The Pulse by Wharton Digital Health

Latest Episodes:

Stephen Smith, NOCD, on creating a world where anyone can access effective OCD therapy Feb 28, 2022

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Our guest on this episode is Stephen Smith, CEO of NOCD, a digital health company delivering high-quality virtual care for patients with obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD. NOCD performs over 140,000 virtual therapy sessions annually, and has established a community-driven model that connects patients around the world to peers and licensed therapists. Last year, NOCD raised a $33 million Series B round of funding led by F-Prime Capital and received their initial backing from 7wireVentures. In this episode, Stephen and I discussed: 1) His own experience searching for diagnosis and treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder and how this led him to founding NOCD. 2) How NOCD cares for patients with OCD and connects to patients who have not yet been diagnosed. 3) Why focusing on the OCD population positions NOCD well to attract top therapists and move to value-based care.

Jia Jia Ye, Springtide Child Development, on scaling autism care that supports the entire family Feb 21, 2022

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In this episode, we sat down with Jia Jia Ye, CEO & Co-Founder of Springtide Child Development, a company that provides integrative, evidence-based, and family-centered care for children with autism spectrum disorder, or ASD. With four clinics open across Massachusetts and Connecticut, and a fifth coming soon, Springtide's rapid growth is enabling families to better plan for the future, providers to focus on patient care in a coordinated environment, and payors to see what value-based behavioral care for ASD looks like. We discussed: 1) How Jia Jia developed a passion for working in healthcare and how the industry’s mission-orientation and the complexity of its problems have kept her engaged over time, 2) The elements of Springtide’s clinical model that differentiate it from how care for ASD typically looks, 3) The superior clinical outcomes and expanded access to care that Springtide is demonstrating as a result of its intentionally-designed care model, 4) What the future of Springtide holds and why the company is focused on closing the gap between behavioral and medical care, and 5) Jia Jia’s leadership style, why it works for her, and what she enjoys most about being the CEO of high-growth company.

Andrew Hines, Canvas Medical, on building a platform to solve the EMR problem Feb 14, 2022

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In this episode, we sat down with Andrew Hines, Founder & CEO of Canvas Medical. Andrew and his team at Canvas Medical build software and APIs to power collaboration between caregivers and developers. Canvas Medical raised $17M in Series A funding in April, 2021. We discussed: Canvas Medical’s vision of building a software platform that connects electronic medical records (EMR) with clinician input that allows software developers to collaborate closely with practitioners and adapt workflows to accommodate evolving care models. The potential for Canvas Medical to facilitate idea exchange between ambulatory clinics and accelerate clinical research development by breaking down data silos. The importance for digital health startups to identify the user and the purchaser, and be critically honest about who would pay for the product or service.

Allon Bloch is teaching a machine the language of medicine Feb 07, 2022

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In the latest episode of The Pulse Podcast by Wharton Digital Health, we interview veteran entrepreneur, Allon Bloch. His latest venture is K Health, a company that is seeking to democratize access to medical information. They do this by allowing the user to interact with an AI chatbot that gives them access to data on how millions of people with similar symptoms were diagnosed and treated. On top of providing this information free of charge, they offer telehealth consultations at an industry leading (i.e., low) price point. During the episode, we discuss how K Health is able to offer telehealth services at such a low cost as well as Allon’s vision for the potential impact a platform like K Health can have on the dissemination of medical information.

Yury Yakubchyk, Elemy, on destigmatizing mental health to expand access to pediatric behavioral care Jan 10, 2022

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In this episode, we connected with Yury Yakubchyk, the founder and CEO of Elemy. Elemy is an industry leading tech enabled provider of high quality pediatric behavioral care. Inspired by his own personal journey in overcoming childhood ADHD, Yury co-founded Elemy to repair the flawed model of care for childhood behavioral conditions such as autism. Under Yury's leadership, Elemy has grown from 109 employees at the time of the company's seed round to more than 1,000 employees at present. Elemy raised $219M in their Series B funding round, catapulting the startup to unicorn status with a total valuation of $1.15B. Elemy's investors include prominent names such as SoftBank, Chelsea Clinton, and Ashton Kutcher. We discussed: -Inspired by the hustle of the informal economy of Queens, Yury co-founded two startups prior to Elemy. The common thread across all of his companies is solving a complex problem in an industry where consumers face many pain points. -Elemy’s focus on caring for high acuity pediatric populations through a hybrid model of care run on an integrated software platform that coordinates caregivers physically visiting patients at home. -The importance of destigmatizing mental health to accelerate the expansion of pediatric behavioral health services to more patients in need.

Holly Maloney, General Catalyst, with reflections on digital health in 2021 and predictions for 2022 Dec 20, 2021

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Our guest on this episode is Holly Maloney, a Managing Director at the venture capital firm General Catalyst, where she has a focus on healthcare specifically. She has invested across the digital health space, with companies including Cityblock, Olive, SonderMind, Transcarent, and, most recently, Ribbon Health.

Dr. Ashwini Zenooz, Commure, on building a more open operating system for health systems Nov 22, 2021

Show notes

Our guest on this episode is Dr. Ashwini Zenooz (“Ash”), CEO of Commure, a platform that enables health systems, digital health companies, and 3rd party developers to more quickly build interoperable data-driven products for healthcare. Their goal is to facilitate new clinical and operational workflows that leverage a health system’s data infrastructure to improve the patient experience, perform better in value-based arrangements, and expand access to care. Commure recently closed a $500 million fundraise across two rounds led by Human Capital and Greenoaks Capital, and received its initial backing from General Catalyst.

April Koh, Spring Health, on leading in precision mental health Nov 15, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, we sat down with April Koh, the CEO and founder of Spring Health, a comprehensive mental health benefit for employers. April is currently the youngest female to run a unicorn company. We discussed: -Spring Health’s focus on providing precision mental healthcare through its proprietary predictive algorithms and science-backed methodology of collecting patient self-reported data -The critical role data plays in improving the accuracy of Spring Health’s predictive algorithms, continuously upgrading customized member experiences, and helping clinicians enhance the efficacy of their care -Upcoming plans to explore value-based payment models and investments for international expansion, family care offerings, and harmonizing workplace performance with employee work / life balance -The challenges and opportunities of starting a company as a young woman of color, and how April’s entrepreneurial journey led her to be the youngest female running a unicorn company

Chris Severn, Turquoise Health, on Bringing Price Transparency to Healthcare Nov 08, 2021

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In this episode, we interview Chris Severn, the Co-Founder and CEO of Turquoise Health, a company working to bring real price transparency to healthcare. With recent and upcoming waves in pricing legislation, combined with its fundraise led by a16z earlier this year, Turquoise is tackling the transparency problem from several angles by creating new tools for patients, payers, and providers.

Karan Singh, Ginger & Headspace Health, on solving the supply imbalance in mental healthcare Oct 26, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, we sat down with Karan Singh, Co-Founder & COO of Ginger, now Headspace Health, through a merger with Headspace that was announced in August, 2021. Headspace Health is the world's leading provider of mental health and wellbeing solutions.

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