WTM Bulletin #8: From Wall Street to Care Street. Latest news in Health Care VC, PE, and care delivery. Innovation. Transformation.
As a former Citigroup investment banker and economist turn Medical Doctor, entrepreneur, consultant, and investor, I see health care evolve and transform through a very unique lens.
Sitting at the intersection of health, technology, and business with functional roles as an executive in strategy, partnerships, and innovation, I’m eager to share my weekly findings with you, my growing worldwide audience.
6 links = 3 headlines. 2 startup or VC/PE firm news. 1+ closing thought. Or some combination there of. You can also follow me on twitter @Mahek_MD .
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Headlines
Google Cloud partners with Northwell to aid in their digital transformation strategy. They aim to provide Provide Proactive, Personalized Healthcare to Everyone Everywhere at Northwell.
Google Cloud and Northwell have been working together since 2018 and more recently — November 2021 — on a lung cancer collaboration. Northwell Health uses Google Cloud products such as Cloud Healthcare APIs and BigQuery to increase caregiver productivity plus deliver better care for patients with findings that indicate potential development of lung cancer.
Northwell Health built an AI model to identify these patients so that oncologists can appropriately follow up with patients who have findings suspicious for lung cancer. The AI model detects incidental pulmonary nodules in radiology reports so that doctors can then contact the patients that need follow-up care.
This is a great move for Northwell Health, New York state’s largest employer and provider of healthcare with 23 hospitals, 800 outpatient centers, and over 4000 doctors treat millions of patients per year.
A key value proposition is that AI can be leveraged to identify what are known as ‘incidental findings’. For example, if someone is involved in a car accident and chest CT is done as part of routine car accident workup. This CT could reveal and incidental nodule that needs to be followed on up by the patient, but is often lost to follow up or not addressed at all because it is not the chief complaint during that hospitalization. AI can flag such a nodule, place a reminder to reach out or have the patient come in to see an oncologist, and save precious time in delay of a cancer diagnosis, which is a matter of life and death. I know far too many personal friends who have lost loved ones to delayed cancer diagnosis, either not found because providers’ weren’t looking for that at the time or the delivery system itself was backlogged, slow, or the test results and getting tested took too long.
In conclusion, I’m very pleased to see this focused pilot collaboration between Google and Northwell now being broadened to directly accelerate Northwell’s digital transformation enterprise wide. AI has many use cases from automating administrative tasks in existing workflow to identifying incidental findings to proactively flagging a nodule for monitoring. Exciting times to be in this space and envision better experiences for providers + patients everywhere.
More on digital health below.
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BLACK GIRL MAGIC: 13-YEAR-OLD MAKES HISTORY AS YOUNGEST BLACK PERSON TO GET ACCEPTED INTO MEDICAL SCHOOL
Thirteen-year-old prodigy Alena Analeigh Wicker just reached an awe-inspiring accomplishment as the youngest Black person in the country to ever be accepted to a medical school. She will attend UAB.
I love this story because it celebrates passion and breaking the glass ceiling. She felt inspired by a trip to Jordan and the Brown STEM Girl foundation, a program she founded at 12, that provides resources to exceptional minority students by form of scholarships and mentoring as they transition from college to career life.
“What I want from healthcare is to really show these underrepresented communities that we can help, that we can find cures for these viruses,”
-Alena said. Viruses she referred to are easy to treat ones that impact developing and emerging markets.“I want to inspire the girls. I want them to see that there are no limits,” she proclaimed.
Follow this incredible rising star on Instagram @brownstemgirl
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Digital health funding is cooling down
Per a new 2022 Rock Health report, we’ve seen a 50% decline in digital health funding from $15 billion a year ago to just $10 billion this half 2022. But year end estimates remain fairly in-line, with analysts now calling 2021 a blip. IMHO a bit of a cop out statement but it is what it is.
While funding may be cooling, I believe we will see increased M&A consolidation for both practical and economic reasons. First, the buyers of these technologies don’t want point solutions because the ROI for them at the enterprise level is not great if they have to expend human capital and IT time figuring out how to integrate Digital Health A + Digital Health B + Digital Health C. They’d rather buy a cohesive platform that can aid end-to-end with solving a particular problem. Second, the growth investors want a return on their investment so exiting to a strategic is very appealing given the headwinds in the macro economy today. No one really knows how long the war in Ukraine will last, the inflation prints we’ve been getting, the Fed wanting to raise rates 100bps now, and looming recession that corporate America is reacting too and preparing for. That said, an exit strategy may include combining with another digital health entity to then become more appealing to solving more than one problem for the buyer (ie health system, payer, etc.)
Especially with belts tightening in every CFO’s office, demonstrating real value across a suite of workflows remains critical/must have for any third party application. Because of the aforementioned A + B + C that exists in today’s digital health landscape, more effort is being made to sell end-to-end solutions. The other important piece besides being cohesive and integrated is the ability to integrate into existing workflows.
My favorite analogy for this is the following: Remodeling and updating the plane’s while its flying at its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet knowing some turbulence lies ahead.
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Venture Capital
VC’s continue to raise large funds in Q2 2022.
Lightspeed takes the top spot with $7.1 Billion across 4 funds: announced the closing of Lightspeed Venture Partners XIV-A/B, L.P. (“Fund XIV”) with $1.98 billion, Lightspeed Venture Partners Select V, L.P. (“Select Fund V”) with $2.26 billion, and Lightspeed Opportunity Fund II, L.P. (“Opportunity Fund II”) with $2.36 billion of committed capital. Separately, Lightspeed India Partners today announced the closing of a $500M early stage fund (“LSIP Fund IV”).
Lightspeed Venture Partners XIV-A/B, L.P. ($1.98B): support founders in their earliest stages in the firm’s long-standing Enterprise, Consumer, Health and Fintech practices.
Lightspeed Venture Partners Select V, L.P. ($2.26B): As companies begin to inflect and scale, they need a partner who can grow with them and support their scaling ambitions to be a category defining company.
“We believe innovation is a continuum and requires a full stack platform to support exceptional founders at any stage, in any sector and in any geography throughout their journey…especially in markets like these,” said Michael Romano, Chief Business Officer, Lightspeed. “We’ve witnessed venture capital radically transform society and economies, and be itself transformed by world events — the crash of 2000, the global financial crisis of 2009, and today’s volatile market. It’s why we intentionally architected a reinvestment team three years ago to prepare for a market correction.”
Lightspeed Opportunity Fund II, L.P. ($2.36B): a platform to back breakout companies from across all of the global territories where Lightspeed operates. This includes India, China, Israel, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
Lightspeed India IV, L.P. ($500M): the firm’s deepening commitment to the India and South East Asia region, since our first India investment in 2007. They’ve expanded now with 28 professionals in India across Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and Singapore.
Much of their current portfolio especially in financial, gaming, and crypto have achieved unicorn status.
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Other standout VC fund raises:
- Multicoin Capital’s new $430 million fund for crypto-related investments. So crypto isn’t going anywhere… Is this a buy-the-dip moment for the sector?!? I don’t know.
- Conscience VC, led by Ariana Thacker, raises an oversubscribed $10M which will invest in consumer companies with a science edge.
- Cathay Innovation closes $1B fund, its third. With Fund III, Cathay Innovation launches what will surely be one of the largest multi-stage VC funds to emerge from Europe once it closes, encompassing Series A, B, and later-stage startups. The company said that it intends to serve as lead- or co-investor, with investments ranging from $5 million to around $80 million in size.
Closing Thoughts
“Health Before Wealth”
Even at the elite levels of business and capitalism, health takes a priority and a long term view needs to be placed if we want a sustainable high performing system. The same goes for the human body. Rafa Nadal demonstrated this at this year’s Wimbledon after his QF win over the top American Taylor Fritz, after which he withdrew from the tournament. He did so primarily because of a 7mm abdominal tear. Yes 7 millimeters.
It occurred during the match. Tennis legend Mats Wilander commented:
“Nadal is very talented tactically. I think he knew that he could still beat Taylor Fritz despite the injury, even if he’s not 100% physically,” Mats Wilander said after the Spaniard reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon despite a bad abdominal injury. “I’m completely amazed because I thought he was going to retire towards the end of the first set. You can get used to playing with pain.”
Playing through pain is more commonly seen in the NFL, NBA where by they get hauled off the field and injected with Toradol to go back in and finish the game. But here Nadal showed strength by withdrawing and risking further injury and putting long term health over satisfying a record he had a real shot of achieving: the calendar Grand Slam (winning Australian, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open in 1 calendar year). Something that has evaded both Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.
Rafa Nadal showed honesty and keen awareness of what could be as you can see from this interview after his QF and before SF match with Kyrgios. Clearly he is listening to his body and his physio’s advice:
Here he has called for the press conference after his team conducted medical imaging on his abdomen, confirming 7 mm tear:
“If I keep going, the injury gonna be worse and worse. And that is the thing now and feel very sad to say that.” — Nadal.
Health before Wealth. Respects his body, listens to it, respects himself to remain competitive by being at a level of health he wants, not what others expect.
“That’s my decision and I have to live with that.” — Nadal
Disclaimer: The information presented here does not serve as investment advice. This is for informational purposes only.
Please follow me, clap, and feel free to leave a comment below. I sit at the intersection of Wall Street. Tech. Medicine. I’m an MD with Buy-side, Sell-side, & Bedside Manner. Alumni and faculty networks from Harvard, Cornell, Baylor College of Medicine, and Rice. I’m the world’s only Doctor to work with business icons Michael Porter, Robert Kaplan, and Clay Christensen. You can find me on twitter @Mahek_MD .