The Healthy Enterprise

In this episode of The Healthy Enterprise, host Michael Gorton shares his journey as a serial entrepreneur and pioneer in telemedicine through his work with Teladoc. He reflects on how COVID-19 accelerated virtual care adoption and introduces his new venture, Recuro, focused on early detection and prevention. The conversation explores innovations in mobile healthcare, AI-driven personal health data, and the future of diagnostics—while touching on the entrepreneurial mindset needed to overcome healthcare’s bureaucratic challenges and drive meaningful change.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Michael Gorton and Telemedicine
04:14 The Birth of Teladoc
08:48 Telemedicine's Rise During COVID-19
15:32 Transitioning to Recuro: A New Venture
22:46 Innovations in Early Detection and Prevention
28:28 Innovations in Mobile Healthcare
31:08 The Future of Personal Health Data
34:57 The Role of AI in Early Diagnosis
35:41 The Journey of an Author
39:10 Exploring the Universe: Plasma Physics and Beyond
44:20 Phantom Space: The Future of Data Centers
51:17 Overcoming Bureaucratic Hurdles in Healthcare

Guest Information:
  • Guest's Name: Michael Gorton
  • Guest's Title/Position:  Founder
  • Guest's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-s-gorton/
  • Company / Affiliation: Dynamic Works Consulting https://michaelgorton.us/
  • Guest's Bio: Michael Gorton is a 15-time entrepreneur, author, and pioneer in telemedicine and digital health. As the founder of Teladoc—the world’s largest telemedicine company—he helped ignite a half-trillion-dollar industry. With degrees in engineering and law, Michael has built a career turning bold ideas into reality through ventures spanning healthcare, energy, and technology. A bestselling author and frequent keynote speaker, he continues to inspire innovation and leadership through his writing, public speaking, and mentorship of emerging entrepreneurs.
Takeaways:
  • Michael Gorton is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Teladoc.
  • Telemedicine gained significant traction during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • 87% of the U.S. population now prefers telemedicine for consultations.
  • Telemedicine can be more profitable for doctors compared to traditional practices.
  • Early detection in healthcare can prevent costly and dangerous conditions.
  • Recuro aims to simplify healthcare and enhance early detection.
  • The healthcare system is complicated and needs simplification.
  • Innovative technologies can aid in early diagnosis and prevention.
  • Access to healthcare is crucial for rural populations.
  • Making healthcare simple can save lives and reduce costs. 
  • Mobile healthcare units are being developed for remote areas.
  • Smartwatches can collect valuable health data.
  • AI can help diagnose health issues early.
  • Personal health data ownership is crucial for patients.
  • Bureaucratic hurdles slow down healthcare innovation.
  • Persistence is key to overcoming challenges in healthcare.
  • Science fiction can inspire real-world innovations.
  • Plasma physics may hold answers to extraterrestrial intelligence.
  • Data centers in space could revolutionize AI processing.
  • Collaboration among innovators is essential for progress.


Creators and Guests

Host
Heath Fletcher
With over 30 years in creative marketing and visual storytelling, I’ve built a career on turning ideas into impact. From brand transformation to media production, podcast development, and outreach strategies, I craft compelling narratives that don’t just capture attention—they accelerate growth and drive measurable results.
Producer
Meghna Deshraj
Meghna Deshraj is the CEO and Founder of Bullzeye Growth Partners, where she partners with eCommerce brands, healthcare institutions, and small businesses to scale profitably without outside funding. Under her leadership, Bullzeye has driven over $580M in annual growth and more than $1B in collective direct revenue for its clients. With a background spanning corporate strategy, IT, finance, and process optimization, Meghna brings a unique blend of data-driven marketing expertise and operational leadership. A Certified Six Sigma Black Belt with deep experience in program management and business transformation, she has successfully led global teams, large-scale integrations, and organizational change initiatives. Her superpower lies in marketing strategy and consulting, fueled by a passion for helping businesses grow through innovation, efficiency, and strong client relationships.
Guest
Michael Gorton
Michael Gorton is a 15-time entrepreneur, author, and pioneer in telemedicine and digital health. As the founder of Teladoc—the world’s largest telemedicine company—he helped ignite a half-trillion-dollar industry. With degrees in engineering and law, Michael has built a career turning bold ideas into reality through ventures spanning healthcare, energy, and technology. A bestselling author and frequent keynote speaker, he continues to inspire innovation and leadership through his writing, public speaking, and mentorship of emerging entrepreneurs.

What is The Healthy Enterprise?

Join host Heath Fletcher on The Healthy Enterprise as he explores how healthcare leaders and innovators are transforming the industry from the inside out. Whether you’re a provider, tech entrepreneur, marketing strategist, or industry executive, these conversations deliver actionable strategies, innovative solutions, and human-centered insights to help you grow, lead, and make a lasting impact.

Created and produced by Bullzeye Growth Partners — let’s make something great together.

Heath Fletcher (00:14)
Hello, welcome to the Healthy Enterprise Podcast. Thank you for joining me today. If this is your first time, welcome. If you are a returning listener, well, thank you very much for coming back and I have a treat for you today. My guest today is Michael Gorton. He's an investor, a 15 times entrepreneur, or as he would call himself, a serial entrepreneur, a Teladoc founder, the bestselling author of a series called Tachyon Tunnel.

And most recently, a digital medical home, which he co-wrote with Dr. Jay Sanders about the adventures of telemedicine and how it came to be. He has a passion for building world changing companies out of ideas and ideas are something that Michael is never short of. Please welcome to this show, Michael Gortan.

Michael, thank you for joining me today. I'm looking forward to this conversation and I'm sure listeners will enjoy it as well. isn't our first time talking, but ⁓ certainly we have a lot more to discuss. you know, I was introduced to you by Dr. Jay Sanders, who was ⁓ pivotal in the, in the advancement of telemedicine ⁓ across the United States. And then you guys wrote a book together and that's how I.

⁓ was introduced to you. And so here we are having this conversation. So maybe ⁓ give listeners a little insight as to who you are and a little bit about you.

Michael Gorton. (01:47)
Since you started with Jay Sanders, I'll carry on that. When I first met him, I asked him to help me with Teladoc and he said no. And we were doing primarily telephone based medicine. And the reason why it's relevant right now is because over the years, Jay and I have gotten closer and closer so that we have sort of a father and son relationship.

Heath Fletcher (01:52)
Okay.

Michael Gorton. (02:16)
And so usually when I haven't talked to him for a while, you know, we're on zoom calls like you and I are. And I, you know, it's like, dad, how are you doing? I'm well, son. ⁓

Heath Fletcher (02:30)
Yeah, you can get that when talking with him. He just kind of has that sort of fatherly figure sort of vibe. Yeah, I felt that too.

Michael Gorton. (02:38)
Jay is a gem. He absolutely is a wonderful person.

Heath Fletcher (02:43)
And so you ventured off together to write this book, Digital Medical Home, which I've read, which is, I thoroughly enjoyed it. And as I was just saying, I think it would make a motion picture telling that story in one form or another. But you guys are already on to a second adventure with this book.

Michael Gorton. (03:03)
Yes, we are. We decided that we wanted to write a fiction version of it. All the stories are more or less the same, but there was an old TV show, think it was called Dragnet or something like that. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. And we will modify that a little bit. The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty.

Heath Fletcher (03:19)
Yeah, we know that one.

Yeah, I remember that show. had a bit of a time travel thing too, didn't it? The dragnet?

Michael Gorton. (03:41)
I don't really remember. just remember that ⁓ the guy would always say, ⁓ you know, the names have been changed to protect the innocent. It was a great line.

Heath Fletcher (03:49)
to protect. Yeah.

And it's been used many times over. So ⁓ now take a step back here. when you met Jay, you were ⁓ in Teladoc, right? So take a step, go back a bit before as to where you started in that part of your life.

Michael Gorton. (04:14)
Teladoc was my eighth startup. This and eight. And so I fall in that sort of weird category of serial entrepreneur. And one of my earlier startups in 2000, the year 2000, early 2000 had a nice liquidity of.

Heath Fletcher (04:18)
⁓ really?

Yeah.

Michael Gorton. (04:42)
called a bunch of friends and said, I have money, I'm going to climb Kilimanjaro. If you want to join my team and pay all your expenses, I'll pay all of your travel, training, everything. And one of the men who joined me was a medical doctor, electrical engineer named Byron Brooks, who said, let's build something together. So while climbing Kilimanjaro, we

together the idea of Teladoc. And had I known how much resistance there was going to be and how many battles we were going to fight, I may have thought twice about it. But once you get started, then you're started. You don't go back. And I'm sure a lot of this video today will be about some of those things that happened, which you read about in the digital meta.

Heath Fletcher (05:31)
Yeah.

That's right. Exactly. ⁓ And so then, so that was your eighth. did you, did you know you were going to be a serial entrepreneur after number one or like at what point did, I mean, were you entrepreneurial at like at the get go when you got out of kindergarten or something?

Michael Gorton. (05:58)
Maybe,

maybe and I just didn't know it. I actually spent a few years working as an electrical engineer for a

And I did that until I just decided to transition and become an entrepreneur. I didn't even know the term serial entrepreneur until probably company number five. You know, when you say the word serial, you think the next word is normally murder or killing.

Heath Fletcher (06:29)
Yes.

Michael Gorton. (06:32)
Every one of those. Entrepreneur, that's OK.

Heath Fletcher (06:38)
That's okay. Yeah, that's a good pairing of those two words. so Teladoc, give listeners just a little insight as to Teladoc and what that provided.

Michael Gorton. (06:49)
Paladoc was, in the beginning nobody knew what it was. A lot of people didn't believe you could do it. But now, everybody's familiar with it. It is a telephone, a doctor, and an electronic medical record. I'm not feeling well. Rather than calling the doctor's office and waiting until next Thursday, I call into a call center and 10 minutes later a doctor calls me back on the phone.

diagnosis. It's absolute simplicity in healthcare. It's what we call the access problem. A minor issue, I'm driving in my car, I'm at the office, I'm busy, I don't want to take the time off, the doctor comes to me via now, Zoom call, telephone, whatever your platform is that you're comfortable with.

Heath Fletcher (07:27)
Right.

And much like telemedicine, mean, COVID had a pivotal, it was a pivotal moment for Teladoc, right? Because all of a sudden the world needed access and they couldn't go anywhere. And that kind of cracked their wide open, didn't it?

Michael Gorton. (08:04)
It did. One of the former surgeons general sent me a note right as COVID was kicking off and said essentially, thank you for persisting because now we have a platform that we can keep doctors talking to patients even in the pandemic. And before COVID, most people didn't know what telemedicine was.

Now Teladoc has 6-7 million lives on the platform coming into COVID. Now Teladoc has 96 million lives.

Heath Fletcher (08:48)
Unbelievable, 96.

Michael Gorton. (08:50)
The

pandemic turned it from something that a few people knew about to something.

The fact of the matter is, there was a great post-COVID study that said 87 % of the population of the United States now prefers telemedicine for their routine doctor consultation.

Heath Fletcher (09:21)
Well, I mean, would we even have enough doctors to do it in person if we didn't have it? Like, I don't even think there's so many people that need medical attention, medical advice, just some sort of ⁓ conversation with a medical professional. And with the populations there now, particularly the aging population, would we even be able to manage that in person at this point?

Michael Gorton. (09:45)
I think the number of doctors and the amount of time a doctor spends consulting with a patient it sort of evens out. The thing that people don't realize is physicians who are practicing telemedicine can make more money charging less than a physician practicing in and off.

And if you want to understand why, think about the tools involved. So the telemedicine tool is really simple. It's a Zoom call like what you and I are doing right now. But now imagine that it's the Thursday morning and you have to go to the doctor's office. So you jump in your car, you drive there, there's a building. You walk into the building, there's a waiting room with couches and magazines and an admin at her or his computer.

Heath Fletcher (10:24)
Yep. Yep.

Michael Gorton. (10:43)
and a telephone system and a computer network and doctors and nurses and rooms and equipment and you may pay $110 for that, you may pay $40 for the telemedicine visit. But when the doctor's done paying all those bills, all those expenses inside that building, the doctor makes a little bit and when they pay all their not so many bills in the telemedicine visit, they make a lot more.

So it's an efficient, it's great for the patient because it happens very fast. It's great for the doctor because they make it.

Heath Fletcher (11:20)
So are there doctors that strictly do this remotely and they never go into a physical space anymore? Interesting.

Michael Gorton. (11:29)
And we did a financial analysis case study that doctors who were practicing in the primary care world were working 12 hours a day, five and six days a week, and they were making about $148,000 a year. I think this was 2004 or 2005 that we did this study. Wow. The doctors, so that was 10 hours a day and $148,000. If they worked

8 hours a day for us, so 2 hours less, 5 days a week, they can make about 250,000 in the telemedicine.

Heath Fletcher (12:08)
So, Nick, what

Michael Gorton. (12:09)
A lot

more money, a lot less stress.

Heath Fletcher (12:13)
And then on the patient side, ⁓ it's a convenience thing. It's accessibility, particularly for people who live in remote areas where they don't even have a doctor. And conversations I've had, like there are people in those areas will actually put off going to the doctor, even if they do have ⁓ problems or ailments or things that should be addressed, they'll put it off because they don't have access to the doctor. They won't be going into the major center for another couple of weeks.

And by then that smaller condition may have escalated and it's now something much bigger than if it had been addressed weeks before, could have avoided a whole bunch of stuff. So I've heard that from people before and it's recently too about that accessibility for people who live in rural areas.

Michael Gorton. (13:03)
Right. And you just finished reading the digital medical home book. So you'll remember in the very beginning of the book, we talk about a case, which is a real patient named Nelson. And, and this, this sort of expands the thinking a little bit, because if you make it simple, you might save some lives because the patient doesn't think it's simple. mean, the patient thinks it's too hard to go see a doctor. And in that particular case, Nelson wakes up.

something's wrong, but he's got an important meeting and he's not going to miss that meeting no matter what. And then he remembers, now what's this telemedicine thing? So this was way back in the beginning. And so he uses his cell phone while he's driving to his meeting and the doctor says, stop what you're doing, go straight to the ER. Well, his wife had said, call your doctor. And he's like, no, sweetheart, I'm fine. I got an important meeting. But when the doctor said it,

It saved his life. that was, the doctor couldn't treat him, but the doctor listened to his symptoms and said, whoa, you're in big trouble, go now. there's all kinds of cases like that where make it super simple and you'll catch things earlier.

Heath Fletcher (14:26)
Yeah, that's interesting. mean, obviously, you know, telemedicine and ⁓ companies like Teladoc are providing those services and now people are using them. Like you said, 96 million people. It's incredible that it's gotten to that ⁓ state. mean, and that was big jump from before COVID to now. Right? Yeah.

Michael Gorton. (14:46)
Yeah. And

Teladoc is not the largest revenue company in healthcare, but it is the largest patient population company in healthcare. And it's, ⁓ it is definitely a company that if you don't, if you're not aware of it, go look it up. It's, ⁓ what

What they've done in the last 10, 15 years is pretty extraordinary. They have a brand new CEO there who's also extraordinary. I'm a big fan of his and I think saving lives is an important part of being a good member of society and Teladoc is definitely doing that.

Heath Fletcher (15:32)
Yeah. Now you are on to something new now with Rekiro, correct? So you feel like talking about that a little bit? Cause that, know, all these, all these steps brought you to that point. my understanding when I was reading the book is like you went through this journey through telemedicine and eventually got to where you are now and identified a few other things that needed some

Michael Gorton. (15:48)
Great.

Heath Fletcher (16:01)
some repair so yeah.

Michael Gorton. (16:03)
And for clarity, I am a serial entrepreneur. And as we said earlier, not serial killer, serial entrepreneur.

Heath Fletcher (16:12)
Serial Builder.

Michael Gorton. (16:14)
And there we go. with Recuro if you think about what problem did Teladoc really solve, and that was access, you now can get a doctor in 10 minutes and it's going to cost less. So that's, that's an access issue, but people are still getting sick. They're still dying. What's the next step? And with Recuro, what we said was,

In the beginning, we actually called it Teladoc 2.0. ⁓ really? Yeah. What we said was, let's catch things early.

And you know, that one went in one ear and out the other. It's actually a Ben Franklin ⁓ comment.

Heath Fletcher (17:07)
Was that a spin-off of the an apple a day keeps a doctor away?

Michael Gorton. (17:12)
Maybe, maybe, maybe, you know, Franklin said a lot of great things, but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In other words, you can catch it early. It's really easy to fix. And let's use cancer for an example. You can catch cancer coming into stage one. It's a doctor saying, okay, he changed these couple of things. And here's a pill you'll take once a day for a

two weeks and you're done. You catch cancer at stage four, the doctor is saying you're going to need chemo, you're going to need radiation, you're going to need surgery, your life is going to change, you're probably going to die. Ounce of prevention catches it early, fixes it easily. Pound of cure is chemo at stage four. And so, but how do you do that? Because you walk down the city street and you see

Heath Fletcher (18:00)
Right.

Michael Gorton. (18:11)
musicians and athletes and engineers and they don't know healthcare like the doctors do and they don't have time to learn healthcare like the doctors do. So we have to be thinking out front and not making people build electronic circuits every time they watch TV. They just pick up a remote control and press some buttons and they get to whatever they want. And that's what we need to be doing with healthcare. Make it super simple.

make it catch the things early. Right now we're on a zoom call. What if that camera could be diagnosing as we're doing the phone call? Now it doesn't have to be. We could press a switch so that it could be diagnosing and actually working with a company that's doing something like that right now called SenseEye. They're watching eye movement blink.

Heath Fletcher (19:04)
⁓ wow, it's running the iris. wow.

Michael Gorton. (19:11)
pupil dilation, and they can diagnose things. And that's pretty spectacular. So how do we catch things? Well, we start using the tools a little better. And by using the tools, we catch things early and by catching things early, we fix a big part of healthcare. Why are costs rising? Because chemo radiation surgery at stage four is very expensive. A doctor consulting saying change your diet.

Not so expensive.

Heath Fletcher (19:43)
Yeah. that's, mean, and then also too, you know, I think this was brought up when I was talking to Dr. Sanders was that, you know, when you start bringing in technology such as AI as well, and you start collecting that data. like you said, collecting data that's coming in from the eye and sensing that information and collecting it and, processing it and assimilating it and giving, ⁓ giving back feedback. You're now, you're now speeding up that.

process of like, what is wrong? What's not consistent with the way this person was six months previously. So you're now creating a history, a digital history of somebody, right?

Michael Gorton. (20:24)
Right, right. The things that are coming, the technology, the AI, the biochemistry, it's getting better and better all

Heath Fletcher (20:38)
Yeah, it's, what did somebody say the science fiction of yesterday is the science of today? Because we used to dream about this stuff as kids, right? We would watch television shows and they would scan people and repair them in real time in the moment and beam you up to the medical deck and the automation would take over and fix it. But we're actually almost there.

Michael Gorton. (20:45)
Exactly right.

Yeah.

Heath Fletcher (21:08)
And

I freak a lot of people out, but it's also quite exciting.

Michael Gorton. (21:12)
A cool side story. Some of your audience will recognize the name Buzz Aldrin because he walked on the moon with Neil Armstrong. In fact, that's him right there. And Buzz became an advisor to Teladoc. He was very helpful. He knew nothing about medicine, but Buzz was so important to the growth of Teladoc because

Heath Fletcher (21:25)
there he is, okay, right over here.

Michael Gorton. (21:41)
There wasn't a person on the planet who wouldn't take his phone call. And so when nobody knew who we were and we wanted to talk to the president of such and such, but, but, but I remember to your point about technology and, and it buzzed that he would always hold up his phone. And this was like six years ago, eight years ago, he would say, this thing is more powerful than all the computers on the planet. When he went to the moon, all the computers on the planet combined.

Heath Fletcher (21:49)
Bring in Buzz.

Michael Gorton. (22:11)
This thing all by itself is more powerful and that is, think of the things we can do with our smartphone. mean, who has an encyclopedia in their house anymore? You don't need it.

Heath Fletcher (22:20)
It's incredible.

No, mean these tell us in school, you better learn your math and your times table because you're not going to be able to carry a calculator around with you every day, everywhere you go. But actually I can just talk out loud and ask for a calculator and it'll give it to me. So ⁓ go back to your Cura. What is your Cura doing?

Michael Gorton. (22:37)
No, I know. ⁓

⁓ Recuro is doing exactly what I just said. Let's build the engine that catches things early. And so you have to start simple. the first thing we started doing with Recuro was saying, we need simplicity. How do we catch things? There was a really good case that we used to look at and it was a medical doctor who was a friend of mine who called me and said,

got bad news, I'm dying of cancer. And I always thought about, okay, wait a minute, how does a medical doctor get to stage four before? And the reality is, and I said that to her, and what she said was, you know, I'm really busy. I got to practice, I got my husband, I've got kids, I got all the activities of life, and I just didn't take the time. How do we make it so that you take the time? And if...

If a lab could arrive on your front door tomorrow and you prick your finger or pee in a cup or whatever you have to do for that lab and put it back on the porch and FedEx comes and gets it the next day, that's super simple. And that's the way Recuro is thinking about this. How can we get the very beginnings of the super simple? What I talked about a minute ago with the zoom camera,

is something that's a couple of years down the road. It's being tested now, but it's not ready yet. But what we can do now is we can figure out how do we get a lab into the home and make it really easy so the patient doesn't have to do anything. so that's what Recuro is doing, is trying to find that cutting edge of the supersensitivity.

Heath Fletcher (24:37)
Is that including like, devices that are recording things like, know, everyone's put their, their health watch on their, on their wrist and it's collecting our, my heart rate and is collecting my blood pressure and whatever else. Is that the kind of thing? So it's, it's kind of a way to collect information so that it's easy for people to, that it almost automated in the sense that it's being collected and stored and, processed. Right. And then if, if there's something that's, ⁓

So that information's all coming in and then something is triggered that something's wrong. ⁓ Some blood work is off or something's been identified, your blood pressure has been too high for too long, et cetera, et cetera. That's when your recruiter would ⁓ sort of, the doctor would be alerted and that patient would be contacted or alerted or else automatically alerted to the condition that's been.

been going on and even though they may not have identified it themselves.

Michael Gorton. (25:39)
But it could also be just routine stuff, you I don't know, you nodded when I said the name of the TV show, Dragnet. So I'm just gonna make the assumption that you're over 40. It could be wrong and I apologize. Once you turn 40, the most dreaded thing for all of you out there who are younger than 40 is the colonoscopy.

Heath Fletcher (25:53)
No, no, yeah

been there and do it all the time.

Michael Gorton. (26:08)
And, and, you know, it isn't, it is a, it is a dreaded part of, ⁓ of the life cycle, ⁓ as we age and, lot of people skip it. And because they skip it, they end up with colon cancer, which is not a good thing. There is a great company, ⁓ that does something called Coligard. It doesn't require that colon.

And Recuro is pioneering delivery of that polo guard, the people who want to not have that nightmare night before and day of. so those are the kinds of things that you have to constantly be looking for. Because as I said, the average person is the musician and the engineer and the ditch digger. And we don't know about health care that much. We need somebody to make it so simple that it just comes to us.

Heath Fletcher (27:05)
And it's

a complicated system, the healthcare system, isn't it? It's tough to navigate, particularly when you get into a situation where you actually have a disease or a condition that needs to be treated. And the idea is to avoid that entirely.

Michael Gorton. (27:21)
And by avoiding it, you make a significant transformation in the cost of healthcare. So it seems crazy that you would send a lab to somebody's home. That sounds expensive, but ⁓ it's a thousand times cheaper than what happens after that doctor says, I'm sorry to tell you, you have stage 4X. And so you can send a lot of ⁓ coli guards

people's homes, catch things early and make lives so much better and the cost of care go down.

Heath Fletcher (27:59)
So is this like a mobile lab unit like you're talking about? that what? ⁓

Michael Gorton. (28:02)
That's

what that particular thing is. But that's just another example. The thing that Rehiro is constantly doing is looking for the engines that catch things early. The way we used to say it is let's catch things before they get expensive and dangerous. Catch them before they get expensive and dangerous and you're helping the patients and you're helping the system.

Heath Fletcher (28:28)
I just spoke with somebody from a company that does a mobile, has a unit that can be a mobile breast exam.

and that could be used, ⁓ not being used in the United States right now, but is potentially being used in other countries that have different standards, but until the FDA approves it, then ⁓ they're using it in remote places in lower income countries that are experiencing high levels of breast cancer. And they've got a mobile unit that does it, and it's a completely hands-free ⁓ process. So these things are coming. ⁓

It's incredible to see what's happening.

Michael Gorton. (29:08)
And some of them are on your wrist right now. I mean, a significant percentage of the population has smartwatches. Those smartwatches are constantly watching pulse rate, oxygen level, all kinds of pulling in all kinds of data. And what happens to that data? Nothing. You look at it and you go, okay, that's And the reality is, if you combine that data with AI and a potential medical doctor, then

Heath Fletcher (29:27)
It's super valuable too.

Michael Gorton. (29:37)
you can start using just the smartwatch to catch things. And that's at no cost. ⁓ One of my favorite sort of funny stories is about three Christmases ago, the last gift I gave to my wife, she opens up and it's a scale. You know, one of the ones you step on to find your weight. ⁓ no.

So that you you nailed it. mean, the husband of the world will know you want to find a fast way to die. Give your wife a scale. It's the next thing you know, it's flying at your forehead and your dad, except, know, we are we both love data and there's $50 scales you can buy on Amazon. You stand on them for 30 seconds in your bare feet and it'll give you 15 biometric data points and

Heath Fletcher (30:24)
That's super cool. ⁓

Michael Gorton. (30:26)
And all you have to do is, you know, take your shower or use the bathroom or whatever and stand on it. And, ⁓ and all of that data gets transferred up to your smartphone. And then your smartphone can move it into the cloud where AI looks at it. And now it starts building trend lines. And if it starts seeing things that are unusual, it pings your doctor and pings you and says, Hey, what happened? You know, what changed on this particular day?

I guarantee you within 10 years, we are going to be able to diagnose a significant percentage of the things that are killing people today with tools as simple as a smartwatch or a scale in your back.

Heath Fletcher (31:08)
So that data, if we're thinking future, that data gets collected. So I'm wearing my smartphone, I got this, I'm getting my eye scan when I'm visiting my doctor or whatever, all that data is being collected. So if it's in a subscription-based software and it's been stored on a server, ⁓ I own it, I log in, I can go, I can look at all my data, look at my history, look at my research, look at the information that's being collected.

any feedback, suggestions, maybe start eating more of this or less of this or add some vitamin D or those kinds of things. can be, and I can own it. Is that right? Like it would be all my information.

Michael Gorton. (31:51)
You can do whatever you want with it. could stay, you know, where nobody sees it, or it could get pushed somewhere where AI sees

Heath Fletcher (31:59)
And you can assign it to your doctor, say, no, this is my doctor, here's his contact information, and it could be processing and sending that data off to the doctor on a regular basis.

Michael Gorton. (32:10)
The

thing that Jay Sanders will tell you, and he may have said it on your podcast is if you go to the doctor, some nurse puts a cuff on your arm, pumps it up and says 120 over 70, you're good. I think Jay very correctly says that is a meaningless data point because it is not the blood pressure today. It's the trend line over time. That's what gets significant.

And if you're going to your doctor once a year, it's not enough data. the doctor is to look at the data. That's why you put an AI bot in there to watch trend lines. And when it sees something alarming, it notifies you and your doctor. And then you can go in for more testing. That's the way to catch things early.

Heath Fletcher (32:47)
once every five.

Michael Gorton. (33:06)
No, we're there. We're there now. You can do that kind of thing now. And not at the point where we can diagnose from that platform, because diagnosis typically requires FDA approval, and that takes time. But there are a lot of companies that are trying to look at a combination of

Heath Fletcher (33:13)
Word.

Michael Gorton. (33:33)
blood oxygen and pulse rate as a function of time of day and blood pressure and all the different biometric factors that you can get from a smartwatch and a bathroom scale. And what you're gonna see, I think, as we go into 10 to 15 years from now is we'll be able to diagnose most ailments early on.

And then it's just the doctor saying, change your diet. And then, you know, a lot of people won't, they'll still eat whatever it is the doctor says don't.

Heath Fletcher (34:08)
We know there's a certain percentage of the population that buys into prevention and will take that up. I mean, I think particularly if you get something from an email or a text from your doctor saying, ⁓ please add vitamin D to your supplement program based on your recent blood work that we got from the mobile lab unit that came by your house.

Okay, I'm gonna go well that really like you said makes that very simple. Why wouldn't I listen to that? Why wouldn't I hear that right? Even if I didn't really You know do a lot wasn't a particularly healthy, you know, I don't exercise on a regular basis But it's something as simple as adding something like a supplement. Why wouldn't someone do that, right? Yeah So, um, where's the cure right now and what's next for you?

Michael Gorton. (34:52)
Yep.

You

know, Recuro has been growing like crazy. I stepped out of Recuro a year and a half ago. And you know, I've been I've been playing and helping early growth stage companies and writing books and and having the time of my life. I'm still working the 60 hours a week, but ⁓ but I don't

Heath Fletcher (35:20)
Does it feel like we're?

Michael Gorton. (35:22)
And it didn't, it didn't, at Rekiro I was probably working 75 hours a week and for the most part it didn't feel like

Heath Fletcher (35:30)
So you talk about writing, you're an author, nine books. ⁓ Tell us a little bit about your writing history.

Michael Gorton. (35:41)
The first couple books I wrote were political thrillers. was just, I gotta get this story out of my head or my brain is gonna blow up. And so we just write it. But then I did a lot of writing for thought leadership and to help inspire people and to help transform ⁓ the way people were thinking about things. ⁓ When I left Recuro, I wrote a sci-fi.

that was just supposed to be a one off. it was called, it is called back beyond tunnel and it started catching on and people said, you gotta write a sequel to this. So, ⁓ in March I published the sequel to it and that book since March has sold more books than all of the rest of my books combined. And, ⁓ so now

I've now hired a publicist to work with me. And this is a part-time thing. I do this five to 10 hours a week. But I have a great publicist named Lynn McGinnis and Lynn gives me assignments and I get them done every week. And I the goal is to have book three of that series done in late September, early October and book four around this time next year. And then try and get a Netflix series out of it.

And, know, I think it is so what was Teladoc fundamentally, it was an innovation. It was let's take an idea and turn it into something that's simple and easy for people to touch and understand. And that's what the book is, essentially. ⁓ As a scientist. Who loves science fiction, I see all these different ways we're going to travel in the future, whether it's

rocket engines or, you know, things that go into black holes and, and just have a slightly different perspective about the universe and travel and time. And, that's what the tacky on tunnel series is. It's, it's some great adventures. It's some romance, it's people interacting and it's hardcore science that's made super simple. So everybody can understand it.

Heath Fletcher (37:49)
Hey.

People who like science fiction, think, have a way of... They want to see the world, that there are other dimensions, are other universes, there are other ⁓ planets. I think that's probably fundamentally to everybody who's a science fiction fan is that ⁓ that's a vision. It's something that you can kind of embrace, right? I'm a science fiction freak. was 10 years old when ⁓ Star Wars came out and...

you my ⁓

Michael Gorton. (38:41)
Star Wars is, it's just pure story, right? Star Trek, and it's so funny to me, a lot of people, you know, always go, Star Trek or Star Wars. And they're really very different. Star Trek is, the things they did in Star Trek, we're actually doing now. There were so many innovations. mean, Motorola named their flip phone after this Star Trek communicator, but

Heath Fletcher (38:45)
Sure.

They're so different.

Michael Gorton. (39:10)
⁓ You know, one of the things I think is really interesting is people are very ⁓ focused on is there alien life? Do other civilizations exist out there? And when I did my graduate work in physics, it was something called plasma physics. And to me then, it was just all numbers, magnetic fields, electromagnetic, it was all math and creating shapes. Now,

Plasma physics has become the realm of where probably we will find intelligence. The entire universe is plasma. We are this little speck of dust called Earth where there's these organic life forms that are super fragile. And we live a hundred years. Plasma exists forever. And what we've seen in the last 10, 12 years is that plasma

on a large scale is self organizing. there, but on a smaller scale, there's been really interesting things that we've seen. There's a, there's a great video of a ball lightning that entered an airplane in flight and it went down the aisle, stopping at places and then continued and then left the airplane.

There are, you know, people, some of the passengers told the story and some of there were videos of it and people were like, it was like it was stopping and looking and observing. And, ⁓ the current generation of plasma physicists is saying that. Plasma not on that smallest scale, but maybe that's like a probe, you know, how much intelligence could be in that thing? Not that much, but it's collecting data and, ⁓ but.

When you think about how much can we think with this, the neurons that are inside this head and then expand it, the entire universe is plasma. And if the plasma can communicate with plasma, then the whole universe is like a brain or, know, and it's just bizarre to think about. But I think that's one of the things I start in this Pacquiao tunnel science fiction book that is

you're gonna see a lot of sci-fi start adopting this in the coming years.

Heath Fletcher (41:46)
Yeah, mean, it's like a lot of stories are adapting quantum physics, right? Years ago, quantum physics wasn't something that everybody talked about. And now it becomes something that it's mentioned in almost every science fiction ⁓ storyline of some sort, because it's a place where things go and come back from. it's almost like they're using it as a way to explain time travel, for example.

But that's interesting to be used.

Michael Gorton. (42:16)
Quantum

is really funny because everybody knows the name of Albert Einstein. So here's the simplest definition of quantum for all the non-scientists out there. It's the billions and quadrillions of little tiny particles. How do you calculate what they're going to do? It's really hard to do. And it is so hard that you can't use calculus and algebra and geometry. You have to use probability and statistics. Everything else in

In physics, you can use calculus and algebra and geometry. If I drop a rock, I can tell you 100 % of the time how it's going to land, how much noise. In quantum, you're sort of guessing. You're accurate a big percentage of the time. So going back to Einstein, Einstein in the beginning was not a quantum physics buff. He said, his famous line is, I cannot believe that God played dice.

with the universe. That's how he analyzed quantum physics. know, Dyson's probability in statistics, right? That's how you do the math for quantum. But what a cool word, quantum. It belongs in every science novel.

Heath Fletcher (43:32)
I think I read somewhere, somebody said quantum physics is the science is science has tried to prove it doesn't exist and they haven't been able to and they also can't prove that the other scientists can't prove that it does exist therefore they have to acknowledge that it's there because they can't prove they can't prove it doesn't exist and that's the whole point of science is to prove that something doesn't work as opposed to how it that it does work anyways

That was a

Michael Gorton. (44:02)
We need better math. Eventually it will happen. Maybe AI will develop a better math system for us.

Heath Fletcher (44:09)
It probably will. it probably will. Now, on the subject of science and space, you are on to something else too, aren't you? There's another, you have another project, Phantomspace.

Michael Gorton. (44:20)
I am really fortunate to be working with a company called Phantom Space. And the founders of Phantom Space were the first employees at SpaceX. And there's this wonderful story, if you've read the Elon Musk book, and I almost hate to say Elon's name these days because some people really hate him. But for those of you who really hate him, just listen to the story.

Heath Fletcher (44:48)
He's not trending anymore. He's not the favorite.

Michael Gorton. (44:52)
So, wind the clock back to early 2001, before 9-11, and there's this guy named Jim Cantrell who's really well known in the space industry. And he happens to speak French and Russian because he did projects in the United States, France and Russia. And he's driving in his convertible. Now, roll back to the kind of cell phones we had back then.

hopped down in the convertible, he sees his cell phone ring, he doesn't recognize the number, so he doesn't answer it. And it rings again, and it rings again, and it rings again. And finally he answers it he's like, who the blank is this? And of course it's noisy, he thinks the guy says his name is Aaron Moss and he wants to build rockets to go to Mars. That was the beginning of SpaceX. And Jim Cantrell brought Elon to Russia.

Heath Fletcher (45:43)
That's the beginning of it, wow.

Michael Gorton. (45:49)
Because in the beginning, the thinking was nobody could build rockets. Therefore, we just go buy Russian rockets, strap them all together, and have one giant rocket. And when the Russians basically spit on Elon, for those of you who hate Elon, then maybe you agree with the Russians back then. But when they came back, Elon said, let's build our own rockets. And that was such a preposterous.

proposal. Nations built rockets, not, And, and of course, you know, last year SpaceX launched more rockets than everybody else combined. And so, you know, I guess they've proven, but what Cantrell and his team is doing is the SpaceX rockets are getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And

Heath Fletcher (46:19)
Who says

not individuals.

Michael Gorton. (46:48)
So fundamentally they are the giant 747s of the rocket world and now you need the smaller things to get to more precise places and that's what they do and And then once they start delivering those rockets the way they're thinking next generation is

Heath Fletcher (47:01)
I see.

Michael Gorton. (47:14)
put data centers in space. So all of us that are using AI may not realize that our AI request is not happening here on the cell phone level. It's going out to a 6 million square foot facility that's burning, you know, hundreds of megawatt hours of power. And ⁓ if you can put those data centers in outer space rather than down on the ground in Nevada or

Texas.

Heath Fletcher (47:45)
my god, it's brilliant.

Michael Gorton. (47:47)
And as people think

Heath Fletcher (47:49)
It's cold out there. You don't need to cool them down.

Michael Gorton. (47:52)
And

you have infinite solar power to power them running at DC. And the other thing is people go, well, space is really far away. How do get the wires? And I live in a really nice home that was built in 2006. when I was talking to the builder, I needed Ethernet, three wall. I needed cable TV, cell phone.

Heath Fletcher (47:57)
⁓ my god, that is absolutely

ethernet cable, co-labs

cable, ⁓ everything.

Michael Gorton. (48:23)
don't

use any of that anymore. It's all wireless now. And if you're in New York City right now, your data center is probably in West Texas or Nevada. When you press enter on that keyboard from New York City, it goes through every 15 miles or so. There's a little power repeater boosting the signal all the way out to West Texas and then all the way back. If your data center is in outer space, no fiber optic.

Heath Fletcher (48:56)
up and down. No mountains to go through. No, no concrete walls to go through. No, exactly.

Michael Gorton. (49:03)
It's and when, when I first heard that SpaceX was going to be putting the internet in space, even as a futurist and an innovator, I thought that's a stupid idea. That'll never work. now ⁓ Starlink is cheaper and, more reliable than most internet services. And quote the great Kathy Wood, who is one of the great investment thinkers of our time.

A few weeks ago, I was on a call and she said, the scientists in Antarctica now have faster internet than most people in United States. And think about that. How do you get internet to Antarctica? Starlink.

Heath Fletcher (49:56)
Wow. That is, that's crazy. Cause I mean, I was reading about Phantom space and I saw that there was, ⁓ satellites going up, but I didn't make the connection about, about putting, ⁓ AI up there. That's, I think that's

Michael Gorton. (50:13)
It is brilliant. All the blockchain, all the AI will be in space in 15 years. And all of the internet or most of the internet will also be space based.

Heath Fletcher (50:18)
All of it.

Wow. It makes perfect sense when you think about it, actually. Wow. You are, you are truly a science fiction. What'd I call you? Oracle. That's awesome. ⁓ that's great. Okay. So you, that's, that's your, that's your newest project. That's pretty exciting. Very cool. Michael. That's great. Very cool. ⁓ well, I've, ⁓ really, enjoyed.

Michael Gorton. (50:37)
I'm having fun.

thing.

Heath Fletcher (50:56)
chatting with you again and hearing more about this. Before we wrap up, let's come back full circle to healthcare and tell me what, where are you seeing some of the other issues in healthcare, some things that need fixing or some new, more innovation that needs to come up?

Michael Gorton. (51:17)
I think that there needs to be a lot more doors opened for entrepreneurial thinking in the healthcare space because the biggest challenge we had at Teladoc wasn't the delivery of new ideas. It was the resistance to change. And, ⁓ know, we

can't get perfection. What we can get is we can get faster delivery of innovation. And by doing that, people will still die, but I think at a much lower rate. And there are so many great ideas out there that never make it to the market because the FDA process is so slow and so expensive.

And that is something we've got to fix. ⁓ There are so many ⁓ innovators that never get through the existing bureaucracy, even if they don't need FDA, because we've always done it this way. We can't do it that way. those are the things that we all need to collectively get together and make happen.

And I think the political right was probably really happy. ⁓ we've got this new president. He's going to do these new things. And then the next president from the political left will come along and they'll all say, ⁓ we're going to be happy because and the reality is we as a people have to all get together and say, we've got to fix these things. I think.

It's such a big challenge. I don't necessarily have a real solution. But those of us who want to be the innovators have to ⁓ drop our politics and say, OK, I don't care. Let's figure out how do we get rid of the bureaucracy? Because that's really our biggest enemy right now. ⁓ I was talking to friend this morning who believes in perfection, and I kept saying, ⁓ perfection is the enemy of success.

If you spend all your time trying to make it perfect, you'll never be able to make a decision because we're humans. can't get anything perfect. What we have to do, we have to make a decision run as fast as we can. And if we see it's a mistake, step back and fix it.

Heath Fletcher (53:55)
I think you're right. I mean, these processes were put in place for a reason, obviously, but times have changed. Everything's changed. People have changed. Technology's changed. We can't do things. ⁓ Usually when you find out that there is a problem, you can't, you have to, you can't fix it by doing the same thing. You have to change it by trying something different. so, but the resistance to change is real.

And you're right, ⁓ it is a barrier to success. However, persistence is probably the cure. that's usually what...

Michael Gorton. (54:32)
persistence

always wins. It's frustrating for those of us who have to be persistent all the time, but you just learn to live with it.

Heath Fletcher (54:42)
Put a smile on your face. Pick up a good book when you've got the time and get up tomorrow and try again. Well, you've got a tremendous amount of persistence, tremendous amount of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. So I really thank you for spending time with me today and sharing your journeys and your stories. yeah, I hope to hear more soon about what you're going to be doing.

Phantom space and everything else and your upcoming books. I'll be watching. got to get, I'm going to have to get dug into your, to your series now because I've read, I've read digital medical health, but I'm to have to carry, get onto that right now. So, ⁓ thank you very much again for your time. Any last, ⁓ any last thoughts, anything that you'd like to

Michael Gorton. (55:24)
Good, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

You know, I think to the

extent that anybody in your audience listening has some innovative ideas and they want some help or they want to bounce it, ⁓ I'm happy you can find me on LinkedIn.

Heath Fletcher (55:48)
Okay. is there, what are any of, do have a website or anything?

Michael Gorton. (55:53)
www.portland.us

is my website. Pretty easy.

Heath Fletcher (55:57)
Okay, perfect. So there you go, LinkedIn and Michael Gordon.us. Excellent. Well, thank you so much and appreciate your time today and we'll talk again. Sounds good.

Okay, so ⁓ that was a great conversation. I hope you kept track of that. If not, I suggest you go back and listen to it again. I think I'm gonna have to as well. We covered a lot of subject matter. We talked about telemedicine, teledoc, plasma physics, quantum physics, phantom space, Tachyon Tunnels, the digital medical home. There's a lot going on in that head of his, but one thing we do, ⁓

we do agree on is that simplifying healthcare is going to lead to better patient outcomes, ⁓ reduced costs, and healthcare innovation does face some significant bureaucratic hurdles. regardless of that, Gordon encourages collaboration among innovators to overcome those challenges. And he's seeking those solutions now. So we've got some good ideas. ⁓ Reach out to Michael.

and I'm sure he'd love to hear about them. Thank you very much for joining me on this episode. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and please stay healthy and take care.