Past Editions
Second edition | July 2024
A Message from Dr. Jordan Shlain:
Dear Founding Members,
We are excited to share updates and details as we prepare for what promises to be a thoroughly unique inaugural DOC event this fall in Napa.
DOC is a forum for the engaged and the enthusiastic. Our focus is to celebrate the scientists advancing the field of medicine and serving as their catalyst for scale – using the brainpower and network of this community. We will discuss, we will debate and we will disagree – we will listen, we will learn and we will be lively in pursuit of acceleration.
We will ask the crucial questions required to increase the pace and scale of their work, asking “why, what if, and how.”
We are not here to lament the shortcomings of the healthcare system. Every problem is an opportunity and as Charlie Munger counseled, we can invert our thinking, and consider them from multiple angles, including the opposite perspective.
We are a solution-oriented group of business, finance and cultural leaders, and I am thrilled to be on this journey with such a passionate and committed group of individuals. On behalf of the faculty and the DOC team, we look forward to seeing you in Napa for this incredible gathering.
Warm regards,
Jordan Shlain MD
The People In The Room
Over the past month, an exceptional group of minds have joined DOC, and we are deeply impressed by your achievements. Each of you are accustomed to being keynote speakers at traditional conferences, but DOC, as you know, is not your typical gathering. Before we delve into updates on the program, we want to take a moment to acknowledge you. At the event in Napa this Fall, you’ll meet each other, a very select group of individuals, including world-renowned venture capitalists, CEOs of global companies, tech product leaders, and founders and CEOs of several high-growth healthcare and AI firms. We eagerly anticipate the conversations we will share.
Faculty Updates
Adam Gazzaley, MD and his colleagues at Akili learned this past month that the FDA granted clearance to Akili’s EndeavorOTC, the first over-the-counter digital therapeutic for adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Gazzaley serves as Chief Scientific Advisor and a Board Director for Akili.
It was a busy month for Akili, which also announced a merger with Virtual Therapeutics in late May.
Dr. Leanne Williams and colleagues published research that identifies six “biotypes” of depression.
A lot has been going on for Williams, who also received an $18 million NIH grant to study these biotypes and create tools to diagnose and treat patients.
Berra Yazar-Klonsinski, Ph.D. and her collaborators learned of a disheartening setback when an FDA advisory panel voted against using MDMA to treat patients with PTSD. A final FDA ruling is expected in August.
Meagan Wasfy, MD, led a conference in June on “Care of the Athletic Heart.” The event, sponsored by the American College of Cardiology, focused on the rapidly expanding field of sports cardiology.
Dr. Laura Esserman’s work was recognized with the 2024 Prize for Scientific Excellence in Medicine from the The American-Italian Cancer Foundation.
Dr. Leonard Zon and his team received a grant from Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer to support “his efforts to develop safer and more effective treatments for acute lymphoblastic leukemia.”
Dr. Rebecca Robbins and colleagues published a fascinating study on the quality of sleep-related information available on YouTube.
They were also featured in a timely piece on optimizing sleep during a heatwave.
Purpose and Program
DOC’s purpose is to scale great science – to arm it with the connections, storytelling, and effective resources to bridge the innovation and information gap that is widening across healthcare in society today. Many of you have asked for more details about how our program will work, and what roles you might play. A core tenet of the program is that any member of the DOC community can and should add to the conversation.
Our day-long plenary session takes place in The Social, a high-ceilinged barn (above) where our community will gather. The central element of our program is a multi-part, salon-style conversation focusing on a single topic. Each 50-minute session will be comprised of three sections – The Talk, given by our first class of professional Faculty, The Grok, in which 2-3 more experts join the Faculty to unpack the topic, and The Walk, which weaves in DOC Conversants – that’s all of you. Some Conversants have been previously identified as having expertise, a point of view, and experience on the session topic, others might join the conversation spontaneously.
Beyond these core Grok sessions, the program will also include individual lightning talks, community-driven breakout sessions, and intimate table talks at lunch and dinner with our Faculty members. If you are interested in contributing as a Conversant and enriching our discussions, we encourage you to let us know.
Reccomended Reading
What we’re reading: Doctors couldn’t help. They turned to a shadow system of DIY medical tests (The Washington Post) and The New Age of DIY Medicine (The New York Times). As the Post piece explains, a venture-capital driven “parallel medical ecosystem” is fueled by “a growing distrust of Big Medicine and confidence in home testing born from the Covid pandemic.” The Times’ piece goes deeper, arguing that “Covid cynicism has given way to a new age of medical libertarianism.”
Why it matters: Most of the testing products mentioned have not been reviewed or approved by regulatory bodies like the FDA. In an age of “stem cell tourism,” it’s difficult to know what really works, and has been vetted by real science. Are venture-backed medical startups taking advantage of fearful consumers for profit, or are they rational market actors driving new forms of innovation into a sclerotic healthcare industry? The answer is probably both. Another core element of the DOC experience is The Living Room Lab, where all of us can engage with rigorously curated health optimization products and services. We’ll have more details on the Lab in future editions of The Document.
In a related story, The New York Times investigates The Opaque Industry Secretly Inflating Prices for Prescription Drugs.
What next: We’ll be discussing the role of capital in our healthcare throughout the DOC program. If you’re involved in funding healthcare companies, we want to hear from you!
Take Action
We’re near capacity. DOC is an elite community, curated with the utmost care to ensure magic happens. Membership is by invitation only and we have space if you know someone special; only a few spots are open. If you have a friend, colleague or associate whose pedigree and character you believe meets DOC’s standards (curious, connected and convivial), we invite you to submit their name for consideration. And if you’ve not yet registered, you can do so here.
Get your rooms now! Every room at The Estate Yountville is special, but you’ll have far more choices if you reserve your room early. For more information, reach out to our DOC concierge Alison at concierge@doc.health, or call The Estate directly at (707) 945-4541.