Turning Clinical Data Chaos into Clarity w/ John Laursen

Send us a textHealthcare is drowning in messy, inconsistent data, and IMO Health is helping clean it up so organizations can turn information into real clinical insight.In this CareTalk Executive Feature episode, host David E. Williams speaks with John Laursen, Senior Vice President of Commercialization at IMO Health, about how to separate hype from real value in AI healthcare.🎙️⚕️ABOUT JOHN LAURSENJohn Laursen is an accomplished Senior Vice President Of Commercialization at IMO Health, bringing extensive experience in the healthcare industry. With a robust background in management consulting, he has honed his expertise in change management, performance improvement, and strategic planning. John has held various leadership roles, including Vice President of Business Development and Chief Growth Officer, showcasing his ability to drive business success in complex environments. His educational foundation from Gustavus Adolphus College complements his professional journey, marked by a commitment to enhancing healthcare delivery. Outside of his professional life, John is likely to be an advocate for innovative healthcare solutions, reflecting a passion for improving patient outcomes. His career trajectory reflects a blend of strategic insight and operational excellence, making him a valuable asset in any healthcare-focused organization.🎙️⚕️ABOUT CARETALKCareTalk is a weekly podcast that provides an incisive, no B.S. view of the US healthcare industry. Join co-hosts John Driscoll (President U.S. Healthcare and EVP, Walgreens Boots Alliance) and David Williams (President, Health Business Group) as they debate the latest in US healthcare news, business and policy.#healthcare #healthcarepodcast #healthcarebusiness #healthcarepolicy #healthinsurance #healthcaretechnology #healthcarefinance #caretalk #healthcareindustry #healthcarepolicy #IMO #AIhealthcareGET IN TOUCHFollow CareTalk on LinkedInBecome a CareTalk sponsorGuest appearance requestsVisit us on the webSubscribe to the CareTalk NewsletterSupport the show⚙️CareTalk: Healthcare. Unfiltered. is produced by Grippi Media Digital Marketing Consulting.

Send us a textWhat if rural hospitals could thrive instead of just survive?In this episode of CareTalk Executive Features, WVU Medicine President & CEO Albert L. Wright, Jr. joins host David Williams to share how the health system is redefining rural healthcare, expanding access, advancing innovation, and aligning care delivery through initiatives like Peak Health.🎙️⚕️ABOUT ALBERT L. WRIGHT JR.Albert is the president and CEO of the West Virginia University (WVU) Health System, the state's largest private employer. Before joining the Health System in 2014, he held several senior-level leadership positions at some of the nation's most prestigious healthcare systems and academic medical centers, including Ohio Health and UPMC. As president and CEO, Albert has transformed the WVU Health System into a fully integrated network of 25 hospitals and clinics spanning a four-state region that includes West Virginia, Western Maryland, Eastern Ohio, and Southwest Pennsylvania. He has significantly expanded the Health System's specialty and sub-specialty care and directed greater than $3.0 billion in capital investments to build new hospitals and clinics or refurbish existing ones while modernizing the Health System's infrastructure and electronic medical record.Today, the WVU Health System is West Virginia's largest network of hospitals, clinics, and specialty institutes, with over 3,000 licensed beds, 3,000 providers, 35,000 employees, and $7 billion in revenue. An 881-bed, Magnet-recognized academic medical center anchors the network of hospitals and clinics. In 2023, the Health System launched Peak Health, its health insurance company, with Albert as its board chair. Albert obtained his Master of Health Administration degree at The Ohio State University, a Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of Florida, and a Doctor of Public Health at the University of North Carolina. He is involved in several charitable and civic organizations and serves on numerous boards.🎙️⚕️ABOUT CARETALKCareTalk is a weekly podcast that provides an incisive, no B.S. view of the US healthcare industry. Join co-hosts John Driscoll (President U.S. Healthcare and EVP, Walgreens Boots Alliance) and David Williams (President, Health Business Group) as they debate the latest in US healthcare news, business and policy. GET IN TOUCHFollow CareTalk on LinkedInBecome a CareTalk sponsorGuest appearance requestsVisit us on the webSubscribe to the CareTalk NewsletterSupport the show⚙️CareTalk: Healthcare. Unfiltered. is produced by Grippi Media Digital Marketing Consulting.

Send us a textVaccines save lives, misinformation spreads fast, and ice cream, believe it or not, might actually be good for you.In this episode of CareTalk, Dr. Zeke Emanuel joins John Driscoll to discuss vaccine myths, public health confusion, and how the healthcare system can communicate science more effectively.🎙️⚕️ABOUT DR. ZEKE EMANUELEzekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD, is the Vice Provost for Global Initiatives, the Co-Director of the Healthcare Transformation Institute, and the Diane v.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.Emanuel is an oncologist and world leader in health policy and bioethics. He is a Special Advisor to the Director General of the World Health Organization, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, and member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  He was the founding chair of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health and held that position until August of 2011. From 2009 to 2011, he served as a Special Advisor on Health Policy to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and National Economic Council. In this role, he was instrumental in drafting the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Emanuel also served on the Biden-Harris Transition Covid Advisory Board. Dr. Emanuel is the most widely cited bioethicist in history.  He has over 350 publications and has authored or edited 15 books. His recent publications include the books Which Country Has the World’s Best Health Care (2020), Prescription for the Future (2017), Reinventing American Health Care: How the Affordable Care Act Will Improve our Terribly Complex, Blatantly Unjust, Outrageously Expensive, Grossly Inefficient, Error Prone System (2014) and Brothers Emanuel: A Memoir of an American Family (2013). In 2008, he published Healthcare, Guaranteed: A Simple, Secure Solution for America, which included his own recommendations for health care reform. Dr. Emanuel regularly contributes to the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and often appears on BBC, NPR, CNN, MSNBC and other media outlets. 🎙️⚕️ABOUT CARETALKCareTalk is a weekly podcast that provides an incisive, no B.S. view of the US healthcare industry. Join co-hosts John Driscoll (President U.S. Healthcare and EVP, Walgreens Boots Alliance) and David Williams (President, Health Business Group) as they debate the latest in US healthcare news, business and policy. GET IN TOUCHFollow CareTalk on LinkedInBecome a CareTalk sponsorGuest appearance requestsVisit us on the webSubscribe to the CareTalk Newsletter#healthcare #healthcarepodcast #healthcarebusiness #healthcarepolicy #healthinsurance #healthcaretechnology #healthcarefinance #caretalk #healthcareindustry #healthcarepolicy #tylenol #tiktokSupport the show⚙️CareTalk: Healthcare. Unfiltered. is produced by Grippi Media Digital Marketing Consulting.

Send us a textWill the $50 billion rural transformation fund save rural hospitals or hasten their demise?  In this episode of CareTalk, hosts David E. Williams and John Driscoll debate whether CMS’s plan to reshape rural healthcare can actually work.🎙️⚕️ABOUT CARETALKCareTalk is a weekly podcast that provides an incisive, no B.S. view of the US healthcare industry. Join co-hosts John Driscoll (President U.S. Healthcare and EVP, Walgreens Boots Alliance) and David Williams (President, Health Business Group) as they debate the latest in US healthcare news, business and policy. GET IN TOUCHFollow CareTalk on LinkedInBecome a CareTalk sponsorGuest appearance requestsVisit us on the webSubscribe to the CareTalk NewsletterSupport the show⚙️CareTalk: Healthcare. Unfiltered. is produced by Grippi Media Digital Marketing Consulting.

Send us a textThe digital front door to healthcare is jammed, and it’s costing patients, providers, and payers alike.In this episode of CareTalk Executive Features, host David Williams talks with Dr. Ashish Mandavia, CEO and cofounder of Sohar Health, about how AI and automation can transform eligibility and benefits verification from a frustrating bottleneck into a seamless, real-time process. 🎙️⚕️ABOUT DR. ASHISH MANDAVIADr. Ashish Mandavia is the Co-Founder and CEO of Sohar Health, an AI-powered platform transforming front-end revenue cycle management (RCM) for digital health providers. In his role, Dr. Mandavia is responsible for setting the company’s strategic vision, overseeing execution across products, operations, and partnerships, and ensuring Sohar’s solutions address critical gaps in healthcare administration. With a strong background as a practicing psychiatrist and health tech executive, he leads Sohar’s mission to simplify the insurance verification process, an often-overlooked source of friction for patients and providers.Under his leadership, Sohar Health has developed a proprietary API-based system that delivers real-time insurance eligibility and benefits data with 99% accuracy and sub-30-second processing speeds. This makes the patient intake process almost instant, when it used to take hours or days to complete manually. Dr. Mandavia is deeply involved in client success, innovation, and thought leadership, frequently representing the company at industry summits and guiding its efforts to support digital-first care delivery models. His responsibilities also include talent development and investor engagement, particularly as Sohar scales its partnerships with major behavioral health providers like ZocDoc, Talkiatry, Rula, Cerebral, and UpLift.Dr. Mandavia’s vision centers on building a smarter, more transparent “digital front door” to healthcare, starting with benefits verification. He believes the patient journey begins with financial clarity and uses AI to eliminate administrative burdens so providers can focus on delivering quality care. Through Sohar, he is pioneering how automation can improve access, reduce denials, and enable more sustainable behavioral health operations.🎙️⚕️ABOUT CARETALKCareTalk is a weekly podcast that provides an incisive, no B.S. view of the US healthcare industry. Join co-hosts John Driscoll (President U.S. Healthcare and EVP, Walgreens Boots Alliance) and David Williams (President, Health Business Group) as they debate the latest in US healthcare news, business and policy. GET IN TOUCHFollow CareTalk on LinkedInBecome a CareTalk sponsorGuest appearance requestsVisit us on the webSubscribe to the CareTalk NewsletterSupport the show⚙️CareTalk: Healthcare. Unfiltered. is produced by Grippi Media Digital Marketing Consulting.

Send us a textMedicaid covers nearly 90 million Americans, but coverage doesn’t always equal health.What if the real driver of outcomes isn’t the doctor’s office or an app, but the communityitself?In this episode of CareTalk Executive Features, WiderCircle co-founder and CEO Darin Buxbaum joins David Williams to share how peer-led circles and community engagement are improving health outcomes, boosting member trust, and delivering value for health plans.🎙️⚕️ABOUT DARIN BUXBAUMDarin Buxbaum is the co-founder and CEO of Wider Circle. Previously, he was Co-founder and Vice President of Product at Oration, an insurance tech company, enabling self-insured employers major reductions in prescription drug spending. He also founded HourGlass Technologies, where he served as president and CEO for more than 5 years, and also drove the development of a new medical-device technology.He was recognized as one of the Top 40 Innovators Under 40 in the Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry. Darin graduated Summa Cum Laude from Duke University and earned an MBA from Stanford University. Darin remains active with Stanford as a contributor and mentor to the BioDesign course and textbook.🎙️⚕️ABOUT CARETALKCareTalk is a weekly podcast that provides an incisive, no B.S. view of the US healthcare industry. Join co-hosts John Driscoll (President U.S. Healthcare and EVP, Walgreens Boots Alliance) and David Williams (President, Health Business Group) as they debate the latest in US healthcare news, business and policy.GET IN TOUCHFollow CareTalk on LinkedInBecome a CareTalk sponsorGuest appearance requestsVisit us on the webSubscribe to the CareTalk NewsletterSupport the show⚙️CareTalk: Healthcare. Unfiltered. is produced by Grippi Media Digital Marketing Consulting.

Send us a textEvery 90 minutes, someone in the U.S. is diagnosed with ALS — a devastating disease that has long resisted conventional research and treatment efforts.In this episode of Caretalk, Tris Dyson, Founder and Managing Director of Challenge Works, joins host John Driscoll to discuss how prize-based innovation and crowdsourcing could unlock new breakthroughs. Dyson shares his personal journey, why shifting incentives matters, and how bold new models can spark hope for ALS patients and families worldwide.🎙️⚕️ABOUT TRIS DYSONTris has led Challenge Works from its origins as a Nesta experiment to being a global hub for expertise and insight on challenge prizes. His aim is to deliver challenge prizes that inspire and enable the development of high impact innovations  Before joining Nesta, Tris co-founded and led the social enterprise Tempo and was included in the first cohort of the Observer’s New Radicals. Tris has also run a Welsh university think tank, founded a social sector consultancy and was a Teach First Geography teacher complete with corduroy jacket.In 2012 Tris was included on the Independent on Sunday’s ‘Happy List’ the alternative to the Sunday Times Rich List. Tris would rather be on the other list.🎙️⚕️ABOUT CARETALKCareTalk is a weekly podcast that provides an incisive, no B.S. view of the US healthcare industry. Join co-hosts John Driscoll (President U.S. Healthcare and EVP, Walgreens Boots Alliance) and David Williams (President, Health Business Group) as they debate the latest in US healthcare news, business and policy. GET IN TOUCHFollow CareTalk on LinkedInBecome a CareTalk sponsorGuest appearance requestsVisit us on the webSubscribe to the CareTalk NewsletterSupport the show⚙️CareTalk: Healthcare. Unfiltered. is produced by Grippi Media Digital Marketing Consulting.

Send us a textHealthcare sits on mountains of valuable data, but compliance bottlenecks prevent organizations from unlocking its potential.In this Executive Feature episode of Caretalk, Shubh Sinha, CEO and co-founder of Integral, explains how his company is changing that by treating data infrastructure and compliance as one unified system rather than separate processes.🎙️⚕️ABOUT SHUBH SINHAShubh Sinha is CEO and Co-founder of Integral Privacy Technologies, where he's reimagining enterprise data infrastructure by unifying what was traditionally fragmented - the data stack and compliance stack. Under his leadership, Integral has pioneered a platform that certifies, transforms, and activates privacy-regulated data in hours—not months. This transparency-first philosophy has earned trust from top 5 pharma companies and Fortune 500 leaders who now process sensitive data at speeds that weren't possible before. Previously, Shubh led product management for LiveRamp's regulated data analysis, served as an angel investor in AI and health SaaS, and is a Forbes Technology Council member. At Integral, he champions the belief that intelligent software can conjoin what humans traditionally couldn't - making privacy-compliant innovation actually achievable at enterprise scale.Integral Privacy Technologies is reimagining enterprise data infrastructure. We've unified what was traditionally fragmented - the data stack and compliance stack - into a single, intelligent platform. While others build compliance tools, we're building compliant-first data infrastructure that processes sensitive healthcare and consumer data at speeds that weren't possible before. Our AI-powered privacy engine doesn't just check boxes; it understands your specific use cases, data types, and regulatory environment to make smarter compliance decisions automatically. Fortune 500 leaders trust us because we deliver wild performance gains: 10x faster media log processing, dramatically reduced time-to-insight for HEOR use cases, and seamless unstructured data harmonization.See your data's privacy transformation before committing a dollar on data with our Remediation Preview at www.useintegral.com🎙️⚕️ABOUT CARETALKCareTalk is a weekly podcast that provides an incisive, no B.S. view of the US healthcare industry. Join co-hosts John Driscoll (President U.S. Healthcare and EVP, Walgreens Boots Alliance) and David Williams (President, Health Business Group) as they debate the latest in US healthcare news, business and policy. GET IN TOUCHFollow CareTalk on LinkedInBecome a CareTalk sponsorGuest appearance requestsVisit us on the webSubscribe to the CareTalk NewsletterSupport the show⚙️CareTalk: Healthcare. Unfiltered. is produced by Grippi Media Digital Marketing Consulting.

Send us a textHave you ever had your health plan deny a treatment that your doctor says you need? Well, you're not alone. But there's good news: People who appeal insurance denials often win. In this episode of CareTalk Podcast: Healthcare. Unfiltered., hosts John Driscoll and David E. Williams dig into the history of prior authorization, why denials are so common, and what patients can do to fight back.🎙️⚕️ABOUT CARETALKCareTalk is a weekly podcast that provides an incisive, no B.S. view of the US healthcare industry. Join co-hosts John Driscoll (President U.S. Healthcare and EVP, Walgreens Boots Alliance) and David Williams (President, Health Business Group) as they debate the latest in US healthcare news, business and policy. GET IN TOUCHFollow CareTalk on LinkedInBecome a CareTalk sponsorGuest appearance requestsVisit us on the webSubscribe to the CareTalk NewsletterSupport the show⚙️CareTalk: Healthcare. Unfiltered. is produced by Grippi Media Digital Marketing Consulting.

Send us a textAccess to healthcare in the U.S. is broken, with millions forced to choose between essential needs and seeing a doctor. Traditional clinics are too costly to scale, and telemedicine has hit adoption limits. In this episode of CareTalk, John Driscoll sits down with Karthik Ganesh, CEO of OnMed, to discuss how OnMed’s “clinic in a box” is expanding access to care. Ganesh shares his journey across healthcare, why access has always been his passion, and how OnMed’s innovative care stations blend the trust of in-person visits with the scalability of telemedicine to address one of the nation’s most pressing healthcare challenges.🎙️⚕️ABOUT KARTHIK GANESHKarthik is drawn toward companies that want to challenge the status quo. With a focus on tech-enabled healthcare services, he's built and transformed companies, delivered market-leading results, created significant enterprise and investor value, developed high-performing teams, and driven meaningful M&A transactions with strategic investors and private equity.He's had the privilege of touching our healthcare ecosystem from most angles including payers (Aetna, Cigna), PBMs (EmpiRx Health, Express Scripts), provider-sponsored plans + ACOs + value-based care (QualCare, CareAllies), consulting (EY, Deloitte)...and now OnMed.Making healthcare more accessible is a hugely important purpose that drew Karthik to OnMed. He is the CEO of OnMed, a tech-enabled hybrid care company that is partnering with public and private organizations to reimagine healthcare access in underserved communities across America. OnMed was the top pick at CES 2025 and is a 2025 Inc. 5000 company.A prolific writer and speaker on healthcare, leadership, and resilience, Karthik has been featured in leading industry journals and podcasts. He is also the author of The Happiness Model: A Roadmap to Inner Peace.🎙️⚕️ABOUT CARETALKCareTalk is a weekly podcast that provides an incisive, no B.S. view of the US healthcare industry. Join co-hosts John Driscoll (President U.S. Healthcare and EVP, Walgreens Boots Alliance) and David Williams (President, Health Business Group) as they debate the latest in US healthcare news, business and policy. GET IN TOUCHFollow CareTalk on LinkedInBecome a CareTalk sponsorGuest appearance requestsVisit us on the webSubscribe to the CareTalk NewsletterSupport the show⚙️CareTalk: Healthcare. Unfiltered. is produced by Grippi Media Digital Marketing Consulting.