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I'm here with John Rozen.
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John is a pediatric neurogastroenterologist and digital health innovator who combines clinical pediatrics, neurogastroenterology, and technology to help children with constipation, feeding difficulties, and chronic GI symptoms.
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Welcome, John.
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Hi.
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John from Kansas City.
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What matters to you right now, and what's the story behind it?
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What matters to me is how we can use technology to help take care of the health of kids.
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And there's so many ways that we can use it that is different than it used to be.
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And really, we have kids that would travel all over the country to see specialists.
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They might have medical problems, but those specialists aren't where they live, and so they're driving six hours, they're staying overnight, they're flying across the country.
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And with the technological changes that we have, they don't need to do that anymore.
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We can see kids in their homes where they're comfortable.
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And I've seen kids like this throughout the Midwest and, for instance, a child who's a teenager with autism.
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He has a hard time traveling in the car to the hospital, sitting in the clinic for a 30 or 45-minute visit, which is mostly a conversation with him and his parent.
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And with telehealth, I can see him at home, and I did see him at home.
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We would have nurses go into the home to check some things that needed hands-on, talk to the parents.
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He'd be on the couch interacting however he was comfortable, and we'd accomplish those same goals, improve his health, and save them the hassle of missing work, make it more comfortable for the kid.
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So technology has changed how we interact with patients completely.
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Yeah.
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And it's not just the te- the technology's been around for a while, it's also about society being comfortable with using the technology that way
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Absolutely.
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And we, we did this throughout the country really before we were forced to do it because people couldn't travel for a couple years.
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But really it's, it's expanded incredibly so because people said,"Hey, we can do this.
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This is possible." We have increasing access to remote health, to the internet, and really it's really, it's, it's widespread in the US now even more than it was.
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Even in rural areas, in inner cities, people have more and more access to the internet, and so they can access these digital tools and telehealth.
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There's definitely a cultural change in how well technology is accepted in the delivery of healthcare.
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And even when I was in training, you had to be in the same room with hands on your patient to make that connection, the doctor-patient relationship.
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But I think as technology's changing in general, all of us communicate more and more on screens through alternate methods, not always in person.
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And there's an acceptance now much greater than it used to be.
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You can still form a relationship online through writing, through video, lots of different ways to do that, and I think that that cultural change has enabled us to deliver healthcare more easily that way.
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besides telehealth?
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Artificial intelligence?
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Are there other aspects of technology that have changed the way you do your job?
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Absolutely.
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Sharing of information through digital tools has been huge.
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And so there's been cultural and legal changes actually giving people more access to their medical records.
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And so that digital sharing of information has opened the door so people know what they...
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is going on with their child or with themselves, and they have an opportunity to ask new questions.
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And of course, with AI, we have all these tools now to educate and pr- put again the power in the hands of the patients and their parents, so they have access to more and more information.
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There's some great tools out there for doctors and for patients and for parents to get that information at their fingertips
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So speaking of tools, you have a new iPhone app coming out, or it's out.
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Yeah, it's out.
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It's out.
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We have users.
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It's called Pooficient.
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It's
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Wait, say that again.
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Pooficient.
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Pooficient,
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Poofish, pooficient.
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Okay
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on the App Store and on the web.
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Yes.
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And to make it efficient, you know, you're, you're Pooficient.
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And it's more than just helping kids poop, it's helping families and kids with all of their GI health.
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It uses AI tools, and the chatbot is fantastic, and it has great guardrails, which we hear about a lot with AI.
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We wanna make sure people are getting accurate information when they ask questions of AI tools, and this accomplishes that.
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There's some other nutrition trackers.
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There are stool cameras that can help you determine whether or not your stool is appropriate
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this app there, it does
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for your life, all in here.
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And I'm the clinical advisor for it, and really it's come a long way and it's, it's amazing because a lot of what I do is educate kids and their families.
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I provide information over and over.
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This puts some of that information in their hands so that it's easier for them to partner with their nurses and with their doctors
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So the problem that you're solving though is kids that are constipated.
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They're not...
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Like, is this younger kids, older kids, any age?
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it's a huge problem.
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Yeah, it is a huge problem.
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anybody with kids probably has experienced
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It's awful.
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It's something that's not on your bingo card when you have kids
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No, and you don't think about it in a way that you say,"Oh yeah, some kids are gonna have trouble pooping," or something,"I have to change diapers." But when it becomes a problem, it becomes a big problem.
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And there are millions and millions of kids in the US with constipation, many millions more with other GI issues.
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There are some studies that say up to one in four pediatrician visits is related to pooping and constipation.
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That's a lot compared to all the other things people deal with, right?
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maybe
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Yeah.
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And it, and it's miserable when you're dealing with it.
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You feel like you can't talk to everybody else about it because culturally there's still some steps we have to take in, to make it more acceptable to talk about.
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I see kids every, every day who poop their pants, and those parents and those kids don't wanna talk with their friends about it.
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If they had asthma, yeah, they'd all be talking about strategies, or diabetes or heart disease.
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These are really important things that are culturally acceptable to share information with each other.
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Constipation and GI dysfunction it's still a lot more private and that, that needs to change too
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Yeah.
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And it just coming from that perspective of having a kid who's constipated, it really impacts everything.
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They're just in a bad mood.
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Just like we're in a bad mood when we're constipated, they're in a worse mood and they don't know really why they're in a bad mood, and they--
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Yes.
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Thanks,
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getting them to eat the right things and do the things that...
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Or even know, it's very difficult.
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It's a, it's a mental health game as much as anything else
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It is.
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It is.
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And sometimes it's really hard to tell, and so having those tools in your hands to understand when my kid even is constipated or what to do about it, or when do I need to call the doctor.
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I I, I admit this because I think it's important.
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I, I trained in pediatrics.
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I trained in pediatric GI.
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I think about constipation and how we can help kids poop all the time.
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I took my own child to the ER because I thought he had appendicitis because he was in so much pain, and it--
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child after, after you were a trained physician
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my training.
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After my training, my toddler, he can't communicate quite like an older child or an adult, but he was telling me he hurt so bad, and he'd even been constipated before.
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I was aware of that.
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But it can fool you.
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It can be hard to tell.
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There are kids with severe pain.
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There are kids with diarrhea.
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There are kids with minimal symptoms, and many of those kids will be constipated, and we have to figure it out so that we can treat it
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Right.
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And there's no way to f- just like there's really no way to figure out if they are constipated, but there is an app that helps you move along the journey
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Yeah, and I think that those tools like Poofision are really important because we wanna make sure people have their own tools, that they have access and the ability to identify constipation, to treat it appropriately, and to call their doctors when they need to
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And this app is currently being used today.
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It's, it's an app that parents are using right now
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It is, it is.
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And it's it's a subscriber app because you get access to a lot of education within it.
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There are the tool that uses AI that's essentially a chatbot, but it learns more about your child and the different things you've been dealing with and the different input for nutrition or for stooling that you have in there.
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And so it really can help guide you along the way.
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It is a general health app, and so it does expand a little bit beyond constipation to other GI conditions as well.
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Okay, great.
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So a- anything else to add about the app that you wanna chat about?
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It's, it's amazing.
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It blows my mind some of the AI capabilities, which I am not responsible for.
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These are developers, people that are experts in this that made these.
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I know the clinical need, these kids with constipation, these families that need help, but the design and the, the actual tools are super sophisticated.
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They're fantastic
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Yeah, great.
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Well, thanks for sharing that.
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Let's move on to the speed round.
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I'm gonna give you some topics and you're gonna say matters, not matters, and why, and you can als- always skip.
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Okay?
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And we're gonna s- some of them will be in your domain, some of them not, So, pediatric gastroenterology matters, not matters?
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Matters.
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This is what I think about all day long, every day, and it affects so many people.
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I think it's...
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It matters even more because I think it's underrepresented compared to some conditions in terms of research funding, in terms of attention that it gets, tools that are out there to help people.
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So it matters
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We're gonna move that to pizza.
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Matters.
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Matters.
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And it doesn't matter which kind of pizza, but you should be able to try different kinds of pizza and have your favorite.
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That's important.
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And, and still be gut, and still be gut healthy.
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You should be able to eat pizza without worrying
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Yeah, I think you should be able to eat without worrying.
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Yes.
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Yes, whether it's pizza or something else, that would be great
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Telemedicine.
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Matters, not matters
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matters and increasingly so.
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It's not right for everybody at every time, that's true.
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But it matters to improve access, to make it easier for patients and families, and to see them where they are
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Artificial intelligence matters not matters
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It matters.
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How much does it matter?
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I s- I still don't know.
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I am not an artificial intelligence expert, but I certainly am technology forward, and I've started to use tools that are AI enabled.
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And they help.
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They do things that I couldn't do.
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Making logos for my family trip answering questions I have about about going on a podcast and what to expect.
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There's all sorts of things that can help supplement your, your own knowledge
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coffee matters not matters
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Matters.
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So tea, not so much.
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Doesn't matter.
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I mean, it does to some people, not to me.
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Coffee matters a lot.
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I like it.
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I like how it tastes.
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I think I've gotten into the science of making espresso a little bit, and it's pressure and liquid and electrolytes and volume and speed.
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It's science making coffee in that way, and that matters
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Mental health matters not matters
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matters.
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And there's no denying it.
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It's been under undertreated, undersupported in the past for kids and for adults in healthcare, and it probably matters more than a lot of what I do,'cause I don't directly provide mental health care, and it really should be widespread.
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And so for instance, having access to a health psychologist, which is a specific type of mental health provider that knows about medical disease, can encourage behavioral change to accomplish your health goals.
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Everybody should have access to one, but there aren't enough.
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So it matters, and it needs to matter more
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John, thanks for hopping on the show, appreciate it.
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And where can people get in touch with you and find the app?
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Yes.
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Thank you so much for having me.
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People can find me on Twitter, on LinkedIn really online.
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Feel free to contact me if you'd like.
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But Pooficient, the app that provides some of these tools to families is on the Apple App Store and is available wherever you go
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Great.
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Thanks for coming on, John
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Thank you