Jun 3
2014
Dr. Danny Sands, MPH, FACP, Joins Conversa Health as Chief Medical Officer
Conversa Health, developer of the Digital Checkups platform that supports physician-patient collaboration, today named Dr. Danny Sands, MPH, FACP, as Chief Medical Officer. A well-known speaker and co-founder of the Society for Participatory Medicine, Dr. Sands is passionate about the opportunities to transform health care through non-visit-based care. He has spent over two decades improving care delivery by leveraging both patient-facing and provider clinical systems. He will report to Conversa Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer Dr. Phillip Marshall, MPH.
“With his extensive background and reputation, Danny is a high-octane addition to our team of well-known digital care experts,” Marshall said. “Danny speaks frequently on the importance of non-visit-based care and the use of patient-generated health data, both vital elements for effective population-based care,” Marshall added. “His leadership in the area of participatory medicine adds value to Conversa Health’s unique approach to doctor-patient collaboration.”
Conversa developed Digital Checkups that physicians can send to patients to find out how they are doing between office visits, using simple, precise, personalized questions. Patient-generated health data is then analyzed and displayed for physicians, enabling them to easily identify those patients requiring a clinical intervention. Unique among digital care solutions is Conversa’s proprietary taxonomy that creates longitudinal patient profiles, semantically parses clinical data and supports clinical algorithms. The platform delivers patient engagement with personalized reminders and alerts as part of a broader digital care plan, including video education delivered using patented video sequencing technology.
“There is an abundance of health technology startups today, but I was drawn to Conversa because of the important work they are doing to support doctor-patient collaboration,” Dr. Sands said. “Without a doubt, Conversa has the most experienced team working on solutions that leverage patient-generated health data. In the end, it’s all about helping patients stay on track through frequent light touches between visits.”
Dr. Sands has maintained a primary care practice for over 20 years at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Mass., where he helped develop the nation’s first patient portal, and developed and implemented clinical decision support systems and an electronic health record. Among other things, as Chief Medical Information Officer at Cisco, he consulted with leading companies on the use of teleconferencing for remote consultations and doctor-patient communication. He also holds an academic appointment at Harvard Medical School.
Since 2007, Dr. Sands has collaborated with his patient and noted healthcare transformation activist Dave deBronkart, aka “e-Patient Dave,” with whom he co-authored the book “Let Patients Help.” He is the recipient of numerous Health IT awards, has been elected to fellowship in both the American College of Physicians and the American College of Medical Informatics, and is a founder and co-chair of the board of the Society for Participatory Medicine. He is also the recipient of numerous healthcare honors, including recognition by Health Leaders Magazine in 2009 as one of “20 People Who Make Healthcare Better.”
Dr. Sands is a popular speaker, blogger (DrDannySands.com) and active Twitter contributor (@DrDannySands). He has earned degrees from Brown University, Ohio State University and Harvard School of Public Health.
About Conversa Health (conversahealth.com)
Conversa Health is addressing one of the largest gaps in care today: the lack of doctor-patient communication and collaboration between visits. Conversa’s cloud-based Digital Checkups platform drives continuous patient engagement by gathering, analyzing and managing real-time patient-generated health data (PGHD). The platform automates clinical outreach and monitoring of patient progress and outcomes, enabling the care team to focus on patients needing guidance and support. Conversa provides essential digital care capabilities for healthcare organizations needing to manage the health of their patient populations, meet increasing demand for services and adapt to rapidly changing payment models. The Conversa executive team brings decades of Health IT experience from Kaiser Permanente, WebMD, Healthline Networks and Press Ganey. It includes co-founders West Shell III (CEO) and Dr. Phil Marshall, MPH (Chief Product Officer); Anna-Lisa Silvestre, MPH (Chief Marketing Officer); and Dr. Danny Sands, MPH and FACP (Chief Medical Officer). Conversa’s distinguished advisory board consists of industry thought leaders and innovators, including Adam Bosworth (Salesforce, Google) Dr. Brad Bowman (WebMD, Healthgrades), Brad Lawson (StayWell), Dr. Chuck Kilo (Oregon Health & Science University), Ann Mond Johnson (ConnectedHealth) and Clare Martorana (WebMD). Conversa Health is privately held and based in San Francisco and Portland, Ore.