Apple has hired Dr. Mike Evans, a Toronto doctor who boasts 70,000 followers on his medical-themed YouTube channel. Evans was formerly a staff physician at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. As CBC reported, Evans is a mobile health enthusiast who has talked on his YouTube show about a future in which he might precribe an Apple Watch app for high blood pressure. Apple doesn't typically comment on new hires, but some are speculating that there will be a communications or public relations aspect to Evans' role at Apple.
Health IT security company Imprivata, which just completed its acquisition by Thoma Bravo, has appointed a new president and CEO, Gus Malezis. Malezis has worked on technology and security for companies like, McAfee, 3Com, Merise, and most recently Tripwire, where he served as president.
Palo Alto-based HealthTap, which offers consumers a variety of health tech tools, services, and online health educational content, has hired Dan Edmonds-Waters as its new VP of strategy and global sales operations. Edmonds-Waters spent 17 years in various executive roles at Kaiser Permanente.
"I have been looking some time for a company that offers a truly disruptive innovation at scale for healthcare markets,” Edmonds-Waters said in a statement. “Our generation has the opportunity to transform healthcare with technology -- improving quality and access, while simultaneously reducing costs. I feel obligated and privileged to do what we know really works."
Former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has joined the advisory board of Solera Health, a company using digital health and community social networks to work on chronic disease prevention, including a digital diabetes prevention program.
"“I am excited to partner with Solera Health on fulfilling its important mission to make chronic disease prevention more affordable, accessible and efficient,” Sebelius said in a statement. “The company offers a uniquely scalable model for delivering chronic disease management programs to Americans nationwide."
Dr. Pat Basu, former chief medical officer at Doctor on Demand, has joined the board of directors at Opternative, Politico reports. Opternative, of course, is the at-home eye exam startup that's been under scrutiny from groups like the American Optometric Association and the South Carolina state legislature.
Steve Powell has been named Chief Operating Officer and President of Exco InTouch, a clinical trial technology company. Powell previously worked at PRA International, a top five clinical research organization. The position is newly created and will put Powell in charge of all aspects of Exco InTouch’s operational delivery, including services and technology.
Aledade, the ACO-focused health tech company founded by former National Coordinator for Health IT Dr. Farzad Mostashari, has hired Danny Krifcher as its first Chief Commercial Officer. A former Executive Vice President at Avalere Health, Krifcher will lead Aledade’s partnerships and value-based arrangements.
San Francisco-based FareWell, which makes an online program aimed at preventing chronic diseases by addressing obesity as a root cause, has added Dr. David Katz, founding director of the Yale Prevention Research Center and True Health Initiative and current President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, to its Scientific and Medical Advisory Board.
