Casey Means, MD

What constitutes a longevity clinic? You can find a well-structured answer in a wonderful white paper “In search of best practices for Longevity Clinics," which is a solid reference point for longevity practitioners of various backgrounds (linked in the comments). Here are some common “traits” of longevity clinics: ✔ They are focused on measuring biological age using advanced diagnostics such as DNA methylation clocks (e.g., DNAmAge, PhenoAge) and multi-omics approaches. ✔ Such clinics employ comprehensive health assessments including whole genome analysis, precision imaging like MRI and CT scans, and epigenetic testing. For instance, Fountain Life’s ‘150GB Upload’ program integrates imaging, genetics, and blood diagnostics, while the European Longevity Center offers assessments incorporating mitochondrial and blood marker analysis. ✔Interventions in the longevity clinics are highly personalized, often involving genomics-based exercise plans, nutrigenomic diets, and sleep optimization via wearables like EEG headbands. ✔Clients receive customized action plans that may include innovative therapies like hyperbaric oxygen therapy for muscle regeneration or cryotherapy for inflammation reduction. ✔The clinics typically leverage AI and machine learning for continuous health monitoring and predictive analytics, exemplified by deep phenotyping and immune response predictions. ✔Stress management and hormonal health are addressed through biofeedback and personalized hormone replacement therapies. Clinics often provide multi-cancer early detection diagnostics, utilizing AI-driven imaging and blood tests for preventive care. ✔Additionally, these centers tend to support at-home diagnostics, collecting longitudinal data via wearables to enhance personalized treatment strategies. So, longevity clinics thus represent a convergence of advanced diagnostics, personalized medicine, and preventive care. The central idea of the longevity industry is to shift the existing medical paradigm from reaction,disease treatment, to prevention and health optimization. Longevity clinics are the closest we can get to this paradigm, at the moment. #longevity #longevityclinics #agingresearch Kudos to Evelyne Bischof, MD, PhD Joanna Bensz, Eric Verdin, David Karow Andrea B. Maier and others who contributed to the creation of this white paper. Healthy Longevity Medicine Society

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Today was a big win for consumer health, with Flo Health Inc.'s valuation at $1 billion. We're hearing talk about the market becoming frothy again, but I’d argue—without seeing the detailed financials—that this valuation could be entirely warranted. Flo has built an impressive business, with 5 million paid subscribers and 70 million monthly active users. At $60 per year for users to access the product, this business has hundreds of millions in revenue and plenty of room to grow. It's increasingly clear to me that innovators focused on healthcare have been wildly underestimating consumer business models for years, believing that patients would only opt for solutions covered by their health plans and prescribed or recommended by their doctors. That thesis needs updating, particularly given high deductible plans and soaring co-pays. Innovators building solutions that users genuinely love will win - even in healthcare. These businesses also have the potential to move into B2B channels, which is far easier to do when you have an engaged, loyal user base. I expect we’ll see many more consumer health businesses “pop” in the years to come, further proving that consumers are ready and willing to pay for such solutions. We're watching closely at Cherish Kudos to the team at Flo for this impressive milestone. Lainie Muller Charlotte Yeh Aashima Gupta Avanlee Christine Esther Dyson Alexandra Drane Jessica Kamada Vin Gupta, MD MPA Asheesh Saksena Paul Crnkovich Josh Kampel Steve Chazin Lee Wagner #agingwithattitude #independentliving #consumerdrivencare

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Insights into Leadership in HealthTech 60% of founders of healthtech unicorns (companies valued at $1 billion or more) hold a PhD, in contrast to only 25% of founders in other sectors.. This data underscores the specialized knowledge and research background often required to innovate effectively within the complex landscape of healthcare technology. The prevalence of PhDs among healthrech leaders suggests a deep integration of scientific expertise with entrepreneurial vision, potentially driving more informed, impactful innovations in healthcare delivery, diagnostics, and treatment. #HealthTech #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #TechTrends

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Hot off the pre-print server – an important publication authored by the Atropos Health team exploring the performance of LLMs in answering real-world clinical questions. LLMs excel at summarizing and contextualizing existing literature, but cannot generate de novo medical evidence today. The results of the study highlight performance gains attributable to injecting novel, relevant, and up-to-date medical evidence into LLM-powered clinical decision support systems. Brigham Hyde Nigam Shah Saurabh Gombar Read the study here: https://lnkd.in/ecuU25Pq

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AI and Med Tech in Focus   AI System Developed to Identify Pathology in Tissues Engineers at Washington State University have developed an AI tool that uses images of human and animal tissue to detect abnormalities faster and more accurately than people. The AI algorithm was trained using images from past studies that involved kidney, testes, ovarian, prostate, breast and lymph node abnormalities. The new model detected disease in minutes—current processes take humans several hours and require specialized teams to check each other’s work. It was also found to be more accurate, sometimes detecting instances that humans had missed. The engineers designed the system to handle the processing load of the high-resolution gigapixel images by breaking them down into smaller tiles but still retaining the overall context of the tissue sample—akin to the zoom feature on a microscope or phone camera. Aside from getting diagnostic results more accurately and quickly, the new system also shows promise in epigenetics (the study of molecular processes that change gene behavior without changing underlying DNA). Epigenetic researchers can perform analyses and get results that used to take a year or more in just a couple of weeks. VC Investors are always adjusting their "Play Book" with a variety of options for investing. Mikal Ventures is one of those alternatives, offering curated solutions to real world problems. Reach out if you have questions on how we can be of assistance and bookmark https://mikalventures.com/ for additional insights and information.

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Today, we announced a $100M Series E funding round at a $3.3B valuation! Eight years ago, Spring Health started with Adam Chekroud's Lancet paper and our shared dream for using data to transform mental healthcare. We started the company literally in a Yale student dining hall and are now 1,200 employees and 10K+ providers around the globe. Our continued growth means more people are getting the care they need, and this new funding round will help us double down on increasing access, scaling our impact, and continuing to deliver even greater ROI to employers and health plans. By providing world-class mental healthcare and lowering costs for employers, we believe we are on track to build one of the world’s most valuable companies. I spoke with Emma Hinchcliffe at Fortune about today’s news and the future of precision mental health. You can read it here: https://lnkd.in/dNpvJPhq

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Some VC investors believe that brick and mortar - referring to a physical presence of some kind - should be avoided at all costs. Yet, the track record of clinic and hybrid care businesses in health care indicates otherwise. ==> One Medical (sold for $3.9 billion to Amazon), Oak Street (bought by CVS for $10.6 billion), Lifestance (IPO at $7.5 billion market cap), and PE-backed Premise Health (acquired by OMERS Private Equity for $1.1 billion) If a clinic is indicated as the optimal way to deliver care for that patient population, there are creative ways to build and operate them. Full article below with advice and strategies on how to build and operate hybrid clinics from my teammate Anarghya Vardhana from Maveron, Amir Dan Rubin from OneMedical Group, Steven Eidelman from Modern Animal and more!

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Someone broke down the estimated costs of a $15 Sweetgreen salad. We need these cost graphics for digital health to help future founders. Especially for tech enabled cos, the greatest cost is labor. Much of the "value created" is in curation and matching, which means the gross margins are reliant on labor arbitrage. Pay someone $X, but get paid $X+Y% per visit. The challenge with healthcare is that you often have to pick one of two business models: 1. specialized, low volume, high cost, low gross margin % 2. generalized, high volume, low cost, high gross margin % I'd argue founders should focus on gross dollars over the lifetime of the customer (like Jeff Bezos said) instead of gross margin %'s, but we'll leave that for another time. The challenge is that many tech enabled digital health cos have high cost of goods sold (labor) and moderately high product, design, and engineering budgets. We must build differentiated solutions for patients, clinicians, and clients to be out incumbents, however, we're realizing that companies are ultimately valued on the discounted value of future cash flows. And the high SG&A costs at most organizations might be inbalanced to the unit economics of the business. I'm not sure the math pencils out for everyone unfortunately. But I'm just a guy on the internet, would love to hear the thoughts from those smarter than I (you!). Comment below. --- p.s. I have no idea the accuracy of the graphic and not an investor in Sweetgreen. Cheers. Credit: David Crowther

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𝟴𝟮,𝟬𝟬𝟬,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗦𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗖𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗣𝗲𝗿 𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿: Last year Dr. Eduardo Hariton led a team of REIs and clinicians to produce a paper (link in comments) on the looming shortage of IVF doctors required to meet patient demand. Since that time California has mandated access to IVF and our future president has proposed a national mandate. All data point to a 5x increase in IVF cases or 2 million per year in the U.S.. In the paper, Hariton proposes ways to accelerate training and recommends cross-training other doctors to pick up the workload. Left unsaid is the other (perhaps larger) bottleneck in care delivery: the embryologists. To put the demands on embryologists in perspective, just look at the numbers as they relate to the volume of single cell manual procedures required each year to service 2 million IVF cycles. Annual IVF Cycles in the US: 2,000,000 Eggs Isolated and Denuded:  24,000,000 Sperm Selected:  24,000,000 ICSI:  24,000,000 Embryos vitrified: 10,000,000                            𝟴𝟮,𝟬𝟬𝟬,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀   Attempts to address the embryologist staffing crisis—highlighted by an estimated 400 unfilled positions in the U.S.—are akin to a whisper in a hurricane. This shortage can be directly tied to the stress and burnout that is the result of the demanding nature of embryology and its long hours and immense responsibility in high-stakes environments. At Conceivable Life Sciences, we offer a transformative solution: our AURA end-to-end automated IVF lab. Capable of performing 2,000 IVF cycles annually, it requires only 400 square feet of space. By integrating automation, we reduce the demand of manual processes, offering a scalable and sustainable path to meet rising demand while maintaining precision and consistency in care. #IVF #IVFautomation #automation #biotechnology #biotechadvancement #healthcaretechnology #fertility Ruben Alvero COL Micah Hill Rachel Weinerman Steven Young Shady Grove Fertility David Sable Jennifer Mersereau Shana Perman, PA-C Fiona W. Pardis Hosseinzadeh Anthony Imudia Erica Johnstone Ruth Lathi Paul Lin Erica M. Michele Munch Gloria Ríchard-Davis, MD, MBA, FACOG, MSCP FACOG Steven Young

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Does anyone want to put together a symposium for ABCT? Something on scaling evidence-based treatments, or using digital tools to disseminate EBTs in the real world? Or even using AI to scale EBTs? Let me know!

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MHI's biohack of the week! Part 1 of this week’s Beyond Biohacking Brothers explores how key lab results—like CBC, CMP, and Hemoglobin—offer crucial insights into your body’s performance. Learn how these tests reveal patterns in immune function, metabolism, and energy levels, helping you fine-tune your health strategy. Stay tuned for Part 2 next week, where we dive deeper into applying these insights for long-term optimization. Need help with your labs? We’re here to guide you. #BiohackOfTheWeek

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Investor Deck -> Trial Protocol -> Trial Results   Clinical trials are tough Compromises must be made in design and results often fall short of the vision. That’s where Clerkenwell Health comes in. Our Catalyst program helps bridge the gap with tailored support, expert strategy, and access to a network of researchers and investors—all designed to keep your clinical development on track. https://lnkd.in/eJdhMa-F   #makeclinicaltrialsgreatagain

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_What makes a good investment in healthcare? _ When is a good time to start thinking about the path to exit? _Where do we see the next #unicorn in #systemichealth? Experienced healthcare investor Dai Feng from CareCapital Group joins me and Jonathan Levine for our very first *video* episode of the #ThinkOralHealth #podcast. Take a listen.

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Three months after launching Pyx Health, we took $350,000 worth of R&D… and threw it in the trash. Here's what happened 👇 When Anne Jordan and I launched Pyx Health, we had about 300 members. Those members started their engagement with us by answering 100 questions about their social, mental, and physical health to uncover potential gaps in their well-being. (You know, the kind that you have to fill out every time you visit the doctor’s office) I thought this was a great idea – until I tried it myself. Sitting there at the kitchen table with Anne I got through a whopping 5 questions before I realized that the experience was… Boring. Time-consuming. Flat. Worst of all, there was no real-time feedback for the member – nothing to make the process worthwhile. So, we scrapped it. The whole thing. Three months of hard work and $350,000 later, we were back at square one. While it was risky, it ultimately turned out to be the best decision we could have made. We realized that to truly address loneliness, we needed a platform that felt empathetic and engaging. So, we built a chatbot that felt like a friend in a coffee shop. One that was warm and approachable. But we didn’t stop there. We combined the technology with support from real people: Compassionate, trained mentors who reach out to offer genuine support. With this method, those couple hundred users are now going on a couple hundred thousand. And our beloved chatbot Pyxir even has his own patent. 🤩 But, none of that would have been possible if we had been stubborn or fixated on sunk costs. Instead, we followed our guts. And it paid off. P.S. If you’ve had a similar experience, I’d love to hear your story in the comments below! Entrepreneurs know that risks are part of the journey – let’s share what we’ve learned along the way.

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Incredibly excited to share our updated Healthcare AI thesis. This is not a market map – in 4,000 words, we dive deeply into the research, products, business models, and market entry points that are reimagining healthcare with AI. More specifically, we cover: • Translating AI research into real-world products • Mapping modalities (software, copilots, agents, services, diagnostics, therapeutics) to problems in healthcare • Designing AI business models that unlock billion-dollar markets • Closing current gaps in healthcare AI infrastructure • Distinguishing AI platforms from point solutions Let us know what you think ⤵️

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MATTER’s Paratus Digital Health Accelerator provides funding and support services to help entrepreneurs validate the clinical, technical and business elements of their products and companies by working with health systems or other established partners. Paratus can connect innovators with mission-aligned study sites to support their solutions. Invite startups and university-backed projects to apply for non-dilutive funding ranging from $20,000 to $180,000 to help fund such studies. https://lnkd.in/gZ8GSgtq

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I’ve had the chance to go deep with a number of digital health alum, healthcare mentors and #corporate innovation partners over the past few days. A few themes to share:   1. Digital will change healthcare. Period. How is hard. But it will happen and the best are continuing to push ahead. 2. What keeps companies in the S&P 500 for 50 years or more? Partnerships and innovation. This is why large systems must practice the hard art of both partnership and partnership towards innovation. For startups, partnership reps may be more important than brand. 3. There is a difference between needs and behaviors that startups need to understand, especially in Healthcare where incentives, process, practices are complex. Finding who pays early is not only essential but existential. 4. Don’t optimize for valuation, optimize for value. Over the long-run, this is what will matter. In Healthcare, today value will have to tie to ROI. Pharma, providers, payors are under pressure. Your solution needs to be must-have and drive ROI.   MC Healthcare was launched over 5 years ago to accelerate industry/startup intelligence and collaboration and commercial partnerships for digital health startups and industry (payors, providers, pharma). Calling startups to apply. Want to be a partner to find and work with the best? DM me directly.

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TLDR - if you’re a early-stage investor, builder or health care provider that believes the below facts... we at Conduit Venture Labs have a stealth venture in the oven w/ Krisna Bhargava, PhD (let's connect). 🦠 Environmental factors are responsible for ~90% of chronic disease. https://lnkd.in/gSJPGXVs 🥺 Primary care does not have the time nor education to screen environmental exposure. https://lnkd.in/gJ5GtHMV 🚀 Functional/integrative care is growing at ~23% CAGR but is unaffordable to most people. https://lnkd.in/gWwuChYk

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