The medical device company iRhythm has been described as that rarest of all breeds – a digital health company with an actual, viable business model behind it. On today’s Tech Tonics podcast, we’re delighted to welcome Uday Kumar, the cardiologist and serial entrepreneur who started the company in his apartment, and learn what makes him tick (hopefully in normal sinus rhythm).

Raised in Rhode Island, the son of two physicians, Uday initially pursued biochemistry at Harvard, but soon found himself drawn to medical devices. After medical school and residency on the east coast, Uday guided himself to Silicon Valley, where he thought the environment would help maximize his chances for success as a medical device entrepreneur.

Apparently, he was right. Uday not only founded iRhythm, a company that reimagined real-world cardiac monitoring by replacing a large backpack attached to leads and wires with a bandaid-size adhesive device, but he later also founded and now leads Element Science, a company tackling the challenge of sudden cardiac death in the days after a patient survives a heart attack.

This episode of Tech Tonics is sponsored by DNAnexus, the secure and compliant cloud platform that enables enterprise users to analyze, collaborate around, and integrate massive amounts of genetic and other health data.

Tags: biomed, david shaywitz, digital health, dnanexus, epatient, genomics, health startup, health technology, human genome, iRhythm, lisa suennen, medical research, precision medicine, tech tonics, technology and health, Uday Kumar, venture valkyrie, Zico
 
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