Introducing Dr. Nicholas Williams, Director of Product at X-COR Therapeutics

Nicholas Williams, Phd is the Director of Product at X-COR Therapeutics, guiding all chemical developments for our respiratory dialysis system. He has an extensive history in medical device design through  pre-doctoral research at UCSF, Johns Hopkins University, and Berkeley in dialysis, cholesterol transport, neurological development.
In his doctoral and postdoctoral work at Duke University and Northwestern University, respectively, on biological sensors using electronic transduction mechanisms, including ongoing research efforts advancing monitoring and control of medication for implanted circulatory support devices used in heart failure patients. Through his previous work in industry as a chemist at an energy storage startup, he is deeply familiar with needs-based design for a cost-constrained commercial product as well as entrepreneurial endeavors.

Register for the Wearable Ecosystem at www.WearableTechVentures.org
Learn more about our host at www.LakishaGreenwade.com

Obtain show perks and more at https://linktr.ee/Luckifit

Transcript

00:06.71
wearabletakeover
Hello hello hello welcome back. We are here folks for season 1 part 2 of where we'll takeover. Did you miss us I hope that you partook in all of our episodes during our break I think we're only away for like five weeks um but we had like 9 or 10 episodes that were available for you where you can hear from ah many of our founder ambassadors and some of our ecosystem partners and I hope you participated in our free hackathon. Let me tell you we made history. We made history people. Yes, we were officially the world's largest wearable tech hackathon that was held in a virtual space with a focus on nontraditional talent and we are so excited because we have so many events that are coming up and we have a lot of people that are interested in working with us to bring that back to you. At no cost in 2023 but before I get in all that other good stuff. Let me just remind you that you should by now be signed up at Ww www dot wearable techitchtures dot org so that you could become a part of our ecosystem. And learn about everything that we're doing and we got so many events that are happening but you'll also get to read amazing bios or learn about all of these phenomenal people that are helping to develop and promote wearable technology such as our guest today who is Dr.

01:37.52
wearabletakeover
Nicholas Williams he actually received this ph d and electrical engineering from Duke University with a research focus on warble electronics and then he got a postdoc at northwestern and he's been in a number of scientific publications and he has patents on developments toward improved. Medical treatments so he is also in the d and b area for those of you that are not familiar with the d and b that's like Dc Maryland Virginia he actually relocated here during the pandemic and we're so excited that he is the director of product at a med tech startup which is called. Xco therapeutics but he's also an adviser for where about tech ventures and we are so excited to have him on our team. So everyone please welcome Dr Nicholas Williams in the me bars in the virtual space wo we're excited how you.

02:34.30
Nicholas Williams
Oh I'm doing fantastic. Thanks for having me here.

02:34.81
wearabletakeover
And Dr Williams you know what you came in to our organization to our ecosystem with the cape. You said you know what? let me put on my cape. Let me bring all of my Intel and my resources. And put it to work at warpo tech venture. So I want to thank you publicly here on this platform for all that you've done and of course as we go through our discussion today people will learn a little bit more about that. But you know what? Dr Williams please tell us how in the world. Did you ever get into wearable technology.

03:13.12
Nicholas Williams
It was a fairly circuitous route I would have to say I am I'm the son of 2 lawyers. My grandfather's a lawyer. My sister iss a lawyer. Her husband is a lawyer and I don't like reading that.

03:29.59
wearabletakeover
Um, okay.

03:30.62
Nicholas Williams
And so I've always been more interested in in science and math ever since you know elementary school with Bill Mae the science guy and I was always drawn towards that aspect and so due to that I knew that I wanted to go to a more scientific college. And so I I attended Johns Hopkins University here in Baltimore studied material science and engineering which it it combines chemistry biology and physics and really focuses on solid state materials. So I with that I focused. My research and my interests on electronic materials I did research on solar cells and then after college went and I worked at a technology startup in the bay area as a a chemist developing a battery technology battery chemistry.

04:24.50
wearabletakeover
Oh Wow So wait a minute did your family understand all this stuff that you were doing because you said you came from a family of lawyers.

04:26.85
Nicholas Williams
Um.

04:31.89
Nicholas Williams
Oh no to the simple answer to that question is is absolutely not they they try and and we try and and we're working at it but I spent 5 years developing battery electrolytes which are the the chemistry that allows for the battery to charge and discharge. And I swear that my parents to this day still think I was working in Gator Rage just due to the fact that I was working on electoral.

04:58.35
wearabletakeover
Ah, well they might be right because I know that at a number of different festivals gatorade has their um their booths or whatnot and they're incorporating wearable technology so who knows you may have contributed to them or you should gatorade. That's a note work with us here work for Dr Williams

05:10.62
Nicholas Williams
Oh yeah, but I think a wearable technology is currently incredibly pivotal and kind of there've there've made some really impressive technology developments that have allowed for sensing to improve athletic performance. There is now.

05:27.18
wearabletakeover
Absolutely.

05:30.61
Nicholas Williams
Wearable sensors for for sweat sensing that can tell you how how much water you're losing how much water you should be drinking how many electrolytes you've you've lost and whether you should take you know those salt tablets there's and and it's expanding expanding by the day. But. After I I was at this technology startup the the battery startup for about 5 years I I realized that I had had really achieved as much as I could at that company and you know there are pros and cons of of working at a startup.

06:00.43
wearabletakeover
And.

06:07.98
Nicholas Williams
And 1 of them is that one of the cons I would say is the fact that there are only a limited number of people in a limited number of positions and a limited ah elevation. You can get in the company due to the fact that you know a 20 person startup only 1 person can be Cto only 1 person can be this and so.

06:14.77
wearabletakeover
Um, yes.

06:21.98
wearabletakeover
Um, yeah through.

06:25.74
Nicholas Williams
I Knew that I had to to go elsewhere and due to that I wanted some more personal capital and that's honestly the reason why I went and and got a doctor I know there are a lot of fantastic reasons to to go to graduate school and go to college for me Personally the reason why I went.

06:34.14
wearabletakeover
Wow.

06:45.36
Nicholas Williams
Is because everyone thinks Ph Ds are intelligent and look I'm not saying they are'm not saying they aren't that they just sort of comes with this level of scientific gravias that again May or may not be deserved. But. Reality is that people believe that you are intelligent if you have a Ph D after your name and and due to that.

07:11.42
wearabletakeover
Well I can attest that you are I can attest that you are and our ecosystem can attest that you are and I you know I didn't want to control but I want to make sure that people understand you are the truth and folks if you did not. Ah, tin or if you're just hearing about wearable tech ventures and this is the podcast where we'll takeover that supports that ecosystem Dr Williams Lent his expertise to our middle and high school students as well as to all of our volunteers and participants for the wearable tech hackathon and then he also brought in some of his colleagues. There were postdocs and former students that are in school and so I can attest. He knows what he's talking about and he is incredibly humble as he discusses his ph d or the reasons behind getting it but really quickly at you I just want to share that you just brought to light. Another career ladder because oftentimes if people go the traditional route from a corporate ladder which I came from a corporate ladder right from a corporate ladder then if they want to progress a lot of times they go to get a master's degree. Um or oftentimes they'll get a ph d to teach and so you just showed some light. Highlight it an area in the startup world where you know getting a doctorate helps to advance you and I think that that's going to be something that we might see more in the future perhaps or something that maybe we can highlight you know as a form of progression.

08:41.13
Nicholas Williams
Yeah, No absolutely I think that's ah I think that's a fantastic point and and look I I want to specify that you don't need a Ph D to do anything again that that people believe that you can do things because you have a Ph d. But you can always demonstrate that you can do it without this advanced degree without spending somewhere between 154 years or or whatever it is getting this this this degree and now the the issue is ah I work currently in in medical devices and biology and it's.

09:14.30
Nicholas Williams
An old field doctors have been around forever and the study of medicine and the study of of human Health has been around for an incredibly long time and due to that we have been able to to develop and and to build this incredibly large knowledge base and.

09:29.78
wearabletakeover
M.

09:33.50
Nicholas Williams
With that comes a lot of people that have been studying that for an incredibly long period of time so there is this glut. There is a large number of of people that already have Ph Ds that have already been studying Medicine Medical devices therapies really various different biosensors. For 5067 years and given that it helps to have that that level of Ph D M D Master's degree really anything that can prove to others that you have put in your time and and your effort and you really know know your stuff and.

10:00.46
wearabletakeover
Button z.

10:13.40
Nicholas Williams
You know the traditional Ph D Route is to go into academia but you are seeing some and I think it's going to increase more and more is you're seeing Ph Ds graduate and then start companies or join companies or become sort of senior scientists. In these large corporations.

10:33.35
wearabletakeover
Yes I have been working with the Nih as an advisor for some of the small business programs and you can touch on that or share. You know, whatever you want on this podcast as it relates to your relationship with that. But the beautiful thing here about. The wearable tech ecosystem. You know that we're developing and growing through the wearable takeover podcast and through wearable tech ventures is that there's a seat at the table for everyone. So for those that may have no education for those that may have some education for those that have advanced education. For those in certain roles of you know, leadership throughout government and corporations. There's a seat at the table for everyone and the beauty is that we can all work together as equals and have an appreciation for all of our journeys and what brought us to where we are today because the thing is. For those that are listening for those of you that may be watching when we come together and we can bring all of our experiences together. We develop products with purpose and then ensure that this ecosystem thrives right.

11:44.98
Nicholas Williams
Yeah, know that's ah that's a really fantastic point I mean there's a lot of research that indicates that a diversity of backgrounds diverse opinions diversity of sort of every single aspect improves creativity improves throughput proves the developmental process. It really just makes it so that different people working together make better things to to put it to put it simply and you know that that means that you need ph ds and you need ah people that don't have college degrees and you need mbas and you need lawyers and you need. Ah, college graduates and you need all of those people to come together because every single one of them has a different background has a different experience and has a different knowledge base and it's not just you know you get 6 ph ds in a room and they're going to come up with the best invention. It's you get 6 different people in a room.

12:36.70
wearabletakeover
Now.

12:37.97
Nicholas Williams
And almost always it's That's the best result that's the best way that you can can develop things. So absolutely, you need people from every different background that you can possibly get.

12:47.21
wearabletakeover
Absolutely so you so you were working with batteries prior to obtaining your ph d education. So how did that specifically help you now as a director of product at X Core therapeutics

13:01.84
Nicholas Williams
Yeah, so well I want to first say you know there are batteries have been around for obviously an incredibly incredibly long time and I always think that there are 2 different types of. Types of research 2 different stages of research There's the first eighty percent which you know can be done for a few hundred dollars in some duct tap and then there's the last 20% which costs millions upon millions of dollars and takes 30 years to accomplish.

13:27.20
wearabletakeover
Yep.

13:36.93
Nicholas Williams
Batteries for the most part are in that last twenty we were trying to work on a new battery technology trying to develop ah a new battery technology and so we are kind of right on that edge of the first eighty percent in the last twenty percent and

13:39.18
wearabletakeover
You hear.

13:50.41
wearabletakeover
3

13:53.89
Nicholas Williams
I I went to this company immediately out of undergrad as an intern I was hired for a six month contract and ah I was put in charge of of 1 single thing one single test system I worked. As part as I could I think it was somewhere between I would get there at like 6 or 7 and oftentimes I would leave at 11 and yeah, things things needed to be done like I I frankly I dislike the sort of.

14:17.62
wearabletakeover
Wow! Really wait a minute. Everyone.

14:31.90
Nicholas Williams
The the startup myth that you need to work twenty four seven around the clock and and I don't believe that most technologies most companies most startups require that in this case, you know as a 21 year old.

14:34.75
wearabletakeover
Here.

14:41.61
wearabletakeover
Yeah, yeah.

14:49.41
Nicholas Williams
Didn't need that much sleep but could work on a little sleep but just like I consumed egregious amounts of coffee and I frankly enjoyed it. What I do it now. No absolutely not I I need a little bit more sleep now. But. I I enjoyed it I wouldn't go back and change that but I also understand that it's not something that should be expected. It's not something that is expected I think or needs to be expected to demonstrate the success of a startup. Um, but. With that I think and the fact that it was a startup and there weren't enough people as is the case with most startups I gained a lot of knowledge and a lot of experience incredibly quickly and so within six months I was went from again intern or.

15:30.21
wearabletakeover
Um, yes.

15:43.64
Nicholas Williams
Temporary basis to running all of a small scale testing for for this this lab and that sort of gave me the confidence and gave me the knowledge base and really gave me the research experience to be able to to move forward now research in and of itself. Is an ampiulous concept right? and you know everyone everyone sort of has has a different understanding of it but it takes a really long time to get a handle on how you yourself do research each person has a different research Persona Each person goes around. It.

16:14.80
wearabletakeover
Yeah.

16:22.70
Nicholas Williams
Differently but it takes a really long time to get comfortable with it and frankly it takes a lot of failure to get comfortable with it to know when to stop when to move forward when to move back when to go a different direction and that freedom. Or that that startup gave me the freedom to explore all of those and and to get that that level of experience pretty rapidly again because I was working this unreasonable amount and I think that that really set me up for success. Not only in my Ph D But also. And my current now is the director of product.

16:57.92
wearabletakeover
You know what? you just in in that short amount of time I thought of at least 5 to 6 workshops that we could bring for you know for where we'll take ventures from the standpoint of the eighty twenty rule what does that really mean or research and. You know we will definitely have to go back to that. But for those of you that are listening go back rewind and listen to that. Okay, um, and then also this research persona help us understand a little bit more about this research persona.

17:25.98
Nicholas Williams
Yeah, so it's again every single person goes about solving a problem in a different way and to be successful in research is sort of it's It's what I focus on but I frankly think it's to be successful just about anything you do.

17:42.88
wearabletakeover
You.

17:45.73
Nicholas Williams
Requires a level of confidence requires a level of of understanding of both your skills and the areas in which you could prove on and all of that comes from trying and failing but trying again and failing and and understanding.

17:57.62
wearabletakeover
Yes.

18:03.14
Nicholas Williams
How you should move forward and how you should reassess. Ah how your head going about things so to give you an example at the end of my ph d I went back and I looked at all of the different projects I worked on all of the successful ones. All of the failed ones I worked on. Ah my ph d took about three and a half years and I think over that time period. It's it's electrical engineering and printed electronics and wearable electronics. The throughput is really fast and so because of that I was able to work on multiple different things. But then. Also again, you know I had been doing research at that point for.

18:22.98
wearabletakeover
Which is brilliant by the way that's brilliant.

18:36.00
wearabletakeover
Okay.

18:42.00
wearabletakeover
Okay.

18:42.76
Nicholas Williams
17 years I started doing summer internships at Ucsf Med School working doing research and so I but so I had at that point already had a lot of experience before this before working at this company and I worked at this company for 5 years

19:01.22
wearabletakeover
In cash.

19:01.77
Nicholas Williams
Before starting my ph d and so I started my ph d already had already having had you know, not a fully fledged fully developed research persona but I already was well on my way and so I was able to first week okay this is the project I'm working on.

19:12.70
wearabletakeover
Okay.

19:19.88
Nicholas Williams
These are the questions that I have this is how I want to go about it and then I can immediately start working on if you come immediately from undergrad and start a ph d or start research. It's going to be a lot longer before you have that confidence and have that ability to ask questions. Ah before you can sort of frame that up. So over the course of my ph d I worked on 27 different projects 5 of which were successful five of which you know and by that I mean I had first author scientific publications on 5 of those projects 5 I passed on to.

19:41.12
wearabletakeover
Wow.

19:57.42
Nicholas Williams
Other ph d students younger ph d students graduated and what that lead 17 projects that I failed at that that just didn't work out. Maybe it didn't work out because I didn't come up with the right solution. Maybe it worked out because I asked the incorrect question at first but a lot of them just didn't work out because. I ask a question I did the research and it turns out that the answer to my question was was no and and that's entirely fine. It's not exciting, but that's what needs to happen. But the fact is to be able to get to that know there are 400.

20:19.82
wearabletakeover
No.

20:25.77
wearabletakeover
Yes.

20:33.96
wearabletakeover
Who.

20:34.71
Nicholas Williams
Different steps and you need to me a research persona is is really how you go about thinking about those steps how you go about thinking about. Okay, if my first hypothesis doesn't work. What would the next hypothesis be what's the next one after that and you really want to think 3 4 5 6 steps ahead. So it takes a long time to to develop that and to develop the skills research really is ah a skill takes time takes effort takes repeated and intentional practice.

21:04.32
wearabletakeover
New.

21:11.30
Nicholas Williams
So to me that's what a research perspective is.

21:14.19
wearabletakeover
You you you explain that so well and again there are a number of different nuggets in there that can ah be applied. Not only to research but to everyday life and also to business and one of those key components that you mentioned was that of confidence and that's something I've talked about a lot. Um, even in my prior life and in the branding world coaching world or whatnot but confidence is the foundation there and one of the ways to get to confidence as you have already so eloquently shared with us is by engaging and indulging in the actual work. So that you become familiar with it and allowing that to be your oasis so that you become the expert if I could call it that at that 1 particular area so that you can go and explain and share that with other folks. You also did describe the concept of failing fast. And this is something that many of us have heard over and over and over again. But I think I shared this on a different episode It's okay to fail if you fail that's actually great because that means you passed step 1 and now you're ready for step step 2 so that you can get to the desired end result. So for those that are within this ecosystem. Let me just tell you ego has no place here because ego is only going to prevent you from getting to your end result and so you have to learn how to fail fast and be confident in what it is that you are learning.

22:41.86
wearabletakeover
Take those lessons and apply them to the next phase There's this book called getting to yes and basically you know what? if you ever decide to write something you might want to write when it says getting to know from the research perspective. Ah.

22:54.66
Nicholas Williams
So as as a matter of fact, right after I graduated I wrote a short article for the duke newspaper on how to fail as a ph d student and it really highlighted the sort of 4 steps.

23:05.40
wearabletakeover
Nice.

23:10.39
Nicholas Williams
That are are required to to get that ability and and to to sort of try trying to pass along a little bit of knowledge on you know this is how you get from not being able to fail gracefully.

23:23.14
wearabletakeover
Yes.

23:24.98
Nicholas Williams
To failing gracefully and then moving on not just moving on but learning from that that failure and and I think that's important now you you touched on an important topic of of confidence and I frankly think confidence comes from failing in an environment where the the.

23:28.82
wearabletakeover
Absolutely.

23:43.89
wearabletakeover
Um, yes.

23:45.80
Nicholas Williams
Consequences are are dire right? There are some situations in which you can't fail if you're launching a rocket. You don't want to fail on that launch but the way that they don't fail on that launch is they practice hundreds if not thousands of times beforehand. And fail hundreds if not thousands of times beforehand and learn from that that failure until you get to that point where you're confident enough in your process and your abilities in your crew that you know or you're reasonably sure that you're not going to fail.

24:21.58
wearabletakeover
Ah, right? So that concept of failure. We don't want to again launch that rocket the first time without having those experiences where we've been able to test what it is that we're really trying to do and I think that's what makes you such so attractive as a candidate. To these startups. Um in these leadership roles as well as you know in your postdoc efforts because you've got the battle scars. You've got the battle wounds that says I've been tried I've been tested and I know what needs to happen next and when you are in. Biospace the med tech space. We understand that there's going to be some time but if you have the right people on the team. You know that there's going to be some failure but you could fail fast and get to that wind with the right people is there.

25:11.24
Nicholas Williams
Yeah, you know I think to fail there are to fail Successfully let's say which it requires a lot of different things and it requires the confidence. It requires the appropriate leadership.

25:21.90
wearabletakeover
Um, yes.

25:27.48
wearabletakeover
Then more.

25:29.62
Nicholas Williams
To be able to sort of enable that allow that and be able to to build the team that can survive that type of of failure and I think that you know a long history of of research helps with that and sort of a lot of thought about. I I have taught a lot about my my failures and I think I have learned a lot from from my failures and in all honesty and and some of the things some of the projects that I've failed at I'm I'm still incredibly proud of now I think that there's a little bit of a stigma.

25:59.21
wearabletakeover
Um, yes.

26:07.52
Nicholas Williams
We talk about our failures right? You don't really, you don't publish scientific Failures. You don't publish research that doesn't produce the results that you want you obviously can't make a company out of out of failures but each of which is is equally as important and I think there's. And and increasing I would say and increasing interest in publishing your your failure resume. But we only fitly see failure resumes from people that are already incredibly successful and what.

26:32.20
wearabletakeover
Is. Yes.

26:41.12
Nicholas Williams
But I tried to do when I sort of was was talking about this when I wrote this article for for Duke is you know I have a ph d but I don't have this massive success that all of these other people have not you know the Ceo of a fortune 500 company haven't sold multiple startups I am just a. Person that has some success and some failure and I think it's important to talk about talk about that failure and it's important to talk about so trying to take that stigma away.

27:10.62
wearabletakeover
I love how again, how humble you are and folks there are products that ultimately will come onto the market that you will be able to use in your daily life that Dr Williams has had some influence over right? And so Dr Williams you are influencing. Not only the world of biosensors as you've done. You know with your research, but your work has impacted and continues to impact telehealth telemedicine which we saw a lot of people were adopting during the pandemic and even the diabetes market.

27:46.37
Nicholas Williams
Yeah, absolutely yeah, so you know before the pandemic telehealth had approximately 0% of the market almost almost no one use it. There was virtually no interest in it. Researchers were excited about it. But.

27:48.70
wearabletakeover
You understand more about that.

28:04.69
Nicholas Williams
No one cared then obviously during the beginning of the pandemic people didn't want it or didn't feel comfortable going out. It was recommended didn't and so a lot of medicine shifted to this other paradigm this this telehealth where. You know you either have a Zoom call or you call up a doctor on the phone or some some medical professional on the phone and you can get ah a level of treatment through through that again either via video call or just an auditory or a phone call and then.

28:40.60
Nicholas Williams
Works right? There are some things in which it works better I think Therapy is a fantastic way in which it works because it doesn't it. It requires some level of communication and perhaps in a lot of ways. It'll work better in person but it works for a lot of people incredibly well online and there are. An increasing number of of situations in which that can be used now again. It works for therapy because it's all Therapy is all about talking. But ah you you mentioned diabetes and you mentioned and so you you can't talk to a doctor and say.

29:07.13
wearabletakeover
Has.

29:18.21
Nicholas Williams
You know I am feeling this this and this if you are close to a diabetic coma you you can't be able to describe and the doctor can't assess via a screen what your blood glucose levels are what you know various different How high.

29:20.80
wearabletakeover
Um, right.

29:39.23
Nicholas Williams
Your urate concentrations are which are it's It's measurements your your kidneys sort of act as ah as a filter and they clean your blood and you have to measure how much gear rate there is in your bloodstream. Measure How well your your kidneys are functioning and so with all of that comes the need for sensing and sensing comes in a ton of different forms. But in the most basic form. It's just measuring some some signal.

30:02.48
wearabletakeover
Here here.

30:14.00
Nicholas Williams
It can be. You know your ears or sensors because they pick up sound vibrations and they translate them into a way that your brain can understand but there are multiple different kinds of sensors. You know? Ah I think a great example of sort of recent sensors. The the Covid nineteen sensor you have that Saliva swab. Put it in you have antibodies that attach to the Antigens. That's the actual biosensor portion then you have a transducing mechanism and that's the the color change right? The the transduction of the signal is the the color change which. If you are positive then the color comes because that binds to the to the the color changinging molecule If You're not then it doesn't show up as as that line because because you're not and so what we're seeing is an incredibly fast progression. Incredibly fast, technological advancement of various different biosensors to allow for the really easy measurement reading and transmission of all of this information to facilitate this shift from a traditional medicine or a traditional health care where you go to a hospital. Towards the Telehealth situation. So What you can imagine is in the Future. There's going to be what I I think there's going to be this bifurcation in Healthcare where you're always going to need Hospitals. You're always going to need intensive care units people get incredibly sick.

31:36.56
wearabletakeover
Okay.

31:42.79
wearabletakeover
The.

31:46.59
Nicholas Williams
And you very obviously can't take care of that like we're not going to do surgeries in someone's living room for the most part you need a sterile environment. You don't have the appropriate tools but you don't need to go to the hospital. To measure your blood glucose. You don't need to if you have diabetes you can do that at home current and I think that diabetes and and glucose measuring is a really great example of what all healthcare could be proven for in 1986.

32:06.52
wearabletakeover
Right.

32:18.40
wearabletakeover
Absolutely right.

32:23.14
Nicholas Williams
The first. Well the the first self-moniting of blood glucose device came out and that's what we generally think of at least I generally think of as glucose monitoring. It's a handheld device you prick your finger you put your finger on on the sensor little droplet of blood that system measures your blood glucose. Just that invention itself reduced hospitalizations or what we call severe hypo like ah severe um hypoglykemic events by 50% so it significantly decreased the amount of hospitalization.

32:51.95
wearabletakeover
Hypolysing.

33:02.98
Nicholas Williams
That and and the amount of deaths from from diabetes. But you have to remember to prick your finger or pricking your finger is painful. You have to do it multiple times a day and there's really, you don't You can't measure when you don't prick your finger right? if you prick your finger twice a day before.

33:08.92
wearabletakeover
Indian.

33:23.15
Nicholas Williams
After each meal. Um, that's when you measure and that's when you know, but you don't know your blood glucose at any other stage. So next step in that development and twenty seventeen the first continuous monitoring of blood glucose was commercialized and released and that's.

33:28.42
wearabletakeover
Um, and then.

33:42.60
Nicholas Williams
Ah, patch that you put on your arm. It can last for so between 1 and three weeks and it will on a second- by-second basis tell you exactly what your blank glucoses bo and so you know if that goes from measuring once or twice a day maybe up to 3 times a day. To once a second and so now we have this information always on on our blood glucose and you know a self- monitoritoring of blood glucose reduced hypoaxamic events by 50% continuous reduce them another 50% and so. Think that's what we're going to see and that's what we're sort of developing right now in in academia and there's a lot of different companies growing up around this sort of this this type of continuous monitoring and wearable monitoring and all of that is.

34:35.33
wearabletakeover
Um, yeah.

34:37.95
Nicholas Williams
I ah can support this shift because so now instead of having to go to the the doctor to get your blood glucose red. There's a thing that you can just clip to your belt. It reads twenty four seven if it senses that your blood glucose is outside of some allowable window. It can communicate to a wearable insulin pump and that can automatically dose insulin and all of that information can be stored can be gathered can be sent to a medical professional and that can help guide. Treatment that can help guide therapy that can help guide your next doctor's visit which can be done from the comfort of your own home and this is becoming incredibly important and increasingly important since I think it's since night since 2010.

35:25.78
wearabletakeover
Ah, yes.

35:31.33
Nicholas Williams
Hundred and thirty hospitals have closed in the United States and about 30% of the hospitals that are still open ah the last time I checked which was over a year ago was 121 hospitals have closed since 2010 in the past Decade and

35:36.30
wearabletakeover
Um, wait way by way repeat that repeat that since 2010 how many hospitals.

35:45.72
wearabletakeover
Is.

35:51.20
Nicholas Williams
It's it's frankly, it's it's increased since that last time I checked I I could ah guarantee it and 30% of the hospitals that are still open that remain are at serious serious risk of closing because they are finding they're becoming financially insolvent and frankly I think.

35:52.64
wearabletakeover
Absolutely.

36:09.45
wearabletakeover
Um, me yes.

36:09.82
Nicholas Williams
Pandemic made it way worse and you know what? what happens when your closest hospital shuts down is that it takes far longer to get to the doctor which means that sometimes people use less care What we see is a.

36:21.42
wearabletakeover
No.

36:28.64
Nicholas Williams
And increase in what we call time sensitiveitive cases. So a heart attack it obviously matters how quickly you get to the hospital but with time insensitive cases where you know there can be some relatively rapid changes but diabetes.

36:34.15
wearabletakeover
Absolutely.

36:48.80
Nicholas Williams
Cpd A lot of these diseases are long-term degeneraterative diseases where if you can catch something on Time. You can be fine and so if you can measure it you can catch it at Home. You can automatically treat it or you can automatically send information to a medical professional. Who can then react to it. That's where the sort of wearable sensing wearable technology can really help facilitate telemicine and really help those people in which you know their hospital. They're at their nearest medical clinic is closed the more rural you are the Harder. It is to get. To a hospital to ah to a care Center. So Wearable technology will have a significant significant impact on Healthcare in the coming years.

37:37.36
wearabletakeover
Ah, we we got to dive into what you're doing at x core. But before we get into that I am so happy that you explained what is going on in the healthcare ecosystem especially when we look at hospital closures and then also those time sensitive cases. And if we could just put it out there. Dr Williams a lot of these cases that are related to heart failure that are related to diabetes kidney failure this disproportionately affects communities of color, underrepresented communities or whatnot and that's why it is so important that we are here.

38:07.17
Nicholas Williams
Absolutely.

38:14.80
wearabletakeover
Where we'll take ventures to have all of these voices that could be impacted not only in this you know the health care system. But specifically you know what we're talking about right now to bring that voice and to bring some ideas and solutions to the table that otherwise would not have been thought of. When I was in the pharmaceutical industry prior to even imagining. You know this ecosystem of where will take ventures I had no idea that that path would lead or influence some of the knowledge that I've been able to share here and so for those of you that don't know I used to be in a diabetes market and. Ah, represented a number of large hospitals including Johns Hopkins and whatnot with commercial um ah care for patients and as a part of my training I had to go to certain research hospitals I know we went to Miami and whatnot and so we actually had to simulate what it was like in the life of a patient. And so that helped us to develop empathy and to understand what it's like pricking yourself and the emotions that you feel when it's time to prick yourself again when you don't feel like it because it hurts or as things the fear that you um, encounter also what it's like when you're going to the doctor. And you may have more than 1 issue going on but you only have so much time and you can only share one and you have to deal with an um nurse educator et cetera so having that empathy I think definitely helped um in my career and I'm sharing that because for those of you that are listening for those that may be thinking.

39:44.20
wearabletakeover
I want to develop a product or I want to come into this space developing from that standpoint of empathy is going to be incredibly important to make sure that it is useful something that is economical and something that is really going to help drive solutions because it is becoming. Incredibly cumbersome, especially from an economic standpoint to make sure that we're treating and addressing these things and then also you put the time stampmp in there right? As far as how long does it really take to develop this What are some of the other resources that are going to be needed and I I understand. Why there are a number of doctors that are going to boutique practices and moving away from you know, healthcare systems or whatnot so that they could get that direct payment or whatnot and so for those of you that may be developing products consider all of these things. This is your cheat code by listening to this podcast like we are just dropping gems every single second and Dr. He's already dropped enough for like 2 books just on this episode alone that we're not even done. Um, but Dr Res what would you say to that as as far as those that may have ideas or want to develop products and then if you can also share. A little bit more about what you're doing directly there at xcore.

41:00.37
Nicholas Williams
Um, yeah, absolutely so there's there was a lot there and I first want to agree with your point that you know I talked about hospital closures and predominantly these are in ah low socioeconomic status. Ah.

41:15.20
wearabletakeover
Um, yes, yes.

41:17.77
Nicholas Williams
Regions and predominantly affects people of color lo so most so economic status people and I really think that telemedicine and and wearable health can somewhat help to staunch that that bleeding we have these large.

41:36.10
wearabletakeover
Is.

41:36.48
Nicholas Williams
Urban metropolises that where health care is is thriving and and there has traditionally been a limited amount of focus on Rural Healthcare and telemedicine is is poised to to really support those communities and that has to be.

41:55.65
wearabletakeover
Yes.

41:56.20
Nicholas Williams
Facilitated by wearable technology and it has to be facilitated by low costt ubiquitous medical devices and metaensing and when we're developing those technologies this is ticket to your point when we're developing those technologies. The patient comes first.

42:14.24
wearabletakeover
Ah, if it is.

42:15.10
Nicholas Williams
I can have a fantastic idea or what I think is a fantastic idea I can get incredibly excited about it. Dump millions of dollars into a 1020 years of my life and if I didn't consider the patient if I didn't consider the the nurses that are going to use it or the doctors that are going to use it. It's going to go nowhere. No, one's going to care. It's going to be a waste of time waste of money it it needs. You know this is working in the medical device industry. The patient comes first always patient has to come first and sometimes that means that your brilliant idea.

42:34.50
wearabletakeover
Um, absolutely rare.

42:52.86
Nicholas Williams
Isn't as brilliant as you think it is sometimes that facilitates creativity that facilitates new ideas and and really, that's where X core therapeutics comes in. We have so X Export therapeutics to be sort of ah a brief background. We are a. Extra corporeal respiratory assists What that means is we are helping patients breathe through directly affecting their blood outside of their body frequently is called an external lumb so we take blood out of patient's body. Run it through our our device it adds Oxygen it removes carbon dioxide from your blood and you can pump it back into your body and so I'd say one of the the main. The Beachhead Market Let's let's call it for this would be patients with C opd.

43:37.40
wearabletakeover
Wow.

43:48.48
Nicholas Williams
Cpd is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It's actually the number 3 killer in the world. There are millions upon millions of patients with this in the United States somewhere between 1 and 2000000 patients go to the er.

43:53.40
wearabletakeover
Wow.

44:05.80
Nicholas Williams
Due to c or pd every single year thousands hundreds of thousands of of deaths from this and the current treatment I would say is is insufficient when yeah, yeah, that's ah I'm glad you asked that. So.

44:08.12
wearabletakeover
Ah, is it.

44:16.32
wearabletakeover
Um, what are those options. Dr Williams that they have now.

44:25.95
Nicholas Williams
Generally what happens is you have cop Pd and you can live with it for an incredibly long time but every once in a while you get what's called an exacerbation which means that the severity of your your your disease increases rapidly and gets get rapidly gets worse and that can that could be from. Cold. It can be from pollen it can be from rapid temperature changes that can lead to an exacerbation effect now what that means is patients have difficulty breathing right? COpd is is a lung disease degeneratative lung disease.

44:59.20
wearabletakeover
But.

45:04.77
Nicholas Williams
Gradually decreases your ability to take an oxygen and expelcotwo and every once in a while you get this spike where it's really hard to breathe and for some of those patients they have enough trouble breathing that they need to be admitted to the icu in test period. And you need to be put on really one of 2 things either a mechanical ventilator which you know it's a tube that goes into your lung with a positive pressure pushes air into your lung and then your lung can sort of push the air out. But.

45:36.61
wearabletakeover
Is him.

45:39.68
Nicholas Williams
It It breathes it it physically breathes for you.

45:41.00
wearabletakeover
Um, many of us may have heard of that right? The ventilator.

45:44.47
Nicholas Williams
Yeah, yeah ventilators I think have you know all of this sort of all all of this technology has become gotten raised. Its sort of popularity or guess it's it's public consciousness over the last two years and and frankly, rightfully so. If. There's been a ventilator shortage for a long time I think now it's sort of easing up. But yeah ventilators are are frequently used. They are incredibly invasive. It's something that we we don't really think of it's it's really a last ditch effort and in a lot of patients.

46:13.11
wearabletakeover
Then.

46:23.53
Nicholas Williams
It causes lung damage. It's very frequent to have what's called ventilator-induced lung injury villi ah because the way that you breathe is your Diaphragm contracts and that expands your chest cavity.

46:24.35
wearabletakeover
Wow.

46:40.90
Nicholas Williams
Creating negative pressure which pulls air in into your box. So it's it's negative pressure. It's a vacuum in your lungs that sucks air in and then your diaphragm relaxes and the the sort of your. Chest acts as a rubber band and it contracts back breathing the air out respirators or or ventilators work the exact opposite they push air in instead of pulling area and because of that it it really acts to it. It significantly damages the lines. Your lungs can over inflate incredibly easily There can be a lot of swelling a lot of edema but a significant amount of damage and so the patients that survive and are put on on ventilators very frequently require months upon months of physical therapy to get their lungs back to a state.

47:34.18
wearabletakeover
Um, yes.

47:35.00
Nicholas Williams
That they were before this there are multiple ways that we have developed to somewhat decrease the long-term implications of this therapy. 1 of them is you know you can your.

47:45.40
wearabletakeover
Okay.

47:53.90
Nicholas Williams
Ventilation you push air in and it expands the lungs if you push less air in it expands the lungs glass but which significantly improves the sort of Vili or again ventilator induced lung injury outcomes but you're not breathing as much and so. Patient's blood gets gets screwed up that has low oxygen high c o two and high c. O two is really what x core therapeutics is trying to address now if you if you hold your breath breathe in really deep hold your breath. It gets hard.

48:20.43
wearabletakeover
Um, okay.

48:30.96
Nicholas Williams
I'm trying to talk while I'm holding my breath that that's challenging myself but it gets hard. Yeah it. It's hard and it starts hurting. It starts physically hurting and the reason your your mind is telling your body to breathe to breathe out and to breathe in and.

48:34.27
wearabletakeover
Singers might be able to do it like trade singers. But ah.

48:46.20
wearabletakeover
You know.

48:49.30
Nicholas Williams
It's not the lack of Oxygen you have enough Oxygen for a long long time. It's actually the increase in carbon dioxide your cells just by existing your cells metabolize utp that doesn't really matter but they produce carbon dioxide as sort of a byproduct of just a system.

48:56.47
wearabletakeover
Um, oh.

49:08.91
Nicholas Williams
And you know the more you exercise the more you move the more COTwo is produced per minute but you're always producing COTwo and you breathe you Exhale and you get rid of that if you can't Exhale Enough. You can't breathe out enough carbon Dioxide. And that carbon dioxide concentration increases and increases and what that does is it actually acidifies your blood and um, if you know it's It's the exact same process as carbonating water you know to make soda water. As soon as you add carbon dioxide in there. The Ph of the water drops. Um, and the Ph of your blood drops likewise and.

49:48.80
wearabletakeover
way way wait so we have to slow this down a little way for those that are listening because okay so I know about the body being ah so ph number 1 right? and some folks that might really be in tune with their health. They might go and buy those ph strips to test their.

50:04.33
Nicholas Williams
Are.

50:04.81
wearabletakeover
Body fluid to see if they're more on the acidic or the alkali side and of course where where do we aim to be and then go go ahead into your further explanation.

50:16.98
Nicholas Williams
Um, yeah, so really briefly ph is a measurement of H plus ions. We don't really need to focus on it. But it's it's a measurement of acid in your body.

50:23.46
wearabletakeover
Mobile.

50:32.35
Nicholas Williams
Neutral meaning zero overall zero net acid is a ph of 7 our bodies sit at about a ph of 7.4. That's where our bodies are are are happy slightly basic slightly above is 7 if you get down to a seven point two Maybe 7.1 you get in really serious serious danger of going into a comma or dying if this is untrue and so that's really that's the issue. Yeah obviously oxygen is important and.

50:59.10
wearabletakeover
Um, and.

51:07.50
Nicholas Williams
Need to treat that and that's kind of the main focus of intilators. But what we're noticing what we're starting to learn is that carbon dioxide is also incredibly important and we're not treating that and that's where X course therapeutics comes in. We are specifically focused on sort of assisting.

51:19.74
wearabletakeover
Um, and.

51:25.98
Nicholas Williams
Ventilators assisting methods to oxygenate your body by also removing that carbon by and so this is our technology sort of exists in that that secondary space right? There's the telemedicine space and there's the space that requires hospitalizations.

51:31.60
wearabletakeover
Have.

51:37.65
wearabletakeover
Then? okay.

51:43.71
Nicholas Williams
So our our our therapy exists in that hospital space and so it's sort of more of sort of that that secondary stage where the patient the health plummets sort of end stage long fail type of type of situation.

51:47.93
wearabletakeover
Um, ah wow.

52:00.70
wearabletakeover
That's Amazing. So Are you able to share with us the progress that your company has had with being introduced to certain hospital systems or maybe you know for those that are listening what they should look for or even request if they you know, find themselves or a loved one in that. Situation.

52:19.89
Nicholas Williams
Yeah, so that that the knowledge is is changing pretty rapidly so x qua therapes were still in the preclonical phase of development. Um, you slowly going through the gradual process of Fda Clearance of

52:32.68
wearabletakeover
Yes.

52:36.10
Nicholas Williams
Developing and validating and then then eventually fda clearance and then sales that's a little down down the road now in terms of crpd you know there are multiple multiple different different stages of cpd. Multiple different different situations in which you can sort of affect cp but but really, it's addressing and treating and moderating those exacerbation fts. Um, and it's it's patient specific absolutely but ah. Taking care of of breathing and and honestly the best way to treat copd is to not get crpd. It's ah it is almost an entirely It's an entirely preventative disease. Um the vast majority of cpd patients spoke in in in the United States

53:23.32
wearabletakeover
Um, prevention. Okay.

53:34.24
Nicholas Williams
Ah cpd patients mostly all were smokers. Not not always and there's there's some genetic aspects. It's a little rare but the majority of cpd patients smoking so smoking frequently needs to Cpd these lung damage now.

53:47.82
wearabletakeover
And then.

53:52.80
Nicholas Williams
Sort of reducing obviously the inhalation of smoke producing the inhalation of pollutants. Um in in the United States it's mostly smoking in other countries with that have indoor cooking. Very frequently inddoor cooking can can lead to that now this is open fires but high pollution areas have incredibly high c opd so the best treatment is always going to be prevention and.

54:09.93
wearabletakeover
Right.

54:23.69
wearabletakeover
Um, and.

54:24.80
Nicholas Williams
In the case that you do have Cpd. It's really about decreasing the the lung day reduction decreasing further lung damage and lung damage usually frequently with crpd comes from those exasperations so early treatment early Prevention. Can. Either entirely it entirely eliminates crpd or extend patient ah health extend to patients with survivability incredibly long so that we can We can We can manage this disease we can in theory entirely eliminate this.

55:03.78
Nicholas Williams
Take a long time. It may take a lot of wearable sensors. It may take a lot of ah, really policy changes but hopefully on the horizon. What what? I would love is for.

55:06.47
wearabletakeover
Yes, yes.

55:20.95
Nicholas Williams
X-core therapeutics and really all things that are intended to address copd I would love for us not to have to exist but it's not going to happen for a little while that get millions upon millions of patients 15 and 30000000 patients in that states more.

55:30.84
wearabletakeover
Right.

55:38.10
wearabletakeover
You know what? Dr Williams you gain a class on classes of so much I'm telling yeah I guess so intrigued every time we have a discussion and I'm sure all of our listeners and those that are watching this video when it gets to Youtube are incredibly intrigued as well. Folks it doesn't have to end here. You can always connect with Dr Williams and he's going to share how you can do that but we got we got a little bit of a road show happening this fall and I know he has some other things that are that are going on but Dr Williams how can our our viewers and our listeners. Stay in contact with you. How can they read your articles. How can they find out more about x core.

56:20.76
Nicholas Williams
Yeah, absolutely so I mean first of all I just want to say? Thank you very much for for having me always a pleasure to to speak with you I'm so glad to be part of the wearable tech ecosystem and now you can get in contact me and I'm I'm happy to sort of respond to any of this I know that i.

56:26.54
wearabletakeover
Um, my.

56:40.57
Nicholas Williams
Through a lot out here anytime you get talking I just get excited about all of this. Thank you exactly exactly so to to to get in contact me with my email is nick@xcoremed.com that's

56:42.20
wearabletakeover
Um, hope was good. Just ask our kids they know about liquid gold and everything Dr Whit is talking that not crazy. Um.

56:59.93
Nicholas Williams
Letter x is an x-ray csm charlie o is an oscar r's in romeomed mvd dot com our website is exploretherpeutics.com I'm happy to answer any questions you have really about any of this or any other topic at all again.

57:18.10
wearabletakeover
I love it. Dr Williams so happy to have you here and you know what we cannot depart this episode I mean for those of you that are watching us go ahead and type in the chat box or send us a message of you want Dr Williams back or something else that you want him to talk about because he has a wealth and knowledge here.

57:18.82
Nicholas Williams
Thrilled to be.

57:37.62
wearabletakeover
Dr and you kind of touched on this. But what do you want to see for the future of innovation.

57:44.81
Nicholas Williams
And that's an incredibly broad question but honestly more more diversity for for 1 more more inclusion and more excitement around invention for the sake. Of and thinking mostly about medicine invention for the sake of the the patients I think there's been a lot of talk about you know there are these sort of celebrity founders who we focus on the founder and.

58:03.53
wearabletakeover
With him.

58:18.69
Nicholas Williams
Think there needs to be at least in medicine and needs to be a really strong focus again on ah technology and development for for patients guided towards patients and what that requires is ah increase in diversity increase in viewpoint increase in.

58:26.53
wearabletakeover
Yes, yeah.

58:38.44
Nicholas Williams
Interest in this in all communities that I think the the hackathon is a fantastic resource that was aimed at and and is guided towards sort of educating everyone educating nontraditional. Founders educating nontraditional scientists and I think that that's ah, that's a fantastic start and we need to see more of that to really achieve the level of technology technological development that's required.

59:11.40
wearabletakeover
Absolutely wonderful answer and and folks as Dr Williams already mentioned the hackathon. We do have many of those recordings in the classes on the Youtube page and so there will be some links guiding you to that. And I hope that you stay in tuned with us because this is just the beginning. There's many more stages that Dr Williams will be on and will be on together I'm so excited and for those of you in the Baltimore area Baltimore Maryland area. Hopefully you'll see us at Baltimore innovation week as well as at the Maryland science center. Designing the future so we'll be there and there's so much more to come. But you know what folks that's it for this episode but feel free to go back and listen to all of our other episodes stay tuned to those that are to come make sure you like and share. And especially shows on Linkedin and tell Dr Williams how much he's impacted your life and you can reach out to him for speaking engagements and all that other good stuff. But until then we'll see you next time. Let's jam a little bit.