Episode 54: Innovation Meets AI – The AI & Healthcare Design Lab with Key Opinion Leader JoJo Platt

What happens when you mix a little New Orleans into a biodesign program? Find out in this episode about the AI in Healthcare Design Lab now.

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Welcome back to BIO from the Bayou. I'm James Zanewicz, the Chief Strategy Officer at Tulane medicine. And today's guest is someone you may recognize from some of our earlier podcasts, the amazing, the fantabulous Jojo Platt. Jojo is the president of Platt and Associates Inc., which has global recognition for their incredible network of people and their strategic analytical abilities in the industry existing at the nexus between neuroscience and technology. She is also one of the founders and executive faculty for the Cleveland NeuroDesign Entrepreneurs Workshop, which we just spent our weekend together at, which was super fun. And it had a successful 2020 program just a few days ago, and she's looking to expand on these successes with us into the Gulf South. Welcome back to the show, Jojo.

Thanks, James. I really appreciate you having me back.

So we're here not to discuss Cleveland NeuroDesign this time. We discussed that on a podcast just a month or so ago, but we're adding some New Orleans flair for a sister companion. I'm, of course, talking about the Tulane AI in Healthcare Design Lab. Taking place November 14th to 17th in downtown New Orleans. We're partnering with you to develop this new twist on an executive biodesign-type weekend. Can you give us an overview of the goals for the AI in Healthcare Design Lab?

I think it's incumbent upon us on the business side of neurotechnology, AI, healthcare to help some of our, our young talent and growing talent grasp and apply the concepts of entrepreneurship to the research and, and developments that they're making on their own already. So we really target people who are on the research side in their early career, who might have, they might still be in their advanced degree program, maybe freshly out of their degree program, who are experts on the side of AI and maybe even healthcare processes, But haven't yet had the exposure to what it takes to turn that experience into something that is commercially viable, something that will ultimately serve and protect a whole population of patients and, and to really change the way that healthcare is consumed and delivered.

That is what excites me so much about this. And you've given us a great overview, but I'm curious, What will the agenda be like at the AI in Healthcare Design Lab? There's probably some similarities and some differences from NeuroDesign. I'm curious what members will be working on once they get in.

So NeuroDesign is focused on neurotechnology applications, and that frequently means devices that are monitoring or interacting with a central or peripheral nervous system. With AI in Healthcare, we're expanding beyond that. Of course, devices are included, But some of the solutions could be back office improvements or diagnostic and imaging improvements, helping to take the human out of the loop where we have workflow challenges, where we're short on human talent, and making sure that more patients are served. So what that looks like in terms of the agenda and what the people will be working on— first, I'm going to preface this by saying this is a very intense weekend. It starts at 4 o'clock on Thursday afternoon and almost doesn't stop until Sunday at about 1:30 in the afternoon. We have a great time, but we work really hard throughout the weekend, and we cover things like regulatory strategies, reimbursement strategies. What'll be new for AI in healthcare is not just privacy and security that we already incorporate into NeuroDesign, but adding to that. conversations around ethical AI. What does that mean?

And data and everything else. It's super cool. I think the expansion of that is incredible.

I, I'm excited about it. I think that what I've seen, not only in neurotech, but also in the development of AI, is an eye toward ethical applications from the beginning instead of— and much like security, it has the same impact, which is it's always better and cheaper to build it in from the beginning than it is to bolt it on at the end. So those, those will be primary considerations to discuss. There are different aspects that we'll include. They'll vary a little bit between the 2 workshops. AI and healthcare usability in AI and healthcare will have a different flavor than it does with devices because the user populations are frequently very different. How to integrate into the healthcare flow, either at the clinic level, at the at-home care level. Diagnostics, back office support.

The possibilities are endless. And I think what excites me the most about this is there have been some real things that have come out of NeuroDesign. But, you know, when you have people over the course of 3.5, 4 days trying to figure out how do you minimise infection from brain surgery, it's not necessarily likely the solution is going to be realistic. For AI in healthcare, there could be a lot more real-world applications that come out of this and some real solutions potentially.

Absolutely. And to clarify, we're pretty intentional about making sure that the projects that are created don't have to have immediate real-world applications.

Absolutely.

Each team has 4 members. They're from 4 different home institutions. They have different IP requirements and, and rules that are guiding them. So we don't wanna get involved in that, but if we can stimulate a team to say, hey, we've really got something here, we wanna pursue this on our own, I think that's fantastic. Another opportunity that really excites me about this program is that on the device side, you're looking at, you know, for a regulatory pathway, you're looking at a 10-year development pipeline.

Mm-hmm.

For AI in healthcare, that window is significantly shorter. I can imagine that by our 5th, which NeuroDesign has just finished its 5th year, and by the time we finish our 5th year for Design Lab that some of our first and second year projects could be nearing market.

So before we hop into who should apply to Design Lab, I'd love to ask you, because you just mentioned NeuroDesign and you do have some really impressive statistics about 5 years in what's happened. Can you enlighten us to some of those just so we can kind of get a preview of the kind of impact that the Design Lab might have?

I'll caveat this just a little bit. The data collection is not scientific. It's, it's really anecdotal, so they are very conservative numbers, and the numbers aside from attendance don't include our 2024 class. But to date, we've put through over 150 students through the program. Between faculty and students, they have raised over $100 million in venture funding for their own companies. And over half of our cohort, like I said, through the previous class, had gotten their first job in industry or in a commercial company as a direct result of their participation in the program. So, we focus not only on attracting a very high quality of participant on a candidate level, we also focus heavily on bringing in a stellar faculty that can not only guide from experience, but can also We work together to increase the value of everyone's network, both for faculty and students.

Well, since I've derailed us and I know our producer Ian probably is about to kill me for jumping ahead in his questions, let me get us back on track. So who can apply to the Design Lab and how should they prepare for the course and when are their applications due and where do they go to apply? I guess all the questions about applications and the people in it. You know the spiel.

First and foremost, you can find a host of information at thedesignlab.ai. The application is there. The application is due October 1st.

The coolest URL ever.

And the coolest website ever. Who should apply? I would encourage, so using the Neurodesign program as sort of a baseline, let's say, we have had some undergrads in the past. It's an exception, but every application is judged individually and judged by multiple people. So, we have diverse inputs and everybody receives— we try and level out the playing field on reviews so that everybody has 2 baseline reviewers and then a specialty reviewer. The real sort of core group that we get coming through the programs tend to be advanced degree students, whether you're first year in your PhD or master's, or you're about to complete it, or you're in your postdoc or just out of your postdoc. That's really the meat and potatoes of our groups so far. And then on the other end of the spectrum, we do have people who are mid-career, people who have done their MD-PhDs or, or an MD and have real-world experience where they see a need and they have a passion for commercialization. And what they really want to learn are the concepts and the principles of the commercial journey. Like, how do I get this? How do I get this idea out of my brain? Into a new company, into something that ultimately is used by clinicians and patients or other users in the healthcare spectrum. So, it's a wide range because we do invite everybody to apply. Talent comes in all sizes, shapes, locations, ages, all of the things.

The deadline, it's October 1st, right?

October 1st, yes.

So, apply by October 1st, guys. And that's October 1st, 2024, if you're listening to this later. It'll be a different deadline for 2025 when we come back.

A lot of people will try and get the inside track from me asking, what are you looking for in your application? You know, what do you want to hear from me? We really want to see that you have a passion for entrepreneurship. We like to see that you have applicable talent, and that could be a wide range of talent, whether it's computer science, electrical engineering, neuroscience. Public health, that, you know, as long as it's not maybe underwater basket weaving, you know, if there's contextual background that you have, that's fantastic. But we wanna see your passion for innovation. We wanna see that you have an eye toward entrepreneurship. A lot of people say, I need experience to get experience. And we recognize that doom loop too. So we ask questions that are hopefully created to evoke experience where maybe you haven't had an internship or experience in a commercial environment just yet, but then give us a situation where you've applied a curiosity and a drive for a solution and integration of a solution into a process, whether it's your home lab, whether it's even a society where you volunteer in your free time and in your hobbies. It's another thing we like to see diversity. of interests. And I'm a terrible example of this because I'll be on my vacation and I'll be working and my husband will say, what are you doing? Why are you working? And say, I'm not working, I'm doing my hobby. I'm not a great personal example, but we do ask, you know, share with us a little bit about the other parts that make you, you, because they do influence how you think and how you approach life and problems and also helps when you get into the program, helps us put you in the right team.

So we've talked about who should apply, how they prepare, when they need to apply by. What do attendees get out of the program? Why should they make time to apply for it? What's the benefit?

Hopefully what you're getting out of it, and based on the feedback that we've gotten so far, what you're getting is the ability to look at a challenge through the lens of a solution that is going to have a stronger chance of making it to market. So, for instance, with engineering, it's very fun to come up with a solution and then go looking for a problem. We're very heavily focused on identifying the problem. In fact, 50% of the program makes you drill down into identifying and really defining the problem clearly, because without a clearly defined problem, your solution is probably going to miss the mark. So we don't let you start working on solution until halfway through the program.

Mm-hmm.

And this ability to look, and these are Stanford Biodesign principles, the need evaluation, need assessment, need development, characterization are critical to the path forward through the Biodesign program. And so we're looking at integrating some really great AI solutions.

Sluice AI is We have another potential one we're talking to Friday, so people need to stay tuned. There might be some more cool stuff. Why I'm so excited is you guys have put together something really special, and I'm excited to put a little riff on it and to create a sister program here. And the overlap between them, I think, is incredible because neurotech more and more is incorporating AI, but AI in healthcare is broader. And I think these 2 courses could really feed into each other so much, which is exciting.

I, I think they are very complementary. And I— you and I have talked about this over the years. In our early careers, we were both both a part of the internet revolution, sort of changing the internet from a PhD program experiment to something that was in the hands of the masses. And I always, I've always been very proud of my little tiny role in the internet revolution back in the '90s. Now I feel like the work that we're doing in neurotechnology and AI and healthcare, that there's this second chance to be part of something that is gonna change the world. And it comes with a lot of excitement and responsibility too.

So I wanna get back to the workshop a little bit and cost. What does this cost people? 'Cause for people in grad school or young careers, like every dollar matters. What do they have to spend to get to this workshop?

So our hope is that you can get yourself to New Orleans. From the time you arrive at our venue, we take care of your hotel. Your meals, even some, some fun activities and team building and your textbook, your biodesign textbook. It's really helpful. We're new. This is our first year.

This is our bootstrap year.

It's our bootstrap year. I'm hoping, you know, we can put together through sponsorships. So if you're willing to sponsor, we, we definitely need your support. But that lets us give needs-based travel grants. So through NeuroDesign, we've never had to have a student drop out because he or she couldn't afford to get to the program. We do encourage people, ask your home institution, ask your grandma to have your Christmas present early, whatever it is, and bootstrap that. That's great. We'll do our best to help where we can on a needs basis and availability basis.

And for companies, investors, and individuals who are passionate about supporting younger folks in this space, if they go to thedesignlab.ai, there's a button where they can click Contact Jojo to Sponsor. It'll open an email to you, and we would love for them to do that because the better sponsorship we get, the more robust we're able to make the program and the more students we can take into it, because we're going to take up to 32 the first year. We'd love to take 32 and really, really rock it out.

That's a great point. And I think one of the things that I like to sort of outline as a value for sponsors for this, because it's not the typical branding exercise, like you said, with 32 students and let's call it 20 faculty members. It's not like you're amplifying your message to hundreds of thousands of people like you would with advertising. The value in this program, one, is being an early adopter and a leader, a thought leader in this field that is really going to change the way that we commercialize AI in healthcare and being a thought leader. The other opportunity that is of value to sponsors is that this is a challenging hiring environment, getting talent, getting the right talent. Those who are motivated, capable, and qualified technically, but also motivated to apply their skills and knowledge to the healthcare space and improving the human condition. We've already pre-vetted those for you. So this is a fantastic recruiting tool. And it's also a way to, if you're, you know, as faculty members, to engage with people that can help change the trajectory of your company as well.

Perfect segue, Jojo. I want to ask you about faculty next. I— you didn't even plan that and you ended so perfectly. So who are some of the faculty that we have on tap for the Design Lab? And I want to give a spoiler alert, which I teased earlier, you might recognize some from NeuroDesign.

There are— we do have some of our NeuroDesign experts, and that's very deliberate, not only from the content that they're delivering, but also to provide the cohesive experience that we've built at Arrow Design. I think that the atmosphere is something that is a big part of what makes the program magical. So that's very deliberate to incorporate that. I'm not gonna indulge you by giving any names because I'd like to do that as a surprise announcement. I think we have some—

Ooh, a little tease. So, so watch, watch our LinkedIn for information. I like that.

I do wanna say we have Possibly a little bit of a diversity challenge.

What is that challenge, JoJo?

We need more men.

How much do you hate saying that about tech?

I don't think it's ever been said in tech. So, I'm very excited that that's a challenge that we have, that we have attracted some amazing female talent, and I'm very proud of, of the network that we've created. A huge part of that is Thanks to the outreach of Women in AI.

Absolutely. Not giving any names, but that group, like, they're, they're some of my favorite people.

Do I have a woman in AI on faculty?

Ooh, a few?

I'm not saying.

I like it. I like it. Moving on to some of our final questions. It's the first year we're doing the AI in Healthcare Design Lab, as we've talked about, or the designlab.ai. I'm going to keep saying it because I'm so proud of that URL. What are you most excited for going into this year? Because you're off. A huge rush, a huge high from every year. Cleveland Neurodesign Entrepreneurs Workshop is so successful and we just finished it. And honestly, we all came out of that going, this is the best year ever, which we say every year, cuz every year it's something a little different, something a little special. What excites you about the future of this and putting a little twist on that and doing something very similar, but also very different?

I'm excited to affect a different population of entrepreneurs. I'm excited that the success that we have, I think much like the concept of biodesign itself, you can lift and shift. So you can take what you learn in this program and apply it. Even if you're attending AI and Healthcare, you can take these concepts and apply it to a different industry. And so I'm excited about affecting a different population of students who will then go on and affect the healthcare spectrum in different ways. And then hopefully we can bring the two together. And as we interact at conferences, kind of merge the two and get everybody networking together and amplifying our effect. I'm really excited about incorporating faculty with expertise that is uncomfortable for me. It's new to me, and I think it's my opportunity to learn. So I can only imagine that that's true for other people as well. And I'm really excited to be working with Tulane and to bring this to New Orleans. And I think that operating outside of the coasts—

Uh, this is a coast. It's the best coast. It's the third coast. It's the Gulf Coast.

I can endorse that statement. And I think it's time that the focus was more distributed on where the talent and the work is happening.

Well, this is exciting to me. And before I get into our wrap-up, Joja, I want to talk a little bit about some of the people who are putting time and resources into this already. So our first company sponsor is Invisigenics. Hopped right on board. Maria Luisa Pineda, their CEO, was like, absolutely, how can I support? So if people sponsor, they get talked about on podcasts. That's a value add that we give. And I'm sure we're going to do a wrap-up after the AI and Healthcare Design Lab to talk about both it and NeuroDesign. And maybe we'll have some of the other faculty who hit both. We'll do a little roundup of the two. But we have Invisigenics, we have Tulane University, of course, who's putting in time, talent, cash, all that stuff. We have the New Orleans Bioinnovation Center.

Yeah.

Cleveland Neurodesign Entrepreneurs Workshop, giving them a huge shout out. It takes a lot for them to be able to say, hey, yeah, we trust you, let's do this. And for them to put stuff in, we have the Alliance for AI in Healthcare, Women in AI, as you mentioned, and then of course, Platt and Associates coming in and helping us out with this as well. Oh wait, that's you.

You know, obviously we'd love to grow that list of sponsors so that we can not only grow the program, but also increase the value bidirectionally. And I think the sponsorship is really an opportunity to demonstrate that these companies are in support of where the field is today and where it's going.

And seeing the future leaders and maybe getting a leg up on hiring them because they'll already have a relationship. And it's a competitive field. Every little bit helps. And this is a way to see the top talent from around the globe, which is cool.

Yep, absolutely.

Well, JoJo, I want to thank you so much for making time. I know you're always hyper busy and you were just I'm just hyper. Yeah, and you spent like 4 or 5 days locked in a room with our 32 students where you didn't get any other work done. So I want to thank you for taking time out to talk about the AI in Healthcare Design Lab. I want to encourage everyone listening to this who's interested in this space. And Jojo's had applicants from undergrad, the rare undergrads that come in in their young 20s, to folks who are in their 40s who were still interested, even though they're not necessarily early, early career. But they were like, hey, I want to learn about this too, and we're passionate. And you have blinded applications, so anyone can get in if they make their case, right?

Absolutely. It is entirely merit-based. There's no other consideration. It's not based on your financial need. It's not based on where you went to school. It's open to everybody.

And once again, the important dates to remember for the AI in Healthcare Design Lab, you have to apply by October 1st to have a chance to get in. And if you make it in, the dates are November 14th to 17th. That's a Thursday through a Sunday. Intense, intense, but, you know, mark those down and good luck. As always, we're gonna have Jojo's contact info if you want to connect with her, a link to the AI in Healthcare Design Lab, and more informational links in our show notes. So I wanna make sure everyone checks them out to learn more. And Jojo, before I say thank you for joining us, do you have any last words?

Yeah, I'm just so excited. The rush of these workshops in the past, it builds every year, so I'm excited to share that at Tulane and develop a similarly meaningful program here with you.

We are like the least American city in America in many ways and the most European. So maybe this is our foray into doing some international entrepreneur workshops and design labs in the future. TBD.

If only.

I mean, perhaps we'd have to do one in Australia.

It'd be so sad.

Anyway, Jojo, I want to officially thank you for coming on, making time. It's always fun to spend time with you. I got to do it in person for 4 days last weekend at the Entrepreneur Workshop for And getting to do it soon in NOLA. Thanks for joining us for Bio from the Bayou, and we hope you'll join us again.

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