Rx_Priyanka Mathur: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Rx_Priyanka Mathur: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

John Shufeldt:
Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of Entrepreneur Rx, where we help healthcare professionals own their future.

John Shufeldt:
Hey everybody, and welcome back to Entrepreneur Rx. I have the distinct pleasure of talking to Priyanka Mathur. She is a physician, to say she is unique would be a gross understatement. She has practiced medicine in India, Russia, and the United States. So she has a wild background and we'll hear all sorts of stories, I hope. And then she's also an entrepreneur and has come up with an app called MediPocket to help in cross-border care. Priyanka, welcome to the podcast!

Priyanka Mathur:
Thank you for having me, John.

John Shufeldt:
I'm really excited to talk to you. Okay, so give us your, give us your crazy background about how you ended up practicing medicine in three continents.

Priyanka Mathur:
So I think the journey of my getting into health care, started at a very young age, at age of five. And I think since then I always wanted to be a doctor, not knowing how much time, commitment, and crazy it is. But it always fascinated me the white coat and how helping people. So that is how, I was, like you know, always determined to become a doctor. I was born in India, I did my schooling there and then I went to Russia to do my medical school. I came back to India, I worked there in health care, and then I came to the United States to pursue my cardiology fellowship. And that's how my journey into three continents was there.

John Shufeldt:
Okay. So all right. So time out. So you're, you did undergrad in India. What was your undergrad major?

Priyanka Mathur:
So India system is a little different, more like a British system. So we don't have undergrad like that. We have a school until 12th grade and then you go to college and you decide you want to go college. And they are more like universities, which we call here as university here, they are colleges in India and you can choose engineering medical right after school. So that is what, what it is, like I did my 12-year schooling in India and then directly went to medical school in Russia.

John Shufeldt:
Okay. So, so I spent some time in Moscow and I toured some clinics there and it was amazing. But why did you go to Russia to learn medicine?

Priyanka Mathur:
You know, I think I like the cold weather, not really. But so Russia, two reasons. One reason, in India, when you do medical school, you do bachelors, which is called MBBS, bachelor's in medicine. Whereas like in United States, same in Russia, when you do medicine, it's a six-year program and you graduate as master's degree, you become MD So that was one thing I wanted to do it in one row and come out as an MD.

John Shufeldt:
So how long? So how long was medical school? Is it a six-year program in Russia?

Priyanka Mathur:
Correct.

John Shufeldt:
And did you, did you have to learn how to speak Russian or did you already know how to speak Russian?

Priyanka Mathur:
No, I landed there completely not knowing Russian at all. And I was like 19 years old when I landed in Russia, like all by myself, not knowing the language. But I have to learn Russian because though my studies, medical studies were in English. But when you interact with patients, you need to speak their language in order to do the clinical rounds. So we learned Russian in the first year.

John Shufeldt:
So, wait a minute. So I didn't know. So when you're taught medicine in Russia. In Russia, you're taught in English?

Priyanka Mathur:
Yes. So that is something I think a lot of people don't know outside. They feel like the course of studies would be in one language, but they do provide the choice, do you want to learn it in English or Russian? So it's like English medium or Russian medium. And throughout our education was in English.

John Shufeldt:
Wow, that's, wow. Okay. So basically you did a combined six-year college medical school. And then what did you do? Did you do a residency after that?

Priyanka Mathur:
No, I didn't do residency again. Now, there's a little different in Russia, they don't require residency. If you want to work there, then you go for the licensing exam directly. But after finishing my school I came to India to work in India.

John Shufeldt:
Okay. So then did you do primary care in India?

Priyanka Mathur:
Yes, I started as primary care, which they call as resident medical Officer, RMOs in India. I worked at, in Delhi and Rajasthan, two different states there. And then I went into gynec because that is something an area of interest. I wanted to explore either gynec or pediatrics. I was always like very interested in these too. So I did gynecology for a year as a fellowship, and then I was like, okay, it's interesting but is monotonous. So I wanted to change, and that's where cardiology interested me and I came to the United States to pursue that.

John Shufeldt:
So did you go right into a cardiology fellowship without having an internal medicine specialty?

Priyanka Mathur:
So no, here, as you know, we have to go through the steps, right, to get, as a foreign graduate, I have to do .... Step, one step, two step, three. So I did that and I entered into fellowship, into cardiology fellowship here.

John Shufeldt:
But you haven't, you ran into, so my question, like normally if you studied at all in the US, you'd have to do three years of internal medicine and then you do 2 to 3 years of cardiology fellowship. But it seems like you never really did a residency in India, you went right into the fellowship after a couple of, you know, a year of gyne and a year of general medical officer.

Priyanka Mathur:
Yes. So that internal medicine part, I think is, is the residency that we do as internal medicine here, and then we get that license to practice. In India, it's a little short there. It's like you do the exam and you get a certificate, like you get your license to practice as a resident doctor, or we call it internal medicine there, a primary care so that you directly get after a clearing some written exam so you don't have to really go for a three-year residency. Yes, you do have to do one year of internship, which I did as a part of my Russian medical school.

John Shufeldt:
Okay. That's interesting. So, so did you, so where did you do your cardiology fellowship here?

Priyanka Mathur:
So I started in Miami, in Larkin Community Hospital, but I didn't continue there. I was married and I came to California. And that is where things shifted to MediPocket.

John Shufeldt:
Excellent! Okay. So, so you went, you got such a wild background, this is so cool. All right, so, then you became an entrepreneur. I mean, clearly, you have a tremendous amount of guts going to Russia for medicine, not knowing a lick of Russian. It's a whole nother alphabet. And I said, you blew me away. Okay, so now you, you did a cardiology fellowship, moved to L.A. and said, okay, I want to be an entrepreneur, so what's that journey?

Priyanka Mathur:
So it was interesting. And I think what really, because coming to California, living in Los Angeles, neighbors to Silicon Valley, you always hear these buzzwords about technology, artificial intelligence, machine learning, health tech, and these things really interested me. And I wanted to learn and see how these can be integrated into our health care system to make it more efficient. Now, health care has always been my passion with the one I would say mission is to help people, help patients. And when I realized using technology, you can really increase your reach. You can reach many patients more and more people around the world because technology has no borders for that. So that is my journey, how I started on MediPocket, which is a health tech company, is to how to integrate it more efficiently as a medical provider. Because, you know, at times as medical providers, we always are shy of technology. We are like, okay, we are clinicians, that is what we should be doing, that is what we are trained to do and that is what we should end doing, and you know, but I think with technology, if we join hands as a clinician, as healthcare professional, we can really bring more efficient solutions to the patients, to the doctors, and to our health care system. So, yeah, that's how it started.

John Shufeldt:
So give me the elevator pitch for MediPocket. What is what's the premise of it and what's the pitch?

Priyanka Mathur:
Sure, it would be a little two-step pitch. And the reason is MediPocket was started in a prescription vertical. We started in United States and prescription vertical addressing the transparency, the affordability, and accessibility parts of it. For that, we partnered with 75,000 pharmacies in the US, Hawaii, Puerto Rico. So simply our patients, our users, can use our free or discount card, walk in any of these pharmacies to save up to 80% on their medications. In the pandemic, during pandemic, we saw more global, I would say, mission, and that is how we pivoted a little bit, the Rx part is still there, but we pivoted to MediPocket World, which is a cross-border care, and what it is, it connects international patients from their homes, from their home country to the best US specialists and hospitals.

John Shufeldt:
So, okay, so I'm a patient and I'm in India, tell me how I use MediPocket. What does it do for me? Is it a virtual care app?

Priyanka Mathur:
Yes. So MediPocket is an application and also a web app. So you just simply have to come to the application either by downloading it through the App Store or the Android or come to our website. One thing what we do is we hold a patient's hand from a very starting of the journey with Doctor AI, and this doctor AI is an intelligent patient assistance. It helps patients to navigate through their symptoms, connect them to the right specialist or the right institutes based on the healthcare needs. Our patient coordinators, the local patient coordinators in India, or whichever country the patient is from, help them to also organize their medical information. As you know, in the countries like Asian countries, like in India, it's very fragmented or scattered everywhere. So we help patients to organize all this medical information, put that in a pocket, which we call as my health pocket. And that is where, you know, the patients get more organized medical information. And doctors, when they get matched to the specialist here, the specialists would know about the patients before they come on the consultation, which is again, it's a teleconsultation, a video consultation that happens. But one mission that also we have at MediPocket is to get patients involved in their care. And you can only get involved when you're informed about it. So that's another part of, of our mission with MediPocket cross-border.

John Shufeldt:
All right! So MediPocket takes the patient's information, helps them curate it using this doctor AI assistant, and then helps them find through your local care coordinators, helps them find local resources to provide the care.

Priyanka Mathur:
Not the local resources, the US resources to find the .... So the specialists are in US and the institute also US. So it's more like speciality care cross-border, so we help them to connect to the US specialist.

John Shufeldt:
Got it. Okay. So it's, it's kind of a medical tourism app to get to the US to help them find the specialist.

Priyanka Mathur:
Yes, but a little twist is it's a digital medical tourism where a patient doesn't have to physically travel here, but they can still get connected and get the consultation, the advice, advice that they need by sitting in their own home country.

John Shufeldt:
Very cool. What made you come up with this?

Priyanka Mathur:
I think it's the experience that I got working in these three different healthcare systems. Again, every health care system has its own gaps, that is unique, but also they have common gaps. And one common gap is that accessing the right specialist and a patient or caregiver spends a lot of time, energy, and money and go through a lot of emotional turmoil until they reach to the right doctors. And sometimes accessing the right specialists is also very uncertainty when you're talking about cross-border. And I've seen that struggle within my family and friends and yeah, so that is, I think, another thing with the pandemic, one thing we saw that the diseases don't have borders to cross, they don't have borders to restrict, then why the health care should have one? And with technology, we can remove these borders.

John Shufeldt:
And then how to pay, who pays for it?

Priyanka Mathur:
Patients. So here it's more out of pocket. So it really helps doctors and patients where they don't get restricted, what their insurance is allowing or what is in coverage. So it's all out of pocket, though we are talking with few global insurance companies to make it a part of their benefit programs, the corporate benefit programs. But currently it is all out of pocket.

John Shufeldt:
Is it a per-use basis, a monthly subscription fee?

Priyanka Mathur:
It is as, as you go or per-use basis. The subscription fee, we are also keeping mainly for the chronic care patients, where, you know, for the chronic condition, we do have a small plan for which we call it chronic management plan.

John Shufeldt:
Very cool. Now, tell me the AI connection. I mean, how did you get into interested in, in AI and where did you, who developed your AI?

Priyanka Mathur:
Yeah! I mean I think I got interested in AI as we call it, artificial intelligence, and for me, it was literally when I heard that artificial intelligence, first time, it was like this Terminator movies, like they have to be sci-fi robots and all that. But when I got into it, AI is not complex at all, it's really simple. Obviously, when you go encoded, it's complex. But in order to integrate it into the system, it's really very simple to use it as also very simple. It seamlessly runs on the background for you. So that is how AI was like, you know, I got into AI. One thing I educated myself, obviously self-educated, but also with the resources outside that how efficiently we can integrate the solution, what problem I want to solve? And the problem is to reach the people, make them connected to the right specialists anywhere, anytime they need it. So that is how the AI pad was integrated into it. It is definitely developed by the engineers, people who are experienced and have expertise doing it. So our engineering team are based in three places, they're based in, in the US, in India and in Europe.

John Shufeldt:
Not, not surprisingly. So I'm a huge AI fan and I've been working on different AI projects for gosh, seems like a decade. So I totally understand why this would make sense. Does your AI, does it have the capability of communicating with your patients in multiple languages?

Priyanka Mathur:
So right now we have three local languages in India that we have started with, obviously not restricting only to that, but right now they communicate in English, which is, I would say, a general language in India, the first language in India, and the other is Hindi and Urdu.

John Shufeldt:
Okay. And then are you planning on taking this to other countries as well, to South America, for example, to, to Spain and Italy?

Priyanka Mathur:
Yes, I mean, definitely. So this is a global, I would say global platform, not restricted just to India, it will go, we want to take it to other Asian countries, African countries and Central America and South America, because, again, the accessibility is, I would say, a major issue in most of the countries.

John Shufeldt:
And what platform are you using for the, for patient-provider interaction for the telemedicine part of it?

Priyanka Mathur:
Okay. So we use our applications for that. And obviously, the teleconsultation, video consultation platform is the one that we have developed from scratch. So it's not Zoom or it's not that again, because keeping in mind this platform will be used by various patients and different health care systems. So GDPR, HIPAA including the digital health regulations of India, which is now their very being like, you know, developing it a lot and defining them a lot. So, yes, so we have developed our own video consultation platform.

John Shufeldt:
Wow. How long, when did MediPocket start? How long have you been doing this venture for?

Priyanka Mathur:
So MediPocket arcs was started in 2019, which is the prescription one. The MediPocket cross-border is very, very recent venture that we started. We literally started three months back. And since then we have already done 100 plus consultations cross-border and we have done the partnership with the specialist in the US, but also the institutes like Mayo Clinic, Cedars, UCLA, MD Anderson because again, they are the world known for their quality of care.

John Shufeldt:
Interesting. Well, yeah, I know one will love to talk about different, some connections we can think about for MediPocket to connect with specialists here in the US. There's a woman who we had on before who had a company called UberDoc and UberDoc is an, basically, a nationwide consortium of specialists. And might you guys, may have a good connection there. I'll, I'll make the introduction. She's awesome. So where are you taking it from here? What's your goal?

Priyanka Mathur:
Our goal is to reach it at every corner of the world, wherever the patient needs it. They should have MediPocket in their pocket because again, the accessibility should not be about how to do it, where to do it. It should be in your pocket, so in a click you can reach to the right doctor at the right time.

John Shufeldt:
What have you seen in now your wealth of experience in other countries that the US should be emulating to improve our health system?

Priyanka Mathur:
You know, I think our structure in the United States is well defined. It's strong, but it is complicated, it is expensive. And that is where I think it restricts patients to get, get to the care system sometimes, it's because of these two things, I feel like. Another thing that we need to add a layer of transparency. So these three things I think where our system has to work and that is a demand right now from the patient side because this consumerization is increasing even in health care. They do need this, you know, the lower cost, more transparency, and also accessibility around the clock that is now being a demand. So, yes, one thing I think is adoption of these technologies or AI tools will really help from the day-to-day access of a health care to the public. So again, I would say getting more, more in the health care professionals, joining more hands with technology is, is something which is very much needed. We shouldn't be shy or scared about it.

John Shufeldt:
Well, let's talk about your predictive care model. So I'm, you know, I always, people come in and they're morbidly obese and they're smoking and they're high blood pressure, diabetes, family history. And I say, you know, it looks like your troponin is elevated, your EKG's abnormal. And they look at me like, how could this have happened? And I always kind of look at it, I go, I think you might know. And so I love the idea of this predictive model where you can go to somebody and say, look, based upon your trajectory or your evolution, here's what's going to happen to you in this time frame. Now, as an emergency medicine physician, I don't do that because I always get them at the end of the time frame. But a cardiologist, internist, that, you know, can use this predictive analytical model to help people stave off these, what's coming down the pipe that we all can see in medicine. Is that how your predictive care model, AI, that you've built into it works?

Priyanka Mathur:
Yes, that is definitely is what we are working on. Currently, it is not doing that, but we are building it, right now. And that is something, as you rightly said, sometimes as a patient or as a caregiver, we don't realize it until it's showing the signs or we are, until it's late sometimes we don't realize it. And again, the reason is because we are so occupied with a lot of things going around it. But one thing I say when, when we are so into other parts of the technology, like let's say in e-commerce, like right, or in entertainment, we're so dependent on these technologies to help us decide what movie to watch, what song to hear, why don't we have the same in the health care? But they can also say, okay, this food to be eaten or not because of your health condition, you know, and that would be done seamlessly. They don't have to take extra time to do it, the AI can do that, do that analytics for them, prediction, when to see a doctor, why to see a doctor. You know, and again, also making this management part, when you see a doctor, it's also important when the doctor gives you some advice to follow it religiously. And again, that AI could be that assistant to them, to follow it and give them the analysis how well they followed it, right? And also their doctor, sometimes as a doctor, as a health care professional, we're also all of them with the system that we don't have a time to give a personalized care or keep following up with the patient. We can let the AI do it, and the AI what can do as the summarize analytic reports to you that okay, this patient has been doing this and this good but not doing this good so we can work from there.

John Shufeldt:
I mean, you know, you see the model, that, as you're talking, I'm thinking of, of course, business ideas because you can see the model of a kind of using the Internet of Things, say, okay, you've put in your, you've put in all this demographic data, here's how tall I am, here's what I weigh, here are my habits. Do I wear a seatbelt? Do I wear a helmet on a bicycle or while I'm skiing or what have you, and then using the Internet of Things to actually track your progress of using the things that are going to increase your lifespan and your and your health span, that'd be a cool business model.

Priyanka Mathur:
Yeah, no, definitely. I think these days, as you rightly said, people just want to know what to do and what would be the results of it, right? That's, that's how, where we are, we don't want to go into like sitting and researching and do it. It's like we want everything ready. And I think that's where in the health care, and I always say when the, when the taxi can come to you, when the food can come to you, you know, with all these delivery and all, why not the health care where we can bring that to you? But you don't have to do anything, just give us the readiness and the willingness to work with it. And we're here to help you. So, yes, no, rightly said, there's there's a lot of, I think there's a lot of verticals. And health care is so huge that we can have, and many, many stakeholders, and I think we have to bring all these stakeholders together to bring that solution for the best efficient care.

John Shufeldt:
Perfect. Totally agree with you. So what have you learned on your entrepreneurial journey that was new for you? What were your aha moments? You know, as they compare to what you learn in your medical journey?

Priyanka Mathur:
I think a lot of things, starting with technology, you know, I would, I never thought that I would be interested in doing something so technical. Obviously, I still don't code, but I do understand that other part of it, you know, so that was a little I would say aha moment is like, okay, the technology part of it. And another thing is the journey. I mean, the journey of entrepreneurship, it looks so glamorous from outside, but on the behind the doors it is with sweat and blood there. So that is something, you know, I never, I mean, I think I was always strong in trying new things, but I didn't know that I'm so resilient and, you know, doing something like that. And I think in did journey, you discover a lot of your own personality traits, like, oh, I, can I do this? Oh, I did this kind of stuff.

John Shufeldt:
Yeah, it's kind of funny. You know, there's, it's, you know, there's just kind of common jokes. Start ups are hard, and they're always a lot harder than you think they're going to be. But I'm laughing because you said you didn't know you're so resilient. But where did your resilience come from? Because I have to tell you, I'm pretty resilient. I would never in a million years think, you know what, I'm going to go to Russia to learn medicine. And I'm, I don't know. And I like going to Moscow, but to live there through those winters, learning medicine, learning, learning Russian I mean, medicine was hard enough to learn for me in Chicago, like learning in Russia, over the charts. Where did you, where did that come from?

Priyanka Mathur:
Yeah. And, you know, just to tell you, it was more extreme because the place I'm from in India, it's called Rajasthan, it's the border state in India, it's called ... So from ... you put a person to Russia, in Saint Petersburg, so extreme. So it was not just like, you know, the culture wise, but also the climate wise, it was a very drastic change for me. But I think it came because again, the passion, I wanted to do medicine. Now, wherever you put me to do medicine, I was ready to do it. And against all the odds, being a female, a young girl, not knowing the language, it was really a lot. But again, that passion keeps me driving it. A lot of roadblocks came, a lot of things came, but I think that is what keeps you going when you have a mission to complete. And that's where it went. And yeah. So I think one thing, I don't know if if it was in me always, but I definitely discovered a lot of things along the way, that yes, I can do it. And one thing is like when I decide of something, I was like, okay, I just have to do it. I really don't know when I say I have to do it, I don't know how, I don't know why. I mean, I know why, but I don't know how. And it's like, how will come on it's way. Let me just make sure that I want to do this. So that has been my way.

John Shufeldt:
So people I know, I don't know if they're born with that, was there something in your childhood that you look back and say, okay, this, my, it's like that Steve Jobs thing's, connecte the dots, connect the dots backwards. Can you now look back at your childhood, in your upbringing and say, yeah, this makes a lot of sense because you are an oddball. Your parents must have left you to go, you're going from the desert to Saint Petersburg from speaking English and just speaking, yeah, Hindi, topeaking Russian. Like, I'm still blown away by that. Did your parents tell you you were crazy?

Priyanka Mathur:
You know, I think my, my mom is the one who took that big, gave me that confidence and took that leap of faith for me. Because, again, coming from a country like India back then when I started, I mean it already, like I would say 20 years back, it was a very ... Like having a girl sending to a literally foreign country and that, to by herself was a very big decision that has to be made not by me first, but by my parents, because they are the one who will be answerable to the society, as we call it. Why are you doing it? So I would say give my credit to my mom because she's the one who took that confidence and faith in me, and is like, you can do it. And another thing is like I studied in a complete missionary school in India. It's a British missionary school, but it's like complete girls missionary school. Now again, I studied my 12 years in a missionary school with only girls, and you're sending me a country, but I have to study with boys. And that, it was a shock for me. But again, my mom is like, you can do it as long as you, you know, one thing she always tells me, you have to go for a mission. Just make sure that you can make a judgment of what is right and wrong for you. We won't be there to do that for you, so you have to make that decision. So yeah.

John Shufeldt:
Well, it's funny, I always look, I always use this analogy for leaders. Are they someone that you charge the machine gun nests with? You know, it's like this World War Two analogy where someone says, like, let's go get him. And every runs up the hill like the Charge of the Light Brigade. And, and I don't think you're going to have any problem having anybody follow you anywhere with your tenacity, because it's it's amazing. So congratulations, it's bad ass.

Priyanka Mathur:
Thank you. No, I think now it feels like very satisfying, to be honest, you know, and when you look back, it's like, okay, yes, you did that, a small accomplishment, but you feel, you know, a little accomplished and proud in your own self. Nothing did very big, but still.

John Shufeldt:
Well, it wasn't small. I mean, it's like, you know, it's like people who run marathons, they're also marathons. So I was like, okay, if I can do that, then anything else will pale in comparison. If you go from the desert to Saint Petersburg for bit, like you said, in an all girls school to learning with boys, I mean, you can do anything, like I'll put money on you. Priyanka, this has been amazing. Where can people learn more about you?

Priyanka Mathur:
So they can, for the MediPocket to use our application, they can go to our website, which is MediPocket.world. They can do go to any play store which is, typing MediPocket and download the free app to use doctor AI and connect to the specialist. And I would say that another best platform to connect is LinkedIn. I'm always there looking for connections, paying it forward, helping anyways, if in a small way I can help, you know, upcoming entrepreneurs with my little knowledge and experience I have, I'm always open for connections.

John Shufeldt:
Very good. Well, thank you very much. Been an honor chatting with you and we'll have everything listen in the show notes. So all your contact information and everything about MediPocket. So thank you very much.

Priyanka Mathur:
Sure. Thank you, John.

John Shufeldt:
Thanks for listening to another great edition of Entrepreneur Rx. To find out how to start a business and help secure your future, go to JohnShufeldt.MD.com. Thanks for listening.

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