Vanguards of Healthcare by Bloomberg Intelligence

“We’re never moving fast enough,” says Bob Segert, CEO of Athenahealth. Segert joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer to explain the strategic reset that reshaped Athenahealth: cutting losing bets, doubling down on ambulatory care and building around its cloud-native athenaOne platform to drive operating leverage. The conversation covers Athena’s aggressive AI pivot, its open-platform strategy and why speed, product discipline and better physician economics will determine the next market winners.

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“This deal [with Eli Lilly, announced on Sunday 29 March] is a combination of an asset licensing and collaboration. We’ve collaborated with Lilly in the past and they are actually one of the most active and expert users of our software,” says Alex Zhavoronkov, founder and co-CEO of Insilico Medicine. Zhavoronkov joins Bloomberg Intelligence pharmaceuticals analyst Sam Fazeli to explain how Insilico is using AI to compress drug-discovery timelines from years to months, pursue novel targets and compete with both big pharma and China’s fastest-moving biotech players. They also discuss the company’s rapid Lilly deal and why AI’s real edge may be before the clinic, not inside it.

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“I think 2026 is the year of fundamental, agentic transformation of the workflow.” Abridge co-founder and CTO Zack Lipton joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer to share how the company grew from a research-heavy idea into one of health care’s breakout AI leaders. Lipton breaks down the limits of point solutions, the complexity of evaluating generative AI in medicine, and why he sees the future not as a better digital scribe alone, but as a unified platform that can guide documentation, billing and care decisions in real time.

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“In health care, in order to drive the biggest impact, the biggest outcomes and the biggest exits, you really have to engage the end consumer,” says Alyssa Jaffee, partner at 7Wire Ventures. In this Vanguards of Health Care episode, Jaffee sits down with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer to discuss 7Wire’s thesis-driven approach to venture investing, how the firm works shoulder to shoulder with founders and why health care still offers endless opportunities to fix broken systems. She also reflects on women’s health, the evolving AI landscape and the personal values — integrity, work ethic and mission — that shape how she invests and leads.

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“Nothing excites me as much as the potential for AI,” Xaira CEO Marc Tessier-Lavigne tells Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Sam Fazeli on this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast. They explore how artificial intelligence could cut drug development timelines in half and triple clinical success rates. Tessier-Lavigne, a former Genentech R&D leader, explains why today’s 13-year, 90% failure model is broken and how causal cell models, generative protein design and smarter patient stratification can transform target selection, drug creation and trials. Tessier-Lavigne also details why Xaira is chasing “high-hanging fruit,” the hard-to-drug targets others can’t reach, and what it will take to reverse Eroom’s Law.

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“IVL in general is an enabler for physicians to do very complex procedures — it’s simple, it’s easy to use and it’s safe. So even a physician that doesn’t have a lot of experience doing complex cases can now treat patients that they previously weren’t treating,” AVS Pulse Chairman Mark Toland tells Bloomberg Intelligence, referring to calcified arterial lesions in peripheral artery disease. In this Vanguards of Health Care episode, Toland joins BI analyst Matt Henriksson to discuss how the Pulse intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) system is differentiated vs. current technology, aiming to make treatment more flexible. He also highlights clinical results from the POWER PAD II pivotal trial, the commercial strategy ahead of FDA approval, and the expanding opportunity as aging demographics drive more hardened lesions that require IVL.

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“I wake up every day wanting to make health care better,” says Halle Tecco, founder of Rock Health and author of Massively Better Healthcare. Tecco joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer on this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast to reflect on digital health’s evolution — from her early days at Apple’s App Store to building one of the sector’s first venture funds. She explains why Covid reset adoption curves, how hospitals became leading tech buyers and why aligning “margin and mission” now shapes her investment lens. Tecco also shares lessons from backing a laundry list of well-known startups, teaching at Columbia and Harvard, and why she wrote a book to empower the next wave of innovators.

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“Being privately held and being a pure play spine company has given us the focus, the resourcing and the investment we need to, to really take this thing and make it hum,” Highridge’s CEO Rebecca Whitney says about the 7th largest spine company. In this Vanguards of Health Care episode, Whitney sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview about the path to a private company from a subsidiary under a major, publicly traded ortho company. As an independent company, she explains how it can be nimble in M&A, including the acquisition of key expandable spinal implants from Accelus and the recent PathKeeper agreement, both of which augment Highridge’s portfolio that houses its Mobi-C cervical disc replacement system and Tether motion preservation system. She also explains the importance of saying yes to new roles to build your career trajectory.

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“We’re going to continue to drive innovation across the entire product portfolio, which also includes how we manufacture sensors,” Dexcom CEO Jake Leach tells Bloomberg Intelligence, outlining the company’s strategy to expand the use of continuous glucose monitors to more diabetic patients and beyond. In this Vanguards of Health Care podcast episode, Leach joins BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth discussion on Dexcom’s transition to the G7 15 Day sensor, aimed to reduce the frequency of changing sensors, as well as clinical data efforts to expand reimbursement to diabetic patients not on insulin and updates on the next-generation G8. He also reflects on his 22-year journey at Dexcom, rising from an engineer on a 30-person team to CEO of an 11,000-employee company.

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“We’re empowering health-care providers with unprecedented clinical depth in a compact portable form factor,” AliveCor CEO Priya Abani says about the development of its AI-enabled electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors, which provide medical-grade heart data anytime and anywhere. In this Vanguards of Health Care episode, Abani sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth discussion about the expansion of AliveCor’s Kardia 12L device, which gives physicians a smaller, more portable ECG option. The company has widened the device’s indications to 39 cardiac conditions, established a new Category III reimbursement code and continues to train its algorithm using 1 million ECGs. Abani also talks about how her time at Amazon.com influenced her perspective on the interaction of technology and the human experience.

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