Health Tech: Sujay Jadhav Of Verana Health On How Their Technology Can Make An Important Impact On Our Overall Wellness

An Interview With David Leichner

Embrace Collaboration and Diversity: Building impactful technology requires diverse perspectives and collaboration. When developing our healthcare platform, we brought together leading medical societies, reputable medical professionals, technologists, and patients. Each stakeholder offers unique insights that shape our solution. Collaboration fosters innovation and ensures that technology meets real-world needs.

In recent years, Big Tech has gotten a bad rep. But of course, many tech companies are doing important work, making monumental positive changes to society, health, and the environment. To highlight these, we started a new interview series about “Technology Making An Important Positive Social Impact”. We are interviewing leaders of tech companies who are creating or have created a tech product that is helping to make a positive change in people’s lives or the environment. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sujay Jadhav.

Sujay Jadhav is the Chief Executive Officer at Verana Health, where he’s helping accelerate the company’s growth and sustainability by advancing real-world evidence and clinical trials capabilities, data-as-a-service offerings, medical society partnerships, and data enrichment. With more than 20 years of experience in the tech and healthcare sectors, including key roles at Oracle’s Health Sciences Business Unit and as CEO of goBalto, Jadhav has a proven record of driving innovation and growth. Holding an MBA from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering from the University of South Australia, Jadhav’s educational background complements his extensive experience, making him a leading figure in healthcare technology.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory and how you grew up?

Growing up in Australia offered a childhood ripe with adventures and an early peek into the healthcare world, courtesy of my father. As the son of a psychiatrist, my formative teen years were spent in a medical office earning minimum wage helping my father with bookkeeping and patient communications. I also received unsolicited (and unwarranted) mental health advice, which formed the basis of my resilience and stoic personality.

Despite my enthusiasm for Aussie-rules football, I quickly realized my strengths lay elsewhere. It was during my high school years that I discovered my love for engineering and computers, ignited by my enchantment with developing and playing games on the Apple IIe. This passion led me down the path of electronic engineering in college, where I also dedicated my weekends tinkering with automation at my father’s clinic. Looking back, the amalgamation of my childhood experiences working alongside my father, and my affinity for computers, laid the cornerstone of my enduring passion for digital health.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Straight out of college, I embarked on my professional journey as a telecom engineer with Singapore Telecom. Through an unexpected turn of events, I found myself elevated from a project engineer to the helm of a groundbreaking venture — the CEO of a new paging subsidiary in war-torn Cambodia. Navigating through the turbulent waters of political and economic instability, I orchestrated the construction of the infrastructure and a launch that outpaced competition by an impressive 12 weeks. At the age of 23, I found myself flanked by bodyguards 24/7, chauffeured in a bulletproof car, dealing with cartels and death threats, making it a career experience unlike any other.

Our commitment to innovation led to the development of the first Cambodian character pager, securing a dominant 90% market share in our first year. This experience was a masterclass in leadership, teaching me the importance of speed, innovation, and product superiority–principles that I’ve carried throughout my career.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Zack Rinat, CEO of Model N, has been a monumental figure in my professional development. Our paths crossed through a serendipitous introduction by my father-in-law, leading to my involvement in Model N in its first iteration as a multi-vertical platform startup in the height of the dotcom boom. What followed was 14 years of my second MBA under Zack. Zack imparted crucial lessons on startup success — fiscal discipline until you hit product market fit, relentless pursuit of customer satisfaction, extreme drive to win, and the art of market timing. Our roller coaster ride through multiple pivots, near death moments, and massive periods of expansion and contraction culminated in an exciting IPO roadshow followed by our momentous IPO in 2013. Zack’s mentorship has been priceless in my growth as an executive. Two decades later, Model N (MODN) is a Unicorn and continues to be a dominant market leader.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”?

“In life, as in business, focused resilience is not just a trait, it’s a strategy. Embrace challenges as catalysts for innovation, setbacks as stepping stones, and let the pursuit of excellence guide your leadership journey.”

Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

As the freshly appointed CEO of goBalto, an early-stage digital health startup grappling with a nebulous vision, my mandate was clear: orchestrate a turnaround. I honed our vision to focus on the highly inefficient early part of the clinical trial process. We revamped our product offerings to be the turbo tax of clinical trials and galvanized the entire organization around a singular pursuit of excellence. Every sales hurdle and competitive setback became an opportunity for us to reaffirm our focus and resilience. Our unwavering dedication propelled us to unprecedented growth, positioning us as the foremost market leader in Clinical Trial Study Startup, and ultimately culminated in a profoundly gratifying acquisition by Oracle.

You are a successful business leader. Which 3 character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Success, in my view, is built on three foundational traits: collaboration, resilience, and focus.

Collaboration has been a cornerstone of my approach, recognizing the value of diverse, intelligent teams. My background, possibly influenced by my father’s psychiatric practice, has honed my ability to understand and leverage individual strengths effectively. An example of this was at goBalto, where, instead of replacing the founder/CEO, I recognized his invaluable sales talent and passion, transitioning him to head of sales to capitalize on his strengths for our collective success.

Resilience has been my constant companion, fueling my drive through the rollercoaster of entrepreneurship. This trait has enabled me to navigate through economic downturns and unforeseen hurdles, each time emerging stronger and more determined.

Focus has guided my strategic decisions, ensuring that we concentrate our efforts on what truly matters. From prioritizing infrastructure development in Cambodia to honing in on specific healthcare processes at Model N and goBalto, this unwavering focus has been crucial. Similarly, at Verana Health, I have employed this trait from the get-go by concentrating on investment in the buildout of our data infrastructure to now moving investment to commercialization. In parallel, sequencing of focus of therapeutic areas (ophthalmology, followed by urology), has allowed us to deliver on our complex business model, enabling us to drive impactful change in healthcare.

Let’s shift to the main part of our discussion about the technology that you are helping to create that can make a positive impact on our health. To begin, which particular problems are you aiming to solve?

At Verana Health, we’re deeply focused on addressing some of the most pressing challenges in healthcare today, among them, the slow pace of research and drug development for complex diseases. Our approach is holistic; we’re not just aiming to solve isolated problems, but to fundamentally transform how medical research and drug development are conducted. By harnessing the power of our unique clinical datasets, we’re opening new pathways to understanding diseases at a level of depth and precision that was previously unattainable.

How does your technology address this?

Verana Health leverages advanced AI, such as machine learning technologies, to analyze extensive clinical datasets, which include some of the most comprehensive electronic health records available in the therapeutic areas of ophthalmology, neurology and urology. This exclusive and unparalleled access allows us to uncover insights into disease progression, treatment responses, and patient outcomes in ways that traditional research methods simply cannot match. For neurologic conditions, such as multiple sclerosis, this means we can identify patterns and subtleties within the data that reveal how the disease manifests differently across individuals. Our technology not only accelerates new treatment discoveries, but also supports clinical trials, healthcare clinician reporting and benchmarking quality measure performance to identify opportunities for improvement, ultimately improving the quality of care and quality of life for patients.

Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?

The catalyst for my passion in this field is deeply personal. The loss of my father to lung cancer, just eight months after his diagnosis, was a turning point for me. He was in the prime of his life, both vibrant and healthy, which led me to question whether advancements in drug discovery could have changed his fate. This tragedy, paired with my wife’s victorious battle against cancer, solidified my resolve to marry my professional expertise with my personal mission to combat disease. For me, leading Verana Health isn’t just about steering a company; it’s about driving a movement toward transformative healthcare solutions that honor the memory of those we’ve lost and to empower the survivors among us.

How do you think this might change the world?

Verana Health’s pioneering approach to harnessing real-world data has the potential to revolutionize healthcare by making medical research and drug development more efficient, personalized, and impactful. By leveraging our expansive network of over 20,000 healthcare providers and data from approximately 90 million de-identified patients, we’re uniquely positioned to advance our understanding of diseases at an unprecedented scale and speed. Our AI-enhanced VeraQ® data engine and Qdata® modules enable the generation of robust real-world evidence, facilitating faster clinical trials and the creation of more effective treatments tailored to individual patient needs. Ultimately, this shift towards data-informed, patient-centric care models has the power to transform the global healthcare landscape, making it more adaptive, equitable, and effective for all.

Based on your experience and success, can you please share “5 things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive impact”?

i) Selecting the correct problem to solve: It’s imperative to deeply analyze the market, future trends, and measurable impact before deciding on your corporate mission. Drug discovery has many challenges, but Verana Health’s approach is to first focus on improving the quality of care, one of the largest pain points/costs in the healthcare value chain. By leveraging real-world data to improve research processes, we’re accelerating the development of life-saving drugs and procedures.

ii) Embrace Collaboration and Diversity: Building impactful technology requires diverse perspectives and collaboration. When developing our healthcare platform, we brought together leading medical societies, reputable medical professionals, technologists, and patients. Each stakeholder offers unique insights that shape our solution. Collaboration fosters innovation and ensures that technology meets real-world needs.

iii) Prioritize Ethical Design and Transparency: Ethical considerations must underpin technological innovation. In our platform development, we prioritize transparency and fairness. As we have access to highly sensitive patient data, we heavily invest in layers of security and protection. Ethical design builds trust and fosters a long-term positive impact.

iv) Iterate and Adapt Continuously: Technology evolves rapidly, and successful innovation demands agility. Reflecting on our journey at Verana Health, we iterate tirelessly based on user feedback and emerging trends. Initially focusing on clinician quality care dashboards (now in our fourth version), with strong satisfaction feedback, we are now also focusing on applications for life sciences companies to generate insights, such as site selection. By staying adaptable and responsive to changing needs, we continually enhance our technology’s effectiveness and relevance.

v) Stay Committed to Long-Term Impact: It is imperative in tech endeavors to clearly envision the new world you’re creating. Over the course of five years, we have dedicated nearly $300 million to building our data infrastructure. There were options to pace or slow the buildout to accelerate commercialization; however, we knew that unless we ensured we had the largest dataset in the therapeutic areas we were focusing on, we could not deliver on our mission to transform patient care and research. Our steadfast belief in the profound significance of our long-term objectives, extending human quality of life, fuels our dedication, emphasizing our conviction that our pursuits transcend mere short-term gains.

If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our society, like you, what would you tell them?

Making a positive impact on society isn’t just a noble endeavor; it’s a strategic imperative. Beyond the inherent moral responsibility, businesses play a crucial role in shaping the communities they operate within. Contributing positively to society builds trust, fosters brand loyalty, and creates a sustainable ecosystem for long-term success. Recognizing the interconnectedness of business and society is key — it’s not just about what you sell, but how your enterprise enhances the well-being of the individuals it serves.

Is there a person in the world, or in the U.S. with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why?

If I could have a one-on-one conversation with someone, it would be Elon Musk. His obsession with solving hard problems while risking personal wealth, reputation, and family life is unprecedented. From electric vehicles, space exploration, to renewable energy, he has reinvented entire industries and challenged conventional thinking. Elon Musk’s relentless pursuit of bettering humanity is admirable. A conversation with him would offer a rare glimpse into the mind of a genius and the future of humanity.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

To learn more about Verana Health, visit us at www.veranahealth.com, or find us on LinkedIn. Connect with Sujay here.

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success in your important work.

About The Interviewer: David Leichner is a veteran of the Israeli high-tech industry with significant experience in the areas of cyber and security, enterprise software and communications. At Cybellum, a leading provider of Product Security Lifecycle Management, David is responsible for creating and executing the marketing strategy and managing the global marketing team that forms the foundation for Cybellum’s product and market penetration. Prior to Cybellum, David was CMO at SQream and VP Sales and Marketing at endpoint protection vendor, Cynet. David is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Jerusalem Technology College. He holds a BA in Information Systems Management and an MBA in International Business from the City University of New York.