Join Megan Antonelli as she explores how Primetime Partners is reshaping the future of aging through strategic investments in digital health and AgeTech solutions. This forward-looking conversation with Abby Levy examines the intersection of AI, home-based care, and social determinants of health in transforming care delivery for the rapidly growing senior population. Learn how innovative technology companies are addressing critical challenges in elder care while creating scalable, profitable solutions in this high-growth market.
Abby Levy, Managing Partner and Co-founder, Primetime Partners
Megan Antonelli, Chief Executive Officer, HealthIMPACT Live
Welcome 0:01 Music. Welcome to Digital Health talks. Each week we meet with healthcare leaders making an immeasurable difference in equity, access and quality. Hear about what tech is worth investing in and what isn't. As we focus on the innovations that deliver. Join Megan Antonelli, Janae sharp and Shahid Shah for a weekly no BS, deep dive on what's really making an impact in healthcare.
Megan Antonelli 0:30 Hi and welcome to health impact lives, digital health talks. This is Megan Antonelli, and I'm excited to be joined by Abby Levy, managing partner and co founder of primetime partners, a pioneering venture fund exclusively focused on improving elder care through technology. In 2022 17% of the US population was 65 or older, which is expected to grow to 22% by 2040 The good news is we are living longer. The bad news is it's expensive and healthcare needs to improve to make that better. Abby and primetime partners are focused on making sure those extra years are their best, with remarkable background, spanning SoulCycle Thrive global and McKinsey, Abby brings unique insights into scaling digital health solutions for our aging population. Hi Abby, Welcome to Digital Health talks. How are you today?
Abby Levy 1:21 Hi, Megan, so nice to see you.
Megan Antonelli 1:23 Yeah, I was, I was so excited to meet you in New York in June, and it's, it's great to have you on the show. Well, you
Abby Levy 1:31 doing such great work, convening all of us in health tech and fostering these wonderful conversations. I really appreciate what you
Megan Antonelli 1:37 do. Yeah? Well, it is. It's fun. It's, you know, this whole the virtual thing, and being able to do these in between our live events is great, and it's nice to be able to kind of get to know our speakers and our audience a little bit better. But tell our audience, those who weren't there in June, a little bit about, you know, your work at Prime Time partners, and how you, you know, kind of got into healthcare innovation and your founder story.
Abby Levy 2:04 So I founded the firm primetime partners with my partner, Alan Patrick cough, who's a veteran venture investor in 2020 and it's an interesting time to be starting a venture fund, let alone one focused on older adults, Aging and Longevity. And I came to this as a former founder myself, as you mentioned, I started a business with Arianna Huffington called Thrive global. I've always worked in and around kind of zero to one, zero to two businesses, at consumer products company Oxo, at health and wellness company SoulCycle. And so have, have always kind of been in this business building role. And my attraction to thinking about aging was actually quite different from most of companies we invest in. Most founders focused on aging have had a terrible experience with the healthcare system. You know, grandma had Alzheimer's, Aunt Joan, you know, suffered ms, somebody had a hospital procedure gone awry, and they want to fix the healthcare system. My attraction to aging was really around this question of purpose and productivity of older adults. My father stopped working in his early 60s, and he's not a one percenter. Doesn't play golf, you know, didn't, didn't have a retirement plan, per se. And it begged the question, you know what? What happens in our 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, in this country and globally, and so I started a bit of a research project called dad that took me down this exploration of what aging looks like. And to be honest, Megan, it was so distressful to see that older adults are ignored. They're underserved. There are not a lot of entrepreneurs thinking about and designing and contemplating what aging can and should be. And so that's where I decided, as an entrepreneur, the right business to start in this space of aging was a venture fund. And so that's how I came to this. And was fortunate to meet my partner through His Son, who I went to business school with, I told him, I'm going to start a venture fund focused on aging. He said, No way. That's what my dad wants to do. And it all came together quite quickly and in a timely way, because COVID only accelerated awareness of older adults. If you recall, during those first spring and summer of COVID, we were glued to our newspapers and TVs, understanding what was going on in nursing homes, helping you know grandpa, go online to get access to the make an appointment to get a vaccine. We were FaceTiming. We were worried about our older adults who were quarantining. And so I think we all became caregivers for the first time, and that was really an accelerant for our space, which is an emerging category within health tech, of thinking about aging.
Megan Antonelli 4:49 Yeah, I mean, I can't really think of anything that could have exposed, sort of the gaps in that, the isolation that was there, and really the, you know, where you had those who work in. Connected and close to caregivers and the difference that that would make. But that's an amazing story. I didn't know all of that. So thanks. Thanks so much for sharing that. But it is. It's such a you know, we did a lot. I actually started my events world in the Medicare space, and kind of watching and getting exposed to that, but also learning about all the different, you know, both cultures and some of the pockets of, you know, in America, in the United States, where some innovative companies were doing great things with aging in place and, you know, at home and not getting that much attention. I mean, I think at the time, like beacon was, was one of the first and those types of, you know, allowing seniors to age and not in like the nursing home setting well.
Abby Levy 5:45 And I think there's something that we discovered as we got going. And my background is, you know, I've always played marketing roles or business development roles in the companies that I've been in. And one of the things you see from a very ageist perspective is we have this monolithic view of older adults. We call them seniors, and we say everyone aged 65 and up is one bucket. And if you think about that, that's like saying zero to 25 is one bucket, you know, with all the different life stages and heterogeneity of that. And so one of the things I think Prime Time has really over indexed on with our portfolio and our lens is to help companies understand how important it is to segment their audience and to understand the needs, not based on age, but based on the psychographics and life stage that people are at. Because you can have multiple perspectives. Just because you're 65 doesn't mean you all want or think about things the same. And so, you know the other so we've kind of been doing some myth busting. Another interesting one, I think, is really around older adults and technology. I mean, if you think about it, there's 12,000 people who turn 65 every day in the United States, those folks who, again, technically term seniors now, were in their 30s when the internet was created, they've been online, you know, in work, at home, in their life, e commerce. You know, they're as digitally native, you know, as the younger generations. And it maybe they're not using Tiktok in the same way. But this isn't, you know, the digital divide at this point is less around age and more around income in our country,
Megan Antonelli 7:26 for sure. Yeah, no, absolutely. I think some of the memes that I've seen where it's like, Generation X is now seniors. I'm not quite, I'm not quite ready to see those memes, but it's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think that's such a good point in terms of just the diversity of that aging population, and what whether they are, whether it's socioeconomic, but also the age, and then, of course, the health status, and what they're ready to do and wanting to do in that, in that time that, you know, isn't just, you know, 65 to 70, now it's 65 to, hopefully 90, if not 100 so that's amazing, as you look at, I mean, I think, you know, another one of the techs, the companies that was so prominent years ago, like Silver Sneakers and stuff, still around. But when you look at and they're still focused on, you know, aging at home, and wellness and that space, what do you think is kind of enabling the innovation in that space now. And what are some of the types of technologies that you're seeing that are exciting? So
Abby Levy 8:28 I think within companies that are focused on an older audience, it's actually quite similar to any health tech company which is around personalization, and I know we've been talking about this for years, but I'm really feeling the momentum on this because of AI, because it's just gotten a lot faster, easier, cheaper, to start to understand your audience better and serve them up content services, nudges, appointments, whatever it is that's more relevant to them. And so I think we're moving from a one size fits all in healthcare model, slowly to some greater level of personalization and timeliness, and that exists in our portfolio companies. So for example, one of our portfolio companies age bold, you mentioned senior Silver Sneakers. They're also a movement as medicine business, and they are really able to tailor your experience to meeting people where they are. If you've never exercised before, this is where you start. If you've always been fit and just, you know, had a hip surgery or a setback, here's where you start. If you've got severe arthritis, here's where you start. You know that that's what we're talking about from a personalization is really driving engagement through meeting patients and members where they are. So I think that's one thing that is not unique to businesses that focus on older adults, but it's an opportunity with the technology. I think the other thing, remember seeing a lot of things, but another thing we're seeing. Is the topic of prevention. I mean, we have a reactive, defensive healthcare system. People talk about it as sick care. I don't know about you, but the number of books, TV shows, magazine covers, that are talking about longevity, that we are really seeing a younger audience, starting to think about, Gosh, what is it going to be like when I'm older? I want to be able to stay running when I'm 70. I want to be able to prevent the cancers that were in my have been in my family. I'm not going to assume that just because I have a genetic predisposition to something, that I can't fight it and can't work against it. And that's moved from just kind of the 1% bio hackers, you know, Masters of the Universe conversation, to being a much broader conversation in women's health and preventative care. And so we're seeing that also starting, frankly, through a lot of the diagnostic businesses. You know, in COVID, we all became diagnosticians. I mean, think about that. We were all swabbing our nostrils like if you had told us years before that we'd be sticking Q tips up our nose and waiting for test results at home, you would have been like, what spoof TV show is this? What sci fi movie are we watching? And now, you know, the home diagnosis from our rings and glucose monitoring to hormone testing. I mean, we're, you know, patients are taking it more into their own hands, owning their health and their data. So I think that's a that's here to stay,
Megan Antonelli 11:35 right? Yeah, no, absolutely. And it is, I mean, and I think the potential that that brings in that you can have that sort of constant monitoring and the data collection without the intervention, you know, without the involvement of the provider, but then, you know, having the tools and the data to get there, you know, to set alerts or to set notifications, but it gives you, I mean, I can't, I don't want to do a commercial for oura ring, but The amount of knowledge that I've gotten and the changes to my behavior that I've made because of it, because I value my sleep, to go back to thrives, thrives originally, right? You know, was, it's, you know, immeasurable, and I never, you know, and I've had, you know, every wearable there is pretty much, but that one, really, you know, because it was constant. Did change? You know, drove, drove. That behavioral change. And I think that ability to meet people where they are is what it's about, you know, whether that's a home or, you know, work or outside. Tell me a little bit about one of the ones. You know, Rosarium health and their home based care tech and what's going on. You know what they're doing.
Abby Levy 12:44 So Rosarium health is a was a pre seed investment of ours, companies only about a year old. Fantastic founder, Cameron Carter, and he came from the payer side and saw that there was this need for home modification. So right now about I think something like 83 to 85% of older adults own their home, but the average age of those homes is over 20 years old. And so while everyone wants to age in place, it may not be safe to age in place in your current home, whether it's clutter, it's rugs, it's lighting, it's grab bars, everything. And I, even with my own parents, I always kind of half joke that their house is a death trap, like stairs everywhere. You know, just you know. We all know it. We all see it. And Karen's insight was that that there is funding for this, there's Medicaid, there's Medicare, there's funding for home modification, not just for people who are disabled, but in a variety of situations. But the gap in the system was that even if you could get the recommendation from an occupational therapist for all the home modifications to make, how would you find and trust a general contractor? How do you close the loop to make sure the service gets delivered? And so what Rosarium does is it basically has both sides of the marketplace. It has the occupational therapists who, both physically and via telemedicine, tele video, will make go make these home assessment but then they have a network of vetted and reimbursed they manage the reimbursement for Medicare or Medicaid, for the GCS and for the handyman, handy people, and that was really this question of how you close the loop. But the real piece that is kind of the underlying theme of businesses like Rosarium, is that it's great. We've got all this technology, and we've got people thinking about longevity, but the real urgency is the exploding cost of healthcare. The real hammer here is that we have hospitals closing because they can't afford to deliver care in rural areas, we have Medicare Advantage plans that are losing money. We have plans pulling out of Medicaid in some states, it's because the math doesn't work. It is still a trillion dollar expense to serve seniors health. In our country, going growing at over 8% a year. That is a runaway train. And so businesses like Rosarium that have very tangible proven, we talk about ROI, and you mentioned the prep call. You know, the ROI is someone doesn't trip on a rug and go to the hospital because of a fall. That's a 20 to $30,000 savings. So is it worth spending $3,000 on home modification for the likelihood, you know, one in three older adults fall every year that you can prevent that fall? And so I think we're seeing a lot more pressure from enterprise customers like payers and and hot and hospital systems and providers for immediate ROI, not the five, six year out ROI, and I think that is been very helpful for the health tech ecosystem, even though, right now, as we've heard from all enterprise customers, there's just too many startups. There's too many choices. But in rosariums case, there's two companies that do home modification in the country. And it's, it's a pressing need, giving our given our housing stock,
Megan Antonelli 16:04 right? And can, I can only imagine it's going to get bigger, you know, as the understanding and the demand for that grows, you know. But, yeah, what a, what a great idea. But as you said, it's like, it's bringing those, you know, those people together, and educating those on what what is possible and what can be covered, and all of that, you know, and I mean, and to think, you know, I think in my own experience, I've watched my in laws and, you know, older aunts and uncles move from houses to, you know, to literally, you know, just have a better house for them, but that they could have probably, you know, modified what you know, relatively easily and not gone through the move, which was also traumatic and difficult, right?
Abby Levy 16:48 Yeah, and listen, we don't have the right housing stock. You know, there's only 2 million Senior Living beds in our country in terms of from those communities. And it's something that, you know, I've always like in our work at prime time to be actually quite similar to climate change. You know, it's the kind of human version of climate change that this data has always been here. We always knew the population was aging. This is nothing new, but I think we underestimated and had our head heads in the sand on the implications on our infrastructure. We from a health care, financial services, retirement housing, workforce, you know, retail, consumer, every industry is impacted by this fundamental shift. I mean, for the first time in human history, there will be more people over the age of 65 than under the age of 18. We are taking a pyramid population where the bottom of the pyramid were younger people, and we're flattening it out and almost inverting it over the next 100 years that, I mean, that is a serious systemic change, 100%
Megan Antonelli 17:47 Yeah, no, it's crazy. And then, you know, layered on top of that, I think, and we talked about this a little bit in New York too, you know, is the poverty, and there are, you know, the the digital, well, the economic divide that exists. Yeah. So what are there? Some companies, some technology, some innovations that you think are really kind of getting to help there, in terms of providing solutions for those who really, really need them and can't afford, couldn't afford to do the modifications, even if they weren't covered.
Abby Levy 18:20 Yeah, yeah. And What? What? Actually, one of our latest investment is a business called Thrive Health Tech, ironically also named thrive. And what Thrive Health Tech does is it is provides with some both government subsidies as well as payer subsidies or Medicaid subsidies. It provides both a physical mobile phone, the data plan and all that that phone is healthcare enabled. What we mean is they already have an operating system on there that is HIPAA compliant, that doesn't require you to download apps or have any barriers to healthcare engagement. It is already connected to your health plan so that you can get the messages, the prompts, the sign ups, all of those things are already pre loaded onto the phone. And one of the things that they don't mention is that, because they control the operating system, they can help with tech support. Like, you know, when you work at a big company and you have a problem and you call the person, they come in your computer and navigate it for you thrive. Health Tech has that ability. And so they are actually working with, starting off with three main populations within Medicaid. They're working with populations that are recently reduced, released from prison, Medicaid moms and dual eligibles or older adults. And so by providing the technology and the digital access and training, it's kind of an all in one opportunity, which is why the payers are subsidizing it. Why they want this? Because part of the issue is digital literacy, but the other part for marginalized populations is especially if they don't have one. Address. You can't find them. You can't send mail to them. They don't have a phone. You can't reach them. They are off the grid, and so not only do they have a legal obligation to provide health care and pressure from the government to provide health care, but if they can't find that person. And so it's a brilliant concept, because everybody wants a phone, and if they have the phone, and they're going to keep the phone, then you can find them. So we're really excited about Thrive, health Tech's ability to kind of just make sure that we can stay connected to all parts of our population.
Megan Antonelli 20:34 Yeah, the Medicaid space has always been a really interesting one in terms of tech, you know, because, in some ways, because of the population, because exactly what you said, they couldn't always get to them or find them. It was a lot of giving the tech there and being able to test it and, and, you know, I mean, I think it's really where even the texting to, you know, patient engagement around texting really started there. And, yeah, and, and, you know, saw so much success. And also, you know, just around, you know, appointments and keeping appointments and all of that so but that is, that's a that's a great and
Abby Levy 21:06 we've seen our portfolio companies do really well in Medicaid, because they're most Medicaid. Most states are really willing to try whatever they can to solve these problems. And they're very innovative. You know, California has its master plan on aging. You know, Michigan and New York are known for being places to start with Medicaid, the Medicaid teams there that they're keen and eager to try new things. And then the one of the other great things about Medicaid, while the contracts are state to state, you don't get, like Medicare, a national United contract for millions of hundreds of millions of people. But what you do get is there's a bit of a domino effect. You prove it in one state, and they really do trust each other, the Medicaid state Medicaid directors. So you know, it's not just that Medicare Advantage is cooling off because of the economic pressure being put on them. There's also consistency within Medicaid of again, as their populations are swelling, they are desperately looking to technology,
Megan Antonelli 22:04 right? Yeah, no. And that's, that's true. It's, it is. It's such a that Medicaid director community and that they do share best practices, and then are, you know, it's such a tough community to manage that they're willing to be innovative and do do some of those things. So it is a great area to pilot and do things like that. Which one company that kind of came out to me? And I think the food is medicine sort of movement is a, you know, is something that, obviously, in Medicaid is also another great space to kind of pilot some of those programs. And we're seeing those in community based health systems and urban Tell me a little bit about nourished RX, and kind of what their model is. Yeah, nourished
Abby Levy 22:43 RX, the founder, Lauren Dr skull, has been in public health her whole career. She is brilliant, and she saw an opportunity, probably in like 2018 to think about food as medicine, just as this topic was even the careers was even being coined. And her thought is that you have access to snap or meal, kind of medically tailored meals being delivered. And that was that was always kind of funded by different pockets in that our healthcare system. But what we didn't have was using that food as, in some ways, the hook to get someone to engage in their own health and so it was really using nutrition counseling and kind of patient engagement through through food. And if you think about the old adage, you know the the way to anyone's heart is through their mouth. You know that that the same thing is using that the food as a way to engage someone in their health journey. And so that's what the product and service is. It is remote nutrition counseling, patient engagement and customized food delivery. The other insight, again, back to the theme of personalization, is that most of the medically tailored meals, like GA foods or Mott meals that existed was kind of a one size fits all. And what you know, again, back to food through the heart, is that, you know, she would be dealing with a Somali population in Michigan, a large Somali population, and they don't want pesto pasta. You know, they have their own cultural needs and flavors and tastes. And so she was able to put together a supply chain that allowed for that cultural relevancy, which is really, really important again, for that ultimate engagement. So she's shown great results, kind of put in cardiac congestion, sorry, heart failure situations. She's seen great results with Medicaid moms in terms of pre pre neonatal care and in other kind of acute cases where, you know, especially after surgery or after an episode, you really need to control what you eat. But again, I think it comes down to personalization and engagement. Mm, hmm. Yeah.
Megan Antonelli 25:00 And, you know, I think, as you said, food, food is so core to our health as you know, and I love, you know, sort of movement as medicine. Food is medicine, these things that are, you know, the easy, you know, whether it's low hanging fruit or just the easy interventions that people need and want and will engage in. But you know, you mentioned a little bit in terms of the value and the ROI and that, you know, as we are kind of coming out of, or maybe still in a sort of pretty tight funding year, as you look at the founders in your in your portfolio, or others, you know, across across health tech, you know, what are some of the key, you know, metrics you're looking at when you're evaluating these texts, you know, investments in the age tech space.
Abby Levy 25:44 So this is not a a unique way to look at things. So I'll just preface that with saying but we are very focused on commercial velocity. And what we mean by that isn't that you've got you're in conversation with 20 logos which every early stage company presents you that deck, but it's that your product is so urgently needed and easily distributed that you can get to a yes quickly and Get it in the end users hands quickly, and that velocity is, in sometimes more important than the TAM or the nup the size of your pipeline. It's the ability to distribute it quickly with an easy yes, and I know that that's an obvious point, but in healthcare, it's not because the channel is and there's is hard that the number of founders who say, you know, it's just taking us longer than we thought were like, Yeah, of course it is. And so that's the commercial velocity is not just within the channel that you think you're going after, but one of the great things that I think about prime time being what we call a horizontal Venture Fund. In other words, because we do health tech and fintech, and we'll look at any business that impacts the life of an older adult. So we look at HR tech and workforce, we look at prop Tech, we look at consumer media, because we have a horizontal lens on the population. The way we think about customer channels is much more diversified than a straight up Health Care Fund. We look outside of just health care distribution. We look at life insurance, long term care, Wealth Management, retail banking, government, NGO, CBO, media companies, cable companies. We have we see that there are all these affiliates and distribution channels that are bigger than just hospital systems and payers, because we do so much in post acute care because of older adults, we look at that as well. So I the reason why I look at talk about commercial velocity is it's also a question of not just within the channels you think you should be selling to, but how do you think creatively about other channels? So I would say that's a big focus point for us. And we do look for founders that aren't just relying on their funders to open doors, but have already figured out where there's pockets of commercial velocity for themselves. I
Megan Antonelli 28:17 think that's I mean, while you're saying it's a not this point, but Right? But I think it's, I mean, I think that it is a part that's really missed so often. I mean, I've talked to millions, feel like of founders, where you know that, and a lot of it is, you know, sometimes, because you come to healthcare from this place of grandma had a terrible experience, you know, at Alzheimer's, you know, with Alzheimer's or at the hospital. And when you come to healthcare from this place of, you know narrowness, you know from one incident, or you know even one problem, and try to tackle that, you lose the fact that there's, it's so interconnected with so many other things. And if you're not, you know, we'll, we'll have, you know, should you go to the employer market? Should you go to the payer market? And it's like, if you don't satisfy at least three or four, and I think, to your point, even outside of those you know needs and wants, then you're not going to have, you know that there, it's going to be a slow path, at least, you know, a very slow path to success. So I think that is a really great lesson for people to take away. So thanks for for sharing that. When you think about the technologies that are out there, I mean, we've, we've seen this, you know, sort of AI take over and, you know, not that it's new, but it's been here for a long time, and but now it has an acceptance, if, nothing else, and certainly telemedicine and the acceptance of remote monitoring and seeing your doctor, you know, via zoom or or what have you. What do you think is the you know, technology that makes, you know, that's going to make a difference, you know, in the next 510, years,
Abby Levy 29:57 I mean, I'd be a very rich lady. If I could tell you that right off, right off the bat. I mentioned before, the the the diagnostics and blood work, I think you know, we are not life science investors, that's a whole other vertical. But what's going on over there in terms of genomic testing, understanding, gut health, brain health, you know, metabolic health, I mean, all of this precision that we are starting to apply in the R D side, that's going to generate these medical devices and biopharma and and pharmaceuticals. All of that is ultimately going to lead to a much more precise way that we diagnose and treat disease full stop. And so what excites me in terms of this opportunity is moving beyond a once a year, knock your knees with a little triangle, you know, PCP, visit, check your throat to really having this personalized medicine based on our genomics and blood and blood and Bloods, right? And I think that while it sounds very sci fi and Hollywood, I think if we see what's actually happening on the life sciences side, you'll see how this is actually what will become healthcare. And you're also seeing it for the uber rich. They're already doing this with their longevity doctors. And you know, again, we will follow that space closely. So the technologies I'm excited about are around blood genomics and kind of the the consumer version of all of that, or the the out of from out of the labs, into into the practice and distribution. I think we'll have a whole new group of healthcare professionals that are trained in this. We see private equity already making a lot of money from phlebotomy, but that's like old school, you know, needles and this and that. Now we've got, you know, we just looked at a company that does home blood testing, like where you do your DIY blood testing. So, you know, there's, there's a lot going on in that space. So I think this technology around personalized medicine is going to be very, very prevalent, and a lot of people to make a lot of money in terms of investing behind it. So I think that's one thing. And then I think the second piece is we do have a care shortage. We have a, you know, that that all of this technology does not replace humans. I mean, at no point have we been at a place where we can say, we can take the human out of the loop. AI is not gonna replace doctors, not gonna replace nurses. They are still, we still need to pick people up and put them in the bathtub. You know that we're not at the place where robots are going to be replacing us to do that. And so my second area where I really see an opportunity for technology is in assisting the human side of healthcare from workflows, reducing paperwork, making it more efficient and enabling a new workforce of family caregivers. We have several investments, one in Ruby Well, another in Italy, and a third investment in care well, we have three businesses that focus on the family caregiver. We are very big believers that the 50 million family caregivers in our country are our next care workforce. We have a shortage of 2 million care workers in the US and 13 million globally, that is, that's, that's just like over the next couple of years, that's going to that shortage is going to grow and grow because of the inversion of our population from an age distribution. So I believe the technologies that unlock more efficiency from our healthcare humans, but also can train and bring in new healthcare workers into the mix. Is going to be a second area where we're really interested in,
Megan Antonelli 34:06 yeah, well, I think both of those, you know, will be amazing. And I think the first one certainly goes back to the personalization of it. And then, you know, as you think about the potential that AI, you know, and the power of the computing to kind of process that data and take the data that matters and take the data that's important and do things with it. You know, the potential is there, and then to have the caregivers who perhaps aren't as specialized. So it's you know, it, you know, but, but can help respond to it and bring in the, you know, those who need to be brought in when they do so even a continuum of what makes it all possible. So that's exciting. And I know we always end with one good thing, but I think in some ways that was a good thing. But did you want to to add a good thing another good thing that you see happening in healthcare? But you know, I think that almost covered it well.
Abby Levy 34:59 I think. Just kind of germane to our fund. One of the reasons why I think we have such a sick care system is that individuals are scared of aging and scared of death, and they don't want to even engage in the health care process because they're nervous and they and they don't, they're just, they're afraid of it, and I think that we're starting to see with all of these positive role models of older adults and this much more positive view of aging. I think that is a very I hope that that kind of continues on, and that we continue to understand that the biggest barrier to our health care is our own ageism, with for ourselves, and so the more that we can embrace. I'm turning 50 in a week, that's awesome. And how do I want to live that decade? And how do I want to live my 60s and my 70s? If we have a plan, we're much more likely, whether that's on our health or our financials or employment or personal life, you have to plan for these chapters of life. And I think that will have a very positive halo on health care, if we can try to, if we can avoid avoiding it and embrace it. And so I get excited when I see in the media, all these, you know, celebrities and actors and actresses in their 80s. You know, starring in films. Because I think the more positive reinforcement that aging is wonderful and good and flourishing, the more that we will plan for it and therefore protect ourselves from a healthcare perspective, right?
Megan Antonelli 36:39 Aging is a good thing, and the alternative is a really bad thing.
Abby Levy 36:44 Yeah, yeah. And guess what? It's gonna happen, like doing death and taxes, right, right?
Megan Antonelli 36:49 Well, happy birthday. I, too, am turning 50 in December. So it is, you know, and it, it doesn't feel so bad, you know. But I think it is good. It is, you know, it's a totally different perspective than it would have been maybe 20 years ago, because I think that there are so many more networks of and pockets of kind of people embracing it and sharing what it's like to be and, you know, as older adults, yeah,
Abby Levy 37:14 and I'll end with this, if you knew that you would live to be 100 what would you do differently, right? You know. And there's,
Megan Antonelli 37:22 you know, undo the last 25 folks, no, but
Abby Levy 37:25 there are definitely, there's, there's definitely some medical procedures that can, but, but, but that's, that is what we need to be asking ourselves, right? How do we want to live the second 50 years of our
Megan Antonelli 37:37 life? Yeah, I mean, it, you know, and I've read a lot of the longevity books, but it, you know, in terms of just that, you know, the this, I think it was one where it was just around, you know, if you want to be able to walk to the grocery store and carry your groceries, what are the exercises that you need to do to be able to do that, you know? You know, we don't need to be doing Ultra fit marathons, you know, but we need to maintain the muscles to ensure that we can do the things that we want to do, whether that's walking up the stairs and not needing a single story home in our, you know, 60s or 70s. You know, so, but it is the the alternative is not good, and aging is good. So, you know, I appreciate what you do and what you're doing to, you know, invest in the technologies to make those, you know, our best years yet, so and they will be Thank you, Megan, for having me. Thank you, Abby, it's a pleasure, and thank you to our listeners for more insights. You know, please follow Health Impact live and join us in person at the next Health Impact forum. Keep innovating, keep leading, and, most importantly, keep making an impact. Thank you.
Thank you 38:39 Thank you for joining us on digital health talks, where we explore the intersection of healthcare and technology with leaders who are transforming patient care. This episode was brought to you by our valued program partners, automation anywhere, revolutionizing healthcare workflows through Intelligent Automation. Natara, advancing contactless vital signs, monitoring elite groups delivering strategic healthcare. IT solutions, sell point, securing healthcare, identity management and access governance. Your engagement helps drive the future of healthcare innovation. Subscribe to digital health talks on your preferred podcast platform. Share these insights with your network and follow us on LinkedIn for exclusive content and updates. Ready to connect with healthcare technology leaders in person. Join us at the next health impact event. Visit Health Impact forum.com for dates and registration. Until next time this is digital health talks, where changemakers come together to fix healthcare. You.