Digital Health Heavyweights
This conversational podcast brings you exclusive interviews with all the Heavyweights in Digital Health. Hosted by Norm Volsky, a top industry headhunter, whose team helped scale companies including Livongo, Hinge Health, Lyra, Virta, Progyny and many more. This series will bring listeners insights into the latest trends, technologies, and strategies driving the digital health revolution.
In each episode, Norm sits down with some of the most influential and innovative leaders in healthcare technology today from legendary founders who have built successful companies, venture capitalists who have led funding rounds, HR/Benefits leaders at forward thinking companies, Consultants and Brokers at the top benefits consulting firms, and other impactful visionaries challenging the status quo in healthcare. Listeners can learn from the industry greats who have created what we now know as health benefits, and who are changing the face of healthcare as we know it.
Whether you're a healthcare professional, a tech enthusiast, a start-up founder, benefits aficionado, jobseeker in Digital Health, or simply curious about the future of healthcare, Digital Health Heavyweights has something for you.
Digital Health Heavyweights
Announcing Simplify Health: Exclusive Interview with Co-Founders Norm Volsky & Andy Chan
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Welcome to this very exciting special edition episode of the Digital Health Heavyweights podcast. This week we are FINALLY coming out of STEALTH MODE and announcing the launch of our startup Simplify Health!
In this episode, Andy Chan, CEO and co-founder of Simplify Health, shares his journey from healthcare innovator to startup founder. Discover how his early experiences, industry insights, and vision for digital health are shaping the future of accessible, data-driven healthcare solutions. Learn about how he built Vigilant Technologies and sold it to Sword Health. “Risk is in my DNA.” Andy wants to make it easier for employees and their families to find the right care, and employers to see what benefits are actually working. “We want to be the easy button for healthcare.”
Our host Norm Volsky spent over a decade working with incredible unicorn founders and helping them scale, until it dawned on him. If these founders can’t get above a 3–5% engagement ceiling it is not a ‘them’ issue, it is an infrastructure issue. The whole system is too fragmented, confusing, and disconnected. He described Simplify as the “plumbing” and “infrastructure” that should help direct people to the right care at the right time and make the ecosystem work together better, with the handy help of AI. "AI should be used for personalization, not replacement."
What is Simplify Health? Everyone else helps people navigate once they already know what they need. Simplify Health helps them understand first. Powered by Benefits IQ, our engine that meets employees and their families at the moment of confusion, grounded in real clinical knowledge, their actual plan, the broader benefits ecosystem, and guides them to the right next step (including the $0 and lower-cost paths they'd never find alone).
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞 (𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭): Get your plans answers, not internet guesses, and a guide to the right solution for the moment.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐕𝐢𝐞𝐰 (𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐬): Your team gets real-time analytics, vendor oversight, and insights to double down on working initiatives and expand to new opportunities. Each makes the other smarter.
Let’s Simplify health together! Check out Simplifyhealth.ai to learn more!!
Key Moments:
🚀 The Startup Journey in Digital Health – Building, scaling, and navigating the challenges of launching a healthcare company.
🤖 AI, Data, and the Future of Healthcare – How artificial intelligence and data are transforming care delivery, decision-making, and patient outcomes.
🤝 Building a Stronger Healthcare Ecosystem – Why collaboration among startups, employers, providers, payers, and investors is essential to driving innovation.
📚 Improving Healthcare Engagement and Literacy – Tackling the barriers that prevent people from understanding, accessing, and using healthcare effectively.
🔮 The Future of Employer-Sponsored Healthcare – A vision for how digital health, personalized benefits, and technology will reshape the employee healthcare experience.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Simplify Health
01:42 Andy Chan's Journey into Healthcare
04:51 The Birth of Vigilant Technologies
07:34 Navigating Early Challenges and Corporate Partnerships
12:07 Growth and Acquisition by Sword Health
14:48 Lessons from Hypergrowth at Sword Health
16:16 Transitioning to New Ventures
21:16 The Vision Behind Simplify Health
28:02 The Motivation to Start Again
32:20 Vision and Goals in Healthcare
35:53 The Future of Healthcare Accessibility
39:05 Empowering Employers and Employees
41:40 The Role of Digital Health
47:15 Collaboration in the Healthcare Ecosystem
51:10 AI in Healthcare: Opportunities and Challenges
56:27 Outro
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