The Pulse by Wharton Digital Health

This episode’s guest is Frank Cheung, CEO and Co-Founder of Cerebrae, a startup that aims to accelerate the adoption of value-based care by helping providers and payers measure, forecast, and validate the financial ROI of emerging approaches to patient care. Through this work, they aim to radically simplify the process of commercializing value-based care delivery. They are backed by several investors, including StepStone, Fika, Susa, TenOneTen, AME Cloud Ventures, Knollwood, Route 66, and SaaS Venture Capital.

In this episode, we sat down with Jia Jia Ye, CEO & Co-Founder of Springtide Child Development, a company that provides integrative, evidence-based, and family-centered care for children with autism spectrum disorder, or ASD. With four clinics open across Massachusetts and Connecticut, and a fifth coming soon, Springtide’s rapid growth is enabling families to better plan for the future, providers to focus on patient care in a coordinated environment, and payors to see what value-based behavioral care for ASD looks like. We discussed: 1) How Jia Jia developed a passion for working in healthcare and how the industry’s mission-orientation and the complexity of its problems have kept her engaged over time, 2) The elements of Springtide’s clinical model that differentiate it from how care for ASD typically looks, 3) The superior clinical outcomes and expanded access to care that Springtide is demonstrating as a result of its intentionally-designed care model, 4) What the future of Springtide holds and why the company is focused on closing the gap between behavioral and medical care, and 5) Jia Jia’s leadership style, why it works for her, and what she enjoys most about being the CEO of high-growth company.

In this episode, we sat down with Andrew Hines, Founder & CEO of Canvas Medical. Andrew and his team at Canvas Medical build software and APIs to power collaboration between caregivers and developers. Canvas Medical raised $17M in Series A funding in April, 2021. We discussed: Canvas Medical’s vision of building a software platform that connects electronic medical records (EMR) with clinician input that allows software developers to collaborate closely with practitioners and adapt workflows to accommodate evolving care models. The potential for Canvas Medical to facilitate idea exchange between ambulatory clinics and accelerate clinical research development by breaking down data silos. The importance for digital health startups to identify the user and the purchaser, and be critically honest about who would pay for the product or service.

In this episode, we connected with Yury Yakubchyk, the founder and CEO of Elemy. Elemy is an industry leading tech enabled provider of high quality pediatric behavioral care. Inspired by his own personal journey in overcoming childhood ADHD, Yury co-founded Elemy to repair the flawed model of care for childhood behavioral conditions such as autism. Under Yury's leadership, Elemy has grown from 109 employees at the time of the company's seed round to more than 1,000 employees at present. Elemy raised $219M in their Series B funding round, catapulting the startup to unicorn status with a total valuation of $1.15B. Elemy's investors include prominent names such as SoftBank, Chelsea Clinton, and Ashton Kutcher. We discussed: Inspired by the hustle of the informal economy of Queens, Yury co-founded two startups prior to Elemy. The common thread across all of his companies is solving a complex problem in an industry where consumers face many pain points. Elemy’s focus on caring for high acuity pediatric populations through a hybrid model of care run on an integrated software platform that coordinates caregivers physically visiting patients at home. The importance of destigmatizing mental health to accelerate the expansion of pediatric behavioral health services to more patients in need.

Our guest on this episode is Holly Maloney, a Managing Director at the venture capital firm General Catalyst, where she has a focus on healthcare specifically. She has invested across the digital health space, with companies including Cityblock, Olive, SonderMind, Transcarent, and, most recently, Ribbon Health.

Our guest on this episode is Dr. Ashwini Zenooz (“Ash”), CEO of Commure, a platform that enables health systems, digital health companies, and 3rd party developers to more quickly build interoperable data-driven products for healthcare. Their goal is to facilitate new clinical and operational workflows that leverage a health system’s data infrastructure to improve the patient experience, perform better in value-based arrangements, and expand access to care. Commure recently closed a $500 million fundraise across two rounds led by Human Capital and Greenoaks Capital, and received its initial backing from General Catalyst.

In this episode, we sat down with April Koh, the CEO and founder of Spring Health, a comprehensive mental health benefit for employers. April is currently the youngest female to run a unicorn company. We discussed: Spring Health’s focus on providing precision mental healthcare through its proprietary predictive algorithms and science-backed methodology of collecting patient self-reported data The critical role data plays in improving the accuracy of Spring Health’s predictive algorithms, continuously upgrading customized member experiences, and helping clinicians enhance the efficacy of their care Upcoming plans to explore value-based payment models and investments for international expansion, family care offerings, and harmonizing workplace performance with employee work / life balance The challenges and opportunities of starting a company as a young woman of color, and how April’s entrepreneurial journey led her to be the youngest female running a unicorn company

In this episode, we interview Chris Severn, the Co-Founder and CEO of Turquoise Health, a company working to bring real price transparency to healthcare. With recent and upcoming waves in pricing legislation, combined with its fundraise led by a16z earlier this year, Turquoise is tackling the transparency problem from several angles by creating new tools for patients, payers, and providers.

In this episode, we sat down with Karan Singh, Co-Founder & COO of Ginger, now Headspace Health, through a merger with Headspace that was announced in August, 2021. Headspace Health is the world’s leading provider of mental health and wellbeing solutions. We discussed: Ginger’s mission to address mental healthcare gaps by creating a comprehensive digital on-demand solution offering full stack mental health services at an affordable rate Potential reforms to make mental healthcare more accessible through reimbursement parity and interstate licensing The strategic rationale behind merging Ginger and Headspace into Headspace Health and what this means for users

In this episode, we interview Fay Rotenberg, CEO of Firefly Health. We chat about her experience joining Firefly Health in 2017, discussing how what started as a virtual-first primary care offering has developed into a solution that will help consumers get, find, and pay for care. Firefly Health is trying to deliver concierge medicine at scale. They began with a virtual-first primary care offering that used an innovative leveraged care team approach to care for and build trust with their patient population, which is primarily chronically ill, commercially-insured individuals. As they grew, they added in a virtual specialty network and a set of “last mile care delivery” partners to extend their network of physicians to cover more of the care their patient’s needed. Now, after a $40M Series B raise in April of this year, led by andreessen horowitz, they are launching their own health insurance product, targeting smaller/ mid-market employers and allowing them to pool risk to share in the savings achieved by the Firefly model.

In this episode, we interview the GoodRx co-founder and CEO, Doug Hirsch. We chat about his experience founding GoodRx, covering topics ranging from a time when his father literally knocked on pharmacy doors in NYC to get drug prices to their recent public offering. GoodRx seeks to expand access and affordability for prescription drugs. To do this, they process ~200 billion daily cash-pay price points for generic drugs from pharmacies, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and retailers to then help a consumer choose the right way for them to get access to the medication they need. As they’ve continued to grow, they’re also sought new ways to extend their impact, including through a telehealth offering to actually write prescriptions as well as products surrounding branded drugs.

In this episode, we connected with Josh Hix, Co-Founder and CEO of Season Health. Season Health is a platform that connects members with healthy meal ideas and grocery options to help members and providers manage chronic conditions. Prior to starting Season Health, Josh co-founded the meal prep delivery service Plated, which led to an appearance on SharkTank. Season Health recently raised $34M in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. LRV Ventures, Company Ventures, Cityblock CEO Toyin Ajayi and other angel investors also participated in the round. Prior to this, Season Health raised $11M in seed funding. We discussed: Leveraging Josh’s prior experience co-founding Plated to realize a vision of creating a consumer-grade software platform that connects food and medicine. Season Health’s mission to make nutritious food more accessible by shaping the increasingly digital food environment and partnering with payers to make food more affordable to improve health outcomes for patients with chronic diseases. Partnering with healthcare industry leaders Geisinger, CommonSpirit, and Cricket Health to scale Season Health’s offering and enrich scientific research linking nutrition with better chronic disease management.

In this episode, we interview Saeju Jeong, the Co-Founder and CEO of Noom. Founded in 2008, the company’s mission is to help people everywhere lead healthier lives through behavior change. Although today they are best known for their weight loss app, the company is making a push to extend its behavior change platform further into chronic care, supported by their recent $540 million Series F growth round led by Silver Lake.

In this episode, we chatted with Vijay Patel, Co-Founder and Partner at CVS Health Ventures, a $100M fund dedicated to investing and partnering with high-potential health technology startups aimed at building towards CVS’ vision of creating more consumer-centric care. We discussed: The establishment of CVS Health Ventures as a fund dedicated to digital health opportunities, creating the potential for longer-term strategic actions and extended time horizons for realizing investment payoff The mandate of CVS Health Ventures to not only invest in but also partner with high-potential, early-stage digital health companies to forward CVS Health’s strategic goals of making health care more affordable and accessible for consumers Leaning into CVS Health’s role as a trusted health care provider in communities by continuing to partner with local and national organizations to expand health care access Investing in behavioral health, diagnostics, and virtual care delivery assets and capabilities - trends accelerated by COVID-19 and likely to persist

In this episode, we sat down with Clara Burtenshaw, Partner and Investor at Neo Kuma Ventures. We discussed: -The evolution of the psychedelics industry from a stigmatized counterculture phenomenon to a scientifically robust industry with support from the FDA for fast-tracking drug development -The clinical potential of psychedelics to treat illnesses ranging from mental illness to pain management and other nervous system disorders -Neo Kuma's focus on investing in early stage companies backed by sound science and building a strong founder network -Predictions that psychedelics as medication is here to stay, and the growing commercialization opportunities in the space

Julian Harris, M.D., is a Partner on the Healthcare Services team at Deerfield and Chairman & CEO at ConcertoCare. Launched in 1994, Deerfield Management Company is an investment firm dedicated to advancing healthcare through information, investment and philanthropy — all toward the end goal of cures for disease, improved quality of life and reduced cost of care. ConcertoCare was formed recently by a combination of the assets of ConcertoHealth and Perfect Health. ConcertoCare is one of the nation’s leading risk-based health care companies focused on providing integrated care for seniors where they are best served: in their homes. Before Deerfield, Dr. Harris was the founding President of CareAllies, Cigna’s family of multi-payer provider services and home-based care businesses. Previously, he led US Strategic Operations for Cigna and managed a $500M internal investment portfolio focused on technology and innovation. Dr. Harris was also an Adviser to Google Ventures (GV) focused on tech-enabled health care services. Before GV, he led the health care team in the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). As the federal government’s chief health care finance official, he oversaw a $1 trillion budget and provided management and policy oversight for a range of programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, FDA, NIH and CDC. He also served as the chief executive of the $11 billion Massachusetts Medicaid program. Dr. Harris trained in internal medicine and primary care at Harvard Medical School’s Brigham & Women’s Hospital and practiced as a hospitalist at Cambridge Health Alliance and as a clinical consultant for BestDoctors. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Health Policy & Medical Ethics from Duke University and holds an M.Sc. from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He is also a graduate of The Wharton School of Business and the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine, where he currently serves as an Adjunct Professor. Dr. Harris is a trustee of the New York Academy of Medicine and a member of the advisory boards for the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics at Penn and the NYU Department of Population Health.

In this episode, we interviewed Michelle Davey, the Co-Founder and CEO of Wheel. Wheel is working behind the scenes to build many of the telemedicine services you’re familiar with. Its online platform matches doctors with patients and also enables any company to stand up a virtual care practice. Wheel makes it simple for companies to build virtual care services under their brand by pairing technology with a nationwide clinician network. Wheel also provides clinicians with the best place to work in virtual care. By helping more companies and clinicians get started in virtual care, Wheel is helping patients get connected to the best care for their health needs. Today, Wheel works with companies of all sizes including publicly-traded digital health innovators, big tech companies, laboratories, retailers, and pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Wheel has raised $66 million from Lightspeed Ventures, CRV, Silverton Partners, Tusk Venture Partners, J.P. Morgan, and Future Shape. Growing up in a rural area with limited medical resources, Michelle became focused on improving patient access to care. Her career took on a journey through healthcare, tech, marketplaces and virtual care. After recognizing the need for a new workforce configuration in healthcare, she co-founded Wheel with Griffin Mulcahey in January of 2018, after working together in the telehealth industry and realizing no one was looking out for those at the center of the healthcare engine: the clinicians on the front lines. Wheel became the industry’s first model for delivering high-quality virtual care at scale by empowering clinicians and providing new efficiencies for healthcare companies. Michelle is a thought leader focused on the urgent need for reinventing healthcare delivery models, clinician empowerment, and the future of work in healthcare.

In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, we interview Connor Hailey, CEO and Co-Founder of Axle Health, a software platform that enables any company to add in-home visits to their patient offering. We cover Connor’s penchant for startups and entrepreneurship, Axle Health’s founding story and early product journey and how they have scaled to thousands of in-home visits in just one year of launch. Founded in 2020, Axle Health eliminates the complexity of delivering in-home care by offering a simple API that dispatches in-home professionals to provide clinical service offerings. Axle Health recently announced their seed fundraise led by Pear VC, joined by a talented group of investors including Wisdom Partners, Rebel Fund, Pioneer Fund, Soma Capital, and Company Ventures and YCombinator. Along with institutional investors, the seed fundraise also includes angels including the founders of Eden Health, CareRev, and Quit Genius, and Nikhil Krishnan of Out of Pocket and former executives at One Medical. This funding will expand service offerings to meet more customer needs and attract top talent to Axle Health.

In this episode, we sat down with Sangu Delle, the Chairman and CEO of Africa Health Holdings. Africa Health Holdings is focused on building a sustainable healthcare ecosystem in Africa through its network of healthcare facilities that it owns and manages. To date, Africa Health Holdings portfolio companies have served over 510,000 patients through malaria treatment, family planning, community outreach programs, and more. Africa Health Holdings currently has 40 facilities across Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana serving 200,000 patients every year. What we discussed: From a young age, Sangu Delle developed a pan-African consciousness and the desire to create sustainable and positive change in Africa in part from early exposure to African refugees through his doctor and human rights activist father. Given the disproportionate disease burden the African continent faces and the brain drain of Africa-born healthcare workers practicing outside of Africa, Africa faces large gaps in healthcare. The private sector must supplement fiscally-constrained African governments to improve healthcare access, quality, and affordability. Africa presents an attractive investment opportunity given secular population growth in the region outpacing every other country in the world. Investments in Africa have picked up traction recently through major funding for African startups such as FlutterWave, and the acquisition of Nigeria-based payments startup Paystack by Stripe.

In this episode, we interview Vik Bakhru, MD, former COO and CFO of ConsejoSano and the founding CMO of Circulo Health. We discuss some of the challenges that ConsejoSano faced as they strove to build consumer trust in the medical system amidst the global pandemic and what’s in store for Circulo Health, the nation’s newest managed Medicaid plan. Founded in 2014, ConsejoSano provides patient engagement tools to payers and providers to help them better connect with their multicultural Medicaid/ Medicare patient populations. Vik seeks to bring his learnings from ConsejoSano to Circulo Health where, along with their partner Olive, they hope to create a differentiated experience for Medicaid beneficiaries. Circulo Health raised their Series A in early 2021, led by Drive Capital and General Catalyst with participation from Oak HC/FT and SVB Capital.