How AI is Helping Diagnose Disease with Chuck Piccirillo

Summary

In this conversation, Gregory Austin and Chad Briscoe interview Chuck Piccirillo, CEO of Zealic Health, about his experience in the healthcare industry and the focus on patient-centric solutions. Chuck shares his personal journey with colitis and how it ultimately inspired him to start Zealic Health. The company aims to provide highly patient-centric digital platforms to improve care and treatment in the healthcare industry. Chuck also shares the story of how Zealic Health adapted to the war in Ukraine and relocated their employees to Poland.

The panel tackles the tough questions around the new LDT as a Medical Device final ruling by the FDA. They then discuss how AI is helping doctors detect cancer and in making better diagnostic decisions.

Takeaways

• Zealic Health focuses on providing patient-centric digital platforms to improve care and treatment in the healthcare industry.


• The use of AI in healthcare can help accelerate drug development, improve diagnostics, and enhance patient engagement.


• Zealic Health adapted to the war in Ukraine by relocating their employees to Poland, demonstrating their commitment to their team and their mission.



• The FDA final ruling is clearly to improve safety but the confusion is in the interpretation of that ruling and 

Sound Bites

• “The biggest challenge is the interpretation of these (LDT) rules.”

  
  



• “Typically I’m not in favor of what Congress is doing.”

  
  



• “Trying to understand how we’re going to navigate the space … it’s just been confusing.”

  
  



• "The FDA is trying to protect us, but they need to navigate these things and engage industry experts."

  
  



• “(regarding AI) Where does marketing end and reality begin?”

  
  



• "AI isn't going to say, 'We don't need the doctor, just use AI.'"

  
  



• “The people who are out of their jobs won't be the ones using AI. The people who are out of their jobs will be the ones who don't.”

  
  



• “The whole promise of AI is taking massive amounts of data and finding those patterns

  
  

Chapters

01:33 Introduction and Background

04:03 The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation and Chuck’s struggle with Colitis

07:49 Patient-Centric Solutions in Healthcare and Zealic Health

13:26 Plan B - Moving offices from Ukraine to Poland

20:02 New News!! - The Controversy of LDTs Becoming Medical Devices

27:20 Implications of healthcare and regulations as it applies to AI

30:07 How AI Aids in Diagnosis

New News Story: House committee tells FDA to suspend lab developed test rule

https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/house-committee-fda-suspend-ldt-rule/721362/ 

How to reach us:

Crohn's & Colitis Foundation

https://www.crohnscolitisfoundation.org/ 

Chuck Piccirillo

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cpiccirillo/ 

Zealic Health - http://www.zealichealth.com

Dr. Chad Briscoe

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadbriscoe/ 

Celerion - https://www.celerion.com/  

Gregory Austin

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregoryaustin1/ 

ECI - https://eci-rx.com / 

Image credits:

https://www.crohnscolitisfoundation.org/ 

LDT/FDA, https://x.com/FDADeviceInfo/status/1784965525522493657 

Congress, https://worldstrides.com/blog/2013/07/u-s-capitol/ 

Cost, https://www.freepik.com/photos/increasing-costs 

Cancer patient, https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/sick-asian-man-sitting-chair-side-view_33753979.htm 

CAD - Computer Aided Detection, https://researchoutreach.org/articles/assessing-performances-computer-aided-diagnosis-breast-cancer/ 

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