Leonard Lomax, President & CEO, Ultimaxx Health

In an interview with Invest:, Leonard Lomax, president and CEO of Ultimaxx Health, shared how data analytics is shaping South Florida’s healthcare system, how the company uses data-driven insights to improve patient outcomes and operational efficiency, and the need for a proactive healthcare model. “We spend 19-20% of our GDP on healthcare, yet our outcomes are poor, our population remains unhealthy with pervasive chronic diseases, and our thousands of expensive medications often fail to solve root problems,” Lomax said.

What are the biggest trends shaping the healthcare industry, and how is Ultimaxx Health positioning itself to stay ahead of these changes?

Over the last few years, we have observed significant advancements in the utilization of technology. This extends beyond robotics in care to include artificial intelligence, specifically generative AI, and analytics to create more efficient processes and operations. We have also seen a pronounced shift toward predictive analytics to reduce the incidence of chronic disease and, ultimately, the associated human and fiscal costs. In terms of technology, that is a major trend. Additionally, we are observing an influx of healthcare organizations into the region. Organizations from entirely different states are establishing a presence here due to the population density. There was a mass influx and growth in population, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the healthcare system must be able to provide care for these individuals. This has been a keen emphasis for institutions like Florida Atlantic University in planning for the region’s needs. More resources are required, and the area remains underserved. Therefore, we are seeing an influx of providers coming to the area to address the increased population density and, of course, the aging population in Florida. Ultimaxx Health has been preparing for these shifts for quite some time. We are utilizing artificial intelligence, machine learning, and a critical data component to be more informed, predictive, and precise.

With the increasing shift toward digital health, how do you see the role of telemedicine and remote patient monitoring evolving over the next few years?

Interestingly, there has been a push for increased telehealth resources for many years, even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, to pivot medicine beyond brick-and-mortar-based care. The objective is to add these other capabilities because patients do not always need to be seen in a physical facility. Expanding these capabilities is critically important to reach more people. Data over time demonstrates that this approach actually reduces costs and improves outcomes. It contributes to a more preventative approach to medicine, which is especially valuable when an office or hospital visit is not necessary. The expansion during the pandemic was significant because the world was on lockdown due to which telehealth and virtual services grew substantially and continue to grow even now. It is still not enough when you consider people’s access to care.

The telehealth and virtual component is profoundly important for providing access to certain types of care. If you stratify patient needs, for the majority of people on the lower tiers of acuity, virtual care is generally all they require. If an emergency arises, they can then be escalated to the appropriate place. We have been monitoring this for a while. We collaborate with colleagues in the virtual services space to provide more resources to people both here and abroad.

How can healthcare institutions like Ultimaxx Health help to mitigate healthcare costs and also promote access to healthcare?

That is a challenge we have been discussing for a long time. The fundamental healthcare model, with its profound issues of access and cost, has been a source of immense frustration. In an extremely wealthy nation where care is largely pre-paid through taxes and subsidies, it is infuriating that the allocation of financial resources remains so inequitable for the public. This situation will persist until the core payer model, largely unchanged since the 1980s, is transformed, and it is frustrating that the entities that benefit most from the current system have no real incentive to change it.

To change this dynamic, we are observing new models that leverage digital currencies to incentivize large patient communities, particularly in the telehealth space. When a critical mass adopts a specific payment mechanism, it creates its own economy and influence. Concurrently, provider burnout, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, is fostering a new movement as providers are beginning to understand they must fight for systemic change, and while a tipping point has not yet been reached, we are seeing promising movement.

Our approach to impacting this is to focus on keeping people out of the system entirely. By utilizing data, predictive analytics, and virtual engagement via ubiquitous smartphones and wearables, we can optimize health on the front end. We collaborate with technology partners to transform raw data from wearables into relevant, actionable insights for individuals. This predictive surveillance allows us to identify and address health issues before they become catastrophic, keeping people healthier. It is a multifaceted challenge. We spend 19-20% of our GDP on healthcare, yet our outcomes are poor, our population remains unhealthy with pervasive chronic diseases, and our thousands of expensive medications often fail to solve root problems.

The healthcare industry is increasingly focused on patient-centered care. How does Ultimaxx Health integrate patient needs and preferences into its solutions?

That is a fundamental point, and I believe it is where the industry is truly trending. We have been operating with that philosophy for a long time. One of our primary fundamental principles is to not do things that are harmful and to not create things that are toxic. If we could mitigate many of those factors, we would not have a lot of the problems we face today, although you will not solve every problem, as behavioral change can be difficult.

In terms of creating solutions that are safe and non-toxic, that approach keeps you ahead of the game. Now that technology is finally advancing to a point we envisioned years ago, you can better engage with people to ensure you are helping them. Many people refer to this as coaching, or you use various platforms that provide health advice. Fundamentally, it boils down to more engagement and education, so individuals better understand their health, and then it becomes more personalized for them. The one-size-fits-all model is one of the biggest problems we have had, particularly with pharmaceutical medicine, where synthetic small molecules are not personalized based on your pharmacogenetics, your genome, your epigenetics, your environment, or your lifestyle. All of those things are truly important. We take all of that into consideration. We are now able to use all those data points with technology to create an individual profile for each person. When you are tracking data and providing an intervention, whether natural or pharmaceutical, you can see the results by tracking this data, biomarkers, or trend lines. This leads to a more personalized and precise approach to care, which is what we have been pushing toward for 15 to 20 years. The technology is finally here to do it more precisely, so we are heavily, heavily, heavily focused on practicing more precise medicine and developing precision therapeutics.

How does Ultimaxx Health incorporate data-driven insights to improve patient care and operational efficiency?

We usually try to create a technological architecture that can interface agnostically with these platforms, such as electronic health records (EHRs), lab companies, and wearables. You need to be able to pull all that information together and make sense of it, all while keeping it secure as it involves personal health information. You need to track all of it and have an ongoing, continual analysis. It is essentially like having your own operating system that is watching, learning, and getting better. You start at point A with an objective, and then you can track all these variables to see what is working and what is not on a weekly or monthly basis, as opposed to waiting six to 12 months. This allows for quick engagement. It also becomes an alert system where this data can be made available to other providers involved in a person’s care. The entire system has been so antiquated and siloed and generally does not communicate well, and that can sometimes have catastrophic consequences. This needs to be totally changed, and it is finally heading in that direction. Technological advancements will continue to help. I have seen some open-source platforms, but often, businesses are focused on creating their own proprietary platforms and software. The technology needs to be much more agnostic, and I believe that is happening. We focus specifically on that agnostic part.