Using Clinical Analytics to Improve Critical Care with Brian Tufts, President & CEO at Ambient Clinical Analytics

[00:00:02] Hello everyone, welcome back to the Outcomes Rocket Podcast. I'm so excited to be here at the MedTech Innovator Radar Forum with the amazing Brian Tufts. He is the CEO of Ambient Clinical Analytics. Brian, thanks for joining us. Brian Tufts Thank you. Thanks for the invite. Happy to be here. Yeah, man. So you've been up to a lot. To get things started, just tell us a little bit about, you know, you and the company. Brian Tufts Sure. Well, I joined the company recently. So I'm new CEO to the company after 18 years. I'm a CEO of the company. I'm a CEO of the company.

[00:00:32] years at a large strategic in MedDevice. We was at a small company before that. So in some ways, it's coming back to the small company growth stage mindset, but really excited to do that and really excited to jump in and help a growth stage MedTech company. That's great. So help us understand more about the company. Yeah. So Ambient Clinical Analytics were based in Rochester, Minnesota, a spinoff of Mayo Clinic technology. If you're like Rochester, Minnesota, why that? Right. So it's a spinoff of Mayo Clinic technology, out licensing that technology that was built at Mayo,

[00:01:00] validated at Mayo, but now built into a commercial product and installed at a bunch of other locations and growing through hospitals throughout the nation. And it's a software. Software is a medical device. So it is FDA cleared. It's class two FDA cleared medical device that helps with patients in hospitals, right? You look at patient deterioration, complex patients like septic patients and other complex clinical conditions that they're trying to keep an eye on these very sick

[00:01:29] patients in the hospital. And it will fire detection and say, hey, you should check on patient Brian down in room 204, right? And then if a clinical condition is identified, then it's also workflow automation. So the software is really a unique combination of clinical analytics, clinical decision support, and workflow automation that in combination really leads to improved care. That's awesome. Are you focused on any particular care areas or disease states?

[00:01:55] Yeah. So I mentioned sepsis already. So the tool is mainly focused on critical care. Okay. When I say critical care, that could be ICU, that could be ED, that could be even parts of the floor, but generally patients that you're worried about deterioration. Right. So one of our cornerstone applications is what we call sepsis DART as detection and response tool. So that's both detecting a patient that meets the profile of the sepsis definition that a hospital has or general SEP1 protocols. And then importantly,

[00:02:23] embedding into the workflow, the response to that, right? So here's our sepsis protocol. They want fluids within a certain amount of time or antibiotics in a certain time or another lactate draw, right? Whatever the sepsis protocol of that hospital is, the tool can help embed that in the workflow for the docs and nurses to make it seamless. That's really great. And then as you think about SAMD, you know, software as a medical device, like, I mean, this is where it's going.

[00:02:48] Software eats the world, right? And then AI eats software, as a friend of mine likes to say. What is the company doing as far as AI and things like that? Because that's a big thing nowadays. Yeah. So, I mean, I like your software eats the world because we can look at this and see patients in the hospital and say, clearly hospitals can better leverage the rich data sets that they have. Right. So I think that's inevitable. I have strong conviction. And it's part of my passion of joining the company and jumping into this space. I do believe it's inevitable that we're going to

[00:03:17] better leverage large data sets for improved clinical care. The question is how to do that, right? Because it's not just like, oh, Saul and Brian came up with our own AI algorithm. Like, let's take care of patients this way. Get more doctors and nurses. It's not that at all. It's like, how do you augment and make that data come alive in terms of insights? And how do you do that in a controlled, validated, structured way, right? So I mentioned earlier, validated data sets

[00:03:42] from Mayo Clinic, right? Built over years of experience there. Then taken through FDA class to as a medical device, right? And it's like ISO 13845 as well. So you want proven, validated systems that you're installing to help care for patients, not just the latest large language model that someone can put together and scrap together an AI. So that is the way of the future. But I think we're going to

[00:04:07] step into it, look, in med tech, we're going to step into it thoughtfully, methodically, and in a way that is giving reverence to the patients that we're serving. These are really sick patients that are having, you know, some of the worst days of their lives in the hospital. Want to make sure that we're doing that level of care in a very thoughtful way. So that I think is the balance. Now, can we do it faster? Can you do the implementations faster? Can you do the workflow analysis faster? Can you leverage

[00:04:31] AI tools to speed that time to implementation and really move faster? That's certainly something we're working on. But the actual model that, you know, FDA cleared model, that's kind of old school algorithmic type rules based. And I would argue for good reason. Yeah, for sure. Versus, you know, hygienic AI type of thing. So it's more of a like the algorithm, the device sits on a bedrock of

[00:04:56] clinical proof backed by the many years in Rochester with the Mayo Clinic. But the AI comes in to help accelerate some of the things, the insights that come from it, the automations, the workflows. Correct. So I think we can continue to move faster. I wouldn't want to confuse that or conflate that into like, oh, so you're just embedding AI to make the clinical decisions. No, no, no. That's not the case. But it's a very, but it's a very exciting space. And look, hospital CIOs are being asked,

[00:05:25] how are you leveraging big data to improve patient care? So it's very exciting for us to then come to the table and say, hey, here's a validated, structured, cleared way to go do that in a high quality, reliable way. So I do feel like it's kind of, I don't want to say like riding the coattails of the chat GBT, right? But like, as everyone is becoming more and more comfortable with big data, the large data sets and algorithms and AI overall, it does feel like that well positions the company

[00:05:52] to go out and meet that need. That's great. So what brings you to MedTech Innovator? So we're a growth stage company, right? That's the good news. And a lot of the other folks that I've met with over the last few days are early stage, right? Are seeing Series A just getting going. So we're a little bit past that in terms of growth stage. But that being said, this forum is just so unique in that everyone it brings together, right? I've had discussions with regulatory folks, quality folks, legal folks, right? So it's almost like you have your management team.

[00:06:22] That's so great. Like that you're just meeting with folks throughout the day, right? And for us, we have some of those systems in place already, and there's still areas we can improve as we grow and scale. But for companies that are just getting started, real early stage companies, this has got to just be a gem of a meeting because they can meet with all those stakeholders in a day. And that's to say nothing of the government stakeholders like FDA is here, CMS is here, there's large health systems

[00:06:49] here, and there's strategics here. So when you put all those various different stakeholders in the ecosystem in the same time and same space, I think it's hugely valuable. So we're actually not here to raise money. We're not for a lot of the reasons that other people are here. We're here for different reasons to grow and scale. But that same community, that same ecosystem is very valuable for us as well. Wow. That's awesome, man. Yeah. And I couldn't agree with you more. It's a phenomenal environment to

[00:07:17] really get that cross-functional expertise across the board. If you wanted to leave folks with the best way to get in touch with you and the team, what place would be the best place for them to do that? Right. So, I mean, we're, again, Ambient Clinical Analytics, and you can, you know, punch us up and find our website at ambientclinical.com. I'm pretty active on LinkedIn. So you can punch me up on LinkedIn. And if you're watching this, maybe on LinkedIn or other platforms, certainly reach out

[00:07:45] and connect with me that way. And like I said, we're looking to grow and scale the company. And we're looking for partners, whether that's health systems, strategics, or otherwise, to help us accomplish that. That's awesome, Brian. Well, really appreciate that. For everybody with us, thanks for tuning in to another episode here from MedTech Innovator. And it's just a privilege to have Brian Tufts. He's the CEO of Ambient Clinical Analytics. In the show notes, you're going to find all the ways to get in touch with him and the company. So make sure you do.

[00:08:13] And if something in today's episode resonated, share with your friends, because that's how we get the word out on the latest innovations in MedTech. Thank you all for tuning in. And Brian, thanks for being with us. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you.