The Heart of Healthcare | A Digital Health Podcast

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: 🏥 W...

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 –...

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...

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 o...

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,...

"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 questio...

As thousands of healthcare leaders descend on San Francisco for the annual JPM Healthcare Conference, Steve and Michael break down January's biggest stories in digital health. From unprecedented bipartisan scrutiny of PBMs to surprising patient satisfaction data and the industry's first major M&A deal of the year, 2025 is already shaping up to be transformative for healthcare. We cover: 🏥 Why...

Five-time Midas List investor Annie Lamont has seen every healthcare cycle since the genomics revolution. Now, as co-founder of Oak HC/FT and early investor in category-defining companies like One Medical, Athena Health, and Devoted Health, she believes 2025 could mark the return of animal spirits to healthcare investing. In this forward-looking conversation, Annie shares why AI might finally deli...

From the return of "historic norms" in funding to the rise of AI and strategic pharma partnerships, 2024 was quite the year for digital health. Rock Health Advisory CEO Megan Zweig joins us on this episode to unpack a year defined by resilience, consolidation, and the 'revenge of the Goliaths.' We look at the funding data, reveal how the industry's unicorns survived their valuation hangovers, and...

After building and selling Meebo, Seth Sternberg wanted his next venture to transform lives at scale. A decade later, Honor has become the world's largest in-home senior care network, delivering care to 35,000 US homes daily. In this candid conversation, Sternberg reveals how AI saved the company from near collapse in 2015 and why treating caregivers like true professionals creates better outcomes...

"There's been a degree of toxic positivity in US healthcare," says Dr. Sachin Jain, CEO of SCAN Health Plan. In this episode about healthcare's need for radical change, Dr. Jain challenges industry orthodoxy and calls for a leadership revolution. From Medicare Advantage turbulence to the failures of healthcare consolidation, he offers an insider's view of what needs to change. We cover: 🔄 Why hea...

Twenty years before value-based care became a healthcare buzzword, Rushika Fernandopulle was told he had to choose: be a doctor or join "the dark side" of business. Instead, he chose both – building Iora Health from a bootstrapped startup into a billion-dollar healthcare company. In this candid conversation, Fernandopulle reveals the unconventional journey that helped transform American healthcare...

It’s in our water, our food, and so many other products we use on a daily basis, from non-stick pans to popcorn bags. And it’s making us really sick. More and more scientists are becoming concerned that PFAS chemicals , also known as “forever chemicals,” are impacting human health. Evidence is growing that links these everyday exposures, particularly to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (or EDCs), ar...

What's the boldest company in healthcare? In our last Digital Health Download of the year, Halle and Steve stumble over the answer to this question and break down the latest healthcare headlines and what they mean for our sector. We cover: 🤖 Why AI chatbots outperformed doctors in diagnosis - and what it really means for the future of medical practice 🚀 Amazon's entry into primary care and what...

Technology is transforming genetic testing and bringing hope to families facing rare diseases. In this episode, GeneDx (Nasdaq: WGS) CEO Katherine Stueland sits down with Steve Kraus to share how AI is being used to crack life's most complex code and speed up diagnosis from years to days. We cover: 🧬 The evolution from single-gene testing (remember BRCA?) to whole genome sequencing, and why the S...

🤗 In this bonus episode, pharmacoeconomist Yoona Kim, co-founder and CEO of Arine, talks about tackling the $530 billion problem of medication mismanagement. She shares her approach to optimizing medication therapy using data science and clinical expertise. We cover: 💊 The shocking scale of medication-related problems and their impact on patient health and healthcare costs 🛢️ How data silos and...

Despite heart disease being the leading cause of death in the United States, cardiovascular care has been an overlooked opportunity in digital health. With 1 in 3 Americans facing cardiovascular disease in their lifetime, how can innovation help turn the tide? In this episode, we explore heart health in the digital age with Dr. Jeff Wessler, cardiologist and founder/CEO of Heartbeat Health, the na...

Make America Healthy Again? It's official— Trump was elected as our 47th president and plans to use his second term to "go wild on health." For this special episode, Aneesh Chopra, former U.S. Chief Technology Officer and author of Innovative State: How New Technologies can Transform Government, joins Steve to talk about what we can expect in Trump's second term. We cover: 🔮 The future of the Aff...

Keep up with healthcare news in under an hour with our monthly Digital Health Download! We can't believe it's already November. In this episode, we cover the biggest headlines of October: 📝 Findings from Bessemer's State of Health Tech 2024 Report 🤝 Take-aways from the 2024 HLTH Conference 📊 New “AI services as software” benchmarks 😵‍💫 How election season is causing stress and anxiety ⚖️ New...

Doctors are not okay. Nearly half of physicians in the United States experienced burnout in 2023, leading to absenteeism, reduced productivity, turnover, and many leaving the profession altogether. In this episode, we discuss the clinician burnout and mental health crises with two expert guests: Dr. Jessie Gold, the first chief wellness officer for the University of Tennessee System and autho...

Approximately one in five American children have a mental health condition, with many more at risk for developing one. In this episode, Halle Tecco and Michael Esquivel dive deep into the youth mental health crisis with Naomi Allen, co-founder and CEO of Brightline. We cover: 📲 How technology has worsened the youth mental health crisis and how it can help solve it 🧭 Key drivers of the crisis 🏡...

In this episode, Bryan Roberts, a partner at Venrock and one of the healthcare industry's most illustrious investors, shares insights from his long and successful career in healthcare investing. We cover: 💼 The key traits and principles that have contributed to his exceptional success in healthcare investing 🔄 How to navigate investment cycles and make non-consensus decisions 🧬 The story behind...

Ready for your October digital health download? This month, we discuss: Progyny losing business to Maven The entire 23andMe board resigning Particle Health suing Epic (and Epic clapping back) A plan to erase $4B in medical debt in North Carolina The first at-home nasal spray flu vaccine Weight Watchers losing Oprah and its CEO, can they get on the GLP-1 train? Tune in for all the digital health te...

In this episode, we sit down with one of the most influential figures in government today: Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan. As the youngest FTC chair to ever be appointed, during her tenure the FTC has pushed to ban non-compete agreements, filed lawsuits against healthcare companies engaging in anti-competitive practices, and strengthened the Health Breach Notification Rule (HBNR) to prot...

With the election around the corner, Halle and Steve welcome Dan Diamond back on the show to talk about how the election will impact healthcare (and how healthcare impacts voting). Dan is a national health reporter for the Washington Post, focused on accountability, federal agencies, and public health. We cover: Trump's concept of a plan and if he would really repeal the ACA Harris abandoning Medi...