2019 HERITAGE PROVIDER NETWORK HEALTHCARE INNOVATION AWARDS Dennis Charney, MD, Mount Sinai Health System; Mary Kramer, publisher, Crain’s New York Business; Adam Chekroud, PhD, Spring Health; Richard Merkin, MD, Heritage Provider Network; Mark Wagar, Heritage Medical Systems; Marilyn Fraser, MD, Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health; Mitchell Katz, MD, New York City Health + Hospitals; Mark Graham, LCSW, Coordinated Behavioral Care Honoring New York’s Leading Healthcare Innovators THE FOURTH ANNUAL HERITAGE HEALTHCARE PROVIDER NETWORK INNOVATION AWARDS showcase innovators who improve access to quality, affordable care in New York We are a city of creators, thinkers, innovators and researchers The Heritage awards have been a catalyst for change by bringing together the talented people working to transform the way healthcare is delivered Sponsored by Heritage Provider Network (HPN), a leading physician-led managed care organization, the awards recognize the best of today’s healthcare clinicians, entrepreneurs, administrators and researchers who are making measurable improvements in access to care, the quality of care and long-term affordability The focus of the Heritage awards mirrors the long-time interests of HPN’s founder and chief executive, Dr Richard Merkin PHOTOS BY BRIDGET BADORE “Dr Merkin wanted to create awards for innovation He is investing in exposure for people and organizations that dare to something different,” said Mark Wagar, president of Heritage Medical Systems Since founding HPN in 1979, Merkin has been guided by the principle that healthcare needs change, not status quo His approach has been to experiment, embrace technology and data, pursue quality of care relentlessly, and above all, give patients access to the affordable, high-quality care they need to prevent unnecessary and avoidable health events Those values are reflected in the work of 25 winners and finalists honored at an awards luncheon in Manhattan on May 20, 2019 “These finalists represent critical changes in health care improvement and delivery that will be available for doctors and patients interested in new ideas and approaches,” said Merkin The 2019 honorees are visionaries in health tech, clinical research, health system op- erations and population health Many are working on pressing issues facing society Social determinants of health, such as poverty and unstable housing, are the collective target of 2019 Heritage honorees CityBlock, New York City Health + Hospitals, the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, Coordinated Behavioral Care, the Staten Island Performing Provider System and Hudson River HealthCare NYU Langone Health’s Dr Robert Grossman has taken a hammer to medical student debt by announcing free tuition and knocking one year off of MD programs At the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Dr Dennis Charney discovered a revolutionary new treatment for depression, while at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dr Lorenz Studer is about to test a cure for Parkinson’s Disease All of the 2019 Heritage honorees are disruptors who tackle healthcare issues in new ways The Heritage awards recognize their contributions to changing healthcare, and their legacy of transformative results Advertising Supplement to Crain’s New York Business HERITAGE INNOVATION IN HEALTHCARE DELIVERY AWARD Recognizing an innovator in the development of new modes of diagnosis, treatment and care who actively improves the delivery of services and improves quality of healthcare WINNER MARK GRAHAM, LCSW Vice president, program services, Coordinated Behavioral Care We need support when we are at our weakest That simple tenet is the foundation of Coordinated Behavioral Care’s Pathway Home program for Medicaid beneficiaries with serious mental illness The model provides intensive support during the transition to the community from a state psychiatric facility, where hospitalizations average five to 10 years Funded by the New York State Office of Mental Health, Pathway earns the state a hefty $12,000 return on its per-enrollee investment, savings generated by fewer hospitalizations In this model, timing is everything Pathway staff meet several times with patients who are still hospitalized to develop a relationship, trust and rapport, and act as a bridge between hospital and home “To connect with people prior to discharge is transformative,” said Mark Graham, CBC’s vice president of program services Graham’s specialty is leading the Pathway program at CBC, a collaborative of behavioral health groups that serves as a network for Medicaid beneficiaries with severe mental illness, chronic health conditions or substance abuse disorders Since 2014, Pathway has served about 1,500 people Not one of the 153 participants in 2017 was readmitted to a psychiatric hospital Relationships are key During a “conversational assessment,” the patient and Pathway employee chat No paperwork, no standard questions, just conversation “You listen People feel they’ve been heard for the first time You’re not sitting asking questions from a form, which creates a barrier in itself,” said Graham, who spent two decades as a social worker “Our hospital partners say that really helps patients connect to local services.” The conversation reveals social determinants of health that might derail the transition to home Pathway staff are there at discharge to hire an Uber, or identify obstacles to filling prescriptions or accessing food “If you stick with traditional methods rather than rethink the approach, you won’t see change,” said Graham HERITAGE HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP AWARD FINALISTS GEOFFREY CHAIKEN Co-founder and CEO, Blink Health Introducing innovation into the prescription drug supply chain takes perseverance and fortitude Backed by $165 million in venture capital, Blink Health brings transparency to consumer drug pricing through its e-commerce marketplace Lack of price transparency for prescriptions means that “three people can pay three different prices at the same pharmacy,” said Geoffrey Chaiken, Blink’s co-founder and chief executive “We believe it’s an unfair system, and we’ve made generics affordable for most Americans.” The majority of prescription transactions involve refills, a niche Blink is transforming Consumers order and prepay online for common generic medications They can pick up their order at one of the 35,000 pharmacies in Blink’s network, or have it shipped directly home No insurance is needed Blink says it offers the guaranteed lowest prices on all generics, up to 80% less than at a CVS or Walgreens DANIEL ETRA Co-founder and CEO, Rethink Autism Applied Behavioral Analysis is key to treating autism, but there are only 30,000 board-certified therapists worldwide Rethink Autism is a health tech company that provides caregivers, parents and schools with the treatment tools, training and clinical support they need for people with autism and other developmental disabilities Rethink built a TV studio at its office to film research-based teaching strategies on ABA treatment methodology Individualized treatment programs and ABA video training demonstrations are accessed on a cloud-based platform, viewable worldwide, making treatment “infinitely scalable,” said Daniel Etra, Rethink’s co-founder and chief executive “Before we existed, if you wanted access to ABA, you had to have a therapist come to your home, and families were on wait lists for up to two years.” Rethink’s clients are employers that offer its services as an employee benefit, school districts and behavioral health organizations IYAH ROMM Co-founder and CEO, Cityblock Health Cityblock launched in 2017 as the first tech-driven care provider tailored to communities with complex health and social needs To improve the way community care is delivered, it built technology tools and care teams to address the root causes of poor health by uniting social services with primary and behavioral care Cityblock’s innovative care delivery tech platform, Commons, supports providers with real-time alerts, allows patients to receive collaborative care from teams, and empowers them to have a role in their own care “The innovation is in the way we built Commons,” said Iyah Romm, Cityblock’s co-founder and chief executive “How we use tech tools is novel, to better understand if someone is food insecure, has chronic conditions or needs housing.” This year, Cityblock received another $65 million in funding, and also partnered with EmblemHealth to serve lower-income Brooklyn neighborhoods, as well as members in Connecticut through the insurer’s ConnectiCare unit Recognizing a leader who has made a significant impact in their healthcare field This forward thinker has forever changed the way care systems work through new models, processes and pathways WINNER MARILYN FRASER, MD CEO, Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health Dr Marilyn Fraser joined the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health after medical school, drawn to the institute’s mission of eliminating health disparities through community-based initiatives that address social determinants of health Its model of community empowerment and engagement promotes health equity, and the Guyana native prized being able to go out into communities to tackle prevention and health disparities “Changing healthcare delivery has to be multipronged: preparing the next generation of health professionals Working with academic medical institutions to make sure cultural competency is included Educating people to reduce risks, and addressing barriers that impede the best health outcomes,” said Fraser, who became the institute’s chief executive in 2016 Fraser believes that community-based groups bring real value to care delivery She is seeking partnerships with academic medical centers, so that communities are never an afterthought The institute advances the understanding, prevention and treatment of diseases that affect urban populations To Fraser, that means devising novel ways to address health inequities in culturally sensitive ways by meeting Brooklynites on their own turf, in beauty salons, churches or public housing One grassroots strategy is barbershop-based health interventions, encouraging men to take ownership of their health and get screened An evidence-based curriculum trains barbers to educate patrons about cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, mental illness and HIV/AIDS A similar program has worked with some 120 beauty salons since 1996 Fraser co-led an investigative team of researchers that developed the training curricula for hair stylists and barbers Another initiative is a health sciences academy that exposes minority middle and high school students to health careers The pipeline helps create a more diverse and inclusive workforce of health professionals, a boon to cultural competency “Historically, health professionals say ‘we treat everyone the same.’ But we know there are significant biases,” said Fraser THOMAS TSANG, MD, MPH Aja Evans, Coordinated Behavioral Care; Jorge Petit, MD, Coordinated Behavioral Care; Mark Graham, LCSW; Barry Granek, Coordinated Behavioral Care; Sasha-Marie Robinson, Services for the UnderServed; Joan Sass, Catholic Charities; Sylvia Andreatto, Services for the UnderServed DAVE CHOKSHI, MD Chief population health officer, New York City Health + Hospitals Safety net systems care for uninsured and high-need patients with complex medical and social needs Dr Dave Chokshi leads Health + Hospitals’ initiatives to create care models that draw on population health analytics and chronic disease management, tasks that he “approaches first and foremost as a doctor,” he said “The best way doesn’t involve cutting-edge technology, but trust and relationships We build interventions around that.” Chokshi feels privileged to lead a team that, working with the public hospital system’s tight resources, consistently excels at executing innovative strategies One example: creating an algorithm-driven model to identify high-need patients through electronic health records and administrative data For example, frequent zip code changes can be a proxy for housing problems (The industry standard relies on claims data, irrelevant for uninsured populations.) The predictive value of this scalable model has been so successful that H+H has shared it with safety net systems nationwide JOSEPH CONTE, PHD Executive director, Staten Island Performing Provider System Joseph Conte transformed how clinicians collaborate with community organizations as head of a Staten Island alliance of clinical and social service providers created through the state’s Medicaid reform initiative But in 2015, Staten Island had the highest opioid death rate in New York City, and Conte’s focus shifted “We started working with our partners on the treatment side, in law enforcement, in data analytics, to tackle this broadly,” he said “You can’t treat yourself out of this crisis.” Steps included expanding access to medication-assisted treatment; working with the district attorney’s office to have arrested people enter into treatment; and hiring scores of peer recovery associates Staten Island now has the city’s lowest opioid mortality rate “We’ve improved access and the model of care,” said Conte These protocols are scalable MIT Sloan School of Management’s Initiative for Health Systems Innovation will evaluate Conte’s innovations and support their adoption by health systems nationally ROBERT GROSSMAN, MD Saul J Farber dean and CEO, NYU Langone Health To Dr Robert Grossman, leadership is all about excellence He has presided over the transformative addition of more than million square feet of clinical, educational and research space at NYU Langone Health, and the creation of an integrated health system that spans 330 locations and six inpatient sites, with an expanding ambulatory care network “We’re a highly innovative institution,” he said “Healthcare is a changing terrain, and you want to be ahead of the curve.” As dean of NYU School of Medicine, Grossman dropped bombshell news in medical education: a tuition-free MD degree program, a new three-year MD program at NYU and the launch of a three-year medical school at NYU Winthrop Hospital “You want to be audacious as a leader,” said Grossman “It’s easy not to innovate, but you have to have the courage of your convictions.” LOUIS SHAPIRO Co-founder and CEO, Valera Health Valera Health’s smartphone app innovates the delivery of mental healthcare in three ways Its platform lets providers scale up by boosting caseloads, because the app keeps them in touch with patients between visits, as well as automating evidence-based assessments Care teams composed of both primary care and behavioral health providers can better communicate with patients Finally, the app offers patients tools and gentle reminders to manage their own health “We’re a behavioral health tech service company that helps organizations improve their delivery model for mental health services, maximizing outcomes, staff performance and patient engagement,” said Dr Thomas Tsang, co-founder and chief executive The Brooklyn company partners with providers and payers to imbed its technology in the workflow Piloted at Montefiore Medical Center, Valera’s app is now used in 17 Montefiore clinics FINALISTS President and CEO, Hospital for Special Surgery Edgar Mandeville, MD, SUNY Downstate Medical Center; Marilyn Fraser, MD; LeeAnn Hicks, Arthur Ashe Institute; Harriette Mandeville; Faven Araya, Arthur Ashe Institute The Hospital for Special Surgery is synonymous with excellence in musculoskeletal medicine It has unparalleled patient outcomes in orthopedics and rheumatology It has created a culture where every person who works there has the responsibility to think like a leader It has expanded to Westchester County, Long Island, Connecticut and New Jersey, and later this year opens a new facility in Florida But that’s not enough for Louis Shapiro, at the helm since 2006 He is exporting the hospital’s standardized best practice protocols for improving the quality of patient care and empowering people to stay healthy and avoid injury Sharing its knowledge through partnerships around the world “is an organizational innovation that has no boundaries of geography,” said Shapiro “We’re scaling the impact we have on the nation through this organizational innovation of how care is delivered.” HERITAGE HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP AWARD Honoring an organization that has fundamentally changed how healthcare is delivered This organization has created, or championed new ways of thinking and doing, uniting diverse constituencies to work together WINNER NEW YORK CITY HEALTH+ HOSPITALS Mitchell Katz, MD, president and CEO When Dr Mitchell Katz arrived at the nation’s largest public health care network in January 2018, it faced a $1.8 billion deficit Katz threw himself into remodeling H+H’s delivery system, racing against time Without Congressional action by this October, H+H could suffer an $870 million cut to its funding for caring for low-income and uninsured patients But that is the core mission of public health systems, and Katz’s passion “We are providers of primary care to people who are victims of poverty, homeless, mentally ill, suffering from addiction or trauma,” Katz said Katz has hired 40 new primary care doctors, streamlined operations and slashed wait times to see a primary care provider He expanded H+H’s eConsult system to extend capacity for specialty referrals This March, H+H was on target to generate $757 million from new initiatives such as improved billing, better-performing value-based managed care contracts and the benefits of implementing a $1 billion EPIC electronic health record and financial system by next year Dig a bit deeper, and Katz’s innovations are driven by his quest for transformation One new initiative is ExpressCare, urgent care sites built right next to its hospitals to reduce avoidable emergency room visits Staffed by primary care providers, the centers let patients “start a relationship with a PCP so they don’t come back to the ER, but bond with that clinician,” said Katz He tells everyone they “should email me about things that aren’t working The best changes have occured because someone was empowered to say ‘something needs fixing.’ ” One change was prompted by an email that asked why H+H directed insured patients elsewhere “There was a belief that they were saving spots for an uninsured person by sending away an insured one Well, sending away paying patients is not a good business model,” said Katz “They give us the money to care for the uninsured.” A working physician, Katz said seeing patients is “important for my mental health and teaches me so much about what works and doesn’t work in our system As soon as I charted my first patients, I saw we needed the new EHR system.” HERITAGE INNOVATORS IN HEALTHCARE AWARD FINALISTS APICHA COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER Therese Rodriguez, CEO Apicha Community Health Center was founded to help Asians and Pacific Islanders cope with HIV/AIDS Apicha built a nationally recognized model of HIV services, and in 2015 became a federally qualified health center to broaden its scope of services Its mission expanded to providing comprehensive primary care, preventative health and mental health services to vulnerable populations, especially Asians and Pacific Islanders, the LGBT community, and people living with HIV/AIDS “There has always been an argument for inclusion, and fairness, and a more compassionate society that takes care of the weak and the voiceless,” said Therese Rodriguez, Apicha’s chief executive LGBT adults are more likely to be uninsured, have poor health and experience distress compared to other groups, and those trends are even more pronounced among Asian Pacific Islanders HUDSON RIVER HEALTHCARE James Sinkoff, deputy executive officer and CFO At the heart of Hudson River HealthCare’s commitment to innovation is “a willingness to try, and fail, with different ventures,” said James Sinkoff HRHCare serves 225,000 patients annually, after a recent merger with Brightpoint Health created a network of 43 health centers It is the largest network of federally qualified health centers in the state, one reason why Sinkoff takes risks to drive innovative models for value-based care delivered by safety-net providers For example, he set up a joint venture with a robotics firm to improve operational and clinical activities, a “business practice that may not seem traditional applied to a safety-net provider,” he said Robotics vanquished rampant payment denials and “vastly improved our collection rate and reduced our denial rate.” On the clinical side, HRHCare has put much effort into primary care The merger with Brightpoint is improving access to comprehensive primary care and behavioral health for vulnerable populations NEW YORK - PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL Shauna Coyne, director, innovation Telehealth boosts patient access to high-quality, convenient care New York-Presbyterian Hospital has invested tens of millions of dollars in more than 60 telehealth programs in nearly every specialty But implementation of this vast digital offering had to be standardized across two medical schools, two hospitals and many patient care sites The technology must be easy to use, and embedded in daily workflows “One of the biggest hurdles is there is no playbook for us Things had to be figured out from compliance, legal, logistical and clinical aspects,” said Shauna Coyne, who executes NYP’s vision for the technology Telehealth services cover outpatient, inpatient and post-discharge care, often from a patient’s home using a new NYP mobile app Clinical staff fast-track patients through the emergency department to a virtual visit, cutting wait times to 30 minutes NYP tallied 100,000 telehealth visits last year, and is on track for 500,000 in 2019 Highlighting cutting-edge applications of technology and up-andcomers in the health care industry These breakthrough innovators are making significant contributions in the areas of technology, research or new approaches to healthcare systems WINNER ADAM CHEKROUD, PHD Co-founder and chief scientist, Spring Health Spring Health had its inception at the psychiatry department at Yale School of Medicine, where Adam Chekroud researched ways to improve treatment outcomes in mental health, particularly depression His specialty is using machine learning technology and large datasets to develop predictive models that let clinicians make more effective treatment decisions Spring Health, which has raised $10 million so far, pioneered a precision medicine approach to mental health that replaces trial-and-error treatment for depression “Let’s try Zoloft Let’s try Prozac Let’s try Lexapro And you go through this process again,” said Chekroud, Spring Health’s chief scientist and co-founder Through data, he added, “we look at the past to predict what can happen in the future.” Aimed at the large employer market, the company counts among its clients Equinox, MongoDB and Whole Foods Spring Health services include screening for mental health conditions; matching employees with a personalized, evidence-based treatment plan; giving employees unlimited support from care navigators, a protocol proven to speed recovery; and providing access to therapists from Spring Health’s own provider network This approach has been clinically validated in more than two dozen peer-reviewed journal articles in the field of psychiatry A 2016 Lancet Psychiatry paper co-authored by Chekroud, who gravitated to math and biology as a student in England, demonstrated that an algorithm can match patients to a specific medication with better accuracy than a psychiatrist, doubling recovery rates to 60% The company said that its technique shortens average recovery time by seven weeks A case study by Cigna suggested the total annual spending on behavioral health by one of its customers, a technology company, fell by 10% “We can much better in the mental health space, and we’re building a scalable model,” said Chekroud “At the core, this is healthcare; no harm, and make a difference.” STELLAR HEALTH Richard Merkin, MD, Heritage Provider Network, and Mitchell Katz, MD, New York City Health + Hospitals TOMER BEN - KIKI Co-founder and CEO, Happify Health Happify calls itself the world’s largest repository of digital therapeutics interventions, approaches created by a team of scientists, clinicians and game designers The online platform hosts stress-reducing exercises and tools for resilience training that help people cope with adversity “Mental health is a significant issue facing employers,” said Tomer Ben-Kiki, Happify’s co-founder and chief executive “You need to bring many tools to bear, and Happify is disruptive in how it harnesses technology to deliver clinical outcomes.” Launched in 2013, Happify has some 3.5 million users worldwide The company believes that self-directed online tools are effective and scalable, and because they are accessed privately, they remove the stigma associated with mental conditions Last year, Cigna added member access to Happify as part of its behavioral health program ALEXANDER DAHMANI Co-founder and CEO, QuiO New sensor and wireless connectivity technologies have made possible smart medical devices that can be monitored remotely QuiO is a connected therapeutics company that provides software and services for those devices, what it calls a remote care platform for chronic diseases “Our innovation is the ease of use for patients, who can set it up on their own and seamlessly connect and send data,” said Alexander Dahmani, who co-founded QuiO in 2014 and has since raised $15 million QuiO’s platform helps collect data from multiple smart devices, such as blood pressure cuffs and scales, or pill bottles, inhalers and injectables that track medication adherence Providers can monitor a patient remotely and intervene when additional support is required As more providers shift to value-based contracts, Dahmani said QuiO’s goal is to “work with thousands of patients, building a regional collaborative care model to share data.” JOHN HUI Co-founder and CEO, Twiage Twiage has revolutionized the communication technology used between paramedics and emergency medicine physicians in hospitals Instead of relying on radios, emergency medical technicians can send real-time information, photos, videos and EKGs, allowing hospital teams to be prepared for incoming patients Montefiore Nyack Hospital, for example, used Twiage software to indicate which incoming patients should be isolated during the measles outbreak in Rockland County Twiage’s configurable design and flexible infrastructure allow hospitals and EMS teams to customize clinical triage algorithms quickly, to adjust to emergency situations “Our innovation was to create a clinical triage process and standardized protocols tailored to the hospital,” said John Hui, Twiage’s co-founder and chief executive Twiage’s award-winning technology is used by about 70 hospitals, with about 200,000 emergency transports annually BENJAMINE LIU Michael Meng, chairman, president and CFO Stellar Health contracts with insurers to help providers transition to value-based care, drawing on behavioral economics Its scalable technology platform sifts through billing, claims and clinical data to create a real-time checklist of actions that improve quality and lower costs During a patient visit, the system suggests simple actions, such as speaking for five minutes to a patient who is noncompliant with medication Stellar pairs that prompt with a financial incentive, and doctors can earn thousands of dollars over time “It’s not that doctors don’t want to all these things, but there are tradeoffs because the next patient is waiting,” said Michael Meng, Stellar’s president and chief financial officer “We help them make that leap by rewarding them for the extra effort.” The incentives are paid by insurers “Checklist medicine saves lives, and is kind of what we do, by offering friendly reminders,” he added FINALISTS Co-founder and CEO, TrialSpark April Koh and Adam Chekroud, PhD, co-founders, Spring Health TrialSpark reimagines the clinical trial process by providing the infrastructure for physician groups to become part of a network of trial sites Independent doctors lack the resources to participate in clinical research TrialSpark takes over that operational and administrative burden, providing staffing, equipment and a technology platform “We bring clinical trials and treatments to any doctor in the country, and, we hope, around the world,” said CEO Benjamine Liu “If you don’t live near an academic medical center, you might not have access to clinical trials.” TrialSpark can reach 98% of U.S doctors who don’t participate in trials, and access the ethnically diverse patient base of community physicians and hospitals, said Liu The company has more than 120 trial sites, and has connected some 10,000 patients to clinical trials HERITAGE RESEARCH INVESTIGATORS IN TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE AWARD Awarded to an individual based on the most significant quantitative results achieved by accelerating the transition of novel and innovative diagnostic tools and treatments to patients WINNER DENNIS CHARNEY, MD Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System Dr Dennis Charney began researching a novel treatment for depression some two decades ago, after the approval of Prozac ushered in an era of me-too drug development Charney helped test a different hypothesis about the mechanism of depression His team used ketamine, a mind-altering party drug with potent side effects This March, the FDA approved Spravato, a nasal spray chemical cousin of ketamine, for patients with treatment-resistant depression The drug relieves severe depression in hours and is hailed as the first new antidepressant treatment in decades “As a researcher, your ultimate aim is to develop better treatments and change the lives of millions of patients,” Charney said While researching depression treatments at Yale, Charney had a hunch about the glutamate system, which helps nerve cells communicate Because it affects glutamine in the brain, the research team decided to try ketamine, despite it being a street drug known as Special K “There was a lot of opposition and concern about if it could be abused, and the side effects,” Charney recalled “But we felt strongly about the hypothesis, and pushed through.” A paper on only seven patients that Charney’s team published in 2000 “didn’t get a lot of attention The fact that ketamine got patients better very quickly hadn’t been seen before,” he said Charney’s team later researched patients with treatment-resistant depression; Ketamine worked quickly on that group, too That paper got a lot of attention Charney’s advice to researchers is to “be comfortable with failure We did a lot of studies that failed Expect failure and learn That is how we moved on to glutamine.” He also believes that “transformational discoveries tend to happen in small groups” where scientists can brainstorm ideas and hypotheses FINALISTS MICHAEL ABERMAN, MD President and CEO, Quentis Therapeutics Quentis Therapeutics is developing new therapeutic approaches based on research on the endoplasmic reticulum, a structure within cells that serves as a sensor of cellular stress, among other functions Persistent ER stress affects cancer, neurodegenerative disease and autoimmune conditions “We’re working on novel targets that others aren’t working on, focusing on ER stress in novel ways,” said Dr Michael Aberman “We that by creating a culture of good science and finding answers to complex questions.” Landmark research by its scientific founders, including Dr Laurie Glimcher, former dean of Weill Cornell Medicine, showed that targeting ER stress pathways holds promise for cancer therapies Quentis attracted nearly $50 million in capital in 2018, and is moving to new lab space in Harlem this summer MITCHELL CAIRO, MD Associate chairman and professor, Department of Pediatrics, New York Medical College • Director, Childhood and Adolescent Cancer and Blood Disease Center • Chief, Division of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation, Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital Dr Mitchell Cairo has spent decades testing new ways to battle childhood cancers and blood disease His range of titles at New York Medical College and Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital speak to the multi-disciplinary knowledge base he draws upon to better understand cancer and such genetic illnesses as sickle cell disease He is known best for his work in sickle cell research, and in tumor immunology, with a focus on childhood lymphoma Cairo spends about half his time researching, and another 25% on patient care; the result is bench-to-bedside experience The cure rate for some childhood cancers is 90% “That’s due to translational research, taking laboratory research and applying it back to patients That’s one area that’s been a huge success,” said Cairo ELIZABETH COHN, PHD, RN Rudin professor of Community Health, Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, Hunter College and the City University of New York Graduate Center Elizabeth Cohn is the community engagement lead for a consortium of medical centers that support the All of Us Research Program This year-old national precision medicine initiative compiles health and behavioral data from one million volunteers of diverse populations Generally less than 10% of research subjects are minorities, and health disparities are exacerbated when research samples are skewed to white males Cohn’s outreach requires an unwavering commitment to communities, transparency and trust She guides strategies for awareness, engagement and enrollment, working with minority communities and faith-based groups All of Us in New York has enrolled some 14,000 people, 83% of them from underrepresented populations Cohn recalled how when she was an RN in a cardiac unit, a minority patient asked if a certain drug was best for her “My answer was ‘we really don’t know, because of the way research is conducted.’” LORENZ STUDER, MD Director, Center for Stem Cell Biology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Richard Merkin, MD, Heritage Provider Network, and Dennis Charney, MD, Mount Sinai Health System Dr Lorenz Studer won a 2015 MacArthur Foundation genius award for “pioneering a new method for large-scale generation of dopaminergic neurons that could provide one of the first treatments for Parkinson’s disease and prove the broader feasibility of stem cell–based therapies for other neurological disorders.” Studer worked for decades on the technology needed to grow large quantities of cells that could be transplanted into the brain to replace the faulty neurons that die off in Parkinson’s patients “Making these cells ourselves was a radical approach,” Studer said, but that basic science paved the way for this clinical application By discovering how to produce a nearly industrial volume of stem-cell-derived, dopamine-producing neurons, he could use those regenerative cells to treat Parkinson’s, not just its symptoms A clinical trial could start in late summer “What we’re trying to is something completely different,” he said BEHAVIORAL HEALTH TURNS TO DIGITAL THERAPEUTICS Innovators use technology for more efficient treatment Nearly one in five U.S adults live with a mental illness Tech companies and nonprofits are rightfully drawn to the mission of addressing behavioral health needs, but their tactics diverge sharply Community groups and nonprofits often approach mental health from the perspectives of social determinants of health and population health Data help identify high-risk patients, but it’s the personal touch—delivered by trusted peer counselors from the neighborhood—that is critical to supporting mental illness To address the stigma of mental illness, for example, the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health trains Brooklyn barbers and hairdressers to talk with customers about the issue Cho Weng; Emma Smith; Thomas Tsang, MD; David Ricupero of Valera Health “A lot of our communities, especially immigrants, are becoming more receptive to having that conversation,” said Dr Marilyn Fraser, the nonprofit’s chief executive and winner of the 2019 Heritage Healthcare Leadership Award Digital mental health startups, on the other hand, offer up technology solutions for behavioral health conditions Investors have flocked to the sector, backing apps, tech-enabled care platforms and digital therapeutics companies But in recent years, both approaches have blended together, driven by the move to value-based purchasing That model rewards efficient, lower-cost, high-value care, and it relies heavily on technology to meet those goals Both the personal touch and tech are critical to the model One example is the Pathway Home program run by Coordinated Behavioral Care, winner of the 2019 Heritage Innovation in Healthcare Delivery award To assist patients released after many years spent in a psychiatric hospital, CBC’s staff provide intensive personal support “We look at the social determinants of health that might derail them,” said Mark Graham, vice president of program services His team teaches people how to use the subway, how to shop, how to keep an apartment, how to live life It is a very personal process But because CBC also relies heavily on technology, “we’re approached by so many digital tech companies,” said Graham One that made the cut is Wellth, a digital health company whose incentive-based behavioral change programs won the Heritage Innovators in Healthcare Award in 2018 Pathway Home gives participants a smartphone to use with the Wellth app to improve medication adherence “Adherence to the app is over 90%, and people haven’t decompensated, which suggests they are taking their meds,” said Graham In CBC’s work with the homeless, Wellth’s technology actually increases human interactions CBC requires users to come by every two weeks to be paid incentives they’ve earned through the app “That’s a motivating factor to have face-to-face contact with people, which is a really transformative added benefit,” added Graham “It’s so easy to lose track of the homeless.” Scott Fein; Emma Sinkoff; James Sinkoff, Hudson River HealthCare; Noah Sinkoff; Gary Dreiblatt; Richard Sinkoff Another nonprofit that relies on health tech, Hudson River HealthCare, has a joint venture with a robotics company and is exploring applications in behavioral health James Sinkoff, deputy executive officer, said “the robots are looking at our work on depression, automating progress notes that doctors sign off on, so providers are less burdened by charting.” Health tech companies see a ripe market in helping physicians and community-based behavioral health organizations become more efficient and effective Valera Health, a 2019 Heritage award finalist, is one such behavioral health tech service company Its smartphone app relies on data science to help providers deliver behavioral health services that are better tailored to each patient Through the app, for example, clinicians can stay in touch with patients between visits Dr Thomas Tsang, Valera’s chief executive, recalls one patient who had worsening symptoms of depression and suicidal thoughts “Valera detected these changes, and the clinicians could address them,” he said “The technology was doing its job, really helping a patient.” The intersection of mental illness, data and proprietary machine learning technology—precision mental health care—drives innovation at the behavioral health tech company Spring Health The company capitalizes on depression treatment research by Adam Chekroud, Spring’s chief scientist and winner of the 2019 Heritage Innovators in Healthcare Award Among the tech platform’s capabilities is screening clients’ employees for mental health issues Such screening is a critical tool for value-based purchasing models that can help lower the national price tag for treating depression, pegged at $59 billion a year Spring Health’s technology platform is supplemented by the personal touch, with unlimited support from care navigators Happify Health, a 2019 Heritage awards finalist, created technology tools to reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression that can interfere with productivity The company cites research that suggests that because of lower productivity, employers lose around 32 days a year for each depressed employee Happify’s customers are consumers, employers, insurers and drug manufacturers The company recently struck a deal with Sanofi, which will study a potential digital therapy for depression as a less expensive alternative to drug development “Improving mental health lowers medical costs,” said Happify CEO Tomer Ben-Kiki “Technology allows this to be addressed at the population health level.” 2019 HERITAGE PROVIDER NETWORK HEALTHCARE INNOVATION AWARDS May 20, 2019 Shauna Coyne; Thomas Tsang, MD; Tomer Ben-Kiki; Therese Rodriguez; Michael Aberman, MD; James Sinkoff; Alexander Dahmani; Mark Graham, LCSW; Dennis Charney, MD; Adam Chekroud, PhD; Richard Merkin, MD; Mark Wagar; Marilyn Fraser, MD; Mitchell Katz, MD; Daniel Etra; Louis Shapiro; Elizabeth Cohn, PhD, RN; Dave Chokshi, MD; Lorenz Studer, MD; John Hui; Michael Meng Richard Merkin, MD, Heritage Provider Network Mitchell Katz, MD, New York City Health + Hospitals Marilyn Fraser, MD, Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health Mark Graham, LCSW, Coordinated Behavioral Care Dennis Charney, MD, Mount Sinai Health System Adam Chekroud, PhD, Spring Health ... organizational innovation that has no boundaries of geography,” said Shapiro “We’re scaling the impact we have on the nation through this organizational innovation of how care is delivered.” HERITAGE HEALTHCARE. .. “Technology allows this to be addressed at the population health level.” 2019 HERITAGE PROVIDER NETWORK HEALTHCARE INNOVATION AWARDS May 20, 2019 Shauna Coyne; Thomas Tsang, MD; Tomer Ben-Kiki; Therese.. .HERITAGE INNOVATION IN HEALTHCARE DELIVERY AWARD Recognizing an innovator in the development of new modes of