Transforming Diagnostic Labs Into Strategic Assets w/ hc1 CEO Brad Bostic

There’s no shortage of data in healthcare.

However, when it comes to deeper insights into patients’ futures and provider costs, the industry is sorely lacking.

Is it possible to unlock this data and create both better patient outcomes and more profits for providers?

In this episode of HealthBiz Briefs, guest Brad Bostic, chairman and CEO of hc1, dives into the role of diagnostic testing labs and the ability to turn them into strategic assets by identifying risks before they become dangerous and costly problems.

This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://betterhelp.com/caretalk and get on your way to being your best self.

As a BetterHelp affiliate, we may receive compensation from BetterHelp if you purchase products or services through the links provided.

🎙️⚕️ABOUT CARETALK
CareTalk is a weekly podcast that provides an incisive, no B.S. view of the US healthcare industry. Join co-hosts John Driscoll (President U.S. Healthcare and EVP, Walgreens Boots Alliance) and David Williams (President, Health Business Group) as they debate the latest in US healthcare news, business and policy.

🎙️⚕️ ABOUT BRAD BOSTIC
For 25 years, Brad Bostic has led and invested in high-growth tech companies. Driven to improve patient care, he founded hc1 to enable precise diagnoses and treatments through optimized lab testing. Under his leadership, hc1 grew from a startup to a global leader, analyzing lab data for over 260 million patients using AI. Recognized for his transformational leadership, Brad has significantly enhanced enterprise value and was named "2020 Dynamic Business Leader of the Year" by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce and a “Top Entrepreneur” by Becker’s Healthcare.

🎙️⚕️ ABOUT HC1
Founded in 2011, hc1 leverages lab data to generate actionable insights that enhance patient care, streamline lab operations, and reduce costs. Today, hc1 processes data for over 90 million patients, managing 30 billion clinical transactions monthly on its secure AWS-powered platform. Their solutions, including hc1 Performance Analytics™ and PrecisionDx Advisor™, enable labs to optimize testing and treatment decisions. With its 2024 acquisition of Accumen, hc1 now offers comprehensive solutions to transform labs into strategic assets for health systems, driving precision diagnostics and improved outcomes.

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Transcript

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American healthcare is flooded with data, but insights to drive personalized care remain lacking. What would it take to unlock the potential of all this data to enable better care and outcomes? Before we get started, I want to take a moment to thank my extended family for making the effort to get together on Thanksgiving, traveling from places near and far. Because this month is all about gratitude. And along with my family, there's someone else that we don't thank enough. That's ourselves. It's sometimes hard to remind ourselves that we're trying our best to make sense of everything. And in this crazy world, that is not easy. So here's a reminder to send some thanks to the people in your life, including yourself. BetterHelp offers entirely online therapy that's designed to be convenient, flexible, and tailored to fit your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist. and you can switch therapists at any time for no additional cost. It's helpful for learning positive coping skills and how to set boundaries. It empowers you to be the best version of yourself. So whether you're dealing with stress, anxiety, or seeking personal growth, BetterHelp connects you with licensed therapists who can support you on your mental health journey. Let the gratitude flow with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash care talk to get 10 % off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash care talk. Welcome to Health Biz Briefs. I'm David Williams, president of Health Business Group here with Bradley Vostek, CEO of HC1. His mother's untimely passing and poor experience with the health system have driven him to make things better. Welcome Bradley. Hey, David. It's great to be on the show. What is the role of diagnostic testing in health care and what are the challenges? Well, nearly 80 % of all diagnostic decisions are made based on laboratory tests. So whether you're sick or healthy or somewhere in between, you'll have a test run and that will produce information that needs to be interpreted to determine how you should be treated or how you can prevent potential future illness. Like you have your standard tests run at your physical. One of them indicates that your cholesterol is elevated. Perhaps there's something you could do to counteract that. so laboratory testing is critical and actually COVID I think was a big amplifier, for the, for that, that fact. And so, you know, you can do a lot to make sure that healthcare delivery is optimized. If you optimize laboratory testing. Makes sense. know everyone was focused on testing at COVID. I remember standing in line to try to have it done, keeping your, keeping your distance. and it was a big, a big factor. my next question for you is what does HC1 do? And why is it valuable? Yeah. So H-C-1 partners with healthcare systems and really works with the executives in those systems to transform their laboratory from a cost center into a major strategic asset that improves care delivery and also can generate an improvement to the bottom line for the healthcare system. And we do that by combining technology and services that identify risk signals that exist in the data that otherwise might be missed, and then driving certain workflows or interventions, both that support physicians as well as drive action for patients such that you end up with healthier patients who are treated more quickly and more effectively. And then there's also just an operational aspect to this. If you think about what a lab does, They have to constantly send out supplies and they have to make sure that their equipment's running properly. They have to make sure they're staffed properly. They have to make sure they manage relationships with the doctors that they're sending the information to. And HC1 is really a full platform that manages the data in a consistent manner and then provides solutions that address each of those aspects of optimizing a laboratory so that they are bringing the best possible value. to both the success financially of the healthcare system and also to making patients healthier. Now Bradley, you're involved in a bunch of different healthcare ventures, whether running them or investing or as a board member. And I'm wondering, you what role, the experience you had with your mom's encounter with the healthcare system, what role did that play in choosing where you focused your time and efforts? Yeah, so when I was early in my career, unfortunately my mother, became very ill and ultimately was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer. So as an aside public service announcement, do get a colonoscopy periodically. It's a really straightforward way to save your life. And she had not had a colonoscopy. She had been on top of her physicals and her care, but never took that one preventative step and that cost her her life. But when she was diagnosed, she was injected into this Odyssey of healthcare, which was so disconnected and disjointed that it was very startling to me. And at that time I was doing consulting in healthcare. So I was seeing the behind the scenes view and listening to the motivations of the actual executives. But then I was seeing out in front, how just disconnected things were. And frankly, how some of it was just kind of like a, gosh, I hope we can find somebody who has the right trial for you because we can't do anything for you now. So. There was a lot of pretty major red flags. And so that really took me from this moment in time where I thought, healthcare is a good industry because it could be a good place to do business into, wow, healthcare needs so much change. And I wanted to make the change that allows other people to not have their, their mothers go through this kind of experience. And that led to the series of companies that I've built over time. And Actually, as we've seen healthcare progress, one thing that's been very encouraging is to see the shift to value-based care that is happening and the shift to leveraging technologies that can power up the caregivers so that they can be more efficient and effective and operate in a more personalized way for patients. And so we've now built a whole portfolio of companies that span laboratory to medical device all the way through to prescribing optimization. all under this Health Cloud Capital umbrella. And I run HC1 day to day, which is our laboratory data business. Well, that's it for the latest Health Biz Brief. If you like what you hear, check out my Health Biz Podcast for a full length interview with Bradley about his life and career. Bradley Bostic, founder, chairman and CEO of HC1. Thanks for joining me today on Health Biz Briefs. It's been a pleasure. Thanks, David.