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The PennHealthX Podcast

PennHealthX

The Penn HealthX Podcast focuses on the intersection of medicine and business, with an emphasis on healthcare management, entrepreneurship, and technology (H-MET). This podcast has two aims.

First, we want to highlight excellent work happening at The University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, and beyond.

Second, we want to help students and those early in their medical careers understand how to become leaders in the field, and use their skills outside of strictly clinical medicine.

We intend to achieve these goals by interviewing students and faculty members who are working in the H-MET space. We also plan to discuss current events, trends and opportunities in healthcare, and other topics future healthcare leaders need to know about.

Penn Health-X is supported by our generous donors - Dr. Wong. Dr. Slevin, Dr. Anand, and Dr. Wills.

Find us on iTunes!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-penn-healthx-podcast/id1271378904?mt=2

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  • 21 episodes
  • Updated Wednesday

Episodes21

Newest first
  • Wednesday · 44 min

    93 - From Bedside to Boardroom - Dr. Andrew Parambath, MD, MBA

    Dr. Andrew Parambath, MD, MBA, is an emergency medicine resident at Stanford and a healthcare investor at Pear VC, a venture capital firm based in San Francisco. He completed his MD at the Perelman School of Medicine at Penn, where he pursued the MD-MBA program between his third and fourth years and served as a member of PennHealthX. At Pear, he works with the investment team to identify and support early-stage healthcare founders — while continuing to see patients in the ED. In this episode, Dr. Parambath walks Will and Bella through the full arc of a healthcare VC investment — from sourcing and diligence to winning a deal and supporting founders through company building. We hear what it actually looks like to balance residency with investing, what superpowers and red flags he looks for in founding teams, and why he believes the breadth-versus-depth question is less about your resume and more about your velocity of learning. We close with Dr. Parambath's take on what's overhyped and what's underappreciated in healthcare right now, a case for why care navigation deserves far more attention than it gets, and his advice on how to network with actual intention. His message: don't network with everybody — narrow your domain, show up with something to offer, and work at a rocket ship before you try to build your own.

  • June 8 · 34 min

    92 - A Sequence of Controlled Falling - Yakov Gradinar, CP

    Yakov Gradinar, CP, is the Chief Medical Officer of the Protez Foundation, a nonprofit organization that flies Ukrainian war amputees to the United States to receive custom prosthetics, rehabilitation, and counseling services. He trained as an orthopedic trauma surgeon in Ukraine before immigrating to the United States, where he retrained as a prosthetist. When the war in Ukraine escalated in 2022, he left a stable career to launch the Protez Foundation out of his garage — and has since grown it into an organization with over 80 employees, 150 volunteers, and donors across 40 countries, having served nearly 260 patients across 30 groups. In this episode, Yakov walks us through a life shaped by an early cancer scare that taught him to treat every day as a gift, the humility of starting over in a new country, and what it actually takes to build a multidisciplinary nonprofit from nothing while raising seven kids and leading a church. We hear how Protez coordinates care across prosthetic fitting, physical therapy, mental health support, and community reintegration. We close with Yakov's vision for what modern amputee care should look like, his case for a multidisciplinary and systemic approach to rehabilitation, and the philosophy that has carried him through it all. His message: name what is lost, focus on what is left, and ask yourself what you can do with it.

  • May 30 · 1 hr 3 min

    91 - Dr. Kit Delgado - Systems, Behavior, & Innovation

    In this episode of the PennHealthX Podcast, Ziad Hassan and Habib Akouri sit down with Dr. Mucio Kit Delgado to explore his work at the intersection of emergency medicine, behavioral science, and health system innovation. Dr. Delgado is an emergency and addiction medicine physician-scientist at Penn Medicine, where he serves as Executive Director of Transformation Science & Behavioral Insights and Faculty Director of the Penn Medicine Nudge Unit. He also holds roles as an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine & Epidemiology, Associate Director at CHIBE, and Co-Chair of Penn Medicine’s Opioid Task Force. Through his leadership of the BeSAFIR Lab and Penn PORTAL, Dr. Delgado utilizes behavioral design and data-driven strategies to improve decision-making in acute care, advancing efforts in opioid stewardship, injury prevention, and patient safety.

  • May 20 · 38 min

    90 - Building the Doctor's Second Brain - Dr. Dereck Paul

    Dr. Dereck Paul, MD, is the co-founder and CEO of Glass Health, an AI platform helping clinicians with clinical decision-making, documentation, and workflow optimization. Dr. Paul’s path into healthcare innovation began long before residency — from studying music composition to applying to Y Combinator before even starting medical school. In this episode, Dr. Paul reflects on the pivotal decisions that shaped his career, including balancing startup ambitions with clinical training and ultimately taking leave from residency to scale Glass Health. He shares how his frustrations with outdated healthcare software inspired him to build tools designed specifically around the realities of clinical practice and explains how modern AI systems can function as real-time collaborators for physicians. We also explore the rapidly evolving intersection of AI and medicine, including how clinicians and students can prepare for a future increasingly shaped by large language models and automation. Dr. Paul discusses why resisting AI is the wrong approach, how physicians can stay on the technological frontier, and why empathy and firsthand clinical experience remain critical when building healthcare technology. The conversation closes with advice for students and trainees considering entrepreneurship: embrace uncertainty, recognize rare technological inflection points when they arise, and pursue the work that would leave you with the fewest regrets.

  • April 11 · 26 min

    89 - From Academic Medicine to Biotechnology - Dr. Jason Chien

    Dr. Jason Chien, MD, MS, is the Chief Medical Officer of Mozart Therapeutics, where he leads clinical development of a first-in-class pipeline targeting autoimmune diseases, including type 1 diabetes and celiac disease. He trained in internal medicine, infectious diseases, and pulmonary and critical care medicine before building an NIH-funded research program at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He then spent nearly eight years at Gilead Sciences and five years at Johnson & Johnson, leading global R&D strategy, before returning to his scientific roots in biotech. In this episode, Dr. Chien walks us through a career he describes as unfolding in decades — each phase building on the last. We hear what pulled him out of academia and into industry, why learning to crunch his own numbers changed everything, and what it feels like to now be responsible for putting a brand new mechanism of action into human beings for the very first time. We close with Dr. Chien's take on leadership, the MD/MBA question, and what he would do differently looking back. His advice to students: stay curious, watch where AI is taking the field, and resist investing in any one thing that makes you lose sight of where you actually want to go.

  • April 1 · 38 min

    88 - Dr. Jeff Stuart - Conflict Management & Hospital Administration

    Hosts Isabella Stuart and William Hayes sit down with Dr. Jeff Stuart, co-founder of Resolve Conflict, board-certified anesthesiologist, and former Chief Medical Officer. They discuss his journey from early interest in medicine to a career that spans clinical practice, hospital leadership, and entrepreneurship, highlighting key inflection points and the value of staying adaptable. Dr. Stuart shares insights on pursuing leadership roles, his decision to obtain an MBA mid-career, and how to think intentionally about MD+ pathways. A central focus of the episode is conflict management in healthcare. Drawing from decades of experience—including leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic—he explains how communication breakdowns impact teams and patient care, and offers practical strategies rooted in self-awareness and emotional intelligence. They also explore balancing clinical and administrative work, the evolving relationship between physicians and healthcare systems, and the importance of mentorship, curiosity, and embracing new opportunities throughout a medical career.

  • Dec 3, 2025 · 52 min

    87 - Dr. Evan Fieldston - Leadership, Operations, & Value-Based Care

    Hosts Habib & Ziad sit down with Dr. Evan Fieldston, Associate Chief Medical Officer at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine, who focuses on improving healthcare systems for children and their families. They discuss his journey from childhood patient to physician-leader, how training in pediatrics, business, and public policy shapes his approach to value in healthcare, the nuts and bolts of evidence-based management and quality improvement, the role of technology and AI in hospital operations, CHOP’s future expansion and behavioral health initiatives, and his advice for students interested in system-level impact.

  • Nov 14, 2025 · 59 min

    86 - Dr. Akl Fahed - Digital Health, Genetics, & GLP-1s

    In this episode of the PennHealthX Podcast, Habib sits down with Dr. Akl Fahed to discuss his career as an interventional cardiologist, physician–scientist, and digital health entrepreneur working at the frontiers of genomic medicine and chronic disease care. Dr. Fahed serves at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute, where he leads an NIH-funded research program focused on using large-scale genomics and data science to better understand cardiometabolic disease and identify risk long before symptoms appear. He is also the clinical co-founder of GoodPath, a virtual-first care platform that delivers integrated, whole-person management for chronic conditions through a multidisciplinary, value-based model. This episode explores how advances in genetics, data-driven prevention, and technologies like AI can transform the way we identify, manage, and ultimately prevent chronic illness. We discuss the emergence of obesity “endotypes,” the promise of polygenic risk scores, and the rapidly expanding role of GLP-1 medications. Dr. Fahed also shares how digital health tools can reduce fragmentation, enhance patient engagement, and address rising healthcare costs by meeting patients where they are. His career offers a compelling look at how clinicians can shape the future of medicine by bridging scientific discovery, clinical practice, and technology to build systems that meaningfully improve patient health.

  • Oct 29, 2025 · 49 min

    85 - Dr. Alex Beschloss - Insights, Policy, and Practice

    Today, we’re taking with Dr. Beschloss. Dr. Beschloss is a resident physician in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine and Wharton School, where he earned his MD/MBA. A Williams College alum, his work sits at the intersection of clinical care, health policy, and healthcare innovation. Before residency, he worked with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, focusing on healthcare financing and policy reform. He now serves as an Assistant Medical Director at Accompany Health, advancing value-based care models for dual-eligible and high-risk Medicare Advantage patients. In this episode, Dr. Beschloss shares how he brings a systems-level perspective to medicine—blending research, policy, and business insight to reimagine how care is delivered.

  • Oct 14, 2025 · 30 min

    84 - Dr. Kevin Volpp - Behavior, Incentives, & Systems

    In this episode of the PennHealthX Podcast, Habib sits down with Dr. Kevin Volpp to discuss his career as a physician–economist and his pioneering work at the intersection of medicine, economics, and behavioral science. Dr. Volpp is the Mark Pauly President’s Distinguished Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, with joint appointments at the Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School. He founded the Center for Health Incentives & Behavioral Economics (CHIBE) and co-created Penn Medicine’s Nudge Unit—the first behavioral design team embedded in a health system. This episode explores how behavioral economics and incentive-based interventions are transforming healthcare decisions, improving outcomes, and shaping the future of medicine.

  • Oct 1, 2025 · 48 min

    83 - Dr. Rachel Kelz - Surgery, Equity, & Innovation

    In this episode of the PennHealthX Podcast, hosts Ziad Hassan and Habib Akouri sit down with Dr. Rachel Kelz to discuss her path into surgery and the wide-ranging impact of her career. Dr. Kelz is the William Maul Measey Professor of Surgery and Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. She also directs Penn’s Center for Surgery and Health Economics, where she applies advanced analytics and AI to improve surgical outcomes, health equity, and medical education. A nationally recognized surgeon, educator, and researcher, Dr. Kelz has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed studies and earned numerous awards for leadership, mentorship, and teaching.

  • Aug 29, 2025 · 45 min

    82 - Dr. Daniel Hashimoto - Surgery, Innovation, & AI

    In this episode, we speak with Dr. Daniel Hashimoto, Assistant Professor of Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Biomedical Informatics. Dr. Hashimoto shares his journey at the intersection of surgery and artificial intelligence, exploring how computer vision and machine learning are reshaping surgical education and practice. He also reflects on his path to becoming a leading voice in the emerging field of surgical AI.

  • Jul 26, 2025 · 1 hr 3 min

    81 - Dr. Ryan O'Keefe - From Podcast to Practice

    In this episode, hosts Ziad Hassan and Habib Akouri sit down with Dr. Ryan O'Keefe for an engaging conversation that takes the podcast back to its original roots. Ryan O'Keefe, MD, MBA, is a hospitalist at Penn Medicine and creator of Point of Care Medicine. Point of Care Medicine is an online educational reference for students and physicians alike providing critical information in the form of clinical templates, graphics and podcasts to support proper decision making through both proactive learning and in-the-moment refreshers. He discusses his journey obtaining an MBA and the path he has taken to impact medicine through education.

  • May 19, 2025 · 51 min

    80 - Dr. Ryan Henrici - Biotech & Global Health

    In this episode, hosts Ziad Hassan and Habib Akouri sit down with Dr. Ryan Henrici for an engaging conversation that bridges science, innovation, and personal journey. Ryan Henrici, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist specializing in infectious diseases and hematology. A former Marshall Scholar, he serves as Vice President of Discovery Medicine at BigHat Biosciences, where he leads the development of next-generation antibody therapeutics using artificial intelligence and synthetic biology. Additionally, he is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.

  • Mar 10, 2021 · 1 hr 2 min

    78 - Josh Makower - A Career of Innovation in Med Tech and Venture Capital

    Today’s episode is a conversation between Sope Eweje, one of the VP’s of Entrepreneurship and Ventures for Penn HealthX, and our guest, Dr. Josh Makower. Josh currently leads medical device investment as a general partner at NEA, one of the world’s largest and most active venture capital firms. Josh is also the Founder and Executive Chairman of ExploraMed, a medical device incubator that has created 8 companies over the past 20 years. Notable transactions from the ExploraMed portfolio include Acclarent, acquired by J&J in 2009, EndoMatrix, acquired by C.R. Bard in 1997, TransVascular, acquired by Medtronic in 2003 and Neotract acquired by Teleflex in 2017. On-going ExploraMed/NEA ventures include NeoTract, Moximed, Willow and ExploraMed V. In addition to his role at NEA, Josh serves on the faculty of the Stanford University School as an Adjunct Professor of Medicine and is Co-Founder of Stanford’s Biodesign Innovation Program, a unique training and educational program for multi-disciplinary health technology innovation with trainees that have gone on to form 50 companies that have had an impact over 2.7 million patients. Josh holds over 300 patents and patent applications for various medical devices in the fields of cardiology, ENT, general surgery, drug delivery, obesity, orthopedics, women’s health, and urology. He received an MBA from Columbia University, an MD from the NYU School of Medicine, and a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. In this episode, Sope and Josh discuss how he went from a music major to a prolific medical technology innovator and venture capitalist, and how each of the experiences he had along the way have shaped his passion for technological innovation in healthcare. We also discuss the role clinicians play in health care innovation and his view of invention as a skill that can be learned by technical and clinical stakeholders alike. We wrap up by discussing his thoughts on how COVID may impact the medical technology VC landscape and a piece of advice for students interested in using technology to improve healthcare. Footnotes Josh’s Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-makower-14a0b7ba/ NEA – https://nea.com Willow wearable breast pump - https://shop.willowpump.com/ Stanford Biodesign Innovation Program - http://biodesign.stanford.edu/

  • Oct 17, 2020 · 57 min

    77 - Sandy Varatharajah - Planning For a Career to Transform Healthcare Via Digital Health

    Today’s episode is a conversation with one of my colleagues, Sandy Varatharajah. Sandy is a 2nd year MBA student and a member of the Healthcare Management program at Wharton. In the episode, we discuss what drew her to the healthcare space, her previous experiences, including interning at the white house, consulting, and working for CityBlock. We also discussed the decision to get an MBA, and some of the interviews she has done for the Pulse Podcast by the Wharton Digital Health club. We end with some things she is most looking forward to in the coming years. If you like The Penn HealthX Podcast, you should check out Pulse, a podcast created and maintained by The Wharton Digital Health Club where they interview leaders in the digital health space. Show Notes Sandy’s LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandyvaratharajah/ The Pulse Podcast - Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/wharton-pulse-podcast The Pulse Podcast - Medium Page https://medium.com/wharton-pulse-podcast Sandy’s Medium Profile https://medium.com/@sanvrajah

  • Aug 23, 2020 · 56 min

    76 - Dr. Arpan Parikh - Using Business Skills to Improve The Future of Psychiatry

    Today’s episode is a conversation I had with Dr. Arpan Parikh. Dr. Parikh was a colleague of mine at Wharton last year. He has since graduated and moved on to a role with CareMore Health. Dr. Parikh got his MD at Ohio State, and completed his residency in Psychiatry at Mt. Sinai in New York City. In the episode, we discuss what drew him to medicine and psychiatry, memories he had as a student, clinical roles he took on, why he chose to get an MBA, and how he will use his skills at CareMore Health. It was an absolute pleasure for me to speak with Dr. Parikh and learn from him. Host - Ryan O'Keefe Show Notes Arpan’s LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/arpan-parikh-724897125/ Mt. Sinai Addiction Institute https://www.mountsinai.org/locations/addiction-institute CareMore Health https://www.caremore.com/

  • Aug 16, 2020 · 1 hr 5 min

    75 -Adam Lessler - From EM Residency to Consulting and Venture Capital/Growth Equity

    Today’s episode is a conversation I had with Dr. Adam Lessler, who is currently a Principal at Evidity Health Capital in New York City. He is a licensed physician with residency training in emergency medicine and over a decade of healthcare industry experience counseling Boards and senior leadership teams. Prior to joining Evidity, Adam was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company, where he served clients across the health care value chain, with a focus on provider growth and M&A/partnership strategy. Previously, Adam completed his internship in emergency medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and worked as an analyst in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs and as a research assistant in Harvard Medical School’s Department of Health Care Policy. Adam has a B.A. in economics from Amherst College, an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.D. from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. In the episode we chat about his background, some memories from getting his MD/MBA at Penn, his decision to pursue consulting and later venture capital after completing 1 year of an Emergency Medicine Residency, and a bit about his current role in the venture capital world. Dr. Lessler has been a terrific mentor to many in the HealthX and Penn community, and we are lucky to have him share his stories and lessons with us here. Footnotes Adam’s LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-lessler-9537414b/ Evidity Website https://www.evidity.com/

  • Aug 9, 2020 · 46 min

    74 - Kwaku Owusu - CEO of DrugViu - Eliminating the Underrepresentation of POC in Clinical Trials

    Today’s episode is one I co-hosted with Mariam Alausa, who is the current co-VP of Curriculum for Penn HealthX. Our guest was Kwaku Owusu, who is the founder and CEO of DrugViu and TrialViu. Drugviu aggregates patient-related outcomes for people of color who take specific pharmaceutical drugs. TrialViu is a companion site that then educates those same patients about clinical trials, and then matches them to trials they may qualify for using AI. Their lofty mission is to eliminate underrepresentation in medicine Reading from DrugViu’s website to share more about the problem they are looking to solve: Racial and ethnic minorities are 40% of the US population and growing, yet represent less than 8% of the participants in pharmaceutical clinical trials. Especially concerning are clinical trials for diseases that disproportionately affect minorities. Here are few more examples: Per the National Cancer Institute, African-American men are twice as likely as their white counterparts to die from prostate cancer but represent 4% of clinical trial participants. The CDC reports that suicide is one of the leading causes of death among Asian-American women under 45 years of age. Yet, Asian-Americans constituted less than 1% of trials for CDER-approved treatments of major depressive disorders in the last two years. Cancer is the leading cause of death among Hispanics, yet Hispanic cancer patients only make up 4% of participants in cancer clinical trials in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institute. Native Americans are often not represented in studies at all Without enough minority participants, it’s virtually impossible to determine the effectiveness and side effects of a particular medication to that group. To compound this, there is no place online for minorities to research drug information specifically targeted for them. There is no online community where users can read and contribute to side effect/drug efficacy reviews by people that look like them. In the episode, we discuss Kwaku’s background, more about what made him interested in this area of medicine, and what he has learned along the way getting these companies off the ground. Now, let’s get to our conversation with Kwaku Owusu. FootNotes Kwaku’s LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kwaku-owusu/ DrugViu Website https://www.drugviu.com/ TrialViu Website https://www.trialviu.com/