The Big Unlock

In this podcast, Anish Sebastian, Co-Founder and CEO of Babyscripts, shares how they are reinventing the standard of prenatal and postpartum care by enabling improved virtual and remote maternity care. Babyscripts focuses on the delivery of pregnancy care through the power of technology and remote patient monitoring and addresses the critical shortage of obstetrical providers in the U.S. 

Anish calls the pandemic ‘a watershed moment’ for telemedicine and digital health adoption. He highlights how technology presents an interesting dynamic for pregnancy, and how connected devices can improve access to care at a central level, thereby impacting maternity care in the country.  

The digital health landscape is a chaotic marketplace today. Anish concludes with a few pieces of advice for digital health start-ups who want to make a mark in the industry. Take a listen.  

In this podcast, Kyle Kiser, CEO of RxRevu, discusses how they have built a data network to provide real-time patient-specific prescription pricing information to providers at the point of care. 

Pharmacy Benefits Management is a concentrated space with a handful of players. The PBM model is changing into something more holistic and more focused on managing patients, not just around pharmacy benefits specifically, but managing the total cost of care, using pharmacy benefits as a tool to achieve the goals. RxRevu has focused on building trust in their tool to drive prescription behavior change among providers. Kyle also emphasizes the need to have the tools in the hands of the right users to drive impact. 

Kyle advises digital health startups to spend time on understanding where the value accrues in terms of finding customers. While it may look chaotic from the outside, the incentives in the healthcare value chain drive rational decisions for each entity. He urges startups to understand incentives and builds business models within them. Take a listen. 

In this podcast, Ryan Younger, VP of Marketing at Virtua Health, discusses the consumer-driven era of healthcare, emerging digital health technologies, and why active listening to the consumers at every phase is crucial. Virtua is a leading New Jersey-based not-for-profit healthcare system that operates a network of hospitals, surgery centers, and physician practices.

Digital health tools like AI, chatbots, and leveraging data and analytics capabilities assist clinical leaders in understanding patients’ propensity. Ryan identifies insights in business, identifies channels for growth, and indicates why marketing will always be a critical organizational function that binds people and drives digital engagement. Take a listen.

In this podcast, Dr. Lucienne Ide, Founder and CEO of Rimidi, acknowledges the rapidly evolving healthcare market and discusses her passion for making healthcare scalable and better for all stakeholders by leveraging the right tools, insights, and analytics needed at the points of care. Rimidi is a clinical management platform designed to optimize clinical workflows.

Dr. Ide wears many hats – an executive, a physician-scientist, health IT enthusiast, entrepreneur, and problem-solver. She states why sustainable, innovative, and impactful solutions are crucial for chronic disease management and share some unique perspectives on how technology and policy need to align to extend care to those who have the hardest time receiving it. She also acknowledges reimbursement as one of the barriers in enabling digital health models at the point of care. Take a listen.

In this podcast, Cynthia Brandt, President and CEO of the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health shares her passion for giving back and encourages others to do so with their financial support, time, and expertise. The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health unlocks philanthropy to transform health for all children and families.

With the exceptional team at the Foundation, Cynthia wants to channelize philanthropy to healthcare to improve health for all children and mothers in the Bay Area, California, and eventually across the world. She acknowledges the benefits of telehealth and digital health in the wake of the pandemic and shares their digital priorities for 2022.

Cynthia encourages everyone to see themselves as philanthropists. She suggests why empathy and commitment are necessary when leveraging science to help heal humanity and elevate a community and the population equally. Take a listen.

In this podcast, Richard Ashworth, President and CEO of Tivity Health, discusses why senior fitness is an important space and brimming with opportunities waiting to be capitalized. Tivity Health leverages core healthcare capabilities to deliver market-leading fitness, nutrition, and social engagement programs that improve health and lower healthcare costs.

In the episode, Ashworth talks about two significant macro trends in healthcare: the shift to digital health solutions and growth in Medicare Advantage. He further acknowledges how seniors have enthusiastically adopted technology but maintains that the future of healthcare is hybrid, i.e., a combination of digital and in-person care.

Healthcare is mission-driven and offers ample innovation opportunities in digital health, data, mental health, senior living, and home-based care. He advises youngsters to pick a job to make a difference, leverage opportunities, and continue to innovate and learn. Take a listen.

In this podcast, Dr. Mark Weisman, CIO and CMIO of TidalHealth, Maryland, discusses the role of analytics and informatics in identifying bottlenecks and the opportunities where technology may be harnessed to enhance the quality of care. Tidal Health is a two-hospital health system on the eastern shore of Maryland, serving largely the rural population of Delmarva Peninsula.

As a physician who’s well versed with emerging technologies, Dr. Weisman acknowledges the handicaps digital health care must overcome to reach the underserved population in rural America. The foremost focus of their digital journey is to improve patient access to healthcare. He demonstrates how certain digital health tools can bring in cost-effectiveness, reduce the administrative workload on clinical staff, develop effective programs, and provide better healthcare access to everyone.

Dr. Weisman advises digital health start-ups to approach health systems and healthcare as genuine partners in improving patient access and care delivery and not as a salesman merely trying to sell a product or service. Take a listen.

In this podcast, Srulik Dvorsky, Co-founder and CEO of TailorMed discusses how healthcare organizations can improve patients’ financial management and enable the chronically ill to reduce their out-of-pocket costs and financial burden, thereby enhancing access to care. TailorMed is a Tel Aviv-based innovative financial management platform.  

Better quality of care translates to higher care costs, resulting in an increased out-of-pocket burden for consumers. This can drill a gaping hole in patients’ pockets if they are uninsured, underinsured, or have little or no access to financial management. Data assumes a critical role in the digital healthcare landscape as it offers a personalized projection of patients’ out-of-pocket costs across their entire medical journey. Leveraging patient-related information and financial data can automatically help detect cost-saving opportunities based on insurance and treatment optimizations and matching financial assistance programs. Take a listen. 

In this podcast, B.J. Moore, EVP and CIO of Providence Health discusses the organizational structure at Providence to drive transformation and how he draws on his 27 years of experience at Microsoft to drive change.

Moore explains his vision to leverage emerging technologies such as cloud and voice recognition to support healthcare delivery, improve patient experiences, and increase caregiver productivity. He maintains that it’s important to partner with leading technology firms to create robust platforms to drive digital health.

Moore discusses Providence’s investments in digital health innovation and advises digital health start-ups to focus on consumer experience. Take a listen.

In this podcast, Jason Considine, Chief Business Development Officer at Experian Health, discusses the critical role of data in digital healthcare systems. He explains why organizations as data collators must first understand data privacy and security, adhere to regulations, and then use that data to better the situation for stakeholders in the healthcare domain. Experian is a data and technology company that transforms data into meaningful analyses to help people across the globe make smarter decisions – for themselves and their businesses.

Consumer-permissioned data offers valuable insights on the social determinants of health, such as access to food, transportation, and the need for financial support, in addition to patients’ physical ailments. Therefore, Jason maintains, it can be a valuable resource in reducing medical bankruptcy, developing financial assistance programs, and ensuring that the patients can focus on getting better rather than being burdened by bills. Take a listen.