H1 taps Ziad Ismail as next COO, Nigel Ohrenstein named Kaia Health president and other digital health hires

Also 23andMe names Dr. Joseph R. Aaron as its next chief scientific officer.
By Laura Lovett
01:30 pm
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Photo: franckreporter/Getty Images 

Just after closing a $100 million funding round, H1 named Ziad Ismail as its new chief operating officer. He comes to H1 from Convoy, where he also served as the chief product officer. He previously held roles at Marchex, CitiKey and Microsoft. 

“H1 has amassed an enormous amount of quality healthcare data that life science companies, hospitals and academic medical centers simply cannot find anywhere else,” Ariel Katz, cofounder and CEO of H1, said in a statement.

“With such fast growth and the rollout of new products, we needed someone with Ziad’s expertise in product development and delivery of data science-driven solutions in a rapidly growing business. We’re excited to have him join our management team as 2022 shapes up to be a year of extraordinary growth for H1.”


Consumer-genomics company 23andMe has named Dr. Joseph R. Aaron as its next chief scientific officer. He will be responsible for overseeing the company’s therapeutic programs and indications, which includes drug discovery efforts. 

Before coming to 23andMe, Aaron was the vice president and senior fellow of immunology research at Genetech. 

“The Therapeutics team 23andMe has built and its engine for drug discovery are truly remarkable. I’m excited to join this incredibly impressive group of scientists and professionals to advance human genetics-based drug discovery,” Aaron said in a statement.

“The human genome was mapped 20 years ago and has held the promise to unlock the underlying causes of disease by studying human genetics. Now we have to do the hard work of linking genes to targetable molecular mechanisms, and use that information to develop novel therapeutics and advance these to clinical proof of concept. 23andMe is trying to make this vision a reality, and I hope to help carry forward the company’s mission.”


Earlier this month, Kaia Health, a DTx company that focuses on the MSK space, named Nigel Ohrenstein its next president. Ohrenstein comes to Kaia from Lumeris, a company he co-founded. 

At Kaia, he will be charged with accelerating the company’s growth and advancement strategy. 

“Nigel’s combination of business intelligence and dedication to improving both the quality and cost of care will accelerate Kaia Health’s next phase of growth, further our lead in the MSK market and advance our mission to make effective therapies accessible to patients anywhere and at any time,” Konstantin Mehl, Kaia Health founder and CEO, said in a statement. 


Healthcare guidance platform Amino added two new members to its team last week: Andrew Rosenthal as new chief product officer and Rishi Bhatia as chief information security officer. 

Rosenthal recently served as the senior director of product and management at eHealth. He has also been involved in founding two digital health companies, happier.com and the Eatery iOS app, which was acquired by Jawbone. 

Bhatia previously served as the director of governance, risk compliance and information security at Ripple Labs. 

"As Amino grows its platform and user base rapidly, maintaining a rigorous, future-proof security strategy is essential for continued innovation," Bhatia said. "I'm excited to be a part of Amino's vision to revolutionize digital healthcare by giving people simple, secure solutions that help them make well-informed decisions about their needs."


Software analytics company Komodo Health tapped Dr. Edd Fleming to serve on its board of directors. Fleming has a background in pulmonary, critical care and internal medicine. He currently serves as global leader of R&D practice at McKinsey. 

"We are pleased to welcome Edd to Komodo’s board of directors during a time of significant growth for our company,” said Arif Nathoo, MD, cofounder and CEO of Komodo Health. “His extensive experience as a veteran advisor across healthcare will be invaluable as we continue to scale Komodo’s work to close gaps in care and improve patient outcomes through data-driven insights.”

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