From Silicon Valley to Health Alley: A Tech Pro’s Healthcare Journey, with Rashmi Rao

Enjoy this awesome discussion with Rashmi R. Rao and Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo, as they unravel their journeys through entrepreneurship, innovation, and STEM advocacy in the dynamic world of healthcare technology.

Full of insights on leveraging technology to enhance lives, building impactful communities, and the vital role of diversity and leadership in shaping the future of healthcare and technology, they discuss:

-The transformative power of female empowerment in STEM.
-Crucial insights on integrating technology across diverse sectors.
-Strategies for scaling startups and navigating venture capital.
-The importance of community, health equity, and advocating for women's rights.
-Leadership philosophies and the art of building industry partnerships.
-The origin of the HLWF Alliance, and what they have in store for the future. 

This episode isn’t just a conversation; it’s a call to action for innovators, entrepreneurs, and advocates ready to make a mark.

*Disclaimer: Podcast guest participated in the podcast as an individual subject matter expert and contributor. The views and opinions they share are not necessarily shared by their employer. Nor should any reference to specific products or services be interpreted as commercial endorsements by their current employer.

This is a production of ProcellaRX

Transcript

Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo: 0:01

All right. Well, it seems like because we have a lot to talk about, and we can talk for more than just an hour, so I'm going to get started. As you all know, this is a special recording and day to day for women in CSV for a coffee break, is also going to be a live episode recorded for software quality today. It is in service of International Women's Day and his women's history month of March. And I am so excited to bring my friend and colleague Rashmi Rael, to you all, because like, as soon as we start talking, you're going to absolutely know why I'm doing work with her on a regular basis and all the fun and amazing things and how passionate she is about things. So to get started, I'm going to give Rashmi a brief bio for you all. Okay, so Rashmi is an accomplished entrepreneur, and innovator with over 40 patents and a proven track record of consumer automotive and healthcare industry, building new businesses with over $500 million in revenue. She's held business and product leadership roles at Qualcomm, Apple, Harman sang song and Philips and continues to push the innovation and sustainability leveraging technology advancements to improve people's lives. Rashmi is passionate about STEM advocacy, with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, which again shouldn't surprise you, because that's my passion too, especially though in the technology sector. She is the co founder or the founder of the nonprofit, healthcare life science, wellness and fitness. H LWF. Alliance, which I'm also a founding member of this foundation is born of her lived experience and is dedicated to bringing the gaps within our current health system to light. So with that, I am going to give you a moment Rashmi to elaborate on that, because that doesn't even scratch the surface of the things that you've done in your life. Oh, thank you so much. First of all, thank you for inviting me here, Dory. We've known each other for a bit and just as big a fan. So I just think of this is a conversation more than anything else. And doing this

Rashmi Rao: 2:30

in March in recognition of the Women's History Month, I think is wonderful. There is so much happening in the world today. And I feel like we are, you know, if we have a platform we must speak. And in that way you and I are so similar in terms of advocacy. And I think that that kind of brought us together. So today, you know, I'm just looking forward to having a conversation coffee break with you and all of your wonderful audience. Wonderful.

Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo: 2:59

So because, you know, we have known each other for a while, but I actually feel I don't know all of your roots. So can you tell us a little bit about like, how you came? Like, what is the story of Rashmi? Yeah,

Rashmi Rao: 3:11

yeah, so I grew up in India, I have a twin sister. And most people asked me why I ended up in healthcare. And I'm not a doctor inside this is this is the story this is the origin story of what all my my mother as pretty much most Asian people she she wanted my sister and I to become doctors to possibly marry doctors. And like start a big hospital system and in India and just be like this famous doctor family in my sister did all of that in acted none of it. And I tell people that I ended up in health care, because my mom has been manifesting it for like so long. And so it for so many years, in fact, but my I'm a consumer problem solver, and I've always been that way. But as I reflect back, I look at you know, my mom, who was a working mom, in those days in India, which was not very common. And even today, like the things that she did and balanced work and home, I I cannot even imagine doing it. My aunt's worked. And my my grandmother, she had her own stitching and garment business. And so she was kind of the OG hustler of us. And so as I reflect back, I realized that I, you know, my sister myself, in all our cousins, we kind of grew up in this cocoon of like, female brilliance that we're in presence that has truly shaped how we grew up in what our core values have been, and what we want to advocate for it. So as I entered, you know, engineering and technology, in fact, many times found myself as being the one and only I constantly reminded myself that I come from a lineage of really amazing women who have, you know, been vocal in have created space for themselves and may change exactly where they were in. So I drew strength from that, and I've just been very fortunate to get all the opportunities. But I think without kind of coming from where I came from, and having that kind of presence, female presence from the very, very beginning, I don't think I would have done half the things that I've done today.

Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo: 5:44

Nice, it's, um, I know, your sister lives down under, right. So it's also to, like, totally polar opposite, sort of, in that regard, which is very, very interesting. I know that for me, um, you know, I've stayed in the life science space for my entire career. And I'm, you know, biochemist by education and chemists, organic chemists develop drugs, and I stayed in this space, it feels very comfortable to me, I'm, you know, kind of now I can say, I'm an expert in this particular field that I do. You have, though held positions in three distinct, very different fields, right. So consumer products, or consumer electronics, specifically, right? Automotive and healthcare. And I'm wondering, how did you do that? And what, is there any challenges in that in your leadership side? Have you changed? Like, like, that's a difficult jump to do?

Rashmi Rao: 6:42

And, you know, I, for me, I think for me, it's a difficult job. Yeah, yeah. And honestly, enough, people asked me about it, and it was none of it was really planned. But I always believe that we, you know, there is nothing to fear in life, it only is just waiting for you to understand it. Even as I've done these, you know, multiple jumps through through the different industries, it's always been centered around, you know, using and leveraging technology, to make things better for users, for individuals, for drivers. And now for patients. And that's kind of common, and you know, that there are differences between the industries, let's not just pretend like, it's all the same, because it is not in consumer, you know, it's all about rapid innovation and break things in a quick learn quick and fail fast and things like that. And automotive, it's very much around reliability and safety. And what I'm learning, you know, as I've now been in healthcare for a while, it's profoundly about impacting lives at a very, very personal level. Right. So even as we take those tools across all of these industries, what I've taken for me is that the applications are very, very different. And for me, I like like I said, you know, there is, my philosophy has been, there's never a bad day to have a good idea. And so what you need to do is, once you have that idea, right, what do you do with it? Like, how do you take it to be much bigger than just yourself? And that's kind of how I've approached every space. And I just feel like I've been in three different rooms that are having very similar conversations, don't they may not be the same, but they're very similar. Yeah, when in most of the things that I've been involved in, whether it was, you know, bringing connectivity to cars, or taking a very user centered approach to consumer electronic design, and now I'm in this room of healthcare, where I'm bringing those conversations that I've had in the past, but I'm also trying to understand the context that we have, and the conversations that are happening here. So I would highly recommend it, you know, portfolio of impact, is how I think of it versus Yeah, and I, I can genuinely tell you that none of it was planned. It just, it has just happened this way.

Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo: 9:38

So in that move from technology, to bring the technology to the healthcare space, I know the HL WF and we all we've been talking about this for over a year now, right? The interconnectivity of all those different spaces What are some of the things that you find? That has surprised you over the last year that we've kind of discovered through this process?

Rashmi Rao: 10:07

Yeah, you know, I in as you mentioned, the origin of H O WF, and even meeting you from the life sciences spaces. And, you know, me coming from the tech space, and our amazing community that we now have with HL WF is really about bringing very different and diverse voices together in that same room, right. And what has surprised me the most is the that we all think we understand each other. But when we are all in the same room, we, you know, you can't understand each other if you're speaking different languages, right. And today, when I think of myself, I can't like separate myself, as you know, this is about consumer experience, or this is about employee benefit, or this is about patient in a care. I am all of those I occupy the space of a patient and an employee and a consumer every single day. And so how can, how can we have those conversations in silos, right. And if we are having those conversations in silos, then we are definitely missing, missing important aspects of it. And without having jumped across these three different rooms that I said, I don't think I would have even thought it would be a concept that we can, can can bring, like, very, very diverse, but I realized that, you know, we are having very similar conversations. And what has surprised me the most number one, it's a woman focused group. And we have amazing women. And so that has been the not a surprise, but surprising delight. Meeting just amazingly qualified women who are very passionate about their causes, and now are opening up their minds to also learn about other aspects of health and well being. Yeah.

Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo: 12:05

And I can experience in the connectivity between the two, like how much I've learned in the last year from building the community at HL WF, right, and now we have a resource pool that continues to expand. Right. And so I think that that was part of your vision, but I am not sure how you thought that that was gonna go so fast. Maybe you want to talk about what was your original vision for that? Yeah, yeah.

Rashmi Rao: 12:38

So as you know, we started off with basically saying, Hey, you're an expert in x. So why don't you tell us about your expertise, right. And that's where we first started, because it was about bringing people to the room and just saying, share your expertise, because it was a platform. Again, you know, as most things happen in life, you can, you can imagine certain things, but the serendipity aspect of bringing amazing people, you cannot plan for that at all right. And so that was the goal to say, Hey, you're an expert in this, tell us a little bit more, let's learn from you. And what that then transpired into was clearly seeing some of the gaps. And especially as you know, there is so much conversation around us happening, about moving from sort of fee fee, fee based services, to value based services, or this rapid disruption of AI that happened kind of parallel ly to us growing HW app. And now there are so many elements and aspects of both the patient experience and consumer experience, and mental health and employee that is all coming together. And so we couldn't have planned for any of that. But the origin was really to bring really expert women, give them a platform and say, talk about what is your expertise, what it has become, really is this amazing community that is, you know, has its own DNA. It's growing up it with its own, you know, kind of origin and it's much, much bigger than any individual, any one individual amongst us. Right. And that's the best part. And I don't think we can plan for it. Just we can just be on the right. That's it.

Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo: 14:26

Yeah. Well, it doesn't surprise me up against some some things that you and I have done in our lives are very, very similar. So from an entrepreneurial and startup way, you've also have done lots of startup to scale operations. I've also done startup to scale operations. What are let's talk about specifically so you've successfully navigated the startup ecosystem and the venture capital world. This is a part of this conversation that I know very little about. Okay. So I'm curious, what key lessons have you learned in scaling up innovations from concept to market, when you have all these, this new way of talking because again, I don't know the venture capital market, like how to talk of that, like, that's a whole different skill set, which I don't want to acquire.

Rashmi Rao: 15:16

Yeah, yeah, in in, I've played, I've been in different stages of my professional journey for each of those. And so I've seen it from multiple angles, there are certain angles of that, that I love. And there are certain angles of that, that I am trying to change. And I think all of us can be a part of that, that change. And I'll start with this premise that before the pandemic, in 2019 4%, only 4% of the entire venture capital funding in the world, and in a bulk of it is in the US, when to women founders, only 4%. And last year, after the pandemic, it is only 1.8%. So we are not moving the needle in the right direction at all when it comes to women founded startups. And I specifically say that because of course, we are in this conversation in Women's History Month in, you know, the focus is all of this. But the biggest aspect is if we don't have those diverse voices, we are definitely not building technology. And that has been my personal experience. So my first startup, I was the eighth employee. In a startup in San Francisco, I was this very young graduate student, who had got the opportunity to move to San Francisco. And so I couldn't ask for a better, better start. It was wonderful. It was again, in the spaces that I love. It was MEMS, micro electromechanical systems. So building things, which I just, you know, I've always been very hands on in building things. And about six months into me joining the startup, Qualcomm acquired us. And I'm gonna date myself a little bit here. But this was pre iPhone, pre YouTube. And so Qualcomm at that time had a company called media flow and EDI fllo. And they were trying to stream video content onto mobile devices. And this was early 2000s. So way ahead of their time, there was not enough bandwidth, there was not enough 3g, 4g 5g infrastructure, and they were definitely no devices. So they acquired this company that I was a part of the startup called era nine, to build technology that will be you know, consuming, very less power. So that was one of my personal passions in terms of sustainability. That's why I joined the startup, it was 1/10 the power of what mobile phones were using in those days, and also to stream video content that could be viewed everywhere, right? So I go and I joined the startup, you know, have an amazing exit. But 10 years, fast forward 10 years, things that we couldn't control completely changed the market dynamics, right. And as a engineer, as a, you know, person that started from the very beginning. I think I stayed there for a bit too long, because I was just very bullish and very, like, I can change the world, I can do this. Right. And so a million in change a billion and change later. And I did an expat in Taiwan. I mean, I did all sorts of like crazy things to make this a reality. We were not as successful as we want it to be. It was very, very hard at that time. But I cannot tank that experience, because I learned so much about the decisions that can go wrong. And it's not just about a good idea. It's a lot about execution, and also managing that expectations of venture capitals, right? Like, how do you because there it's all about foreign index growth and all of that. So how do you balance? What do you want to build as a founder with the aspirations of the people that you're borrowing the doors? From? Yeah. Which,

Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo: 19:17

which leads into an interesting kind of thought around. Before we started today, we've talked about innovation and being an inventor, and so you're an inventor. I've taught innovation to young folks, right? And there's how to know what is the right problem that you're trying to solve? And is it worth solving? Is it worth investing? Like, is it worth going down that path? is passionate enough? Is the you know, the greater good enough? Or is there some other way in which you kind of talk about that or figure that out for as you go through the process? Yeah,

Rashmi Rao: 19:59

yeah, I think It's very, it's very personal. And it should be, you know, every individual's right. Because success can mean so many different things. Success is not just money, success can be impact. success can be, you know, really impacting and changing people's lives. For me, I was always driven with seeing, like, my things that I had worked on in people's hands and millions of people's hands, that was always for me the sign of success, because I'm like, now I'm in their lives every day. So I've used what I can, and the tools that I've been given to, like really make this like tiny impact, they might not know me, but I know that I impacted them kind of thing. But that that is very personal. To me, right. And so now in healthcare, I think it's very important that we don't pander to the existing systems. And I have so much hope for the coming generation, because they see things very differently. And I see this in my 12 year old. And you know, you and I spoke a little bit about, you know, your, your son as well. So, it, they see the world in a very global way. And they think of issues in a very global way. And so I have so much hope for them, but but I think we need to guide them in terms of not pandering to the current status quo

Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo: 21:32

stem, which leads me to like, the big topic that I know, you and I are very passionate about, we want to talk about global health, diplomacy, right, we want to talk about equity inclusion. What does that mean? And so a lot of what you do today intersects with all of those areas, right, that intersect with public health, public policy, you have a lot of passion around this as well, what are some of the things that you think we can leverage in making it more inclusive, or more equitable? In this process? Like, yeah,

Unknown: 22:11

thank you for asking me that. Because it's, it's a very personal thing for me in terms of, you know, health equity, right, and navigating this US health system, as a woman of color, I've learned so much to, you know, to not dismiss what I'm feeling to kind of pay attention to my body and what my gut is telling me, versus only what I'm hearing in, you know, women are not tiny men. So the medications that work for men, you know, I'm not just gonna take smaller versions of it, there's just so many things that are kind of foundational in how the US healthcare system was set up, right. But also, we are seeing a lot of changes. And I feel, you know, this is a circle that we should speak about, about these topics. I feel like we are moving, you know, in a direction where maybe our daughters, our next generation is going to have less freedom than we grew up with. And I know, I can just stick around seeing that happening. And my goals are very big, but I also look at it from an impact perspective. So uh, you know, I don't need to make this change for millions of people. As I, as I've, you know, matured, I kind of have learned that impact can doesn't, you know, you individually, though, don't have to, like, always build this big thing that impacts the entire world, you can make various levels and

Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo: 23:52

shifts of impact. And there's a ripple effect that can occur as we make those transformations. Right. And starting small and in, it is contagious. And we all know this, right? There's lots of studies around this, but and at the same time, there's much bigger powers to be that are continuing to take away women's rights, unfortunately, right. And so and how do we how can we leverage some of the the technology to make that a more inclusive sort of conversation? You know,

Rashmi Rao: 24:35

I come up with this thing called Tax Equity, a category Oh, okay. Equity, right. It's catching on in a lot of places. And I really feel that technology has been a leveler in so many industries. We've seen that in the last decade, and it can be very disruptive. Right? Social media is an example. We can now put our views out there without having being censored, or only the few on the top having the voice or the mic. In a similar way, I truly believe that tech equity from a healthcare perspective is very much possible. And today was a milestone day in it. Because the UN, the United Nations General Assembly, just ratified the resolution around artificial intelligence. And they have made it very, very, very clear in what that means for the next steps for AI. It's about focusing on not, you know, having people be socially surveyed and mass surveying of people, surveillance of people, which we know happens in many countries, including the United States, right, but also focusing on sustainable goals, and ensuring that we are not leaving any country behind. So this was about 193 countries. You know, when you talk of those big, like, top down things, this is this is a milestone, and it happened today. It literally happened this this morning, right. So things like that, where we can also see the changes, we need some of that framework. But from our perspective, right, as we are working through HL WF Alliance, my goal is broadly educating all of the different silos. And there is a lot of the intersections between the silos that we can impact with technology. For example, mental health, I think, has been a incredible runaway success through pandemic, right, where being able to virtually get the care that you need, has been so impactful to so many people. And you and I have spoken about it, it's sometimes times as well. But as we build some of these technologies, particularly, you know, at the moment, we're focused on artificial intelligence, because it can learn, and it can take away some of the burden from having to have expertise in having to have physicians in like remote places and care deserts, right, you can still administer care without having to be physically present. And I see that as being, you know, the number one priority, and through h o w of Alliance, that's what we're trying to do, as we build out the corpus of knowledge, it's about then being able to disseminate this knowledge into spaces where they might not have access to some of that, you

Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo: 27:29

know, it makes me think that so the women on the call today, women and CSV, right, often we're working in a siloed space or not necessarily. It could be inequality space, that's not talking to the tech space, right. And there's a lot of siloed organizations as you are well aware, right. And one of the things that I try to help folks do is use the technology they have to the best of their ability to get those things done. But at the same time, we're also experiencing, you have to learn how to talk to one, right, and I think that there's a mis misalignment of thinking that either we're gonna bring in some generative AI, or we're going to bring some another fancy tool, and that's going to, quote unquote, solve the problem. But the problem is the people, right, we need to be able to communicate, we need to be able to talk to one another in a different way. And so one of the things I love about what the H LWF alliances is bringing those different perspectives to the table. And I'm wondering through that, though, have you had to like how to get over that barrier of getting folks to actually want to participate in something new, right? Because breaking down the silos, it's hard work, right? You might be able to knock them down once but it's like it's it every day sort of conversation to continue that pace of so that that that there is actual ultimate change at the end, right. Like it's a constant work. It's a practice. So do you have any, like maybe a success story or some some some tidbits for us on how to try to do that? Yeah, yeah.

Rashmi Rao: 29:26

So I want to digress and just share this example. From from this this past week. It's in my other role, I'm on the board of World Affairs Council, which is a state sponsored, sort of soft diplomacy group. And I'm on the board and a part of what I do there is also to have these homestays for people from globally. So the US State Department brings in you know, folks with Many, many different organizations from across the globe. And, you know, there is an opportunity to host them. And I do this because I learned more from from actually hosting these people. And this past week, we had hosted somebody from Turkmenistan. And a part a part of what we do is take them out to lunch and dinners with the other local people, and they learn more about the US. Right, it's soft diplomacy, and there was so much of concern in worry, which I had anticipated, but I had, you know, didn't have the opportunity to discuss because it was Ramadan. And that is, you know, you can only have dinner after sunset. And there is only, you know, there was restrictions on what you can eat. But we had no, it wasn't, it was something that I was aware of. So we the host, and I discussed this, and we organized it. And we didn't think that it should even be a problem. But then just that small aspect. You know, when when we hosted these people in, they actually saw that there was that much effort that was made to accommodate them, and accommodate their culture and their practices. It kind of destroyed in just one dinner, their perception of, you know, the United States as being this big bad guy, who's, you know, going around the world with big guns, right. And I bring that example, because that's what we are doing with HL WF Alliance, it doesn't have to be like the seismic thing that happens, but the butterfly effect of being able to bring and so one of the examples, I'd love to give as the event we hosted for International Women's Day where we were speaking specifically about the possibility rights that are under attack in the US. And so we brought an actual pediatrician who's been practicing in administering for almost 3035 years in this space. And we had a patient, an individual who had very personal moving stories about, you know, building a family through these fertility treatments, and I was there and another founding member. And so just being in that room and having that conversation, it was for an hour, but the the, the momentum, we've been able to create the you know, the course there was a lot of coverage for it. But the momentum we've been able to create after it, I mean, we've just gotten started, and to see that we can mobilize that kind of energy around a topic is just fills me with hope. It used to be without Dory. And so for me, it's about bringing that ethos of you know, what whack is doing, the World Affairs Council is doing for, for global diplomacy into this aspect of breaking the silos. And as you put these people together, when you see that you're hearing each other's concerns, and you're not dismissing it, just because I'm a patient doesn't mean that I don't understand the you know, the science behind it, or I don't need to understand the science behind it. For example,

Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo: 33:15

one of the things that I'm just formulating in my, my mind, as you're talking is, you know, in my space, we do have some inter Industry Regulatory privates, you know, kind of connections that we call consortiums of different kinds. But, um, how do you see, you know, do you have any vision of of actually bringing in industry into the HL WF, Alliance salutely.

Rashmi Rao: 33:49

And as we build out, I think the change can only happen when you put this out there, and you also need buy in. So, you know, I'm gonna quote, my favorite RBG here. And, you know, she always said that work on things that you're passionate about, but do it in a way where you bring people along. Right, and that is the goal. It's not about isolating. It's not about you know, I win, you don't, it's about how can we all win? And so yes, the language for the industry will, will be different, because, you know, therefore, profit, we are nonprofit. And so how do you make it a win win for both? I think we'll, we'll have to come up with that that right framework. But without that kind of partnerships, the scale is not possible at all. Right. And so I'm very, very, very happy to see some of the focus that many of these big organizations are now doing, whether it's just giving their tools and their software and their services to nonprofits, but they, you know, Amazon has something similar Microsoft has something similar but they also have big foundations that are willing to support not not for profit organizations. And they are all also very much looking at how can they be a part of this equity aspect, right, because they do tech very well. And they haven't had a great track record of equity. So, in a partnering with somebody that is focused on that aspect, I think, bodes well, for both both sides.

Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo: 35:28

Yeah. So, um, I was wondering if you would share with us some of your leadership philosophy we have, you know, part of our women in CSP group and part of the software quality to a podcast audience is a variety, right, there are folks that are just starting out in the industry, and then there's folks that are very senior and have been in the industry for a long time. Is there some some aspects of your journey that you could impart on these women as we go through this?

Rashmi Rao: 35:57

Oh, gosh, okay. So I mean, like I said, I didn't, I didn't plan but I have, I've had the self discipline to go back and reflect in see what, what what some of those things were. And I would say, having a community, right is top, and I've seen that, you know, and I alluded to the community that I had when I was growing up. But then there was also a community when I was in undergrad, and we were about nine girls in a class of 110. And, you know, but we were we were, we were a community. And even as I've gone into my professional group, and things like that, there's always been a community. And so I think, being very deliberate about reaching out and being in community is not about the gap, it's about the gift before you get, right. So if you do that, then you automatically have a group of people, that will be a, you know, willing to do what it takes to make you successful, right. And also give you the tools and make the connections, open the doors, be your advocate, when you cannot be in the room, as well. And but it takes effort, and it takes it takes giving first and having that as top of mind, how can I help you? I think works best. And it has it has for me. And then I always look at, you know, paying it forward. Whatever I have received, I always look to you know, can I give this same thing to more people. But also knowing that you have to have like this advisory council that I think of, which is people that will actually poke holes. Challenge the world will oppose the world calls. So you know, curate that advisory council that you trust, you know, you know, the people that have been in the field have gotten knocked down and come back up. And, you know, it doesn't have to be women alone. They can be men in your lives as well. But it's not just about you are amazing all the time. Right. But you know, you want somebody to tell you, I don't think this works. Yes. I don't think you should do it this way. Well, I think you should wait before you send that nasty email. But that might be a talk you often salutely Yep. Right. And so having that is also important, because it's not just about Kumbaya. We're all great in the world sucks. And it's always because of the word but some, you know, a group of people that you trust. Yep. Can also poke holes in in real talk. Yeah.

Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo: 38:50

So I was gonna ask, So, what do you think we need to ask of men in this conversation?

Rashmi Rao: 38:58

Ah, men in the conversation, do we have some in some in the I

Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo: 39:03

need so so as a as a female leader, right? This is part of my continue learning and growing angst, right is I keep being asked for more and more and more and more and more because like you said, I'm a giver, giver, giver, giver. And at there's some point, right, that usually who's asking, asking, asking, are the men and in my circles, right? Yeah, what what do we need to how can we change? What's some thoughts around how we can change that time? What do we need to ask of them in order for us to continue to want to give right and help him move and grow and move this needle a little bit? Yeah,

Rashmi Rao: 39:54

in I think it's important to set boundaries, especially when we're giving and we know If you're passionate about it, because if it is, in this, I've learned this from experience, right? There are some people who are willing to, they're asking the question, or they're asking for this because they want to understand they want to learn, and they want to change. And there are others that are doing this, because they just can they know that you're passionate about this topic of di, that you will say yes to this podcast is that you'll say yes to representing on a panel, and they they don't have to pay you, for example, you know, I'm just taking a very narrow example. And I think over time, you will realize who those, you know, does this person fall into one of the categories or the others? And what I do Dory is, at times I just put the put put the ground rules and say, This is it, I draw the line here. And, you know, sometimes you're worth the time and the effort, because I know that this conversation will help you change. And in other times, it's just, it's just not going to. And if it does not, then it's not the burden is not on me to help continue to educate you to give you my time to give you all of them. Right. So that is that came with a little bit of learning that came with a little bit of

Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo: 41:16

like oil and error, trial and error. Yeah. What are the what are those boundaries? What I mean, boundaries are such a part of my everyday conversation these days for what's going on with my family life, right is, you know, who's responsible for what? Everyone contributing their part? Right? And that in that collective, if everyone contributes their park, there is a lesser of a burden on every right. And one can only hope that that is what we all aspire to, right, is that each of us are carrying lesser of a burden over time, right? Because I don't I don't think I speak for everyone. But I know that there's a lot of women out there that feel the burden and the and the burn. Right? Very much. Right, we're shouldering a lot, whether it's family life, career wise, health wise, right, you name it. And for the most part in most communities, women are the center of that sustainability of that community, right. And we need at an opportunity to have some respite as well, and how to get that establishing boundaries, what those boundaries are, and how to ask for more from others when we can't, and vice versa, I think is really super important. I was wondering, I asked often, that I

Rashmi Rao: 42:42

it's a very simple thing, but it has made a huge difference for me in my life, and I can share it. So one of the things I've done now for this entire year, is so I start my day really early, I start my day at 5am. And I

Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo: 43:00

know I get texts on the West Coast. Yeah,

Rashmi Rao: 43:05

so one of the things for me was to take that one hour to do the things that I want to do, whether it's you know, going into meditation, whether it's connecting with friends, but I don't do anything related to my work, or anything that is kind of work because I have so much work outside of my day job, right. And so but they all can end up being work, whether it's the community stuff or things like that. So it took a little bit of, you know, effort to carve out those things that just are bringing joy in being peaceful. And it is not easy, but because I wake up really I have, you know, I have a three year old as well. And so in I juggle a bunch of different things. But getting that in some days, it's an hour, some days, it's just 30 minutes. But it has helped me sort of ground myself in the quality of my thoughts are so different and better because of that for the rest of the day. And I do something similar at the end of the night as well. And like I said, some days it's only 10 minutes before I go to bed or 30 minutes. In some days. It's it's longer. Yeah,

Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo: 44:20

I love it. So as we wrap up here, I would like to hear what you think are some predictions for the future. Like what do you think? You know, yeah, like, like hat like, do you have some thoughts around like healthcare technology, kind of like where we're going? What do you think is going to happen?

Rashmi Rao: 44:40

I can give you the Doom and Doom but I don't want to know I want to hear the hopeful. Yeah, so for me, I think if we don't make some drastic, drastic changes. We can talk you know, all day all night. In nothing will change, right? Whether we're talking about AI, whether we're talking about GLP, one, you know, medications, whether we're talking about digital flourishing, any any and all topics that impact the health or the pharma side of things are the well being or our fitness, we will not be able to make progress if we don't make some drastic changes. And when I say drastic changes, it's changing the incentives changing, what are we tracking some of these very large companies on, and if that doesn't change their motivation for their bottom lines don't change our lives, our health, and our well being will not change, right. So if I want to predict and I really do want to predict that some of those changes, you know, we can make and we can only make that happen not by sitting in our houses and fretting about it, but talking about it in the space in your communities that in your house, and in your community. But every one of us has that capability and meaning we all do it, we've seen that we can dramatically change in dramatically moved those needles, right. So that's my hopeful prediction for the future that people understand because we are tracking our house more, we all have wearables, we all have home care in hospital at home. And that means we are more empowered to take charge of our health and well being, which means that we will ask more of these companies that benefit from keeping us sick or treating us when we're sick versus, you know, keeping us healthy. Right?

Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo: 46:45

I love us, I am going to open up. So if anyone has any questions that are on the phone, you're more than welcome to come off mute, I think you should be able to do that or raise your hands and then I can bring you off mute. If you have a question or thoughts. We'd love to have those. I know that. We just started our spring cohort at HL WF Alliance, and we are in our third week. I think that's correct. For those of you that haven't seen, we publish weekly, and medium and a variety of other places. And I think it's really important for folks to to expand also where they're getting their news and what they're reading. What's been remarkable to me is seeing what what we're putting together, right. And then understanding even the writing process of where folks are getting sourced where information is coming from. I think my myself personally have maybe gotten a little lazy over the years of just, I used to read a lot of medical journals. And I kind of stopped that. And now I'm kind of getting back into it again. And I one of the things I like to do, I don't know sounds a little crazy. But that that brings me peace and joy. But I encourage you guys to go out and read what we're we're writing about. Thank

Rashmi Rao: 48:14

you, thank you, Dory. And that was the point it was about also making it accessible to as many people as possible, right. And we have physicians writing but we also have, you know, humans in conversation where real life patient experiences being articulated. And we have a series of experts in conversation where it's a conversation about a very specific topic. It's in the q&a forum. So easily digestible information. And then there is always references that they can take more deeper.

Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo: 48:49

Yeah. So if you are listening to this, whether it's on the podcast or in person, if you have folks that you think that would be great people to interview and experts in their fields in any of those, let us know because we're always looking for for new ones to highlight and to share. So it can I

Rashmi Rao: 49:09

just say thank you so much for being an amazing, amazing mentor for me and as we build out our community and continuing to be such an amazing founding part of the HW of Alliance story. Thank you.

Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo: 49:23

Thank you, Rashmi. I thoroughly enjoy it. And thank you for your time today. I appreciate it. And I will talk to you soon. All

Rashmi Rao: 49:31

right, take care. Thank you very much. Bye