How Flashlight started
In October 2025, I attended the MedTech conference in San Diego and was blown away by the collective vision on display: a connected, robotic hospital system where patient data flows seamlessly from wearables to doctors to the operating room — one intelligent system, continuously coordinating care for an entire community.
The following week, my dad called with bad news. His prostate cancer had returned and metastasized into his lymph nodes. The same week, his cardiologist told him his thoracic aneurysm had reached the threshold for open-heart surgery.
I asked him to share every hospital login he had. I downloaded as many of his medical records as I could, processed them in ChatGPT, and spent seven hours on my flight to Florida asking questions — understanding his history, his treatment options, the side effects of each, how they might interact, how to prioritize.
I prepared reports. I went with him to his appointments. And I was struck by the gap between the MedTech vision and the reality on the ground: paper forms and clipboards asking the same questions every visit. Doctors without a complete picture. A one-hour drive to pick up a CD from one hospital and carry it to another. Incorrect information in his chart that affected his surgery criteria.
So I started building. I set out to solve the problem for my dad, and to build something that scales to everyone who doesn't have a family member who can drop everything for a month to do this work.
I started Flashlight 3D to pull together my passions and experience: data science, mentoring young developers, education and workforce development, health and life science, saving lives.
Background
Master's in economics (USC), CFA, 13 years in financial risk modeling, VP at E*Trade and BlackRock leading teams of data scientists and developers, master's in bioengineering, systems biology research, high school biology/technology educator.