The Penn HealthX Podcast

Today’s episode is a conversation between Sope Eweje, one of the VP’s of Entrepreneurship and Ventures for Penn HealthX, and our guest, Dr. Josh Makower.

Josh currently leads medical device investment as a general partner at NEA, one of the world’s largest and most active venture capital firms. Josh is also the Founder and Executive Chairman of ExploraMed, a medical device incubator that has created 8 companies over the past 20 years. Notable transactions from the ExploraMed portfolio include Acclarent, acquired by J&J in 2009, EndoMatrix, acquired by C.R. Bard in 1997, TransVascular, acquired by Medtronic in 2003 and Neotract acquired by Teleflex in 2017. On-going ExploraMed/NEA ventures include NeoTract, Moximed, Willow and ExploraMed V.

In addition to his role at NEA, Josh serves on the faculty of the Stanford University School as an Adjunct Professor of Medicine and is Co-Founder of Stanford’s Biodesign Innovation Program, a unique training and educational program for multi-disciplinary health technology innovation with trainees that have gone on to form 50 companies that have had an impact over 2.7 million patients.

Josh holds over 300 patents and patent applications for various medical devices in the fields of cardiology, ENT, general surgery, drug delivery, obesity, orthopedics, women’s health, and urology. He received an MBA from Columbia University, an MD from the NYU School of Medicine, and a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT.

In this episode, Sope and Josh discuss how he went from a music major to a prolific medical technology innovator and venture capitalist, and how each of the experiences he had along the way have shaped his passion for technological innovation in healthcare. We also discuss the role clinicians play in health care innovation and his view of invention as a skill that can be learned by technical and clinical stakeholders alike. We wrap up by discussing his thoughts on how COVID may impact the medical technology VC landscape and a piece of advice for students interested in using technology to improve healthcare.

Footnotes

Josh’s Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-makower-14a0b7ba/

NEA – https://nea.com

Willow wearable breast pump - https://shop.willowpump.com/

Stanford Biodesign Innovation Program - http://biodesign.stanford.edu/

Today’s episode is a conversation with one of my colleagues, Sandy Varatharajah. Sandy is a 2nd year MBA student and a member of the Healthcare Management program at Wharton. In the episode, we discuss what drew her to the healthcare space, her previous experiences, including interning at the white house, consulting, and working for CityBlock. We also discussed the decision to get an MBA, and some of the interviews she has done for the Pulse Podcast by the Wharton Digital Health club. We end with some things she is most looking forward to in the coming years.

If you like The Penn HealthX Podcast, you should check out Pulse, a podcast created and maintained by The Wharton Digital Health Club where they interview leaders in the digital health space.

Show Notes

Sandy’s LinkedIn Profile

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandyvaratharajah/

The Pulse Podcast - Soundcloud

https://soundcloud.com/wharton-pulse-podcast

The Pulse Podcast - Medium Page

https://medium.com/wharton-pulse-podcast

Sandy’s Medium Profile

https://medium.com/@sanvrajah

Today’s episode is a conversation I had with Dr. Arpan Parikh. Dr. Parikh was a colleague of mine at Wharton last year. He has since graduated and moved on to a role with CareMore Health. Dr. Parikh got his MD at Ohio State, and completed his residency in Psychiatry at Mt. Sinai in New York City.

In the episode, we discuss what drew him to medicine and psychiatry, memories he had as a student, clinical roles he took on, why he chose to get an MBA, and how he will use his skills at CareMore Health.

It was an absolute pleasure for me to speak with Dr. Parikh and learn from him.

Host - Ryan O'Keefe

Show Notes

Arpan’s LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/arpan-parikh-724897125/

Mt. Sinai Addiction Institute

https://www.mountsinai.org/locations/addiction-institute

CareMore Health

https://www.caremore.com/

Today’s episode is a conversation I had with Dr. Adam Lessler, who is currently a Principal at Evidity Health Capital in New York City. He is a licensed physician with residency training in emergency medicine and over a decade of healthcare industry experience counseling Boards and senior leadership teams.

Prior to joining Evidity, Adam was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company, where he served clients across the health care value chain, with a focus on provider growth and M&A/partnership strategy. Previously, Adam completed his internship in emergency medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and worked as an analyst in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs and as a research assistant in Harvard Medical School’s Department of Health Care Policy.

Adam has a B.A. in economics from Amherst College, an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.D. from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

In the episode we chat about his background, some memories from getting his MD/MBA at Penn, his decision to pursue consulting and later venture capital after completing 1 year of an Emergency Medicine Residency, and a bit about his current role in the venture capital world.

Dr. Lessler has been a terrific mentor to many in the HealthX and Penn community, and we are lucky to have him share his stories and lessons with us here.

Footnotes

Adam’s LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-lessler-9537414b/

Evidity Website

https://www.evidity.com/

Today’s episode is one I co-hosted with Mariam Alausa, who is the current co-VP of Curriculum for Penn HealthX. Our guest was Kwaku Owusu, who is the founder and CEO of DrugViu and TrialViu.

Drugviu aggregates patient-related outcomes for people of color who take specific pharmaceutical drugs. TrialViu is a companion site that then educates those same patients about clinical trials, and then matches them to trials they may qualify for using AI.

Their lofty mission is to eliminate underrepresentation in medicine

Reading from DrugViu’s website to share more about the problem they are looking to solve:

Racial and ethnic minorities are 40% of the US population and growing, yet represent less than 8% of the participants in pharmaceutical clinical trials. Especially concerning are clinical trials for diseases that disproportionately affect minorities. Here are few more examples:

Per the National Cancer Institute, African-American men are twice as likely as their white counterparts to die from prostate cancer but represent 4% of clinical trial participants.

The CDC reports that suicide is one of the leading causes of death among Asian-American women under 45 years of age. Yet, Asian-Americans constituted less than 1% of trials for CDER-approved treatments of major depressive disorders in the last two years.

Cancer is the leading cause of death among Hispanics, yet Hispanic cancer patients only make up 4% of participants in cancer clinical trials in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institute.

Native Americans are often not represented in studies at all

Without enough minority participants, it’s virtually impossible to determine the effectiveness and side effects of a particular medication to that group. To compound this, there is no place online for minorities to research drug information specifically targeted for them. There is no online community where users can read and contribute to side effect/drug efficacy reviews by people that look like them.

In the episode, we discuss Kwaku’s background, more about what made him interested in this area of medicine, and what he has learned along the way getting these companies off the ground.

Now, let’s get to our conversation with Kwaku Owusu.

FootNotes

Kwaku’s LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kwaku-owusu/

DrugViu Website

https://www.drugviu.com/

TrialViu Website

https://www.trialviu.com/

Today’s episode is with Erik Maltais, who is the founder and CEO of IMMERTEC, which is a company using virtual reality tools to bring remote surgeons and trainees into the OR to teach them skills and how to use certain medical devices.

He has a really cool background in both the business and medical worlds, and it was a pleasure to speak with him to learn about his journey, the process of founding IMMERTEC and finding physicians to collaborate with, and what the long term goals are.

I hope you enjoy this conversation with Erik Maltais.

Host - Ryan O'Keefe

Footnotes

Erik’s LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maltaisem/

Erik’s Website

https://erikmaltais.com/

IMMERTEC Website

https://immertec.com/

This episode is a conversation I had with one of my friends and Wharton colleagues, Catherine Bryt. Catherine is the CEO and founder of Sibi Health. Put simply, Sibi Health is a marketplace for healthcare services, now serving the Philadelphia area. You can compare local doctors and pre-set service prices for both in-person and video visits, select, book, and pay in advance using a credit card or HSA/FSA card, and then receive care.

In the episode, we discuss Catherine’s background studying neuroscience and economics, some of the jobs she had before Wharton, and what her experience has been like starting a company in the Wharton environment, and during the COVID pandemic.

To learn more about Sibi, check out their website sibihealth.com.

Also check out their instagram @sibi.health.

Footnotes

Catherine’s LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cbryt/

Sibi Health website

https://www.sibihealth.com/

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/sibi.health/

MM.LaFleur

https://mmlafleur.com/

Create Health Plans

https://createhealthplans.com/

In this episode, back by popular demand, is Dr. David Nash. Dr. Nash was a guest back in March for episode #45 when we spoke about how population health transforming the healthcare system. We decided to have him back to continue the conversation and delve deeper into how clinicians are actually utilizing data being collected, and what the future holds.

Dr. Nash is the Founding Dean of the Jefferson College of Population Health in Philadelphia. He completed his MD at the University of Rochester and his internal medicine residency at Graduate Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Hewas a RWJ Clinical scholar, and through this program completed an MBA with the Wharton School. He

has been on faculty at Jefferson for nearly 30 years. He is widely regarded to be a “pioneer” in the world of population health, and he has many interests including health policy, quality and safety, outcomes

management, and health reform. Dr. Nash has served on many national committees and has sat on the board of a number of public and private organizations. He has written many blog posts about these areas which you can find on MedPage, and he is frequently asked to share his thoughts in public speaking events and live webinars.

In this episode, we dive deeper into the social determinants of health, EHR operability, the usefulness of physician “report cards”, transparency in outcomes reporting, and many other topics. We touch on many interesting topics that are shaping the future of our healthcare system, and it was great to hear where Dr. Nash thinks we are headed.

Host: Ryan O'Keefe

Footnotes

Dr. Nash’s Bio

https://www.jefferson.edu/university/population-health/faculty/nash.html

Dr. Nash’s Blog Posts - MedPage

https://www.medpagetoday.com/columns/focusonpolicy/np_3

In this episode, I interview Zack Gray, who is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ophelia, which seeks to address the opioid epidemic by making medication-assisted treatment (MAT) private, convenient, and affordable for patients. Zack is a graduate of Columbia where he studied Astrophysics and Philosophy. After being in the working world for a few years, he pursued an MBA at Wharton. During this time, he was able to work on building Ophelia.

Ophelia took the 1st Place prize at the Penn HealthX Conference Pitch competition last year when Ophelia was still in the works. Thus, I was excited to catch up with Zack to see how Ophelia has been doing since.

The conversation is loaded with tons of information about the opioid epidemic, the many barriers that exist which keep innovators from helping patients who are addicted to opioids, and what he has learned along the way as he has started a healthcare company from scratch.

I was so impressed by Zack’s dedication to solving the problem, and his approach to overcoming the obstacles inherent in the space and am excited to see what he and the Ophelia team are able to achieve in the coming years. We’ve linked off to many resources and articles that we discuss in the show notes – so please take a look if you are interested in learning more.

Host: Ryan O'Keefe

Foot Notes

Zack’s LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/zack-gray-58437936/

Ophelia Website

https://www.meetophelia.com/

Article Covering Ophelia’s Raise

https://www.forbes.com/sites/berenicemagistretti/2020/05/12/rehab-20-yc-backed-ophelia-raises-27-million-to-help-people-quit-opioids-without-the-burden-and-cost-of-rehab/#8b248551ee82

Zack’s Explanation for Why He Founded Ophelia and What They Do

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22570133

Zack’s Graduation Speech

http://media.licdn.com/embeds/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2Fa2kxSycPey0%3Ffeature%3Doembed&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Da2kxSycPey0&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube

Evidence/Research for the Efficacy of MAT with suboxone

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29934549

Atlantic Article on the Opioid Crisis

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/11/why-heroin-and-fentanyl-addicts-cant-get-treatment/576118/

Book by Dr. Bisaga - Overcoming Opioid Addiction: The Authoritative Medical Guide for Patients, Families, Doctors, and Therapists

https://www.amazon.com/Overcoming-Opioid-Addiction-Authoritative-Therapists/dp/1615194584

Article on Primary Care Providers Not Prescribing MAT

https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/20/opioids-addiction-physicians-doctors-naltrexone/?utm_source=STAT+Newsletters&utm_campaign=f5e5d9e1cc-MR_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8cab1d7961-f5e5d9e1cc-149667945

This episode is an interview with Dr. Jane Zhu. Dr. Zhu is an assistant professor of medicine at OHSU, and a practicing primary care provider. She studied global health at Duke, received both an MD and an MPP from Harvard, completed her internal medicine residency at USCF, and was a National Clinician Scholar at Penn. She remains a senior fellow for the Leonard Davis Institute at Penn, which is how I found out about her exciting research! Her interests span across many fields and include payment reform, mental and behavioral health, and improving equity and access for patients.

We touch on her career path, how she became interested in the fields noted above, and then we do a deep dive into a topic she and others published on recently – the role of private equity in healthcare.

Footnotes

Dr. Zhu’s Bio

https://ldi.upenn.edu/expert/jane-m-zhu-md-mpp-mshp

Private Equity Research Press Releases and Coverage

https://ldi.upenn.edu/healthpolicysense/private-equity-investment-physician-practices

https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/practices/acquisition-physician-practices-by-private-equity-firms-increases-study-finds-which