Physician Entrepreneurship in GI with Joe Rubinsztain, MD

BySameer K. Berry, MD, MBA

ByWilliam D. Chey, MD, AGAF, FACG

In this podcast episode, Joe Rubinsztain, MD, the CEO of ChronWell, discusses his path to becoming a doctorpreneur, the creation of gMed and more.

Brought to you by Zeposia.

Intro :02
Welcome to this episode of Gut Talk :22
About Rubinsztain :39
The interview 1:14
Tell us about your background … where did you grow up and how did you get interested in medicine? 1:16
What “aha moment” steered you into this nontraditional direction? 2:45
Was that the genesis of gMed or did something precede gMed? 3:54
Where did gMed occur in this whole awakening that you experienced? 4:27
Was it a success immediately or was it a steep uphill climb? 6:03
What were some of the main things that you learned from this journey? What were some of the durable themes that came out of that experience for you? 7:21
Was the EMR market just as saturated when you were starting gMed, and you were scaling the company? How did you sell this into physicians' offices? 9:47
Policy changes in health care can make or break a company … could you talk to us a little about the acquisition and leading up to that - how did it happen? 11:24
There must’ve been the temptation to go in a whole bunch of different directions … How did you resist that temptation and how did you decide to choose GI and dermatology? 13:09
Did you organically create those relationships or how did those come about? 15:44
It you were starting and scaling gMed now how would things be different with these integrated delivery systems and private equity consolidation? 17:25
Are the incentives aligned to make digital therapeutics an attractive option right now? 20:08
Do you think the future for digital therapeutics and the types of services that ChronWell provides are going to be driven more by the fee-for-service architecture or do you think GI as a specialty is closer to more bundled payments and value-based approach? 22:45
Could you tell us a little bit more about ChronWell, your transition from gMed to ChronWell and what you’re doing there now? 25:14
Who are you selling these services to? Is this a service that’s being provided the GI physician, a health plan, a self-insured employer? 27:20
Do you mind just telling our audience what you mean by the term ‘digital therapeutics’? 29:38
Are you subject to regulatory standards? Do these digital therapeutics need to be FDA approved or is it more like the Wild West? 31:01
As we transition to this accountable care/value-based system. Will there be the same level of profitability and interest on the part of equity in gastroenterology? 35:30
It also sounds as if artificial intelligence and machine learning are going to play a big role in what you’re building 38:15
Do you think the key thing there is the size of the data set or the quality of the data? 40:06
Should there be a medical school pathway for physician data scientists that specifically peg their careers for this type of development pathway? 41:55
What are the biggest misconceptions you think physicians, and more particularly GI physicians, have about the entrance of these early stage technology companies into health care? 43:49
What advice would you have for a young physician or someone in medical school who’s got these crazy thoughts of a non-traditional career? 46:56
Thank you, Joe 48:57
Thanks for listening 49:29

Joe Rubinsztain, MD, is a physician entrepreneur and CEO/co-founder of ChronWell and founder of gMed.

We’d love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to guttalkpodcast@healio.com. Follow us on Twitter @HealioGastro @sameerkberry @umfoodoc

Published by:

Sources/Disclosures

Collapse

Disclosures: Berry and Chey report no relevant financial disclosures. Rubinsztain is the CEO and co-founder of ChronWell.

Read more

Physician Entrepreneurship in GI with Joe Rubinsztain, MD

Gut Talk

Related Content