Teletherapy company Talkspace has appointed Varun Choudhary, MD, MA DFAPA, as its new chief medical officer.

Choudhary brings over 17 years of behavioral health experience to the role. He most recently served as CMO at Magellan Health. At Talkspace, Choudhary will help scale the company’s clinical practice and provider network across the country.

In addition to his new role, Choudhary also serves as the governor-appointed psychiatrist for the Behavioral Health and Disability Board for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the current president of the Medical Society of Virginia Foundation, a board member of the Psychiatric Society of Virginia and the Medical Society of Virginia, and an Area 5 assembly representative for the American Psychiatric Association and a distinguished fellow.

“I am honored to join Talkspace at this critical time and to work alongside Talkspace’s diverse group of specialists to find innovative ways to provide and improve mental health support,” Choudhary said in a statement. “I have long admired the work of Talkspace, optimizing technology to deliver quality care by licensed therapists. I am excited to advance the company’s mission to provide mental healthcare for all those in need.”

Carrie Siragusa, CPA, the former head of the Innovation and Diabetes Portfolio at Sanofi, has recently joined chronic condition management company One Drop as its new VP of Commercial Strategy.

With more than 15 years of financial, operational and marketing experience across pharmaceutical, health and life sciences industries, Siragusa will help bring One Drop’s new multi-analyte dermal biosensor to market.

"We are thrilled to have Carrie join our team to help accelerate the use of our predictive technology to empower people living with chronic conditions," Jeff Dachis, One Drop's CEO and founder, said in a statement. "Carrie's expertise in innovation within the diabetes space will be an incredible asset to One Drop as we explore ways to make continuous glucose monitoring more accessible and affordable to all."

Nexben, an employee benefits management platform, recently hired Scib Ebel as its chief technology officer.

Prior to joining Nexben, Ebel worked at Icario (formerly Revel Health) as the CTO, SVP of Technology and chief information security officer. He also held leadership roles at Optum and Cigna.

“I’ve spent my entire career developing teams, directing technology strategies and devoting myself to the healthcare industry,” Ebel said in a statement. “I’m honored to join Nexben and continue its goal of revolutionizing the fragmented, complex benefits industry.”

In his new position, Ebel will lead Nexben’s technological vision and help implement solutions to support business growth.

Professor Sir Mark Caulfield will be leaving his role as chief scientist at Genomics England at the end of the month to begin a new position as chief executive at Barts Life Sciences, a research and innovation partnership between Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust.

Caulfield has been with Genomics England since 2013, where he led the scientific oversight and delivery of the 100,000 Genomes Project, which was established to sequence 100,000 genomes from NHS patients with a rare disease or cancer. Following his work on the project, he was awarded a knighthood in 2019. He has also worked with NHS England to create the National Genomic Test Directory and the NHS Genomic Medicine Service.

His new role at Barts Life Sciences will focus on digital health, genomics and clinical innovation. Specifically, Caulfield will lead the development of a life sciences campus at Whitechapel.

Digital women’s health platform Maven has added Dr. Neel Shah as its first chief medical officer.

Shah previously served on Maven’s scientific advisory board before joining the company as CMO. He also brings experience as a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School and as an obstetrician-gynecologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Additionally, Shah founded Costs of Care, an NGO that curates insights from clinicians and patients to help health systems provide more affordable care, and March for Moms, a coalition advocating for the health and wellbeing of mothers.

As Maven’s CMO, he will lead its clinical product strategy for providing whole-person care across family planning and building.

Flume Health, a health plan administration platform for self-insured employers, recently announced that Ann Joo Kim has joined its team as chief operating officer.

Kim previously served as a program director at Haven and has a decade’s worth of executive insurance experience. With Flume, she will be responsible for scaling operations to accelerate its adoption by self-insured employers.

"I've always been passionate about healthcare and inspired to enact meaningful change in the system. Flume is a company that is truly attacking the core issues of how healthcare is delivered and managed," Kim said in a statement.

"Building the fundamentals of processes and procedures, putting an infrastructure in place to make things more effective to improve Flume's customers' experience and engagement is a natural evolution of my healthcare journey and quest to be part of meaningful, dynamic transformation."