Ep.56: Dr. Sam Gharbi

“It’s embarrassing. And it’s not just embarrassing..but it’s a disservice to our patients because we’re causing harm by not adopting tools for communication and better sharing of information.”

On this episode of How Its Med, we chat with Dr. Sam Gharbi, co-founder of Arya EHR. Fueled by his frustrations with the harm done by outdated communication and information tech in healthcare, Dr. Sam Gharbi and his co-founders, Dr. Richard Sztramko and Dr. Richard built this physician-first EHR without any coding experience.

You can find out more about Arya EHR at https://www.aryaehr.com/, and about Dr. Gharbi, the inimitable accomplished clinician, educator, and innovator, at https://www.samgharbi.com/.

To find more of our podcasts, you can go to howitsmed.com or https://plnk.to/howitsmed.

Full video on YouTube https://youtu.be/UOH2s5fyKg4 .

0:00 - 12:49 - Dr. Gharbi reflects on how his dreams of becoming a ghostbuster were destroyed, and his journey into the harrowing practice of internal medicine instead.

13:18 - 22:55 - The path less taken: how constant reflections on how his working environments could be improved turned into a foray into medical innovation - one full of struggles with culture and guidelines.

23:14 - 30:13 - Why is pushback against innovation so prevalent in medicine? Dr. Gharbi comments and reflects on his efforts to address this culture through his ceaseless efforts to innovate for the betterment of healthcare through Arya EHR.

30:42 - 37:44 - The making of Arya EHR - and Dr. Gharbi’s team’s struggles with building a leading electronic health record from wireframes to functional software without a technical co-founder.

37:57 - 44:38 - Dr. Gharbi’s core learnings from his experience with Arya EHR so far, and the skills he brought from his career in medicine to his foray into medical entrepreneurship.

45:38 - 52:40 - From bootstrapping to fundraising - Dr. Gharbi’s experience as an executive the needs of his company with learning to bootstrap vs. fundraising from angels and VCs.

53:00 - 58:53 - Dr. Gharbi looks to the future of digital information management in the healthcare sector