Health Tech: Andy Moye Of Paige On How Their Technology Can Make An Important Impact On Our Overall Wellness
An Interview With David Leichner
Take care of your team and your people. A product or service is only as good as the people building it and working with customers to make it work for them. If your team cares about the product they are building, the doctors using your product will appreciate that.
In recent years, Big Tech has gotten a bad rep. But of course many tech companies are doing important work making monumental positive changes to society, health, and the environment. To highlight these, we started a new interview series about “Technology Making An Important Positive Social Impact”. We are interviewing leaders of tech companies who are creating or have created a tech product that is helping to make a positive change in people’s lives or the environment. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Andy Moye.
Andy Moye, PhD, MBA is the CEO of Paige, the only company FDA approved to use AI in diagnosing cancer. Dr. Moye is a seasoned commercial leader and corporate development executive who has worked across the molecular diagnostics, biotechnology, and life sciences industries. Previously, he served as Head of Commercial Operations in North America and Latin America for the Digital and Computational Pathology division of Philips. Prior to joining the industry, Dr. Moye served as a Lieutenant and flight officer in the U.S. Navy.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory and how you grew up?
Growing up, I was mainly an army brat. I was born in Germany, as was my oldest brother, and my other brother was born in El Paso, Texas. My dad was a soldier in the army and my mom was an English teacher. With my dad in the army, we moved around a lot, but I mainly grew up in El Paso. It was an interesting place to grow up. I really liked living near Mexico and getting to experience the culture there. It presented me with a lot of diverse experiences that I don’t think I would have had otherwise.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
When I first began my corporate career, I was really struggling with adapting back to the civilian sector after leaving the Navy. For the most part, my entire career up until that point had been based on service and serving the greater good. So, when I started my career in medical sales, I was having difficulty in finding the meaning in selling medical tests or products.
I was selling what is now an example of a first iteration of a precision medicine test while working with the Molecular Profiling Institute’s Dr. Dan von Hoff. He had a theory that you could look at different proteins from pathology samples and make better decisions about what drugs would work best for each individual cancer patient. At the time, this was very novel and somewhat controversial.
Through selling these tests, I met an oncologist named Dr. Rama Balaraman in Ocala, Florida. She was very forward thinking, and she had a salvage patient in her mid-forties, a mother of three kids who had Stage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer that had metastasized to her brain. She had weeks left to live. We administered this precision test, and it came back with a result that indicated treatment using a drug that was not typically administered for the type of cancer she had. They treated her using this drug and all her metastasis disappeared. Even though I was just the one selling these tests and not administering them, Dr. Balaraman told me that if I had not come into her office and told her about this technology, she would have died.
This was the first time it struck me that you can provide service outside of a career in the military and help people through everyday jobs. And as I continue my career, I still think about that patient and how companies can impact patient care.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I have had a lot of great mentors in my career, but if I had to point to one person it would be my dad. Not only did he inspire me to pursue a career in the military, but he also helped me in my transition out of the military. He has always been a guide for me on where to go and how to do things, up until his passing about 15 years ago. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel though, and his example of leadership is something I strive to live up to every day.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
There is one quote that really sticks out to me, and that is a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which is “Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.” I use that a lot with my team because I want everyone to remember that at Paige, we are serving something greater than ourselves. That is a big part of what we do.
Another quote that I use all the time is: “You need to deal with the alligator closest to the boat.” It is all about prioritization and focus, because people can very easily become overwhelmed by about a million things that are outside of their control or focus on something big that is coming down the line. It’s a good reminder to deal with the challenges that are most pressing and most urgent and to take each day one step at a time.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
The first one that comes to mind is empathy. Whether you’re negotiating contracts or motivating team members, you have to have empathy. In today’s leadership climate, it’s one of the most important skills you can have. Having empathy has helped me through different challenges and negotiations throughout my career.
The second is adaptability, and this is more important than ever. The past few years have altered life drastically, and to be a good leader you have to understand the current environment and adapt your strategies to whatever is currently happening in the world.
The third is balance. As a leader, you have to live in two worlds, one where you are thinking about long-term strategy and another where you are thinking of short-term execution, or day-to-day operations. You must have a flexible mindset where you can understand that some decisions are made for the long term good of the organization whereas others must be executed almost immediately.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about the technology or medical devices that you are helping to create that can make a positive impact on our wellness. To begin, which particular problems are you aiming to solve?
Paige’s mission and vision is to transform cancer diagnostics. Globally, the pathologist is the final stop for whether a patient has cancer or not. In the last hundred years, pathology has evolved very little past glass slides and microscopes, whereas we have seen other fields like radiology rapidly changing to better diagnose and serve their patients by adopting digital technology. Our goal is to aid in the digital transformation in the field of pathology and improve the lives of both patients and pathologists along the way. This includes reducing misdiagnosis, underdiagnosis and overdiagnosis of cancer.
How do you think your technology can address this?
Paige’s AI algorithms are some of the most robust in the industry. Our mission is not to replace the pathologist with our technology, but rather to assist them in diagnosing cancer more efficiently. Pathologists undergo years of training and spend their entire careers honing their craft. Our AI algorithms are trained on the same slides these pathologists trained on, just at a much faster rate. The studies we have done, particularly with the Paige Prostate Suite, lowered the diagnostic error rate significantly when the AI tool is used alongside the pathologist. This ensures patient care is at the forefront where you are getting the best, most accurate diagnosis.
Paige still has the only FDA approved algorithm in pathology. When patients’ lives are at stake, it is critical that you have the right type of artificial intelligence, which is generalizable and works in any clinical setting. For Paige, the way we built our AI on such large amounts of data allows us to serve more and more cancer patients.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
When I was 12, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. This was back in the 1980s, so treatment options were very limited. At the time, doctors did not have the tools to understand molecular drivers or biomarkers, so treatment options were assigned somewhat arbitrarily. Patients either received a total mastectomy, a ton of radiation, or a large amount of chemotherapy. And the reality of that is painful and awful, so watching my mom go through that was really tough. It made me think about the patient experience and how we could provide better care for cancer patients.
At the end of the day, what we’re trying to do with AI is to better diagnose cancer so that the right treatment is given to the right patient at the right time, ensuring that the patient has the best chance of experiencing remission and potentially even being cured of their cancer.
How do you think this might change the world?
It will change the world because it saves lives. The number of pathologists is getting smaller, but cancer cases are rising. We are seeing a surge of various cancers, such as colorectal cancers, popping up in younger and younger populations, and with more pathologists retiring, there is a need to aid those still practicing who are likely very overwhelmed. The reality is that there is a wider gap between the ability for pathologists to keep up with the many advancements currently hitting the field of pathology, and how we handle that will determine the capabilities pathologists have in the fight against cancer.
With the proper use of AI tools and digital pathology, we can help address physician burnout and ensure that pathologists can be as confident as possible in their diagnosis — ultimately ensuring better outcomes for patients.
Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
AI is definitely having its moment. The challenge, though, is realizing that not all AI is the same in how it is trained, how it acts, and how it reacts. The reality is that AI is here to stay, and it will transform many roles going forward. AI in pathology is no different. One thing that is crucial to understand about AI is that it is a tool rather than a replacement. Like how a power saw is better than a handsaw or a drill is better than a screwdriver, AI, when used properly in pathology, is more efficient than doing things the analog way of putting slides under a microscope. It is a tool like anything else that human beings use to do their jobs more efficiently.
Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, can you please share “Five things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive social impact”?
1. Understand what problem you are really trying to solve. Too often entrepreneurs bring a product to market because they can, and not because they really understand how health care works or if their tech solves a real problem in clinical care. For example, in radiology — almost 400 AI algorithms have been FDA- approved, but adoption of those technologies is severely lacking. The challenge is sometimes in the utility and the problem being solved.
2. Be patient. Technology adoption in healthcare always lags the rest of the economy. Doctors and hospitals need far more evidence to adopt than other sectors of the economy like finance or consumer. It is important to remember that 10-Plus years to see some adoption is normal.
3. Understand the economics of healthcare. It isn’t good enough to have amazing technology that improves patient outcomes or efficiency; you must also know how money flows in healthcare, which isn’t easy. Understanding how a doctor or hospital gets paid using the standard of care and how your technology fits is critical. Working with payors to generate clinical evidence to get coverage is also critical. Paige is currently in the middle of a large health economic study in the UK called ARTICULATE Pro to help understand the cost-effectiveness of AI.
4. Providing amazing customer service is now table stakes, not a differentiator. In this era of instant social media feedback, customers know immediately if you aren’t responsive or meeting their needs, and that impacts sales. We focus heavily on customer experience and track our NPS rate with customers constantly to ensure we are always meeting and exceeding customer expectations.
5. Take care of your team and your people. A product or service is only as good as the people building it and working with customers to make it work for them. If your team cares about the product they are building, the doctors using your product will appreciate that.
Can you share a few best practices that you recommend to safeguard your technology or medical devices from hackers?
Cybersecurity is extremely important in all industries, but especially in the healthcare industry where you are dealing with such critical personal health information. At Paige, for example, we have a very robust and experienced cybersecurity team that monitors and responds to any and all threats. We are certified across all platforms, certified GDPR and HIPPA compliant, and of course FDA approved. When we work with hospitals and healthcare systems, we make sure they know about our security and how we operate. In terms of best practices, hospitals and healthcare systems should be vigilant about what kind of companies they work with, how their software performs, and how they manage cybersecurity.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
I’ll go back to my earlier quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which is “Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.” No matter your skill set or passion, you can always serve in some way. You can serve by working at a company that supports your values, you can serve in your community by volunteering. In your career, I would recommend choosing an organization whose vision aligns with your personal mission, because at the end of the day you’re going to have much more fulfillment in your life if you feel like you’re making a positive impact rather than simply chasing dollars.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
When we signed a deal earlier this year with Microsoft, I had the pleasure to present to Satya Nadella and his senior team. However, my 11-year-old daughter wanted to know if I was going to meet Bill Gates, because they were studying entrepreneurs in her class. I would like to sit down with Bill Gates and understand how he sees the future of AI, which would be fascinating. And then I could tell my daughter I met him!
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Thank you so much for the time you spent doing this interview. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success.
About The Interviewer: David Leichner is a veteran of the Israeli high-tech industry with significant experience in the areas of cyber and security, enterprise software and communications. At Cybellum, a leading provider of Product Security Lifecycle Management, David is responsible for creating and executing the marketing strategy and managing the global marketing team that forms the foundation for Cybellum’s product and market penetration. Prior to Cybellum, David was CMO at SQream and VP Sales and Marketing at endpoint protection vendor, Cynet. David is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Jerusalem Technology College. He holds a BA in Information Systems Management and an MBA in International Business from the City University of New York.
