The Pulse by Wharton Digital Health: Recent Episodes
The Pulse by Wharton Digital Health
bio thesis, notable investments such as Slingshot AI and Elion, and Emma’s recent research on the promise and tension of clinical AI adoption across health systems and payers. She also shares practical advice for early-stage founders navigating uncertainty and offers candid guidance for aspiring investors on finding their own style in venture.
In this episode, I sat down with Autumn-Kyoko (AK) Cushman, co-founder and CEO of ShiftRx, a platform using generative AI to transform pharmacy staffing. Backed by investors like Work-Bench, Inflect Health, Tau Ventures, and Opal Ventures, ShiftRx is tackling one of healthcare’s biggest challenges - staffing shortages - by empowering providers with more control, flexibility, and financial stability.AK’s path to founding ShiftRx is anything but conventional - she served as a hospital corpsman in the US Navy, worked in management consulting with the National Cancer Institute, and later joined IBM’s Watson Health. Her firsthand exposure to healthcare’s inefficiencies, combined with her co-founder Leann’s experience as a pharmacy technician, led them to build ShiftRx as a provider-first solution.AK and I discussed the founding story of ShiftRx, the root causes of provider burnout, and how AI can reshape healthcare staffing.
Michael Meng, Stellar Health, on Changing Primary Care Incentives by The Pulse by Wharton Digital Health
Our guest on this episode is Jim Pursley, President of Hinge Health. Founded in 2014, Hinge Health is revolutionizing musculoskeletal (MSK) care by combining virtual physical therapy, wearable technology, and multidisciplinary care teams. Through AI-powered motion tracking, real-time exercise guidance, and personalized health coaching, Hinge Health is improving outcomes for patients while reducing healthcare costs. In the episode, Jim and I discussed: 1) The founding story of Hinge Health and key moments shaping its mission, 2) How Hinge Health integrates AI, motion tracking, and Enso technology to deliver remote MSK care, 3) Overcoming skepticism around virtual physical therapy and the challenges of scaling in a complex healthcare ecosystem, and 4) The future of healthcare innovation, including unified care models and AI-driven advancements
Our guest on this episode is Mike Uchrin, Co-founder and CEO of Monogram Health. Founded in 2019, Monogram Health is revolutionizing kidney care through its value-based, in-home care model, improving outcomes for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) as well as related polychronic conditions. By integrating evidence-based clinical protocols and personalized care delivery, Monogram ensures that CKD patients receive comprehensive support directly in their homes. The company was recently recognized as the third fastest-growing privately held company in the U.S., backed by over $350 million in funding from major healthcare players like CVS Health, Cigna Ventures and Humana, among others.In the episode, Mike and I discussed: 1)Monogram’s value-based, in-home care model for CKD and ESKD patients, 2) The importance of multispecialty care and evidence-based protocols in improving patient outcomes, 3) Challenges of scaling nationwide while maintaining care quality, and 4) Innovations in kidney care, including genetic and pharmacological breakthroughs.
In this episode, I sat down with Dr. Neel Shah, Chief Medical Officer of Maven Clinic, the world’s largest digital clinic for women’s and family health.
Dr. Shah is a practicing obstetrician and a visiting scientist at Harvard Medical School where he previously served as a professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology. Dr. Shah joined Maven in 2021 with a mission to expand and diversify women’s and family health practices. He is a big advocate for health equity and reproductive justice with numerous awards and media recognitions for his impact on maternal health in the United States.
In this episode, Neel and I discussed:
- The fertility industry has evolved rapidly, with new technologies and a more inclusive approach to care outcomes and reducing overutilization.
- Health equity is a critical issue in women’s healthcare, and Maven is actively working to address disparities and provide culturally humble care.
- How Maven integrates cultural humility into its care delivery and medical practice design to ensure patients feel seen and heard.
- Maven’s expansion into Medicaid demonstrates its commitment to accessible and equitable healthcare for all.
In this episode, I sat down with Jared Dauman, co-founder and Head of Operations for Soda Health. Founded in 2021, Soda Health is a healthcare technology company focused on reducing health inequities. Soda Health uses technology to simplify healthcare transactions, similar to retail purchases, using debit cards. This approach aims to bridge the gap between medical claims and retail payments, ensuring consumers have easier access to benefits. In this episode, Jared and I discuss his journey from working in the directed spend space at Walmart to becoming a co-founder of Soda Health, the business model of Soda Health, the integration of fintech and healthcare, the challenges and opportunities in the world of digital health partnerships, and the evolving role of social determinants of health interventions.
In this episode, I sat down with Jared Dauman, co-founder and Head of Operations for Soda Health. Founded in 2021, Soda Health is a healthcare technology company focused on reducing health inequities. Soda Health uses technology to simplify healthcare transactions, similar to retail purchases, using debit cards. This approach aims to bridge the gap between medical claims and retail payments, ensuring consumers have easier access to benefits. In this episode, Jared and I discuss his journey from working in the directed spend space at Walmart to becoming a co-founder of Soda Health, the business model of Soda Health, the integration of fintech and healthcare, the challenges and opportunities in the world of digital health partnerships, and the evolving role of social determinants of health interventions.
In this episode, I sat down with Jared Dauman, co-founder and Head of Operations for Soda Health. Founded in 2021, Soda Health is a healthcare technology company focused on reducing health inequities. Soda Health uses technology to simplify healthcare transactions using debit cards, ultimately ensuring consumers have easier access to benefits. In this episode, Jared and I discuss his journey from working in the directed spend space at Walmart to becoming a co-founder of Soda Health, the integration of fintech and healthcare, the challenges and opportunities in the world of digital health partnerships, and the evolving role of the social determinants in healthcare.
Founded in 2017, Paige is a digital pathology software provider that uses AI to improve cancer diagnoses. Paige was the first ever company to earn FDA approval for an AI-based product, and they are currently collaborating with Microsoft to build the world’s largest image-based AI cancer model. In this episode, Dr. Moye and I discuss Paige’s origin as a spin-out from Memorial Sloan Kettering, the role of AI in supporting cancer diagnostics, the process of navigating corporate partnerships and FDA approval with AI tools, and the value of new AI applications in healthcare.
In this episode, I sat down with Buck Poropatich, Head of Lyft Healthcare. Lyft Healthcare launched in 2016 as part of Lyft's broader efforts to address transportation barriers in healthcare. Today, Lyft Healthcare partners with 9 of the 10 largest US health systems, non-emergency medical transportation brokers, and the top 10 payers to provide rides across the patient journey.
By providing reliable transportation through its extensive network, Lyft Healthcare helps reduce patient no-shows, enhance the member experience, and ultimately improve patient outcomes. Since he joined in 2019, Buck has helped secure key partnerships with industry leaders like ChenMed, CVS, and Kroger Health, alongside countless others.
Buck and I discussed:
- Lyft Healthcare’s founding story after the company discovered a hidden product-market fit in the healthcare industry.
- Creative partnerships with companies like Best Buy Health and Instacart Health that have enhanced Lyft Healthcare's services and expanded their reach in the healthcare space.
- Lyft Healthcare’s alignment with the shift towards value-based care, as transportation plays a strategic role in improving care adherence, member satisfaction, and managing total cost of care.
- Future expansion plans for Lyft Healthcare include expanding their Medicaid footprint, extending their Lyft Assisted product, and leveraging mobile app technology and data modeling to improve the member experience.
Our guest on this episode is Nawal Roy. Nawal Roy is the founder and CEO of Holmusk, a company that specializes in real-world evidence, AI-powered analytics, and digital solutions to solve the evidence gaps problem in mental health.
Last year, Holmusk raised a series B funding round of $45M, led by Veradigm, a leading provider of healthcare data and technology solutions. Powered by this investment, Holmusk’s NeuroBlu database recently reached a pivotal milestone of 4 million patient lives, becoming the largest NLP-enriched, de-identified real-world data platform designed for behavioral health and mental health research.
Nawal and I discussed:
- Holmusk’s founding story, how Nawal connected his background and skill sets in finance to healthcare, and where he saw opportunities in building a “Bloomberg Terminal” for behavioral health
- Holmusk’s flagship platform, Neuroblu, which organizes and analyzes a large volume of real-world data to provide insights for research, care improvement, and marketing purposes
- Generative AI and natural language processing (NLP) and their the potential to revolutionize mental health care by enabling precision psychiatry, improving the standardization of treatment protocols, and bridging the evidence gap
- Holmusk’s active partnerships with healthcare systems, pharma companies, and government organizations to expand its data set and drive meaningful change in the industry
Our guests this episode are Dr. Sameer Berry and Sam Holliday, co-founders and CMO and CEO of Oshi Health. Oshi Health is a virtual gastrointestinal care clinic increasing access to care for the one in four Americans with digestive disorders. In this episode, I spoke with Sameer and Sam about:
- Oshi’s high-touch, integrated care model for GI patients
- Purpose-built clinical workflows to improve outcomes and cost savings
- Oshi's partnerships with independent GI practices and health plans
- The future of virtual first specialty care
In this episode, I sat down with Ankit Jain, Founder and CEO of Infinitus Systems. Founded in 2019, the company automates tedious and time-consuming administrative processes across the healthcare ecosystem with AI to free up clinician time and improve access, adherence, and affordability. Infinitus is the only solution that automates the entire phone call process to complete benefit verifications. Infinitus returns that hard-to-find information so providers have the most comprehensive view of treatment coverage and can confidently move forward with a patient treatment plan. The company has raised money from Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Coatue, and a number of other healthcare luminaries.
Ankit and I discussed: 1) The company’s “spark story,” and how a Google digital assistant for restaurant, spa and salon reservations was pivoted to fill an unmet market need in healthcare, 2) The importance of freeing up time spent on administrative workflows for clinicians to serve patients, 3) Applications of AI in healthcare to solve for areas of unmet need
Our guest on this episode is Pablo Pantaleoni, the Chief Digital Officer of LifeStance, a mental health care company focused on providing evidence based medically driven treatment services for children, adolescents and adults suffering from a variety of mental health issues in an outpatient care setting, both in person and through his digital health, telemedicine offering.
In this episode, Pablo discussed: 1) His unique background and path to LifeStance. 2) LifeStance’s value proposition in the digital mental health space. 3) AI’s role in combating the mental health crisis. 4) Advice for young entrepreneurs in this space.
Siva Namasivayam is the co-founder and CEO of Cohere Health, an AI-powered platform that simplifies the time-consuming prior authorization process for health plans & providers. In this episode, Siva and I discussed his path to entrepreneurship, responsible use of AI in utilization management, how Cohere is transforming prior authorization from an administrative burden into a quality improvement process.
In this episode, I sat down with Belinda Tan and Noah Craft, Co-Founders and Co-CEOs at People Science. Founded in 2019, People Science is a human-centered clinical research platform addressing the need for rigorous clinical science to back alternative medicines and wellness solutions that do not typically fall under traditional Western medicine. The company’s platform studies a range of solutions spanning microbiome and food-as-medicine interventions, natural and synthetic psychedelic medicines, cannabis and cannabinoids, functional medicines, and digital therapeutics. Its user-facing app called Chloe (Consumer Health Learning and Organizing Ecosystem) supports users to test these alternative treatments on themselves, and enables users to view personal results in real time while comparing themselves to others. People Science secured its $8.5 million seed funding through two rounds, most recently in December 2022.
Belinda, Noah and I discussed: 1) Their founding story and unique co-CEO leadership model, 2) The philosophy behind the People Science platform, including the nuances of alternative medicines compared to traditional Western medicine, 3) The business model, including both how studies are launched with B2B partners and the consumer-facing app (Chloe), and 4) Insights and advice from having co-founded and co-led not one, but two, companies together.
Our guest on this episode is Todd Park. Todd is the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Devoted Health, a Medicare Advantage “payvider” providing virtual and in-home medical care for older Americans and leveraging their technology platform to drive clinical results. Founded in 2017, Devoted’s team of over 2,000 cares for nearly 124,000 members across 14 states. Todd previously served as the White House Technology Advisor and the HHS Chief Technology Officer in the Obama Administration, and was the co-founder of athenahealth and Castlight.
In this episode, I spoke with Todd about
- His entrepreneurial journey
- His time in the White House
- Why Devoted is situated to transform the healthcare experience for older Americans
Our guest on this episode is Todd Park. Todd is the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Devoted Health, a Medicare Advantage "payvider" providing virtual and in-home medical care for older Americans and leveraging their technology platform to drive clinical results. Founded in 2017, Devoted's team of over 2,000 cares for nearly 124,000 members across 14 states. Todd previously served as the White House Technology Advisor and the HHS Chief Technology Officer in the Obama Administration, and was the co-founder of athenahealth and Castlight. In this episode, I spoke with Todd about, his entrepreneurial journey, his time in the White House, and why Devoted is situated to transform the healthcare experience for older Americans.
In this episode, I sat down with Dawn Alley, President of Decision Support at Carebridge, a company that works with health plans and states to care for individuals receiving long-term support services. Prior to joining Carebridge, Dawn spent about a decade working in the federal government as Chief Strategy Officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), and before that as Deputy Senior Advisor for Value-based Transformation at HHS.
Dawn and I discuss: 1) The main initiatives she worked on at CMMI including the Accountable Health Communities Model and Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program, 2) lessons learned during her tenure about implementing and delivering healthcare models at scale, and 3) why Dawn is excited about the future of long-term care services and why she believes in Carebridge’s model
In this episode, I sat down with Misha Palecek, who currently serves as the Chief Transformation Officer for DaVita Kidney Care, a leading provider of kidney health services for more than 250K patients globally. Misha joined DaVita in 2005 and has stood up several ventures under the DaVita umbrella, including serving as President of Paladina, a start-up primary care business affiliated with DaVita. In Misha’s current role, he’s focused on business growth through strategic value-based care partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, joint venture partnerships, and care delivery innovations across the kidney care continuum.
In this episode, I sat down with Dr. Bassem Mikhael, SVP, of the Clinical Enterprise at Somatus. Started in 2016 by Dr. Ikenna Okezie, Somatus partners with clinicians, health plans, health systems, and multi-disciplinary community-based care teams to improve health, quality of life, and cost of care for patients with kidney disease. Somatus employs over 1,450 team members and serves more than 150,000 patients across 36 states. Dr. Mikhael and I discuss:
1) The vital role that kidneys play in maintaining health, the issues that arise from diseased kidneys, and how these challenges translate into per patient costs that are 10x higher, on average, than those for patients without kidney disease, 2) The traditional model for treating patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) and how Somatus’ model realigns incentives to focus on integrated, preventative, and patient-centered care, 3) Why the federal government, CMS, and CMMI have prioritized investments in kidney care and what we’ve learned from their initiatives and care model tests, and 4) Clinical innovations that make Dr. Mikhael optimistic about the future for patients living with kidney disease.
In this episode, I sat down with Anna De Paula Hanika, Co-Founder & CEO of Uno Health. Founded in 2019, Uno enrolls Medicare members in the federal and state programs – Medicaid, the Medicare Savings Program, SNAP, energy assistance programs, and more – that they are eligible for, benefiting both the member and payor. Uno has put over $10M back into the pockets of low-income Americans. Its investors include Google Ventures, General Catalyst, Floodgate, and Cowboy Ventures.
Anna and I discuss: 1) How she became interested in solving challenges related to the US healthcare systems and identified enrolling seniors in federal and state programs as the particular problem she wanted to solve, 2) Uno’s business and operational model and value proposition to payors and members, 3) The ways Anna has seen these safety net programs work really well and less well and how supplemental benefits programs from payors can fill some existing gaps, and 4) Lessons she’s learned during her journey as an entrepreneur and advice she has for people starting tech-enabled services businesses.
Our guest on this episode is Mark Cuban. In addition to a storied business career that includes owning the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and a role on ABC’s Shark Tank, Mark is the founder and lead investor in the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, a generic pharmaceutical distributor that prices medications at cost, plus a 15% administrative markup and any relevant pharmacy and shipping fees. Founded in early 2022, over 1.7M patients have signed up for the service in their first year, and Cost Plus Drugs now offers over 1,000 generic medications for purchase on their website. Mark founded the company with CEO Dr. Alex Oshmyansky, a pediatric radiologist who originally tried to start an organization similar to Cost Plus Drugs as a non-profit, before pivoting and convincing Mark to be his partner.
In this episode, I spoke with Mark about:
- His journey to starting Cost Plus Drugs
- How the company is able to drive down prices so drastically compared to the existing players
- How incumbents, such as traditional pharmacy benefit managers and new entrants, such as the Amazon RxPass, will impact the success of Cost Plus Drugs
In this episode, I sat down with Marina Tarasova, co-founder & COO of Paloma Health, the first and leading virtual clinic, modernizing thyroid care. Marina started Paloma Health with her co-founder and Paloma’s CEO, Guillaume ("G") Cohen-Skalli in 2018. Paloma’s model offers holistic care for hypothyroidism & Hashimotos, reducing the cost to treat these patients by over 60%. With their full stack approach, Paloma is drastically cutting the time patients have to wait to start treatment, and they are seeing better outcomes and patient satisfaction than traditional brick and mortar clinics. Last year, Paloma raised their series A round of funding led by SpringTide Ventures, bringing the company’s valuation to $26M. With the investment, they’re continuing to build towards their goal of becoming the leading thyroid care experts and highlighting the importance of personalized thyroid care.
Marina and I discuss:
- Her path to starting Paloma Health and how her experience at large healthcare organizations led her to building in the digital health space
- How virtual specialty clinics can prioritize growth through the physician shortage
- How Paloma’s specialization in hypothyroidism and their holistic approach allows the virtual clinic to make strides in patient experience, symptom improvement, and cost of care
In this episode, I sat down with Sam Shear, CEO of Yes Hearing. Founded in 2019, Yes Hearing is an online provider of hearing care and hearing aids, partnering with 400+ audiology providers to provide in-home services such as phone and video consultations, hearing tests, hearing aid fitting, programming, and follow-up care. Through their unique model, Audiologists and hearing specialists bring the clinic directly to patients’ living rooms; the company is now the largest in-home hearing care provider in the world. The company was founded in 2019, and secured its $10M Series A funding in 2022.
Sam and I discussed: 1) Yes Hearing’s background and mission, including personal family anecdotes that led him to start the company, 2) The company’s clinical model, go-to-market strategy, patient journey, and dedication to iterative feedback & improvement, 3) Trends in the broader hearing care and at-home care industries, including both tailwinds and barriers to patient adoption, and 4) Entrepreneurial advice relating to fundraising with investors, scaling with payers, and believing in the potential of an early-stage company!
In this episode, I sat down with Anne-Maree Cantwell, Venture Partner at Empactful Capital. Founded in 2016 by veteran healthcare operators and investors, Empactful Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that deploys targeted funds to invest in digital health companies that operate in the value-based care and behavioral-mental health verticals. Empactful brings its healthcare industry operating expertise and relationship leverage to help its portfolio companies scale.
In this episode, Anne-Maree and I discussed: 1) Her background in medicine, and how that helped her both scale telehealth at Kaiser Permanente and become a Venture Capital investor, 2) Experiences scaling telehealth before the pandemic telemedicine boom, and what constitutes a successful telemedicine program, including the future of virtual care, 3) Empacful Capital’s approach to investing in leading digital health companies that are tech-enabled, including a recent investment example, Care Continuity, and 4) Perspectives on key digital healthcare trends in 2023, including the online treatment of higher acuity mental health disorders, AI applications on patients and providers, and use of consumer devices to detect medical conditions.
In this episode, I sat down with Anne-Maree Cantwell, Venture Partner at Empactful Capital. Founded in 2016 by veteran healthcare operators and investors, Empactful Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that deploys targeted funds to invest in digital health companies that operate in the value-based care and behavioral-mental health verticals. Empactful brings its healthcare industry operating expertise and relationship leverage to help its portfolio companies scale.In this episode, Anne-Maree and I discussed: 1) Her background in medicine, and how that helped her both scale telehealth at Kaiser Permanente and become a Venture Capital investor, 2) Experiences scaling telehealth before the pandemic telemedicine boom, and what constitutes a successful telemedicine program, including the future of virtual care, 3) Empacful Capital’s approach to investing in leading digital health companies that are tech-enabled, including a recent investment example, Care Continuity, and 4) Perspectives on key digital healthcare trends in 2023, including the online treatment of higher acuity mental health disorders, AI applications on patients and providers, and use of consumer devices to detect medical conditions.
Our guest on this episode is Dr. Farzad Mostashari. Farzad is the co-founder and CEO of Aledade, a primary care enablement company that partners with independent PCPs to transition to value-based care and, as a result, maintain their independence. Founded in 2014, Aledade works with 11,000 physicians across 40 states and DC, accounting for 1.7M patients under management in Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Commercial and Medicaid contracts. Farzad previously served as the National Coordinator for Health IT in the Department of Health and Human Services, he completed medical school at the Yale School of Medicine and a Master’s in Population Health from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Earlier this year, Aledade raised a $123M Series E round of funding led by OMERS Growth Equity.
In this episode, I spoke with Farzad about:
- His journey to starting Aledade and the role policy expertise and evidence have played in the company’s success
- Why he and the company are betting on independent physicians as the drivers of change in value-based care
- How Aledade became the rare profitable health tech company
Our guest on this episode is Dr. Farzad Mostashari. Farzad is the co-founder and CEO of Aledade, a primary care enablement company that partners with independent PCPs to transition to value-based care and, as a result, maintain their independence. Founded in 2014, Aledade works with 11,000 physicians across 40 states and DC, accounting for 1.7M patients under management in Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Commercial and Medicaid contracts. Farzad previously served as the National Coordinator for Health IT in the Department of Health and Human Services, he completed medical school at the Yale School of Medicine and a Master's in Population Health from Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Earlier this year, Aledade raised a $123M Series E round of funding led by OMERS Growth Equity.In this episode, I spoke with Farzad about (1) his journey to starting Aledade and the role policy expertise and evidence have played in the company's success (2) why he and the company are betting on independent physicians as the drivers of change in value-based care and (3) how Aledade became the rare profitable health tech company
In this episode, I sat down with Iman Abuzeid, MD, CEO and Co-Founder of Incredible Health. Founded in 2017, Incredible Health, the highest valued tech-enabled career marketplace in healthcare, transforms the hiring process for both nurses and health systems. In August 2022, Incredible Health raised an $80M Series B round led by Base10 Partners. The company partners with over 600 top health systems across the country, has over 10,000 nurses joining its platform every single week, and has reduced the average timeline for hiring a nurse from 82 days to less than 14.Iman and I discuss: 1) her background in medicine and how she became a startup founder in the healthcare ecosystem, 2) the current nurse staffing crisis that’s on track to leave the US 1M nurses short by the end of 2023 and how we got here, 3) how Incredible Health is reducing nurse burnout, improving retention, and empowering hospitals to set up their nursing workforces for career advancement, and 4) Iman’s evolution as a leader and how she has invested in herself and her team to keep up with the company’s growth.
In this episode, I sat down with Vijay Kedar, CEO and Co-Founder, of Tomorrow Health. Founded in 2017, Tomorrow Health builds technology to improve the way home-based care is ordered, delivered, and paid for. In August 2022, Tomorrow Health raised a $60M Series B round led by Bond. The company partners with over 100 health plans across the country, experienced a 317% increase in ARR year over year between 2021 and 2022, and has grown to 100+ employees.
Vijay and I discuss: 1) his early career as an investor, why he transitioned to an operator role at Oscar Health, and what he took away from each of these experiences, 2) how a personal experience with home healthcare inspired him to start a company in the space, 3) how Tomorrow Health is shifting incentives for key players in home health including patients, provider, and payors, and 4)where Vijay sees Tomorrow Health going as well as the digital health industry more generally
In this episode, Zaid Malhees sits down with Nick Desai, CEO and Founder of Renee. Founded in 2021, Renee is the developer of patient-centric software designed to improve healthcare services for elderly and underserved patients. The company's application helps schedule appointments, request in-home services, fulfill medication prescriptions, and share vital signs remotely. Renee recently raised $4.4 million in a second seed round led by Quiet Capital. Other investors include Mucker Capital, Fika Ventures, Tau Ventures, Global Founders Capital, SaaS Ventures, City Light Capital, and the AARP.
Our guest on this episode is Sean Duffy. Sean is the co-founder and CEO of Omada Health, a virtual integrated care solution that helps people manage a range of conditions, including pre-diabetes, diabetes, hypertension, and musculoskeletal conditions. Founded in 2011, Omada works with over 1500 employers, health plans and benefit consultants to deliver integrated care pathways for over half a million members. Earlier this year Omada raised a $192M Series E round of funding led by Fidelity.
In this episode, I spoke with Sean about (1) his journey to starting Omada and launching one of the earliest virtual specialty care models, (2) turning Omada into a one-stop-shop for employers and health plans in a sea of point solutions, and (3) a new survey of healthcare buyers' perspectives on virtual care offerings
In this episode (and Jing’s last for The Pulse!) we are excited to feature Erica Jain, the Co-Founder & CEO of Healthie. At Healthie, Erica empowers health and wellness organizations to launch & scale their businesses and build long-term relationships with their clients to deliver personalized, preventative care.
Healthie is an API-forward platform that allows companies to build the back-office infrastructure systems necessary to support patient-centric operations. Healthie uniquely enables companies to effectively dispense longitudinal care. Healthie recently raised $16.5M in Series A funding in a round led by Velvet Sea Ventures with participation from Greymatter Capital, Watershed Capital, and Builders VC.
We discussed:
- Designing a solution to support longitudinal care coordination between patients and their care teams, improving upon the legacy healthcare infrastructure systems geared towards one-time episodic care.
- Healthie’s API-first, out-of-the-box offering enables healthcare companies of any size to focus their resources on developing their core product without sinking resources into creating complex backend systems.
- The importance of operational excellence for healthcare startups and continued interest from venture capital firms and other investors to accelerate innovation across the healthcare industry.
In this episode, we sat down with Cindy Adam, Co-Founder & CEO of Choix and a nurse practitioner. Choix is a telehealth clinic offering abortion care and sexual and reproductive health care to patients in their homes. Choix recently raised $1M in seed funding in a round led by Elevate Capital.
We discussed:
- The recent history of abortion care in the U.S. and the legal implications of the Dobbs v. Jackson decision eliminating the federal constitutional right to abortion.
- The clinical background of medicated abortion care and how permanent FDA authorization for providers to mail mifepristone, the pill used in medicated abortions, enabled abortion care to be practiced through telehealth.
- The importance of the November midterms and potential regulatory shifts after voters express their views on abortion at the polls.
In this episode, I sat down with Colin Quinn, President of Included Health Communities & Co-Founder of Included Health. Colin started Included Health in 2019 to improve care equity for underserved populations, starting with LGBTQ+ individuals. In May 2021, the recently merged Grand Rounds, a care navigation company, and Doctor On Demand, a virtual care company, acquired Included Health. In October 2021, the new entity rebranded as Included Health, which provides integrated navigation and virtual care across everyday and urgent care, primary care, behavioral health, and specialty care.
As President of Included Health Communities, Colin leads the organization’s work on health equity and raising the standard of care for underserved populations. The company’s first offering, which we discuss in-depth in the episode, is tailored to the LGBTQ+ population. Colin and his team are also working on a solution designed to serve the black community’s needs.
Colin and I discuss:
- His path to founding Included Health and how his prior experiences at a Fortune 500 company and a startup prepared him to start his own company
- His decision to sell to employers as well as how employer healthcare purchasers’ priorities have evolved in recent years
- What Colin and his team learned from the research study they conducted and how its findings influenced the company’s trajectory and product strategy
- Why partnering with Grand Rounds and Doctor On Demand made sense for Included Health and why the new entity took on his original company’s name
- What it will take to rebuild trust in healthcare amongst populations for which that trust has been broken
In this episode, I sat down with Colin Quinn, President of Included Health Communities & Co-Founder of Included Health. Colin started Included Health in 2019 to improve care equity for underserved populations, starting with LGBTQ+ individuals. In May 2021, the recently merged Grand Rounds, a care navigation company, and Doctor On Demand, a virtual care company, acquired Included Health. In October 2021, the new entity rebranded as Included Health, which provides integrated navigation and virtual care across everyday and urgent care, primary care, behavioral health, and specialty care.
As President of Included Health Communities, Colin leads the organization’s work on health equity and raising the standard of care for underserved populations. The company’s first offering, which we discuss in-depth in the episode, is tailored to the LGBTQ+ population. Colin and his team are also working on a solution designed to serve the black community’s needs.
Colin and I discuss: 1) his path to founding Included Health and how his prior experiences at a Fortune 500 company and a startup prepared him to start his own company, 2) his decision to sell to employers as well as how employer healthcare purchasers’ priorities have evolved in recent years, 3) what Colin and his team learned from the research study they conducted and how its findings influenced the company’s trajectory and product strategy, 4) why partnering with Grand Rounds and Doctor On Demand made sense for Included Health and why the new entity took on his original company’s name, and 5) what it will take to rebuild trust in healthcare amongst populations for which that trust has been broken
In this episode, we sat down with Kevin Dedner, Founder & CEO of Hurdle Health. Based in Washington D.C, Hurdle Health provides culturally intentional teletherapy to eliminate barriers that make it harder for people of color to get mental healthcare. Hurdle Health raised $5M in seed funding, led by Point 406 Ventures and Seae Ventures. F-Prime also participated in the round.
We discussed:
- Kevin’s personal struggles with finding culturally responsive mental healthcare as the motivation for founding Hurdle.
- Hurdle’s emphasis on training its therapists in cultural humility to provide more efficacious mental healthcare for low to moderate-acuity patients.
- How minority founders must build a solid business plan instead of only following a vision and nurture mentor relationships to raise capital and overcome systemic barriers for launching successful companies.
In this episode, we connected with Josh Hix, Co-Founder and CEO of Season Health. Season Health is a platform that connects members with healthy meal ideas and grocery options to help members and providers manage chronic conditions. Prior to starting Season Health, Josh co-founded the meal prep delivery service Plated, which led to an appearance onSharkTank.
Season Health recently raised $34M in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. LRV Ventures, Company Ventures, Cityblock CEO Toyin Ajayi and other angel investors also participated in the round. Prior to this, Season Health raised $11M in seed funding.
We discussed: * Leveraging Josh’s prior experience co-founding Plated to realize a vision of creating a consumer-grade software platform that connects food and medicine. * Season Health’s mission to make nutritious food more accessible by shaping the increasingly digital food environment and partnering with payers to make food more affordable to improve health outcomes for patients with chronic diseases. * Partnering with healthcare industry leaders Geisinger, CommonSpirit, and Cricket Health to scale Season Health’s offering and enrich scientific research linking nutrition with better chronic disease management.
In this episode, I sat down with Chris Altchek, CEO and Founder of Cadence. Founded in 2019, Cadence is a health tech platform that combines personalized clinical care with a breakthrough technology platform. With this Cadence offers consistent care for people managing chronic conditions, such as congestive heart failure, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and COPD, from the comfort of their home. Cadence recently raised a $100M Series B round, putting its latest valuation at $1 billion.
During our conversation, Chris and I discussed:
- Chris’s career journey and entry into healthcare
- How Cadence is scaling remote monitoring to serve large patient populations
- How the pandemic changed the healthcare system’s perception of remote care
- The future of Cadence and his advice for MBA students interested in the space
Our guest on this episode is Dr. Jerrica Kirkley, co-founder & Chief Medical Officer of Plume. Plume delivers gender-affirming care via telehealth for trans and non-binary individuals, currently operating in 41 states. Plume provides hormone-replacement therapy, such as estrogen and testosterone, as well as letters of support for gender-affirming surgery or changing name or gender markers for its patients. Jerrica and her cofounder, Plume CEO Dr. Matthew Wetschler, raised a $14M series A round of funding last year Craft Ventures.
In this episode, Jerrica and I discussed:
- Her journey to starting Plume
- Her experience as a patient and provider of gender-affirming care
- The current anti-trans political climate and Plume’s role as an advocate for the trans and nonbinary community
To celebrate Pride Month 2022, please consider a donation to The Trevor Project.
Our guest on this episode is Dr. Jerrica Kirkley, co-founder & Chief Medical Officer of Plume. Plume delivers gender-affirming care via telehealth for trans and non-binary individuals, currently operating in 41 states. Plume provides hormone-replacement therapy, such as estrogen and testosterone, as well as letters of support for gender-affirming surgery or changing name or gender markers for its patients. Jerrica and her cofounder, Plume CEO Dr. Matthew Wetschler, raised a $14M series A round of funding last year Craft Ventures.
In this episode, Jerrica and I discussed: (1) her journey to starting Plume, (2) her experience as a patient and provider of gender-affirming care, and (3) the current anti-trans political climate and Plume’s role as an advocate for the trans and nonbinary community.
Our guest on this episode is Kelsey Mellard, founder & CEO of Sitka, a virtual specialty consultation company facilitating primary care and specialty communication via video consults, also known as eConsults or “curbside consults”. Sitka and their virtual specialty provider network, Sitka Medical Associates, work with payers, provider groups and accountable care organizations to improve access to specialty care while avoiding unnecessary specialist costs. Last year, Sitka raised a $14M series A round of funding led by Venrock.
In this episode, Kelsey and I discussed: (1) her journey to starting Sitka and how her time in the public sector has impacted her career (2) how Sitka closes the specialty access gap by removing scheduling inefficiencies and virtually connecting PCPs and specialists, and (3) her experience as an early-stage founder, including how she navigated taking parental leave as a Series A CEO
Our guest on this episode is Kelsey Mellard, founder & CEO of Sitka, a virtual specialty consultation company facilitating primary care and specialty communication via video consults, also known as eConsults or "curbside consults". Sitka and their virtual specialty provider network, Sitka Medical Associates, work with payers, provider groups and accountable care organizations to improve access to specialty care while avoiding unnecessary specialist costs. Last year, Sitka raised a $14M series A round of funding led by Venrock.
In this episode, Kelsey and I discussed: (1) her journey to starting Sitka and how her time in the public sector has impacted her career (2) how Sitka closes the specialty access gap by removing scheduling inefficiencies and virtually connecting PCPs and specialists, and (3) her experience as an early-stage founder, including how she navigated taking parental leave as a Series A CEO
In this episode, we chatted with Dr. Somi Javaid, Founder & Chief Medical Officer of HerMD. Dr. Somi Javaid is a board-certified OBGYN and pioneer in the women’s sexual healthcare space. She founded HerMD, a female-forward, insurance-based women’s healthcare center to help educate, advocate for, and empower women to take control of their health care. Recently, HerMD raised $10 Million in their Series A fundraise to bring their unique healthcare model to women across the US. JAZZ Ventures led the Series A round.
We discussed: -Watching her mother struggle to receive the care she needed and experiencing personal job dissatisfaction and burnout led Dr. Somi Javaid to found HerMD, a clinic specializing in menopause and female sexual health, designed to empower both patients and clinicians to create a positive care experience. -The importance of promoting access to innovative therapies treating menopause and female sexual health disorders through insurance reimbursement, opening physical locations in “flyover” states, and championing education and patient advocacy. -The rise of female healthcare-focused startups is likely to persist in conjunction with more VC funding, with opportunities for consolidation and collaboration across brands.
In this episode, I sat down with Isabelle Kenyon, CEO and Founder of Calibrate. Founded in 2020, Calibrate is a metabolic health company on a mission to change the way the world treats weight. In August of 2021, Calibrate raised a $100M Series B round led by Founders Fund and Tiger Global. Since then, the company has hired hundreds of new employees and onboarded thousands of new patients, released its first Results Report, and geared up to launch its first enterprise clients.
Isabelle and I discuss: 1) Isabelle’s own interactions with the healthcare system and why these experiences led her to commit to spending her career building a better, more consumer-centric system, 2) Why Calibrate’s emphasis on metabolic health represents a paradigm shift in how we treat weight loss and obesity, 3) Calibrate’s clinical model that combines medication, a holistic curriculum guided by synchronous 1:1 video coaching, and community, 4) The company’s plans to expand access to treatment through enterprise partnerships, and 5) Isabelle’s focus on developing both her own and her company’s self-awareness as Calibrate’s leader.
In this episode, I sat down with the co-founders of Equip, Kristina Saffran and Erin Parks, PhD. Equip provides virtual, evidence-based eating disorder treatment and has expanded rapidly over the last few years. In February 2022, it raised a $58 million Series B funding round from The Chernin Group, Tiger Capital, General Catalyst, and other existing investors.
Erin, Kristina, and I discuss: 1) how they met and why starting a company together was the right move, 2) what's happening in a person's body and mind when they have an eating disorder, 3) Equip's family-based treatment model and the company's holistic approach to defining access, 4) why virtual care works well for eating disorder treatment, and 5) lessons that Erin and Kristina have learned from each other as co-founders and their advice on navigating the co-founder experience.
In this episode, I sat down with the co-founders of Equip, Kristina Saffran and Erin Parks, PhD. Equip provides virtual, evidence-based eating disorder treatment, and the company has expanded rapidly over the last few years. In February 2022, it raised a $58 million Series B funding round from The Chernin Group, Tiger Capital, General Catalyst, and other existing investors.
Erin, Kristina, and I discuss: 1) how they met and why starting a company together was the right move, 2) what’s happening in a person’s body and mind when they have an eating disorder, 3) Equip’s family-based treatment model and the company’s holistic approach to defining access, 4) why virtual care works well for eating disorder treatment, and 5) lessons that Erin and Kristina have learned from each other as co-founders and their advice on navigating the co-founder experience.
In this episode, we sat down with Virgílio “V” Bento, Founder & CEO of SWORD Health. SWORD Health aims to bring world-class musculoskeletal (MSK) care to patients around the world by connecting members with physical therapists and digital therapists through a member app that combines sensor technology with telemedicine to prevent, relieve, and accelerate the healing of acute conditions, chronic pain, and post-surgical recovery. SWORD Health raised $163M in their latest Series D round led by Sapphire Ventures. This latest fundraising round brings SWORD’s valuation at $2B.
We discussed
Drawing inspiration for the genesis of SWORD Health after V’s brother got into a car accident and could not access the high quality physical therapy he needed for a speedy recovery. Delivering precision care through AI that generates personalized care plans for each patient with the guidance of physical therapists. How SWORD Health’s proven clinical model, created to address MSK-related issues, could target other conditions in the future.
In this episode, we sat down with Virgílio “V” Bento, Founder & CEO of SWORD Health. SWORD Health aims to bring world-class musculoskeletal (MSK) care to patients around the world by connecting members with physical therapists and digital therapists through a member app that combines sensor technology with telemedicine to prevent, relieve, and accelerate the healing of acute conditions, chronic pain, and post-surgical recovery. SWORD Health raised $163M in their latest Series D round led by Sapphire Ventures. This latest fundraising round brings SWORD’s valuation at $2B.
We discussed
- Drawing inspiration for the genesis of SWORD Health after V’s brother got into a car accident and could not access the high quality physical therapy he needed for a speedy recovery.
- Delivering precision care through AI that generates personalized care plans for each patient with the guidance of physical therapists.
- How SWORD Health’s proven clinical model, created to address MSK-related issues, could target other conditions in the future.
This episode’s guest is Frank Cheung, CEO and Co-Founder of Cerebrae, a startup that aims to accelerate the adoption of value-based care by helping providers and payers measure, forecast, and validate the financial ROI of emerging approaches to patient care. Through this work, they aim to radically simplify the process of commercializing value-based care delivery. They are backed by several investors, including StepStone, Fika, Susa, TenOneTen, AME Cloud Ventures, Knollwood, Route 66, and SaaS Venture Capital.
Our guest on this episode is Stephen Smith, CEO of NOCD, a digital health company delivering high-quality virtual care for patients with obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD. NOCD performs over 140,000 virtual therapy sessions annually, and has established a community-driven model that connects patients around the world to peers and licensed therapists. Last year, NOCD raised a $33 million Series B round of funding led by F-Prime Capital and received their initial backing from 7wireVentures.
In this episode, Stephen and I discussed: 1) His own experience searching for diagnosis and treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder and how this led him to founding NOCD. 2) How NOCD cares for patients with OCD and connects to patients who have not yet been diagnosed. 3) Why focusing on the OCD population positions NOCD well to attract top therapists and move to value-based care.
In this episode, we sat down with Jia Jia Ye, CEO & Co-Founder of Springtide Child Development, a company that provides integrative, evidence-based, and family-centered care for children with autism spectrum disorder, or ASD. With four clinics open across Massachusetts and Connecticut, and a fifth coming soon, Springtide’s rapid growth is enabling families to better plan for the future, providers to focus on patient care in a coordinated environment, and payors to see what value-based behavioral care for ASD looks like.
We discussed: 1) How Jia Jia developed a passion for working in healthcare and how the industry’s mission-orientation and the complexity of its problems have kept her engaged over time, 2) The elements of Springtide’s clinical model that differentiate it from how care for ASD typically looks, 3) The superior clinical outcomes and expanded access to care that Springtide is demonstrating as a result of its intentionally-designed care model, 4) What the future of Springtide holds and why the company is focused on closing the gap between behavioral and medical care, and 5) Jia Jia’s leadership style, why it works for her, and what she enjoys most about being the CEO of high-growth company.
In this episode, we sat down with Andrew Hines, Founder & CEO of Canvas Medical. Andrew and his team at Canvas Medical build software and APIs to power collaboration between caregivers and developers. Canvas Medical raised $17M in Series A funding in April, 2021.
We discussed: Canvas Medical’s vision of building a software platform that connects electronic medical records (EMR) with clinician input that allows software developers to collaborate closely with practitioners and adapt workflows to accommodate evolving care models. The potential for Canvas Medical to facilitate idea exchange between ambulatory clinics and accelerate clinical research development by breaking down data silos. The importance for digital health startups to identify the user and the purchaser, and be critically honest about who would pay for the product or service.
In the latest episode of The Pulse Podcast by Wharton Digital Health, we interview veteran entrepreneur, Allon Bloch. His latest venture is K Health, a company that is seeking to democratize access to medical information. They do this by allowing users to interact with an AI chatbot that gives them access to data on how millions of people with similar symptoms were diagnosed and treated. On top of providing this information free of charge, they offer telehealth consultations at an industry leading (i.e., low) price point.
During the episode, we discuss how K Health is able to offer telehealth services at such a low cost as well as Allon’s vision for the impact a platform like K Health can have on the dissemination of medical information.
In this episode, we connected with Yury Yakubchyk, the founder and CEO of Elemy. Elemy is an industry leading tech enabled provider of high quality pediatric behavioral care. Inspired by his own personal journey in overcoming childhood ADHD, Yury co-founded Elemy to repair the flawed model of care for childhood behavioral conditions such as autism. Under Yury's leadership, Elemy has grown from 109 employees at the time of the company's seed round to more than 1,000 employees at present. Elemy raised $219M in their Series B funding round, catapulting the startup to unicorn status with a total valuation of $1.15B. Elemy's investors include prominent names such as SoftBank, Chelsea Clinton, and Ashton Kutcher.
We discussed:
- Inspired by the hustle of the informal economy of Queens, Yury co-founded two startups prior to Elemy. The common thread across all of his companies is solving a complex problem in an industry where consumers face many pain points.
- Elemy’s focus on caring for high acuity pediatric populations through a hybrid model of care run on an integrated software platform that coordinates caregivers physically visiting patients at home.
- The importance of destigmatizing mental health to accelerate the expansion of pediatric behavioral health services to more patients in need.
Our guest on this episode is Holly Maloney, a Managing Director at the venture capital firm General Catalyst, where she has a focus on healthcare specifically. She has invested across the digital health space, with companies including Cityblock, Olive, SonderMind, Transcarent, and, most recently, Ribbon Health.
Our guest on this episode is Dr. Ashwini Zenooz (“Ash”), CEO of Commure, a platform that enables health systems, digital health companies, and 3rd party developers to more quickly build interoperable data-driven products for healthcare. Their goal is to facilitate new clinical and operational workflows that leverage a health system’s data infrastructure to improve the patient experience, perform better in value-based arrangements, and expand access to care. Commure recently closed a $500 million fundraise across two rounds led by Human Capital and Greenoaks Capital, and received its initial backing from General Catalyst.
In this episode, we sat down with April Koh, the CEO and founder of Spring Health, a comprehensive mental health benefit for employers. April is currently the youngest female to run a unicorn company.
We discussed:
- Spring Health’s focus on providing precision mental healthcare through its proprietary predictive algorithms and science-backed methodology of collecting patient self-reported data
- The critical role data plays in improving the accuracy of Spring Health’s predictive algorithms, continuously upgrading customized member experiences, and helping clinicians enhance the efficacy of their care
- Upcoming plans to explore value-based payment models and investments for international expansion, family care offerings, and harmonizing workplace performance with employee work / life balance
- The challenges and opportunities of starting a company as a young woman of color, and how April’s entrepreneurial journey led her to be the youngest female running a unicorn company
In this episode, we interview Chris Severn, the Co-Founder and CEO of Turquoise Health, a company working to bring real price transparency to healthcare. With recent and upcoming waves in pricing legislation, combined with its fundraise led by a16z earlier this year, Turquoise is tackling the transparency problem from several angles by creating new tools for patients, payers, and providers.
In this episode, we sat down with Karan Singh, Co-Founder & COO of Ginger, now Headspace Health, through a merger with Headspace that was announced in August, 2021. Headspace Health is the world’s leading provider of mental health and wellbeing solutions.
We discussed:
- Ginger’s mission to address mental healthcare gaps by creating a comprehensive digital on-demand solution offering full stack mental health services at an affordable rate
- Potential reforms to make mental healthcare more accessible through reimbursement parity and interstate licensing
- The strategic rationale behind merging Ginger and Headspace into Headspace Health and what this means for users
In this episode, we interview Fay Rotenberg, CEO of Firefly Health. We chat about her experience joining Firefly Health in 2017, discussing how what started as a virtual-first primary care offering has developed into a solution that will help consumers get, find, and pay for care.
Firefly Health is trying to deliver concierge medicine at scale. They began with a virtual-first primary care offering that used an innovative leveraged care team approach to care for and build trust with their patient population, which is primarily chronically ill, commercially-insured individuals. As they grew, they added in a virtual specialty network and a set of “last mile care delivery” partners to extend their network of physicians to cover more of the care their patient’s needed. Now, after a $40M Series B raise in April of this year, led by andreessen horowitz, they are launching their own health insurance product, targeting smaller/ mid-market employers and allowing them to pool risk to share in the savings achieved by the Firefly model.
In this episode, we interview the GoodRx co-founder and CEO, Doug Hirsch. We chat about his experience founding GoodRx, covering topics ranging from a time when his father literally knocked on pharmacy doors in NYC to get drug prices to their recent public offering.
GoodRx seeks to expand access and affordability for prescription drugs. To do this, they process ~200 billion daily cash-pay price points for generic drugs from pharmacies, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and retailers to then help a consumer choose the right way for them to get access to the medication they need. As they’ve continued to grow, they’re also sought new ways to extend their impact, including through a telehealth offering to actually write prescriptions as well as products surrounding branded drugs.
In this episode, we interview Michelle Carnahan, President of Thirty Madison. We discuss Michelle’s pivot from pharmaceutical executive to leader of a health tech unicorn and what that means for Thirty Madison going forward.
Thirty Madison’s mission is to be a human-first healthcare company delivering specialized care and treatment to everyone. They recently completed a $140M Series C raise led by HealthQuest Capital. They join Maveron and Polaris Partners as lead investors in Thirty Madison.
In this episode, we interview Saeju Jeong, the Co-Founder and CEO of Noom. Founded in 2008, the company’s mission is to help people everywhere lead healthier lives through behavior change. Although today they are best known for their weight loss app, the company is making a push to extend its behavior change platform further into chronic care, supported by their recent $540 million Series F growth round led by Silver Lake.
In this episode, we chatted with Vijay Patel, Co-Founder and Partner at CVS Health Ventures, a $100M fund dedicated to investing and partnering with high-potential health technology startups aimed at building towards CVS’ vision of creating more consumer-centric care.
We discussed:
- The establishment of CVS Health Ventures as a fund dedicated to digital health opportunities, creating the potential for longer-term strategic actions and extended time horizons for realizing investment payoff
- The mandate of CVS Health Ventures to not only invest in but also partner with high-potential, early-stage digital health companies to forward CVS Health’s strategic goals of making health care more affordable and accessible for consumers
- Leaning into CVS Health’s role as a trusted health care provider in communities by continuing to partner with local and national organizations to expand health care access
- Investing in behavioral health, diagnostics, and virtual care delivery assets and capabilities - trends accelerated by COVID-19 and likely to persist
In this episode, we interview Jonathan Bush, the founder and CEO of Zus Health. We discuss his broad vision for Zus as well as some of his learnings from founding and leading athenahealth and from serving as the Executive Chairman of Firefly Health.
Zus Health is seeking to enable the new wave of digital-first provider organizations by building a unified patient record and a toolkit with which these organizations can build better patient relationship management tools and provider workflows. Zus Health completed a $34M Series A raise led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from F-Prime Capital and Maverick Ventures.
In this episode, we sat down with Clara Burtenshaw, Partner and Investor at Neo Kuma Ventures.
We discussed:
-The evolution of the psychedelics industry from a stigmatized counterculture phenomenon to a scientifically robust industry with support from the FDA for fast-tracking drug development
-The clinical potential of psychedelics to treat illnesses ranging from mental illness to pain management and other nervous system disorders
-Neo Kuma's focus on investing in early stage companies backed by sound science and building a strong founder network
-Predictions that psychedelics as medication is here to stay, and the growing commercialization opportunities in the space
Julian Harris, M.D., is a Partner on the Healthcare Services team at Deerfield and Chairman & CEO at ConcertoCare. Launched in 1994, Deerfield Management Company is an investment firm dedicated to advancing healthcare through information, investment and philanthropy — all toward the end goal of cures for disease, improved quality of life and reduced cost of care. ConcertoCare was formed recently by a combination of the assets of ConcertoHealth and Perfect Health. ConcertoCare is one of the nation’s leading risk-based health care companies focused on providing integrated care for seniors where they are best served: in their homes.
Before Deerfield, Dr. Harris was the founding President of CareAllies, Cigna’s family of multi-payer provider services and home-based care businesses. Previously, he led US Strategic Operations for Cigna and managed a $500M internal investment portfolio focused on technology and innovation. Dr. Harris was also an Adviser to Google Ventures (GV) focused on tech-enabled health care services. Before GV, he led the health care team in the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). As the federal government’s chief health care finance official, he oversaw a $1 trillion budget and provided management and policy oversight for a range of programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, FDA, NIH and CDC. He also served as the chief executive of the $11 billion Massachusetts Medicaid program.
Dr. Harris trained in internal medicine and primary care at Harvard Medical School’s Brigham & Women’s Hospital and practiced as a hospitalist at Cambridge Health Alliance and as a clinical consultant for BestDoctors. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Health Policy & Medical Ethics from Duke University and holds an M.Sc. from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He is also a graduate of The Wharton School of Business and the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine, where he currently serves as an Adjunct Professor. Dr. Harris is a trustee of the New York Academy of Medicine and a member of the advisory boards for the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics at Penn and the NYU Department of Population Health.
In this episode, we interviewed Michelle Davey, the Co-Founder and CEO of Wheel. Wheel is working behind the scenes to build many of the telemedicine services you’re familiar with. Its online platform matches doctors with patients and also enables any company to stand up a virtual care practice. Wheel makes it simple for companies to build virtual care services under their brand by pairing technology with a nationwide clinician network. Wheel also provides clinicians with the best place to work in virtual care. By helping more companies and clinicians get started in virtual care, Wheel is helping patients get connected to the best care for their health needs. Today, Wheel works with companies of all sizes including publicly-traded digital health innovators, big tech companies, laboratories, retailers, and pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Wheel has raised $66 million from Lightspeed Ventures, CRV, Silverton Partners, Tusk Venture Partners, J.P. Morgan, and Future Shape.
Growing up in a rural area with limited medical resources, Michelle became focused on improving patient access to care. Her career took on a journey through healthcare, tech, marketplaces and virtual care. After recognizing the need for a new workforce configuration in healthcare, she co-founded Wheel with Griffin Mulcahey in January of 2018, after working together in the telehealth industry and realizing no one was looking out for those at the center of the healthcare engine: the clinicians on the front lines. Wheel became the industry’s first model for delivering high-quality virtual care at scale by empowering clinicians and providing new efficiencies for healthcare companies. Michelle is a thought leader focused on the urgent need for reinventing healthcare delivery models, clinician empowerment, and the future of work in healthcare.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, we interviewConnor Hailey, CEO and Co-Founder of Axle Health, a software platform that enables any company to add in-home visits to their patient offering. We cover Connor’s penchant for startups and entrepreneurship, Axle Health’s founding story and early product journey and how they have scaled to thousands of in-home visits in just one year of launch.
Founded in 2020, Axle Health eliminates the complexity of delivering in-home care by offering a simple API that dispatches in-home professionals to provide clinical service offerings.
Axle Health recently announced their seed fundraise led by Pear VC, joined by a talented group of investors including Wisdom Partners, Rebel Fund, Pioneer Fund, Soma Capital, and Company Ventures and YCombinator. Along with institutional investors, the seed fundraise also includes angels including the founders of Eden Health, CareRev, and Quit Genius, and Nikhil Krishnan of Out of Pocket and former executives at One Medical. This funding will expand service offerings to meet more customer needs and attract top talent to Axle Health.
In this episode, we sat down with Sangu Delle, the Chairman and CEO of Africa Health Holdings. Africa Health Holdings is focused on building a sustainable healthcare ecosystem in Africa through its network of healthcare facilities that it owns and manages. To date, Africa Health Holdings portfolio companies have served over 510,000 patients through malaria treatment, family planning, community outreach programs, and more. Africa Health Holdings currently has 40 facilities across Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana serving 200,000 patients every year.
What we discussed:
- From a young age, Sangu Delle developed a pan-African consciousness and the desire to create sustainable and positive change in Africa in part from early exposure to African refugees through his doctor and human rights activist father.
- Given the disproportionate disease burden the African continent faces and the brain drain of Africa-born healthcare workers practicing outside of Africa, Africa faces large gaps in healthcare. The private sector must supplement fiscally-constrained African governments to improve healthcare access, quality, and affordability.
- Africa presents an attractive investment opportunity given secular population growth in the region outpacing every other country in the world. Investments in Africa have picked up traction recently through major funding for African startups such as FlutterWave, and the acquisition of Nigeria-based payments startup Paystack by Stripe.
In this episode, we interview Vik Bakhru, MD, former COO and CFO of ConsejoSano and the founding CMO of Circulo Health. We discuss some of the challenges that ConsejoSano faced as they strove to build consumer trust in the medical system amidst the global pandemic and what’s in store for Circulo Health, the nation’s newest managed Medicaid plan.
Founded in 2014, ConsejoSano provides patient engagement tools to payers and providers to help them better connect with their multicultural Medicaid/ Medicare patient populations. Vik seeks to bring his learnings from ConsejoSano to Circulo Health where, along with their partner Olive, they hope to create a differentiated experience for Medicaid beneficiaries. Circulo Health raised their Series A in early 2021, led by Drive Capital and General Catalyst with participation from Oak HC/FT and SVB Capital.
In this episode, we interview Afton Vechery, CEO and Co-Founder of Modern Fertility, a reproductive health company making personalized fertility information more accessible. We discuss Modern Fertility’s founding story from getting to the first 100 users to finding the best GTM strategy and building the proactive fertility category from scratch.
Founded in 2016, Modern Fertility is the women’s health company making personalized, proactive fertility information more accessible to women everywhere, whether they are trying for kids or not. Modern Fertility raised their Series A in 2019 from Forerunner Ventures, First Round Capital, Maveron, and many other leading investors.
Neil Batlivala is the CEO and Co-Founder of Pair Team. Neil Batlivala and Cassie Choi, RN founded Pair in 2019 after experiencing how critical a high functioning administrative team is to provide high-quality primary care by building out operations together at leading tech-enabled practices of Forward and Circle Medical. The majority of healthcare is local and fragmented, and no solutions were built to enable existing clinics. Pair came out of that need and provides a simple yet comprehensive solution that covers the front, mid, and back-office. Their automation, along with a human-in-the-loop approach provides end-to-end operations of patient outreach, scheduling, e-forms, care gap reports, record requests, referrals, lab coordination, etc., to offload the traditional job functions of the front desk and medical assistants. Pair Team (“Pair”) came out of stealth in December 2020 and raised $2.7 million in seed funding backed by Kleiner Perkins, Craft Ventures, and YCombinator, along with other prominent funds.
Neil is an engineer, YC alumnus, and co-founder of Pair Team. He has spent the majority of his career in healthcare and had the honor of working with some exceptional people while building remote medical teams at Pair Team, opening primary care practices at Forward, designing medical devices at Spect, training machine learning models at Noxon, and researching pneumonia at UCSF. Neil completed his undergraduate studies in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. In his own words, he is 50% thrill seeker, 40% dad jokes, 15% math.
In this episode, we chatted with Dan Knecht, M.D., M.B.A., Vice President of Clinical Product at CVS Health. Prior to this, Dan served as Vice President of Health Strategy and Innovation for Medical Affairs at Aetna, a CVS Health company.
What we discussed: * The CVS Health-Aetna merger in 2018 has enabled the joint company to create more customer-centric care by marrying advanced data analytics across Aetna’s ~21 million members with care management and better access to healthcare for consumers via CVS Health’s extensive retail presence. * CVS Health balances localized care with national scale by developing products and services that address the needs of specific patient segments while continuously improving clinical product design through broad data analytic capabilities and a robust feedback cycle from providers and patients nationwide. * CVS Health continues to invest in digital offerings and homecare services to meet the patient wherever they are in their healthcare journey. CVS Health is also expanding its virtual care, chronic care and behavioral health services in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, to meet consumers where they are and support them for every meaningful moment of health throughout their lifetime.. * COVID-19 has spurred CMS to expand its definition of healthcare, resulting in reimbursement for a broader range of services, including transportation, nutrition, and telemedicine. These changes will likely persist and benefit patients’ health in the long run.
Dr. Andrey Ostrovsky is the former Chief Medical Officer of the US Medicaid program. He is now the Managing Partner at Social Innovation Ventures where he invests in and advises companies and non-profits dedicated to eliminating disparities. He also advises federal and state regulators on how to incorporate human centered design into policy making. He previously operated a series of methadone clinics in Baltimore, Maryland. Prior to working on the front line of the opioid use disorder crisis, he served as the Chief Medical Officer for the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, the nation's largest health insurer, where he advocated to protect the program against several legislative efforts to significantly dismantle the program. He also led efforts to streamline Medicaid and make it more customer-centric.
Before leading the Medicaid program, he co-founded the software company, Care at Hand, an evidence-based predictive analytics platform that used insights of non-medical staff to prevent aging people from being hospitalized. Care at Hand was acquired in 2016 by Mindoula Health. Before Care at Hand, Dr. Ostrovsky led teams at the World Health Organization, United States Senate, and San Francisco Health Department toward health system strengthening.
Dr. Ostrovsky has served on several boards and committees dedicated to behavioral health, interoperability standards, quality measurement, and home and community based services including the National Academies of Medicine, National Quality Forum, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and the Commonwealth Fund. Andrey holds a Medical Doctorate and undergraduate degrees in Chemistry and Psychology Magna cum Laude from Boston University and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Andrey completed his pediatrics residency training in the Boston Combined Residency Program at Boston Medical Center and Boston Children's Hospital where he was a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. He is currently teaching faculty and attending physician at Children's National Medical Center.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Vivien interviews Andrew Parker, CEO and Co-Founder of Papa, an on-demand assistance service to help people and their family members stay independent while living securely and happily at home. Andrew has a passion for healthcare, technology and people. Prior to founding Papa, Andrew ran Health Systems Sales and Strategy for MDLive.com, a large tele-health provider, where he was one of the first 15 employees.
In 2017, Andrew founded Papa with the goal of supporting older adults and their families throughout the aging process. Today, Papa has grown to over 220 employees and over 15,000 Pals on the platform working across the nation, in all 50 states. Papa has raised $18M in Series B Funding in late 2020 from Comcast Ventures, Canaan Ventures, Initialized Capital, AirAngels Syndicate and more.
In this episode, we interview Dr. Jon Bloom, the Co-Founder and CEO of Podimetrics. The company’s mission is to improve patient lives through early detection and prevention of diabetic foot ulcers. They are a virtual care management company dedicated to preventing diabetic amputations through their SmartMat product and partnerships with both payers and at-risk providers, including the Veteran’s Health Administration. The company was founded in 2011 and has been backed by Norwich Ventures, Rock Health, Scientific Health Development, and Polaris Partners.
In this episode, we sat down with Brad Fluegel, lecturer at the Wharton School’s Health Care Management program and former Senior Vice President and Chief Healthcare Commercial Market Development Officer for Walgreens. Before that, he was the Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and External Affairs Officer for Wellpoint, now Anthem, and Senior Vice President of National Accounts and Vice President of Enterprise Strategy at Aetna.
What we discussed:
- Consumer behavior shifting to online purchasing combined with excess retail space is driving retailers such as Walmart and CVS to explore opportunities to leverage consumer familiarity with their brands to expand their presence in the growing healthcare industry.
- Retailers, providers, and payers are exploring the tradeoffs of different models for expanding into healthcare, from partnering to investing to build out independent outpatient health centers.
- Collaboration amongst payers, providers, and retailers may drive cost and care benefits for consumers while increasing health equity amongst disadvantaged populations.
- Near-term policy changes on allowing lower level healthcare practitioners to administer care currently dispensed by doctors as well as insurers considering maintaining pay parity for in-person and remote services should persist after COVID.
In this episode, we connect with Erin Lee, the VP of Global Operations and Managing Director of Babylon (U.S.). Babylon is a London-based telehealth startup leveraging AI to provide quality and affordable primary care around the world. Babylon has operations globally, including in the U.S., Canada, UK, Rwanda, and several countries within Asia and the Middle East and plans to continue expanding internationally. Since its founding in 2013, Babylon has raised $635M in funding to date from investors such as Centene, VNV Global, and Google DeepMind. Most recently, Babylon rallied $100M in Series C funding in September 2020.
We discussed:
- Babylon’s mission to make healthcare more accessible and affordable globally by combining cutting-edge AI with best-in-class clinical care to reduce excess administrative costs and enhance practitioners’ ability to administer quality care
- How Babylon's capitated care model to manage holistic patient care is delivering proactive healthcare over sickcare, and how Babylon is utilizing its global knowledge and understanding of all of the external risk factors that can impact a person’s health, such as their environment and unmet social needs, to treat the whole person
- The impact of COVID and the rise in digital health providers and its impact on the consumer
- Professional and leadership advice on working across diverse, international teams
In this episode, Vivien interviews Naomi Allen, CEO and Co-Founder of Brightline, a behavioral health care technology company delivered for families and children. We discuss her amazing journey at the forefront of the new digital health wave as one of the founding team members of Castlight, her leadership lessons as Chief Growth Officer Livongo and the amazing story of Brightline and how they launched months before their plan to serve families during the COVID and behavioral health pandemic.
In 2019, Naomi founded Brightline to reinvent the way behavioral healthcare is delivered for children and families. Brightline is delivering integrated care through innovative technology, virtual behavioral health sciences, services, and collaborative care teams focus on supporting children across the developmental stages in their families. Most recently, Brightline raised $20M Series A funding led by Threshold Ventures and Oak HC/FT.
In this episode, Sandy interviews Jannine Versi, COO & Co-Founder of Elektra Health. Elektra Health is on a mission to smash the menopause taboo by empowering 50M women in the US today navigating menopause with a full-stack digital solution. Elektra has been featured in Forbes, Pitchbook, the Financial Times and Crunchbase, and was selected as a "recommended platform" by both Katie Couric and Maria Shriver.
Prior to Elektra Health, Jannine held positions at Google, The White House in the Obama Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Cityblock Health. Jannine earned her BA from University of Pennsylvania and her MBA from Harvard Business School, and was a Fulbright Scholar in India.
In this episode, we discussed:
-- What exactly perimenopause and menopause are, how women typically experience it over the course of 10 years, and the immense purchasing and decision-making power of this consumer
-- Why the menopause space is highly-underfunded relative to the growing “femtech” category
-- Chronic confusion around and lack of training for menopause care across OB-GYN providers, contributing to a lack of high-quality, evidence-based, content and care for menopausal women as they enter the second half of their lives: the very problem Elektra is trying to solve
-- The high economic cost to payers and poor downstream outcomes of untreated menopause symptoms: $2,100+ PPPY, on par with uncontrolled hypertension
-- Elektra’s early success in building a full-stack, digital solution including a telemedicine clinic with a distinctive NPS of 91, a cult-like following for its 1:1 and 1:many on-demand and live offerings, and expanding from DTC to B2B2C as forward-leaning enterprise partners seek to invest in female populations during this pivotal phase of life
-- Three tokens of advice to female founders on battling imposter syndrome and staying grounded throughout the exuberant and tumultuous entrepreneurial journey
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Vivien interviews Gabriel Mecklenburg, President and Co-Founder of Hinge Health, the leading musculoskeletal (also known as MSK) solution for employers and health plans.
We discuss Hinge Health's journey from the early days for Gabriel and Daniel and finding product market fit to growing the business by more than 4X in the last year. Hinge Health has raised $300M in their latest Series D round in early January of 2021, and is now valued at $3B. Their investors include Atomico, Coatue Management, Tiger Global and Bessemer Venture Partners.
In this episode, we interview Steve Kraus, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. At Bessemer, Steve focuses exclusively on healthcare, where he’s made investments in and holds seats on the boards of some of the most successful companies in this space, including Bright Health, Ginger, Hinge Health, Aspen RxHealth, and, most recently, Folx Health.
Each year, Steve and his team publish their healthcare predictions for the next 12 months. Bessemer’s 2021 predictions just came out, and on this episode I got the chance to sit down with Steve to chat about the story behind their annual predictions and dive into what 2021 might have in store for us, from BidenCare to interoperability finally moving forward.
In this episode, we interview Deborah Kilpatrick, Co-CEO Evidation Health. With a network of over 4M individuals across the U.S. and a platform that gathers key real-world data from patients’ day-to-day lives, Evidation is on a mission to enable and empower everyone to participate in better health outcomes. Since its founding in 2012, Evidation has raised money from investors like B Capital Group, Revelation Partners, Rock Health, McKesson Ventures, Sanofi Ventures, Section 32, and G Squared. It has also worked with a range of players in healthcare, from pharma companies like Sanofi to tech heavyweights like Apple to physician societies like the American College of Cardiology.
In this episode, we chat with Eren Bali, the Co-Founder & CEO of Carbon Health. Carbon Health is a technology-enabled healthcare provider with a mission to make high-quality healthcare accessible to everyone. Carbon Health meets patients where they are, providing seamless, accessible healthcare to patients across a variety of access points including primary and urgent care clinics, pop-up sites, video, the Carbon Health app, and on-site at their employers. Late last year, Carbon Health received $100M in Series C funding and is expanding rapidly, increasing its patient volume sixfold and clinic footprint from 7 clinics to 27 clinics across six states within the past year.
Nita Sommers is an Operating Partner at Khosla Ventures focused on health care. Nita has spent over 20 years working in the health technology sector, with a passion for early-stage, high growth companies transforming health care. She was an early member of the R&D team at athenahealth, which went public in 2007. Additionally, she was one of the first executives at Castlight Health and later managed the company’s IPO in 2014. At Castlight Health, Nita led the company’s early sales efforts and later ran strategy, business development, corporate development and investor relations. Most recently, she was President of Honor, where she was responsible for all aspects of growth including sales, marketing, customer success, business development and corporate development. In addition to her work at start-ups, she also spent several years consulting with McKinsey’s health care practice and working across a number of healthcare industry sectors while with McKesson.
Nita enjoys working with early stage companies on growth strategy and execution, including product strategy, commercial strategy, sales management, business development and organizational development. Nita has an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.A. from Harvard University.
In this episode we discussed:
- Nita’s experience leading, exiting, and advising first-wave (1990s: athenahealth), second wave (2000s: Castlight) and third+ wave (2010+: Honor, others) digital health companies spanning three decades of health tech
- What we can learn from these companies’ ascent, as history repeats itself: finding unmet need in a large market, narrowing in on a core set of business challenges, and proving value, not just scaling for scale’s sake
- What makes the Operating Partner role unique in venture capital, and why her position at Khosla Ventures is distinctive across the healthcare fundraising landscape
- Tactical advice to women on breaking the glass ceiling as an executive or venture partner
In this episode of the Pulse Podcast, we interview Sid Viswanathan, Co-Founder and President of Truepill. Starting with its pharmacy-driven APIs and since moving into telehealth and at-home lab diagnostics, Truepill has been building healthcare infrastructure for the modern (and future) world. This infrastructure is already working behind the scenes to power several consumer-focused healthcare companies, such as Hims & Hers, Nurx, and Levels. The company has attracted investments from Y Combinator, Oak HC/FT, Optum Ventures, and others.
In this episode, we interview Andrew Dudum, the Founder & CEO of Hims & Hers. Hims & Hers is a digital health company focused on destigmatizing health and wellness conditions while making it easier for everyone to access quality care. Since launching in November 2017, Hims & Hers has raised approximately $260MM in funding from investors including Oaktree Capital, Maverick, IVP, among others, and is poised to IPO via SPAC this year. Hims & Hers is one of the fastest growing direct-to-consumer healthcare brands to date.
Key topics we discussed:
- How Hims & Hers disrupted the ~$4 trillion healthcare industry by creating a telehealth offering that brings quality, access, and affordability to more Americans while building a brand consumers love
- How to improve the American healthcare system, beginning with getting primary care right and providing a quality healthcare safety net to all Americans
- Reflections on the personal and economic benefits of investing in personal health and pursuing work you truly enjoy
In this episode, Sandy interviews Nate Maslak, Co-Founder and CEO of Ribbon Health. Ribbon is breaking the long-standing barrier of complex and challenging provider data by identifying and delivering the most accurate, comprehensive data on providers, facilities, insurance plans, and cost and quality measures through a seamless API layer. Ribbon is trusted by innovative health care companies such as Oak Street Health, Ro, Alice Financial, Lively HSA, and Well (Well Dot, Inc.). Headquartered in NYC, Ribbon is backed by leading investors like a16z, Y Combinator, BoxGroup, and several leading entrepreneurs.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Vivien interviews Casey Means, Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of Levels Health. Levels is a metabolic health company that empowers individuals to radically optimize their health and wellbeing by providing real-time continuous glucose biofeedback coupled with machine learning driven insights to inform personalized diet and lifestyle choices. We discuss the founding journey of Levels, the science of metabolic health, and advice for first-time healthcare entrepreneurs.
Levels recently raised $12M of seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz and angel investors including Marc Randolph (co-founder and first CEO of Netflix), Dick Costolo (former CEO of Twitter), Michael Arrington (founder of TechCrunch) and Matt Dellavedova (NBA player on Cleveland Cavaliers).
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Vivien interviews Stephanie Strong, CEO and Founder of Boulder Care. Stephanie has spent her career focused on innovation in healthcare, working to move the industry forward through venture capital investing, entrepreneurship, World Bank-funded research in India, and systems innovation at Duke University Medical Center. In 2017, Stephanie founded Boulder Care, a digital clinic offering long-term care for substance use grounded in kindness, respect and unconditional support. Boulder is backed by great investors such as First Round, Greycroft and angels such as Audrey Ostrovsky, who is the former CMO of US Medicaid.
We discuss Stephanie's amazing entrepreneurial journey, Boulder's evidence-based model of care, access deregulations during COVID, go to market and partnerships with your first pilot, and tactical advice for first time healthcare entrepreneurs.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Sandy interviews Paul Martino, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer of VillageMD. Founded in 2013 with backers including Oak HC/FT and Kinnevik, VillageMD is a leading provider of healthcare for organizations moving toward a primary care-led, high-value clinical model. VillageMD works with physician groups, independent practice associations, and health systems to improve quality, deliver a first-rate patient experience, and lower costs in the communities they serve. It has grown to include more than 2,500 physicians across eight markets and is responsible for approximately 500,000 lives and $3 billion in total medical spend in value-based contracts. In July of this year, VillageMD made a big splash by announcing an expanded partnership with Walgreens Boots Alliance, who will invest $1 billion in its primary care partner VillageMD to open 500 to 700 physician-staffed clinics inside its drugstores in more than 30 U.S. markets within the next five years.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Vivien interviews Julie Yoo, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a leading venture capital firm in Silicon Valley that backs bold entrepreneurs building the future through technology. Julie Yoo leads investments in healthcare technology, with a focus on companies that are modernizing how we access, pay for, and experience the healthcare system.
We cover Julie’s journey from operator to investor, a16z bio’s investment philosophy and how they support their founders, and once in a century trends we are seeing in healthcare’s great unlock.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Sandy interviews Kate Ryder, Founder & CEO at Maven Clinic, the largest telemedicine provider for family health and women, who control 80% of healthcare decisions in a $3.5 trillion healthcare industry. Besides the market dollar potential, Maven Clinic addresses critical gaps in maternity care. The U.S. maternal mortality rate has steadily increased since 2000, while declining in other countries, and its national C-section rate is 20% higher than what the WHO recommends. Today, more than a third of women and nearly half of women with children take a break from their careers, primarily because of the pull of family. Maven Clinic connects workers with OB-GYNs, nutritionists, lactation consultants, and other specialists via video chat or messaging to empower women to advocate for themselves in a broken system. With Maven Clinic, employers and health plans can see improved maternal outcomes, lower costs, and attract and retain more parents in the workforce. Maven Clinic has raised $90M as of its Series C closed February 2020, and its backers include Spring Mountain Capital, Sequoia Capital, Oak HC/FT, Female Founders Fund, Anne Wojcicki, Reese Witherspoon, Natalie Portman and Mindy Kaling. Maven Clinic was named among the world’s top 50 most innovative companies in 2020 by Fast Company, and has more than tripled the number of companies it serves in 2019 alone.
While they remain an incredibly stigmatized group of patients, those suffering from substance use disorders (SUDs) are finally finding a new breed of treatment centers focused on whole-person care. Eleanor Health is at the forefront of this movement, working to scale an innovative, tech-enabled, and peer-supported platform that supports patients through their recovery by aligning incentives in a value-based payment model. Corbin Petro (WG ’09) is co-founder and CEO of Eleanor. In this episode, we explore Corbin’s path to Eleanor, the unique market forces at play in the substance use disorder market, and Corbin’s perspectives on leading effectively in the COVID-19 era.
In this episode of the Pulse Podcast, Vivien interviews Nancy Brown, General Partner at Oak HC/FT, a growth venture capital firm where she focuses on growth equity and early-stage venture opportunities in Healthcare. Oak HC/FT’s latest fund raised $800M in 2019, and currently has $1.9B under management.
We cover Oak HC/FT’s investment philosophy, how investing and the pace of healthcare innovation has changed since COVID-19, the inspirational leadership their portfolio companies has shown, the importance of humility and mentorship, and as a bonus, we find out Nancy’s new quarantine cooking project.
In this episode, we sit down with Anmol Madan, Chief Data Scientist at Livongo, where he is responsible for machine learning and data science across all of Livongo’s products and services, to help people be the best versions of themselves. Livongo empowers people with chronic conditions to live better and healthier lives, beginning with diabetes and now including hypertension, weight management, diabetes prevention, and behavioral health. Livongo pioneered the category of Applied Health Signals to offer Members clinically-based insights that focus on the whole person and make it easier to stay healthy.
Anmol previously co-founded Ginger.io, an AI-driven behavioral health system that provides access to 24/7 coaching, therapy and psychiatry, and served as its Chief Executive Officer for 7 years. Under his leadership, Ginger.io built an AI-driven member and clinical product, established a high-growth distribution model with employers, became broadly available as an in-network health-plan benefit, and raised $35 million in venture funding from top-tier Silicon Valley VCs.
Anmol received a Ph.D. in machine learning applied to human behavior from the MIT Media Lab, and has authored 20+ scientific publications (in Science, AAAI, Ubicomp, NIPS), and over a dozen patents related to machine learning in healthcare. He has been recognized as one of the 100 Most Creative people, and as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Sandy interviews Kevin Kumler, Chief Operating Officer of Quartet Health. Quartet is a health care technology and services company on a mission to improve the lives of people with mental health conditions. It is hard for patients to get the right care; Quartet works to make it easier. Through its technology platform and range of services, Quartet reaches patients who need care, connects patients to the right care, and supports them on their care journey. They bring together physicians, mental health providers, and insurance companies to effectively improve patient outcomes and drive down healthcare costs.
Kevin brings 20 years of experience in healthcare and was named an “Up & Comer” by Modern Healthcare in 2017. Formerly the President of Health Systems at Zocdoc, Kevin spent nearly six years leading the company’s hospitals and health systems business, which doubled under his leadership, and the expansion of Zocdoc’s private practice business to all 50 states. Kevin worked as an Associate Principal in McKinsey & Company’s Healthcare practice, where he served insurance companies, large health systems, and government organizations in the US, UK, and India. He also worked in Business Development & Strategy at Mount Carmel Health. Kevin is also an alumnus of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
In this episode, we interview Halle Tecco, Co-Founder and CEO of Natalist. Halle and Lora discuss Halle's career path, which includes founding Rock Health and teaching a digital health course at Columbia Business School. Halle also shares her insights on leading an organization during COVID-19, including her approach to celebrating important company milestones and how to get it right.
In this episode of the Pulse Podcast, Vivien interviews Dan Brillman and Taylor Justice, Co-Founders of Unite Us, an outcome-focused technology company that builds coordinated care networks of health and social service providers. Based out of New York, Unite Us has raised a total of $45M after their latest Series B round in March 2019, led by prominent healthcare investors Oak HC/FT, Define Ventures and Town Hall Ventures. Unite Us today has active networks in 35 states and has tripled in employees in the last year.
We cover topics from how Unite Us is supporting their partners and communities on the frontlines of the COVID-19 public health crisis and building the foundational infrastructure and network to support Public Health 2.0.
In this episode of the Pulse Podcast, Vivien interviews Eric Kinariwala, Founder and CEO of Capsule, a technology company rebuilding the $425 billion pharmacy industry from the inside out with an emotionally resonant experience, and technology that enables customized outcomes for doctors, hospitals, insurers, and manufacturers. Based out of New York, Capsule has raised $270M from investors such as TCV, Thrive Capital, and Sound Ventures. Capsule delivers prescription drugs to local patients in two hours via an online app, website or SMS.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Lora interviews Dr. Melynda Barnes, Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs at Ro. Lora and Dr. Barnes discuss why Ro's mission and why the company views telemedicine as such a critical component of clinical care in the future (spoiler alert: Ro is not trying to replace in-person visits!). They also talk about Dr. Barnes' transition from clinical practice to working at a tech company.
We recorded our episode with Dr. Barnes just weeks before COVID-19 broke out in New York City but, where relevant, we've added editors notes in our Medium transcript to share more about how Ro and the team have responded to this situation so promptly.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Sandy interviews Dan Trigub, Head of Uber Health, the technology giant Uber’s bid on the multi-billion dollar non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) market. Uber Health’s goal is to increase access to transportation to reduce patient no-shows, recapturing lost revenue and helping underserved populations manage their care plans. Uber has over 1,000 partnerships across the healthcare landscape, including hospitals such as BayCare Health System, Boston Medical Center, MedStar Health and the Cleveland Clinic — along with 27,000+ systems that use Cerner’s EHR through Uber Health’s October 2019 integration with the IT platform. Before Uber, Dan spent time at Lyft as Regional VP of Strategic Partnerships focused on healthcare, eBay in Business Development, and founded several companies including OpenPlacement, a care coordination platform allowing hospital professionals to connect with post-acute care providers for their patients at the moment of discharge.
In this episode of The Pulse podcast, Vivien interviews Jack Stoddard about his entrepreneurial journey with Accolade, his impressive leadership, as well as his thoughts on Big Tech entering healthcare and new models of care. Jack is a senior operating leader with over two decades of experience applying technology, data science, people, and design thinking to improve the healthcare for the consumer, elevate clinical quality and lower the total cost of care. He has proven leadership in understanding the market, setting growth strategy, and scaling transformational healthcare companies, including: Haven (past COO), Accolade (Founding Team, COO and CSO), Optum (SVP), Health Dialog, and The Advisory Board. He is the Executive Chairman of Eden Health and on the Board for Carrot and The Discovery Labs.
In this episode of The Pulse podcast, Sandy interviews Nancy Yu, Co-Founder and CEO of RDMD, about making drug research, development and commercialization faster, cheaper, and better. Backed by Lux Capital and Village Global, RDMD is a healthcare technology company dedicated to accelerating treatments for patients with rare diseases. RDMD has developed a technology platform that generates deep data insights to accelerate rare disease research and drug development, as well as a patient application that empowers patients and families to get access to and benefit from their own medical data. Nancy’s prior experience includes leading Corporate Development at 23andMe, consulting for Livongo, biopharma banking and private equity. Nancy also graduated from the University of Pennsylvania.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, we speak with Fred Ronnau, CTO of RubiconMD. RubiconMD is an eConsult platform that connects primary care physicians to specialists in order to obtain timely, educational opinions for the care of their complex patients. The RubiconMD platform enables the remote exchange of insights between clinicians that eliminates unnecessary referrals and services, reduces patient wait time and travel burdens, and allows primary care physicians to practice at the top of their license.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Sandy interviews Abner Mason, Founder and CEO of ConsejoSano. Founded in 2014, ConsejoSano is the only patient engagement and care navigation solution designed to help clients activate their multicultural patient and member populations to better engage with the healthcare system. Abner Mason has held several leadership roles including at Workplace Wellness Council of Mexico; AIDS Responsibility Project; U.S. Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (appointed by President George W. Bush in 2001); Chief Policy Advisor, Chief Secretary, and Undersecretary of Transportation and Construction for Massachusetts; and Bain & Company. Abner is a 1985 graduate of Harvard College. Originally from Durham, NC, he now resides in Los Angeles, CA.
In this episode, we speak with Derek Newell, SVP of Commercial at Virta Health. Virta is the first clinically-proven treatment to safely and sustainably reverse type 2 diabetes (T2D) without medications or surgery. Derek brings with him a 20-year successful track record of growing and leading innovative healthcare technology and service companies. He previously was CEO of Jiff, which he then sold to Castlight where he became president, leading Sales, Marketing, Technology, Product, and Customer Success. Earlier in his career, Derek was the CEO of Health Hero, pioneer of the first internet-connected medical device approved by the FDA. After growing it into the largest remote patient monitoring company, he sold it in 2008 to Robert Bosch Healthcare, where he served as president of Bosch’s healthcare activities worldwide. Derek also served as the Chief Marketing Officer LifeMasters, a leading disease management company, growing it from less than $10M to over $150M in annual revenue during his 5 year tenure.
In this episode, Lora catches up with Florian Otto, Co-Founder and CEO of Cedar, at the Wharton Healthcare Business Conference. Cedar is deploying best in class technology to power a more meaningful patient experience. The company started off by tackling billing, creating a more seamless and transparent manner by which patients can pay their medical bills. Cedar is on an ultimate mission to make the patient experience as easy as ordering from Amazon or Starbucks. Florian started Cedar after running the Sales team at ZocDoc and founding & scaling Groupon Brasil.
In this episode, we chat about some of Lisa’s pithy, spot on publications (“3 Questions Every Investor Must Ask”, “13 Rules for Healthcare Entrepreneurs/Innovators”), her role in advancing women in healthcare, and how she got to where she is today. Lisa Suennen currently works at Manatt, where she runs the digital technology group, consults with the healthcare group, and runs Manatt Venture Fund. Lisa also writes a popular blog, Venture Valkyrie, and co-hosts a podcast called “TechTonics” with David Shaywitz. We were thrilled for the chance to sit down with such a pillar in the digital health ecosystem and had a fantastic time getting to know her.
In this episode of The Pulse podcast, Vivien interviews Matt McCambridge, Co-Founder and CEO of Eden Health about his entrepreneurial journey in building the future of patient-centered healthcare. Eden Health is a new kind of doctor's office that combines a private primary care practice, 24/7 telemedicine, and a personalized insurance navigation into one simple platform.
In this episode of The Pulse podcast, we interview Lauren Lisher, Chief Product Officer of Mount Sinai Health Partners about her journey in innovating the delivery of healthcare in NYC. Mount Sinai Health Partners is forging new partnerships with purchasers and investing in population health to improve costs while maintaining quality and increasing access.
In this episode of The Pulse podcast, we interview Mike Botta, founder of Sesame, about his path to founding a direct-care marketplace with David Goldhill. Sesame is a New York-based startup building out a direct care marketplace for individuals to purchase a full range of medical services.
In this episode of The Pulse podcast, we interview Michael Meng, Co-Founder and CFO of Stellar Health, about using data to help providers capitalize on new incentive opportunities by integrating them within existing workflows. StellarHealth is an early stage startup working to bridge the incentive gap between insurers and providers by offering its technology solution to guide providers engaged in value-based arrangements.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, we interview Michael Greeley, co-founder and general partner at Flare Capital Partners. Jason and Michael discuss Flare's investment strategy and focus on people and talent development. Flare Capital is a venture capital firm that partners with healthcare entrepreneurs and established healthcare organizations to reinvent the business of healthcare.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Dhruv talks us through the inner workings of the company, from the nitty gritty technical platform to the day-to-day culture of the team. PatientPing has raised over $40M from investors like First Round Capital, GV, LTP and Andreessen Horowitz.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, we interview Mariam Malik, Senior Director of Physician Partnerships of Genoa Healthcare Telepsychiatry about the deeply personal experiences that motivated her interest in behavioral health and how she has led a team prioritizing treatment center needs and clinician experience. Genoa Healthcare Telepsychiatry is expanding access to high-quality psychiatry to clinical sites across the country through telepsychiatry and pharmacy services.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, we interview Mariam Malik, Senior Director of Physician Partnerships of Genoa Healthcare Telepsychiatry about the deeply personal experiences that motivated her interest in behavioral health and how she has led a team prioritizing treatment center needs and clinician experience. Genoa Healthcare Telepsychiatry is expanding access to high-quality psychiatry to clinical sites across the country through telepsychiatry and pharmacy services.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, James discusses the pain points in the existing kidney care model and how Cricket sets out to change this. James is Co-Founder, CFO and also leads HR and Recruiting. Cricket Health has raised $24M+ from Oak, First Round and others to tackle kidney care through tech-enabled healthcare services.
Medcrypt is a software-based medical device cybersecurity company focused on ensuring medical devices are as safe and secure as technologically possible. Mike, Vidya, and their team raised more than $8M in funding (including Section 32) and went through Y-Combinator's Winter 2019 cohort.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, we interview Grace Bell, Head of Specialty Operations at CareMore Health, about the managed care landscape in general and CareMore's model in specific. CareMore Health is an integrated health plan and clinical delivery system that blends a high-touch clinical approach with innovative technologies to care for the most complex populations while maximizing efficiency and quality.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, we interview Kristen Coletto, Strategic Partnerships at Aetion about using real world evidence to speed up drug R&D and recreate clinical trials with the FDA to make better decisions around drug approval and delivery. Aetion is a health care technology company that delivers real-world evidence to determine which treatments work best, for whom, and when.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, we interview Imran Cronk, CEO of Ride Health about scaling a tech-enabled NEMT startup to 25 states in just two years. Ride Health is tackling the access issue plaguing almost 4M Americans per year who delay or miss care because of a lack of transportation.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Mamta, Head of Operational Excellence, provides an overview of the oncology data space and key insights into the day-to-day operations at Flatiron. She had an operations consulting background before Wharton and was able to leverage that at a time when Flatiron needed strong and measurable growth. Bonus from this episode: Mamta’s thoughtful career advice on choosing your next step and what matters to you.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, we interview Dr. B.A. Sillah on accelerating life science innovations through venture capital. Investor at Militia Hill Ventures Militia Hill Ventures (MHV) is a Philadelphia-based life science venture capital firm. The company uses an “active model” venture mentality to truly piece together the right ideas, with the right people at the right time.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Lauren Post, Director of Account Management, shares more about the market for navigating healthcare benefits and how Grand Rounds thinks about provider quality. The company has raised over $100M since its inception and counts Walmart amongst its customers.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, we interview Grace Bell, Head of Specialty Operations at CareMore Health, about the managed care landscape in general and CareMore's model in specific. CareMore Health is an integrated health plan and clinical delivery system that blends a high-touch clinical approach with innovative technologies to care for the most complex populations while maximizing efficiency and quality.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, we interview Kristen Coletto, Strategic Partnerships at Aetion about using real world evidence to speed up drug R&D and recreate clinical trials with the FDA to make better decisions around drug approval and delivery. Aetion is a health care technology company that delivers real-world evidence to determine which treatments work best, for whom, and when.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, we interview Imran Cronk, CEO of Ride Health about scaling a tech-enabled non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) startup to 25 states in just two years. Ride Health is tackling the access issue plaguing almost 4M Americans per year who delay or miss care because of a lack of transportation.
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Mamta, Head of Operational Excellence, provides an overview of the oncology data space and key insights into the day-to-day operations at Flatiron. She had an operations consulting background before Wharton and was able to leverage that at a time when Flatiron needed strong and measurable growth. Bonus from this episode: Mamta’s thoughtful career advice on choosing your next step and what matters to you.