<![CDATA[What the Health with Emily Casey]]>a7820050-24aa-58dc-8ba0-9a8e5ff30331Tue, 15 Sep 2026 01:38:43 +0000Captivate.fmDay One®https://artwork.captivate.fm/4674bbc7-da9b-4601-a917-2ac9028a8df5/what-the-health-the-day-one-network.jpgWhat the Health with Emily CaseyDay One®Day One®What The Health cuts through the BS in health innovation with honest conversations, rants, bants, practical insights, and the people shaping what's next. Less hype. More signal. Hosted by Emily Casey — Director of What The Health, one of Australia's leading health innovation media and communities of 11,000+, and Community & Partnership Lead at Tenmile. Brought to you with Tenmile (www.tenmile.com).https://dayone.fm/show/what-the-health-with-emily-casey/falseepisodicnopodcastThe Cancer Vaccine That Worked and the Wearables That Don't?The Cancer Vaccine That Worked and the Wearables That Don't?A personalised mRNA cancer vaccine has succeeded in a late-stage trial for the first time, and Moderna's shares ripped as much as 177% in a single day on the news. Cancer vaccines have been a graveyard for decades. Something changed.

In the third What the Health Wrap, host Emily Casey is joined by two of her Tenmile colleagues — Dr Joey Man and Dr Michael Lamprecht, investors and scientists with roughly 30 years between them across molecular biology, therapeutics and biotech in the US, Singapore and Australia — for the lunchroom conversation, not the press release.

They start with Moderna and Merck's Phase 3 result. Intismeran autogene, given alongside Keytruda after melanoma surgery, met its primary endpoint of recurrence-free survival and a key secondary endpoint in a trial of more than 1,100 patients. Michael explains what an individualised neoantigen therapy actually is: take a piece of the patient's tumour, work out which signals mark it out from healthy tissue, and turn those into a bespoke vaccine that teaches the immune system what to attack. Joey walks through the part she finds most elegant — an algorithm that reads the patient's normal tissue against their tumour, predicts the mutations a future metastasis would express, picks the top 36, and produces a single-patient batch on a six-to-eight-week timeline deliberately synchronised with the surgery and the standard Keytruda schedule.

The more interesting question is why this one worked when so many didn't. Michael's answer has three parts: it is given in combination with a drug that releases the brake on the immune system, it uses antigens specific to that patient rather than the off-the-shelf antigens that failed before, and — critically — the sponsors got regulators to assess the process rather than each individual antigen. The COVID years, for all the reputational damage they did to mRNA, built the manufacturing infrastructure that makes a one-patient batch possible at all. Joey's read on the share price: a fair reward for patience and a pivot, and a sign that the market has not written off mRNA the way the politics suggested.

From there the conversation turns to the thing Joey is genuinely worried about. From 1 February 2027, Australian reforms will let health technology providers — wearables and monitoring platforms included — collect, use and disclose individual healthcare identifiers with patient consent for permitted purposes. It is close to a world first, and it lands just as a roughly US$44 billion wearables market pushes from wellness towards diagnostics. Joey's objection is not the pipe, it is the water: "just because the pipe is there, it doesn't mean the water quality inside that pipe is good." Storing consumer-sensor data alongside blood work risks lending it a validity it has not earned. Michael pushes back — data is data, sensors improve, and a continuous monitor beats a patient's recollection in a consult. Emily makes the case that a single blood test at a single moment is not the gold standard people assume either, and that longitudinal data is exactly what has been missing.

That tension runs straight into Oura, which is reportedly preparing a US IPO that could value it above US$16 billion while facing a proposed class action over its sleep-tracking claims. Joey is blunt: clinical sleep staging needs EEG, eye movement and muscle movement, and a ring cannot measure EEG. She contrasts the marketed accuracy figure with the 50–53% range she has seen in published work, and notes the awkwardness of defending a 95% claim with "we're not a medical device." Her own ring is a RingConn, bought with expectations set accordingly. Where she does see real progress is in the headband EEG work now being used to track sleep as a treatment-efficacy signal in depression trials.

Then women's health, where the same problem shows up wearing better marketing. Whoop's expanded partnership with Natural Cycles lets overnight skin temperature feed an FDA-cleared contraceptive app — but, as Joey points out, the clearance and the algorithm belong to Natural Cycles, not to Whoop. Oura is building out cycle, pregnancy, postpartum and menopause features. Emily's UltraHuman sends her cycle predictions that are unnervingly accurate, and none of them make the wellness-versus-clinical line any clearer. All three agree the demand is real and long overdue: women have been asking for information about their own bodies that the research never generated.

Joey came to the recording from the Women's Health Foundry investment roundtable, and gives a live read on why the money has been slow. The blockage is upstream — without the research, you cannot define the problem precisely enough to build or fund a solution. Australia produces strong women's health research; the work now is consolidating it into something commercially investable, because commercial dollars move faster than academic ones. Michael's counter is that pharma appetite follows market clarity, not the other way around, and that the market is unambiguously huge. Sun Pharma's roughly US$11.75 billion acquisition of Organon — the women's health business Merck spun out in 2021 — is the proof point.

The last stretch is neuropsychiatry, and Michael's home turf. Eli Lilly has agreed to acquire atai Beckley for US$2.8 billion upfront and up to US$1 billion more in milestones, for a lead programme delivering a short in-clinic psychedelic experience in treatment-resistant depression. Psilocybin and MDMA are both up for approval decisions. Michael explains what a neuroplastogen is — a drug that reopens the brain's ability to rewire, on the theory that depression traps people in a loop they cannot think their way out of — and why he is most interested in the programmes chasing that effect without the trip. Xylo, formerly Psylo, is the Tenmile portfolio company working on exactly that; Michael sits on its board. His prediction: full-day psilocybin protocols will be a niche, because the personnel and infrastructure required cannot compete with a short-acting drug that produces a comparable result.

You'll also hear why Michael thinks AI applied to small molecules is the most underhyped thing in the field, Joey's case for patient-relevant preclinical models replacing animal models in women's health, an unhedged "wearables" when Emily asks what's most overhyped, and a rapid fire that lands on the table-flip emoji, the side eye, the generosity of strangers on the other side of the world, Chopin's Étude No. 5, and two very tired investors who would both quite like some sleep.

Guests

Dr Joey Man Investment Associate, Tenmile Ventures (Melbourne). PhD in Molecular Biology from Monash University's Biomedicine Discovery Institute (breast cancer cell signalling and metastasis); former CSIRO postdoc researching zero-gravity effects on stem cells, with an investing background from Main Sequence Ventures and CSIRO's ON Accelerator.

Dr Michael Lamprecht Investment Manager, Tenmile Ventures (Sydney), specialising in biotech and early-stage investment. PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University; previously Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Xora Innovation and Director of Regulatory Affairs at EpiBone, with 15+ years building regulatory and clinical strategy for cell-based therapies.

Chapters:

00:00 Cold open

01:03 Welcome and meet the guests

02:59 This fortnight's headlines

04:57 Merck and Moderna's personalised cancer vaccine, explained

11:06 Why working with regulators made this vaccine possible

19:18 Australia's 2027 healthcare identifier reform and the wearables boom

26:38 Oura's sleep-tracking accuracy claims and the class action

30:29 Wearables push into women's health

36:21 Why women's health struggles to attract investment

41:50 Big pharma's next-gen psychiatry bet

51:43 Rapid fire

Links and resources

  • Merck and Moderna — Phase 3 INTerpath-001 results: https://www.merck.com/news/merck-and-moderna-announce-phase-3-interpath-001-trial-of-intismeran-autogene-plus-keytruda-met-endpoints-of-recurrence-free-survival-rfs-and-distant-metastasis-free-survival-dmfs-in-patient/
  • Australia's healthcare identifier reforms, effective 1 February 2027: https://www.minterellison.com/articles/digital-health-reforms-the-regulatory-reform-omnibus-act
  • Department of Health — Healthcare Identifiers Service: https://www.health.gov.au/topics/health-technologies-and-digital-health/about/healthcare-identifiers
  • Oura's reported US IPO plans: https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/24/oura-is-reportedly-eyeing-a-september-ipo-that-could-value-it-at-more-than-16b/
  • Whoop's expanded Natural Cycles partnership: A personalised mRNA cancer vaccine has succeeded in a late-stage trial for the first time, and Moderna's shares ripped as much as 177% in a single day on the news. Cancer vaccines have been a graveyard for decades. Something changed.

    In the third What the Health Wrap, host Emily Casey is joined by two of her Tenmile colleagues — Dr Joey Man and Dr Michael Lamprecht, investors and scientists with roughly 30 years between them across molecular biology, therapeutics and biotech in the US, Singapore and Australia — for the lunchroom conversation, not the press release.

    They start with Moderna and Merck's Phase 3 result. Intismeran autogene, given alongside Keytruda after melanoma surgery, met its primary endpoint of recurrence-free survival and a key secondary endpoint in a trial of more than 1,100 patients. Michael explains what an individualised neoantigen therapy actually is: take a piece of the patient's tumour, work out which signals mark it out from healthy tissue, and turn those into a bespoke vaccine that teaches the immune system what to attack. Joey walks through the part she finds most elegant — an algorithm that reads the patient's normal tissue against their tumour, predicts the mutations a future metastasis would express, picks the top 36, and produces a single-patient batch on a six-to-eight-week timeline deliberately synchronised with the surgery and the standard Keytruda schedule.

    The more interesting question is why this one worked when so many didn't. Michael's answer has three parts: it is given in combination with a drug that releases the brake on the immune system, it uses antigens specific to that patient rather than the off-the-shelf antigens that failed before, and — critically — the sponsors got regulators to assess the process rather than each individual antigen. The COVID years, for all the reputational damage they did to mRNA, built the manufacturing infrastructure that makes a one-patient batch possible at all. Joey's read on the share price: a fair reward for patience and a pivot, and a sign that the market has not written off mRNA the way the politics suggested.

    From there the conversation turns to the thing Joey is genuinely worried about. From 1 February 2027, Australian reforms will let health technology providers — wearables and monitoring platforms included — collect, use and disclose individual healthcare identifiers with patient consent for permitted purposes. It is close to a world first, and it lands just as a roughly US$44 billion wearables market pushes from wellness towards diagnostics. Joey's objection is not the pipe, it is the water: "just because the pipe is there, it doesn't mean the water quality inside that pipe is good." Storing consumer-sensor data alongside blood work risks lending it a validity it has not earned. Michael pushes back — data is data, sensors improve, and a continuous monitor beats a patient's recollection in a consult. Emily makes the case that a single blood test at a single moment is not the gold standard people assume either, and that longitudinal data is exactly what has been missing.

    That tension runs straight into Oura, which is reportedly preparing a US IPO that could value it above US$16 billion while facing a proposed class action over its sleep-tracking claims. Joey is blunt: clinical sleep staging needs EEG, eye movement and muscle movement, and a ring cannot measure EEG. She contrasts the marketed accuracy figure with the 50–53% range she has seen in published work, and notes the awkwardness of defending a 95% claim with "we're not a medical device." Her own ring is a RingConn, bought with expectations set accordingly. Where she does see real progress is in the headband EEG work now being used to track sleep as a treatment-efficacy signal in depression trials.

    Then women's health, where the same problem shows up wearing better marketing. Whoop's expanded partnership with Natural Cycles lets overnight skin temperature feed an FDA-cleared contraceptive app — but, as Joey points out, the clearance and the algorithm belong to Natural Cycles, not to Whoop. Oura is building out cycle, pregnancy, postpartum and menopause features. Emily's UltraHuman sends her cycle predictions that are unnervingly accurate, and none of them make the wellness-versus-clinical line any clearer. All three agree the demand is real and long overdue: women have been asking for information about their own bodies that the research never generated.

    Joey came to the recording from the Women's Health Foundry investment roundtable, and gives a live read on why the money has been slow. The blockage is upstream — without the research, you cannot define the problem precisely enough to build or fund a solution. Australia produces strong women's health research; the work now is consolidating it into something commercially investable, because commercial dollars move faster than academic ones. Michael's counter is that pharma appetite follows market clarity, not the other way around, and that the market is unambiguously huge. Sun Pharma's roughly US$11.75 billion acquisition of Organon — the women's health business Merck spun out in 2021 — is the proof point.

    The last stretch is neuropsychiatry, and Michael's home turf. Eli Lilly has agreed to acquire atai Beckley for US$2.8 billion upfront and up to US$1 billion more in milestones, for a lead programme delivering a short in-clinic psychedelic experience in treatment-resistant depression. Psilocybin and MDMA are both up for approval decisions. Michael explains what a neuroplastogen is — a drug that reopens the brain's ability to rewire, on the theory that depression traps people in a loop they cannot think their way out of — and why he is most interested in the programmes chasing that effect without the trip. Xylo, formerly Psylo, is the Tenmile portfolio company working on exactly that; Michael sits on its board. His prediction: full-day psilocybin protocols will be a niche, because the personnel and infrastructure required cannot compete with a short-acting drug that produces a comparable result.

    You'll also hear why Michael thinks AI applied to small molecules is the most underhyped thing in the field, Joey's case for patient-relevant preclinical models replacing animal models in women's health, an unhedged "wearables" when Emily asks what's most overhyped, and a rapid fire that lands on the table-flip emoji, the side eye, the generosity of strangers on the other side of the world, Chopin's Étude No. 5, and two very tired investors who would both quite like some sleep.

    Guests

    Dr Joey Man Investment Associate, Tenmile Ventures (Melbourne). PhD in Molecular Biology from Monash University's Biomedicine Discovery Institute (breast cancer cell signalling and metastasis); former CSIRO postdoc researching zero-gravity effects on stem cells, with an investing background from Main Sequence Ventures and CSIRO's ON Accelerator.

    Dr Michael Lamprecht Investment Manager, Tenmile Ventures (Sydney), specialising in biotech and early-stage investment. PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University; previously Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Xora Innovation and Director of Regulatory Affairs at EpiBone, with 15+ years building regulatory and clinical strategy for cell-based therapies.

    Chapters:

    00:00 Cold open

    01:03 Welcome and meet the guests

    02:59 This fortnight's headlines

    04:57 Merck and Moderna's personalised cancer vaccine, explained

    11:06 Why working with regulators made this vaccine possible

    19:18 Australia's 2027 healthcare identifier reform and the wearables boom

    26:38 Oura's sleep-tracking accuracy claims and the class action

    30:29 Wearables push into women's health

    36:21 Why women's health struggles to attract investment

    41:50 Big pharma's next-gen psychiatry bet

    51:43 Rapid fire

    Links and resources


    About the host

    Emily Casey is the founder and Director of What the Health and host of the What the Health Wrap, making major developments in health technology and innovation easier to understand. She also leads community and partnerships at Tenmile.

    The What the Health Wrap is brought to you by What the Health in partnership with Tenmile Ventures — https://www.tenmile.com/

    What the Health is part of Day One Network, the podcast and media network from W2D1 Media — https://dayone.fm/

    ]]>    67088e7c-2e64-4f7b-8b4f-a5cf9899dc22Mon, 14 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +100056:52falsefull1441The Psychedelic Resurgence: From Counterculture to Clinical Breakthrough with Dr Michael WinloThe Psychedelic Resurgence: From Counterculture to Clinical Breakthrough with Dr Michael WinloOne in three people will experience a mental health disorder in their lifetime, PTSD went more than 20 years without a new approved treatment, and spending keeps rising while outcomes keep getting worse. Against that backdrop, Australia has become the first country in the world where psychiatrists can prescribe MDMA and psilocybin.

    In this episode, host Emily Casey sits down with Dr Michael Winlo, Chief Scientific Officer at Emyria, the company behind the Empax network of psychedelic-assisted therapy clinics. Michael trained as a doctor, spent four years in Palantir's healthcare team in Silicon Valley, then returned to Perth to run a clinical trial site — an experience that convinced him care delivery and evidence generation belong together, and led to Emyria.

    Michael explains how the two legal treatments actually work. MDMA floods the brain with serotonin and oxytocin, quietens an overactive amygdala and lets patients with post-traumatic stress disorder work through trauma in therapy without being overwhelmed by fear or shame. Psilocybin quietens the default mode network behind rumination and negative self-talk — Michael's metaphor is shaking up a snow globe and letting the snow settle into new patterns — and both drugs open a roughly seven-day window of heightened neuroplasticity that therapy can use.

    The pair trace the strange history that got us here: MDMA first synthesised by Merck in 1912, psychedelics on the cover of psychiatry journals in the 1960s, roughly 500,000 people given MDMA in therapeutic settings before the war on drugs shut the research down. Charitable funding through MAPS kept the science alive, and the resulting phase 2 and 3 trials left the TGA unable to maintain that these drugs had no therapeutic value — leading to the world-first rescheduling in 2023.

    Michael then walks through what treatment at an Empax clinic involves: careful screening, a two-therapist dyad that stays with the patient for the whole journey, six-to-eight-hour dosing days in a low-stimulus room, and integration sessions that turn insights into durable habits. Emyria has now treated more than 100 patients, with rapid improvement that appears durable for most — results that have brought funders like Medibank and the Department of Veterans' Affairs on board.

    The conversation closes on what it will take to make this mainstream: health-economic evidence for a treatment that costs around $10,000 a dosing cycle, the watershed of a first FDA approval, more sensible regulation of who can deliver therapy, and the infrastructure and training to meet demand. Michael argues psychedelics are still under-hyped — used today as a last resort when they may do the most good earlier in a patient's journey — and leaves clinicians with one message: learn with your patients.

    Guest

    Dr Michael Winlo is Chief Scientific Officer at Emyria, the ASX-listed company behind the Empax network of psychedelic-assisted therapy clinics, treating post-traumatic stress disorder and treatment-resistant depression under the TGA's Authorised Prescriber Scheme. Trained as a medical doctor, he spent four years in Palantir's healthcare team in Silicon Valley and led Perth's Linear Clinical Research before joining Emyria to build a model of care that treats patients and generates evidence at the same time.

    Chapters

    00:00 Psychedelics return to healthcare

    00:57 What Emyria and the Empax clinics do

    02:08 From medicine to Palantir and back to Perth

    08:32 Why mental health care is falling behind

    12:37 What psychedelics actually are

    13:55 How MDMA-assisted therapy works

    17:44 Psilocybin and the default mode network

    21:05 A century of history: from Merck to the war on drugs

    24:18 The revival: MAPS, new trials and Australia's rescheduling

    27:17 Why psychiatry innovates slowly

    29:47 Inside treatment: screening, dosing days and integration

    33:33 The data so far: 100+ patients, Medibank and the DVA

    35:18 Ketamine and the coming wave of new treatments

    36:47 FDA approval and the funding shift

    43:30 Emyria's ten-year vision

    45:47 Bottlenecks: training, regulation and infrastructure

    47:31 Psychedelic therapy in 2035

    49:09 Rapid fire: hype, books and one message for clinicians

    Links and resources

    Emyria: https://emyria.com/

    Empax Centre: https://empaxcentre.com/

    TGA — re-scheduling of psilocybin and MDMA, questions and answers: https://www.tga.gov.au/resources/publication/scheduling-decisions-final/notice-final-decision-amend-or-not-amend-current-poisons-standard-june-2022-acms-38-psilocybine-and-mdma/re-scheduling-psilocybin-and-mdma-poisons-standard-questions-and-answers

    MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies): https://maps.org/

    COMPASS Pathways: https://compasspathway.com/

    The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beginning_of_Infinity

    Moonshots with Peter Diamandis: https://www.diamandis.com/podcast

    About the host

    Emily Casey is the founder of What the Health and host of the show, making major developments in health technology and innovation easier to understand.

    What the Health is brought to you in partnership with Tenmile Ventures.

    What the Health is part of Day One Network, the podcast and media network from W2D1 Media: https://dayone.fm/

    ]]>    One in three people will experience a mental health disorder in their lifetime, PTSD went more than 20 years without a new approved treatment, and spending keeps rising while outcomes keep getting worse. Against that backdrop, Australia has become the first country in the world where psychiatrists can prescribe MDMA and psilocybin.

    In this episode, host Emily Casey sits down with Dr Michael Winlo, Chief Scientific Officer at Emyria, the company behind the Empax network of psychedelic-assisted therapy clinics. Michael trained as a doctor, spent four years in Palantir's healthcare team in Silicon Valley, then returned to Perth to run a clinical trial site — an experience that convinced him care delivery and evidence generation belong together, and led to Emyria.

    Michael explains how the two legal treatments actually work. MDMA floods the brain with serotonin and oxytocin, quietens an overactive amygdala and lets patients with post-traumatic stress disorder work through trauma in therapy without being overwhelmed by fear or shame. Psilocybin quietens the default mode network behind rumination and negative self-talk — Michael's metaphor is shaking up a snow globe and letting the snow settle into new patterns — and both drugs open a roughly seven-day window of heightened neuroplasticity that therapy can use.

    The pair trace the strange history that got us here: MDMA first synthesised by Merck in 1912, psychedelics on the cover of psychiatry journals in the 1960s, roughly 500,000 people given MDMA in therapeutic settings before the war on drugs shut the research down. Charitable funding through MAPS kept the science alive, and the resulting phase 2 and 3 trials left the TGA unable to maintain that these drugs had no therapeutic value — leading to the world-first rescheduling in 2023.

    Michael then walks through what treatment at an Empax clinic involves: careful screening, a two-therapist dyad that stays with the patient for the whole journey, six-to-eight-hour dosing days in a low-stimulus room, and integration sessions that turn insights into durable habits. Emyria has now treated more than 100 patients, with rapid improvement that appears durable for most — results that have brought funders like Medibank and the Department of Veterans' Affairs on board.

    The conversation closes on what it will take to make this mainstream: health-economic evidence for a treatment that costs around $10,000 a dosing cycle, the watershed of a first FDA approval, more sensible regulation of who can deliver therapy, and the infrastructure and training to meet demand. Michael argues psychedelics are still under-hyped — used today as a last resort when they may do the most good earlier in a patient's journey — and leaves clinicians with one message: learn with your patients.

    Guest

    Dr Michael Winlo is Chief Scientific Officer at Emyria, the ASX-listed company behind the Empax network of psychedelic-assisted therapy clinics, treating post-traumatic stress disorder and treatment-resistant depression under the TGA's Authorised Prescriber Scheme. Trained as a medical doctor, he spent four years in Palantir's healthcare team in Silicon Valley and led Perth's Linear Clinical Research before joining Emyria to build a model of care that treats patients and generates evidence at the same time.

    Chapters

    00:00 Psychedelics return to healthcare

    00:57 What Emyria and the Empax clinics do

    02:08 From medicine to Palantir and back to Perth

    08:32 Why mental health care is falling behind

    12:37 What psychedelics actually are

    13:55 How MDMA-assisted therapy works

    17:44 Psilocybin and the default mode network

    21:05 A century of history: from Merck to the war on drugs

    24:18 The revival: MAPS, new trials and Australia's rescheduling

    27:17 Why psychiatry innovates slowly

    29:47 Inside treatment: screening, dosing days and integration

    33:33 The data so far: 100+ patients, Medibank and the DVA

    35:18 Ketamine and the coming wave of new treatments

    36:47 FDA approval and the funding shift

    43:30 Emyria's ten-year vision

    45:47 Bottlenecks: training, regulation and infrastructure

    47:31 Psychedelic therapy in 2035

    49:09 Rapid fire: hype, books and one message for clinicians

    Links and resources

    Emyria: https://emyria.com/

    Empax Centre: https://empaxcentre.com/

    TGA — re-scheduling of psilocybin and MDMA, questions and answers: https://www.tga.gov.au/resources/publication/scheduling-decisions-final/notice-final-decision-amend-or-not-amend-current-poisons-standard-june-2022-acms-38-psilocybine-and-mdma/re-scheduling-psilocybin-and-mdma-poisons-standard-questions-and-answers

    MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies): https://maps.org/

    COMPASS Pathways: https://compasspathway.com/

    The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beginning_of_Infinity

    Moonshots with Peter Diamandis: https://www.diamandis.com/podcast

    About the host

    Emily Casey is the founder of What the Health and host of the show, making major developments in health technology and innovation easier to understand.

    What the Health is brought to you in partnership with Tenmile Ventures.

    What the Health is part of Day One Network, the podcast and media network from W2D1 Media: https://dayone.fm/

    ]]>    cd29b749-b995-4f8b-9b53-0f612851b4f5Thu, 27 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +100054:00falsefull1331    HealthGPT and What Happens Now AI Is Table StakesHealthGPT and What Happens Now AI Is Table StakesA survey of more than 1,800 clinicians across 25 countries found 83% had already adopted AI before their workplace had any governance in place. Healthcare, it turns out, is not just adopting AI. It is being redesigned around it.

    In the second What the Health Wrap, host Emily Casey is joined by Dr Simon Kos, Global Chief Medical Officer at Heidi, and Dr Janice Tan, GP and General Manager of Clinical Innovation at Bupa, to work through what the fortnight's biggest healthcare stories actually mean.

    Simon uses Heidi's Pressure Points report to bust some long-held myths. Clinicians are not Luddites; get product-market fit right and they will adopt ahead of their own organisations. Product-led growth is not impossible in healthcare. And the idea that everything must run through a single electronic medical record screen does not survive contact with the reality of shadow AI. Janice agrees, arguing that GPs are among the most innovative professionals there are, and that what matters is not clicks or screens but the value exchange.

    The conversation turns to where this leaves general practice. Both guests expect voice to become the default way information is entered within two years, freeing clinicians for deeper, more present consultations rather than merely shorter ones. Janice makes the point that scribes save time not to compress the visit but to enrich it. Simon argues that scribes should be commoditised, because they are the entry point to something bigger: infusing evidence and decision support into the flow of care.

    They also examine what happens when patients bring their own AI into the room. OpenAI's launch of Health in ChatGPT, and the broader move by frontier labs into consumer health, could be the single biggest driver of health equity, filling the gap for people who previously had no care at all. But Simon draws a firm line between consumer-grade and clinical-grade health, pointing to the liability caps some providers attach to their advice and the accountability the medical profession is held to. The regulatory framework for quality and safety is not yet in place, but it is coming fast.

    Janice explains Bupa's own metamorphosis from health insurer to health organisation, investing heavily in primary and preventive care across medical, dental, optical and psychology clinics, and rolling out AI scribes to its clinicians under strong governance. Simon zooms out to a health system whose old boundaries between payer, provider, acute, primary and consumer care are blurring, driven by digital capability, policy reform and a wave of consolidation.

    The panel closes on the future of care. They discuss how to equip the next generation of doctors without letting AI become a crutch that erodes clinical judgement, what digital health's US$7.4 billion funding rebound says about capital concentrating into a handful of mega rounds, and why the companies winning big are the ones co-designing with clinicians from day one. Then they imagine the patient journey in 2035, from wellness chairs in autonomous vehicles to consultations that feel, as Janice puts it, more human.

    Guests

    Dr Simon Kos is Global Chief Medical Officer at Heidi, the AI clinical documentation company. A physician who practised critical care medicine before moving into digital health, he was previously Global Chief Medical Officer at Microsoft and CEO of Next Practice, and is a long-standing figure in Australian digital health.

    Dr Janice Tan is a GP and the General Manager of Clinical Innovation at Bupa, where she leads the rollout and piloting of AI solutions across the group's health services. She also advises the RACGP and works to uplift the digital health capability of the GP profession.

    Chapters

    00:00 Introducing the What the Health Wrap

    00:07 Guest updates: Heidi's global expansion and life in general practice

    03:03 The fortnight's five biggest headlines

    05:11 Heidi's Pressure Points report: adopting AI ahead of governance

    06:16 Busting the myths about clinicians and technology

    10:11 Where general practice is heading: voice by default and deeper consults

    13:00 Patients are bringing their own AI to the consult

    14:21 Health in ChatGPT and big tech's move into consumer health

    18:33 Consumer-grade versus clinical-grade care and the regulation gap

    23:41 Bupa's shift from health insurer to health company

    30:29 Training the next generation without de-skilling

    33:43 Digital health's US$7.4 billion funding landscape

    35:31 Finding the wedge: co-designing with clinicians

    38:46 The 2035 patient journey

    42:46 Rapid fire: emojis, surprises and companies to watch

    Links and resources


    About the host

    Emily Casey is the founder of What the Health and host of the What the Health Wrap, making major developments in health technology and innovation easier to understand.

    The What the Health Wrap is brought to you by What the Health in partnership with Tenmile Ventures.

    What the Health is part of Day One Network, the podcast and media network from W2D1 Media.

    ]]>    A survey of more than 1,800 clinicians across 25 countries found 83% had already adopted AI before their workplace had any governance in place. Healthcare, it turns out, is not just adopting AI. It is being redesigned around it.

    In the second What the Health Wrap, host Emily Casey is joined by Dr Simon Kos, Global Chief Medical Officer at Heidi, and Dr Janice Tan, GP and General Manager of Clinical Innovation at Bupa, to work through what the fortnight's biggest healthcare stories actually mean.

    Simon uses Heidi's Pressure Points report to bust some long-held myths. Clinicians are not Luddites; get product-market fit right and they will adopt ahead of their own organisations. Product-led growth is not impossible in healthcare. And the idea that everything must run through a single electronic medical record screen does not survive contact with the reality of shadow AI. Janice agrees, arguing that GPs are among the most innovative professionals there are, and that what matters is not clicks or screens but the value exchange.

    The conversation turns to where this leaves general practice. Both guests expect voice to become the default way information is entered within two years, freeing clinicians for deeper, more present consultations rather than merely shorter ones. Janice makes the point that scribes save time not to compress the visit but to enrich it. Simon argues that scribes should be commoditised, because they are the entry point to something bigger: infusing evidence and decision support into the flow of care.

    They also examine what happens when patients bring their own AI into the room. OpenAI's launch of Health in ChatGPT, and the broader move by frontier labs into consumer health, could be the single biggest driver of health equity, filling the gap for people who previously had no care at all. But Simon draws a firm line between consumer-grade and clinical-grade health, pointing to the liability caps some providers attach to their advice and the accountability the medical profession is held to. The regulatory framework for quality and safety is not yet in place, but it is coming fast.

    Janice explains Bupa's own metamorphosis from health insurer to health organisation, investing heavily in primary and preventive care across medical, dental, optical and psychology clinics, and rolling out AI scribes to its clinicians under strong governance. Simon zooms out to a health system whose old boundaries between payer, provider, acute, primary and consumer care are blurring, driven by digital capability, policy reform and a wave of consolidation.

    The panel closes on the future of care. They discuss how to equip the next generation of doctors without letting AI become a crutch that erodes clinical judgement, what digital health's US$7.4 billion funding rebound says about capital concentrating into a handful of mega rounds, and why the companies winning big are the ones co-designing with clinicians from day one. Then they imagine the patient journey in 2035, from wellness chairs in autonomous vehicles to consultations that feel, as Janice puts it, more human.

    Guests

    Dr Simon Kos is Global Chief Medical Officer at Heidi, the AI clinical documentation company. A physician who practised critical care medicine before moving into digital health, he was previously Global Chief Medical Officer at Microsoft and CEO of Next Practice, and is a long-standing figure in Australian digital health.

    Dr Janice Tan is a GP and the General Manager of Clinical Innovation at Bupa, where she leads the rollout and piloting of AI solutions across the group's health services. She also advises the RACGP and works to uplift the digital health capability of the GP profession.

    Chapters

    00:00 Introducing the What the Health Wrap

    00:07 Guest updates: Heidi's global expansion and life in general practice

    03:03 The fortnight's five biggest headlines

    05:11 Heidi's Pressure Points report: adopting AI ahead of governance

    06:16 Busting the myths about clinicians and technology

    10:11 Where general practice is heading: voice by default and deeper consults

    13:00 Patients are bringing their own AI to the consult

    14:21 Health in ChatGPT and big tech's move into consumer health

    18:33 Consumer-grade versus clinical-grade care and the regulation gap

    23:41 Bupa's shift from health insurer to health company

    30:29 Training the next generation without de-skilling

    33:43 Digital health's US$7.4 billion funding landscape

    35:31 Finding the wedge: co-designing with clinicians

    38:46 The 2035 patient journey

    42:46 Rapid fire: emojis, surprises and companies to watch

    Links and resources


    About the host

    Emily Casey is the founder of What the Health and host of the What the Health Wrap, making major developments in health technology and innovation easier to understand.

    The What the Health Wrap is brought to you by What the Health in partnership with Tenmile Ventures.

    What the Health is part of Day One Network, the podcast and media network from W2D1 Media.

    ]]>    c10506d3-c098-44ff-9579-eee73265dcf9Fri, 14 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +100055:17falsefull1221    The A$2.2B Myricx Bio Deal, AI's Healthcare Land Grab and Preventive HealthThe A$2.2B Myricx Bio Deal, AI's Healthcare Land Grab and Preventive HealthNovartis has agreed to acquire Myricx Bio for up to US$1.5 billion, approximately A$2.2 billion, in a major outcome for a UK biotech company with deep Australian venture backing.

    In the inaugural What the Health Wrap, host Emily Casey is joined by Dr Jackie Rabec, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at ThinkMD.ai, and Dr Prashanth Rajan, Associate at Brandon Capital, to work through what the fortnight's biggest healthcare stories actually mean.

    Prashanth explains how Myricx Bio evolved from small-molecule science into a new class of antibody-drug conjugate payloads. He discusses why the proposed acquisition matters for cancer therapeutics, investors and Australia's biotech ecosystem, while cautioning that the ultimate test will still come through clinical development.

    The conversation then turns to artificial intelligence. Jackie argues that healthcare companies need more than a powerful model. They need a genuine problem, sustainable economics, clinical workflow integration and the change management required for adoption. Prashanth applies the same test to AI drug discovery, where molecular designs must still survive laboratory testing and clinical trials.

    The panel also examines proposed changes to Australia's R&D Tax Incentive. Under the current proposal, the offset would be refundable for eligible businesses younger than ten years and non-refundable for older businesses. Prashanth explains why that distinction could affect biotech companies just as expensive clinical programs begin to scale, potentially pushing investment, clinical activity and company growth offshore.

    AdvanCell's US$315 million Series D offers a timely example of what sustained local support can produce. The company is advancing a Lead-212 targeted alpha therapy for metastatic prostate cancer while expanding its isotope supply and manufacturing infrastructure.

    Finally, the panel asks whether preventive health and longevity represent the future of care or another layer available mainly to people who can afford it. Everlab's A$65 million Series A and Neko Health's US$700 million Series C demonstrate growing demand, but questions remain about equity and whether earlier intervention can reduce pressure on public healthcare systems.

    Guests

    Dr Jackie Rabec is co-founder and Chief Product Officer at ThinkMD.ai, which builds offline-capable clinical decision-support tools for frontline health workers. She previously worked at Google and was Head of Product at Heidi Health.

    Dr Prashanth Rajan is an Associate at Brandon Capital and leads its activities in New South Wales. He has a background in bioinformatics, biochemistry and molecular biology.

    Chapters

    00:00 Introducing the What the Health Wrap

    08:07 Myricx Bio's proposed US$1.5 billion acquisition

    11:13 Antibody-drug conjugates and Australian biotech

    15:35 AI in healthcare beyond administration

    24:50 The promise and limits of AI drug discovery

    28:46 Proposed changes to Australia's R&D Tax Incentive

    35:22 AdvanCell's US$315 million Series D

    42:25 Preventive health, longevity and primary care

    53:28 Rapid fire: platform risk, companies to watch and useful resources

    Links and resources

    ThinkMD.ai: https://www.thinkmd.ai/

    Dr Prashanth Rajan at Brandon Capital: https://brandoncapital.vc/team_member/prashanth-rajan/

    Myricx Bio acquisition announcement: https://brandoncapital.vc/2026/07/06/brandon-capital-announces-agreement-for-novartis-to-acquire-portfolio-company-myricx-bio-to-advance-new-class-of-cancer-therapeutics/

    Australian Treasury's R&D Tax Incentive proposal: https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2026-06/p2026-781365_0.pdf

    Claude for Healthcare: https://www.anthropic.com/news/healthcare-life-sciences

    Chai Discovery's US$400 million Series C: https://www.chaidiscovery.com/news/series-c

    AdvanCell's US$315 million Series D: https://svhealthinvestors.com/news/advancell-closes-us-315-million-oversubscribed-series-d-financing-to-advance-targeted-alpha-therapies-and-expand-clinical-and-commercial-manufacturing-infrastructure

    Everlab: https://www.everlab.com.au/

    Neko Health's US$700 million Series C: https://www.nekohealth.com/se/en/press/neko-health-raises-usd700m-series-c-ahead-of-us-launch

    About the host

    Emily Casey is the founder of What the Health and host of the What the Health Wrap, making major developments in health technology and innovation easier to understand.

    The What the Health Wrap is brought to you by What the Health in partnership with Tenmile Ventures.

    What the Health is part of Day One Network, the podcast and media network from W2D1 Media: https://dayone.fm/

    ]]>    Novartis has agreed to acquire Myricx Bio for up to US$1.5 billion, approximately A$2.2 billion, in a major outcome for a UK biotech company with deep Australian venture backing.

    In the inaugural What the Health Wrap, host Emily Casey is joined by Dr Jackie Rabec, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at ThinkMD.ai, and Dr Prashanth Rajan, Associate at Brandon Capital, to work through what the fortnight's biggest healthcare stories actually mean.

    Prashanth explains how Myricx Bio evolved from small-molecule science into a new class of antibody-drug conjugate payloads. He discusses why the proposed acquisition matters for cancer therapeutics, investors and Australia's biotech ecosystem, while cautioning that the ultimate test will still come through clinical development.

    The conversation then turns to artificial intelligence. Jackie argues that healthcare companies need more than a powerful model. They need a genuine problem, sustainable economics, clinical workflow integration and the change management required for adoption. Prashanth applies the same test to AI drug discovery, where molecular designs must still survive laboratory testing and clinical trials.

    The panel also examines proposed changes to Australia's R&D Tax Incentive. Under the current proposal, the offset would be refundable for eligible businesses younger than ten years and non-refundable for older businesses. Prashanth explains why that distinction could affect biotech companies just as expensive clinical programs begin to scale, potentially pushing investment, clinical activity and company growth offshore.

    AdvanCell's US$315 million Series D offers a timely example of what sustained local support can produce. The company is advancing a Lead-212 targeted alpha therapy for metastatic prostate cancer while expanding its isotope supply and manufacturing infrastructure.

    Finally, the panel asks whether preventive health and longevity represent the future of care or another layer available mainly to people who can afford it. Everlab's A$65 million Series A and Neko Health's US$700 million Series C demonstrate growing demand, but questions remain about equity and whether earlier intervention can reduce pressure on public healthcare systems.

    Guests

    Dr Jackie Rabec is co-founder and Chief Product Officer at ThinkMD.ai, which builds offline-capable clinical decision-support tools for frontline health workers. She previously worked at Google and was Head of Product at Heidi Health.

    Dr Prashanth Rajan is an Associate at Brandon Capital and leads its activities in New South Wales. He has a background in bioinformatics, biochemistry and molecular biology.

    Chapters

    00:00 Introducing the What the Health Wrap

    08:07 Myricx Bio's proposed US$1.5 billion acquisition

    11:13 Antibody-drug conjugates and Australian biotech

    15:35 AI in healthcare beyond administration

    24:50 The promise and limits of AI drug discovery

    28:46 Proposed changes to Australia's R&D Tax Incentive

    35:22 AdvanCell's US$315 million Series D

    42:25 Preventive health, longevity and primary care

    53:28 Rapid fire: platform risk, companies to watch and useful resources

    Links and resources

    ThinkMD.ai: https://www.thinkmd.ai/

    Dr Prashanth Rajan at Brandon Capital: https://brandoncapital.vc/team_member/prashanth-rajan/

    Myricx Bio acquisition announcement: https://brandoncapital.vc/2026/07/06/brandon-capital-announces-agreement-for-novartis-to-acquire-portfolio-company-myricx-bio-to-advance-new-class-of-cancer-therapeutics/

    Australian Treasury's R&D Tax Incentive proposal: https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2026-06/p2026-781365_0.pdf

    Claude for Healthcare: https://www.anthropic.com/news/healthcare-life-sciences

    Chai Discovery's US$400 million Series C: https://www.chaidiscovery.com/news/series-c

    AdvanCell's US$315 million Series D: https://svhealthinvestors.com/news/advancell-closes-us-315-million-oversubscribed-series-d-financing-to-advance-targeted-alpha-therapies-and-expand-clinical-and-commercial-manufacturing-infrastructure

    Everlab: https://www.everlab.com.au/

    Neko Health's US$700 million Series C: https://www.nekohealth.com/se/en/press/neko-health-raises-usd700m-series-c-ahead-of-us-launch

    About the host

    Emily Casey is the founder of What the Health and host of the What the Health Wrap, making major developments in health technology and innovation easier to understand.

    The What the Health Wrap is brought to you by What the Health in partnership with Tenmile Ventures.

    What the Health is part of Day One Network, the podcast and media network from W2D1 Media: https://dayone.fm/

    ]]>    c04d849e-929e-4f2e-8f80-ed4d8a6e76c3Mon, 27 Jul 2026 06:00:00 +100059:34falsefull1111