Sean Cassidy Discusses Clinical AI on the Empowered Patient Podcast

How do we move promising AI from the research bench to the clinical bedside? And more importantly, how can we use it to find the “signal in the noise”—the patients with undiagnosed diseases who are slipping through the cracks of the healthcare system?

Lucem Health CEO and co-founder Sean Cassidy recently joined host Karen Jagoda on the Empowered Patient Podcast to answer these questions. In a wide-ranging interview, Cassidy dives into the origins of Lucem Health’s partnership with Mayo Clinic Platform and shares why 2026 will be the year of proactive, AI-driven care.

Moving From Reactive to Proactive Care

During the episode, Cassidy explains that while modern EHRs are rich with data, they often lack the “scaffolding” needed to turn that data into actionable insights.

“We want to cast the widest possible net over a population,” Cassidy tells the Empowered Patient Podcast. “One of the powers of modern AI is that we can use commonly available data that exists on most patient records… to evaluate large numbers of patients and identify those that may have a risk we need to pay attention to.”

Spotlight on Type 1 Diabetes and Early Detection

A highlight of the conversation is the discussion around Lucem Health’s new initiative for Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). Cassidy shares a surprising insight that challenges common misconceptions: T1D isn’t just a childhood disease.

“You can actually develop Type 1 Diabetes in your seventies,” Cassidy notes, highlighting that nearly 80% of T1D cases have no family history. By identifying these patients in Stage 1 or Stage 2, health systems can intervene before the disease progresses to life-threatening complications like diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA).

The Economic Case for Early Detection

Beyond the clinical benefits, the episode explores the financial impact of early detection. Cassidy uses liver disease as a prime example: detecting fatty liver disease early allows for treatment with GLP-1s, whereas missing it can lead to cirrhosis and the need for a liver transplant—a difference that saves lives and significantly reduces healthcare costs.

Listen to the full episode on the Empowered Patient Podcast: https://empoweredpatientradio.com/clinical-ai-drives-early-detection-of-undiagnosed-diseases-with-sean-cassidy-lucem-health