HLTH Matters

About Charlie Harp:

Charlie Harp is the founder and CEO of Clinical Architecture, an industry-leading healthcare data quality solutions provider. Charlie has over 35 years of experience as a healthcare software engineer focused on creating tools to better utilize and understand data. He led his team to develop the first deterministic algorithm-based engine for automating semantic interoperability. Charlie often speaks on clinical data quality and usability and is the host of the Informonster Podcast.

Things You’ll Learn:

• Evaluating data quality in healthcare involves assessing millions of data points for each patient.
• Improving data quality in healthcare is not just a technical task but a strategic endeavor that necessitates significant investment and allocation of resources.
• Achieving healthcare data interoperability requires balancing standardized data practices with the flexibility needed for different healthcare institutions to operate effectively.
• Technology can play a significant role in alleviating the burden of data quality management, allowing for more efficient and accurate data assessment and integration.
• Despite challenges, incremental steps are being taken in the healthcare industry to enhance data quality and management, reflecting the dedication of healthcare professionals and the industry's commitment to progress.

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Charlie Harp on LinkedIn.
• Follow Clinical Architecture on LinkedIn.
• Visit the Clinical Architecture Website.
• Listen to the Informonster podcast here.

About Nishi Rawat:

Nishi Rawat, MD, MBA, is a critical care physician and health leader working at the intersection of medicine, public health, and technology. She has dedicated her career to improving healthcare access and outcomes for all with a focus on behavioral health within the lens of whole-person care. 

As Chief Clinical Officer at Bamboo Health, Rawat focuses on developing innovative solutions and products that improve whole-person care by bridging healthcare silos and reducing fragmentation across the healthcare industry, which will improve patient outcomes and reduce costs across the healthcare industry. 

Rawat began her healthcare career as an emergency medicine and critical care physician at Johns Hopkins. As a healthcare faculty member and researcher, she led quality measure development and implementation at Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. Clinically, she experienced the frustration of locating definitive care for patients with behavioral health conditions, which led to the development of OpenBeds in 2015, a software platform to expedite access to care. In 2018, Bamboo Health acquired OpenBeds. The OpenBeds system now serves 15 states to improve access to behavioral health and crisis care. The OpenBeds platform was recognized as a “Best Behavioral Health Company” finalist for the UCSF Digital Health Awards in 2019. The platform’s Crisis Management System module was named a Best-in-Class finalist for the “Mental and Behavioral Health Category” of the UCSF Digital Health Awards in 2022.  

Through her work, Rawat is intimately familiar with the challenges faced by various stakeholders, including the public, hospitals, health systems, health plans, treatment providers, and county and state governments. She uses her current role to look for ways technology can help overcome those challenges, not by replacing providers, but by amplifying hands-on care. 

As a member of Bamboo Health’s executive leadership team, Rawat uses her clinical expertise and experience in building and innovating IT solutions as a thought leader. A sought-after speaker and contributor to external media, some notable contributions include being named to Becker’s “Women Power Players in Health IT” and “Women in Health IT to Watch in 2022 and 2023,” lists and serving as a keynote speaker for NCQA’s Quality Talks in 2022. 

Rawat completed her residency and fellowships at Johns Hopkins and Harvard, M.D at Queen’s, B.Sc. from McGill, and MBA from Georgetown.

Things You’ll Learn:

• OpenBeds develops digital networks and systems to facilitate closed-loop referrals for mental health and substance use services.
• 988 serves as the behavioral health equivalent of 911, providing an easy-to-remember number for individuals in crisis to connect with a clinician or non-clinician via phone, text, or chat. 
• The professionals at 988 listen, attend to the person's needs, and ensure they receive the necessary care.
• Certain states have implemented a 988 tax to generate funds for the clinical infrastructure and technological integration required to support the crisis response initiative.
• Within the first six months, the 988 helplines have recorded over 2 million calls, texts, and chats, highlighting its substantial usage and service demand.
• The mental health and substance use crises are driven by physical pain, economic disparities, and mental distress.
• While technology is valuable, more is needed to replace the vital role of hands-on care in effectively addressing these urgent challenges.

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Nishi Rawat on LinkedIn.
• Follow Bamboo Health on LinkedIn.
• Visit the Bamboo Health Website.
• Discover more about the OpenBeds solution here.
• Reach out to Bamboo Health at Connect@BambooHealth.com
• Learn more about the SAMHSA 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline here.

About Lisa Collins:

Lisa is responsible for our Payer, Provider, and Strategy and Growth teams for OAS. She supports the growth our teams have achieved to make OAS one of the top healthcare advisory services in the country.

Prior to Optum Lisa was with Cerner Corporation where she was Senior Vice President of Global Services, leading their consulting, managed services, and support business. Before joining Cerner, Lisa was Managing Director with Accenture in their Health Care practice, responsible for establishing and leading the health care provider practice. Preceding Accenture, Lisa spent 20+ years at Siemens Medical Solutions in a variety of leadership roles, including leading their North America Services business.

Lisa lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia with her husband and two college-graduate sons, who also live nearby. Lisa is a board member of Penn Medicine Chester County Hospital and is involved locally with Community Volunteers in Medicine.

Things You’ll Learn:

• Data can help forecast many things in healthcare, from patient volume and staffing needs to OR schedules and much more. 
• Administrative procedures shouldn’t stall healthcare labor. 
• Physicians should concentrate on delivering care, while technology helps with the administrative work. 
• Technology is here to help physicians. 

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Lisa on LinkedIn.
• Follow Optum on LinkedIn.
• Discover the Optum Website.

About Rajeev Singh:

Rajeev Singh is the CEO and chairman of the Board of Directors at Accolade (Nasdaq: ACCD). He joined Accolade as CEO in November of 2015, leading the organization’s strategy and operations through high growth.   

In 2020, Singh led Accolade through one of the first digital healthcare Initial Public Offerings of the year. The following year, he led the company through nearly $1 billion in acquisitions of 2nd.MD, PlushCare, and HealthReveal. Accolade now works with over 700 employers and health plans serving over 11 million people across the United States.  

Prior to joining Accolade, he co-founded Concur, the global leader in travel and expense management, in 1993. Concur went public (Nasdaq: CNQR) in 1998 and grew to more than $800mm in revenue, over 4,000 employees, and more than 25,000 customers before being acquired by SAP AG for $8.3 billion in 2014. Singh was president and chief operating officer as well as a member of the board of directors at Concur.  

Singh graduated from Western Michigan University with a BSE. Today, he serves on the board of Avalara (NYSE: AVLR), a top provider of cloud-based tax compliance automation for businesses; Amperity, an intelligent customer data platform; Seattle Children’s Hospital Foundation; and the University of Washington Foundation. He lives in Seattle with his wife, Jill, and their 2 children. 

Things You’ll Learn:

• Accolade defines health equity as the responsibility to ensure everyone has the inalienable human right to high-quality healthcare. 
• If you live in specific neighborhoods in the United States or are part of a particular minority group, you might not have access to a primary care physician. 
• The LGBTQ+ population struggles to find the primary care and behavioral health they need within a shared life experience.
• The biggest financial challenge most people face in their lives is affording healthcare.
• 2020 made access to virtual care mainstream in the United States, creating an opportunity that has to be embraced. 

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Rajeev Singh on LinkedIn.
• Follow Accolade on LinkedIn.
• Explore the Accolade Website.
• Reach out to Rajeev at RajeevSingh@Accolade.com. 

About Ron Emerson:

Ron Emerson RN BSN is the Global Healthcare Lead at Zoom. He is a former member of the board of Directors for the American Telemedicine Association and Chair of the Industry Council. He has more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry having worked on several Telemedicine programs in 46 countries. He is recognized as a thought leader in  Telehealth,  having developed a variety of innovative telehealth applications, and consulted on telehealth deployments worldwide. He also held the position of Executive Director for a large telemedicine operation in the United States, where he was responsible for the efficient provision of services to 350 sites. Mr. Emerson was the previous recipient of the American Telemedicine Association Industry Council Award for his leadership in the advancement of Telehealth.

Things You’ll Learn:

• From 1960 to 2010, the cost of healthcare in the United States increased five times the gross domestic product.
• Zoom grew from 10 million daily participants to 300 million in three years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, becoming the market share leader in the US for telemedicine.
• In 2020 there were about 450 million telemedicine visits in the United States. 
• During 2020, the largest centers of care held up to 90% of their visits virtually, which many patients came to like and still choose nowadays.
• Zoom holds an annual conference called Zoomtopia, where they bring together thought leaders and announce big announcements.
• A hospital's revenue comes in whenever a patient walks through their doors, a concept that is the basis of most incentivization systems around health systems.

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Ron Emerson on LinkedIn.
• Follow Zoom on LinkedIn.
• Check Out the Zoom Healthcare Website.
• Explore Zoom’s additional features like Zoom Phone, Zoom Webinars, Zoom IQ for Sales, Zoom Events,  and Zoom Contact Center.

About Shayan Vyas:

Dr. Shayan Vyas serves as SVP and medical director of clinical operations for the hospital and health systems business unit of Teladoc Health. As part of his clinical operations duties, Dr. Vyas manages the Teladoc Health Medical Group and employed physician group in addition to his responsibility for improving platform efficiency for physician throughput. Within the hospital and health systems business unit, Dr. Vyas is the leading physician with reasonability extending to existing partners to advance virtual care strategies of hospitals and health systems that purchase Teladoc Health products, devices, and services.  

Dr. Vyas is an executive leader, practicing intensivist, and telehealth physician with more than 10 of virtual health experience. Prior to joining Teladoc Health, he worked with multiple digital health vendors and patient engagement companies, and he led the launch of the first multi-hospital telehealth program in the US.

Things You’ll Learn:

• Almost 60% of nurses’ bedside tasks are not physical, like taking histories, answering questions, checking monitor measures, or addressing other concerns.
• 90% of nurses believe the quality of care struggles because of the nursing shortage.
• Virtual nurses can take care of non-physical tasks, help new nurses with training or knowledge from their previous experience, and unburden floor nurses from the documentation processes.
• With today’s technology, inpatient hospital rooms have the potential to be upgraded and improve everyone’s care delivery experience. 
• Teladoc Health recently acquired InTouch Health, a provider of telehealth solutions for health systems and hospitals.

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Shayan Vyas on LinkedIn and Twitter.
• Follow Teladoc Health on LinkedIn.
• Explore the Teladoc Health Website.

About Kevin Larsen:

Dr. Kevin Larsen is the Senior Vice President, of Clinical Innovation of Translation at Optum. Kevin’s role is to provide clinical leadership and a clinical voice to Optum Center for Advanced Clinical Solutions. He leads the clinical team in building and deploying provider enablement technologies, including clinical decision support integrated through electronic health records. Previously he was at OptumLabs where he supported the design and implementation of innovative research, analytics, and evidence-based translation programs in diverse areas across our portfolio and was a primary clinical lead in support of the Optum Enterprise strategy.

Kevin is an internist and medical informaticist who started his career at Hennepin County Medical Center In Minneapolis where he had a variety of executive and clinical leadership roles. He has worked in academic, hospital, and government settings, focusing on innovation through data and analytics, research, policy, and developing/implementing innovative programs at scale.

He joined Optum from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), where most recently he has been Senior Health IT Advisor at the office of the Chief Technology

Officer. Kevin led the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) strategic planning and transformation team. In that role, he convened stakeholders across CMS and its partners to develop strategies and execute enterprise program improvements. He consulted on health IT policy, standards, and project execution for numerous Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) models, such as Million Hearts, Oncology Bundle, State Innovation Models, and Accountable Health Communities. He started his Washington D.C. career at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) as the Medical Director of Meaningful Use where he led ONCs work on quality policy, measurement, and improvement, including clinical decision support and social determinants of health.

Earlier, Kevin was CMIO and Associate Medical Director of Hennepin Health System. He was an associate professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota where his research included healthcare financing for people living in poverty, computer systems

Things You’ll Learn:

• If patients have enough support, they will care for their health. 
• Chronic disease patients should be able to manage their conditions throughout their lives. 
• Technology can help minimize some clinical processes. 
• Clinical Decision Support is a process that helps doctors make the best decisions after being well-informed. 
• What many existing solutions lack are the means to scale. 
• Healthcare should start reversing the inward-thinking mindset. 
• Communities often have solutions on the ground that healthcare companies are trying to create. 
• Many organizations are now asking their employees and their patients about social determinants of health. 

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Kevin on LinkedIn.
• Follow Optum on LinkedIn.
• Discover the Optum Website.
• Email Kevin directly at Kevin.Larsen@optum.com

About Susan Manber:

Susan Manber is the Chief Patient Officer for Publicis Health. 

Sue Manber’s life and life’s work are inextricably linked. After beating cancer as a single mother, Sue returned to work with an intimate understanding of the patient experience and an acute awareness of her many privileges in her surviving a rare and aggressive cancer diagnosis. Now, as the communications industry’s first Chief Patient Officer, Sue advocates for more equitable patient experiences and is deeply committed to using her privilege to give a voice to those without one. 

Things You’ll Learn:

• Informed patients drive better health outcomes. 
• Humankind is now being overwhelmed with data, but very few insights. 
• Patients have outside lives from their diagnosis. 
• 95% of human decisions are made based on emotions. 
• There are 3 C’s to equity-centered design: Clinical Trials, Commercial Marketing, and Community Health. 
• Retail Pharmacy is becoming the front line of primary care. 
• People want to be cared for by people who look and feel like them and understand their cultural sensitivities and nuances.
• 20% of America do not have a primary care physician. 
• 50% of millennials do not have a primary care physician.
• Early intervention is critical to saving lives. 

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Susan on LinkedIn.
• Follow Teva Pharmaceuticals on LinkedIn.
• Visit the Publicis Health Website.
• Read Atul Gawande’s piece about Costa Rica’s life expectancy in The New Yorker.

About Pierre Leurent:

Pierre Leurent, President of Aptar Digital Health, is the CEO and co-founder of Voluntis, a leading digital therapeutic company acquired by Aptar Group in 2021. Pierre has over 20 years of experience in digital health in the United States and Europe. Prior to starting Voluntis, he worked at GE Healthcare, in its medical imaging software division, and at HealthCenter Internet Services, a vendor of EMR solutions based in Silicon Valley. 

He is a founding Director of the Digital Therapeutics Alliance, of which he served as Chairman and a member of Advamed’s Digital Health Executive Leadership Group. Pierre previously co-chaired the digital therapeutics task force of the Personal Connected Health Alliance, a member of HIMSS, and chaired the eHealth France Alliance. He holds an MS from Ecole Centrale Paris.

About Sai Shankar:

Sai has more than 20 years of experience across the pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and digital health business verticals. He has been an intrapreneur at Aptar, building the Digital Health division. Prior to joining Aptar in 2017, Sai worked for 15 years at Allergan and Sanofi.

As the President of Aptar Digital Health, Sai is responsible for the overall P&L of the business. In addition to the organic growth of the connected devices business, he has overseen the acquisition of digital health companies (Voluntis and Cohero Health) as well as equity investments in various startups like Propeller Health, Sonmol (China), and Navia (India).

Things You’ll Learn:

• Voluntis was acquired by Aptar last year, a big investment on their part in the digital space.
• Aptar is a publicly traded company that makes technology to optimize the effectiveness and adherence of drugs across many therapeutic areas.
• Aptar Digital Health falls under the pharma segment of the Aptar organization.
• Digital technology can guide patients to help them self-manage and be more connected with their healthcare team remotely.
• Making data available to care teams remotely brings clinical benefits and generates savings for the healthcare system.
• Aptar Digital Health has one of the largest portfolios of collaborations in digital therapeutics in the global pharma market.
• Enhancing patient experiences lead to better engagement and in turn, outcomes.

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Pierre Leurent on LinkedIn.
• Connect with and follow Sai Shankar on LinkedIn.
• Follow Aptar Digital Health on LinkedIn.
• Discover the Aptar Digital Health Website.

About Andrew Toy:

Andrew Toy is the President of Clover Health, where he is responsible for driving the vision for how technology and analytics can improve the lives of Clover's members. Andrew joined Clover from Google, where he coordinated enterprise activities for the Android team and ran Machine Learning, Enterprise Search, and Analytics for the G-Suite team. Before that, he was the CEO and co-founder of Divide, a company focused on creating a split between work and personal data on mobile devices, which was acquired by Google in 2014. He earned his BS and MS in Computer Science from Stanford University.

About Carladenise Armbrister Edwards:

Dr. Carladenise Armbrister Edwards has served as the Chief Strategy Officer at Henry Ford Health, a $6B private non-profit system in Southeast Michigan; Providence, a $26B Catholic healthcare system with over 50 hospitals across seven Western states; and Alameda Health System, a public hospital authority located in Oakland, California. As the principal advisor to the CEO and executive team, she has led system-wide strategic planning, M&A, and other partnership ventures, business development, clinical and operational transformation initiatives, government affairs, marketing, and communications, population health, and managed care contracting. Dr. Edwards also served as Founding President and CEO of Cal eConnect, Inc., a nonprofit corporation that governed California's electronic Health Information Exchange.

Additionally, she has held executive leadership roles in Georgia's Department of Community Health, Florida’s Agency for Healthcare Administration, and the US Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Edwards joined Clover Health’s Board of Directors in July 2022. Dr. Edwards holds a Ph.D. in Medical Sociology from the University of Florida, a master's degree in Education and Psychological Services, and a bachelor's degree in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Things You’ll Learn:

• Medicare Advantage is the perfect example of how to provide health equity, as it gives money and resources to prevent illness and treat illness in a personalized manner.
• Decentralizing care can make clinicians more efficient and help them perform at the top of their license with the help of technology and analytics.
• The current hospital experience could be more efficient and scary, but it can be fixed using different tools and models of care.
• Organizations like Clover must ensure everybody gets access to the care they need, taking into account their social, economic, and environmental factors.
• Structural barriers, such as the structure of insurance and societal values, often create a disincentive to providing care to those who need it most.
• Everyone can be part of health equity by taking care of themselves first.
• Hospitals should be places where we go for certain aspects of our healthcare, not all of them. 

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Andrew Toy on LinkedIn.
• Connect with and follow Carladenise Armbrister Edwards on LinkedIn.
• Follow Clover Health on LinkedIn.
• Visit the Clover Health Website.

About Silvia Taylor:

Silvia Taylor is the executive vice president, and chief communications officer for Novavax. Ms. Taylor has responsibility for investor relations; public relations; external and internal communications; corporate social responsibility and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) strategy; digital and social media; and meetings, events, and corporate merchandising for the company. She brings more than 25 years of communications and commercial leadership to Novavax. Most recently, she was vice president of global corporate affairs and communications at Autolus Therapeutics plc, where she led all financial, scientific, and corporate communications. Prior to Autolus, Ms. Taylor was senior vice president of global investor relations and corporate affairs at Sucampo. Earlier in her career, she held positions of increasing responsibility at MedImmune LLC, the global biologics arm of AstraZeneca, including head of marketing, responsible for the commercialization of the company’s respiratory syncytial virus and influenza franchises, as well as at Pfizer, where she served in key brand and consumer marketing roles. Ms. Taylor earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia. In 2022, she was elected to the Page Society, a membership organization of chief communications officers of global Fortune-ranked corporations.

Things You’ll Learn:

• People aren’t scientists, but they consume science all day long. 
• Novavax is a biotechnology company that makes vaccines and has a platform for adjuvanted protein-based vaccines.
• Novavax is available in many countries worldwide and authorized in over 43.
• During 2020 and 2021, there was a lot of fear and misinformation about vaccines regarding their safety and development process.
• The COVID-19 pandemic is not over yet, and people shouldn’t act as if it was.
• Governments are Novavax’s primary customers.
• During the pandemic, people accessed vaccines in large numbers at pharmacies, which will probably not change.

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Silvia Taylor on LinkedIn.
• Follow Novavax on LinkedIn.
• Visit the Novavax Website!
• Find out more about the COVID-19 vaccines at vaccines.gov.

About Shannon Klinger:

As Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, Shannon Thyme Klinger leads Moderna’s legal, governance, and corporate compliance efforts.

Ms. Klinger joined Moderna from Novartis (NYSE: NVS), serving as Chief Legal Officer and a member of the Novartis Executive Committee since 2018. Previously, she served as Chief Ethics, Risk & Compliance Officer. During her ten-year tenure at Novartis, she held other roles of increasing responsibility, including as Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer and Global Head of Litigation, General Counsel, and Global Head of Legal at Sandoz, a Novartis division.

Throughout her career, Ms. Klinger’s work has focused on driving long-term business performance and building trust with society, including ensuring access to medicine, protecting innovation with intellectual property, championing the responsible use of data, and enabling excellence in product launches. She is also a committed advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Ms. Klinger served on the board of directors of the SIX Group in Switzerland from 2016 to 2020.

Ms. Klinger received her Juris Doctorate with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame. She is a member of the State Bar of Georgia and the District of Columbia Bar.

Things You’ll Learn:

• Moderna has focused on infectious diseases and commits to creating transformative therapies for patients with the power of mRNA.
• The World Health Organization releases a flu strain selection in March or April every year. 
• The Moderna Charitable Foundation was initially endowed with $50 million. 
• The Foundation recently announced $4 million worth of grants in sub-Saharan Africa to organizations focused on clinical training and workforce development on educating about vaccines.
• In 2023, Moderna partnered with the African Union to commit 100 million doses of their most updated variant vaccine for low-middle-income countries. 
• Moderna has a program called mRNA Access, where they partner with researchers and universities worldwide to give them access to their platform, research, and scientific advice, thus tackling public health challenges together.

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Shannon Klinger on LinkedIn.
• Follow Moderna on LinkedIn.
• Discover the Moderna Website.
• Check out the mRNA Access Website.
• Visit Moderna’s Charitable Foundation Website.

About Crystal Brown:

Crystal Brown is Vice President of Product and Strategy at Benefitfocus, a cloud-based benefits administration technology company serving Health Plans and Employers nationwide.  Crystal is the lead for all aspects of product strategy, roadmap development, and product execution for the full product portfolio of Benefitfocus. In this role, she ensures the viability, feasibility, and desirability of the product offerings, by tapping the expertise of business leaders and keenly knowing the competitive landscape. Crystal brings with her 20+ years of leadership experience spanning deep business acumen, user insights, and technical savvy delivering product designs resulting in a compelling competitive advantage.

Prior to this role, Crystal was the Vice President of Strategic Programs at Florida Blue. There she was responsible for leading enterprise strategy, roadmap development, and program execution for transformational initiatives in Sales, Engineering, Clinical Operations, and Provider Networks. A sampling of strategic initiatives she most recently led includes Provider Interoperability, Cost and Quality Transparency, Population Health Management, and Enterprise Data Governance.

An active member of her community, Crystal has annually served through United Way leading and participating in community service activities focused on supporting local agency programs.  Agencies of support include Clara White Mission, Daniel Kids, Hands on Jacksonville, and Children’s Home Society of Florida.  While in and out of the office, Crystal remains an active mentor providing interview coaching, development plan building, career pathing, and on-the-job competency mentoring. She is most passionate about mentoring individuals in technology as they prepare for progression into management, focusing on coaching, organizational structure, and general management practices.  

Crystal holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of North Florida with a concentration in Marketing and eCommerce. She is a native of Jacksonville and enjoys cheering alongside her husband of 20 years at the various activities of their three children.

Things You’ll Learn:

• Advanced Engagement Services is Benefitfocus’ enhanced automated communication solution to help health plans and employers connect with their customers and employees.
• Disengaged members are often three times more likely to have unmet medical needs and two times more likely to delay medical care.
• Health plans that proactively engage their members can see an increase in overall satisfaction when they try to keep out-of-pocket costs low. 
• It's hard to create personalized and meaningful communications for customers without their complete and accurate information.
• Usher Technology, Benefitfocus’ latest partner, uses a no-code AI-driven platform that delivers a highly personalized digital experience in customer journey automation with a secure, HIPAA-compliant, password-free customer interface.

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Crystal Brown on LinkedIn.
• Follow Benefitfocus on LinkedIn.
• Visit the Benefitfocus Website.
• Reach out to Crystal at sales@Benefitfocus.com

About Peter Micca:

Peter Micca is an Audit & Assurance Partner and National Health Tech leader at Deloitte & Touche LLP. He has 30 years of experience serving a broad array of clients in all sectors of the healthcare, technology, and life sciences industries. He has significant experience with health technology organizations, software as a service (SaaS) organizations, pharmacy benefit management, clinical and diagnostic operations, emerging growth, as well as private equity–financed organizations in life sciences and health technology and services. Micca applies a deep knowledge of industry sector business issues regarding the emerging trends surrounding consumerism, convergence, cost considerations, regulatory and compliance issues, and consolidation.

About Navid Farzad:

Navid is a partner with Frist Cressey Ventures. Prior to joining FCV in 2019, he worked with Morgan Noble, an investment firm that focuses exclusively on companies determined to change the future of healthcare. Before Morgan Noble, he was with Enhanced Equity Funds, a healthcare-focused private equity firm based in New York, and has also previously held positions with Lehman Brothers’ healthcare investment banking division, Ernst & Young’s Transaction Advisory group, and Arthur Andersen’s healthcare practice.

Navid has also served as the Chief Strategy Officer of Continuum Health, a physician enablement company providing practice management and population health services to medical groups. He has been an investor and/or served on the board of directors of Mindoula Health, Continuum Health, Captify Health, Privia Health, and Trusted Health Plans.

He holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts from Loyola University.

About Marcus Osborne:

Marcus Osborne is the Chief Executive Officer at RightMove Health. He is a leader in healthcare, having served in many positions that include almost 15 years at Walmart, where his last role was senior vice president of Walmart Health. He also served on the board of many companies, including Health Here, ZealCare, WebPT, and many others. Marcus got his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Government from Transylvania University and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Harvard. 

Things You’ll Learn:

• Digital health can only be successful with brick-and-mortar knowledge and the legacy of delivery systems.
• Collaboration can’t be inconsistent and variable, as it needs to have a defined process that can be reproduced. 
• Companies that attempt to control another’s innovation get less of its benefit.
• Technology, people, and physician-empowering solutions are the future of health.
• When collaborating, the two parties should be able to bring their best selves to the table.
• Companies should act more and take risks with innovations, as even the things that don't work bring lessons to move forward.

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Peter Micca on LinkedIn.
• Connect with and follow Navid Farzad on LinkedIn.
• Connect with and follow Marcus Osborne on LinkedIn.
• Follow Deloitte on LinkedIn.
• Discover the Deloitte Website.
• Read this paper from Deloitte about Reimagining Innovation Systems in Healthcare. 
• Follow Frist Cressey Ventures on LinkedIn.
• Explore the Frist Cressey Ventures Website.
• Follow RightMove Health on LinkedIn.
• Visit the RightMove Health Website.

About Dale Cook:

Dale is an expert in digital mental health. As co-founder and CEO of Learn to Live, he's part of a member-focused mental healthcare company that provides online programs and 24/7 clinician coaching to empower people to improve their mental health. Learn to Live serves over 33 million people through health plans, employers, and universities across the country.

Dale has been recognized for his innovative approaches to healthcare as a recipient of the (Real) Power 50 award and the Business Leader in Healthcare: Startup award. Dale has been featured in various local and national publications, including Forbes, The Observer, National Public Radio, O, The Oprah Magazine, and others. Dale provides a welcoming and inspiring voice around mental health and the importance of driving engagement with digital healthcare solutions for at-risk populations.

He is an active member of multiple healthcare entrepreneur groups focused on improving healthcare at the state and federal levels and is a member of the Governor’s Taskforce on Broadband in Minnesota, which seeks to ensure quality broadband access for all Minnesotans. Dale is also a Fellow of the fifth class of the Health Innovators Fellowship at the Aspen Institute and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Things You’ll Learn:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy programs have been studied for over two decades, and research shows that, when done correctly, digital CBT can be as effective as face-to-face CBT.
• Some necessary psychometric assessments are the PHQ-9 for depression, the GAD-7 for general anxiety, and the SPIN for social anxiety.
• Almost half of the people in the United States will suffer from a mental health problem at any point in their lives, but only one in four will seek care.
• Currently, teen mental health is one of the most important and talked about issues in this space.
• More than half of the counties in the US don't have a mental healthcare practitioner.

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Dale Cook on LinkedIn.
• Follow Learn to Live on LinkedIn.
• Visit the Learn to Live Website!

About Kimberly O'Loughlin:

Kimberly joined HRS in March 2022, bringing with her more than 30 years of experience in leveraging talent and technology to drive growth, innovation, and improved business performance and customer experiences across health tech and other industries.  

At HRS, her portfolio includes award-winning Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) and telehealth solutions and services that address increasingly important healthcare needs – lowering the cost of care, and improving health outcomes, while delivering better experiences for both consumers and clinicians. 

Prior to HRS, Kimberly was CEO of Therapy Brands where she was responsible for serving the mental, behavioral, and physical therapy market providers with a broad portfolio of software and services including specialty-specific EHR/PMS platforms, patient engagement, telehealth, e-prescription solutions, and revenue cycle management services.  Before this, she was President at Greenway Health; prior to that, she ran two global healthcare businesses at Philips in Connected Care and Health Informatics.  She had solutions for monitoring and supporting the safety, health, and connectedness needs of seniors in the home as well as in long-term and post-acute care settings.  She also expanded access to healthcare in emerging global markets with low-cost continuous monitoring, vital signs monitoring, cardiology, oncology, and women’s health solutions.

Prior to working at Philips, Kimberly held senior leadership roles within AIG, AT&T Wireless, and AT&T. She has demonstrated excellent results in growing revenue and profitability, launching innovative products, transforming operations to six sigma and best-in-class performance, and building stellar teams.

Over the years, Kimberly and her teams have earned a variety of awards including Best Company Culture, Best Company for Diversity, Frost and Sullivan Award for Product Line Innovation, Best in KLAS for RCM, Best in KLAS Most Improved Ambulatory EHR, and Stevie’s People’s Choice Award for Best Customer Service. In 2012 she was inducted into the Executive Women of New Jersey, and in 2013 she was featured in Executive Profile magazine on the Top 25 executive profiles list. In 2019, she was named the number 3 woman in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare, and in 2021 she earned top CEO ratings by Comparably.

Kimberly has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University and a Master of Science degree in Applied Psychology with a concentration in Human Factors Engineering from Steven’s Institute of Technology. She served as class president at Princeton where she currently serves on the Alumni Schools Committee. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, Jerry, and their dog Harley.  They have three children and enjoy the beach, skiing, sports, and time with family and friends.

Things You’ll Learn:

• Health Recovery Solutions is the leading provider of remote care delivery.
• Patients are becoming more active in their healthcare.
• Individually tailored care plans with inpatient and virtual care will become more common in the coming years.
• HRS has clinical advisory services. 
• HRS sets up the remote care technologies providers need.
• Promising healthcare industry trends include value-based care, lower-cost care settings, health equity focus, interoperability, the use of AI and ML, and hospital-at-home functionalities.
• HRS provides patients with hardware and software to connect to their caregivers and clinicians with a portal that monitors and supports the patient.
• AI technologies can help harness data to design different treatment pathways and predict which patients will need intervention.

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Kimberly O'Loughlin on LinkedIn and Twitter.
• Follow Health Recovery Solutions on LinkedIn.
• Discover the Health Recovery Solutions Website!
• Reach out to Kimberly at KOLoughlin@HealthRecoverySolutions.com!

About Ali Parsa:

Dr. Ali Parsa is a British-Iranian healthcare entrepreneur and engineer. He’s the founder and CEO of Babylon, the revolutionary artificial intelligence and digital health company. Babylon’s mission is to put an accessible and affordable health service in the hands of every person on Earth. 

By combining cutting-edge AI technology and the best available medical expertise, Babylon gives people 24/7 access to affordable, holistic health services. The company is home to a large, passionate team of scientists, clinicians, mathematicians, and engineers—all recruited from over 60 different countries. With over 3 million users,  Babylon is transforming the way healthcare works across Europe, North America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.  

Before  Babylon, Dr. Parsa created Circle, which became Europe's largest partnership of clinicians, with some £200m of revenue, 3,000 employees, and a successful IPO. The Independent Healthcare Awards presented Dr. Parsa with an Entrepreneurial Achievement award for establishing Circle. He was given the Royal Award for the Young Entrepreneur of the Year for founding his first business, V&G. 

More recently, Dr. Parsa was listed in The Times' 100 people to watch. The Health Service Journal recognized him as one of the ‘50 most influential people in UK healthcare. He was featured in the Maserati 100, a list that recognizes game-changing entrepreneurs who are disrupting the world of business. Dr. Parsa also won the CEO Award from Finance Monthly and ACQ5's UK Game Changer of the Year. He is a UK Cabinet Office Ambassador for Mutuals and has a Ph.D. in Engineering Physics.

Things You’ll Learn:

• Babylon's mission is to put an accessible and affordable health service in the hands of every person on earth by combining AI technology and medical expertise to provide accessible and affordable holistic health services.
• Healthcare should be about continuously collecting data, analyzing it in real-time, and intervening early when possible.
• AI and data analytics can help improve the healthcare system by predicting patterns and automating menial tasks.
• There is almost nothing that your body doesn't send a signal on.
• One of healthcare entrepreneurs' most significant challenges is the need for more capital and investment.
• Knowledge doubles every 2-3 years, so leaders should look to the future more.

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Ali Parsa on LinkedIn.
• Follow Babylon on LinkedIn.
• Explore the Babylon Website.

About Suzanne Kunis:

Suzanne Kunis is the Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of NovaWell, an affiliate of Horizon Healthcare Services, Inc. She also serves as Vice President of Behavioral Health Solutions for Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey. She brings over 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry with a significant focus on behavioral health. Suzanne is a registered nurse and moved from care delivery to healthcare management early in her career.   

Suzanne is a nationally recognized industry expert and leads NovaWell, an organization born out of her success at Horizon. She was recruited to Horizon in March 2017 to develop and lead Horizon’s first-ever internal Behavioral Health strategy and team. Suzanne is responsible for all behavioral health strategic development and execution including the organization’s commitment to the integration of physical and behavioral health. Suzanne led the successful insourcing of behavioral health and a cultural and philosophical shift and commitment to integration within Horizon. NovaWell will be helping other health plans to achieve similar results.  Suzanne is the ultimate behavioral health champion – the opioid crisis and continued battle to eliminate mental health stigma are priority items on her agenda and she works tirelessly to drive the message that “mental health is health” nationwide.    

Before joining Horizon BCBSNJ, Suzanne served for 22 years as Senior Vice President of Behavioral Health Services for Magellan Health Services. She was the business owner for Magellan’s health plan (Commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid) and employer-client relationships. She was responsible for oversight and management of nationwide service delivery including member services, clinical operations, network development and management, quality, sales, EAP, and finance. During her tenure with Magellan, Suzanne developed a deep understanding of the behavioral health care issues facing our country and the long overdue recognition of the impact of behavioral health issues on comorbid medical conditions.   

Suzanne also served as Senior Vice President of Account Management and Implementations for ComplexCare Solutions (CCS). CCS provided in-home risk adjustment assessments and care management services for its health plan clients. 

After graduating from Thomas Jefferson University, College of Allied Health Sciences in Philadelphia, Suzanne began her nursing career at the East Orange Veterans Administration Hospital. She then began a 12-year career journey with which was then Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey where she served many roles including Vice President of the Individual Market segment.

Things You’ll Learn:

• NovaWell and Horizon’s alliance seeks solutions to help people access behavioral healthcare when, where, and how they need it.
• Behavioral health can impact more than 20% of the total medical cost, which is why treatments should also include a behavioral health perspective.
• Horizon developed a platform with tools available like educational research, podcasts, a provider directory, and assessments, among others.
• Horizon established a program centered around identifying patients that need different care options. 
• This program works with a community mental health provider that can refer them to get them the care they need.
• Between 40 and 50% of adults have a diagnosable mood disorder.
• 67% of people needing mental health care don’t seek it out because of stigma.
• Stigma has historically prevented patients from accessing care. 
• It doesn’t matter the condition a patient comes in with, we need to view it through a behavioral health lens. 

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Suzanne Kunis on LinkedIn.
• Follow NovaWell on LinkedIn.
• Follow Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey on LinkedIn.
• Discover the NovaWell Website!
• Visit the Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey Website!

About Matthew Condon:

As the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Bardavon Health Innovations, LLC, Matthew J. Condon works tirelessly as a staunch advocate for transparency in healthcare and champions technology innovation within the industry that benefits injured Workers’ Compensation patients. He has been recognized nationally as an entrepreneur to watch by repeatedly forming game-changing companies that bring positive disruption to the marketplace. Bardavon is no different. With Bardavon, Matt has combined his passion for the industry and desire to make a difference with his storied experience of successfully running startups. The resulting effort is an industry-leading, healthcare data analytics company focused on promoting a culture of transparency in the Workers’ Compensation sector.

Matt’s vision for Bardavon is to optimize how patients, therapy providers, employers/carriers, and other key stakeholders interact. Using clinical treatment data gathered through bNOTES®, its proprietary cloud-based clinical intelligence system, Bardavon is succeeding in its mission to change Workers’ Compensation. Combining clinical treatment data with claims data enables key stakeholders to define functional outcomes based on each patient’s health. 

By deploying the Bardavon system, employers/carriers reduce consumption while concurrently improving the quality of physical/occupational therapy treatments. And when these processes are integrated using the Bardavon Digital Health Platform™, regional and national employers/carriers have saved millions.

Bardavon is not Matt’s first foray into the world of healthcare, technology, and Worker’s Compensation. Matt founded ARC Physical Therapy+ (ARC) in 2003. It became one of the Midwest's largest regional physical therapy clinics with 26 clinics in 2021 and over 100,000 annual patient visits. ARC was chosen as a Champion of Business by the Kansas City Business Journal for three straight years (2013, 2012, and 2011), earning a spot in the Hall of Champions. In 2013, ARC partnered with U.S. Physical Therapy Inc. and Matt started Bardavon. His focus was to build a platform where congruent companies could work together to focus on achieving optimized outcomes and returning injured Workers’ Compensation patients to full duty. As we progress, Matt’s vision is to expand Bardavon’s footprint and move into the commercial musculoskeletal healthcare marketplace. 

As a nationally recognized thought leader, Matt is a sought-after speaker and an author in the fields of healthcare, technology, and Workers’ Compensation. He was named a regional finalist for the Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” award, business magazine Ingram recognized Condon as a “Rainmaker,” and named him to its list of “40 under 40” high achievers, and since 2014, Condon has been included on the “Power 100” list published in the Kansas City Business Journal, which includes some of the most influential leaders in Kansas City’s business community.

Things You’ll Learn:

• Bardavon Health is an industry-leading healthcare data analytics company focused on promoting a culture of transparency in the worker's compensation sector.
• One way to address the current labor shortage is to make workers feel honored and fulfilled and give them good healthcare access whenever they have an injury.
• Worker's compensation is under the property and casualty section of their company’s insurance plan.
• As musculoskeletal issues continue to be a significant problem in the United States, more and more stakeholders will see it as an entry point for change and improvement.
• Employers are responsible for taking their injured employees and ensuring they get to a quality care provider.

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Matthew Condon on LinkedIn.
• Follow Bardavon Health Innovations on LinkedIn.
• Visit the Bardavon Health Innovations Website!

We know that healthy, fresh food improves health outcomes. But what if you live in a food desert? Or you depend on food stamps to feed your family?

What if you could get fresh produce delivered straight to your door as a benefit of your health plan?

Ashley Turner is Founder and CEO of FarmboxRx, a national brand on a mission to promote health equity through nutrition and health literacy.

Ashley’s experience as a single mom on food stamps drives her advocacy in advancing food security and bringing educational resources to underserved populations.

On this episode of HLTH Matters, Ashley joins host Dr. Jessica Shepherd to explain how the concept of food as medicine inspired the creation of FarmboxRx and explore how the company evolved to focus on patient engagement.

Ashley describes how CMS’s emphasis on health equity helped FamboxRx gain traction and discusses the pilot program that proved its value as a care management intervention.

Listen in for insight on how the FarmboxRx benefit helps Medicare and Medicaid enrollees feel cared for and learn how Ashley’s team provides healthy food and promotes health literacy among its members.

Topics Covered

• The challenges Ashley faced in trying to eat healthy on food stamps in a food desert
• How the concept of food as medicine inspired the creation of FarmboxRx
• How FarmboxRx evolved to become a patient engagement company
• Why it was challenging to get health plans to offer FarmboxRx as a benefit early on
• How CMS’s focus on health equity helped FarmboxRx gain traction
• The pilot program that proved FarmboxRx’s value as a care management intervention
• How FarmboxRx promotes health literacy and drives other healthy behaviors among members
• The benefit of having lived what Medicare/Medicaid members are going through
• How Ashley visualizes herself as a disruptor in the healthcare space
• How FarmboxRx’s call center addresses food insecurity through member engagement

Connect with Ashley Tyrner

FarmboxRx

Connect with Dr. Jessica Shepherd

HLTH

Dr. Shepherd on Twitter

Dr. Shepherd on LinkedIn

Resources

CMS Supplemental Benefits for SSBCI Enrollees

Stores Accepting SNAP Online

Seema Verma

Chiquita Brooks-LaSure

FarmboxRx’s Partnership with Molina Healthcare of NM

HEDIS Health Plan Ratings

Social Determinants of Health