that, not just on a human basis but on an economic basis, is astronomical.” In this episode of the Vanguards of Healthcare podcast, Pravin sits down with Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst Ann-Hunter van Kirk to discuss how the company can reduce the therapeutic and economic burden of retinal diseases.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  IRhythm Pushes a Proactive Approach to Monitoring 21.05.2026 46min

  “We’re seeing it already to much more of a preventative proactive monitoring to find these things earlier in the patient journeys and help eliminate and prevent and reduce downstream costs,” IRhythm Technologies CEO Quentin Blackford discusses the opportunities of remote monitoring with Bloomberg Intelligence. In this Vanguards of Healthcare podcast episode, Blackford sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview on iRhythm, how its Zio monitoring platform provides an end-to-end solution to monitor patients without disrupting their everyday lives, and its strategy to expand into the primary care setting to provide a more proactive approach to detect cardiac arrhythmias and other health signals. Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Pulse Biosciences Brings Differentiated Nanosecond Technology to PFA 14.05.2026 45min

  Based on long-term results, “the effectiveness of that nanosecond pulse electric field begins to look as if it is a step function ahead of first generation PFA,”  Pulse Biosciences CEO Paul LaViolette says, referring to the next stage of pulsed-field ablation innovation. In this Vanguards of Healthcare episode, LaViolette sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview about the potential benefits of nanosecond ablation technology to treat atrial fibrillation, which combines an ultrashort pulse duration with a high amplitude of voltage. LaViolette also discusses the commercial strategy behind the launch of its NANOPULSE-AF IDE pivotal study, following promising first-in-human trial results.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.