Shot of Digital Health Therapy

Eugene Borukhovich and Jim Joyce

A Shot of Digital Health Therapy is a meticulously unproduced podcast hosted by health tech founders Eugene Borukhovich and Jim Joyce. Born in the pandemic, therapeutic by design—oh, and comedy is still included. We dive into unscripted conversations with the people shaping employer benefits, digital health moonshots, and the broader healthcare system. From real talk to ridiculous tangents, we spotlight the builders, thinkers, and occasional troublemakers moving the industry forward. We'd love to have you join us.

  1. 4d ago

    Pia Clinton-Tarestad, Co-Founder & CEO, Clean Slate Clinic on Why Traditional Rehab is a Broken, Fragmented Illusion

    In this episode of #TheShot of #DigitalHealth Therapy, Jim Joyce and I sit down with Pia Clinton-Tarestad, CEO of Clean Slate Clinic We poke at the sacred cows of legacy addiction care, the high-touch operational pipes of virtual detox, and the deep cultural stigma that keeps high-functioning corporate leaders suffering in silence. Few topics we discussed: The Anxious Overachiever Trap: Why the high-stakes, competitive "bell-curve" mechanics of consulting and corporate leadership act as a massive incubator for hidden coping mechanisms like alcohol dependence. The Fallacy of the Legacy Inpatient Stay: Why legacy inpatient rehab is highly fragmented and structurally designed for relapse, and how a continuous, 12-month virtual-first support model delivers outcomes that are an order of magnitude better. The Human-in-the-Loop Protocol: Why pure-software wellness apps and low-touch "pill-mill" virtual clinics fail, and how training a patient's immediate personal network (family & friends) creates a scalable, clinical safety net for at-home medical detox. Are we ready to stop funding highly fragmented, low-efficacy options and actually scale real, long-term behavioral recovery? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Fun mentions as always: Peter Greaney M.D., Dave Sagar 00:00 - The Insider’s Blindspot: From Deloitte Partner to Patient Number One 04:30 - The Anxious Overachiever 09:15 - Why Legacy Rehab is Designed for Relapse 15:45 - The Human-in-the-Loop Protocol: Training Family Members to help with At-Home Medical Detox 21:00 - Bypassing Legacy Codes: Proving the "Hospital Substitution" Arbitrage to Insurers 26:30 - The Pink Nails Effect: Building Trust with the Heavily Stigmatized 28:30 - The Teaser: The Million-Family Blueprint and Charging Toward the Fear

  2. Apr 17

    Bart De Witte: Why 'Android for Medical AI' is the Only Way to Fix Clinical Innovation

    In this episode of The Shot of Digital Health Therapy, Jim Joyce and I sit down with Bart De Witte. Bart is a former dentist turned corporate heavyweight (SAP and IBM before becoming a radical advocate for open-source AI. He’s the founder of a non-profit (Hippo AI Foundation) dedicated to freeing medical data and is now building Isaree, a platform aimed at becoming the "Android for Medical Intelligence". -In 1989, a high school Bart wrote that AI would turn doctors into "Super Doctors." -Base Jumping vs. BigCo: Why jumping off a bridge with a parachute is actually the perfect training for navigating the "insane" user interfaces and corporate structures of legacy -Regulatory Capture: How European bureaucracy is accidentally (or intentionally) creating monopolies for West Coast tech giants while stifling local startups. -The Death of the Token: Why the future of healthcare isn't a centralized LLM, but 30 billion parameter models running locally on your phone for "zero tokens" and total privacy. Fun mentions as always: Matthew Holt Indu Subaiya, MD, MBA, MFA Martin Kelly Sean Hogan 00:00:00 - Intro: The Shot of Digital Health Therapy 00:03:00 - Why the Stock Market and French Fries are Actually Belgian 00:05:30 - The 1989 Prophecy: How AI Creates "Super Doctors" 00:08:00 - Base Jumping: The Ultimate Training for High-Stakes Entrepreneurship 00:10:00 - Roasting the SAP "Certified User" Paywall 00:13:00 - From Dentistry to Global Software Innovation 00:17:00 - Vodka Diplomacy: Building Trust and Breaking Spies in Eastern Europe 00:19:00 - Autopsy of a Failure: Why IBM Watson Health Never Stood a Chance 00:22:00 - 240 Flights a Year: The Loneliness of the "Black Card" 00:26:00 - The Open Source Rebellion: Betting Everything on Copyleft 00:32:00 - EU Regulatory Insanity: How the AI Act Stifles Local Innovation 00:37:00 - Digital Feudalism: Why We Need to Fight for Our Language and Thought 00:41:00 - Proximity AI: Running 30B Parameter Models Directly on Your Phone 00:43:00 - The "Last Mile": Why 98% of AI Research Never Helps a Patient 00:48:00 - Advice to a Young Dentist: Neurodivergence is Your Greatest Edge

  3. Mar 19

    Yang Su & Xing Su: Why the "Tesla Roadster" Strategy is the Only Way to Fix Senior Care

    In this episode of #TheShot of #DigitalHealth Therapy, Jim Joyce and I sit down with Yang Su and Xing Su, co-founders of Seen Health. This is the first time EVER we had twin founders on the show so was fun to find out who actually came out first and what it takes to run a business together. The two brothers were "tech & consultancy royalty", who had never touched a medical record until their own family needed help. Now, they are proving that the biggest innovation in healthcare isn't a new algorithm (though their platform is a key ingredient to scale); it's a "one-stop-shop" center where a doctor, a physical therapist, and a hot meal are all down the same hallway and a community are all a big part of being "seen". The 4 Pillars of the Seen Health Thesis: -The "Roadster" Framework: Why you must start with the $100k-per-year, high-frailty "Roadster" model to build the infrastructure that will eventually drive costs down to $1k-per-month for everyone. -The Operator’s Edge: Why having "outsider" eyes allowed them to see that 70% of senior care is actually logistics, transportation, and nutrition - not just medicine. -The Focus Trap: Why they turned down "easy" revenue from selling their software to stay "unapologetically" focused on the elderly patient in front of them. -Hospitality as Medicine: Borrowing the "Ritz Carlton" philosophy to ensure seniors feel "seen" rather than processed by an institution. Fun mentions as always: Erik Milster, Elon Musk, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C., Tesla, Uber, Salesforce, Google, Coursera, Andrew Ng [00:02:40] The 3-Minute Birth Gap: Why being the "older" twin created a lifelong competitive rub. [00:09:00] The "Silicon Valley Dream" vs. Reality: Leaving Google and Stanford's Andrew Ng to find "scars" in the real world. [00:16:10] The Magical Twin Synchronicity: How Uber and Quip were both acquired on the exact same day, charting a course back to each other. [00:18:20] Discovering PACE: Why a 50-year-old model from San Francisco’s Chinatown is still the gold standard. [00:25:20] The San Gabriel Valley Bet: Why they chose hyper-focus over "general" scaling. [00:32:40] The Tesla Roadster Analogy: How to scale high-touch care by driving the "blueprint" cost down from $100k. [00:43:00] The EHR From Scratch: Why they built their own tech stack instead of buying "off the shelf". [00:47:30] The Refusal to Commercialize: Turning down tech revenue to protect the patient experience. [00:51:50] The Closer: "Unapologetically yourself"—advice to their younger twin selves.

  4. Mar 12

    Carl Byers on the 4 AI Agents of your health & the lessons from taking Athenahealth to IPO

    In this episode of #TheShot of #DigitalHealth Therapy, Jim Joyce and I sit down with Carl Bradford Byers 🚑 . Carl is a Partner at F-Prime who was previously CFO of athenahealth and helped scale the company from a basement startup to an IPO. He’s one of the few venture capitalists who actually knows how to build the pipes, not just pitch the vision. What we get into: -The 4 AI Agents of Your Health: How Carl sees the future of agentic AI in health care -The Investment Thesis: Why "smart money" is actually about finding the partner who will sleep in your office to vet the code -The IPO Scars: The reality of scaling to a publicly traded company and the growth mindset (aka survival instinct) required to stay alive. Links to watch / listen below in comments 👇 Fun mentions as always: Daniel Kendall, Marina Borukhovich, Jonathan Bush, Todd Park, Ed Park, Paul Markovich, Chris Dixon, Owen McCarthy, Eric Paley, Brian Roberts, Glen Tullman, John Hallock, Matthew Holt, Indu Subaiya, MD, MBA, MFA [00:02:45] The "Log Cabin" Intro: Carl’s roots and meeting the Athena founding team at Wesleyan. [00:05:30] The War Room: Driving Bill Clinton's van and the intensity of political "advance" work. [00:12:30] The Athena Basement: Why Carl chose a "basement startup" over a prestigious Chicago MBA. [00:16:45] The 4 Pillar Thesis: Breaking down the Clinical, Technical, Financial, and Operational requirements for health-tech. [00:18:45] The Investment Thesis: How Brian Roberts and Venrock vetted the early tech by sleeping in the office. [00:21:00] The President on the Phone: Securing an early $50k from George H.W. Bush. [00:24:00] Scars of the IPO: The transition from a "silly toy" to competing with giants like GE and McKesson. [00:57:00] The Madrid Ad: Why the "Who" is the only thing that survives a 20-year career.

  5. Mar 5

    The Relational Revolution: Why Health & Wellbeing Coaching is the Missing Link in Medicine | Margaret Moore

    In this episode of #TheShot of Digital Health Therapy, my regular co-host Jim Joyce passed the bouton to Daniel Kendall who was kind enough to step in. Dan and I sat down with Margaret Moore aka Coach Meg. As the founder of Wellcoaches and the co-founder of the Institute of Coaching as well as National Board for Health & Wellness Coaching, she pioneered the professional standards for health & wellbeing coaching. As we always say.... to be a Key Opinion Leader (KOL) you need to have opinions AND backed by data! Meg brings it all to our discussion: -Why telling people what to do is the least effective way to change them. -The Science of Coaching: How Margaret shepherded coaching from a "soft skill" to a science-backed discipline. -Using "Parts Work" to navigate the voices in our heads that resist change. -Human-Centered AI: Why healthcare needs a "coaching chip" inside the machine. -Will Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) adopt coaching as part of the chronic disease management framework? If you’re trying to move the needle on patient outcomes, Margaret explains why the relationship is the medicine. Links in comments. Fun mentions as always: Ruth Q. Wolever, PhD, NBC-HWC Gary Sforzo Marina Borukhovich Dr Mehmet Oz, RFK Jr. 04:30 – The Business vs. The Creative: How Margaret transitioned from Biotech C-Suite to "Coach Meg." 17:00 – Professionalizing Coaching: Building the Institute of Coaching and the NBHWC standards. 23:15 – The CMS Update: Framing coaching for Medicare coverage and the "dose response" of behavior change. 34:10 – The Paradigm Shift: Why the Annual Wellness Visit needs to start with "What are your health goals?" 45:30 – Mapping the Mind: Using biology to create a unified framework for the human psyche. 51:20 – The 15-Year-Old Self: A personal revelation on reclaiming flow and leadership.

  6. Jan 23

    Daniel Kivatinos - Why This Founder Ignored Everyone and Built DrChrono Anyway

    What does it actually take to build a healthcare company from scratch? In this episode of #TheShot, Eugene Borukhovich and Jim Joyce sit down with Daniel Kivatinos, co-founder of DrChrono, to unpack a real founder journey — from growing up in Queens with blue-collar parents to bootstrapping a healthcare startup through the 2008 crash, betting early on the iPad, and building DrChrono over 13+ years before selling in 2021. This is not a “how to get rich quick” story. It’s about persistence, timing, relentless shipping, and ignoring most advice. We talked about: 🧱 Start painfully small - One doctor who loves your product beats 1,000 lukewarm users 🔁 Release fast, fix faster - Daily shipping built trust doctors didn’t get from incumbents 🕰️ Timing is earned, not predicted - Years of grinding made the iPad moment possible 💸 Bootstrapping builds discipline - Scarcity forced focus 🚫 Ignore most advice - Especially from people who aren’t where you want to be 🏃‍♂️ Just do it - Overthinking kills more startups than bad ideas If you’re building in healthcare, fintech, or any regulated industry — this one’s for you. 👍 Like 📩 Subscribe 💬 Drop a comment — what resonated most? 00:00 – Intro & JP Morgan recap01:30 – Why Eugene can’t do the show without Jim02:10 – Meeting Daniel at Health 2.0 in NYC03:10 – Growing up in Queens05:00 – Blue-collar parents & elevator mechanic stories07:00 – Stony Brook, choosing computer science, brutal CS class09:30 – Art, music, and coding11:00 – Early startups that failed12:30 – The 2007–2008 reality check14:00 – Why Daniel didn’t chase “safe” jobs16:00 – Watching friends raise money & choosing a harder path18:30 – Saving $50k and deciding to start a company20:00 – Why healthcare21:00 – Founding DrChrono22:00 – What DrChrono originally solved (scheduling)23:30 – Printing flyers & knocking on doctor doors25:30 – One doctor who truly loved the product27:30 – “10 users who love you beats 1,000 who don’t”28:30 – Expanding into EHR, billing, and practice management29:30 – Hearing about the iPad30:30 – Building the first iPad-based EHR31:45 – Overnight growth after the App Store launch33:00 – Releasing faster than Epic and Cerner35:00 – Why speed mattered more than strategy36:00 – Cold-emailing Y Combinator37:00 – Alexis Ohanian visits NYC38:30 – Startup School & mindset shift39:30 – The YC interview experience40:30 – Getting the first real check41:30 – Life inside Y Combinator43:30 – Growing DrChrono over 13+ years44:30 – Selling to EverCommerce in 202145:30 – Why the buyer mattered more than the price46:30 – What Daniel is building now (JustPaid)48:00 – Why starting SMB beats selling enterprise first49:30 – Final question: advice to younger self52:00 – “Just do it. Don’t stop.”

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
5 Ratings

About

A Shot of Digital Health Therapy is a meticulously unproduced podcast hosted by health tech founders Eugene Borukhovich and Jim Joyce. Born in the pandemic, therapeutic by design—oh, and comedy is still included. We dive into unscripted conversations with the people shaping employer benefits, digital health moonshots, and the broader healthcare system. From real talk to ridiculous tangents, we spotlight the builders, thinkers, and occasional troublemakers moving the industry forward. We'd love to have you join us.