The Heart of Healthcare | A Digital Health Podcast

In this episode, former Facebook product manager and internationally recognized whistleblower, Frances Haugen offers invaluable insights into how tech giants prioritizes profits over public safety, and the profound implications this has on mental health of young people. We explore her brave journey, which took her from the inner workings of Meta to testifying before the world's parliaments, sparki...

America’s homeless population is larger than in any other developed economy. On any given night, more than half a million people experience homelessness. One-third of them are in just one state—California. In this episode, Dr. Margot Kushel explains the country’s rise in homelessness and the critical impact of housing on the health needs of vulnerable populations. Dr. Margot Kushel is the director...

In this episode, we dive into our dysfunctional healthcare system with guest Wendell Potter, a former health insurance executive turned whistleblower, advocate for healthcare reform, New York Times best-seller, and documentary producer. We discuss the role of private, for-profit health plans in the U.S. and how they’ve drained resources from the healthcare system while leaving Americans financiall...

I recently did an Ask Me Anything session with two Johns Hopkins students who have a student-led venture firm (A-Level Capital) and podcast (A-Level Capital Podcast). In this special episode, I share the recording where they asked me about digital health, startups, innovation, women's health, and career development. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at h...

​There is a gap in America’s knowledge of women’s health. This is no surprise because it wasn’t until 1993 that Congress wrote an NIH inclusion policy into Federal law that encouraged women and minorities as subjects in clinical research. Much of what is considered ‘health standards’ are largely skewed towards men because of the years when women went unstudied. Even today, there remains gender ine...

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Eric Topol, the godfather of digital health, to explore the progress and barriers to innovation in healthcare, the potential of AI in transforming the industry, and the challenges faced by startups and big tech companies. Dr. Topol shares his insights on open-source healthcare, evaluating new innovations, and the importance of algorithmic fairness. Tune in to...

The majority of bankruptcies in the US are due to medical debt. This only deepens inequity and the healthcare affordability crisis in our country. The stress and sigma that comes with medical debt forces people to avoid necessary care, only worsening outcomes. We need to shift the narrative about medical debt from personal failure to systems failure. In this episode we talk to the CEO of RIP Medic...

As you probably know by now, May is Mental Health Awareness Month. But what you might not know is that entrepreneurs are 50% more likely to report having a mental health condition, including being: 2X more likely to suffer from depression 2X more likely to have suicidal thoughts 3X more likely to suffer from substance abuse 6X more likely to have ADHD 10X more likely to suffer from bi-polar disord...

May is Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Heritage Month. Asian Americans represents only 6.8% of the US, yet make up a significant portion of the medical profession, comprising 22% of medical school graduates and 17% of active physicians. While Americans of Asian and Pacific Island descent have made many contributions to our healthcare system, they are facing increased discrimination at...

In 2008, disillusioned by the medical system, Dr. Lakshmin left her residency to join an extreme wellness commune that turned out to be a cult. She was seeking something outside of mainstream medicine that could help with the anguish she was feeling. She yearned for community, and for something outside of the hierarchical structure of medicine. But what she found was that the industrial wellness c...

A new study published in JAMA found that more Black doctors means better outcomes for Black patients. Yet the percentage of med students from underrepresented groups is increasing at a paltry rate… and has actually decreased for Black men since 1978. In this episode, LaShyra "Lash" Nolen talks about the future of medical education and care. Lash is a medical student, Fulbright scholar, science com...

IVF has come a long way since the first IVF baby was born in 1978. Thirty years ago, your chances of bringing home a baby with each IVF try was 5%. Today, that number is around one third. While this is an impressive improvement, the fact is, the majority of patients will not go home with a baby after an invasive, emotional, and expensive round of IVF. There’s still much progress to be made. In thi...

Women are the power users and the power brokers of healthcare. And as the de facto “Chief Medical Officers” of their families — making healthcare decisions for their partners, children, and parents — women control an estimated 80% of all U.S. healthcare dollars. Yet our healthcare system is failing women. The majority report experiencing gender discrimination from their providers, and feel that th...

The healthcare industry has made significant strides in the past 50 years… or has it? In this episode, we sit down with Adrian Aoun, CEO of Forward, an AI-based healthcare system, who is simply not impressed with the lethargic pace of progress. We discuss how artificial intelligence (AI) can help us achieve exponential improvements to human health and how ChatGPT is the worst of the new world. Fol...

March is National Nutrition Month and in this episode, we delve into the inner workings of the Big Food industry with Pulitzer Prize-Winning investigative journalist Michael Moss. Michael shares his insights on how the industry uses science and marketing schemes to get us addicted to unhealthy food products, then turns around and sells us diet fads that don't work. With a background as an investig...

March is National Nutrition Month and in this episode, Instacart’s CEO Fidji Simo shares her insights on scaling food as medicine programs, improving nutrition security, and making healthy choices more accessible. Nourishing the community is in Fidji's DNA. She comes from three generations of fishermen in the south of France. A first-generation high school graduate, she has become a prominent and...

In this episode my friend Ryan Panchadsaram, co-author of Speed & Scale: An Action Plan for Solving our Climate Crisis, shares what we can do today to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. And why our health depends on it. Follow guest Ryan Panchadsaram on Twitter. Follow host Halle Tecco on Twitter. Visit the Heart of Healthcare website for episode recaps and more! See Privacy Pol...

Like it or not, data brokers have probably monetized your health data. But how do they get it in the first place? And what measures can you take to safeguard your health data? In this enlightening episode, I talk to data privacy expert Lucia Savage to find out. Lucia was formerly Chief Privacy Officer at the US Department of Health and Human Services, and is currently Chief Privacy and Regulatory...

After explosive growth in the first year of the pandemic, the amount of VC funding flowing into digital health in 2022 was about half of what it was in 2021. Meanwhile, exit opportunities have seemingly dried up. In this episode, I talk to two of my favorite digital health investors about what the heck is happenin g and what we can expect in 2023. Mo Makhzoumi is Managing General Partner of Health...

More than 40% of Americans have obesity, a number that continues to rise. And despite being a multi-billion dollar business — the weight loss industry just isn’t helping people lose weight. Perhaps that’s why new GLP-1 medications, like Wegovy, are getting so much attention. To learn more, I spoke to Sarah Jones Simmer, CEO of Found. With over $130M in venture funding, Found is the largest medical...

The number of Americans with a primary care physician is declining along with the number of medical school graduates wanting to go into primary care. A big reason for this is how, and how much, they are paid. Can replacing our fee-for-service model with value-based care save our healthcare system? In this episode, Dr. Farzad Mostashari, former National Coordinator for Health IT at HHS and current...

In this episode, Dr. Laurie Zephyrin, Heart of Healthcare Grant Challenge judge and SVP for Advancing Health Equity at the Commonwealth Fund, interviews Dr. Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha from Tuft’s Center for Black Maternal Health & Reproductive Justice , the winner of our $25,000 grant challenge. Learn about how CBMHRJ is taking a new approach to eliminating maternal health inequities and impro...

In this episode, Renée DiResta, researcher at the Stanford Internet Observatory, talks about the spread of malign narratives across social networks and how that impacts public health. Renée has advised Congress and the State Department, and has studied medical disinformation and the anti-vaccine movement. Renée regularly writes and speaks about the role that tech platforms play in the proliferatio...

Starting a company is hard, even in the best of times. But during a period of economic uncertainty, supply chain disruptions, political divisions, and a global pandemic -- it can feel impossible. In this episode, I talk to Sami Inkinen, a founder who has run companies in both bull and bear markets. Sami was the co-founder of Trulia (IPO) and now Virta Health (valued at $2B). We discuss: The benefi...

In this episode, Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal shares a treatment plan for our healthcare system. Elisabeth is an ER doctor turned reporter, and author of the New York Times bestselling book, An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take it Back. Her book reveals the dangerous, expensive, and dysfunctional American healthcare system, and tells us exactly what we can do to...