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Welcome to the Empowered Patient Podcast with Karen Jagoda.  This show offers a glimpse into the latest innovations in applying generative AI, novel therapeutics and vaccines, and the evolving dynamics in the medical and healthcare landscape. One focus is on how providers, pharmaceutical companies, and payers are empowering patients.  In addition, conversations often focus on how technology is empowering providers, care facilities, pharmaceutical companies, and payers to improve patient outcomes and reduce friction across the healthcare landscape.  Popular Topics Include: Virtual and digital health Use of AI, ML, and robots for clinical and administrative purposes  Value-based healthcare  Precision and stratified medicine Next-generation immuno, cell, and gene therapies Vaccines for infectious diseases and oncology Biomarkers and diagnostics Rare diseases MedTech and medical devices Clinical trials  Population health Chronic conditions l Clinician and staff burnout Smart hospitals The audience includes life science leaders, researchers, medical professionals, patient advocates, digital health entrepreneurs, patients, caregivers, healthcare solution providers, students, journalists, and investors.

Apr 23, 2026

Dr. Payam Zamani, Founder and CEO of MY DR NOW, is directly solving the challenge of access to healthcare by creating a hybrid model that includes convenient walk-in clinics with extended hours, house calls, and virtual visits.  This approach is consistent with modern on-demand expectations and attracting patients in dense urban areas as well as rural communities. Patient acquisition is driven by word-of-mouth and relationships with payers and hospital systems, to improve outcomes and reduce hospital readmissions. The model is also attractive to physicians by minimizing administrative tasks and flexible scheduling, leading to less burnout and higher retention.

Payam explains, "The big issue with healthcare, as we've seen it and that MY DR NOW has taken on, one of the most challenging issues of healthcare is accessibility. For far too long, there's been this discrepancy between what we believe and what we know as healthcare practitioners to be important versus reality, versus what actually happens. We have a tendency to focus on all the right things and give patients all the right instructions and directions, as far as focusing on prevention, cancer screenings, and annual wellness visits. And we tell them to manage their chronic conditions because it's important, and to take their medications. But in reality, what ends up happening is that patients have to take time off work just to be able to see their healthcare provider. They have to wait weeks or, in many instances, months in advance just to be able to get in to see someone."  

"What MY DR NOW really set out to solve is how to deliver healthcare services in a manner that's more consistent with our daily lives, with what our expectations are. In a manner that makes more sense for working people, for working families, for moms and kids and for parents, and in a way that delivers better outcomes. And that's MY DR NOW in a nutshell."

"Well, along those same lines of accessibility and convenience, what we set out to do was first of all, build an omnichannel network. And what that means is having multiple modalities by which you can obtain healthcare services. So there are clinics, and we like to make sure that those clinics are ubiquitous, and we can expand on that here in a little bit. But we have clinics that are open seven days a week. They're open early and late, on weekends and holidays. They're open when you expect them and need them to be open. But more importantly, you can not only schedule an appointment for those clinics, but also walk in whenever you want. And just as importantly, you can walk in for anything you go to your family medicine office for. So it's not an urgent care where you're only going in for acute and episodic issues."  

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mydrnow.com

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MY DR NOW