The Beat

About  Russ Richmond:Russ Richmond has diverse work experience spanning various industries and roles. Russ is the CEO and Co-founder of Laudio, a healthcare leadership company that improves frontline actions. Russ has also served as a Member of the Innovation Growth Board at Mass General Brigham. In addition, they have held positions such as Executive Chairman and Independent Board Director at Validic, Member of the Board of Directors at BioDigital, and CEO and Board Director at Advanced Practice Strategies (APS), where they successfully restructured the company and facilitated its acquisition. Russ has also worked at Explorys, an IBM company, as an Independent Board Director. Prior to that, they were the CEO and co-founder of Objective Health, a startup within McKinsey & Company, where they played a significant role in establishing the company and leading its performance insights efforts. Russ had earlier worked as a Consultant and Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company. Russ also has experience as the Executive Vice President of Verisk Health and as a resident physician at the University of Michigan Health System.Things You’ll Learn:Laudio redefines healthcare management by empowering frontline leaders with integrated, AI-powered workflows, addressing issues like burnout and turnover.Laudio's strategy of publishing data-driven insights fosters a culture of informed leadership and drives the spread of Laudio's solutions.Laudio accelerates market adoption despite the typically slow healthcare sales cycle, building a teamwork-based approach to engage multiple executive stakeholders for impactful collaboration.The platform's AI-driven approach to automating managerial tasks can save up to 6 hours a week for health managers. The strategies that Laudio employs to foster customer acquisition, scaling effectively in an industry known for long sales cycles.Resources:Connect with and follow Dr. Russ Richmond on LinkedIn.Follow Laudio on LinkedIn and visit their website.

About Nasim Afsar:Nasim Afsar is relentlessly focused on advancing the health and care of the world through Healthy People, Healthy Workforce, and Healthy Business. As Chief Health Officer, Dr. Afsar leads Product Strategy, Global Market Strategy, and Entry and Third Party Partnerships. Last year, her team delivered higher quality care for over 2 million people (Healthy People), saved physicians and nurses nearly 200,000 hours (Healthy Workforce), and positively impacted the financial performance of clients (Healthy Business). She leads Oracle Health’s Steering Committees on AI/ML in Healthcare, Retail in Healthcare, and Payers. Her team has a focus on health equity, working closely with key stakeholders globally. She also works on building the larger ecosystem of healthcare, including working closely with payers, retail, pharma food and beverage, and public health agencies.Previously, Dr. Afsar served as Chief Operating Officer for UCI (University of California, Irvine) Health. She led inpatient and ambulatory operations, including ambulatory care, inpatient progression efforts, clinical support services, ancillary services, public safety, building and construction, and emergency management. She led health system contracting, working closely with payers to bring new products to market. Her work led to historically high ambulatory growth, inpatient volumes, surgeries, and tertiary care transfers to the institution. During her tenure at UCI Health, Dr. Afsar spearheaded and co-led innovative programs, such as telehealth, hospital-at-home, and strategic partnerships, to help provide value for patients and communities. After the onset of COVID-19, Dr. Afsar created a mobile field hospital, led the licensure of ambulatory spaces, created drive-thru COVID-19 testing centers, and led a large-scale COVID-19 vaccination program.Things You’ll Learn:Oracle Health is committed to advancing healthcare by combining best-in-class technology with clinical, operational, and financial outcomes.The potential of Oracle's health data intelligence platform is groundbreaking as it brings together various healthcare entities.Oracle integrates data from numerous sources and applies intelligence to potentially lost data crucial for precision medicine.Oracle's aim is to empower healthcare providers in different roles.Current digital innovations should be designed to reduce administrative burden and enhance decision-making processes for healthcare providers, ultimately enriching patient care and potentially revolutionizing the industry.Resources:Connect with and follow Nasim Afsar on LinkedIn.Follow Oracle on LinkedIn and visit their website.

In 2009, David Goldhill’s father died of a hospital-acquired infection. And he realized that preventing medical errors was not an economic imperative in the American healthcare system.In fact, our third-party payment system creates a misalignment of incentives, making insurers and governments the customer rather than the patients themselves.So, David wrote a cover story for The Atlantic entitled ‘How American Health Care Killed My Father’ which expanded into a book, Catastrophic Care: Why Everything We Think We Know about Health Care Is Wrong.Since then, David has become a leading voice for healthcare advocacy and founded Sesame, a company that is revolutionizing healthcare with a direct-pay marketplace that delivers high quality healthcare at half the price.On this episode of The Beat, David joins hosts Dr. Jessica Shepherd and Dr. Gautam Gulati to explain who uses the marketplace and how competition drives down prices on Sesame without compromising quality of care.David discusses what attracts providers to the Sesame model and describes the criteria for joining the platform as well as its rigorous rating system.Listen in for insight on maintaining continuity of care in telehealth and learn how David is bringing a revolution of consumerism to healthcare in the US and around the world.Topics CoveredHow Sesame eliminates the third-party payment system from healthcareThe breakdown of who uses Sesame’s direct pay marketplaceHow competition drives down prices on Sesame without compromising quality of careThe personal experience that inspired David’s healthcare advocacyHow the third-party payment system causes a misalignment of incentives in healthcareWhy insurance- and safety net-based healthcare systems are outdated What attracts healthcare providers to the Sesame modelThe criteria for providers to join Sesame and the platform’s rigorous rating systemHow David thinks about maintaining continuity of care in telehealthHow Sesame handles the transference of health records and informationWhat David admires about the current healthcare system in AmericaDavid’s vision for bringing a revolution of consumerism to the healthcare industryConnect with David GoldhillSesameDavid at SesameDavid on LinkedInConnect with Dr. Gautam Gulati & Dr. Jessica ShepherdViVEHLTHDr. Shepherd on TwitterDr. Shepherd on LinkedInDr. Gulati on TwitterDr. Gulati on LinkedInResources‘How American Health Care Killed My Father’ in The AtlanticCatastrophic Care: Why Everything We Think We Know about Health Care Is Wrong by David GoldhillAtul Gawande‘The Cost Conundrum’ in The New Yorker‘The Heroism of Incremental Care’ in The New Yorker‘In Health Care, America Is the World’s Indispensable Nation’ in The Washington Post

WebMD is the most trusted online platform for health education. But as we know, information does not equal transformation. So, how do we engage people throughout their health journey? How do we encourage them to apply what they’ve learned about good health and implement the behavior changes necessary for long-term health?Can AI and other emerging technologies support this kind of patient engagement?Dr. John Whyte is Chief Medical Officer at WebMD, where he leads the development of strategic partnerships that create meaningful change around important public health issues. Dr. Whyte has written extensively, creating award-winning health content for TV and the web, and developed numerous initiatives addressing diversity in clinical trials.On this episode of The Beat, Dr. Whyte joins hosts Dr. Jessica Shepherd and Dr. Gautam Gulati to discuss how WebMD has evolved over the last 27 years and describe WebMD Ignite’s solutions for engaging patients throughout their healthcare journey.Dr. Whyte shares his vision for democratizing access to health technology tools and resources—and then using that personalized data to provide better care.Listen in for insight on connecting good habits with independent living later in life and learn how to bridge the gap between health information and habit change for long-term health transformation. Topics CoveredWhy WebMD is the most trusted online platform for health educationHow WebMD has evolved in its aim of empowering people with information over 27 yearsWhat physicians can do to engage with patients who’ve done their own health researchWebMD Ignite’s solutions for every stage of the healthcare journeyLeveraging technology to engage patients and reduce healthcare disparitiesInnovating around existing behaviors vs. trying to get patients to change their behaviorDr. Whyte’s vision for democratizing access to health technology tools and resources (and then using that personalized data to provide better care)Strategies for engaging patients and encouraging incremental habit changeHow our systems reinforce bad behavior in the context of healthDr. Gulati’s future press release exercise of inspiring people to focus on their healthConnecting simple exercises with independent living later in lifeConnect with Dr. John WhyteDr. Whyte at WebMDDr. Whyte’s WebsiteConnect with Dr. Gautam Gulati & Dr. Jessica ShepherdViVEHLTHDr. Shepherd on TwitterDr. Shepherd on LinkedInDr. Gulati on TwitterDr. Gulati on LinkedInResourcesMedscapeWebMD IgniteSame as Ever by Morgan HouselHara Hachi Bu

Did you know that there is a team of techies who serve the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services or CMS?What is their role in this federal agency? How is CMS changing with emerging technologies? And how might software engineers, project managers and other tech professionals help innovate from the inside to reform the complicated healthcare system in the US?Andrea Fletcher is the first Chief Digital Strategy Officer and Executive Director of Digital Services at CMS, where she is responsible for leading digital modernization efforts and promoting interoperability and public access to health data.On this episode of The Beat, Andrea joins hosts Dr. Jessica Shepherd and Dr. Gautam Gulati to explain how her team responds to tech emergencies and plans big strategic plays for CMS.Andrea discusses the potential for the federal government to be a leader in AI adoption and shares her open-source software initiative to reuse tech stacks within and across federal departments and agencies.Listen in for Andrea’s insight on leveraging data to rethink how we pay for and deliver care and learn how CMS is looking to evolve with ‘Jetson’s era’ technologies and improve the experience of healthcare for individual Americans.Topics CoveredWhat Andrea’s team of techies does as the Digital Service at CMSHow Andrea’s team responds to tech emergencies and plans big strategic plays for the agencyHow Andrea’s team collaborates with other federal departments and agenciesAndrea’s hope that the federal government will be a leader in the adoption AI (and what that might look like)What differentiates leading in government from the private sectorOpportunities to innovate within the complicated Medicare and Medicaid systemsAndrea’s open-source software initiative to reuse tech stacks across federal departments and agenciesAndrea’s human-centered approach to leveraging AI in healthcare Rethinking how we pay for and deliver care in a world of advanced technologyWhat we can learn from the VA’s diabetes prevention research and outcomes-based care modelAndrea’s predictions re: how clinics will change in the future and what roles AI might replaceHow to participate in shaping Americans’ healthcare experienceConnect with Andrea FletcherThe Digital Service at CMSAndrea at CMSAndrea on LinkedInConnect with Dr. Gautam Gulati & Dr. Jessica ShepherdViVEHLTHDr. Shepherd on TwitterDr. Shepherd on LinkedInDr. Gulati on TwitterDr. Gulati on LinkedInResourcesUS Digital ServiceFindSupport.govWhite House Initiative on Women’s Health ResearchCybersecurity & Infrastructure Security AgencyVA Research on DiabetesDigitalVA

About Stephanie Trunzo:Stephanie Trunzo is senior vice president for Oracle Health & Industries. While Stephanie is a tech geek across cloud, AI, and emerging tech, she is also a storyteller committed to usability and design thinking. This is reflected in the mission of Oracle Health: to create a human-centric healthcare experience powered by unified global data. Stephanie helped lead the launch of Oracle Health and was part of the core acquisition team working closely with Cerner, now part of Oracle Health.Stephanie’s diversely skilled team continues to define Oracle Health’s market presence, broadening the aperture of the traditional health landscape to a much richer and more holistic portfolio. That same holistic, unified model will be the pattern she will apply across other Oracle Industries.Previously, Stephanie applied her digital and experience disciplines to create and deploy Oracle’s global, value-based approach for multi-cloud, hybrid customer strategies.Stephanie joined Oracle from IBM, where she was the global head of IBM Cloud Garage, a network of more than one dozen innovation hubs purpose-built to meld industry practices, startup culture, and IBM's expertise. Prior to that, she founded and led her digital transformation startup through a public acquisition of Globant.Stephanie was affectionately dubbed “the prototype” for the chief digital officer role by the CDO Club. She is an active board advisor, giving back to nonprofits and early startups, including Valeos, Oracle Health Foundation, International Science Reserve, and InsureLife.Her writing can be found in publications such as Fast Company, Forbes, and HuffPost.Things You’ll Learn:Oracle Health's focus is on putting humans at the center of all decisions, with initiatives to streamline patient interactions and provide a more intuitive, seamless patient journey. Oracle is working on solutions to reduce the administrative burden for clinicians, empowering them to focus on care rather than data entry.The industry can facilitate tighter and more impactful collaborations by offering data sharing in an anonymized manner and bringing partners together. This approach ultimately drives innovation.While AI has been present for some time, Oracle Health is now leveraging it to create transformative impacts, which involve improving efficiency, streamlining workflows, and enabling intelligent, patient-focused interactions.Oracle is exploring the potential of large language models and Gen AI for novel disease prediction and personalized medicine.Resources:Connect with and follow Stephanie Trunzo on LinkedIn.Learn more about Oracle Health on their LinkedIn and website.

About Diana Gelston:Diana Gelston is the chief commercial officer of Best Buy Health for Best Buy Co. Inc. In her role, she is responsible for building and strengthening the company’s commercial relationships that aim to enable care at home for everyone.  Diana leads a large, diverse team in creating and executing high-impact, go-to-market strategies that support the company’s mission to enrich and save lives through technology and meaningful connections. At Best Buy Health, she is focused on developing integrated technology services and offerings that support consumers wherever they are on their health journey and improve the care-at-home experience.  Previously, Diana has successfully launched and developed more than a dozen sales and marketing teams in tech, medical devices, digital health, and healthcare information systems at Amazon Business Healthcare, Fresenius Medical Care, Philips Healthcare, and other innovative start-ups.  Diana earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California and a certificate in Leadership Development and Business Administration from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School. About Carrie Shaw:Carrie Shaw, CEO and founder of Embodied Labs, works at the intersection of storytelling, immersive experience design, and caregiver education. She holds both a bachelor’s degree in Global Public Health and a master’s in Biomedical Visualization. After returning from the Dominican Republic, where she served as a Peace Corps Health Educator, Carrie became the primary caregiver to her mother, who was living with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. This opened Carrie’s eyes to the needs of the aging services workforce. Carrie speaks to global audiences about her personal journey as a young adult caregiver and her experience as an entrepreneur building a venture-backed digital healthcare company that is revolutionizing the way healthcare providers, caregivers, and patients learn about human health through immersive experiences.Things You’ll Learn:Embodying the experiences of others through immersive training has proven to be a game-changer for Best Buy Health.Connecting on a personal level, whether it's with a patient, caregiver, or consumer, has revolutionized the approach to care and technology support.Individuals retain and internalize knowledge in a way traditional training methods can't offer through immersive experiences.An empathy approach is particularly impactful for the healthcare and technology sectors, making training more effective and memorable for employees.Building a world focused on empathy and thoughtfulness is critical for meeting the diverse needs of individuals as they age.Resources:Connect with and follow Carrie Shaw on LinkedIn.Follow Embodied Labs on LinkedIn and visit their website.Connect with and follow Diana Gelston on LinkedIn.Follow Best Buy on LinkedIn and visit their website.

AI has the potential to revolutionize healthcare, from predictive analytics to operations management to remote patient monitoring.But with so many possibilities, where do we begin? And how do we use AI responsibly with our health information?Harjinder Sandhu is CTO of Health and Life Sciences Platforms and Solutions at Microsoft, where he helps chart Microsoft strategy around the application of large language models in healthcare. Harjinder has founded and cofounded several successful startups centered around AI and healthcare, including Saykara, Twistle and MedRemote.On this episode of The Beat, Harjinder joins hosts Dr. Jessica Shepherd and Dr. Gautam Gulati to discuss the impact and implications of AI on our health information.Harjinder describes some of the administrative and clinical use cases of AI in healthcare, highlighting what Microsoft’s DAX Copilot can do for clinicians and why he predicts its quick adoption.Listen in for Harjinder’s insight into using artificial intelligence responsibly and learn about generative AI’s potential to improve the patient experience and ‘bring the joy back to medicine’ for clinicians.Topics CoveredHarjinder’s important role in crafting AI strategy at MicrosoftHow Microsoft thinks about the possibilities of AI in the context of healthcareAdministrative and clinical use cases for generative AI in healthHarjinder’s approach to reducing redundancy in the patient journeyThe potential for AI to ‘bring the joy back to medicine’What Microsoft’s AI DAX Copilot can do for clinicians and why Harjinder predicts quick adoptionIntroducing new tech to single physician practices and rural hospitalsAI uses cases we should approach with caution vs. relatively risk-free applicationsThe frameworks Microsoft uses to think rationally about responsible AIWhy Microsoft encourages customers to implement AI solutions with human oversightThe potential for AI to help reduce human bias in healthcareConnect with Harjinder SandhuMicrosoft Health & Life SciencesHarjinder on LinkedInConnect with Dr. Gautam Gulati & Dr. Jessica ShepherdViVEHLTHDr. Shepherd on TwitterDr. Shepherd on LinkedInDr. Gulati on TwitterDr. Gulati on LinkedInResourcesAmbient Clinical Intelligence

About Malekeh Amini:Malekeh Amini is the Founder and CEO of Trayt, a healthcare software company dedicated to improving diagnosis and treatments in brain-based disorders, including Autism, ADHD, Depression, Anxiety, substance use, and Alzheimer's, among others. Prior to Trayt, Malekeh was the Senior Vice President of Products & Business Development at Base Health, where she provided the vision connecting new breakthroughs in medical science to the needs of healthcare organizations and consumers. A former consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and the Parthenon Group, Malekeh has provided strategic, operational, and fundraising advice to healthcare and education organizations globally. Malekeh served on the fundraising Board of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Wings Learning Center in Redwood City. Malekeh has an M.B.A. from Harvard University. She earned her bachelor’s degrees in Communication Sciences (Cognitive Science) and computer science and her master’s in Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California.About Nancy Byatt:Dr. Byatt is a perinatal psychiatrist and physician-scientist focused on improving systems of care to promote the mental health of parents and children. Her passion for her work is deeply rooted in her experiences as a clinician, researcher, daughter, and mother. She is a Professor with Tenure of Psychiatry, OB/GYN, and Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at UMass Chan Medical School. She developed the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program (MCPAP) for Moms. MCPAP for Moms is a statewide program that has 1) increased access to mental health care for thousands of perinatal individuals, 2) become a national model for perinatal mental health care, and 3) impacted state and national policies and funding. She is the Founding Executive Director of the Lifeline for Families Center and Lifeline for Moms Program at UMass Chan Medical School. The Center’s activities include capacity building, consultation, and research. Dr. Byatt’s research uses implementation science methods to design, implement, and evaluate scalable approaches for improving parental and child mental health services and outcomes. With over ten years of continuous federal funding for her research, Dr. Byatt’s achievements have led to over 90 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, over 250 presentations, and numerous national awards. Her love is her family, especially her two teenage boys. Her passion is increasing access to and the quality of mental health care. Her mission is to redefine perinatal and family healthcare to include mental healthcare.Things You’ll Learn:Progress at both the state and federal levels demonstrates significant support for maternal mental health initiatives.Federal funding and grants are readily available for perinatal psychiatry access programs, with 29 programs currently operational nationwide.Technology plays a crucial role in streamlining workflows, analyzing data, and offering valuable insights into program effectiveness within maternal mental health initiatives.Technology serves as a catalyst for accelerating care delivery, measuring outcomes, and establishing benchmarks for high-quality maternal mental health services.The healthcare industry possesses the means to accelerate advancements in maternal mental healthcare, emphasizing the critical need to prioritize prevention and support for families to mitigate the intergenerational impact of mental health challenges.Resources:Connect with and follow Nancy Byatt on LinkedIn.Connect with and follow Malekeh Amini on LinkedIn.Follow Trayt Health on LinkedIn and visit their website.Follow UMass Chan Medical School on LinkedIn and visit their website.

About Rajeev Ronanki:Rajeev Ronanki has over 25 years of experience in innovation-driven industry and social change across healthcare and technology. As the CEO of Lyric, his leadership is marked by a commitment to reimagine healthcare through the lens of artificial intelligence to reduce complexity and help simplify the business of care. Previously, Raj spearheaded the transformation of Elevance Health into a digital health platform as President of Carelon Digital Platforms. Prior to that, he established and led Deloitte’s life sciences and healthcare advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and innovation practices. A best-selling author and an authority on AI in healthcare, Raj is a coveted speaker, recently headlining the inaugural TED AI conference. He champions responsible AI, advocating for human-centric approaches, fairness, and bias reduction in technology. His career is a testament to his visionary leadership, constantly pushing the boundaries of healthcare technology.Things You’ll Learn:Digital transformation in healthcare requires a platform-based approach for seamless integration of data and workflows.Health plans should embrace a platform mindset, invest in ecosystem partnerships, and prioritize the simplification of processes.Predictive analytics can anticipate and prevent diseases, shifting healthcare from reactive to proactive and personalized approaches.Collaboration between stakeholders and technology partners is key to driving transformative change in healthcare.AI should augment human intelligence, not replace it, by automating routine tasks and enabling informed decision-making.Resources:Connect with and follow Rajeev on LinkedIn.Follow Lryic AI on LinkedIn and visit their website.