One of the fascinating aspects of modern business is the way entrepreneurs have become agents of social change. The most visible examples are Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs, whose companies, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple, have – for better or worse – revolutionized our economy and our daily lives.

This kind of business-led change is also happening on a smaller scale. Though, of course, the scale of that change is far from small if it is your life that is being changed. On this edition of Out to Lunch, host Peter Ricchiuti  talks with two local New Orleans entrepreneurs who are changing lives. And saving lives.

Nick Pashos

Nick Pashos has a company called Bio Aesthetics that is pioneering a totally new specialized technique in breast reconstructive surgery with a technique known as acellular Nipple Areola Complex grafts. This is a revolutionary technique of surgically replacing a nipple on a human being. The revolutionary part is that this is not a traditional skin graft. The Bio Aesthetic method helps the patient’s own body re-grow this specialized type of nipple-areola tissue.

Huzefa Dossaji

Huzefa Dossaji’s company, Certintell Telehealth, is a kind of virtual doctors clinic that puts people who live far away from medical care in a room with a doctor. It’s fundamentally an online medical communication company – sort of like a hospital on Skype – bringing together doctors and patients in a virtual clinic. Typically, the patients are in low income, rural areas who would otherwise have no access to specialized medical treatment.

Worldwide Medical Revolutions From New Orleans 

People around the entrepreneurial world in New Orleans often ask when we’re going to produce something like the next Google or Facebook. Both Bio Aesthetics and Certintell Telehealth are contenders for the big time.

Hizefa Dossaji, Nick Pashos, Peter Ricchiuti

Photos over lunch at Commander’s Palace by Alison Moon.

RELATED: There are also other New Orleans companies making exciting advances in medical technology advances, including a cure for cancer.