Episodes

  • The AI Revolution in Skilled Nursing | Episode 5 of Care, Code, and Capital

    The AI Revolution in Skilled Nursing | Episode 5 of Care, Code, and Capital
    May 26 2026


    Shalom Reinman didn't set out to build a healthcare technology company.

    He set out to find a job. His brother talked him out of his entrepreneurial ideas and into a billing role at a nursing home. $23,000 a year. 2008. He figured he'd learn the business.


    He learned more than that.


    He taught himself accounting. He fixed a company-wide billing glitch on a Sunday because it needed fixing. He mastered IBM business intelligence systems. He built Excel workbooks so sophisticated they started to break. And when they did, he pushed to hire a programmer — to a boss who asked him, straight-faced: "How is a programmer going to help me fix a boiler?"

    Two years later, that same boss was asking job applicants what they knew about a data warehouse.


    Shalom eventually built one of the most advanced analytics platforms in long-term care from inside a nursing home company. When the opportunity came to take it to the broader industry, he left and started Megadata.

    Today, Megadata has 80-plus integrations, a Series A from Blueprint Equity, and data warehouse customers who are building AI-powered workflows on top of their data — without writing a single line of code.

    In the newest episode of Care, Code, and Capital, Dan Brody sits down with Shalom to talk about what 18 years on the inside of long-term care data actually taught him:

    • Why the user interface of healthcare technology is about to look nothing like it does today
    • How Megadata's team used oxygen saturation data to detect Covid outbreaks before anyone in the building knew they had one — and how that story ended up on ABC Nightline
    • What the combination of a data warehouse, 80-plus integrations, and tools like Claude actually unlocks for a nursing home operator
    • Why the operators moving on AI now are the ones who will set the pace — and what happens to those who don't

    One line that stuck with us: "The humans who use AI most effectively are going to be the most valuable people in the room. The ones who avoid it — they get left in the dust."

    Worth your time, whether you're an operator, a technologist, or anyone trying to understand where healthcare data is actually going.
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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • Building the "Disney World of Healthcare" with Marc Halpert

    Building the "Disney World of Healthcare" with Marc Halpert
    May 11 2026
    This is not a story about a nursing home operator. It's a story about someone who fell in love with taking care of people — and built 63 facilities because of it.What does it take to lead one of the most innovative long-term care organizations in the country? For most people in this industry, the answer involves capital, connections, and a clear roadmap. Marc Halpert had a phone call, a flight to Minnesota, and a decision he almost said no to three times.He said yes. And then he built something that someone eventually called the Disney World of healthcare.In Episode 5 of Care, Code, and Capital, Dan Brody sits down with Marc Halpert — CEO and co-founder of Monarch Healthcare Management — for a conversation that covers the director of nursing who ran across a room and hugged him, the moment he stood on stage in front of his entire company and couldn't hold it together, and why Monarch was the first nursing home in the United States to deploy automated robots before anyone else was even talking about it.This is not a highlight reel. It's the full picture.‍How Marc Got InMarc will tell you the foundation was built before he ever ran anything.He started in healthcare as an admissions coordinator, working his way through a psychiatric facility on the South Side of Chicago before anyone handed him a title worth talking about. What followed was a decade of intentional groundwork inside a multi-facility company. He stripped and waxed floors. He worked as a dietary aide, passing trays when his cooking didn't pass muster. He went through administrator training, ran an 84-bed mom-and-pop nursing home, and started building a real understanding of what great care could look like when someone actually cared enough to build it.Every department. Every role. Not as an executive observer — as someone who had to actually do the job."In 2005, if you wanted to make money in healthcare, you were told to become an administrator. But I never really thought about the money. I just wanted to do better than what I was seeing."By the time Marc was ready to build something of his own, he didn't just understand how to run a facility. He understood what it felt like to be every person inside one.The Phone Call That Started EverythingEleven years ago, Marc got a call from a friend about an opportunity in Minnesota. He said no twice. The third time, he said yes — because someone told him you can't say no a third time.He flew to New Prague, Minnesota, walked into the first facility, and fell in love."My entire company knows the love story of how I came to Monarch. Every single person."What he inherited was four nursing homes, three assisted living facilities, a small corporate office, and 18 employees. The care was good. The staff was warm. The census was fine. The problem was simpler and more stubborn than any of that: complacency. A status quo that nobody had ever thought to challenge.Marc thought to challenge it on day one.The name came from Josh's wife, who discovered the Monarch butterfly is the state insect of Minnesota. The logo came from a design firm that kept returning with one consistent element across every rendition: orange. A Tough Mudder race that summer produced t-shirts that said "Bleed Orange." One by one, staff members started showing up in orange shirts, orange watches, orange kicks — and something started to feel like something real."It transfers this concept of branding because you're not just you — you're part of a family."The First Nursing Home in America to Use RobotsInnovation made it into Monarch's mission statement a few years ago. Not as a talking point — as a commitment. Because Marc had already seen enough of the future to know where long-term care was going, and he wasn't interested in waiting to be surprised by it.Monarch was the first nursing home in the United States of America to deploy automated robots in a resident care setting. The program launched in partnership with the University of Minnesota Duluth. The robots came in, interacted with staff and residents, and delivered on some of what they were supposed to — and not all of it.Marc will tell you it didn't fully work. He'll also tell you it was one of the best decisions he ever made."When I saw the demo for the first time, I said — wow. This is the future. It's going to go somewhere."His take on AI follows the same logic. He's been using it in his day-to-day work and will tell you with a laugh that he still doesn't fully understand how it works. What he knows is that it opened up a new world. His staff knows more about it than he does. He surrounds himself with people specifically because of that."I'm excited. The future is going to bring us something."What he's clear about — even with all of that optimism — is where the line is."Is a machine going to take care of a resident? No. No human needs to take care of human. That's not going anywhere."The Hug That Changed a BuildingMarc tells a story about walking into a ...
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    47 mins
  • "Delusional" Enough to Build Something Real with Efriam Weinfeld

    "Delusional" Enough to Build Something Real with Efriam Weinfeld
    Apr 27 2026
    This is not a polished success story. It's the real one.What does it take to build a healthcare company from nothing in the aftermath of a once-in-a-century pandemic? For most people, the answer would be: probably more than you have.Efraim had less than most. No pre-built portfolio. No safety net. Two facilities that nobody else wanted to touch. And a name for his new company rooted in the Hebrew word for "to ascend" -- because even before the first resident walked through the door, he had already decided this thing was going to rise.In Episode 3 of Care, Code, and Capital, Dan Brody sits down with Efraim, founder and CEO of Aliya Healthcare, for one of the most honest, wide-ranging conversations we've had on this show. They go from Efraim's earliest days as a 20-year-old pharmacy tech figuring out the industry, all the way to navigating million-dollar losses, crisis-level self-doubt, and the moment everything turned around because a pipe burst in a building across town.‍How Efraim Got InHe'll tell you himself: nepotism got him in the door. But what he does with that admission is more interesting than the admission itself.Efraim came back from Israel with no particular plan, enrolled in a pharmacy tech job, and set his sights on working his way up the honest way. That lasted about a year -- until the owner's son walked in on day one and landed a $70K salary and a floor manager title without ever having seen the inside of a pharmacy. That was the moment Efraim picked up the phone and called his family in long-term care."Pride does not pay the bills," he says.What happened next was the education that shaped everything. Because he was always the "extra person," Efraim got cycled through every department every time someone quit or got fired. HR, admissions, operations, finance. Not as an executive observer, but as someone who had to actually do the job, sometimes before he understood what the job was.He calls it "baptism by fire." Dan draws a parallel to Zappos, which intentionally rotated employees through unrelated departments to build total operational understanding. The difference for Efraim is that his wasn't intentional. It was chaos. And he wouldn't trade it."I'm thankful for the chaotic style in which I learned. I don't know if I would have learned any other way."‍What Covid Actually Taught HimAsk any long-term care operator what they learned from Covid and most will give you a policy answer. Efraim gives you a human one."No matter what the policy, procedure, or process is -- nothing beats showing up. Just actually being in the building. Being with people. Showing that you care."During Covid, the gap between organizations that made it and organizations that didn't often came down to this. Leaders who stayed behind closed corporate doors saw their teams lose morale, their operations unravel, and their residents suffer for it. Leaders who got into the trenches -- even when they couldn't do everything the clinical staff could do -- changed how their people felt about coming to work every single day.That lesson became the foundation for everything Efraim built next.‍The Birth of AliyaPost-Covid, Efraim found himself at a crossroads with his family's business. Succession planning got complicated. Family dynamics made the next chapter hard to see clearly. And the entire industry felt like it was still trudging through something heavy and unresolved.So he left, and he started over.The timing was fortuitous in one specific way: Manor Care (by then operating as ProMedica) was divesting its Illinois portfolio. Out of the available properties, Efraim and his partner Michael Erlich took the two that nobody else wanted. The runts of the litter. The ones with the worst reputations, the most ground to make up.He named the company Aliya -- a Hebrew word meaning "to ascend, to rise up." The logo is a phoenix. Rising from the ashes. The color is purple, a regal and calming choice that would go on to become a rallying point for staff, residents, and eventually a Chicago Bulls sponsorship that landed a recovering patient courtside at a Bulls game.The brand wasn't just aesthetic. It was a declaration of intent."It's not just a name. I think there's a lot of value in that. People can rally behind it. There's something to believe in."‍The Zero-Budget PhilosophyOne of the most counterintuitive things Efraim shares in this episode is his acquisition approach. He doesn't tour buildings before he buys them.It sounds reckless until he explains the reasoning.He does look at the market data: proximity, acuity mix, competitive landscape, reputation signals. But he deliberately avoids forming detailed operational impressions of a property before taking it over. His phrase for this approach is "zero budgeting" -- meaning he isn't inheriting the old identity of a building. He isn't looking at a facility that's been "a dialysis building" or "a short-term rehab building" and assuming that's what it will always be.He goes in ...
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    49 mins
  • The Art of Calculated Risk and Intentional Scaling with Abe Gutnicki

    The Art of Calculated Risk and Intentional Scaling with Abe Gutnicki
    Apr 13 2026
    ‍What does it take to build a 30-lawyer boutique firm from scratch, starting with three clients and a handshake? In this episode of Care Code Capital, host Dan Brody sits down with Abe Gutnicki, founding partner of Gutnicki LLP, to trace one of the more quietly remarkable careers in healthcare law. Abe's story isn't a straight line — it winds through big law layoffs, a pivot to bankruptcy work he never wanted, a calculated leap into solo practice, and a slow but deliberate expansion into one of the most specialized corners of the healthcare industry: skilled nursing facility transactions.What makes Abe's perspective worth an hour of your time isn't just the resume. It's the philosophy underneath it. He's thought carefully about risk, optionality, relationships, and what it actually means to build something that lasts. And he's unusually willing to say the quiet parts out loud.‍From LA Law to Long-Term CareAbe Gutnicki didn't grow up dreaming of nursing home transactions. He grew up dreaming of courtrooms — the suits, the closing arguments, the drama. LA Law was the inspiration, which he'll tell you with a straight face before breaking into a grin. He went to Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, won moot court competitions, and set his sights on litigation.Reality, as it tends to do, had other plans. His first job out of law school landed him in a conference room the size of a closet, surrounded floor-to-ceiling with documents, searching for a proverbial needle in a haystack. That's litigation in the real world. Meanwhile, the corporate associates down the hall were negotiating deals for dot-com startups flush with VC money. Abe asked to switch. They let him.Within six months he was closing deals. Within fifteen months, the dot-com bust had arrived — and with it, his layoff notice, alongside ten other first-year associates. The firm, in its own way, was trying to do him a favor: they told him that because he was already building a client base, he'd land on his feet easier than the others. He wasn't sure whether to thank them or argue.What followed was a stint doing the bankruptcy work he'd specifically said he didn't want to do, while quietly cultivating a relationship with a young operator in the nursing home space — someone from his community whose parents were already in the business and who wanted to do his own deals. Abe brought that client into his firm. As a second-year associate, he billed over $75,000 on that relationship alone. The firm wasn't thrilled. They had a slot they needed filled with bankruptcy work. They let him go.He landed at Ross and Hardy, a midsize Chicago firm with a hundred-year history and an entrepreneurial identity. That firm eventually merged into McGuire Woods. By that point, Abe knew he didn't want another large firm. He knew he had enough clients. He sat down, calculated what he could realistically bill, decided he could feed his family, and went out on his own in late 2003.‍The Leap That Didn't Feel Like a LeapDan asks the question every entrepreneur gets asked: what was going through your mind when you made that jump? Wasn't it terrifying?Abe's answer is more interesting than the usual "you just have to take the leap" response. For him, it wasn't a leap. It was a logical next step — because he'd done the work to make sure the stepping stone was firm before he put his weight on it."I've always been a big believer in trying to keep options open as much as possible," he explains, "and not making decisions where you're heading down a path until you're forced to. If you can push that fork a little bit further down the road, and stay on the path where you have optionality — that's the path that makes more sense."This is a thread that runs through everything Abe does. He didn't leave his firm without clients. He didn't pursue real estate investments without a law practice as a safety net. He didn't expand into banking relationships without his core operator clients already stable. Every move has a floor underneath it.He also offers a counterintuitive reframe on job security. Having been laid off at a prestigious firm through no fault of his own — along with ten colleagues who had done nothing wrong — he stopped believing in the myth of the safe employer. "As safe as it might feel working in a large setting, you're not really safe. This assumed safety — it just feels better because you're getting a paycheck and you have a 401k. But it's really not." If the clients walk or the business softens, it doesn't matter whether you're a solo practitioner or one of 500 employees. You're subject to the same uncertainty. The difference is that as a solo, you have more control.‍Building the Book: Relationships as StrategyBy 2006, Abe had his first associate. By 2011 or 2012, he was firmly established as a boutique firm doing nursing home transactional work. The question becomes: how did that happen? The honest answer is relationships, but Abe's ...
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    45 mins
  • AI Innovation in Healthcare with Randi Zuckerberg

    AI Innovation in Healthcare with Randi Zuckerberg
    Mar 27 2026
    In this episode of Care, Code, and Capital, Randi Zuckerberg joins the conversation to share how her journey from consumer tech and Silicon Valley marketing evolved into a deep commitment to health technology, longevity, and supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs.Blending insights from investing, advising startups, endurance athletics, and leadership in tech, Randi offers a wide-ranging perspective on how innovation — particularly AI — is reshaping healthcare, and why the biggest opportunities may still lie ahead.‍From Consumer Tech to Health InnovationRandi began her career in marketing and consumer technology, working at the forefront of Silicon Valley’s growth era. But over time, her interests began shifting toward a different application of technology — one focused not just on connectivity or scale, but on measurable impact.A longtime self-described “data nerd,” she had already been personally tracking health metrics and exploring longevity practices years before the topic became mainstream. What ultimately sparked her professional move into health tech was witnessing how emerging technologies were starting to produce real-world medical outcomes.Virtual reality was no longer just for entertainment — it was enabling surgeons to practice complex procedures. AI was no longer theoretical — it was helping detect cancer patterns in medical imaging and saving lives.For Randi, this marked a turning point: technology could be used not just to connect people, but to materially improve human health.‍The Investment That Opened Her Eyes to Women’s HealthHer first major entry into the healthcare space came through angel investing.Shortly after becoming a new mother, she was approached by a founder building a smart breast pump. At the time, very few women worked in venture capital, and the entrepreneur explained that male investors often felt uncomfortable even discussing the product.Randi immediately understood both the product’s importance and the overlooked market behind it.The company was acquired quickly by Medela, one of the largest global breast pump manufacturers — an outcome that reinforced a key realization:Women’s health remains one of the most underserved and highest-potential markets in healthcare innovation.From reproductive technology to fitness, longevity, and preventive health, she sees enormous entrepreneurial opportunity still untapped in this space.‍Why Women’s Health Is Still a Wide-Open FrontierRandi points out that many aspects of women’s health and athletic performance are relatively recent fields of serious research and innovation.Women were only officially allowed to compete in marathons starting in the 1970s, and even basic equipment like the modern sports bra wasn’t widely available until around 1980.This historical gap means the industry is still catching up — creating what she describes as a trillion-dollar opportunity for founders willing to innovate in women’s health, performance, and longevity.For entrepreneurs, the message is clear: some of the largest healthcare opportunities ahead may come from solving problems that were historically ignored.‍Supporting Founders Through the Full Startup JourneyBeyond investing, Randi has spent years advising and mentoring startup leaders, including early involvement with Adam Lewis and the hiring technology company Apploi.For her, the most rewarding moments in business aren’t tied to product launches or headlines — they’re tied to people.Watching a company grow from its earliest stage through scaling and eventual acquisition is, in her words, similar to nurturing a child into independence. She jokingly describes herself as “a professional mom to entrepreneurs,” emphasizing that strong support systems behind founders often determine whether companies ultimately succeed.This perspective highlights a recurring theme throughout her career: innovation may start with ideas, but it succeeds because of people.‍Endurance Running and the Power of ConsistencyOutside of technology and investing, Randi has also pursued an intense personal athletic journey.Just three years before the interview, she couldn’t run a single mile. Recently, she completed a 250-mile ultramarathon.Her takeaway from this transformation is not about elite athleticism, but about consistency and self-commitment.In her view, many people spend their lives showing up for their jobs, families, and responsibilities — but rarely show up for themselves. Running became a space where effort, discipline, and results were entirely her own.Even completing a single mile, she argues, creates that same sense of ownership.This philosophy reflects a broader leadership mindset: sustained progress rarely comes from dramatic bursts of effort, but from repeated small commitments over time.‍The Future of AI in HealthcareLooking forward, Randi sees artificial intelligence becoming one of the most transformative forces in healthcare — not ...
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    10 mins
  • Welcome to the Care, Code, and Capital Podcast

    Welcome to the Care, Code, and Capital Podcast
    Feb 20 2026

    Introducing Care, Code & Capital: Exploring the Forces Shaping the Future of Healthcare

    Episode 0 launches Care, Code & Capital, a new podcast dedicated to exploring the intersection of healthcare delivery, technological innovation, and the capital decisions that determine which ideas ultimately scale.

    Hosted by Dan Brody, the series begins by framing the massive transformation currently underway across the healthcare landscape. Artificial intelligence is rapidly moving from theoretical promise into practical clinical use.

    Digital health companies are redefining how care is delivered, accessed, and managed. Meanwhile, operational data is becoming the foundation for decision-making across health systems, providers, and healthcare organizations.

    Yet despite this rapid innovation, the central question remains the same: which organizations are successfully aligning clinical care, technological capability, and investment strategy — and why?

    The premise of the podcast is that true innovation in healthcare rarely happens within a single domain. Meaningful change occurs when three essential forces work together:

    Care — the real-world clinical environments where patients and providers operate
    Code — the technology platforms, analytics, AI tools, and digital infrastructure supporting those environments
    Capital — the investment, funding, and strategic backing that determines whether solutions can scale

    When these forces align, transformation accelerates. When they do not, even promising ideas often fail to move beyond pilot programs.

    Through conversations with founders, investors, operators, and healthcare leaders, the show aims to move beyond headlines and hype to examine what actually works inside one of the world’s most complex industries.

    Rather than focusing on theoretical innovation or pitch-deck optimism, the podcast centers on practical implementation — what survives regulatory pressure, operational realities, and the high stakes of patient care.

    Healthcare remains one of the hardest sectors to modernize. Regulatory complexity, entrenched workflows, and mission-critical outcomes make adoption of new technology uniquely challenging.

    At the same time, the potential for meaningful impact is enormous. Improvements in operational efficiency, clinical support systems, patient engagement, or financial visibility can directly influence outcomes for organizations and the people they serve.

    Care, Code & Capital positions itself as a platform for authentic discussions with leaders navigating this transformation in real time. Each episode will explore current market realities, emerging technologies delivering measurable value, areas where expectations may be outpacing execution, and the strategic priorities healthcare leaders must consider as the industry continues evolving.

    Whether listeners are healthcare executives modernizing their organizations, founders building within the health tech ecosystem, investors evaluating emerging opportunities, or professionals interested in the future of healthcare innovation, the podcast aims to provide grounded, practical insight into how real change happens.
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    3 mins