The Pulse by Wharton Digital Health

In this episode, we interview Fay Rotenberg, CEO of Firefly Health. We chat about her experience joining Firefly Health in 2017, discussing how what started as a virtual-first primary care offering has developed into a solution that will help consumers get, find, and pay for care. Firefly Health is trying to deliver concierge medicine at scale. They began with a virtual-first primary care offering...

In this episode, we interview the GoodRx co-founder and CEO, Doug Hirsch. We chat about his experience founding GoodRx, covering topics ranging from a time when his father literally knocked on pharmacy doors in NYC to get drug prices to their recent public offering. GoodRx seeks to expand access and affordability for prescription drugs. To do this, they process ~200 billion daily cash-pay price po...

In this episode, we interview Michelle Carnahan, President of Thirty Madison. We discuss Michelle’s pivot from pharmaceutical executive to leader of a health tech unicorn and what that means for Thirty Madison going forward. Thirty Madison’s mission is to be a human-first healthcare company delivering specialized care and treatment to everyone. They recently completed a $140M Series C raise led by...

In this episode, we interview Saeju Jeong, the Co-Founder and CEO of Noom. Founded in 2008, the company’s mission is to help people everywhere lead healthier lives through behavior change. Although today they are best known for their weight loss app, the company is making a push to extend its behavior change platform further into chronic care, supported by their recent $540 million Series F growth...

In this episode, we chatted with Vijay Patel, Co-Founder and Partner at CVS Health Ventures, a $100M fund dedicated to investing and partnering with high potential health technology startups aimed at building towards CVS’ vision of creating more consumer-centric care. We discussed: - The establishment of CVS Health Ventures as a fund dedicated to digital health opportunities, creating the potentia...

In this episode, we interview Jonathan Bush, the founder and CEO of Zus Health. We discuss his broad vision for Zus as well as some of his learnings from founding and leading athenahealth as well as serving as the Executive Chairman Firefly Health. Zus Health is seeking to enable the new wave of digital-first provider organizations by building a unified patient record and a toolkit with which thes...

In this episode, we sat down with Clara Burtenshaw, Clara is a biotech and life sciences investor with significant transactional, VC, IP, and operational experience. We discussed: -The evolution of the psychedelics industry from a stigmatized counterculture phenomenon to a scientifically robust industry with support from the FDA for fast-tracking drug development -The clinical potential of psyched...

Julian Harris, M.D., is a Partner on the Healthcare Services team at Deerfield and Chairman & CEO at ConcertoCare. Launched in 1994, Deerfield Management Company is an investment firm dedicated to advancing healthcare through information, investment and philanthropy — all toward the end goal of cures for disease, improved quality of life and reduced cost of care. ConcertoCare was formed recently b...

In this episode, we interviewed Michelle Davey, the Co-Founder and CEO of Wheel. Wheel is working behind the scenes to build many of the telemedicine services you're familiar with. Its online platform matches doctors with patients and also enables any company to stand up a virtual care practice. Wheel makes it simple for companies to build virtual care services under their brand by pairing technol...

In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, we interview Connor Hailey, CEO and Co-Founder of Axle Health, a software platform that enables any company to add in-home visits to their patient offering. We cover Connor's penchant for startup and entrepreneurship, Axle Health's founding story and early product journey and how they have scaled to thousands of in-home visits in just one year of launch. Found...

In this episode, we sat down with Sangu Delle, the Chairman and CEO of Africa Health Holdings. Africa Health Holdings is focused on building a sustainable healthcare ecosystem in Africa through its network of healthcare facilities that it owns and manages. To date, Africa Health Holdings portfolio companies have served over 510,000 patients through malaria treatment, family planning, community out...

In this episode, we interview Vik Bakhru, MD, former COO and CFO of ConsejoSano and the founding CMO of Circulo Health. We discuss some of the challenges that ConsejoSano faced as they strove to build consumer trust in the medical system amidst the global pandemic and what’s in store for Circulo Health, the nation’s newest managed Medicaid plan. Founded in 2014, ConsejoSano provides patient engage...

In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, we interview Afton Vechery, CEO and Co-Founder of Modern Fertility, a reproductive health company making personalized fertility information more accessible. Founded in 2016, Modern Fertility is the women's health company making personalized, proactive fertility information more accessible to women everywhere, whether they are trying for kids or not. Modern Fer...

Neil Batlivala is the CEO and Co-Founder of Pair Team. Neil Batlivala and Cassie Choi, RN founded Pair in 2019 after experiencing how critical a high functioning administrative team is to provide high-quality primary care by building out operations together at leading tech-enabled practices of Forward and Circle Medical. The majority of healthcare is local and fragmented, and no solutions were bui...

In this episode, we chatted with Dan Knecht, M.D., M.B.A., Vice President of Clinical Product at CVS Health. Prior to this, Dan served as Vice President of Health Strategy and Innovation for Medical Affairs at Aetna, a CVS Health company. What we discussed: ● The CVS Health-Aetna merger in 2018 has enabled the joint company to create more customer-centric care by marrying advanced data analytics a...

Dr. Andrey Ostrovsky is the former Chief Medical Officer of the US Medicaid program. He is now the Managing Partner at Social Innovation Ventures where he invests in and advises companies and non-profits dedicated to eliminating disparities. He also advises federal and state regulators on how to incorporate human centered design into policy making. He previously operated a series of methadone clin...

In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Vivien interviews Andrew Parker, CEO and Co-Founder of Papa, an on-demand assistance service to help people and their family members stay independent while living securely and happily at home. Andrew has a passion for healthcare, technology and people. Prior to founding Papa, Andrew ran Health Systems Sales and Strategy for MDLive.com, a large tele-health prov...

In this episode, we interview Dr. Jon Bloom, the Co-Founder and CEO of Podimetrics. The company’s mission is to improve patient lives through early detection and prevention of diabetic foot ulcers. They are a virtual care management company dedicated to preventing diabetic amputations through their SmartMat product and partnerships with both payers and at-risk providers, including the Veteran’s He...

In this episode, we sat down with Brad Fluegel, lecturer at the Wharton School’s Health Care Management program and former Senior Vice President and Chief Healthcare Commercial Market Development Officer for Walgreens. Before that, he was the Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and External Affairs Officer for Wellpoint, now Anthem, and Senior Vice President of National Accounts and Vice P...

In this episode, we connect with Erin Lee, the VP of Global Operations and Managing Director of Babylon (U.S.). Babylon is a London-based telehealth startup leveraging AI to provide quality and affordable primary care around the world. Babylon has operations globally, including in the U.S., Canada, UK, Rwanda, and several countries within Asia and the Middle East and plans to continue expanding in...

In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, we interview Naomi Allen, CEO and Co-Founder of Brightline, a behavioral health care technology company delivered for families and children. We discuss her amazing journey at the forefront of the new digital health wave as one of the founding team members of Castlight, her leadership lessons from Livongo and the amazing story of Brightline and how they launche...

In this episode, Sandy interviews Jannine Versi, COO & Co-Founder of Elektra Health. Elektra Health is on a mission to smash the menopause taboo by empowering 50M women in the US today navigating menopause with a full-stack digital solution. Elektra has been featured in Forbes, Pitchbook, the Financial Times and Crunchbase, and was selected as a "recommended platform" by both Katie Couric and Mari...

In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Vivien interviews Gabriel Mecklenburg, President and Co-Founder of Hinge Health, the leading musculoskeletal (also known as MSK) solution for employers and health plans. We discuss Hinge Health's journey from the early days for Gabriel and Daniel and finding product market fit to growing the business by more than 4X in the last year. Hinge Health has raised $3...

In this episode, we interview Steve Kraus, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. At Bessemer, Steve focuses exclusively on healthcare, where he’s made investments in and holds seats on the boards of some of the most successful companies in this space, including Bright Health, Ginger, Hinge Health, Aspen RxHealth, and, most recently, Folx Health. Each year, Steve and his team publish their healthca...

In this episode, we interview Deborah Kilpatrick, Co-CEO Evidation Health. With a network of over 4M individuals across the U.S. and a platform that gathers key real-world data from patients’ day-to-day lives, Evidation is on a mission to enable and empower everyone to participate in better health outcomes. Since its founding in 2012, Evidation has raised money from investors like B Capital Group,...