After getting grossed out by witnessing open heart surgery in 4th grade, David Ehrlich wanted nothing to do with medicine. So it’s somewhat ironic that he became CEO of Aktana, an intelligent customer engagement company serving the healthcare industry. David stayed in school way too long, finally dropping out of the economics PhD program at Harvard before making a career at McKinsey and then at start-ups. In this episode of the HealthBiz podcast, David retraces his path and shares the advances Aktana is making in using contextual intelligence to guide commercial decisions in an omnichannel en ..read more

Hari Prasad grew up in Madras, India and moved to a small town in West  Virginia to go to school at age 19. From there he focused on healthcare economics and held a series of jobs where he analyzed the patient journey and created the infrastructure for success under accountable care. But the idea for Yosi Health came from his own experience. After dislocating his shoulder he had the very painful experience of filling out all sorts of paperwork before being seen. Ouch! Yosi –which means ‘awareness’ or ‘think’– was created to improve the front end experience for patients and providers. The ..read more

Liz Hamburg was raised in the US and graduated from Brown, but then started her career in Japan and then Russia before earning her MBA and founding several companies in the US. She’s founder and CEO of Candoo Tech, which provides remote technical support and training for older adults, which keeps them safe, independent and connected. The American Medical Association just declared digital access as a Social Determinant of Health, opening the door for Candoo to offer its expertise to Medicare Advantage members, whose plans can justify the expense with improve Star ratings.  Liz spent a dec ..read more

As David Morales tells it, faith and resilience brought him off the streets of Lynn, Massachusetts and out of poverty, helped him succeed at an elite college and in the worlds of government service and healthcare business. He’s a strong believer that his story can inspire other discounted youth to dream big and achieve those dreams. I first met David a decade ago when he was a senior executive at Steward Health Care. I learned something of his background, but now he’s put it all out there in his memoir, American Familia: A Memoir of Perseverance. You’ll get a taste of David’s very American jo ..read more

iCario is a Health Action company, which strives to go beyond the typical patient engagement approach to motivate patients to do something different. Icario’s success has been driven by its ability to achieve results for health plans, the increasing need for outreach during the health emergency, and new competitive pressures on the company’s  customers from more consumer oriented organizations, like retailers. CEO Steve Wigginton comes from an immigrant family, with all the usual drive and familial expectations that go with that. After studying finance he started in technology, then even ..read more

Abarca  founder and CEO Jason Borschow grew up in Puerto Rico, and started his career as the 3rd generation in his family’s medical supply business. After selling the company to Cardinal he took a little twist and started a PBM. But not just any old, traditional PBM. Rather, one that emphasizes transparency, offers guaranteed drug trend, and has a flexible, modern platform. Jason has turned Abarca’s location in Puerto Rico to a positive, and touts it as a great place to work and to visit. In his spare time Jason reads to his three young kids, and when he has a moment for himself he’s rea ..read more

    Shannon Goggin grew up in small town Maine, where she picked up the entrepreneurial bug from her relatives. Her first venture was a hot dog stand, and then she moved on to a student-run coffee business at Georgetown. The food service theme had me thinking that maybe Noyo –her current venture– had something to do with Fro Yo. But it doesn’t Instead, it’s an outgrowth of her experience in tech and benefits with Zenefits, where she recognized the need for a tech layer so that companies in the benefits ecosystem could do business with one another at scale. Noyo, where Shannon is co ..read more

Gidi Stein had what he calls a normal childhood, although he did grow up in Jerusalem with biblical olive trees in his backyard and spent 8 years in the IDF working on advanced science and technology projects. That was enough to prepare him to lead a couple of high-tech, low-success startup companies before settling in to life as a practicing physician and earning his PhD in microbiology. He never expected to get back into the startup scene, but then the tragic death of a 9 year old as a result of a medication error led him to co-found MedAware to develop AI based next generation technology f ..read more

Ashok Subramanian believes that primary care is the key to affordable, high-quality healthcare. That’s not a unique insight –in fact all the lower cost, high performing systems outside the US have robust primary care– but it’s hard to put in practice in the US. Centivo https://centivo.com/, where Ashok is CEO offers a primary-care focused plan to private employers. Centivo encourages employees to develop deep primary care relationships and rewards providers for achieving strong clinical and cost-effectiveness goals. Ashok is a diehard fan of his native Buffalo, New York, where a diverse and h ..read more

  Many computer engineers grew up playing video games, but Waqqas al-Siddiq had a more traditional Canadian upbringing, hunting and enjoying the cold, expansive outdoors. Maybe it was the tracking of game that led him into remote monitoring with design roles at IBM and Intel? Now, as founder and CEO of Biotricity, Waqqas is providing leading edge biometric monitoring for medical and consumer markets with an emphasis on diagnosis and post-diagnostic products for chronic illness and wellness. The lead product, Bioflux is a single unit mobile cardiac telemetry device with real-time monitori ..read more