Physicians Off The Beaten Path

How to venture early off the beaten path? How to gain multiple skills and still focus on investments in healthcare and life sciences from early to growth stages? How to venture in the domain of healthcare technologies and accumulate experience in heakthcare IT startups? And many more questions are to be answered in today's episode with Morgan Cheatham. Cheatham. Morgan is a Vice President at Bessemer Venture Partners, a global venture capital firm with over $19 billion in assets under management, where he focuses on investments in healthcare. Morgan was accepted to medical school at age 17 and was working as a data scientist at a healthcare startup by age 19. Morgan is pursuing his medical degree at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and graduated magna cum laude from Brown University with a B.S. in neuroeconomics Recently, Morgan was featured on Forbes List 30 Under 30 for Venture Capital (2023)

What role do innovations in telehealth play in space medicine? What are the main medical issues astronauts face in space and what mitigation and treatment strategies do they use? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more, with our guest, Daniel Grant. Daniel is Head of Medical Education at Medichecks, the UK's leading online blood-testing company. He is also creator of The Stealth Doctor output. Across multiple platforms, he aims to educate and enlighten everyone about how we can all get healthier through all the things you didn’t even know were related to your health. He is also the CEO of UK Wallball, the governing body for the sport of Wallball in the United Kingdom. He holds an MD from UCL.

What are the key problems we have today in surgical training? How should you think about the risk/reward of going down the entrepreneurship path? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest, Justin Barad, MD. He is the co-founder and CEO of Osso VR, an award winning surgical training platform helping to increase patient saftey and the adoption of cutting edge medical technology. He is a board-eligible orthopedic surgeon with a Bioengineering degree from UC Berkeley, and an MD from UCLA, where he graduated first in his class.

How can AI innovation help in transforming the future of Endocrinology? What are the main problems we have with the US healthcare system, and what roles can MDs have in solving these problems? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more, with our guest, Mansur Shomali, M.D. He is Chief Medical Officer at Welldoc, a healthcare technology company that develops solutions to transform the management of chronic disease. Mansur received his undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering at the Johns Hopkins University and his medical degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Why is it important to look at the "MD" as a platform degree? Why should we redefine what entrepreneurship really means? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more, with our guest, Alexander Nazem, MD. Alexander is Co-Founder and CEO of Nomad Health, the first digital marketplace for healthcare jobs, directly connecting physicians, nurses, and medical facilities for healthcare jobs, without the involvement of third-party employment agencies. He has an MD from Yale University, an MBA from HBS, and a BS in Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry from Yale.

How can medicine and art influence each other? What makes practicing medicine an art itself? In this special episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest, Mike Natter, MD. Mike is a freelance artist, contributor and writer at Philadelphia Inquirer. He was featured in “Art from the Frontlines: Visual Expressions from Medical Professionals During the COVID-19 Pandemic”, an exhibit that highlighted artwork created by healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as in-depth interviews with the artists. Mike has an MD from Thomas Jefferson University, a Medical Sciences Certificate from Columbia University in NYC, and a BA in Neuropsychology from Skidmore College.

What are the biggest barriers to digital therapeutics, and how will the field evolve down the line? How can we make MDs excited about entrepreneurship and innovation, like DTx for example, where their experience and clinical knowledge is actually needed? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more, with our guest, Dr. Shaheen Lakhan. Shaheen is the CMO of Click Therapeutics, A prescription digital therapeutics company that develops, validates, and commercializes software as prescription medical treatments for people with unmet medical needs. Shaheen is a physician-scientist with over 15 years of experience in healthcare, academia, and industry focusing on neuroscience research and development. Shaheen is board-certified in both neurology and pain medicine, with clinical training from Cleveland Clinic and Massachusetts General Hospital.

What kind of opportunities medical students have if they don’t want a traditional medical career? Why is it important to think about medical training as a platform, rather than a predetermined path? In this episode, we answer all of these questions and more, with our guest, Olivia Cavlan MD. Olivia is Chief Corporate Development and Strategy Officer at Alchemab Therapeutics Ltd, a biotech company developing novel products for patients with hard-to-treat diseases by harnessing the power of naturally protective antibodies. Olivia holds an MD in Medicine and a BSc in Pharmacology from Bristol University where she graduated with the top First Class Honors.

What are the most important things you need to have in order to succeed in a nontraditional path? How can you keep evolving in an ever-changing world? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest, Dr. Alex Ding. Alex is Executive in Residence & Medical Director at the Office of Health Affairs and Advocacy at Humana, a for-profit American health insurance company based in Louisville, Kentucky, and the third largest health insurance provider in the nation. He is Clinical Assistant Professor of Radiology at the University of Louisville. Alex holds an M.S. in Health & Medical Sciences from School of Public Health at University of California, Berkeley, and a BA in Economics from the same University. He holds an MD from UCSF, and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

What are the most important things you need to have in order to succeed in a nontraditional path? How can you keep evolving in an ever-changing world? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest, Dr. Alex Ding. Alex is Executive in Residence & Medical Director at the Office of Health Affairs and Advocacy at Humana, a for-profit American health insurance company based in Louisville, Kentucky, and the third largest health insurance provider in the nation. He is Clinical Assistant Professor of Radiology at the University of Louisville. Alex holds an M.S. in Health & Medical Sciences from School of Public Health at University of California, Berkeley, and a BA in Economics from the same University. He holds an MD from UCSF, and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

What is the role of profit in healthcare and how can that incentive be used to create value for society and for patients? What can the medical curriculum learn from the business curriculum, and vice versa? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest, Elizabeth Kwo, MD. Elizabeth is the Chief Medical Officer at Everly Health, a healthcare company that aims to provide modern diagnostics-driven care. She is an experienced healthcare executive specialized in building and scaling digital healthcare products to provide high quality care, leveraging predictive and prescriptive analytics to improve outcomes. She is a physician at Cambridge Health Alliance, an affiliated teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, and a lecturer for Harvard Medical School students and Preventive Care and Occupational Medicine residents. Dr. Kwo has an MD from Harvard Medical School, MBA from Harvard Business School, MPH from Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, and a BA from Stanford University. She completed her residency at Harvard and is Board Certified in Preventive Care and Occupational Medicine.

How does turning the way we receive care inside out actually improve care and decrease costs? What are some of the strategies we can actually use to make things better for everyone? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest, Vivian Lee, MD. Vivian is President of Health Platforms at Verily Life Sciences, an Alphabet company whose mission is to apply digital solutions that enable people to enjoy healthier lives. She also serves as a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. She is the author of the acclaimed book, “The Long Fix: Solving America’s HealthCare Crisis with Strategies that Work for Everyone”. Vivian is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard-Radcliffe Colleges, received a doctorate in medical engineering from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, earned her M.D. with honors from Harvard Medical School, and was valedictorian of her Executive MBA program at NYU’s Stern School of Business.

Is there a specific path to entrepreneurship MDs need to follow? What does the demand and supply dynamics in the nursing market look like? How can we address labor shortages in healthcare more efficiently? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more, with our guest, Iman Abuzeid, MD. Iman is the co-founder and CEO of Incredible Health, Inc. A digital platform designed to streamline the hiring and recruitment process for nurses. Iman holds an MD from University College London Medical School, and an MBA from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Visit Incredible Health's website to learn more about the platform: https://www.incrediblehealth.com/

What needs to happen to encourage more entrepreneurship among MDs? What can MDs learn from chaos theory? How can you use your immigrant mentality as a drive to do more, not to take the well-known and secure path? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest, Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, M.D. Mohammad is founder and CEO of Patients Know Best, a British social enterprise, with an aim of putting patients in control of their own medical records. He trained as a physician at the University of Cambridge; worked as a staff scientist at the National Institutes of Health; and was a management consultant to US hospitals at The Advisory Board Company. Mohammad holds an MD from Cambridge University.

How did Osmosis, the popular health education platform, come about? Why do we need more MDs in spaces like health policy? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest, Shiv Gaglani. Shiv is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Osmosis, which makes a popular web- and mobile-learning platform used by more than 3 million medical and allied health professions students and 30+ medical schools. After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard College in 2010 with degrees in engineering and health policy, Shiv began his MD degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in 2016.

Is it important for MDs to consider taking a more prominent role in the process of developing and getting drugs to market, either on the operating side or the investing side? How can we change and fix financial incentives in drug development? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest, David Kaufman, M.D.David is a Partner at Third Rock Ventures, a leading healthcare venture firm that specializes in company creation rather than the traditional venture investing model.David has an MD from Cornell University, and a PHD in immunology and molecular virology from Rockefeller University.

Why is there a mismatch between VC companies and some vulnerable patient populations? Do we need a radical transformation from the ground up of the medical curriculum? Are there any similarities between clinical and athletic training and investing? In this episode, we answer all of these questions and more with our guest, Justin Norden, MD. Justin is a Partner at GSR Ventures, where he focuses on early-stage investments in digital health, AI/ML in healthcare, and enterprise technology. Justin received his MD from Stanford University School of Medicine, MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, M.Phil in Computational Biology from the University of Cambridge, and BA in Computer Science from Carleton College.

How can physicians leverage their previous experiences and strengths to transition to becoming good entrepreneurs? What does the future look like for innovation in Ophthalmology? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest, Sophia Pathai, M.D.Sophia is a Venture Partner at Peppermint Venture Partners, a VC firm based in Berlin investing in early-stage healthcare companies across Europe. She invests in early-stage MedTech and BioTech with an ophthalmology focus. She is also an independent consultant, advising investors and founders on BioTech and MedTech portfolio companies and design of TPP to gain financing and eventual commercialization. Sophia holds a medical degree from University College London Medical School; a Masters in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and a Ph.D in ophthalmology and immunology also awarded from LSHTM.

Is it necessary to focus your efforts on a single area or is it wiser to follow your passion wherever it might lead you? Why is it important for MDs to explore areas beyond the traditional career path?In this rather quite special episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guests, all of whom are MDs and Harvard MBA students who are pursuing exciting careers off the beaten path: Suhas Gondi, a MD/MBA student at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Business School, is passionate about healthcare policy and innovation. Jordan Anderson, a resident physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has interned at start-up Belong Health and is passionate about innovative models of care delivery, and is an MBA student at Harvard Business School. Lina Vadlamani, MDMBA Candidate at Yale School of Medicine and HBS, and Sr. Manager, Strategic and Clinical Initiatives at Patina (company innovating in senior care). She's passionate about value-based care, digital health and primary care innovation for vulnerable populations.

How can MDs interested in investing and entrepreneurship break into a very network-driven industry? How can being a doctor in that world helps you differentiate your investing mindset? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest, Kyle Dempsey, M.D. Kyle is a partner at MVM Partners LLP, a company that invests in high growth healthcare businesses and has been doing that since 1997. Kyle has an MD from Harvard Medical School and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He also holds an AB in biochemistry from Bowdoin College.

How can MDs take a more prominent role in driving invention and innovation in healthcare? What will healthcare look like in the age of the metaverse? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest, Steve Miller, MD. Steven is the Exec VP/Chief Clinical Officer at Cigna Corp. He has years of expertise as a medical researcher, clinician and administrator, as well as on numerous healthcare subjects. Steven has an MBA from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis and an MD from the University of Missouri–Kansas City. He trained in the Pathology and Research fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and in cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco.

What is the mission of big corporations in the healthcare business? How can physicians broaden their conception of what impact really means? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest, Kevin Tabb, MD. Kevin is President and Chief Executive Officer of Beth Israel Lahey Health (BILH), where he leads a comprehensive integration plan to deliver better access to care for patients. Kevin received his undergraduate degree from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and his MD from the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Hadassah Hospital.

What are some of the challenges women still face today in getting access to good healthcare and education opportunities throughout the world? How can physicians broaden their conception of what impact really means? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest, Claire Wagner, MD. Claire is head of corporate strategy at Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute, a global health biotech dedicated to developing pharmaceutical products for some of the world's most complex diseases. Claire has an MD from Harvard Medical School and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was the Commencement Class Day Speaker.

What are the limitations and challenges of pursuing a career outside the traditional career path? How can physicians broaden their conception of what impact really means? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest, Bobak Azamian, MD. Bobak is President and CEO of Tarsus Pharmaceuticals, a public biotech company, which revolutionizes therapeutics for essential diseases in eye care, dermatology, and infectious diseases. Bobak completed an MD from Harvard Medical School (Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology), a PhD in Chemistry from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and a BA in Physics from Rice University.

How can MDs interested in venture capital and entrepreneurship break into a very network-driven industry? How can being a doctor in the VC world helps you differentiate your investing mindset? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest, Ben Robbins, M.D. Ben is a venture partner at GV (formerly Google Ventures), the venture capital investment arm of Alphabet Inc. Ben's investments focus on healthcare delivery and neuropsychiatric therapeutics. He has served on the boards of numerous companies such as Aspire Health and Brightline. Ben completed psychiatric training at Massachusetts General Hospital. Before that, he received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School, MBA from Harvard Business School, and B.A. with honours from Dartmouth College.

What is the mission of big corporations in the healthcare business? How is AI going to impact the drug development continuum in the next 5-10 years? How essential is the MBA for doctors who want non-traditional careers? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest, Sachin H. Jain, M.D. Sachin is the president and CEO of SCAN Group and Health Plan, an HMO, which provides healthcare coverage to Medicare beneficiaries throughout California, currently serving nearly 200,000 members. SCAN is one of the largest NPO Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug plans in the country. Before this, Sachin was Chief Medical Information & Innovation Officer at Merck & Co. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a BA in government and continued to earn his MD from Harvard Medical School and MBA from Harvard Business School. He trained in medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

How do investment banking and financial advisory play a role in facilitating thetransformation and innovation in the healthcare ecosystem? Can you develop a business acumen without an MBA degree? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest, Alex Lomax, M.D.Alex is a Vice President of Healthcare Financial Advisory at Lazard, the world’s largest financial advisory-focused firm. Lazard advises clients on M&A and Strategic Advisory, Middle Market, Sovereign Advisory, Restructuring, Shareholder & Private Capital Advisory, and Venture & Growth Banking.Lazard has advised on many of the largest deals in the healthcare space such as the merger of Livongo & Teladoc and the Acquisition of Aetna by CVS health. Before Lazard, Alex was an associate and then vice president of Healthcare Investment Banking at RBC Capital Markets. He was also an Investment Banking Analyst at Peel Hunt for two years.

What are some of the biggest problems facing American healthcare? How should we think about the tradeoffs of private vs public-run healthcare? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest Elisabeth Rosenthal, MD.Elisabeth is the editor-in-chief of Kaiser Health News, a contributing Opinion Writer at The New York Times who previously spent 22 years at the Times, and the author of 'An American Sickness', A NY Times best-seller, an eye-opening investigation into America's healthcare system. A former ER physician, Dr Rosenthal is an award-winning reporter, correspondent, and patient advocate. She has had an immense impact on American healthcare policy and public discourse, and Washingtonian Magazine recently named her one of the most influential people in D.C. right now.

What is the future of Private Equity in the healthcare space? What skills can you leverage from your medical career when you venture off the traditional career path? How can you develop the appropriate tools to manage a high workload and take care of your mental health? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest Alex Dibelius, MD. Alex is Managing Partner of CVC Capital Partners in Germany and has been GmbH director since 2016. Previously, he served in several capacities at Goldman Sachs from 1993-2015 and worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Company (a global management consulting firm), where he was appointed partner in 1992. Before his business career, Dr Dibelius was a surgeon at the university clinic of Freiburg, Germany. Alex is also chairman of the board of Breitling SA, Grenchen, Switzerland (a luxury watch manufacturer), and a member of the board of CVC Capital Partners Luxembourg SARL, Luxembourg (a private equity advisor), Syntegon Technology Gmblt, Waiblingen, Germany (a packaging company), IronSource Mobile Ltd, Tel Aviv, Israel (a mobile app monetization company). Alex is an advisor to chancellor Angela Merkel and a member of the German-American elite network Atlantik-Brüke.

What is it like to navigate the healthcare system both as a healthcare professional and as a patient? What is the state of research for rare diseases right now? Is an MBA important for docs to consider? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest David Fajgenbaum, MD. David is an assistant professor of medicine in Translational Medicine & Human Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania. He's also the founding director of the center for Cytokine Storm Treatment & Laboratory (CSTL). He is the co-founder/president of the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network (CDCN). David is the national bestselling author of 'Chasing My Cure: A Doctor's Race to Turn Hope Into Action'. The book describes his harrowing and hopeful journey to spearhead the search for a cure for his disease.

What is the difference between venture capital, private equity, and growth equity? What is the value of resilience and grit? And when exactly do you make that defining leap in your career? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with our guest Mark Shankar, MD. Mark focuses primarily on healthcare investing at Summit Partners, which invests in growth equity. Prior to Summit, Mark worked on the Healthcare Investment Banking Team at Goldman Sachs. In addition, he served as a clinical assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physician & Surgeons and was an Emergency Medicine Resident at New York Presbyterian Hospital where he held the position of chief resident. He holds a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, an MD from the George Washington University School of Medicine, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

What exactly is the role of a physician-consultant? What is the value of working at the intersection of disciplines? And what exciting technology trends are emerging in healthcare? Our guest Dr. Felix Matthews discusses these ideas and more in the first episode of our Physician-Consultant series. Felix is a Managing Director and physician leader at Deloitte Consulting and is the National Lead for Deloitte's Academic Health/Research Leaders practice. He advises his clients on strategies to succeed in an increasingly competitive market. His clients include academic health systems, national health plans, and life sciences companies.

How do you think about success? How much do you believe in your dreams? How grounded in reality should you really be? In the second installment of our physician-investor series, we had an amazing and candid conversation with Tinashe Chandauka MD/PhD where he answered our questions about his inspirational journey from a young doctor with big dreams to a successful investment professional with great impact! Tinashe is a lifescience investment professional with an MD/PhD background (Rhodes Scholar/Oxford University). He works as an Associate at Oxford Sciences Innovation, a Science Business Builder (who raised +£630m) at founding to transform Oxford University's world-leading science into world-changing businesses.

Dr. Martin-Immanuel Bittner is the CEO of Arctoris, the world's first fully automated drug discovery platform that he co-founded in Oxford in 2016. His goal is to change the way we approach drug discovery - moving towards a truly data-driven model, with the right data at the right time empowering us to make the right decisions, accelerating the path towards the clinic. He partners with biotech and pharma companies globally, delivering integrated drug discovery projects from idea to IND, enabled by a team of expert scientists and their unique technology platform.

Have you ever wondered about the investing world? In our inaugural episode, we talk to Dr. Dan Gebremedhin, a venture capital partner at Flair Capital. He discusses his journey through medical school and how he went into business, the challenges he faced, and the lessons he learned along the way. Dan has led investments into and sits on the Boards of Somatus, Eden Health and Votive Health. He was a practicing Internal Medicine Physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School until 2019. He has also been an entrepreneur and senior health policy advisor to several politicians such as Governor Charlie Baker and Congressman Joseph Kennedy III.