S1E29: 800,000 Americans Have This—And Don't Know It | HealthTech2Care Podcast with Bert Fernandez

HealthTech2Care Podcast featuring Stephen Randall, Founder & CEO of Medaica Stephen Randall (Guest): 🌐 Medaica: https://www.medaica.com 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenrandall1  Bert Fernandez (Host):  🌐 HealthTech2Care: https://www.healthtech2care.com 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bert-fernandez 📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HealthTech2Care 🎙 In this episode, Stephen Randall shares what led him to launch Medaica—a response to fragmentation in healthcare, his own family history of heart disease, and a belief that diagnostics should be accessible, scalable, and platform-driven. He also walks through the moment when a Medaica device—placed on his chest like a digital stethoscope and equipped with sensors + an early AI prototype—flagged a murmur missed by both EKG and cardiologist, later confirmed by an echocardiogram as early-stage aortic stenosis. Stephen's vision goes beyond building smart tools. It's about delivering a solution that fits real clinical workflows, empowers earlier action, and fuels long-term research through a goal to collect a billion heartbeats and breaths. ⏱️ Timestamps: 00:00 Personal story: how a missed murmur diagnosis sparked Medaica  01:45 Fragmented systems, family history, and building a unified AI platform 04:44 Why AI-enhanced auscultation is the triage tool we've been missing 07:12 The case for home diagnostics: EKGs, digital stethoscopes, and telehealth 2.0 10:00 FDA-cleared sensor + AI platform: early traction and use cases 11:55 Stephen's own murmur story—caught by AI, missed by his cardiologist 13:56 Who Medaica is focused on: 65+, rural, and veterans 16:25 Reframing AI: not replacing doctors—enabling them 18:31 Biggest hurdles: provider buy-in, payer economics, and workflow integration 23:41 What's next: the "billion heartbeats and breaths" mission 🔑 Highlights: A Medaica device + early AI prototype flagged a murmur missed by EKG and cardiologist Echocardiogram confirmed early-stage aortic stenosis ~800,000 Americans have undiagnosed valvular heart disease FDA-cleared sensors at a fraction of the cost of legacy solutions Live heart/lung data integrated into telehealth—no extra apps Targeting 65+ seniors and rural communities Goal: collect a billion heartbeats and breaths for AI research "We'll walk over broken glass": the Medaica partner promise  👉 Learn more about Medaica: https://www.medaica.com 🔔Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more conversations with standout voices in U.S. healthcare & life sciences: https://www.youtube.com/@HealthTech2Care #AuscultationPlatform #EarlyDetection #Cardiology #MedTech #HealthTech #Telehealth #FDACleared #AIinHealthcare #Medaica #HealthTech2Care