StartUp Health Fireside Chat: Dr. Andrey Ostrovsky, Health Innovation Investor



In a recent Fireside Chat with a few dozen founders from the StartUp Health portfolio, we were joined by Andrey Ostrovsky, MD, former Chief Medical Officer at Medicaid. Dr. Ostrovsky is a practicing doctor and an entrepreneur – in fact, he founded and sold a company that was a part of StartUp Health years ago. In 2016, Andrey took on the role of Chief Medical Officer of Medicaid. Then he rolled all that experience up and became a health innovation investor. Andrey’s done it all and is generous with that experience.

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StartUp Health Fireside Chat: Dr. Ashwini Zenooz, GM and Chief Medical Officer at Salesforce



In this episode, StartUp Health’s Editor-in-Chief, Logan Plaster, talks (virtually) with Dr. Ashwini Zenooz, GM and Chief Medical Officer at Salesforce. Before taking on her role at the tech giant, Dr. Zenooz, who is a practicing Radiologist, oversaw the modernizing of electronic health records at the Veteran’s Administration. During her time at the VA, she was instrumental in pushing for regulations that allowed providers to be able to practice across state lines. In her role at Salesforce, Zenooz is exploring the many ways the company’s relationship management technology can be applied to health, from vaccine rollouts to individual patient records. In addition to Dr. Zenooz’s voice, you’ll hear some real-world questions from founders in the StartUp Health portfolio.

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Particle Health’s “Quark” Sandbox Gives Healthcare Companies Secure Access to Their Medical Data



In this podcast episode, CEO and Co-founder Troy Bannister reveals what his Brooklyn-based startup has been working on for the last 2+ years. And now, with Quark, their new HIPAA-compliant platform that converts EMR data into an easily digestible format, health tech app developers can play around with Particle’s API that makes patient data instantly and securely available. Bannister also explains why, because of shifting patient data regulations, the time is now to innovate and destroy the fax machine for good.

Connect with Troy and his team at Particle Health here.

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UCSF’s Dr. Michael Blum Talks How COVID-19 Changed Expectations Around Virtual Care at the Highest Institutional Levels



As a cardiologist and the Chief Digital Transformation Officer at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Michael Blum assesses and deploys digital health technology across UCSF’s multi-layered health system. In this week’s podcast episode, we get an inside look at how one of the biggest, most advanced hospital systems in the United States thinks about health innovation, what successful integration looks like, what he looks for in a startup partner, and how COVID-19 changed expectations around virtual care at the highest institutional levels. This episode is pulled from a recent StartUp Health Fireside Chat where StartUp Health’s Editor-in-Chief, Logan Plaster, interviewed Dr. Michael Blum in a live session, which was attended by a panel of founders from the Startup Health portfolio.

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Conversa Health Built on Its Virtual Care Platform to Quickly Launch COVID-19 Screening Tools for Frontline Workers




Former NFL Wide Receiver Torrey Smith Partners With Rose Health to Promote Mental Health Resilience



This week, two-time Super Bowl Champion and former Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith announced that he was joining mental health startup Rose Health as an ambassador and investor. On this episode, StartUp Health’s Logan Plaster catches up with Torrey to learn about life after the NFL, and why it was important for him to become an advocate for mental health resilience.

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Brand Newland Is Fighting Opioid Overprescribing by Improving and Standardizing the Surgery Experience



Established with the goal of improving recovery time and bettering outcomes for patients undergoing surgical procedures, the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocols have revolutionized that experience. Unfortunately, variations in surgical practices do not allow every patient to benefit. Brand Newland, CEO and Co-founder of Goldfinch Health, hopes to change that. Through Goldfinch, Newland is making sure that employers are able to provide their patients with the best surgery options available; An opportunity for patients to recover faster, employers pay less in sick leave, insurance companies pay for fewer complications and setbacks. Finally, and perhaps most importantly at this moment in history, faster recovery times mean less reliance on opioids. And Newland sees his work at Goldfinch as a critical upstream component to fighting the opioid crisis.

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Business Insider’s Megan Hernbroth on Pitching Your Health Startup’s Story



On this episode of the podcast we dive under the hood to talk about practical strategies for getting a startup’s story out into the world. We turned to Megan Hernbroth, the reporter who covers health tech and venture capital for Business Insider. Megan’s work has run the gamut from silicon valley PR to writing for a website that gets 375 million unique visitors per month. This episode is an excerpt from an Expert Office Hour session hosted by StartUp Health and attended by a group of Health Transformers from the StartUp Health Portfolio. In addition to our interview with Megan, you’ll get to hear directly from founders, some of the day-to-day challenges they face in sharing their stories, and Megan’s sage advice.

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How LifeBio Is Using the Power of Storytelling to Improve Mental Health for Seniors



In 2020, the coronavirus caused a societal lock-down like this generation has never seen before. Many who were already isolated and lonely — like seniors – were put into a desperate situation. Beth Sanders, CEO and Co-founder of LifeBio, a startup that’s been with StartUp Health since 2014, has always had a heart for isolated and lonely seniors. She’d worked with them for years, helping them to tell their stories, using what’s called reminiscence therapy. But COVID-19 put LifeBio and this important work into overdrive. Not only was the work needed more than ever, but LifeBio was able to connect the dots between fighting loneliness and improving health outcomes. Turns out a phone call with a trained conversationalist can fight depression, anxiety and keep you mentally nimble. Their findings got the attention of health systems, insurance companies, and even won them a coveted SBIR grant. Logan Plaster, Media Director at StartUp Health, caught up with Sanders to learn more about how LifeBio works and the critical role of storytelling in healthcare in a post-COVID world.

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New VC Funds Put Women’s Health Moonshot Front and Center



In today’s venture capital world, the vast majority of decisions are made by male investors – by one recent estimate, 87% of partners at digital health venture funds are men. This imbalance has resulted in an overall lack of investment in women’s health innovations, and in female founders. That’s shifting thanks in part to investors like Maria Velissaris, our guest on this week’s episode. Maria was a successful entrepreneur and business development maven before she became a managing Partner at SteelSky Ventures. SteelSky is a VC firm with a laser focus on women’s health, and a desire to see women-run startups get the funding they deserve. Today’s conversation has been pulled from an expert office hour held by StartUp Health and attended by entrepreneurs from the StartUp Health portfolio. So in addition to Maria’s insights – on investment trends, how to pitch, and how COVID-19 has changed the game – you’ll get to hear real-life questions from founders who are working in the trenches. The session was moderated by Katya Hancock, StartUp Health’s Investor Network Director. Enjoy.

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