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Success Nuggets #48 - Revolutionising Healthcare Through Data Transparency with Sir Tim Johnson

• David Abel

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Healthcare is broken and Sir Tim Johnson is building the fix.

From his couch to the NASDAQ, the founder of Health in Tech joins The Success Nuggets Podcast to reveal how FDA-approved wearables and radical data transparency could save lives, and already have.

Tim shares a tragic story how a second stroke became fatal because no one had the data, and how his mission makes sure that never happens again. 

Meditation, self-reflection, and a brutally honest look at what it really takes to change an industry, this episode will hit hard for anyone building with purpose.

Nugget of the day "Don’t confuse effort with success—sweat doesn’t always mean progress."

With thanks to One Golden Nugget and Maxwell Preece for editing, support and artwork

Listen now. Your health might depend on it.


Speaker 2:

Amazing, amazing wisdom, entrepreneurs, success, success around the world.

Speaker 1:

This is the Success Nuggets podcast. Have you ever wondered what you could learn and how inspired you'd be if you asked incredible people from around the world about the patterns that drive progress? Get ready to dive into a world of insights and inspiration, of insights and inspiration. This is the Success Nuggets podcast, with the founder of the Digital Lightbulb and your host, david.

Speaker 2:

Abel. Today on the Success Nuggets, we're joined by Sir Tim Johnson, the visionary CEO and founder of Health in Tech, a NASDAQ limited insure tech company on a mission to revolutionize healthcare. Hello Tim, Hello David, good to meet you, great to have you on. I want to talk about all things that are visionary, innovative and purpose-led. Yes, but just for the audience out there to set the scene. What is InsureTech?

Speaker 3:

People probably familiar with financial tech or fintech the industries that are some of the largest in the world, right? Financial institutions, large institutions that have, you know, trillions of dollars in their own Insurance is the same thing, right, there's trillions of dollars whether you're buying homeowners or buying health insurance for your employees Very large institutions. And then insurtech on the health side, because we typically break up between property and cash and health, insurtech on the health side is non-existent. That's the reason why I really got into it. I always looked for. I'm a builder by nature, I like to build things, and when I accidentally fell into this particular industry, somebody asked me to go do something for them and I saw that it was so messed up and they were years behind all the other industries, even their own industry. On the health side. The PNC industry was doing all sorts of cool things. The health side was doing none of it and I thought, well, I can fix that. So I got into it and I started very small. It was just me on my couch, and that's how I got started.

Speaker 2:

When you get going, though, and you find you're onto something, then words like disruptive come about. Now, disruptive can seem bad, it seemed cool, but yours is a force for good, right, your disruption.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we're trying to improve the lives of individuals, the employees of all these employers who don't understand their health care, don't know who to talk to and don't know where to go.

Speaker 3:

So we're creating a system, an ecosystem. I know that term sometimes gets overused, but in our ecosystem it's one place where you can go for everything, and that includes everybody in that health care chain of events. In that healthcare chain of events, by that I mean from the consumer or the end user, whoever they have to go, to the doctor, to their employer where they're getting it, to their broker who sold it to them, to the physician who is treating the patient, to the insurance companies who are providing all of it, to the reinsurers and, ultimately, the hospitals and everybody. So everybody has a need for data and information. Even if you can try to figure out where to go get it, it's not easily accessible. In my system, all of those people in that healthcare chain of events have access to that data through us and I'll share all the information that's applicable to them to do their job better and more efficiently.

Speaker 2:

Yeah right, I think that's the transparency thing, where we do things. Champion the small businesses as well. Since COVID, so many more people have gone freelance or smaller and less corporate. Are you championing the small guy as well?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we are. When I got into it, I had a healthcare event that I was very disappointed in, and there you know there has to be a better way, and that kind of helped lead me down this path. But what I found very quickly was that the small employer in the US was they had no option. There may be one in their state where they can go and get health insurance. That's it. So what I'm really trying to do is give them more options and the transparency of what it means, even their own claims data. If they had their data, maybe they could do something to help improve the health of their employee base.

Speaker 2:

just something a little like that is a big deal yeah, when we talk about data, I've got an iphone and it was like two years ago. Someone inspired me and I just started doing 10 000 steps every day. Yeah, I've been watching it and when I got between 9,700 and 9,900, I knew there was maybe eight days a month I could close the gap. This guy got me, and here I am two years later, almost every day, 10,000 steps. That's some good data. How far can we go?

Speaker 3:

Oh well, that's a great question, because that concept of understanding yourself right. What is good for me? Because not everybody can do 10,000 steps a month, let alone a week, whether it's physical capabilities or whether it's time or something, but they need to do something. So we created, we have an app, a high card app, and we are now really getting into wearables, not the just the step wearable right, that's just one but the wearables that are FDA approved, where your physician can actually use the data, can see the data real time. So we created a company.

Speaker 3:

This is where we're going with this. We're going to create a company where we manage all the data and the data comes into us and we have triggers and we know that you are. Maybe you're a diabetic, maybe you're overweight, maybe you're underweight. Whatever the situation is, the data that comes in that's applicable to you needs to be read and fed back to you in a way that you can use it, because not everybody's the same. Everybody's an individual. Maybe my blood pressure is normal, at a higher level than it is down here, and that's okay, but maybe for some people it's not, and that's what we're trying to do is give something that I can use this home this full life care, but you get it on your phone because that's what everybody's carrying today and that's what we're trying to do is really create an at-home doctor if you will through the phone.

Speaker 2:

No, I like that. I've seen some tragedies in my time, you know, and I think that home doctor could have prevented, whether it was oxygen level or, like you say, sugar levels, blood pressure. Is there any way we're going to ever be able to just connect this with our doctor so they can almost see and you know the hospital will get something and there's not a surprise.

Speaker 3:

That's the intent, right? So when you sign up on our site, we get your doctor, we get your hospital, your preferred doctors and hospitals. As those triggers happen, we get noticed immediately and we call you first to see if you're okay, if you're still awake, what your condition is, and then we call and set up the physicians, the EMT, that everything dependent upon the severity of the issue, right. So we feed that data right to your doctor so that he can immediately act on it. Because some of these things, like your watch and some of that stuff, it's not FDA approved. So the doctor, even though he looked at it, he can't use it. He's going to come in and rerun those same tests. Not with our systems. Our systems are FDA approved and our systems will allow that doctor to act immediately on it. Could be on the way to the hospital, right?

Speaker 3:

Because I have a story I like stories but they really stick with me and a friend of mine. His father had a stroke and it was a minor stroke. He was close to the hospital, he got treated and then the likelihood of him having another one is way up. So, sure enough, two weeks after he's out of the hospital, he had a stroke. He was starting to have it. He pulled over, thank goodness. But the EMT got there. In traffic he was a long ways. If the EMT knew that he was taking that medication or that he had just had a stroke, he could have treated them and saved them. And he didn't save him. It was a long right back and he ended up passing away. But something along those lines. That story really stuck with me because if that emt could have reacted on that data because he didn't have it, you know, if he could have it could have saved his life.

Speaker 2:

So that's what we're trying to do how or what strategies do you put into place to foster this innovation?

Speaker 3:

You know, I have a lot of ideas and I don't know where all this creativity comes from. I like again, I like to solve problems and I like to build things, and I've had this entire concept. I wrote a paper on it in 2019 and it's challenging because one capital you have to have capital, a lot of it, because I'm competing out there with a lot of people and it takes a lot of money to build the technology and you got to get the right people. So there's the combination of capital, hiring the right people with the same vision and that people can see it. I turn a lot of times because it's easy for me to explain it thinking that everybody can see my vision but they don't. So I got to keep going over it.

Speaker 2:

My strategy is just to find people with a like mind that want to build something like this, so it's not as easy as it sounds yeah, absolutely moving into some more obscure stuff, I was talking to you about undiagnosed adhd and, yeah, um, a lot of people are going to struggle with this more. With screen time, is there any metrics we can track for ADHD? Like, I've got all those millions of ideas, so many just get put down. I'm constantly on the hunt of the dopamine. I guess you know it's exhausting. I'm happy and sad a number of times a day. What can we track or do with?

Speaker 3:

that there's apps, there's different things, so the mental health is what you're really talking about in some of these things. I know that there's the physical component here, but a lot of people go through these mood swings and different things during the day. That is the big deal today and how it gets tracked. What do you do? I'm not a big proponent of just throwing drugs at situations. I think that that compounds the issue. My daughter unfortunately has some issues that we're trying to get through without taking the medication Similar to what you're talking about, because I'm working really hard at finding a solution.

Speaker 3:

There's a section within my app that we use that's called the forum. The forum is going to be where ideas and suggestions and people like yourself. When you're on and we have you as a member, you'll be able to go in there and start the chat, because you're not the only one who has thought about it. You're not the only one that has the issue. Where can you go today to actually have a conversation? And in that conversation you will have doctors, you will have people from all over the world looking at this information and I will tell you.

Speaker 3:

Here's a really good story. Talk about blood pressure. There is no compilation of blood pressure data. In other words, you don't have data that's collected anywhere in the world where you can go and say you know we've tested 10,000 people just 10,000 people and what their blood pressure does during the day, and why does it do it? Similar to this. Our first one is on blood pressure, because one of the wearables that we're working with that is a big deal. I mean, 50% of the country has a problem with cardiovascular system and they don't even know it Most of them don't. So we're trying to figure out how do we track that and where do we go find that data? We're going to compile that data in a central place. That way, we can just Google right. This is very specific to the specific issue that you're talking about and there'll be a forum for that and I hope a lot of good things come out of that, because there's no central spot where all that data is collected, and that's what we're trying to do.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, love it. You're a healthy guy. I drink coffee in moderation. You're promoting health. I don't know if you drink tea, coffee and caffeine. I'm a coffee drinker. So someone put on LinkedIn this the other day the guy who says he needs caffeine tablets to get through the day gets frowned upon by the same people who say, hey, who wants a coffee? Or they sit down at their desk and say I need a coffee. I found it quite provocative, but I thought what do you think about that?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I am a contrarian by nature. I don't do anything too extreme, right, nothing. I do a little bit of things because I think I get a cup of coffee in the morning and it makes me feel okay. Some of the people who I think need a caffeine tablet. I don't think it's any different than sugar or some of the other things. A little of it to help you get through the day. That's what I think about it. I don't think caffeine is a bad thing. Anything too extreme can be. But I think and again getting back to our conversation, I think everybody's different. I think you can moderate yourself on some of this. It's not bad, i't really. You know, everybody says, well, caffeine's a drug. Well, everything you consume is the drug, if we're going to start looking at things like that. So I don't have a problem with that guy?

Speaker 2:

no, dopamine's a bad drug as well. Sometimes your job, high pressure, having to raise funds all the time, blood pressure must be here, there and everywhere. For anyone out there, whether whether they're in your shoes or in just a very simple job. How would you give permission for failure?

Speaker 3:

I may have failed so much? That's a great question. I will tell you when I again it was just me started on my couch. I did that job for four or five years before I could even afford to hire somebody, and I was building and building and I made so many mistakes.

Speaker 3:

I think that the self-reflection that people don't do or I have a lot of unique sayings that I've come up with for myself so the biggest lie we tell is the lie we tell ourselves. I don't know if somebody said that before, but it rings true for me. You can't lie to yourself. All right, I do self-reflection on myself every day, making sure that I'm doing the right things at the right time to have the right outcomes, and I can't lie to myself. I didn't have the time nor the money to lie to myself, so I had to tell myself and be truthful with myself, which was very hard, you know, to get used to it, but now I'm used to it.

Speaker 3:

So, getting back to the stress, I paid very close attention to my body and my feelings. I can tell you when I was getting stressful and I was not one of these people who would say that meditation, you know, maybe it's voodoo I mean my thought pattern has changed a lot over the years. I meditate, I will sit, and I don't know if it's the right way. People say they meditate but I will calm myself down when my blood pressure gets going and I'm doing 50 things at a time. I actually have little things in my eyes that are like stars and if a doctor listens to this he's gonna say I need to go see a doctor. But I can tell when my blood pressure is that high. So I'll go and meditate and just sit outside and what I like. I like to listen to nature and that's how I get over it until I feel better. I will not get up from that chair because I'm just getting right back in the boiling point it's amazing what all can do once you finally get back in the prison.

Speaker 2:

I might have um broken this down. Actually, if you want to hear it into about five days in terms of having just a moment taking a break, okay, yeah, you can have a digital detox, which we call technology time, which for most people, they can't do 48 hours like a weekend. They just gotta, between five and eight o'clock, set some boundaries, yep, then you've got decompression. When you're just that stressed, you just can't do it. Perhaps you've had some bad news and at two o'clock that day you're just like had enough. Yeah, that's the thing. We'll give 100, but only 40 at the time.

Speaker 2:

In those moments, then, living in the present has to be taking a break. I've been for many walks or I've zoomed up the road and come back from feeling great, but maybe the first 10 minutes I've been like stupid, stupid. Ah, you know so that living in the present, then creating or just taking a full reset. A full reset says my life no longer serves me, everything around here I'm not listening to my r or we go on to the next thing, the great, great, great reset, where we turn all the electricity off, which is now. I think they're the levels of taking a break, unless you can enhance that in any way yeah, there's the.

Speaker 3:

I haven't taken the full, full reset, but we, you know you're right if you think about the five steps that you're just talking about. I've been through all of them. I like to camp. I can get away where you don't use cellular internet, nothing, and I pull my trailer out there and I'm just sitting out there in the mountains and taking it all in and listening to it. I do find I'm gone maybe a week, probably not much more than that, but just that week and I come back. You will find that your mind is working better, you're thinking more clearly and you feel better about it, but recognizing when that when you have to take that break, is the challenge, because I will get so deep into it I'm I can't pull away, for whatever reason. I'm just lying to myself and then I have to reset and say I'm just going to get away for a week, nothing gonna die on me, I'm all good, I'm just gonna go, yeah yeah, nice, that's a really nice way to do it.

Speaker 2:

It was novak djokovic who inspired me, who said actually, your rest is the most important part of all of this. Yes, you've got the training before the tournament a lot of hard work, then the excitement of the tournament. We've all been there with our personal goals where it's, this is the moment. Yeah, I rest. People either go and party or get stuck straight in, and it's just the decompression of everything.

Speaker 3:

I think that's one of the secrets to staying on top you know it's coincidence I am sitting here, I am taking a few days off, I'm going to do business in athens, I'm in switzerland right now and I'm sitting here at one of my favorite spots, overlooking out this window. There's a lake here that is so peaceful because the mountains, the alps, are right behind it and I can just sit there there at that out on the bench on that lake, watching the ducks and yeah, I can do that all day and it really makes you feel better absolutely in terms of people who inspire you.

Speaker 3:

I know you talk at the world economic forum in dav Davos and must be on other stages and obviously being NASDAQ listed is a lot. How do watch people and these random acts of kindness that I see inspire me a lot to be a better person, to do better things, and if you pay attention you can see them in people. Kindness in people is sometimes it's hard to find, but you got to interact and when you find those people, those unknown qualities and those unknown people are what inspire me. The most successful people I'm that's awesome that they are and I love their personalities. But I find that the randomness of it is uh, more has more of an effect on me than watching all these people do all these great things. I don't know why. That's just who I am yeah, no, no, I'm.

Speaker 2:

I'm drawn to more unique characters that have got that depth. I think that's what you're saying. Yeah, it's been a real fun having you on. As we close the show, we ask people if they've got a one golden nugget for life. I don't know if you've come across that sort of term before, or do you have a one golden nugget?

Speaker 3:

well, I had an old boss one time tell me this don't confuse effort with with success. Young man is what he told me, because I was, and I will tell you. I've applied that nugget to just about everything I do in life. And don't confuse hard work with being successful, because they're not the same. You work really hard and still not be successful, but don't confuse yourself or lie to yourself about it. So that's my one golden nugget.

Speaker 2:

It's the end of another episode. So Tim Johnson has been a wonderful guest and, as he says, get out there, go and look for kindness. It is there because you will become a better person. So, tim, thank you so much.

Speaker 3:

David, it's great to meet you.

Speaker 2:

Join David and his incredible guests next time on the Success Nuggets podcast and to find out more, visit OneGoldenNuggetcom.

Speaker 3:

Thank you for listening.