(US & Canada) VIDEO | We Aim to Modify Healthcare Delivery With Modern Analytics — Fountain Life Founder and CEO

Dr. Bill Kapp, CEO and Founder of Fountain Life, speaks with Phanii Pydimarri, Head of Strategic Partnerships, Enterprise Data, and Analytics, at Healthcare Service Corporation, in a video interview about his journey in healthcare, revolutionizing healthcare with healthcare analytics, the role of AI in healthcare, industry challenges, and the future of healthcare.

Kapp begins by giving an overview of his journey as an orthopedic surgeon with a background in molecular immunology and a passion for improving the cost of healthcare and healthcare delivery. Over the years, he has built imaging centers, a surgery center, and nine hospitals, driven by the pursuit of the latest technology to make healthcare better.

Next, Kapp recalls a conference where he learned that the technology available and emerging in the next 10 years would fundamentally shape healthcare. It became evident that technology had advanced to a state where diseases could be detected at their earliest stages.

This led to the realization that to reduce healthcare costs, organizations need to move away from a symptom-based and after-the-fact healthcare delivery system. Kapp affirms that leveraging technology can help people take preventive or restorative actions accordingly. Additionally, he states that early detection using advanced technology reduces healthcare costs by over 80%. He recalls that building Fountain Life Centers started at that point.

Elaborating on the Fountain Life services, Kapp mentions the comprehensive health assessment, referred to as the Physical Exam 4.0. This process involves collecting 10,000 images through whole Body and Brain MRI scans. The images are then analyzed using artificial intelligence to gain more knowledge.

Furthermore, complete Genome Sequencing is conducted to establish what the individual's risks look like in the future, and whether they are carriers of any genetic variants. An Advanced Cardiac Screening (ACCTA) is also completed and fed into an AI algorithm to accurately display if there is any plaque in the arteries and how much.

Fountain Life also offers a comprehensive body composition analysis with a DEXA scan, analyzing a person's entire gut microbiome and 120 other blood biomarkers, says Kapp. He reckons that all the information is compiled in an executive summary that reveals the current status of one's health, as well as what can be done going forward to optimize it.

Moving forward, Kapp highlights the role of AI in organizational services and states that the FDA has approved more than 500 AI-enabled technologies for scanning. He explains that machine learning algorithms are more efficient at detecting slight changes than the human eye and can provide deeper insights.

With AI-driven brain MRIs, Kapp says that it's possible to identify risks for Alzheimer's 10 years before it develops. He goes on to mention the application of AI algorithms for body composition check-ups, assessing the risk of aneurysms, and attaining the status of overall health. Furthermore, AI is used to detect small cancers that can otherwise be overlooked. In addition, AI algorithms are also used to identify one's physiologic age by analyzing 800,000 methylation markers on an individual’s DNA.

Thereafter, Kapp suggests that the main objective of Fountain Life is to scale up testing and treatment access for the masses. He emphasizes that the company was not formed to become solely a scanning and testing center for those who can pay for it, but rather to modify healthcare delivery worldwide with a proactive approach towards modern analytics.

According to him, the challenge that stands in the way of this goal is that when the FDA approves a new technology, it takes around 15 years for it to become part of physicians' practices. Moreover, the lack of marketing and financing is making it difficult for doctors to become aware of and begin using newer technologies. This presents a huge barrier in terms of having up-to-date treatments available to patients.

In conclusion, Fountain Life's mission is to use the existing massive data sets and leverage the newer generative AI models to train AI to detect asymptomatic diseases. Kapp appreciates the members who help contribute to the body of knowledge. The organization aims to democratize access to this information globally with different sets of biomarkers.

CDO Magazine appreciates Dr. Bill Kapp for sharing his invaluable insights with our global community.