Outcomes Rocket

Better musculoskeletal care starts with a better patient experience.

In this episode, Dr. Mary O’Connor, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Vori Health, discusses building a physician-led virtual MSK practice that delivers more appropriate, patient-centered, and cost-effective care. She traces her path from orthopedic surgeon and health system leader to startup co-founder and explains how early MRIs can trigger a cascade of inappropriate care when the findings have nothing to do with a patient’s symptoms. Dr. O’Connor describes how Vori’s integrated visit brings the physician and physical therapist together for a single evaluation, and how health coaches support sleep, nutrition, and mental health. She also shares the thinking behind her book, Taking Care of You, and is candid about why the current payment model makes it hard for health systems to reduce inappropriate surgery. For self-insured employers, she outlines an ecosystem of imaging, surgeon, and virtual nonsurgical care partners that improves quality while controlling costs.

Tune in to hear why patient experience is central to engagement, outcomes, and cost! 

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Nursing isn’t short on nurses. It’s short on engagement.

In this episode, Curtis Anderson, Founder and CEO of Nursa, discusses how the company is working to ensure that a nurse is at the bedside of every patient in need. He shares how buying a nurse staffing agency in 2017 led him to replace manual, whiteboard-and-sticky-note matchmaking with technology that connects facilities and clinicians directly. Curtis explains how Nursa operates as a two-sided marketplace, matching like-for-like while maximizing earnings for clinicians and delivering reliable, lower-cost staffing for facilities. He also challenges the narrative of a nursing shortage, explaining why he sees it as an engagement and participation problem, and how giving clinicians choice and flexibility can keep more licensed nurses working.

Tune in to learn how rethinking engagement can help close the staffing gap and build a more hopeful future for nursing!

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The next wave of healthcare AI may do its best work as a companion rather than a replacement.

In this episode, Terry Miller, Vice President of Machine Learning and AI at Omada Health, talks about edge healthcare and the convergence of wearables, biometrics, mobile diagnostics, robotics, and AI that moves care closer to where people live. Terry explains how a longitudinal view of health helps organizations intervene before someone reaches their sickest point. He describes why patients now expect care that adapts to them. He also makes the case for AI that grows from static recommendations into an agentic companion, one that keeps people engaged and coordinates care while supporting the caregivers around them.

Tune in to learn how edge healthcare and AI companionship can make care more proactive and more human!

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Mental health support is most effective when people can reach it before their hardest moments.

In this episode, Jana French, Public Sector Partnerships Director at Crisis Text Line, talks about how text-based support can make crisis care more accessible. She explains that people can text 741741 or 988 for more than suicidal thoughts, including anxiety, grief, relationship challenges, and other difficult moments. Jana also shares how Crisis Text Line brings together trained volunteers, clinical supervision, and technology to support people across the country, while giving volunteers valuable communication skills. She discusses the role AI can play in triage and in spotting broader trends, while emphasizing that human connection remains at the heart of crisis support.

Tune in to learn how low-barrier, human-centered crisis support can help people get care when they need it most.

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Organ preservation still runs on a plastic bag, wet ice, and a picnic cooler.

In this episode, Dr. Xiaoxi Wei, Founder and CEO of X-Therma, discusses extending the lifespan of organs, cells, and other living medicines. Her grandfather's death set the work in motion. She explains why the method used to carry a donated organ has barely changed in 50 years, and why a four-hour window decides which patients get matched. X-Therma's answer is a peptoid-based material modeled on nature's antifreeze proteins, designed to hold tissue at sub-zero temperatures without freezing damage. Wei also walks through the changes that occur when preservation stretches from hours to days, including broader donor matching, more room for cell and tissue therapies, and a path away from DMSO.

Tune in to hear how a new class of preservation materials could turn more donated organs into transplants!

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Healthcare has no shortage of technology, but too many disconnected tools can create more work for clinicians, patients, and administrators.

In this episode, Amit Kumthekar, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Sully, talks about building AI that expands healthcare’s human capacity. Amit traces his path into healthcare innovation through his experience with a chronic condition and his early work in diabetes research. He explains how Sully brings clinical documentation, billing, patient engagement, inbound and outbound calls, and front-office workflows into one system to reduce friction across the care journey. They also discuss how to design voice AI that feels natural and empathetic, why agentic AI needs a strong technical foundation to deliver real-world value, and how consolidating fragmented tools frees organizations to put more resources into patient care.

Tune in to learn how connected AI can make healthcare more efficient, accessible, and patient-centered!

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Finding the right behavioral health provider can be surprisingly difficult, even with hundreds of thousands of practitioners across the country.

In this episode, Jaffer Traish, Chief Operating Officer at findhelp, talks about the challenges of making behavioral health services easier to find and navigate. He explains why social care and behavioral health need to be integrated into a single workflow and how fragmented, outdated provider directories can create unnecessary barriers to care. Jaffer also discusses the problem of “ghost networks,” where provider listings may no longer reflect who is actually available, and why greater transparency, accuracy, and accountability are needed. Finally, he shares how better matching, closed-loop referrals, and more integrated search tools could help connect people with the care and support they need.

Tune in to hear how findhelp is working to build a more connected and transparent approach to behavioral health access!

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Managers are often the first people to notice when something is off with an employee. But do they have the tools to know what to do next?

In this episode, Brad Swingruber, CEO at meQuilibrium (meQ), talks about how managers can play a bigger role in connecting employees with mental health support. He explains why giving managers another training course or dashboard isn't enough, and why support needs to be simple, practical, and available where managers already work. Brad also shares examples of how meQ has helped organizations make these resources easier to use, including work with Citizens Bank that led to higher engagement and lower burnout. He discusses what organizations should measure, why psychological safety is an important place to start, and how understanding the needs of different groups within the workforce can shape a more effective approach.

Tune in to hear Brad's take on what managers actually need to support their teams!

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Healthcare interoperability fails if the data moving through the system isn't accurate.

In this episode, Saul Marquez, Founder and CEO at Outcomes Rocket, speaks with Martin Cody, Senior Vice President of Sales and Growth at 4medica, about the overlooked but critical issue of patient identity accuracy. Martin explains how duplicate, incomplete, and mismatched records lead to costly downstream denials and shares how 4medica combines technology, data, and human expertise to clean and maintain patient data at scale. Because the company understands the cascading effects of bad data, it brings a proactive approach to fixing identity issues upstream, especially during hospital mergers and acquisitions. Martin is also candid about the clinical risks of patient record overlays and why strong human relationships still matter in a rapidly changing healthcare industry.

Tune in to hear what it takes to make clean patient data the foundation of safer care and true interoperability!

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Providers won't adopt technology that adds steps to their day.

In this episode, Hanna Mundy, Vice President of Strategic Operations at iScribeHealth, discusses building ambient AI that fits how providers already work. She traces her path from an orthopedic and sports medicine provider to a healthcare technology leader, and explains how iScribeHealth pairs ambient documentation with deep EHR integrations to reduce the documentation and billing load providers carry. Because the company came up working with human scribes, it brings a working knowledge of clinical workflow, note quality, and the customization that high-volume specialty practices need. Hannah is also candid about provider resistance to change, and why iScribeHealth treats that resistance as a design constraint.

Tune in to hear what it takes for documentation technology to earn a provider's trust!

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