Inside Reproductive Health Podcast

When will embryologists be robots?

Dr. Jacques Cohen, Chief Scientific Officer of Conceivable Life Sciences, walks us through the research and development currently underway for the automation of the IVF lab.

Tune in to hear Dr. Cohen discuss:

• The next potential game changing innovations in IVF

• His opinion on time-lapse incubation and its future in the lab

• What the FDA doesn’t like about AI solutions

• The $1B project to automating the IVF lab

What do embryologists do when they own stake in the company?

If you’re Professor Alison Campbell, Chief Scientific Officer and equity owner at Care Fertility, you’d build massive datasets to train a machine learning system to predict live births.

With Alison we dive into:

• Their proprietary Caremaps-AI system (Saving 10 weeks of Embryologist time per year)

• Why CARE is building a machine learning system rather than using AI software already on the market

• How she pitted 10 of her best embryologists against an AI software she was skeptical of (And who won!)
• The one AI solution she likes for egg freezing (Why CARE Fertility uses that rather than building their own)

How do you prepare your patients for donor IVF in a way that provides the personalized care they need while setting the right expectations for their future?

Dr. Mark Leondires, REI and co-founder of Illume Fertility,  tackles this question with Lisa Schuman, licensed clinical social worker and co-author of Building Your Family: The Complete Guide to Donor Conception.

Tune in as Dr. Leondires & Ms. Schuman discuss:

• The criteria intended parents should focus on more when searching for donors (And focus on less)

• What’s reasonable for intended parents to expect from their donors

• What’s reasonable for donor-conceived children to expect from their donors

• The commodification of donor sperm and donor egg

• Speculation on how to solve the issue of 3rd Party IVF demand far outstripping the supply of carriers & donors

How does someone go from CCRM to one of the big fertility networks in Australia?

What can fertility executives in the US and other countries learn from the consolidation that happened earlier in Australia? How does the Australian fertility market compare to the US?

Find out on this week’s podcast as Scott Portnoy, COO of Genea Fertility, gives an in-depth look at the current climate of the Australian fertility space.

Tune in as Scott discusses the Australian perspective about:

• Where Australia is ahead of the US with Fertility (And where it’s behind)
• Fellowship & training practices (And how it's impacting their doctor shortage)
• Donor and surrogacy regulations in the fertility market
• Fertility Networks going public (And why that may have happened sooner in Australia)
• The private equity backed consolidation in fertility (Foreshadowing what may happen in the States)

What trends are young REI doctors interested in?

What do fertility practices need to consider when recruiting first year Fellows?

Dr. Morgan Wilhoite, a first-year REI Fellow, provides insight into her career focus and how she's shaping her Fellowship experience to align with her goals.

With Dr. Wilhoite we discuss:

• Her areas of learning interest during Fellowship (Valuable for clinics to see the trends for young REIs)

• The resources that all Fellows should be consuming to prepare for their ideal careers

• Why Privademic might become the default model for young REI career preferences
• Advice for clinics looking to recruit young fertility doctors (How to be ahead of the hiring curve)

Ever wondered how much your fertility clinic could achieve with just a 5% increase in efficiency?

In this week's episode of Inside Reproductive Health, we explore this question with returning guest Dr. Mark Amols, Medical Director of New Direction Fertility Center, and Elizabeth Lee, VP of Wellnest Fertility.

Join us as we dive into:

• The impact of your EMR on your clinic's performance

• Where a 5% efficiency boost can generate 25% overall clinical improvements

• How enhanced efficiency can unlock patient access to care

• A brief demo of Embie, spotlighting its clinic-streamlining features

You have an idea for a start-up that will completely revolutionize the fertility space and need seed money, how do you attract investors to believe in your idea?

Dr. Santiago Munné, Co-Founder of Homu Health Ventures, offers up the investor side of that question as he gives an honest look at the venture capital landscape in the fertility space.

• Tune in as Dr. Munné:
• Introduces us to a different kind of venture capital in the fertility space
• Tells us the start-up must-haves for his company to invest
• Discusses AI: Tool or complete business solution?
• Reveals Homu Health’s target ROI multiple (And their ROI timeline)
• Speaks on the current climate of the VC Market (Hint: Winter is coming)

The first 100 days are often the litmus test of leadership, and this week’s guest rose to the occasion.

Francisco Lobbosco, CEO of FutureLife, spent the first 100 days of his tenure hopping country to country, clinic to clinic, clinician to clinician while asking one set of questions. What he learned from his listening has created the blueprint for the future of FutureLife.

Tune in to hear Francisco reveal:

• The questions he used to create his growth strategy.

• How his first 100 days inspired FutureLife’s current mandate.

• FutureLife’s 4-Pillars driving the company forward.

• A clinic’s sweet spot for FutureLife acquisition [And the KPI’s they look for]

• His philosophy on Quartile Growth

• Some of the solutions FutureLife is implementing [Including a new CRM]
• FutureLife’s growth trajectory [And if they’re expanding beyond the European continent in 2024]

IVF patients are dropping out and it isn’t just about the money.

Dr. Alice Domar, Chief Compassion Officer at Inception, discusses empathic communication and its role in minimizing patient stress and physician burnout.

With Dr. Domar we dive into:

• Her definition of Patient Centered Care

• How she measures patient stress (comparing against retention rates)

• An example of a study she ran (the 67% difference in patient dropout)

• Her format for teaching empathic communication
• Common trigger points for patients (And their impacts on your reputation as a physician)

Capacity, Reach, and Concierge Service.

Betsy John, Business Development Manager at My Egg Bank, shares how these three systems are necessary to growing your 3rd party IVF program.

With Betsy we discuss:

• What Concierge Service looks like when serving your patients

• The burden 3rd party nurses have (And how you can alleviate that burden)

• The diversity of egg donors required for fertility practices to grow their 3rd party programs

• What fertility practices should avoid when working with a new egg bank

• The trends she sees on the horizon for donor egg IVF (Including AI for facial recognition)
• Why offering both fresh and frozen donor cycles is necessary (and how My Egg Bank helps with each)

The job market is red hot! There are more jobs open than people to fill them, true for the broader economy and just as true for the fertility field.

Dr. Eric Widra, Senior Partner at Shady Grove, talks through his experience with recruiting and training personnel, and how to project future needs.

Dr. Widra discusses:

• The need for Human Resources (And the risks they mitigate or eliminate)

• When to listen to what HR says you need (But also when to push back)

• Redundancy and cross training personnel (The appropriate levels to have)

• Adopting technology to automate and augment tasks (While eliminating others)

• Individual job training (And when company culture training becomes important)

• The “Godsend” technology solution that’s made the workload and workflow of his financial counselors a lot more efficient.

Could your impact as an REI be magnified by where you live and practice?

3rd-year REI Fellow Dr. Zachary Walker shares his strategies for creating an impactful career, outlining where and how he intends to contribute to the fertility community.

With Dr. Walker we discuss:

• Promoting diversity among patients, providers, and outcomes (And research needed in those areas)

• Income versus cost of living for REIs (Big cities vs. small)

• Establishing REI Fellowships in states without existing programs

• Talking about access to broader IVF care versus providing it

In the realm of fertility, many claim to prioritize personalized care. But how often is this a reality versus following predefined profiles?

Daniella Gilboa, Co-Founder and CEO of AIVF, shares her thoughts and leverages her experience as a seasoned clinical embryologist to shine a light on where fertility can improve patient care and how AIVF is stepping up to the challenge.

With Ms. Gilboa we discuss:

• Her definition of personalized care (Contrasting with what is being done today)

• The micro & macro of what’s happening in the IVF field

• New technologies improving efficacy & efficiency (And where the two come together)

• AIVF’s innovations allowing embryologists to do more cycles more effectively (And its impact on the embryo) 

• How this same technology can provide non-invasive genetic screening.

Exploring all the different approaches to IVF.

That’s the objective of this week’s guest, 2nd year REI Fellow Dr. Sarah Cromack, who shares her thoughts on Fellowship, practice preferences and the future of the fertility field.

Tune in as Dr. Cromack shares:

• Her 2 objectives for REI Fellowship (that every REI should have)

• The criteria for choosing an REI practice (when navigating the interview process)

• Why she prefers a bigger practice over a smaller one

• Where she stands on the Fellowship length debate (3 years or 2)

• What she’d like the fertility field to look like in 20 years

Has research output in REI atrophied?

Dr. Kate Devine, Medical Director and Chief Research Officer at US Fertility, guides us through the current state of supply and demand for fertility services, and how Privademics could build the infrastructure to meet the growing demand for ART.

Dr. Devine shares her thoughts on:

• Why, in her view, research in REI has atrophied

• Her robust definition of a Privademic Practice (and their advantages)  

• How Privademics can adopt new technologies faster (with a higher standard of quality control)

• The specific research she believes is needed to improve innovation

• Current technologies she’s paying attention to

Academic programs (will and should they be Privademic programs)

We bring back fertility entrepreneur Dr. John Schnorr to share his experience and advice for building companies in the fertility sector without investor money.

Tune in as Dr. Schnorr talks about:

• Some great examples of how he’s proven concept (both functionality & market value)

• The conditions for bootstrapping without a proven concept

• How Cycle Clarity gave equity to early employees (and how you might be able to do the same)

The pros & cons of hiring top-down in the accountability chart (And bottom-up)

Scalable and solvable questions.

According to Dr. James Grifo, Chief Executive Physician for [Inception Fertility (TM)], that’s what REI’s need to bring to the table to advance fertility medicine over the next 30 years.

In this week’s episode we look back at Dr. Grifo’s fertility legacy and look forward to the new opportunities REIs have to create their own.

Tune in as Dr. Grifo talks about:

• Your biggest opportunities in the years to come (From egg retrievals to streamlining ovulation induction)

• How to bring patient education into the culture

• Non-Selection Studies and how you may be leading them

• The unique opportunities the Prelude Network offers (Like pioneering research at the Prelude Research Institute)

• How one legacy career leads to another: Yours.

What does it take to grow a third party IVF Program?

Dr. Daniel Shapiro and Dr. Monica Best from RBA Atlanta provide exclusive insights into the intricacies involved in establishing and developing a third-party IVF Program.

Tune in to learn:

• The essentials to staying compliant with the FDA

• How to properly counsel patients on 3rd party options: Dr. Best’s tips

• What to tell donors during the application process (And what to tell them if they’re not selected)

• Processes currently impeding more 3rd party IVF cases (But how new technologies are changing that)

• Dr. Shapiro’s hard-won lessons from running an egg bank

Is vertical integration inevitable?

That’s the question we explore this week with Louis Villalba, CEO of TMRW Life Sciences, as he dives into the consolidation and current business climate within the fertility space.

Tune in to learn about:

• The 5 ancillary services of the fertility space (And how they make the distinction between vertical and horizontal integration)

• The argument against concentrating these services (Like risking new buckets of liability)

• The argument for concentrating these services (The sweet spot to acquiring a related service)

• Backward integration vs Forward integration (Move closer to raw materials or toward end patient consumers?)

• A breakdown of the recent major lawsuits in fertility (And what those would look like in a vertically integrated fertility space)

• Speculation on when we could expect to see antitrust regulation in the field

Your fertility center is growing. Do you expand your current office or build a new one?

Lindsey McBain, Executive Director of IVI America, has overseen numerous IVIRMA office setups, relocations, and expansions, playing a key role when they relocated their headquarters to a new city.

Tune in as Lindsey reveals:

• The differences between starting, expanding, and moving your office [And the unique considerations of each]

• The difference between building a new office and moving into an existing building [With and without a lab]

• When to Buy vs. when to Lease

• The non-negotiables that should go into a letter of intent for a new lease

• Building a Standard Operating Procedure for launching new locations [So organizations can do it at scale]

• How she selects vendors for each new site

• Some Pro tips for what small offices can do to save money [And simplify logistics]

The innovative potential of AI is an increasingly common topic in IVF and beyond. But on this week’s episode of Inside Reproductive Health we bring back Dr. David Sable and Abigail Sirus to ask a different question.

What’s preventing AI from completely taking over the fertility space?

Dr. Sable and Ms. Sirus discuss the seven big areas of AI investment in IVF and the obstacles standing in the way of full fledge adoption.

Tune in to hear:

• The 7 categories of AI Investment (And their criteria)
• Their visual for how they categorize AI in the fertility field (Corresponding to their seven categories)
• Current developments in AI across the IVF space (Including the sticking points)
• What’s preventing the inflection point of AI completely sweeping fertility treatment (And making their four principles the standard)

Tables are turned in this week’s podcast as guest Kim Abernethy, CCO of PC Alliance, interviews Griffin Jones about the origins of Inside Reproductive Health and his journey as a fertility entrepreneur.

Throughout the interview Griffin talks about:

• How he built IRH without any outside funding (And if you should do the same)

• The “Rising Stars” in the fertility field (And who he believes will be the big winners)

• The complications of nailing product-market fit (And how doctor’s expect us to provide value)

• What advice he would give to fertility entrepreneurs looking to make a name for themselves.

Dr. Neel Shah, Chief Medical Officer of Maven Clinic, deconstructs what it means to be a CMO and gives an inside look into his roles and responsibilities regarding reproducibility with clinical outcomes.

Listen in as Dr. Shah discusses:

• The indoor vs outdoor cat methodologies of CMO (90% are outdoor cats)
• Why resolving Medicaid constraints means putting your fees at risk for clinical outcomes
• His system for qualifying providers (And how he gets product and protocol feedback from them)
• Some examples of what he believes to be disinformation within the fertility space
• The overlap between business and clinical operations (and where the CMO role converges and diverges with the CEO and Medical Director)

Whether you’re a fertility doctor looking to make an AI company or a tech entrepreneur entering the fertility field, this week’s episode of Inside Reproductive Health is full of interesting insights.

Paxton Maeder-York. CEO and Founder of Alife Health, breaks down how he started his medical AI company, and walks you through the business and regulatory obstacles required to stay in business.

Tune in to hear Paxton discuss:

• How an AI company is funded and founded (And If it’s possible to bootstrap without outside investment capital)

• The unbiased large heterogeneous datasets required to run AI (Not to mention the other companies needed to acquire this data)

• How he chose his early investors and advisory board (Including former guest Dr. Michael Levy)

• The monumental difference in data science between 85% good and 99.99%

• Navigating the high regulatory burdens within the Healthcare Space

• The criteria for when it’s appropriate for a VC funded company to acquire other companies.

This may be the most serious topic we’ve discussed on Inside Reproductive Health, and it is a vital conversation to be having in the fertility space. The buying and selling of human trafficked eggs.

Diana Thomas, CEO and Founder of The World Egg and Sperm Bank and an early recipient of donor egg IVF, addresses the concerning rise in trafficked eggs reaching clinics and patients, along with the associated legal and ethical concerns.

Diana talks about:

• The spike in donor eggs from developing countries (And how many of them are flagged as high risk for human trafficking)

• How victims are coached to amend their profiles to look upper class (Reducing suspicion of exploitation)

• Specific examples of different egg donor agencies and banks where there’s contradicting information regarding donor information.

• A new Human Trafficking Act (Including the legal and financial implications)

• TWESB’s strict protocols to minimize the risk of providing trafficked eggs to their patients

• Her checklist any clinic can use to help ensure they are not buying and selling trafficked eggs

Daniel Madero, VP of Partnerships at LEVY Health, gives an inside look at the fertility industry throughout Latin America, breaking down the market from major players to major growth potential throughout the region.

Tune in to hear Daniel discuss:

• The growth of the Latin American Fertility Market in the last 20 years [Revealing the countries that are major players by market shares]
• Regional Regulations [And their impact on everything from taxes to gestational carriers for same-sex couples]
• How Post-Covid Inflation is affecting the IVF-space throughout the region.
• Why it costs 40% more to set-up the IVF lab in Latin America [As compared to the US and even the same country 10 years ago]

I share my secrets for having sold to over fifty fertility clinics in seven different countries despite having no outside funding or previous experience in the fertility field. 

Listen to Hear How To

• Engage multiple decision makers at fertility networks

• How to shorten the sales cycle to fertility clinics

• How to pull in the chief decision makers like practice owners and CEOs when they kick you down to gatekeepers

Embie has calculated 23 metrics for REI and clinic benchmarks for converting IVF Patients and we are making them available to you.

These metrics include; 

• Conversion Rate from Referral to REI Consult 

• Avg REI Appt Time for NP/ 1st Consult, Incl Prep and Notes

• Avg REI Appt Time for F-U Appointments, Incl Prep and Notes

• Total Appointment Time Per Year, Per REI

• IVF Cycle Cancellation Rate

See the numbers for these metrics and 18 others to see how your clinic compares.

This week on IRH we break down The New York Times podcast, The Retrievals, a five part series that provides an in-depth look at the Yale Fertility fentanyl scandal.

Lisa Duran, who’s consulted dozens of fertility clinics across the US and Canada and was the Chief Experience Officer at Inception Fertility, leverages her experience to offer up methods you can integrate to drastically reduce the likelihood of a terrible scandal at your own clinic.

She provides four big takeaways:

• A Closed Loop Feedback System (Lisa gives some examples and how they work for patients and staff)
• Recruitment and Retention (And the risk management necessities involved)
• Leadership (How to engage your team to create consistent accountability)
• Service Recovery (Validating feelings, getting more information, and taking ownership)

🔹 Learn from Cheryl and Karol about the significance of vertical integration in the fertility field and explore how this strategic approach is changing the landscape of fertility treatment.

🔹 Gain insights into how BUNDL's program alleviates this burden and contributes to a positive patient experience, reputation, and online ratings for clinics. 

🔹 Explore how BUNDL's transparent pricing model gives patients peace of mind upfront, allowing them to focus on their treatment journey without financial worries

🔹 Delve into how BUNDL collaborates with lenders to assist patients in affording comprehensive fertility treatment, enhancing trust and communication.

Should you consider integrating an in-house genetics counselor into your practice?

Today’s guest, Dr. Mili Thakur, makes her case on the future of genomics and its place in the REI medicine space. She walks us through how an in-house genetic counselor can boost practice revenue and optimize patient retention.

Tune in as Dr. Thakur gives us insights into:

• Her 3-point business plan showcasing the importance of genomics integration into REI practices

• The number of cases she believes warrants an in-house genetics counselor [It’s not as high as you think]

• Why Carrier Screenings matter [And her criteria on how she vets companies]

• The future of Genomics [And why it’s the biggest investment opportunity even beyond the infertility space]

• And more…

Gain expert insights and invaluable advice on navigating the sale of your fertility practice with special emphasis on that crucial document - the Letter of Intent. Richard Groberg, a seasoned financial expert and Jay Stucki, an experienced corporate attorney, share insights from the sell side perspective and zoom in on the details that matter most.

•  Discover the major points addressed in the Letter of Intent that serves as the foundation for buying or selling a company. 

• Delve into comprehensive coverage of key elements in the LOI including: 

•   Insurance

•  Non-competes

•  Governance

•  Equity

•  Evaluation multiples (based on adjusted EBITDA)

•  Profitability conversion

•  Acquire valuable knowledge into the process and timeline of finalizing the LOI and next steps to completing the transaction.

In our latest episode, Barbara Collura, the President and CEO of RESOLVE, delves into the critical topic of expanding and protecting access to care. RESOLVE is making a significant impact in this area, and the key talking points from our conversation illuminate strategies, steps forward, and solutions.

• Learn about RESOLVE's initiatives to expand  and protect access to care and assist employees with insufficient coverage.

• Stay updated on the New York State mandate, implemented in 2021, and its connection to fertility preservation legislation.

• Speculate on upcoming Access to Care legislation, potentially involving IVF, in Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, or California.

• Address concerns about IVF legislation in states such as Kansas, Alabama, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Georgia.

• Explore fertility preservation and Onco-fertility Preservation bills, as well as access to care legislation, including IVF.

• Support and contribute to RESOLVE's advocacy through events, memberships, and funding.

On this episode of Inside Reproductive Health, Griffin delves into the pros and cons of compensation models for fertility physicians in conversation with the CEO of Inception Fertility, TJ Farnsworth. 

Here are just a few key points to pique your interest:

1. Different performance camps and metrics: In the realm of variable compensation, TJ highlights the various performance camps and metrics that can be used. 
2. Two main compensation sides: TJ explores the two primary sides of compensation for fertility physicians, namely guaranteed income and variable compensation.
3. Challenges with KPI-based compensation: TJ shares the drawbacks and pitfalls of tying compensation to KPIs.
4. Simplicity and variable comp: TJ emphasizes the benefits of keeping compensation simple and honestly shares the mistakes made by Inception Fertility with KPI-based compensation. 
5. Importance of physician ownership and other roles: TJ sheds light on the significance of physician ownership in calibrating incentives within the practice.

With Dr. Levine we learn:

• How he leveraged his connections to unite with his fellow CCRM New York co-founders
• The “Aston Martin” amount of money invested to validate the business concept (and how that number was chosen)
• The first people hired (and why)
• His criteria for establishing new partnerships with other firms and businesses
• How he gets founders and executives of elder care companies to come knocking on his door (and what the heck elder care can teach us about reproductive health)
• And more…

Let’s save you and your patients some money!

From the materials you buy to the software you invest in, it can be difficult trying to find where to safely and effectively reduce, replace, or eliminate to save money and maximize your practice’s bottom-line.

We talk with Dr. Mark Amols, founder of New Direction Fertility Centers, and he walks us through his low-cost affordable IVF model. He reveals where and how he invests, or doesn’t, to keep his practice thriving.

Dr Amols breaks down his four categories when purchasing materials and services:

- Which line items can be completely eliminated

- Materials that can be reduced or replaced with cheaper alternatives

- Finding cost-effective versions of necessary commodities

- How to know the expensive must-haves to pony up full price

Dr. Amols opens up his playbook and gives specific cost examples from his own practice, so listen in and see where you can cut your bottom-line.

Everyone says we need more REI Fellows, but how do we get them?

In this episode, Dr. Rachel Weinerman sheds light on what is required to make more REI Fellowships and Fellowship Programs, and why those two solutions aren’t exactly the same. Dr. Weinerman talks about:

• Creating REI fellowships: Exploring the steps in establishing robust REI fellowship programs.

• REI fellowship funding and operation: What Medicare pays for vs what the institution pays for.

• What an REI must do vs what another ‘IVF specialist’ can do

• Specific resources that SREI and ASRM can contribute to Fellowship growth

• ACGME’s role vs ABOG’s role in accreditation and certification

• The limitations and scarcity of Privademic Partnerships

Are you seeking ways to enhance the efficiency of your IVF lab and improve patient outcomes? We invite you to listen to the latest episode of Inside Reproductive Health, where host Griffin Jones engaged with Dr. Liesl Nel-Themaat, IVF Lab Director and Associate Clinical Professor at Stanford University.

Here are some key takeaways:

• Identifying and addressing common inefficiencies in the IVF lab.
• The importance of standardization and its impact on success rates.
• Strategies for optimizing workflow and reducing turnaround times.
• The role of technology in enhancing lab efficiency and patient care.
• Overcoming resistance to change and implementing effective process improvements.
• Best practices and practical tips for managing patient flow and scheduling.

Some practices can’t get two fertility doctors to agree on a set of protocols.  How about >250 physicians?

Dr. Kshitiz Murdia, CEO of Indira IVF discusses the enormous growth of the Indira network in India, how their approach to IVF practice management differs from the US’, and how they tackled massive obstacles (such as patient education)  along the way.

Listen to hear:

• Indira’s massive marketing and awareness programs.

• How to transition out of your clinical role, to a director role, and finally, CEO.

• The due diligence regarding private equity groups that took place before the majority stake sale of the company.

• How Dr. Murdia got out of the ‘contributor seat’ and into the seats of integrator and visionary.

• About the standard operating procedures Dr. Murdia and his team built, and the training and management system that backs them up.

• Griffin press if standardization in protocols is antithetical to individualized care.

What is stopping IVF labs from becoming fully automated? Tune in to this week’s episode of Inside Reproductive Health, as Griffin Jones sits down with Eva Schenkman and Helena Russell of ARTLAB to breakdown the six main barriers to automating the IVF lab.

Listen to Hear About:

• Why automation isn’t happening in certain areas of the IVF lab.

• Risk and inefficiency of data entry.

• Lack of trust that comes from business intelligence software.

• Lack of adoption of the Vienna consensus.

• Which metrics are meaningful for safety that don’t necessarily improve clinical outcomes, but are required to improve safety and productivity.

• Delivery vs operations- what needs to be prioritized now vs. what should be prioritized for the future

Do you know your worth as a fertility nurse? How strong are your negotiation skills? Griffin hosts guest Dayna Hennessy, Chief Operations Officer of Extend Fertility, to discuss her tenacious journey from nurse to executive, and how you can learn from her experiences. 

Listen to Hear:

• The merits, and lack thereof, of getting an MBA. 

• The highlights of Dayna’s experience to get to the position of COO of Extend Fertility, and what advice she has to share with nurses who are advancing their careers, at any stage of their career.

• Why it is so important to increase your worth to make yourself more marketable, and how that worth is not necessarily linked to formal education.

• Specific negotiation strategies, like anchoring, and avoiding negotiating against yourse.

•  How nurses can secure their first job, those win a promotion, and negotiate with vendors and strategic partners.

This week, CARE CEO, David Burford, joins Griffin to discuss what goes into the operational and financial decision-making process behind CARE Fertility’s business model. 

Listen to hear:

• The tension between financial and operational divisions of a fertility center.

• Examples that look good (or bad) in a financial model, but then have good (or bad) consequences in operations.

• Certain elements of operations that served the clinic, but not the patient.

• When staff needs are at odds with patient needs, and the trade-offs that need to be solved for. 

• CARE’s HR machine and the concept of necessary, if not immediately efficient, redundancy.

• The mass retirement of physician CEOs, and what that means for the fertility field as they are replaced by business people without medical degrees

Chat PGT is here to change the future of your job in the fertility industry, or maybe even take it. Is this a stretch? Dr. Ravi Gada and Manish Chhadua discuss how Chat GPT and its predictive technologies has the potential to revolutionize is already revolutionizing the fertility space. And what may come next.

Tune in to hear:

• Uses for Chat GPT in fertility clinics and the Open AI source behind it.

• How Chat GPT is being used to share data with patients, aggregate data, how it may be used in the future to generate prompts and consult notes.

• The elimination of scribes and schedulers.

• How Chat GPT will be able to interface with patients to provide 27/7 availability and access to care.

• Griffin push Manish and Dr. Gada about what the second and third order consequences will be from this development, and what significant long-term impact it could have on the future of REIs.

What should you take into consideration when tackling the insurance companies for fertility service reimbursement? This week, Griffin hosts Boston IVF’s CEO, David Stern, to discuss the ins and outs of maximizing insurance reimbursements, and the barriers you may not have considered. Tune in to the latest episode of Inside Reproductive Health to hear more.

Listen to hear:

• How to position both insurance companies and employer carve out companies to get better pay out rates

• What data you need to share to get the best reimbursement rate.

• About the differences in negotiating when it is a global fee vs. different CPT codes and what state mandates do to codes.

• David give examples of some mistakes that can happen, ie: money loss, when billing uses incorrect CPT codes.

• How Boston IVF negotiated a 67% increase in reimbursements.

• About the principle of disruptive innovation, why traditional fertility companies were late to the fertility game, and how others cashed in.

This week’s guest, Vinesh Ghadia, CEO and co-founder of BlackCap Equity’s fertility vertical in India, talks about the exponential growth and consolidation happening right now in India in the fertility space. How is it possible to have 60 to 70 new fertility centers per year opening, with no shortage of fertility doctors? Tune in to the latest episode of Inside Reproductive Health to find out.

Listen to hear:

• About the five to six biggest fertility chains in India, and the four to five that are on their way up now.

• How India is averaging more than one new fertility clinic per week in the country.

• What the US can learn from India in terms of consolidation, comparatively, where a network with 35-40 clinics is considered a midsize chain.

• Grif press Vinesh to explain why he believes India to be the biggest market for growth in the ART space in the next decade.

• What Indian fertility companies did to solve their fertility doctor shortage problem, and what they may do regarding the embryologist shortage.

• What Vinesh thinks about the falling price of PGT-A.

How does a new grad pediatric nurse climb to the ranks of fertility company CEO and investor throughout the course of her career, while building a family of her own? Tune in to find out if you could benefit from a similar path, as Griffin sits down with the CEO of Ivy Fertility on the latest episode of Inside Reproductive Health.

Listen to hear what:

• Steps and career changes Lisa made to end up where she is now, and which aspects she found most critical.

• Different roles shaped Lisa’s perspective of her field as a whole, and how it benefited patient outcomes, employee satisfaction, and operational success.

• It takes to marry clinical outcomes with organizational outcomes, and how that in itself can advance your career.

• Lisa has to say about the 80% rule, and how it can help empower your team.

• Characteristics she believes makes a person C-suite potential.

This episode was brought to you by Univfy.  Download Univfy’s free IVF conversion and revenue calculator at univfy.com/ivfpatientretention.

DISCLAIMER: Today’s Advertiser helped make the production and delivery of this episode possible, for free, to you! But the themes expressed by the guests do not necessarily reflect the views of Inside Reproductive Health, nor of the Advertiser. The Advertiser does not have editorial control over the content of this episode, and the guest’s appearance is not an endorsement of the Advertiser.

Wondering what nuances separate the most desirable REI fellowship programs from the rest? This week, Griffin chats with Dr. Jaimin Shah to differentiate what criteria sets certain fellowships apart, and what you can do to make your program more attractive and more accessible to the best applicants. 

Listen to hear:

• What made the difference between the 18 Fellowship programs that Dr. Shah chose to interview with and those that did not

• His  6 criteria for ranking programs

• What other applicants were talking about during the application and interview process.

• What the dealbreakers were for some programs, and how your program can avoid making the same mistakes.

Research, letters of recommendation, drive, ambition… If you are interested in applying to REI fellowships, this episode of Inside Reproductive Health is for you. Griffin sits down with Dr. Jaimin Shah to discuss what it takes to land at the top of the applicant pile.

Listen To Hear:

• Dr. Shah’s tips to those interested in entering the REI field.

• What REI fellowships are actually looking for in an applicant.

• What Dr. Shah did to secure upwards of 30 acceptance invitations to interview for fellowships. 

• What you can do to stand out as an applicant, and when you should begin preparing.