The Pulse by Wharton Digital Health

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

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: 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 How a personal experience with home healthcare inspired him to start a company in the space How Tomorrow Health is shifting incentives for key players in home health including patients, provider, and payors Where Vijay sees Tomorrow Health headed in the future 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: His journey to starting Omada and launching one of the earliest virtual specialty care models Turning Omada into a one-stop-shop for employers and health plans in a sea of point solutions 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, 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.