Duke Health Sector Advisory Council

Marion Everett Couch, MD, PhD, MBA

Role: Speaker

Marion Everett Couch, MD, PhD, MBA

CEO

Intovalue LLC

Marion brings a unique perspective to improving health care. Currently, Marion serves as CEO at Intovalue LLC, a company committed to helping employers and medical groups move towards paying for value in healthcare. Prior to this role, she was the Senior Vice President of Health Care Services and the Chief Medical Officer at Cambia Health Solutions which administers the Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) health insurance plans that span four states and serves 3.1 million members. She led medical strategy for all of Cambia and provided executive operational leadership for all the Regence BCBS plans.

Prior to this role, Marion was the Senior Medical Advisor (career) in the Office of the Administrator at the CMS in Washington, DC. She reported directly to the Administrator to work on policy creation, improvements in quality programs, and national coverage decisions. Marion was also involved in developing value-based payment models in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI).

She began her career as a faculty member at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Marion has previously served as the Chair of the Board for a large academic medical group practice. She has been a physician executive in two large medical groups, the Chair of two surgical departments, Surgeon-in-Chief at an academic medical center, and President of two national professional medical societies. Marion is a trained surgeon who completed her residency training was at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Her MBA degree is from the Duke University Fuqua Business School. She is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Duke University School of Medicine.

Elisabeth DelGrosso, MBA

Vice President, Strategy, Partnerships & Product

CareAllies

Elisabeth DelGrosso leads Strategy and Product for CareAllies, a Cigna company that focuses on helping providers on their journey to Value-Based Care (VBC) across all health plan lines of business. In this role, she has oversight for overall strategic direction and Enterprise partnerships for all CareAllies business areas as well as the packaging and positioning of its client service offerings. Elisabeth joined CareAllies in 2017 shortly after it was founded and has been instrumental in shaping the organization into its current state and future direction, particularly leading alignment of its strategy with Cigna Enterprise needs, provider client-facing strategic initiatives such as formation of strategic alliances and joint ventures, as well the build out of key functions and corresponding teams to create organizational strategy and operational readiness for growth.

Prior to joining CareAllies, Elisabeth served as Chief of Staff to the President of the Client Organization at athenahealth during its post-IPO rapid growth period. As Chief of Staff, she led the internal strategy, planning, and management of that growth for the client-facing division that encompassed sales, account management, customer support, and implementations. She began her career in strategy consulting for providers, primarily focused on national and regional mergers and acquisitions, affiliation partnerships, strategic planning, and physician-hospital alignment.

Elisabeth holds a Master’s degree in business administration with a focus on Strategy and Health Sector Management (HSM) from Duke University and a Bachelors of Arts degree in Public Health Studies from Johns Hopkins University. She lives in the greater Princeton area of New Jersey and is a Duke-UNC house divided with her husband, who is a Tar Heel, and two young sons, who she plans to be Duke fans!

Jeremy Petranka, PhD

Senior Associate Dean for Executive MBA and Quantitative Management Programs and Associate Professor of the Practice

Fuqua School of Business

Dr. Jeremy Petranka is the Senior Associate Dean for Executive MBA and Quantitative Management Programs and an Associate Professor of the Practice in the Fuqua School of Business. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from UNC Chapel Hill in 2009, and has since taught undergraduates and MBA students at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and UNC Chapel Hill.

Prior to his career in academia, Jeremy worked as a management consultant, working with multiple Fortune 100 companies to align their information technology with their business strategies, focusing heavily on the role of data within the organizations. His work now focuses on the intersection of business and academics, specifically targeting how economics informs managerial decision-making and business strategy.

Bimal R. Shah, MD, MBA, FACC, FAHA

Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder

Homeward

Bimal R. Shah is a nationally recognized cardiologist who was most recently the Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Homeward. Previously, Dr. Shah became the Chief Medical Officer at Teladoc (NYSE: TDOC) after its merger with Livongo Health (NASDAQ: LVGO). In these roles, he oversaw clinical product strategy, content, value and insight analytics, behavioral health strategy, clinical operations, quality and commercial enablement.

Prior to Livongo, he was the Chief Medical Officer for Emerging Technology and Informatics and Service Line Vice President for Life Sciences at Premier Inc., (NASDAQ: PINC) where he led the P&L across all aspects of strategy, sales, marketing, product management, and operations.

Prior to Premier, Dr. Shah served as an Assistant Professor in both the Department of Medicine and Fuqua School of Business at Duke University where he led numerous research programs in the areas of health services research, implementation science, clinical trials, and registry analyses as well as an administrative role as the Director of Quality for the Department of Medicine.

Dr. Shah graduated from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill with highest honors and earned both a MD and MBA from Duke University. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford University before finishing a general cardiology fellowship at Duke University.

He remains on faculty at Duke University and serves on the Board of Directors for Floreo and as a member of the Board of Visitors at the Duke University School of Nursing. He previously served on the Board of Visitors at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.

Bradford Hirsch, MD, MBA

Head of Product & Implementation

Verily

Bradford Hirsch leads product development and implementation at Verily, an Alphabet precision health company. In this role, he oversees the development and delivery of solutions to accelerate clinical research and improve care.

Dr. Hirsch joined Verily through its acquisition of SignalPath in 2021, a clinical trials technology solution, where he served as Co-Founder and CEO. Research sites and sponsors use SignalPath to run more efficient and effective clinical research studies, and under Dr. Hirsch’s leadership, it has been widely adopted by leading health systems.

Prior to SignalPath, he served as Senior Medical Director at Flatiron Health and was on the faculty at Duke University. He is a medical oncologist and has been a principal investigator, ensuring that his approach to reimagining clinical research and care delivery is driven by deep knowledge and experience.

Dr. Hirsch sits on the board of directors for Galvani Bioelectronics, a company developing therapies to treat chronic diseases through implant-based modulation of neural signals, and serves on multiple non profit boards such as the National Outdoor Leadership School, AT&T Performing Arts Center and the Parkland Hospital Foundation. He received his BA from the University of Pennsylvania, and his MD from UT Southwestern and his MBA from Duke University.

 

Lana Feng, PhD

Co-Founder and CEO

Huma.AI

Lana Feng is the Co-Founder and CEO of Huma.AI. She has led the company from inception to growth phase post series A, providing its generative AI platform to Pharma and life science companies to automate manual data curation and eliminate data bottlenecks in medical affairs, clinical development, RWE, and post-market surveillance.

Dr. Feng spent over 20 years in precision medicine. Dr. Feng, before founding Huma.Al, she came from Novartis Oncology Business Unit where she established international partnerships for their targeted cancer therapeutics programs. She joined Novartis through its acquisition of Genoptix. Dr. Feng built the BioPharma division at Genoptix, where she grew the business from zero to $45M in five years by forging alliances with pharmaceutical companies and providing companion diagnostics development for targeted cancer therapies. The division was instrumental in Genoptix’ acquisition by Novartis for $500M.

Blake Cameron, MD, MBI

Medical Director for the Digital Strategy Office

Duke University

Blake Cameron is an Associate Professor of Medicine, practicing nephrologist, and physician leader at Duke Health. He serves as Medical Director for the Digital Strategy Office of Duke University Health System, where he provides clinical leadership for the planning and execution of enterprise digital health programs. He additionally leads telehealth and digital access innovation for Private Diagnostic Clinic, the faculty physician practice of Duke Health, and serves on the board of managers for the Duke Connected Care ACO.

He earned his medical degree at Loma Linda University School of Medicine and a Master’s in Clinical Informatics from Oregon Health & Science University. He completed his Internal Medicine residency and Nephrology fellowship training at Duke University Medical Center. In his spare time, he enjoys mountain biking, reading and hiking with his family.

Jim Corum, MBA

Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer

Diana Health

Jim Corum is the Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Diana Health. He founded Diana Health to offer an innovative, health delivery model that improves patient outcomes, lowers cost, and enhances the patient experience in a segment that needs change.

Prior to Diana Health, Corum served as the lead business development officer for Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). Prior to VUMC, he held various roles in health care industry segments, including ambulatory surgery, physician practice acquisition and integration consulting; patient satisfaction, and managed care where he serviced in both business development and operational leadership capacities.

Corum has a Bachelor of Arts from Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky and a Master of Business Administration from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Patrick Jordan, MBA

CEO and Director

Mycovia Pharmaceuticals

Patrick Jordan is a pharmaceutical and private equity leader with a passion for advancing health care solutions and creating value in partnerships.

He is CEO and Director of Mycovia Pharmaceuticals which is developing a drug for women’s health. Jordan holds MBA and BA degrees from Duke University.

Megann Vaughn Watters, MBA

Vice President of New Ventures & Strategic Alliances

LabCorp

Megann Vaughn Watters is an experienced corporate development executive and investor with over 10 years of novel technology identification, partnership development, deal execution, alliance management, financial and strategic return, and venture-backed board experience within the health care industry.

As the Vice President of New Ventures & Strategic Alliances at Labcorp, she manages the Labcorp Venture Fund and leads the Corporate Development team tasked to identify, assess, and bring innovative science and technology to Labcorp through partnerships, such as equity investments, licensing, and strategic partnership opportunities.

Vaughn Watters previously held positions at the United States Patent and Trademark Office as a Patent Examiner for medical devices and Humacyte conducting tissue engineering research.
Vaughn Watters received her MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business and her BSE in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University Pratt School of Engineering.