Smarter Care With AI: AI’s Role In Preventive & Behavioral Health

Transcript

[Marty Hendricks] Alright, everyone, welcome back to the Digital Health Transformers Podcast. This podcast explores the ever-evolving world of healthcare innovation.

[Marty Hendricks] One conversation at a time.

[Marty Hendricks] I’m your host, Marty, and today, we are joined by a truly distinguished guest.

[Marty Hendricks] Whose work is all over the place. We have healthcare, technology, finance, and that amazing guest is Peter Conroy. He is the founder and CEO of The Difference, which is a predictive, intuitive, and affordable weight management app

[Marty Hendricks] That is focused on improving your health.

[Marty Hendricks] It’s focused on making you look better, making you feel better.You know, I’m from the US, so, you know, weight’s a big problem here, and it’s great that Peter’s solving that with his amazing app. He’s a complete polymath, he’s got…

[Marty Hendricks] Experience in finance, quantitative bond market analysis, healthcare advocacy, technology. He’s, he’s really just a beast.

[Marty Hendricks] He was in Wall Street, he had a lot of entrepreneurial ventures, and he spent over a decade focused on health advocacy, awareness, and developing solutions, like the difference.

[Marty Hendricks] to improve preventative and behavioral health. So, join us as we explore

[Marty Hendricks] How technology is reshaping preventative and behavioral health, the latest trends, key tools, and the trade – offs that healthcare leaders like our guest, Peter, face.

[Marty Hendricks] So thanks for joining, Peter. How you feeling today? Where are you calling from?

[Peter Conroy] I’m feeling great, Marty. Thanks for having me on your podcast. I’m located in New Rochelle, New York.

[Marty Hendricks] Alright, is that… is that upstate?

[Peter Conroy] It’s in Westchester, so it’s the first county above, right above the Bronx, and the Bronx sits right on top of Manhattan, so we’re about half an hour, 45 minutes away from, Midtown Manhattan.

[Marty Hendricks] Gotcha, gotcha. You probably go to the city a lot, have some fun?

[Peter Conroy] I, I do, I, I, frequent, the city, yes.

[Marty Hendricks] Oh, nice, yeah, good food around there and stuff.

[Marty Hendricks] Yeah, I’m.

[Peter Conroy] Very true.

[Marty Hendricks] There’s a lot of good, delis over there.
That’s nice.

[Marty Hendricks] Alright.

Well, let’s start with the first question.

[Marty Hendricks] So, I just noticed your career path is insane, right?

You have, finance, you have tech, and you have healthcare, and you have, some nonprofit work.

It’s really just all over the place, it’s really great.

[Marty Hendricks] But I’m wondering then.

[Marty Hendricks] You know, out of all your interests and skills that you have, what has led you to work on a health app right now?

[Peter Conroy] You know, why a health app right now?

Why is that the…

[Marty Hendricks] overarching, factor right now for you? Health?

[Peter Conroy] Right, well, as you, pointed, first of all, I am a health advocate, and before I started The Difference, I actually, moved into the field of health advocacy about 10 years ago.

[Peter Conroy] And I did that in a volunteer, kind of charitable capacity with my fraternity, which is Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated.

It’s one of the oldest Greek letter organizations that was founded by African Americans at Indiana University.

[Peter Conroy] And my local chapter, the New York Alumni chapter, they didn’t have a health and wellness committee, and I had done some reflection about what was becoming more important to me around that time.

[Peter Conroy] And I was seeing people get sick and pass away, and I realized that health and longevity and quality of life were really becoming more important to me.

[Peter Conroy] So I asked the then-president of the chapter to form a health and wellness committee, and he did, and he named me chairman, and I had a great time, just off to the races.

[Peter Conroy] is doing things like blood drives and charitable fundraising for the American Heart Association and

[Peter Conroy] the American Cancer Society, holding, awareness webinars for things like prostate cancer. Just had a really, really good time and discovered my calling in healthcare.

[Peter Conroy] But I, like, 170 other million Americans at one point, during, that 10 – year period, got, significantly overweight.

And, I decided I wanted to do something about it.

You know, I wanted to lose weight, but I wanted to use an app.

[Peter Conroy] So, I took a look at the app marketplace, and, you know, what I discovered led me to make the decision that I think I can do something better, and that, that, you know, I’ll talk about that story in more depth, that came to pass, and I built a company out of it called The Difference, a weight management app company, and

[Peter Conroy] Our motto is Weight Management Simplified.

[Marty Hendricks] Yeah, and hey, Peter, you look great right now.

You know, just in the Zoom call, I see those shoulders popping out.

[Marty Hendricks] You look, you look good now, so… you know, whatever the difference does, whatever your methodology is, it’s clearly working, to all the viewers out there, so check it out.

Also, the UI is real nice.

You know, the problem I’ve had, you know, because I go to the gym, right, I’m like.

[Marty Hendricks] once every month, I get inspired to take a quantitative route, you know, and start going on websites and plugging in my numbers, like, how much should I eat every day?

How much should I be lifting?

[Marty Hendricks] But then they’re like, enter your… enter your height, your weight, your weight in decimal points, your this, you’re that, you’re this, you’re that, you’re this.

I just have to keep entering stuff, like, too many stuff.

[Marty Hendricks] I like.

[Marty Hendricks] But with the difference, like, I signed on, right?

And then just immediately, it was just very simple. I just entered height, weight.

[Marty Hendricks] What weight I am now, target weight, boom.

I’m already started.

[Marty Hendricks] It was great, so… So anyway, so I wanted to say it like that.

[Marty Hendricks] Great.

[Peter Conroy] Thank you.

Yeah.

[Marty Hendricks] But.

[Peter Conroy] It’s actually one of the cornerstones, you know, you mentioned earlier.

[Peter Conroy] predictable, predictive, inform, intuitive, and affordable.

It’s that intuitive, kind of pillar.

We’ve tried to design the app, and really, a lot of all the decisions that we make at the different, we try to make them sensible, so that, you know, it doesn’t take a lot of time to use it, and it makes sense.

It’s intuitive when you start using it.

[Peter Conroy] So, thanks for that feedback.

[Marty Hendricks] Yeah, no, it really, because, you know, I’m in the Bay Area.

[Marty Hendricks] You know, all my friends are founders and whatnot, techie people, and a lot of techies, they make apps, kind of…

[Marty Hendricks] subconsciously, I think, believing that everyone else is a techie, right?

And so they have all the technical stuff, and terms, and like…

[Marty Hendricks] Of course this person would know the API, you know, whatever, but…

[Marty Hendricks] But they don’t.

But your… but your app, like…

[Marty Hendricks] It’s just very… I don’t even have to think, I just open it.

It’s a great app.

Anyone listening needs to get this app.

It’s really awesome.

[Marty Hendricks] Even if you’re not trying to lose weight, you know, might want to maintain, you know, it helps you track your diet, I love the app.

[Marty Hendricks] But yeah.

[Marty Hendricks] I guess we can go over to the next question, and…

[Marty Hendricks] Alright, the, the buzzword of the day is AI, right?

[Marty Hendricks] AI is, you know, it can do a lot of things, right?

And compute can do a lot of things, you know?

But from your perspective.

[Marty Hendricks] where, where can AI, where can compute.

[Marty Hendricks] Where can modern technology actually be applied to, preventative health today?

Because I feel like…

[Marty Hendricks] A lot of people use the technology as buzzwords, but they use it in suboptimal ways, or arbitrary ways.

So where’s the real power of technology when it comes to preventative health that you’ve seen, at least, working on the difference?

[Peter Conroy] Alright,

[Peter Conroy] Well, not just for the difference, but knowing, kind of, the space, you know, the ways that I think AI is kind of integrating and transforming and, you know, the cutting – edge stuff.

[Peter Conroy] It relates to predictive analytics, as well as AI is very good at pattern recognition, and pattern recognition is what you need for early risk detection.

So that helps with preventative health.

[Peter Conroy] Also, you know, we’re aware of a lot of the passive monitoring via wearables and smartphone sensors.

You’ve got things like the Oura Ring, you’ve got

[Peter Conroy] diabetes, A1C1 measurement levels, you’ve got heart rate monitors, even your phone, you know, is tracking your steps if you want it to.

[Peter Conroy] The next thing is personalization and context – aware interventions.

Those kind of get, you know, triggered when, pattern recognition kicks in.

So let’s say, you know, like, your goal is to have 10,000 steps a day, and you’re only at 6,000.

[Peter Conroy] Well then, around lunchtime, you know, you might get a notification from your phone saying, hey, you’re only at, you know, 6,000 steps today, could you, take a 10 or 15 minute walk at lunch?

[Peter Conroy] And lastly is integrating, kind of, behavioral and physical health.

[Peter Conroy] you know, the integration of those two things would certainly be helpful in terms of preventable and behavioral health.

And at the difference, one of the main things we’re focused on is really that first thing that I mentioned, which is predictive analytics.

[Peter Conroy] When I took a look at the app marketplace, what I found is that, in my opinion, the mathematics of these weight management apps and technology was rather outdated.

A lot of the formula hadn’t changed for decades, if not almost a century.

[Peter Conroy] And I’m an academically trained mathematician, also in applied mathematics, from a professional standpoint. You mentioned my background in bond analytics, which is heavily quantitative.

[Peter Conroy] And so my approach, with the difference, one of the things that does make it stand apart is its predictive analytics.

We developed, core intellectual property with advanced AI machine learning formulas

[Peter Conroy] Such as our True Burn formula, which we purport is a more accurate measure of resting metabolic rate, and our activity burn formula, which is a more accurate measure of calories burned while you’re exercising or when you’re being non – sedentary.

[Peter Conroy] But yeah, those would be the four things.

Predictive analytics, early risk detection, passive monitoring with wearables, personalization, and integrating behavioral and physical health.

[Marty Hendricks] Oh, right, yeah, it’s cool seeing that, those, those finance skills, in a health context, you know?

Right?

So you went from, predicting

[Marty Hendricks] Bonds, predicting the price of bonds to predicting,

[Marty Hendricks] you know, the metabolic effects of someone’s routine.

That’s cool.

Who else does that?

That’s pretty cool.

[Marty Hendricks] Oh…

[Peter Conroy] And it’s not just that.

It’s not just that.

It’s that, you know, you’re right.

In finance, when you write research, which I wrote a lot of, you can’t just say, here’s what’s going on with this company or this bond.

You have to sum it up and say.

[Peter Conroy] This is a buy, or this is a sell, or this is a hold, based on some type of expectation of where the price of that

[Peter Conroy] security is going, right?

And so, the… another big differentiator of the difference is, at the bottom on the home screen, it makes a prediction of what your wait will be tomorrow.

[Peter Conroy] So, it’s like a companion, in that sense, for our users to know in real time, are they moving towards their weight goal or not, with a fairly high degree of certainty.

So that predictive nature, you know, where are you going from today?

We tell you that in the difference.

[Marty Hendricks] Yeah, that… yeah, that… that I noticed.

That was the… that might have been the coolest part for me.

I… I… I don’t know any…

[Marty Hendricks] Anyone else that really does that.

I don’t think I know anyone else that really does that.

[Marty Hendricks] Showing you, like, okay, if you…

[Marty Hendricks] Do these things.

Here will be your wait.

Tomorrow.

[Marty Hendricks] That’s, that’s the difference.

[Marty Hendricks] Right?

So…

[Peter Conroy] You hit the nail on the head, yep.

[Marty Hendricks] That’s the difference.

Why… yeah, why is it… why is it called the difference?

Is it because it’s a different, you know, app?

Obviously, there’s play on words, kind of, with the difference between…

[Marty Hendricks] Your weight then and now?

[Peter Conroy] here’s the story.

The alpha version, which I built myself on an Excel spreadsheet with lookup tables and things like that.

[Peter Conroy] Every day I would track what I had to eat, you know, and look up and Google how many calories is a banana, how many calories is a salad, pizza, pizza, then I’d sum it up, and that was total calories in, and I labeled

[Peter Conroy] you know, like, cell C20, total calories in.

Then I… then I did my resting metabolic rate, and then I would calculate… I was working out, so I would calculate calories due to activity.

[Peter Conroy] And then I would sum up, the calories burned while I was at rest, and the calories that I burned while I was active, and I would say that’s total calories out.

[Peter Conroy] And then it was, like, in C… cell C60, I labeled it the difference, and I took total calories in minus total calories out, and that was the difference.

That is my, you know, caloric difference.

[Peter Conroy] So every day, if I had a negative number, that would be a caloric deficit.

If it was a positive number, I have a caloric surplus, but I actually named that cell The Difference, and that ended up being the name of the company.

[Marty Hendricks] Oh, there we go, there we go, that’s awesome.

[Marty Hendricks] Okay, so… okay, so it sounds like, a lot of the… the algorithm is, like, rule – based, like formulas, right?

[Peter Conroy] A lot of it is, yes.

[Marty Hendricks] Okay, are you considering, getting in on the new sexy AI, trends, API calls to chat?

Maybe API calls to chat GPT, or something?

Are you considering that?

Are you guys considering that?

Maybe not necessarily for the predictive analytics, but maybe, like.

[Marty Hendricks] like, Gen AI to tell the user something, or… I don’t know, what are you guys thinking with that right now?

[Peter Conroy] I mean, I think earlier on you mentioned, some of the hurdles that you had using other apps, where it takes, a lot of time, it’s kind of labor – intensive to enter your data.

[Peter Conroy] So, we hear that a lot from our customers, and anywhere… any feature that we can add that decreases, kind of, the barrier to entry of time, that the user has to expend entering the data, we want to pursue that.

[Peter Conroy] So, you know, that might mean, you know, being able to take a picture

[Peter Conroy] of the plate of food and the thing you’re drinking, and have AI immediately recognize what that is, and tell you how many calories and the nutrients that are in the meal that you’re having.

It might mean instead of typing in banana.

[Peter Conroy] We already do this, by the way, you can just use the speech recognition and say banana, but, we’re going to add a feature in the future where you can say your whole meal.

This morning, I had two slices of rye toast, with some butter on it, a glass of orange juice, coffee with milk and sugar, and two fried eggs.

And then.

[Peter Conroy] AI would parse out that entire sentence, make sense of it, separate it into line items, and then figure out the nutritional value for each of those things.

Similarly for weight, for activities and exercise.

[Peter Conroy] We’d love if the, if the phone, if you were, let’s say, kind of videotaping yourself, or, not videotaping, but, taking a video of yourself.

[Peter Conroy] If the phone could recognize the activity that you’re doing, and plug that in.

[Peter Conroy] Integration with wearables,

[Peter Conroy] kind of AI – related, you know, in the sense of you have to make sure that our app is talking correctly to, let’s say, your scale, or your Oura Ring, or your mobile device, you know, and interpreting the data that these wearables are collecting.

So there’s…

barrier to entry of time that it takes for users to enter their data into the app.

[Peter Conroy] And yeah, there are other, kind of more, chat GPT – oriented applications that can be considered, you know, on our website, putting in a kind of an AI chatbot that can help answer questions about how to use the difference and answer questions about weight management and weight management technology.

[Peter Conroy] It might be able to generate, meal plans or exercise routines.

[Peter Conroy] But, as we know, with…

[Peter Conroy] ChatGPT still in its current version, it’s really all about the prompts, and if you don’t get the prompts right, it’s gonna be kind of garbage in, garbage out.

You might get some information, but, you know, if you want to get a workout routine.

[Peter Conroy] right now, it still makes sense.

You probably want to go to a personal trainer and get, get the advice.

If you’re really strapped for cash, I suppose ChatGPT could make some

[Peter Conroy] good suggestions, and you could do research that way, but, you know, if you want to know how to work out, a personal trainer or a coach is going to be able to help you probably better than AI at this point.

[Peter Conroy] Although that’s fast changing.

Similarly, if you want meals and recipes, you know, you’re probably gonna go to a website that has, recipes that have been cultivated by a chef, and learned from the chef, and learn from YouTube videos and things like that.

[Peter Conroy] Ai probably can spit out some recipes that it finds, but, you know, it probably still points to going to a professional.

So, [Peter Conroy] there are applications for ChatGPT that we’re considering, but, you know, we’re gonna plan those carefully and make sure we do them prudently.

[Marty Hendricks] Yeah, no, you know, I think that’s amazing.

I think that’s amazing because…

[Marty Hendricks] I think, I think it’s great that you immediately think of, you know, how the AI could help your customers, instead of just, oh, let’s get AI on here so we can tell VCs we’re using AI.

[Marty Hendricks] You know, which, is an epidemic, I think,

[Marty Hendricks] That I see in the… on LinkedIn, at least, the Bay Area.

[Marty Hendricks] It’s like, so it’s great, I just, I love hearing that.

[Marty Hendricks] But yeah, no, I mean, it’s all about the value at the end of the day, is what I’m getting, when it comes to implementing anything, is that correct?

[Peter Conroy] Yeah, you know, and… and value being defined, you know, in what context?

Is it valuable for our investors?

Yeah, maybe.

[Peter Conroy] Probably, but it’s more so, value in terms of who are we really serving?

It’s our customers.

If we’re not creating value, and that value is, are we solving their problems?

Are we making,

[Peter Conroy] Improvements in their quality of life.

[Peter Conroy] and their longevity, you know?

If people are living longer, and we’re seeing evidence of that, we did a,

[Peter Conroy], a partnership with my fraternity that I mentioned earlier, from March, February to July of this year.

 700 brothers signed up.

[Peter Conroy] And, you know, we’re doing a post-event survey right now, and I’m seeing some of them say things like, you know, I ate better with better portion control.

[Peter Conroy] I changed my BMI classification, I’m no longer pre – diabetic, so, you know, value… that’s… that is value.

You know, are we creating value with our customers?

[Peter Conroy] tangible improvements to their quality of life?

Yes, and I think that is what is going to translate over into economic value and improving the monetary valuation of the company that passes through to the owners and the investors.

[Marty Hendricks] Yeah, that’s amazing, that’s amazing.

You know, and I think, I think entrepreneurs here should should take note, if they’re listening.

You know, just… just do good stuff for your customers.

I mean, and it sounds like you’ve done amazing…

[Marty Hendricks] stuff for your… for your customers.

This is really important stuff.

I mean, I think, I was in the Blue Zones, you know.

[Marty Hendricks] At a point, I was just, you know, just looking up, and a common factor

[Marty Hendricks] is, yeah, they don’t… they don’t eat nearly as much as we do.

I think, yeah, like, in Japan, I think there’s one in Italy, like, Costa Rica, and…

[Marty Hendricks] Yeah, like, the defining factor, I think, was, like, they fast more than we do.

[Marty Hendricks] Maybe not intentionally, but, like, they don’t eat as much, you know?

[Peter Conroy] It’s a… some…

[Marty Hendricks] We’re eating way too much in the U.

S, aren’t we?

I mean, you’ve probably… you’re probably, you know, doing research and whatnot.

[Marty Hendricks] And, and, and seeing and dealing with the problem of, of, of,

[Marty Hendricks] of obesity and whatnot, like, what… what’s the problem in America?

What’s going on?

Why are we… why are we getting so big?

[Marty Hendricks] Yeah.

[Peter Conroy] You know, I’ve examined the problem, and

[Peter Conroy] You know, you can talk about portion sizes, you can talk about the way that we cook, the ingredients that we use.

[Peter Conroy] You can talk about the prevalence of certain types of restaurants that may serve less healthy food, being readily available and easily to access.

[Peter Conroy] You can talk about the cost of food, kind of potentially, leading people to purchase less expensive, less nutritious food.

[Peter Conroy] There is some evidence of food waste, not wastelands, but, you know, kind of,

[Peter Conroy] food deserts, excuse me.

You know, there’s… there’s… there’s a lot of… there’s a lot of issues, but, you know, when I look at it from a weight technology standpoint, I always like thinking about it from that perspective.

[Peter Conroy] It’s… Easy to eat 3,500 calories.

[Peter Conroy] Right?

You can do… you can… you can do that pretty easily.

It’s hard to burn 3,500 calories.

You know, you’re… you’re definitely running a marathon, and then some, to burn 3,500 calories.

[Marty Hendricks] Oh, yeah.

[Peter Conroy] in one activity.

So, so yeah, so naturally speaking, you know, a guy like you or me, you know, I’m guessing probably burns around…

[Peter Conroy] 22, 23, maybe 2,400 calories.

So, it’s easy to eat that amount of calories in one day, and it’s easy to go over.

So, you know, I think…

[Peter Conroy] You know, if you’re finding yourself to be overweight, one of the great things about the difference that I found when I used it, and I lost 60 pounds using it myself.

[Peter Conroy] was the Food Journal.

[Peter Conroy] that active listing of the food and drink that I had to eat, holding myself accountable to make a record of that.

[Peter Conroy] It made me more self-aware about what I was putting into my body.

[Peter Conroy] And I learned some macro-level stuff and some micro-level stuff.

From the macro perspective, I gained an intuitive sense of when I was

[Peter Conroy] overeating, and eating more than the amount of calories that I was gonna burn that day.

I just… I just developed an intuitive sense over time because I was tracking the numbers.

[Peter Conroy] and holding myself accountable.

So, you know, at dinner, instead of, you know, having juice or a beer, I might have water, or instead of having 3 slices of pizza, I’d cut it down to 1, or replace the, you know, the,

[Peter Conroy] French fries with a baked potato or a side salad, something like that, if I were out to eat.

[Peter Conroy] Then I also learned micro-level stuff.

Like, it’s really interesting to discover I like fried plantain.

I’m married into an Afro-Caribbean family.

[Peter Conroy] And plantains, as you know, are really popular throughout South America and the Caribbean.

They are essentially related to the banana, and on their own, they have a lot of calories, like a banana, but when you fry them, that preparation method also adds a lot of calories to them.

[Peter Conroy] So, I discovered that one fried plantain had, I think, like, 170 calories, just one slice of a fried plantain.

[Peter Conroy] So, yeah, so, you know.

[Marty Hendricks] Wow.

[Peter Conroy] Yeah, I started replacing the fried plantain as… thinking of it as a side dish.

[Peter Conroy] to make it my dad’s dessert.

So, you know, I’d eat more of the rice, or beans, or something like that, whatever the other side dishes were, and then instead of taking, you know, 5 or 6 fried plentons, I’d take 2 or 3 as my dessert.

So you learn micro-level information by listing and tracking, and discovery.

[Marty Hendricks] Oh my goodness.

Yeah, those,

[Marty Hendricks] That’s like, that’s like a fried, so that’s like, I think for…

[Marty Hendricks] For the listener who might not know what a plantain is, I think I know what it is.

It’s like a fatter banana, right?

[Peter Conroy] Yeah.

[Marty Hendricks] So, like, a little banana, like, slice, right, that you’d see on, like, a acai bowl or something.

But they fry it, and that’s 170 cals?

[Peter Conroy] Right around there, yup.

[Marty Hendricks] Oh my goodness, yeah, I can see, if you’re snacking on those, like, how many… yeah, that’s like…

[Marty Hendricks] You take, like, 4 or 5 of those, you’re already… you’re already hitting, like, a thousand calories, isn’t that insane?

[Peter Conroy] I want to fact-check myself right now, so let me, let me just.

[Marty Hendricks] Oh.

[Peter Conroy] Hop on and double-check that.

[Peter Conroy] I’m a stickler for… Correct data.

[Peter Conroy] So no, two of them are… actually, one of them, it says, from NutritionX is 64 calories, so I, I was… I was off.

[Peter Conroy] The line item was eating 3 was about 170 calories, whereas I was eating, you know, twice that amount, or 3 times that amount, when I would eat 5 or 6.

[Marty Hendricks] And…

[Peter Conroy] And, you know, when you look at a, portion of rice.

[Peter Conroy] Rice is only 210 calories, so,

[Peter Conroy] You know, rice is going to be a much lower calorie count than eating fried plantain.

But…

[Peter Conroy] Sorry about that. I wanted to make that correction.

[Peter Conroy] It’s all about.

[Marty Hendricks] I mean, well, look, I was in,

[Marty Hendricks] You know, the problem is it’s too tasty.

I was down in the Dominican Republic with my family, and…

[Marty Hendricks] Yeah, they got really good food.

Yeah, the problem is you won’t stop eating it.

That’s… that’s the problem, it’s, it’s too good, they make it good.

[Marty Hendricks] Yeah.

[Marty Hendricks] But, yes, let’s go on to the next question, then.

[Marty Hendricks] Yeah, so, so we’re talking about, we, we were talking about, implementing different technologies in healthcare.

You said you have some potential plans to use some Gen AI.

[Marty Hendricks] But what… what… what trade-offs are going on in terms of data privacy and… and ethical use and… and, the patient trust, I guess, you know, for you, like, user… just your user trust, patient… patient trust for providers?

[Marty Hendricks] Yup.

[Peter Conroy] That’s a great…

[Marty Hendricks] Great question.

What’s going on with that?

[Peter Conroy] Yeah, it’s a really important area, you know, with, you know, thinking about it for the ethics and things like that, and more attention, yes, is being paid to, bias risks.

[Peter Conroy] and data policy, and ensuring that AI systems are transparent and accountable, and have some human oversight.

[Peter Conroy] And, you know, healthcare is one of those… healthcare technology is more regulated than, let’s say, airfare… air travel technology, or, you know, there’s a lot of…

[Peter Conroy] laws.

So regulatory bodies are starting to assert some oversight in places, and people are raising concerns about over-reliance and the safety of AI and mental health, for example.

[Peter Conroy] At the difference, what we do is we follow best practice privacy policies and ethical practices to maintain patient trust.

So we try to toe the line because, you know, these issues are, as you said, very important.

[Marty Hendricks] Yeah, yeah, because I think, honestly, like, before I got into, before I got into healthcare, I was like, okay, someone has my data, who… like, who cares, you know?

[Marty Hendricks] I feel like,

[Marty Hendricks] Maybe a lot of people are the same way, just don’t… generally don’t like the idea of, like, a big brother, you know, seeing them.

Or they just don’t care, they’re like me, they’re just like, oh, just take it.

Whatever.

[Marty Hendricks] So, like… but then I learned, like, you know, you could sell the data to an insurer or something, and they could use that to, like…

[Marty Hendricks] You know, deny claim, or, you know, not let you in on an insurance policy, or, like, deny claims of bad stuff.

[Marty Hendricks] Like, what, what else do you think people should know about… about data privacy and all that, coming from,

[Marty Hendricks] Coming from a, you know, a professional background.

[Peter Conroy] You know, you should pay attention to what data is being collected.

[Peter Conroy] You know, and… Assess…

[Peter Conroy] the risks of that data getting out.

You know, like, so the… The risk of…

[Peter Conroy] A data breach at the difference, in my opinion, is relatively low, in the sense that, yeah, there might be contact information that, you know, if there was a data breach, like email and phone number, but in terms of the health information that we collect.

[Peter Conroy] I personally do not view it if my, you know, information were to get out that I am 5’9 and a half, and I weigh 199 pounds.

[Peter Conroy] And I ate a protein shake yesterday, and I went to the gym and ran 2 miles.

I’m okay with that.

[Peter Conroy] You know, some of the statistics that we calculate, the formula, like.

[Peter Conroy] body mass index.

I’m also okay, you know, if… I think I started feeling a little more uncomfortable when some of the formulas were getting out there.

And, now I’m thinking from a

[Peter Conroy,] company owner, I… I’m… I’m… I am…

[Peter Conroy] Motivated to keep, you know, privacy and controls in place to protect

[Peter Conroy] the intellectual property of the difference, because the formula for true burn, the formula for activity burn, the formula for our estimated weight change, well, that’s like, you know, our secret sauce, and I don’t want that

[Peter Conroy] The Data or those formulas are to be breached.

[Peter Conroy] Because that is what differentiates our company.

So, you know, I champion our customers in protecting their privacy, as well as championing the company’s privacy and protecting its intellectual property.

[Marty Hendricks] Yeah, yeah, a lot of data going around in 2025, need that, cybersecurity.

You know, if you’re listening and you’re in, cybersecurity, it’s clearly a huge thing right now.

Huge, huge thing.

Alright, next question.

[Marty Hendricks] is… you know, I think… I think that you’re part of…

[Marty Hendricks] A great, great, great, great new movement, shifting to preventative care.

[Marty Hendricks] You know, like, instead of… People go to the hospital when things get…

[Marty Hendricks] Too bad, and then, you know, there’s a hospital system, and, you know, and insurance, and all this bad stuff.

[Marty Hendricks] Instead, you know, people with the aura, people with the woo, people with the difference,

[Marty Hendricks] Take in… taking advantage of what they can do day – to – day to have a… a lifestyle of wellness and preventative care.

[Marty Hendricks] And so, you know, I think there’s this movement, you know, towards preventative care, right?

[Marty Hendricks] If you’ve, if you’ve been seeing this.

[Marty Hendricks] You know, from traditional.

[Peter Conroy] Definitely.

[Marty Hendricks] preventative care.

[Peter Conroy] Definitely.

What…

[Marty Hendricks] Why is that going on right now?

Why is that going on?

You know, why should it be going on?

What’s the case for preventative care?

[Marty Hendricks] That you would tell someone?

Because I know a lot of people who are still like, oh, just live for now, and then if something happens, go to the hospital.

But then, I think more and more people are like you and me, where it’s like, oh no, let’s do things every day and use technology to…

[Marty Hendricks] To be preventative, you know?

[Marty Hendricks] So, what’s going on right now with that?

[Peter Conroy] So this is a great question, and

[Peter Conroy] The first comment I have goes back to, your observation about the barrier of time to enter data.

So, you know, the biggest, most helpful area for preventative health

[Peter Conroy] in this regard, I think, is if,

[Peter Conroy] Data can be collected easily in non – obtrusive ways, such as small wearables or mobile devices.

[Peter Conroy] that will really, help, the advancement of preventable health, because it can then allow AI to interpret

[Peter Conroy] the data collected and identify potential problems, and as I mentioned, I think AI is a terrific tool for identifying trends with data, including indications to inform about, preventative care.

[Marty Hendricks] Yeah, you know, that’s actually… that’s a very…

[Marty Hendricks] That’s a very creative, I feel like, answer, and probably the best answer is in the whole preventative health thing, in the whole wellness thing.

[Marty Hendricks] To have better…

[Marty Hendricks] better, data entry practices, because it’s just such a pain putting in all that data, right, for the AI to sort things out in a lot of cases, right?

[Peter Conroy] Yep.

[Marty Hendricks] Yeah, because I mean, you know, other people… let me know your thoughts about this, too, is that, you know, we track a lot of metrics with our Whoops, with our Oura Rings, and whatnot.

[Marty Hendricks] But it’s not, taking that data and giving it to us in… a… You know,

[Marty Hendricks] an easy – to – follow way, you know?

Like, I open my Oura Ring app, and it just spits out, like.

[Marty Hendricks] oh, here’s your, all these metrics, HRV, here’s your, your, your, your heart rate, overtime, here’s this, here’s that.

I’m like, what do I do with all this?

[Marty Hendricks] Well, you know, what do you think should be done on the side of…

[Marty Hendricks] Like, prescriptive, analytics, like, telling people what they should do.

[Marty Hendricks] What are you guys doing, at the difference with that?

[Peter Conroy] Well, you know, one of the first bits of advice I got when I became an entrepreneur 20 years ago was, if you have an idea, don’t try to boil the ocean.

So, you know, if your idea is to solve healthcare.

[Peter Conroy] you’re probably trying to boil the ocean.

If you can pick a particular problem, like, you know, what we’re trying to do is address, weight problems.

[Peter Conroy] And we’re doing it, with, our beachhead market is… is actually non – Hispanic Black women.

The app is built for anyone.

[Peter Conroy] But, non – Hispanic Black women in the United States suffer more acutely from weight problems, obesity, and comorbidities like type 2 diabetes, etc, than other demographics.

So,

[Peter Conroy] you know, if we’re hyper – focused, kind of, on a segment, and trying to solve that problem, then, you know, that, that gives, that gives us some… some focus.

[Peter Conroy] I’d like you to repeat the question, and then I’ll continue.

[Marty Hendricks] Yeah, yeah, no problem.

It was just,

[Marty Hendricks] How do you guys try to give…

[Marty Hendricks] what, the information of, like, what someone should do based on the data.

[Peter Conroy] Got it.

[Marty Hendricks] What’s the best way of doing that?

[Peter Conroy] So, like, in contrast to maybe something else where, like, you get your blood test results, and it’s just a huge, long list of something, the difference is focused on weight, right?

So, it has other use cases, and we’re working on expanding those features.

[Peter Conroy] But, you know, it really works the best?

[Peter Conroy] for customers who have weight goals, either to put on weight, lose weight, or maintain a certain weight.

[Peter Conroy] Everything is kind of focused on…

[Peter Conroy] on solving that problem.

We’re not here to necessarily,

[Peter Conroy] you know, change your BMI, although people report that their BMI improves from using, you know, the difference.

We’re… we’re trying to get you, if you have a goal weight.

[Peter Conroy] we’re trying to get you there, in the safest and most healthy, and most clear… we’re trying to be the best companion for you to do that.

So it sounds like, you know, in contrast, maybe some of the other,

[Peter Conroy] technologies, and when I looked at the app marketplace, I found that a lot of them were a little more confusing.

You know, they were trying to do a heck of a lot, and sometimes that can be information overload.

[Peter Conroy] One comment about our beachhead market.

I know that you had wanted to ask a little bit about, how AI solutions can be culturally sensitive and inclusive when addressing the needs of diverse populations.

[Peter Conroy] And, you know, I think when using AI prompts, it’s important to consider diversity when possible, and in that sense.

[Peter Conroy] AI is still, in effect, subject to GIGO, which is garbage in, garbage out.

The responsibility of incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion into AI solutions in that regard, I think it falls on the company and the user of the AI technology, not the technology itself.

[Peter Conroy] So AI isn’t gonna do a good job at making sure, you know, you, Marty, and I get brought to the table if we come from diverse populations.

You know, the company itself

[Peter Conroy] has to do a good job of making sure that you and I get to sit down at the table together and express ourselves as we’re doing here in this interview.

[Marty Hendricks] Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Yeah, cause I think, yeah, there’s been some,

[Marty Hendricks] Interesting, like, things that happen when demographics get, left off.

[Marty Hendricks] Of the training datasets, like,

[Marty Hendricks] I think, you know, I, I, you know,

[Marty Hendricks] in my business school, we had to do, like, an ethics class, and AI, the hot… AI’s the hot, subject of the day, so we’re talking about…

[Marty Hendricks] You know, like,

[Marty Hendricks] Facial recognition, security cameras, right?

Racially profiling, because they simply weren’t, trained on enough

[Marty Hendricks] People of a certain race, and therefore, it generalizes more towards them.

[Peter Conroy] Like, that’s…

[Marty Hendricks] really messed up.

[Marty Hendricks] you know, it was like, Amazon or delivery services not going to certain…

[Marty Hendricks] Areas because of, you know, bad… Or biased training data.

[Marty Hendricks] So, it’s really great to hear that you’re on top of that.

[Peter Conroy] I guess, you know, there’s a… you know the phrase, art imitates life, or life imitates art.

I guess we can expand that now and say AI imitates life, or life imitates AI, because I remember living in New York.

[Peter Conroy] trying to catch a cab, either to or from Brooklyn or Harlem was nearly impossible.

So, it kind of reminds me of…

[Peter Conroy] you know, what you just said about AI maybe, you know, having biases about sending Amazon packages or delivery drivers to certain neighborhoods, you know?

So now we have AI imitates life, or life imitates AI.

[Marty Hendricks] Yeah, no, yeah.

Generalizations, assumptions, all prejudices, all that bad stuff.

It’s great to hear that you’re on top of it.

And, you know, I think, I’ve heard somewhere, like, that…

[Marty Hendricks] you know, African Americans, to, you know, what you said about, your target user base right now, are disproportionately affected

[Marty Hendricks] By obesity and diabetes.

[Marty Hendricks] And why is that?

Is it something with, like…

[Marty Hendricks] I don’t know, like, diets down there, or, like, bad, like,

[Marty Hendricks] food, you know, or what’s going on?

What’s going on?

[Marty Hendricks] That’s causing those trends to happen.

[Peter Conroy] There are some socio – economic factors, yes.

You know, we talked a little bit about food availability and, you know, lower, kind of lower socioeconomic status, a greater proportion of,

[Peter Conroy] Low income.

[Peter Conroy] people are in housing and access to food and things like that, but there’s also cultural things, like, I mean, don’t get me wrong, I know every culture loves food.

[Peter Conroy] But some cultures, the traditional recipes might be a little more calorie heavy.

I’m not… I haven’t done that analysis to verify that.

[Peter Conroy] But, I know that, you know, soul food has, some pretty, calorie – dense, kind of popular items, like macaroni and cheese.

Although I also know that macaroni and cheese is eaten by many cultures, and,

[Peter Conroy] So, you know, I don’t… I don’t have the answer, necessarily, about why that’s the case.

I’m more solution – focused.

Maybe…

[Peter Conroy] you can be critical of me and say, you know, well, if you’re… if you’re trying to solve the problem, you need to understand the problem more.

But, you know, the research that we’ve done… I’ve interviewed over 100 Black women to kind of talk to them about

[Peter Conroy] Their thoughts on health and wellness, and

[Peter Conroy] their thoughts about weight management technology and the barriers and the kind of motivators to using it.

And what I’ve learned from speaking to this segment of the population, because I did, you know, try to do my best to become educated about it.

[Peter Conroy] Is that, you know, they’re… they have very limited time.

[Peter Conroy] They’re often very busy.

They might be single moms holding, you know, a long hour job, or sometimes two jobs.

[Peter Conroy] And they simply don’t have the time to cook right, which leads to poorer decisions about what to put on the table for themselves and their family.

[Peter Conroy] These women are predominantly, the ones who make the decisions about shopping and, food and what gets eaten, so…

[Peter Conroy] To the extent that they are stressed out. And,

[Peter Conroy] you know, have limited funds and things like that.

That’s going to carry over into, into health problems related to food.

[Peter Conroy] And, you know, in general, what they’re mainly focused on is how can they eat more healthy?

They want solutions that will help them do that.

You know, would that mean they get vouchers, or find out where their local farmer’s market is?

[Peter Conroy] Or can they be connected to healthier recipes?

Or can they use The Difference?

Can their health insurance company make the decision to include, you know, as a perk, along with vision and dental, hey, you can get a subscription to The Difference to help manage your weight?

[Peter Conroy] Yeah, so, you know, you know.

[Peter Conroy] We would love to help them answer that question, because that was the main question that we had, that we found in our research, is how can…

[Peter Conroy] I and my family get better nutrition, and because of the number of… sheer number of interviews that we have done, I think I can more generalize that it’s not just an individualized problem.

For,

[Peter Conroy] Black women, non – Hispanic in the U.

S, that demographic needs and wants to learn and find out more about how to achieve better nutrition and resources to do that.

[Marty Hendricks] You started off that, that answer with, like, oh, I don’t know if I’m an expert, I don’t know if I know enough, and then you just proceeded to say, oh yeah, we did 100 interviews with this, demographic, your target demographic, your, well, your biggest demographic, and you know a ton about it.

[Marty Hendricks] And there’s a lot of takeaways from that, I mean, like, finding food that’s quick, to make, to get, etc, you know, finding, food that’s cheap.

[Marty Hendricks] You’re too humble, Peter.

You’re too humble.

Oh, yeah, that was a… that was a great answer.

You’re on top of this.

You’re on top of, you know, your market.

It’s great.

[Marty Hendricks] And with that, with that…

[Marty Hendricks] That’s about the end of the time.

Unfortunately, I wish I can keep talking with you, Peter.

I really, really, really, really love what you do, and I think, the view… the viewers, the listeners do, too.

It’s really awesome what you’re doing.

[Marty Hendricks] So, thank you so much for coming on, you know.

[Marty Hendricks] Sharing your insights and experience, your perspective on, the intersection of technology and health, care, preventive health.

[Marty Hendricks] What we can do to… to take our awesome technology and…

[Marty Hendricks] leveraging healthcare.

You know, it was really cool seeing how, like, you took some things that you didn’t finance, some formulas and data things you didn’t finance, you applied it to healthcare.

I don’t know anyone else that does that.

That’s really unique and cool, Peter.

[Marty Hendricks] So, yeah, we really appreciate your time and expertise.

Is there anything else you want to say, before we.

[Peter Conroy] Yeah, I did, I did have a couple things I wanted to add.

You know, first and foremost, thank you so much for having me on your podcast, but in terms of advice for other healthcare leaders or other health technology companies, you know, first things first, learn from other companies’ successes.

[Peter Conroy] Secondly, if you’re gonna do an AI solution, I suggest enterprise – level AI solution, that way you can have kind of a protected fence around your data and the prompts that you use.

[Peter Conroy] And, regarding prompts, use good prompts.

Remember Giggo, garbage in, garbage out.

But if you do it right, I think this acronym could be redefined as GOLDIN, GOLD out, as opposed to garbage in, garbage out.

[Peter Conroy] Thanks again, Marty.

I had a great time speaking with you today, and I look forward to hearing from you in the future.

[Marty Hendricks] That’s right.

Let’s turn that… let’s turn that garbage into gold.

Stay tuned for more discussions on the future of healthcare innovation.

So until next time, stay well.