Navigating the Longevity Market | Dr. Sue-Anne Toh - E718
episode
BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)
59 min
1 speaker
7 chapters
transcribed 15 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is Dr. Sue‑Anne Toh’s background and why did she choose medicine over law?
Aging is inevitable. It is a process. It's like a moving train. So you can do something to hold the moving train, but realize you have to put a little bit of an effort. Take muscle mass, for example, right? We will lose after a certain age, three to five percent of our muscle mass every year if we don't do anything about it. So we have to then
Hey, so excited to have Suan on the show and Shuyen, we're here to co interview again.
Can't wait.
It's interesting because this came about because, you know, you're a leader in longevity, you're a founder and also, you know, we're all mutual friends. So we thought this was just be a nice way to hear your story. So could you introduce yourself real quick?
Sure. I'm Suwann. I am the CEO, co-founder, and medical director of Novi Health. Uh we're essentially a health preventive care clinic, but also a health span platform that was founded in 2019. So we're about six years old now. We started initially with chronic disease management and then extended that into at-risk groups, of which weight care became a runaway uh growth product line for us. And more recently, longevity in the past one and a half years. To be honest, Jeremy, I think in the last three years we were a bit allergic to the term longevity because there's just so much noise. and snake oil that um we were a little bit concerned to be associated with that, but About a year and a half ago I think we just decided that
We have to embrace it and do our part to hopefully contribute to understanding and knowledge and empower people to make informed decisions. And at the end of the day, it's truly about taking charge of your health earlier, hopefully before diseases develop. and changing uh the trajectories for health and disease to extend the number of years that you live in good health and good function and not just living longer but living better for longer.
So I'll solve the first question and then Shannon will tag team with me. Uh so Why did you decide to become a doctor in the first place? Was it like something that you were like, hey, I want to do that? Or how's this new?
Um, I think I've always been interested in people and curious about the world. And I think even as a kid, I always wanted to do something that just made a difference. And initially I actually wanted to do law. And my mom said, You hate memorizing things. I don't think you wanna study lore. So I ended up doing medicine but learned that obviously in medical school there's tons of stuff that you really do have to memorize as well and and get strong foundations in. But I think the fun part starts after that when you get to apply that knowledge base. And every human being is so unique. And an understanding of the foundational biology is just the start, right? So I then fell in love with that whole system that we get to look at and optimize.
And there are then some components of that system that sometimes you can't always objectively see through a number, but you get to learn through interacting, hearing, listening, observing. And it's incredibly rewarding when you see the results. So I guess what law or and medicine then have in common is that you apply foundational knowledge to hopefully making an impact that actually lasts. And I think that's what I find really rewarding.
Amazing thought.
Well the logical follow on though is you became a doctor who actually wound up running a ton of things within the government healthcare and policy system and then you decided to become a founder. Yeah. So how did you you know, maybe walk us through a little bit that part of the journey. How did you decide, hey, You know, I've seen things on the inside, but I actually need to go start something from scratch myself.
You know.
Um, I never thought I would to be honest. And certainly it was never planned. Um, I think for me though it has always just been when I see a problem, I wanna try to contribute to solving a problem. and not being able to unsee things that you see, this drive to figure out how to solve it. And I realized that even in some of the best academic health systems in the world, whilst we have the privilege of the best tools, resources, talent, and a lot of good things are happening, but there were still remaining gaps.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is Dr. Sue‑Anne Toh’s background and why did she choose medicine over law?
0:00–11:09
2
How did Dr. Toh transition from public‑sector health policy to founding NOVI Health?
11:09–19:22
3
Why does Dr. Toh consider the “War on Diabetes” in Singapore essential for Asian health?
19:22–28:48
4
What is the TOFI phenotype and how does it explain insulin resistance in Asian populations?
28:48–39:00
5
How do GLP‑1 medications fit into the future of weight‑care and hormonal balance?
39:00–47:37
6
Why is muscle mass the ultimate longevity asset and how can we “bank” it early?
47:37–56:39
7
What practical strategies (behavioral nudges, policy layers, everyday habits) can help people improve healthspan?
56:39–59:19
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)
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