A Game-Changer for Heart Health with Dr. David Albert, Chief Medical Officer and founder of AliveCor

[00:00:02] Hey everybody welcome back to the Outcomes Rocket here live at ACC 24 in Atlanta, Georgia

[00:00:09] I have the privilege of hosting

[00:00:12] Dr. David Albert today. He is the chief medical officer and founder at Alivecore

[00:00:19] Thank you for joining me today Dr. Albert. My pleasure sir

[00:00:22] How's the meeting been for you so far? Well, it's been chaotic

[00:00:25] We have a very busy booth schedule and I have a lot of meetings and a lot of sessions

[00:00:30] I want to go to so I've stayed busy the whole time. Well, that's great

[00:00:34] And thank you for making time for us today despite your busy schedule my pleasure

[00:00:38] And so one of the things that I want to do today in our time together

[00:00:42] Dr. Albert is really dive into the work that you guys are doing at Alivecore and how it's making a difference in particular to cardiology

[00:00:50] But before we do that, I'd love to learn more about you and the company

[00:00:53] The company started about 15 years ago. We really been in in

[00:00:59] commercialization phase since about 2013 so just 11 years ago and

[00:01:04] We've grown pretty significantly. So we're we just this past week reached over

[00:01:10] 250 million ECG's in our cloud database and that comes we've opened from over five

[00:01:17] million different people and we're used by active users of over a million people around the world over 40 countries

[00:01:24] So it's a business. It's grown far beyond what I thought

[00:01:28] 1112 years ago. Wow. And so when you started it and I'm always

[00:01:32] Fascinated by founder stories. What did you envision for it? It actually comes from an idea I had in

[00:01:38] 1995

[00:01:40] Where I saw the need for a direct path of communication between a patient and their

[00:01:45] cardiologist and the delivery of critical potentially life critical information the electrocardiogram their cardiac rhythm

[00:01:53] to the person who could best deal with that if there was a problem and so that technology didn't exist in 1995 and

[00:02:01] only with the add-on smartphones wireless communication technology and

[00:02:07] Did this become a reality and alive go get launched in?

[00:02:11] 2011 and ultimately went into market got FDA clearance 2013 and

[00:02:16] And today we have a sizable business and are used around the world by virtually every major medical center

[00:02:22] And we have an impact and you never know what kind of impact you're gonna have I have to tell you that at this meeting

[00:02:29] I probably had a half dozen people walk up to me and thank me really what did they what did they thank you for?

[00:02:35] They said thank you for inventing this. Wow. Thank you for helping me my patients my dad

[00:02:40] And that's what makes the whole thing worthwhile. I can tell you how did that make you feel like just it's a humbling thing

[00:02:45] That it's a humbling thing when I when somebody writes us and says, thank you for saving my dad's life

[00:02:52] Well, I'm not sure we did that but you're very welcome

[00:02:56] That's my pleasure. That's incredible

[00:02:58] What a great feeling to know that the work that you're doing is making an impact in people's lives here at ACC 24

[00:03:06] It's as much about

[00:03:08] Sharing what we've done as it is learning from others

[00:03:11] So is there a particular insight that's risen to the top for you at the meetings?

[00:03:15] Well, there is as a matter of fact

[00:03:17] I think we have a worldwide epidemic of obesity. We need to stop shaming people

[00:03:23] We need to treat it as a disease and the American College of cardiology. I can tell you cardiologists in general now

[00:03:29] I know many cardiologists

[00:03:32] We today make our living

[00:03:36] Taking care of sick people

[00:03:38] Tomorrow, I hope we make our living by preventing sick people and that's treating obesity

[00:03:44] Hypertension hyperlipidemia

[00:03:46] Those are some of the messages. I think are being transmitted. We're not quite there yet, but we're getting closer and prevention is

[00:03:54] Is the ultimate goal in ours? It's not treatment. We do that pretty well today, but we need to learn how to better prevent

[00:04:03] That's fantastic. Thank you for that

[00:04:04] And certainly it is a hot topic and it is making a big difference and

[00:04:09] Prevention is key and and so I want to ask you on the topic of AI in

[00:04:14] healthcare and in particular cardiology

[00:04:17] It seems like it's about prevention

[00:04:19] And so tell me your thoughts as well as what role a live core plays within that. We've been very involved with AI

[00:04:25] We've developed using our millions of ACGs deep neural networks deep learning and you're right

[00:04:32] It has a place in helping everyone's excited about chat GPT a revolution just in the last

[00:04:38] 15 months

[00:04:39] The most unbelievable fastest adoption of any technology ever

[00:04:43] But I view it as augmented intelligence. It's going to help us doctors. I can tell you this morning

[00:04:49] I was in a session where a representative from the American College of cardiology said

[00:04:54] We are having a huge shortage of cardiologists. We're not training as many as our retiring

[00:05:01] so the number of cardiologists is shrinking and

[00:05:04] That's at the same time the number of patients is increased. So that's burdening the system

[00:05:10] We need people what we call a PPS advanced practice professionals nurse practitioners physicians assistants

[00:05:17] We need pharmacists. We need nurses our ends

[00:05:21] We need everybody and we need them operating at the top of their license and we need their skill set

[00:05:28] augmented by

[00:05:30] Artificial intelligence and so I think that's one of the greatest opportunities just to help us deal with the problem of access

[00:05:37] It takes weeks months to schedule an appointment to get in to see somebody

[00:05:41] We have to do something about that and so I think that's where AI will make a big difference because it'll force

[00:05:48] multiply the limited resources we have I

[00:05:52] Really agree with that and I think it is a big opportunity for all of us as patients as providers health systems

[00:05:59] Society certainly a big opportunity. I was walking around and walked past the booth and I saw people they had a little device

[00:06:08] Tell me about the device and what does it do? Well?

[00:06:11] We have three devices if so we have a family of devices and more coming

[00:06:17] Can't know spoilers

[00:06:19] But we have two devices that we call single EDC G's

[00:06:23] You put your thumbs or fingers on them and they record what's called a rhythm strip and EKG

[00:06:28] Strip for 30 seconds or up to five minutes

[00:06:31] And then we have our six lead device which allows you to personally record half of what's called the tradition

[00:06:38] 12-lead ECG that involves not only holding your hands

[00:06:41] But putting on your left leg and these devices are all used by major medical centers, but they're also available

[00:06:48] direct to consumers

[00:06:50] You can go into a drugstore

[00:06:52] You can go into Walmart you can order from Amazon and get these products and they are true FDA cleared

[00:06:59] Medical products. They're just available direct to consumers and that's helped the access

[00:07:04] So as one of my friends a famous cardiologist Dr. Eric Topol said he said the new paradigm is and

[00:07:12] Said of the patient coming to me and me telling them their diagnosis

[00:07:15] They come to me and say I have atrial fibrillation. What are we going to do about it?

[00:07:18] If they bring me their diagnosis and so that's revolutionary and that helps

[00:07:24] Empower the patients helps them feel engaged in whatever condition they have and an engaged patient is a compliant patient

[00:07:32] So when we recommend prescribed therapy, they're more likely to keep it and do it

[00:07:39] And that's really important because we can prescribe the best medications the best therapies

[00:07:44] And if you don't do that if you don't keep doing them, they'll do no good

[00:07:47] So an engaged patient is a compliant patient is a patient with better outcomes

[00:07:52] I love that and I love your intuition

[00:07:55] Because even five years ago you didn't see the market moving toward

[00:08:00] consumerism

[00:08:01] That we now have with entrance like Best Buy coming into the fold

[00:08:07] What inspired that go to market approach to be honest with you

[00:08:11] It's a team approach read a live core have a dynamic team

[00:08:15] Dynamic leadership our CEO free Albany a whole team of people who are focused

[00:08:21] Many of my senior executives came from Amazon where they were focused on Alexa and the revolution that brought of

[00:08:29] Verbally interacting with a computing device and with the internet and they brought that attitude in that perspective in to our

[00:08:37] Medical area and really helped us drive today the consumer adoption our TV

[00:08:43] Advertisements basically building a brand so the Cartier brand is really among digital health is probably the best

[00:08:50] Singular brand I have people an anecdote small anecdote. Yeah, let's hear six weeks ago

[00:08:56] I was taking my dog into Petco to be groomed. Yeah, and I walk in carrying it was raining

[00:09:01] There's a woman checking out and she looks at me and I'm wearing a piece of a live-course flag of vests as

[00:09:06] A live-course she goes a live-course is that a dog or a cat food and I go no, ma'am

[00:09:11] No, it's not that and she said what is why do I know it? I said well, it's a heart monitor

[00:09:17] She says oh is that cardio type life? I'm got one of those. That's invaluable

[00:09:22] So there's a pet coat and that's an anecdote and I can tell you we I've had that experience in many places

[00:09:29] And so that's very satisfying because that means we're reaching people

[00:09:33] in their homes in their lives and

[00:09:36] We're bringing them technology that can make a difference and can improve their lives and their outcomes. So

[00:09:43] It's incredibly satisfying for me to see that that's fantastic

[00:09:46] I really appreciate you sharing that and the last one that I have for you here today

[00:09:51] Dr. Albert is really around our viewers and our listeners. What all the action would you leave them with?

[00:10:00] Just at the intersection of everything we've discussed and then where can they find out more about you about a live-course in the team?

[00:10:06] Obviously, we have

[00:10:07] WWW live-course.com or

[00:10:10] WWW cardio.com

[00:10:11] But the reality is

[00:10:13] What I hope is people become engaged in their health wellness what I mentioned before prevention eat right

[00:10:21] exercise

[00:10:22] See your doctor at a regular level whether it's once a year twice a year

[00:10:27] Get ahead of whatever your risk is whether it's your genes

[00:10:32] Whether it's your lifestyle and we at the live-court

[00:10:35] We believe the cardio brand is simply a tool to help you get better engaged with your heart health

[00:10:41] And if you're like I said, if you're better engaged

[00:10:44] You'll end up having a better outcome. So that's the takeaway. I can leave you. I love it that about Albert

[00:10:51] Thank you very much for today. Thanks for your insights. So thank you for inviting me

[00:10:55] I really appreciate it and for everybody watching and listening make sure you check out the show notes below

[00:11:00] So that you could get links to everything that dr. Albert shared today a summary of our discussion and best places to get in touch

[00:11:09] Thank you all for tuning in and dr. Albert. Thanks for being with us