The Heart of Healthcare | A Digital Health Podcast (Halle Tecco, Michael Esquivel, & Steve Kraus)

Charlamagne Tha God is a multimedia mogul, Radio Hall of Fame inductee, bestselling author, and one of the most influential thought leaders in modern culture. He explains how his mental health struggles led him to start the Mental Wealth Alliance to destigmatize, accelerate, and center state-of-the-art mental health outreach and care, building an unprecedented long-term system of generational support for Black communities.

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In this episode, LaShyra "Lash" Nolen talks about the future of medical education and care. Lash is a medical student, Fulbright scholar, science communicator, and the Founder of the non-profit We Got Us. She currently serves as the first Black woman to become class president of the Harvard Medical School.

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Startup capital accelerator and venture capital firm Y Combinator has a long history of backing healthcare startups, with a particular focus on technical founders tackling difficult problems. In this episode, YC partners Jared Friedman and Ankit Gupta share their insights on healthcare investment, the transformative potential of AI, and why they believe young, tactical founders will continue to disrupt the healthcare industry despite its challenges.

We cover:

🏥 YC's approach to healthcare investing over the years

⚕️ How AI has a 10x faster adoption curve than anything else we've seen

💻 The potential for AI to automate healthcare's administrative burdens and provide universal access to medical knowledge

🌍 The opportunity to bring primary care to billions who currently lack access

🔄 Why an outsider's perspective can be valuable when rebuilding healthcare systems

🚫 How patient privacy regulations might be hindering healthcare innovation

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About our guests:

Jared Friedman is Managing Director, Software and Group Partner at YC. He was co-founder of Scribd, which was funded by Y Combinator in 2006 and grew to be one of the top 100 sites on the web. Jared previously worked at a pioneering AI company and studied computer science at Harvard.

Ankit Gupta is a Visiting Partner at Y Combinator and former Co-Founder and CTO of Reverie Labs, a small molecule therapeutics company that leverages machine learning to develop oncology treatments. Ankit led the team through its acquisition by Ginkgo Bioworks in February 2024. Ankit studied computer science at Harvard.

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🙏 Thanks to Flexpa for sponsoring this episode. Flexpa is refactoring healthcare. Connect to 300+ health plans through a single, secure integration to access patient-consented, identified claims data instantly.

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Despite heart disease being the leading cause of death in the United States, cardiovascular care has been an overlooked opportunity in digital health. With 1 in 3 Americans facing cardiovascular disease in their lifetime, how can innovation help turn the tide?

In this episode, we explore heart health in the digital age with Dr. Jeff Wessler, cardiologist and founder/CEO of Heartbeat Health, the nation's largest virtual-first cardiovascular company.

We cover:

⌚If we can trust cardiovascular data from wearable devices (and what doctors call “Apple Heart Syndrome”)

🔢 The difference between “heart age” and “chronological age”

🤨 Why he’s skeptical of the remote monitoring market

❣️ The impact of stress on heart health and the role of inflammation

⚖️ Why he believes GLP-1s are the best heart drugs that have ever existed

🩺 Practical tips for listeners to improve their cardiovascular health (including the important but often-overlooked LPA test)

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About our guest:

Dr. Jeff Wessler is a Cardiologist and the Founder and CEO of Heartbeat Health, the nation's largest virtual-first cardiovascular company. Dr. Wessler graduated from Williams College, received an MPhil in public health and epidemiology from Cambridge University, and his MD from Harvard Medical School.

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In this episode, Halle Tecco and Steve Kraus discuss the latest news and trends in digital health in April 2024.

They cover:

• Controversial Peterson report about the effectiveness of diabetes management solutions 
• Rock Health's latest survey data on consumer digital health adoption
• The FDA's recent approval of Dexcom's Stelo, the first OTC continuous glucose monitor
• The rise of nurse practitioner entrepreneurship
• Specialized and value-based care headlines

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In this episode, Dr. Laurie Zephyrin, Heart of Healthcare Grant Challenge judge and SVP for Advancing Health Equity at the Commonwealth Fund, interviews Dr. Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha from Tuft’s Center for Black Maternal Health & Reproductive Justice, the winner of our $25,000 grant challenge. Learn about how CBMHRJ is taking a new approach to eliminating maternal health inequities and improving the Black birthing experience.

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Learn more about the Heart of Healthcare Grant Challenge.

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For our last episode of 2023— our 99th episode since launching this show— I talk about the responsibility of the healthcare "old guard" and emphasize the need for talent and optimism in the face of a healthcare system where change happens at a snail's pace. I also discuss what I've been up to on my blog, and answer the question I keep getting about if I'm going to write a book.

You can visit my blog here.

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In this episode, HaeSung Han, founder of POETIC, explains how vulnerable youth are at risk of exploitation like sexual abuse and sex trafficking. POETIC builds a pipeline out of the juvenile justice system and into intensive aftercare for girls who have been exploited and trafficked.

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It’s in our water, our food, and so many other products we use on a daily basis, from non-stick pans to popcorn bags. And it’s making us really sick.

More and more scientists are becoming concerned that PFAS chemicals, also known as “forever chemicals,” are impacting human health. Evidence is growing that links these everyday exposures, particularly to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (or EDCs), are linked to cancer, infertility, birth defects, asthma, allergies, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and more.

In this episode, we talk to one of the world’s leading environmental health scientists and advocates about the impact of forever chemicals and what we can do about it. Arlene Blum is the founder and executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute. This is a replay from 2022.

We cover:

🧪 What are PFAS and why do they exist?

🔄 How do forever chemicals get into our bodies, and why does it matter?

👕 Her work in the 70's getting the gene-altering agent Tris, known to cause cancer, banned from the use in children's pajamas

⚖️ Why policymakers are so slow to take action

🛡️ How to keep yourself safe from forever chemicals

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About our guest:

Arlene Blum, PhD, biophysical chemist, author, and mountaineer, is a Research Associate in Chemistry at UC Berkeley and executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute. The Institute’s scientific research and policy work with government and business has contributed to preventing the use of “Six Classes” of harmful chemicals, including flame retardants and fluorinated chemicals, in children’s sleepwear, furniture, electronics, and other products worldwide.

Arlene Blum led the first American—and all-women’s—ascent of Annapurna I, considered one of the world’s most dangerous and difficult mountains, co-led the first women’s team to climb Denali; completed the Great Himalayan Traverse across the mountain regions of Bhutan, Nepal, and India; and hiked the length of the European Alps with her baby daughter on her back. She is the author of Annapurna: A Woman’s Place and Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life.

Blum’s awards include her 2018 induction into the California Hall of Fame, 2017 UC Berkeley International House Alumna of the Year, 2015 award for lifetime achievement of a Reed College graduate, selection by the UK Guardian as one of the “World’s 100 Most Inspiring Women”, National Women’s History Project selection as one of 100 “Women Taking the Lead to Save Our Planet,” selection as an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, and election to the Hall of Mountaineering Excellence.

Arlene Blum received her PhD in Biophysical Chemistry from UC Berkeley and has taught at UC Berkeley, Stanford University, and Wellesley College. More information at www.greensciencepolicy.org and www.arleneblum.com

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The recent Supreme Court ruling represents a major blow to the fight for reproductive justice in the United States, creating reproductive healthcare restrictions across the country. It spans far beyond a woman’s right to bodily autonomy. In this episode, we discuss evidence-backed public health for reducing unplanned pregnancies, and what the repeal could mean for families needing fertility treatments.

Donate to Resolve.

Listen to our episode on Sex Ed.

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Anne Wojcicki started 23andMe in 2006 to empower consumers with access to their own genetic information. In this episode, she shares the highs and lows of this journey including getting an FDA warning letter, going public, and genotyping over 12 million customers. Plus, she shares why she thinks our healthcare system is a communist system, their role in the discussion of race, and how genetic relative surprises are remarkably common.

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May is Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Heritage Month. 8.5% of healthcare workers are AAPI, compared to 6.8% of the U.S. population. While Americans of Asian and Pacific Island descent have made many contributions to our healthcare system, they are facing increased discrimination at work and in their communities.

In this episode, Dr. Esther Choo discusses the racism faced by AAPI healthcare workers, and what we can do about it.

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In this episode, emergency room physician Dr. Megan Ranney explains how gun violence is a public health crisis, and what she's doing to help end it. Dr. Ranney is a respected researcher, emergency physician, and advocate in the injury prevention and digital health field. She is a Professor at Brown University, and the co-founder of AFFIRM, the American Foundation for Firearm Injury Reduction in Medicine.

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For decades, the U.S. has been forcibly sterilizing women of color, taking away their basic human right to become a parent. It’s happening in prisons and immigration detention centers, where doctors are performing unwarranted hysterectomies and bilateral tubal ligation without proper consent. Last year, California announced it would pay out millions of dollars to living survivors of the state’s forced sterilization efforts. Co-sponsor of the bill, Laura Jimenez, Executive Director of California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, explains the racist, classist, ableist history of forced sterilization and why it’s still happening today. 

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The majority of bankruptcies in the US are due to medical debt. This only deepens inequity and the healthcare affordability crisis in our country. The stress and sigma that comes with medical debt forces people to avoid necessary care, only worsening outcomes.

We need to shift the narrative about medical debt from personal failure to systems failure. In this episode we talk to the CEO of RIP Medical Debt, Allison Sesso. Her non-profit organization buys medical debt at a deep discount, and then wipes it out entirely for millions of Americans.

Learn more about RIP Medical Debt

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Live from the Rock Health Virtual Summit, Dr. Nzinga Harrison puts addiction and substance use disorder into context. She also explains how an evidence-based and compassionate harm-reduction approach can lead to better health outcomes. Nzinga Harrison, MD, FASAM is the Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of Eleanor Health, a company built on equity and justice developing mental health medical homes for those affected by substance use disorders.

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From fast food drive-throughs to Netflix autoplay, many of America's favorite products are designed to maximize profits at the expense of our health. But Thomas Goetz, co-founder of Building H, believes there's a better way. In this episode about corporate responsibility and public health, the former WIRED editor explains why changing company behavior may be easier than changing consumer habits – and how a new health accountability index could help transform America.

We cover:

🏗️ Why the structure of modern society makes healthy choices nearly impossible for most Americans

📊 How Building H's new corporate health index is measuring companies' impact on consumer wellbeing

🎮 The surprising companies getting health right, from Pokemon Go to sustainable housing developers

📈 Why health metrics should be included in ESG frameworks and corporate KPIs

🏃‍♀️ The challenge of aligning corporate profits with positive health outcomes

🔄 How small product changes can drive meaningful population health improvements

💡 Why traditional public health approaches need reinvention for today's challenges

🏢 The role of public benefit corporations in building health-first businesses

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About our guest:

Thomas Goetz is a journalist, entrepreneur, and author. He uses data and design and stories to help people understand and navigate complicated issues in their world.

Thomas is the co-founder of Iodine, an award-winning website that has helped millions of people make sense of their health and medicines. In 2016, Iodine was acquired by GoodRx, America’s leading source for prescription drug savings, where he presently serves as chief of research. Thomas was previously the executive editor at WIRED, which he led to a dozen National Magazine Awards in as many years. He began his career as a reporter at the Village Voice and the Wall Street Journal. He also wrote the LaunchPad column for Inc. magazine.

Thomas is co-founder of Building H, a nonprofit with a mission to build health into everyday life. He has written two books, most recently the 2014 bestseller The Remedy: Robert Koch, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Quest to Cure Tuberculosis. He served as the first Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Curator-in-Residence for Adobe Systems. His TED talk on visualizing medical data has been viewed half a million times.

Goetz holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master's in American literature from the University of Virginia. He graduated from Bates College, and lives in San Francisco.

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Show notes:

Building H Index

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From the return of "historic norms" in funding to the rise of AI and strategic pharma partnerships, 2024 was quite the year for digital health. Rock Health Advisory CEO Megan Zweig joins us on this episode to unpack a year defined by resilience, consolidation, and the 'revenge of the Goliaths.' We look at the funding data, reveal how the industry's unicorns survived their valuation hangovers, and share why 2024 might be remembered as healthcare's boiling point.

We cover:

💰 How digital health funding returned to 2019 levels at ~$10B, with fewer mega-deals but healthier fundamentals

🤖 How 40% of investment dollars went to AI-enabled companies despite growing incumbent competition

🔄 Why M&A hit decade-lows as buyers and sellers struggled to align on valuations

🏢 The concentration of power among top VCs, with just nine funds raising 50% of all venture capital

🏥 The surprising resilience of 2020-2022's unicorn cohort in navigating the downturn

💊 Eli Lilly's strategic partnership with Ro and what it means for the future of weight care

👥 The rise of women's health, from Maven's success to Midi's innovative health system partnerships

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Show Notes:

• Don't Do a Down Round Until You Read This
• Do We Need an “OBGYN for Men”?

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About our guest:

As President and CEO, Megan leads Rock Health Advisory, a digital health strategy group that helps enterprise companies understand and act on opportunities, craft novel solutions, and succeed in an evolving landscape. Previously, Megan served as COO of Rock Health and oversaw Rock Health’s membership offering and research efforts. Prior to joining Rock Health, Megan worked at The Advisory Board Company, where she led the Physician Executive Council, a best practice research membership supporting Chief Medical Officers at over 1,300 hospitals and health systems nationwide. Megan received an MBA from Berkeley Haas, where she graduated valedictorian of her executive MBA class in January 2020. Megan graduated cum laude from Duke University, earning a B.A. in Public Policy Studies with a focus on health policy.

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May is Mental Health Awareness Month!

In this episode (a replay from Closing Time), David Ko, CEO of Calm, discusses the mental health challenges founders and their teams face. We discuss practical strategies for building resilience, managing the relentless pressure, and why destigmatizing mental health is crucial for startup success. David shares how leaders can champion well-being, creating a workplace where mental health support is the norm, not the exception. This episode is a must-listen for anyone who believes building a thriving business starts with a healthy mindset.

We cover:

• How resilience is built through learning from mistakes and taking risks
• Where stress comes from and if you can really eliminate it
• How to lead by example and create a supportive work environment
• Generational shifts in the conversation around mental health
• Why mental health should be normalized throughout the year and not just during Mental Health Awareness Month

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The U.S. Surgeon General's office recently published an advisory report stating "social media can have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents." In this episode, we revisit our conversation with Frances Haugen, former Facebook product manager and internationally recognized whistleblower.

Frances provides an inside look into how tech giants prioritize profits over public safety. Her journey from Meta's inner workings to testifying before world parliaments sparked a global conversation about social media's role and regulation - a dialogue now echoed at the highest levels of public health.

This episode explores the pressing issues of our digital era that are now receiving official recognition. Learn about the impact of social media on young people's mental well-being, providing context to the Surgeon General's warnings. Frances shares critical concerns and her ideas for safeguards for young people. This is a must listen for anyone with children in their lives!

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It’s National Nurses Week! As the most trusted profession for the last 20 years, nurses make up the highest percentage of the US healthcare workforce and serve as the primary providers of patient care. But we’re facing a nursing crisis and looming shortage.

In this episode, McKinsey Partner and former nurse Gretchen Berlin shares the challenges the profession is facing, and what’s needed to turn things around (not a parade).

Read the 2022 McKinsey Nursing Report.

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In this episode, Glen Tullman reflects on the biggest changes he's seen in healthcare during his 40-year career in the industry. Glen is the founder and CEO of Transcarent, former founder and CEO of Livongo, and managing partner at 7wireVentures. He discusses:

- His early days revolutionizing e-prescribing and electronic health records at Allscripts

- Building Livongo into an $18.5 billion digital health success story

- Lessons learned as a serial entrepreneur and investor with 7wireVentures

- His vision for Transcarent as a consumer-directed healthcare navigation platform

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Patrick Brown, founder of Impossible Foods, doesn’t care about food. He just wants to stop climate change. And he knows the best way to halt global warming is to ditch meat from animals. A former Stanford Professor, Patrick Brown started Impossible Foods at age 60 and has helped grow it to a multi-billion dollar company and household name. In this episode, we talk about his journey to save the planet and human health, and how food is just the vessel for that mission.

Learn more about Impossible Foods on Instagram.

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In this episode, Dr. Lucy Kalanithi delves into her journey of becoming a doctor and her personal experience with losing her husband. Dr. Kalanithi is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford and the widow of Dr. Paul Kalanithi, author of the bestselling memoir "When Breath Becomes Air," to which she wrote the epilogue. Dr. Kalanithi has implemented novel health care delivery models in primary care hospitals and health systems and serves as the host of the podcast 'Gravity' which explores narratives of suffering.

This episode was recorded at the 2021 Rock Health Virtual Summit.

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In this episode, Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal shares a treatment plan for our healthcare system. Elisabeth is an ER doctor turned reporter. She's the author of the New York Times bestselling book, An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take it Back. Her book reveals the dangerous, expensive, and dysfunctional American healthcare system, and tells us exactly what we can do to fix it. Dr. Rosenthal spent 22 years as a correspondent at the New York Times before joining Kaiser Health News as Editor-in-Chief in 2016. 

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Doctors are not okay. Nearly half of physicians in the United States experienced burnout in 2023, leading to absenteeism, reduced productivity, turnover, and many leaving the profession altogether. In this episode, we discuss the clinician burnout and mental health crises with two expert guests: Dr. Jessie Gold, the first chief wellness officer for the University of Tennessee System and author of "How Do You Feel? One Doctor's Search for Humanity in Medicine," and Dr. Aparna Atluru, co-founder and chief medical officer of Marvin, a company that provides specialized mental health care for healthcare workers.

We cover:

😮‍💨 The definition and symptoms of burnout, and if we should add it to the DSM

👩‍⚕️ Gender disparities in physician mental health and suicide rates

💻 The impact of technology on clinician well-being

✍️ Personal experiences with burnout and mental health struggles in medicine

💡 Potential solutions and interventions, including specialized mental health care for healthcare workers

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You can learn more about Marvin at MeetMarvin.com.

You can learn more about Dr. Gold's work and buy her new book on DrJessiGold.com.

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In this bonus episode, Bessemer Venture Partners’ Healthcare and Life Sciences team shares the top industry developments they anticipate in the year to come.

We cover:

⚖️ The future of Obamacare under Trump

💊 Novel drug modalities

📊 Improved GLP-1 payment models

🏥 Caregiver workforce shifts

🤖 Multimodal clinical AI in practice

🔮 And more!

Join Bessemer Partners Steve Kraus and Andrew Hedin, and Vice Presidents Sofia Guerra and Morgan Cheatham, for this bonus episode on the state of the healthcare business in 2025.

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We love to hate on them, but right now teenagers need our help. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics declared the mental health crisis facing children and teens a national emergency.

In this episode, Dr. Hina Talib discusses the challenges adolescents are facing today. Dr. Talib is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and an OBGYN at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is a spokesperson with the American Academy of Pediatrics and serves on the executive board of the North American Society of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology.

Follow Dr. Hina Talib on Instagram at @TeenHealthDoc

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The R-word is a form of hate speech that has been used to describe people with intellectual disabilities. Today’s guest, Jamie Brewer, is a successful actress and model who is also an advocate for differently-abled people. Not only was she the first person with Down syndrome to walk the runway at New York Fashion Week, but she also successfully persuaded Texas state senators to remove the R-word in any official use.

This episode is hosted in partnership with The BodCon 2022, a live virtual conference on February 27th that's focused on body confidence and the movement towards radical self-acceptance, at which Jamie will be speaking about disability pride. For more information, visit thebodcon.com

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In this episode, youth sex educator Nora Gelperin dives into the good and bad of sex education today. Nora is the director of Sexuality Education and Training at Advocates for Youth. She is also a proponent of evidence-based sex education, supported by leading professional organizations including the AMA, ACOG, APHA, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. 

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In this episode, Dr. John Brownstein explains his work as a Digital Epidemiologist (not a finger doctor!) Dr. Brownstein has led projects like HealthMap.org, which offers real-time intelligence on emerging infectious diseases; Street Rx, which crowdsources the black market for prices of prescription drugs; and most recently VaccineFinder.org. Dr. John Brownstein is the Chief Innovation Officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and a Professor at Harvard Medical School.

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Approximately one in five American children have a mental health condition, with many more at risk for developing one. In this episode, Halle Tecco and Michael Esquivel dive deep into the youth mental health crisis with Naomi Allen, co-founder and CEO of Brightline.

We cover:

📲 How technology has worsened the youth mental health crisis and how it can help solve it

🧭 Key drivers of the crisis

🏡 “Families are comorbid”: Family-centered care approaches in pediatric behavioral health

⚕️ The challenge of over-pathologizing vs. providing appropriate care

💡 Strategies for parents to manage children's technology use

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You can learn more about Brightline at hellobrightline.com.

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Mark Cuban was horrified at how many Americans struggle to pay for their medications, which are are 250% more expensive in the U.S. than in other OECD nations. In this episode, he shares the details of his new online pharmacy for generic drugs that offers steep discounts. The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company cuts out the middle-man, charging customers a transparent price that is equal to the manufacturers' price, plus a flat 15% markup.

Visit costplusdrugs.com for more information. 

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In this episode, I sit down with epidemiologist Jessica Malaty Rivera to discuss Monkeypox, Polio, COVID, and why pandemics are becoming more common.

Jessica serves as the Science Communication Lead for The COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic, a Research Fellow at Boston Children's Hospital Innovation & Digital Health Accelerator, an Infection Preventionist at Netflix, and a Senior Advisor to the Pandemic Prevention Institute at the Rockefeller Foundation. This episode was recorded at the Rock Health Virtual Summit.

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Decades of public health efforts to curb teen smoking have unraveled since Juul and other e-cigarette brands came on the market in 2015. With sketchy ads targeting youth and flavor names like “gummy bear” and “cool cucumber”, vaping has skyrocketed amongst youth. In fact, 10%-24% of high school students are now addicted to nicotine. In this episode, Dr. Susan Walley, Chief of the Division of Hospital Medicine at Children's National Hospital, discusses her work developing effective healthcare and school-based interventions to reduce youth tobacco use.

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Mark Cuban was horrified at how many Americans struggle to pay for their medications, which are 250% more expensive in the U.S. than in other OECD nations. In this episode, he shares the details of his online pharmacy for generic drugs that offers steep discounts. The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company cuts out the middle-man, charging customers a transparent price that is equal to the manufacturers' price, plus a flat 15% markup.

The episode transcript is available here at https://www.heartofhealthcarepodcast.com/episodes/mark-cuban-cost-plus

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In this episode, Dr. Nzinga Harrison puts addiction and substance use disorder into context. She also explains how an evidence-based and compassionate harm-reduction approach can lead to better health outcomes. Dr. Harrison is the Co-Founder and CMO of Eleanor Health, which has raised $82M to help those affected by substance use disorders.

Learn more about Eleanor Health.

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In this month's Digital Health Download, Steve, Halle, and Michael take a deliberately optimistic look at key headlines in healthcare technology. From the impressive impact of AI scribing tools on physician satisfaction to encouraging survival rates among digital health unicorns from the ZIRP-era, the hosts highlights bright spots in an often challenging industry.

We cover:

🏆 Rock Health's 10th annual Consumer Adoption Survey revealing how each generation uniquely engages with digital health

🤖 How AI-powered ambient scribing is transforming physician documentation and reducing burnout

👩‍⚕️ The concerning trust gap between younger generations and healthcare providers

💊 The effectiveness but not yet cost-effectiveness of GLP-1 medications like Ozempic

💼 New analysis showing 89% of digital health unicorns from the pandemic era are still operating

🏛️ Potential opportunities for innovation within the current administration's healthcare policies

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Show notes:

• Rock Health's Consumer Adoption Report
• JAMA article: Lifetime Health Effects and Cost-Effectiveness of Tirzepatide and Semaglutide in US Adults
• Halle's article: What Happened to the Digital Health Unicorns of 2020-2022?
• JAMA article: Clinician Experiences With Ambient Scribe Technology to Assist With Documentation Burden and Efficiency

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As you probably know by now, May is Mental Health Awareness Month. But what you might not know is that entrepreneurs are 50% more likely to report having a mental health condition, including being:

2X more likely to suffer from depression

2X more likely to have suicidal thoughts

3X more likely to suffer from substance abuse

6X more likely to have ADHD

10X more likely to suffer from bi-polar disorder

In this episode, successful founder and angel investor Andy Dunn talks about living with Bipolar I disorder.

Andy Dunn is an entrepreneur, author, investor, and father. Andy co-founded the menswear brand Bonobos, which sold for $310 million. Last year, he published a memoir called Burn Rate: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind, which detailed his up-until-then private journey with bipolar disorder.

Listen to this important episode as we normalize talking about mental health disorders in the startup community.

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February is Cancer Prevention Month. Nearly 40% of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer at some point during their lifetimes. The good news is that continued advancements in medical research has led to more people surviving cancer. But what if we could prevent cancer altogether? Is it possible? In this episode, Jody Hoyos, President and Chief Operating Officer of the Prevent Cancer Foundation, discusses cancer prevention and early detection.

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Make America Healthy Again?

It's official— Trump was elected as our 47th president and plans to use his second term to "go wild on health." For this special episode, Aneesh Chopra, former U.S. Chief Technology Officer and author of Innovative State: How New Technologies can Transform Government, joins Steve to talk about what we can expect in Trump's second term.

We cover:

🔮 The future of the Affordable Care Act

💻 What a privatized version of Healthcare.gov could look like

🤝 The potential for value-based care to thrive in a bipartisan environment

♀️ The challenges facing women's health and reproductive rights

👵 How Medicare Advantage is facing significant financial and outcome challenges

🏆 Who will be the winners and losers of the next four years

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About our guest:

Aneesh Chopra advocates for interoperability and data-driven approaches that help providers, payers, and employers make smarter decisions to succeed in the shift to value-based care.

Chopra’s influence and leadership in technology includes extensive experience in the public sector. He served as the first U.S. Chief Technology Officer under the Obama Administration, where he spearheaded initiatives to modernize the nation’s healthcare system using electronic health records and health information exchanges. These efforts strengthened the data infrastructure used in healthcare delivery reform, ultimately helping the industry progress toward a more connected and efficient healthcare ecosystem.

Chopra also served as Virginia’s Secretary of Technology under Governor Tim Kaine, where he championed the growth of the state’s technology sector, enhanced educational opportunities through technology, and drove innovation in government operations. As a public servant, Aneesh fostered better public-private collaboration, a theme central to his 2014 book, “Innovative State: How New Technologies Can Transform Government.”

Chopra’s significant contributions to the fields of technology and healthcare have cemented his reputation as a forward-thinking leader committed to leveraging technology for the public good. He’s been recognized by Modern Healthcare as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare and one of the top 25 "Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers” by Government Technology magazine.

Chopra serves on the boards of IntegraConnect, Virginia Center for Health Innovation, and the George Mason Innovation Advisory Council. He earned his master’s degree in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School and holds a bachelor’s degree in health policy from Johns Hopkins University.

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August is Breastfeeding Awareness Month. And this year it hits different. We have faced a severe shortage of infant formula, with an out-of-stock rate surging to 70%. While it's easy to say "just breastfeed!" — not everyone can breastfeed for a variety of reasons, and we don’t exactly make it easy for working mothers.

In this episode, we talk to Dr. Leila Strickland, a biologist, and co-founder of Biomilq. Biomilq is a women-owned, Bill Gates-funded infant nutrition company producing cultured breastmilk in a lab.

Visit the Biomilq website.

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From selling deceased patients' body parts to denying cancer treatment over upfront payments, the Lown Institute's annual Shkreli Awards spotlight the most egregious examples of profiteering and dysfunction in American healthcare. Dr. Vikas Saini, President of the Lown Institute, walks us through 2024's (dis)honorees and what they reveal about the state of our healthcare system.

We cover:

🏆 The origin and impact of the Shkreli Awards

🏥 How a Texas medical school sold body parts without family consent

💉 The booming business of unnecessary infant tongue-tie procedures

💊 A Montana oncologist's shocking pattern of patient harm

🏦 UnitedHealth's growing control over American healthcare

💰 How private equity firm Steward Health Care bankrupted community hospitals

🔍 What these cases tell us about healthcare's future

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Show notes:

➡️ Nominate someone for the $25k Bernard Lown Award for Social Responsibility

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About our guest:

Vikas Saini, MD is president of the Lown Institute. He is a clinical cardiologist trained by Dr. Bernard Lown at Harvard, where he has taught and done research. Dr. Saini leads the Institute’s signature project, the Lown Institute Hospitals Index, the first ranking to measure hospital social responsibility. The Index, first launched in July 2020, evaluates hospitals on equity, value, and outcomes, and includes never-before-used metrics such as avoiding overuse, pay equity, and racial inclusivity. 

In his role at the Lown Institute since 2012, Dr. Saini led the development of the Right Care series of papers published by The Lancet in 2017; convened six national conferences featuring world-renowned leaders in health care; and guided other Lown Institute projects such as the “Shkreli Awards.” Dr. Saini also serves as co-chair of the Right Care Alliance, a grassroots network of clinicians, patient activists, and community leaders organizing to put patients, not profits, at the heart of health care.

Prior to the Lown Institute, Dr. Saini was in private practice in cardiology for over 15 years on Cape Cod, where he also founded a primary care physician network participating in global payment contracts. He also co-founded Aspect Medical Systems, the pioneer in noninvasive consciousness monitoring in the operating room with the BIS device.

Dr. Saini is an expert on the optimal medical management of cardiologic conditions, medical overuse, hospital performance and evaluation, and health equity. He has spoken and presented research at professional meetings around the world, and has been quoted in numerous print media, radio, and television.

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Technology is transforming genetic testing and bringing hope to families facing rare diseases. In this episode, GeneDx (Nasdaq: WGS) CEO Katherine Stueland sits down with Steve Kraus to share how AI is being used to crack life's most complex code and speed up diagnosis from years to days.

We cover:

🧬 The evolution from single-gene testing (remember BRCA?) to whole genome sequencing, and why the Supreme Court's decision to ban gene patents changed everything

🔬 How 1 in 10 Americans has a rare disease, yet the path to diagnosis traditionally takes 6-8 years

💪 How parents become "honorary PhDs" in their children's rare conditions and how this drives research forward

🤖 With only 1,500 medical geneticists nationwide, AI can help bridge the expertise gap

💰 The shifting landscape of insurance coverage and why states are starting to see the value of early genetic diagnosis

📊 How GeneDx built the world's largest rare disease database (700,000 clinical exomes and counting) and what that means for future drug development

👩‍💼 Katherine's journey from communications major to CEO, and why having more women leaders matters in healthcare

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Shortcuts:

00:00 Introduction and Overview

01:29 Advancing Diagnoses for Rare Diseases

06:33 The Evolution of Genetic Testing

10:44 The Cost and Coverage of Genetic Testing

21:55 The Role of AI in Genomics and Genetic Testing

29:43 From Communications to CEO: Katherine's Journey

35:23 Promoting Gender Equality in the C-Suite

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About our guest:

Katherine Stueland has dedicated her career to revolutionizing healthcare with patient-centered business approaches. Instrumental in obtaining FDA approval for breakthroughs like the first protease inhibitor for HIV/AIDS and pioneering cancer immunotherapy, she champions the integration of genomic data for precision diagnostics in rare diseases and cancer. As President and CEO of GeneDx (Nasdaq: WGS) since June 2021, she is at the forefront of transforming healthcare through the Company’s industry-leading exome and genome testing. Previously, as Chief Commercial Officer of Invitae (NYSE: NVTA), she elevated the brand to a market cap of over $6 billion.

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Your September Digital Health Download is here! This month, Steve and Halle discuss:

• TEFCA
• How employers are getting sued for mismanaging health plans
• Why virtual care is way up in rural America
• The TruePill / LetsGetChecked merger
• J&J taking aim at hospital drug-discount programs
• What happens to compounding startups now that the end of drug shortages is in sight

Tune in for all the digital health tea 🫖!

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Some clinics have a BMI threshold, which means that women who are considered overweight or obese are often turned away from services without a fair look at their full health.

In a world where medical science continually refines its understanding of human physiology, clinging to outdated metrics like BMI as a gatekeeper for reproductive freedom is not merely archaic—it's a negation of evidence-based care. When it comes to the right to preserve fertility, the dimensions of the scale should never outweigh the nuances of individual health and autonomy.

Read the full article here.

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Generic medications, which represent 90% of the prescriptions filled in the US, are largely manufactured overseas. Some leaders are questioning our over-reliance on pharmaceuticals produced abroad, saying it creates vulnerable supply chains that pose serious risks to national security. In this episode, scientist and entrepreneur Hitha Palepu explains the problem with generic drugs and what we can do about it.

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In today's episode, you'll hear from the six incredible semi-finalists of the Heart of Healthcare Grant Challenge. Place your votes before the end of the month at https://www.heartofhealthcarepodcast.com/grants

The episode transcript is available here at http://www.heartofhealthcarepodcast.com/episodes/grant-challenge-semi-finalists

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Host Halle Tecco talks with two of her favorite long-time colleagues in digital health: Chrissy Farr and Malay Gandhi.

Chrissy started her career in this space as a digital health reporter for VentureBeat, FastCompany, and CNBC before becoming a venture capitalist at OMERS ventures.

Malay started his career in management consulting before joining me at Rock Health where he served as Managing Director and CEO before going onto be an EIR at Greylock Partners, an executive at Eviction Health, and now Head of Strategy & Corporate Development at Benching.

The episode transcript is available here at http://www.heartofhealthcarepodcast.com/episodes/chrissy-farr-malay-gandhi

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Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death in 18-45 year olds in the US, claiming more lives than car crashes and gun violence combined. After Dr. Beth Weinstock lost her son to what she calls “the most devastating health crisis this generation has ever seen,” she decided to do something about it. In this episode, we discuss a harm-reduction approach to protecting young people from accidental fentanyl poisoning. This is a replay from 2022.

Learn more about Dr. Weinstock's organization, BirdieLight.

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Too often, those with complex health needs fall through the cracks. Dr. Toyin Ajayi, co-founder and CEO of Cityblock Health, is a passionate champion for health equity determined to change this reality. Her company specifically serves populations with Medicare, Medicaid, or both, often those who have been let down by the traditional healthcare system.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why "one size fits all" healthcare fails our most vulnerable, leaving them feeling overwhelmed and underserved
• How Cityblock's community health partners build trust and address health and social needs
• The privatization of Medicare
• Why she believes in the private sector to help fix healthcare

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In this episode, former Facebook product manager and internationally recognized whistleblower, Frances Haugen offers invaluable insights into how tech giants prioritizes profits over public safety, and the profound implications this has on mental health of young people.

We explore her brave journey, which took her from the inner workings of Meta to testifying before the world's parliaments, sparking a global conversation about the role and regulation of social media. Listen in as we shed light on the pressing issues of our digital era, and the steps we can take to safeguard vulnerable populations from social media's impacts.

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In this episode my friend Ryan Panchadsaram, co-author of Speed & Scale: An Action Plan for Solving our Climate Crisis, shares what we can do today to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. And why our health depends on it.

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More than 40% of Americans have obesity, a number that continues to rise. And despite being a multi-billion dollar business — the weight loss industry just isn’t helping people lose weight. Perhaps that’s why new GLP-1 medications are getting so much attention.

To learn more, I spoke to Sarah Jones Simmer, CEO of Found. With over $130M in venture funding, Found is the largest medically-supported weight care clinic in the country.

Join us as we delve into the history of the weight loss industry, and discuss how telehealth (and responsible prescribing) along with new medications, may just be an inflection point.

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With a community of 2.8 million followers on TikTok, Dr. Jennifer Lincoln is using social media to educate and bust the (many) myths surrounding reproductive health and abortion. Dr. Lincoln is a board-certified OBGYN who is passionate about helping people understand their bodies and feel empowered to advocate for themselves. She is the author of Let's Talk About Down There: An OBGYN Answers All Your Burning Questions Without Making You Feel Embarrassed for Asking.

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David, meet Goliath.

In this episode, digital health veteran Stuart Green (SVP and General Manager of the Life Science Business at Veridigm) shares all the secrets of what large incumbents want when working with startups. Stuart offers great insights and advice to founders looking to sell to, partner with, or get acquired by the Goliaths of healthcare.

We cover:

• Understanding the unmet needs of large healthcare companies
• How to best position your company to incumbents for sales, partnerships, or M&A
• The role data plays in the pharmaceutical industry, and how this has evolved
• Improving the EHR experience for physicians and making it more efficient and user-friendly

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In this episode, Halle Tecco sits down with John Mackey, founder and former CEO of Whole Foods Market. Mackey discusses his new venture, Love.Life, that aims to do for healthcare what Whole Foods did for grocery shopping.

We cover:

• His vision for rethinking the healthcare experience
• What he learned about healthcare running a self-insured employer
• How Whole Foods gamified employee health
• His views on healthcare regulation and personal responsibility
• Why he doesn't believe in market research
• His advice for entrepreneurs taking on venture capital funding

Are you enjoying the show? Subscribe, and help us by leaving us a review!

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We had lots to cover in this month's Digital Health Download, from a $99 AI companion to if we think PBMs will ever be dismantled.

We discuss:

- A WSJ report on Medicare Advantage insurers pocketing billions for diseases that were never treated or falsely coded

- The FTC's interim report on pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and their impact on drug accessibility and affordability

- Vermont's successful accountable care organization (ACO) program, which led to significant savings and improved care

- The launch of "Friend," an AI-powered wearable device designed to combat loneliness and isolation

- Post-Theranos progress made by companies working on less painful blood tests

- A hospital's new venture into the entertainment industry

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America’s homeless population is larger than in any other developed economy. On any given night, more than half a million people experience homelessness. One-third of them are in just one state—California.

In this episode, Dr. Margot Kushel explains the country’s rise in homelessness and the critical impact of housing on the health needs of vulnerable populations. Dr. Margot Kushel is the director of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations and the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. Her research focuses on reducing the burden of homelessness on health through examining efforts to prevent and end homelessness and mitigating the effects of housing instability on healthcare outcomes.

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In this episode, Steve Kraus talks with Joanna Strober, co-founder and CEO of Midi Health, a virtual healthcare platform specifically for women in midlife (ages 35-65). Midi Health is a virtual care clinic created by specialists in perimenopause and menopause to address the massive unmet needs of women in this demographic.

Joanna explains why women often lose touch with an OBGYN after child-bearing years but don't get the care they need from primary care physicians. She shares insights on her current company's impressive retention and patient outcomes, plus lessons learned from her previous digital health startup, Kurbo Health, which focused on childhood obesity.

As a former investor at Bessemer Venture Partners, Joanna reflects on what entrepreneurs should expect from their investors. As a mother, Joanna discusses the importance of resilience, prioritization, and partnership in enabling women to thrive as parents and professionals.

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80% of Americans suffering from eating disorders don’t get the treatment they need. That’s where Equip comes in. In this episode, Steve Kraus sits down with Kristina Saffran, the co-founder and CEO of Equip, a virtual provider transforming eating disorder treatment by making evidence-based care more accessible to patients and families. Kristina shares her personal journey recovering from anorexia and how her experience with the challenges in traditional treatment led her to found a non-profit and ultimately start Equip. She and Steve dive into:

• Misconceptions about eating disorders and the barriers that prevent the vast majority of sufferers from getting treatment
• Equip's virtual, multidisciplinary five-person care team model
• The company's focus on delivering evidence-based treatment while pioneering new research to improve outcomes
• The importance of collaborating with insurance payers to improve access and reduce costs
• Kristina's advice for mission-driven healthcare entrepreneurs

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After building and selling Meebo, Seth Sternberg wanted his next venture to transform lives at scale. A decade later, Honor has become the world's largest in-home senior care network, delivering care to 35,000 US homes daily. In this candid conversation, Sternberg reveals how AI saved the company from near collapse in 2015 and why treating caregivers like true professionals creates better outcomes for everyone.

We cover:

🏠 How Honor grew from a "shed startup" to a $2B global care network

🤖 Why AI was the key to solving home care's scaling problem - and how they use 22 different AI models today

👥 The surprising truth about what really drives caregiver retention (hint: it's not hourly wages)

💼 Why they switched from contractors to W2 employees in the first 6 months

🔍 How "revealed preferences" help match caregivers with the right clients

🌐 The dramatic differences in home care models across countries

🚀 Their vision for expanding beyond basic care to solve food, medication and other challenges for aging adults

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About our guest:

Seth Sternberg is the Co-Founder and CEO of Honor, a non-medical home care company with a mission to enable our parents to remain in their homes as they age. Prior to Honor, Seth was the Co-Founder and CEO of Meebo, which brought instant messaging to the web and reached close to half the internet population in the United States. Meebo was acquiredby Google, where Seth became a Product Director working on the Google Identity Platform, and then within GoogleX. Seth started his career with IBM’s Corporate Development group after graduating from Yale.

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In this episode, Catherine Coleman Flowers (the “Erin Brockovich of Sewage”) explains how crumbling infrastructure causes toxic sewage spills in the backyards of poor, rural communities. Flowers also talks about how she discovered an outbreak of an intestinal, blood-feeding parasite we thought had been eradicated in the United States. Catherine Coleman Flowers is a MacArthur 'Genius' grant winner, the founder of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice, and the author of Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret.

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Full-body MRIs are a controversial and expensive screening tool that some believe could revolutionize early cancer detection, while others worry they create unnecessary anxiety and waste medical resources.

In this episode, we dive deep into this debate with Emi Gal, founder & CEO of Ezra, who is using AI to make full-body MRI screening faster, more accessible, and more accurate.

We cover:

🏥 What are full-body MRI scans, and how they're being used today

💰 The current costs and insurance coverage challenges of preventative MRI screening

🔬 Why medical societies don't currently endorse full-body MRI scans (and if they ever will)

🧬 How full-body MRIs compare to other cancer diagnostics like liquid biopsy

🤖 The role of AI in enhancing image quality and translating medical reports

🔄 The importance of longitudinal monitoring for certain medical findings

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About our guest:

Emi Gal is a software engineer and entrepreneur working at the intersection of AI and healthcare. He's currently the Founder & CEO of Ezra, an AI healthcare company that has created a new way to screen for cancer using a full body MRI powered by AI.

Prior to Ezra, Emi was the Founder & CEO of Brainient, an advertising technology company he started at age 19. Brainient became the largest video ad server in Europe and was acquired by Teads in 2016, where Emi spent two years as CEO of Teads Studio helping grow the company to nearly $1 billion in revenue.

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Show notes:

• Emi's Longevity Protocol
• Interested in trying the full-body scan? Listeners can use the promo code HOH250 for $250 off your scan. Note: Heart of Healthcare is not affiliated with Ezra and receives no compensation for this code.

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🙏 Thanks to Flexpa for sponsoring this episode. Flexpa is refactoring healthcare. Connect to 300+ health plans through a single, secure integration to access patient-consented, identified claims data instantly.

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IVF has come a long way since the first IVF baby was born in 1978. Thirty years ago, your chances of bringing home a baby with each IVF try was 5%. Today, that number is around one third. While this is an impressive improvement, the fact is, the majority of patients will not go home with a baby after an invasive, emotional, and expensive round of IVF. There’s still much progress to be made.

In this special episode, I share a piece I wrote for Fortune Magazine on what's wrong with fertility care, and what we need to do to fix it.

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In this episode, Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton talks about her advocacy for a more equitable healthcare system. Dr. Hilton is an anesthesiologist at the University of Virginia and the first Black woman anesthesiologist at Medical University of South Carolina since it opened. Dr. Hilton’s work extends far beyond the walls of the hospital. She is a vocal supporter of health equity, advocating for underserved and marginalized populations. 

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In this episode, Dr. Jon Cohen, CEO of Talkspace, discusses his unconventional journey from vascular surgeon to leading a publicly traded digital health company.

We cover:

• The glass ceiling for physicians, and why people wrongly think physicians can’t run businesses
• His run for Lieutenant Governor of New York, and why more physicians should get involved with politics
• The role of online therapy in making mental healthcare more accessible and affordable
• How Talkspace is leveraging AI to detect suicide risk, support therapists, and enhance patient care
• The challenges and opportunities of running a public company, especially one that went public via SPAC
• His insights on the future of healthcare and the importance of physician leadership in driving change

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In this episode, Renée DiResta, researcher at the Stanford Internet Observatory, talks about the spread of malign narratives across social networks and how that impacts public health.

Renée has advised Congress and the State Department, and has studied medical disinformation and the anti-vaccine movement. Renée regularly writes and speaks about the role that tech platforms play in the proliferation of disinformation and conspiracy theories, and has written and been covered in Wired, the New York Times, The Economist, Washington Post, and more.

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I have laryngitis and our team is off this week reviewing applications for the Heart of Healthcare Grant Challenge. So I thought I'd play an episode from my new show, Closing Time.

Don't worry Heart of Healthcare isn't going anywhere!

Closing Time is a new podcast where you, the listener, get to be a fly on the wall during a startup pitch meeting.

Imagine being part of a room where passionate entrepreneurs are pitching their healthcare startups, the innovations that could very well shape the future of healthcare. This podcast allows you to do just that.

Learn more at https://closingtimepodcast.net/

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In 2020, telemedicine company Teladoc acquired remote patient monitoring company Livongo for a record $18.5 billion, creating a $38 billion entity. Today, the combined company is worth less than a tenth of that.

Rebecca Mitchell, who spent years as a product leader at both companies, reveals how this landmark healthcare deal fell short of expectations despite strong underlying products, and what we can learn from it.

We also get her insights on the need for physician innovators, and how she came to co-found Scrub Capital.

We cover:

💻 The rise of physicians in product management roles at digital health companies

💰 The untold "body and internal organs" story of the Livongo-Teladoc merger

🩺 How incorporating clinician expertise leads to better healthcare products

💼 Scrub Capital's approach to leveraging 700+ clinicians for smarter healthcare investing

🤝 Why healthcare innovators should support rather than criticize each other

🏆 Critical lessons for future healthcare M&A

About our guest:

Rebecca Mitchell began her career in global health as an academic researcher and Fulbright Fellow in maternal health. After receiving her medical degree from UCSF, she served as the medical officer for innovation at HHS before spending a decade in product roles at startups, including Livongo and Teladoc. Rebecca now leads Scrub Capital, an early-stage fund that incorporates the expertise of over 700 clinicians, founders, and operators to invest in healthcare companies.

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Marketing and communications play a critical role in securing investment and driving product and service adoption in digital health. In this special two-part episode, Steve Kraus explores the art of storytelling in healthcare with two industry experts: Chrissy Farr, a veteran digital health journalist turned venture capitalist and advisor, and Kate Cronin, Chief Brand Officer at Moderna. They discuss:

• What makes for a great story in digital health
• The importance of including setbacks and challenges in company narratives
• The undervaluing of marketing and communications roles
• Strong digital health brands such as Livongo, PillPack, and Bobbie
• Chief Brand Officers vs. Chief Marketing Officers
• Lessons learned from rapidly scaling Moderna's brand during the COVID-19 pandemic
• The importance of internal communications

🎂 Please help us celebrate three years of the podcast by leaving us a review!

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With the election around the corner, Halle and Steve welcome Dan Diamond back on the show to talk about how the election will impact healthcare (and how healthcare impacts voting). Dan is a national health reporter for the Washington Post, focused on accountability, federal agencies, and public health.

We cover:

• Trump's concept of a plan and if he would really repeal the ACA
• Harris abandoning Medicare-for-all
• How reproductive health remains a contentious voting topic
• Medicaid redetermination leading to millions losing coverage
• Bipartisian issues like Medicare Advantage, drug pricing, and mental health coverage

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Ready for your October digital health download? This month, we discuss:

• Progyny losing business to Maven
• The entire 23andMe board resigning
• Particle Health suing Epic (and Epic clapping back)
• A plan to erase $4B in medical debt in North Carolina
• The first at-home nasal spray flu vaccine
• Weight Watchers losing Oprah and its CEO, can they get on the GLP-1 train?

Tune in for all the digital health tea 🫖!"

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In this episode [Episode 1 revisited], Catherine Coleman Flowers (the “Erin Brockovich of Sewage”) explains how crumbling infrastructure causes toxic sewage spills in the backyards of poor, rural communities. Flowers also talks about how she discovered an outbreak of an intestinal, blood-feeding parasite we thought had been eradicated in the United States. Catherine Coleman Flowers is a MacArthur 'Genius' grant winner, the founder of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice, and the author of Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret.

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In this episode, we talk with transportation and safety expert Debbie Hersman about how car crash deaths increased during the pandemic and examine why women are more likely to die in car crashes. Could autonomous cars be our solution? Debbie Hersman was previously Chief Safety Officer to Waymo, Google's self-driving car project. Before that, she served as the CEO of the National Safety Council and Board Member of the National Transportation Safety Board. 

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In this special episode of The Heart of Healthcare, we talk with Julia Cheek about how women's healthcare needs are often ignored and how we can upend the paternalistic system to achieve health equity. Julia Cheek is the CEO and Founder of Everly Health, a fully integrated digital care platform.

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In this monthly healthcare news roundup, Halle and Steve break down the biggest healthcare headlines this month.

We cover:

🏥 How a $5/month medication subscription service is improving adherence and saving patients money

🧠 How microplastic levels in our brains have increased 50% in just eight years

⚕️ The viral beef between a surgeon and UnitedHealthcare

💉 Louisiana's decision to stop promoting vaccination and the politicization of public health messaging

🏛️ The impact of DOGE cuts on key health agencies

📈 Hims & Hers' Super Bowl ad criticizing the healthcare system

💊 Updates on GLP-1 medication access and pricing as compounding ends

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Show notes:

• PlasticList.org

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The healthcare industry has made significant strides in the past 50 years… or has it? In this episode, we sit down with Adrian Aoun, CEO of Forward, an AI-based healthcare system, who is simply not impressed with the lethargic pace of progress. We discuss how artificial intelligence (AI) can help us achieve exponential improvements to human health and how ChatGPT is the worst of the new world.

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Clinical notes are one of the more tedious parts of doctors’ day-to-day lives—so much so that they’re often called “pajama time,” since physicians spend 2-3 hours writing them at night. In this episode, Steve Kraus sits down with Dr. Shiv Rao, co-founder and CEO of Abridge, an AI-first healthcare company that’s been in the spotlight for solving this problem. Abridge uses advanced machine learning to structure and summarize medical conversations, creating clinical documentation and structured data while reducing clinician burnout.

Shiv traces his journey from a skateboarding rebel to a cardiologist, professor, healthcare investor, and now founder of a pioneering digital health startup. He shares how his passion for scalable impact and exposure to cutting-edge research at Carnegie Mellon led him to start Abridge in 2018.

Steve and Shiv discuss:

• How Abridge differentiated itself early on through AI technology and go-to-market (GTM) strategy
• The company’s ROI and anti-burnout metrics, like note quality, pajama time, and cognitive load
• Clinician-AI collaboration vs. direct-to-consumer applications
• The surprising parallels between managing an ICU and running a startup
• The habits and mindsets that keep Shiv grounded while leading a fast-growing, mission-driven company

Are you enjoying the show? Please leave us a review 🙏

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In this episode, Halle Tecco and Steve Kraus cover the latest digital health stories for June 2024, including:

• Cancer drug dosing and pricing challenges
• The new South Park movie on obesity
• The shortage of K-12 school counselors and telehealth startups’ role
• The failure of SPAC deals in digital health, and the path forward
• Pharma's DTC marketing efforts, including Pfizer's new platform and updated FTC advertising rules
• Flaws in the media coverage of declining total fertility rates

NOTE: July will be the 3 (not 2) year anniversary of the show! If you're enjoying listening, please leave us a review!

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In this episode, Halle Tecco talks to Emily Oster— health communicator, health economist, and bestselling author. Emily shares her journey from academia to becoming an influential health communicator, advocating for data-driven decision making and empowering individuals to make informed choices about their health.

We cover:

• Her non-didactic approach to helping people make their own best decisions
• Her least favorite types of panic headlines, and how no one would thrive on Doritos® dust
• Pros and cons of the Open Access movement
• Combating publication bias
• Speaking up on controversial topics
• Advice for building trust, combating misinformation, and improving health communication

Emily is on a mission to empower parents by providing the data and tools they need to make confident decisions. After getting a PhD in economics from Harvard, she went on to pursue research in health economics and is now a professor of economics at Brown University. As a mom of two, Emily was inspired by her own pregnancy and the lack of clear information to guide her decisions. She decided to use her expertise in reviewing and analyzing data to help other parents navigate these topics. She is a New York Times best-selling author, whose books include Expecting Better, Cribsheet, The Family Firm and The Unexpected.

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I recently did an Ask Me Anything session with two Johns Hopkins students who have a student-led venture firm (A-Level Capital) and podcast (A-Level Capital Podcast). In this special episode, I share the recording where they asked me about digital health, startups, innovation, women's health, and career development.

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March is National Nutrition Month and in this episode, Instacart’s CEO Fidji Simo shares her insights on scaling food as medicine programs, improving nutrition security, and making healthy choices more accessible.

Nourishing the community is in Fidji's DNA. She comes from three generations of fishermen in the south of France. A first-generation high school graduate, she has become a prominent and well-respected leader in technology… and now in healthcare too. You are going to love this enlightening episode!

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In this episode, Halle speaks with Dave Chase, co-founder and CEO of Health Rosetta, who is on a mission to end the 30-year heist of stolen income from the working middle class. He’s working to popularize a new parallel economy: community-owned health plans (COHPs). Dave explains how these plans aim to transform healthcare from a driver of debt and bankruptcy to a driver of well-being and wealth.

We cover:

• The structure and benefits of community-owned health plans (COHPs)
• How these plans can reduce healthcare costs while improving care quality
• The role of primary care, including direct primary care models, in reshaping healthcare delivery
• Challenges with the current employer-based health insurance system
• Recent legal developments pushing for change in employer-sponsored health plans

Dave shares insights on how community-owned health plans can address issues like misaligned incentives, inefficient spending, and poor health outcomes. He also discusses the potential for these models to redirect healthcare savings into community investments, ultimately improving social determinants of health.

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Ageism is the one ‘ism’ that affects all of us. We all age, if we're so lucky. So why are ageist messages in the media and workplace so pervasive? And what is the impact? In this episode, I talk with advocate Cindy Gallop who is helping build an aspirational culture around aging. After a successful career in advertising, she launched her company on the TED stage, with the goal to end ageism, increase happiness, and promote world peace. You’ll learn exactly what and how her company does in the interview.

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While our healthcare system has glaring gender disparities that disproportionately affect women, the fact is, men are not spared from one enormous gender gap: life expectancy.

In this episode, host Halle Tecco and guest VC Steve Kraus of Bessemer Partners discuss why we need a more comprehensive approach to men's health, the startups leading the way, and the biggest opportunities in the space.

Visit halletecco.com/blog/mens-health-startups to read more on the topic.

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The number of online companies offering mail-order invisible aligners is booming. But this orthodontist says some are ruining people's teeth and harming their overall health. In this episode, orthodontist and entrepreneur Dr. Ingrid Murra, talks about the state of venture-backed dentistry. Dr. Murra is the Founder & CEO of Two Front, a digital health startup bringing next-generation orthodontics to the market.

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Digital Health Download: May 2024

In this episode, Halle and Steve dive into the latest headlines in digital health for May 2024, covering topics like surprise billing, AI in healthcare, and the future of primary care. They cover:

- A ProPublica investigation into Cigna's claims and prior authorization processes

- The FTC's new non-compete agreement ban, and what it means for healthcare

- Walmart's decision to shutter its health clinics, and the viability of retail primary care

- A new study on using generative AI to draft physician replies to patient messages

- Nurses' protests against the rapid adoption of AI technology at Kaiser Permanente

- An Atlantic article on the coming revolution in male contraceptives

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In this episode, Dr. Charity Dean walks us through the early days of COVID-19. She was told not to use the word "pandemic" because it could scare people, but sounded alarms anyway. Dr. Dean served as the Assistant Director for the California Department of Public Health. She was a key member of the executive team directing the COVID-19 outbreak response from the high-level overview, to tactical operations, to co-founding and leading the Testing Task Force. She is currently the Founder & CEO of The Public Health Company. Dr. Dean is also the protagonist in Michael Lewis's new book 'The Premonition.'

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This week's guest, Brad Kittredge, believes in a world where everyone suffering with mental health can get personalized care, and he knows technology can get us there. Learn how his company, Brightside, is working with the system (not against it) for real change. And how his experiences working at Jawbone and 23andMe helped inform his work this time around.

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March is National Nutrition Month and in this episode, we delve into the inner workings of the Big Food industry with Pulitzer Prize-Winning investigative journalist Michael Moss. Michael shares his insights on how the industry uses science and marketing schemes to get us addicted to unhealthy food products, then turns around and sells us diet fads that don't work.

With a background as an investigative journalist at the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, as well as being the author of the groundbreaking books "Salt Sugar Fat" and "Hooked", Michael brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the (dinner) table, uncovering the truth behind our food industry.

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Health insurance has a Net Promoter Score of around 0-10 industry-wide, one of the lowest ratings of any industry. This is exactly why the founders of Oscar Health, with no background in healthcare and a distaste for the industry, started the company in 2012. Since then, Oscar has grown to 1.7 million members, gone public, and achieved profitability—all while receiving an NPS significantly higher than the industry average.

In this episode, we talk with Mario Schlosser, co-founder and CTO of Oscar Health, about building a tech-first health insurance company in an industry notorious for poor customer experiences.

We cover: 

🏥 Why outsiders without healthcare backgrounds decided to tackle the insurance industry

💰 How Oscar grew to 1.7 million members while maintaining a 60+ NPS score in a hard-to-please industry

📊 The balance between denying unnecessary care and empathetically supporting members

⚙️ How ICHRAs (Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements) are disrupting traditional employer-sponsored healthcare

🧶 The beginning of the unraveling of the employer markets

💼 The changing employer healthcare market and why small businesses are seeking alternatives

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About our guest:

Mario Schlosser is the Co-Founder & CTO at Oscar Health. In this role, Mario leads product and engineering, with a focus on building Oscar’s technology platform for the future and continuing to set the strategy for the +Oscar strategy.

Previously, Mario served as CEO of Oscar, leading the company from inception to serving over 1M members across Individual & Family, Medicare Advantage, and Small Group health plans.

Before co-founding Oscar, Mario also co-founded the largest social gaming company in Latin America, where he led the company's analytics and game design practices. Prior to that, Mario was a Senior Investment Associate at Bridgewater Associates and worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Company in Europe, the U.S. and Brazil.

Mario also spent time as a visiting scholar at Stanford University, where he wrote and co-authored 10 computer science publications, including one of the most-cited computer science papers published in the past decade, in which he developed the EigenTrust Algorithm to securely compute trust in randomized networks. In May 2019, Mario and his co-authors, Sepandar D. Kamvar (Mosaic Building Group Inc) and Héctor Garcia-Molina (Celo), received the prestigious Seoul Test of Time Award from the International World Wide Web Conference Committee (IW3C2) for this work.

Mario holds a degree in computer science with highest distinction from the University of Hannover in Germany and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

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​There is a gap in America’s knowledge of women’s health. This is no surprise because it wasn’t until 1993 that Congress wrote an NIH inclusion policy into Federal law that encouraged women and minorities as subjects in clinical research. Much of what is considered ‘health standards’ are largely skewed towards men because of the years when women went unstudied. Even today, there remains gender inequality in healthcare as we face wide gaps in research and treatment ability for areas unique to women.

​By elevating the importance of women’s health, we can deliver better, more inclusive data and insights; more targeted, accessible solutions; and enable better care for women worldwide. Not only that, but we shine a light on the importance of funding and uplifting companies that center around changing the business of our bodies.

​In celebration of Women's Health Month, I joined Female Founder Collective for a panel discussion on solving women's health inefficiencies. I'm joined by Aagya Mathur (Aavia), Dr. Sophia Yen, MD, MPH (Pandia Health), and Alison Wyatt (Female Founder Collective).

Learn more about the Female Founder Collective.

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"Healthcare attracts a lot of good people, but it also attracts a lot of morally unscrupulous people who consistently demonstrate their willingness to do horribly unethical stuff to make a lot of money."

Join us for many mic-drop moments with recording artist-turned-healthcare-investor D.A. Wallach, who tells it like it is—but in a nice way only someone who grew up in the Midwest can.

From questioning the "doctor" honorific to calling large health systems "the root of evil," D.A. challenges healthcare's sacred cows and offers a provocative vision for the future.

We cover:

🏥 Why the "doctor" title might be outdated and how to reframe medical authority

🤖 The future of AI in medicine and why software can and should handle more

💊 How to preserve humanity while automating healthcare delivery

💰 Starting a healthcare VC fund as an outsider

🎵 Parallels between the music industry and healthcare

🔄 The need for a universal, evidence-based standard of care

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About our guest:

D.A. Wallach is a venture capital investor at Time BioVentures and an acclaimed recording artist who Fast Company named one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business. While an undergraduate at Harvard, D.A. studied with professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and received the Andrew Ramroop and Alain Locke prizes as the top graduate in his department. Prior to leaving school, Pharrell Williams discovered D.A.’s band Chester French and signed the group to Interscope Records, where they released two full-length albums. He has toured with Lady Gaga, Weezer, and Blink 182, performed on TV Shows including Jimmy Kimmel Live and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and appeared in Rolling Stone and Vogue.

In 2011, D.A. stopped touring in order to focus on his other passion, investing. He has since built a parallel career as a venture capitalist, backing a series of industry-defining technology companies including Spotify, SpaceX, Ripple, The Boring Company, and Memphis Meats. Since 2015, D.A. has focused on biotechnology and healthcare, seeking to reinvent medicine through breakthrough start-ups like Beam, Glympse, Doctor on Demand, Devoted Health, and Neuralink. As co-founder and General Partner of Time BioVentures, he brings this experience to a new generation of talented entrepreneurs in the life sciences.

Outside of work, D.A. appeared as an actor in the film La La Land, which received 14 Academy Award nominations. He publishes essays on a range of topics on his website www.dawallach.com, and is the co-founder of the non-profit Franca Fund for preventive genomics, an advisory board member of No Patient Left Behind, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Santa Fe Institute.

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More than 40% of Americans have obesity, a number that continues to rise. And despite being a multi-billion dollar business — the weight loss industry just isn’t helping people lose weight. Perhaps that’s why new GLP-1 medications, like Wegovy, are getting so much attention.

To learn more, I spoke to Sarah Jones Simmer, CEO of Found. With over $130M in venture funding, Found is the largest medically-supported weight care clinic in the country.

Join us as we delve into the history of the weight loss industry, and discuss how telehealth (and responsible prescribing) along with new medications, may just be an inflection point.

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This year's Heart of Healthcare $50,000 Grant Challenge winner is the team from the Libertas Center for Human Rights, located at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, NY.

In this episode, we learn about how they provide survivors of torture and human rights violations with comprehensive medical, mental health, social and legal services to help them regain function and restore humanity in their lives.

Learn more about support Libertas here.

Learn more about the Heart of Healthcare grants here.

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As thousands of healthcare leaders descend on San Francisco for the annual JPM Healthcare Conference, Steve and Michael break down January's biggest stories in digital health. From unprecedented bipartisan scrutiny of PBMs to surprising patient satisfaction data and the industry's first major M&A deal of the year, 2025 is already shaping up to be transformative for healthcare.

We cover:

🏥 Why PBMs are suddenly in the crosshairs of Trump, Warren, and Musk

💳 The controversy over hospitals charging patients for doctor emails

📊 The puzzling disconnect between Americans' personal healthcare experiences and their view of the system

💰 Breaking down Transcarent's acquisition of Accolade and what it means for digital health M&A

📦 How UPS is transforming healthcare logistics with its new lab testing hub

🏢 Why ICHRAs could reshape employer-sponsored health insurance

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May is Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Heritage Month. Asian Americans represents only 6.8% of the US, yet make up a significant portion of the medical profession, comprising 22% of medical school graduates and 17% of active physicians. While Americans of Asian and Pacific Island descent have made many contributions to our healthcare system, they are facing increased discrimination at work and in their communities.

In this episode, Dr. Esther Choo discusses the racism faced by AAPI healthcare workers, and what we can do about it.

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In our 100th (!!!) episode of the Heart of Healthcare Podcast, I share a 2023 recap for healthcare, including findings from the latest Rock Health Funding report.

The episode delves into the significant changes in Medicaid, with a massive disenrollment impacting vulnerable populations, and discusses the growing privatization of Medicare through Medicare Advantage. It highlights the surge in GLP-1 medication use for obesity treatment and its societal impact, alongside the transformative role of AI in healthcare, exemplified by ChatGPT's performance in medical exams. The episode also discusses how digital health fared in venture funding and the public markets in 2023.

Check out my blog for more digital health goodness.

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In this episode, we sit down with one of the most influential figures in government today: Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan. As the youngest FTC chair to ever be appointed, during her tenure the FTC has pushed to ban non-compete agreements, filed lawsuits against healthcare companies engaging in anti-competitive practices, and strengthened the Health Breach Notification Rule (HBNR) to protect sensitive health data.

We cover:

• The FTC's role in healthcare and how it compares to other sectors
• The impact of consolidation and vertical integration in the healthcare industry
• The agency's efforts to combat rising drug prices, including the recent actions against major PBMs
• The controversial "Orange Book" patent challenges and their implications for drug innovation
• The nationwide ban on non-compete agreements and its potential effects on doctors
• Chair Khan's vision for the future of competition law and its application to healthcare

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