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What Missy Did Next

While I was blundering around the excellent Venrock/athenahealth party last night I ran into Missy Krasner. Missy ran David Brailer at ONC and then ran Adam Bosworth at Google Health and is as good as anyone in spotting and being around the trends in health IT. So what’s she doing now? Well she’s joined Rebecca Lynn’s crew at Morgenthaler Ventures. Is this cause for the boys of health IT VC to get afraid? Probably yes.

So what is Missy actually going to do? I had the good sense to ask her and she had perhaps less sense in telling me in quite some detail:

During my 5 years at Google on Google Health, we met with alot of innovative healthcare startups who came in and pitched their solutions as possible integration partners or acquisition targets.  There is still so much out there that has not be adequately addressed: end-of-life documentation, personalized health and provider search, big data and analytics, patient/provider communications via ACO trends,  transparency solutions for benefit design and EBOs, patient UGC and the social web, cheaper and better reimbursable telemedicine, and on and on. With all the innovation coming out of the various health IT accelerators and government app challenges, it’s a great time to align with a seasoned venture firm and take a deeper look at what is really ripe to become a market disrupter.

Morgenthaler has a long standing reputation on Sand Hill Road for their 40 years of investing in both IT and Life Sciences.  In the past few years, they have become very known for their DC to VC health IT startup showcase and current health IT investments, like Practice Fusion. I will be working with Rebecca Lynn and other senior partners to help broaden their health IT investing strategy, source new investments, perform due diligence and advise portfolio companies.  This kind of role will put my past Google Health and ONC experience to good use.

I think all the start-ups in Health 2.0 have a new friend–or an old friend with new power–to talk with and (this is the “less sense” part) I expect Missy’s email box to get very full, very quickly!

PS The magician/mentalist at the party was the best I’ve ever seen. He asked 6 of us for a number each and produced a lottery ticket with those numbers on it….and several other unbelievable tricks. His name is Oz Pearlman.

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