August 11, 2025 • 17 mins
What defines truly effective digital health technology in today's healthcare landscape? According to Brian Carr, SVP of Marketing at Medisafe, the answer is refreshingly straightforward: patient engagement.
When seven out of ten users access your platform daily—outperforming even social media giants like Facebook—you know you've created something that genuinely resonates with patients. Medisafe's journey began with a personal crisis when the founder's father accidentally double-dosed on insulin after forgetting his previous dose. This pivotal moment established the company's unwavering patient-first philosophy that continues to guide their innovation today.
The secret behind Medisafe's remarkable engagement metrics lies in their proprietary database built over twelve years, containing billions of anonymized patient interactions. This rich foundation powers their Just-In-Time Interventions (JITI), delivering personalized support precisely when patients need it most. Unlike many emerging AI solutions dependent on third-party datasets, Medisafe's technology draws from real-world patient behaviors to create truly personalized experiences.
Beyond medication reminders, Medisafe bridges critical gaps in the healthcare ecosystem. Patients can share adherence reports with providers, display their complete medication lists during emergency visits, and access digital copay cards—all from their smartphones. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical partners gain unprecedented visibility into patient behaviors, seeing how their medications perform alongside others in real-world settings, with insights available not just quarterly but hour-by-hour.
Looking toward healthcare's future, Carr envisions AI-powered voice agents and deeper integration across care settings, transforming how patients experience their treatment journeys. The leaders who will thrive in this evolving landscape will combine curiosity and openness with decisive action, recognizing that exceptional technology always begins with addressing genuine patient needs.
Subscribe to PostscriptsRx to continue exploring the innovations and visionaries shaping the future of patient care. How might these advancements transform your approach to healthcare delivery?
PostScripts Rx is not intended to constitute medical advice, nor is it intended to influence prescribing decisions or any other medical or clinical decision-making. All medical and clinical judgment and decision-making, prescribing decisions, and all related considerations remain exclusively the responsibility of providers and patients.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Cathy Zaremba (00:00):
Okay.
So hi everyone, and welcome toPostscriptsRx podcast.
This is the podcast where weexplore the innovations, the
leaders and the breakthroughsshaping the future of patient
care.
Joining me today is Brian Carr,svp of Marketing at Medisafe,
which is a digital healthplatform that's re-imagining how
patients connect with theirtherapies and how the broader
(00:21):
care ecosystem supports thosejourneys, and at the heart of it
is JITI, our Just-In-TimeInterventions, which is
personalizing and data-drivennudges that help patients stay
on track at the exact momentsthat they need help and support.
Brian's here to help us explorethis and to help us understand
how this is changing the game indigital health.
(00:42):
So, brian, thanks and welcometo the show.
Well, thanks for having me,kathy.
Great seeing you again.
You too.
Well, hey, just to kick us off,I'd love to know what is your
perspective actually on whatdefines best-in-class as a
digital health solution today?
Brian Carr (00:57):
For me it is our patients actually using it right
.
So you know, with all duerespect to a lot in the industry
, you can win awards, thingslike that, but if patients
aren't using it on a regularbasis and engaging with it and
passionate about it, I thinkthat that's kind of a red flag.
So I love to see when patientsare passionate about their
solutions.
And you know, you know, hereover the past 12 years now we've
(01:17):
had, you know, phenomenalgrowth in patients who are
really passionate about how theytested many solutions and they
found that the one we offer isreally engaging and is exactly
what they needed.
And you know, sometimes, youknow our typical patients on
five or six medications may havea very difficult titration
schedule or, you know,complicated dosing schedules in
(01:38):
other ways.
And you know we have adaptedand grown with some of their
questions and suggestions andit's really come.
Our engagement metrics arephenomenal.
You know seven.
What is it?
Seven out of ten of our folkswho are using Medisafe on a
monthly basis are coming atleast once a day.
Cathy Zaremba (01:55):
That's phenomenal , and if you compare that to
industry standards, I mean thatI think I've heard someone say
that's even more than Facebookor Instagram.
So that's pretty amazing.
What do you think is at theroot of that?
I mean, how do you get patientsto engage with the platform?
What's kind of the secret saucethere?
Brian Carr (02:12):
Yeah, I think it's in our DNA, at least at Medisafe
, because it was started as apatient-first solution, right?
This was started by twobrothers who were having lunch
with their dad and he said didyou see me take my insulin dose
this morning?
And they said no, he didn't.
So he went back in andunfortunately ended up double
dosing and he was in thehospital for 24 hours.
So that's always been the DNAof Medisafe is patient first.
(02:35):
There's no reason for someoneto double dose if they're
keeping track of it, no matterwhat their condition or their
age or even their digitalsavviness, it's very simple to
use.
So that to me, I think, is thekey value that it's built from
the patient first.
So when we spent a good 10, 12years of listening to what
patients said, there was a lotmore competitors back then, a
lot of people trying new appsout, but we were the ones that
(02:57):
really grew and listened to whatpeople said and delivered too,
not just yeah, yeah, yeah, we'llget to it.
We really do deliver.
Cathy Zaremba (03:06):
That is so fascinating when you think about
that, like all that datacollection that you're doing and
now we're talking about, ai isthe rage, right?
Everybody's talking about AI.
Well, when you think about whatis the AI learning, what's the
model, what's building, themodel for messaging out to
patients, what would you say tothat?
How does AI play into this?
Brian Carr (03:27):
Exactly so.
Any AI solution is only as goodas the database or the model
it's learning off of right.
So language learning models youknow what database of
collections do they have thatthey have?
Now, ours is proprietary, thatwe've been building over the
past 12 years and it's datapoints that are anonymized.
You know, any patient can useMedisafe and not even give an
email address or anything.
It's completely anonymous.
(03:48):
Again, we built from thepatient first.
We do recommend the patientsset up an account so when they
get a new phone or if they losetheir phone, they can just log
into Medisafe and their wholehistory is there.
But they're not forced to.
But you can imagine with youknow, literally billions of data
points on patients over morethan a decade who have you know,
more than six medications thatmarking has taken or oh, I
(04:08):
skipped this one or that.
We've got, you know, in somesolutions.
We've got more than 120trackers that are available.
You can add all your doctorsand your appointments.
We've got more than a milliondoctors that have been added
into the platform from patientswho are like I have an
appointment with them across theboard.
So you have, you know, billionsof data points that we use from
AI on a regular basis to youknow, we can put our AI agents
(04:30):
against it and really come upwith phenomenal solutions, and
that's at the core of JITI, orjust-in-time innovation,
inventions Now we've had formore than five years now, so
when people talk about AIsolutions coming to market,
we've been analyzing and makinginterventions individually on a
personalized basis, based on howpatients are using the platform
on an individual basis, usingjust-in-time innovations, for
(04:53):
years and again, it's our owndata, so we're not reliant on oh
, this is a third-party databasethat people bought, that
everyone's using.
Cathy Zaremba (05:00):
Yeah, yeah, that is so true.
And when you think about it, Imean when we're talking about
chronic diseases, which reallyhas just escalated tremendously
over the last 10 years I meanthe fact that you're able to
track every medication in themed cabinet, how does that play
into making this seamless forthe patient?
So it's really, you know, it'snot something that's jarring,
(05:22):
it's something that fits intothe fabric of their patient
journey, into their dailyroutine.
Brian Carr (05:28):
Right, and we do have some patients who, you know
, laugh.
They know, you know, when theshaking pill bottle sounds,
everyone knows that it's time.
You know, the people aroundthem hear it too, whether
they're kids or their grandkidsor whatever, and they, you know,
say it's time to take it.
I think you know, also, withthe app being, you know,
patient-centric.
First off, it's very simplyused.
We keep it simple to use.
(05:48):
It works.
On other platforms We'veactually grown with the patients
.
For example, we're compatiblewith watches and digital watches
, for example.
Right, we can also do right now, we do voice agent calls.
So, you know, with some people,we can have them talk to an AI
voice agent which can remindthem hey, we didn't see you take
your med today.
Make sure that you know.
We'll just call and make sureyou're okay.
We do a symptom check.
(06:09):
All those things are becomingavailable as patients grow.
So we're growing with the waysthat patients want to adapt.
Some patients want to use a webinterface.
We can deliver on all those aswell.
What's also interesting is, notonly is it usable for patients,
but the people who interactwith patients, right.
So, for example, you know,we've got platforms and on
Medisave, where you can uploadyour report to your doctor
(06:30):
before your appointment.
Cathy Zaremba (06:32):
I was just going to ask you about that.
How do you engage with thewhole care?
Ecosystem Perfect.
Brian Carr (06:38):
We've had it for years.
You can upload hey, here's youradherence report, here's the
meds you're taking.
Upload it to your doctor aheadof your appointment.
The other thing we see ispatients will especially acute
care patients if they havesomething happen and they're in
the emergency room, where we'vegot loads of stories where
people just show the Medisaveapp to the intake nurse who then
see the list of medications andthey're, frankly, they're
(06:59):
thrilled because it's all there.
They have the doses, theschedule, when was it last taken
?
As opposed to and we've hadnurses tell us this like oh, I
have an intake patient goingthrough their pocketbook looking
for the pill bottles, right,and it takes 20 minutes to
happen for an intake.
So we often don't think of theway that digital is, not only
the patients, of adopting it,but we see the elsewhere in the
clinics and elsewhere.
You know we work with clinicswho used to do all their
(07:22):
infusions with spreadsheets,right.
Cathy Zaremba (07:33):
Now we can do it, integrate it into a digital
interface where they can see oh,they did take the infusion at
the clinic down the road, so nowthey can get the MRI here, for
example.
That is so critical.
I mean, when you think aboutmedication reconciliation, I
mean it is an utter nightmare ifyou don't have everything at
your fingertips.
And how can you remember, whenyou're on six or more meds, what
was in the pill cabinet, unlessyou are able to kind of put
that front and center?
I think it's interesting.
You're saying you can sharedata, the patient can share data
, but then what aboutcross-clinic?
(07:55):
What about other sites of care?
How have you worked withtechnology to connect sites of
care?
Brian Carr (08:01):
Yes, so we, you know , we launched, in conjunction
with some partners of ours, anew product called Pathways
right?
So Pathways is.
It's an interface for HCPclinical care offices, infusion
centers and other clinics for,particularly for Alzheimer's
disease, right?
So when you have Alzheimer's,there's a lot of stages of
infusions, mris and checks thatyou have to go through on a
(08:22):
regular basis and you reallycan't go to the next level
unless you've had, you know,you're checked off on your MRI
from your previous appointment.
So what we found was a lot ofclinics are using spreadsheets
to monitor their patients gofrom one to the other, and what
we did is we launched a solutionwith some partners which
basically allows any infusioncenter to monitor the infusion
track and the journey of thepatients from anyone.
(08:42):
They're all in one simpleinterface where you know and we
have a whole permissioningstructure who can see how the
patients went through, whatlevel of permission at the
clinical care center can do that.
So it really has had a greatreception and we won actually a
breakthrough award this year forit.
So it's really been adopted inthe industry.
It's great.
Cathy Zaremba (09:00):
Oh, wow, that's fantastic.
You know that's interesting.
You brought up pharma partners,so you were working with
partners that helped bring thisto bear in the market.
When you think about some ofthe stakeholders that you work
with so you've got the patients,you've got the providers,
you've got the pharma leadershow do you help bring them along
?
How do you help bringespecially pharma leaders along
(09:22):
the digital innovation cycle, ifyou will?
What's their appetite for AIand things like that?
Brian Carr (09:29):
Yeah, it's fascinating.
I've been here more than almosta decade now and you know what
typically happened was you haddigital innovation teams at
pharma companies, which youstill do, and they had some
voice, you know five, sevenyears ago where they were
building great technology, butit was very brand specific for a
particular medication.
The challenge is at least forthe patients we're serving.
As I said, they're on five, six, seven medications, often more
(09:52):
than eight medications, and it'dbe very difficult for them to
download eight different brandedapp experiences and mark each
one as taken across the board,right.
So I think you know we havebrought to the solution.
We are somewhat agnostic onwhat your condition is.
We're not just specifically fordiabetes or oncology or
anything.
We realize the comorbiditiesthat happen and you can manage
your entire treatment journeyall in one place in Medisafe,
(10:15):
depending.
It doesn't matter what brandyou're on, right.
So I think that's one reasonwe've been somewhat we've
definitely been adopted by a lotof our pharma partners is
because they see, yes, we can doa branded app experience, but
the engagement suffers becausewe know they're taking three or
four other medications but theycan't track that in this branded
app experience from the pharmapartner, because then there's a
whole bunch of reasons why theycan't do that.
So we've had really goodrelationships with our partners
(10:37):
because we can actually showthem not only how your patient's
progressing.
To some extent, you know, we cantrack also one of the
drug-to-drug interactions forpatients, just to make sure
there are other medications wecan send in certain programs.
We can say, by the way, here'ssome more information about your
condition.
We actually do digital copaycards for some of our partners
right, so you have in yourwallet, but now you can just
show your phone to yourpharmacist.
(10:57):
Everyone has their phone,they're paying everything else,
they're doing their banking ontheir phone.
Why not show the balance that'savailable on your copay card
right to a pharmacist whileyou're going through there?
So that's the type of thatadoption we've seen, which is
phenomenal for digitalintegration with partners who
can.
Actually, you know, we havecomplete opt-in on data.
So anyone who wants to useMedSafe privately, you can do
that, or you can opt in and getmore solutions and a copay card
(11:20):
and programs from pharma withsome of our programs and it's
all permission-based.
Cathy Zaremba (11:25):
I can see how this benefits the patient.
I mean being able to, if I'mtaking six or more meds and if
I've got two that have specialprograms, I'm now able to access
that information for both.
So it's treating me theholistic person.
You know, from the pharma'sperspective.
You know if I'm thinking ofsome of these large pharma
companies that have deepknowledge and deep pipeline in,
(11:48):
say, oncology for example, youknow how does this look for an
enterprise approach, even wherepharma benefits from the fact
that it's not just one drug thatthey have to select.
They can potentially selectmany.
Brian Carr (12:02):
Right.
So you can imagine scenarioswhere we do enterprise solutions
for our pharma partners.
Why?
Because we've already workedtogether well with a brand and
they're seeing, frankly, they'reseeing data they've never seen
before all anonymized, neverseen before all anonymized.
But you know, if you're a Pharmabrand manager, you can see, you
know your monthly and yourquarterly reports on
prescriptions, new fills,refills, etc.
Okay, with us we've gotday-to-day, hour-to-hour basis
(12:28):
and in conjunction with here'sthe other medications patients
are taking, and if they'retaking, say, three or more
medications along with yourmedication, here's how it
affects their compliance andtheir adherence rates and things
like that too.
In addition, we so you can seethat we work with them on not
only data you haven't seenbefore, but you can imagine if
we've already worked welltogether and they often have,
you know, other medications intheir portfolio very similar
related to the treatment area.
(12:48):
They easy for easy, meaning wecan transfer over a lot of our
learnings and, you know, do some, you know, particular
development for whatever thebrands are that are there at
scale much easier.
And that because we've already,a worked together and, b we
know a lot about the patientscoming in right, so we can tell
them hey, we know here's yourpatients, we know what
medications they're on.
(13:09):
Here's what's happening ontheir adherence on certain days
of the week, for example datayou've never seen before and we
can talk to them moreefficiently with Jidi, because
our program is going to talkdifferent to Kathy the way it
talks to.
Brian, just in messaging andcadence.
Cathy Zaremba (13:22):
Yeah, yeah, boy, I know you know that I came from
pharma before coming over todigital health and I tell you,
if I had that data, if I wouldhave had that data at the time,
it would have been so justenlightening.
If I'm thinking about the VP ofmarketing in a pharma situation
sitting there, they care abouttwo and three and four brands,
not just one.
(13:43):
So being able to have that data, to be able to compare and
contrast adherence rates acrossdifferent brands, across
different therapy areas, wouldhave been really helpful to see.
Brian Carr (13:55):
And also campaign data.
So you're doing some enrollmentcampaigns.
Obviously we all see the TV adsand other enrollment channels
for awareness.
But also you know if a pharmacampaign is paying money and
trying to get people enrolledfor the new prescription, which
channels are working the best.
We have all that program and wecan say you want to get more
people from this doctor's officeor this channel or this
(14:15):
advertising campaign?
You did, because we know notonly are they coming, they're
engaging and we're seeing goodactivity and good results and
impact.
You're going to want to findout more from that channel than
somewhere else where maybethey're just not as engaged.
Cathy Zaremba (14:31):
So what I'm hearing you say, brian, I mean
at the heart of this, is how doyou engage patients that you're
doing it so well with reallypersonalized interventions, and
then you're able to really feedthat data back that pharma
companies haven't ever been ableto access so they really have a
deeper understanding of what'shappening in their own markets.
As we look ahead, what kind ofleadership traits do you think
(14:52):
would be the most compelling forthe next gen of digital health
solutions?
Where should we go next?
Brian Carr (15:00):
It's interesting, I think, a curious, open mind and
then ability to act, right, sowe've got a lot of AI things
that are coming to the fore.
Okay, and what's interesting isyou see how different companies
are reacting to AI so you canuse AI in the supply chain,
right, to do efficiencies thereas well.
You, you, you, you know you'regoing to see a lot more AI
agents actually interfacing notonly directly with insurance
(15:21):
companies and pharma companiesworking on, you know, pharma
benefits and things like that.
Right, there's a lot of AI inthe B2B we call the B2B business
to business level but certainlywhat we're going to see is
adoption on the patient level aswell.
Right, you know, you've heard,I even see you know you hear
stories with the up and comingfolks, don't?
The last thing they want to dois talk to a person, right, but
when we have AI agents, what Imean by that is a person, a
(15:43):
voice agent on the phone thatacts in very similar to, you
know, a support person, just forgeneral support.
Right, no, medical advice isever given out or anything like
that.
Medical advice is ever givenout or anything like that, but
you're going to start seeingthat become more regular.
I need to talk to someone I do.
We have a med friendfunctionality where Kathy would
get a call if I get notified ifI didn't take my medications.
You get a text message today.
(16:04):
Brian missed his medications.
You might want to give him anudge, right?
You can imagine a time, ifyou're open-minded, that not too
right now, actually you canactually have a voice agent call
you.
Hey, kathy, just letting youknow Brian didn't take his meds.
You might want to callsomething like that, right, and
that interactions me to have anopen mind.
But what's going to happen isthe adoption is going to happen
very quickly, right.
(16:24):
Once some of those firstinnovative companies start
taking over, everyone's going towant it all at once, right.
So it's just a matter of who'sgoing to, and we see some pharma
companies embracing it, andeven you know clinics, so you
know Mayo Clinic and others.
You could see them doingstudies where they're using AI
to help analyze patients andthings like that, and it's going
much further and it's saving alot of money.
Cathy Zaremba (16:44):
Well, it's great to be the leader and on the
forefront of that exciting times, brian, it has been fantastic.
Thank you so much for taking usbehind the scenes of what it
really means to lead in digitalhealth today.
Hey, it's clear that you'remaking it really personal and
tailoring it to the patientjourney.
So, to our listeners, thank youfor tuning in and if you
(17:10):
enjoyed this episode, pleasesubscribe and share it with your
colleagues who are passionateabout transforming healthcare
through smarter and morepersonalized technology.
Until next time, I'm KathyZaremba.
Stay curious, stay connectedand keep leading the change.
Okay.
So hi everyone, and welcome toPostscriptsRx podcast.
This is the podcast where weexplore the innovations, the
leaders and the breakthroughsshaping the future of patient
care.
Joining me today is Brian Carr,svp of Marketing at Medisafe,
which is a digital healthplatform that's re-imagining how
patients connect with theirtherapies and how the broader
(00:21):
care ecosystem supports thosejourneys, and at the heart of it
is JITI, our Just-In-TimeInterventions, which is
personalizing and data-drivennudges that help patients stay
on track at the exact momentsthat they need help and support.
Brian's here to help us explorethis and to help us understand
how this is changing the game indigital health.
(00:42):
So, brian, thanks and welcometo the show.
Well, thanks for having me,kathy.
Great seeing you again.
You too.
Well, hey, just to kick us off,I'd love to know what is your
perspective actually on whatdefines best-in-class as a
digital health solution today?
Brian Carr (00:57):
For me it is our patients actually using it right
.
So you know, with all duerespect to a lot in the industry
, you can win awards, thingslike that, but if patients
aren't using it on a regularbasis and engaging with it and
passionate about it, I thinkthat that's kind of a red flag.
So I love to see when patientsare passionate about their
solutions.
And you know, you know, hereover the past 12 years now we've
(01:17):
had, you know, phenomenalgrowth in patients who are
really passionate about how theytested many solutions and they
found that the one we offer isreally engaging and is exactly
what they needed.
And you know, sometimes, youknow our typical patients on
five or six medications may havea very difficult titration
schedule or, you know,complicated dosing schedules in
(01:38):
other ways.
And you know we have adaptedand grown with some of their
questions and suggestions andit's really come.
Our engagement metrics arephenomenal.
You know seven.
What is it?
Seven out of ten of our folkswho are using Medisafe on a
monthly basis are coming atleast once a day.
Cathy Zaremba (01:55):
That's phenomenal , and if you compare that to
industry standards, I mean thatI think I've heard someone say
that's even more than Facebookor Instagram.
So that's pretty amazing.
What do you think is at theroot of that?
I mean, how do you get patientsto engage with the platform?
What's kind of the secret saucethere?
Brian Carr (02:12):
Yeah, I think it's in our DNA, at least at Medisafe
, because it was started as apatient-first solution, right?
This was started by twobrothers who were having lunch
with their dad and he said didyou see me take my insulin dose
this morning?
And they said no, he didn't.
So he went back in andunfortunately ended up double
dosing and he was in thehospital for 24 hours.
So that's always been the DNAof Medisafe is patient first.
(02:35):
There's no reason for someoneto double dose if they're
keeping track of it, no matterwhat their condition or their
age or even their digitalsavviness, it's very simple to
use.
So that to me, I think, is thekey value that it's built from
the patient first.
So when we spent a good 10, 12years of listening to what
patients said, there was a lotmore competitors back then, a
lot of people trying new appsout, but we were the ones that
(02:57):
really grew and listened to whatpeople said and delivered too,
not just yeah, yeah, yeah, we'llget to it.
We really do deliver.
Cathy Zaremba (03:06):
That is so fascinating when you think about
that, like all that datacollection that you're doing and
now we're talking about, ai isthe rage, right?
Everybody's talking about AI.
Well, when you think about whatis the AI learning, what's the
model, what's building, themodel for messaging out to
patients, what would you say tothat?
How does AI play into this?
Brian Carr (03:27):
Exactly so.
Any AI solution is only as goodas the database or the model
it's learning off of right.
So language learning models youknow what database of
collections do they have thatthey have?
Now, ours is proprietary, thatwe've been building over the
past 12 years and it's datapoints that are anonymized.
You know, any patient can useMedisafe and not even give an
email address or anything.
It's completely anonymous.
(03:48):
Again, we built from thepatient first.
We do recommend the patientsset up an account so when they
get a new phone or if they losetheir phone, they can just log
into Medisafe and their wholehistory is there.
But they're not forced to.
But you can imagine with youknow, literally billions of data
points on patients over morethan a decade who have you know,
more than six medications thatmarking has taken or oh, I
(04:08):
skipped this one or that.
We've got, you know, in somesolutions.
We've got more than 120trackers that are available.
You can add all your doctorsand your appointments.
We've got more than a milliondoctors that have been added
into the platform from patientswho are like I have an
appointment with them across theboard.
So you have, you know, billionsof data points that we use from
AI on a regular basis to youknow, we can put our AI agents
(04:30):
against it and really come upwith phenomenal solutions, and
that's at the core of JITI, orjust-in-time innovation,
inventions Now we've had formore than five years now, so
when people talk about AIsolutions coming to market,
we've been analyzing and makinginterventions individually on a
personalized basis, based on howpatients are using the platform
on an individual basis, usingjust-in-time innovations, for
(04:53):
years and again, it's our owndata, so we're not reliant on oh
, this is a third-party databasethat people bought, that
everyone's using.
Cathy Zaremba (05:00):
Yeah, yeah, that is so true.
And when you think about it, Imean when we're talking about
chronic diseases, which reallyhas just escalated tremendously
over the last 10 years I meanthe fact that you're able to
track every medication in themed cabinet, how does that play
into making this seamless forthe patient?
So it's really, you know, it'snot something that's jarring,
(05:22):
it's something that fits intothe fabric of their patient
journey, into their dailyroutine.
Brian Carr (05:28):
Right, and we do have some patients who, you know
, laugh.
They know, you know, when theshaking pill bottle sounds,
everyone knows that it's time.
You know, the people aroundthem hear it too, whether
they're kids or their grandkidsor whatever, and they, you know,
say it's time to take it.
I think you know, also, withthe app being, you know,
patient-centric.
First off, it's very simplyused.
We keep it simple to use.
(05:48):
It works.
On other platforms We'veactually grown with the patients
.
For example, we're compatiblewith watches and digital watches
, for example.
Right, we can also do right now, we do voice agent calls.
So, you know, with some people,we can have them talk to an AI
voice agent which can remindthem hey, we didn't see you take
your med today.
Make sure that you know.
We'll just call and make sureyou're okay.
We do a symptom check.
(06:09):
All those things are becomingavailable as patients grow.
So we're growing with the waysthat patients want to adapt.
Some patients want to use a webinterface.
We can deliver on all those aswell.
What's also interesting is, notonly is it usable for patients,
but the people who interactwith patients, right.
So, for example, you know,we've got platforms and on
Medisave, where you can uploadyour report to your doctor
(06:30):
before your appointment.
Cathy Zaremba (06:32):
I was just going to ask you about that.
How do you engage with thewhole care?
Ecosystem Perfect.
Brian Carr (06:38):
We've had it for years.
You can upload hey, here's youradherence report, here's the
meds you're taking.
Upload it to your doctor aheadof your appointment.
The other thing we see ispatients will especially acute
care patients if they havesomething happen and they're in
the emergency room, where we'vegot loads of stories where
people just show the Medisaveapp to the intake nurse who then
see the list of medications andthey're, frankly, they're
(06:59):
thrilled because it's all there.
They have the doses, theschedule, when was it last taken
?
As opposed to and we've hadnurses tell us this like oh, I
have an intake patient goingthrough their pocketbook looking
for the pill bottles, right,and it takes 20 minutes to
happen for an intake.
So we often don't think of theway that digital is, not only
the patients, of adopting it,but we see the elsewhere in the
clinics and elsewhere.
You know we work with clinicswho used to do all their
(07:22):
infusions with spreadsheets,right.
Cathy Zaremba (07:33):
Now we can do it, integrate it into a digital
interface where they can see oh,they did take the infusion at
the clinic down the road, so nowthey can get the MRI here, for
example.
That is so critical.
I mean, when you think aboutmedication reconciliation, I
mean it is an utter nightmare ifyou don't have everything at
your fingertips.
And how can you remember, whenyou're on six or more meds, what
was in the pill cabinet, unlessyou are able to kind of put
that front and center?
I think it's interesting.
You're saying you can sharedata, the patient can share data
, but then what aboutcross-clinic?
(07:55):
What about other sites of care?
How have you worked withtechnology to connect sites of
care?
Brian Carr (08:01):
Yes, so we, you know , we launched, in conjunction
with some partners of ours, anew product called Pathways
right?
So Pathways is.
It's an interface for HCPclinical care offices, infusion
centers and other clinics for,particularly for Alzheimer's
disease, right?
So when you have Alzheimer's,there's a lot of stages of
infusions, mris and checks thatyou have to go through on a
(08:22):
regular basis and you reallycan't go to the next level
unless you've had, you know,you're checked off on your MRI
from your previous appointment.
So what we found was a lot ofclinics are using spreadsheets
to monitor their patients gofrom one to the other, and what
we did is we launched a solutionwith some partners which
basically allows any infusioncenter to monitor the infusion
track and the journey of thepatients from anyone.
(08:42):
They're all in one simpleinterface where you know and we
have a whole permissioningstructure who can see how the
patients went through, whatlevel of permission at the
clinical care center can do that.
So it really has had a greatreception and we won actually a
breakthrough award this year forit.
So it's really been adopted inthe industry.
It's great.
Cathy Zaremba (09:00):
Oh, wow, that's fantastic.
You know that's interesting.
You brought up pharma partners,so you were working with
partners that helped bring thisto bear in the market.
When you think about some ofthe stakeholders that you work
with so you've got the patients,you've got the providers,
you've got the pharma leadershow do you help bring them along
?
How do you help bringespecially pharma leaders along
(09:22):
the digital innovation cycle, ifyou will?
What's their appetite for AIand things like that?
Brian Carr (09:29):
Yeah, it's fascinating.
I've been here more than almosta decade now and you know what
typically happened was you haddigital innovation teams at
pharma companies, which youstill do, and they had some
voice, you know five, sevenyears ago where they were
building great technology, butit was very brand specific for a
particular medication.
The challenge is at least forthe patients we're serving.
As I said, they're on five, six, seven medications, often more
(09:52):
than eight medications, and it'dbe very difficult for them to
download eight different brandedapp experiences and mark each
one as taken across the board,right.
So I think you know we havebrought to the solution.
We are somewhat agnostic onwhat your condition is.
We're not just specifically fordiabetes or oncology or
anything.
We realize the comorbiditiesthat happen and you can manage
your entire treatment journeyall in one place in Medisafe,
(10:15):
depending.
It doesn't matter what brandyou're on, right.
So I think that's one reasonwe've been somewhat we've
definitely been adopted by a lotof our pharma partners is
because they see, yes, we can doa branded app experience, but
the engagement suffers becausewe know they're taking three or
four other medications but theycan't track that in this branded
app experience from the pharmapartner, because then there's a
whole bunch of reasons why theycan't do that.
So we've had really goodrelationships with our partners
(10:37):
because we can actually showthem not only how your patient's
progressing.
To some extent, you know, we cantrack also one of the
drug-to-drug interactions forpatients, just to make sure
there are other medications wecan send in certain programs.
We can say, by the way, here'ssome more information about your
condition.
We actually do digital copaycards for some of our partners
right, so you have in yourwallet, but now you can just
show your phone to yourpharmacist.
(10:57):
Everyone has their phone,they're paying everything else,
they're doing their banking ontheir phone.
Why not show the balance that'savailable on your copay card
right to a pharmacist whileyou're going through there?
So that's the type of thatadoption we've seen, which is
phenomenal for digitalintegration with partners who
can.
Actually, you know, we havecomplete opt-in on data.
So anyone who wants to useMedSafe privately, you can do
that, or you can opt in and getmore solutions and a copay card
(11:20):
and programs from pharma withsome of our programs and it's
all permission-based.
Cathy Zaremba (11:25):
I can see how this benefits the patient.
I mean being able to, if I'mtaking six or more meds and if
I've got two that have specialprograms, I'm now able to access
that information for both.
So it's treating me theholistic person.
You know, from the pharma'sperspective.
You know if I'm thinking ofsome of these large pharma
companies that have deepknowledge and deep pipeline in,
(11:48):
say, oncology for example, youknow how does this look for an
enterprise approach, even wherepharma benefits from the fact
that it's not just one drug thatthey have to select.
They can potentially selectmany.
Brian Carr (12:02):
Right.
So you can imagine scenarioswhere we do enterprise solutions
for our pharma partners.
Why?
Because we've already workedtogether well with a brand and
they're seeing, frankly, they'reseeing data they've never seen
before all anonymized, neverseen before all anonymized.
But you know, if you're a Pharmabrand manager, you can see, you
know your monthly and yourquarterly reports on
prescriptions, new fills,refills, etc.
Okay, with us we've gotday-to-day, hour-to-hour basis
(12:28):
and in conjunction with here'sthe other medications patients
are taking, and if they'retaking, say, three or more
medications along with yourmedication, here's how it
affects their compliance andtheir adherence rates and things
like that too.
In addition, we so you can seethat we work with them on not
only data you haven't seenbefore, but you can imagine if
we've already worked welltogether and they often have,
you know, other medications intheir portfolio very similar
related to the treatment area.
(12:48):
They easy for easy, meaning wecan transfer over a lot of our
learnings and, you know, do some, you know, particular
development for whatever thebrands are that are there at
scale much easier.
And that because we've already,a worked together and, b we
know a lot about the patientscoming in right, so we can tell
them hey, we know here's yourpatients, we know what
medications they're on.
(13:09):
Here's what's happening ontheir adherence on certain days
of the week, for example datayou've never seen before and we
can talk to them moreefficiently with Jidi, because
our program is going to talkdifferent to Kathy the way it
talks to.
Brian, just in messaging andcadence.
Cathy Zaremba (13:22):
Yeah, yeah, boy, I know you know that I came from
pharma before coming over todigital health and I tell you,
if I had that data, if I wouldhave had that data at the time,
it would have been so justenlightening.
If I'm thinking about the VP ofmarketing in a pharma situation
sitting there, they care abouttwo and three and four brands,
not just one.
(13:43):
So being able to have that data, to be able to compare and
contrast adherence rates acrossdifferent brands, across
different therapy areas, wouldhave been really helpful to see.
Brian Carr (13:55):
And also campaign data.
So you're doing some enrollmentcampaigns.
Obviously we all see the TV adsand other enrollment channels
for awareness.
But also you know if a pharmacampaign is paying money and
trying to get people enrolledfor the new prescription, which
channels are working the best.
We have all that program and wecan say you want to get more
people from this doctor's officeor this channel or this
(14:15):
advertising campaign?
You did, because we know notonly are they coming, they're
engaging and we're seeing goodactivity and good results and
impact.
You're going to want to findout more from that channel than
somewhere else where maybethey're just not as engaged.
Cathy Zaremba (14:31):
So what I'm hearing you say, brian, I mean
at the heart of this, is how doyou engage patients that you're
doing it so well with reallypersonalized interventions, and
then you're able to really feedthat data back that pharma
companies haven't ever been ableto access so they really have a
deeper understanding of what'shappening in their own markets.
As we look ahead, what kind ofleadership traits do you think
(14:52):
would be the most compelling forthe next gen of digital health
solutions?
Where should we go next?
Brian Carr (15:00):
It's interesting, I think, a curious, open mind and
then ability to act, right, sowe've got a lot of AI things
that are coming to the fore.
Okay, and what's interesting isyou see how different companies
are reacting to AI so you canuse AI in the supply chain,
right, to do efficiencies thereas well.
You, you, you, you know you'regoing to see a lot more AI
agents actually interfacing notonly directly with insurance
(15:21):
companies and pharma companiesworking on, you know, pharma
benefits and things like that.
Right, there's a lot of AI inthe B2B we call the B2B business
to business level but certainlywhat we're going to see is
adoption on the patient level aswell.
Right, you know, you've heard,I even see you know you hear
stories with the up and comingfolks, don't?
The last thing they want to dois talk to a person, right, but
when we have AI agents, what Imean by that is a person, a
(15:43):
voice agent on the phone thatacts in very similar to, you
know, a support person, just forgeneral support.
Right, no, medical advice isever given out or anything like
that.
Medical advice is ever givenout or anything like that, but
you're going to start seeingthat become more regular.
I need to talk to someone I do.
We have a med friendfunctionality where Kathy would
get a call if I get notified ifI didn't take my medications.
You get a text message today.
(16:04):
Brian missed his medications.
You might want to give him anudge, right?
You can imagine a time, ifyou're open-minded, that not too
right now, actually you canactually have a voice agent call
you.
Hey, kathy, just letting youknow Brian didn't take his meds.
You might want to callsomething like that, right, and
that interactions me to have anopen mind.
But what's going to happen isthe adoption is going to happen
very quickly, right.
(16:24):
Once some of those firstinnovative companies start
taking over, everyone's going towant it all at once, right.
So it's just a matter of who'sgoing to, and we see some pharma
companies embracing it, andeven you know clinics, so you
know Mayo Clinic and others.
You could see them doingstudies where they're using AI
to help analyze patients andthings like that, and it's going
much further and it's saving alot of money.
Cathy Zaremba (16:44):
Well, it's great to be the leader and on the
forefront of that exciting times, brian, it has been fantastic.
Thank you so much for taking usbehind the scenes of what it
really means to lead in digitalhealth today.
Hey, it's clear that you'remaking it really personal and
tailoring it to the patientjourney.
So, to our listeners, thank youfor tuning in and if you
(17:10):
enjoyed this episode, pleasesubscribe and share it with your
colleagues who are passionateabout transforming healthcare
through smarter and morepersonalized technology.
Until next time, I'm KathyZaremba.
Stay curious, stay connectedand keep leading the change.
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