Today on Health in 2 Point 00, we resume our two-part series with part B and bring our promised special guest! Continuing from the first part of Episode 110, Jess and I discuss the women and family health startup Maven raising $45 million in its Series C round with celebrity investment. 1UpHealth, the MassChallenge HealthTech Finalist, raises $8 million; IntelyCare raises $45 million bringing the gig-economy approach to nurse staffing raises, and HealthJoy raises $30 million in Series C funding. The hospital owned ACO umbrella services company Caravan Health acquires Wellpepper, and Sharecare acquires Visualize Health; are these good acquisitions? -Matthew Holt
Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 110a | Trump at HIMSS20, K Health, and Accolade
Today on Health in 2 Point 00, Jess is singing as we are finally back with a two-part episode to cover the deals over the past couple weeks! On part A of Episode 110, Jess and I begin with Trump as he is set to speak at HIMSS next week. K Health raises $48 million in its Series C round to focus development on AI-powered primary care. Accolade files for a $100 million IPO and the telehealth language service platform Cloudbreak Health raises $10 million. Finally, Q Bio raises $40 million in Series B funding aiming to open additional centers and enhance the digital health platform. -Matthew Holt
The Undercurrents & Subtext of JP Morgan Healthcare 2020 | Luminary Labs, Sara Holoubek
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
Sara Holoubek, Founder & CEO of Luminary Labs, a strategy and innovation consultancy — and the recognized “Queen” of identifying the undercurrents and sub-text of conversations at healthcare conferences — dishes about those undercurrents running just-below-the-surface at JP Morgan Healthcare 2020. Where’s the digital health market headed? Says Sara, “When you see too much bottle service at the parties…that’s when you should watch your back!”
Filmed at J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, January 2020.
How Hospital Systems Invest in Digital Health | Brent Stackhouse, Mount Sinai Ventures
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
Savvy health tech startups can learn how the differing investment priorities of venture capital funds and strategic investors (those tied to large healthcare organizations like health plans, pharma companies, and health systems) can impact everything from their capital raise to their ability to gain new clients. Brent Stackhouse, Managing Director at Mount Sinai Ventures, talks about the nuances of investing as a strategic, trying to balance a health system’s inherent aversion to risk with the gusto it takes to place good bets on the future of health. Where does a hospital system find investments? Are they looking for clinical solutions or consumer solutions? Brent shares the details behind Mount Sinai’s investment thesis and talks ‘big picture’ about trends he’s seeing in healthcare investing worldwide.
Filmed at Frontiers Health Conference in Berlin, November 2019.
Back Pain Treatment Under the Watchful Eye of Your SmartPhone Camera | Konstantine Mehl, Kaia Health
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
With a holistic mind-body approach to treating chronic back pain and COPD, Kaia Health is a digital therapeutics startup gaining a lot of attention from some really big players, including Optum Ventures (the venture arm of U.S. health insurance giant United Healthcare) which recently made an $8M follow-on investment to the startup’s Series A. What makes Kaia standout in a crowded field of digital health solutions focused on chronic pain? CEO Konstantin Mehl points to their proprietary tech, which uses a smartphone camera to provide real-time corrections to patients as they complete their physical exercises. As digital therapeutics like Kaia gain greater clinical validation and show widespread improvement to patients’ lives, Konstantin shares his hopes for the future of reimbursement for clinically-proven health tech.
Filmed at Frontiers Health Conference in Berlin, November 2019.
Advice for Health Tech: Focus on Results, Mission, & Critics | Molly Coye, AVIA
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
Molly Coye has spent more than two decades working to advance technology initiatives in healthcare, serving roles as diverse as the Commissioner of Health for the State of New Jersey, Chief Innovation Officer for UCLA Health, and now Executive in Residence for AVIA, which mentors more than 50 large health systems on tech selection, adoption, and implementation. With such rich experience working with healthcare incumbents, we asked Molly to size up the current class of innovators, technologists, developers, and investors bringing the latest health tech solutions to market. What have they gotten right? Where do they need to improve? “We’re not so good at cost of care and lack of access,” says Molly, who also sees potential for that to change thanks to the work of organizations like Health Tech for Medicaid and an increased focus on solutions that address the health needs of ALL patient populations.
Filmed at J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, January 2020.
Mainstream Adoption of Virtual Care is Like…Online Dating? | Stephany Verstraete, Teladoc Health
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
The shift in thinking required to go to a “virtual first” healthcare system may not be as unique to the health industry as we think. Teladoc Health’s new Chief Engagement Officer, Stephany Verstraete, got her start at Match.com — and explains the parallels she sees between the mainstream adoption of telehealth and what she experienced introducing online dating to the masses. Think about it: overcoming skepticism, addressing privacy concerns, and what Stephany says is most important, changing an ingrained behavior — are all challenges currently being faced by virtual care co’s. It’s not a bad idea to flirt with as we talk bigger trends in telehealth engagement.
Filmed at J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, January 2020.
Consulting for Health Tech Startup CEOs From the Guy Who Knows | Matthew Holt, SMACK Health
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
To hear Matthew Holt tear apart a pitch deck—or worse, a demo—one thinks of another Brit with a penchant for criticism and tell-it-like-it-is tough love. Could Matthew Holt be the Simon Cowell of health tech? Or maybe he’s got a point underneath all that gruff? Having co-founded Health 2.0, Matthew helped bring digital health and health tech startups into the mainstream by providing a friendly forum for entrepreneurs and established healthcare incumbents. Along the way, he’s suffered through his fair share of demos and pitches, and watched all corners of the healthcare market as it reacted to (and invested in) tech health solutions. Now bringing that 30 years of wisdom to startups seeking coaching, help with strategy, business model design, fundraising, and, of course, demoing and pitching, Matthew explains how he hopes to help the current class of up-and-coming health startups via his consulting biz, SMACK Health.
Filmed at HLTH 2019 in Las Vegas, October 2019.
Consumer Health Tech Market Outlook for 2020 | Robert Garber, 7Wire Ventures
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
7Wire Ventures is a venture fund that invests in early-stage healthcare companies that are focused on connecting with the healthcare consumer — kind of like one of the most successful companies in its portfolio, Livongo, which went public in 2019. Robert Garber, a partner with the firm, stops by to share his point-of-view on where the consumer health tech market will be headed in 2020, if we’ll see more exits, and whether or not consumer health will be able to gain traction with healthcare’s established players like payers and health systems.
Filmed at J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, January 2020
Behind the Big Deal: Teladoc Health’s Acquisition of InTouch Health | Joe DeVivo, InTouch Health
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
It was a seminal moment in virtual care as Teladoc Health acquired Intouch Health for $600 million, effectively taking its mostly direct-to-consumer telehealth platform directly into more than 2,500 care providers — or, as they say, “from hospital to home.” We caught up with InTouch Health’s CEO, Joe DeVivo, to hear his thoughts on the deal, including what it means for the further advancement of virtual care and for the digital health industry at-large.
Filmed at J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, January 2020
