MedCity INVEST Digital HealthMedCity INVEST Digital Health

Agenda

2023 Sessions @ Pegasus Park

Thursday, October 26, 2023:

7:30 AM

The Compound @ Pegasus Park

Breakfast + Ask The Investor Office Hour

Ask The Investor meetings will take place during breakfast. Reserve your seat to have breakfast with an investor who will share their investment thesis and answer your questions. Pre-registration for Ask The Investor is required. This program will be available for in-person conference registrants only. Seating is limited. Investors will host up to 5 people at their table.

8:30 AM–8:40 AM

Room 104

Welcome + Opening Remarks

Speaker:
Arundhati Parmar, VP and Editor-in-Chief, MedCity News @Aparmarbb
Arundhati Parmar

VP and Editor-in-Chief, MedCity News
@Aparmarbb

Arundhati Parmar is VP and Editor-in-Chief at MedCity News. Previously she was senior editor at UBM’s Medical Device + Diagnostic Industry and has been a business journalist for more than a decade. Arundhati has three degrees from three continents – a Bachelor of Arts in English from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India; a Masters in English Literature from the University of Sydney, Australia and a Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago. She has sworn never to enter a classroom again.

8:40 AM–9:20 AM

Room 104

Investment Trends: Convincing Skeptical Investors

Money is not flowing as freely as it did a couple of years ago. What do investors want to see now and where are they finding most value in terms of lowering costs and improving outcomes? Hear from a panel of venture capitalists and startups that have successfully raised capital in this environment.

sponsored by Lyda Hill Philanthropies

Moderator: Hubert Zajicek, MD, CEO, Co-founder & Partner, Health Wildcatters
Hubert Zajicek, MD

CEO, Co-founder & Partner, Health Wildcatters

Hubert Zajicek, MD, MBA, is CEO & Co-founder of Health Wildcatters, a top ranked healthcare accelerator and fund in Dallas, TX. Health Wildcatters provides mentorship, capital and guidance to up to 12 healthcare related startups during an intensive 3 month program, annually. The fund has invested in 88 healthcare startups, which have attracted over $250M in capital in about 8 years. Dr. Zajicek has extensive experience with startups and is an active speaker, panelist and thought leader on healthcare startups, entrepreneurship, financing and healthcare. He serves as advisor, mentor and board member on various organizations and startup companies.

In March of 2020, Dr. Zajicek started the Health Hacking Crisis Network (HHCN), a non-profit organization that engages in bringing together a rapid reaction force to deal with acute problems arising in healthcare due to COVID-19. The organization has over 500 volunteer members and has supported the creation of a variety of initiatives that had a big impact on the North Texas region and beyond.

Prior to Health Wildcatters and the creation of HHCN, he was managing director – medical technology at NTEC (North Texas Enterprise Center), where he ran what eventually became the Southwest’s largest medtech investment conference, showcasing startups that attracted in excess of $300M. Prior, he was on faculty at UT Southwestern, as an NIH funded principal investigator, in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Cell Biology. He has an MD from the University of Vienna and an MBA from SMU. He lives in Dallas with his wife, Beth McNally Zajicek, MD and two daughters.


Speakers:
Kerry Rupp, General Partner, True Wealth Ventures
Kerry Rupp

General Partner, True Wealth Ventures

Kerry Rupp is a General Partner at True Wealth Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund investing in women-led businesses that improve human and/or environmental health. She is also a nationally-certified instructor for the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program, helping university-based teams to commercialize their science and technology research. She is an active startup coach who is asked to judge at startup competitions nationwide and is a frequent speaker on entrepreneurship, innovation and early-stage investing. She serves as a mentor at Capital Factory, on the Advisory Panel of the Texas Health Catalyst program at Dell Medical School, on the Advisory Board at Jon Brumley Texas Venture Labs at UT Austin, and on the Founding Steering Committee for Beam, an organization focused on making Austin the best place to be a woman entrepreneur. She is also a board director for VidaFuel, reHarvest Provisions, Rosy, and Flourish, and a board observer for BrainCheck and Atlantic Sea Farms, all True Wealth Ventures’ portfolio companies.

Previously, Kerry was CEO at DreamIt, a Top Ten US startup accelerator and early-stage venture fund, where she was directly involved with the launch of over 150 companies. During her 5-year tenure with DreamIt, she grew its programs to five cities, raised a $20M follow-on fund, and initiated the DreamIt Access (minority entrepreneur), DreamIt Athena (female entrepreneur), and DreamIt Health programs.

Before DreamIt, Kerry was herself the founder of an online travel service, Holiday Golightly, which organized unique group travel excursions for women. She has also advised senior executives at Allrecipes.com, ReadersDigest, LexisNexis, Payscale, and Taleo on stategy, business development and marketing. She has held Vice President level positions at AllRecipes.com, Jobster, Classmates.com and LexisNexis. Kerry began her career as a consultant with McKinsey and Andersen Consulting (now Accenture).

Kerry holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Biology from Duke University. In addition to her startup ecosystem service, she is a past Board Chair for the Texas 4000 for Cancer, is a Member of the Austin Area Research Organization (AARO), and has been on the Host Committee for the Austin Community Foundation’s Women’s Fund Keyholder event for the last several years. She is an avid adventurer that has visited over 50 countries and all 50 US states.

Kristen Torres Mowat, Partner, Health Velocity Capital
Kristen Torres Mowat

Partner, Health Velocity Capital

Kristin has more than 15 years of successful operating experience in healthcare software and services organizations, serving as a senior executive within a Fortune 200 healthcare services company and helping to lead and scale a healthcare software company from the early stages through IPO. Kristin previously served as SVP Corporate and Business Development for Castlight Health, leading one of the sector’s earliest innovators in transparency, engagement, and member advocacy in the areas of growth strategy, health plan relationships, and strategic partnerships. Prior to Castlight Health, Kristin was a senior executive at DaVita, where she was responsible for Corporate Strategy, founded and ran the company’s specialty EHR line of business, and led recruiting for the Leadership Development Program. Kristin has extensive experience serving on boards and advising healthcare and technology companies through critical growth periods, fundraising, and M&A transactions. Kristin began her career at Bain & Co. and is from Mexico City.

Harsh Vathsangam, CEO, Movn Health @hvathsangam
Harsh Vathsangam

CEO, Movn Health
@hvathsangam

Harsh Vathsangam is the Co-founder and CEO of Moving Analytics. Harsh received his PhD from the University of Southern California where he was a PhD Achievement Awardee and an Annenberg Fellow. His expertise dealt with working at the intersection of big data and mobile health. He hold an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He is also one of the inventors of iGest, an alternative communication device for children with cerebral palsy, a finalist at the Indian National Academy of Engineering, and winner of the NASCOMM award for social innovation.

Gwen Watanabe, Managing Director, H.I.G. Capital
Gwen Watanabe

Managing Director, H.I.G. Capital

Gwen is a Managing Director of H.I.G. BioHealth Partners, focusing on investment opportunities in the life sciences sector, including biopharmaceuticals, health care IT, medical devices, and diagnostics.

Gwen has been active in the life sciences sector for more than 28 years. Previously, she served as the General Manager and Vice President of US Robotics for Smith and Nephew and as the Corporate Vice President of Global Corporate Development, Strategy and Strategic Relationships at Teleflex where for eight years she presided over all global acquisitions. Gwen joined Teleflex as a result of Teleflex’s acquisition of Hotspur Technologies, a company Gwen co-founded and served as President and Chief Executive Officer. Gwen was also a co-founder of Nellix Endovascular, Bacchus Vascular and AneuRx, all three of which were medical device companies later acquired by larger strategic players. In addition, Gwen has been general partner of several private equity entities.

Gwen currently serves on the board of Compute Health and is an observer on the board of Augmedics.

Gwen holds an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, as well as an MBA from Harvard Business School. She also holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she simultaneously completed her pre-med requirements.

9:20 AM–10:00 AM

Room 104

Making Responsible AI a Reality

We are in the Wild West of AI at least as it pertains to Large Language Models (LLMs) that have suddenly burst into mainstream consciousness. How are payers and providers using these LLMs while also making sure that they have guardrails around their use. Greater use of AI in healthcare is inevitable, so learn from this panel about how to do it in a way that helps patients and physicians and not harm them.


Moderator: Purnima Boominathan, Counsel, McDermott Will & Emery LLP
Purnima Boominathan

Counsel, McDermott Will & Emery LLP

Purnima Boominathan delivers full-spectrum legal counsel to venture-backed and public companies providing business-to-business services in the digital health space. She has particular expertise facilitating the creation, delivery and implementation of telemedicine. Purnima advises innovators working at the intersection of artificial intelligence and healthcare and offers practical insights into healthcare data privacy and legal issues related to at-home laboratory services.

Purnima works closely with boards of directors, senior executives, and investors to develop and implement effective business and legal strategies while proactively identifying and mitigating regulatory, financial, commercial and product risks. She has extensive experience as in-house general and senior counsel. Over the course of her career, she has led legal, compliance, human resources and data security teams focused on promoting robust growth in a highly competitive and regulated healthcare marketplace.

Purnima earned her JD at the University of California, Hastings College of Law, and a BA at the University of California, Berkeley.


Speakers:
Mike Thompson, VP of Data Intelligence, Cedars-Sinai Health System
Mike Thompson

VP of Data Intelligence, Cedars-Sinai Health System

Mike Thompson is Vice President of Enterprise Data Intelligence for Cedars-Sinai. He has over 25 years’ experience and currently leads Cedars-Sinai Enterprise Data Intelligence teams which is responsible for our data warehouse, data science, and data/analytic delivery capabilities across our financial, clinical, operational, and research functions. His experience and expertise is creating data modeling and mathematical risk processing models using big data.  His original models have been implemented by Artificial Intelligence solutions deployed in 50 countries around the world.   For the past decade he has been focused solely on healthcare big data and analytic initiatives.

Mike has been a Health Analytics lecturer for UCLA Anderson School of Management, Emory University, Georgia Tech, Northwestern University, and Mercer University.

Matthew McGinnis, VP of Data and Analytics, Evernorth Health Services | The Cigna Group
Matthew McGinnis

VP of Data and Analytics, Evernorth Health Services | The Cigna Group

Matthew McGinnis currently leads the advanced analytics & data science team supporting Evernorth and Cigna Healthplan analytics. He is responsible for leading a team that delivers prescriptive insights, machine learning intelligence, data visualization, reporting and advanced analytics that support enterprise strategy of making healthcare more affordable, predictable and simple. The advanced analytics and data science teams focus is on strong business and customer outcomes while driving value for our business partners.

Matthew has been with Evernorth Health Services (a division of The Cigna Group) and Cigna Healthcare for more than 16 years. He began his career in accounting and finance, where he held positions as both an analyst and auditor before joining the data research and analytics team. He also spent nearly a decade with Healthways Inc., where he served as Senior Director of the Center for Health Research.

Matthew has been published in the American Journal of Managed Care, Professional Case Management, and Disease Management. He is a co-holder of U.S. Patent 8,244,654, issued in 2012, for an End of Life Predictive Model.

Matthew earned a Master of Science degree from the Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Florida, Fisher School of Accounting in Gainesville, Florida. He also earned a Certificate in Public Health from the University of Florida.

Ajay Srivastava, MD, Advanced Heart Failure Cardiologist/Founder/CEO, ISHI Health
Ajay Srivastava, MD

Advanced Heart Failure Cardiologist/Founder/CEO, ISHI Health

Dr. Ajay Srivastava is a distinguished Advanced Heart Failure cardiologist and the visionary Founder/CEO of ISHI Health, a groundbreaking virtual care company dedicated to transforming cardiac specialty care. With an impressive career spanning over a decade, Dr. Srivastava has spent time at esteemed institutions across the United States, including Henry Ford Hospitals, Yale University, Stanford University, and Scripps Clinic. Dr. Srivastava is also a member of the Digital Innovation Taskforce, a committee under American College of Cardiology leading efforts on digital transformation in cardiovascular medicine and an advisory board member to various cardiovascular med.tech corporations.

Driven by an unwavering determination to effect transformative change in heart failure and cardiac specialty care, Dr. Srivastava has embarked on an ambitious endeavor by forming ISHI Health, a trailblazing venture with a mission to revolutionize the landscape of cardiac specialty care.

ISHI Health harnesses the power of AI-driven virtual care to usher in a new era of cardiac specialty care. The primary objective is to deliver unparalleled accuracy, convenience, and cost-effective care to patients, made possible through cutting-edge technology and artificial intelligence.

Dr. Srivastava’s visionary leadership has earned him immense respect from peers and colleagues who recognize his unwavering dedication to improving cardiac care. Driven by compassion and fueled by a desire to transform lives, Dr. Srivastava continues to push the boundaries of what is possible.

Ginny Torno, Executive Director, Innovation and Clinical IT, Houston Methodist
Ginny Torno

Executive Director, Innovation and Clinical IT, Houston Methodist

Ginny Torno brings over 21 years of technical leadership experience, with over 11 of those years at Houston Methodist in progressive leadership roles. Her current role spans strategy and leadership for inpatient clinical systems involving nursing, imaging, pharmacy, lab, operating rooms, emergency departments, cardiology and research systems.

Ginny also plays an instrumental role in the Center for Innovation at Houston Methodist, focusing on smart hospital functionality and technologies that advance and improve the patient, nurse, and physician experience. She is currently leading a large scale, multi-pronged initiative internally branded as “Care Redesign,” which is expected to transform patient care. Voices of patients and care teams play a significant role in this transformation, with the goal of eliminating computers from patient rooms by enabling patient interactions through voice-enabled technology.

10:15 AM–10:55 AM

Room 104

Solving Pharma’s Pain Points Through Technology

Digital technologies are permeating into all aspects of the pharma world – from drug discovery to manufacturing. See where they are most effective and how large pharma players are leveraging tech in a variety of ways.


Moderator: Karl Hess, Managing Partner, Outcome Capital
Karl Hess

Managing Partner, Outcome Capital

Karl Hess is a Managing Director with Outcome Capital and leads its HealthTech and digital health practices. Having interacted extensively with hundreds of digital health companies over the years, as well as with dozens of their healthcare and life sciences investors, customers and partners, Karl has become known as a leading subject matter expert on the topics of successful digital health business models, commercialization, investment and technologies. From pharmaceuticals to medical devices and software (SaMD), digital health tools and therapeutics and health optimization and population health management platform technologies to entire care delivery ecosystems, Karl has helped design, develop and commercialize dozens of innovative products and services across the healthcare and life sciences industries, representing hundreds of millions of dollars in incremental revenues and more than $20B in value-unlocking transactions.

Prior to Outcome Capital, Karl was most recently Interim President and CEO of Texas Health | Aetna, a joint venture (and commercial health plan entity) of Texas Health Resources and Aetna, a CVS Health Company. Karl was formerly CEO of Kalico Partners, LLC, a technology-enabled provider and population health management organization (PHMO), and Chief Digital Health Officer of Collain Healthcare, a former subsidiary of LG CNS. Prior to Collain, Karl held the role of Vice President, Corporate Development at Welltok, Inc., a digital health and wellness company revolutionizing the way population health managers align consumer actions and behaviors with the right incentives and rewards. In one of his earliest digital health endeavors, Karl was a key member of the commercial team at Welldoc, Inc., helping to bring Welldoc’s BlueStar platform to market, one of the world’s first, and most successful, digital therapeutics. Earlier in his career, Karl worked for several start-up and Fortune 500 molecular diagnostics, biopharmaceutical, medical technology companies and consulting firms including Genentech, Becton Dickinson and PRTM, principally across product development and management, and market, business and corporate development, licensing and M&A.

Over the years Karl has had the opportunity to participate in two successful exits as an entrepreneur and work on and lead projects for 9 of the Top 20 pharmaceutical companies, 11 of the Top 20 medical device firms and 4 of the Top 25 PE firms, and has had global management responsibilities of leading extended teams of up to 500 and ~$300MM P&L.

Karl began his career as a life sciences researcher, conducting pre-clinical cancer and human genetics research at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and biotechnology R&D for what are now several subsidiaries of Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. Karl received a B.A. in Biology and an M.B.A. both from The University of Texas at Austin. He is a FINRA Registered Securities Representative holding Series 79 and 63 registrations.


Speakers:
Dipanwita Das, CEO, Sorcero @SorceroCo
Dipanwita Das

CEO, Sorcero
@SorceroCo

Dipanwita Das is the Co-Founder and CEO of Sorcero, an enterprise language intelligence startup that empowers experts to make better decisions in Life Sciences & Insurance with seamless understanding of the world’s technical knowledge. An award-winning global technology entrepreneur, Das has been accepted into leading programs for high-growth tech entrepreneurs, including Plug & Play Ventures, Mindshare, and Y Combinator’s Female Founders program. Previously, she was the founder & CEO of 42 Strategies, managing digital transformation projects for Richard Branson’s Virgin Unite, Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project, and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. As an Atlas Corps Fellow and Board Member, Das designed the Global Leadership Lab, training leaders from over sixty countries. She completed the Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Executive Program for Social Entrepreneurship, earned her M.A. from the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Sussex, and her B.A. from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. She is heavily inspired by science fiction and philosophy and writes her journal in Elvish.

Selin Kurnaz, Co-founder and CEO, Massive Bio
Selin Kurnaz

Co-founder and CEO, Massive Bio

Selin Kurnaz graduated from Boğaziçi University in Turkey, where she had a dual major in industrial engineering and mechanical engineering. Kurnaz then continued her education in the United States, where she obtained two masters degrees and a doctorate in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan. Following her education, Kurnaz served as an executive consultant on strategy, operations, and company trading for a decade. In 2015, she founded Massive Bio with Arturo Loaiza-Bonilla, MD, and Cagatay Culcuoglu.

Steve Prewitt, SVP, Global Head of Digital Innovation, Sumitomo Pharma Americas
Steve Prewitt

SVP, Global Head of Digital Innovation, Sumitomo Pharma Americas

Steve Prewitt is the Head of Digital Innovation at Sumitomo Pharma Americas working to build new data-driven solutions to the biggest problems in biotech. Prior to this Steve held leadership positions in data, software engineering and technology strategy in pharma, commercial payers and provider organizations.

10:55 AM–11:25 AM

Room 104

Supporting the Evolution of Advanced Research, Therapy Development and Patient Care with Data

Harnessing health data promises to transform research, therapy, and patient care. Hear how the use and management of health data will augment research and patient care, and how digital sensor technology, AI, telehealth, and confidential compute will facilitate this evolution while navigating the complex regulatory and business terrain. Other key areas that will be discussed include the key implications of federated learning such as the use of confidential compute, and synthetic data for patient privacy and AI algorithm protection. Learn from a Digital Healthcare Veteran and Business Leader (who also worked on some of the earliest “mHealth” devices and solutions) how these technological advancements are poised to reshape healthcare.


Moderator: Taha Jangda, Managing Director, Ascension Ventures
Taha Jangda

Managing Director, Ascension Ventures

Taha joined Ascension Ventures in 2022 and focuses on investments in healthcare technology. Prior to AV, he was a General Partner at HealthX Ventures and served on the boards of Medable, Veda, Orbita, CancerIQ, RxLightning, Moving Analytics, Pacifica, EnsoData, InsightRx, NarrativeDx, and Health iPass. In addition to focusing on strategic investments, he also advises various innovation communities and organizations across the country.

Taha started his journey at the Texas Medical Center (TMC), the world’s largest medical center. During his time with TMC, he took part in the creation of the TMC Innovation Institute comprised of an accelerator, Johnson & Johnson Center for Device Innovation and JLABS, BioDesign, and a venture fund. Following his entrepreneurial spirit, Taha joined Redox to lead their GTM strategy and partnerships.


Speaker:
Beth Andrews, Chief Digital Health Officer, Life Sciences & Healthcare, Dell Technologies | Global Alliances @theventuregirl
Beth Andrews

Chief Digital Health Officer, Life Sciences & Healthcare, Dell Technologies | Global Alliances
@theventuregirl

Beth Andrews is Chief Digital Health Officer, Healthcare & Life Sciences Global Alliances leading innovation and technology adoption, meeting customer needs across the healthcare and life sciences landscape. She serves as industry SME positioning the Dell Technologies solution partner portfolio to support customer innovation. Beth is leader of Life Sciences Business Development supporting infrastructure and compute needs in pharma, biotech, drug discovery, research & clinical trials.

Before joining Dell, Beth spent over 20 years in healthcare & life sciences product development, business development and emerging technology leadership roles in both start-up’s and F500 global organizations. She helped develop one of the earliest commercialized wearable sensor digital therapeutic patches at Avery Dennison partnered with Silicon Valley companies in the early “mHealth” days. As a member of the senior leadership team, she led commercialization at Zephyr Technology, a wearable sensor start-up company acquired by Covidien. As an entrepreneur her leadership in the earliest start-ups and technology companies comprising the “mHealth” space helped to pioneer and establish the Digital Health segment. Beth’s sector experience includes medical devices, wearable sensors, software, computer vision and AI/ML with a focus in digital health, virtual care, life sciences and clinical research.

Active in accelerators & incubators, in 2020 she led virtual cardiac rehab provider, Moving Analytics’ MassChallenge Healthtech 2020 Cohort participation to win the Accelerator’s Platinum Award and the AMA’s ROI Model Award. Beth was also a finalist in the Edward L. Kaplan New Venture Challenge at the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business in 2002. As an intrapreneur Beth also held several F500 medical device innovation leadership roles commercializing remote patient monitoring software solutions partnering with some of the largest US health systems.

Beth holds a MBA from the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business and a BA in Economics from the University of Richmond. She is an advisor to the University of California Santa Barbara Extension in CX, ScaleHealth & the MassChallenge Accelerator. She is also a judge for UCSF Healthhub, MassChallenge, Dell for Startups and Alliance for SoCal Innovation “First Look”. Beth also is involved in health policy and health equity advocacy work. She resides in Southern California with her husband and two daughters, outside of work Beth enjoys golf, gardening, and painting.

11:35 AM–12:15 PM

Room 104

Designing Clinical Trials with Patients in Mind

As the consumerization trend merges with the increasing availability of healthcare at home, clinical trial design is being transformed across the board. There is also a growing recognition that trial design must include strategies to improve diversity of clinical trial participants. How are life science companies reimagining clinical trials?


Moderator: Raj Rajendran, Associate Partner, McKinsey & Company
Raj Rajendran

Associate Partner, McKinsey & Company

Raj is an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company. He is a leader in McKinsey’s Life sciences practice and co-leads Tech-enabled operations agenda in North America.

He advises and serves Biopharma, Biotech and MedTech clients across operations value chain. His primary focus is at the intersection of operations transformation and Tech-enablement, helping clients unlock breakthrough performance by reimagining operations.

Raj has ~20 years of experience in leading large-scale operations programs across diverse organizations, including most recently (prior to McKinsey) at Rockwell Automation and Amazon. He holds a BE in Production Engineering from Bharathiar University (India) and an MBA from Duke University.

Outside of his Life sciences work, Raj is deeply passionate about youth empowerment and leads McKinsey Vancouver’s social responsibility and pro bono work efforts.

 


Speakers:
Kwame Marfo, Head of Market Strategy and Innovation, Komodo Health
Kwame Marfo

Head of Market Strategy and Innovation, Komodo Health

Kwame Marfo is the Head of Market Strategy and Innovation at Komodo Health. In his role, he leads a team of experts focused on informing the company’s product roadmap and go-to-market strategy to successfully meet customers’ current and future needs. His team champions the customer voice across different market segments and develops new use cases for Komodo’s technology to drive value for customers.
Kwame has 15+ years of experience in the biopharma industry, working in strategy and operations leadership roles across manufacturing technical operations, commercial analytics, and R&D.
Prior to Komodo, Kwame was Director of Insights and Analytics for Genentech’s Global Clinical Operations. Kwame graduated with a BS in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.
Pamela Tenaerts, MD, Chief Scientific Officer, Medable
Pamela Tenaerts, MD

Chief Scientific Officer, Medable

Pamela Tenaerts is Chief Scientific Officer at Medable, Inc. Dr. Tenaerts leads efforts to drive responsible adoption of decentralized research methodologies with evidence-based metrics and best practices. Dr. Tenaerts joins Medable from Duke University, where she led the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative’s (Public Private Partnership co-founded by Duke University and the Food and Drug Administration) efforts to develop and drive adoption of practices that increase the quality and efficiency of clinical trials. She is a member of the Drug Forum at the National Academies of Science, a Dime Founding Members Council member and a Board Member of the MedStar Research Institute

Dr Tenaerts is one of the leading advocates for innovation in clinical trials, with an emphasis on patient engagement, responsible evidence generation and clinical trial methodology improvements. With more than 30 years’ experience in the conduct of clinical trials across a number of stakeholders, she practiced medicine in both the emergency department and as a family practitioner in the private practice setting before embarking on a career in research.

She received her MD from Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, and a MBA from the University of South Florida. She speaks multiple languages

Matt Teuteberg, President and CEO, Splash Clinical
Matt Teuteberg

President and CEO, Splash Clinical

Matt Teuteberg is the Founder, President and CEO of Splash Clinical, a global patient recruitment firm that’s pioneered the use of digital & social media to recruit patients for clinical trials. He founded Splash Clinical to help solve the problem of patient enrollment in clinical trials by using its innovations in social media, data analytics, and mobile technologies.

12:15 PM–12:55 PM

Room 104

From Legacy MedTech to a Digital Makeover: How Medtech is Leveraging Data

Medical devices are not simply valves and screws. Learn how large medtechs and smaller startups are leveraging data to transform the medical device industry and how they are adopting AI as they embark on a new era of digital innovation.


Moderator: Katie Adams, Senior Reporter, MedCity News
Katie Adams

Senior Reporter, MedCity News

Katie Adams is a senior reporter for MedCity News covering providers and healthcare technology. Previously, she worked as a healthcare technology editor at Becker’s Hospital Review. Her journalism degree is from DePaul University in Chicago, where she is still based.


Speakers:
Shantanu Gaur, MD, Founder & CEO, Allurion Technologies
Shantanu Gaur, MD

Founder & CEO, Allurion Technologies

Shantanu Gaur is the Founder and CEO of Allurion Technologies (NYSE: ALUR). He founded Allurion in 2009 while at Harvard Medical School with one mission: end obesity around the world. Allurion has developed the world’s first full-stack weight loss platform combining the Allurion® Balloon—a revolutionary weight loss device and the world’s first and only procedureless gastric balloon for weight loss—with an AI-powered remote monitoring and behavior change program capable of delivering fast and sustainable results. The company recently announced the release of Coach Iris, a 24/7 GPT-powered weight loss coach fine-tuned to the Allurion Behavior Change Program to further augment its weight loss platform.

Allurion has already treated over 100,000 patients, shed over 2 million pounds, and grown revenues at 100%+ CAGR for the past 7 years. The company has operations in over 50 countries and went public on the New York Stock Exchange in August 2023 under the ticker ALUR.
Shantanu is an inventor on over 40 patents and has authored multiple peer-reviewed publications. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and with an M.D. from Harvard Medical School where he was a Paul Revere Frothingham Scholar and Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow.

Shantanu lives in Massachusetts with his wife Neha, son Yuvraj, and daughter Zoya.

Audrey Howell, Ph.D., VP of Product, Butterfly
Audrey Howell, Ph.D.

VP of Product, Butterfly

Dr. Audrey Howell is the Vice President of Product at Butterfly Network. In this role, Audrey oversees product strategy and roadmap development through the product management, design, and research functions. Prior to joining Butterfly, Audrey spent over 5 years at Palantir Technologies, holding positions in a variety of product development functions.

Prior to entering the tech industry, Audrey was a biomedical researcher at Stanford and Duke Universities. Audrey holds a Ph.D. in Genetics from Duke University and a Sc.B. in Biology from Brown University.

Ryan Lakin, Divisional Vice President, Digital Solutions, Medical Devices, Abbott @RyanLakin5
Ryan Lakin

Divisional Vice President, Digital Solutions, Medical Devices, Abbott
@RyanLakin5

Ryan Lakin serves as the Divisional Vice President of Digital Solutions for Abbott’s Medical Devices business unit. He has spent over 25 years in Research & Development and Business Leadership that has impacted patients through the commercialization of technologies across diverse therapy areas including orthopedics, diabetes, neuromodulation, and pediatric care.

In Ryan’s current role, he is working to advance Abbott’s connected care platform to optimize how patients living with medical devices can stay connected to their clinical care teams. He’s also working to identify ways to drive Abbott’s leadership in areas such as artificial intelligence, data-sharing and app development.

Shawn LaRocco, Vice President & Global Head of Customer Solutions, Olympus
Shawn LaRocco

Vice President & Global Head of Customer Solutions, Olympus

Shawn LaRocco is the Vice President, Global Head of the Olympus Digital Health business, Customer Solutions. He first joined Olympus in 2021. Olympus has been committed for more than 100 years to developing the latest technologies in multiple areas. As the global leader in endoscopy, Olympus provides non-invasive medical devices that empower doctors to see, diagnose, and treat many diseases, including cancer. Previous to Olympus, LaRocco was Vice President, Strategy & Business Development at ServiceMax, representing the Medical Device vertical of the business.

He also held various leadership positions in companies like GE Healthcare, where he was the GM of Digital Technology and led business operations, Alcon Surgical, and Leica Biosystems, a Danaher Company. He currently sits on the boards of the Service Council Advisory (Digital Technology) and the Field Service Council advisory board. LaRocco has a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Western New England University and an MBA in Global Management from University of Phoenix.

12:55 PM–1:55 PM

– LUNCH RECEPTION –

1:55 PM–2:35 PM

Room 104

What is the Future of Digital Therapeutics?

Digital therapeutics have been around for a while but they have not gained traction even though there has been interest from regulators and some companies have even won FDA clearances for their digital treatments. Why? This panel of experts will break it down and chart a course for the future.


Moderator: Aaron DeGagne, Research Analyst, Healthcare, PitchBook
Aaron DeGagne

Research Analyst, Healthcare, PitchBook

Aaron DeGagne is a research analyst at PitchBook where he covers digital health and medical technology. He contributes to quarterly and annual vertical reports and produces analyst notes on emerging technologies and VC and PE deal flow in healthcare. Prior to this role, he was a public equity analyst at Morningstar covering medical devices and diagnostics. DeGagne received a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Notre Dame. He is also a CFA Charterholder. He is based in Chicago.


Speakers:
Rick Anderson, President, DarioHealth
Rick Anderson

President, DarioHealth

Rick Anderson is the President of Dario, a digital health company revolutionizing how people with chronic conditions manage their health through a user-centric, multi-chronic condition digital therapeutics platform. Its platform and suite of solutions deliver personalized and dynamic interventions driven by data analytics and one-on-one coaching for diabetes, hypertension, weight management, musculoskeletal pain and behavioral health.

Prior to joining DarioHealth, Rick worked at Catasys, Inc., where he spent over 10 years cultivating its business. He ultimately served as President, Chief Operating Officer and was a member of its board of directors. In his role, Richard built and scaled a business that generated tens of millions of dollars in recurring revenue. Under Richard’s leadership, Catasys signed agreements with a few of the largest health plans in the U.S. Prior to Catasys, from 2005-2008, he was a Senior Executive Vice President of Hythiam, Inc., a predecessor company of Catasys, Inc. He also previously served as Chief Financial Officer and Secretary of Clearant, Inc., a biotechnology company from 1999 to 2005. Prior to Clearant, from 1999-2001, he was the Chief Financial Officer and Managing Director of Intellect Capital Group, a venture consulting firm.

Shira Butler, VP, Provider Growth and operations, Lin Health
Shira Butler

VP, Provider Growth and operations, Lin Health

Shira is a commercial, product and operations leader with deep experience in digital therapeutics;she has launched and scaled tech-enhanced healthcare solutions across various clinical specialties, working closely with health plans, employers, health systems and government.

At Lin Health, Shira leads growth through provider referrals, building trusting relationships across the health system and delivering value to clinical practices. She also leads operations, managing the coaching at the center of Lin’s uniquely effective approach to chronic pain rehabilitation. Lin Health is a digital health company that is revolutionizing how chronic pain is treated, fundamentally charting a new future for digitally enabled medical treatment at scale.

Shira was previously at Omada Health, a leader in patient-centered design and digital health, where she led the creation and initial scale-up of Omada’s services for diabetes management, hypertension management, and behavioral health. Shira partnered closely with the AMA to lead creation of the first ever CPT reimbursement code for a digital therapeutic. She spearheaded Omada’s nationwide rollout with Cigna, laying the foundation for how Omada executed partnerships with national payers. She represented Omada in Washington, DC to educate CMS and congress people on the value of digital and preventative interventions. Later, at Eden Health, Shira designed and scaled Eden’s approach to integrating mental healthcare and physical therapy into digitally-enabled primary care services.

Shira is passionate about writing and speaking on the future of integrating technology into healthcare.

Smit Patel, PharmD, Associate Program Director, Digital Medicine Society (DiMe)
Smit Patel, PharmD

Associate Program Director, Digital Medicine Society (DiMe)

Dr. Smit J. Patel, PharmD serves as the Associate Director at the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe), a 501(c)(3) global non-profit organization dedicated to advancing digital medicine to optimize human health. Smit’s work focuses on applied approaches to the safe, effective, ethical, and equitable use of digital technologies to advance clinical research, clinical care, and public health. Smit is an Advisory Board member for the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health and the Digital Therapeutic Alliance (DTA) and serves on advisory committees for digital health program(s) at the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC), American Pharmacists Association (APhA), and HealthXL. He also serves on the steering committee for the APACMed digital health reimbursement alliance.

Smit is currently managing CancerX, a new public-private partnership announced by The White House as a national accelerator to boost innovation in the fight against cancer as part of the reignited Cancer Moonshot. More recently, he led the partnership with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the largest healthcare system in the US to develop a consistent approach in deploying digital-health technologies at scale by designing approaches to cultivating successful VA-industry collaborations and building frameworks to evaluate, adopt, and scale successful integration of digital solutions into the VA system. Smit was a founding member for IMPACT, Virtual-First Medical Practice Collaboration co-hosted by DiMe and the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) to expand access to high-quality, evidence-based virtual first care.

Previously, Smit also co-led an external partnership with the health innovation hub (hih) of the German Federal Ministry of Health to define global priorities to advance innovation in evidence generation for the broad acceptance of digital health applications. Building upon that, he has recently led a pre-competitive, multi-stakeholder collaborative with FDA, Google, Harvard, and 16 partners to chart digital health regulatory pathways to optimize product development, regulatory strategy, and decision-making for healthcare innovators. He has spent the last ten years working at the intersection of innovative medicine, technology, and healthcare from the health tech, pharmaceutical industry, and consulting space.

Smit earned his Doctorate in Pharmacy (PharmD) from the Ohio State University. He currently holds a faculty position for the Digital Health Innovation Certificate Program at the Brown University School of Professional Studies. Additionally, he is a Global Shaper at the World Economic Forum, a Forbes 30 under 30 scholar, a TEDx speaker, and an MIT-Harvard Health Innovation alumnus.

2:35 PM–3:00 PM

Room 104

Future-Proofing Healthcare Delivery – The “Next Generation” Dynamic

This fireside chat will introduce an evolving concept related to “future-proofing” healthcare delivery linked to the anticipated changes in population health and consumer expectations over the next decade.  This includes surfacing the key challenges for current healthcare delivery organizations (physician, non-physician, non-profit and investor-owned) and how they may change (or stay the same) as the nation’s 72 million millennials become caregivers and care-receivers responsible for healthcare decision-making. The speakers will share their insights about the “next generation” dynamic in the healthcare industry through identifying practices, technologies, and traditions of the healthcare delivery system that may need to respond to related changes in consumer and payer expectations and the anticipated impact on innovation and M&A as the primary drivers of growth within the healthcare industry.

sponsored by Polsinelli

Moderator: Jonathan Henderson, Co-Chair, Health Care M&A, Polsinelli
Jonathan Henderson

Co-Chair, Health Care M&A, Polsinelli

Jon Henderson designs, implements and closes deals in the health care services industry by taking into account not only traditional corporate and structuring considerations, but also the additional layers of licensure, provider enrollment and other regulatory specific considerations that are part of executing regional and national transactions in the highly regulated health care industry.


Speaker:
Jim Walton, DO, President, JWalton, LLC
Jim Walton, DO

President, JWalton, LLC

Dr. Jim Walton is President of JWalton, LLC a healthcare consultancy firm with expertise in physician-owned value networks, risk-bearing accountable care organizations, and safety net care delivery focused on sustainability in patient-centered healthcare financing and delivery redesign.

Dr. Walton has a 40+ year career in healthcare, starting with private internal medicine practice in Waxahachie, TX developing rural health clinic partnerships with Baylor Health Care System’s Ellis County community hospitals. After joining Baylor’s HealthTexas Provider Network in 1996, he served as a Medical Director and VP of Baylor’s Office of Community Health, establishing nine Baylor-supported safety net clinics and a house calls program, Baylor Community Care, within the DFW service area. Subsequently, he served as the Chief Health Equity Officer, creating Baylor’s first Health Equity Report, evaluating and reporting disparities in access, care delivery and outcomes for Baylor’s regional health care system.

In January 2023, he retired after 10 years as the President and CEO of the DFW-based Genesis Physicians Group. During his tenure he established Genesis’ clinically integrated network engaged in population health management and value-based contracting with Medicare, Medicaid, and Commercial populations in rural and urban communities across North Texas. In 2022, he was appointed to the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC), an independent federal advisory committee making recommendations
to the Secretary of HHS on stakeholder-submitted physician-focused payment models and related topics.

From 2002–2012, he provided strategic leadership and medical direction for the Dallas County Medical Society’s Project Access Dallas, a volunteer network of more than 2,000 physicians and 15 hospitals providing comprehensive health care access to uninsured people throughout Dallas County. In 2009, he received the prestigious DCMS Charles Max Cole Leadership Award and was elected to serve as President of the 7,000+ physician member Dallas County Medical Society in 2015. In 2016, Dr. Walton was elected to Fellowship in the
American College of Physicians.

Dr. Walton is a 1982 graduate of the University of North Texas Health Sciences Center, Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at Methodist Hospitals of Dallas, Board Certified in Internal Medicine, and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. Dr. Walton earned an MBA from the University of Michigan in 2009 and joined the adjunct faculty at the University of Texas at Dallas, Naveen Jindal School of Business in 2016.

He is married to Dr. Rhonda Walton, has four adult children and two grandchildren. In his leisure time, he enjoys hiking, scuba diving, gardening, and teaching healthcare management to graduate students and physicians at the University of Texas at Dallas.

3:10 PM–3:50 PM

Room 104

Reducing Friction: How Payers Can Leverage Tech to Improve Provider Interaction and Patient Experience

In recent years, the chasm between providers and payers has grown largely because of administrative burdens. How can these two important healthcare stakeholders work together and leverage technology to reduce that burden and improve member and patient experience?


Moderator: Josh Berlin, JD, CEO, rule of three®, LLC
Josh Berlin, JD

CEO, rule of three®, LLC

Josh brings more than 25 years of experience, most of which has been in healthcare advisory, service to his clients. Most recently, he has served as Principal and Co-Practice Leader of Citrin Cooperman’s Healthcare Practice and Managing Partner for IBM Watson Health’s Strategic Advisory Practice, leading a unique group of consultants in each instance to serve clients across the full healthcare ecosystem (Providers, Payers, Employers, Governments, Advocacy, etc.). Previous to those roles, he served as a Principal in the healthcare consulting practice at Dixon Hughes Goodman (now FORVIS), helping to lead their Strategy Consulting business. Prior to which, he served as a leader in all versions of KPMG (KPMG Consulting/BearingPoint and KPMG). Currently, he serves on the Boards of the Validation Institute, Population Health Management Journal and HealthTrackRx.


Speakers:
Sunita Koshy-Nesbitt, MD, Chief Quality Officer Hospital Channel, Texas Health Resources
Sunita Koshy-Nesbitt, MD

Chief Quality Officer Hospital Channel, Texas Health Resources

A cardiac electrophysiologist, Dr. Sunita Koshy-Nesbitt MD, MBA serves as the chief quality officer for the Hospital Channel at Texas Health Resources. In her role she oversees quality outcomes, infection prevention, regulatory operations, clinical learning, and emergency management. Texas Health Resources provides 350 access points including 28 hospitals serving communities across North Texas.

In her prior experience, she served as SVP and chief population health officer for Southwestern Health Resources Clinically Integrated Network (SWHR CIN), which was established by the UT Southwestern Medical Center and Texas Health Resources to optimize care for patients in North Texas. At SWHR CIN, Dr. Koshy-Nesbitt was responsible for strategies, technology and operations designed to advance value-based healthcare for quality improvement and clinical effectiveness. Based on quality and cost, she helped lead the organization to the No. 1 ACO in the United States, participating in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) most aggressive payment model, the Next Generation program, for 3 years in a row (2017-2019).

She is the past President of the American Heart Association Dallas Board of Directors.

Prior to her roles as a physician leader, Dr. Koshy-Nesbitt was a practicing electrophysiologist in the community. She completed her training in internal medicine, and served as chief resident for an additional year, at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. She then went on to complete fellowships in both general cardiovascular diseases and clinical cardiac electrophysiology at the UT Southwestern Medical Center. Additionally, Dr. Koshy-Nesbitt earned a master’s degree in Healthcare Management and Administration from the Naveen Jindal School of Management at UT Dallas, where she is currently an adjunct executive professor.

Samantha Roushan, SVP, Clinical Transformation, Cohere Health
Samantha Roushan

SVP, Clinical Transformation, Cohere Health

Samantha Roushan serves as the Senior Vice President of Clinical Transformation at Cohere Health. In this role, she leads the department responsible for tech solutions, analytics, and clinical programs that leverage prior authorization as a catalyst to reduce costs, improve provider experience, minimize delays in care, and drive clinical outcomes.

Previously, she led SCAN Health Plan’s I-SNP and mobile care delivery team, which ignited her passion for value-based care and drive to improve the UM experience. In prior roles, she was GM at Parsley Health, and she developed and launched digital health strategies, products, and businesses at BCG Digital Ventures, Continuum, and Medtronic Diabetes.

Samantha earned two master’s degrees from Northwestern University: an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and a Master of Engineering Management in Design. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania.

Steven Stepp, Chief Data Officer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas
Steven Stepp

Chief Data Officer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas

Steven Stepp has recently joined Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas as the Chief Data Officer with the primary objective of establishing the organization’s inaugural Data & Analytics office. Prior to this role, Steve was associated with Catholic Health as the Vice President of Analytics. His extensive career in healthcare also includes serving at WakeMed Health & Hospitals in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he held the position of Director of Informatics and Decision Support, overseeing the organization’s data and analytics team.

Furthermore, Steve has a notable history as the Director of Business Intelligence and Engineering for UPMC, a healthcare system that serves many Pennsylvania counties. During his tenure, he founded and successfully led the Department of Business Intelligence and Engineering.

Before serving the healthcare sector, Mr. Stepp held various leadership positions at United Parcel Service and Suzuki Motor Corporation. He holds a master’s degree in business administration from Temple University and a bachelor’s degree in operations management and industrial engineering from Susquehanna University.

3:50 PM–4:30 PM

Room 104

Digital Health for Employee Benefits: Does the ROI Justify the Investment?

Employers keep making investments in new kinds of employee benefits be they related to employees’  mental health, fertility and even eating disorders. But do these really add value to people’s lives? A panel delves deep into the ROI of employee benefits.

sponsored by HealthBook+

Moderator: Kate Huey, Partner, Business Transformation Leader for Health Care, Ernst & Young
Kate Huey

Partner, Business Transformation Leader for Health Care, Ernst & Young

Kate Huey is Ernst & Young LLP’s Business Transformation Leader for Health Care. For over 20 years, Kate has focused on bringing the “consumer voice” to the forefront in order to create and deliver the ideal consumer experience across industries to drive true transformation. ​

Kate has a successful track record aligning the needs of patients, caregivers and clinicians with key business strategies. Her deep expertise in health care allows her to be a subject matter expert (SME) in health care strategy, consumer experience (patient, caregiver & clinician), key technologies and research. In addition, Kate effectively combines the depth of her health care expertise with the breadth of Ernst & Young LLP to deliver truly transformative experiences for health care.

Prior to joining EY, Kate spent 5 years at IBM working to transform the health industry across the globe by meeting her clients where ever they were in their transformation journey. She also spent spent over 3 years at Providence Health where she was part of a small team of disciple experts brought in to drive transformation, innovation, and change.

Before joining the healthcare industry, Kate spent fourteen years in technology at Microsoft and Motorola where she worked across audiences, geographies, industries, and in a full range of disciplines including business strategy, market research, product planning, campaign planning and measurement, business management, sales support, digital marketing, etc.


Speakers:
Nabomita Dutta, SVP, Commercial Strategy and Partnerships, Teladoc Health @DuttaNabomita
Nabomita Dutta

SVP, Commercial Strategy and Partnerships, Teladoc Health
@DuttaNabomita

Nabomita Dutta is SVP of Commercial Strategy and Partnerships for the US Group Health business at Teladoc Health, with responsibility for go-to-market strategy and growth across lines of business and partner channels. She has over fifteen years of experience at the intersection of healthcare and technology via prior roles at UnitedHealth Group, Oscar Health, and Uber Health across strategy and business development, and consulting engagements with CVS Health and Kaiser Permanente. Nabomita received an MBA from the University of Michigan and Bachelors’ degrees in chemical engineering and Economics from U.C. Berkeley.

Bipinchandra (Bipin) Mistry, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Alight Solutions
Bipinchandra (Bipin) Mistry, MD

Chief Medical Officer, Alight Solutions

Bipin Mistry MD, MBA, MRCP, SFHM is board-certified internal medicine physician, a member of the Royal College of Physicians and a Senior Fellow in Hospital Medicine.  As the Chief Medical Officer of Alight, he oversees the quality and performance of clinical engagement programs, clinical AI personalization and innovation, provider network quality, client support and employee engagement. Prior to joining Alight, Dr Mistry was part of the leadership team in building Transcarent which included developing partner relations, savings modelling and clinical service solutions. Dr Mistry has worked with Michael Porter and Robert Kaplan at Harvard Business School (HBS), MA, in evaluating the role of value-based healthcare in solving for the healthcare crisis. After his time at HBS, Dr Mistry went on to work at
Remedy Partners and Signify Health, specifically working in new payment models of bundled payments and accountable care.

Dr. Mistry obtained his medical degree at Kings College School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of London, UK and MBA at Babson College, Wellesley, MA. Dr. Mistry continues to maintain his clinical footprint by providing hospital medicine services to acute and post-acute care settings in the Boston area. He brings a deep understanding of healthcare analytics and value-based care.

Jeffrey Ries, Executive Director, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Jeffrey Ries

Executive Director, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Jeff Ries is a Partner at Morgan Health and co-leads Morgan Health Ventures. Jeff is focused on supporting Morgan Health’s mission by identifying high-potential, growth-oriented companies with innovative business models, deploying $250mm of JPMC capital, and developing mutually beneficial relationships with our partners. Previously, he was Managing Director at Healthbox, where he led all venture investment activities, including the management of the DaVita Venture Fund and Intermountain Health Care Innovation Fund. Prior to joining Healthbox, Jeff was at Oxeon Partners where he focused on building and investing in health care companies. He was also an investor at Sandbox Industries where he helped manage BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners, a health care fund. While at Sandbox, Jeff started several tech-enabled startups and helped raise capital for Cultivian Sandbox, an agriculture-technology venture fund. He began his career at LaSalle Investment Management, a private equity firm with $50b AUM. Jeff received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Economics from Northwestern University and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School.

Chris Turner, CEO, HealthBook+
Chris Turner

CEO, HealthBook+

Chris Turner is the Chief Executive Officer at HealthBook+ with overall responsibility for building and executing on the company’s vision to allow people to own their health with guidance from cutting-edge technologies.
  
Chris has more than 20 years of experience of growing global health companies, most recently as the Chief Commercial Officer at Infermedica, where his team helped people find the best triage point of care leveraging AI. He has also held leadership positions at Medici, Evariant, Synapse Healthcare Solutions and Healthgrades, where he has focused on solution sales, service delivery, client services, product development and strategic initiatives.
 
As a seasoned presenter at conferences hosted by the Health Care Internet Conference, the Healthcare Financial Management Association, and the Society for Healthcare Strategy and
Market Development, Chris publishes his thought leadership as a member of the Forbes Business Council. 

4:40 PM–5:55 PM

Room 104

Pitch Perfect Contest: FemTech

Participating Companies
Embr Labs
Flourish Care
LactApp
Myri Health
SimpliFed
Rosy Wellness
Hera Biotech

Judges:
Jay Goss, General Partner, Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health
Jay Goss

General Partner, Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health

Before becoming a venture capitalist, Jay helped bring companies, a lot of them, to life and created growth spurts for companies that have been been around for a while, but find themselves stalled. Jay has built, run and “growth spurted” businesses across a variety of different industries/sectors – digital and traditional – working entrepreneurially for early stage companies (from zero to five years old), and “intrapreneurially” inside large organizations such as Disney, Reed Elsevier, Summa Group and UCLA, building new business units on their behalf. While these companies have been all over the map in terms of industry (many healthcare), the common denominators have been helping companies develop (or re-work) their go-to-market strategy and sticking around to actually execute the plan, and helping companies with fund-raising (Jay’s companies have raised money from friends and family, angels, HNWI, strategics, venture capitalists, crowd-funding, celebrities, family offices, and overseas investors).

Long story short, Jay knows the entrepreneurial journey pretty well (although each one is a little different, and each time he learns something new about entrepreneurship).

Jay is currently a General Partner at Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health. Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health is a Pasadena-based venture fund led by seasoned healthcare executive John Nackel (former head of E&Y’s global healthcare practice and CEO of UnitedHealth Group’s Ingenix Consulting, now Optum) and Jay Goss. The fund focuses on healthcare start-ups seeking Seed stage investment, with a cross functional investment team of 9 professionals. Most importantly, Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health has more than 300 Limited Partners, the vast majority of whom are healthcare organizations or healthcare executives, giving the fund a true super-power when it comes to sourcing, evaluating, and especially providing commercial support to the early stage companies it invests in.


Wendi McGowan-Ellis, Founding General Partner, Cassandra Capital

Founding General Partner, Cassandra Capital

Wendi McGowan-Ellis is the CEO & Founding General Partner at Cassandra Capital – a female-founded venture capital firm Investing in early growth-stage, women-led companies and whose mission is to “Punch Past the 3 Percent Point” of all VC investments.

Wendi’s investment thesis for Cassandra Capital is that 80% of the firm’s capital is invested in multiple other U.S. women-led venture capital firms, and 20% of our portfolio is allocated to early revenue, scaling, and growth-stage women-owned and women-led companies in North Texas.

As a founder/operator turned investor, her vision is to put women at the core of creating, building, and investing in new innovation and wealth. Wendi is all about “proximity to problems,” knowing that when women found and lead companies and when women invest, we’ll have better business, stronger teams, and more effective products and services that enhance all our lives.


Kerry Rupp, General Partner, True Wealth Ventures
Kerry Rupp

General Partner, True Wealth Ventures

Kerry Rupp is a General Partner at True Wealth Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund investing in women-led businesses improving environmental and/or human health. She is also a nationally-certified instructor for the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program, helping university-based teams to commercialize their science and technology research. She is an active startup coach who is asked to judge at startup competitions nationwide and is a frequent speaker on entrepreneurship, innovation and early-stage investing. She serves as a mentor at Capital Factory, on the Advisory Panel of the Texas Health Catalyst program at Dell Medical School, and on the Founding Steering Committee for Beam, an organization focused women entrepreneurs. She is also a board director for Vidafuel, re-Harvest, Rosy, and Founding and a board observer for BrainCheck and Atlantic Sea Farms, all True Wealth Ventures’ portfolio companies.

Previously, Kerry was CEO at DreamIt, a Top Ten US startup accelerator and early-stage venture fund, where she was directly involved with the launch of over 150 companies. During her 5-year tenure with DreamIt, she grew its programs to five cities, raised a $20M follow-on fund, and initiated the DreamIt Access (minority entrepreneur), DreamIt Athena (female entrepreneur), and DreamIt Health programs.

Kerry holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Biology from Duke University. In addition to her startup ecosystem service, she is the Chair of the Texas 4000 for Cancer, a member of Austin Area Research Organization (AARO), and is on the Host Committee for the Austin Community Foundation’s Women’s Fund Keyholder event every year. She is an avid adventurer that has visited over 50 countries and all 50 US states.


5:55 PM–6:00 PM

Room 104

Closing Remarks

6:00 PM–7:00 PM

Health Wildcatters Suite 1330

Networking Reception + Pitch Perfect Winner Announcement