PODCAST · business
Vital Signs with Jacob Effron and Nikhil Krishnan
by by Redpoint Ventures
On Vital Signs, Jacob Effron and Nikhil Krishnan dig into cutting-edge trends in healthtech and the people shaping them. Every two weeks they’ll explore a new sub-sector and trend with policy leaders, startup founders and industry executives. Subscribe now to make sure you don’t miss any of it!
Episodes
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Ep 70: Nourish CEO Aidan Dewar on Hiring in the AI Era, Future of GLP-1s and Scaling Metabolic Health
Aidan Dewar, co-founder/CEO of Nourish, walks through how the dietitian-led metabolic care company has evolved from a pure lifestyle-change complement to GLP-1s into a full prescribing platform, and why timing that shift right took four years of deliberate positioning. The conversation covers...
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Ep 69: Cadence Founder Chris Altchek on the Future of Chronic Disease Care
Chris Altchek, founder and CEO of Cadence, joins Nikhil and Jacob to discuss how AI is changing the way chronic disease gets managed at scale. Cadence treats 100,000 patients a day across major health systems and has published some of the largest cost and outcomes studies in the space, including…
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Ep 68: Garner Health Founder on Measuring Doctor Quality, The AI Landscape & What Improves Healthcare
Nick Reber, CEO and founder of Garner Health, joins Jacob and Nikhil to walk through what is arguably one of the most structurally underrated problems in American healthcare: that the single biggest driver of cost and quality variation isn't which hospital system you use or whether your plan is...
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Ep 67: Abridge Leaders on AI-Native Healthcare, Doctors Who Code, and the Future of Clinical AI
A couple weeks ago, Michał Nedoszytko placed third globally at Anthropic's hackathon out of 13,000 participants. He was the head of cardiology at a hospital in Brussels at the time. Now he is Clinical Scientist at Abridge. On this episode of Vital Signs, Nikhil and I sat down with Abridge's CEO...
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Ep 66: Pete Shalek On The Future of Front Office Automation
Pete Shalek, founder of Valerie Health, is a multi-time healthcare entrepreneur who previously founded Joyable in 2013 (one of the earliest digital mental health platforms) and served as Chief Product Officer at AbleTo and Stellar Health. Pete discusses why AI in healthcare needs to move beyond...
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Ep 65: CMMI Leaders on ACCESS Model Launch, Drug Pricing Strategy, and the Future of Technology Enabled Care
This episode announces the launch of CMS's ACCESS (Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions) model - a groundbreaking payment innovation that enables technology-enabled care organizations to treat Medicare fee-for-service patients with chronic conditions through outcome-aligned...
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Ep 64: Sutter Health CEO & President Warner Thomas on Digital Transformation and the Future of Health Systems
The episode explores how Warner Thomas is transforming Sutter Health into a digitally-enabled, ambulatory-focused health system that can navigate major industry headwinds through growth rather than contraction. Thomas discusses Sutter's aggressive expansion of its physician network and ambulatory...
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Ep 63: Narayana Health Vice Chairman on Scaling Quality Care in India and Tech’s Role
This episode features Viren Shetty, Vice Chairman of Narayana Health, discussing how his father founded a cardiac surgery hospital in India 25 years ago that revolutionized healthcare delivery by applying manufacturing efficiency principles to drastically reduce costs while maintaining quality.…
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Ep 62: Merck KGaA Chief Data and AI Officer on Scaling AI in Pharma and The Future of Enterprise Software
This episode captures Walid Mehanna's perspective on how Merck KGaA has approached enterprise AI adoption through a federated strategy that prioritizes people over technology. The core message is that successful AI implementation requires building organizational capability across three dimensions…
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Ep 61: Co-Founder of Chai Discovery Joshua Meier on 99% Faster Drug Discovery, BioTech’s AlphaGo Moment, Building Photoshop for Molecules
In this episode, Jacob sits down with Joshua Meier, co-founder of Chai Discovery and former Chief AI Officer at Absci, to explore the breakthrough moment happening in AI drug discovery. They discuss how the field has evolved through three distinct waves, with the current generation of companies...
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Ep 60: General Medicine's Elliot Cohen on Lessons from PillPack and Amazon and The Future of AI x Healthcare
Elliot Cohen—PillPack co-founder and now co-founder of General Medicine—joins Jacob Effron and Nikhil (Out-of-Pocket) to unpack what “best care” really means in 2025. He explains why General Medicine is building a broad front door to care. Elliot also revisits the PillPack vs. PBMs saga, what...
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Flashback: Hinge Health CEO Daniel Perez on Effective Employer Sales, Patient Engagement and His Top Advice to Founders
Flashback episode in honor of Hinge Health's IPO this week. In the episode, Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Daniel Perez, the Co-Founder and CEO of Hinge Health, a digital clinic for patients with joint and muscle pain. They discuss Hinge Health’s strategy for selling to employers, how digital...
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Ep 59: Photon Health CEO Otto Sipe on the Future of Pharmacies, PBMs and GLP-1s
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Otto Sipe. Otto is the CEO and Co-Founder of Photon Health, which enables patients to select their own pharmacies with price and inventory transparency. The company has raised over $16 million from investors including Flare Capital Partners and Notation Capital.…
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Ep 58: Iora Health Former CEO Rushika Fernandopulle on Current State of Value Based Care Across Payer Types and AI’s Role in Primary Care
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Dr. Rushika Fernandopulle. Rushika is the former CEO and Co-Founder of Iora Health, a primary care provider centered around value-based care and Medicare that One Medical acquired for $2.1 billion. They discuss why we’re still in the second inning of value-based…
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Ep 57: Taro Health CEO Frank Wu on Direct Primary Care, The History of InsurTech and AI for Payers
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Frank Wu, the Co-Founder and CEO of Taro Health. Taro Health is a health insurance plan currently live in Maine and Oklahoma that offers unlimited primary care and mental health visits. The company has raised over $18m from investors like Hummingbird Ventures, Quiet...
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Ep 56: Providence CEO Erik Wexler on Evaluating Partnerships, Policy and Leadership
Jacob sits down with Erik Wexler, the President and CEO of Providence. Providence is a non-profit, faith-based health system with 51 hospitals and 1,000 clinics across seven states. They discuss how to think about new AI opportunities with discipline, the value of health system partnerships,...
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Ep 55: Hinge Health CEO Daniel Perez on Effective Employer Sales, Patient Engagement and His Top Advice to Founders
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Daniel Perez, the Co-Founder and CEO of Hinge Health. Hinge Health is a digital clinic for patients with joint and muscle pain, having raised $800M+ from investors like Coatue and Tiger Global. They discuss Hinge Health’s strategy for selling to employers, how…
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Ep 54: General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja on Buying a Health System, $100B Healthcare Companies and The Future of AI and Venture
Jacob sits down with Hemant Taneja, the CEO & Managing Director of General Catalyst. GC is one of the world’s largest venture capital firms, most recently raising an $8B fund in 2024. The firm has invested in companies like Livongo, Cityblock Health, and Hippocratic AI. They discuss the…
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Ep 53: Cradle CEO Stef van Grieken on the State of AI x Bio and Selling SaaS to Pharma
Jacob sits down with Stef van Grieken, Co-Founder & CEO of Cradle. Cradle has raised over $100M from investors like IVP and Index Ventures to build and expand their AI-enabled protein engineering platform. They discuss how Cradle plans to use their new Series B funding, what’s been happening in…
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Ep 52: knownwell CMO Dr. Angela Fitch on The Future of GLP-1s and New Approaches to Obesity Medicine
Jacob sits down with Dr. Angela Fitch, the Founder and CMO of knownwell. knownwell has raised $25 million from investors like a16z and Flare Capital Partners to provide weight-inclusive primary care and metabolic health care. They discuss the future of obesity care, where we are with GLP-1s, the...
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Ep 51: Privia CEO Parth Mehrotra on The Future of Physician Enablement and How To Manage Risk Successfully
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Parth Mehrotra, CEO of Privia Health. Privia is a physician enablement platform partnering with 4500+ providers towards practice improvement and value-based care. They discuss the most important ways to manage risk, building effective physician enablement solutions,...
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Ep 50: Carelon Health President Bryony Winn on How Payers Think About Provider Strategy, Startups and Value-Based Care
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Bryony Winn, President at Carelon Health. Carelon is the diversified services business within Elevance Health (formerly Anthem), serving 1 in 3 Americans through advanced primary care, behavioral health, specialty enablement, and whole health solutions. They discuss...
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Ep 49: Equip CEO Kristina Saffran on Effective Eating Disorder Treatments and Scaling New Care Models
Jacob sits down with Kristina Saffran, the Co-Founder and CEO of Equip. Equip delivers at-home, virtual eating disorder treatment for both adolescents and adults. They discuss Kristina’s journey to founding Equip, getting payors on board, evidence-based treatments for eating disorders, and more....
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Ep 48: Savvy CEO Suril Kantaria on First Time Founder Lessons and ICHRA
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Savvy CEO Suril Kantaria to discuss the future of the ICHRA market and what he would do differently if he was starting Savvy today. [00:00] intro [00:35] ICHRA [06:20] is this better for employees? [15:20] is ICHRA policy doomed to fail? [19:10] venture’s role in...
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Ep 47: Former One Medical/Stanford CEO Amir Dan Rubin on Payviders, One Medical Reflections and Gen AI
Jacob sits down with Amir Dan Rubin, the CEO and Founding Managing Partner at Healthier Capital. Amir previously served as the CEO of One Medical and Stanford Health Care, as well as an EVP at United/Optum. They discuss payer-provider integrations, lessons learned from leading One Medical,...
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Ep 46: Humana Primary Care CMO Dr. Vivek Garg on Next Gen Primary Care Lessons and Effective Payer Partnerships
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Dr. Vivek Garg, the Chief Medical Officer & SVP, Primary Care at Humana; Chief Medical Officer at both CenterWell and Conviva; and a former clinical leader at CareMore, Oscar, and One Medical. They discuss Vivek’s insights around primary care, value-based care, and...
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Ep 45: Sword Health CEO Virgílio (“V”) Bento on Sword's New AI Solution and the Decisions That Shaped the Company
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Virgílio (“V”) Bento, Founder and CEO of Sword Health, the $3 billion company focused on improving pain management. They discuss Sword’s new AI care model, the evolution and key decisions behind Sword’s success, customer acquisition, and more. (0:00) intro (1:15)...
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Ep 44: Dr. Atul Butte on Healthcare AI Opportunities and Challenges
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Dr. Atul Butte, a professor at UCSF, Chief Data Scientist of the UC Health System, and a co-founder of numerous healthcare startups. They discuss Dr. Butte’s takes on healthcare AI opportunities, challenges, hype, and more. (0:00) intro (0:31) AI hype through the...
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Ep 43: Former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. David Shulkin on Transforming the VA & Getting Public-Private Partnerships Right
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Dr. David Shulkin, the former Secretary of Veterans Affairs who has also held roles as CMO of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, CEO of Beth Israel Medical Center, and Vice Dean of the Drexel University College of Medicine. They discuss David’s…
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Ep 42: Alan CEO Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve on Building a Healthcare Superapp & the Future of Healthcare in Europe
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve, Co-Founder and CEO of Alan. Alan is a multi-billion dollar French health insurance company that has expanded to become an all-in-one health platform for its consumers. They discuss Alan’s product strategy and business model, building AI...
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Ep 41: Benchling Head of Strategy Malay Gandhi on the Future of Life Sciences Software and The Evolution of Digital Health
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Malay Gandhi, Head of Strategy & Corporate Development at Benchling. Malay previously served as CEO of Rock Health and SVP of Business Operations at Evidation Health, and his seminal pieces helped shape early digital health thinking. They discuss some of Malay’s…
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Ep 40: Strive Health Co-Founder Will Stokes on The Key Parts of Risk-Based Contracts and Value Based Care In Specialties
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Will Stokes, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer of Strive Health, a pioneer in value-based care that partners with payers and providers to care for patients with chronic kidney disease. They discuss the nuances of risk-based contracting, value-based models for...
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Ep 39: Dr. Amy Abernethy on the Future of Real-World Evidence and Regulating Generative AI
Jacob sits down with Dr. Amy Abernethy, whose health tech career spans from clinician and researcher to CMO at Flatiron Health to Principal Deputy Commissioner and Chief Innovation Officer at the FDA to CMO and President of Product Development at Verily to co-founder of her own non-profit to...
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Ep 38: Oscar Co-Founder Mario Schlosser on Lessons from Implementing LLMs and How AI Will Impact Healthcare
Oscar Health is a $4B public healthcare company, providing healthcare insurance to nearly 1 million members. Oscar is at the forefront of AI adoption, continuously developing new AI use cases in healthcare. On this week’s episode, we sat down with Oscar Health Co-Founder, former CEO, and now...
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Ep 37: Centene Corporation CEO Sarah London on Centene’s Strategy and Innovating in Medicaid
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Sarah London, CEO of Centene Corporation, the largest managed Medicaid organization in the country, serving 15 million Medicaid members. They discuss Medicaid partnerships and redeterminations, SDoH innovation and outcomes, and payers vertically expanding their...
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Ep 36: Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel on Why Healthcare Reform is so Hard and the Future of Hospitals
Jacob sits down with Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel again to discuss the future of health policy and care delivery, hyped innovations in healthcare, market trends among payers and providers, and more. (0:00) intro (0:57) generative AI (4:08) the ethics of NOT using AI (7:04) ML-based risk adjustment (11:46)...
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Ep 35: Cityblock CEO Dr. Toyin Ajayi on the Current and Future State of Medicaid Innovation
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Toyin Ajayi, Co-Founder and CEO of Cityblock Health, an SDoH-focused provider of primary care, behavioral health, and chronic disease management for Medicaid and dual eligible patients. They discuss innovating in Medicaid, engaging patients with digital solutions,...
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Ep 34: Pomelo Care CEO Marta Bralic Kerns on Improving Maternity Care & How to Sell to Payers
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Marta Bralic Kerns, Founder and CEO of Pomelo Care, a multispecialty virtual medical practice that cares for mothers and babies from preconception to one year postpartum. They discuss payer contracting and Medicaid, career advice for those joining startups, why...
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Ep 33: Aledade CEO Farzad Mostashari on Managing $20B in Healthcare Spending and Lessons on Succeeding in Value-Based Care
Jacob and Nikhil speak with Farzad Mostashari, Founder and CEO of Aledade, which supports independent primary care practices to succeed in value-based care. Farzad talks about the current evidence of success in VBC, why VBC is still underhyped, barriers for Medicaid models, and more. (0:00) intro...
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Ep 32: Heather Fernandez (Solv CEO) on Reinventing Last-Minute Care
Jacob and Nikhil speak with Heather Fernandez, CEO and Co-Founder of Solv, a company that focuses on getting people access to high-quality, last-minute care. Heather discusses the future of urgent care, operating a digital health company during Covid, crafting a strong go-to-market strategy, the...
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Ep 31: Mark Cuban on Disrupting PBMs, Staying Curious & Using AI to Avoid NBA Fines
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Mark Cuban to discuss his pharmaceutical startup, The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company. They discuss why Mark entered the healthcare industry, competing on price, staying curious, and the future of AI. (0:00) intro (1:05) Mark’s journey into healthcare (3:57) how…
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Ep 30: Marley Medical CEO Chris Hogg on Which Health Tech GTM Models Are Best and Using AI in Care
Jacob sits down with Marley Medical CEO Chris Hogg to discuss how he and his team select markets, think about go-to-market and utilize AI. Chris also reflects on his learnings from Propeller and more. 0:00 intro 1:08 digital health over the last decade 3:01 100Plus 5:45 Propeller and fitting into...
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Ep 29: Omada Health CEO Sean Duffy on Evolving Employer Pricing, Incorporating GLP-1s and Using LLMs
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Sean Duffy, the CEO of health tech unicorn Omada Health, to discuss how Omada is using Large Language Models and incorporating GLP-1s into its care. They also hit on how Omada has thought and evolved its employer pricing. 0:00 intro 0:43 starting Omada Health 5:14…
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Ep 27: PathAI CEO Dr. Andy Beck on the Future of AI in Medical Diagnosis
Jacob sits down with PathAI Ceo Dr. Andy Beck to discuss the state of AI adoption in diagnosis, why Path acquired their own lab, pathologists' jobs in the future and nailing GTM to reach a ~$1B valuation. 00:00 intro 01:01 pathology and AI 13:30 nailing go-to-market strategy 19:47 how pathology...
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Ep 26: Dr. Austin Chiang on Using Social Media to Educate His >500K Followers and GLP-1s
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Dr. Austin Chiang, an interventional GI doc and Chief Medical Officer of Medtronic’s GI business who also has >500K TikTok Followers. We discuss how social media companies deal with public health issues, how doctors can use social media, lessons from being a...
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Ep 25: Dotmatics CEO Thomas Swalla on The State of R&D Software
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Dotmatics CEO Thomas Swalla to discuss R&D software, differences in software requirements across biotechs, growing through 11 acquisitions and expanding beyond life sciences. 0:00 intro 0:36 getting into healthcare 5:20 what R&D looks like today 8:03 what does...
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Ep 24: Insitro CEO Daphne Koller on Using ML to Change Drug Discovery
Jacob sits down with Insitro CEO Daphne Koller to discuss founding Coursera, where and how ML can drive the most impact in drug development, and if foundation models can transform core drug discovery work and edtech. 00:00 intro 00:59 Daphne’s journey 09:02 AI and biology discovery 10:42 insitro...
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Ep 23: Stanford Professor James Zou on the Economics, Regulation and Applications of AI in Healthcare
00:00 intro 01:08 James’ background 04:39 regulation of AI medical devices 14:43 impact of foundation models on healthcare 19:41 the future of cancer detection 23:47 real-world control arms 35:18 AI drift 37:42 over-hyped/under-hyped 40:03 most surprising AI interaction
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Ep 22: Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel on Our Relationship with Death and Bad Incentives in Research
Jacob and Nikhil sit down with Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel and discuss his reflections on his “Why I want to Die at 75” piece, how publishing/financial incentives harm research, doctors' increasing social isolation and his love of chocolate-making.
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Ep 21: Andy Coravos and Ashoka Rajendra on Hyperspecialization in Pharma R&D and Digital Biomarkers
Jacob sits down with HumanFirst CEO Andy Coravos and Orchestra CEO Ashoka Rajendra to discuss at home data collection in trials, Andy being an EIR at the FDA, why Benchling has been so successful and more.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
On Vital Signs, Jacob Effron and Nikhil Krishnan dig into cutting-edge trends in healthtech and the people shaping them. Every two weeks they’ll explore a new sub-sector and trend with policy leaders, startup founders and industry executives. Subscribe now to make sure you don’t miss any of it!
HOSTED BY
by Redpoint Ventures
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Vital Signs with Jacob Effron and Nikhil Krishnan have?
Vital Signs with Jacob Effron and Nikhil Krishnan currently has 70 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Vital Signs with Jacob Effron and Nikhil Krishnan about?
On Vital Signs, Jacob Effron and Nikhil Krishnan dig into cutting-edge trends in healthtech and the people shaping them. Every two weeks they’ll explore a new sub-sector and trend with policy leaders, startup founders and industry executives. Subscribe now to make sure you don’t miss any of it!
How often does Vital Signs with Jacob Effron and Nikhil Krishnan release new episodes?
Vital Signs with Jacob Effron and Nikhil Krishnan has 70 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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Who hosts Vital Signs with Jacob Effron and Nikhil Krishnan?
Vital Signs with Jacob Effron and Nikhil Krishnan is created and hosted by by Redpoint Ventures.
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