In this Apollo House 2026 fireside chat, StartUp Health community member Sami Inkinen, CEO & Founder of Virta Health, shares how a personal diagnosis of pre-diabetes led him to build one of the fastest-growing companies in metabolic health.

Virta Health is proving that Type 2 diabetes and obesity can be reversed with nutrition, supported by technology and AI. Inkinen discusses how Virta has built one of the largest longitudinal biomarker datasets in metabolic disease reversal and is deploying AI agents, supervised by clinicians, to support patients every day.

He offers blunt insight into the current standard of care, explains why he believes disease reversal must become the common-sense approach, and shares how Virta became AI-native across every function, from hiring to board strategy.

This episode covers:

• The future of AI in healthcare operations and patient care

As a live recording, the audio reflects the energy of the room rather than a studio setting.

Do you want to participate in live conversations with industry luminaries? When you join StartUp Health – a private community for founders, investors, buyers, and industry leaders to connect year-round – you are invited to a full calendar of interactive Fireside Chats with the most influential leaders shaping health innovation. Come with questions, learn what is working right now, and connect with industry icons.

Recorded live at Apollo House 2026, this fireside chat captures a candid, in-the-room conversation between StartUp Health’s Unity Stoakes and entrepreneur, investor, and technologist Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures on AI’s accelerating impact on healthcare.

Khosla explains why he believes AI is a platform shift larger than the internet or mobile, and how that shift could unlock access to high-quality care for billions. The conversation explores his “AI intern” model for healthcare, why copilots often underperform in complex clinical work, and why trust, supervision, and fit-for-purpose guardrails are essential. A live exchange with Esther Dyson adds perspective on empathy, communication, and the enduring human dimensions of care.

As a live recording, the audio reflects the energy of the room rather than a studio setting.

Do you want to participate in live conversations with industry luminaries? When you join the StartUp Health Network – a new private community for investors, buyers, and industry leaders to connect year-round with top health entrepreneurs – you are invited to a full calendar of interactive Fireside Chats with the most influential leaders shaping health innovation. Come with questions, learn what is working right now, and connect with industry icons.

Want more content like this? Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.

In this Health Moonshot Update, StartUp Health community member Christopher Jue of CAREgivers Insight joins Unity Stoakes to share how empowering caregivers can prevent crises and save the system money. Christopher draws on his own family experience and fresh pilot data to explain why caregivers should be treated as essential members of the care team.

In this episode, they talk about:

What four preventable hospitalizations taught him about the cost of underused caregiver insight

How Caregiver Views turns everyday observations into clear, shareable trend lines

Why pilots with Cancer Services of Midland achieved an 85% recommendation rate

The strategic shift from a B2C mindset to payer and Medicare Advantage partners

An AI roadmap that starts with summaries and moves toward real coaching for untrained caregivers

How the Caregiving Health Moonshot is becoming a doorway into every Health Moonshot at StartUp Health

This is a must listen for anyone building in value-based care, supporting an aging population, or caring for a loved one at home.

Are you ready to tell YOUR story? Members of our Health Moonshot Communities are leading startups with breakthrough technology-driven solutions for the world’s biggest health challenges. Exposure in StartUp Health Media to our global audience of investors and partners – including our podcast, newsletters, magazine, and YouTube channel – is a benefit of our Health Moonshot PRO Membership. To schedule a call and see if you qualify to join and increase brand awareness through our multi-media storytelling efforts, submit our three-minute application. If you’re mission-driven, collaborative, and ready to contribute as much as you gain, you might be the perfect fit.

Want more content like this? Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.

Recorded live at StartUp Health’s Apollo House during JPM Healthcare Week, this panel brings together leaders operating at the intersection of healthcare delivery, diagnostics, cloud infrastructure, and AI. Moderated by Angela Shippy, MD, of Amazon Web Services, the conversation explores how AI is moving from point solutions to foundational infrastructure across the modern health stack.

Together, the panel examines why clean, connected data is essential, how agentic workflows can reduce burnout and improve clinician and patient experience, and what it will take to move healthcare from transactional to truly person-centered care. The discussion also tackles trust, governance, and why collaboration across startups, health systems, and big tech is critical to delivering real-world impact.

This is a grounded, forward-looking conversation about how purpose-driven leadership can turn exponential technology into practical outcomes that matter.

Angela Shippy, MD
Senior Physician Executive and Clinical Innovation Lead, Global Healthcare and Nonprofit, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Brian Caveney, MD, MPH
Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, Labcorp

Rasu Shrestha, MD
EVP, Chief Innovation and Commercialization Officer, Advocate Health

Chelsea Sumner, PharmD
Translational Health and AI Strategy Leader, NVIDIA

Mark Andrews
Senior Principal, AGI, Product Leader, Amazon

Do you want to participate in live conversations with industry luminaries? When you join the StartUp Health Network – a new private community for investors, buyers, and industry leaders to connect year-round with top health entrepreneurs – you are invited to a full calendar of interactive Fireside Chats with the most influential leaders shaping health innovation. Come with questions, learn what is working right now, and connect with industry icons.

Want more content like this? Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.

Behavioral health conditions are rising, providers are burned out, and primary care is carrying the load. In this episode, Unity Stoakes sit down with StartUp Health community member Indira Paharia, PsyD, CEO & Co-founder of VIBEcare, to explore how virtual, integrated behavioral health can transform care delivery at scale.

Drawing on her experience as a clinical psychologist, payer executive, and health tech founder, Indira explains why primary care is the most powerful entry point for behavioral health and how VIBEcare is building practical solutions that actually fit into real-world workflows.

In this episode, we cover:

Why behavioral health so often shows up first in primary care

The collaborative care model and why reimbursement changed everything

How virtual care removes barriers like stigma, transportation, and childcare

Addressing the national behavioral health provider shortage with scalable staffing models

What it takes to build solutions designed by clinicians, for clinicians

Why Indira is optimistic about the future of behavioral health access

This conversation is a must-listen for founders, providers, payers, and health system leaders working to make behavioral health more accessible, effective, and human.

Are you ready to tell YOUR story? Members of our Health Moonshot Communities are leading startups with breakthrough technology-driven solutions for the world’s biggest health challenges. Exposure in StartUp Health Media to our global audience of investors and partners – including our podcast, newsletters, magazine, and YouTube channel – is a benefit of our Health Moonshot PRO Membership. To schedule a call and see if you qualify to join and increase brand awareness through our multi-media storytelling efforts, submit our three-minute application. If you’re mission-driven, collaborative, and ready to contribute as much as you gain, you might be the perfect fit.

Want more content like this? Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.

Digital health is moving at AI speed, but evidence generation is still stuck in the past.

In this episode, StartUp Health co-founder Unity Stoakes sits down with StartUp Health community member Robin Roberts, CEO & Founder of datosX Digital Health Labs, to explore how validation can become a catalyst for real-world adoption rather than a bottleneck. Drawing on his experience building the Novartis Biome and spinning datosX out of it, Robin explains why traditional CRO models no longer meet the needs of modern digital health and AI-powered solutions.

Together, they discuss how datosX is helping innovators generate regulatory-grade, buyer-credible evidence while unlocking pilots and commercial traction with leading health systems.

In this conversation, you will learn:

Why digital health companies cannot afford to wait 18 months for validation

How datosX pairs innovators with tier-1 health systems to run validation studies that double as pilots

What makes the datosX model 30–60% faster and up to 8–10× more cost-effective than legacy CROs

How real-world data and retrospective studies accelerate proof and decision-making

Why evidence, adoption, and trust must be built together

How the upcoming EVIDIA platform is turning global digital health trial knowledge into AI-powered intelligence

This episode is a must-listen for founders, health system leaders, investors, and partners working to bring validated, trustworthy health innovation to market faster.

Are you ready to tell YOUR story? Members of our Health Moonshot Communities are leading startups with breakthrough technology-driven solutions for the world’s biggest health challenges. Exposure in StartUp Health Media to our global audience of investors and partners – including our podcast, newsletters, magazine, and YouTube channel – is a benefit of our Health Moonshot PRO Membership. To schedule a call and see if you qualify to join and increase brand awareness through our multi-media storytelling efforts, submit our three-minute application. If you’re mission-driven, collaborative, and ready to contribute as much as you gain, you might be the perfect fit.

Want more content like this? Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.

Pelvic health conditions affect millions of women, yet most are told to simply cope.

In this conversation, StartUp Health community member Wendy Powell shares how she built MUTU System into a clinically validated digital platform that improves pelvic floor function, core strength, and overall quality of life. She explains what clinical validation really required, how MUTU maintains accessibility and equity, and why employers are embracing pelvic health as a productivity issue. You will also hear what is next as MUTU expands through health systems, enterprise partnerships, and new personalized pathways.

A must listen for anyone working in women’s health, digital therapeutics, or workplace wellbeing.

Are you ready to tell YOUR story? Members of our Health Moonshot Communities are leading startups with breakthrough technology-driven solutions for the world’s biggest health challenges. Exposure in StartUp Health Media to our global audience of investors and partners – including our podcast, newsletters, magazine, and YouTube channel – is a benefit of our Health Moonshot PRO Membership. To schedule a call and see if you qualify to join and increase brand awareness through our multi-media storytelling efforts, submit our three-minute application. If you’re mission-driven, collaborative, and ready to contribute as much as you gain, you might be the perfect fit.

Want more content like this? Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.

In this special year-end episode, StartUp Health Co-founder Unity Stoakes has an intimate chat with Esther Dyson –  investor, thinker, and StartUp Health Impact Board member – about her upcoming book on term limits, the dangers of abundance, and how to protect our humanity in a world of superintelligent tools.

Esther draws on decades in tech, health, and philanthropy to ask uncomfortable questions about power, valuation, and why “too much” rarely serves us. Along the way, she shares stories from Wellville, her unconventional life adventures, and the teachers and caregivers who shaped her more than any Nobel Prize winner.

In this wide ranging conversation, they dig into:

Why human finitude and term limits can be a source of comfort, not fear

How ultra-processed food, content, and money distort our “fitness functions”

What the current AI bubble reveals about power, inequality, and attention

Why AI should augment doctors, and why nurses and caregivers are irreplaceable

How to think about education, theory of mind, and “theory of business mind”

Esther’s practical career advice: always make new mistakes, and never do work you would not do for free

This is a must listen for founders, investors, and curious humans who want to navigate the age of superintelligence with more wisdom, more agency, and a clearer sense of “enough.”

Join us at Apollo House at JPM Healthcare Week in January to continue the conversation.

Are you ready to tell YOUR story? Members of our Health Moonshot Communities are leading startups with breakthrough technology-driven solutions for the world’s biggest health challenges. Exposure in StartUp Health Media to our global audience of investors and partners – including our podcast, newsletters, magazine, and YouTube channel – is a benefit of our Health Moonshot PRO Membership. To schedule a call and see if you qualify to join and increase brand awareness through our multi-media storytelling efforts, submit our three-minute application. If you’re mission-driven, collaborative, and ready to contribute as much as you gain, you might be the perfect fit.

Want more content like this? Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.

Caregiving touches every family, yet caregivers often remain unseen. In this conversation from HLTH in Las Vegas, StartUp Health co-founder Unity Stoakes sits down with Richard Lui, award-winning journalist, filmmaker, and Chief Impact Officer for StartUp Health’s Caregiving Moonshot. Richard shares the personal story that sparked his mission to transform the global care economy and explains why caregiving is one of the largest and most meaningful opportunities in health. Together, they explore how innovators, investors, and leaders can build solutions that support the people holding our health system together.

In this episode

Join the Caregiving Moonshot

Meet in Person

Are you ready to tell YOUR story? Members of our Health Moonshot Communities are leading startups with breakthrough technology-driven solutions for the world’s biggest health challenges. Exposure in StartUp Health Media to our global audience of investors and partners – including our podcast, newsletters, magazine, and YouTube channel – is a benefit of our Health Moonshot PRO Membership. To schedule a call and see if you qualify to join and increase brand awareness through our multi-media storytelling efforts, submit our three-minute application. If you’re mission-driven, collaborative, and ready to contribute as much as you gain, you might be the perfect fit.

Want more content like this? Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.

In this episode of the StartUp Health NOW podcast, Unity Stoakes sits down with Mitul Desai, co-founder of The Care Hack, a member of StartUp Health’s Caregiving Moonshot Community. Desai opens up about the decades-long journey that began when his younger brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia and his family became full-time caregivers – with no support, no training, and no roadmap.

Drawing from this lived experience, Mitul partnered with psychiatrist Dr. Eli Shalenberg to launch The Care Hack, a platform purpose-built for cognitive caregivers – those supporting loved ones with long-term brain and mental health conditions. Together, they’re on a mission to bring caregivers into the center of the healthcare system, not just as recipients of support, but as key contributors to better outcomes and lower costs.

You’ll hear why Mitul left a successful career in law, policy, and tech to pursue this mission, how The Care Hack is partnering with providers and payers to scale what already works, and what it means to create infrastructure for the “second healthcare system” that families already power every day.

Listen to learn why The Care Hack isn’t just another health app – it’s a movement grounded in empathy, evidence, and a belief that caregivers can change everything when given the right tools.

Want to meet founders like Mitul in person? Join us at Apollo House at JPM Healthcare Week in January.

Are you ready to tell YOUR story? Members of our Health Moonshot Communities are leading startups with breakthrough technology-driven solutions for the world’s biggest health challenges. Exposure in StartUp Health Media to our global audience of investors and partners – including our podcast, newsletters, magazine, and YouTube channel – is a benefit of our Health Moonshot PRO Membership. To schedule a call and see if you qualify to join and increase brand awareness through our multi-media storytelling efforts, submit our three-minute application. If you’re mission-driven, collaborative, and ready to contribute as much as you gain, you might be the perfect fit.

Want more content like this? Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.