From selling deceased patients' body parts to denying cancer treatment over upfront payments, the Lown Institute's annual Shkreli Awards spotlight the most egregious examples of profiteering and dysfunction in American healthcare. Dr. Vikas Saini, President of the Lown Institute, walks us through 2024's "winners" and what they reveal about the state of our healthcare system.

In this special episode, Bessemer Venture Partners’ Healthcare and Life Sciences team shares the top industry developments they anticipate in the year to come, covering:

⚖️ The future of Obamacare exchanges under Trump
💊 Novel drug modalities
📊 Improved GLP-1 payment models
🏥 Caregiver workforce shifts
🤖 Multimodal clinical AI in practice
🔮 And more!

Join us for many mic-drop moments with recording artist-turned-healthcare-investor D.A. Wallach.

Five-time Midas List investor Annie Lamont has seen every healthcare cycle since the genomics revolution. Now, as co-founder of Oak HC/FT and early investor in category-defining companies like One Medical, Athena Health, and Devoted Health, she believes 2025 could mark the return of animal spirits to healthcare investing. In this forward-looking conversation, Annie shares why AI might finally deliver on technology's promise to transform American healthcare, even as she warns entrepreneurs to watch out for the "revenge of the incumbents."

From the return of "historic norms" in funding to the rise of AI and strategic pharma partnerships, 2024 was quite the year for digital health. Rock Health Advisory CEO Megan Zweig joins us on this episode to unpack a year defined by resilience, consolidation, and the 'revenge of the Goliaths.' We look at the funding data, reveal how the industry's unicorns survived their valuation hangovers, and share why 2024 might be remembered as healthcare's boiling point.

After building and selling Meebo, Seth Sternberg wanted his next venture to transform lives at scale. A decade later, Honor has become the world's largest in-home senior care network, delivering care to 35,000 US homes daily. In this candid conversation, Sternberg reveals how AI saved the company from near collapse in 2015 and why treating caregivers like true professionals creates better outcomes for everyone.

"There's been a degree of toxic positivity in US healthcare," says Dr. Sachin Jain, CEO of SCAN Health Plan. In this candid conversation about healthcare's need for radical change, Dr. Jain challenges industry orthodoxy and calls for a leadership revolution. From Medicare Advantage turbulence to the failures of healthcare consolidation, he offers an insider's view of what needs to change.

Twenty years before value-based care became a healthcare buzzword, Rushika Fernandopulle was told he had to choose: be a doctor or join "the dark side" of business. Instead, he chose both – building Iora Health from a bootstrapped startup into a billion-dollar healthcare company. In this candid conversation, Fernandopulle reveals the unconventional journey that helped transform American healthcare, from midnight meetings in Las Vegas speakeasies to breaking every rule in the traditional medical playbook.

Technology is transforming genetic testing and bringing hope to families facing rare diseases. GeneDx (Nasdaq: WGS) CEO Katherine Stueland sits down with Steve Kraus to share how AI is being used to crack life's most complex code and speed up diagnosis from years to days.

In this episode, we dive into all things heart health with Dr. Jeff Wessler, a Cardiologist and the Founder and CEO at Heartbeat Health, the nation's largest virtual-first cardiovascular company.

Make America Healthy Again?

It's official— Trump was elected as our 47th president and plans to use his second term to "go wild on health." For this special episode, Aneesh Chopra, former U.S. Chief Technology Officer and author of “Innovative State: How New Technologies can Transform Government," joins Steve to talk about what we can expect in Trump's second term.

Approximately one in five American children have a mental health condition, with many more at risk for developing one. In this episode, Halle Tecco and Michael Esquivel dive deep into the youth mental health crisis with Naomi Allen, co-founder and CEO of Brightline. 

In this episode, Bryan Roberts, a partner at Venrock and one of the healthcare industry's most illustrious investors, shares insights from his 25+ year career with Steve.

In this episode, we sit down with one of the most influential figures in government today: Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan. As the youngest FTC chair to ever be appointed, during her tenure the FTC has pushed to ban non-compete agreements, filed lawsuits against healthcare companies engaging in anti-competitive practices, and strengthened the Health Breach Notification Rule (HBNR) to protect sensitive health data. 

With the election around the corner, Halle and Steve welcome Dan Diamond back on the show to talk about how the election will impact healthcare (and how healthcare impacts voting). Dan is a national health reporter for the Washington Post, focused on accountability, federal agencies, and public health.

GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy have transformed best practices for weight loss care and created an opportunity for digital health innovation. In this episode, Steve Kraus sits down with Evan Richardson, founder and CEO of Form Health, to discuss GLP-1s and the virtual medical weight loss care landscape.

In this episode, Halle Tecco sits down with John Mackey, founder and former CEO of Whole Foods Market. Mackey discusses his new venture, Love.Life, that aims to do for healthcare what Whole Foods did for grocery shopping. We cover: - His vision for rethinking the healthcare experience - What he learned about healthcare running a self-insured employer - How Whole Foods gamified health for employees - His views on healthcare regulation and personal responsibility - Why he doesn't believe in market research - His advice for entrepreneurs taking on venture capitalist funding

In this episode, Dr. Jon Cohen, CEO of Talkspace, discusses his unconventional journey from vascular surgeon to leading a publicly traded digital health company.

We cover:
- The glass ceiling for physicians, and why people wrongly think physicians can’t run businesses
- His run for Lieutenant Governor of New York, and why more physicians should get involved with politics
- The role of online therapy in making mental healthcare more accessible and affordable
- How Talkspace is leveraging AI to detect suicide risk, support therapists, and enhance patient care
- The challenges and opportunities of running a public company, especially one that went public via SPAC
- His insights on the future of healthcare and the importance of physician leadership in driving change