Episode 10: Doc Mike Evans - nudging towards better health

Virality of another kind, whiteboarding prevention and life at One Infinite Loop Welcome to the ⁠⁠⁠North of Patient⁠⁠⁠ podcast - conversations on health[beyond]care - where we paint an inspired landscape of healthcare's future through dialogues with creative and unconventional thinkers from around the world. For a summary of the episode, visit the ⁠blog post⁠ on North of Patient: https://open.substack.com/pub/northofpatient/p/episode-10-doc-mike-evans-nudging and subscribe to ⁠North of Patient on Substack⁠: https://northofpatient.substack.com/ If you think back to the early days of videos going viral on @YouTube you might recall a 2011 video called “23 and a half hours”, a video that talked about exercise, the single best thing you can do for your health, through a catchy whiteboarding drawing video, well before that became a thing. That video garnered over 6M views and was one of the most watched public health videos of it’s time, and was the brainchild of Doc Mike Evans who went on to build a med school for the public on YouTube with over 30M “students”. What you might not know is that Doc Mike Evans spent the last 8 years working at Apple in Cupertino on Special Projects on their Health team, designing and running experiments on how to improve life and health for their 1 billion users across the world. Doc Evans is now on a gap year and I’m honoured that North of Patient is one of the first places where he has gotten a chance to discuss his career and his thoughts about the future of #healthcare. In this episode, we unpack the storied career and incredible range of experiences he’s had, from running an environmental consulting company in the 1980s in the first green wave to working with Mother Teresa in Calcutta long before he was in medicine, to being a doctor at the Sochi Olympics in 2014, to founding a health media lab and a film company, he was really embodied the idea of working at the intersection of many different disciplines to advance healthcare forward. Key stamps from our conversation are below: 02:02 Background and Early Life 03:46 The High Arctic and environmental pioneering 15:59 Founding a Health Media Lab and YouTube Success 18:17 Impact of 23 and a Half Hours Video going viral 21:27 Challenges in Health Communication and Education 27:03 The Role of Generative AI in Healthcare 29:50 Working at Apple 32:33 The Power of Daily Health Interactions 32:54 The Scale and Influence of #BigTech in Health 34:52 Challenges and Lessons from Working at Apple 40:51 The Future of Wearables in Health 49:23 Preventative Health x Behavioral Economics 52:28 How #singapore became an ideal health innovation partner 55:09 Exciting Trends in Health Technology 01:01:02 Advice for Healthcare Providers and System Leaders 01:05:24 What's Next for the Doc Make sure to subscribe on Substack and follow along. As always, I welcome comments and ideas, as well as suggestions for future guests. #healthcareai #siliconvalley #wearables #preventativehealth #generativeai #llm #digitalhealth #startups #universityoftoronto