In this Health Moonshot Update, Unity Stoakes sat down with StartUp Health community member Richard Hanbury of Sana Health just prior to a major regulatory milestone: an FDA De Novo grant for neuropathic pain, creating a new class of audio-visual neuromodulation. Hanbury shares the decades-long journey behind Sana Health’s science, lessons learned along the way, why neuropathic pain is the strategic wedge for broader mental health adoption, and how pivotal data showed a 78% reduction in gabapentinoid use in the active group. The conversation also explores Sana’s growing PTSD research with the US Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs, expanding studies in Israel, and why multimodal care is essential to the future of scalable pain and mental healthcare.
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“It's a massively expanding ecosystem of awesome!” says Todd Park, Co-founder of Devoted Health.

“Thank you for having us on the podcast and featuring our story! We are grateful for all the support of StartUp Health and every founder and co-founder who are a part of this incredible community. We are all better together!” says Aubrey Sawyer, CEO & Co-founder of InHealth.

“The exposure we've gained has been so good. We were on panels, in health challenges, and introduced to people we would never have met without StartUp Health. National exposure happened faster,” says Beth Sanders, CEO & Co-founder of LifeBio.

From a landmark non-dilutive financing for a DTC telemedicine platform to a Series E for a clinical AI leader, this week's global digital health funding roundup spans AI-driven care operations, prescription infrastructure, brain-computer interfaces, drug discovery, surgical imaging, and eldertech – with deals spanning the U.S., Israel, the U.K., Germany, France, Japan, and beyond.
📈 Read on Health Transformer Journal

The path to an Alzheimer's diagnosis takes an average of three and a half years. By the time most patients get answers, the window for effective treatment may already be closing. Cx Precision Medicine is changing that with a simple blood test that helps primary care physicians rule out Alzheimer's before the diagnostic maze even begins.
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With more than 2,400 videos, almost 11,000 subscribers, and nearly a million views on YouTube, our video channel spotlights Health Transformers in action, showcasing how the right mindset, moonshot vision, and the spirit of an entrepreneur make anything possible. Recent videos feature inHealth, EqualityMD, CAREgivers Insight, Sana Health, Imaginostics, cliexa, Epicured, and more.
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Victor Penev, CEO & Founder of Edamam, on the launch of a Model Context Protocol ("MCP") server that significantly simplifies building food logging solutions.
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Justin Ayars, JD, CEO & Founder of EqualityMD, on being named the "Most VC-Backable Startup in the Mid-Atlantic" in VCIC’s global Venture Capital Investment Competition.
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Chris Turner, CEO & Co-founder of HealthBook+, on the company’s partnership with Direct Fitness Collab to transform how patients achieve sustainable lifestyle change.
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