Patty Hayward is the General Manager of Healthcare and Life Sciences at Talkdesk, where she leads innovation at the intersection of AI, technology, and patient experience for healthcare organizations.

Key Takeaways

• Deep Personal Motivation: Patty’s passion for patient experience stems from her family’s struggle navigating complex healthcare for her mother. This drives her mission to simplify and humanize patient journeys.
• Transforming Contact Centers: Talkdesk is applying AI to rethink traditional healthcare contact centers. By integrating electronic health records, smart routing, and agent assist tools, they aim to ensure every patient feels known, supported, and guided from their first call.
• Empowering Agents: The goal is to upskill contact center agents-reducing time-to-proficiency, increasing job satisfaction, and creating healthcare career growth. AI handles routine queries, while agents focus on complex, human-centered needs.
• AI for Patient Experience: Patty draws compelling analogies to Amazon and Delta, envisioning healthcare systems that anticipate patient needs and minimize frustration. She argues that a truly great patient experience requires patients never have to repeat themselves.
• Critical AI Adoption Considerations: The democratization of AI (especially LLMs) is making advanced solutions accessible to organizations without deep IT resources. Yet, Patty stresses the importance of rethinking processes-“don’t automate a bad process”-and keeping trust, privacy, and clinical care at the forefront.
• Balancing Innovation and Trust: Patty acknowledges that while rapid AI adoption is exciting, healthcare’s primary goal is always quality clinical care. Any patient engagement technology must build trust, ensure safety, and ultimately improve-not complicate-outcomes.

About Patty Hayward

Patty Hayward, GM of healthcare and life sciences at Talkdesk, has over a quarter century of industry strategy experience, including at organizations such as McKesson, Medicity, and Humedica. She is an expert in HIE, population health, pharmacy, process redesign for healthcare systems, and increasing access to patient information.

A "glow up" signifies a positive transformation, reflecting the journey of becoming a better, more successful version of oneself.

At The Glow Up, we humanize the startup and innovation landscape by focusing on the essential aspects of the entrepreneurial journey. Groundbreaking ideas are often ahead of their time, making resilience and perseverance vital for founders and product leaders.

In our podcast, we engage with innovators to discuss their transformative ideas, the challenges they face, and how they create value for future success.

If you're a founder or product leader seeking your own glow up, or a seasoned entrepreneur with stories to share, we invite you to join our guest list via this link.

Julie Smithson is the CEO of MetaVRse and co-founder of 6ix Ventures, a mission-driven family of companies building an ecosystem for the next generation of educational innovation. Recognized as a pioneering entrepreneur, Julie brings a unique blend of hands-on experience from launching 200+ immersive projects and a personal commitment to preparing future leaders to thrive in a world shaped by emerging technology.

Key Takeaways:

• Family of Purpose-Driven Ventures: 6ix Ventures unites MetaVRse, Unlimited Awesome, and a sovereign data solution, all under a mission to inspire and educate the next generation-to think and act with social, economic, and environmental sustainability, using cutting-edge tools.
• Immersive, Curriculum-Integrated Learning: Unlimited Awesome tackles the gaps left by traditional education: perseverance, teamwork, social impact, environmental literacy, and financial skills. Their curriculum is delivered through immersive, interactive digital experiences powered by MetaVRse.
• Experimental R&D, Powered by Clients: 200+ MetaVRse projects with global brands like Mars Wrigley, spanning healthcare training, consumer engagement, and gamified learning have fueled innovation and validated new models for spatial education and community.
• Technological Convergence: Julie’s vision fuses spatial computing, AI, and blockchain/Web3 to build learning ecosystems and commerce that mirror how youth already play, collaborate, and transact online-bringing game mechanics, digital rewards, and avatars into education and training.
• Digital Identity & Sovereign Data: Avatars become not just game characters, but digital identities, linking learning, collaboration, and commerce. Julie advocates for sovereign data ownership, enabling users to carry their credentials and assets across platforms while retaining control.
• Community-Building & Inclusion: Julie is also a co-founder of XR Women, building the world’s largest global network of women in spatial computing. She believes the future of education and commerce must be inclusive, collaborative, and values-driven.

About Julie Smithson

Julie Smithson’s personal mission is to ‘inspire and educate people to think and act in a socially, economically and environmentally responsible way’.

Julie is the Co-Founder and CEO of METAVRSE, a 3D creation platform the spatial web, akin to ‘Canva’ for immersive experiences. Julie Smithson is also Co-Founder of Unlimited Awesome, a venture focused on implementing success principles to drive digital innovation.

As Co-Founder of XR Women, Julie Smithson leads the world’s largest global community dedicated to empowering women in virtual platforms. Over the past four years, she and her team have organized more than 192 immersive events, featuring prominent women speakers from the industry and engaging a diverse, growing membership of over 1,200 women across 60+ countries.

A "glow up" signifies a positive transformation, reflecting the journey of becoming a better, more successful version of oneself.

At The Glow Up, we humanize the startup and innovation landscape by focusing on the essential aspects of the entrepreneurial journey. Groundbreaking ideas are often ahead of their time, making resilience and perseverance vital for founders and product leaders.

In our podcast, we engage with innovators to discuss their transformative ideas, the challenges they face, and how they create value for future success.

If you're a founder or product leader seeking your own glow up, or a seasoned entrepreneur with stories to share, we invite you to join our guest list via this link.

Ashley Coffey is the CEO of Coffey and Consult and host of the Coffey and Code podcast. She specializes in bridging the gap between technology and people, helping small and medium-sized businesses—especially in Oklahoma and the Midwest—leverage emerging technologies like AI for efficiency, profitability, and empowerment.

Key Takeaways:

• Making Tech Accessible: Ashley founded Coffey and Consult to bring innovation and technology consulting to businesses in Oklahoma, eliminating the need for local founders to seek coastal agencies for modern expertise.
• AI and Tech Adoption: She demystifies AI for business owners, focusing on practical adoption, minimizing “tech overwhelm,” and maximizing efficiency with the right tools.
• Industry-Agnostic Approach: Ashley works across sectors, emphasizing that technology and AI are universal enablers. She often finds companies overspending on fragmented, redundant software stacks and helps them consolidate and optimize instead.
• Education First—Teaching to Fish: Ashley’s consulting goes beyond tool recommendations. She teaches organizations how to critically assess their business problems and technology needs (not just “what’s the best tool?” but “what’s the best tool for our outcome?”), fostering sustainable, independent tech decision-making.
• Championing Human Connection: Despite AI’s rise, Ashley believes the “human touch” is at a premium—helping clients see technology as an enabler for more meaningful work, not a replacement for human insight.
• Impact-Driven and Iterative: She measures her success by how empowered her clients become—tracking increased efficiency, reduced software bloat, and improved confidence and independence in tech decision-making.
• Empowering with AI Literacy: Ashley highlights a knowledge gap: many business owners (and even younger generations) struggle to use AI effectively. She provides hands-on workshops to move clients from AI “search engine” users to strategic AI partners, emphasizing clear articulation and thoughtful prompting.

About Ashely Coffey

Ashley Coffey is an emerging technologies subject matter expert with over a decade of experience in the technology industry, including roles in both the public, private and non-profit sectors, and is recognized by the Journal Record in the 2022 Powerlist of Innovative Women in Oklahoma.

Ashley interweaves her lived experience and diverse background across industries to help companies achieve greater efficiency and profitability by leveraging technology in meaningful ways.

Ashley is a TEDx speaker and has presented professionally on emerging technologies nationwide, including Harvard and SXSW-EDU. She serves on the Boards of the American Marketing Association, Oklahoma Chapter, and SXSW Pitch. In addition, she volunteers as a mentor in the OKC community for young women pursuing careers in technology.

A "glow up" signifies a positive transformation, reflecting the journey of becoming a better, more successful version of oneself.

At The Glow Up, we humanize the startup and innovation landscape by focusing on the essential aspects of the entrepreneurial journey. Groundbreaking ideas are often ahead of their time, making resilience and perseverance vital for founders and product leaders.

In our podcast, we engage with innovators to discuss their transformative ideas, the challenges they face, and how they create value for future success.

If you're a founder or product leader seeking your own glow up, or a seasoned entrepreneur with stories to share, we invite you to join our guest list via this link.

Melissa Hollis is the CEO and co-founder of Taylor Street Collective, a marketing and go-to-market strategy firm focused on helping startups and startup-adjacent service providers clarify their messaging and accelerate their growth.

With a background as the “vicarious entrepreneur,” Melissa has built her career by becoming the first marketing hire at numerous startups, driving foundational brand strategy, and working directly with founders to bring their visions to life.

Key Takeaways:

• Clarity Above All: Melissa believes the most critical part of startup marketing is getting to the “why behind the why.” She helps founders distill their company’s core value down to a powerful, clear statement, ensuring the most important message always leads on the home page and in investor decks.
• Empathy-Driven Research: Taylor Street’s process always begins with in-depth customer research. By developing high-empathy marketing teams (even seeking out folks from acting/theatre backgrounds), Melissa ensures her team can truly step into the shoes of founders and their customers.
• Founders Shouldn’t Go It Alone: Melissa is passionate about building collaborative networks for founders and for fractional CMOs, stressing that partnership and shared expertise are key to survival and success.
• Evolving with AI: Though once hesitant, Taylor Street now transparently and actively integrates AI tools into foundational marketing work for startups, co-building AI-powered “marketing interns” tailored to each brand’s research, FAQ, and legacy content.
• Giving Back: Melissa highlights the impact of Girls Inc of the Pacific Northwest, an organization she supports for empowering girls to become strong, smart, and bold, and emphasizes the importance of mentorship and community for marketers as well as founders.

Melissa’s own “glow up” for the next year is to scale Taylor Street’s new AI-powered marketing foundation kits, enabling startups to hit product-market fit 80% faster by seamlessly blending human empathy and research with AI-driven efficiency.

About Melissa Hollis Co-Founder + Conversion-Obsessed Creative Leader

Melissa is a marketing communications professional and vicarious entrepreneur with 10+ years building brands and go-to-market strategies across industries such as accounting and tax, healthcare, real estate, finance, and tech.

Everyone who has worked with Melissa will tell you she is someone who truly listens when you tell her about your passions and, more than that, she hears and articulates what your heart is trying to convey when you might not have the right words. She takes the most pride in her proven ability to take subjects that are often overlooked and bring their most compelling aspects to the forefront with fresh perspective that are hard to resist.

A "glow up" signifies a positive transformation, reflecting the journey of becoming a better, more successful version of oneself.

At The Glow Up, we humanize the startup and innovation landscape by focusing on the essential aspects of the entrepreneurial journey. Groundbreaking ideas are often ahead of their time, making resilience and perseverance vital for founders and product leaders.

In our podcast, we engage with innovators to discuss their transformative ideas, the challenges they face, and how they create value for future success.

If you're a founder or product leader seeking your own glow up, or a seasoned entrepreneur with stories to share, we invite you to join our guest list via this link.

Dr. Jane Harrington is the CEO and Co-founder of Med Micro Maps, a company developing virtual reality experiences to teach microbiology and infectious disease concepts.

Key Takeaways:

• Med Micro Maps uses VR to create immersive, mission-based games for life science learners to explore viruses and bacteria.
• The company's approach combines color-coding, 3D visualization, and gamification to make learning microbiology more engaging and accessible.
• Their VR experiences are designed to cater to visual and hands-on learners, who make up over 80% of students interviewed.
• Med Micro Maps integrates AI to personalize learning experiences and adapt content to individual user levels.
• The company is expanding beyond medical education to reach broader audiences interested in understanding microbes and health.

Dr. Harrington's journey began as a bench researcher and educator, recognizing the limitations of traditional microbiology education methods. Med Micro Maps evolved from her desire to make microbiology more accessible and engaging, especially as hands-on lab experiences became less common in educational settings.

The company's innovative approach uses a color-coded compass system to help learners understand different types of microbes and their characteristics. This visual method, combined with interactive 3D models in VR, aims to make complex concepts more intuitive and memorable.

Med Micro Maps has recently completed its National Science Foundation Phase One minimal viable product and participated in the ICORP Program, conducting extensive user research. This process led to a shift in their target audience, expanding from medical students to include a broader range of learners interested in life sciences.

About Dr. Jane Harrington.

Dr. Jane Harrington is the CEO/Co-Founder of MedMicroMaps and she is leading an innovative team to create an immersive microbial metaverse. Her life mission is to apply the knowledge acquired from her training as a bacteriology bench researcher with her decades of experience as a medical school educator to make microbiology fun and engaging for students of tomorrow.

After working at colleges in 4 different countries, the pandemic revealed the need for new teaching modalities for personalized learning, especially for bilingual and neurodivergent students.

By leveraging emerging technologies of AI & XR, Dr. Jane aims to revolutionize the learning experience for medical and nursing students by transporting the user to the nanometer perspective in the human body where they can play and talk with super-sized microbes.

A "glow up" signifies a positive transformation, reflecting the journey of becoming a better, more successful version of oneself.

At The Glow Up, we humanize the startup and innovation landscape by focusing on the essential aspects of the entrepreneurial journey. Groundbreaking ideas are often ahead of their time, making resilience and perseverance vital for founders and product leaders.

In our podcast, we engage with innovators to discuss their transformative ideas, the challenges they face, and how they create value for future success.

If you're a founder or product leader seeking your own glow up, or a seasoned entrepreneur with stories to share, we invite you to join our guest list via this link.

Julie Schulz and Mike Dovidio are innovators at Avalon Healthcare Solutions, focusing on using lab data and AI to improve healthcare outcomes, particularly in managing GLP1 medications and addressing rising healthcare costs.

Key Takeaways:

• Avalon uses lab values data to help improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of care, especially in laboratory medicine and provider decision-making.
• The company addresses the financial strain of GLP1 medications (like Ozempic) on healthcare systems by developing tools to identify patients who would benefit most.
• Their approach focuses on comprehensive cardiometabolic health assessment rather than single metrics like BMI to determine appropriate candidates for GLP1s.
• Avalon aims to improve health equity by ensuring medications reach patients with the greatest need rather than just those with better resources.
• The company leverages three data pillars: medical claims, pharmacy claims, and lab values to create comprehensive healthcare insights.

Julie Schulz, VP of Product at Avalon, brings her physician background to oversee their lab values management portfolio. She focuses on using laboratory data to improve healthcare decisions, particularly in the rapidly evolving field of genetics and personalized medicine. Her approach centers on making complex medical information accessible to providers while ensuring cost-effective care.

Mike Dovidio, a pharmacist by training and Product Manager at Avalon, oversees their specialty pharmacy solution. He highlights the critical challenge of GLP1 medications, which are straining healthcare budgets to the point where some insurers are laying off staff to cover costs. The medications' expanding indications could potentially apply to over half the US population, creating an unsustainable financial situation.

Avalon's innovative approach involves looking beyond simple metrics like BMI to assess patients' cardiometabolic health through comprehensive lab testing. This allows for more personalized care decisions and helps ensure that limited healthcare resources are directed to those who need them most. Their analysis has revealed that healthier diabetic patients are three times more likely to receive GLP1 prescriptions, highlighting inequities in the current system.

About the guests

Dr. Julie Shultz is a physician executive and product leader with experience building and leading healthcare decision support, analytics, and B2C products. Specifically, she focuses on value-based care, women's health, medical device, pharma, and patient & physician engagement.

Mike Dovidio holds a PharmD from Duquesne University and a rich background in managing business operations and driving strategic initiatives. At Avalon, he oversees the Specialty Prescription product’s strategy, development, configuration, and maintenance. He brings experience integrating software to enhance clinical operations and implements solutions for specialty pharmacy services.

A "glow up" signifies a positive transformation, reflecting the journey of becoming a better, more successful version of oneself.

At The Glow Up, we humanize the startup and innovation landscape by focusing on the essential aspects of the entrepreneurial journey. Groundbreaking ideas are often ahead of their time, making resilience and perseverance vital for founders and product leaders.

In our podcast, we engage with innovators to discuss their transformative ideas, the challenges they face, and how they create value for future success.

If you're a founder or product leader seeking your own glow up, or a seasoned entrepreneur with stories to share, we invite you to join our guest list via this link.

Dr. Colin Banas is the Chief Medical Officer at DrFirst, a company focused on end-to-end medication management. Here's a summary of the key points from his interview:

Key Takeaways:

• DrFirst aims to get patients on therapy and keep them on therapy through frictionless medication management processes.
• The company uses data and AI to personalize patient experiences and improve medication adherence.
• DrFirst is focusing on optimizing the specialty medication experience, addressing challenges in prior authorization and transparency.
• Dr. Banas emphasizes the importance of augmented intelligence to assist clinicians and tackle administrative burdens.
• The company touches a quarter of all prescriptions in the United States, providing significant scale for impact.

Dr. Banas's journey into healthcare technology began when he co-founded the Office of Clinical Transformation at his previous hospital, aiming to improve the electronic medical record system. He later joined DrFirst to have a broader impact on medication management.

DrFirst uses data to measure the success of their interventions, tracking metrics such as adherence rates, time savings for healthcare providers, and improvements in patient safety. They're currently focused on addressing the growing complexity of specialty medications.

Looking ahead, Dr. Banas envisions using augmented intelligence to improve transparency and reduce administrative burdens in medication management, particularly for specialty medications.

About Dr. Colin Banas ----
Colin is an Internal Medicine Hospitalist and former Chief Medical Information Officer for VCU Health System in Richmond, Virginia. He has testified before the U.S. Senate and the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) on health IT and the Meaningful Use program, and is a former Health IT Fellow for the ONC.

His interests center on the role of big data and analytics on patient outcomes and on novel forms of clinical decision support that are outside the realm of traditional rules and alerts, including real-time dashboarding and intuitive usability designs. He also helped spearhead the VCU effort to participate in the Open Notes initiative, where patients have access to their clinical documentation in real time.

In 2017, Colin received the HIMSS-AMDIS award for Physician Executive of the Year from his peers. He earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Virginia, his M.D. from Eastern Virginia Medical School, and a master’s in Healthcare Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University.

A "glow up" signifies a positive transformation, reflecting the journey of becoming a better, more successful version of oneself.

At The Glow Up, we humanize the startup and innovation landscape by focusing on the essential aspects of the entrepreneurial journey. Groundbreaking ideas are often ahead of their time, making resilience and perseverance vital for founders and product leaders.

In our podcast, we engage with innovators to discuss their transformative ideas, the challenges they face, and how they create value for future success.

If you're a founder or product leader seeking your own glow up, or a seasoned entrepreneur with stories to share, we invite you to join our guest list via this link.

Adrian Rashad Driscoll is the CEO of Collimation and a top 100 XR expert focused on storytelling through immersive technologies. Here's a summary of the key points from his interview:

Key Takeaways:

• Driscoll emphasizes using XR technology to create impactful, empathetic stories rather than just for gimmicks.
• He developed "Footprints Through Time," an AR experience about the transatlantic slave trade, using volumetric capture and animation to create empathy.
• Collimation focuses on making technology invisible to let stories have visibility.
• Driscoll advocates for inclusive technology development and responsible AI use.
• He's working on making concerts more accessible through XR, aiming to provide the energy of a mega concert with the intimacy of MTV Unplugged.

Driscoll's journey into XR began 12 years ago as a contractor for Oculus. He founded Collimation to tell impactful stories using immersive technologies. A key project, "Footprints Through Time," uses AR to educate about the transatlantic slave trade, emphasizing empathy and understanding over confrontation.

Driscoll stresses the importance of narrative-first approaches in XR projects, often advising clients that photorealism isn't always necessary for impactful experiences. He aims to keep technology invisible, letting the story take center stage.

Looking ahead, Driscoll wants to scale up initiatives like the Scale Up Immersive program, which helped 30 companies enter the XR space. Collimation has recently opened its seed funding round after five years of bootstrapping.

About Adrian Rashad Driscoll Social Alchemist, VR Nerd, Executive Troublemaker

From the small city of Barstow CA, (yeah, the pitstop on the way to Vegas) Adrian Rashad Driscoll followed his dream of becoming a professional actor and moved to Los Angeles. Shortly after that, he was woken up. After 15 years of great weather and bad traffic, he now makes his living as a filmmaker
and Immersive Media creative.

He has had the privilege of working with large companies such as CBS, NBC, KTLA, The CW, Paramount, Facebook, Microsoft, United Way, and more to push the boundaries of immersive media whilst producing great XR titles and experiences.

In 2020, Adrian partnered with music legend Gimel “Young Guru” Keaton to form the immersive media production house, Collimation with a dedication to bridge entertainment with emerging media. In addition, Adrian teachesin multiple education programs around the world to bring more people into
immersive media.

He also teaches at the OYA & EAST education programs on multiple XR initiatives
geared towards education, entertainment, and medical research. His goal is to create opportunities for under-served communities and using said opportunities, to change their current trajectory. “French
fries” are the key to his heart.

A "glow up" signifies a positive transformation, reflecting the journey of becoming a better, more successful version of oneself.

At The Glow Up, we humanize the startup and innovation landscape by focusing on the essential aspects of the entrepreneurial journey. Groundbreaking ideas are often ahead of their time, making resilience and perseverance vital for founders and product leaders.

In our podcast, we engage with innovators to discuss their transformative ideas, the challenges they face, and how they create value for future success.

If you're a founder or product leader seeking your own glow up, or a seasoned entrepreneur with stories to share, we invite you to join our guest list via this link.