Nov 17, 2021
In this podcast episode, Joe Rubinsztain, MD, the CEO of ChronWell, discusses his path to becoming a doctorpreneur, the creation of gMed and more.
Brought to you by Zeposia.
- Intro :02
- Welcome to this episode of Gut Talk :22
- About Rubinsztain :39
- The interview 1:14
- Tell us about your background … where did you grow up and how did you get interested in medicine? 1:16
- What “aha moment” steered you into this nontraditional direction? 2:45
- Was that the genesis of gMed or did something precede gMed? 3:54
- Where did gMed occur in this whole awakening that you experienced? 4:27
- Was it a success immediately or was it a steep uphill climb? 6:03
- What were some of the main things that you learned from this journey? What were some of the durable themes that came out of that experience for you? 7:21
- Was the EMR market just as saturated when you were starting gMed, and you were scaling the company? How did you sell this into physicians' offices? 9:47
- Policy changes in health care can make or break a company … could you talk to us a little about the acquisition and leading up to that - how did it happen? 11:24
- There must’ve been the temptation to go in a whole bunch of different directions … How did you resist that temptation and how did you decide to choose GI and dermatology? 13:09
- Did you organically create those relationships or how did those come about? 15:44
- It you were starting and scaling gMed now how would things be different with these integrated delivery systems and private equity consolidation? 17:25
- Are the incentives aligned to make digital therapeutics an attractive option right now? 20:08
- Do you think the future for digital therapeutics and the types of services that ChronWell provides are going to be driven more by the fee-for-service architecture or do you think GI as a specialty is closer to more bundled payments and value-based approach? 22:45
- Could you tell us a little bit more about ChronWell, your transition from gMed to ChronWell and what you’re doing there now? 25:14
- Who are you selling these services to? Is this a service that’s being provided the GI physician, a health plan, a self-insured employer? 27:20
- Do you mind just telling our audience what you mean by the term ‘digital therapeutics’? 29:38
- Are you subject to regulatory standards? Do these digital therapeutics need to be FDA approved or is it more like the Wild West? 31:01
- As we transition to this accountable care/value-based system. Will there be the same level of profitability and interest on the part of equity in gastroenterology? 35:30
- It also sounds as if artificial intelligence and machine learning are going to play a big role in what you’re building 38:15
- Do you think the key thing there is the size of the data set or the quality of the data? 40:06
- Should there be a medical school pathway for physician data scientists that specifically peg their careers for this type of development pathway? 41:55
- What are the biggest misconceptions you think physicians, and more particularly GI physicians, have about the entrance of these early stage technology companies into health care? 43:49
- What advice would you have for a young physician or someone in medical school who’s got these crazy thoughts of a non-traditional career? 46:56
- Thank you, Joe 48:57
- Thanks for listening 49:29
Joe Rubinsztain, MD, is a physician entrepreneur and CEO/co-founder of ChronWell and founder of gMed.
We’d love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to guttalkpodcast@healio.com. Follow us on Twitter @HealioGastro @sameerkberry @umfoodoc
Disclosures: Berry and Chey report no relevant financial disclosures. Rubinsztain is the CEO and co-founder of ChronWell.