How Peer-Reviewed Evidence Drives AI Discoverability

If a potential buyer asked an AI chatbot which companies are leading in your space, would your company come up? And if it did, would the answer be positive?

In this episode, I sit down with Paul Wicks, Founder and Chief Evidence Officer of ProofStack Health, and my colleague Mark Erwich, Chief Strategy Officer of Health Launchpad, to dig into an underappreciated aspect of B2B health tech: the power of hard evidence.

Not case studies. Not testimonials. Published, peer-reviewed proof.

Paul brings a fascinating backstory to this conversation. A neuropsychologist by training, he spent years in academic research and then at PatientsLikeMe, where he helped publish over 110 peer-reviewed papers proving that patient-generated data could stand up to the highest standards of scientific scrutiny. That journey became the foundation for ProofStack Health, which has now helped more than 50 companies publish over 200 peer-reviewed papers.

What makes this episode especially timely is the connection between evidence strategy and the way buyers are now researching vendors. Buyers are increasingly turning to ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity instead of Google, and those tools weight peer-reviewed scientific evidence heavily. Paul walks us through exactly how that works, including a remarkable case study on Ada Health, a company that consistently surfaces in AI search results as the best-evidenced AI symptom checker in the market. He also explains why the process of building an evidence base does not have to take years, and how conference abstracts can serve as a practical, fast-moving starting point.

Mark brings the marketer's perspective throughout, drawing on his own experience co-authoring scientific papers and connecting Paul's framework to real-world content strategy, sales enablement, and trade show programs.

If you are wondering how to get your company found when buyers are no longer Googling, this is an episode worth your full attention.

Key Topics Covered

• "(00:00:00)" Introduction
• "(00:03:30)" Paul's background
• "(00:07:00)" The founding of ProofStack Health
• "(00:09:00)" What ProofStack does
• "(00:13:00)" The Ada Health case study
• "(00:15:00)" Mark's reaction
• "(00:17:30)" The shift in buyer behavior
• "(00:18:30)" How LLMs weigh evidence
• "(00:23:00)" Health Launchpad's AI optimization practice and how to get cited by LLMs
• "(00:24:00)" Open access and discoverability
• "(00:27:00)" How ProofStack structures an evidence roadmap
• "(00:29:00)" Mark on putting evidence to work in marketing
• "(00:32:00)" The importance of plain-language titles
• "(00:34:00)" Signals of trust
• "(00:35:00)" Paul's closing takeaway
• "(00:37:00)" Mark's closing takeaway
• "(00:38:30)" Adam's five key takeaways from the conversation

If you are interested in discussing this or any other topic, let's have a chat.  Reach out to me directly to schedule a no-obligation discussion. This isn't a sales call, but rather an opportunity to talk through your questions and challenges.

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