Pear Healthcare Playbook

Samir is on a mission with his team at firsthand to change the way that individuals who struggle with serious mental illness (SMI) access care and support. Severe mental illness (SMI) is defined as mental/behavioral health issues that cause functional impairment by limiting one or more major life activities (schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder, etc.) firsthand helps SMI patients engage with the healthcare ecosystem by focusing on delivering real outcomes for a population that has historically been underserved, stigmatized, and deprioritized. In fact, only 64.5% of adults living with SMI received treatment last year.  firsthand was founded in 2021 and recently raised 30 million in series B funding led by Google Ventures.  In this episode, Samir talks about his path to entrepreneurship, being a serial entrepreneur, how he started firsthand, and his advice for founders in healthcare.

This week, we’re excited to get to know Sachin Jain, CEO of SCAN Group & SCAN Health Plan. Sachin Jain is charged with leading the organization’s growth, diversification, and emerging efforts to reduce healthcare disparities. Founded in 1977, SCAN Health Plan is a not-for-profit, Medicare Advantage plan that provides healthcare coverage to Medicare beneficiaries in California, Arizona, Texas and Nevada. SCAN’s revenues top $4.3B and the organization serves 300,000 patients. Under Sachin’s leadership, SCAN has grown its revenues by more than $1B. Previously, Dr. Jain was President and CEO of CareMore and Aspire Health. Dr. Jain is also an adjunct professor of medicine at the Stanford University. Prior to joining CareMore, Dr. Jain was global Chief Medical Information & Innovation Officer at Merck & Co. From 2009-2011, Dr. Jain worked in leadership roles at the US Department of Health and Human Services, where he was senior advisor to the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and many other leadership positions in healthcare policy.  Dr. Jain graduated from Harvard College with a BA in government and continued on to earn his MD from Harvard Medical School and MBA from Harvard Business School. He trained in medicine at the Brigham and Women's Medicine and Harvard Medical School, and continues to practice medicine.  This is a packed episode. Sachin shares his thoughts on toxic positivity in the healthcare industry, impact over virtue signaling, clinician burnout, and his predictions for the future of healthcare. 

Today, we're excited to get to know Dr. Rushika Fernandopulle, previous Chief Innovation Officer of One Medical, an organization dedicated to providing human-centered, technology-powered primary care to people across every stage of life.  In an acquisition that shook the healthcare industry in September 2021, One Medical completed the purchase of Iora Health - a primary care organization that prioritizes human-centered, value-based care. The deal, which amounted to a staggering $1.4 billion, was a testament to Iora Health's success in delivering high-quality care at lower costs, while improving patient satisfaction. The visionary behind Iora is none other than Dr. Rushika Fernandopulle, who spent decades improving the quality of healthcare delivered to patients. He was the Executive Director of the Harvard Interfaculty Program for Health Systems Improvement, and Managing Director of the Clinical Initiatives Center at the Advisory Board Company. He also serves on the staff at the Massachusetts General Hospital and on the faculty of Harvard Medical School.  In this episode, Dr. Fernandopulle talks about his path to medicine, describes how he started and grew Iora Health, the acquisition by One Medical, and the future of primary care.

Today, we’re excited to get to know Dr. Neil Patel, Chief Health Officer of Patina Health, a new model of primary care for adults 65 and over that reimagines the journey of aging through virtual and home-based care. Dr. Patel is a trailblazing healthcare leader who has been involved in innovation in the primary care space. Prior to joining Patina, Neil served on the executive leadership team of the Boston based startup, Iora Health, leading special projects across different regions in the US. He also served as the medical director at Grameen VidaSana, Harken Health, Freelancers Union, and the Atlantic City Special Care Center described in Atul Gawande’s influential 2010 “Hotspotters” article. Neil went to college at the College of New Jersey, and went to Rutgers New Jersey Medical School for his MD. He trained in family medicine at Boston University. Patina raised 50 million of Series A venture funding in a deal led by Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures, along with F-Prime capital, Rock Springs Capital, and Viking Global Investors. In this episode, Neil shares his journey in medicine, his work in healthcare leadership as one of the founding team members of Iora Health and Patina Health, and advice he has for founders who are trying to improve healthcare delivery.

Today, we’re excited to get to know Justin Barad, CEO and Co-Founder of Osso VR, a surgical training platform that uses virtual reality to accelerate surgical training and improve surgical outcomes. Designed for medical device companies and practicing surgeons of all skill levels, Osso uses cinema quality-VR to offer a realistic, hands-on training environment. In two recent randomized peer-reviewed studies, surgeons training with Osso VR showed anywhere from a 230% to a 306% improvement in overall surgical performance compared to traditional training. Today, Osso VR is available in more than 40 countries, partnering with leading global medical device partners including Johnson & Johnson, Stryker, Zimmer Biomet, Medtronic, Endologix, and Smith + Nephew. Osso recently raised a $66M Series C led by Oak HC/FT. In this episode, Justin tells the story of his unlikely journey from video game developer to orthopedic surgeon to VR company founder. He also gives valuable advice about prototyping, early recruiting, and the difference between seed fundraising and Series A. Finally, Justin shares what he’s excited about for the future of virtual reality. 

Today, we’re excited to get to know Vijay Kedar, CEO and Co-Founder of Tomorrow Health, a technology-driven healthcare company changing the way individuals and families manage healthcare at home. Tomorrow has partnered with over 125 health insurers and provider organizations to coordinate and deliver home-based care for their members. Tomorrow Health is a fully integrated solution that matches patients with suppliers spanning 40,000+ products and services and tracks every step in delivering at home care. Founded in 2017, Tomorrow Health most recently raised a $60M Series B led by Bond Capital along with previous investors such as Andressen Horowitz and Obvious Ventures. Prior to founding Tomorrow Health, Vijay was the Senior Director of Care Innovation at Oscar Health and drove Oscar’s case management strategy and operations. Vijay earned his MBA at Harvard Business School and BA in Government and Economics from Harvard as well.

This week, we’re super excited to get to know Sonia Millsom, CEO of Oxeon, a trusted healthcare firm, powering change through talent, entrepreneurship and investment. She is a veteran healthcare leader who has been at the forefront of value-based healthcare, with extensive experience growing mission-driven innovative companies, as well as serving as an adviser, board member and investor. Prior to joining Oxeon, Sonia served as the Chief Commercial Officer at Maven Clinic, which achieved the first unicorn valuation in women and family health. Before joining Maven, she was Chief Growth Officer at Boston-based startup Iora Health, where she helped strengthen the organization’s revenue and oversaw an expansion that led to its $2.1 billion acquisition by One Medical. Sonia also held leadership roles at Best Doctors, Health Dialog and UnitedHealthcare. She is also a board member for Clever Care Plan, Quilted Health and Suvida Health. She is an advisor to a number of early stage startups including, Stellar Health, QHLTH and Flourish Fund. Sonia has a MPH from Columbia University and a BA from Boston College. In this episode, Sonia shares her experiences across the ecosystem from the payer to provider sides, and from large public companies to small startups, all the while empowering diverse leaders in the healthcare space.

Today, we’re excited to get to know Vivek Garg, CMO and SVP of Primary Care for Humana. Vivek currently leads national clinical strategy and excellence, care model development and innovation, and the clinical teams for Humana's Primary Care Organization (CenterWell Senior Primary Care and Conviva Care Center) as Chief Medical Officer (CMO), serving over 240,000 seniors across the country.  In this episode, Vivek shares his incredible journey from joining as the first medical director of One Medical and Oscar Health to serving as the CMO and CPO of Caremore to leading Humana’s Primary Care group, technology’s role in combating burnout, and tactical advice on working with larger health plans like Humana and tips on how to sell your first pilot (hint: it is not to sell your product at freemium).

Today, we’re excited to get to know Caitlin Reiche, Chief Commercial Officer at Zus Health — the first Chief Commercial Officer we’ve had on the podcast! Founded in 2020, Zus Health is a health data platform designed to accelerate healthcare data interoperability by providing easy-to-use patient data at the point of care. At Zus, Caitlin leads the commercial organization with the goal of growing the Zus builder community and is responsible for marketing, sales, partnerships and customer success. Prior to Zus, Caitlin was the Chief Operating Officer of Buoy Health and led Product Strategy at Patient Pop and Athenahealth. She graduated with a MS in Health Policy and Management from Harvard Chan School of Public Health and a BA in Psychology from Middlebury College. In 2021, Zus raised a $34M Series A financing led by Andreessen Horowitz and followed by F-Prime, Maverick, Rock Health, Oxeon and more. In this episode, Caitlin shares about her various roles in health tech, building community in the health tech space, the new era of Data as a Service companies, and what it means to be a Chief Commercial Officer at a quickly-growing startup.

This week, we’re super excited to get to know Erica Jain, CEO and Founder of Healthie, infrastructure for next generation digital health organizations that offer virtual-first care. Healthie’s API-first and fully brandable suite of solutions - EMR, coaching platform, scheduling software, and patient engagement - enable healthcare builders to launch and scale best-in-class experiences for their members and quickly scale a provider network. Currently, more than 2,000 organizations use Healthie’s services and organizations that use Healthie work with more than 2 million patients on the platform. Erica shares about Healthie’s early founding days in a business school classroom (staying focused on the prize, skipping a Brazil trip to pursue Healthie 24/7), building customer love and scaling to thousands of providers, valuing a pathway to profitability (before it was cool in 2022), and the power of collaboration with other tech players in the quickly-evolving healthcare infrastructure industry.