The Pulse by Wharton Digital Health

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.

Daniel Brillman and Taylor Justice, co-founders of Unite Us, are revolutionizing health and social care through coordinated networks. They share their military backgrounds, which inspired their mission to aid veterans and active personnel. The discussion highlights their response to COVID-19 and the partnership with CVS-Aetna to tackle social determinants of health. They emphasize the significance of tech in bridging gaps between health services and communities while discussing the company’s growth and job opportunities in healthcare tech.

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.