Episódios
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US healthcare has more unproductive labor and more unstructured data than any other industry, making it both vulnerable to disruption from generative AI and especially unprepared for it.
That’s the provocative thesis of Eric Larsen, president of TowerBrook. In this episode, he joins host Steve Kraus to explain why generative AI is unlike any other technology we've seen—and why the $4.9 trillion healthcare sector is uniquely exposed.
We cover:
🧠 What makes GenAI a true “general purpose technology”—and how it compares to past innovations like the microprocessor or the internet
🏥 Why healthcare has failed to adopt past tech shifts, and why this time could be different
🔐 The role of the “F-150”—the 150 leaders who effectively control the US healthcare system
🤝 Whether incumbents or insurgents will win the AI race in healthcare
📉 Why GenAI will reduce labor costs and what that means for health systems that spend over half their budgets on people
🌐 How China is sprinting ahead in deploying medical superintelligence
🧬 What a compressed century of biomedical discovery could look like—and why Larsen believes we’re approaching longevity escape velocity
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About our guests:
Eric Jon Larsen is President of TowerBrook Advisors and a member of the healthcare leadership team at TowerBrook Capital Partners, a $30 billion AUM investment firm based in New York and London. TowerBrook invests across private equity, structured minority, and growth opportunities, with a strong focus on healthcare, partnering with health systems, payers, and other strategics. Notably, TowerBrook is the first mainstream private equity firm to achieve B Corp certification, reflecting its commitment to responsible business practices.
Eric is a nationally recognized healthcare strategist with a global advisory portfolio spanning CEOs and boards of leading healthcare organizations. He spent 25 years at The Advisory Board Company—five of those as President—advancing best practices in healthcare delivery worldwide. Following the firm's 2017 acquisition by Optum (UnitedHealth Group), Eric co-led strategic partnerships and market development efforts at UnitedHealth. He is also a Venture Partner at Thrive Capital and SignalFire, and serves on several digital health boards, including Somatus and Contessa Health. Beyond healthcare, Eric is active in the arts as Chairman of The Washington National Opera and trustee of The Washington Ballet. A Georgetown University graduate, he lives in Washington, D.C., and Miami with his wife and three children.
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Over 160 million Americans are served by Optum, yet many still don’t fully understand what it actually does—or why it matters.
Dr. Patrick Conway, newly appointed CEO of Optum and former head of CMS Innovation Center and Blue Cross NC, joins Steve for a wide-ranging discussion on the state of healthcare delivery, affordability, and the potential of value-based care at a national scale. With experience spanning the frontlines of medicine to top government and corporate leadership, Conway breaks down how Optum aims to improve care while controlling costs—and why he continues to practice as a pediatric hospitalist on weekends.
We cover:
💡 What Optum actually does—and how it operates across care delivery, pharmacy, and data
📉 How value-based care is being scaled, and why two-sided risk models matter
🧠 Using AI to reduce cycle times, drive affordability, and improve clinical decision-making
💊 What’s broken—and what’s working—in the U.S. pharmacy system
🧑⚕️ What leaders, policymakers, and physicians need to know to truly fix healthcare
🧵 How personal tragedy, frontline stories, and government service continue to shape Conway’s leadership today
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About our guests:
Patrick Conway, MD, MSc, was named chief executive officer of Optum Rx in August 2023. In this role he leads an integrated pharmacy care services organization that is making drugs more affordable and creating a better experience for consumers, filling more than 1.5 billion adjusted retail, mail and specialty drug prescriptions annually. He joined Optum in February 2020 and
previously served as the chief executive officer of Care Solutions, where he led a portfolio of care continuum businesses serving over 70 million people across acute and post-acute care, care in the home in-person and virtually, mental and behavioral care benefits and delivery, broad population and complex disease health management, specialty care and government health services.
Dr. Conway was president and chief executive officer of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina from 2017-19. From 2011 to 2017, he served as Deputy Administrator for Innovation and Quality at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and as director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and the agency’s Chief Medical Officer. Before joining CMS, he oversaw clinical operations and quality improvement at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
Dr. Conway is a practicing pediatric hospitalist. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2014, received the President’s Senior Executive Distinguished Service Award, and was a White House Fellow from 2007 to 2008. He earned his MD with high honors from Baylor College of Medicine, residency training at Boston Children’s Hospital, and Master of Science in clinical epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania.
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Women make 80% of healthcare decisions and outspend men two to one on care—yet when it comes to designing, funding, and scaling health tech, they’re still treated like a niche.
In this episode, we break down the broken flywheel holding women’s health innovation back including fewer growth-stage investments, limited exits, and a system not built to serve women as the primary users of care. I’m joined by Carolyn Witte, co-founder of Tia, and Katie Drasser, CEO of Rock Health, to talk about what needs to change—and how we get there.
We cover:
📱 What Rock Health’s latest report says about women as digital health consumers
🚫 Why men shouldn’t be the benchmark for women’s health
💸 How women’s health companies struggle to raise beyond Series A (and what to do about it)
👩⚕️ Why every company should be a women’s health company
💡 What founders and investors need to do differently to unlock women’s health at scale
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About our guests:
Katie Drasser is CEO of RockHealth.org, leading a team of experts in health equity, social enterprise, and design to encourage more equitable innovation in digital health. Drasser has launched programs that address complex global issues with a focus on public health innovation and the role of innovative financing and leadership in systems change. Previously, she curated health content for the Aspen Ideas Festival and was managing director of the Aspen Global Innovators Group, steering global leadership programs to address poverty alleviation and human rights. Drasser has worked internationally on HIV/AIDS treatment strategies in Romania, private health services delivery in Myanmar, and the scale up of Kenya’s national emergency medical system. She designed a network of charter schools and developed Good Capital, a venture fund that invests in social enterprises like the Hub Bay Area and the Social Capital Markets Conference.
Carolyn Witte is a visionary healthcare entrepreneur dedicated to creating a personalized, preventive, and human-centered healthcare system. As the founding CEO of Tia — the leading tech-enabled primary care provider for women — she pioneered a new model of “whole-women’s” healthcare, integrating virtual and retail-style clinics, technology, and a multidisciplinary care teams to transform the business and experience of going to the doctor. A former strategist at Google’s Creative Lab, Carolyn brings an interdisciplinary approach to healthcare innovation through design, technology, and brand. Her latest passion project is The XX Factor — a newsletter and community advancing the women’s health category through hard won lessons, shared learnings and collective action. She’s been recognized by Fast Company, Forbes, and Inc. Magazine as a trailblazer for women in business.
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Show notes:
Women in focus: understanding women as digital health consumers (Rock Health)There’s a Growth-Stage Cliff Plaguing Women’s Health Startups—
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In this month's Digital Health Download, Steve and Halle unpack the headlines shaping healthcare, policy, and technology—with an eye toward where things may be heading next. From shifting political support for Medicaid and the ACA to state-level action on PBMs, they explore the unexpected ways the system is evolving.
We cover:
🩺 Why more Republicans are backing Medicaid and ACA expansion—and what the data tells us
🧠 Autism in the spotlight (and Halle's favorite show)
⚖ How a new Arkansas law could disrupt the PBM status quo
📊 Bessemer’s new Health AI Adoption Index, including what separates pilots from true deployments
📚 A lawsuit against academic publishers that’s raising questions about access and transparency in research
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📍 Show notes:
Enrollment Growth in the ACA Marketplaces (KFF)Love on the Spectrum (Netflix)Arkansas adopts first-in-the-nation law forcing companies to choose between running a PBM or pharmacies (STAT News)Scientists’ suit against top academic publishers lays bare deep frustration over unpaid peer review (STAT News)Another Call for Open Access (Halle’s blog)The Healthcare AI Adoption Index (BVP)—
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The average American family spends over $24,000 a year on healthcare, and costs continue to rise faster than inflation. Why can't we create a healthcare system that delivers more value for less money?
In this conversation with Ann Somers Hogg, Director of Healthcare Research at the Clayton Christensen Institute, we explore the concept of "Zero Inflation Healthcare" and uncover why traditional health insurance models continue to drive costs up. Ann breaks down why many InsureTech startups initially struggled to disrupt incumbents and how a new approach to business model innovation could finally tame runaway healthcare costs.
We cover:
🌟 The "optimal care business model" that could help transform healthcare
📊 Why InsureTechs like Oscar and Clover struggled initially against incumbents
🧰 If and how insurance companies can fix their reputations
💰 Why health insurance companies' "spend more to make more" profit formula fails to incentivize the desired outcome
🔄 How regulations create barriers to disruptive innovation in health insurance
🛑 Why Haven (the Amazon-Berkshire-JPMorgan venture) failed despite its resources
💡 How the "Jobs to Be Done" theory applies to healthcare choices
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About our guest:
Ann Somers is the director of health care research at the Clayton Christensen Institute where her research focuses on the structural pathways to improve health. This includes business model design, leadership approaches, customer orientation, and innovation strategy. Prior to joining the Institute, Ann Somers worked for Atrium Health (now Advocate Health), where she served as the AVP of Strategy and Transformation. She started her career in consulting at Oliver Wyman, working to develop value-based care strategies for large payers. Ann Somers holds an MSPH in Health Policy and Management from UNC-Chapel Hill and a BS in Commerce from the University of Virginia. She lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband and two children.
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Show notes:
Read the full paper here: christenseninstitute.org/publication/health-insurance-innovation
If you’d like to learn more about the Institute’s broader work, feel free to explore: www.christenseninstitute.org
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Each year, 2 million Americans are diagnosed with cancer and face a fragmented, overwhelming healthcare system with minimal guidance between doctor visits, even as they make life-altering decisions.
In this episode, we talk with Robin Shah, Founder & CEO of Thyme Care, who has devoted his 17-year career to improving oncology care and is now building a virtual support system that has already helped over 50,000 cancer patients nationwide.
We cover:
🏥 Robin's origin story saving his father's oncology practice during the 2008 financial crisis
💊 How community oncology has consolidated from independent doctors to large corporations
🚀 Key insights from scaling Flatiron Health as employee #3 and co-founding One Oncology
📈 How value-based care is creating new opportunities in specialty care
🔮 The future of cancer care coordination beyond active treatment
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About our guest
Robin Shah is the Founder & CEO of Thyme Care, an oncology population management company providing virtual clinical support for cancer patients. His career in oncology began by helping his father's community practice survive both the Great Recession and aggressive competition from hospital systems. Robin was an early employee at Flatiron Health and a founding team member of One Oncology before launching Thyme Care, which now supports over 270,000 people across the country with a team of 400 employees.
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Health insurance has a Net Promoter Score of around 0-10 industry-wide, one of the lowest ratings of any industry. This is exactly why the founders of Oscar Health, with no background in healthcare and a distaste for the industry, started the company in 2012. Since then, Oscar has grown to 1.7 million members, gone public, and achieved profitability—all while receiving an NPS significantly higher than the industry average.
In this episode, we talk with Mario Schlosser, co-founder and CTO of Oscar Health, about building a tech-first health insurance company in an industry notorious for poor customer experiences.
We cover:
🏥 Why outsiders without healthcare backgrounds decided to tackle the insurance industry
💰 How Oscar grew to 1.7 million members while maintaining a 60+ NPS score in a hard-to-please industry
📊 The balance between denying unnecessary care and empathetically supporting members
⚙️ How ICHRAs (Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements) are disrupting traditional employer-sponsored healthcare
🧶 The beginning of the unraveling of the employer markets
💼 The changing employer healthcare market and why small businesses are seeking alternatives
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About our guest:
Mario Schlosser is the Co-Founder & CTO at Oscar Health. In this role, Mario leads product and engineering, with a focus on building Oscar’s technology platform for the future and continuing to set the strategy for the +Oscar strategy.
Previously, Mario served as CEO of Oscar, leading the company from inception to serving over 1M members across Individual & Family, Medicare Advantage, and Small Group health plans.
Before co-founding Oscar, Mario also co-founded the largest social gaming company in Latin America, where he led the company's analytics and game design practices. Prior to that, Mario was a Senior Investment Associate at Bridgewater Associates and worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Company in Europe, the U.S. and Brazil.
Mario also spent time as a visiting scholar at Stanford University, where he wrote and co-authored 10 computer science publications, including one of the most-cited computer science papers published in the past decade, in which he developed the EigenTrust Algorithm to securely compute trust in randomized networks. In May 2019, Mario and his co-authors, Sepandar D. Kamvar (Mosaic Building Group Inc) and Héctor Garcia-Molina (Celo), received the prestigious Seoul Test of Time Award from the International World Wide Web Conference Committee (IW3C2) for this work.
Mario holds a degree in computer science with highest distinction from the University of Hannover in Germany and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
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In this month's Digital Health Download, Steve, Halle, and Michael take a deliberately optimistic look at key headlines in healthcare technology. From the impressive impact of AI scribing tools on physician satisfaction to encouraging survival rates among digital health unicorns from the ZIRP-era, the hosts highlights bright spots in an often challenging industry.
We cover:
🏆 Rock Health's 10th annual Consumer Adoption Survey revealing how each generation uniquely engages with digital health
🤖 How AI-powered ambient scribing is transforming physician documentation and reducing burnout
👩⚕️ The concerning trust gap between younger generations and healthcare providers
💊 The effectiveness but not yet cost-effectiveness of GLP-1 medications like Ozempic
💼 New analysis showing 89% of digital health unicorns from the pandemic era are still operating
🏛️ Potential opportunities for innovation within the current administration's healthcare policies
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Show notes:
Rock Health's Consumer Adoption ReportJAMA article: Lifetime Health Effects and Cost-Effectiveness of Tirzepatide and Semaglutide in US AdultsHalle's article: What Happened to the Digital Health Unicorns of 2020-2022?JAMA article: Clinician Experiences With Ambient Scribe Technology to Assist With Documentation Burden and Efficiency—
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Venture capital in healthcare has evolved from "the trailer park of venture investing" to a fundamental core tenant of the ecosystem, reflecting a quarter-century transformation of the entire industry.
In this episode, we sit down with Mohamad Makhzoumi, co-CEO of NEA, who shares his 25-year journey from unpaid intern to leader of one of the largest healthcare investment funds, offering his insights into the evolution of healthcare startups and VC.
We cover:
💼 His trajectory from carrying a partner's briefcase to co-CEO, and what it takes to break into venture capital today
🎭 Healthcare's distinct "eras" - from HMO revolution to digital health booms and regulatory cycles
🏥 Why healthcare venture capital follows different rules and timelines than traditional tech investing
💰 The challenges of timing exits in healthcare, and the regrets that come with leaving promising companies too early
🚀 How NEA has moved beyond traditional investing to incubating healthcare companies
🔄 The cyclical nature of healthcare regulation and its impact on investment strategies
🔮 Where digital health stands today – "transitioning from one party to another"
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About our guest:
Mohamad Makhzoumi first joined NEA in 2000 and now serves as co-CEO of the firm. He was previously NEA’s co-president, prior to which Mohamad served as managing general partner, healthcare, where he led and oversaw NEA’s global healthcare investing practice across digital health and life sciences. Mohamad’s investment practice is focused on healthcare services and technology from early venture to late-stage growth, and he has helped many entrepreneurs build and scale transformative companies. Outside of NEA, he is a board member of the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health at Stanford.
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One in four Americans relies on Medicaid, yet the program faces billions in federal funding cuts.
In this episode, we speak with Dr. Rajaie Batniji, co-founder and CEO of Waymark, about delivering tech-enabled community care to Medicaid patients.
We discuss what cuts to Medicaid could mean, the impact of "value veneers", and how predictive algorithms can overcome bias in healthcare delivery. Dr. Batniji also shares his personal connection to healthcare equity and his motivation for serving vulnerable populations despite investor skepticism about Medicaid-focused businesses.
We cover:
🏥 How to address the unique needs of Medicaid patients
💰 The potential impact of proposed $880 billion Medicaid cuts and why they may not generate real savings
🔄 The failures of Medicaid work requirements and why eligibility cuts won't reduce actual healthcare
📊 What "value veneers" are, and how they are harmful to healthcare innovation
🌍 Advice for founders looking to serve the Medicaid population
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About our guest:
Dr. Rajaie Batniji is a physician, entrepreneur, and advocate for improving healthcare delivery. He is the co-founder and CEO of Waymark, a company providing tech-enabled community care for people on Medicaid. Previously, he co-founded Collective Health where he served as Chief Health Officer for eight years. He was also a clinical assistant professor at Stanford University in Medicine where he trained in internal medicine.
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Show notes:
Supporting Rising-Risk Medicaid Patients Through Early Intervention (NEJM Catalyst)Geographic Variations and Facility Determinants of Acute Care Utilization and Spending for ACSCs (AJMC)Procedural Prescription Denials and Risk of Acute Care Utilization and Spending Among Medicaid Patients (JAMA Open)Value Veneers And How To Enable Value In Medicaid Care Delivery (Health Affairs)A Social ACO For Medicaid Managed Care (Health Affairs)The Public's View on Potential Changes to Medicaid (KFF)—
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In 2020, telemedicine company Teladoc acquired remote patient monitoring company Livongo for a record $18.5 billion, creating a $38 billion entity. Today, the combined company is worth less than a tenth of that.
Rebecca Mitchell, who spent years as a product leader at both companies, reveals how this landmark healthcare deal fell short of expectations despite strong underlying products, and what we can learn from it.
We also get her insights on the need for physician innovators, and how she came to co-found Scrub Capital.
We cover:
💻 The rise of physicians in product management roles at digital health companies
💰 The untold "body and internal organs" story of the Livongo-Teladoc merger
🩺 How incorporating clinician expertise leads to better healthcare products
💼 Scrub Capital's approach to leveraging 700+ clinicians for smarter healthcare investing
🤝 Why healthcare innovators should support rather than criticize each other
🏆 Critical lessons for future healthcare M&A
About our guest:
Rebecca Mitchell began her career in global health as an academic researcher and Fulbright Fellow in maternal health. After receiving her medical degree from UCSF, she served as the medical officer for innovation at HHS before spending a decade in product roles at startups, including Livongo and Teladoc. Rebecca now leads Scrub Capital, an early-stage fund that incorporates the expertise of over 700 clinicians, founders, and operators to invest in healthcare companies.
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Startup capital accelerator and venture capital firm Y Combinator has a long history of backing healthcare startups, with a particular focus on technical founders tackling difficult problems. In this episode, YC partners Jared Friedman and Ankit Gupta share their insights on healthcare investment, the transformative potential of AI, and why they believe young, tactical founders will continue to disrupt the healthcare industry despite its challenges.
We cover:
🏥 YC's approach to healthcare investing over the years
⚕️ How AI has a 10x faster adoption curve than anything else we've seen
💻 The potential for AI to automate healthcare's administrative burdens and provide universal access to medical knowledge
🌍 The opportunity to bring primary care to billions who currently lack access
🔄 Why an outsider's perspective can be valuable when rebuilding healthcare systems
🚫 How patient privacy regulations might be hindering healthcare innovation
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About our guests:
Jared Friedman is Managing Director, Software and Group Partner at YC. He was co-founder of Scribd, which was funded by Y Combinator in 2006 and grew to be one of the top 100 sites on the web. Jared previously worked at a pioneering AI company and studied computer science at Harvard.
Ankit Gupta is a Visiting Partner at Y Combinator and former Co-Founder and CTO of Reverie Labs, a small molecule therapeutics company that leverages machine learning to develop oncology treatments. Ankit led the team through its acquisition by Ginkgo Bioworks in February 2024. Ankit studied computer science at Harvard.
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🙏 Thanks to Flexpa for sponsoring this episode. Flexpa is refactoring healthcare. Connect to 300+ health plans through a single, secure integration to access patient-consented, identified claims data instantly.
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In this monthly healthcare news roundup, Halle and Steve break down the biggest healthcare headlines this month.
We cover:
🏥 How a $5/month medication subscription service is improving adherence and saving patients money
🧠 How microplastic levels in our brains have increased 50% in just eight years
⚕️ The viral beef between a surgeon and UnitedHealthcare
💉 Louisiana's decision to stop promoting vaccination and the politicization of public health messaging
🏛️ The impact of DOGE cuts on key health agencies
📈 Hims & Hers' Super Bowl ad criticizing the healthcare system
💊 Updates on GLP-1 medication access and pricing as compounding ends
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Show notes:
PlasticList.org—
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From law school to leading one of healthcare's most successful value-based care companies, Oak Street Health co-founder Mike Pykos shares the story of building, scaling, and ultimately selling his company to CVS for $11 billion.
He reveals the challenges of scaling a new care model, the importance of focusing on outcomes over financials, and what it takes to transform American healthcare.
We cover:
🏥 Why Oak Street intentionally designed an "unprofitable" care model
👥 The critical role of co-founders and finding the right cultural fit
📈 Taking the company public during COVID and navigating the markets
💰 The decision to sell to CVS and letting go of control
⚕️ The state of value-based care and why innovation has slowed
🔄 Lessons learned from scaling from startup to Fortune 500
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About our guest:
Mike is the co-founder of Oak Street Health ®, a leading network of more than 200 primary care centers across 25 states that delivers value-based care to older adults. He served as its chief executive officer from its founding in 2012 through the company's acquisition by CVS Health in 2023.
Prior to founding Oak Street Health he was a Principal for Boston Consulting Group. Mike has a JD from Harvard Law School and a a BS in Biochemistry from University of Notre Dame.
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Full-body MRIs are a controversial and expensive screening tool that some believe could revolutionize early cancer detection, while others worry they create unnecessary anxiety and waste medical resources.
In this episode, we dive deep into this debate with Emi Gal, founder & CEO of Ezra, who is using AI to make full-body MRI screening faster, more accessible, and more accurate.
We cover:
🏥 What are full-body MRI scans, and how they're being used today
💰 The current costs and insurance coverage challenges of preventative MRI screening
🔬 Why medical societies don't currently endorse full-body MRI scans (and if they ever will)
🧬 How full-body MRIs compare to other cancer diagnostics like liquid biopsy
🤖 The role of AI in enhancing image quality and translating medical reports
🔄 The importance of longitudinal monitoring for certain medical findings
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About our guest:
Emi Gal is a software engineer and entrepreneur working at the intersection of AI and healthcare. He's currently the Founder & CEO of Ezra, an AI healthcare company that has created a new way to screen for cancer using a full body MRI powered by AI.
Prior to Ezra, Emi was the Founder & CEO of Brainient, an advertising technology company he started at age 19. Brainient became the largest video ad server in Europe and was acquired by Teads in 2016, where Emi spent two years as CEO of Teads Studio helping grow the company to nearly $1 billion in revenue.
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Show notes:
Emi's Longevity ProtocolInterested in trying the full-body scan? Listeners can use the promo code HOH250 for $250 off your scan. Note: Heart of Healthcare is not affiliated with Ezra and receives no compensation for this code.—
🙏 Thanks to Flexpa for sponsoring this episode. Flexpa is refactoring healthcare. Connect to 300+ health plans through a single, secure integration to access patient-consented, identified claims data instantly.
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From fast food drive-throughs to Netflix autoplay, many of America's favorite products are designed to maximize profits at the expense of our health. But Thomas Goetz, co-founder of Building H, believes there's a better way. In this episode about corporate responsibility and public health, the former WIRED editor explains why changing company behavior may be easier than changing consumer habits – and how a new health accountability index could help transform America.
We cover:
🏗️ Why the structure of modern society makes healthy choices nearly impossible for most Americans
📊 How Building H's new corporate health index is measuring companies' impact on consumer wellbeing
🎮 The surprising companies getting health right, from Pokemon Go to sustainable housing developers
📈 Why health metrics should be included in ESG frameworks and corporate KPIs
🏃♀️ The challenge of aligning corporate profits with positive health outcomes
🔄 How small product changes can drive meaningful population health improvements
💡 Why traditional public health approaches need reinvention for today's challenges
🏢 The role of public benefit corporations in building health-first businesses
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About our guest:
Thomas Goetz is a journalist, entrepreneur, and author. He uses data and design and stories to help people understand and navigate complicated issues in their world.
Thomas is the co-founder of Iodine, an award-winning website that has helped millions of people make sense of their health and medicines. In 2016, Iodine was acquired by GoodRx, America’s leading source for prescription drug savings, where he presently serves as chief of research. Thomas was previously the executive editor at WIRED, which he led to a dozen National Magazine Awards in as many years. He began his career as a reporter at the Village Voice and the Wall Street Journal. He also wrote the LaunchPad column for Inc. magazine.
Thomas is co-founder of Building H, a nonprofit with a mission to build health into everyday life. He has written two books, most recently the 2014 bestseller The Remedy: Robert Koch, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Quest to Cure Tuberculosis. He served as the first Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Curator-in-Residence for Adobe Systems. His TED talk on visualizing medical data has been viewed half a million times.
Goetz holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master's in American literature from the University of Virginia. He graduated from Bates College, and lives in San Francisco.
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Show notes:
Building H Index
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2025 has started with sobering reminders of healthcare's challenges, while also showcasing technology's potential to save lives. Join us for this week's episode as we analyze recent headlines:
🏥 UnitedHealth's first earnings report since CEO's murder
🔥 How the Watch Duty app is helping Californians navigate devastating wildfires
🏛️ FDA's flurry of new health protection rules
📊 A concerning new report on healthcare consolidation
💰 The compelling economic case for investing in women's health
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Show notes:
📈 UnitedHealth Group (UNH) Earnings Call Transcript
📕 HHS Consolidation in Health Care Markets Report
💃 The WHAM Report on Women's Health
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From selling deceased patients' body parts to denying cancer treatment over upfront payments, the Lown Institute's annual Shkreli Awards spotlight the most egregious examples of profiteering and dysfunction in American healthcare. Dr. Vikas Saini, President of the Lown Institute, walks us through 2024's (dis)honorees and what they reveal about the state of our healthcare system.
We cover:
🏆 The origin and impact of the Shkreli Awards
🏥 How a Texas medical school sold body parts without family consent
💉 The booming business of unnecessary infant tongue-tie procedures
💊 A Montana oncologist's shocking pattern of patient harm
🏦 UnitedHealth's growing control over American healthcare
💰 How private equity firm Steward Health Care bankrupted community hospitals
🔍 What these cases tell us about healthcare's future
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Show notes:
➡️ Nominate someone for the $25k Bernard Lown Award for Social Responsibility
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About our guest:
Vikas Saini, MD is president of the Lown Institute. He is a clinical cardiologist trained by Dr. Bernard Lown at Harvard, where he has taught and done research. Dr. Saini leads the Institute’s signature project, the Lown Institute Hospitals Index, the first ranking to measure hospital social responsibility. The Index, first launched in July 2020, evaluates hospitals on equity, value, and outcomes, and includes never-before-used metrics such as avoiding overuse, pay equity, and racial inclusivity.
In his role at the Lown Institute since 2012, Dr. Saini led the development of the Right Care series of papers published by The Lancet in 2017; convened six national conferences featuring world-renowned leaders in health care; and guided other Lown Institute projects such as the “Shkreli Awards.” Dr. Saini also serves as co-chair of the Right Care Alliance, a grassroots network of clinicians, patient activists, and community leaders organizing to put patients, not profits, at the heart of health care.
Prior to the Lown Institute, Dr. Saini was in private practice in cardiology for over 15 years on Cape Cod, where he also founded a primary care physician network participating in global payment contracts. He also co-founded Aspect Medical Systems, the pioneer in noninvasive consciousness monitoring in the operating room with the BIS device.
Dr. Saini is an expert on the optimal medical management of cardiologic conditions, medical overuse, hospital performance and evaluation, and health equity. He has spoken and presented research at professional meetings around the world, and has been quoted in numerous print media, radio, and television.
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In this bonus episode, Bessemer Venture Partners’ Healthcare and Life Sciences team shares the top industry developments they anticipate in the year to come.
We cover:
⚖️ The future of Obamacare under Trump
💊 Novel drug modalities
📊 Improved GLP-1 payment models
🏥 Caregiver workforce shifts
🤖 Multimodal clinical AI in practice
🔮 And more!
Join Bessemer Partners Steve Kraus and Andrew Hedin, and Vice Presidents Sofia Guerra and Morgan Cheatham, for this bonus episode on the state of the healthcare business in 2025.
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"Healthcare attracts a lot of good people, but it also attracts a lot of morally unscrupulous people who consistently demonstrate their willingness to do horribly unethical stuff to make a lot of money."
Join us for many mic-drop moments with recording artist-turned-healthcare-investor D.A. Wallach, who tells it like it is—but in a nice way only someone who grew up in the Midwest can.
From questioning the "doctor" honorific to calling large health systems "the root of evil," D.A. challenges healthcare's sacred cows and offers a provocative vision for the future.
We cover:
🏥 Why the "doctor" title might be outdated and how to reframe medical authority
🤖 The future of AI in medicine and why software can and should handle more
💊 How to preserve humanity while automating healthcare delivery
💰 Starting a healthcare VC fund as an outsider
🎵 Parallels between the music industry and healthcare
🔄 The need for a universal, evidence-based standard of care
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About our guest:
D.A. Wallach is a venture capital investor at Time BioVentures and an acclaimed recording artist who Fast Company named one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business. While an undergraduate at Harvard, D.A. studied with professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and received the Andrew Ramroop and Alain Locke prizes as the top graduate in his department. Prior to leaving school, Pharrell Williams discovered D.A.’s band Chester French and signed the group to Interscope Records, where they released two full-length albums. He has toured with Lady Gaga, Weezer, and Blink 182, performed on TV Shows including Jimmy Kimmel Live and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and appeared in Rolling Stone and Vogue.
In 2011, D.A. stopped touring in order to focus on his other passion, investing. He has since built a parallel career as a venture capitalist, backing a series of industry-defining technology companies including Spotify, SpaceX, Ripple, The Boring Company, and Memphis Meats. Since 2015, D.A. has focused on biotechnology and healthcare, seeking to reinvent medicine through breakthrough start-ups like Beam, Glympse, Doctor on Demand, Devoted Health, and Neuralink. As co-founder and General Partner of Time BioVentures, he brings this experience to a new generation of talented entrepreneurs in the life sciences.
Outside of work, D.A. appeared as an actor in the film La La Land, which received 14 Academy Award nominations. He publishes essays on a range of topics on his website www.dawallach.com, and is the co-founder of the non-profit Franca Fund for preventive genomics, an advisory board member of No Patient Left Behind, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Santa Fe Institute.
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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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