Chris Bergstrom
Recent months have brought with them a number of important hires and departures at digital health companies. Here's a roundup of some of the ones we've been tracking. Feel free to add your own in the comments below.
Chris Bergstrom has stepped away from his full-time position of Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer at WellDoc, but he will remain an advisor to the company. As a member of the founding team, Bergstrom was intrumental in building the company and its prescribable and reimbursable digital interventions for diabetes management. Among other things, Bergstrom was responsible for implementing the company's business model.
"We must empower patients and providers with personalized knowledge when and where they need it," Bergstrom told MobiHealthNews via email. "Digital health is the best vehicle for this, yet when I started exploring this many years ago we didn't even know what to call it. Fast forward to 2015 and digital health is one of the hottest emerging industries backed by the winds of healthcare reform, the mobile revolution, and accelerating investment. However, few economic models have yet to emerge. At WellDoc, I was fortunate to help pioneer working business models. Today, I see an ocean of opportunities to make this industry sustainable."
Bergstrom is not immediately jumping to a new position elsewhere but he does advise a handful of companies both large and small, including HelpAround. He plans to take some time off before considering his next move.
Dave Chase
Dave Chase, the CEO and Founder of Avado, a patient relationship management company that WebMD acquired in late 2013, announced last week that he was leaving WebMD. He had spent his time at WebMD working to integrate Avado into WebMD's existing offerings. Chase is also taking some time off to evaluate his next step. Read more from Chase about his move here.
Heyward Donigan, previously CEO of ValueOptions, a mental wellbeing and recovery company, was recently appointed as the new CEO of patient ratings site Vitals. Donigan takes the helm from Vitals co-founder and chairman Mitch Rothschild. Priceline Group chairman Jeffery Boyd, is also joining the company as an advisor and board director. More over at Fortune.
Michael du Toit was named the new president of Everyday Health in February. He joins the company from Publicis Healthcare Communications Group, where he served as global group president. More in PMLive.
Dr. Jay Wohlgemuth was appointed chief healthcare officer at HealthTap last week. He joins the company from Quest Diagnostics, where he ran development of the company’s many diagnostic tests. Following the hire, he told Forbes: “The doctor would have an opportunity to order any diagnostic test, and then the patient would be able to get that order fulfilled at a patient service center. The results would come back electronically into the HealthTap system for storage and reporting and to help the doctor with the medical care.”
John McCracken joined Castlight Health's executive team as its new SVP of worldwide sales. McCraken previously served in a similar role at Jive Software.
Daniel Dean has been appointed as the new CTO of patient engagement company Conversa. Dean comes from Health Share Oregon, a coordinated care organization that works with Medicaid beneficiaries. He’s also worked with MedicaLogic, Responsys, WebMD and Press Ganey.
John Mello recently joined NavisHealth Solutions, which works with healthcare systems on patient engagement apps, as its new COO. Mello previously was an EVP at Beacon Partners, a healthcare IT management consulting organization.
Shawn Mobley and Jim Baer joined Rally Health in February as the company's chief revenue officer and vice president of data to manage analytics strategies and ongoing product innovation, respectively. Rally was formerly known as Audax Health before it was (mostly) acquired by UnitedHealth Group's Optum in early 2014.
Which 2015 digital health hires and departures did we miss?
