March 13, 2025 • 35 mins
I encourage everyone to listen to this interview. Why? It's about your longevity. Yes, adding years to your life—and more importantly bringing life to your years.
It’s about taking control of your health instead of leaving it to chance. I know this firsthand. After undergoing extensive advanced medical testing, I feel empowered. I now understand the changes I must make to enhance my longevity while living my best life.
My guest is a visionary cardiologist and entrepreneur, Dr. Anmol Kapoor, founder of BioAro Inc., a Calgary-based firm transforming health care worldwide. Dr. Kapoor believes the key to fixing Canada’s fragile health care system is shifting from a Disease-Care System, where resources focus on detecting and treating illness, to a Preventative Care System that identifies potential diseases before they even start.
Through cutting-edge AI, genomics, and precision health care, BioAro is pioneering methods to detect mental and physical diseases before they manifest, align the right medications with your DNA, and put your health back in your hands.
BioAro’s technology is gaining global traction—but will Canada embrace it? If so, we could revolutionize health care, turning it into a system of choice, not chance, while saving taxpayers billions.
I’m also joined by Mike Scott from RBC Wealth, who will share how RBC is taking bold steps to help clients protect and grow their wealth and health.
This episode is a must-listen for anyone eager to understand the future of health care and the actions they can take today to ensure a healthier tomorrow. Stay tuned until the end, when Dr. Kapoor shares his thoughts on how you can add years to your life by becoming the CEO of your health.
Don’t miss it—your future self will thank you.
To find out more about BioAro: Precision Health: http://bioaro.com
To find out more about RBC Wealth Management: https://www.rbcwealthmanagement.com/en-ca/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
I'm at a time in my life where I know there are fewer years to
travel than the ones I've already journeyed. That
comes with age. It's a humbling thought, but it's also
a powerful motivator because I want to live every one of those
years firing on all cylinders. I want to be in the
best physical and mental health. I want to have purpose and clarity. I
(00:24):
want to add value to my family, my clients, and wherever possible
society at large. I want longevity.
But so much of this depends on my health. We all know how important it
is to have early diagnostics, access to specialists,
the right treatment. However, in our current state, it's hard to be
(00:44):
bullish. Universal health, the cornerstone of our identity,
has glaring cracks in the system that are impossible to ignore.
The shortage of family doctors, the limited access to
primary care, and the scarcity is being compounded by
burnout within the healthcare community, an aging physician
workforce, and is exasperated by a growing population and
(01:07):
increased demand for health care services. All of this
is leading to longer wait times and reduced access.
And access is not just with primary care. We have long wait times for
surgery, specialist appointments, and diagnostic tests,
all leaving patients in limbo. And our emergency rooms are
(01:27):
overcrowded, further highlighting our system's inability
to handle growing demand. And what you'll soon learn is that the
biggest problem in our system is that it's set up to be
reactive versus proactive. Everyone start focusing on detecting
the disease. How do you manage the diseases? There's no one focusing on how do
you prevent the disease? How do you predict there is disease even happening in certain
(01:49):
people? Today, you'll hear about bold action that will work to increase their
longevity, to live longer and healthier. Bold action
that combines cutting edge science, AI, and
entrepreneurs who are not afraid to challenge the status quo. And my guest
today is one of those entrepreneurs. His name is doctor Anmal
Kapoor. When a patient comes to me, I try to look at every angle
(02:11):
possible because I only may have five minutes. So those five, ten
minutes I have, I will make sure the maximum impact I can do with the
available resources I have. Doctor Kapoor's journey is a remarkable one.
He was born in India. Dad was a pharmacist, so he's always around
the health care world. But he chose to pursue his medical studies in
Siberia, Russia, continued his training in Canada, and
(02:34):
later at the Cleveland Clinic, specializing in vascular medicine and
preventative care. He's based in Calgary. He's not just a
cardiologist, he's an innovator. He's the founder of Bio Aero
and is leveraging AI, blockchain, and genomics to move
healthcare from a reactive model of treating disease to a proactive
model of personalized preventative care, precision
(02:57):
health.
Hi. It's Tony Chapman. Thank you for listening to Chatter That Matters presented
by RBC. If you can, please subscribe to the podcast. And
ratings and reviews, well, they're always welcome and they're always appreciated.
Doctor Kapoor is proof that one person can make a profound
(03:18):
difference to how we all approach our health and our longevity.
Doctor Anal Kapoor, welcome to Chatter That Matters. Thank you so much
for having me, Tony. In my opening, I mentioned this,
wonderful journey around the world from India to Russia, to Canada, The
United States and back to Canada. My first question is what did you learn
about yourself on each stage and how do
(03:41):
you think that applies to who you are today? What I learned
going back over the time, leaving India. So it was the first time
leaving to a foreign country, not knowing a language, never been on a
plane, and just graduated from grade 12.
That was the biggest challenge. What I learned from my
resilience was I can do anything. The impossible
(04:04):
word doesn't exist in my dictionary. I always think
possible. I am possible. I always try to find
a solution to the problem I'm facing. And if it's going to
help everyone and the masses, especially in the people, it's the
public interest. Somehow my passion doubles up immediately,
and I just get excited, and I push them in. I
(04:27):
wanna make sure that, people get an access to things, which they
deserve. I mean, I'm thinking if I had gone to Siberia not knowing the
language, taking medicine, which already is an incredibly
difficult subject to, to comprehend even in your own mother tongue.
Was there ever a time you wanted to quit or did you just have this
anxiety that said, this is my dream, I'm gonna chase it? I was
(04:48):
vegetarian. Well, I'll tell you a story and it's a real story.
Till the third year of my medical school, I was still
vegetarian, and, I get sick. The
food was limited that time. There are not many choices in
Siberia around that time. And the doctors told me and more, either
you go back to India because you can survive in this environment,
(05:11):
or you'll have to change your habits. So you'll have to start eating. We understand
your cultural, your perhaps other beliefs may be playing
the role, but, we have to be able to take a call. If I go
back to India, what do I go back to India, to my mom and then
my parents that I quit? Obviously, I tell my parents that they will
understand. So I change my diet a bit,
(05:33):
start to follow proper nutrition around that time, And I
never got sick. Proud that I stood out to the challenge. I didn't
quit. As a young man studying in these
different cultures, what did you learn about the healthcare
systems from your home country? I know your dad was a pharmacist.
To what you observed in Russia, Canada, United States. I mean, what what was the
(05:55):
good and the bad and the ugly? Because we all have our own biases
and beasts with our healthcare system. I'm just curious what you observed. We all have
biases. I % agree with you. But, from my
perspective in India, doctors are considered next to
God. People treat them the way and sometimes distrust
get exploited, by human doctors and then leads
(06:17):
them to the wrong path. Sometimes profiting from the wrong
information, selling the wrong things, and and many
things play a role in the commercial businesses and ventures. Going to Russia,
what I have something I learned was that the health record system, the
value of the health record is so important. During
those Soviet times, everyone was given a health record in their
(06:39):
hand. And I still remember patients were coming in,
even older ladies or the patients or men are coming in in seventies
or eighties. They would carry a big stack of paper from
their birth. Everything inside, their x rays, their
immunizations, their drugs, whatever has been done in their
history, it is in their hand. First time that they opened my eyes,
(07:01):
the value of keeping, records. And when I came to
Canada, we were really bad here. My first goal
was how I could bring in, technologies into the health
record system so the health outcomes can be better.
Prowellers in Canada are still struggling. Hospitals among Ontario
can't talk each other that efficiently what we can talk in
(07:24):
Alberta at least, or in BC, they are struggling still.
So there is still, challenges. Why do you think back then
they put such a value and premium on it? Forty or fifty years
later, if I have my math, we're still have provinces struggling
with the need to communicate with each other. And as you say, to map
out somebody's health journey versus sort of a one time incident. I don't
(07:46):
know why. I I do believe I think Soviets, they had a lack
of resources. There's a lot of issues happening with the cold war during those
times that forced them to push towards getting all
the data and rationing the health care services on
access. So you when you have to decide who should get an x-ray or who
should get a blood test, it's perhaps good to know what test they
(08:08):
have done before so then you can decide the next step. And
we see that also happening in Cuba. Cuba does not spend that
much money what we spend in Canada, but they're living
same amount of life on average lifespan than as the Canadians.
They they have more family doctors. In every street, they have a family doctor.
They learned that, look, we cannot access. We have a embargo. We can
(08:31):
MRI, CTs, unlimited access to genetic testings. Let's start
from basics. Let's start tracking things. If you don't track, how do you know what
to monitor, what to change? You went to Canada and you went to Alberta
because they allowed you to specialize where at the time, again, the
status quo was saying, you know, if you're not minted in Canada, you're not
allowed that, the gauntlet. And you ran that in Alberta, but you also went down
(08:53):
to Cleveland. And what I understand from one of the interviews I listened to
is you were really starting to understand that this isn't about
specialty medicine. In fact, this is the whole human being and all the dots
have to connect. Didn't my internal medicine residency in Edmonton. I was on the
chief residence there, then went to do cardiology in Winnipeg.
We have a great health care system, great learnings from from an oral I'll call
(09:17):
it standards perspective, but there's issues. Issues that we train
people to become a specialist in that one particular organ. You
are a specialist in the kidney, forget about the body. If you're a
cardiologist, forget about the bone density, forget about the mental
health, forget about anything that could impact. Just focus on the heart
arteries. So I then applied and went to Cleveland
(09:39):
clinic and I saw that what they were doing in Boston medicine, it is a
cardiologist there, who are doing the carotid ultrasound.
They're doing the stenting of the carotid arteries or is that take blood
to the brain. And they will also do peripheral artery ultrasound. They will
also do, renal ultrasounds. They will look at the complete vasculature
and which is totally alien to Canadian health care system as a
(10:02):
cardiologist, even as an internal medicine doctor. Still many
provinces would not even let a cardiologist do a vascular
ultrasound. I went for training and applied for special permission with
the College of Alberta. They approved me to become a vascular
medicine specialist, because I look at holy human.
And, when a patient comes to me, I try to look at every angle possible
(10:24):
because I only may have five minutes. I may never see this patient again. This
patient may will never be able to see a doctor. We have a shortage of
doctors of millions of people who don't have an access in Canada. So those five,
ten minutes I have, I will make sure the maximum impact I can do
with the available resources I have. I know I teased my audience at the
beginning of the podcast that you are not
(10:45):
only this well renowned world renowned doctor, but you were
also, you mentioned the fact that you love technology, but you're an
entrepreneur and you've put the three of them together. And how I tease the
audience is you might be onto something that will change
what you consistently say about Canadian health care, which is we are a
disease care system. So first of all, what do you mean by disease care
(11:07):
system? Well, disease care system is a system designed to detect
a disease, not prevent the disease. We get paid
based on the disease usually. So what kind of diagnosis we are
bringing to the patient? There's usually never a billing code.
Look, I am going to see Tony today and I saw him to prevent a
disease to help him make live longer. But I have to testify, send a bill
(11:30):
to the government, I have to say, why did I see Tony? I have to
say, look, I saw him for shortness of breath or I have saw him for
diabetes or I saw him for some other disease condition. So
then I get paid. That's a reason I have to be justified.
Now everyone start focusing on detecting the disease. How do you manage
the diseases? There's no one focusing on how do you prevent the disease? How do
(11:51):
you predict there is disease even happening in certain people? So we
start medications after we have blockages built in the heart
arteries, but we don't put an effort enough in the system
or society as a whole to stop developing those
blockages, you know, at least delay those blockages developing. No doctor
who specialized in that area, there's no incentive for a doctor to
(12:12):
prevent that blockage happening in the patient earlier. Then we made it
complicated by bringing many specialists and we told them you
have to stay in your own lane. Let's make a GP of family doctor
as a gatekeeper. Let them decide who should be involved, who should not be
involved. Now the disease continue to spread. It doesn't stop.
And so you've got a plan to change it that you say could
(12:35):
be a profound make a profound difference to health care in Canada, but
it's also your vision and your approach and your technology is being
embraced in countries like Saudi Arabia, Singapore, all over the world.
So tell us what you plan to do with BioAro
and why you feel this could be the kind of game changer
that has really changed medicine along the way. If I look at medicine and health
(12:58):
care, it's been big breakthroughs that have broken the status
quo. And you think that you're onto one? I always tell people we
are data people and we may call a doctor, but we come to
conclusion, about a patient from various things. The two day
a patient comes to me, I look at a subjective data. Patient tells
me I'm having a chest pain or shortness of breath symptoms, a subjective symptom. I
(13:19):
cannot evaluate. Now I have to do my physical exam, but I'm
gonna touch this patient and try to come up with some feeling. Then I
will look at the blood data, look at ECG, maybe a stress
testing, which is only 70% accurate to start with it.
Okay. This patient have a heart attack. Could he have a blockage in the
heart arteries? And depending on my gut feeling, I may be
(13:41):
sending him home with the wrong information. Three out of ten people in a
normal cardiac stress test, I'm giving a wrong report. If I have
seen hundred thousand people in a year, through five
years' time, I probably give 10,000 Canadians the
wrong information with my best intention. You're a very well respected doctor. I mean, I
just want people to listen that that this isn't anything to do with incompetence. It's
(14:03):
just to do with the data that's available. Exactly. It's not doctors are
not wrong. Doctors are doing what the data has given to them. And the
medicine is more an art. Bringing all the things together and trying to figure
it out what is the right approach or wrong approach. We need more data.
We need to understand why some people draw blockages or
why some have diabetes, why some have Alzheimer's or ALS or some
(14:26):
cancers earlier than other people. So by just
accepting it, is not an answer. We should be hunting it out more
datas. That's where Biore comes into play. So we need to
bring in all these datasets together. So use the power of
AI and perhaps quantum science in the future, help our
healthcare system and the clinicians, our citizens, along the
(14:47):
way. So as simple as starting by whole genome sequencing, if
you understand the blueprint of the blueprint of our life, at
least we know what could be the predispositions. I can give you one example.
Some people say there's no need for a whole genome sequencing or DNA
testing. This is useless test and, less wait for the disease to happen.
Most of the time when we do physical examination, annual exam, all of us
(15:10):
go see a family doctor. What they do? They do traditional blood
test, hemoglobin, CBC, electrolyte, a one c, lipids,
thyroid, PSA, and they do physical
examination, maybe an ECG. But I know honestly, and
many doctors will agree, that rarely a family doctor has
caught any serious cancer by regular physical
(15:31):
examination. Nothing wrong with the physical exam, but the approach has
been wrong. If a doctor doesn't know microscope for Alzheimer's,
how do they make a plan to check for special antibodies or
special proteomic testing to monitor and at least refer me to a
neurologist or a specialist? They will just say, well, you're good. You can
go home. We didn't know that genomics,
(15:54):
as simple as a gut microbiome plays a huge role. There's a pathogen have
been detected that are linked to heart diseases, diabetes. We know
that gut brain axis is true. We have a gut feeling.
Yes. True. Because we have a second nervous system in our, in our
stomach called enteric nervous system. It is as complex as a
nervous system. If you can implement a healthcare
(16:17):
as a foundation, healthy human in Canada, every kid gets a whole
genome sequencing. Now we know what predisposition they have. So we
can tell the doctor to make a proper health plan for them, so we
have a proper annual physical exam for them, so we can encounter disease
early on. If we can deploy self-ray DNA testing,
we can pick up preclinical cancer cells very early on before the
(16:39):
cancer shows up on your MRI or CT scan. We can also
follow cancers with cell free DNA testing regularly in many
scenarios has been proven to be very helpful and successful. We can use
a gut microbiomics to tackle depression and mental health disorders,
IBS irritable bowel syndrome. And we have seen this
data coming out, but people cannot have an access
(17:02):
to. So that was lacking. A drug perspective from Logogenomics,
we know which drugs are good or bad for we or for for someone
else. If you wanna create some wealth, the earlier you start, the
better. I really think the same thing applies to health. And people
wanna know as early as possible, what do I need to do in the health
space? Canadians, our clients, we're seeing it. They're right there. They
(17:24):
wanna be involved, and we're excited. That's the voice of Mike Scott. He's the senior
VP, managing director of RBC Dominion Securities. Later
in the show, he's gonna join us to explain how health and wealth has to
go hand in hand. Coming up next, I'll ask doctor
Kapoor just how much this revolutionary way of handling our health care in
Canada is gonna cost us.
(17:47):
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(18:09):
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(18:30):
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(18:55):
Do genomic testing and all these amazing
technologies are only confined to the richest or richest people on this Earth
right now. My goal is to make it to get to the
masses, make it cheaper and more accessible,
and from a global perspective. Today, my special
guest is doctor Anil Kapoor. His vision
(19:16):
is for precision health care, making our health a matter of choice,
not chance, from being highly reactive
and extraordinarily taxing on the system to
being proactive.
First question is, it sounds really expensive. This sounds like this is gonna
be yet again the people that have money are gonna have
(19:39):
this this ability to chase the found new youth where the average person
who's struggling won't. Right now, the cost
of the whole genome analysis is less than a hundred dollar
USD. And if the government of Canada puts a pressure on
the manufacturers, we can make it less than $70 USD.
So a simple blood test when you go for hemoglobin checkup, it costs over
(20:02):
a hundred $20, hundred 50 dollars already. If you get whole genome
sequence, you only have to do one test lifetime. So it doesn't cost that
much money. So you keep the same health care system. You keep the same
buildings, same doctors, upgrade the knowledge of those doctors,
make them empowered because I remember studying Harrison internal
medicine book. I had a small chapter of genetics. There was no chapter of
(20:24):
genomics. The books needs to be rewritten. The foundation has to
be genomics of every disorder. Do you think there'll be a time where
you're just, once you have this blueprint, AI is constantly
looking at your staying, learning more and more, Do you think there'll be a
time where the need for a GP will disappear and will be
much more technology putting you into where you need to be
(20:46):
within the healthcare system, or do you think the GP's role is gonna
change? I think every doctor's role will change. A doctor that is not going
to be practicing AI or using AI tools will be left behind.
And, it is gonna help the health care system. Look at this way. The radiology
will be very impacted. It costs around $70.60 to
$70 per chest x-ray to be read by radiologists. There's no
(21:09):
need for that anymore. There you go. Savings are there. And you can do
the same thing for MRI, CT scans. The robotics are coming
in play very, very fast. They'll be doing ultrasounds. There's a
company in Calgary developing a robotic arm that can do a
remote ultrasounds, far away, anywhere on this
earth from a GP or cardiology perspective, I'll be I'll be
(21:31):
changed. Literally, there's no need for a cardiologist because all
this data can be easily analyzed by AI. With a global
company, the human factor will be the empathy. So we have a
human touch. Obviously, AI is a tool, is there is a guidance to
us because human behavior is very complex. Canada's
falling off the playing field when it comes to being a
(21:52):
leading health care entity. And why is that? Like, would you we
got people like you. It's so remarkably affordable. What
I understand is if everybody did this testing, we could
potentially save billions of dollars in health care costs and give people
much better health care because it's much more proactive than reactive. How do
we get Canadians to open their mind to possibilities versus
(22:15):
seeing other countries that look and say, we don't have the legacy, we
don't have the bureaucracy, we don't have the status quo. What we just see as
opportunity. You look at Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia population is same as
a Canadian population and they have money resource rate country. We are a resource this
country too. And, what they're doing is they want to
sequence every human by 02/1930, and get a whole genome sequence
(22:38):
done for everyone. That's a goal. I look at British UK system where
wedding going ahead with NHS. They have secret hundred thousand babies at
birth. In Canada, we are bottom of,
of the personal health, global landscape. We are the first
company or the first group of people in Canada to come up with a personal
health conference, a summit of its kind, bringing the chain makers
(22:59):
or leaders together to start conversations here. Stop in that point for a minute.
Cause you talk about this precision healthcare conference. When I went through the
agenda, everybody's there talking about possibilities Where
every other healthcare conference seems to be about fear and the sky's
falling, what I really appreciated about your agenda
was it was very future focused. It really was about
(23:22):
patient care, longevity, mental health, physical
health. Why is that narrative so hard to socialize
in Canada? Is it just in our in our DNA that we'd like to see
all the things that are wrong versus focus on the possibilities of what could be
right? Sometimes the fear trumps hope, and I am a
positive person that, that's who I am. And
(23:43):
also the summit was not funded by any pharma company at all. It
was people coming together, many volunteering their time, for the
summit to happen. There was no agenda. The agenda was,
how can we better as a health care system? What needs to be better in
our environment or buildings or homes or apartments or seniors? We
talk about everything because everything impacts the health of a Canadian,
(24:06):
including the drugs. Nothing wrong with that because we need that. Because right now
what's happening in The USA, the lifespan is going downward. They hit the
peak a few years ago. Canada is not that far away. And in fact, we
look fast forward few years by 2050, over
2,000,000,000 people globally will be above you 65. Are we
ready for that? Do we need somebody at the
(24:28):
provincial level or the federal level that just says,
I really don't care about the status quo. We're gonna give you the game
ball. Kapoor, you're gonna come in here and we want you to make this
thing happen. Do you need someone like that? Or do you find that that's
just too dramatic? Everything is a possibility. It's an
experiment. So I guess it's a drastic. Look at the health health care system in
(24:49):
Canada. We have public health care system. We and it was a brilliant idea.
I love that because I I hate people to be taking their credit card and
nickel and diming and to ask me as a doctor. I don't wanna be charging
them nickel and diming them. I wanna provide them the care. Let the
system pays for it, and I should be free to give them the best health
care service. That should be my goal as a doctor. But somewhere
(25:10):
along the way, it became too bureaucratic, too
heavy in regulations, and, it just start killing the
innovations. Canada has to open up. We can do the same
thing. What can we do as Canadians
to make sure that individuals like you who
have vision, who is not only desirability, but
(25:33):
feasibility, affordability. You're you're connecting the dots. Put the
patient first. What can we do to make sure
you have a fighting chance in Canada so that we don't lose that
kind of energy and vision like many other entrepreneurs that get frustrated with
bureaucracy and decide to go elsewhere where there's a bigger appetite for
change? First of all, inviting me and speaking and asking, that's a first
(25:56):
step. And I do believe people should ask the question like you, you have done
shown the leadership. And I want people to take ownership. It's their
help. It's not the government's health. Government doesn't care you live or survive.
They only care about the bottom line, next quarter, next
budget, how much money they have, how much taxes they increase, and where they will
be the money and how they spend the money and often mismanaged that. We
(26:19):
Take control. Taking control means get your DNA
sequence and also own that data. So many times the
provinces, your paid taxpayer money, is,
sending your data outside the country. So where your money is
overspend three to five times the same test would cost in Canada. We are not
doing it. Demand your politicians, your leaders, tell
(26:41):
them all the testing in Canada. Don't send any samples
outside. If you do that, it creates a ecosystem, create
jobs. Second step we should do is we start sequencing our
DNA, either a gut microbiome or epigenetic testing,
telomere test and bunch of those things, whatever you think is needed, but
take control. Be the CEO of your own health. If you don't take
(27:03):
control, no doctor will care about you or or a system will care about you.
We're all waiting for you to drop a disease and then we'll come in. We'll
give the best health care when you are really, really sick. Can in fact
you make the changes in your life to prevent diabetes, to
prevent cancer, even if you get hit with the disease, to give you a better
fighting chance? So let's say we eliminate all the cancers. We have a
(27:25):
cure. How many years I can add to my life? About three years. But
if I can manage my blood pressure, I can add five years.
If I don't sit as much, I can start activity, more exercise,
lose weight, can add extra two, three years. So I can have less chance of
diabetes, less chance of heart disease, less chance of stroke. So there you go.
We are now eliminating the diseases by just eating the right
(27:48):
food, exercising, and being here, being active.
We can cure many diseases. I mean, we have done it in genetic color. Look
at sickle cell anemia. We are now doing clinical trials
by stopping the genes that are making high cholesterol in many patients.
So it matters when you start preserving your body, start eating the right food,
and you have all the data about your body and how your body is
(28:10):
reacting to certain things, environmental factors. If you do that,
then we all live as longest, the healthiest and longest,
more productive, and then we're done with it. You know, doctor Kapoor, I
always end with my three takeaways. And the first is, I'm glad
you learned nothing that's impossible and you did it in an early
age. I think the second thing is when you really opened your mind
(28:33):
to the fact that individual specialties is not what the human
body's about and all the dots need to be connected. And that brought you into
the data and the science and the technology and all these things that were
in your knapsack came pouring out in BioAro. But the final thing is
just we are the CEO of our own health and it's time
we wake up as citizens and say if we invest in
(28:55):
this kind of thinking and approach and change the healthcare
system to be much more proactive versus reactive, we're going to
have better healthcare and we're going to live longer and healthier.
And that to me is a win for everybody, including the government that's gonna see
a more productive workforce, costing them less money in healthcare and
generating more taxes. We just gotta start socializing
(29:17):
this message and making sure that more people understand what
you're doing at Bio Aero and why your passion in entrepreneurship
has to stay in Canada because I think we can become a superpower in the
marketing of longevity globally. I so appreciate you joining me in Chatter That
Matters. Thank you so much for having me. Amazing. Really enjoyed.
(29:38):
Joining me now is Mike Scott. He's the senior VP and managing director of RBC
at Dominion Securities. He's got his hand on the rudder when it comes to their
strategic focus and really focusing on what I call customized
advisory and discretionary wealth management solutions. In other words, he's not
selling product as much as he's helping individuals with their journey
through life. Mike, welcome to, Chatter that Matters. Ronnie, thanks so much for, for
(30:01):
having me. I think the last time you and I worked together, you you were
putting it to me on the golf course. So it's nice to see it. Funny
you brought that up because it was at that time, I think after the game,
we were sitting down, having a cold beer. You talked about your
vision of bringing more value to your clients. You're saying, you know, not it's not
just about the preservation of wealth. It also has to
(30:21):
be the preservation of health because you wanna march those two in step. You wanna
live long and healthy, and that you were embarking on this
very ambitious program to start bringing some tremendous
value added to your clients that had really nothing to do about interest
rates and performance. It's everything to do with longevity. So tell me a little bit
about how that came about and why you feel this is such an important
(30:43):
move on the chessboard for RBC Wealth. This really came strongly out of
Leanne Kauffman, who's our president of Royal Trust, and she had a real passion for
this. And I watched her start to go down this path. You're really onto something.
Not to state the obvious, but what's the point in in us
trying to help people to become wealthy or more wealthy if they're
not healthy? Everyone associates our world with dollars and
(31:05):
cents or or or let let me call it numbers. We started on
a journey, gosh, fifteen, twenty years ago where we went very,
very heavily into the planning area of of the business.
And we're now our planning division is bigger than, you know, all the divisions
out there in in Canada combined. So we've really been committed to
this. It was an interesting starting point because
(31:29):
you think about it. We've got 50 lawyers who are doing will planning. You're not
talking about numbers when you're doing will planning. We've got a team that
helps high net worth business owners with family governance. When you're dealing with
family governance, you're dealing with whole you're not dealing with numbers again. You're dealing with
how do I help my family as we transition. We're starting to hire
retirement coaches. Everyone retires. Oh, I've got the
(31:51):
number. I've got the money. And then they go, what's my plan? So this was
the next part for us. It's helping educate with regards to your health
is is probably one of the most vital things that we do.
It's not just living longer. It's living stronger.
You've brought on a suite of organizations
and thought leaders. How do you take that
(32:13):
relationships you've built with them and translate in the
way that your wealth clients are gonna say, I get it. I'm
excited about it, and I'm willing to do it. Elder Caring, we
partnered with them. The women's age lab at women's college
hospital, the MIT age lab, Baycrest, women's brain health
initiative, the national institute of aging. You know, the list goes on and
(32:34):
on. Let's take Cleveland Clinic just for a second. Mike Kessel and and
that team. That has been so exciting for us. There's a not
a nonprofit academic medical center. And I
think our clients really relate to that, to the fact that whatever earnings that
enter the ask goes back into research and pulls back into training doctors. How you
know, what a great thing, but how do we make it happen? Bring this out
(32:57):
to clients and and and bring the knowledge out. And we've had tremendous success
and and clients are are really interested, but I I feel like we're just getting
started. You know, our clients go online and look at their portfolios. Great.
Well, why don't we put some information on there on Cleveland Clinic or Eldercare or
whatever it may be and draw attention to that. And our advisors are thanking us
for that because they're saying, okay, I'm on the phone and I'll try and do
(33:17):
my best, but I need help. And we've got our healthy, aging hub, but
it's a long journey. Are you building a moat around this saying you've gotta be
a RBC Dominion Securities or an RBC Wealth client, or are you gonna
start making this knowledge available to all Canadians?
If you're gonna be a thought leader in this space, you're gonna touch all Canadians.
And we're happy about that. You know, that's great. And, and if those Canadians then
(33:40):
relate it back to us, even better. Hopefully, everybody
realizes, we're not making more money promoting
healthy living and and living stronger, living longer. We just think it's the right thing
to do. What are you most proud of in terms of what you've brought
both to RBC and ultimately to your clients?
I work with another fellow, Dave Agnew, who's our CEO, and the two of us
(34:02):
have been together at this. We both started as advisors. We've both been branch
managers. From a numbers point of view, hey, listen, We were the same size as
some of our competitors at the time. And now here we
are twenty odd years later, and we're bigger than the
next two and almost bigger than the next two and a half. So we're very
proud of where that's gone. So that's the number part of it. I think the
(34:23):
bigger part of that is you gotta leave something better than you found it. I
don't wanna leave it yet because I'm having too much fun, but those numbers and
those things only happen because of client experience. You know, we're we're
leaving our clients in, in a better position. And that's the part that you, you
get so excited about. An advisor who starts out and gets a
client to the point where that client retires and they're so happy and you've accomplished
(34:45):
that, what an accomplishment. In my case, it's pinched me. I couldn't have been lucky.
You know, Mike, when I started working with your organization, I always thought of a
bank with numbers. And the more time I spend with
RBC and RBC Wealth, I realized that the heart of the matter is what
roars through. To me, that's a brand that has a higher purpose.
And for that and more, I thank you for being on Chatted That Matters. And
(35:07):
Tony, thank you for what you're doing because you're getting this out to Canadians. We
need your help as we go down this journey.
Once again, a special thanks to RBC for supporting Chatted That Matters.
It's Tony Chapman. Thanks for listening, and let's chat soon.
I'm at a time in my life where I know there are fewer years to
travel than the ones I've already journeyed. That
comes with age. It's a humbling thought, but it's also
a powerful motivator because I want to live every one of those
years firing on all cylinders. I want to be in the
best physical and mental health. I want to have purpose and clarity. I
(00:24):
want to add value to my family, my clients, and wherever possible
society at large. I want longevity.
But so much of this depends on my health. We all know how important it
is to have early diagnostics, access to specialists,
the right treatment. However, in our current state, it's hard to be
(00:44):
bullish. Universal health, the cornerstone of our identity,
has glaring cracks in the system that are impossible to ignore.
The shortage of family doctors, the limited access to
primary care, and the scarcity is being compounded by
burnout within the healthcare community, an aging physician
workforce, and is exasperated by a growing population and
(01:07):
increased demand for health care services. All of this
is leading to longer wait times and reduced access.
And access is not just with primary care. We have long wait times for
surgery, specialist appointments, and diagnostic tests,
all leaving patients in limbo. And our emergency rooms are
(01:27):
overcrowded, further highlighting our system's inability
to handle growing demand. And what you'll soon learn is that the
biggest problem in our system is that it's set up to be
reactive versus proactive. Everyone start focusing on detecting
the disease. How do you manage the diseases? There's no one focusing on how do
you prevent the disease? How do you predict there is disease even happening in certain
(01:49):
people? Today, you'll hear about bold action that will work to increase their
longevity, to live longer and healthier. Bold action
that combines cutting edge science, AI, and
entrepreneurs who are not afraid to challenge the status quo. And my guest
today is one of those entrepreneurs. His name is doctor Anmal
Kapoor. When a patient comes to me, I try to look at every angle
(02:11):
possible because I only may have five minutes. So those five, ten
minutes I have, I will make sure the maximum impact I can do with the
available resources I have. Doctor Kapoor's journey is a remarkable one.
He was born in India. Dad was a pharmacist, so he's always around
the health care world. But he chose to pursue his medical studies in
Siberia, Russia, continued his training in Canada, and
(02:34):
later at the Cleveland Clinic, specializing in vascular medicine and
preventative care. He's based in Calgary. He's not just a
cardiologist, he's an innovator. He's the founder of Bio Aero
and is leveraging AI, blockchain, and genomics to move
healthcare from a reactive model of treating disease to a proactive
model of personalized preventative care, precision
(02:57):
health.
Hi. It's Tony Chapman. Thank you for listening to Chatter That Matters presented
by RBC. If you can, please subscribe to the podcast. And
ratings and reviews, well, they're always welcome and they're always appreciated.
Doctor Kapoor is proof that one person can make a profound
(03:18):
difference to how we all approach our health and our longevity.
Doctor Anal Kapoor, welcome to Chatter That Matters. Thank you so much
for having me, Tony. In my opening, I mentioned this,
wonderful journey around the world from India to Russia, to Canada, The
United States and back to Canada. My first question is what did you learn
about yourself on each stage and how do
(03:41):
you think that applies to who you are today? What I learned
going back over the time, leaving India. So it was the first time
leaving to a foreign country, not knowing a language, never been on a
plane, and just graduated from grade 12.
That was the biggest challenge. What I learned from my
resilience was I can do anything. The impossible
(04:04):
word doesn't exist in my dictionary. I always think
possible. I am possible. I always try to find
a solution to the problem I'm facing. And if it's going to
help everyone and the masses, especially in the people, it's the
public interest. Somehow my passion doubles up immediately,
and I just get excited, and I push them in. I
(04:27):
wanna make sure that, people get an access to things, which they
deserve. I mean, I'm thinking if I had gone to Siberia not knowing the
language, taking medicine, which already is an incredibly
difficult subject to, to comprehend even in your own mother tongue.
Was there ever a time you wanted to quit or did you just have this
anxiety that said, this is my dream, I'm gonna chase it? I was
(04:48):
vegetarian. Well, I'll tell you a story and it's a real story.
Till the third year of my medical school, I was still
vegetarian, and, I get sick. The
food was limited that time. There are not many choices in
Siberia around that time. And the doctors told me and more, either
you go back to India because you can survive in this environment,
(05:11):
or you'll have to change your habits. So you'll have to start eating. We understand
your cultural, your perhaps other beliefs may be playing
the role, but, we have to be able to take a call. If I go
back to India, what do I go back to India, to my mom and then
my parents that I quit? Obviously, I tell my parents that they will
understand. So I change my diet a bit,
(05:33):
start to follow proper nutrition around that time, And I
never got sick. Proud that I stood out to the challenge. I didn't
quit. As a young man studying in these
different cultures, what did you learn about the healthcare
systems from your home country? I know your dad was a pharmacist.
To what you observed in Russia, Canada, United States. I mean, what what was the
(05:55):
good and the bad and the ugly? Because we all have our own biases
and beasts with our healthcare system. I'm just curious what you observed. We all have
biases. I % agree with you. But, from my
perspective in India, doctors are considered next to
God. People treat them the way and sometimes distrust
get exploited, by human doctors and then leads
(06:17):
them to the wrong path. Sometimes profiting from the wrong
information, selling the wrong things, and and many
things play a role in the commercial businesses and ventures. Going to Russia,
what I have something I learned was that the health record system, the
value of the health record is so important. During
those Soviet times, everyone was given a health record in their
(06:39):
hand. And I still remember patients were coming in,
even older ladies or the patients or men are coming in in seventies
or eighties. They would carry a big stack of paper from
their birth. Everything inside, their x rays, their
immunizations, their drugs, whatever has been done in their
history, it is in their hand. First time that they opened my eyes,
(07:01):
the value of keeping, records. And when I came to
Canada, we were really bad here. My first goal
was how I could bring in, technologies into the health
record system so the health outcomes can be better.
Prowellers in Canada are still struggling. Hospitals among Ontario
can't talk each other that efficiently what we can talk in
(07:24):
Alberta at least, or in BC, they are struggling still.
So there is still, challenges. Why do you think back then
they put such a value and premium on it? Forty or fifty years
later, if I have my math, we're still have provinces struggling
with the need to communicate with each other. And as you say, to map
out somebody's health journey versus sort of a one time incident. I don't
(07:46):
know why. I I do believe I think Soviets, they had a lack
of resources. There's a lot of issues happening with the cold war during those
times that forced them to push towards getting all
the data and rationing the health care services on
access. So you when you have to decide who should get an x-ray or who
should get a blood test, it's perhaps good to know what test they
(08:08):
have done before so then you can decide the next step. And
we see that also happening in Cuba. Cuba does not spend that
much money what we spend in Canada, but they're living
same amount of life on average lifespan than as the Canadians.
They they have more family doctors. In every street, they have a family doctor.
They learned that, look, we cannot access. We have a embargo. We can
(08:31):
MRI, CTs, unlimited access to genetic testings. Let's start
from basics. Let's start tracking things. If you don't track, how do you know what
to monitor, what to change? You went to Canada and you went to Alberta
because they allowed you to specialize where at the time, again, the
status quo was saying, you know, if you're not minted in Canada, you're not
allowed that, the gauntlet. And you ran that in Alberta, but you also went down
(08:53):
to Cleveland. And what I understand from one of the interviews I listened to
is you were really starting to understand that this isn't about
specialty medicine. In fact, this is the whole human being and all the dots
have to connect. Didn't my internal medicine residency in Edmonton. I was on the
chief residence there, then went to do cardiology in Winnipeg.
We have a great health care system, great learnings from from an oral I'll call
(09:17):
it standards perspective, but there's issues. Issues that we train
people to become a specialist in that one particular organ. You
are a specialist in the kidney, forget about the body. If you're a
cardiologist, forget about the bone density, forget about the mental
health, forget about anything that could impact. Just focus on the heart
arteries. So I then applied and went to Cleveland
(09:39):
clinic and I saw that what they were doing in Boston medicine, it is a
cardiologist there, who are doing the carotid ultrasound.
They're doing the stenting of the carotid arteries or is that take blood
to the brain. And they will also do peripheral artery ultrasound. They will
also do, renal ultrasounds. They will look at the complete vasculature
and which is totally alien to Canadian health care system as a
(10:02):
cardiologist, even as an internal medicine doctor. Still many
provinces would not even let a cardiologist do a vascular
ultrasound. I went for training and applied for special permission with
the College of Alberta. They approved me to become a vascular
medicine specialist, because I look at holy human.
And, when a patient comes to me, I try to look at every angle possible
(10:24):
because I only may have five minutes. I may never see this patient again. This
patient may will never be able to see a doctor. We have a shortage of
doctors of millions of people who don't have an access in Canada. So those five,
ten minutes I have, I will make sure the maximum impact I can do
with the available resources I have. I know I teased my audience at the
beginning of the podcast that you are not
(10:45):
only this well renowned world renowned doctor, but you were
also, you mentioned the fact that you love technology, but you're an
entrepreneur and you've put the three of them together. And how I tease the
audience is you might be onto something that will change
what you consistently say about Canadian health care, which is we are a
disease care system. So first of all, what do you mean by disease care
(11:07):
system? Well, disease care system is a system designed to detect
a disease, not prevent the disease. We get paid
based on the disease usually. So what kind of diagnosis we are
bringing to the patient? There's usually never a billing code.
Look, I am going to see Tony today and I saw him to prevent a
disease to help him make live longer. But I have to testify, send a bill
(11:30):
to the government, I have to say, why did I see Tony? I have to
say, look, I saw him for shortness of breath or I have saw him for
diabetes or I saw him for some other disease condition. So
then I get paid. That's a reason I have to be justified.
Now everyone start focusing on detecting the disease. How do you manage
the diseases? There's no one focusing on how do you prevent the disease? How do
(11:51):
you predict there is disease even happening in certain people? So we
start medications after we have blockages built in the heart
arteries, but we don't put an effort enough in the system
or society as a whole to stop developing those
blockages, you know, at least delay those blockages developing. No doctor
who specialized in that area, there's no incentive for a doctor to
(12:12):
prevent that blockage happening in the patient earlier. Then we made it
complicated by bringing many specialists and we told them you
have to stay in your own lane. Let's make a GP of family doctor
as a gatekeeper. Let them decide who should be involved, who should not be
involved. Now the disease continue to spread. It doesn't stop.
And so you've got a plan to change it that you say could
(12:35):
be a profound make a profound difference to health care in Canada, but
it's also your vision and your approach and your technology is being
embraced in countries like Saudi Arabia, Singapore, all over the world.
So tell us what you plan to do with BioAro
and why you feel this could be the kind of game changer
that has really changed medicine along the way. If I look at medicine and health
(12:58):
care, it's been big breakthroughs that have broken the status
quo. And you think that you're onto one? I always tell people we
are data people and we may call a doctor, but we come to
conclusion, about a patient from various things. The two day
a patient comes to me, I look at a subjective data. Patient tells
me I'm having a chest pain or shortness of breath symptoms, a subjective symptom. I
(13:19):
cannot evaluate. Now I have to do my physical exam, but I'm
gonna touch this patient and try to come up with some feeling. Then I
will look at the blood data, look at ECG, maybe a stress
testing, which is only 70% accurate to start with it.
Okay. This patient have a heart attack. Could he have a blockage in the
heart arteries? And depending on my gut feeling, I may be
(13:41):
sending him home with the wrong information. Three out of ten people in a
normal cardiac stress test, I'm giving a wrong report. If I have
seen hundred thousand people in a year, through five
years' time, I probably give 10,000 Canadians the
wrong information with my best intention. You're a very well respected doctor. I mean, I
just want people to listen that that this isn't anything to do with incompetence. It's
(14:03):
just to do with the data that's available. Exactly. It's not doctors are
not wrong. Doctors are doing what the data has given to them. And the
medicine is more an art. Bringing all the things together and trying to figure
it out what is the right approach or wrong approach. We need more data.
We need to understand why some people draw blockages or
why some have diabetes, why some have Alzheimer's or ALS or some
(14:26):
cancers earlier than other people. So by just
accepting it, is not an answer. We should be hunting it out more
datas. That's where Biore comes into play. So we need to
bring in all these datasets together. So use the power of
AI and perhaps quantum science in the future, help our
healthcare system and the clinicians, our citizens, along the
(14:47):
way. So as simple as starting by whole genome sequencing, if
you understand the blueprint of the blueprint of our life, at
least we know what could be the predispositions. I can give you one example.
Some people say there's no need for a whole genome sequencing or DNA
testing. This is useless test and, less wait for the disease to happen.
Most of the time when we do physical examination, annual exam, all of us
(15:10):
go see a family doctor. What they do? They do traditional blood
test, hemoglobin, CBC, electrolyte, a one c, lipids,
thyroid, PSA, and they do physical
examination, maybe an ECG. But I know honestly, and
many doctors will agree, that rarely a family doctor has
caught any serious cancer by regular physical
(15:31):
examination. Nothing wrong with the physical exam, but the approach has
been wrong. If a doctor doesn't know microscope for Alzheimer's,
how do they make a plan to check for special antibodies or
special proteomic testing to monitor and at least refer me to a
neurologist or a specialist? They will just say, well, you're good. You can
go home. We didn't know that genomics,
(15:54):
as simple as a gut microbiome plays a huge role. There's a pathogen have
been detected that are linked to heart diseases, diabetes. We know
that gut brain axis is true. We have a gut feeling.
Yes. True. Because we have a second nervous system in our, in our
stomach called enteric nervous system. It is as complex as a
nervous system. If you can implement a healthcare
(16:17):
as a foundation, healthy human in Canada, every kid gets a whole
genome sequencing. Now we know what predisposition they have. So we
can tell the doctor to make a proper health plan for them, so we
have a proper annual physical exam for them, so we can encounter disease
early on. If we can deploy self-ray DNA testing,
we can pick up preclinical cancer cells very early on before the
(16:39):
cancer shows up on your MRI or CT scan. We can also
follow cancers with cell free DNA testing regularly in many
scenarios has been proven to be very helpful and successful. We can use
a gut microbiomics to tackle depression and mental health disorders,
IBS irritable bowel syndrome. And we have seen this
data coming out, but people cannot have an access
(17:02):
to. So that was lacking. A drug perspective from Logogenomics,
we know which drugs are good or bad for we or for for someone
else. If you wanna create some wealth, the earlier you start, the
better. I really think the same thing applies to health. And people
wanna know as early as possible, what do I need to do in the health
space? Canadians, our clients, we're seeing it. They're right there. They
(17:24):
wanna be involved, and we're excited. That's the voice of Mike Scott. He's the senior
VP, managing director of RBC Dominion Securities. Later
in the show, he's gonna join us to explain how health and wealth has to
go hand in hand. Coming up next, I'll ask doctor
Kapoor just how much this revolutionary way of handling our health care in
Canada is gonna cost us.
(17:47):
Hi. This is Tony Chapman. I wanna talk to you about what RBC Wealth Management
is doing to support healthy aging. Old age is becoming old
news. We're living longer, and planning for our future
means we need to integrate health, wellness, and our financial
matters. RBC Wealth Management is partnering with leading experts and
organizations like the MIT AgeLab, the National Institute on
(18:09):
Aging, the Women's Brain Health Initiative, Elder Caring, and the
Women's AgeLab. Why? To provide you with comprehensive
resources covering every aspect of you aging well. This
includes support for your physical and mental health, caregiving,
maintaining financial stability, and preparing for later life health
issues, ensuring you can age safely and comfortably, and ideally
(18:30):
in your own home. With RBC Wealth Management, you create a personalized
plan that adapts as your needs change, giving you peace of mind and
security. Visit
rbcwealthmanagement.com and learn more about healthy
aging and start planning for your future. Healthy
aging? Well, that matters to you, to me, and to
RBC.
(18:55):
Do genomic testing and all these amazing
technologies are only confined to the richest or richest people on this Earth
right now. My goal is to make it to get to the
masses, make it cheaper and more accessible,
and from a global perspective. Today, my special
guest is doctor Anil Kapoor. His vision
(19:16):
is for precision health care, making our health a matter of choice,
not chance, from being highly reactive
and extraordinarily taxing on the system to
being proactive.
First question is, it sounds really expensive. This sounds like this is gonna
be yet again the people that have money are gonna have
(19:39):
this this ability to chase the found new youth where the average person
who's struggling won't. Right now, the cost
of the whole genome analysis is less than a hundred dollar
USD. And if the government of Canada puts a pressure on
the manufacturers, we can make it less than $70 USD.
So a simple blood test when you go for hemoglobin checkup, it costs over
(20:02):
a hundred $20, hundred 50 dollars already. If you get whole genome
sequence, you only have to do one test lifetime. So it doesn't cost that
much money. So you keep the same health care system. You keep the same
buildings, same doctors, upgrade the knowledge of those doctors,
make them empowered because I remember studying Harrison internal
medicine book. I had a small chapter of genetics. There was no chapter of
(20:24):
genomics. The books needs to be rewritten. The foundation has to
be genomics of every disorder. Do you think there'll be a time where
you're just, once you have this blueprint, AI is constantly
looking at your staying, learning more and more, Do you think there'll be a
time where the need for a GP will disappear and will be
much more technology putting you into where you need to be
(20:46):
within the healthcare system, or do you think the GP's role is gonna
change? I think every doctor's role will change. A doctor that is not going
to be practicing AI or using AI tools will be left behind.
And, it is gonna help the health care system. Look at this way. The radiology
will be very impacted. It costs around $70.60 to
$70 per chest x-ray to be read by radiologists. There's no
(21:09):
need for that anymore. There you go. Savings are there. And you can do
the same thing for MRI, CT scans. The robotics are coming
in play very, very fast. They'll be doing ultrasounds. There's a
company in Calgary developing a robotic arm that can do a
remote ultrasounds, far away, anywhere on this
earth from a GP or cardiology perspective, I'll be I'll be
(21:31):
changed. Literally, there's no need for a cardiologist because all
this data can be easily analyzed by AI. With a global
company, the human factor will be the empathy. So we have a
human touch. Obviously, AI is a tool, is there is a guidance to
us because human behavior is very complex. Canada's
falling off the playing field when it comes to being a
(21:52):
leading health care entity. And why is that? Like, would you we
got people like you. It's so remarkably affordable. What
I understand is if everybody did this testing, we could
potentially save billions of dollars in health care costs and give people
much better health care because it's much more proactive than reactive. How do
we get Canadians to open their mind to possibilities versus
(22:15):
seeing other countries that look and say, we don't have the legacy, we
don't have the bureaucracy, we don't have the status quo. What we just see as
opportunity. You look at Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia population is same as
a Canadian population and they have money resource rate country. We are a resource this
country too. And, what they're doing is they want to
sequence every human by 02/1930, and get a whole genome sequence
(22:38):
done for everyone. That's a goal. I look at British UK system where
wedding going ahead with NHS. They have secret hundred thousand babies at
birth. In Canada, we are bottom of,
of the personal health, global landscape. We are the first
company or the first group of people in Canada to come up with a personal
health conference, a summit of its kind, bringing the chain makers
(22:59):
or leaders together to start conversations here. Stop in that point for a minute.
Cause you talk about this precision healthcare conference. When I went through the
agenda, everybody's there talking about possibilities Where
every other healthcare conference seems to be about fear and the sky's
falling, what I really appreciated about your agenda
was it was very future focused. It really was about
(23:22):
patient care, longevity, mental health, physical
health. Why is that narrative so hard to socialize
in Canada? Is it just in our in our DNA that we'd like to see
all the things that are wrong versus focus on the possibilities of what could be
right? Sometimes the fear trumps hope, and I am a
positive person that, that's who I am. And
(23:43):
also the summit was not funded by any pharma company at all. It
was people coming together, many volunteering their time, for the
summit to happen. There was no agenda. The agenda was,
how can we better as a health care system? What needs to be better in
our environment or buildings or homes or apartments or seniors? We
talk about everything because everything impacts the health of a Canadian,
(24:06):
including the drugs. Nothing wrong with that because we need that. Because right now
what's happening in The USA, the lifespan is going downward. They hit the
peak a few years ago. Canada is not that far away. And in fact, we
look fast forward few years by 2050, over
2,000,000,000 people globally will be above you 65. Are we
ready for that? Do we need somebody at the
(24:28):
provincial level or the federal level that just says,
I really don't care about the status quo. We're gonna give you the game
ball. Kapoor, you're gonna come in here and we want you to make this
thing happen. Do you need someone like that? Or do you find that that's
just too dramatic? Everything is a possibility. It's an
experiment. So I guess it's a drastic. Look at the health health care system in
(24:49):
Canada. We have public health care system. We and it was a brilliant idea.
I love that because I I hate people to be taking their credit card and
nickel and diming and to ask me as a doctor. I don't wanna be charging
them nickel and diming them. I wanna provide them the care. Let the
system pays for it, and I should be free to give them the best health
care service. That should be my goal as a doctor. But somewhere
(25:10):
along the way, it became too bureaucratic, too
heavy in regulations, and, it just start killing the
innovations. Canada has to open up. We can do the same
thing. What can we do as Canadians
to make sure that individuals like you who
have vision, who is not only desirability, but
(25:33):
feasibility, affordability. You're you're connecting the dots. Put the
patient first. What can we do to make sure
you have a fighting chance in Canada so that we don't lose that
kind of energy and vision like many other entrepreneurs that get frustrated with
bureaucracy and decide to go elsewhere where there's a bigger appetite for
change? First of all, inviting me and speaking and asking, that's a first
(25:56):
step. And I do believe people should ask the question like you, you have done
shown the leadership. And I want people to take ownership. It's their
help. It's not the government's health. Government doesn't care you live or survive.
They only care about the bottom line, next quarter, next
budget, how much money they have, how much taxes they increase, and where they will
be the money and how they spend the money and often mismanaged that. We
(26:19):
Take control. Taking control means get your DNA
sequence and also own that data. So many times the
provinces, your paid taxpayer money, is,
sending your data outside the country. So where your money is
overspend three to five times the same test would cost in Canada. We are not
doing it. Demand your politicians, your leaders, tell
(26:41):
them all the testing in Canada. Don't send any samples
outside. If you do that, it creates a ecosystem, create
jobs. Second step we should do is we start sequencing our
DNA, either a gut microbiome or epigenetic testing,
telomere test and bunch of those things, whatever you think is needed, but
take control. Be the CEO of your own health. If you don't take
(27:03):
control, no doctor will care about you or or a system will care about you.
We're all waiting for you to drop a disease and then we'll come in. We'll
give the best health care when you are really, really sick. Can in fact
you make the changes in your life to prevent diabetes, to
prevent cancer, even if you get hit with the disease, to give you a better
fighting chance? So let's say we eliminate all the cancers. We have a
(27:25):
cure. How many years I can add to my life? About three years. But
if I can manage my blood pressure, I can add five years.
If I don't sit as much, I can start activity, more exercise,
lose weight, can add extra two, three years. So I can have less chance of
diabetes, less chance of heart disease, less chance of stroke. So there you go.
We are now eliminating the diseases by just eating the right
(27:48):
food, exercising, and being here, being active.
We can cure many diseases. I mean, we have done it in genetic color. Look
at sickle cell anemia. We are now doing clinical trials
by stopping the genes that are making high cholesterol in many patients.
So it matters when you start preserving your body, start eating the right food,
and you have all the data about your body and how your body is
(28:10):
reacting to certain things, environmental factors. If you do that,
then we all live as longest, the healthiest and longest,
more productive, and then we're done with it. You know, doctor Kapoor, I
always end with my three takeaways. And the first is, I'm glad
you learned nothing that's impossible and you did it in an early
age. I think the second thing is when you really opened your mind
(28:33):
to the fact that individual specialties is not what the human
body's about and all the dots need to be connected. And that brought you into
the data and the science and the technology and all these things that were
in your knapsack came pouring out in BioAro. But the final thing is
just we are the CEO of our own health and it's time
we wake up as citizens and say if we invest in
(28:55):
this kind of thinking and approach and change the healthcare
system to be much more proactive versus reactive, we're going to
have better healthcare and we're going to live longer and healthier.
And that to me is a win for everybody, including the government that's gonna see
a more productive workforce, costing them less money in healthcare and
generating more taxes. We just gotta start socializing
(29:17):
this message and making sure that more people understand what
you're doing at Bio Aero and why your passion in entrepreneurship
has to stay in Canada because I think we can become a superpower in the
marketing of longevity globally. I so appreciate you joining me in Chatter That
Matters. Thank you so much for having me. Amazing. Really enjoyed.
(29:38):
Joining me now is Mike Scott. He's the senior VP and managing director of RBC
at Dominion Securities. He's got his hand on the rudder when it comes to their
strategic focus and really focusing on what I call customized
advisory and discretionary wealth management solutions. In other words, he's not
selling product as much as he's helping individuals with their journey
through life. Mike, welcome to, Chatter that Matters. Ronnie, thanks so much for, for
(30:01):
having me. I think the last time you and I worked together, you you were
putting it to me on the golf course. So it's nice to see it. Funny
you brought that up because it was at that time, I think after the game,
we were sitting down, having a cold beer. You talked about your
vision of bringing more value to your clients. You're saying, you know, not it's not
just about the preservation of wealth. It also has to
(30:21):
be the preservation of health because you wanna march those two in step. You wanna
live long and healthy, and that you were embarking on this
very ambitious program to start bringing some tremendous
value added to your clients that had really nothing to do about interest
rates and performance. It's everything to do with longevity. So tell me a little bit
about how that came about and why you feel this is such an important
(30:43):
move on the chessboard for RBC Wealth. This really came strongly out of
Leanne Kauffman, who's our president of Royal Trust, and she had a real passion for
this. And I watched her start to go down this path. You're really onto something.
Not to state the obvious, but what's the point in in us
trying to help people to become wealthy or more wealthy if they're
not healthy? Everyone associates our world with dollars and
(31:05):
cents or or or let let me call it numbers. We started on
a journey, gosh, fifteen, twenty years ago where we went very,
very heavily into the planning area of of the business.
And we're now our planning division is bigger than, you know, all the divisions
out there in in Canada combined. So we've really been committed to
this. It was an interesting starting point because
(31:29):
you think about it. We've got 50 lawyers who are doing will planning. You're not
talking about numbers when you're doing will planning. We've got a team that
helps high net worth business owners with family governance. When you're dealing with
family governance, you're dealing with whole you're not dealing with numbers again. You're dealing with
how do I help my family as we transition. We're starting to hire
retirement coaches. Everyone retires. Oh, I've got the
(31:51):
number. I've got the money. And then they go, what's my plan? So this was
the next part for us. It's helping educate with regards to your health
is is probably one of the most vital things that we do.
It's not just living longer. It's living stronger.
You've brought on a suite of organizations
and thought leaders. How do you take that
(32:13):
relationships you've built with them and translate in the
way that your wealth clients are gonna say, I get it. I'm
excited about it, and I'm willing to do it. Elder Caring, we
partnered with them. The women's age lab at women's college
hospital, the MIT age lab, Baycrest, women's brain health
initiative, the national institute of aging. You know, the list goes on and
(32:34):
on. Let's take Cleveland Clinic just for a second. Mike Kessel and and
that team. That has been so exciting for us. There's a not
a nonprofit academic medical center. And I
think our clients really relate to that, to the fact that whatever earnings that
enter the ask goes back into research and pulls back into training doctors. How you
know, what a great thing, but how do we make it happen? Bring this out
(32:57):
to clients and and and bring the knowledge out. And we've had tremendous success
and and clients are are really interested, but I I feel like we're just getting
started. You know, our clients go online and look at their portfolios. Great.
Well, why don't we put some information on there on Cleveland Clinic or Eldercare or
whatever it may be and draw attention to that. And our advisors are thanking us
for that because they're saying, okay, I'm on the phone and I'll try and do
(33:17):
my best, but I need help. And we've got our healthy, aging hub, but
it's a long journey. Are you building a moat around this saying you've gotta be
a RBC Dominion Securities or an RBC Wealth client, or are you gonna
start making this knowledge available to all Canadians?
If you're gonna be a thought leader in this space, you're gonna touch all Canadians.
And we're happy about that. You know, that's great. And, and if those Canadians then
(33:40):
relate it back to us, even better. Hopefully, everybody
realizes, we're not making more money promoting
healthy living and and living stronger, living longer. We just think it's the right thing
to do. What are you most proud of in terms of what you've brought
both to RBC and ultimately to your clients?
I work with another fellow, Dave Agnew, who's our CEO, and the two of us
(34:02):
have been together at this. We both started as advisors. We've both been branch
managers. From a numbers point of view, hey, listen, We were the same size as
some of our competitors at the time. And now here we
are twenty odd years later, and we're bigger than the
next two and almost bigger than the next two and a half. So we're very
proud of where that's gone. So that's the number part of it. I think the
(34:23):
bigger part of that is you gotta leave something better than you found it. I
don't wanna leave it yet because I'm having too much fun, but those numbers and
those things only happen because of client experience. You know, we're we're
leaving our clients in, in a better position. And that's the part that you, you
get so excited about. An advisor who starts out and gets a
client to the point where that client retires and they're so happy and you've accomplished
(34:45):
that, what an accomplishment. In my case, it's pinched me. I couldn't have been lucky.
You know, Mike, when I started working with your organization, I always thought of a
bank with numbers. And the more time I spend with
RBC and RBC Wealth, I realized that the heart of the matter is what
roars through. To me, that's a brand that has a higher purpose.
And for that and more, I thank you for being on Chatted That Matters. And
(35:07):
Tony, thank you for what you're doing because you're getting this out to Canadians. We
need your help as we go down this journey.
Once again, a special thanks to RBC for supporting Chatted That Matters.
It's Tony Chapman. Thanks for listening, and let's chat soon.
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