The Cambia Grove helps drive the development of new solutions for health care. The industry-specific hub has been convening the health care community for the past two years, providing a point of connection for Cascadia’s innovators and catalyzing action.

As a reflection of the Cambia Grove’s growing role, reputation and visibility in our community, Cambia Grove’s Co-founder and Executive Director, Nicole Bell, was recently selected to serve as one of five judges nationally at the Alexa Diabetes Challenge—an international competition looking for comprehensive solutions that use Alexa’s voice technology to improve the experience of those who have been newly diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.

“I’m excited to be a judge because of what this technology represents for our industry,” said Bell. “This concept is about engaging people where they’re at, using a technology with a very low barrier to entry to give them a way to manage their care on their own terms and in their own homes.”

Nicole recently sat down with the Cambia Grove’s Community Executive, David Shepard, for a brief conversation about what​ the honor of being selected as a judge means to her, the Cambia Grove and Cambia. You can listen to the pop-up podcast here (eight minutes in length).

The COVID-19 outbreak has also forced health care providers to rapidly change their long-established delivery models in order to tackle this sudden and widespread pandemic and keep patients safe. In this episode of HealthChangers, we’ll hear from two health care innovators who talk about how one company, Upfront Healthcare, pivoted to meet the demands of this new world of care, and how they think the coronavirus could impact health care over the long run.

Rob Coppedge is the CEO of Echo Health Ventures, an investment firm that seeks out and grows tomorrow’s great health care companies. And Ben Albert is co-founder of Upfront Healthcare, a company that has created a platform to personalize care navigation to efficiently engage all patients and improve health outcomes.

Until recently, there were 44 million caregivers in the United States. Now, in the midst of a global pandemic, we are all caregivers. Caregivers include medical teams, grocery workers, truck drivers and others - working to find balance, trying to perform at work, while not jeopardizing the care provided to their loved ones. In this episode of HealthChangers, we spoke with two people who are working to provide caregivers the support and recognition they need to perform well amid some of the most challenging conditions they’ll ever face.Peggy Maguire leads Cambia’s companywide palliative care and caregiver strategy, andAlex Drane is the co-founder of Archangels, a national movement recognizing and honoring caregivers.

As COVID-19, also known as coronavirus, continues to spread, so does its impact on the health of our communities. Barriers to food access have increased significantly as a result of the virus, as this public health crisis continues to leave millions of children, families and elderly adults at risk.

Last season on HealthChangers, we highlighted The Oregon Foodbank with our podcast Healthy Food, Healthy Communities. Forty-five million people in the United States live with food insecurity. That is one in every eight households, an especially sobering statistic during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 860,000 people rely on the Oregon Food Bank Network each year, and tens of thousands of additional families are expected to turn to their local food pantries, many for the first time, as a result of COVID-19.

We want to take a look back at this conversation with Susannah Morgan, CEO of the Oregon Food Bank on how the food bank is addressing our communities’ need for nutritious food today, while also creating a long-term solution to hunger.

When we or a loved one gets a new diagnosis or has a health-related question, we turn to the internet for information and advice. Our guest on HealthChangers today has been working to find new ways to connect people online with communities who share the same needs and concerns. Susannah Fox is a researcher and advisor to health and technology companies. She’s the former Chief Technology Officer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and she worked previously at the Pew Research Center.

Cambia’s partnership with ARCHANGELS is starting a national conversation about how we can better identify, thank and support caregivers. Because caregiving is such an individualized experience, we sat down with several Cambia employees who have served as caregivers to understand the highs, lows, and lessons learned from their journey.

In this episode, we talked with Georgann, who shares the experience of caring for her mom. One of her takeaways was how to support other caregivers in their time of need. “I’m there for them. I’m present,” said Georgann. “You don’t even have to speak or talk…just be there. Whatever that looks like.”

Welcome to Episode 1 of our New Special Edition Series of the HealthChangers Podcast – Powered by Innovation Force. This first episode is a conversation with Dr. Don Rucker, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology for the ONC. Dr. Rucker and Mohan discuss how the government is working to increase interoperability below and above the line that we draw as the possible.

In HealthChangers, Powered by Innovation Force, Cambia’s Chief Innovation Officer and SVP, Mohan Nair, sits down with industry leaders and influencers to explore the real stories behind health care innovation and transformation. You’ll hear thought leaders share their motivation for changing the way consumers experience health care and learn about the challenges they’ve faced.

Each year, over 40 million Americans of every age, gender, race and socioeconomic background serve as unpaid caregivers for their loved ones. The value these caregivers provide is incredible, but they can also face huge challenges as they navigate the health care journey.

 Cambia has partnered with ARCHANGELS in starting a national conversation about how we can better identify, thank and support caregivers. ARCHANGELS is a national movement creating a revolutionary caregiving culture. Alexandra Drane is the co-founder of ARCHANGELS, along with Engage with Grace and Eliza Corporation (among other companies), all rooted in a core belief that the definition of health should include “life.”

Listen to a conversation below between Alexandra and one of our employees, Thom, who is a caregiver.

There are more than 35 million people living with limb loss around the world. Luckily, advances in medicine, robotics, sensors and 3-D printing have transformed what’s possible for human mobility. In this episode of HealthChangers, we explore how human-centered design is helping to make health care better for those who live with limb loss. We’re joined by Erica Rife, the Managing Director for the Design Museum Foundation, a non-profit focused on educating the world about design.

In health care, we never know where the next great idea might come from. It might not even be from someone working in health care. It was in that spirit where the #WTFix-A-Thon, a social movement created by HealthSparq, was born. We’ve shared What-The-Fix before here on HealthChangers. HealthSparq holds #WTFix events where regular people with amazing stories teach the health care industry and offer solutions to pain points in their personal experiences. The What-The-Fix-Athon stemmed from that approach to gather solutions through a hackathon. The event took place at Techfest Northwest 2019 and was sponsored by Cambia company, HealthSparq, which is focused on helping people make smarter health care decisions.

In this episode of HealthChangers, we go live to the hackathon and talk to a group of students from coding schools in Portland, Oregon, who brought their personal stories and tech experience to design apps aimed at solving health care problems. There were four What-The-Fix-Athon teams. Each had 36 hours to investigate a health care problem and design a solution. With the help of judges, they refined their ideas and then presented them at TechFestNW’s Pitchfest.

A recent report from Cambia Grove found that the health care innovation economy in Utah is booming. We'll discuss what's made Utah so successful for both entrepreneurs and traditional health care systems in growing this economy, as well as opportunities to improve collaboration. Our guests are Maura Little, Executive Director of Cambia Grove, and Chris Klomp, CEO of Utah startup Collective Medical Technologies.

In this episode of HealthChangers, we are taking a closer look at what is being done to help address hunger in our own communities. We’re joined by Angela Dowling, the President of Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon and Susannah Morgan, CEO of the Oregon Food Bank.

The Oregon Food Bank is addressing our communities’ need for nutritious food today, while also creating a long-term solution to hunger. 

Time after time Americans have said their number one concern is health care. Especially the cost of health care. In this episode of HealthChangers, Cambia’s CEO and President, Mark Ganz interviewsMarcus Osborne, Walmart's vice president for health and wellness transformation. Both share a passion for making health care more consumer-centric.

Every day in the United States more than 130 people die from an opioid overdose. More people in the U.S. die from overdoses than car accidents. In this episode of HealthChangers, we talk with Dr. Jim Polo, the behavioral health medical director for Regence health plans, and Phil Caruso from Walgreens to take a closer look at the opioid crisis and what is being done to help address this epidemic in our own communities.

Two years ago, we launched the HealthChangers Podcast. Our goal was to spotlight the challenges facing health care today and the innovations and innovators that are changing the health care landscape. To mark our two-year anniversary, we are listening back to three listener favorites, featuring people who are transforming health care.

In this episode of HealthChangers, we travel to Austin, Texas’ most famous Conference, South by Southwest (SXSW) to speak with Cambia Health Foundation President, Peggy Maguire, and two palliative care leaders about the opportunities for working together towards an inclusive approach that makes palliative care more understandable and accessible for people and families across the age spectrum.

In this episode of HealthChangers, we listen to a fireside chat with Peggy Maguire, President of the Cambia Health Foundation, and author and commentator Courtney E. Martin, at the recent 2018 End Well Symposium. This powerful, one-day event brought together a diverse group of voices including actors, design, technology, policy, health care and activist communities, to explore and imagine how to live well during illness and near the end of life. The podcast begins with an introduction and a powerful appeal by Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider, physician, speaker and founder of “End Well,” to create a cultural shift that supports new collaborations, systems, protocols, and fosters new and existing networks of support to make the end of life more human-centered for all.

In this episode of HealthChangers, presented by Cambia, we bring part two of our panel discussion that brought together multiple perspectives on the topic of where – and how – technology meets health equity. Led by Cambia Health Foundation president and board chair, Peggy Maguire, and Catherine DesRoches, Executive Director of OpenNotes, this panel welcomes Dr. Joann Elmore, a professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Peggy Evans from Neighborcare Health, Josh Lemieux from OCHIN, Liz Salmi, Senior Strategist Outreach and Communications Director for OpenNotes andNancy Vukovic, Cambia Director of Consumer Experience.

In this episode of HealthChangers, presented by Cambia, we present a panel discussion that brings multiple perspectives together on the topic of where – and how – technology meets health equity.

There's a shift happening in many industries toward placing a greater focus on the consumer, but what if you're not sure who those consumers are and what they want or expect? That's where human-centered design comes in. It's an approach where businesses research consumer habits, expectations and experiences, and then use what they learned to improve their services and improve the way they interact with those consumers.

In this edition of HealthChangers, we'll be taking a look at one example of how human-centered design is playing out in health care. My guest is Nancy Vuckovic from Cambia Health Solutions. She shares consumer research and human-centered design principles and how they can change the way people experience health care.

You might have heard of Iron Chef, the popular cooking show where the competition is based on secret ingredients. The Iron Viz competition is like that, but with health care data. There’s often information buried within that data that can help in preventive care and in treating patients. But, the information is no use if people can’t access it or share it in an understandable way.

The visual software company ‘Tableau’ pioneered one way to tackle these issues. Teams at Iron Viz are given data and are tasked to create a “viz,” or visual, that can bring new insight to the data. Part of the idea is to have average people become a kind of “citizen data scientist.” Our guests in this episode of HealthChangers have brought this idea, and Iron Viz, to health care.

For nearly a decade, the federal government has been trying to find ways to make medical records more accessible for Medicare and Medicaid clients. The initiative is known as Blue Button. Earlier this year, that initiative introduced a new version of Blue Button—Blue Button 2.0. It's now easier for Medicare patients to access their health care data and also to share it.

To get a better idea of what this transparency could mean for health care consumers, we spoke with Allison Oelschlaeger, Chief Data Officer at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services with the federal government, and Meg Dryer, the Vice President of Consumer Experience at Cambia.

When Peggy Maguire’s father was diagnosed with lung cancer at 48 years old, it came as a complete shock to her family. They did everything they could to fight the disease, treating him with aggressive radiation and chemotherapy. However, they felt as if “his final days were very medical in nature” and felt residual guilt afterwards, wondering if there was something they could have done differently.

Peggy's experience has fueled her passion to improve awareness of what palliative care is and how it can change the way people living with serious illness - and their family caregivers - experience health care. In this interview with StoryCorps, Peggy shares her story with Dr. Tony Back from the University of Washington.

If you or someone you know is living with a chronic illness, it can feel like you never get a break. You have to track medications and monitor your symptoms, constantly worrying what will happen if you’re alone when a health crisis hits. There is, however, a platform that is working to change all this. Livongo Health is a company with a solution designed to empower people with chronic conditions, so they can live healthier and better lives. In this episode of HealthChangers, we have a conversation with Livongo Health's CEO Glen Tullman and ask him what the inspiration was behind Livongo, a company committed to helping people with chronic conditions and also an investment company of Echo Health Ventures.