Cris De Luca leaves J&J, Harry Kim named inHealth CEO and other digital health hires and departures

Also: Dr. Sachin Jain leaves CareMore Health and Aspire Health, and Atual Gawande in talks to leave Haven.
By Laura Lovett
02:26 pm
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This morning, chronic-condition-management startup inHealth named digital health veteran Harry Kim as its next CEO and executive chairman. The company’s current CEO and original cofounder Aubrey Jenkins will move into a new role as president of the company.

“The healthcare professionals delivering care every day are front line warriors and heroes. In the fight to improve people’s health, we need more than pills, procedures and devices. We need to unlock and empower the human potential underlying disease progression and management,” Kim said in a statement. “Lifestyle Therapeutics represent a new standard of care that complements and improves how providers, health plans, medical device companies, and other innovators deliver meaningful outcomes. The time is now… let’s go!”

Before joining inHealth, Kim served as the senior vice president and general manager at telemedicine company American Well. He has also made the rounds at a number of large tech companies' health units, including Samsung Health and Hewlett-Packard’s Health and Life Science industry Business. 

Today the startup also announced that Brittany Kodish would be joining the team as Director of Business Development and that Amanda Guisbond will now serve as the Director of Marketing. Kodish has a history of working with digital health companies, having previously worked for Australian telemedicine company Coviu and Amwell. Guisbond also has a track record of working in healthcare, having come to this position after working at Amwell and athenahealth.


This morning Cris De Luca, senior director and global head of innovation at Johnson & Johnson, announced that he is leaving the pharma giant. 

“During this amazing journey we built lasting impact w/ some of the greatest innovators in the world, to boost not only lifespan (years of life), but also health span (quality of years). We imagined a World Without Disease and did something about it – blending heart, science and ingenuity,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing his departure

He worked at Johnson & Johnson for over six years, serving about 10 months as senior director and global head of digital innovation. He has also worked in venture capital, and has experience with other pharma companies, including Novartis. 

“Above all, we wore the J&J Credo on our sleeve while building a one of a kind culture of leaders, mentors, inventors and friends,” he wrote. “I will dearly miss you all, but will see you often in #KendallSquare and part of the same global mission to improve human health. More to come on what’s next.”


In late April, Dr. Sachin Jain announced that he was stepping down from his position as president and CEO at both CareMore Health and Aspire Health

“Leading these companies has been the privilege of a lifetime because of the extraordinary people I had the gift of working with & the impact we made on patients,” Jain said in the post. “Over the last 5.5 years, CareMore grew from a footprint of 4 states to 12 – & with the integration of Aspire Healthcare – to 32 states. From 80,000 patients to over 200,000. We recruited world-class talent to the cause of serving frail & vulnerable populations. I leave behind a proud cadre of leaders whose values, integrity, & professionalism are unassailable.”

Jain started his position at Anthem’s subsidiary CareMore in 2014 after serving as Merck’s Chief Medical Officer. Here his work focused on serving the Medicaid and Medicare populations. In 2019 he joined Aspire, which focuses on the palliative care space. Jain continues to serve as an adjunct professor of medicine at Stanford and co-editor-in-chief of Healthcare: The Journal of Delivery Science and Innovation

“We built new clinical models,” he wrote in the post. “We diversified to serve Medicare, Medicaid, & Commercial patients. We launched large hospital and primary care at-home programs. We started a national dialog on loneliness & built the first scaled clinical intervention to address it with our Togetherness Program. We digitized chronic disease management. Integrated dental & medical care. And enhanced the role of pharmacists on clinical teams.”
 


Atul Gawande, CEO of Haven, the nonprofit healthcare venture launched by the founders of Amazon, JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Berkshire Hathaway, is in "advanced discussions" to step down from the role, according to a Dow Jones report.

In 2018, Gawande, a surgeon and Harvard professor, was tapped to lead the then-unnamed joint venture. Haven’s much-publicized debut positioned it as a disruptive force in the healthcare industry that would harness technology to lower costs and improve the quality of care.

Despite Gawande’s high-profile hiring and the deep pockets of its investors, Haven has so far had underwhelming success attaining its transformational goals of using technology to significantly lower healthcare costs.


In mid-April consumer health company Welltok announced that Bob Fabbio would be replacing Jeff Margolis as CEO. Prior to this role Fabbio worked at Welltok as its chief operating officer. His previous experience includes eRelevance Corporation, WhiteGlove Health, Tivoli Systems and DAZEL Corporation.

“I’m very enthusiastic about the power of our technology and ability to deliver significant value for both our clients and consumers,” Fabbio said in a statement. “I am incredibly impressed with the people and passion at Welltok. I’m ready and excited to lead the way in seizing the opportunity ahead of us and increasing growth.”


Digital health automation company Lumeon tapped Ray Wolski as its next Chief Revenue Officer. He previously served as vice president of strategic solutions at Wolters Kluwer. In his new role he will be charged with developing business strategy and expansion in North America and building more client relationships. 

“Ray is an accomplished leader whose expertise will be instrumental in driving our U.S. expansion, as we continue to execute on our vision to help healthcare systems develop and scale new models of delivery that improve the quality of care whilst eliminating variation in care,” said Robbie Hughes, CEO of Lumeon. “He brings significant experience overseeing the revenue framework for complex, world-class healthcare organizations that will enable him to hit the ground running and ensure that we remain focused on maintaining our rapid growth rate.”

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