In this episode of the podcast, I sat down with Marta Bralic Kerns, founder and CEO of Pomelo Care, a virtual-first maternity care company delivering high-quality, personalized care to pregnant people and newborns across the United States. Pomelo’s mission is to improve outcomes in maternal and infant health through proactive, data-informed, and accessible care. Marta and I spoke about her path from consulting to founding Pomelo, how she’s scaling care for the most underserved populations, and why she believes we’re only at the beginning of a new era for women’s and children’s health.
Mike Roaldi, President of Cityblock Health, joins us on the Pulse for our latest episode. Cityblock Health is a valued-based primary care company on a mission to radically improve health outcomes for Medicaid and dually eligible populations across the U.S. Cityblock Health is one of the most ambitious care delivery companies today, serving its eligible populations with a tech-enabled, community-rooted approach to care.
Prior to Cityblock, Mike built his deep healthcare expertise at UnitedHealth Group, where he spent nearly a decade in executive roles across both UnitedHealthcare and Optum Behavioral Health.
In this episode, Mike will share what he believes it takes to serve the most complex, high-need patients in America — and how Cityblock is rethinking trust, tech, and care delivery from the ground up.
Obesity and weight loss are among the most significant and complex challenges facing healthcare today. In our latest episode of The Pulse, we sat down with Evan Richardson, CEO and founder of Form Health, a pioneering virtual obesity medicine clinic. Richardson shared compelling insights about how Form Health is revolutionizing the obesity treatment landscape by delivering personalized, quality care through a robust virtual platform.
In this episode, I sat down with Dr. Rekha Kumar, Chief Medical Officer of Found. Found is one of the first telehealth startups focused on comprehensive obesity care. Since its founding, it has raised over $130 million and was valued at $600 million as of 2022. At the heart of their mission is combining medical treatment — including access to weight-loss medications like GLP-1s — with behavior change support to help people achieve lasting health outcomes.
Dr. Kumar is a leading voice in the field of Obesity Medicine. She’s a board-certified endocrinologist, who served as the first Medical Director of the American Board of Obesity Medicine, and is currently a practicing clinician who serves as an associate professor at Weill Cornell.
In this episode, we’ll dive into Rekha’s journey from clinical medicine to startup executive, what makes Found’s approach different, and her perspective on access, equity, and the future of GLP-1 therapies.
In this episode, I sat down with Caroline Xie, General Partner at ICONIQ Growth. ICONIQ Growth is the venture arm of ICONIQ, a leading investment firm backing exceptional technology leaders who are building category-defining businesses. Caroline leads investments in healthcare technology, and since joining ICONIQ, has helped manage over $1.7 billion in investments.
We dive deep into her personal journey, her outlook on healthcare innovation in 2025 and beyond, and what ICONIQ looks for in founders. From navigating healthcare costs and workforce challenges to the revolutionary potential of AI in clinical settings, Caroline’s insights offer a front-row view into some of the most pressing and promising trends redefining the industry.
In this episode of The Pulse, I had the pleasure of speaking with Othman Laraki, the co-founder and CEO of Color Health - a company on a mission to transform cancer care through a digital-first, population-level approach.
With a background spanning Google, Twitter, and a string of successful startups, Othman has spent the past decade building one of the most ambitious models in healthcare: a nationwide virtual cancer clinic focused on the entire spectrum of cancer care from prevention, catching cancer early, through survivorship.
In this episode of The Pulse, I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. James Lu, co-founder and CEO of Helix - a precision medicine company using genomics to power preventive care. With over $270 million raised and partnerships spanning major U.S. health systems, Helix is at the forefront of turning DNA into an actionable health asset.
In this episode of The Pulse, I sat down with Dr. Adam Wolfberg, Chief Medical Officer of Virta Health, a company pioneering a new approach to tackling metabolic disease.
Virta Health has a mission to reverse type 2 diabetes and obesity through nutrition-first treatment and tech-enabled care. We discussed Adam’s unconventional journey from news reporter to startup exec, Virta’s science-backed outcomes, and why GLP-1s aren’t the only answer to America’s weight crisis.
In this episode, I sat down with Autumn-Kyoko (AK) Cushman, co-founder and CEO of ShiftRx, a platform using generative AI to transform pharmacy staffing. Backed by investors like Work-Bench, Inflect Health, Tau Ventures, and Opal Ventures, ShiftRx is tackling one of healthcare’s biggest challenges - staffing shortages - by empowering providers with more control, flexibility, and financial stability.
AK’s path to founding ShiftRx is anything but conventional - she served as a hospital corpsman in the US Navy, worked in management consulting with the National Cancer Institute, and later joined IBM’s Watson Health. Her firsthand exposure to healthcare’s inefficiencies, combined with her co-founder Leann’s experience as a pharmacy technician, led them to build ShiftRx as a provider-first solution.
AK and I discussed the founding story of ShiftRx, the root causes of provider burnout, and how AI can reshape healthcare staffing.
In this episode, I sat down with Michael Meng, co-founder and CEO of Stellar Health. Founded in 2018, Stellar Health is redefining value-based care delivery for primary care teams.
Through Stellar's industry-leading micro-incentive platform, providers and their care teams using Stellar receive in-workflow prompts to close care and quality gaps efficiently. Every value-based care activity is rewarded monthly, real-time feedback loops are realized, and overall patient care is enhanced. By shifting the existing financial model, Stellar Health is ushering in a new era of shared accountability for primary care networks everywhere.
Michael and I spoke about the evolution of Stellar Health, the successes and failures of value-based care to date, why so many people think the healthcare system is broken, and how recent innovations might be able to fix that.
Our guest on this episode is Jim Pursley, President of Hinge Health. Founded in 2014, Hinge Health is revolutionizing musculoskeletal (MSK) care by combining virtual physical therapy, wearable technology, and multidisciplinary care teams. Through AI-powered motion tracking, real-time exercise guidance, and personalized health coaching, Hinge Health is improving outcomes for patients while reducing healthcare costs.
In the episode, Jim and I discussed: 1) The founding story of Hinge Health and key moments shaping its mission, 2) How Hinge Health integrates AI, motion tracking, and Enso technology to deliver remote MSK care, 3) Overcoming skepticism around virtual physical therapy and the challenges of scaling in a complex healthcare ecosystem, and 4) The future of healthcare innovation, including unified care models and AI-driven advancements
Our guest on this episode is Mike Uchrin, Co-founder and CEO of Monogram Health. Founded in 2019, Monogram Health is revolutionizing kidney care through its value based, in-home care model, improving outcomes for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) as well as related polychronic conditions. By integrating evidence-based clinical protocols and personalized care delivery, Monogram ensures that CKD patients receive comprehensive support directly in their homes.
In the episode, Mike and I discussed: 1) Monogram’s value based, in-home care model for CKD and ESKD patients, 2) The importance of multispecialty care and evidence based protocols in improving patient outcomes, 3) Challenges of scaling nationwide while maintaining care quality, and 4) Innovations in kidney care, including genetic and pharmacological breakthroughs.
In this episode, I sat down with Dr. Neel Shah, Chief Medical Officer of Maven Clinic, the world’s largest digital clinic for women’s and family health.
Dr. Shah is a practicing obstetrician and a visiting scientist at Harvard Medical School where he previously served as a professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology. Dr. Shah joined Maven in 2021 with a mission to expand and diversify women’s and family health practices. He is a big advocate for health equity and reproductive justice with numerous awards and media recognitions for his impact on maternal health in the United States.
In this episode, Neel and I discussed:
In this episode, I sat down with Jared Dauman, co-founder and Head of Operations for Soda Health. Founded in 2021, Soda Health is a healthcare technology company focused on reducing health inequities. Soda Health uses technology to simplify healthcare transactions, similar to retail purchases, using debit cards. This approach aims to bridge the gap between medical claims and retail payments, ensuring consumers have easier access to benefits. In this episode, Jared and I discuss his journey from working in the directed spend space at Walmart to becoming a co-founder of Soda Health, the business model of Soda Health, the integration of fintech and healthcare, the challenges and opportunities in the world of digital health partnerships, and the evolving role of social determinants of health interventions.
Founded in 2017, Paige is a digital pathology software provider that uses AI to improve cancer diagnoses. Paige was the first ever company to earn FDA approval for an AI-based product, and they are currently collaborating with Microsoft to build the world’s largest image-based AI cancer model. In this episode, Dr. Moye and I discuss Paige’s origin as a spin-out from Memorial Sloan Kettering, the role of AI in supporting cancer diagnostics, the process of navigating corporate partnerships and FDA approval with AI tools, and the value of new AI applications in healthcare.
In this episode, I sat down with Buck Poropatich, Head of Lyft Healthcare. Lyft Healthcare launched in 2016 as part of Lyft's broader efforts to address transportation barriers in healthcare. Today, Lyft Healthcare partners with 9 of the 10 largest US health systems, non-emergency medical transportation brokers, and the top 10 payers to provide rides across the patient journey.
By providing reliable transportation through its extensive network, Lyft Healthcare helps reduce patient no-shows, enhance the member experience, and ultimately improve patient outcomes. Since he joined in 2019, Buck has helped secure key partnerships with industry leaders like ChenMed, CVS, and Kroger Health, alongside countless others.
Buck and I discussed:
Our guest on this episode is Nawal Roy. Nawal Roy is the founder and CEO of Holmusk, a company that specializes in real-world evidence, AI-powered analytics, and digital solutions to solve the evidence gaps problem in mental health.
Last year, Holmusk raised a series B funding round of $45M, led by Veradigm, a leading provider of healthcare data and technology solutions. Powered by this investment, Holmusk’s NeuroBlu database recently reached a pivotal milestone of 4 million patient lives, becoming the largest NLP-enriched, de-identified real-world data platform designed for behavioral health and mental health research.
Nawal and I discussed:
Holmusk’s founding story, how Nawal connected his background and skill sets in finance to healthcare, and where he saw opportunities in building a “Bloomberg Terminal” for behavioral health
Holmusk’s flagship platform, Neuroblu, which organizes and analyzes a large volume of real-world data to provide insights for research, care improvement, and marketing purposes
Generative AI and natural language processing (NLP) and their the potential to revolutionize mental health care by enabling precision psychiatry, improving the standardization of treatment protocols, and bridging the evidence gap
Holmusk’s active partnerships with healthcare systems, pharma companies, and government organizations to expand its data set and drive meaningful change in the industry
Our guests this episode are Dr. Sameer Berry and Sam Holliday, co-founders and CMO and CEO of Oshi Health. Oshi Health is a virtual gastrointestinal care clinic increasing access to care for the one in four Americans with digestive disorders. In this episode, I spoke with Sameer and Sam about:
Oshi’s high-touch, integrated care model for GI patients
Purpose-built clinical workflows to improve outcomes and cost savings
Oshi's partnerships with independent GI practices and health plans
The future of virtual first specialty care
In this episode, I sat down with Ankit Jain, Founder and CEO of Infinitus Systems. Founded in 2019, the company automates tedious and time-consuming administrative processes across the healthcare ecosystem with AI to free up clinician time and improve access, adherence, and affordability. Infinitus is the only solution that automates the entire phone call process to complete benefit verifications. Infinitus returns that hard-to-find information so providers have the most comprehensive view of treatment coverage and can confidently move forward with a patient treatment plan. The company has raised money from Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Coatue, and a number of other healthcare luminaries.
Ankit and I discussed: 1) The company’s “spark story,” and how a Google digital assistant for restaurant, spa and salon reservations was pivoted to fill an unmet market need in healthcare, 2) The importance of freeing up time spent on administrative workflows for clinicians to serve patients, 3) Applications of AI in healthcare to solve for areas of unmet need
Our guest on this episode is Pablo Pantaleoni, the Chief Digital Officer of LifeStance, a mental health care company focused on providing evidence based medically driven treatment services for children, adolescents and adults suffering from a variety of mental health issues in an outpatient care setting, both in person and through his digital health, telemedicine offering.
In this episode, Pablo discussed: 1) His unique background and path to LifeStance. 2) LifeStance’s value proposition in the digital mental health space. 3) AI’s role in combating the mental health crisis. 4) Advice for young entrepreneurs in this space.
