THE BUSINESS OF HEALTH
Olin seizes fantastic opportunity to become the preeminent school in the business of health and an engine for innovation at WashU.
BY JILL YOUNG MILLER
FACULTY AND STUDENTS ENGAGE IN THE SPACE
Think back to the shortage of ventilators during the early waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. When some states critically needed ventilators, many of the machines sat idle in other states.
Durai Sundaramoorthi, a professor of practice in data analytics, and other Olin researchers decided to test algorithmic models to learn how hospitals could share ventilators. They based their study on real-time data during three weeks of the pandemic.
The model they created, which can be applied in future health emergencies, could have saved many lives.
“Even in places like New York, where there was high demand, we could have met 98% of the demand.”
— Durai Sundaramoorthi, Professor of Practice in Data Analytics
The team took home a 2024 Olin Award for its work. See page 48.
Students play a role in research as well. In the summer of 2020, for instance, Professor Peter Boumgarden and then-student Marshall Pollack partnered with the medical school’s faculty and its informatics group to evaluate resources in relation to COVID-19 cases. They modeled the surge in the use of hospital rooms so BJC HealthCare could better plan for times of exceptionally high demand.
“This was a meaningful and valuable experience, and I appreciated the opportunity to apply what I learned at WashU to support our community during such a critical time.”
—
Marshall Pollack, Project Leader, Boston Consulting Group
Pollack, who graduated with his MBA in 2021, said, “This experience I share with people interested in attending WashU.”
Salih Tutun, an Olin lecturer on data analytics and researcher on the ventilator project, was also on a team that created a mental health innovation named MDScan. It uses color imaging to identify 10 common mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety. Mental health professionals can use MDScan to screen patients and monitor their progress.
“The demand for mental health services is exploding around the globe,” Tutun said, and so is the demand for automated tools for screening, diagnosis, and monitoring. About 970 million people, nearly one in eight people globally, lived with mental disorders in 2019, according to the World Health Organization. The crisis has only deepened since the pandemic.
MDScan took the top award in 2023 at an international competition by the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers to showcase solutions to business or social problems. It beat competition from Amazon, Airbus, IBM, DHL, and others.
Durai Sundaramoorthi
The business school has long produced leaders in the health sector, and WashU enjoys an international reputation in health. The university is doubling down on its activities by founding a school of public health and enhancing its commercialization capabilities. Now, Olin is committed to expanding its strengths and leveraging WashU’s investments, regional partners, and distinguished alumni to positively impact one of the largest business sectors.
“Impact is at the heart of Olin’s research and education mission,” Dean Mike Mazzeo said. “We have an extraordinary opportunity to advance our mission by driving this key initiative in the business of health. Whether it’s training the next CMO, clearing the path to create a new medical product, or serving as a thought leader for industry, we have the chance to make lasting, meaningful change.”
Olin will make strategic investments in health across its educational programming, research, and commercialization efforts.
“I’m excited by the strategic direction Olin has set,” said Chancellor Andrew Martin. “Olin’s strategy reflects and advances our university’s top priorities. Olin has a proud history, and this next chapter in the school’s story will be a memorable one.”
Provost Beverly Wendland agrees. “With our university’s strategic plan, Here and Next, we aim to generate solutions to the deepest societal challenges,” Wendland said. “A business lens is essential to understanding problems and creating answers that are both scalable and sustainable. Olin’s plan will further advance our university’s commitment to driving impact.”
Olin faculty members have long studied how to improve the business of health and people’s outcomes. Longtime faculty member Bart Hamilton, the Robert Brookings Smith Distinguished Professor of Economics, Management, and Entrepreneurship, for instance, has studied the effects of insurance mandates on outcomes in infertility treatment markets, time-of-day effects on surgical outcomes, whether hospital consolidations harm patients, and the gender gap in National Institutes of Health grants. The list goes on.
“Health is intertwined with business and work and so forth, so Olin should engage in the health arena.”
— Bart Hamilton, Robert Brookings Smith Distinguished Professor of Economics, Management, and Entrepreneurship
In addition, many alumni have founded or operate businesses that focus on healthcare access, innovations, and the well-being of society.
Dr. Patrick Aguilar’s own professional journey taught him the value of business training for health leaders. Aguilar, EMBA 2020, is so excited about Olin’s plans that he’s left Chicago and has returned to Olin as a professor of practice and founding director of Olin’s health initiative.
“This is a great opportunity for Olin to leverage what it’s good at and improve things in an industry that sorely needs improvement.”
— Dr.
Patrick Aguilar, Founding Director, Olin Health Initiative
DRIVING SOLUTIONS TO U.S. DRUG SHORTAGES
Tony Sardella, the senior research advisor at Olin’s Center for Analytics and Business Insights (CABI), exposed the root causes of critical drug shortages in the United States with his research. Today, he’s working to restore domestic production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).
The pandemic highlighted the vulnerabilities of relying on overseas manufacturers, particularly in China and India. In 2021, Sardella founded the API Innovation Center (APIIC) in St. Louis after he conducted a study at Olin with alarming results.
“Our supply chain was quite fragile, and our health security was at risk. More than 80% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients for essential medicines had no U.S. manufacturing source.”
— Tony Sardella, Senior Research Advisor, Center for Analytics and Business Insights
“These are cardiovascular drugs, medicines for cancer, medicines for thyroid,” Sardella said. Of the top 100 generic drugs that Americans take, 83% have no API source in the U.S. “You end up with a very fragile system that can lead to drug shortages for patients.”
The center, in the Cortex Innovation District, is a nonprofit funded partly by the state of Missouri, the Missouri Technology Corporation, and the federal government. It’s working to build a robust domestic supply chain of pharmaceutical ingredients.
In September, APIIC announced it received $14 million from the U.S. Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response to lead the development and domestic production of three critical active pharmaceutical ingredients to treat asthma, diabetes, and anxiety disorders.
The center already has a significant chemotherapy drug — lomustine — in its pipeline. Lomustine treats glioblastoma, the most common and deadliest type of brain cancer. This year, the center selected the St. Louis-area firm Apertus Pharmaceuticals to manufacture it.
An economic analysis by CABI found that the APIIC-led effort could add $1.2 billion in regional economic impact over the next five years, based on estimated economic growth from reshoring the production of 25 APIs and the resulting generic drugs. It includes the direct effects of job creation as well as the ripple effects of those jobs throughout the regional economy.
Tony Sardella
OLIN ALUMNI LEAD BUSINESSES IN THE SPACE
Of course, many Olin alums are founders and leaders of health-related businesses.
For instance, Dr. Linda X. Wu, PMBA 2023, is a pediatrician and assistant professor at WashU Medicine. She’s cofounder and CEO of MiDoc Inc., a medical device startup that taps into the third dimension of telehealth: the physical exam.
She created MiDoc, a zip-on vest that can record and transmit real-time physical exam information from a patient at home, such as the sound of a patient’s heart and lungs. It can also transmit a complete medical-grade electrocardiogram to evaluate the electrical health of the heart. That data could show, for example, whether a patient is having a heart attack.
Dr. Eric C. Leuthardt is a neurosurgeon who’s chief of the Division of Neurotechnology at WashU Medicine. His research focuses on brain-computer interfaces and brain mapping, using engineering approaches to create diagnostics and treatments for brain tumors, stroke, chronic pain, and spinal cord injury. He has 578 patents with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and more than 1,000 pending.
Leuthardt, EMBA 2024, founded his first company, Neurolutions Inc., in 2008. It leverages brain-computer interface technology, and its first product, the IpsiHand System, is for upper extremity rehabilitation in chronic stroke patients.
“It’s a wearable headset and a robotic exoskeleton,” Leuthardt said. “When patients use it over a period of time, it induces a fundamental brain plasticity and change of brain networks that allows them to regain function of their hand.”
The FDA approved the device, and now it’s sold commercially. “The demand is massive because there are 300,000 to 400,000 patients who have a stroke every year,” Leuthardt said. “There are millions of people in the United States who have this problem. And it’s changing people’s lives.”
Leuthardt pursued his EMBA because he wanted to run his own companies. “In addition to inventing and creating, I like leading,” he said.
“Olin gave me the skills and the wherewithal and the confidence to lead, to be the CEO of my first company.”
— Dr. Eric Leuthardt, Chief of the Division of Neurotechnology, WashU Medicine
He started the neurotechnology company Aurenar Inc. in December 2023. It’s developing a noninvasive wearable, disposable device that can reduce inflammation in patients in intensive care, thereby improving their outcomes, he said.
A patient will be able to wear the device in an ear, which the device stimulates, activating the body’s naturally healing vagal nerve response. Leuthardt keeps a prototype on his desk at his office near his lab in the Cortex Innovation District.
Dr. Eric Leuthardt
Dr. Linda X. Wu
BETTER HEALTH INFORMATION
Nate Maslak ’s passion lies in cleaning up information about healthcare providers so people can quickly access the care they need. When people get sick, many visit their health plan’s website. “Unfortunately, the information on those sites is highly inaccurate,” Maslak, BSBA 2011, said. “Eighty percent of provider records for the top five plans have errors. So that’s a huge barrier to access to care.”
Maslak cofounded the company Ribbon Health in 2016 and is its CEO. It partners with health plans, primary care companies, and other organizations to solve the problem of fragmented and inaccurate data about doctors and other providers. Its platform manages information for healthcare enterprises, including insurance accepted, cost, quality, and experience.
In 2021, Ribbon Health landed a $43.5 million Series B investment, accelerating the company’s growth and scale. “Ultimately, Ribbon will become the connective tissue that allows patients to find the care they need across any touch point in the healthcare system,” Maslak said.
Maslak, who lives in New York City, said Olin gave him the tools to lead. He majored in economic strategy and healthcare management.
“It was a four-year holistic experience focused on ethical decision-making with supportive professors who really encouraged us to work together to make good data-driven and valuesbased decisions.”
— Nate Maslak, CEO, Ribbon Health
In 2023, Ribbon was recognized as the “Best Health Information Exchange Solution” by the MedTech Breakthrough Awards.
MORE ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE
After he completed his EMBA in 2020, Dr. Patrick Aguilar took a sharp career turn. He left his role as the director of medical critical care at the WashU School of Medicine to help the convenience store company QuikTrip Corp. expand into the healthcare market.
“I was attracted to the idea that I would be put in situations that physicians don’t normally get to do,” he said.
“I got to take the things that I had learned at Olin and level them up through practical application.”
— Patrick Aguilar, Founding Director, Olin Health Initiative
As chief medical officer for MedWise Urgent Care, which QuikTrip launched in September 2020 (during the pandemic), he spearheaded opening 13 urgent care clinics in northeastern Oklahoma.
“We created points of access for people who otherwise would have to wait a long time to see a primary care doctor for an urgent problem or try to go to the emergency room for care that wasn’t that serious,” he said. “What QuikTrip has done in the northeast Oklahoma region for increasing access to care is remarkable.”
Aguilar was chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Endeavor Health in the Chicago metro area until he started his new role at Olin Business School.
Dr. Patrick Aguilar
ADDRESSING THE PAIN POINT OF PAYING
Brian Whorley, PMBA 2012, created the company Paytient in 2018 to lessen the pain of paying out-of-pocket healthcare costs.
Based in Columbia, Missouri, Paytient improves the ability of people to self-pay for healthcare, making care more accessible and affordable for more people. Members use their Paytient card, referred to as a health payment account (HPA), to cover out-of-pocket costs over time with no interest or fees.
“The ability to pay for care is a social determinant of health.”
— Brian Whorley, CEO, Paytient
“The idea of Paytient was to provide people an effortless way to pay for care. The thesis was that if you enhance the ability of a population to pay for care, it causes healthcare to happen. Folks will get care. They’ll tend to get earlier care more often. And that is a net societal benefit for everyone,” he said.
Whorley said that HPAs are different from traditional health savings accounts because they can be used by anyone, regardless of their health insurance plan.
It’s a concept more Americans will soon experience thanks to the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan, Worley said. Beginning in January, Medicare Part D plans must give beneficiaries the option to pay eligible prescription drug costs over time.
“Paytient will be part of nearly 25 million Americans’ health care plans,” Whorley said. “It’s an incredible responsibility and affirmation of our mission to help people better access and afford care.”
The company is doing well. Since its launch, it has raised nearly $215 million in equity and debt financing, Whorley said.
GETTING THERE, FREE OF WORRY
What good is a doctor’s appointment if you can’t get there?
Alaina Macía, MBA 2002, is president and CEO of Medical Transportation Management Inc., a national leader in the healthcare transit industry. Based in St. Louis, MTM operates in all 50 states and provides people with 35 million rides a year.
The non-emergency medical transportation broker mainly serves Medicaid members, along with Medicare and Medicare Advantage members. Its client base also includes state and county governments, departments for aging, public transit agencies, community groups, and managed care organizations.
Getting people to medical appointments is only part of the battle to improve health outcomes, Macía said. Her vision is to ensure all sorts of services are available to people, including access to work, education, and social services.
“Everybody’s aware of the social determinants of health. And transportation is a key in SDOH,” she said. “Your healthcare outcomes are dictated by where you live, your access to fresh groceries, your ability to access quality healthcare, education, a good job. Safety as well. You can’t take for granted that you can go out and jog on the street in a nice neighborhood.”
Macía’s father, Lynn Griswold, and her stepmother, Peggy Griswold, founded the company in 1995 after they realized the difficulty that health plans and government organizations encountered with transportation services.
Brian Whorley
When Macía took the reins, she was 27, and the company’s annual revenue was $30 million. By 2005, she was MTM’s CEO. Today, its annual revenue is $1.75 billion.
“I was given the opportunity to learn on the job and make good decisions and make some not-so-great ones and learn from them and grow the business,” she said.
“Learning through the case study approach, working in team settings, working on financial modeling really gave me the toolkit to walk into this job and hit the ground running.”
—
Alaina
Macia, President and CEO, Medical Transportation Management Inc.
She credits Olin with preparing her for success and applauds its claim on the business of health. “It all ties together,” said Macía, who’s on WashU’s Board of Trustees. “I’m glad to hear that Olin is going down this path.”
Brian Whorley, CEO of Paytient, agrees.
“Olin prides itself on the ability of its graduates to imagine a world that doesn’t yet exist and to produce knowledge that changes the world.
Healthcare is an incredibly important space,” he said.
“There are all manners of ways in which we can help people live longer, happier, healthier lives.”
Alaina Macía