We’re excited to be back for another episode of the Life Sciences Today Podcast by Healthcare IT Today. My guest today is Daniel Blumenthal, VP of Strategy at MDClone. I talk with MDClone’s VP Strategy about how the company evolved from an early synthetic data pioneer (2016) into a broader data-access and data-extraction platform in a now-crowded market (Snowflake, Oracle, Epic, many synthetic data vendors). Our discussion explores MDClone’s core “nexus” capability of extracting privacy-protected, row-level longitudinal patient data from heterogeneous healthcare systems and producing different types of synthetic data for distinct use cases (research, cross-site collaboration, model development/validation). A major theme is the industry shift from focusing mainly on data access/privacy to treating data integrity and trust as the new frontier and core IP for health systems, pharma, and AI. We debate strategic moats (product vs. project, partnerships vs. competition, where MDClone controls the data supply chain) and how MDClone can remain indispensable as AI and analytics mature. The episode closes with how all this ultimately must translate into better patient outcomes and trustworthy next-generation AI models. Check out the main topics of discussion for this episode of the Life Sciences Today podcast: How has MDClone evolved over the nine years since you became the first employee outside Israel? Synthetic data is now crowded and partially commoditized; what still differentiates MDClone in 2025? In the CIA triad (confidentiality, integrity, availability), is the real new frontier now data integrity rather than access/privacy? What specific part of the healthcare data supply chain does MDClone control that large partners like Snowflake, Epic, or Palantir cannot easily replace? Is MDClone ultimately a product company or a series of bespoke projects, given all the customization and services required? How do you use synthetic data differently for distinct utilities (knowledge gain, cross-site collaboration, model development/validation)? What do you think about trust, privacy, and the patient’s role when patient data is treated as core IP for organizations? How can MDClone help ensure that AI models (including LLMs) are trained and validated on high-integrity, trustworthy data rather than “s****y data”? In a world where every major player can analyze clinical data, what will make MDClone indispensable? How do you see MDClone’s role in directly improving patient outcomes through better data and analytics? Now, without further ado, we’re excited to share with you the next episode of the Life Sciences Today podcast. Subscribe to Danny’s newsletter to get strategic patterns for life science leaders building a defensible business. Be sure to subscribe to the Life Sciences Today Podcast on your favorite podcasting platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify iHeartRadio Amazon Music Pandora YouTube Along with the popular podcasting platforms above, you can Subscribe to Healthcare IT Today on YouTube. Plus, all of the audio and video versions will be made available to stream on Healthcare IT Today. As a former pharma-tech founder who bootstrapped to exit, I now help TechBio and digital health CEOs grow revenue—by solving the tech, team, and go-to-market problems that stall your progress. If you want a warrior by your side, connect with me on LinkedIn. If you work in Life Sciences IT, we’d love to hear where you agree and/or disagree with our takes on health IT innovation in life sciences. Feel free to share your thoughts and perspectives in the comments of this post, in the YouTube comments, or privately on our Contact Us page. Let us know what you think of the podcast and if you have any ideas for future episodes. Thanks so much for listening!
