Reginald Swift - how health outcomes can be realized through patient product and service innovation

Reginald Swift - Innovation to improve health outcomes

[00:00:00] Don Davis PhD, MBA: today Analyze Science Success Podcast. My guest is Reginald Swift. 

 He is the founder and CEO of Rubik's lx. They're using innovation at greater scale to change how health outcomes are realized through patient and product service innovation. The one additional thing that I wanted to mention to everybody as well before we get started in the interview today is that, uh, you can go to my website and download a free course on implementing OKRs.

And, uh, with that I will welcome our guest, Reginal Swift. 

[00:00:33] Reginald Swift: All right. Thank you for having me, Don. I certainly appreciate it today. Uh, and thank you everybody for, for listening. 

[00:00:39] Don Davis PhD, MBA: Yeah. Thanks so much. Yeah, thanks for being here. It's, uh, what, what, everybody won't know, right? So we're prerecording this episode, it's early in the morning for, for me it's, uh, also early in the morning for Reginal.

So, so, yeah. Yeah. Great. Can you tell the listeners just a little bit about yourself? No, of 

[00:00:57] Reginald Swift: course, of course. So yeah, I am the [00:01:00] founder, CEO of Rubus Life Sciences. I've, I've been. Uh, the greater Boston area for about 13, 14 years now. So I, I feel like I'm almost a native , so, um, you know, originally from Miami, Florida, but here to really help kind of shape how innovation is.

You know, I have an engineering background, so a lot of that tinkering and. And knowledge is, is just kind of innate and just wanna be able to kind of look at how innovation can, can really be changed and be impactful for change for, for patients like myself and, and others who are in underserved communities.

And, um, you know, I've been in a biotech area for about, uh, 12, 13 years as well. And, uh, wanna be able to kind of help support and scale, um, by being an impactful leader to, to ensure. Medicines can work for people, you know, for all types of people. Right. And, um, you know, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing where the nets, you know, 10, 20 years will, will go down the road.

Um, you know, as, as [00:02:00] we be, as ruts becomes a, uh, integrative partner in the, uh, industry 

[00:02:04] Don Davis PhD, MBA: today. Yeah. Very good. And so, um, the, the, the company that you started with, Rubik's, ls, um, I, as I dug through your career and, and things like that, I want to kind of, kind of get to Rubik's in a minute, but still just stay focused on you for a second.

So, um, as I dug through your career, one of the things that I saw was, you know, somebody that, you know, more or less started in quality, went to regulatory. And then kind of started on this journey of like, you know, cuz I see advisor and other things in your career history and um, and it, it's always interesting to me how people land on the spot that they're on.

Right. So how did you, how did you go from where you were to now all of a sudden, Rubik's, Ls? Yeah. 

[00:02:52] Reginald Swift: Well, you know, I, I'm, I'm glad that you asked that. Um, you know, I, you know, it's more of an untraditional path, of course. [00:03:00] And you know, for me, I, I've always been, you know, as I was saying earlier, I've always been a tinkerer at heart.

Right. You know, an engineer. As an engineer, Right. Or kind of a thinker. So even though I was in quality and as I was sticking through, you know, what, you know, as, as people are, you know, within these types of roles within quality and regulatory and everything else, you know, I, I thought about, Right. Uh, part of my role before, you know, originally was thinking about how, uh, to ensure, um, you know, validation of products and processes.

You know, it ensures efficiency of throughput, right? And then I started thinking through, well, you know, how I can apply this to my everyday life. Right. How, how can I apply this to specifically, uh, everyday, you know, you know, touch points that, that I have, you know, throughout my life and how it impacts everyone else, right?

So I, I took, kind of, took, uh, quality and kind of really mimicked it in my own life as well. So, um, only because I. [00:04:00] I, I initially did quality. That doesn't mean I only did quality, right. I was also, you know, um, on, in, in other roles where I was also consultant in, in other companies and just kind of wanted to be able to be, you know, just, just that integrated team member to help support a lot of the projects and being able to leverage what I've learned and be able to still have that eternal learning curve for me and, and be able to apply that to real world situations.

So with. The emergence of what I've been learning and, and, uh, looking at myself, I kind of evolved into, you know, cuz initially I was in aerospace and then I kind of transitioned into life sciences. So once I moved up to, to Boston from Connecticut, I was able to, uh, you know, leverage my, my background in, in, in a regularly industry and going to medical devices and biotech.

So it's kind of with. With that, uh, lean operator mode, right? Within quality of what I learned, the quality to be able to leverage that into [00:05:00] how pharma and, and med device and biotech can also be applied. And because I was so enriched by what was happening in biotech and you know, it's like a ken and a candy store as an engineer, right?

Seeing how things are made, you know, seeing how products are developed, you know, it, it was something that I also wanted to break out into, into other. Whereas where regulatory and quality allowed me to see processes as it comes up, right? Not just to read about it. Not just to say, Hey, let me, let's facilitate this through paper, but let me go through to, to the areas, to the development areas, to the r and d centers, to the um, to the manufacturing floor, to, you know, to all the other areas and testing centers, um, to see how products are made.

So it allowed me to kind of start thinking through how. I wanna also be able to do things like that, you know, for myself. So, you know, kind of being and brou. I also wanted to consult with other organizations at the same time. To do the [00:06:00] same thing, uh, because I, I wanna be able to pick things up pretty quickly and, and really help, you know, kind of just, just accelerate timelines for, for product development because I, I realize that in an impactful industry like healthcare, you know, you want to make sure that products are, are one, um, you know, operating correctly and efficiently and making sure that the patient is safe at the end of the.

So it's kind of with that thought process that I wanted to also think through, well, how, how do I help other people as well? So once I started really learning about biotech and med device and pharma and as I, as I was doing consulting roles at the same time, um, I also started thinking through, How can I also, um, take that whole process of what I've learned and kind of built it into my own internal, uh, system.

And, uh, that's kind of the originated story of rubs right, of, of how that was born. So definitely, uh, it, it took a lot of, you know, [00:07:00] navigating, you know, up and down paths to get to this point. But I'm, I'm glad that I. 

[00:07:04] Don Davis PhD, MBA: Yeah, it's, it's interest. It's always interesting to me to hear people describe their path because I, I, I've said this, um, on other episodes as well, that I feel a bit as if there's, Sure there's some of you and like whatever happens to you like that, that guide your career.

But it's almost like, Your path winds up choosing you no matter what it is. So, I mean, it's, it's one of those things where you go, Okay, so quality and regulatory regulated industry and regulated industry, you know, both with healthcare and, and aircraft. I mean, it's to me, um, Yeah, it's, it's interesting always to hear how people, you know, wind up on the path that they're on, uh, overall.

Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . That's right. As we, as we start to dig a little bit more into, uh, Rubik's ls, I just wanna mention to our listeners, so, um, this website for Rubik's LS is worth going to have a look because, um, [00:08:00] you know, for a, a, a, a company that's, you know, you know, early to mid stage still, you know, in, in its life cycle, um, This website is really neat and I said it to Reginal as we got started that, you know, whenever I went there I was really encouraged by what I saw, because a lot of times, you know, we have, you know, sort of flat one pagers in life sciences and that's kind of it.

That's the, uh, you know, sort of the, the website that we have. So, uh, you guys did a really good job over 

[00:08:29] Reginald Swift: there. Oh man. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'll definitely pass that on to my, my. Yeah. Perfect. 

[00:08:36] Don Davis PhD, MBA: All right, so Rubiks, ls. So tell me a little bit more about what problems Rubiks LS is looking to solve in life sciences.

No, 

[00:08:45] Reginald Swift: of course. And um, With, with the emergence of what we saw with, with digital health over the last few years, you know, maybe even, uh, maybe four or five years now. Um, and what the pandemic has taught us about, you know, health equity, you know, you [00:09:00] wanna be able to see the convergence of digital health and, you know, targeting health equity at the same time.

So, you know, the, the innate nature of what we do is a contract research organization. Right. And, um, of course we evolv. From what we were before as a consulting, you know, engine or a consulting company to do like product development and, and everything else. But now we, we kind of really wanted to say, let's, let's become mission driven and with what we saw, and of course we, we created our own products as well, so we saw kind of the disparity divide around when we've created products ourselves.

Um, how is it not being into the, uh, patient community that actually meets it, right? Mm-hmm. . So we realized that there was a broken system that was involved that we, we needed to try to solve for ourselves as well. So with that said, we kind of took that mission on because that was that, that drive for us to, and, and, you know, personally when [00:10:00] my father passed away, it was kind of a wake up call, uh, for me to wanna kind of move into this direction because, The same thing happened to him where, you know, there was clinical trials, but he was never even notified of, of any of that, that circumstances So, You know, and, and it, these shouldn't be regular stories or occurrences that should ever be happening.

Right. And, um, we, we should be able to allow anybody far and wide in any parts of the US to be able to have access to clinical trials and clinical research. As you know, the alternative method for. For therapies that, that are under, you know, under unaware of, um, you know, in the market, right, that are not really out there in the market.

So we certainly wanna make sure that, that, uh, patients who are, are, uh, in underserved communities and in poor areas. And low resource areas, I'd like to say, um, are able to gain that access. So what we have kind of evolved into is a specialty population contract research organization where our core focus [00:11:00] is to make sure that, um, we, we target those, those underserved communities, those those patient areas, and we're using tools like digital.

To be able to ensure that, that we can monitor and engage with these types of patients from a distance, right? Because essentially, uh, you know, we wanna make sure that we can create logistic and logistic frameworks where we're supporting wherever they are, where the, wherever the patient is, and we wanna be able to exercise to its, you know, maximum intent.

And then we're taking that data. and translating it into specific precision medicine outcomes for these types of patients. So it, it is, you know, we really focus more on like phase one and phase two at the moment. But, um, we, we certainly wanna be able to grow, grow up and, and scale, right? And go into phase three and, and then, you know, really evolve ourselves into a position, my medicine company, at a later point where, uh, from the data that we've gathered, we, we be, [00:12:00] become, uh, who centric towards the patient communities that we wanna be able to serve.

[00:12:04] Don Davis PhD, MBA: Yeah, it's interesting that because I hear, I hear a lot of common themes that I, that I've heard in other interviews that I, that I've recently done. Um, you know, I, I just recently did a, a podcast about geriatric data. So, you know, the gathering of, you know, loads and loads of geriatric data. Um, and you know, sort of this idea that, you know, look, this population could provide a lot of insights, um, as can, you know, underserved communities as well.

Mm-hmm. , you know, a lot of really good points that you made with regards to, you know, getting tied into clinical trials and things like that as well, because it's not easy, right? I mean, and, and you've gotta kind of know a little bit of the landscape and how to find. And if your physician's not keen to that or you're not, then most likely you're not gonna find alternative therapies that you know, might, might help you.

You know, especially as, as you're, [00:13:00] um, you know, battling something that could be life threatening. That's right. Yeah. And so, um, One of the things that, that I picked up on on your bio was that you highlight that you're using innovation at greater scale to change how health outcomes can be realized through patient product and service innovation.

Can you just help us a little understand a little bit more specifically about what you mean? No. Sure, sure. 

[00:13:28] Reginald Swift: So whenever you think about, uh, how. For example, we're talking about digital health earlier, right? Mm-hmm. . And you're thinking about how the industry of digital health is been accelerating pretty quickly, right?

Sure. Um, now we know that the adoption rate for digital health is becoming quickly and, and, and fastly becoming the norm now. Um, now when we think about specifically how it's adaptable in, you know, large metropolitan. . Well, what about the other areas that, that, uh, we, we [00:14:00] tend to forget because when you think about innovation and how rapid it moves, people who get left behind are the people in not, not really concentric to these cities, right?

So we wanna take that approach and replicate it in these communities so that they can also experience. , um, the Silicon Valley effect, right? Where, you know, you, you may have innovation to the greater degree in Silicon Valley, but we wanna be able to replicate it in, in like cities like, um, you know, Fort Worth or in maybe, you know, other areas that, that you probably haven't heard of, right?

Like Lawrence here in Massachusetts. And really make sure that people of, of you know, of any background, of any ethnicity can also. Um, the, the, you know, have the awareness and the foresight to be able to be able to, uh, be also firsthand touches around that type of innovation as well, especially when it comes to their health.

And, um, what's quickly becoming, um, you know, the mainstay is that people wanna own their own health data. [00:15:00] People wanna be able to understand how their health actually impacts themselves and their family. And you know what, what becomes of it from a transparency level, right? On how, you know, why do we get charged this specific rate from insurance versus this, right?

So they wanna start seeing more of that transparency. So, you know, a lot of that, that cycling. Happens through ensuring that, um, you know, because we get a lot of that disparity and the health outcomes are worse for people, like, you know, for, for black and brown individuals, well, we wanna be able to start looking at how early on.

What if the data that that, that we can derive can also help us really get more engaged in the whole process or in the whole clinical research continuum, right. So that we can then start thinking through, well, it shouldn't cost me $1,500 for this specific therapy when it could cost me 200. or it could cost me a little bit less, right?

Especially for working families who prior can four, 1500. Um, so we wanna be able, and [00:16:00] when we think about innovation at its greater scale, we wanna take that approach and replicate it all across other cities that, that have poor, um, you know, poor minorities in, in them. So, you know, that's kind of the way that we think about our, our impact and we wanna continue to think about it that way.

Uh, moving. 

[00:16:17] Don Davis PhD, MBA: Yeah, I've, I've said that in a, in an interview as well that, uh, so I grew up next to Gary, Indiana and this mm-hmm. divide. The, the divide in terms of, you know, people that have, you know, money and resources versus the people that do not, was not. Is clear to me. I would say growing up, and then as you, as you start to see these populations out there and the, the needs that they have mm-hmm.

and, uh, you know, you just start to understand sort of, you know, there's, there's a whole opportunity here that's missing a lot of people. So it sounds to me like, you know, Rubics is really focusing in on a lot of, of really critical things, uh, as. Yeah. So the [00:17:00] one question that I have to dig just a little bit deeper on that same, uh, sort of thought is how do you, how do you get to these, uh, individuals and then also how do you tie kind of the, the providers that are looking, you know, looking to connect with them?

[00:17:16] Reginald Swift: Right, Right. So, uh, what, what a lot of people may be already cognizant of is that there's a, a lot of independent, uh, physician offices that, that are in these communities, right? There's clinics and community centers that, that we have to kind of lean on to make sure that they're serving the communities that they're trying to serve.

So, uh, essentially what we did first is that we put boots on the ground to ensure that we kind of go into these community centers or clinics to do educat. Education modules and be able to kind of work with their, uh, CEOs and, and, uh, leaders to ensure that, you know, we can install programs. For them to kind of get involved and really help drive more incentivization for these community and clinic centers so that they can also be a part of the trial process as well.

[00:18:00] Because, you know, when, when you think about reimbursement and you think about, uh, costing, you know, you, they can shave their cost by being able to be a center for that type of research for, for the community members. So we, we certainly want to think of it as a. A, um, a go forward program where, uh, these types of groups are benefited at a greater degree than having a whole lot of other people who aren't really necessarily in the process, uh, would, would take advantage of.

So we, we certainly want. You know, go direct to these types of groups and really cut out a, a lot of the, you know, wasteful elements that, that shouldn't be there in the first place. Right. And then what, what we do is try and create digital hubs where we can already, uh, disseminate information down to these, you know, clinical centers and, you know, these groups in which, you know, as, as they interconnect to our network and our hubs, you know, we exchange information that say, you know what, We have these types of clinical trials that are ongoing and invert from a format.

And if they do [00:19:00] have patients that are interested, you know, here's kind of how we're, we will, we'll, we'll transmit information to 'em and, um, you know, we kind of get them involved in that aspect. You know, we, we've done projects with the va, we've done projects with, um, international groups like the W H O and the un, um, in, in countries like India and in parts of Africa for infectious disease.

So we, we certainly wanna continue along doing that, uh, for, for these types of groups until. This becomes just, just status quo where we're always thinking about everyone at the same time, right? Where it doesn't matter where we are, when we think about launching a new clinical trial, everybody's involved in the process where, you know, you don't have groups like me saying, Hey, think about everyone else too.

Think about, you know, these kind of people too. So we, we just want that to kind of be the. Say that, you know, where it doesn't have to be an afterthought. It doesn't have to be a second, uh, or third, uh, initiative to, to have for an internal program. It's just, just be [00:20:00] kind of just, um, they can just like one and the same and, um, and then we'll evolve our ourselves into something else, right?

To make sure that we're still greatly impacting mankind, you know, from a, you know, from a, a, a health perspective too. So, um, that, that's kind of the way we think about it. Yeah, 

[00:20:19] Don Davis PhD, MBA: I, I have sort of a, a strange philoso philosophical question to ask you based on, on kind of that last answer, right. So do, do you think I, I mean, I personally, you know, um, Have I have biases of my own right that I constantly am having to sort of check myself, uh, just to make sure that those biases, you know, aren't sort of shaping the way that you know, that, that I maybe don't want to, don't want to go in a particular direction.

And that's what I heard in your last answer was, you know, that, that look, I mean, Realistically, we should be thinking about all populations at all times. But [00:21:00] I mean, at the same time, do you think that there will be a point in time where, um, you know, people just, you know, naturally encapsulate, you know, all populations, you know, everywhere?

Or do, do you think these biases just continue? 

[00:21:15] Reginald Swift: Well, I, at least in the interim, we know that the biases do continue, right? And, and it, and sometimes it is not the fault of our own. It's not the fault of the scientist. It's because the scientists are. As traditional scientists, they're not, they're not gonna focus on, uh, you know, population density and, and, and differentiation.

That's not what they were, were focused on. You know, that's, unless you become a public health advocate or a public health master, then that, then that's what you do focus on, right? Um, so it has to be an intertwine of business objectives. You know, from, from industry to intertwined to social, you know, justice, to social, you know, quality, right?

So we can really converge on these ideologies. So, As a business imperative, it becomes [00:22:00] a ESG framework, right? It becomes anything that they think about from an environmental, social justice or any, uh, anything outside of, um, you know, their focus, that, that continuum that becomes just kind of what business as usual is.

Right? And, um, you know, for, for so long, you know, you have these longstanding organizations for so long that. People have been doing these, this work for social, you know, health equity for years, right. Before even I got into it. And uh, yeah, business has kind of still been dragging their feet on it, right?

Yeah. So of course there's been these, these types of biases to say, Hey, well it becomes much more expensive to get into communities like this, uh, to really try to help develop products like this. But then when you think about precision, You can't forget about those populations because you need that data to, to go into precision medicine.

So you, you gotta just make sure that as a business imperative, you, you look at the whole, uh, centricity of, of patients right on, on their journey. And I, I'm [00:23:00] hopeful that we're gonna get to a point where it becomes just, just one in the same. Where, you know, you're thinking about launching a company, you're thinking about all, everybody.

You, you're just not thinking about, um, how some people, some places, Better access than others, right? You're thinking about how to help them get access. You, you're thinking about how to ensure that, um, when you run in trials, that these types of groups are equipped with the same type of technologies that anybody else would be able to afford.

Right? So, um, I, I think over time we'll come to that realization and be able to launch these types of initiatives as, as the status quo of the program. Uh, but for now it's more like specialty at the, at the. 

[00:23:41] Don Davis PhD, MBA: Yeah, it was, I mean, it was one of the things I said a moment ago about, you know, just growing up kind of oblivious to this idea.

There's this true economic se separation, but there's also like a separation of a lot of different things in life. Mm-hmm. , that you, you know, because of those, those additive sort of effects, it, you sort of lead you to [00:24:00] a place that you know, that people only have certain opportunities and they don't have other opportu, you know, the, the same opportunities, you know, say as others, and I mean, Covid, you know, kind of, you know, highlighted one of them, which was, you know, when overall the kids were sent home with, you know, laptops to go do Zoom calls, some of the kids didn't even have internet.

Well, I mean, you know, who would think that, you know, you have kids in the United States still today that don't have internet at home. I mean, I just kind of seems like almost like a staple, like electricity and water . Mm-hmm. , these are the things that you gotta have, but at the same time, There is a, there are populations here that still don't have it, and Right.

I think on the opposite side of that spectrum of biases, you know, you can, you can exclude populations by just not thinking about, thinking broader about what they don't have access to, right? Mm-hmm. , I mean, and information about, you know, [00:25:00] clinical trials or how to get involved could be one of those, one of those things.

So you could naturally exclude someone. Based on the fact that, you know, they just don't have the information, so That's right. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. And so, I mean, on the opposite side, um, when, when, um, companies come to you, what sort of, um, problems are they looking to solve? So we've dealt with kind of the patient side of things and how do they get, you know, get involved On the opposite side, how do, how do, uh, companies get involved with.

[00:25:33] Reginald Swift: Well, you know what, it, it's funny to mention that because it starts from a cascade of, of ask, right? Initially they're, they're always asking about, well, How, what type of data do you guys have around these population sets? Right. Around this disease setting. And, and, and we, you know, we we're able to share that information of course, and then say, Hey, um, you know, this is kind of what we've seen historically.

Right. [00:26:00] And a lot of that, you know, if they have the actual data themselves of what they actually have seen historically, you know, cuz I, I honestly will say, EHR records, it's great, right? It, it, it tracks you know, the patient and understanding kind of their, you know, interface points, but it doesn't tell, you know, the whole story.

Um, and there's other types of records that you can be able to aggregate to understand. From a greater scale, you know, what socially is impacting these types of groups as well. So, um, you know, we, we take a whole lot of other data points and we have public, private, you know, partnerships with, with groups where we are able to access information and, and we kind of create a storyline, right, for each patient and.

Between progenitor, you know, indicators for, for specific diseases we can understand and really signify, hey, these types of groups will in this type of area and down to, you know, down to drive it down to the zip code to say basically from what we've seen from [00:27:00] environmental factors, now these groups are gonna be highly, uh, prevalent in.

These types of cancers versus these types of cancer because of, you know, the, the, uh, the, the long standing nature of some of the architecture or the environmental factors that, that haven't been traced or tracked yet. Right. So, you know, we we're looking at these types of longitudinal types of plans and these data points so that we can start driving much more intelligent conversations around product development and clinical development so that, uh, it helps student organizations to.

Oh, you know what? We, we make sure we need to kind of create a new separate arm for these types of patients. And then that's kind of where we come in, not just from the data itself anymore. Now we come in and say, Hey, you know what? We actually have a network over here where we can, uh, engage with these types of special populations for culturally competent trials, right?

Clinical trials, so that we can start driving. Um, you know, patient adherence. We can start, you know, driving, you know, patient, patient, uh, you know, engagement [00:28:00] and, and really help, uh, really solidify, um, you know, 12 weeks, 16 week, two years of, of data points, right? Where um, you know, we can monitor and engage with them from any phase one or phase two studies.

Excellent. 

[00:28:16] Don Davis PhD, MBA: So Reginal, there's three questions that I like to ask every guest. What inspires. 

[00:28:23] Reginald Swift: You know, honestly, it, it happens to be when, um, when I still see, you know, women and, and, and men, you know, you know, people of color who still have a higher prevalence of, of illnesses that could be preventable.

Right. And, you know, I still think that what drives me every day is just kind of thinking that my dad is in my head, you know, and, and saying, You know what? I could, I, I still am here for a. Right. I'm still doing what I'm doing for a reason and it's calling. To continue the path, Right? And, and is to ensure that the right person along my path will, will come and will help [00:29:00] scales to an enterprise level.

Right. And we know we're getting there. You know, it's just, of course, with any, you know, small business, you know, you know, emerging company, it always takes time. Right. You know, always takes longer than you hope for. But we do know that we're still on the path to make sure that we're, we're I. Excellent.

[00:29:19] Don Davis PhD, MBA: Thank you for that. What concerns you? 

[00:29:23] Reginald Swift: Well, I, I think , you know, we could be here for another two hours. what concerns me, but, um, I, I think with the change in nature of, of life sciences, right, and, um, how innovation is being adaptable in many different areas, I, I just think that. We, we still run to the shiny ball, the shiny object.

And I think that we run to it so fast that we still keep forgetting the blinders. We, you know, we we're still blinded by other factors that we still, you know, had yet to realize. Keep looking and, and seeing. And what [00:30:00] concerns me is that we're still gonna kind of still be in that perpetual motion that, um, people are from the sides there yelling, Health equity, health equity, health equity.

But yet, The, the people that need to help other people, like the VCs to help these startup companies thrive. They're still focused on blinders, you know, and they're not, they're not necessarily impactful ventures. And there are impact ventures that are out there that will, are willing to help. But we talk about the major ones.

You know, they may have specific, uh, initiatives to say, Hey, you know, we wanna be able to help, but you, it really hasn't translated at all, and I think it's going to, you know, shore up. And then it, it becomes back to what we used. Right. And then, um, and then we're still gonna be in the cycle until the next pandemic.

[00:30:45] Don Davis PhD, MBA: Yeah. Yeah. I mean it's, um, that I for sure have seen the shiny object, um, you know, sort of dance as well, that, that, that, you know, um, a, a lot of people do. And, [00:31:00] and yet you have scientists who have based their lives on certain forms of science as well, that, you know, sort. Uh, won't give it up either. I mean, they, they're just like, Look, I mean, we, we need to continue to look at this.

It's worthwhile and we need to understand it better before we put it down. So, um, I'm thankful for, you know, for that as well. And, and, uh, yeah. So thank you for your answer there. Um, and then lastly, what excites you? 

[00:31:27] Reginald Swift: It's, it's the future, right? Um, you know, honestly, these, the younger generation is becoming so, so socially aware that it's becoming like a demand that things change, right?

Mm-hmm. , and, you know, there, there's hope for the future where, you know, if you're having the next generation of entrepreneurs and, and, um, those who wanna actually make an impactful change in he. That, that becomes a standard for them. They wanna see change across the board. It's, it's not, Hey, I'm, I'm gonna take your money blinding and that's it.

No, it's, what are you actually gonna do for me as [00:32:00] well? What are you actually gonna be able to do for yourself in, in this, uh, industry as well? So I think there's becoming more of, more of that awareness. And people are becoming awake to those notions that change has to happen, right? Uh, from all types of groups that are, you know, um, alignment, aligning to healthcare, right?

Whether it is the investors, whether it is the banks, whether it's the vts, whether it's, you know, healthcare institution, whether it's, you know, clinic groups, uh, and everybody else. Um, I think people are now becoming much more aware and, and it's hopeful. . 

[00:32:37] Don Davis PhD, MBA: Yeah. Yeah. And I, I, I mean, I kind of associate it too, just in general.

I mean, I, I think, I mean, you know, it's kind of unfortunate to say this, but at the same time, I, I feel like it needs to be said I, as much as Covid was an absolute tragedy, I think it woke up a lot, an awful lot of people in terms of a lot, awful lot of things. Yeah. Um, and that, [00:33:00] you know, it's not just about sort.

What you are delivering for the company, but also what is the company, you know, coming back and, and delivering for you as well. And I've had this whole discussion around quiet, quitting. I, this, this term quiet, quitting, came out while I was finishing writing a book. And so, uh, I wrote a book on Over Commitment and, um, it's, it's available on Amazon if anybody's, you know, interested.

But the, uh, the, the, the whole premise of the book was as I saw people move out of. Office into this virtual world you just saw calendar stack up and people just become even more over committed and, and less focused on their life. And, and so, you know, the whole premise of the book is how to focus more on your life and find that balance.

Yeah. And, um, I think people are fighting for that same thing in terms of, you know, what they're getting with companies and, and things like that as well. Mm-hmm. . 

[00:33:56] Reginald Swift: Yep. I agree. I agree. And, you know, with the whole [00:34:00] term of quiet quitting it, I mean, it's relatively new for me. Uh, I mean, but I guess in some form or fashion, I may have done it to some point, you know, for, for roles that I wasn't really enthused about.

Um, but, um, I, I just never thought about it as quiet, quitting. It's just that, you know what, I'm, I'm about to get up out of here. I, you know, and I will give you my two weeks I'm in and say it, you know, for me, I, but I, I know that we're in a new world, right? Um, You know, opportunities do slow down and you know, of course people are probably looking at their horizon as far as kind of where our next opportunity.

So, um, you know, satisfaction, it's, it's paramount, right? It's paramount to, you know, a good work-life balance. If, if people aren't satisfied in one area, they may be unsatisfied in another, you know, and you don't want that to spill over right into your health, into your life. So, you know, I think it's a way for people to just kind of, uh, you know, have a defense mechanism so it can, can protect the other parts of.

Right. And when you think about quiet quitting. [00:35:00] 

[00:35:00] Don Davis PhD, MBA: Yeah. It's funny though, the, I mean, if you read the, I mean, the last thing on this, on this item, but the, uh, the quiet, quiet quitting definition is like, you know, if you're not giving your 24 by seven, you know, commitment to your organization, that's quiet, quitting.

And I was like, Wait a minute though. I mean, if I sign up for a 40 hour a week job, the company realistically gets 40 hours and then. If I want to go, I don't know, put up an Etsy store or I want to do something else that shouldn't be seen as quitting, that's, I mean, that's me kind of balancing my 

[00:35:33] Reginald Swift: life,

That's right. And, and people should be allowed to do that. Absolutely. And I, uh, for my team, I, I encouraged whatever they wanna do, do, There's no. There's no 40. I mean, there is no, and I don't allow, you know, for my team to say, Hey, uh, dedicate your whole life towards, towards Rubics. No, I want people to also have, um, but that's the whole goal of our mission, right?

Is to ensure that there's, you know, [00:36:00] awareness and, um, you know, equity, right? So it shouldn't be where people are. To help me when they're, when they can't do anything else, you know, they should be able to allow the freedom to maximize their life Right. To, to their benefit. So, yeah, and I think of it that way is that, you know, we're, we are where the people are and we are what the people do.

Yeah. So, um, if people, you know, have personal commitments in the mornings, cool. All right. That's, that's just life, right? That's, that's just what it is. So, You know, and, and we just kind of are flexible in that term, so, you know, we wanna be able to continue that. 

[00:36:38] Don Davis PhD, MBA: Yeah, so important, so important to have that Val have that balance.

But also, I mean, I think it, I think it very much touches on a lot of the topics that we've, that we've hit on here with regards to Rubik's as well. So Reginal Swift, I really wanted to thank you for being here on the Life Science Success podcast with me, and thanks for spending. 

[00:36:57] Reginald Swift: All right, man. Thank you so much, Don.

Man, I, I certainly looking forward to [00:37:00] coming out again sometime soon. All right. 

[00:37:02] Don Davis PhD, MBA: Thanks so much. 

[00:37:03] Reginald Swift: All right. Have a good one.