Dr. Ezekiel “Zeke” Emanuel oncologist, bioethicist, architect of the Affordable Care Act, and author of Eat Your Ice Cream joins us to share why he believes the longevity movement is overblown and how real health comes down to simplicity. In his new book, Zeke argues that instead of chasing expensive fads and wellness trends, we should focus on six straightforward habits that make life healthier and more enjoyable.

Many clinicians quietly wonder if there's a “next chapter” beyond the hospital walls, and an increasing number are stepping into health tech roles that didn’t exist a decade ago.

Dr. Reena Pande has lived that shift firsthand: from cardiologist at a top academic center, to early employee and CMO at AbleTo, to now leading clinician executive search at Oxeon. She joins us to unpack what it really takes for clinicians to succeed in startups, why these roles matter more than ever, and how AI is reshaping both medical training and leadership.

As millions of Americans hit the road to visit family for Thanksgiving, many will pass through, or return to, rural communities. Nearly 60 million Americans live in these areas, yet many struggle to access even basic healthcare as rural hospitals close at record rates.

Over 3 million clinicians around the world depend on UpToDate to guide patient care, and now the gold standard in clinical decision support is integrating generative AI. But in a world where AI models often hallucinate, how do you build something that doctors can actually trust?

This milestone 200th!!! episode of The Heart of Healthcare Podcast features none other than Dr. Tom X. Lee, the serial physician-founder behind Epocrates (acquired for $293M), One Medical (acquired by Amazon for $3.9B), and now Galileo, a tech-enabled medical group aiming to rewire care delivery from the ground up.

Over half of Americans now live with at least one chronic condition, yet our healthcare system still revolves around episodic, reactionary care instead of continuous, coordinated support.

One in four Americans relies on Medicaid, yet the program faces billions in federal funding cuts.

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Rajaie Batniji, co-founder and CEO of Waymark, about delivering tech-enabled community care to Medicaid patients.

In 2020, telemedicine company Teladoc acquired remote patient monitoring company Livongo for a record $18.5 billion, creating a $38 billion entity. Today, the combined company is worth less than a tenth of that.

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.

"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.

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.

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

Clinical notes are one of the more tedious parts of doctors’ day-to-day lives—so much so that they’re often called “pajama time,” since physicians spend 2-3 hours writing them at night. In this episode, Steve Kraus sits down with Dr. Shiv Rao, co-founder and CEO of Abridge, an AI-first healthcare company that’s been in the spotlight for solving this problem. Abridge uses advanced machine learning to structure and summarize medical conversations, creating clinical documentation and structured data while reducing clinician burnout.

Shiv traces his journey from a skateboarding rebel to a cardiologist, professor, healthcare investor, and now founder of a pioneering digital health startup. He shares how his passion for scalable impact and exposure to cutting-edge research at Carnegie Mellon led him to start Abridge in 2018.

Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death in 18-45 year olds in the US, claiming more lives than car crashes and gun violence combined. After Dr. Beth Weinstock lost her son last year to what she calls “the most devastating health crisis this generation has ever seen,” she decided to do something about it. In this episode, we discuss a harm-reduction approach to protecting young people from accidental fentanyl poisoning.