Year in Review: MD++ in 2021
A recap of our growing physician-innovator community in 2021 and what we’re looking forward to in 2022
Over the past year, MD++ has experienced tremendous growth — nearly doubling from 800 to 1400+ medical students and aspiring physician-innovators from across the country. This expansion has happened organically due to an intense interest in reshaping our healthcare landscape, with new members joining MD++ largely by word of mouth.
In 2021, MD++ offered a broad array of programming to our members. We hosted our inaugural innovation challenge with AlleyCorp, and its success led us to undertake a second innovation challenge with Roivant. We also heard from inspiring speakers like Dr. Sachin Jain and Dr. Melynda Barnes, as well as our own impressive members through journal clubs on primary care policy innovation, big tech in healthcare, and starting companies while in medical school. For the first time since the pandemic moved our community to meeting virtually, we hosted an in-person MD++ meet-up in New York City to hear from a variety of physician-innovator career paths.
In addition to our events, we’ve also worked closely with healthcare venture capital firms and digital health startups to create fellowships and internships specifically designed to provide hands-on experience to our medical students. MD++ members are interested in blending clinical practice with real-world healthcare transformation, and these opportunities can help launch this sort of interdisciplinary career. Further, we have a number of exciting industry partnerships to announce around the corner.
Finally, we are most proud of the connections that we facilitate among MD++ members as well as the broader healthcare community . We’ve watched students who were once strangers come together across schools and time zones to integrate their complementary perspectives into tackling kidney care and food insecurity. We have enabled countless 1-on-1 conversations between MD++ members just looking to get to know each other and refine our developing interests. We’ve helped students build newfound skills in market-making and thesis creation to land venture capital fellowships with top tier venture capital firms. We have introduced many others to explore physician-innovator career interests through the intersection of technology, business, health policy, and life sciences.
Reflecting on how far we’ve come as a community as part of the holiday season, we wanted to share some of these stories below from our members:
MD++ has allowed me to collaborate with other innovative and “outside of the box” thinking medical students to either simply toss around ideas with on a call to developing a business plan for a digital platform to manage end stage renal disease. MD++ has also served a platform to network and learn about up and coming companies. I was actually introduced to Ferrum Health, a global medical AI distribution platform, through MD++. Ferrum serves as a one stop shop for both hospitals and algorithm companies. We partner with hospitals to provide them with an array of algorithms to run behind their computers to aid in patient care. We also partner with algorithm companies to serve as a trusted distributor to hospitals globally. I have taken on the role as a consultant for Ferrum Health and this has enabled me to learn more about the AI/ML and algorithm space which is very important to me as an an aspiring physician. All of these opportunities would not have been possible without the MD++ community which I am beyond grateful for!
- Sarah Wenyon, M1 @ Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
I’m an MD/MBA student who is kind of unclear about what kinds of things I can do, especially not knowing many people in similar positions/programs. Although I have only recently learned about MD++, I’m really excited by the events offered and the people that I’ve met who have really made me feel more engaged and curious as a future physician innovator
- Joshua Ross, M3 @ NYUGSOM 2023
Great networking, meeting other like-minded individuals. MD++ has helped to open up my perspective to non-clinical MD careers or clinical careers that involve other endeavors as well. The competitions are a great way to build up new skill sets and meet other medical students.
- Catherine R LaSpina, University of Miami MD/MBA ‘22
MD++ has played a huge role in my development as an aspiring physician-innovator. I’ve learned so much from talking with the members of the community, attending workshops, and participating in both Health Innovation Challenges. I’ve met a number of incredible people who inspire and motivate me every day. I hope to continue to stay involved in the years to come!
- Keldon Lin, MS2 @ Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine
Organizing and participating in the VC Matchmaking panel, I was amazed at the goodwill of these VCs to pay their success forward and offer their insight and time to medical students. As a med student aspiring toward biotech entrepreneurship, having even 10 minutes with Dr. Richard Ransohoff from Third Rock might be the best 10 minutes of my M1 year.
MD++ seems like an amazing way to network with med students across the US. Some very broad interests are represented in MD++ and it’s inspiring seeing what other med students are capable of. Also love the innovation challenges! Didn’t participate in the Roivant challenge because of bad timing with school exams but hoping to participate next year and looking forward to participating in the VC mapmaking competition.
- Galen Shearn-Nance, M1 @ CWRU SOM
I was fortunate to have discovered MD++ this year — a one-of-a-kind, diverse and accomplished community of medical students and professionals who seek to leverage their medical knowledge in domains of VC, data science, and innovation. As a medical doctor, MD++ is the kind of community available to me as a medical student. The opportunities to network and collaborate are tremendous, and I’ve had several zoom calls and meetups with members, who are all very approachable. The community is very active, running hackathons and workshops and posting exceptional and rare job opportunities. I had a blast participating in organizing the VC matchmaking event this year, and I am grateful for the friendships I’ve made through the extraordinary MD++ family!
- Ray Funahashi, MD @ UPitt ‘20
Connections through MD++ directly led to interviews at two companies and also led to the successful negotiation of my current product & BD role at Doximity. Also enjoyed hearing from like-minded physician-investors through meetups that MD++ organizes in NYC.
- Brian Chu, M4 @ Penn Med
MD++ has been such a wonderful way to connect with students I would otherwise never have had the opportunity to meet. Every single person has been unbelievably generous with their time and knowledge, and it’s been such a joy to connect with people who challenge themselves to think about the bigger picture in healthcare. These conversations led to me being able to pitch my own research internship last summer to work at the intersection of digital health and health equity, and it’s not something that would’ve happened without this community. MD++ has been an incredible source of knowledge and inspiration that has truly shaped my medical career so far.
-Aneeqah Naeem, M2 @ Brown
I found it difficult as a premed to find others who had both a passion for medicine and business. I was told to even shy away from discussing my interests in consulting or health startups, because it’d make me seem not dedicated to being a physician. And I thought I had to choose one or the other, so I didn’t take any gap years and went straight to medical school. So that’s why I was so excited to have found the MD++ community! I’ve been able to connect with others with similar interests & to hear their backgrounds both virtually or in-person!
I really enjoyed the VC physician match making event. This event was very inspiring for me and helped me better picture what kind of career I want in the future. This event reinforced my idea of taking a year off between M3 & M4 year and helped me realize what I should focus on as a medical student to prepare me for future opportunities.
- Clara Sun, M2 @ Case Western Reserve University SOM
As an MD++ exec team member, I’ve had many one-on-one conversations with our members. The student almost always starts with a common refrain: “Since starting medical school, I have wanted to play a role in healthcare innovation, but I don’t know anybody who shares this interest, and I really am not sure how to even get started.” As the conversation unfolds, there’s almost a sense of relief: an “aha moment” that 1) they aren’t alone, and 2) there are many other students who have shared and navigated this experience. Once our members feel this sense of connection and are pointed in the right direction, they run with it (they’re overachieving medical students, after all). In short, it has been incredibly rewarding to lower the activation energy required to shape the future of healthcare.
- Daniel Friedman, VP of External Relations, Columbia MD/MBA ‘22
Joining MD++ has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in medical school so far. As someone interested in pursuing a career at the intersection of medicine and healthcare innovation, it has been incredibly rewarding to find a community of like-minded peers from across the country who I have been able to work and learn from over the past couple years. The passion and talent in this network make me excited about the future of health care.
-Gary Wang, Director of Health Policy M2 @ UChicago Pritzker
As a quick snapshot of how we’ve grown as a community below, we look forward to engaging and connecting even more of our community with the launch of MD++ families — bringing groups of medical students together across years, schools, and backgrounds.
As we look towards 2022, we’re grateful for all of the amazing partners and supporters of this community and eager to find new ways to support our growing membership — from career-building workshops to investing more in verticals to explore careers in the life sciences, medical AI, healthcare consulting, and health policy innovation.
If you’d like to help support our mission, we’d appreciate it if you shared this post on Twitter or LinkedIn to help spread the word with any aspiring physician-innovators. If you’re a current medical student or recent graduate, we invite you to join our community at mdplusplus.org. For any companies or organizations that want to partner with our growing community, please reach out to sherman@mdplusplus.org!
