Data-Driven Health Coaching for Optimised Performance

July 2, 2021

Patrick Samy is the co-founder and CEO of Span Health, a start-up that offers health coaching informed by biometric data from lab work and wearable devices. Like me, Patrick started out as a software engineer confronted with his own health challenges. Pairing his curiosity for biology with his background in computer science, and adding in a new generation of more accurate consumer health and fitness devices, Patrick is leading Span Health to enable everyday athletes to take their health and performance to a new level.

In this podcast, Patrick talks about the value of personal biometric data for finding your individual path to optimal performance and longevity. He shares lessons learned from his own experiments with wearable data trackers, and trends he’s observed while working with clients. We also discuss his go-to devices and biomarkers to track, and the lifestyle interventions that make the biggest difference.

Here’s the outline of this interview with Patrick Samy:

[00:00:49] The story behind Span Health.

[00:04:09] The intersection between biology and computer science.

[00:07:53] Lessons learned by collecting personal health data.

[00:10:12] Span's founding team members, Dr. Adam Bataineh, Chief Medical Officer and Rachel Lett, Chief Care Officer.

[00:11:58] Timing of workouts and eating as critical factors.

[00:14:10] Heart rate variability (HRV) as a marker of recovery.

[00:16:10] Early time restricted feeding (eTRF): Podcasts on eTRF with Greg Potter, PhD, Satchin Panda, PhD, and Bill Lagakos, PhD.

[00:17:38] Oura Ring.

[00:18:30] Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs); Podcast: Continuous Glucose Monitoring to Prevent Disease and Increase Healthspan, with Kara Collier, RDN from Nutrisense.

[00:23:57] Span Health's vision for health coaching.

[00:34:01] Peter Attia, MD; Podcast: The Critical Factors of Healthspan and Lifespan.

[00:35:03] PhenoAge; Podcast: How to Measure Your Biological Age, with Megan Hall.

[00:35:07] Overall wellness score based on data by Horne, et al. (2009): Horne, Benjamin D., et al. "Exceptional mortality prediction by risk scores from common laboratory tests." The American journal of medicine 122.6 (2009): 550-558.

[00:38:16] Kraft insulin assay.

[00:39:12] Robert Lustig, MD.

[00:43:15] Wearable devices; Most people quit wearing activity trackers after a while; Study: Finkelstein, Eric A., et al. "Effectiveness of activity trackers with and without incentives to increase physical activity (TRIPPA): a randomised controlled trial." The lancet Diabetes & endocrinology 4.12 (2016): 983-995.

[00:48:58] Getting new clients.

[00:50:25] Span Health Blog.

[00:50:39] Span Health on Twitter; Patrick on Twitter.