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Mahadeva Cadwell is a trailblazer in healthcare, bringing over two decades of experience to the fields of internal medicine, palliative care, and digital health. Her journey is a testament to her passion for patient-centered care and her visionary approach to integrating AI and wellness strategies. With a focus on reversing pre-diabetes and optimizing health, Katharina has dedicated her career to empowering individuals with the tools and knowledge to lead healthier, more fulfillKatharina ing lives. Through her innovative Timeless Health Method and leadership in developing AI-driven health solu
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KATHARINA MAHADEVA CADWELL – TRANSFORMING HEALTHCARE THROUGH INNOVATION AND COMPASSION Mahadeva Cadwell is a trailblazer in healthcare, bringing over two decades of experience to the fields of internal medicine, palliative care, and digital health. Her journey is a testament to her passion for patient-centered care and her visionary approach to integrating AI and wellness strategies. With a focus on reversing pre-diabetes and optimizing health, Katharina has dedicated her career to empowering individuals with the tools and knowledge to lead healthier, more fulfillKatharina ing lives. Through her innovative Timeless Health Method and leadership in developing AI-driven health solutions, she is paving the way for a more personalized and accessible healthcare future. BACKGROUND AND JOURNEY Q. Can you share a brief about you and an overview of your professional journey and how you ventured into your current business domain? Also, please share your personal background. As a clinical thought leader, I bring a broad array of skills acquired over a 20-year medical career. Laying the foundation for my love of teaching and empowerment of
others during my residency in Internal Medicine and my subsequent fellowship in Hospice & Palliative Care, I presented lectures regularly at conferences on various clinical topics. Blending my experience in urban and rural medicine with my clinical skills into a comprehensive patient-centered approach, I was part of a team at UNLV (University of Nevada Las Vegas) to develop the rural track for their Family Medicine Residency program, assuming the role of clinical coordinator and attending physician in a teaching role. My commitment to leadership development led me to Stanford LEAD where I received accolades for outstanding work and was featured in the Winter 2023 Stanford LEAD Quarterly for my achievements. My work led me to adapt palliative care principles towards preventive health strategies, focusing on pre-diabetes and insulin resistance as major precursors to chronic disease. Inspired by my experience during my time at Stanford LEAD, I wanted to leverage AI and digital health solutions to put a personalized tool into people’s hands that draws data from clinical and Blue Zone research, as well as behavioral science strategies. With a desire to experience and learn about different healthcare systems, I discovered the Reno-Tahoe area in Northern Nevada, a place I made my permanent home after falling in love and getting married. The marriage did not last, and I went through some painful times that threw me into deep loneliness and brought me too close to sleeping pills as my only escape from a grueling schedule and a lack of emotional and spiritual nurture. But life has its ways for me to reaffirm itself and seemingly out of nowhere, I was given the gift of recovery together with some amazing, supportive, and loving counselors and coworkers who had been experiencing the same struggle. It may seem like the darkest moment in my life, but it was really the start of my brightest time which continues to last and shine on. Q. What motivated or inspired you to pursue a career in Medicine? After debating between biochemistry, engineering, and medicine for broader opportunities, pursued medicine. Though lab work was part of my doctoral thesis, I developed a passion for Internal Medicine and direct patient care, where I felt I could make the most meaningful impact.” Originally I wanted to do lab research as said above, but over time, as I discovered the different specialties and fields in medicine, my interests swiveled to actual patient care. I went through phases of really liking the lab aspects of forensic pathology but then felt that dealing with the living was more enjoyable than spending time with the dead.
Surgery was a field I really loved, but once I discovered Internal Medicine and its detective work thanks to a fantastic teacher, professor, and mentor, Dr. Brad Graves, I was set on becoming an Internist and dedicating my energy to helping patients not just by fixing what’s broken and moving on, but also by becoming a bit of their counselor and coach. People need someone to listen to them and I was able to give them what they needed. KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS Q. What do you consider your most significant achievements or milestones in your career? My most recent milestone was receiving the “Influential Leadership Award” from HeAL conferences in Las Vegas this June for my work with Vivo, Ltd and its vision to empower people to become their best advocates for their health. The Katharina recent accomplishment am really proud of is my project with the students at the University of Applied Sciences NW Switzerland in Zurich, and their literature review of robust recommendations for diet and lifestyle changes towards reversing pe-diabetes. We will be publishing the study as well, and it will serve as the literature foundation for the app I’m planning to develop. This app will be the cornerstone for my coaching program to reverse pre-diabetes, bringing to people a coach in their pocket and an array of resources to navigate their daily lives, starting with diet and exercise. CHALLENGES AND LEARNINGS Q. What challenges have you faced in your career, and how did you overcome them? My earliest career challenge came during my medical student time when I was working on my doctoral thesis. I had a mentor who was not great at communicating clearly and was frankly quite intimidating to us lab-working students. Things escalated when communication broke down so badly that it led to a lab error (thankfully not of any consequence other than wasted time for me), but the onus was put on me and I almost got kicked out of the doctoral work. Well, I continued on (although looking back I should have left the toxic environment and found a new mentor) because I spoke up and stood up for myself, and called out the communication dynamics. Things improved (although
were never optimal). It was the first time I had the courage to stand up to a bully in medicine, a skill that came in handy many more times down the road in the medical world. Covid was inevitably rolling into the little town in rural Nevada with a bit of a delay after it had already ravaged thousands of communities in the country. Together with my fellow physicians, we met with the C-suite to plan for the upcoming first wave of COVID-19. Long story short, we had a great plan according to what was already working elsewhere. We tried to implement the plan but got pushback from the C-suite. I was not willing to betray everything that medicine and being a physician meant to me and this fight became a fight I could not win. We parted ways, as several other colleagues did as well. What I had to concede in this case was that I was dealing with a gravity problem. A gravity problem being one that will not budge no matter how hard we try to make a difference or change it. Some fights we cannot win alone. What we need to affect change in how healthcare administrators often operate is to affect a culture change. INNOVATION AND VISION Q. Could you discuss your vision for the future of your business or the industry as a whole? The core service right now is the Timeless Health Program that gives you the foundation for how to optimize your health, get your old energetic You back, and succeed in your business in best health. Your health is after all your greatest business asset. Over time, we will offer different tiers to meet different level needs for business leaders set on reversing pre-diabetes. We also launched an app recently so that your ‘coach’ goes with you wherever you are for your meal planning, shopping lists, label deciphering, and selecting your preferred options from any restaurant menu – clarity on the go so to speak! Down the road we really want to expand services to include an AI algorithm for point-of-care coaching, so you don’t have to wait to connect with me, but you can work through your questions with the AI. The working name I gave this idea back at Stanford is “Sebastian”, and so far, it has stuck! Maybe we’ll keep it that way, so you’ll recognize it once it’s out! Q. What are you looking forward to accomplishing most in 2024?
For 2024 I hope to really build out my Timeless Health Coaching Program and build out my app to support clients/patients in their health journey to reverse pre-diabetes. I also hope to be a voice to raise more awareness among younger people about the risks of pre-diabetes. It’s the check engine light when we can still turn your health around, and take a proactive approach to health. An app that makes healthy choices easier, coupled with high-value information on healthy habits and a way to make it easier for people to change their habits is going to make it easy for people to just live well on the go. That’s my goal. CLOSING THOUGHTS Q. Is there anything else you’d like to share or any message you’d like to convey to the audience reading this feature about you? Much is being discussed right now about tech, AI, digital tools, data integration and so on. In all that excitement, we must never forget that at the center of it all is the human, the individual, Katharina deserves to experience their own life, thoughts, and emotions, and be valued and validated in their individual experiences. The human connection must never be lost as it is what nourishes us the most. Our bodies have an innate intelligence that a lot of us have learned to quiet or ignore in favor of ‘expert’ advice, beliefs they grew up with, and so on. Giving people the confidence to listen to and trust their own bodies is something we need to highlight and honor.