The Digital Health Podcast with Fexingo: Wearables, Diagnostics, and Health Software
Lucas and Luna explore the rapidly evolving world of digital health, where wearables track vitals, diagnostics shift to at-home testing, and software platforms reshape patient care. Each episode focuses on a specific development: how continuous glucose monitors are changing diabetes management, the FDA's latest clearance for an AI-driven ECG algorithm, or the business models behind telehealth startups like Ro and Hims & Hers. Lucas brings a journalist's precision to the numbers — market sizes, clinical trial results, reimbursement rates — while Luna challenges him on the real-world impact for clinicians and patients. They dissect earnings reports from Apple and Fitbit, parse policy moves from the FDA and CMS, and debate whether VC-funded digital health unicorns can sustain their valuations. Listeners — healthcare professionals, investors, tech strategists — get a clear-eyed briefing on what works, what's hype, and what's next in a sector where staying informed means understanding both the science and the business.
Episodes
How to make your own health data actually useful
We all have health data now — smartwatches, HRV scores, sleep stages, step counts. But does any of it actually change what we do? In this episode, we drill into a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association that tracked 2,400 users across four consumer health platforms. The headline number: only 12 percent of users who received a clinically meaningful health insi
How Digital Health Startups Are Using Remote Monitoring for Post-Surgery Recovery
In this episode of The Digital Health Podcast with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore how remote patient monitoring is transforming post-surgery recovery. They focus on the case of Hinge Health, which has expanded from musculoskeletal therapy to surgical recovery, using wearable sensors and a digital platform to track patients' progress after knee and hip replacements. The hosts discuss a recent stud
How Digital Health Apps Are Getting Prescribed Like Drugs
Prescription digital therapeutics (PDTs) are a new category of software that doctors can prescribe to treat conditions from ADHD to substance use disorder. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how companies like Akili Interactive and Pear Therapeutics have navigated FDA clearance, insurance reimbursement, and the tricky transition from app store to pharmacy counter. They break down the numbers
How Digital Health Is Diagnosing Alzheimer's Through Voice
In this episode of The Digital Health Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how voice biomarkers are being used to detect early signs of Alzheimer's disease. They dive into a groundbreaking study from the University of California, San Francisco, where researchers analyzed speech patterns from over 200 older adults and found that subtle changes in pitch, pauses, and word fluency can predict cognitive dec
How Digital Health Is Remaking Clinical Trials
Nearly every major drug company is now weaving digital tools—wearables, smartphones, and connected sensors—directly into how they test new therapies. In this episode, Lucas and Luna look at why decentralized clinical trials have gone from pandemic workaround to permanent fixture, and what that means for both patients and the business of medicine. They walk through the story of Pfizer's Dora trial
How Health Tech Is Diagnosing Mental Health Through Voice
Lucas and Luna explore the emerging field of vocal biomarkers for mental health diagnosis. They dive into how AI-powered voice analysis can detect depression, anxiety, and PTSD by picking up subtle acoustic changes. The episode focuses on a real-world study from the University of Southern California where voice samples achieved 85% accuracy in diagnosing PTSD in military veterans. They discuss the
How Wearable Blood Pressure Monitors Are Changing Hypertension Care
Hypertension affects nearly half of US adults, yet most people only get their blood pressure checked during a doctor's visit. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how wearable blood pressure monitors — from cuff-based devices to optical sensors — are shifting hypertension management from occasional office readings to continuous, real-world data. They examine the technology behind Aktiia's optic
How Voice Biomarkers Can Detect Disease Before Symptoms
Lucas and Luna explore the emerging field of vocal biomarker technology, where companies like Sonde Health and Vocalis Health analyze subtle changes in voice patterns to screen for conditions ranging from depression to COVID-19 and even Parkinson's disease. They break down how a 20-second voice sample can reveal physiological cues invisible to the naked eye, the regulatory pathway these devices ar
How Digital Health Platforms Are Integrating with Primary Care EHRs
Lucas and Luna explore the messy, high-stakes world of EHR integration for digital health platforms. They focus on a specific case: how a chronic care management startup called Rimidi built a direct bridge into Epic Systems, the dominant EHR used by over 250 million patients in the US. The hosts walk through the technical hurdles, the data-privacy landmines, and the business incentives that make o
How Smart Rings Are Replacing Fitness Trackers for Sleep and Health
Episode 38 of The Digital Health Podcast explores the quiet rise of smart rings—wearables that pack sensors into a jewelry form factor. Lucas and Luna examine how Oura, Samsung, and startups like Circular are competing to track sleep, heart rate, and temperature without a wristband. They dig into the clinical research backing ring-based sleep staging, why insurers are starting to subsidize them fo
How Wearable Skin Patches Are Replacing Needles for Drug Delivery
In this episode of The Digital Health Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore the emerging world of wearable microneedle patches that deliver drugs through the skin without pain. They focus on the specific case of Zosano Pharma's transdermal patch for migraine, which failed in clinical trials in 2021, and contrast it with newer players like Vaxxas and LTS Lohmann that are targeting vaccines and insulin. L
How Digital Health Startups Are Redesigning the Doctor Visit
Lucas and Luna explore how a handful of digital health startups are rethinking the primary care visit from the ground up. The episode focuses on 'ambient listening' AI — software that listens to the patient-clinician conversation and automatically generates clinical notes, diagnoses, and billing codes in real time. They examine the specific case of Abridge, which recently partnered with several ma
How MedTech Startups Are Navigating the FDA's Software Pathway
In episode 35 of The Digital Health Podcast, Lucas and Luna unpack the FDA's evolving framework for regulating software-as-a-medical-device (SaMD). They focus on the agency's 2025 guidance on AI/ML-enabled devices and how it affects startups like IDx and Caption Health. Lucas explains the 'predetermined change control plan'—a mechanism that lets algorithms update without full re-clearance. Luna qu
How Remote Patient Monitoring Is Reshaping Primary Care
Remote patient monitoring has moved beyond chronic disease management into mainstream primary care. Lucas and Luna examine a specific case: a midsize clinic network in Ohio that deployed cellular-connected blood pressure cuffs and pulse oximeters for 2,000 patients with hypertension. They discuss the early results — a 14 percent reduction in systolic blood pressure over six months — and the operat
How AI Is Reading Retinal Images for Disease Screening
Episode 33 of The Digital Health Podcast with Fexingo explores how artificial intelligence is analyzing retinal scans to detect signs of diabetic retinopathy, cardiovascular disease, and even Alzheimer's risk years before symptoms appear. Lucas and Luna zero in on the FDA-cleared system from IDx-DR (now LumineticsCore) and the new wave of deep learning models trained on millions of fundus photogra
How Wearable Sensors Are Detecting Early Infections
Lucas and Luna explore how wearables like the Oura Ring and Apple Watch can detect early signs of viral infections before symptoms appear. They discuss the 2020 study from Stanford that showed temperature changes and heart rate variability shifts preceding COVID-19 symptoms by 2-3 days, and how companies like Fitbit are now building disease-detection algorithms. The hosts drill into the specific p
How Oura Ring Broke Into Employer Health Benefits
Episode 31 of The Digital Health Podcast explores how Oura Ring pivoted from a niche sleep tracker to a corporate wellness platform used by employers like Cisco and Bank of America. Lucas and Luna break down the numbers: Oura's reported 600,000 unit sales by mid-2025, the shift from direct-to-consumer to B2B contracts, and how its FDA-cleared blood oxygen and heart rate sensors crossed the line fr
How Dexcom Won the Consumer CGM Market
Episode 30 of The Digital Health Podcast with Fexingo dives into how Dexcom turned continuous glucose monitoring from a niche diabetes tool into a mainstream wellness product. Lucas and Luna break down the key strategic moves Dexcom made to pull ahead of Abbott's FreeStyle Libre: the G7 sensor's smaller design, the decision to go direct-to-consumer with over-the-counter sales, and the controversia
How Continuous Glucose Monitors Went From Diabetes to Wellness
Lucas and Luna explore the explosive growth of continuous glucose monitors beyond diabetes management. Lucas explains how Abbott's Freestyle Libre and Dexcom's G7 are now being marketed to 'health optimizers' and athletes. He breaks down the key numbers: the total addressable market expanding from 30 million diabetics to 400 million pre-diabetics plus millions of wellness consumers. Luna questions
How Fitbit and Apple Are Battling for the Medical Device Registers
Lucas and Luna dig into an escalating regulatory war that most consumers don't even know exists. Fitbit's new sleep apnea detection feature got FDA clearance in March 2026, and Apple's atrial fibrillation algorithm now powers a multi-center clinical trial enrolling 15,000 patients. But behind the headlines, both companies are waging a quiet battle over something much bigger: who gets to own the FD
How DarioHealth Merged Digital Therapeutics With Coaching
Episode 27 of The Digital Health Podcast digs into DarioHealth's playbook: how the company combined FDA-cleared digital therapeutics for diabetes and hypertension with human coaching, and why Wall Street is paying attention. Hosts Lucas and Luna break down Dario's acquisition of Upright, the shift from B2C to B2B2C employer contracts, and the unit economics that make the model work. Plus, a look a
How DarioHealth Merged Digital Therapeutics With Coaching
Episode 26 of The Digital Health Podcast examines DarioHealth's strategy of combining FDA-cleared digital therapeutics with human coaching to boost engagement and outcomes. Lucas and Luna break down the company's pivot from consumer blood pressure and glucose tracking to a B2B chronic condition management platform. They discuss the 2025 acquisition of digital physical therapy platform Vori Health,
Inside the Digital Therapeutics Approval Pipeline
Lucas and Luna break down how digital therapeutics actually get approved. Using Pear Therapeutics' reSET-O as a case study, they walk through the FDA's new Software Precertification Pilot, the difference between a wellness app and a regulated digital therapeutic, and why the failure rate for DTx submissions is still above 60 percent. They also explore how companies like Akili Interactive and Big H
How Apple Watch ECG Changed the FDA Approval Process
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how the Apple Watch's FDA-cleared ECG feature fundamentally altered the regulatory pathway for consumer health wearables. They trace the 2018 landmark decision that allowed a mass-market device to claim medical-grade heart rhythm monitoring, and examine the ripple effects on startups like AliveCor and Fitbit. The conversation dives into the practical trade-o
Why Health Apps Are Prescribing Exercise as Medicine
Lucas and Luna explore the emerging field of 'exercise is medicine' — where health apps and wearables are being used to prescribe physical activity as a formal treatment. They dig into the evidence behind the concept, the companies leading the charge, and why this isn't just another wellness trend but a potential shift in how doctors approach chronic disease. Specific focus on the 'Exercise Is Med
How Telemedicine Prescriptions Actually Work
Lucas and Luna unpack the surprisingly complex logistics behind telemedicine prescriptions. They focus on the specific case of Truepill, the digital pharmacy that powered Hims & Hers and Nurx before its collapse in 2025. The hosts walk through how prescriptions flow from an online consultation to a patient's mailbox, the role of pharmacy benefit managers, and why state-by-state licensing still cre
The Hospital-at-Home Software That Is Actually Scaling
Lucas and Luna dive into the quiet operational revolution behind hospital-at-home programs, using Mayo Clinic's advanced care at home program as the anchor. They discuss the specific software infrastructure that makes remote monitoring, medication management, and virtual rounding work at scale — including the real numbers on patient outcomes and cost savings. The episode explores why earlier telem
Who Is Liable When Your Health App Gets It Wrong
Episode 20 of The Digital Health Podcast explores a growing legal tightrope: who pays when a wearable or an algorithm misses a diagnosis? Lucas and Luna break down the 2025 case of a consumer-grade ECG patch that failed to flag a cardiac event, and how the FDA, device makers, and doctors are all pointing fingers. They walk through the distinction between software as a medical device and general we
How Wearable ECG Patches Beat Holter Monitors
The Holter monitor has been the gold standard for cardiac arrhythmia detection since the 1950s. But in the past two years, single-use wearable ECG patches have quietly overtaken it in both diagnostic yield and patient compliance. This episode unpacks the numbers: a 2024 JAMA study showing patches detect 23% more arrhythmias than Holters, and how companies like iRhythm (Zio patch) and Mayo Clinic s
How Headspace and Calm Are Competing for Employer Healthcare Dollars
Lucas and Luna examine the battle between Headspace and Calm for corporate wellness contracts, a market worth an estimated $3.4 billion annually. They break down how each company positions its product—Headspace leaning on clinical validation and enterprise features like coaching, Calm betting on brand ubiquity and celebrity content—and why employers are starting to demand proof of ROI measured in
Why Digital Health Startups Are Betting on Hearing Aids
In this episode of The Digital Health Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore a surprising new frontier in digital health: the hearing aid market. With the FDA's over-the-counter rule change now two years old, a wave of startups and tech giants are reimagining hearing aids as consumer wearables. Lucas breaks down how companies like Sony, Jabra, and startup Whisper are using smartphone-based tuning, AI-dri
Inside the Digital Therapeutic for Opioid Use Disorder
Lucas and Luna explore Pear Therapeutics' reSET-O, the first FDA-authorized prescription digital therapeutic for opioid use disorder. They unpack how the app works as a cognitive behavioral therapy delivery system, the clinical trial data behind its 40% reduction in abstinence failure, and the business challenges Pear faced before bankruptcy. This episode drills into one specific case to understan
The Bluetooth Body Weight Scale That Is Changing Clinical Trials
Episode 15 of The Digital Health Podcast digs into a surprising low-tech device that is quietly transforming how pharmaceutical companies and researchers run clinical trials: the connected body weight scale. Lucas and Luna explore how a single company, Withings, transitioned from consumer bathroom scales to FDA-cleared medical devices used in obesity and cardiovascular drug trials. They break down
The Rise of Digital Therapeutics Beyond Prescription Apps
Lucas and Luna explore the emerging world of digital therapeutics — software-based treatments that are FDA-cleared to treat medical conditions. They focus on Akili Interactive's EndeavorRx, the first prescription video game for ADHD, and discuss the business challenges facing the digital therapeutic industry: reimbursement, physician adoption, and patient engagement. Lucas explains how Akili pivot
How Tempus AI Built the Operating System for Precision Medicine
In this episode of The Digital Health Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how Tempus AI is creating an operating system for precision medicine. They break down the company's $6 billion data flywheel, how it processes genomic and clinical data from over 7 million patients, and why its partnership with Natera is expanding liquid biopsy access. The hosts discuss Tempus's unique business model, its 2024 I
How Masimo Won the Consumer Pulse Oximeter War
Lucas and Luna unpack how Masimo, a B2B medical device company founded in 1989, quietly beat Apple, Fitbit, and Garmin to become the first brand to get a prescription pulse oximeter cleared by the FDA for consumer use — the Masimo W1 watch. They trace the story from Masimo's breakthrough in signal extraction technology during the 1990s pulse oximetry patent wars, through the company's decade-long
The Hospital at Home Model That Actually Works
Episode 11 of The Digital Health Podcast with Fexingo dives into the 'Hospital at Home' model — specifically, how the Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente are turning acute care into home-based monitoring. Lucas and Luna unpack the data: a 2025 JAMA study showing 20% lower readmission rates and 30% cost savings for patients enrolled in virtual hospital programs. They explore the tech stack — RPM devi
How Zocdoc Is Reshaping the Doctor Visit
Episode 10 of The Digital Health Podcast dives into Zocdoc's quiet transformation from a straightforward appointment-booking portal into a digital front door for the $4.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system. Lucas and Luna explore the company's 2025 data-sharing partnerships with Epic Systems and Cerner, its controversial pivot to charging patients a $10 monthly subscription for same-day access, and t
How Tempus AI Is Building the Operating System for Precision Medicine
Lucas and Luna dive into Tempus AI, the genomic testing and data platform company that has become one of the most ambitious bets in digital health. They explore how Tempus compiles massive clinical and molecular datasets, uses AI to match patients with clinical trials, and generates real-world evidence for drug development. The episode focuses on the company's scale: over 500,000 patients' genomic
How Continuous Glucose Monitors Are Entering the Mainstream
In this episode of The Digital Health Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) are breaking out of diabetes management and into the wellness market. They focus on the specific case of Abbott's Lingo, an over-the-counter CGM targeting health-conscious consumers, and compare it to Dexcom's Stelo. The hosts discuss the clinical evidence behind glucose tracking for non-di
How AliveCor Beat Apple at the FDA Without a Patent
In this episode of The Digital Health Podcast, Lucas and Luna dissect how AliveCor — the small cardiac-diagnostics company that took on Apple over the Apple Watch ECG — won a quiet but significant FDA clearance in April 2026 for its Kardia 12L, a personal 12-lead ECG system that fits in a pocket. They walk through the regulatory strategy, the KardiaMobile 6L’s 2019 clearance as the previous milest
The Insulet Omnipod 5 Closed-Loop Insulin Delivery Revolution
Episode 6 of The Digital Health Podcast zooms in on the Insulet Omnipod 5, the first tubeless automated insulin delivery system. Lucas and Luna break down how this wearable patch pump, paired with a smartphone app and continuous glucose monitor, creates a closed loop that adjusts insulin in real time. They discuss the 2022 FDA approval, the pivotal clinical trial showing a 2.1 percentage point imp
How Oura Ring Quietly Became the Most Important Wearable in Sleep Research
Lucas and Luna dive into the Oura Ring's surprising rise from a niche sleep-tracking gadget to a legitimate research-grade wearable used by the NIH, Stanford, and major pharmaceutical companies. With over 4 million units sold and more than 1,200 peer-reviewed studies citing Oura data, the ring has become a critical tool for remote clinical trials and early disease detection. Lucas explains how Our
The Telehealth Reimbursement Cliff That Nobody Is Talking About
Episode 4 of The Digital Health Podcast with Fexingo dives into the looming Medicare telehealth reimbursement cliff set for December 31, 2026. Lucas and Luna unpack the specific flexibilities—like audio-only visits and originating site waivers—that expire, and what that means for virtual care startups. With $250 billion in telehealth claims since 2020 and 40% of Medicare beneficiaries using virtua
The FDA Software Approval Logjam That Slows Digital Health
Lucas and Luna examine the FDA's growing backlog of software-as-medical-device submissions, which hit over 1,200 pending applications in early 2026. They trace how the agency's review capacity hasn't kept pace with the explosion of AI diagnostics, digital therapeutics, and remote monitoring tools. The conversation focuses on the specific bottleneck at the 510(k) clearance pathway for SaMD, using t
The Dexcom Stelo Over the Counter CGM That Changed Diabetes
In May 2026, continuous glucose monitors are no longer just for diabetics. Dexcom's over-the-counter CGM, the Stelo, launched last fall and has already enrolled over 400,000 users — a third of whom have no diabetes diagnosis. Lucas and Luna dig into the numbers: how Dexcom priced the device at $89 a month, why the FDA allowed OTC sales for the first time, and what this means for the metabolic heal
The Apple Watch Health Study That Changed Diagnostics
In the premiere episode of The Digital Health Podcast, hosts Lucas and Luna examine the landmark Apple Heart Study — the largest virtual clinical trial ever conducted, with over 400,000 participants. They break down how the study's one specific finding about atrial fibrillation detection paved the way for a new era in remote diagnostics, and what it means for the future of wearable-driven healthca
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