A Boy Scout MD’s Pursuit of Medical Device Innovation | Prof. Dr. Art Wallace, Ph.D.

We speak with Dr. Art Wallace MD, PhD, a cardiac anesthesiologist, Chief of Anesthesia at the San Francisco VA, and a distinguished professor and vice chairman at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Wallace's vision is poised to revolutionize healthcare with a non-contact, remote monitor that promises to reduce the risk of respiratory and cardiac emergencies in hospitalized and nursing home patients.

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KEY TAKEAWAYS:

∙ (01:20) Introducing Our Guest: About Dr. Wallace’s background and his most  recent innovation, the Atapir non-contact hospital patient monitoring platform.

∙ (04:50) The Power of AI: How the Atapir platform harnesses machine vision and learning to track crucial vital signs through the use of advanced camera and sound technologies.

∙ (06:51) State of the Art: About Atapir’s groundbreaking SaaS (software as a service) tools – the first significant advance in patient monitoring equipment in decades.

∙ (07:56) Removing the Mystery: What Atapir technology can do to mitigate the sense of powerless, isolation and anxiety many hospitalized patients experience.

∙ (09:15) HIPAA Concerns: Why creating “smart” hospital rooms need not raise red flags with regard to privacy, personal security or confidentiality.

∙ (11:20) Real-Time Tracking: How “smart” technologies can interrupt the slow (sometimes subtle) deterioration of patient health with constant monitoring of vital signs.

∙ (13:06) Vigilance Through AI: About the costs associated with providing machine-driven monitoring 24/7 in-hospital. It’s a subscription-based and affordable technology.

∙ (14:05) Considering Atapir’s Market Challenges:  

o Raising capital to support development.

o Bootstrapping expensive, complicated trials.

o Shouldering all the development and go-to-market risk.

o Penetrating with investors who want to hang back until success is assured.

∙ (18:44) About Events that Shaped Dr. Wallace’s Life Journey and Mission:

o His mother’s deadly brain tumor diagnosis when he was just 11 years old inspired Dr. Wallace to pursue medicine and biomedical engineering.

o The callous disregard with which a girlfriend was treated following a cancer diagnosis further propelled Dr. Wallace to change the practice of medicine.

∙ (24:35) About His Work at the VA: How the vast history and epidemiological database offer a potential goldmine of information to support improvements in patient care.

∙ (25:40) Making a Mark: About the structured protocol, education and monitoring Dr. Wallace evolved to enable progress within a medical establishment resistant to change.

∙ (27:50) Next-Gen Mentoring: Why Dr. Wallace is so committed to sharing his passion for medicine and innovation with students who might not otherwise be exposed.

 

NOTABLE QUOTES:

∙ “Hospitals have all these sensors in the room for property control, but they don’t know that the patient is doing okay. That’s a problem.” (Dr. Wallace)

 

∙ “People want to give really good care and try to give really good care. But if you don’t give somebody a way to see the data, they don’t ge