The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare

Recorded in November, 2024, Meg welcomes Dr. Monica Soni, Chief Medical Officer of Covered California, a free service that connects Californians with brand name health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.  Dr. Monica Soni is the Chief Medical Officer of Covered California and a practicing primary care physician. She is a board member at Mercy Housing California and previously served on the Los...

In honor of Rare Disease Day, Meg Escobosa is joined by Kinnari Patel , President, Head of Research & Development, and Chief Operating Officer of Rocket Pharmaceuticals. Meg and Kinnari discuss the significant impact of genetic testing and drivers for finding cures for rare diseases, the demands and rewards that come with spearheading Rocket Pharmaceuticals, and how true passion has solidified...

Meg welcomes Dr. Kelly LeBlanc, Chief of Anesthesia and President of the Medical Staff at Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital. Dr. LeBlanc is also a physician partner with U.S. Anesthesia Partners (USAP) , a physician-owned, clinician-led organization providing anesthesia services in more than 700 inpatient and outpatient facilities across the country, serving more than 2 million patients annually....

Meg welcomes Dr. Amy Hauck Newman , the Scientific Director and the Chief of Molecular Targets and Medications Discovery Branch and Medicinal Chemistry Section of the National Institute on Drug Abuse ’s Intramural Research Program also known as “NIDA” IRP. It is one of the 27 institutes and centers of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and it is dedicated to understanding the causes, conseque...

Meg welcomes Kathryn Bowsher , managing director of ActOne Healthcare , a consulting firm focused on commercializing healthcare innovations. Kathryn developed this expertise by launching more than 40 products and initiatives across a wide range of therapeutic areas, sites of care, and business models over the course of 25 years. Kathryn is the co-founder, advisor to, and previous Chair of the Boar...

Meg welcomes Liz Kwo , MD, MBA, and Masters in Public Health (all from Harvard). Dr. Kwo is the Chief Commercial Officer at Everly Health , a personalized diagnostic-driven care-at-home solution. She is an experienced healthcare executive specializing in P&L management, B2B/B2C marketing and sales, strategic partnerships, and post-merger integration. Dr. Kwo is an expert at building and scalin...

Meg is joined by Shruti Kothari , Director of Industry Initiatives at Blue Shield California, an independent member of the Blue Shield Association with 4.7 million members, 7,800 employees, and $22.9 billion in annual revenue that provides health care service plans to residents of California. Shruti is also the founder of Women of Community, an organization focused on increasing representation of...

Meg is joined by Caitlin Donovan , Global Head of Uber Health , which focuses on delivering a “better patient experience with transportation, same-day prescription, and home delivery for groceries and over-the-counter items, enhancing benefit coordination.” Caitlin explains Uber Health’s services: transportation, prescription delivery, and grocery and over-the-counter benefits. Meg and Caitlin div...

Meg welcomes Natalie Douglas , an award-winning healthcare specialist, an experienced entrepreneur, CEO, board director, and investor. She is the founder of Lucidity LLC and RealiTi Health, as well as chairman of the board for Entia Ltd and TidalSense. She is also an investor and advisor for many portfolio companies, such as Ceek Women’s Health, RwHealth, Vitaccess.  In this episode, Natalie share...

Meg welcomes Nancy G. Brinker, the founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure and The Promise Fund of Florida. Nancy was also United States Ambassador to Hungary from 2001 to 2003 and Chief of Protocol of the United States from 2007 to the end of the George W. Bush administration.  Nancy walks us through her personal experience with her sister Suzy's battle with breast cancer and how that great loss i...

"If you live in a county that's designated as 'rural,' your healthcare outcomes are far worse, to the tune of 23% higher mortality. In these rural markets, hospital closures...rural health clinic closures are increasing at an exceeding rate. There's half the number of primary care doctors and about an eighth or a tenth the number of specialty care doctors. And 10% of all rural counties have zero h...

Meg welcomes Liz Beatty , Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer at Inato , a marketplace that enables clinical researchers and sponsors to make clinical research more inclusive and accessible for patients no matter who they are or where they live. Inato also increases clinical trial efficiency by enabling all community sites to offer the right trials to their patients.  Meg and Liz discuss the p...

Meg welcomes Anna Lindow , CEO + Co-Founder at Brave Health , a virtual mental health provider dedicated to helping people thrive by engaging them in high-quality, affordable, and easily accessible mental health care. Meg and Anna discuss the supply and demand imbalance for mental health services, especially for Medicaid recipients and other underserved populations. Anna also reflects on her exper...

Meg welcomes Miruna Sasu , President and CEO of COTA , an RWE service founded by doctors, engineers, and data scientists to create clarity from fragmented and often inaccessible real-world data to provide a comprehensive picture of cancer that can be used to advance carepaths and research. Meg and Miruna discuss utilizing patient-generated data, difficulties with EMR, the drug development and clin...

Meg welcomes Lori Daugherty , CEO of Ascellus , a physical and behavioral health provider for injured workers that provides customized treatment options through CBT practices, as well as medical care for injured workers. With a network of over 1,500 licensed clinicians nationwide, Ascellus works to improve resilience, health outcomes, and reduce costs for workers’ compensation claims and minimize...

Meg welcomes Inna Plumb , Co-Founder and COO of MedArrive .  MedArrive enables healthcare providers to seamlessly extend care services into the home, unlocking access to high-quality healthcare for more people at a fraction of the cost. MedArrive’s fully integrated care management platform allows providers and payors to bridge the virtual care gap by marrying physician-led telemedicine with hands-...

Meg welcomes, Vivian DeWoskin , VP of Strategy and Head of Life Sciences at Komodo Health . Meg and Vivian discuss Komodo Health , which brings together large amounts of anonymized, linked patient-level data used to understand how patients navigate their care journey in the real world; Komodo Health’s “Healthcare Map ;” data and rare diseases; access to clinical research; Komodo’s ability to reduc...

Meg welcomes Stephanie Trunzo , SVP and GM of Oracle Health . Oracle Health provides cloud solution systems for health insurance, healthcare providers, virtual care, electronic health record systems, and public health. Stephanie leads the P&L across strategy, product, services, sales, support, and operations. Oracle Health connects clinical, operational and financial data to improve care and a...

Meg welcomes Shahrzad Yavari , COVAX Cold & Supply Chain Consultant at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Gavi is an organization working to improve vaccination efforts globally. Shahrzad is a public health strategist and avid women’s rights advocate who has dedicated much of her efforts to creating opportunities for women globally. Her background in psychology helped to shape her interest in communi...

Meg welcomes Eliza Sternlicht , Co-Founder and COO of MediCircle , a New Jersey-based pharmaceutical redistribution startup.  Eliza Sternlicht is not only a startup co-founder with a rich history of working to solve medical issues and disparities, she’s a senior in college at Brown University. At such a young age, Eliza already has an enviable resume full of noble causes tackled. Her most recent p...

Meg speaks with Jayme Ambrose , CEO of Adobe Care & Wellness , an innovative healthcare solution company that focuses on customizing programs for insurance groups, providers, hospitals, and families. Meg and Jayme discuss Jayme’s background as a psychiatric nurse and workers compensation case manager; Adobe’s focus on social determinants and proactive care; the inverse relationship between qua...

On the first episode of Season 2 of The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare , Meg Escobosa is joined by Eileen Maus , CEO of Renovia Inc. Meg and Eileen discuss the inspiration for Eileen’s passion for women’s health, starting a career in healthcare in the 80’s and 90’s, and the truth about urinary incontinence and its stigmatization. They also talk about the unique benefits of digital therapeutics...

On Episode 10, the final episode of Season 1 of The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare , Meg is joined by Deborah DiSanzo , President of Best Buy Health .  Meg and Deborah discuss the untold origins of the podcast. Deborah speaks of her early days with Apollo Computer and the surprising turn her career path took leading her to Hewlett Packard , Philips Healthcare , and IBM Watson Health . Deborah e...

On Episode 9 of The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare , Meg is joined by Dr. Sabine Linn , professor of translational oncology focusing on breast cancer at Utrecht University and a practicing medical oncologist at the Netherlands Cancer Institute . The two discuss Dr. Linn's work in biomarker research, the immunological aspects of breast cancer, advancements in cancer diagnostics and how they can...

On Episode 8 of The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare , Meg is joined by Elena Sini, Group CIO of GVM Care & Research in Milan, Italy.  The two discuss Elena’s background as CIO in both the public and private sectors, her role in founding the HIMSS Italian Community, the security and privacy of health data, the power of building a personal and professional network, teaching healthcare IT in an...