Without a doubt the number of digital health startups has grown considerably these past few years and many more larger companies have dedicated teams or business units focused on digital health. With that kind of growth comes job opportunities. As it happens, in recent weeks a few digital health hires and departures caught my attention.
Julie Kling, who has served as the mobile executive business lead at Humana for nearly three years, joined Verizon Wireless as a director of product management for mobile health. Kling led mobile health initiatives at Humana and her purview at Verizon Wireless is similarly far-reaching. Kling is responsible for leading product management staff in developing, piloting and launching Verizon Wireless' mHealth services. She's also responsible for partnerships with other vendors and ensuring legal (HIPAA) and regulatory (FDA) requirements for Verizon Wireless' mHealth services are met. A high profile mobile health lead at a major health plan joining a top tier mobile operator to lead health initiatives is a clear sign of the times.
Another notable hire: Paulo Machado, former Innovation Officer at AstraZeneca, who has been a seemingly permanent and ubiquitous fixture on the digital health conference circuit for the past four years as a digital health consultant, has landed at a new startup called United Preference as chief commercialization officer. United Preference was one of the startups that presented at Morgenthaler Venture's DCtoVC event last week in San Francisco. The organizer of that event, Morgenthaler entrepreneur in resident Missy Krasner, explained United Preference like so: "They offer flexible payment architectures on an easy-to-administer card platform for the delivery of employee and health plan incentives that help drive healthy behavior." The startup, which went through the Healthbox incubator program in Chicago, already has a Fortune 500 company client and a Blue Cross Blue Shield from the east coast as clients.
One of the demos attracting press coverage from Wired Magazine's health event this week has been Dr. Alan Greene's demo of a prototype device from Scanadu. Greene, who has served in many notable roles over the years including as the founding president of The Society for Participatory Medicine, left HealthTap, where he was medical director and physician lead for the past two years, to join the Tricorder company Scanadu as chief medical director.
Mobile operators hiring health plan talent. Longtime consultants settle down into startup life. High profile physicians helping to build the Tricorder. Interesting times for the increasingly competitive digital health job market.
