Belinda Tan and Noah Craft, co-founders of People Science, discuss their human-centered clinical research platform focused on alternative medicines. They talk about their unique co-CEO model, the philosophy behind their platform, their business model including their consumer-facing app Chloe, and insights from co-founding two companies together.

Todd Park, co-founder of Devoted Health, shares his entrepreneurial journey, the mission of Devoted to transform healthcare for older Americans, and the importance of personalized care and technology. The podcast also explores the impact of love in healthcare, building a comprehensive Medicare Advantage plan, and career advice for young professionals in the healthcare space.

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: 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. 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.