Meet the Team

Pramod John

CEO

Prior to VIVIO Health, Pramod was founder of Oration PBC which changed the way consumers purchase prescription medications by capturing the prescription in the physician’s office and providing all the pricing options and routing automatically. Pramod was also VP of Strategy and Innovation at McKesson where he helped develop solutions that leveraged advanced technologies and business process improvements to optimize healthcare delivery systems, infrastructure and supply chains. Earlier, he founded and served as CEO of PacketMotion, a venture-funded startup in network space which was acquired by VMWare. In addition, he also founded netExaminer.com, a managed-vulnerability assessment company acquired by SonicWALL (acquired by Dell).

Pramod earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He serves on the Boards of Mission Aviation Fellowship, a global relief organization and 3 Crosses Church in Castro Valley, CA. He also is an advisor to Folia Water and mentor at StartX.

T. J. Tedesco

VP, Customer Experience

Before VIVIO, T. J. founded and for two decades led a user experience agency primarily serving the healthcare industry. He also is a cofounder of a healthcare IT accelerator exclusively serving early-stage health tech companies. Earlier, he served in direct sales and marketing management roles for several companies.  He started his career in corporate finance with a Fortune 100 tech company.

T. J. has a BA from Grinnell College and an MBA from Northeastern University. He’s a founding board member of The Build Haiti Foundation and when not living the VIVIO life, he can often be found on a local hockey rink.

Mike Reisler

VP, Finance & Operations

Prior to VIVIO Health, Mike was VP Finance/CFO for a number of startups across the healthcare IT, smart grid and network security spaces. These included Oration PBC (acquired by PokitDok), Grid Net, Star Analytics, PacketMotion (acquired by VMWare) and RedCreek Communications (acquired by SonicWALL). Before these, Mike spent more than 14 years in Corporate Finance with KLA-Tencor and Amdahl Corporation.

Mike holds an MBA from the University of Maryland and a BA in Economics from Wheaton College. He serves as Treasurer on the Board of TCV Food Bank in Fremont, CA.

Bryan Birch

Board Director

As Managing Partner of Westport Healthcare Advisory Group, Bryan currently advises payers, health care organizations, money managers and private equity firms. Bryan was most recently Chairman, President and CEO of Truveris, an HCIT company, where he created the company’s three business units, Pharmacy Claims Management, Pharmaceutical Couponing and OneRx.

Prior, he was Chairman and CEO of Touchstone Health and President and CEO of Medco Health Solutions’ $15B Employer Account division and helped take it public. Bryan has also held executive leadership positions at Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, taking them public from a non-profit, and Oxford Health Plans, where he ran corporate provider contracting and was CEO of the CT Division. Bryan was co-founder of iHealth Technologies, which merged with Connelly to form Cotiviti, a public company.

David Grizzle

Board Chair

David is a data-driven, process improvement expert focused on creating better user experiences. He was COO of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization where he led 33,000 controllers, technicians, engineers and support personnel who are responsible for keeping air traffic moving safely and efficiently. David also served as the FAA’s Chief Counsel and Acting Deputy Administrator.

Earlier, David served Continental Airlines and its affiliates for 22 years, retiring as SVP of Customer Experience. Through a data-driven constant quality improvement process, he led Continental to address persistent deficits in product delivery to improve the total travel experience for Continental customers. In 2004, he served the U.S. Department of State in Kabul, Afghanistan, as Attaché, Senior Advisor and Coordinator for Transportation and Infrastructure.

Thomas Morrow, MD

Chief Medical Officer

Tom has thirty-six years experience as an assistant professor of medicine, clinician, managed care executive, biopharmaceutical medical director and healthcare writer for Uniformed Services University, Anthem (Community Mutual Ohio), Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, Great-West Healthcare (now part of Cigna), Genentech and others. As VIVIO Health’s Chief Medical Officer, Tom advocates for outcome-improving innovations in drug adherence.

Tom is a sought-after speaker and has given hundreds of lectures on topics including pharmacy management, medical management, disease management, specialty pharmacy, genomics and biotechnology. He has authored nearly 300 publications in a variety of peer and trade journals and has been a major contributor to a textbook on managed care. He writes the provocative monthly column, Tomorrow’s Medicine, for Managed Care, a print and online magazine widely read by health-plan executives and physicians.

Kevin Knopf, MD

Director of Clinical Innovation

Kevin is a practicing clinical hematologist/oncologist with an extensive background in health services research, pharmacoeconomic and data modeling.  His research focuses on large-scale data analytics (“big data”) patterns and quality of care in oncology, health disparities in cancer screening, diagnosis, treatment and cost-effectiveness in cancer care.

Kevin holds clinical faculty positions at Dartmouth Medical School and the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and was formerly adjunct faculty at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center. He has been a co-investigator on numerous clinical trials and is former director of clinical research at the Annapolis Oncology Center.  He is author of more than 40 papers, 5 book chapters and 100 abstracts related to cost-effectiveness and quality of care in hematology and oncology.

Bhargav Raman, MD

Medical Director, Clinicals

Bhargav is a practicing radiologist and computer scientist with extensive experience in healthcare informatics and economics. He started his career in image processing and computer-aided diagnosis and quantitation in radiology while still in high school with many peer-reviewed articles since. He has worked in an array of public and private settings including a new imaging center in San Jose focusing on patient-centered radiology. More recently, he has worked with a variety of Silicon Valley startup companies in the pharmaceutical, insurance and health services spaces, such as Oration and Carrum Health, with responsibilities ranging from product development to patient education.

Bhargav has bachelors’ degrees in Biological Sciences and Computer Science as well as an MD with a concentration in Biomedical Informatics all from Stanford University.

Sara Nakhla, PharmD

pharmacotherapy and drug education

Advisor, Pharmacotherapy

Sara is a practicing clinical pharmacist and a clinical director for a leading telemedicine company. Her primary focus is on improving medication safety, adherence, health promotion, and disease prevention through pharmacotherapy while using technology to improve patient quality care.

Before telemedicine, Sara was a lead geriatric and palliative care clinical pharmacist focusing on medication therapy management, self-care, and improving clinical outcomes for patients with various chronic diseases. She is a speaker at medical centers and health tech conferences advocating for customized patient-centric pharmacy solutions. Sara understands the challenges presented in today’s pharmacy distribution services and bridges the gap between healthcare information and therapy decision solutions.

Jinoos Yazdany, MD

Advisor, Rheumatology

Jinoos is a practicing clinical rheumatologist with an extensive background in health services research, data analytics and health care quality measurement. Her research focuses on large-scale data analytics to examine the quality, cost, and disparities in health care for people with autoimmune conditions.

Jinoos holds a faculty position at the University of California, San Francisco, where she co-directs the Lupus Clinic and the Rheumatology Quality and Informatics Lab. She has served as co-Chair of the American College of Rheumatology’s (ACR) Quality Measures Subcommittee and on the ACR’s Quality of Care Committee. She is currently Chair of the ACR’s National Registry Research and Publications Committee and serves on the National Quality Forum’s Health Professionals Council.

Christine Thorburn, MD

Advisor, Rheumatology

Christine is a practicing clinical rheumatologist and Medical Director for the Research Institute at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. Her research interests have been in clinical epidemiology of rheumatology illness. Her clinical passion is in the development of true value-based care for patients from the patient and clinician perspective. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Palo Alto Foundation Medical Group.

Christine has a side passion for road cycling, which she took seriously enough to qualify for and compete for the United States Olympic teams in 2004 and 2008.

Sanjaya Kumar, MD

Advisor, Patient Safety

Dr. Kumar is founder and former President of Quantros, a leading patient safety and quality software company.

After exit, he started Synepta Group, an accelerator for health technology start-ups where he serves as Managing Director.  Synepta complements the executive leadership of companies under management and provides strategic and tactical guidance to scale operations and growth.  Companies under Synepta management provide services in patient engagement, policy management, chronic condition monitoring and other healthcare areas.

Sally Welborn

Fmr SVP Global Benefits, Walmart

Sally is an expert in payer/employer solutions that improve healthcare quality, lower costs and reduce inappropriate care. She was SVP, Global Benefits for Walmart, where she oversaw benefits programs for 2.2 million associates and their families. Prior, she was SVP, Corporate Benefits for Wells Fargo. Sally serves as Board Director for The Leapfrog Group and as Board Advisor for the Penn Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics. She has served as Chair of the Board of Directors for the ERISA Industry Committee, on the boards of the National Business Group on Health and the Pacific Business Group on Health, and on the Guiding Committee of the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network launched by HHS.

Bob Kueppers

Fmr Vice Chair & Deputy CEO, Deloitte

A prominent regulatory expert, Bob has significant relationships with the SEC, PCAOB, Treasury, as well as both Committees and Members of Congress. Bob’s clients have included Fortune 100 companies Boeing, General Motors, Best Buy, and Dow Chemical. He spent 39-years with Deloitte, serving as Deloitte’s Deputy CEO, and Vice Chairman.

Thomas L. Kelly

Former CEO, HealthSmart

Tom was CEO of HealthSmart, the largest independent administrator of health benefits. Under his leadership, HealthSmart introduced the first integrated approach to incentivizing selection of lower cost healthcare services. Earlier, Tom served as Head of Medicaid for Aetna and CEO of Schaller Anderson. During his time at Aetna/Schiller Anderson, Medicaid enrollment tripled and the company entered seven new state markets. Before this, Tom was EVP and CFO of Davita, founder and CEO of Mercy Health Plans and partner and National Director of Healthcare Services at KPMG. He currently serves on the boards of Fidelis Care New York, Covenant Health, Welvie, FOCoS Innovations, DoctorGlobe and Discovery Triangle.

Nicole Thurman

VP Talent Management, CHG Healthcare

At CHG, Nicole is responsible for employee development, foundational training, performance management, leadership development, two benefit programs, 401k, worker’s compensation, wellness, onsite clinics, onsite health coaching, financial education, HR technology, and HR compliance.

As seen in Forbes, Nicole “first began seeing specialty drugs on her claims report about three years ago, after the FDA approved medications to cure Hepatitis C. and treat Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, HIV, and other conditions, with price tags ranging from $3,000 to $30,000 a month. The dollar amounts started escalating, but they accepted it.  ‘We assumed we don’t really have any choice,’ said Thurman. ‘People need these drugs. We want to help our people.’ ”

Mike Adams

VP Benefits & HR Systems, Dean Foods

Mike is Vice President, Benefits and Human Resource Systems for Dean Foods. Previously, he was Director, Benefits Consulting Practice for PwC, before that Vice President Global Benefits, HRIS & Mobility for Travelport, and before that Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer for Baylor Health Care System.

Mike is a transformative, strategic leader with deep experience in technology, healthcare, banking, energy services, and consumer packaged goods sectors. Key competencies include benefit plan financial, governance and liability management, global health and welfare strategy, retirement plan strategy, pension de-risking, population health management, M&A due diligence, plan integration/harmonization, cost control and regulatory compliance.

Ted Tussing

Fmr Dir., Corp. Relations & New Ventures, Stanford University

Ted is former Director for Corporate Relations and New Ventures at Stanford University Medical Center and the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign. Serving more than 25 years at Stanford University and the University of Chicago, Ted has extensive experience developing strategies and partnerships with corporate enterprises, venture investors and entrepreneurs that accelerate the translation of solutions to improve health and medical practice, care delivery and research.

Ted is an adviser, investor and board member for early-stage technology ventures. He serves as an associate of TriVentures (Menlo Park, CA), a business development adviser to Roam Analytics (San Mateo, CA), ViiV Healthcare (London, UK) and LifeLink AI (Oakland, CA) and a member of the Center for Innovation in Global Health Advisory Council at Stanford University.

Cathy Cather

Healthcare Product Innovator

As a product innovation and program development expert, Cathy works with healthcare companies to bring new products to market for employers, consumers, physicians and hospitals. Formerly an executive with UnitedHealth Group and co-leader of Towers Watson Health Care Strategy Practice, Cathy also created and served on the boards of the Integrated Benefits Institute and the Disability Management Employer Coalition.

Lee Lewis

Managing Director, Gallagher Innovation Lab

Lee is an innovator and strategist helping large, national, self-funded employers save millions on healthcare through leading practices, vendor partnerships and member engagement.

Lee pioneers methods around the convergence of digital health, medical consumerism, biomedical supercomputing and system reengineering.