The Beat

About Heidi Riney:

Dr. Riney is board-certified in sleep medicine and neurology by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and is a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), Georgia Association of Sleep Professionals (GASP) and National Sleep Foundation (NSF), where she serves on the Public Affairs Committee.

She completed her medical training at Wake Forest, neurology residency and neurophysiology fellowship at Emory University, and sleep medicine fellowship at FusionSleep. During her neurology residency, Dr. Riney taught neuroanatomy courses and led small-group clinical cases with second-year Emory medical students. She was also involved in research, looking at concentric-needle single-fiber electromyography for the diagnosis of myasthenia gravis.

After her neurology residency, Dr. Riney completed a clinical neurophysiology fellowship at Emory University. During her fellowship, Dr. Riney led weekly lectures with neurology residents on topics related to electromyography and electroencephalography.

Dr. Riney currently evaluates adults and children with sleep, wake, and circadian rhythm problems at the Atlanta North location.

About Heidi Anderson:

Heidi Anderson has spent more than two decades building businesses and driving major growth in emerging and mature B2B and B2C markets, especially in the healthcare industry.

In her role as President & Chief Growth Officer at Nox Health, a sleep healthcare and tech company founded in Iceland, Anderson helps lead the visionary team that has reimagined the sleep healthcare space so that millions worldwide will have access to highly effective sleep solutions, including at-home sleep testing, sleep board-certified physicians telemedicine visits, and ongoing care team support.

Prior to joining Nox Health, Anderson served as Senior Vice President of Strategic Clients and Initiatives and ASO Strategy at Teladoc Health. She’s also held senior leadership and officer positions at several start-ups, and mid-sized and Fortune 500 companies. At Time Warner and WebMD, she drove several successful print and digital launches including WebMD Magazine digital edition, Medscape’s Business of Medicine magazine, as well as the Time Health and People Health verticals.

Anderson is an active board member of Solis Mammography, a strategic advisor at AliveCor and TaskHuman, and a graduate of the University of Minnesota Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Things You’ll Learn:

• Nox Health reimagines sleep healthcare so millions worldwide can access highly effective sleep solutions, including at-home sleep testing, sleep board-certified physician telemedicine visits, and ongoing care team support.
• There is a correlation between the lack of sleep and chronic diseases, mental health issues, behavioral health, and even safety conditions.
• Sleep Medicine is one field of medicine where you can come from a lot of different specialties.
• 50% of people typically fall off sleep care therapy in the first year. 
• Less than 10% of Nox’s therapy patients fall off. 
• You will die sooner from lack of sleep than from not eating.
• Duration, quality, and timing are three factors in healthy sleep. 
• There are more than 80 different sleep disorders.
• Nox doesn’t charge an employer or health plan until someone enrolls in the program.

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Heidi Riney on LinkedIn.
• Reach out to Dr. Riney at [email protected].
• Connect with and follow Heidi Anderson on LinkedIn.
• Reach out to Heidi at [email protected].
• Follow Nox Health on LinkedIn.
• Explore the Nox Health Website!

We have come to understand the importance of mental wellness in recent years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nevertheless, many of us don’t have access to traditional therapy, or we’re hesitant to visit a psychiatrist’s office. And a growing number of people are looking to online therapy as an alternative.

But can you build strong relationship with a therapist virtually? What does quality mental health care look like in a digital landscape?

Dr. Varun Choudhary is a Board-Certified Forensic Psychiatrist and Chief Medical Officer at Talkspace, a leading virtual behavioral health company that offers convenient and affordable access to a fully credentialed network of highly qualified mental health providers.
 

Dr. Choudhary has 17 years of experience in behavioral health, providing care to patients in the public sector, correctional arena, private practice and community-based settings. He is a specialist in the realm of teletherapy, population health and collaborative care.
 

On this episode, Dr.  Choudhary joins host Dr. Guatam Gulati to explain the concept of asynchronous text-based therapy and explore the benefits of building a relationship with a therapist online.

Dr. Choudhary discusses the root causes of the mental health crisis in our country, describing how rates of depression and anxiety skyrocketed during the pandemic and why telepsychiatry remains popular while other forms of telehealth are in decline.

Listen in for Dr. Choudhary’s insight on the future of telemental health care and learn how online therapy like Talkspace is democratizing mental wellness around the world.
 

Topics Covered

• The significant shift in the way we think about mental health over the last 10 years
• How the mental health reimbursement system is informed by the regulatory environment
• How Talkspace pioneered the concept of asynchronous text-based therapy
• The benefits of building a relationship with a therapist online (and when it’s more appropriate to meet face-to-face)
• The potential for Talkspace to eventually add brick-and-mortar facilities to its comprehensive care model
• What responsibility platforms like Talkspace bear in reporting potential criminal activity
• How rates of depression and anxiety skyrocketed during the COVID crisis
• Why telepsychiatry use did not drop off after the pandemic like other telehealth services
• Dr. Choudhary’s insight on the root causes of the mental health crisis in our country
• How Dr. Choudhary’s WHY aligns with the Talkspace mission to democratize therapy
• The meditation practice Dr. Choudhary uses to preserve his own mental wellness

Connect with Dr. Varun Choudhary

Talkspace

Dr. Choudhary on LinkedIn

Connect with Dr. Guatam Gulati

HLTH

Dr. Gulati on Twitter

Dr. Gulati on LinkedIn

Resources

‘A Study of Asynchronous Mobile-Enabled SMS Text Psychotherapy’ in Telemedicine and e-Health

Healing: Our Path from Mental Illness to Mental Health by Thomas Insel, MD

KFF/CNN Survey on Mental Health in America

Ryan Haight Act

Magellan Health

COVID-19 and Mental Health

Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World by Vivek H. Murthy, MD

About Taha Kass-Hout:

Taha Kass-Hout, MD, MS is the Director of Machine Learning and Chief Medical Officer at Amazon Web Services (AWS) and leads AWS Health AI strategy and efforts. He led teams at Amazon responsible for developing the science, technology, and scale for Covid-19 lab testing, including Amazon’s first FDA authorization for testing our associates—later offered to the public for at-home testing. A physician and bioinformatician, Taha served two terms under President Obama, including as the first Chief Health Informatics officer at the FDA. During this time as a public servant, he pioneered the use of emerging technologies and the cloud (the CDC’s electronic disease surveillance) and established widely accessible global data sharing platforms: openFDA, which enabled researchers and the public to search and analyze adverse events data, and precisionFDA, part of the Presidential Precision Medicine initiative. Taha holds Doctor of Medicine and Master of Science in biostatistics degrees from the University of Texas and completed clinical training in Interventional Cardiology at Harvard Medical School’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Things You’ll Learn:

• Amazon invented the cloud with Amazon Web Services, the widely available and adopted cloud platform with over 200 features and services from data centers worldwide. 
• AWS helps healthcare and life science customers with breakthrough and ever-evolving medical innovations.
• In the last ten years, digitized medical record data went from 15% to almost 98%. 
• Although medical records are digitized, about 97% of this data goes unused.
• Amazon HealthLake allows customers to store, transform, and analyze their structured and unstructured health information in the cloud at a petabyte scale. 
• Amazon HealthLake has an Imaging service and an Analytics service.
• Just looking at medical imaging, 5.5 billion studies and procedures are done every year globally, which doubles the amount made ten years ago.
• Healthcare costs $8 trillion globally, and yet, 40% of the world’s population currently doesn't have access to care.

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Taha Kass-Hout on LinkedIn.
• Follow Amazon Web Services on LinkedIn.
• Discover the Amazon Web Services Website.

Several years ago, leading VC Marc Andreessen proposed the notion that innovation happens through a process of unbundling and rebundling.

Healthcare is no exception.

Through the micro-specialization of companies, we’ve witnessed a great deal of unbundling in the industry. Now, we’ve begun the process of rebundling.

So, what does this mean for the future of healthcare tech? And how do venture investors leverage this idea to decide which digital health startups deserve funding?

Dr. Vineeta Agarwala is General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where she leads investments for the a16z bio and health fund across digital health care delivery, biotech and life sciences tools and diagnostics.
 

Dr. Agarwala has a special interest in companies leveraging unique datasets to improve healthcare delivery, and she serves on several healthcare portfolio company boards, including Memorial Health, Thyme Care and Waymark.
 

On this episode, Dr.  Agarwala joins host Dr. Guatam Gulati to discuss what health payviders are doing to aggregate the best technology for specialty care and how we might integrate such specialized health tech into already complicated workflows.
 

Dr. Agarwala shares her take on the successes and failures of digital health in the last decade, describing how healthcare tech has been transformative for certain patient populations and why she sees most remote connected wearables as a missed opportunity.

Listen in to understand how the high bar for fundraising is changing the way a16z makes decisions and get Dr. Agarwala’s advice for aspiring founders in healthcare tech.
 

Topics Covered

• How Dr. Agarwala thinks about the unbundling and rebundling of services in healthcare
• What health payviders are doing to aggregate the best possible technology across large numbers of specialty care areas
• How we might integrate specialized health tech into already complicated workflows (and why it’s such a challenge)
• Dr. Agarwala’s take on patients, providers and payers as joint custodians of healthcare data
• The pros and cons of imposing a government tax on corporations to access healthcare data
• How digital health has been transformative for some small patient populations, health systems and provider practices
• Why Dr. Agarwala sees remote connected wearables as a failure in the absence of intelligent care management
• How the high bar for fundraising has changed the way a16z makes healthcare tech investment decisions
• Why a16z is encouraging its portfolio companies to adopt a lean business model
• Why now is a phenomenal time to start a company in the healthcare technology space
• How Dr. Agarwala’s experience with her grandfather’s death informs her work at a16z

Connect with Dr. Vineeta Agarwala

Dr. Agarwala at Andreessen Horowitz

Dr. Agarwala on Twitter

Dr. Agarwala on LinkedIn
 

Connect with Dr. Guatam Gulati

HLTH

Dr. Gulati on Twitter

Dr. Gulati on LinkedIn

Resources

Julie Yoo at Andreesen Horowitz

Thyme Care

About Jaime Murillo:

Dr. Jaime Murillo is a Senior VP and the Chief CardioMetabolic Health Officer at Optum Labs. 

He is focused on disruptive care delivery solutions to improve health in the community using AI-powered technology, social-behavioral determinants of health, and community-based collaboration. His work also includes advanced analytics to identify gaps in care with an emphasis on health equity and AI/ML-based phenotyping and multi-omics to advance precision medicine. 

Before his current role at Optum Labs, he spent 2 years at UnitedHealthcare as the national lead for cardiovascular and ED services. This work focused on simple innovation and value-based transformation of care and affordability. He is a cardiologist from Yale University with a background in computer sciences and basic science and clinical research at Harvard Medical School and outcomes research at Yale University.

He is a former IBM Watson Health collaborator on the clinical implementation of machine learning in the cardiovascular field. He practiced cardiology with a subspecialty in imaging for 20 years at Sentara Health. Within Sentara, he played several executive roles with a focus on leadership development and consumer strategies. Outside of work Jaime enjoys watching his son play tennis, watching movies with his wife, and practicing Pilates.

Things You’ll Learn:

• In healthcare, communication is one of the areas with significant improvement opportunities.
• By 2025, about $300 billion in care will be delivered to consumers' homes.
• UnitedHealth Group also works with a sense of purpose, their recent merger with LHC seeks to build care in communities and at homes.
• Healthcare solutions today are based on clinical components and other different determinants of health.
• Algorithms can now be built to allow the identification of those who may have a condition before it develops any complications.
• Medical solutions today cannot exclusively take into account clinical data, they need to look at the patient holistically. 

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Jaime Murillo on LinkedIn.
• Follow Optum Labs on LinkedIn.
• Discover the Optum Labs Website!

How can we transform patient health through personal and predictive care?

By taking it home.

Sheeza Hussain is the Chief Commercial Officer of Biofourmis, a global leader in digital therapeutics. Biofourmis has a vision to improve the delivery of healthcare by treating patients with chronic and acute medical conditions outside of the hospital utilizing advanced technology.

On this episode, Sheeza joins hosts Dr. Gautam Gulati, Dr. Jessica Shepherd, and Dr. Jordan Shlain to discuss how Biofourmis is using continuous vitals monitoring to prevent adverse events before they happen, allowing patients to get healthy at home.

Listen as Sheeza shares Biofourmis' mission to expand AI into people’s  lives by creating innovations that meet patients at home. Scientific studies support the fact that patients recover more comfortably in their own environment and now technology is making it possible for aging to happen at home.

Topics Covered

• How Biofourmis is like the OnStar for your health
• An inside look at the data and the analytics of Biofourmis’ bio vitals index
• The 3 tools the Biofourmis platform uses to customize care
• The partnerships required for hospital-at-home patient selection
• Sheeza’s passion for the future and how demand is increasing for patients to receive their care at home

Connect with Sheeza Hussain

• Sheeza Hussain on LinkedIn

Connect with Dr. Gautam Gulati, Dr. Jordan Shlain, & Dr. Jessica Shepherd

• Dr. Gulati on Twitter
• Dr. Gulati on LinkedIn
• Dr. Shlain on Twitter
• Dr. Shlain on LinkedIn
• Dr. Shepherd on LinkedIn
• Dr. Shepherd on Twitter

Resources

• Biofourmis
• ViVE

Can we take what we learned from the influx of telehealth during the pandemic into the future to close the gap in health inequality?

Scott MacLean is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at MedStar Health, a not-for-profit health system serving Maryland and Washington, DC. He's responsible for the leadership and vision of information services to support clinical research and academic and administrative functions across the system.

On this episode, Scott joins host Dr. Gautam Gulati to discuss how the entire healthcare model is being re-engineered before our very eyes. The pandemic may have started the chain of change, but that was just the beginning.

Scott shares the biggest challenges MedStar Health was facing before the pandemic and how his team found the technical solutions to serve the mass increase in telehealth visits during the COVID crisis.

Listen as they discuss how those innovations became the catalyst for MedStar Health to transform its strategic processes and move the needle on optimization. And learn why he’s working so hard to invest in technology to engage his community with more digital healthcare options to close the divide of health inequity.

Topics Covered

• MedStar Health’s story of teamwork during the pandemic and their current focus on infrastructure
• How MedStar Health adjusted the universal EHR across the enterprise as COVID treatment protocols evolved
• What MedStar is doing to move the needle towards more optimization and clinician usability
• MedStar’s strategy for the future of home-based telehealth and how Scott’s team is using technology to better serve the community

Connect with Scott MacLean

• Scott MacLean on LinkedIn
• Scott MacLean on Twitter

Connect with Dr. Gautam Gulati, Dr. Jordan Shlain, & Dr. Jessica Shepherd

• Dr. Gulati on Twitter
• Dr. Gulati on LinkedIn
• Dr. Shlain on Twitter
• Dr. Shlain on LinkedIn
• Dr. Shepherd on LinkedIn
• Dr. Shepherd on Twitter

Resources

• MedStar Health
• ViVE

The pandemic exposed the cracks in the healthcare system. But how do we prioritize resources to maximize capabilities for the future?

By prioritizing partnerships.

Dr. Rasu Shrestha is Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer and Executive Vice President for Atrium Health, one of the largest non-profit and leading academic health systems in the United States. Dr. Shrestha is responsible for Atrium Health’s enterprise strategy, including planning and tactical direction for the organization’s current strategic roadmap.

On this episode, Dr. Shrestha joins hosts Dr. Gautam Gulati and Dr. Jordan Shlain to discuss his background and how he’s forging a path to the future by breaking down walls and building bridges to person-centered care enabled by technology.

We discuss the cracks exposed in our healthcare system during the COVID and how we can pivot to make the heroics displayed during the pandemic the blueprint of how we operate going forward.

Listen as Dr. Shrestha shares why social impact is such a big driver at Atrium Health and how they’re embracing their mission of health, hope, and healing for the future of healthcare.

Topics Covered

• How Dr. Shrestha’s personal experiences, combined with today’s healthcare climate, inform what he is doing at Atrium
• How the pandemic accentuated the cracks in the healthcare system
• How Atrium is creating a blueprint for collaborating in public-private partnerships
• Why human struggles mixed with a healthcare emergency and chaos in the healthcare field is the recipe for disaster
• How Atrium is using technology to leverage data to reach underserved communities
• How Atrium is thinking globally while acting locally in its program rollout
• An inside look at ‘The Pearl,’ Atrium Health’s innovative new medical school
• How Atrium is asking the right questions to overcome data blind spots
• Dr. Shrestha’s quest to prioritize Atrium Health’s mission of health, hope, and healing for all

Connect with Dr. Rasu Shrestha

• Dr. Shrestha on LinkedIn
• Dr. Shrestha on Twitter

Connect with Dr. Gautam Gulati, Dr. Jordan Shlain, & Dr. Jessica Shepherd

• Dr. Gulati on Twitter
• Dr. Gulati on LinkedIn
• Dr. Shlain on Twitter
• Dr. Shlain on LinkedIn
• Dr. Shepherd on LinkedIn
• Dr. Shepherd on Twitter

Resources

• Atrium Health
• ViVE

Since the pandemic many health care providers have shifted to a remote approach. Though, not every provider looks to improve the root of total health. How can we power proactive, predictive health from real-time patient data with prevention in mind - all remotely?

Dan Vahdat is the CEO and Founder of Medopad, a global HealthTech AI company with a vision to create a world where people can live longer. His professional career spans from IT to medical technology including several years at Johns Hopkins University.

On this episode, Dan joins hosts Dr. Gautam Gulati and Dr. Jordan Shlain to discuss the future of remote patient monitoring not only in the U.S. but in countries around the entire world. He describes exactly how the remote monitoring process works for clients at Huma, the constraints found in America compared to other countries, as well as how technology can help at a scale compared to physical care alone. Listen in to how Huma is working with countries all over the world to provide remote care that brings each patient proactive data that allows Huma to power predictive health and prevention.

Topics Covered

• What Huma does and how the company came about
• How the remote monitoring process works at Huma
• What the exact care process looks like for clients
• How technology innovations have benefited the health care system
• How Dan and his team are handling the flow of communications at Huma
• Dan’s insight on the differences being seen in remote patient monitoring in the US versus in European countries
• The biggest constraints found in America with remote healthcare
• Dan’s insight on the non-traditional players who act as competition
• What the future of Huma and Remote Patient Monitoring looks like
• The possible limits with remote telehealth
• How Dan defines health
• How Dan defines health care as care with a smile

Connect with Dan Vahdat

Huma

Connect with Dr. Gautam Gulati & Dr. Jordan Shlain

HLTH

Dr. Gulati on Twitter

Dr. Gulati on LinkedIn

Dr. Shlain on LinkedIn

Dr. Shlain on Twitter

Introductory Quote

[4:00–4:49]

“In the past 18 months we have done national projects. Not one hospital, not two hospitals, not one region - across large scale countries as big as Germany, UK, France and not only modern countries but countries like India…and so on. Projects that are quite big..We have shipped millions of devices for our projects…This showed that technology can help at scale.

How do you optimize the outcome for a patient who has chronic kidney disease? By treating them as a whole person.

Rani Khetarpal is Head of Value-Based Care Partnerships at CVS Health, where she leads the build and execution of innovative alternative payment models and risk arrangements. While she encompasses a diverse array of experience within the healthcare ecosystem, Rani’s area of expertise lies in designing and delivering patient-centric, outcomes-driven models that align provider and payer.

On this episode, Rani joins hosts Dr. Jessica Shepherd, Dr. Gautam Gulati, and Dr. Jordan Shlain to discuss kidney care models that look at the patient holistically—as a patient and a person.

Listen as Rani shares how CVS is using brand recognition and its geographical footprint to reach patients where they are. They explore how CVS Health is partnering with provider care teams to change the narrative and provide value-based care that is quality-, cost-, and patient-centered.

Topics Covered

• The psychosocial barriers, comorbidities, and other factors that contribute to the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD)
• How CVS is working to challenge the true cost of care by focusing on the desired outcomes and then working backward
• How value-based care is shifting the focus to preventing disease instead of treating patients
• Where Rani thinks the greatest use of digital technology is happening right now
• How CVS is using provider-based care teams to create individualized treatment models
• How CVS is changing the value-based care narrative to better meet patients' needs

Connect with Rani Khetarpal

• Rani Khetarpal on Twitter
• Rani Khetarpal on LinkedIn

Connect with Dr. Jessica Shepherd, Dr. Gautam Gulati, & Dr. Jordan Shlain

• Dr. Shepherd on LinkedIn
• Dr. Shepherd on Twitter
• Dr. Gulati on Twitter
• Dr. Gulati on LinkedIn
• Dr. Shlain on Twitter
• Dr. Shlain on LinkedIn

Resources

• CVS Health
• ViVE