Health Tech: David Silverstein On How Amaze Health’s Technology Can Make An Important Impact On Our Overall Wellness
An Interview With Dave Philistin
To lead a technology-centric company, you cannot simply hire good technologists. You have to have an intimate understanding of technology yourself.
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 David Silverstein.
David Silverstein is an author, strategist, and innovator who, against all odds, has decided that someone needs to fix the American Healthcare system. Silverstein started his career as an officer in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarine force and then spent several years in industry before founding a global managing consulting firm specializing in business optimization, strategy and innovation and has written six books on those subjects. A few years ago, Silverstein decided to take on the challenge of fixing the American healthcare system by founding the non-profit, BrokenHealthcare.org through which he advised the White House on the development of new price transparency rules that became law in 2021 and ultimately led him to found Amaze Health.
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?
I grew up in a typical middle-class family in the suburbs of New York.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
There are so many, but the one most relevant to this interview is when I tried to run some legislation in Colorado that failed miserably, only to have the White House pick up on it. I spent most of 2018 and 2019 flying back and forth to Washington DC, shepherding new rules through the White House, Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Labor (DoL) bureaucracy. I played a part in helping to get the new price transparency rules passed, which became law in 2021. In 2019 I was invited to the State of the Union address.
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?
There were many people who had an impact on me and that taught me valuable life lessons, and many changed the course of my life. The one that came first was a four-star admiral who essentially changed the rules to allow me to serve on a submarine. I see out of only one eye at a time, which disqualified me. This admiral over-ruled all of the doctors and Navy rules, concluding that I was more of an expert at looking out of a periscope (where you only use one eye) than anyone else. The Navy, in turn, really changed my life, but it wouldn’t have happened if a four-star admiral had not taken a personal interest in seeing me on one of his submarines. And there are so many others since….
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Bill Gates: “We tend to overestimate what we can accomplish in a year, and underestimate what we can accomplish in a decade.”
Right now, I am in between that year and that decade with my new company. I’m hoping he’s right.
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?
Empathy: It almost embarrasses me to call myself empathetic. Doesn’t seem like the thing you decide about yourself. Early in my career, when working for a very large company with over 100,000 employees, I was given the opportunity to lead a large product team. I was young, ambitious, and hard-charging. I assume my team thought I was an asshole, but there was work to be done. The company had hired some outside consultants to profile teams and team leaders and to work with them on becoming stronger teams. Their interviews of my team members came back saying that nothing I thought they thought about me was true. And the number one thing they had to say was that they thought I was very empathetic to their needs, challenges, etc. I’ve always tried to live up to that.
Ambidextrous: I find the ability to hold multiple opposing thoughts at the same time comes more naturally to me than most. It means I can commit to a direction, but always leave many other possibilities alive. That, in turn, helps me adapt, pivot, bob-and-weave fairly naturally. I’m sure it drives some people nuts, but for me, it’s the key to being able to read the chessboard and constantly adapt.
Passion: It’s not always a compliment, but it usually is. People will tell me they, “love my passion” for the problems I am trying to solve, though often they are telling me that as a subtle way of saying, “calm down a little.” I think of it as a strength and wouldn’t trade it for anything, but sometimes it can be a bit much for others.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about the tech tools 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?
Well, sounds kind of crazy, but someone needs to fix our healthcare system and I just don’t believe anyone is. So I am. In particular, we have a three-sided system: payer-provider-patient. The patient is usually left out.
How do you think your technology can address this?
Amaze is a systems solution. We are using technology to create a single, trusted, independent partnership with patients. And it’s working. Our platform provides the tools and resources our members need to become well equipped healthcare consumers. That means, they are learning the ins and outs of healthcare, are able to find the best prices for services and medications and have a team of medical providers at their fingertips.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
My 15 year old daughter was looking over my shoulder at a medical bill for an ER visit of hers (one of several). She had a lot of questions and while I knew the answers, hearing myself explain the crazy system to her out loud brought a clarity and anger that first led us to buck the system, then form a non-profit, drive major public policy changes, and ultimately realize that a new business model was needed.
How do you think this might change the world?
We are changing the relationship people have with the medical system and we are empowering people to take charge of their own healthcare.
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?
Absolutely not. We pivot. We bob. We weave. We carefully designed a business model and corresponding technology that is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. As a management consultant, I’ve worked with many dozens of companies on their strategy, business models and technologies. Nothing has ever made more sense than what we are doing at Amaze.
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”? (Please share a story or an example, for each.)
- You need to know that everything you think you know is wrong. It just needs to be good enough to use to learn more.
- You have to respect people and not assume they are lazy, or stupid, or incapable (all things that healthcare system insiders and employers believe about their people). You have to meet people where they are and give them technology that they want to use.
- You have to know that technology is just a means to an end. It’s a tool. It’s not the end-all.
- You have to know that artificial intelligence is not even close to coming of age. Relationships must be real, human, authentic. You cannot fake it with technology — at least not yet.
- To lead a technology-centric company, you cannot simply hire good technologists. You have to have an intimate understanding of technology yourself.
The Amaze app has been a total evolutionary process. When we were first developing the concept, firms would say to us, “tell us your requirements and we’ll build it.” I kept saying, “no, you tell me what the technology can do first.” Then they’d say, “we can do anything, just tell us what your specifications are.” My simple answer: “I have no idea.”
So I decided we had to do everything in house. We’d build the most basic app, play with it, and iterate. As it matured and we tested it with patients, we’d learn that messaging wasn’t a “nice-to-have,” it was what people most wanted. We were emulating other telemedicine firms that are all video based, so we thought messaging would be a nice addition. We were wrong. It was what people would most use. We’d default calls to video, only to learn people preferred audio only unless absolutely necessary. We build in features that people never use and put in other things as afterthoughts that they use all the time. It’s a never-ending experiment.
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?
One of the things I tell young people is, “Don’t tell me you want to be an entrepreneur. That’s nonsense. Being an entrepreneur is not a career. Tell me what problem you want to solve. Care about the problem first. Understand the problem. Even if that means going to work in government or for a non-profit, or for a for-profit company, go find a problem you care about and develop a deep understanding of it and how it effects people. Then figure out what the very best solution is and pursue it. If that means starting a company, THEN you can call yourself an entrepreneur. But when people start companies because they want to be an entrepreneur, that’s a recipe for failure.”
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. :-)
Bill Gates, simply because I’m interested in the insights that led to my favorite quote.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
www.AmazeHealth.com; www.brokenhealthcare.org; linkedin.com/in/dsilverstein/
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success in your important work.
