Startup Physicians

Engineering Curiosity into Impact: Dr. Alyssa Abo on Translating Clinical Insight into Innovation

• Alison Curfman, M.D. • Season 1 • Episode 15

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When you think about startups and healthcare, it’s easy to feel like those worlds are galaxies apart — but Dr. Alyssa Abo shows us that they’re much more connected than you think. In this episode, Alyssa shares how her journey from engineering school to pediatric emergency medicine led her straight into the heart of healthcare innovation. We talk about embracing curiosity, building medical devices, translating clinical needs for tech companies, and why physicians have so much untapped potential to impact startups without ever needing an MBA or a business degree.

Dr. Alyssa Abo is a pioneering physician executive with over 20 years of experience in MedTech and digital health, recognized for integrating advanced technologies to transform clinical medicine. She pushes the boundaries of innovation by leveraging her medical, technological, and business background to deliver scalable, impactful solutions that drive patient-centered care, improve outcomes, and elevate healthcare globally. Dr. Abo's thought leadership in medical imaging, artificial intelligence, real-world data applications, and pediatric technologies has set new standards across the healthcare ecosystem. Dr. Abo is frequently invited as a speaker, panelist, and podcast guest, to discuss emerging tech and entrepreneurship.

 

Episode Highlights:

[0:46] Kicking off the conversation with Alyssa Abo’s unique journey from engineering to pediatric emergency medicine.
[2:47] Alyssa’s childhood roots in STEM, tinkering, and how it shaped her career path.
[5:40] Why investing in children is the best investment society can make — and why pediatric care is so close to our hearts.
[8:11] Early career moments: How curiosity around technology led to a prototype, a provisional patent, and real lessons about entrepreneurship.
[10:01] Building a medical device as a resident — and the importance of teamwork and collaboration across fields.
[13:23] Lessons learned about ideas, startups, and why handing off innovations can be just as powerful as founding a company yourself.
[17:00] How ultrasound became Alyssa’s first major foray into healthcare innovation.
[18:16] Becoming an early pioneer in pediatric ultrasound — and why early adopters end up leading the charge.
[21:43] Keeping the patient as the North Star: How Alyssa’s operational mindset changed how tech was used in her hospitals.
[22:33] The real story behind working with industry partners — and why it’s not the "dark side."
[24:55] Why teaming up with companies can fast-track innovation, not compromise it.
[26:31] How pursuing an MBA added to Alyssa’s ability to bridge clinical, engineering, and business worlds.
[29:56] Getting started in startup advising: judging competitions, joining advisory boards, and taking fractional roles.
[32:07] Why physician involvement can mean the difference between a successful health tech company — and a flop.
[34:57] Transferable skills: Why diagnosing and solving problems in medicine makes physicians natural fits for startups.
[37:29] Final thoughts: Stay curious, be brave, and start small. You never know where one idea can lead.

 

Resources:

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Alyssa Abo:

Early on in my career, it definitely felt as though people thought when I would team up with industry, I was teaming up with the dark side. It always bothered me. And maybe it bothered me because I came from the engineering world, and so I just I had a different perspective. Maybe it bothered me because I knew that I was in academics, but the technology was not and then an effort for me to bring technology into the hospital, I had to team up with them, but it was never the necessary evil in my mind, like it just made sense. And for them it made sense because they wanted clinician stakeholders. They wanted the feedback, because it was a win, win. Really, physicians are the difference between a health tech company and a tech company in healthcare, and that value cannot be understated that could be success or failure for a startup.

Alison Curfman:

Welcome to StartUp physicians. Please Like and follow our show to join our community of physicians who are reimagining healthcare delivery. Hi everyone. Welcome back to startup physicians podcast. I'm your host, Dr Allison Kirkman, and I am really excited to be joined today by Dr Alyssa abo. She, like me, is a pediatric emergency physician and has had a really incredible career with being able to contribute to startups and venture funded ideas in a lot of different ways. And so Alyssa, I'm just so happy to have you on today. Thanks for joining me.

Alyssa Abo:

Thanks so much for having me. I'm really delighted to be here, and I'm glad that you got the pink memo. So, so that's good. We did not plan this, but I'm glad that we were thinking the same thing this morning,

Alison Curfman:

absolutely. So I think back to when we first met, and I honestly, I'm having trouble remembering what conference it was, but I remember somebody meeting me and being like, oh my gosh, you're a peds ER doctor who's heavily involved in startups. You have to meet this person. And so I know we connected, and I was just so impressed by your story and your background. And we've stayed connected over the years and watched each other's careers grow and different things we've been involved in. And I thought you'd be the perfect person to come on and share a little bit about kind of the journey you took, because a lot of the physicians that listen to this podcast are in more traditional settings and are just kind of curious about startups. And what I've really noticed is that there's not a lot of really clear pathways to get involved in startups if you're in more traditional practice. And so I love to highlight the stories of people like you and your journey, to share a little bit about like how you got into this field. So I'd love if you could get started just by going back as far as you went to to talk about your career journey and how you've ended up.

Alyssa Abo:

Here, it's funny that you said go back as far as you want, because this actually started for me when I was a kid, which is probably hard for people to believe, and they you know, really like, did it really start when she was a kid? But for me, it really did. So you can imagine, as a girl in the 80s, I was all about the electronics. I had ColecoVision and Atari. You know, Nintendo is cool now, but I mean, when by the time we got to Nintendo, I'd already been through multiple iterations of of these different electronic toys, and then I also was always tinkering, right? So I've always been a tinker and a tech nerd. I think one of my earliest other toys that was not electronic, which you'll probably appreciate, was a transformer, which then, like, collapsed down into an ambulance. And so, you know, I look back and I'm like, oh, okay, so pediatric, er check, like digital health check, like devices check. So for me, it really started early on, and I would say that that actually set me on a path of STEM as a kid, and we didn't call it that then, right? I remember applying to engineering school and thinking, I don't think I know any engineers, and not even really fully appreciating what that was, but it was the advice that I had received in high school. Hey, you know, you're focused on science and math, and you you gravitate towards that, so you should consider engineering school. And so I did. I went to engineering school. I was in the bio engineering program at Penn, and I'm so grateful to this day for that experience. You know, I think for me, it just changed my perspective. It changed the way I thought from a very early age. It was all about critical thinking and teamwork, and a lot of the values that I think have helped me now in the startup space. So that's how the journey started. And I and I love this. This two things that you also mentioned, of it's not always linear, which I think in medicine, it tends to be sometimes linear, or the expectation is that it's linear. And then the part about being curious, so I will sort of weave both of those in. So from engineering school, then the question was, what kind. Comes next, and it's interesting. I talk about this a lot that when I graduated engineering school, had I known I could be doing things like I'm doing today, maybe I wouldn't have pursued medicine, maybe I wouldn't have then gone on to medical school, but at the time, what I knew was that I really loved people, and I still do, and I wanted to be patient facing. And even then high school college, I was always working with kids in some capacity. And this idea of going to medicine, like going to medical school, pursuing medicine, and then later being able to take care of kids, was always sort of my North Star. Yeah,

Alison Curfman:

I agree with that wholeheartedly. I think, I think kids are the best.

Alyssa Abo:

Yes, I would agree with you.

Alison Curfman:

I think it's the best investment that we could ever make is to invest in society's children. But that's just for pediatrics

Alyssa Abo:

totally. And we can have another conversation on that, because it'll never make sense to me why we don't invest more in children, and it sometimes feels like it's us versus them, but like we were all them one day. So like it doesn't, it doesn't add up. And I feel like you and I will, will continue to fight the good fight. So but anyway, you know, you know now that I'm sharing some of these stories, I actually don't talk about this a lot. I forgot about this, but my senior project in engineering school was developing an exercise program for kids, and at the time, we didn't have all the things we do now, so it was pretty novel to use PowerPoint in a way that kids would go through the slides. I put different math equations up there, and so it would be something like do two plus two jumping jacks. And so it was a little bit of math and fun and exercise all in one. And I was studying how they evolved over time, and using the Presidential Fitness Test. Not even sure people do that anymore. But anyhow, so you can see that I was always sort of meshing these worlds of pediatrics and engineering and medicine, and that would really continued throughout my career. So from there, I went to medical school. I actually went to medical school in Israel, which was fascinating in its own right. I think being in an environment that was so tech oriented even then, which was 20 some odd years ago, really started to instill in me, like, how you can actually use technology and medicine. So I would always be looking at the different tools and, you know, shiny objects that people were using, and being like, Oh yeah, that's cool. And then thinking, like, do we have that for kids? So again, a lot of this was just sort of infused in the environments that I was in over the early parts of my career, and then after that, came back to the US, and started off in pediatrics at Yale. And you know, again, it's just it's fun to talk about this, this story, because every layer of it matters to like, how you get to where you are, even though you would never know that 20 years ago, so you didn't

Alison Curfman:

know it at the time, but something was there's seeds along your whole pathway that got you to where you are, yeah,

Alyssa Abo:

and the themes are the same, right? So, like, I'm sharing what I did as an engineering student. But then fast forward to Yale, and I could see a little bit of ultrasound being used in the adult world. Again, I was in pediatrics at this point. I wasn't peds. Er, but when I was in the ER, it's like, huh, we have this ultrasound machine. People aren't really using it. What could we use it for? And ended up doing a project using ultrasound. So someone was there to teach me how to use it. And looking at the inner spinous space in kids, right? So looking at the back and trying to figure out when we do spinal taps, what's the best position, and when we figured out what the position was, I teamed up with engineers to create a device. Let's

Alison Curfman:

pause there. Okay, that sounded like a big statement that most people would be like, wait, wait, wait, we're lying. You teamed up with engineers to make a device. Like everyone was following up until, like, someone taught me to use ultrasound. I was seeing it in the ER, how did you make that leap? Where'd you find engineers, and where did you find the idea to make a

Alyssa Abo:

device? Yeah, so it's a great question. I honestly think we just, and we, I mean, my mentor from the emergency department at Yale. So Karen Santucci was my mentor, and Lei Chen was one of the other mentors, teaching me ultrasound. So the two of them were sort of brainstorming, okay, we'll use ultrasound to look at the space. But then I remember Karen saying to me, you know, but if you could figure out what space is the best space, maybe we can, you know, build a device to hold kids in that space, in that position, to then maximize the space. Okay, that sounds cool. And so we just looked at Yale's, like roster of engineers, really. And I think I must have just cold emailed people to find someone who was willing to team up with me to do this. And it was amazing. And we actually built a prototype, and we had a provisional patent. And I mean, it. Taught me a lot about the world you

Alison Curfman:

were a resident at that time as a resident. So this is, you know, one interesting thought is that this is essentially something that is very, very, very common experience to all of us in in medicine and in training, is that you're, you know, contributing to some sort of a research project, and you're, you know, using your mentors to kind of help guide your idea of, like, how something could actually be really useful clinically. But you went in a direction that, like most people would publish this as a paper, which I'm sure you did, but you you added on another layer of like, what if there was a thing I could make that would make this Yeah, make this thing happen. I think that there's that that's this very like entrepreneurial and startup sort of inflection point. You didn't know how to make advice, you didn't know how to get a patent, you didn't know how to create prototype, you didn't know how to do any of that. And probably your mentors didn't, I don't know, I'm assuming, probably hadn't done that whole thing either. But it was all about like, Okay, well, what would what would I need to do while I definitely need to find someone to help me. How could I find someone? I'm gonna look through the directory of engineers. And so it's just identifying, like, one step at a time. And that probably was a very like formative experience for you,

Alyssa Abo:

for sure, 100% and again, it was building off of the things that I already knew, that as an engineer, we weren't doing things alone. We were always working in teams. And then as a physician. Now, again, to your point, like I knew that I couldn't just build this device from scratch. And you know, maybe people listening think like, well, but I could, I could do it by myself, and you might be able to, but there's so much value in the collaboration and in the teamwork. And it is, you know, we'll talk about this later, but one of the transferable skills, I think that we are so used to in medicine, especially for us in the ER, it's a team all the time. You know, the worst situations that we find ourselves in. We rely on every member of that team, and I would never want to be in a resuscitation without a strong team, right? So how do we sort of take what we are so used to and leverage that in in the industry side and the startup world? It's there's so many similarities there. But yes, so you're right. So teamed up with engineers, filed the patent. I mean, this the learning curve was straight up, and when I moved on to fellowship, I didn't know what to do with this idea, like I was not in a position to start a company. I didn't know all the things that I know now. I just the idea a little bit died when I moved on for training, because I didn't know what to do. And ironically, I was at a conference a few years ago, and I was there with a different startup. I sit on their board, and sure enough, the booth next to us is a company that built a device to hold babies in place for Spinal Tap. Oh my gosh, ironic. It's like, wait, I know them. And I knew them because I was judging for MedTech Innovator, and I saw them also. And so, you know, when I first saw them, I was like, good on you, because 20 years later, I didn't do anything with this. I'm so glad somebody did. But then you don't know, you know that, you know, going from med tech innovator in early stages, how far they've come and then they were, sure enough, right there at a booth. That's so

Alison Curfman:

funny, you know? And I think that what you're describing is also something that has, some people have brought up to me that, like, sometimes, so a lot of physicians have ideas of something that can improve care for their patients, and would maybe be willing to, like, initially developed that idea, but they don't want to go found a company. And the thing that I want to emphasize is that there are opportunities to take those ideas and actually find ways to hand them off in a way that you, you know, get compensated for it, but you don't have to go be a founder. You don't have to go fundraise. I mean, a lot of people don't have, don't want that sort of life or responsibility. But I feel like by creating this, this group of physicians that are doing this work and are working with firms that are wanting to do this sort of physician founded ideas like you could have handed that idea off, you had a prototype, you had a patent. You could have been like, hey, I want to be involved as an advisor, but I don't want to go, like, build this because I am a fellow. You were probably starting family. You were like, probably got a lot going on, but then you didn't, and then somebody else did it. So no, and

Alyssa Abo:

that's exactly right. And I mean, at the time, there was no one to mentor me through that process, to say, Okay, you have this idea. You've built the prototype. And here's like, here's an option that you could pursue. There was none of that you know. And I think probably a lot of people listening, like, don't you know, even know what it all entails, either, like, your point of, like, some people just don't want to be a founder. I'm not sure. Sure most of us in medicine would even know what that means. I had no idea what entailed, like, what being a founder entailed, till I actually started working in size startups. And I mean, I had worked with startups for years before that, right? So, and we'll get to that. But no, I just the learning curve and all of these things is is steep, and it doesn't mean that it can't be learned, I think for a lot of the reasons you've mentioned in in other forums and other podcasts you've had. Like, of course, these skills can be learned if you don't know them already, but you know, at what cost? What are you willing to give up? There are only so many hours in a day, and it once you know more about what it entails. People may not You're right. Like, want to be a founder, like, as it stands right now, I'm not sure I would want to be, you know, the founder of, of a new startup, of a new co like, that's a huge lift. And, you know, I kind of like the way I'm doing things so, but mad respect for people who do so. From Yale, I went up to Boston. I was at Boston Children's, and I did fellowship in peace emergency medicine, and now I had a little taste of ultrasound, but still it really wasn't a thing. And now as an emergency fellow, I was rotating through the adult emergency departments, and really people were starting to take me under their wing and starting to teach me more about ultrasound, and that really sort of sparked this interest in me, okay, how can I bring this technology into the pediatric space? And I also felt as though there was enormous value in ultrasound if I didn't learn it now that it was going to happen at some point and that I would be relying on med students, interns, trainees, to be teaching me, and I really wanted to stay ahead of the curve. And so it really all for me, in this instance, just boiled down to the curiosity of, how do I do this? Who will teach me how to do this? And then how can I translate this into pediatrics?

Alison Curfman:

What you identified was a up and coming field within your field, because ultrasound has become, like, a very important part of Emergency Medicine, and it's specialized, and there's a lot of career tracks available for people that become ultrasound trained. It reminds me of, you know, when I was at that same stage in fellowship, I was identifying telemedicine as in digital health, as being something that I felt like was really going to change my field. And I really wanted to, wanted to connect with you who is actually doing this. Because this was like 2014 people were not doing telehealth, especially in kids. And so I did, like, reach out, like, nationally, to find people who were, who were doing that, to mentor me and to help, you, know, to co create ideas. And it sounds like with ultrasound, you just saw this potential for something that was going to grow and really change your field. And you're like, I'm going to get on that train.

Alyssa Abo:

Yeah, exactly. And there's a few of us, like a handful, and we were leading the effort. And you

Alison Curfman:

become a national expert when you get on a train of something like that early 100%

Alyssa Abo:

you know. And people will sometimes refer to this, like, very small group is like, you know, the grandfather is a pediatric pocus, or the early pioneers, early adopters, and it all, it's so humbling to hear those things, right? Because to say that out loud feels like very self promoting, but it was just a handful of us, and at the time, there had only been two other people to do P's emergency medicine and then go off to do an emergency ultrasound fellowship. So I decided to do that because I thought, you know, again, it was this, well, you could teach yourself or have others teach you and be that grandfathered in. But I thought, if there was a way to actually learn it in a more formal way, that that seemed to be the better choice for me. And so I did. I went out to UC Davis for a year, and I studied emergency ultrasound and a fellowship. And it was great because it was through the UC Davis emergency department, which is pediatrics adults, all in one although there, there are Pediatric Emergency attendings like you and I are trained, and it's just a wonderful place. And the fellowship was really geared towards adults, and when they were willing to take me for a year to teach me ultrasound, then the idea was, well, then I could share a little bit more about pediatric emergency medicine and bring some of those folks who were doing emergency ultrasound into the pediatric er. And how could we together figure out, okay, if we can teach you ultrasound being me, then how can I think with them around, how I can use this in pediatrics? So that's really how my career started, and the next 20 years in academic medicine were, for the most part, focused on ultrasound and building the field and the operations and the education. And everything that had to do with this technology and publishing, all of that, right? It started off as you would expect in academics on the educational side of research, publishing. And I was never much of a researcher, but definitely, you know, did my fair share of studies, but more on the white papers and the policy statements and the How to because none of that existed either. And then very quickly for me, I just love the operational side, like this equipment. How could we make it better the operations of we store, you know, we we take images like, where do they go? You know, I in part of my attending life in New York, I was in a place that was quite robust in ultrasound, and so they were billing and generating revenue, but to do that, you had to document properly, and what were the elements needed for that, and what are the CPT codes to build? And so very quickly, I kind of went from the educational side to the operational side to the business side, and there's definitely some overlap there, but really trying to figure out, okay, there's a technology that can help patients. That's my North Star. I need this to help me do a better job taking care of kids when I see them in the emergency department. And so knowing that, I had to figure out all the pieces of the puzzle. And now, when I'm working with other technologies, a lot of that premise is the same. There's a technology that needs to get to patients, because it can help them, and if it can't help them directly, how can it help those providing care to them do their job better? Right? So in my mind, it has to be one of those two things, ideally both. But you know, how, can we put all the pieces in place to get from A to B? Absolutely.

Alison Curfman:

And I think that that statement that like that the patient care and how this could help patients, is always your North Star. I think that a lot of physicians really, really resonate with that, that you know, if they have ideas on how to improve medicine, it's usually something related to, like, direct patient care, or something that directly affects patients. And I think that that is such a needed perspective in the startup world, is like, how some of these things actually relate to the patients, to the stories of the like, for you, the kids you're serving, and you have use cases, you have, you know actual clinical scenarios that that you're drawing from to build your expertise, and at what point did you actually start working with with companies on these concepts? So

Alyssa Abo:

great question. So I started my career off in ultrasound, and now we need to teach people, which means that we need to put on conferences. And so in an effort to put on conferences, we needed machines. I will say, you know, even before that, we had some relationships with ultrasound companies. We would be a beta testing site, things like that. But the relationship for me really grew when I wanted to partner with them to be able to highlight the different technologies, the different equipment, the different ultrasound machines, you know, some had, you know, different bells and whistles and another one regardless, like it was important to me to be able to teach hands on ultrasound. In an effort to do that, I started teaming up with the companies. Over time, they would then say, hey, we need medical advisors. Can you be on our medical advisory board? And so then the relationship went a step further. Let's talk about that for a second. I think sometimes, and I think this is changing, at least, I hope so, but early on in my career, it definitely felt as though people thought when I would team up with industry, I was teaming up with the dark side. And it always bothered me. And maybe it bothered me because I came from the engineering world, and so I just I had a different perspective. Maybe it bothered me because I knew that I was in academics, but the technology was not and then an effort for me to bring technology into the hospital, I had to team up with them. But it was never like the necessary evil in my mind, like it just made sense. And for them, it made sense because they wanted clinician stakeholders, they wanted the feedback, they wanted to bring their equipment to show all the bells and whistles, because it was a win win. And I think that was a huge part of my mindset early on, that has not change.

Alison Curfman:

Personally, I believe it's not productive to vilify any like group within healthcare delivery, whether it's payers or administration or other fields, because, like you said, it's all you know, we're all contributing from our own perspective of healthcare teams. So I felt the same way that people would be, like, you're a pediatrician, you're working for a private equity firm. Like, that's but I was like, Well, I did this at a nonprofit, and it ended up not working. And if I want to get this solution to kids, like, Yeah, I do need to work with someone who knows how to make this financially sustainable.

Alyssa Abo:

Yeah, 100% I totally agree with you. So that was. Majority of my I would say, academic journey. And I, you know, went through the academic part of becoming a full professor, and that was really important to me. I felt like, if I was in the academic world, it was important to follow the linear path to but in the meantime, my own career path was sort of taking lots of turns and zigzags. And over time, I could see the value of the different things coming together so medicine and engineering, but I felt like business was a big part of that, and ended up pursuing an MBA so that I could speak the three different languages, because I think physicians are in a position, when working with industry or startups, of translating the clinical needs. And I felt as though if I could translate between the physicians and the engineers and then the business minds. Then it put me in a bit of a different position. And so once that happened, I was starting to get tapped to then kind of do what I did for ultrasound, for other technologies. And so my last few years in the academic world were really focused on bringing other emerging technologies into the hospital. And so that's really how I started, getting into the startup part of it. And I'm grateful, you know, for this conversation to kind of give the background, because I think a lot of physicians are doing things that would lend themselves well to bringing in new technologies into academics, or to community hospitals or to, you know, figuring out a way to collaborate and share ideas and insights so that technology is being built fit an unmet need and actually solve a problem. And

Alison Curfman:

I just want to go back to your so I also have an MBA, but as I've been working with a lot of physicians, I think that there is some limiting belief out there for a lot of physicians that like, I don't have an MBA, so I can't work with business or industry. How would you react to that? And it's probably served you a lot in your career, but for people just getting started, what do you think about that perspective that like, oh, the barrier is that I don't have an MBA. I don't think it needs to be a barrier. I think people who do not have an MBA are

Alyssa Abo:

well versed in many other things that would make them incredibly valuable to the startup community. So I agree with you that it's not a necessity. I also think, though, people in the hospital setting that have a lab, that run a division, that are managing budgets, that are looking at numbers, probably have more experience in business than I did in the academic world. I was not in those positions. I was in different leadership positions in the hospital, and I was managing ultrasound purchasing and things. And actually, that really was a drive for me to get the MBA, because from a hospital wide level, people were asking me, well, what's the ROI on that? And it's like, what are they talking about? So I think if you're in the position of crunching numbers, managing budgets, you're understanding, you know, return on investments for things you're purchasing for your hospital right now, then you're in a really good position to understand some of the finances and business for startups. Having said that, if the whole business world is just completely foreign, then I do think it's worth investing some time to understand the different terms. And you don't need an MBA for that, but I would definitely do something so that you understand the language people are speaking, because I do think that each part of that is really important. I think if physicians just sort of have blinders on to the financial pieces of it, then I think that's a little limiting in the scope of their ability to actually give feedback in a way that makes sense, yeah, and there's, there's

Alison Curfman:

all sorts of ways to pursue and start pursuing understanding of some of those things. I think that sometimes, as physicians, we are, we are our natural reaction to wanting to do something new, as I should get a new degree for that, or I should do a new fellowship for that, or I should, and so, I mean, it could be as simple as taking a course or getting a book from the library.

Alyssa Abo:

And I think many physicians are, you know, lifelong learners. Are many people. But again, I feel most comfortable speaking as a physician because that's fundamentally like what I am. And I think that that's just inherent to our being and how we're wired. I mean, most of us have been in school for over 20 years, if you add up all the training, so you're right, like, why not just, you know, get another degree? But I don't think it's necessary, and I do think it's an investment, but I do think that if someone wants to pursue it, it's also not wasted, and can be incredibly helpful and valuable and also potentially open

Alison Curfman:

doors, yeah, for sure. So as we're kind of getting to the end of things here, what sort of roles did this lead to for you and and how have you seen ways that physicians can contribute to startups and really provide value? As

Alyssa Abo:

I mentioned, I started becoming more involved in other emerging tech and I. Are working really closely with startups while I was still in an academic setting, and that looked a few different ways. I would either judge competitions and just see startups that were out there and getting getting started and they just wanted some clinician feedback. And I still think that's a great way to start. And people ask me often too, you know where to start? Definitely, I would check out med tech innovator, the different accelerators, incubators and a lot of them would want to have physician feedback. There are actually a lot of initiatives now out of universities. So I was recently asked to sit on an industry round table, you know, coming from the industry side. But what the goal of that is, is getting feedback to the engineers or physicians in academic settings who are building out these different ideas and then figuring out like what to do with them. So I would definitely encourage people to get involved in any way that they can. As far as how I got involved, I started working with startups. Over time, I got recruited to go in house for startups, and and I would say, I think it makes a lot of sense to start off as an advisor, but if an opportunity presents itself to go in house for a startup, meaning you take a part time role, which people often refer to as a fractional role, it's totally worth it, because to go in a startup and actually see how It works, it's all hands on deck. And the learning is just like an MBA, but different, because it's all the things you actually don't learn in business school. I think that would be, you know, in an enormous value for folks who are trying to get into the space. And then the greatest difference between a health tech company and a tech company in healthcare, in my mind, are the clinicians, a lot of which are physicians, right? And if there are nurses, pharmacists, techs, anybody listening to this, who provides patient care, I think you're an enormous resource in the startup space. But I know this is, you know, geared towards physicians. And so I would just say, like, really, physicians are the difference between a health tech company and a tech company in healthcare, and that value cannot be understated. That could be success or failure for a startup,

Alison Curfman:

absolutely. And we both have had experiences seeing companies that maybe were didn't have clinician input at an early enough stage, or maybe ended up solving the wrong problem. And I think that there's enormous value, like you're saying, in clinicians who see patients and know the day to day and the workflow and the patient journeys and patient stories and all the struggles and challenges to be involved in helping design these solutions.

Alyssa Abo:

I agree. And the last thing I'll say is just to be curious. You know, I think that has served me so well, and it wasn't something I tried to do. I didn't know that I was going to be passionate about ultrasound. What I'm really passionate about is bringing technology to people. And that became more clear to me over time, that ultrasound is a way to do that, but there are other technologies to do that. And I just, I really do. I love understanding how things work, and I love technology. And again, this is sort of infused as Me, in Me from when I was a kid. But just be curious if there's something you don't understand or something you want to know more, or something you see, like go after it. I mean, I literally have followed people out of hotels, not in a creepy way, but they were, like, on a device to help you walk, instead of crutches. And I was like, that's just so cool. And I just walked after him. And I was like, I'm sorry, but like, can you just show me, like, how you're using this? Because I'm fascinated by it. Like, find those things that excite you and then pursue them a little bit and see and maybe they will become a passion. Maybe they'll become an advisory role. Like, it's hard to know, but just be brave and get out there and try new things and and just be curious. There's

Alison Curfman:

no shortage of information to find, either. Like, it's just, it's just like, when you made this. You wanted to make a device that supported the research paper you were writing or the research study you were doing. It was like, How do I do that? Okay, well, like, back then you probably didn't have chip GPT or a really advanced Google and all of these other things. And so now it's like, go, like, just go search it and go see, like, how do I get a patent? There's probably a step by step guide online, and we are good at, you know, synthesizing information as physicians. The other thing I wanted to ask you is what you see as kind of the most common transferable skills for physicians that are in more of a traditional setting, who might be sitting there thinking like, I don't have anything to offer. Like, this girl has an engineering background and she's got an MBA, and she's got all this other like training, but I feel like what physicians need to hear is how much of what they do on a day to day basis is actually transferable to the startup and business community

Alyssa Abo:

at baseline. I think. Think there are a number of skills that physicians have that are just so innate in what we do, that in a way we don't recognize it, and whether or not we take it for granted, maybe, but I think it's just it's a part of who we are, right? So generally speaking, physicians are strong at teamwork, leadership. I think generally speaking, physicians are analytical, they have high emotional intelligence, they're compassionate, right? And again, it's not one size fits all, but I think that physicians and inherent to physicians are a lot of those qualities. Now you could say, though, that those qualities are inherent to engineers or other people too, and that would be also true. So when I think about the skills physicians have, they they are they are many. At the end of the day, physicians diagnose and solve problems. That is what we do. We take care of patients, we build trust with those patients, and then we diagnose and solve problems. And I think that's where physicians differentiate themselves. So when I think about physicians and startups, I think about how they can leverage this idea of I diagnose and solve problems, and here are problems that I see, or if you're going to tell me about your solution, let me help you understand if that solution actually solves a problem that I have, and it's that clinical translation piece where I think that there's enormous value, and I also think it's important for startups to think early about having those physicians engaged, because physicians build their relationships on trust, and so they need to trust the technologies they're using, and in turn, their patients need to trust them that they understand the technologies that they're using. So for me, physicians can be enormously value in sharing their expertise to the startups. So startups are building to solve the right problems, and then in turn, physicians are enormously valuable for startups so that they're on the right path and they don't fail early, because so many startups fail because they're either solving the wrong problem, or they don't have the clinician input, or they run out of money, which is obviously like the elephant in the room. But at the end of the day, I think that relationship can be so powerful, and it can be a win win, and the most important part of all of it is getting the right technology to the patients, which I think really aligns the goals of the startups and the physicians, because at the end of the day, this is what we're all trying to do, is make healthcare just a little bit better. That's

Alison Curfman:

amazing. Well, I am so grateful to you for your time and your expertise and sharing your story for people that want to reach out to her, she is on LinkedIn, and that's probably the best way to get a hold of her. We'll put that in the show notes, as well as her website. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm sure many people were inspired by your story. And for anyone that has ideas in healthcare like just realize that being curious and pursuing those ideas and finding the information along the way is completely an option to you. So thanks, Alyssa,

Alyssa Abo:

sure my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Alison Curfman:

Thank you for listening to startup positions. Don't forget to like, follow and share. You.