Lifers with Christina Farr

In Episode 5 of Rounds, Stephanie Davis and Christina Farr break down the latest healthcare headlines — including Oura's step toward an IPO with its S-1 filing revealing $1.4 billion in revenue, and a former Anthropic researcher's warning to the BBC that AI staff are "genuinely frightened" for humanity's future — before sitting down with Megan Scheffel, Head of Life Science and Healthcare at SVB, Dan Bise, Executive Vice President of Strategy & Corporate Development at R1, and Jeremy Friese, CEO and Founder of Humata Health. We'll cover: Oura's S-1 filing and what it signals about the company's path to IPO Key takeaways from SVB's Healthcare Investments and Exits report — including why fewer specialized funds (not less capital) are driving the fundraising slowdown, why deal volume hit a multiyear low even as total dollars held steady, and why investors are increasingly rewarding proven commercial viability over pure technology hype The diverging exit landscape between biopharma (a record M&A year driven by looming patent cliffs) and healthtech (strong IPO performance, but few companies actually going public) How blurring lines between Dx/Tools, device, and biopharma are reshaping where capital flows The thesis behind CD&R and TowerBrook's take-private of R1, and the company's shift from tech-enabled services to a true AI-native, technology-first approach to automating the healthcare revenue cycle R1's first two acquisitions, Phare Health and Humata Health, and how Humata's prior authorization platform fills a key gap in R1's strategy to reduce downstream payer denials Dan Bise's investment approach — from setting strategy to evaluating the competitive landscape to aligning investors and the Board — and how it mirrors a thesis-driven, PE-style playbook Jeremy Friese's perspective as Humata's founder on what set R1 apart from other potential acquirers, and what convinced him to sell Hosts and Guests: Christina Farr, CEO, Second Opinion; GP, Scrub Capital Stephanie Davis, Healthcare Industry Analyst Megan Scheffel, Head of Life Science and Healthcare at SVB Dan Bise, EVP, Strategy and Corporate Development at R1 Jeremy Friese, Founder and CEO of Humata Health Sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank.

Mary Varghese Presti, Corporate Vice President and COO, Microsoft Health & Life Sciences, started her career as a pediatric nurse. She joins Christina Farr to talk about why she wants nurses to demand technology the way physicians do, and what AI has to prove before it's trusted on the clinical side. They get into why nurses have nobody to delegate to, Microsoft's work with Stanford on an agentic tumor board aimed at treatment decisions in days rather than weeks, and her pick between GLP-1s and AI at one, five and ten years. —Join Christina for upcoming webinars:10/8 - Why Are Hospitals Hiring Chief AI Officers? https://streamyard.com/watch/VjvVZiDN8ZMH 10/13 - Verifying AI in Medicine: Is Healthcare AI Actually Ready for Deployment? https://streamyard.com/watch/GwsSXwdikhMw 10/28 - Type 2 Diabetes & Cardiometabolic Care: Wearables, AI & GLP-1s https://streamyard.com/watch/uAuwCzUEJTCF 11/3 - Is It Finally the Moment for Alternative Plan Design? https://streamyard.com/watch/ereM3aB58XK4 —LINKS: Microsoft Dragon Copilot: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/health-solutions/clinical-workflow/dragon-copilot Healthcare Agent Orchestrator: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-cloud/blog/healthcare/2025/05/19/developing-next-generation-cancer-care-management-with-multi-agent-orchestration/ "Nursing Is the Surefire New Path to American Prosperity.": https://www.asrn.org/journal-nursing/3467-nursing-is-the-surefire-new-path-to-american-prosperity.html Lifers episode with Peter Lee: https://youtu.be/lxWYV1rNqR4  Chrissy Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr Chrissy Farr on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cfarr/ Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books  —FOLLOW:Mary:https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryvarghese/ https://x.com/MaryVPresti  Chrissy:https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ https://x.com/chrissyfarr  Second Opinion Media:https://www.instagram.com/second.opinion.media/ https://x.com/second_op_media  —TIMESTAMPS:(00:00) Lead in(00:32) Intro(02:08) AI in healthcare hits scale(03:40) Why nursing is the next frontier(05:24) The LLM lightbulb moment(07:35) From hype to pragmatism(11:28) Nurses fear and job security(15:02) Admin bloat and incentives(18:24) Burnout and nursing documentation(20:55) Agentic workflows at the bedside(25:42) Caregiving and consumer copilots(30:20) Learning to trust AI answers(34:28) Clinical AI trust and regulation(39:35) AI and expanding disease definitions(44:22) How AI could reshape care teams(51:41) One five ten year predictions(52:45) Wrap  

Christina Farr sits down with Munjal Shah, Co-founder and CEO, Hippocratic AI, to ask whether clinical AI will shrink healthcare's workforce, and who is on the hook when it makes a mistake. Munjal explains his Copilot, Autopilot, and Infinite Pilot framework, and why the use cases that have worked best are ones healthcare never thought to try, like calling 50,000 people during a New York heat wave. He also walks through a lung cancer screening outreach that he says found three cancers for $1,700 in AI costs. Dive into the Granola notes from this episode: https://notes.granola.ai/t/4789bb35-2eae-443a-b661-87336b480365-009c2hma —SPONSOR: Granola If meetings are eating up your day, Granola is a no-brainer. You can try it totally free - just head to https://granola.ai/LIFERS  —Join Christina for upcoming webinars:9/17 - Top Employers Share What Healthcare Startups Need to Know in 2026 - https://www.secondopinion.media/employers-as-healthcare-purchasers-how-startups-can-break-in/ 9/22 - Where are AI Agents Actually Working in Healthcare, and Why? - https://streamyard.com/watch/42HnpJFgxNT4 9/24 - Healthcare AI Has an ROI Problem - https://www.secondopinion.media/ama-with-aaron-miri/ 10/8 - Why Are Hospitals Hiring Chief AI Officers? - https://streamyard.com/watch/VjvVZiDN8ZMH —LINKS: Dr. John Whyte & Zeke Emanuel on Lifers: https://youtu.be/WTnZ6W7qsLQ Hippocratic AI: https://hippocraticai.com/ "Will Autonomous AI Exceed AI-Aided Physicians as the Best Medical Care?" on JAMA: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2852952 Taking doctors out of the AI loop (on Second Opinion): https://www.secondopinion.media/taking-doctors-out-of-the-ai-loop/ Orca paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.02707  Chrissy Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr Chrissy Farr on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cfarr/ Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books  —FOLLOW:Munjal:https://www.linkedin.com/in/munjalshah747/ https://x.com/munjalshah  Chrissy:https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ https://x.com/chrissyfarr  Second Opinion Media:https://www.instagram.com/second.opinion.media/ https://x.com/second_op_media  —TIMESTAMPS:(00:00) Lead in(00:42) Intro(01:51) AI extinction panic weekend(04:47) Healthcare as AI risk target(06:56) Hippocratic safety system(09:20) Avoiding the AI doctor trap(12:34) Sponsor: Granola(13:33) Liability and taking responsibility(16:08) Building redundancy and clinical team(18:30) Will AI shrink healthcare jobs(20:38) Infinite Pilot ROI examples(26:41) Business traction and growth metrics(31:53) Simple pricing per minute(34:36) Fixing AI PR with specifics(40:06) Wrap

SHOW NOTES Miriam Paramore, Founder and CEO of RxUtility, joins Christina Farr for a conversation that moves from caregiving for aging parents to the hidden economics of American healthcare. Miriam, who has spent over 40 years in health tech and finance, argues that AI won't fix rural health's transportation and staffing gaps, that hospitals should redeploy billing staff into home care roles instead of cutting them, and that pharmacist gag laws keep patients from ever learning a drug's real cash price (in one case, $2.18 versus a $10 copay for the same generic). Miriam also pushes to get women talking openly about money, deal flow, and investing, the same way men already do. Dive into the Granola notes from this episode: —SPONSOR: Granola If meetings are eating up your day, Granola is a no-brainer. You can try it totally free - just head to https://granola.ai/LIFERS  —Join Christina for upcoming webinars:9/17 - Top Employers Share What Healthcare Startups Need to Know in 2026 - https://www.secondopinion.media/employers-as-healthcare-purchasers-how-startups-can-break-in/ 9/22 - Where are AI Agents Actually Working in Healthcare, and Why? - https://streamyard.com/watch/42HnpJFgxNT4 9/24 - Healthcare AI Has an ROI Problem - https://www.secondopinion.media/ama-with-aaron-miri/ 10/8 - Why Are Hospitals Hiring Chief AI Officers? - https://streamyard.com/watch/VjvVZiDN8ZMH —LINKS: RxUtility: http://rxutility.com/ WBL, Women Business Leaders of the US Health Care Industry: https://www.wbl.org/  Chrissy Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr Chrissy Farr on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cfarr/ Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books  —FOLLOW:Miriam:https://www.linkedin.com/in/miriamparamore/ https://x.com/mparamore  Chrissy:https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ https://x.com/chrissyfarr  Second Opinion Media:https://www.instagram.com/second.opinion.media/ https://x.com/second_op_media  —TIMESTAMPS:(00:00) Lead in(00:34) Intro(02:25) Sandwich generation caregiving(03:32) Rural health reality check(07:21) Human care vs AI hype(10:38) Redeploying rev cycle labor(17:37) Value based care skepticism(21:08) Sponsor: Granola(21:54) Cutting admin friction(24:41) Incentives and who loses(28:02) Rise of cash healthcare(30:44) Universal basics and deductibles(32:13) Concierge and telehealth wins(33:26) Opting out with DPC(35:01) Health systems missed UX(35:46) Cash care and HIPAA(37:32) Drug pricing blind spots(39:39) Cash prices and savings(40:41) Who to trust navigating(43:48) Consumerism and AI future(46:01) Women talking money(51:15) Investing in friends(57:25) Mentorship and rejection(58:25) Where to find Miriam(59:03) Wrap  

Christina Farr sits down with Peter Lee, President of Microsoft Science, and Dr. Christopher Longhurst, the new CEO of Seattle Children's, to take stock of where AI in healthcare actually stands versus where the headlines say it is. They get into why ambient scribes still haven't produced a clean financial win, Chris's prediction that within three to five years a physician assistant augmented by AI may practice at the level of the best general pediatrician, and the three Cs he argues will keep humans in the loop: competence, communication, and character. Peter closes on the risk he worries about most, which is people using AI to hide from accountability on consequential decisions. Dive into the Granola notes from this episode: https://notes.granola.ai/t/54b78860-bad6-4057-afa8-0d61fe4750c0-009c2hma —SPONSOR: Granola If meetings are eating up your day, Granola is a no-brainer. You can try it totally free - just head to https://granola.ai/LIFERS  —Join Christina for upcoming webinars:9/17 - Top Employers Share What Healthcare Startups Need to Know in 2026 - https://www.secondopinion.media/employers-as-healthcare-purchasers-how-startups-can-break-in/ 9/22 - Where are AI Agents Actually Working in Healthcare, and Why? - https://streamyard.com/watch/42HnpJFgxNT4 9/24 - Healthcare AI Has an ROI Problem - https://www.secondopinion.media/ama-with-aaron-miri/ —LINKS: Compared with What? Measuring AI against the Health Care We Have: https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMp2404691 Why are humans still in the loop with advancing AI capabilities?: https://bmjdigitalhealth.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000057  Chrissy Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr Chrissy Farr on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cfarr/ Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books  —FOLLOW:Peter:https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterlee4/ https://x.com/peteratmsr  Chris:https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrislonghurst/ https://x.com/CALonghurst  Chrissy:https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ https://x.com/chrissyfarr  Second Opinion Media:https://www.instagram.com/second.opinion.media/ https://x.com/second_op_media —TIMESTAMPS:(00:00) Lead in(00:28) Intro(01:23) A massive moment(04:01) Red pill ER reality(06:12) Mission control and upskilling(07:13) Tech leaders as CEOs(09:27) Ambient scribes and costs(13:43) Hierarchy versus efficiency(15:23) Full stack healthcare workforce(18:09) Sponsor: Granola(18:55) Rethinking training and roles(21:36) Bending the back office curve(23:12) Admin jobs and AI skills(27:50) Self driving cars benchmarking(30:11) AI exceptionalism and agents(32:59) Autonomy in clinical care(36:25) Humans in the loop(39:27) Accountability and responsibility(41:37) Frontier models beat specialists(46:35) Workflow interoperability and wrap(47:53) Wrap