Andrew Le Explained

Andrew Le is an American medical researcher.^[1] He research and publishes his work on AI use in healthcare and brain cancer.^[2]

Life and education

He was born in the United States to Vietnamese immigrants who escaped Vietnam by boat in 1979.^[3] He attended Taylor High School, where he actively participated in charity work, raising funds for shelters after Hurricane Katrina.^[4]

He pursued higher education at Harvard College, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.^[5] He then earned his doctorate of medicine from Harvard Medical School, specializing in neurosurgery.^[6]

Career and research

During his medical training, he observed patients frequently resorting to online symptom searches, leading to misinformation and potential harm to their health.^[7] While a third-year medical resident at Harvard Medical School in 2014, Le co-founded Buoy Health with his colleague Eddie Reyes.^[8] He developed an AI-powered digital health tool that would function as a health-specific search engine, offering patients information and guidance.

Le and his colleagues gathered enough data to educate the algorithm by hand-reading the 18,000-plus articles, then developing an algorithm to crunch the figures in real-time for everyone.

He looked at 100 standardized cases with 33 varied diagnoses, ranging from a harmless cough to a potentially fatal pulmonary embolism, as well as the incidence of uncommon illnesses like histoplasmosis and the common cold.

He has led Buoy through two successful investment rounds, raising over $67 million with healthcare investors like Optum, Cigna, Humana, and WR Hambrecht + Co, since establishing the firm out of Harvard Innovation Labs in 2014.^[9]

Selected publications

• none. Le . Andrew . Reinshagen . Clemens . Redjal . Navid . Walcott . Brian P. . McDonnell . Erin . Dietrich . Jorg . Nahed . Brian V. . Valproic acid, compared to other antiepileptic drugs, is associated with improved overall and progression-free survival in glioblastoma but worse outcome in grade II/III gliomas treated with temozolomide . Journal of Neuro-Oncology . May 2016 . 127 . 3 . 505–514 . 10.1007/s11060-016-2054-8. 26830093 .
• none . Le . Andrew . Tsimelzon . Anna . Long . Weiwen . Foulds . Charles E. . Tsai . Sophia Y. . Ming-Jer Tsai . Tsai . Ming-Jer . O'Malley . Bert W. . Research Resource: Expression Profiling Reveals Unexpected Targets and Functions of the Human Steroid Receptor RNA Activator (SRA) Gene . Molecular Endocrinology . 1090–1105 . en . 10.1210/me.2009-0427 . 1 May 2010. 24 . 5 . 20219889 . 2870939 .
• none. Le . Andrew . Walcott . Brian P. . Redjal . Navid . Coumans . Jean-Valery . Cervical osteophyte resulting in compression of the jugular foramen: Case report . Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine . October 2014 . 21 . 4 . 565–567 . 10.3171/2014.6.SPINE13908.
• Le . Andrew . Barkauskas. Repair and Regeneration of the Respiratory System: Complexity, Plasticity, and Mechanisms of Lung Stem Cell Function . Cell Stem Cell . August 2014 . 15 . 2 . 123–138 . 10.1016/j.stem.2014.07.012. free . 25105578 .

Notes and References

1. Web site: Morrison . Jim . Andrew Le's startup offers help to patients drowning in medical information . www.bizjournals.com.
2. Web site: Archambault . Joshua . Buoy Health – Intelligent Front Door to Optimized Healthcare Podcast Hubwonk Latest News . . 21 April 2020.
3. Web site: Top 25 Emerging leaders 2021 . Modern Healthcare.
4. Web site: Martin . Betty L . Valedictorian learned lessons from Rita . Chron.com . Houston Chronicle.
5. Web site: Andrew Le - Co-Founder & CEO at Buoy Health . THE ORG . en.
6. Web site: Smith . Hallie . Wondering What Your Symptoms Mean? There's an App for That . . 8 March 2017.
7. Web site: Ramsey Pflanzer . Lydia . Leonard . Kimberly . Meet the 30 young leaders who are forging a new future for the $3.6 trillion healthcare industry . Business Insider.
8. Web site: Mack . Heather . Digital health startup Buoy launches AI-powered, symptom-checking chatbot . MobiHealthNews . en . 8 March 2017.
9. Web site: Bartlett . Jessica . Buoy Health plans new hires, aims to reduce health care 'friction points' . 2023-08-15 . www.bizjournals.com.