Episode 108: Who Should Control Your Medical Records? | Dr. Chris Slininger & Garrett Bernier of VitalID
Think about every doctor you’ve seen.
Every blood test. Every scan. Every injury. Every procedure. Maybe years or even decades of medical history.
Now imagine having to pull all of that together.
That’s the problem at the center of Episode 108 of Talkin’ St. Pete, where Ryan Bogden sits down with Dr. Chris Slininger and Garrett Bernier, CEOs of VitalID, two military veterans building a healthcare technology company in St. Petersburg, Florida.
They came to the problem from two very different sides of healthcare, but both kept running into the same frustration: important health information can be scattered across different doctors, facilities, systems, and formats.
So they started asking a bigger question.
What if the medical record stayed with the patient?
The Problem That Led to VitalID
For Dr. Chris Slininger, the problem became clear through his work with patients.
As a craniosacral specialist working with complex neurological issues, Chris described seeing people who had already visited multiple doctors and were still searching for answers.
To understand the full picture, he could be looking through blood work, previous imaging, surgery reports, MRIs, X rays, and years of medical history.
And all of that information might be in different places.
Garrett saw the problem from the patient side.
After serving in the Marine Corps, he experienced how difficult it could be to keep track of medical information across different locations and healthcare systems during and after his military career.
When Chris and Garrett eventually connected, they realized they were looking at two sides of the same problem.
That conversation helped lead to VitalID.
What Is VitalID?
VitalID is working on a patient controlled medical record designed to bring disconnected health information together instead of leaving it scattered across different systems.
The company is currently building its prototype and working toward an MVP.
Chris describes a record that could grow with the patient over time, bringing information such as blood work, surgery reports, MRIs, X rays, and other medical records into one organized history.
Instead of starting from scratch every time you change doctors or trying to remember where an old record is stored, the bigger vision is for the patient to carry that history with them.
Their mission comes down to a simple idea:
Bring power back to the patient.
What If Your Lab Results Are Telling a Bigger Story?
One of the most relatable parts of the episode comes when Ryan talks about what families can go through when helping an aging relative navigate healthcare.
Calling insurance companies. Looking for records. Moving between facilities. Trying to figure out which doctor has what.
It can become exhausting before you even get to the actual care.
Chris brings up another issue: seeing one test result isn’t necessarily the same as seeing the history behind it.
If someone gets lab work every couple of months, each result gives a snapshot. Put those data points together over time, though, and you may start seeing a trend.
For Chris, having that bigger picture could help physicians ask deeper questions about what may be driving a problem instead of only responding to what is happening at that moment.
It also connects to one of the biggest themes of the episode: looking for root causes.
We Have More Health Data Than Ever. But What Does It Actually Mean?
Smartwatches can track sleep, activity, heart rate, and other health metrics. People can search almost any health question online in seconds.
We have access to an incredible amount of information.
But Chris asks a very simple question:
What does all of that data actually mean for you?
He shares a story about a farmer he once treated who explained the difference between knowledge and wisdom:
“Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, and wisdom is knowing not to put a tomato in a fruit salad.”
That line gets right to the heart of the conversation.
Having more data doesn’t automatically mean understanding it.
For Chris and Garrett, the opportunity is not simply collecting more health information. It’s finding better ways to organize and understand that information so patients and physicians can ask better questions.
Where Does AI Fit Into Healthcare?
Then Ryan asks Garrett where he thinks AI is going.
His answer?
“To the moon.”
Garrett believes we’re still in the early stages of what AI could eventually become.
They talk about AI speeding up work, changing how businesses operate, and helping people turn ideas into action much faster than before.
Healthcare opens up an even bigger conversation.
If AI can work with increasingly large amounts of health information, what could that mean for patients and physicians?
And just as importantly, where should technology stop?
Chris talks about the importance of emotional intelligence, human judgment, and understanding the person sitting in front of you.
A dataset can tell you a lot.
But sometimes there’s a story behind the numbers that only comes out when someone actually listens.
As technology becomes a bigger part of healthcare, that human side may become even more important.
Building VitalID From St. Pete
Even though VitalID is taking on a healthcare problem that goes far beyond Tampa Bay, the company’s story is being built here in St. Petersburg, Florida.
VitalID is currently in the prototype stage, working toward an MVP and fundraising.
Chris and Garrett also talk with Ryan about wanting to build relationships with investors, healthcare professionals, med tech companies, and other people in the local community as the company grows.
And outside of work, both have found their own version of St. Pete life.
For Chris, that means being a dad to six kids and spending time at the parks and beaches.
For Garrett, it could mean boating, walking around the city, stopping at a coffee shop, trying a local restaurant, or simply being outside.
It’s a reminder of something Talkin’ St. Pete keeps finding episode after episode:
You never really know what the person sitting next to you at a St. Pete coffee shop might be building.
If It’s Your Health, Who Should Be in Control?
VitalID is still early in its journey.
There’s a prototype being built, an MVP ahead, fundraising underway, and a much bigger vision that still has to be developed.
But the problem Chris and Garrett are trying to address is something a lot of people can relate to.
Your health history can stretch across years of doctors, tests, specialists, hospitals, and life changes.
So the question behind Episode 108 is surprisingly simple:
If it’s your health and your medical history, how much control should you have over the information behind it?
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