Transcript 0:00 [on-hold music] Talk to me. Information, news, and entertainment on demand. WS Radio.com. 0:11 [upbeat music] Welcome to The Peggy Smedley Show, the voice of IoT in our connected world, with your host, Peggy Smedley. [upbeat music] Hello, listeners, and welcome back to The Peggy Smedley Show. 0:28 I'm your host, Peggy Smedley. Our first guest today attended college right after eighth grade and completed a dual bachelor's in computer engineering and economics. 0:38 He then went on to complete two master's degree, and one in computer engineering and one in management. His past work experience includes a stint at IBM and Intel, among a host of others. 0:50 His experience has led him to where he is today, and ultimately to alter the computer healt- the consumer, I should say, healthcare market. Please welcome Waqas Alsadeeq, co-founder and CEO of Biotricity. 1:04 Waqas, welcome to the show. Hi, Peggy. Thank you for having me. So, Waqas, you know, we've talked several times about what you are doing. 1:14 You are going to alter, and I'm so excited, what's gonna actually help the connected healthcare market because right now, if we think about it, this is a space that if we look at, it's gonna grow at a compound rate of, like, thirty-three percent, I think we said, and you see real potential to change and alter this space with what you're doing. 1:37 Let's talk about that. Why do you see such potential? 1:41 You know, I see that there's a couple of things that are driving the marketplace today, and, and part of it is, you know, absolutely the healthcare system and the fact that it's just costing us more and more dollars. 1:52 Not only that, you've got, you know, therapeutics that are allowing us to live longer, so we've added, you know, probably about, you know, two decades to our lifespans in the last fifty-odd years. 2:01 And, uh, we're living longer, but we're suffering from chronic illnesses. 2:04 And so you have the healthcare system, you know, bringing so much cost associated with a small percentage of the population as opposed to really focusing on, uh, preventative care. 2:16 So it's this whole reactive approach to medicine. And now this has kind of become front and center with the Affordable Care Act and this whole problem on a global landscape. 2:24 So I find that we're kind of at a precipice where the healthcare system has to shift, otherwise it's not gonna survive. 2:31 And you see a lot of technology companies that are still focused, you know, on the, on the old concept of, you know, diagnostic medicine within the hospital. 2:39 And then I think that, you know, the connected aspect of it is what's really going to allow us to drive, you know, innovation and response. 2:46 The key thing is if someone's actually having a situation, can we respond to it, uh, effectively and quickly? 2:52 And by being connected, we can grab that data, we can, uh, shove it off into some remote environment, we can analyze it, uh, and we can actually deal with response if we verify that there's a problem. 3:03 So I feel that, you know, today we're just coming into a world where technology has come to a point and connectivity has come to a point where we can really, you know, make an impact on this healthcare landscape. 3:17 So when we look at this, when we take this data from real-world experiences, we can change not only what we're doing on the medical side, but we can change what happens on the insurance side, where we can, we can harvest information, we can validate information. 3:31 And, and, and do you think all of this that's happening in the cloud has the potential that it's changing the landscape of healthcare in a way that most of us can't even imagine? Is, is that the concept behind this? 3:44 Because, I mean, we talk about this every day, but does the average American, you know, average citizen understand what we're talking about? You know, that's a good point. 3:54 I t- I think that there's aspects to it that we, we understand, um, you know, maybe twenty, thirty percent at, at a broad level, and I think that the real interesting things are really, you know, as they say, it's a layer of onions, right? 4:06 It's, it's behind the curtain. So, you know, it takes something like, um... It was funny. It was, um... I'm not gonna name the name, but there's a hospital, one of... a r- a renowned hospital in, uh, 4:16 uh, the United States, and I was just, uh, connecting with them, and I was working with them on looking at, uh, uh, outcome improvement on cardiac patients. 4:24 And they're like, "We know the, uh, cardiac patient, once they've had a heart attack, they're seventy percent more likely to have another heart attack. 4:31 We know they don't comply, so it's costing the hospital a lot of money." And so I said, "Okay, well, how much money?" And they're like, "We actually don't know." And I said, "That's interesting. 4:40 You're, uh, uh, you're using the best technology. You're an innovative hospital. How do you not know the dollars that are being, being spent?" And they're like, "Our systems aren't integrated." 4:49 So to your point, which is about the cloud, as all of these things start getting connected, they will be able to actually quantify, uh, this problem a- at a very clear, uh, you know, um, number, where, you know, you go in and ask a hospital, "What's the cost of this patient not complying?" 5:04 Or the fact that, uh, this patient is being readmitted for the same issue. What is the actual dollar cost? 5:10 And we'll be able to see that, and not only will we be able to see that, we will be able to see the overall approach of medicine to one patient. So today, you know, you have, you know, diabetes. 5:21 You go, and you see your endocrinologist. You go and see your GP. Um, the data is fragmented. You know, it, it, you, you're not seeing a holistic view of this patient, right? 5:30 The c- if you have a cardiac condition, he doesn't, the, the cardiologist doesn't see the diabetic information. 5:35 So as all of this gets connected, you're actually gonna have kind of the hospital looking at things from an outcome and from a healthcare team perspective as opposed to just, you know, a singular physician who's a specialist or a sing- or a general practitioner who's dealing with aspects of this patient's care, not looking at the patient holistically.So if we look at this in a bigger picture, w-we wanna say that, you know, remote monitoring can save lives. 5:59 But I think it's, it's you save lives and money is more importantly than what we're saying because I think everyone says, "Okay, it's gonna save costs." That's what the hospital cares about, reducing costs, right? 6:10 That's their mentality. But they, they really wanna care about saving lives as well. Are there going to be real numbers like what you just said, that everyone's gonna associate this? 6:19 Because I'm always looking at you wanna put all of it together because I think there's a lot of collaborative efforts here because everybody coming into this... 6:28 'cause as I mentioned, there's insurance companies that come in here, there's hospitals, there's a patient that cares. 6:34 And so now we're talking about we're gonna use this with remote monitoring, so the doctors, you know, the practitioners can hear about this. 6:41 Because now we have these devices that we're talking about, you know, where we have this safety profile of these implantable or pa-patient contacting medical devices, which we're gonna talk about that you have. 6:53 We, we have all of these things coming together. Will we be able to actually say what these numbers are at some point and know that from big data? Yeah, absolutely. 7:02 And, and, you know, I would add to your point, which is, you know, save lives, reduce costs, but also improve lives, right? 7:08 Because when, when you're-- when you had a heart attack or you've had a major, you know, uh, a diabetic event, your quality of life goes down, right? 7:17 And if we could have predicted that, if we could have, you know, anticipated that, if we could have introduced a change to that, um, we could, uh, we could avoid the body going into such a stressful situation, which essentially can have a long-term effect on you. 7:31 You know? So they say that, uh, ninety percent of muscle damage, um, caused in a heart attack can be reversed if you can respond within ninety minutes. But we don't respond within ninety minutes. So, you know, I... 7:46 And, and once, once you've experienced that muscle damage, you know, you-- it's irreversible, right? After that point in time. 7:51 So, you know, I think to your point, yeah, not only will we be able to say, "Okay, here's the exact dollar, dollar cost that has saved. Here's the exact improvement. Here's the number of lives we saved. 8:00 Here's the number of lives we were able to go in and impact and, and maybe, uh, you know, reduce, uh, the stress that was caused, uh, or, or improve the outcome and, and really tangibly, uh, articulate that." 8:12 But I think the other aspect of it is, is what's the next four years or what's the next nine months after this event that has happened to an individual? 8:20 Can we improve upon that by, by making sure that we can respond faster so that we catch them before they've hit, hit the, hit the rock bottom, as they say, right? So I, I, I have to say this, it just makes sense to me. 8:33 I mean, is the problem that we're having this, are there just too many hurdles right now to say this makes sense? I mean, to, to do this, it just says we should be connected yesterday. 8:45 Is it because we're worried about privacy issues? Are we worried about regulatory issues? Um, is it, is it just the infrastructure, the, the tools, the mo-models? What, what, what is holding us back? 8:58 What's the hindrances that we didn't do this years ago? I, I, I ju- I'm just struggling with it just makes sense. Yeah, no, it, it, it's a very good question. 9:07 And, you know, coming from the healthcare industry, you know, I can, I can certainly talk to some of the hurdles. You know, one of the things, of course, is, uh, reimbursement, right? 9:15 So you've got a lot of these novel companies coming out with great technologies, and they'll get FDA clearance. 9:20 Um, but getting FDA clearance doesn't actually mean anything from a reimbursement or a business model perspective. 9:25 So they'll get reimbursement, they're a great novel technology, but the problem is, uh, there's no economics behind it. 9:31 And so what happens is the company will, company will ultimately fail, uh, unless they can convince insurance or a hospital that, "Hey, there's a cost savings around this," which is a much harder, uh, you know, uh, position to take and a much harder, uh, sales tool, right? 9:46 As opposed to saying, "Hey, look, here's, here's the technology that fits within insurance, and we have reimbursement." So, you know, one aspect of this really is around the economics of it, right? The reimbursement. 9:56 Is there a way to bill for this, right? Because as soon as there's a way to bill for this, then it's a much easier selling point for a hospital or for a physician. 10:04 The other issue why I, I think something-- some of this stuff has taken very long is, of course, the regulatory, uh, component of it. The FDA itself is, uh, a very conservative, uh, animal. 10:17 They're looking at things primarily from a patient safety and from a risk perspective. So when you're introducing a new technology, you really have to prove that, hey, there's gonna be no adverse effect here, right? 10:29 It's, it-- And, and then they are always gonna take it from the devil's advocate approach. 10:32 So now you've got this connected device, you have all of this data, and you're going to say that, "Hey, I'm going to be able to determine, um, that a patient is going to, you know, have a, uh, an arrhythmia before it happens," let's say. 10:46 Or, "I'm gonna, I'm gonna be able to reduce response time." Well, is the doctor going to now depend on you to produce that? 10:52 And if the doctor is going to depend on you, could that introduce the doctor not making, uh, the best decision? And so when that happens, the regulatory guys, they, they, they get very, very, um, cautious. 11:04 And so the regulatory hurdle, of course, is, is another aspect of why, you know, when you look at healthcare, everything's kind of, you know, five years behind, uh, as soon as you think of, you know, technology and, and, and applying it in the healthcare industry. 11:16 And then the third component is the physician- You know, Waqas, can you hold that thought? Can you hold that thought? Sure. 11:21 We're gonna take a quick commercial bro-break, but I want you to continue talking about the, the FDA. 11:26 But I also want you to talk about your new product that your new solution, Bioflux, when we come back, 'cause I want our listeners to hear about that. So listeners, stick around. 11:34 We're gonna still continue on talking with Waqas Alsadeeq, who's from Biotricity, and you can check it out while we're at this bre- uh, commercial break at biotricity.com. 11:43 But stick around, we'll be right back right here on The Peggy Smedley Show, the voice of IoT. With great technology, as you're learning right now, comes great responsibility. Stick around, we'll be right back.Education. 11:57 Industry experts. Back to the basics. Is your company using the Internet of Things to its fullest potential? 12:03 Enlist the Peggy Smedley Institute and its team of experts to create a customized plan for how to apply the IoT to your specific needs. 12:11 Learn everything you need to know to achieve tangible business outcomes in today's digital economy. Contact us at six three zero nine three three zero eight four four. 12:21 That's six three zero nine three three zero eight four four, or visit learniot.com. [upbeat music] Hi, this is Rob Barnett, CEO and founder of vinvillage.com and the Wine and Dine show on VinVillage Radio. 12:34 Do you have a wine, event, product, or service to promote? Then contact vinvillage.com to reach thousands of wine lovers across the country. 12:42 VinVillage connects like-minded wine enthusiasts with unique and exclusive wines, events, products, and services. To learn more, contact us on vinvillage.com. VinVillage is where wine lovers connect. 12:55 [upbeat music] Come join over one hundred thirty thousand construction industry professionals in March twenty seventeen. CONEXPO-CON/AGG twenty seventeen is North America's largest construction show. 13:12 Explore over two and a half million square feet and imagine what's next with over twenty-five hundred exhibitors. Get the details at conexpoconagg.com/future and join us as we take this to the next level. 13:25 [upbeat music] Has your business been app-ified? Are you tired of doing marketing that doesn't deliver results? Mobile apps build loyalty and quality retention. 13:36 Your app from UPG Mobile puts your business on their mind and at their fingertips. UPG Mobile will give you a custom app highlighting how you are unique, targeting your message, and improving your open rates. 13:48 App-ify your business and amplify your presence with your customers at upgmobilemarketinggroup.com. [upbeat music] With great technology comes great responsibility. 14:02 Follow Internet of Things tech expert and futurist Peggy Smedley, repeatedly ranked as a top IoT and M2M influencer. 14:10 Go to Peggy_Smedley on Twitter for her take on the latest tech news and lively interviews with other industry insiders on her weekly radio show. Visit twitter.com and search for Peggy_Smedley to follow her today. 14:27 Did you know the majority of radio listeners are between the ages of thirty-five and fifty-four, have a household income of more than one hundred thousand dollars, are classified as executives or professionals, and share the show they listen to? 14:39 Become part of The Peggy Smedley Show to reach listeners looking for information on connected devices through cost-effective radio commercials or segment sponsorships. 14:48 Contact us at six three zero nine three three zero eight four four for more information or visit peggysmedleyshow.com. [upbeat music]
