Is there an exodus underway at Epic?

You’re reading the web edition of STAT’s Health Tech newsletter, our guide to how technology is transforming the life sciences. Sign up to get it delivered in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday. Good morning health tech readers! Today we ask, what’s going on at Epic? Plus a bunch of fresh hiring news, and a STAT telehealth investigation you must read. Reach me: [email protected] Epic exodus STAT’s Brittany Trang writes: A couple of weeks ago, we told you about the unexpected departure of Sumit Rana, Epic System’s president who was expected to succeed CEO Judy Faulkner. Maybe the hints were in the tea leaves when I interviewed Rana last summer: “I want to disappear if I want to,” he told me. “And everything should just go on just fine. Maybe they’ll miss me as a person, but no one of us should be that central to a company that [it] cannot thrive.” A spate of other high-profile Epic departures appears to be following. Seth Hain, a research and development senior vice president, is leaving the company according to a source familiar with the matter. Dave Fuhrmann, another research executive, is also rumored to be leaving. An Epic spokesperson told STAT the company does not comment on personnel. Both Hain and Fuhrmann declined to comment. Hain has long been the face of the company’s AI efforts, while Fuhrmann helped lead work on interoperability. (H/T to Second Opinion, which first reported Hain’s departure.) What’s going on at Epic? Are these departures all related? If you are in the know, and would be open to talking, even anonymously, contact Brittany at btrang.01 on Signal, or [email protected] Ex-workers speak out on telehealth company’s care Novo Nordisk promotes telehealth company LifeMD as one of its “recognized” providers for “legitimate medicine sourcing and patient support.” But a new investigation from STAT’s Elaine Chen reveals the company cut corners while treating patients for obesity with GLP-1s, according to some former employees. Experts have long raised concerns that patients could be put at risk in the rush of telehealth companies to offer easy access to GLP-1 prescriptions. Elaine’s reporting, based on accounts of five former employees and lawsuits filed by two others, suggests LifeMD pushed clinicians to work more quickly, often at the expense of best practices. (LifeMD, however, denied any wrongdoing.) For those interested in telehealth, STAT’s Katie Palmer has been reporting on similar themes as part of the Virtual Rx Boom series. Here’s the latest story in that series. Read Elaine’s story on LifeMD here. Nabla’s new CEO and other fresh hires Ambient health AI company Nabla this morning announced Brian Manning as its new CEO. Alex LeBrun, the co-founder and former CEO, stepped down last year after becoming CEO of Yann LeCun’s new Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs. LeBrun will stay on as chief AI officer. Previously, Manning worked at Patient Ping. In an interview with Brittany Trang, Manning discussed his vision for the future of the company, which is in a heated battle among well-funded upstarts (Abridge) and incumbents (Epic) vying to be the go-to administrative AI technology for health systems. Other new hires of note: Aledade, which helps primary care practices participate in accountable care organizations, appointed Daren Thayne as chief technology officer and Josh Mandel as chief scientist. Notably, Mandel joins from Microsoft Research where he was chief architect for health initiatives. TytoCare named Adam Pellegrini as new CEO. The company is known for its home smart clinic, a complement of FDA-cleared devices, that allows clinicians to conduct remote physical exams on patients. Previously Pellegrini was the CEO of Kaia Health and Jasper Health. The company also announced $25 million in new funding. Health tech news roundup Bristol Myers Squibb is the latest drug developer to claim that, actually, it has the biggest AI supercomputer, Brittany Trang reports. A Senate vote to halt a Medicare pilot that uses artificial intelligence to approve or deny care failed along party lines on Thursday. Read the latest on the controversy over CMMI’s WISeR model from STAT’s John Wilkerson. AlleyCorp, an early stage venture capital firm that backs health tech companies, raised a new $335 million fund. OpenEvidence is considering even more funding at a $20 billion valuation, The Information reported. What we’re reading Elite young runners are becoming freakishly fast. Welcome to ‘trackflation’, Wired A most-wanted fugitive appears to have been secretly working as a biotech executive, STAT MDCalc is scoring the clinical calculators used by millions of doctors, STAT