What's Up with Tech?
Tech Transformation with Evan Kirstel: A podcast exploring the latest trends and innovations in the tech industry, and how businesses can leverage them for growth, diving into the world of B2B, discussing strategies, trends, and sharing insights from industry leaders!
With over three decades in telecom and IT, I've mastered the art of transforming social media into a dynamic platform for audience engagement, community building, and establishing thought leadership. My approach isn't about personal brand promotion but about delivering educational and informative content to cultivate a sustainable, long-term business presence. I am the leading content creator in areas like Enterprise AI, UCaaS, CPaaS, CCaaS, Cloud, Telecom, 5G and more!
What's Up with Tech?
Revolutionizing Patient Support: Belong Life's AI-Driven Approach to Transforming Healthcare
Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com
Join us for an inspiring conversation with Eliran, co-founder of Belong.Life, as we explore how personal loss fueled a mission to transform patient care through technology. Experience firsthand how Belong.Life leverages AI, data, and community support to create a safe haven for cancer patients. Eliran opens up about the journey from experiencing the heartbreak of cancer in his own family to developing an app that not only protects user privacy but also offers medically validated advice through their AI mentor, Dave. This episode promises insights into the potential of AI to revolutionize healthcare, making patient care more supportive and informed.
We don't just stop at cancer care. Discover how Belong Life is broadening its horizons by tackling obesity with their new solution, WeightMate. Eliran shares the company's unique partnership model with healthcare organizations, emphasizing how AI-driven solutions like the smart clinic can lighten the load for healthcare professionals. With a focus on privacy and data security, we dive into how Belong Life ensures user anonymity while integrating AI into global healthcare practices. Imagine a world where AI provides 24/7 support, significantly enhancing the quality of life for patients—this could be the future of healthcare. Listen in to learn how AI is poised to become a cornerstone of patient support systems.
More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel
Hey everyone, I'm so excited to bring a company to the show today that's bringing the power of AI, data and communities to patient engagement and healthcare in general. Eliran, how are you, hi? Thank you very much. Well, thanks for being here Really intrigued and excited about this chat and your mission. Before that, maybe, talk about Belong Life how it started, how it became such an intriguing community and what's the big idea for patient care.
Speaker 2:Okay, we opened Belong Life about nine years ago. Me and two co-founders lost a family member to cancer. I lost my uncle, my grandfather and at that time my mother's brother was sick. The CTO lost his mom at that time and later his father was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer. So we wanted to have the patient have the right education at the right time and to have the right support In our families. We felt that we brought them to the best physician, but it was actually the most famous one and we thought that if we take them to the oncology, it's his job to make them cure.
Speaker 2:And cancer is a project. You need to be a part of your success and cancer is a project. You need to be a part of your success. So we build a patient and professional community so patients could engage with other patients that was already in the same path like them. They can share their interest and connect them with worldwide experts, the professional physician from the Farber, monsanto, etc. To support them on their journey. While doing that, of course, using nicknames, the no private information. They learn from other patient challenges and we gather a huge amount of data and challenges the patient actually facing. That will enable us to later build Dave. Dave is our AI cancer mentor that just become medically validated in ASCO and ESMO publication this year and now we can support hundreds of thousands or millions of patients worldwide in several seconds a day per question.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Well, what a wonderful mission. And talk about the massive communities you built I think cancer care and MS patients are among two of your focus areas and how the communities are different from other social media communities like Facebook groups or Reddit communities or other places that patients go, which can be a bit of the Wild West these days that patients go, which can be a bit of the Wild West these days.
Speaker 2:Perfect, yes, it's a great question. So we have cancer. Of course they belong beating cancer together. It's an app including patients and professionals answering each other in a micro-community. So when you enter to this world, you're using a nickname. Nobody really knows who you are. Everyone is a patient due to the profile. Of course, we're using moderation to make sure that it will be very supportive to patient and nice and education would be something that you can trust and it's. It's a closed environment. Usually cancer patient and we saw that in our families. They don't want the world to know that they are a cancer patient because you know they look at them a little bit different. They look at them as sometimes as an infection disease, something that you still want to be a side, and they have real challenges that they really really want to share with people that already had it or have it now. So this knowledge is very important. So this is a closed environment for beating cancer together is for cancer patients. Ms is for multiple sclerosis patients.
Speaker 2:We have almost 200,000 MS patients in the US and more than 500,000 cancer patients in the US using it. It's a multi-language app so you can use it in French and Spanish and every other language too. In the last two years, we did the same with the AI apps. So Dave AI Cancer Mentor it's an app with generative AI, dave you can see him behind me supporting patients 24 by 7. They can upload a document. He will explain the documents, he can remind them about the next MRI visit, he can support them and cause all the journey all the time, and it's private as it can be. Of course, you can still use a nickname and delete the sensitive information from the pages of the information you share. The same is in MS. We have other apps in other countries not US and in Europe for IBD, crohn, colitis, psoriasis, and now we are releasing the new app for obesity called Weight Mate. The obesity is the new solution that actually you cannot support so much people in the world without a generative AI and AI solution as its market point.
Speaker 1:Amazing. So how does the AI GenAI capability work in practice from the user's perspective?
Speaker 2:Okay, so the one thing that's very important when we build Dave, the first layer was building the ARCH methodology. It's a trademark that we're using for accurate responsibility, compliance and hallucination-free. It's a huge methodology with reinforcement learning to make sure that we are actually answering something that is validated. We used about 80 million discussions between patient and physician and patient and patient in our apps before and we used the LLM engines the large language model engines to train the information and data on that. One of our unique solutions is that we're using several LLM engines to collect different information, make an answer and then using multiplexer to get the right answer out, making sure there's no information. It's making the answer to patients more expensive because you're using several LLMs, including open source too, but the answer is something that you can trust and even in the research in ASCO only 1% was not helpful.
Speaker 2:1% of the answers was not helpful, but there was no hallucination to the patient. There was no invention that the generative AI did. On top of the ARCH methodology we build a proactive environment, so knowing what the cancer patient actually have in their journey some challenges, you know. After chemo you have side effect and after the side effect sometimes you need to go to ER, or sometimes you're just going to ER although you didn't need to go to ER, or sometimes you're just going to ER although you didn't need to. You need a creatinine check for MRI.
Speaker 2:There is a lot of things that we already know in the process. So we train the DEPO DEPO stands for proactive premium to build this journey and support the patient across the challenges that he will have, not only the fact that we know about it, and that's really helping patients to always feel that they are in front of the challenges and can co-opt with them much better. I must say that Eirat the CTO, in the last two years he used Dave for his father his father with the pancreatic cancer. So he beat the statistic with two years much more than the statistics. And many of this month not all of them was due to Dave's ideas about stuff month.
Speaker 2:Not all of them was due to Dave's ideas about stuff, and one of them was that he had a meeting with oncology three months later and Dave told him okay, according to the blood test, you need to tell them now. Okay, something has changed, you need to alert. They called the hospital. They told them everything is okay, wait until your turn. He came to the hospital, hospital and they changed treatment. Wow, yes. And in another case he had a lot of water in the stomach and he needed something to take the water out and there was a huge mess everywhere and they've supported.
Speaker 2:Irad in this case, with a solution that we took from a chronic colitis package to actually support you instead of having a leak a water leak from your belly to the cancer treatment. Apparently, it was a case that some other physician already gave in our app in the past. So that's something. We're using 2 billion data points that we already. It was a case that some other physician already gave in our app in the past. Wow, yeah, so that's something. We're using 2 billion data points that we already collected in the last eight years in our apps to make Dave better and better, and we're using not only reinforcement learning but a team over here to make sure that when everything sometimes is looking a little bit different, we can make it a little bit better.
Speaker 1:Impressive. I love the focus on personalization and making sure every patient feels seen and heard. I mean, that is so impressive. Let's talk about your business model, as it were. You partner with healthcare organizations as well. How does that partnership look like, and what sort of partners are you looking for?
Speaker 2:Okay. So we have patients are our customers. Not always they pay. In most of our apps they are not paying but they are our customers. This is why we built this company.
Speaker 2:Second layer is providers and payers and pharma. So pharma, mostly advertising. It's very clear. You can see that everywhere, in every app in the US, in every solution, advertising and sometimes some you know, de-identified research or find patient to a clinical trial, when the patient in our apps we already support 30,000 patients to find a clinical trial. So we patient in our apps we already support 30,000 patients to find a clinical trial. So we got information from NIH, et cetera and match the patients to a clinical trial. So research and advertising, that's what we usually do. Of course, the identified anonymized. Nothing is personal. Just understand what the challenges of adherence in the market.
Speaker 2:Providers and payers the majority are going now with a smart clinic solution. So we have it's relatively new. Just in the H2 was released we have a solution that helping patient to onboarding to a clinic and hospitals with generative AI very easy and fast. Basically, patients get a link to a website. They log into the website of the clinic or the hospital, there is a discussion with the generative AI, all the documents are scanned, going through OCR and NLP, and the physician in the clinic gets a Word document with all the data already built in. So he's actually saving all checking the insurance, checking the document, reading all the documents, checking the differences and then put it in the documents.
Speaker 2:Everything is already done by the generative AI, of course, with the original documents attached as appendix to the document itself to make sure that you can check the accuracy of every process. That saves about between 30% and 50% of the nurse, of course, a new patient coordinator or a physician in different cases. So that's something that's going very fast. And now we have several discussions with payers to actually almost prescribe Dave AI as an app for cancer patients. The fact that they can get support 24 by 7 a full year with, you know, several dozens of dollars a year it's giving the patient a new lifeline can actually save them. They're going less to the ER, less treatment changes, feel better and beating the statistics. That's why we will belong.
Speaker 1:Wow, wonderful, wonderful mic drop moment there. So you get lots of questions about privacy and data protection. I guess, especially with a lot of the emerging regulations in Europe and elsewhere, how do you keep patient data secure on Belong Life?
Speaker 2:Okay, so we're working with the most extensive security and privacy policy. Of course, it's very clear Users are usually engaged with our platform with a nickname, so we don't know the real name. We don't need to know the real name and no ID, no, any other PHI information. They share only what they want and we're using a de-identified engine in our service. We support IPA compliance, gdpr, iso X and ISO Y. I don't remember all the numbers, but we are on there, All the information that we're actually using to understand the challenges patients have, going for the identification and summarize aggregated data.
Speaker 2:So it's always. The minimum sum is usually between 30 and 100. So we can know that 30 patients have the same challenge, but you cannot go to number one in that case. We're working with government institute. We're now with the Ministry of Health, even in Israel, and now processing with other countries in Africa, in Australia and several others universities. It's very, very important for us and for others. Make sure we are going for everything as the best and, as you can see in the sign outside my room, patient is number one. We are Wonderful. I'm using David for my mom now, so hopefully everything will be okay, but stay on this.
Speaker 1:Well, that's great. I can't wait to suggest it to friends and family as well. So, looking at the big picture of cancer care, let's say a lot happening. What are some of the big macro trends you're tracking or adapting to? You know, on the care side, what are the things you're personally following or excited by or worried about when it comes to trends?
Speaker 2:I think, generative AI and, of course, dave is changing the world as we see today. So for today, let's say a year ago, if a patient was contacting me as a cancer patient, I was trying to help him with my team of our communities. Today I will tell him download Dave, it's an app, use it 24 by 7, every question, the stupidest question that you have in mind, ask. He never gets insulted, he never tires to answer the question, he can always elaborate more and he's your tool to win. And you know I don't have any research to say that it's a life-saving yet, but if you will go to our website, to the app stores, et cetera, you will see dozens or thousands of cases. Patients said it's a life-saving for them. At least the quality of life in it's a life-saving for them, at least the quality of life in the journey is life-saving and for the result. We believe that we will have this solution too. I think every patient in the future will have some kind of an elf mentor to support them 24 by 7, all the time, and I can see my kids even today. They feel less comfortable to speak with others, but feel easier to speak with a computer or something else. You can ask and you can have support from Dave all the time and with the ability.
Speaker 2:Now, with the research and publication and ASCO and ASCO the most important conferences in oncology we are now getting to hospitals and clinics, conferences in oncology we are now getting to hospitals and clinics.
Speaker 2:So in far places like Africa and Australia and other, that you don't have an expert in oncology for prostate cancer and for breast cancer or metastatic breast cancer, you have one that needs to know everything. They need it to, like research, the Internet, learn from hundreds of physicians, hundreds of thousands of patients, medically validated, all the time and always up to date, something that you can support patients much better and, of course, they can get it. So I think it's changing the world and we eat our own dog food in many cases so we're using it for our families over here, so we make it much perfect. We changed the shift, the patient and our beating cancer together. When we had physician and patient, the majority of the question went very fast. Today Patients start getting answers very fast, very long answers, very collected. So we're shifting our business over there and I'm sure payers, providers you know a huge organization will have a solution like that to support their people. It's much better, much faster and significantly cheaper.
Speaker 1:And anything beats Dr Google. You can't believe how many rat races, rat holes you go down searching symptoms on Google and hopefully we'll get beyond that era as well. But what's next for Beyond a Belong Life, any features or functionality or other tools that you are envisioning, anything you can share for the next year or two?
Speaker 2:So in the next year. We are focusing on increasing Dave penetration to the market, especially hospitals and payers. We have the obesity app. Fred is the new Dave AI health mentor for obesity and diabetes. This is the most fast growing market in the world, not only in the US, and a huge challenge for people and the smart clinic solution. This is something that if you speak today with a health organization, they will tell you that one of the biggest challenges they have is that the demand to meet physician and nurses is going up and the number of hours or free time that they have is going significantly down. Once we can take all the paperwork away and just lowering that, we give the nurses and the physician the time to actually focus on the patient, actually see them instead of keyboarding their information in. And that's the three things that will change a lot in our aspect. Of course, in that process we will be everywhere.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. Well, we can't wait to help get the word out. Do you have any upcoming meetings or events coming up? I know here in the US you have CES, which has a big digital health component, and, of course, himss and other events, but what are you looking forward to? Travel-wise, event-wise meetings, other get-togethers, anything on your radar?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, we have several of them and I'm sure you already know, just last week we were announced as the top innovator innovation of Times Times Magazine. That's an amazing win for us and being on the special mention list of them, thank you. Thank you very much. It's very important. And then we had the. We acknowledged that one of the eight top solutions in oncology worldwide by.
Speaker 2:Startup Something magazine and HFTH put us on the quarter list of the best solution oncologists Wow. So that's just in the last two weeks. It's very amazing. We have several in the next month or so, including in all the. But I will not share it publicly before.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, we'll be watching and listening, and thanks so much for sharing just an overview of the vision. A tremendous work onwards and upwards. Thanks for what you do, thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks everyone for listening, watching, reach out, check out the website, of course, and thanks for sharing. Take care everyone, thank you.