Welcome to Season 3 of The Medical Matrix Podcast!

To kick off this season, your host Dr. Rosie Sendher welcomes Chris Howard, CEO of Softeq, to discuss life as an entrepreneur in technology!

The journey of every entrepreneur is a unique one, yet there are shared challenges, lessons learned, and successes and failures which motivate you further. As he shares his experience, Chris offers insights into what he learned along the way, how he fostered a culture within his company, and shares advice for current and future entrepreneurs as they set out to achieve their goals in today’s technology landscape!

In this episode, Dr. Rosie Sendher and guest co-host Bre Grofscik are joined by Dr. Leila Strickland, co-founder and chief science officer of Biomilq. Leila’s personal experience as a mother gave birth to this mother-centered and woman-owned company, which creates cell-cultured human milk from mammary epithelial cells. These are the same cells that produce milk in a lactating mother, and Biomilq is researching how to best nurture and grow these cells in a laboratory setting to produce human milk! This remarkable novel innovation aims to empower mothers without compromising early nutrition.

Leila’s story will be a familiar one to many, as breast-feeding is an endeavor that is often riddled with challenges. Please join us for an important discussion that begins at the cellular level - highlighting Biomilq’s research, breastmilk composition, and lactation physiology - and ends at the macro level where we explore how access, resources, and professional culture all impact breast-feeding and child nutrition.

For more information on Leila Strickland and/or Biomilq, please visit www.biomilq.com

This podcast is produced by Carmel Sound Lab. For more information please visit www.carmelsoundlab.com

By now, you most likely have heard about Artificial Intelligence (or "AI") and/or Machine Learning. However, Machine Learning - the study of computer algorithms that improve automatically through experience and data - is actually seen as a separate part of AI that is focused on solving practical problems by using statistics and probability theory. This enables "intelligence" and is the foundation for AI.

So, as the field of medicine and healthcare systems contemplate the capabilities of AI with the aim to harness its powers to deliver care, where do we start? How do we (and can we) build a foundation through utilizing Machine Learning? What roadblocks/challenges do we face? Can healthcare and technology work together in this way? What is the intention of this technology, and are there ethical implications we must consider?

In this episode, Dr. Rosie Sendher, Dr. Erica Fisk, and guest Param Bidja - an accomplished Software Engineer at Amazon Web Services with experience in health informatics - discuss these questions. Join them as they explore the capabilities of AI, its application in the healthcare system, and the possible outcomes of harnessing data to deliver streamlined and more informed care.

Medical Matrix is produced by Carmel Sound Lab. For more information, please visit www.carmelsoundlab.com