DGTL Voices with Ed Marx - The Journey of Eon: A Healthcare Revolution (ft. Dr. Akrum Al-Zubaidi)

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

On this episode of DGTL Voices, Ed interviews Dr. Akrum Al-Zubaidi, CEO of Eon, who shares his personal journey from a childhood shaped by immigrant parents to becoming a doctor and ultimately founding Eon to revolutionize healthcare. Dr. Aki discusses the core values of Eon, the importance of patient care, and the lessons he has learned about leadership and resilience. 

Thanks for tuning to Digital Voices podcast, where we chat digital transformation, challenges and opportunities across healthcare and life sciences. And now, your host, Ed Marks. Welcome to another edition of Digital Voices. Hey, it's Ed again. And I'm so thrilled that you're with us and helping us to become as popular as we have. And it's all about our guests and our listeners. So thank you so much for taking the time. And we have another great guest today, Dr. Aki, CEO of Eon, Dr. Aki.

Welcome. How you doing, Ed, man? Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. You know, this would be great. This is a fantastic conversation. But as you know, Dr. Aki, the most important question we have is our very first one. And that's what kind of songs do you like to listen to?

What songs are on your playlist? Oh, man, I tell you what. Ed, I like Rufus DeSole, his Burning Man DJ set. It's on YouTube. It's amazing. Juvenile Tiny Desk. like minute 1954 where he starts the song back that ass up i don't know if we can say that here or not but i'm saying it it's amazing man i like uh surf rock when i'm chilling with the kids or

stuff that makes me feel like i'm at the beach that's my that's my yeah awesome we do have digital voices spotify i don't think we had any rufus on there so we'll definitely add some of that to it yeah it'd be a nice uh it's a good it's a good playlist what about life message or mantra are Are there words that sort of guide you? Yeah, you know what, man, my dad passed earlier this year, and I'm going to say his mantra, which is drop water, not bombs. Love it. Tell me more.

He's a nuclear physicist, and, you know, a humanitarian, and it was a big influence in my life. And, you know, even as a young age, to everybody, he'd come in, be peaceful, drop water, not bombs. And it was just something he always said over and over. And it stuck with me, man. Love it. No, I love that, because that could apply not just the obvious. in terms of a war thing, but it's like how you work with people and treat people. That's right.

You drop love and not hate and yeah. I like it. I like your dad already. I'm sorry that he's gone, though. I appreciate that, man. So tell us more about you. Like, who are you? What's your story?

Because we'll get into all the, you know, eon things in a minute. But I want to know more about you. Tell me about yourself. Yeah. I grew up in Virginia and had two parents who were immigrants. And just, I think it had an interesting childhood. I think everybody has their own unique childhood. But, you know, two people who, one of them had a difficulty assimilating, but they really had high stress on education and unconditional love.

So regardless of the environment, right, I got those two things hammered into me. And I'm so thankful for that. And so, you know, out of Virginia decided to become a doctor. I did breast cancer research and then moved to the Bay Area out of Virginia and, you know, became a doctor and started to yawn and that's me, man. Yeah, that's cool. Tell us more about your name, though. Is there a meaning behind the name? Yeah.

Akram is my real name, and it means the most generous. And, you know, Acky was a nickname that was given to me in the young age because where I grew up, they thought that would be difficult for people to pronounce. So they just shortened it and made it Aki, and that was a nickname that stuck with me. I love that. And yeah, it's interesting. You know, we've had several guests that are sons or daughters of immigrants, like myself. And it's really interesting.

It does make for a unique upbringing, you know, because you get this. other world perspective, right, that you otherwise wouldn't get and it impacts you, it shapes you as a human. So that's pretty cool. I really respect that. So, yeah, what happens next? Yeah, well, I wanted to be a football player, Ed. And so, you know, my dad educated me about, you know, career-wise and the likelihood of me becoming a football player and reality struck. But really, really, what he really did in the biggest favor that, like, started my career was that my mom got into a car accident when I was about 16. And he asked the emergency room doctor, could my son shadow you? And so I had the opportunity to shadow an amazing emergency room doctor. And I ended up doing that

like every shift that the doctor had that I wasn't in school. And that really prepared me, you know, obviously in academics I could do well, but then to understand what I was getting myself into career-wise, it was like an apprenticeship, right, at an early age. And so ended up going to med school and you came a doctor. I started my career actually in Las Vegas. And Las Vegas is a unique healthcare environment. I mean, just immense volume and pathology that you see from all over the world. Also some things that aren't great either, right? And moved out to Colorado and noticed that hey, like some of the issues with health care, they don't just exist in that environment that's Las Vegas. It's everywhere. Yeah. And so that really opened my head that like I can move,

but the problems are still there. Then I went to a, an academic center at National Jewish Health after that. And I thought that academics would be another environment in which some of the problems wouldn't exist. But there's still some of the same health care issues. And so that's when I stopped, you know, practicing as a physician in 2020. And the major reason was that I felt that I could actually change health care, not practicing as opposed to practicing as a physician. Yeah. And it makes a lot sense. Before we get into then the evolution of Eon. So you've lived in a couple of different places. And it sounds like did you surf like when you were out in California? You're also been in Vegas. And now you're in the mountains,

right? You're in Colorado. I'll tell you the funniest story, man. So I'm from Virginia, kind of like a, I described it like a hood rat country guy, right? And you see California on TV and you think it's surfing. But I moved to the bay. And I saved up all my money working over the summer to move into a place that was close to the beach, thinking that I would do that surfing. Man, I got into that water and it was the coldest thing I've ever been in in my life. I did zero surfing in California, my friend. No, that's cool. So, Eon comes up.

So you realize, okay, I'm going to give up my daily practice and I'm going to, I'm going all in to really try to change health care because you've seen all these issues, no matter where you've been, academic, non-academic geography. So it tells how that happens. Yeah, you know, it was just, you know, getting pissed off, right? I told you about the things that I thought were wrong with health care. But really it was like in my specific subspecialty, which was lungs and then more specifically lung cancer. And so there was a kid my age at the time.

I'm older now, but he was 36. And, you know, one of those things happened wrong in health care where he had something to where if it would have been acted on appropriately, the kid would have had a chance. Right? Yeah. He would have had a chance of survival. But instead, you know, it was a death sentence, right? And I didn't want that to happen anymore. And really this whole thing around Eon sparked around this frustration and anger, right, around those things happening and then saying, hey, maybe I can do something about it.

Yeah, so I get it. So you're practicing and you're seeing these things that don't have to happen and people are losing our lives as a result. And it gets you upset and you're going to do something about it. So, yeah, tell us what Eon does and how it's helping avoid situations like the one that we just spoke about. And so, Ed, like, you go and you get into a motor vehicle accident, you fall off your bike, you hurt your ribs, whatever it may be. You go to the ED. They do a ton of testing, right? And they're looking for one thing, but maybe they uncover other things that are signals that could become cancer or something else catastrophic down the line.

When those things, those diagnostic tests are done, like 70% of the time, the right next step doesn't happen. And so what Eon does is it identifies those signals of things that it could be catastrophic if they're not followed on, and they ensure that the right next steps actually happen. We tell your doctor, hey, this happened to you after this motor vehicle accident. Actually, you need a CT scan in six months to make sure you don't have cancer. You need to get diagnosed. You need to do this. And then we make sure that we keep them accountable.

And we make sure the patients have awareness and that they actually show up to get those next steps done. Yeah, I think everyone listening probably has their own story and can relate to aspects of what you were just describing. And we tend to look at things very episodically, right, which is for that one thing. And I'm a specialist in this. That's all I'm looking. And I can see these other things, but man, I'm focused here. And no one, if there's no system, if there's no automation, if there's no, dare I say, AI or something. something that will help you like triangulate, take all these data points, even though it may not

be my specialty because I'm not an oncologist. I'm working on your heart, but I see some markers, some tracers that I should counsel you and send you this other direction as well. That part's not happening for the most part. And that's where Eon comes in and really can be this huge difference maker and really a partner to the clinician, right? Yeah, man. I'll tell you this.

like the, there's an old saying, right? Like, thumb doctor doesn't talk to the pinky doctor. The pinky doctor doesn't talk to the thumb doctor, right? And so, like, a lot of times, like, we help with desilowing what exists in health care. That's one portion of it. But as a physician, I feel like I can lay my head to bed at night, knowing that there's this safety net that's out there. That's if my patient goes to the ED and I don't even know they go to the ED or I get some huge packet that's full of noise or signal noise, that I know that if something catastrophic is in there, there's this technology. in the system that's going to pull it out and this constantly let me know, hey, man, the right

thing's happening, the right thing's happening. Hey, you miss this. And it lets me actually put my head down at the pillow and not worry about that stuff as a position. Yeah. No, that's good. And it really resonates, too, for myself personally, and I was very fortunate where it was my cardiologist that caught my completely unrelated cancer.

That's right. All the time. Right. And so I love the description of Eon be like sort of the safety net that can, you know, catch all this because you're taking data, right, from multiple different sources. And so you're able to get a whole person view. So no matter if you're the pinky dock, you're still getting the whole person view and you can help that person because that's what we're here to do. And instead, we miss it a lot. And we have very tragic consequences as a result.

So I can see why this resonates in the marketplace. Tell us about some of your early success. You know, it's funny because it's one of your. old shops at the Cleveland Clinic, right? I mean, like, it's funny because I started at my own shop, right, number one, just to solve the problem in the community that I served. And then, you know, I was like, hey, this is a great idea that everybody needs. And I started going out there and they go, hey, look, you're doing this in the mountains of Colorado. That don't mean anything. You need to get like Mass General Cleveland Clinic or somebody else. If they do it, then come back

and talk to me. Man, Cleveland Clinic was our second client. And we did this for them. It worked. You know, Cleveland Clinic was huge early on in validating that, hey, this is a real problem and this is not just a niche solution at some small shop that's like, you know, relying on a human being or one person. It worked at the clinic. You know what I mean? Yeah. And that took us for a couple of years where like we leaned on the clinic's brand and experience

there to help us actually, you know, expand out past those first two clients. Oh yeah. And I'm sure by doing that, you get a lot of new ideas and fresh input. So I'm all about values. And it sounds like when you talked about sort of your life mantra that came from your dad, you know, you sort of resonate the same way. Eon has five core values. And I was very fascinated by him.

And so curious how you decided them. Because I like your style. I think people will understand as soon as you say what those values are. You know, they kind of get more flavor for your personality and style. But yeah, I thought they were unique. I liked them. So I thought it would be interesting as the founder, you know, to explain a little bit about those values.

Man, they're emojis, which is, I think, unique, right? But listen, I had a tribe and I'm me, right? And people need to understand how you're going to behave, right, and what you're about. And I'm about it is what I'm going to say. These core values, I'm so about it, and that's me. And anybody who knows me knows that these core values is who I am. And everybody that I work with at Eon, I think we feel this way, man. Yeah.

Keep it 100, right? There's a difference between being nice and kind. And if you really want to help humanity, help yourself, help other people, help your friends, help your family, man, you got to keep it real. So that's what that came from. Yeah. And then, I mean, look, I still got my friends from elementary school. I'm a junkyard dog. We're junkyard dogs, right? And there's this mentality where health care is being challenged in terms of what they own, who gets leverage to make, you know, make different decisions and impact health care. Man, that's my room. That's my yard. And I'm junkyard dog health care. And that's that's one of a second value. And then look, man, like everybody's been through tough stuff. Like life is peaks and valleys, right? And you get

into a valley, how the hell do you dig yourself out? How the hell do you accept the rope of help? You got to be relentlessly optimistic. If you're not optimistic, man, you're going to quit. Right. And so that's the third value. The fourth is where you have backwards. And it's more, man, I love to party. Rufus DeSoul will tell you that, like that's on my playlist. I like to have fun. But what's really most important about that is that are you willing to experiment boldly, right, and do things that are a little bit outside of the bots where they have backwards? And that's what that means. And then finally, it comes down to putting the patient in the middle of the healthcare equation where they're lost. And defy disease is what that represents. Every single decision we make, every single product we build must have impact that's beneficial to the patient. Yeah. No, I love that. That's why I wanted you to share those because, yeah, it's real. A lot of times, you know, we get all sort of corporatize and all the BS, you know, it's like makes me sick. And all they all look the same. And so I really appreciated the style because that and the values, because the values actually emanate throughout Eon and the way you operate. And so these things are real. Like it's not, you know. It matters. Yeah. So it's cool. Hey, let's talk about leadership. So you already talked about one thing early in your life that really set you on a direction.

And that was, you know, when you were 16 and your mom was in this accident, you were able to shadow this doc and it really kind of shaped you. What else? You know, what else happened in your youth that kind of shaped who you are today and as a leader? You know, I put myself out there. I fail a lot. I think that, you know, I've been punched in the gut so many times, told no so many times. Been in situations where I've had autonomy where, you know, at an earlier stage than most people have autonomy. me. You know, it's really just getting knocked down, man. That's been the biggest thing, quite frankly,

you know? I don't know what else is. I mean, I could, I could tell you all the circumstances of what I've been punched in the gut and knocked down, but like, you know, it's just repeatedly putting yourself out there. Yeah, it builds resilience. And so you need, I think, to be successful as a human. And especially, you know, being an entrepreneur and sort of leading new waves of thought and tech is you've got to be resilient. You've got to be able to go with ups and downs and take negative things and turn them to positive, have that optimism and just knowing that you're going to get through it. You've gotten through it before and you'll get through it again. So yeah, that's great. What would you say to anyone else? Like maybe some peers,

maybe physician peers, non-physician peers who are thinking about starting their own company. What would be, you know, one or two words of advice? Man, I'll tell you, it's a, humility is the biggest piece of advice and I'll give you like how I handle that right you put yourself in the student role right and like back in the day apprenticeships were a huge thing and I call it coattailing right where you coattail somebody people don't value experiential wisdom enough right and so what I did is I always try to find a gap that I have right or somebody who's just a superhuman they're really freaking good at something that that I value and what I do is is I put myself in this, I wouldn't say submissive, but it's a student role. And I

apprentice, like kind of like Japanese culture a little bit. Like if you're trying to learn how to sharpen knives, man, they take it to the extreme where it's like two decades worth, right, of apprenticeship. But like what I'm talking about as a leader, what I think you should do if you're starting a business is get other people who've been there and done that before. And then actually listen to them, Ed. Yeah. This being around them doesn't work. You got to listen to them and realize there's different pathways to a result. And so when you talk to them, you give them a circumstance and you see how they would solve the circumstance versus how you would and you make a decision. Not enough of that goes on, right? And then we end up making the same mistakes

over and over and those sort of things. Yeah, I've been there. What are one or two things that you're most proud of right now. So obviously you've had some success now with Eon. What other things sort of make you proud about what you've accomplished today. Man, I tell you number one is that I think that I'm an excellent father. And to me, that's what I'm most proud of. You know, and obviously, Eon, right? I mean, look, like, I didn't tell you my mantra, but it's about sea change. And I want to, like, this doctor from Cleveland Clinic actually asked me in the early days, like, do you want to change the world or make money? And it was the easy answer, man. I want to change the world. Yeah. And I think that I've created something from nothing that.

actually hasn't sold out and has an opportunity to do that. Have we done it yet? No, but I have the opportunity to do that. And those opportunities don't fall at everybody's door. And I'm very proud at what I've done to be able to have that opportunity. Yeah, I love it. How many kids do you have? I have two kids, 10 and 7. I'll give a shout out to Neyne and Leila. Awesome. Yeah, I bet they're great kids. What are one or two things you learn the hard way? We already talked a little bit about this, you know, the school of hard knocks, getting punched in the gut, humility, you know, how to work your way through failure. Is there anything else that we didn't cover on this topic that sort of, you know, had to learn through that school of hard knocks? Yeah, people is probably the number

one thing. You know, look, like when you're running a business and you have other people in which you're responsible for putting food on their table and they are too, you know, you have, like there's a difference between aspiration and ability, right? And I'm so optimistic sometimes that I feel, and I also think that, like, people don't need a box. I used to think this a lot early on, right? Don't put somebody in a box. Like, you're not, you're going to limit potential. You're going to limit the upside.

But some people operate very well in the box and people want to do well at their jobs. And if they step out and you haven't given them the right support, man, you waste humans and waste opportunity and it hurts people. And I've done that with friends even, right? I've brought friends into the company. And so it's been, you know, to me, like, holy smokes. Like there's just this learning lesson about people in situations that you put them in and what you don't to not have a guaranteed outcome that's negative to both. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.

So obviously you're super busy. You're married. You've got kids. You're leading this company. All these different things going on. How do you recharge your batteries? Like how do you chill? How do you remain fresh?

You know, I wasn't a skier. I snowboard. but my wife and my family love skiing. So I had to learn skiing in writing at 30 years old. And we go out and we're on, you know, Vail Mountain almost every single weekend during the season. I'm in Colorado, so I've like learned to camp. It's like totally different of what I would assume I would be doing like from like, if you asked me when I was 16, would I be doing camping and skiing?

I would tell you heck no. All right. But I love camping, skiing and I love the beach. You know, on a day-to-day basis, I hang out with my family and my crew, right? And that's how I recharge. Yeah. So are your 10 and 7 year old, that was their ages, right? 10 and 7?

That's right. Yep. Are they on blacks yet or double diamonds or still on greens and blues? My 10-year-old's on the Vail ski team and she does free ride and she's awesome. My youngest, she's on the spectrum. It's Autism Awareness Month too. And she's in the adaptive program at Vail. And I'll tell you what, I didn't think she would be able to ski.

Man, she skis excellently now and I'm very thankful to that program. Yeah, no, that's cool. I love skiing myself, and Vail Mounds a great place to ski. And I remember the age when my kids started surpassing me, that's why I was asking. I was like, they thought I was a cool dad because I was on the blues, you know, and every once in a while I would hit a black diamond. And then as they got older, they were like, oh, man, that's old man stuff. Yeah, she's going off cliffs, man.

I'm not doing that. Yeah. That's crazy. No, that sounds really cool. Hey, we talked about a whole lot of things, everything from music to your fabulous dad, drop water, not bombs. We talked a lot about growing up with an immigrant family, how that helped shape you. We talked about your career and how you just been focused on changing health care, just not accepting the status quo. And we talk about sort of the formation of Eon, what it does and how it's helping

others to talk a lot about the values of the company, which obviously are core to you as well, you know, humility and having a learning sort of mindset. And we talked about things that you're super proud of, which is being a dad, and of course, Eon, which are also the father of. And a lot about people and just, you know, the importance of downtime. What did we miss? Or is there anything you want to double down on? I'll give you the last word. Yeah, thanks, Ed.

I'll tell you, it's real simple for me. Do the right thing. Just do the right damn thing, Ed, right? And it's never too late to do the right thing. Yeah. And that's it. Like, it's real simple. Yeah.

Dr. Acki, you're a great person. And I know Eon's a great company as well and helping save people's lives. That's what I'm all about. That's what Digital Voice is all about. Thank you so much for being our guest. Hey, man. Thanks, Ed. Thank you for listening to Digital Voices Podcast with Edmarts.

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