One thing the tech software industry is great at is failing fast. This concept of “failing fast” means, at least in part, rapidly bringing a “minimum viable product” to market, even if it’s a little rocky and feature-light, and then fixing it as it gets adopted by iterating with new releases. We see this all … Continue reading “MVPs in Health: Minimum Viable Product or Mightily Vexing Problem?”
Author: Lisa Suennen
Lisa Suennen is a managing director with GE Ventures and former managing member of the Psilos Group, as well as the co-author of Tech Tonics: Can Passionate Entrepreneurs Heal Healthcare With Technology? and author of the blog Venture Valkyrie.
Prior to 2014, Lisa was a Senior Advisor to Psilos Group, a healthcare-focused venture capital and growth equity firm that focuses on the healthcare information technology, healthcare services and medical device sectors. Lisa was a co-founder of Psilos Group and a Partner at the firm from 1998-2014.
Prior to Psilos, Lisa was at Merit Behavioral Care (formerly American Biodyne, Inc), an $800mm behavioral healthcare company where she held various senior executive roles from its early start-up days through exit. Previously, Lisa held various positions in marketing and product management in companies in the high technology field.
Lisa was a Board Member of the Dignity Health Foundation, and Board Member of health IT company Beyond Lucid Technologies and is still a Board Member of medical device company AngioScore, a member of the Qualcomm Life Advisory Board, and an Advisor to the California Health Care Foundation Innovation Fund. Lisa also previously served as an Advisor to innovation consulting firm Accelevate, Inc. as a member of the Advisory Board of the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator Investing in Innovations program.
Lisa holds an M.A. in political science, a B.A. in political science and a B.A. in mass communications, all from the University of California, Berkeley, where she is now Vice Chair of the National Advisory Council of the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University. Lisa is also a visiting lecturer at the U.C. Berkeley Haas School of Business where she teaches the annual course on healthcare venture capital.
Lisa also writes a widely read blog on healthcare and healthcare investing at www.venturevalkyrie.com. She has recently published her first book, entitled: Tech Tonics, Can Passionate Entrepreneurs Heal Healthcare with Technology, coauthored with Dr. David Shaywitz.
Patients Are Customers. Who Knew?
I was finally getting to my giant pile of reading this week when I saw an article in Health Care Information Week that included the following sentence: As consumer satisfaction begins to have a bigger impact on the bottom line, more hospitals are hiring a chief patient experience officer (CXO) to treat patients like valued … Continue reading “Patients Are Customers. Who Knew?”
Encore Entrepreneurs: They’re Older and They Have More Insurance
OK, I want you to take a quick test and answer the question with the first thing that comes to mind: What does a “start-up entrepreneur” look like? OK, do you have a picture in your mind? If you are like most people, I bet your first thought was someone who looks suspiciously like a … Continue reading “Encore Entrepreneurs: They’re Older and They Have More Insurance”
What the World Needs Now Is (Probably Not) a Pill for Perfect Pitch
I remember seeing an episode of Desperate Housewives during the show’s first season called Running to Stand Still. In the episode, Lynette, working mom of many, takes her kid’s ADD medicine in order to be supermom and create costumes for the school play while balancing all of her other tasks. It was a classic self-prescribed … Continue reading “What the World Needs Now Is (Probably Not) a Pill for Perfect Pitch”
Hamburger Heaven: Business Lessons from a Child’s Bookshelf
Perhaps because I have a sales/marketing/product background, or perhaps because sales/marketing/product development are such a focus of conversation when you hang around with entrepreneurs, I am often asked what business book I would most recommend on these topics. I am sure that most would expect me to recommend one of the “classics,” such as Clayton … Continue reading “Hamburger Heaven: Business Lessons from a Child’s Bookshelf”
While Healthcare.gov Scrambles, Private Exchanges Are Off to the Races
All eyes are on the hullaballoo created by the challenges at Healthcare.gov and several of the states’ public insurance exchanges. Yet all the while, like in a magic show, attention has been diverted from the real action going on elsewhere. Quietly and in a relatively drama-free way, the private health insurance exchanges are busily taking … Continue reading “While Healthcare.gov Scrambles, Private Exchanges Are Off to the Races”
The Star Thrower, or How Healthcare Looks to Consumers
It is always interesting how events find ways of connecting themselves together even when they seem so unrelated. I was at my sister Alexis’ graduation from law school on Friday, where I had gone directly from leaving a several day event organized by Health Evolution Partners. At the event I had occasion to meet with … Continue reading “The Star Thrower, or How Healthcare Looks to Consumers”
Ending the Culture of Illness through Healthy Eating
[Editor’s note: To tap the wisdom of our distinguished group of Xconomists, we asked a few of them to answer this question heading into 2013: What makes you optimistic?] As a person who has worked in the healthcare field for over 25 years, I am extremely optimistic about the recent trend towards the democratization of healthful behavior and … Continue reading “Ending the Culture of Illness through Healthy Eating”
In-Car Health Monitoring: Lemon or Lifesaver?
Patient monitoring outside the hospital has been a hot topic (and also a not so hot topic) for the past 15 years. Starting back in the late 1990s with companies like Health Hero, a company whose products for patient home monitoring are still in use today, company after company has sought to bring a successful … Continue reading “In-Car Health Monitoring: Lemon or Lifesaver?”
We Are the 51 Percent: Surveying Women Medtech Leaders
The organization called Medtech Women just held its second annual Medtech Vision Conference last week and it was another sold-out event. (You can see my story on the first year of the Medtech Vision conference here.) With a focus on the era of the “empowered patient” and how that is changing medicine, 200 women business … Continue reading “We Are the 51 Percent: Surveying Women Medtech Leaders”
If You Can’t Stand the Heat, Get Out of the Kitchen
I recently took a vacation in Italy, and in my quest to eat everything not nailed down in the Lake Como region, I had the good fortune to participate in an amazing private cooking class in the resort kitchen of the Villa d’Este Hotel. The sous chef, a charming Italian man (duh) took my family through … Continue reading “If You Can’t Stand the Heat, Get Out of the Kitchen”
You Say You Want A Healthcare Revolution?
You say you want a revolution Well, you know We all want to change the world —The Beatles I had the pleasure of attending a “salon” type dinner hosted by Xconomy and its chief correspondent and San Francisco editor Wade Roush last week (and graciously sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank and Alexandria Real Estate Equities). … Continue reading “You Say You Want A Healthcare Revolution?”
Never Let Anyone Make You a Carrot
The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution.” –Paul Cezanne A couple of years ago my sister told me a story about how she came home from work to find her husband and then 5-year-old daughter playing “house” with her dolls and dollhouse. They were deep into the … Continue reading “Never Let Anyone Make You a Carrot”
Driving for a Better Way to Engage Consumers in their Own Health
Attention to health is life’s greatest hindrance—Plato Let’s just say you own a car. You have undoubtedly purchased insurance for the car and if you are diligent and worried about value and performance, you also are diligent about maintenance. You get the oil changed according to schedule, you fill it with the right kind of … Continue reading “Driving for a Better Way to Engage Consumers in their Own Health”
Vision Without Execution is Hallucination
Last week Steve Case wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post called “Give Entrepreneurs Room and They Will Grow the Economy.” For those not familiar with him, Case was the founding CEO of AOL and has been an active healthcare investor, among other things, for the past seven years. My firm, Psilos Group, has co-invested … Continue reading “Vision Without Execution is Hallucination”
Study the Boomers!
The Who once sang, “I hope I die before I get old.” Despite their best efforts to exit the planet early, most of them didn’t. They and their fellow Baby Boomers represent the greatest technology and business opportunity of the 21st Century. It is typical for each of us to be drawn to areas for … Continue reading “Study the Boomers!”
JP Morgan: Where the Boys Are…And Not the Girls
I set off for five straight days at the annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference last Monday, but on the way drove the carpool to my daughter’s high school that morning in a last ditch attempt to act like a responsible and caring parent. My poor daughter gets completely abandoned during JP Morgan week every year … Continue reading “JP Morgan: Where the Boys Are…And Not the Girls”
Health Care Reform Is Coming To Town
Last year about this time of year I wrote a parody of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas about the coming of healthcare IT and meaningful use. I decided to make these holiday parody songs an annual event. I figure I have years of material, as there are so many ways of ruining an otherwise joyous … Continue reading “Health Care Reform Is Coming To Town”
News Flash: Grass is Green, Sky is Blue, VCs are White Men
“Yeah, I love being famous. It’s almost like being white, y’know?”-Chris Rock On Monday, November 21, the National Venture Capital Association and Dow Jones VentureSource released the results of the 2011 Venture Census, which reported statistics about ethnicity, gender and other characteristics of the venture capital industry garnered from a poll that included 600 VC … Continue reading “News Flash: Grass is Green, Sky is Blue, VCs are White Men”
Hey, Where Is Everybody Going? The Flight from Healthcare Investing
If you are simply reading the paper or engaging in any random cocktail party conversation these days, it doesn’t take long before you are reading or talking about healthcare. Health and healthcare issues have been a dominant topic in the national media since the 2008 Presidential election and have been constantly in the news as … Continue reading “Hey, Where Is Everybody Going? The Flight from Healthcare Investing”
Smoke on the Water: Fireworks at the Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit
I spent the early part of this week attending the Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit and, despite the fact that the Cleveland Clinic stubbornly insists on holding its conference in Cleveland (aka The Mistake on the Lake), it was well worth attending. Cleveland is an interesting town. Once upon a time, when old white men … Continue reading “Smoke on the Water: Fireworks at the Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit”
Unlimited Abilities: A View from the MedtechVision Conference
We are limited, not by our abilities, but by our vision. —Ralph Waldo Emerson In a world thick with healthcare conferences, MedtechVision, held September 15-16 at the Rosewood Hotel in Menlo Park, CA, stood out, both for its quality of content and for its participants. “I hadn’t given any thought to the fact that it … Continue reading “Unlimited Abilities: A View from the MedtechVision Conference”
Health IT Is the New Black
Once upon a time there was “ehealth.” That time was the late 1990’s and there was a temporary ripple in The Force when anything that combined healthcare and the Internet had a suddenly popularity in the venture capital investment community. Companies like the original WebMD, the original Medscape, Mediconsult.com, DrKoop.com, Medibuy, Adam.com, PlanetRx, and a … Continue reading “Health IT Is the New Black”
Healthcare Needs Real Entrepreneurs Before It Can Have Real Innovation
Earlier this week I had the pleasure of attending an event put together by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a branch of the US Department Of Health and Human Services whose mission is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. AHRQ has established an Innovation Exchange … Continue reading “Healthcare Needs Real Entrepreneurs Before It Can Have Real Innovation”
In the Age of Health Reform, Healthcare IT to the Rescue?
Talking about health insurance is a good way to clear a room. It is a rare person who is excited to interact with their insurance company or who can understand the explanation of benefits they receive in the mail detailing all of the things that the insurance carrier has decided not to pay on their … Continue reading “In the Age of Health Reform, Healthcare IT to the Rescue?”
Forward Into the Breach: Private Practice and Data Security
“The fantastic advances in the field of electronic communication constitute a greater danger to the privacy of the individual.” 1963 quote from Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. I moderated a panel last week for Xconomy that was focused on consumer-oriented healthcare information technology. The panel included 2 hospital chief information officers (one current, one … Continue reading “Forward Into the Breach: Private Practice and Data Security”
Hospitals Should Embrace What They Learned In Kindergarten
I have been intrigued by numerous articles written recently on how hospital administrators are looking to other industries to learn how to adopt processes to reduce errors and improve quality of care. One recent example is that of hospitals learning from the manufacturing sector and adopting their lean manufacturing techniques to improve the efficient flow … Continue reading “Hospitals Should Embrace What They Learned In Kindergarten”
Healthcare Industry Concepts Rise from the Grave
There was a great article authored by Gregory Huang and posted on Xconomy last week called Party Like It’s 1999: 10 Old Tech Ideas That Are New Again. The article was basically about the top 10 things that are hot right now but are, essentially, “back to the future” developments in technology that had a … Continue reading “Healthcare Industry Concepts Rise from the Grave”
To Screen or Not to Screen, That is the Question
Almost everyone knows someone who has had cancer. It is the disease that seems to strike the most fear in people’s hearts, in part because it seems to affect people so randomly. We all know that if we eat right, exercise and keep our cholesterol low we are less susceptible to heart disease, but cancer … Continue reading “To Screen or Not to Screen, That is the Question”