The Big Unlock

In this episode, Tanya Townsend, CEO of LCMC Health, a New Orleans-based non-profit health system, discusses how they are leveraging their digital capabilities across the continuum of care and improving patient access and clinician experience across their facilities.

Tanya explains how the macroeconomic environment has impacted their investment decisions this year. She states that there is a delicate balance between managing costs and being good stewards of investments in new tools and technology innovations.

Tanya also talks about how they redesigned their online scheduling tools and patient portal platforms, their journey towards creating an integrated and seamless care experience across service lines, and more. Take a listen.

In this episode, Julia Hu, Founder & CEO of Lark Health, a leading AI virtual healthcare counseling platform, is helping nearly 2 million people manage and prevent chronic conditions, stress, and anxiety. Having invested more than $100 million in R&D, Lark combines cutting-edge AI with remote patient monitoring capabilities to provide 24/7, real-time, text message-based health counseling to patients whenever and wherever they need it.

Julia explains how their text message-based counseling platform is clinically equivalent to live nurse care management services. She also talks about how virtual and at-home care delivery has been impacted by the supply and demand curve, the digital health startup ecosystem, and their new partnership with Salesforce to expand into the “payvider” segment of healthcare. Take a listen.

In this episode, Michael Hasselberg, Chief Digital Health Officer at University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), discusses their digital health priorities and technology solutions to engage the patient population they serve. URMC is a unique organization as it is the only health system still attached to its parent university, and Michael talks about how that differentiates them from others.

URMC, a fully integrated academic medical center, was recently named in our inaugural list of digital health leaders and innovators for our Digital Maturity Awards program.

Michael states that the rural population engages more via digital modalities like telehealth and video visits than in-person visits. He talks about why their digital transformation strategy focuses on data and how the future of healthcare depends on structured and organized data sets. He also talks about how they make their technology choices and digital health priorities for 2023. Take a listen.

In this episode, Jacob Effron, Principal at Redpoint Ventures, discusses the venture capital (VC) environment for digital health. Redpoint Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on investments in seed, early, and growth-stage companies and has been investing in the healthcare tech landscape for the last decade.

Jacob believes that the fundamental trends driving the growth of digital health are in place. However, later-stage companies looking to raise additional capital may experience some uncertainty in the short term. He also talks about the demand environment for Redpoint’s portfolio companies and his advice to founders looking to navigate the health system space. Take a listen.

In this episode, Russ Thomas, Chief Executive Office of Availity, discusses their core business of clinical and claims data to drive better healthcare outcomes and reduce costs. Availity optimizes information exchange between two of the most critical stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem – health plans and providers – through a single, secure network.

Russ talks about their recent acquisition of Diameter Health to standardize the unstructured data to automate clinical workflow, make it available to the right people at the right time, create a better healthcare system, and ultimately drive better healthcare outcomes. He also offers thoughts on the digital health landscape. Take a Listen.

In this episode, Zane Burke, CEO of Quantum Health discusses the current state of digital health and how Quantum is working towards creating a different and better healthcare experience with better financial and clinical outcomes.

Zane is a long-time veteran in the healthcare space with successful tenures in Cerner and Livongo. He notes that while there is progress with digital health, data silos and lack of integration are some of the biggest friction points in delivering better healthcare experience and outcomes. He also talks about how healthcare is intensely personal and why the connection of digital pieces and the personal touch pieces will make a huge difference.

Zane discusses a range of other topics, including digital health funding and the M&A environment, the role of big tech in the healthcare ecosystem, and the pace of digital transformation in general. Take a Listen.

In this episode, David Evendon-Challis, Executive Board Member and Chief Scientific Officer at Bayer Consumer Health discusses their approach to help consumers adopt digital health tools to manage and improve their healthcare outcomes. David also explores trends driving better self-care among consumers.

Digital health tools are gaining momentum among customers and making better self-care more accessible. However, all these innovative technology solutions must seamlessly integrate into the mainstream healthcare delivery models. David believes that increased interest in health and self-care awareness, affordable healthcare technologies, and people wanting to use more technology to communicate combined will bring the perfect storm for improved health outcomes. He also talks about the current state of digital therapeutics and its relevance in improving consumer health. Take a Listen.

In this episode, Reid Stephen, VP and CIO of St. Luke’s Health System, discusses how consumer research drives digital priorities, mobile applications, and other digital features. He also talks about creating a robust technology infrastructure to deliver the superior experiences consumers demand and expect today.

St. Luke’s Health System is a large health system looking to deliver outstanding digital experiences to its patients. Reid discusses three things that significantly impact a frictionless patient experience and talks about how they approach care management, home health, remote monitoring, and more. Take a Listen.

In this episode, Jared Antzack, Chief Digital Officer at Sanford Health, discusses the special considerations that go into serving their widely dispersed population and how they design digital solutions for that population. Sanford is a large health system that primarily serves the rural population across the upper Midwest, stretching over 250,000 square miles.

Jared’s role at Sanford ranges from being clinician-facing and consumer-facing to bridging their needs across technology, business needs, and consumer experiences. He states that digital is both about the front-end aspect of technology that users interact with as part of a broader experience and the back end that includes the infrastructure, architecture, databases, interfaces, and networks. Jared points to how the digital divide has become a social determinant of health and how they are removing the friction points to enhance digital patient experience and engagement. Take a listen.

In this episode, Adam Landman, MD, Chief Information Officer of Mass General Brigham (MGB), formerly Partners Healthcare, talks about the four distinct user groups that Mass General’s digital engagement programs have identified and prioritized for improved experiences. In addition to fast and convenient patient experiences, Mass General’s digital programs focus on the needs of diverse population segments to improve access to care and eliminate systemic racism, which they consider a public health issue.

Dr. Landman also talks about their data and analytics capabilities, the need for robust technology infrastructure, and their experience and learnings from evaluating and engaging with young, innovative start-ups. Dr. Landman is also co-author of a paper in Nature Digital Medicine on deploying digital health tools within large, complex health systems. Take a listen.