Investor Nancy Brown joins us at Aspen Ideas Health to share her blueprint for impactful investments. Identify public health breakthroughs that deliver measurable cost and quality improvements — then show how they can thrive in the marketplace. You don’t have to look far to see this playbook in action. One of the year’s biggest health exits, Omada Health, is a digital version of the CDC’s Diabetes Prevention Program. At Oak HC/FT, Nancy has partnered with entrepreneurs who are redefining how America stays healthy — and she’s eager to see more people with public health roots take the leap into building impactful companies.

Please note: this conversation happened before HR1 was passed, so big Medicaid cuts were a threat but not yet a reality when we spoke.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Lessons from Todd Park in the early days of athenahealth
• How to turn good ideas into great businesses
• Nancy’s advice in an era of policy disruption: keep on building and proving value
• The lesson Kaiser Permanente is still teaching us

Nancy reminds us that in reality, even a brilliant idea needs to have ROI built in:

“We look for entrepreneurs, for innovators, who have really defined a way in which to find a cohort of patients, it could be pregnant Medicaid moms... And they have identified if they apply a certain clinical process consistently to that population, they will get a consistently good outcome, quality outcome, and they can do it in a sustainable [way] at a sustainable price.”

Relevant Links

• Read Oak HC/FT’s AI Investment Policy
• Explore businesses Nancy mentioned from Oak HC/FT’s investment portfolio:
• Maven Clinic
• Oshi Health

About Our Guest

Nancy Brown is a General Partner at Oak HC/FT, a leading venture and growth equity firm investing in transformative healthcare and fintech companies. Since joining Oak HC/FT at its inception in 2014, Ms. Brown has focused on identifying and supporting technology-enabled healthcare services that deliver measurable clinical and financial impact. She focuses on growth equity and early-stage venture investments in healthcare, serving on the boards of innovative companies such as Firefly Health, Groups Recover Together, InterWell Health, Maven Clinic, Oshi Health, Regard, Unite Us, and Wayspring. Her portfolio also includes Noom, TurningPoint Healthcare Solutions, Limeade (ASX: LME), OncoHealth, and OODA Health.

Ms. Brown brings over three decades of operational and leadership experience to her investment role. Prior to Oak HC/FT, she was Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at McKesson Technology Solutions and Chief Growth Officer at MedVentive (acquired by McKesson in 2012). Previously, she served as Senior Vice President of Clinical Services and Corporate Development at athenahealth, and earlier held senior roles at McKesson and Harvard Community Health Plan. She also co-founded Abaton.com, one of the first web-based clinical solution companies, which was later acquired by McKesson.

A graduate of the University of New Hampshire (B.S. in Zoology) and Northeastern University (MBA), Ms. Brown is an active mentor and advisor. She serves on Northeastern’s D’Amore‑McKim School of Business Dean’s Executive Council and is involved in the Roux Institute’s Future of Healthcare Founder Residency program.

Grey’s Anatomy Executive Producer and physician Dr. Zoanne Clack joins The Other 80 at Aspen Ideas: Health to talk about what public health leaders can learn from Hollywood storytelling. After training as a doctor and working for the CDC, Zoanne followed her childhood dreams and moved to Hollywood. With no job or warm leads, Zoanne set out to use the power of storytelling to drive health change.

We discuss:

• What Shonda Rhimes taught Zoanne about standing in power
• Making it as a Hollywood “showrunner”
• Why public health leaders should lean into storytelling

Zoanne reminds us that stories - even about fictional characters - have the ability to help us move the world:

“I think just having that, that feeling of belonging, that feeling of these are my people, and I am very interested in what they're doing and thinking is just a great way for the media in Hollywood to have impact.”

Relevant Links

• Watch the two episode Zoanne mentioned are her favourites: “Fight the Power” (Season 17, Episode 5) and “The Time Warp” (Season 6, Episode 15)
• See Zoanne’s filmography

About Our Guest

Zoanne Clack is executive producer and showrunner for “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Station 19.” An emergency medicine physician turned TV writer and showrunner, Clack is best known for her influential writing roles on these critically acclaimed ABC-TV series, where she combines her medical background and artistic flair, offering a unique and authentic touch. As a writer/producer on "Grey's Anatomy" since the show began, she has played an integral role in the show's longevity and cultural impact. She uses her knowledge of entertainment education to promote global public health issues through the media, advocating for representation and inclusivity and providing diverse characterizations as well as poignant social commentary. Clack is co-chair of the Norman Lear Center’s Hollywood, Health & Society program at USC’s Annenberg School of Journalism and serves on the board or as an advisor of several global health groups.

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For more information on The Other 80 please visit our website - www.theother80.com. To connect with our team, please email claudia@theother80.com and follow us on twitter @claudiawilliams and LinkedIn

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AI is going to transform healthcare - but how do we ensure it does so responsibly, equitably and ethically? Google’s former Chief Health Officer, Dr. Karen DeSalvo, says that AI could be public health’s new best friend - if we use it in the right ways. Karen sits down with Claudia at Aspen Ideas Health to talk about her longtime career as a public health leader and where she sees a role for AI in helping to take some heat off public health communicators. She’s interested in how AI can support - not replace - our human values.

We discuss:

• How AI health agents could personalize and simplify care, especially for patients navigating complex health challenges
• Why government should act as both regulator and convener to shape the future of how we use AI in health
• Our failure to scale and implement big ideas because we keep adding new layers instead of simplifying

Karen underscored that AI-enabled robots will bring new ethical challenges:

“I think when robotics becomes more commonplace, that also raises some of the need for us to be very thoughtful as a society about the ethical challenges when there's a physical manifestation of the models that's not just in a computer screen or even through your glasses, but as the robots get more and more humanoid.”

Relevant Links

• Read the Forbes article on Karen’s tenure at Google
• Watch a Video where Karen introduces “Check Up”
• Read the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials’ spotlight on Karen
• Read Karen’s article about “Public Health 3.0”
• Check out Karen’s Health Affairs article on the future of public health

About Our Guest

Dr. Karen DeSalvo is a physician executive working at the intersection of medicine, public health, and information technology to help everyone, everywhere, live a healthier life. She leads a team of experts at Google who build helpful products, develop AI solutions focused on some of the biggest health challenges and bring information and insights to consumers, caregivers and communities with the aim of democratizing access to health and healthcare. She provides clinical leadership for Google employee health, including as part of the company COVID response team. Prior to joining Google, Dr. DeSalvo was National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and Assistant Secretary for Health (Acting) in the Obama Administration. Dr. DeSalvo served as the New Orleans Health Commissioner following Hurricane Katrina and was previously Vice Dean for Community Affairs and Health Policy at the Tulane School of Medicine where she was a practicing internal medicine physician, educator, and researcher. She is co-founder of the National Alliance to Impact the Social Determinants of Health. Dr. DeSalvo serves on the Council of the National Academy of Medicine and the Board of Directors for Welltower.

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