Anthem appoints Google vet to head AI group, Health Catalyst announces new SVPs, and more digital health hires

Also: Lark Health names new chief medical officer; Medidata's new board member
By Dave Muoio
04:24 pm
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Udi Manber, a veteran of Amazon, Yahoo and, most recently, Google, has been hired by Anthem, CNBC reports. Specifically, Manber will be building and leading a team focused on artificial intelligence applications, signifying an increasing interest in the technology for the large health insurer.

Manber held the title of vice president of engineering at Google and was largely responsible for its various search engine offerings. After nearly a decade, he left the tech giant to join the National Institutes of Health.

Prior to both of these posts, Manber was a chief scientist at Yahoo and a senior vice president at Amazon.

Health data analytics and decision support technology company Health Catalyst has brought on four new hires, all of whom will be serving at the SVP level.

Ryan Smith, formerly of Intermountain Healthcare and Banner Health, will be the SVP of client engagement; Dr. Will Caldwell, formerly of Novant Health, will be the SVP of physician and market development; Cathy Menkiena, formerly of Cerner, Epic, Healthlink and others, will be an SVP of professional services; and Steven Vance, formerly of Intermountain Healthcare, will also become an SVP of professional services.

"We are excited to welcome Will, Cathy, Ryan and Steve, each of whom brings unique and highly valuable skills and experience to Health Catalyst that will help our clients improve their clinical, financial and operational outcomes," Tom Burton, president of professional services and cofounder of Health Catalyst, said in a statement. "Their broad and deep experience in enterprise-wide healthcare information systems and process improvement within some of the country's most successful health systems will be vital to helping our clients realize their clinical outcome and financial goals."

Dr. Rosemary Ku has been named the chief medical officer of chronic disease AI company Lark Health. According to the announcement, she will take the lead of a 15-person committee looking to expand Lark’s platform. Prior to this role, Ku came from another chief medical officer position at Restore Health, which was recently acquired by Zillion.

"As a practicing physician, Rosemary deeply understands the chronic condition epidemic and will help us scale from currently serving 1.5 million members to serving tens of millions of patients,” CEO Julia Hu said in a statement. “She’s a perfect fit to join our management team.”

Dr. Maria Rivas, currently the head of global medical affairs at Merck KGaA, has joined the board of digital clinical research organization Medidata — the first woman to do so as part of the company’s pledge to increase female board positions by 2020.

“We are thrilled that Maria has joined our board,” Tarek Sherif, chairman and CEO at Medidata, said in a statement. “She has deep experience as an executive leader, as well as an extensive background in research and health outcomes. We look forward to working with her, as we continue to lead digital transformation within life sciences.”

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