Oura taps Tom Hale as CEO and more digital health hires
Oura, maker of a wearable health-tracking ring, tapped Tom Hale as the company’s new CEO.
The wearable startup touted Hale’s track record of taking companies to an initial public offering. Hale was previously president of SurveyMonkey owner Momentive, which held its IPO in 2018. Oura’s previous CEO, Harpreet Singh Rai, announced he was stepping down from his post in December.
“ŌURA answers an urgent need: More than ever, people are focused on physical and mental health, looking to build positive habits and improve their well-being,” Hale said in a statement.
“By starting with sleep as the foundation of overall health, the passionate team at ŌURA has created an extraordinarily elegant solution to enable anyone to take charge of their health, all in one small, yet highly advanced ring. I’m thrilled to join the team at ŌURA as we bring positive health impact to millions of lives, leveraging our strength in sleep to reach our full vision of supporting members in every aspect of life, including recovery, activity, and proactive health management.”
Though the company released few details, earlier this month Oura said an “oversubscribed” funding round bumped its valuation to $2.55 billion. It launched the latest version of its ring wearable, the Generation 3, in October.
Mental health benefits startup Spring Health has appointed Todd Hill as senior vice president of payer strategy.
Hill most recently served as head of payer and provider partnership at digital mental health company Headspace Health. He’s also worked at Evolent Health and Blue Cross Blue Shield NC.
Just last week, Spring announced it had hired two new leadership team members, Karishma Patel Buford as chief people officer and Candice Schaefer as head of employee health and performance. The company scooped up $190 million in Series C funding in September.
“Todd is an accomplished executive with a unique blend of experience on both the payer and provider side, specifically in behavioral health and value-based care,” CEO and cofounder April Koh said in a statement. “He is well-positioned to lead Spring Health’s efforts to bring precision mental health to health plans, in support of their goal of providing care that is accessible, outcome driven, cost-effective and meets the evolving needs of their members.”
Virtual care company Teladoc Health tapped Dr. Vidya Raman-Tangella to serve as chief medical officer.
Raman-Tangella comes to Teladoc from Amazon Web Services, where she worked as general manager of healthcare and life sciences solutions. At Teladoc, she’ll focus on health equity, evidence and best practices, and training physicians.
“We are excited to welcome Vidya to the Teladoc Health team to lead our enterprise clinical strategy, policy and quality efforts and partner with our engineering and product teams to pursue innovation that drives better health outcomes,” Teladoc CEO Jason Gorevic said in a statement.
“Her background as a physician combined with her expertise and belief in the power of data to treat, cure and save lives make Vidya the perfect leader for our clinical vision and to further our mission to deliver the best-possible care when and where it’s needed.”
Earlier this year, Teladoc launched its own chronic care management program.
Healthcare software company WellSky has hired Dale Zurbay as chief growth officer.
Zurbay most recently worked as senior vice president of sales for healthcare at Nuance Communications, a conversational AI company that was recently acquired by Microsoft.
“Dale is an exceptional leader with a demonstrated track record of achievement across diversified healthcare markets,” WellSky president and CEO Bill Miller said in a statement.
“This addition to our team, paired with our upcoming world headquarters expansion, is validation of the tremendous work our teammates do every day and the increasing demand for our cutting-edge solutions. I am confident we will further accelerate the growth of our business under Dale’s leadership, and I look forward to working with him as we extend our market-leading position.”
In February, WellSky announced plans to acquire patient engagement company TapCloud, which provides an app that lets patients communicate with clinicians and record their symptoms. Last year, it scooped up social determinants of health-focused Healthify.
