Summary
In this podcast episode, host Peter Atia interviews his friend Da Wallach, a recording artist, songwriter, investor, and essayist. They discuss various topics, including liquid biopsies for cancer screening, music, and Da's background in the industry. Da shares his experience starting as a drummer in middle school and high school and later becoming a singer in college. They also talk about their shared interest in technology, with Peter showcasing his doorbell system. Overall, the episode is a conversation between two friends with diverse interests and areas of expertise.
Da discusses how his band's success was jumpstarted by their ability to build an audience online during a time when the internet was becoming the primary distribution channel for music. They were able to take advantage of MySpace's features, such as the ability to spam people, the top eight feature, and the freedom to design their page. MySpace allowed for more personal expression and freedom, whereas Facebook became a digital version of the real world and lacked culture. Da also discusses his college experience at Harvard and how he rebelled against the idea of becoming an investment banker or management consultant.
The speaker identifies three main problems in healthcare: quality of care, cost, and access. They believe that technology can be helpful in improving quality of care, but it is not clear how it can lower costs or improve access. The speaker predicts that the future of medicine will involve more technology and a shift in the composition of the labor market towards highly skilled nurses rather than overtrained physicians. The speaker is currently investing in biotech and believes that the biggest game changers in human health have been pills, but there is a shift towards precision medicine that addresses illness at the level of mechanism.
The context discusses the challenges of detecting cancer through liquid biopsy, which involves searching for tumor DNA or other biomarkers in the blood or urine. The ultimate goal is to develop a reliable screening test for cancer that can be performed during routine annual physicals. However, this raises the question of what to do if the test detects cancer that may not be harmful or requires expensive follow-up procedures. The speaker discusses the importance of sensitivity and specificity measurements in diagnostics, particularly in the case of mammography screening for breast cancer.
In this podcast episode, the speaker discusses the importance of considering both sensitivity and specificity when evaluating medical tests. They give examples of how a test can have 100% sensitivity but 0% specificity or vice versa. The speaker also discusses the potential for liquid biopsy companies to manually trade-off between sensitivity and specificity in their tests. The conversation then shifts to the topic of cancer and the challenges of finding a cure. The speaker expresses optimism about the potential of immunotherapy and precision medicine to address allergies and anaphylactic reactions. The episode concludes with a discussion about the need for standardization in medical care and the importance of considering simple changes in behavior to make a big impact on patient outcomes.
