Rami Elghandour

Some VC investors believe that brick and mortar - referring to a physical presence of some kind - should be avoided at all costs. Yet, the track record of clinic and hybrid care businesses in health care indicates otherwise. ==> One Medical (sold for $3.9 billion to Amazon), Oak Street (bought by CVS for $10.6 billion), Lifestance (IPO at $7.5 billion market cap), and PE-backed Premise Health (acquired by OMERS Private Equity for $1.1 billion) If a clinic is indicated as the optimal way to deliver care for that patient population, there are creative ways to build and operate them. Full article below with advice and strategies on how to build and operate hybrid clinics from my teammate Anarghya Vardhana from Maveron, Amir Dan Rubin from OneMedical Group, Steven Eidelman from Modern Animal and more!

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The (Healthcare) Ground Beneath Our Feet… This year it is likely that over $10 billion will be invested in the digital health sector – a robust amount, no doubt, but inconsequential when compared to the amount of capital tied up in healthcare real estate assets, which is estimated to be $1.2 trillion by Jones Lang Lasalle. Of that amount, approximately $790 billion is in the hospital sector while the remaining $490 billion is in medical office assets. It is estimated that there are 48.6k facilities with 3.4 billion square feet of healthcare real estate, 42% of which are owned by REITs and another 33% held by other private investment vehicles. Much of the digital health investment is meant to make the physical healthcare infrastructure more productive: greater operating efficiencies, greater patient throughput, more relevant personalized care models with better outcomes. As the healthcare system is being pushed to be more distributed to lower cost sites of care, accelerated now by the rapid proliferation of automation and AI capabilities, the potential impact on healthcare infrastructure assets will be profound. Thoughts on what that might look like... https://lnkd.in/eTfAdUbS #digitalhealth Flare Capital Partners

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That’s a wrap on another week in #healthcare. Highlights from the week include: + Mental health startup Headway raised $100m led by Spark Capital, increasing its valuation to $2.3B https://lnkd.in/eU_pBv_M + Ellit Groups, a healthcare IT consulting firm, forms a strategic partnership with private equity firm Lumerity Capital https://lnkd.in/gqu5PVW5 + Huma, a healthcare AI startup, raises $80M in Series D https://lnkd.in/eHddkMwa + HarmonyCares, a home-based care provider, raised $200M in capital led by General Catalyst and McKesson Ventures https://lnkd.in/gFpKn43j + Nabla, the leading AI assistant for clinicians, partners with Carle Health to implement its AI copilot technology https://lnkd.in/eiGdQ8yV + Regard, an AI-powered clinical insights platform, raised $61m in Series B led by Oak HC/FT https://lnkd.in/ejc7sQdw    + DaVita Kidney Care, one of the nation's largest dialysis providers, agrees to pay $34M to resolve allegations of kickbacks to induce referrals to DaVita Rx, a former subsidiary that provided pharmacy services for dialysis patients https://lnkd.in/eCUvtfbH + A U.S. District Judge pauses a CMS rule capping compensation for Medicare Advantage brokers https://lnkd.in/eAg9SD2b + Vermont is the latest state to sue PBMs, Evernorth and CVS, for driving up prescription drug prices https://lnkd.in/ermdkHBk + CMS’s first “No Surprises Act” audit aimed at ensuring compliance with the surprise billing prohibition, found Aetna overestimated and underestimated qualifying payment amounts for air ambulance services https://lnkd.in/eA8P-jAf + CMS issues the final part two guidance for the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan to provide beneficiaries with Medicare prescription drug coverage the option to spread the costs of their prescription drugs throughout the calendar year https://lnkd.in/exB57Riz + HHS announces $27.5m in funding aimed at improving women’s behavioral health across the country https://lnkd.in/gBimKE6q

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Kaiser Permanente may steer $250 million funding in SaaS firm Innovaccer at flat valuation Software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup Innovaccer is in the middle of raising a $200-250 million funding round led by US health and insurance major Kaiser Permanente, sources told us. The primary round of funding is likely to take place at a flat valuation of $3 billion, while the secondary share sale may come through at a lower price, according to people briefed on the matter. The almost flat valuation underscores the changing revenue multiples investors are willing to ascribe now. From a peak of 30X of revenue in 2021, valuations are now trending between 10-15X. By Digbijay Mishra Read more: https://lnkd.in/ghccaRHz

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Congratulations to our portfolio company Mae for closing their oversubscribed seed round to reduce maternal health disparities! We are proud to be part of this round as early investors alongside Avestria Ventures, Bright Ventures, and the Social Starts Health & Happiness Fund. The round was led by Jumpstart Nova and new investors include the Astia Fund, Impact Engine, Joyance Partners, and Gratitude Railroad. "The urgent need for interventions in Black maternal health is underscored by stark statistics: Black Americans face a maternal mortality rate more than two and a half times higher than other demographic groups. Furthermore, an estimated 16% of Black babies are born in areas with limited or no access to maternity care services, exacerbating existing disparities. Against this backdrop, Mae’s seed raise represents a crucial step towards addressing these inequalities and improving maternal and infant health outcomes. Mae’s approach combines a digital engagement and risk-tracking platform with community-based doula support to empower expectant mothers, particularly those from underserved communities. By centering the pregnant person throughout the perinatal journey, Mae aims to reduce disparate maternal health outcomes, including preterm births and non-medically necessary C-sections." Cheers to you Maya Hardigan, Rachel Nance Wade, Alisha Lalani, Courtney Webster, Britney Morgan, Jennifer Ekunkunbor, Jessica Gaddis, Maia Gokhale, Angelica G., Lydia Harris, and team!

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Exciting news from Monica Chopra, Jeffrey De Flavio, MD, Samantha Adelberg, and the rest of the Auxa Health team as they officially announce their $5.2M Seed round. The team's deep industry expertise and drive for change have led them to solve critical infrastructural friction to providing quality healthcare and adoption of value-based care. Auxa's AI benefit navigation platform is simplifying the complexities of healthcare by streamlining all of the fragmented and siloed data and information to make it actionable in real-time for healthcare organizations. For the 70% of Americans who aren't getting access to the health and social care benefits they deserve, Auxa's solution will be pivotal in enabling equitable care. We're thrilled to partner with co-investors Zeal Capital Partners, AlleyCorp, Laconia, and Chaac Ventures on this journey and look to share many more milestones ahead. Cc K50 Ventures, Ryan Bloomer, Daniel Vásquez, Nick Talwar, Stefanie Ng https://lnkd.in/dPDY7-Db

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Newmi Care, a pioneering full-stack outpatient care platform focused on women's health and wellness, has raised $1.5 million in Seed funding. The round was led by Sprout Venture Partners, with additional participation from LetsVenture, Sarcha Advisors, Key Ventures Forum, and a range of angel investors. Founded in 2022 by Aditi Mittal and Sanchit Agarwal, Newmi Care is setting the stage as India's first omnichannel platform dedicated to women’s health. The fresh funding will be used to open new clinics in North and West India, drive tech and product innovation, and expand the team. #funding #wellness #healthcare #startups #investment #womenhealth #innovation #technology #clinic #startupfunding #healthtech #womenentrepreneurs #omnichannel #growth #expansion #team #newbeginnings #techinnovation #startupnews #fundinground #businessgrowth #india #seedfunding

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Which founders fit the mold for success in healthcare? Health2047 Managing Director M Christine (Chris) Stock spoke to Anne DeGheest, Founder and Managing Director at HealthTech Capital, about the key characteristics of successful #healthtech entrepreneurs. Listen to the full conversation here: https://lnkd.in/eqwUCkPx

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Still feeling energized from last week's roundtable on building successful relationships with hospitals. We invited 7 portfolio companies and health system leaders from Mayo Clinic, Cedars-Sinai and UCLA Health. The founders shared their questions ranging from the strategic to the nuts and bolts of closing partnerships. For example, how do you determine what measures of effectiveness help drive alignment? And how do you get all the stakeholders together to actually drive a decision. Answer: put them all in a room for half a day! “I think we're in a pivotal moment regarding how we assess AI. There are numerous risks currently dominating AI discussions, particularly those concerning bias and other associated risks. However, there's a notable absence of focus on evaluating the proactive value of AI. We need to consider what AI actually offers and what we want it to offer. It's not solely about determining whether it will cause harm; people are apprehensive about how this technology will be implemented. One perspective gaining traction involves ensuring the product's validation process is robust enough to prevent risks to various populations.” -Vladimir Manuel, Medical Director at UCLA Health From Vlad's comments above to perspectives others shared, we heard a sense of excitement for the promise of #AI and other new technologies. But we're also in a unique moment where the risks are not well understood. Still much to do here.

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The most talked about AI x Medical startup Abridge is working to rescue doctors from the never-ending admin grind (which causes burnout and less patient face-time). Abridge's AI listens to patient visits and generates precise medical notes, slashing the clerical workload. Now, doctors can focus on what truly matters: patient care. Major health systems like Yale and Emory are already on board and raving, calling it "life-changing" and "magical." 🔷 A big reason --> Payback of the scribe tool is easy to measure. It supports 14 languages including Haitian Creole, Brazilian Portuguese, and Punjabi. An ongoing criticism of generative AI is that it still has few substantive business applications. This seems to quash that. Question: is a dedicated medical LLM needed to be successful in the space? Or will the huge foundational models (GPT-4o, Google, and Meta) ingest a plethora of medical notes and kill the competition with performance? We're dealing with a fast and furious pace, and today's edge may not be relevant tomorrow. Competitors include Microsoft-owned Nuance Healthcare , Ambience Healthcare, Nabla and Suki. I'm excited to continue to see this field revolutionized. 🌟 #AI #MedTech #Abridge #HealthTech

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One of my proudest moments as an investor occurred today as Alaffia Health announced its series A because it shows how the Aperture® Venture Capital vision of multi-level, multi-generational #impactinvesting is succeeding in the marketplace. Here’s the model in its most basic form : ✅As diverse fund managers with meaningful capital to allocate, we are changing the VC landscape every day just by doing our day jobs. ✅As Black/Brown investors with ~40 years experience collectively, Aperture GPs have access to talent /excellence that others do not, so our portfolio *organically* is more inclusive by race, gender and geography even while optimizing for financial outcomes (all about the alpha). ✅Our most successful portco’s are using financial #innovation to solve market problems that impact underrepresented demographics and underserved communities. Alaffia Health is a shining example of the impact portion of our overall fund thesis, and we couldn’t be prouder of TJ Ademiluyi and Adun Akanni, MPH, PMP - the dynamic brother-sister founder duo whose vision we have steadfastly supported on their journey. Congratulations to TJ and Adun from William Crowder and myself, as well as the whole Aperture team- Marjorie King Philip McKenzie Yves Louis-Jacques Tanvi Lal Michelle Dhansinghani Lisha Bell Katie Kelly Amy Chung Cindy Chong, CFA Brian Fernandes-Halloran Monroe France Jayden Pantel Darren Herman Evan Wladis Neal Triplett Thomas Scriven Peter Ammon Irina Bit-Babik Tim Milanich Rob Rahbari

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As investments in health tech ventures start to gain momentum, STAT looks at five VCs behind some of the biggest recent deals. 💡 Simon Chong, Co-founder, Georgian - As one of three co-founders of Georgian, Chong helped lead the recent $100 million Series F investment in chronic care company Glooko. Over seven years, Glooko has expanded its endocrinology business and the number of insulin and glucose monitoring devices its software connects to. 💡 Seyonne Kang, Partner, StepStone Group - Private markets investment firm StepStone led womens’ health clinic Maven’s $125 million Series F round — Maven has so far raised about $425 million in total. 💡 Bryan Roberts, Partner, Venrock - Roberts was responsible for Venrock’s investment in AI-powered clinical note taker Suki, which recently raised a $70 million Series D. “AI will drastically change every industry, including health care, and the funding interest in Suki and the larger health tech market is a signal of the massive scale of change that is underway,” said Roberts. 💡 Julie Yoo, General partner at Andreessen Horowitz Bio+ Health - VC firm Andreessen Horowitz led the recent $31 million seed round for Alchemy — a tech company setting up pharmacies within federally qualified health centers and safety-net clinics — which also included NBA star and investor Magic Johnson. Yoo is focused on companies changing “how we access, pay for, and experience healthcare.” 💡 Nancy G. Brown, General partner at Oak HC/FT - The investment firm led digestive care company Oshi Health’s recent $60 million Series C round. Brown sourced the deal. She's focused on companies driving structural change in various ways. Read more about these investors and what exactly they're looking for: https://trib.al/EgPWz68 #healthtech #investment #venturecapital

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We at Female Founders Fund started investing in #womenshealth 10 years ago and continue to believe that there is a huge opportunity through digital innovation to improve care by building targeted solutions for all women.  Over the past few months, it has been promising to see government funding being directed for the first time towards clinical research focused on understanding the critical life stages of a woman's reproductive journey and creating better solutions for the female patient. In honor of #Women’sHealthMonth and to shine a spotlight on the investment opportunity that exists in #menopause, I’m sharing key takeaways from a 2020 study we published with Fortune below:  💰 With 100% of women as the target market, menopause to be a $600B market opportunity, with a need for better products and solutions catering to this life stage.  📈 On average, women spend $2k per year on menopause treatments, doctor visits, devices and products, and 1 billion women are expected to be in menopause worldwide by 2025  👩‍⚕️ 80% of OBGYNs are not trained in menopause as part of their medical training 👯‍♀️ 75% of women in menopause get their information from their friends / community 💗 The biggest opportunities for innovation exist across products such as supplements and hormone creams targeting specific pain points & hormonal shifts, telemedicine, and digital communities for women. It is exciting to see start-ups and government funding paving the way for promising solutions in women’s health. We’re proud to be early investors in companies like Maven Clinic and Kindra that have been at the forefront of providing menopause care. Still, we recognize that there is room for more development, funding, and attention to be brought to this space. With advancements in testing and medicine underway, we believe there is opportunity for more preventative solutions that are increasingly personalized and targeted to address the unique needs of each woman. Full study: https://lnkd.in/ecBaQzC

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On the latest Vital Signs, Nikhil Krishnan and I had a ton of fun chatting with Dr. Atul Butte. Dr. Butte is a professor at UCSF, Chief Data Scientist of the UC Health System, and a co-founder of numerous healthcare startups. In our conversation, Dr. Butte shared his takes on healthcare AI opportunities, challenges, hype, and more. A few highlights: ⚡LLM use cases, data, and growth LLMs are already helping to solve the “drudgery” aspects of medicine, such as automatically drafting SOAP notes and patient messages. Dr. Butte is excited about future applications of LLMs that can help with the “cognitive” aspects: with difficult medical problems an LLM might be able to stitch together disparate pieces of information to generate a potentially novel solution. He also highlights that prompt engineering will become the next “coding language” as so much of leveraging LLMs is knowing how to ask them the right questions. Additionally, Dr. Butte discusses how since 2016, UCSF has been working to deidentify its patient notes so that it can query them to answer clinical questions and ultimately enhance patient care. ⚡The need for patient-facing AI As patients are increasingly able to access their own personal health data in nicely structured formats (e.g., EHRs, wearables), they desperately need more tools to help them interpret and make decisions using that data. Dr. Butte understands that these patient-facing solutions are challenging to get funded but he emphasizes that patients need to receive the benefits of AI sooner. ⚡Evaluating healthcare AI solutions In order to evaluate AI solutions, we often put human specialists – such as medical professionals – on the same tasks. Understanding that specialists often disagree with each other, a significant challenge arises in figuring out how we can evaluate AI considering we can’t just “average” all the specialist opinions. Dr. Butte points out that there still remains a massive gap in AI evaluation tools. Additionally, there are so many organizations that want to have a say in how healthcare AI is regulated that the landscape is uncertain. An awesome conversation with an expert on all things AI meets healthcare. Listen to the full episode below: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wr3643 Apple: https://apple.co/4acwgan

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M7 Health, founded by​​ Ilana Borkenstein RN, MBA and Eric Gruskin, has successfully closed a $4M seed round, led by First Round Capital, with participation from 25m Health, Lakehouse Ventures, Banter Capital, and January Ventures. This funding will drive M7 Health’s efforts to modernize nursing workforce management and further their mission to support nurses nationwide. What started as a big vision based on the belief that the nursing workforce deserves better, M7 Health is now having a huge impact on the day-to-day lives of nurses, driving nurse retention, and generating operational efficiencies and cost savings for health systems. Over the past two years, M7 Health has worked closely with nurses to develop a platform that has quickly become an essential tool in 8 hospitals, with more to come. M7 Health’s platform is evolving into the core operating system that nurses depend on for every shift. This milestone marks an exciting step forward for M7 Health as it continues to scale and innovate in the healthcare industry. 🔗 Read More: https://lnkd.in/epaDGJkv

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Looking forward to discussing how changing demographics and culture norms are affecting investment opportunities in longevity, health and well-being at The Care Summit today Alongside Cake Ventures' Monique Woodard, Ziegler's Dan Hermann, Oak HC/FT's Billy Deitch and JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s Jennifer Edwards, we’ll dive into the trends shaping how we are investing in the space: - Last year marked one of the most significant social and economic moments in modern times: The number of older adults—those aged 50 and over- surpassed the number of children under the age of 15 for the first time. - In 2020 the 50 plus population contributed $45 trillion to global GDP, or 34% of the total. That equates to about 3x the revenue of the world’s 100 highest- earning companies in 2020. - The U.S. population grew by 24.5 million from 2010 to 2022, and Hispanics accounted for 53% of this increase – a greater share than any other racial or ethnic group. - Women around the world and across all ages drive 64% of consumer spending

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Which founders fit the mold for success in healthcare? Health2047 Managing Director M Christine (Chris) Stock spoke to Anne DeGheest, Founder and Managing Director at HealthTech Capital, about the key characteristics of successful hashtag #healthtech #entrepreneur. Listen to the full conversation here: https://lnkd.in/eqwUCkPx

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AI and Med Tech in Focus   AI System Developed to Identify Pathology in Tissues Engineers at Washington State University have developed an AI tool that uses images of human and animal tissue to detect abnormalities faster and more accurately than people. The AI algorithm was trained using images from past studies that involved kidney, testes, ovarian, prostate, breast and lymph node abnormalities. The new model detected disease in minutes—current processes take humans several hours and require specialized teams to check each other’s work. It was also found to be more accurate, sometimes detecting instances that humans had missed. The engineers designed the system to handle the processing load of the high-resolution gigapixel images by breaking them down into smaller tiles but still retaining the overall context of the tissue sample—akin to the zoom feature on a microscope or phone camera. Aside from getting diagnostic results more accurately and quickly, the new system also shows promise in epigenetics (the study of molecular processes that change gene behavior without changing underlying DNA). Epigenetic researchers can perform analyses and get results that used to take a year or more in just a couple of weeks. VC Investors are always adjusting their "Play Book" with a variety of options for investing. Mikal Ventures is one of those alternatives, offering curated solutions to real world problems. Reach out if you have questions on how we can be of assistance and bookmark https://mikalventures.com/ for additional insights and information.

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M13 is thrilled to lead the Series A in RadiantGraph which is focused on personalization in healthcare. As we continue to invest in early stage companies it is abundantly clear that the biggest indicator of success is the founder and his or her ability to execute on their vision of the future. In this case, I don't think I have seen much better founder-market fit than we have with founder and CEO Anmol Madan. We believe in his vision: in order to have the best patient outcomes in healthcare we need increased personalization and AI is the breakthrough to get us there. Anmol started one of the pioneering digital health companies Ginger and then was Chief Data Scientist at Livongo and Teledoc. He has done it all: early stage, late stage, public company. And he deeply understands the nuances of the healthcare market from all angles which is critical for success. While there are many players building healthcare-specific AI capabilities, RadiantGraph is focused on outcomes: The platform is already processing personalization models for more than 3.5 million people, despite launching just last year. Excited to partner with my friend Adam D'Augelli and the great True Ventures again and Morgan Blumberg who has been deep in the healthcare market with me for many years. More on our thesis in the blog below. https://lnkd.in/evDDmC3W

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