The Pulse by Wharton Digital Health

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:

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.

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: a hidden product-market fit in the healthcare industry.Best Buy HealthInstacart Healthas transportation plays a strategic role in improving care adherence, member satisfaction, and managing total cost of careexpanding their Medicaid footprint

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

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: The main initiatives she worked on at CMMI including the Accountable Health Communities Model and Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program Lessons learned during her tenure about implementing and delivering healthcare models at scale Why Dawn is excited about the future of long-term care services and why she believes in Carebridge’s model

In this episode, Zaid Malhees sits 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:

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. 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.

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: