On Vital Signs, Jacob Effron and Nikhil Krishnan dig into cutting-edge trends in healthtech and the people shaping them. Every two weeks they’ll explore a new sub-sector and trend with policy leaders, startup founders and industry executives.
Subscribe now to make sure you don’t miss any of it!
Last refreshed: ⓘ
Follow this podcast in the Metacast mobile app to refresh it and see new episodes.
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more
Elliot Cohen delves into the mission of General Medicine to simplify access to quality healthcare through comprehensive triage and transparent pricing. He reflects on lessons from PillPack's battles with PBMs and the complex integration into Amazon Pharmacy, highlighting the unexpected hurdles of HIPAA compliance. The discussion also covers the transformative, yet augmenting, role of AI in clinical workflows and the challenges facing digital therapeutics, emphasizing the need for a healthcare system that deeply trusts and empowers consumers.
Flashback episode in honor of Hinge Health's IPO this week. In the episode, Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Daniel Perez, the Co-Founder and CEO of Hinge Health, a digital clinic for patients with joint and muscle pain. They discuss Hinge Health’s strategy for selling to employers, how digital health solutions can reach and retain users, the role of software x hardware in disrupting healthcare, and more. (0:00) Intro (2:34) The Evolution of Employer Health Solutions (4:03) Challenges and Strategi...
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Otto Sipe. Otto is the CEO and Co-Founder of Photon Health, which enables patients to select their own pharmacies with price and inventory transparency. The company has raised over $16 million from investors including Flare Capital Partners and Notation Capital. They discuss where pharmacies and PBMs are headed, the evolution of E-Prescribing, the impact of GLP-1s & AI, and more. (0:00) Intro (0:51) History and Evolution of E-Prescribing (3:02) Challenges in Cu...
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Dr. Rushika Fernandopulle. Rushika is the former CEO and Co-Founder of Iora Health, a primary care provider centered around value-based care and Medicare that One Medical acquired for $2.1 billion. They discuss why we’re still in the second inning of value-based care, intersections of tech and healthcare, what it takes for VBC to succeed, and more. [0:00] Intro [0:29] Early Days of Value-Based Care [2:34] Challenges in Commercial Value-Based Care [5:20] Adapting Ca...
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Frank Wu, the Co-Founder and CEO of Taro Health. Taro Health is a health insurance plan currently live in Maine and Oklahoma that offers unlimited primary care and mental health visits. The company has raised over $18m from investors like Hummingbird Ventures, Quiet Capital, and FPV Ventures. They discuss creating value in InsurTech, building a health plan for Direct Primary Care providers, what’s next for health insurance, and more. [0:00] Intro [0:18] Frank’s Bac...
Jacob sits down with Erik Wexler, the President and CEO of Providence. Providence is a non-profit, faith-based health system with 51 hospitals and 1,000 clinics across seven states. They discuss how to think about new AI opportunities with discipline, the value of health system partnerships, programs to support health equity, and more. [0:00] Intro [2:07] Challenges and Opportunities with AI [3:38] Leadership and Organizational Focus [5:30] Whole Person Care and Health Equity [7:23] Financial Ch...
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Daniel Perez, the Co-Founder and CEO of Hinge Health. Hinge Health is a digital clinic for patients with joint and muscle pain, having raised $800M+ from investors like Coatue and Tiger Global. They discuss Hinge Health’s strategy for selling to employers, how digital health solutions can reach and retain users, the role of software x hardware in disrupting healthcare, and more. [0:00] Intro [2:34] The Evolution of Employer Health Solutions [4:03] Challenges and St...
Jacob sits down with Hemant Taneja, the CEO & Managing Director of General Catalyst. GC is one of the world’s largest venture capital firms, most recently raising an $8B fund in 2024. The firm has invested in companies like Livongo, Cityblock Health, and Hippocratic AI. They discuss the possibility of a $100B healthcare company, how buying a health system can accelerate partnerships, what will succeed in AI, and more. [0:00] Intro [0:54] Hemant’s Healthcare Journey [2:25] A Vision for 2030 [...
Jacob sits down with Stef van Grieken, Co-Founder & CEO of Cradle. Cradle has raised over $100M from investors like IVP and Index Ventures to build and expand their AI-enabled protein engineering platform. They discuss how Cradle plans to use their new Series B funding, what’s been happening in AI bio, the technical underpinnings of Cradle’s platform, and more. [0:00] Intro [0:22] Cradle Bio's Rapid Growth and AI Innovations [0:53] The State of AI in Drug Development [1:15] Challenges and Op...
Jacob sits down with Dr. Angela Fitch, the Founder and CMO of knownwell. knownwell has raised $25 million from investors like a16z and Flare Capital Partners to provide weight-inclusive primary care and metabolic health care. They discuss the future of obesity care, where we are with GLP-1s, the need to expand coverage, and more. [0:00] Intro [1:06] Current State of Obesity Medicine [2:47] The knownwell Approach [6:06] Challenges in Obesity Treatment [7:23] The Future of Obesity Medication [12:4...
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Parth Mehrotra, CEO of Privia Health. Privia is a physician enablement platform partnering with 4500+ providers towards practice improvement and value-based care. They discuss the most important ways to manage risk, building effective physician enablement solutions, the future of value-based care programs & contracts, and more. [0:00] Intro [0:55] Privia's Business Model and Footprint [3:26] Physician Choices and Privia's Role [6:06] Evolution of Value-Based Ca...
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Bryony Winn, President at Carelon Health. Carelon is the diversified services business within Elevance Health (formerly Anthem), serving 1 in 3 Americans through advanced primary care, behavioral health, specialty enablement, and whole health solutions. They discuss what payers are thinking about, making value-based care work, creating effective provider partnerships, and more. [0:00] Introduction to Vital Signs Podcast [0:41] Understanding Elevance Health and Care...
Jacob sits down with Kristina Saffran, the Co-Founder and CEO of Equip. Equip delivers at-home, virtual eating disorder treatment for both adolescents and adults. They discuss Kristina’s journey to founding Equip, getting payors on board, evidence-based treatments for eating disorders, and more. [0:00] Intro [1:06] Kristina's Personal Journey [3:27] Founding Project Heal [4:07] Challenges in Eating Disorder Treatments [5:15] The Role of Evidence-Based Treatments [6:40] Transition to Venture-Back...
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Savvy CEO Suril Kantaria to discuss the future of the ICHRA market and what he would do differently if he was starting Savvy today. [00:00] intro [00:35] ICHRA [06:20] is this better for employees? [15:20] is ICHRA policy doomed to fail? [19:10] venture’s role in healthcare [24:00] early founders building in “stealth” [29:00] making the decision to “stop” as a founder Out-Of-Pocket: https://www.outofpocket.health/...
Jacob sits down with Amir Dan Rubin, the CEO and Founding Managing Partner at Healthier Capital. Amir previously served as the CEO of One Medical and Stanford Health Care, as well as an EVP at United/Optum. They discuss payer-provider integrations, lessons learned from leading One Medical, applications of generative AI, and more. (0:00) intro (0:44) when does venture capital make sense in the healthcare world? (3:04) the future of health systems as we move towards value-based care (5:14) dealing...
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Dr. Vivek Garg, the Chief Medical Officer & SVP, Primary Care at Humana; Chief Medical Officer at both CenterWell and Conviva; and a former clinical leader at CareMore, Oscar, and One Medical. They discuss Vivek’s insights around primary care, value-based care, and more. (0:00) intro (0:52) how different care models compare (7:28) best areas to outsource (11:15) where are we in the adoption of value-based care? (14:40) how do we get hospitals on board with valu...
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Virgílio (“V”) Bento, Founder and CEO of Sword Health, the $3 billion company focused on improving pain management. They discuss Sword’s new AI care model, the evolution and key decisions behind Sword’s success, customer acquisition, and more. (0:00) intro (1:15) Sword’s journey (9:13) advice on selling to employers (16:45) getting employees to use the product (18:41) building Phoenix, an AI care model (22:50) limitations of Phoenix (31:17) Sword’s org structure (3...
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Dr. Atul Butte, a professor at UCSF, Chief Data Scientist of the UC Health System, and a co-founder of numerous healthcare startups. They discuss Dr. Butte’s takes on healthcare AI opportunities, challenges, hype, and more. (0:00) intro (0:31) AI hype through the years (5:44) when LLMs don’t work (8:42) when LLMs surpass humans (11:07) AI adoption timeline (13:22) converting skeptical doctors (20:30) commercialization in AI (24:15) how will AI change med school? (3...
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Dr. David Shulkin, the former Secretary of Veterans Affairs who has also held roles as CMO of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, CEO of Beth Israel Medical Center, and Vice Dean of the Drexel University College of Medicine. They discuss David’s experiences innovating within the VA, meeting the health needs of a population, and more. (0:00) intro (0:34) footprint of the VA today (2:38) privatization debate (5:36) solving access to healthcare for veterans ...
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve, Co-Founder and CEO of Alan. Alan is a multi-billion dollar French health insurance company that has expanded to become an all-in-one health platform for its consumers. They discuss Alan’s product strategy and business model, building AI for healthcare companies, what healthcare looks like in Europe, and more. (0:00) intro (0:47) French healthcare 101 (6:30) similarities with Oscar (9:50) building a healthcare super-app (15:11) medical ...
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Malay Gandhi, Head of Strategy & Corporate Development at Benchling. Malay previously served as CEO of Rock Health and SVP of Business Operations at Evidation Health, and his seminal pieces helped shape early digital health thinking. They discuss some of Malay’s early pieces, the future of life sciences & real-world evidence, building & scaling software at Benchling, and more. (0:00) intro (0:58) how Malay feels about his old essays (8:00) the Benchling...
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Will Stokes, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer of Strive Health, a pioneer in value-based care that partners with payers and providers to care for patients with chronic kidney disease. They discuss the nuances of risk-based contracting, value-based models for specialists, selling to both payers and providers, and more. (0:00) intro (0:39) when do risk-based models make sense (8:50) surprises when building Strive (13:53) negotiating risk-based contracts (21:08) pr...
Jacob sits down with Dr. Amy Abernethy, whose health tech career spans from clinician and researcher to CMO at Flatiron Health to Principal Deputy Commissioner and Chief Innovation Officer at the FDA to CMO and President of Product Development at Verily to co-founder of her own non-profit to accelerate evidence generation. They discuss the current and future states of real-world evidence, how clinical research can improve, the adoption of GenAI in healthcare, Verily’s growth story, her new ventu...
Oscar Health is a $4B public healthcare company, providing healthcare insurance to nearly 1 million members. Oscar is at the forefront of AI adoption, continuously developing new AI use cases in healthcare. On this week’s episode, we sat down with Oscar Health Co-Founder, former CEO, and now President of Technology Mario Schlosser to talk about where AI will have the biggest impact in healthcare, limitations of GPT-4 in healthcare, and why can't we have robot doctors today. (0:00) intro (1:06) h...
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Sarah London, CEO of Centene Corporation, the largest managed Medicaid organization in the country, serving 15 million Medicaid members. They discuss Medicaid partnerships and redeterminations, SDoH innovation and outcomes, and payers vertically expanding their ownership. (0:00) intro (0:39) Centene’s footprint today (1:37) working with startups (6:24) Centene’s priorities (12:23) how state RFPs have changed over time (15:04) differences between states (18:40) Medi...
Jacob sits down with Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel again to discuss the future of health policy and care delivery, hyped innovations in healthcare, market trends among payers and providers, and more. (0:00) intro (0:57) generative AI (4:08) the ethics of NOT using AI (7:04) ML-based risk adjustment (11:46) why didn’t hospitals become payers? (19:37) what does the future of hospitals look like? (26:15) can insurance cover mental health treatment for everybody? (29:45) GLP-1s (35:02) the future of healthcar...
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Toyin Ajayi, Co-Founder and CEO of Cityblock Health, an SDoH-focused provider of primary care, behavioral health, and chronic disease management for Medicaid and dual eligible patients. They discuss innovating in Medicaid, engaging patients with digital solutions, building sustainable companies, and more. (0:00) intro (0:50) the state of Medicaid innovation today (2:33) Toyin’s time at Commonwealth (7:33) incubators in the current climate (11:02) biggest risks star...
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Marta Bralic Kerns, Founder and CEO of Pomelo Care, a multispecialty virtual medical practice that cares for mothers and babies from preconception to one year postpartum. They discuss payer contracting and Medicaid, career advice for those joining startups, why maternity care is such a pressing issue in the US, and more. (0:00) intro (0:47) maternity outcomes in the U.S. (5:39) clinician supply issue (6:56) how Pomelo Care works (12:20) how patients find Pomelo (15...
Jacob and Nikhil speak with Farzad Mostashari, Founder and CEO of Aledade, which supports independent primary care practices to succeed in value-based care. Farzad talks about the current evidence of success in VBC, why VBC is still underhyped, barriers for Medicaid models, and more. (0:00) intro (0:40) why we don’t see more doctors starting their own practices (8:32) what actually works in value-based care? (11:48) what does Aledade do? (23:18) how competitive has it become to acquire new pract...
Jacob and Nikhil speak with Heather Fernandez, CEO and Co-Founder of Solv, a company that focuses on getting people access to high-quality, last-minute care. Heather discusses the future of urgent care, operating a digital health company during Covid, crafting a strong go-to-market strategy, the role of private equity in urgent care, and more. (0:00) intro (3:07) what is Solv? (10:50) why is scheduling so bad in healthcare? (16:03) is urgent care a net good? (20:35) areas where urgent care can i...
