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a16z Bio + Health

Andreessen Horowitz

A myriad of AI, science, and technology experts explore the real challenges and enormous opportunities facing entrepreneurs who are building the future of health. Raising Health, a podcast by a16z Bio + Health and hosted by Kris Tatiossian and Olivia Webb, dives deep into the heart of biotechnology and healthcare innovation. Join veteran company builders, operators, and investors Vijay Pande, Julie Yoo, Vineeta Agarwala, and Jorge Conde, along with distinguished guests like Mark Cuban, Greg Verdine, Fei-Fei Li, and Suchi Saria, as they explore the intricacies of these technological advancements and how they can be built and effectively delivered. Together, we can rewrite the script. Welcome to Raising Health.

Raising Health

In this episode, Matt Wilsey joins Jorge Conde to share the profound personal story of his daughter Grace's diagnosis with NGLY1 deficiency and how it catalyzed his journey to founding a biotech startup, Grace Science, aimed at developing a cure for his daughter’s condition.

Matt emphasizes the importance of strategic partnerships, like his collaboration with Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi, and sheds light on the search for gene therapies for rare diseases. 

Check out our previous episode with Carolyn Bertozzi here.

Rare Disease, Big Impact with Matt Wilsey

Jeff Margolis, founder of TriZetto, joins Julie Yoo, a16z Bio + Health general partner, to share the journey of building an iconic company in healthcare infrastructure. From the early days of managed care to creating a three-pronged platform uniting computing power, software, and data analytics, Jeff reflects on TriZetto’s groundbreaking model that reshaped payer-provider transactions and set industry standards. Together, they also delve into the strategic importance of scaling through acquisitions, aligning with industry standards, and crafting innovative pricing models.

Lessons from Healthcare Infrastructure Pioneers with Jeff Margolis

Hippocratic AI cofounder and CEO Munjal Shah joins a16z Bio + Health general partner Julie Yoo to explore the incredible potential of generative AI in transforming healthcare delivery. Together, they discuss the emerging "voice renaissance" in healthcare, the nuances of designing safe and empathetic AI interactions, and how Hippocratic AI is addressing safety concerns with innovations like multi-LLM architecture and rigorous training with thousands of nurses. 

This episode also discusses a shift toward viewing AI tools as an opportunity for healthcare "super staffing," and strategies for integrating AI into complex healthcare systems.

Super Staffing in Healthcare with Munjal Shah

Rajaie Batniji, MD, PhD, Afia Asamoah, JD, and Sanjay Basu, MD, PhD, cofounders of Waymark, join Vineeta Agarwala, MD, PhD, a16z Bio + Health general partner, to discuss their transformative approach to Medicaid care delivery. This episode dives into their rising risk signal prediction framework, where cutting-edge machine learning predicts patient needs and enables community-based care teams to reduce preventable ER visits and improve health outcomes at scale. 

The team recently published their real-world results—including a 23% reduction in unnecessary acute care—in the New England Journal of Medicine Catalyst.

Additional resources:

Supporting Rising-Risk Medicaid Patients Through Early Intervention • , NEJM Catalyst
The Body Economic • : Why Austerity Kills, by David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu

Scaling Medicaid Innovation with Afia Asamoah, Rajaie Batniji, and Sanjay Basu

Alexander Saint-Amand, cofounder and CEO of Topography, reflects on his journey from leading Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG), a pioneer in expert networks, to tackling systemic barriers in clinical trials at his current company, Topography. Inspired by personal experiences, Alexander’s mission centers on democratizing access to clinical research by transforming community-based practices into thriving hubs for trials. Alongside a16z Bio + Health general partner Julie Yoo, he discusses the pervasive challenges in enrollment, physician participation, and the inefficiencies plaguing the current model.

Alexander also talks through Topography's hybrid approach—combining technology, services, and AI—and its potential to lower the barrier to entry for providers, improving patient access.

Transforming Clinical Trials with Alexander Saint-Amand

Ankit Jain, CEO and cofounder of Infinitus Systems, Inc, joins Julie Yoo, a16z Bio + Health general partner, to discuss Infinitus's work in solving one of healthcare's most pressing challenges: workforce shortages. Leveraging LLMs and AI voice agents, Infinitus automates repetitive tasks, such as benefits verification and prior authorization, freeing up human talent for higher-value roles. Ankit reflects on the company’s journey—from early proof-of-concept calls to scaling over five million patient-centric interactions—and shares their approach to mitigating the risks of AI errors through layered guardrails.

 

More in "The Opportunity for Healthcare in a Post-LLM World":

Super Staffing in Healthcare with Munjal ShahTransforming Clinical Trials with Alexander Saint-Amand
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Voice AI: Solving Healthcare's Workforce Challenges with Ankit Jain

Dr. Muthu Alagappan, MD, founder and CEO of Counsel Health, joins Julie Yoo, a16z Bio + Health general partner, to dive deep into the company's vision for revolutionizing healthcare through AI-powered asynchronous care. Together, they unpack how Counsel enables on-demand access to real doctors for instant medical guidance, lessening patient reliance on Google and alleviating system inefficiencies and physician burn-out. Dr. Alagappan also explores the duo of efficiency and scale that large language models bring to clinical workflows, making its “clinician cockpit” a superhuman support system for physicians.

 

More in "The Opportunity for Healthcare in a Post-LLM World":

Voice AI: Solving Healthcare's Workforce Challenges with Ankit JainSuper Staffing in Healthcare with Munjal ShahTransforming Clinical Trials with Alexander Saint-Amand
Plus:

 • Learn more about 
a16z Bio+Health • Learn more about & Subscribe to 
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An Ironman Suit for Doctors with Muthu Alagappan

In this episode, Slingshot AI cofounders Daniel Cahn and Neil Parikh join a16z Bio + Health general partner Julie Yoo to explore how their mission to transform mental health care with AI took shape. Drawing from their unique journeys—Daniel as the son of a psychologist and Neil as a former medical student-turned-entrepreneur—they discuss the challenges and opportunities of building AI models to model psychological processes and how this could expand access for subclinical mental health support.

 Listen for candid reflections on Slingshot's innovations, visions for AI's role in preventative care, and a future where technology empowers therapists and patients alike.

 

More in "The Opportunity for Healthcare in a Post-LLM World":

An Ironman Suit for Doctors with Muthu AlagappanVoice AI: Solving Healthcare's Workforce Challenges with Ankit JainSuper Staffing in Healthcare with Munjal Shah
Plus:

 • Learn more about 
a16z Bio+Health • Learn more about & Subscribe to 
Raising Health • Find a16z Bio+Health on 
LinkedIn • Find a16z Bio+Health on 
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Scaling Mental Health Access through AI with Neil Parikh and Daniel Cahn

Elliot Cohen, cofounder of PillPack, joins Julie Yoo, a16z Bio + Health general partner. Together, they discuss Elliot's experience designing and building a consumer-first pharmacy alongside TJ Parker.

Elliot's journey with PillPack began when he noticed his father struggling with a mail-order pharmacy that couldn’t get the simplest thing right: the correct version of a pill.

Elliot shares the nitty-gritty of building a consumer-centric business in healthcare, including how they had to adapt CSV files and cake boxes to get their initial product off the ground, and how they balanced the needs of a healthcare system with the desires of their customers.

 

 • Learn more about 
a16z Bio+Health • Learn more about & Subscribe to 
Raising Health • Find a16z Bio+Health on 
LinkedIn • Find a16z Bio+Health on 
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Building for the Healthcare Consumer with Elliot Cohen

Seth Hain, SVP of R&D at Epic, joins a16z Bio + Health general partner Julie Yoo to explore technology in healthcare. Reflecting on over two decades of industry shifts, Seth shares how Epic has transitioned from enabling integrated systems within health systems to driving cross-ecosystem collaboration and rapid innovations like generative AI.

They also discuss orchestration of patient care across diverse settings, the transformative impact of AI on clinical workflows, and whether "electronic health record" is really the best term for clinical record-keeping software.

 

 • Learn more about 
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The (Epic) Arc of a Patient Journey with Seth Hain

What if one of healthcare’s most complex administrative challenges—revenue cycle management—was reframed as a data science problem? In this episode, Malinka Walaliyadde, cofounder and CEO of AKASA, joins Julie Yoo to unpack how large language models have the potential to transform hospital revenue by automating highly nuanced coding and billing workflows. 

Malinka discusses how AI is finally making it possible to extract simplicity from a sea of clinical complexity and unstructured data, simplifying the flow of dollars through the healthcare system and freeing staff to focus on patients.

Plus:

 • Learn more about 
a16z Bio+Health • Learn more about & Subscribe to 
Raising Health • Find a16z Bio+Health on 
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From Chaos to Clarity in Data with Malinka Walaliyadde

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