Fixing Healthcare Through Talent, Entrepreneurship and Investment
By Sonia Millsom, CEO, Oxeon
Why I Chose Oxeon
Over the course of my career, I’ve worked in many different dimensions of our nation’s healthcare system ― from startups to large publicly traded corporations, and across the full spectrum of purchasers, payers and providers. Suffice it to say, I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t work. Most importantly, I’ve seen why.
So when Trevor Price reached out to discuss the role of Oxeon CEO, I jumped at the chance. Because I’ve concluded that change will only come about by connecting the best leaders with diverse perspectives to the most promising ideas, and that is precisely what Trevor Price has pioneered with Oxeon.
Without a doubt, Oxeon is a one-of-a-kind company. Trevor’s passion for building great leadership teams and changing healthcare generated an entirely new business model that combines executive search, direct investment and company creation. And the results have been phenomenal. It’s a true honor to pick up the leadership mantle from Trevor. He will take on new challenges, while continuing to share his expertise with us as chair of Oxeon’s new board of directors.
Fixing Healthcare is My Personal Mission
My deep passion for creating meaningful change in healthcare is rooted in my early experience as a Peace Corps volunteer working on maternal and child health in a small Moroccan village. Witnessing both the acute needs of the families we served and the extreme dedication of the healthcare workers there convinced me that solving the problem of healthcare access is the greatest contribution we can make to improving lives and societies. That realization has guided every career step I’ve taken since.
From various vantage points over the last 20-plus years, I’ve worked with new models of healthcare delivery to make an impact on day-to-day access to care. When Congress passed the Balanced Budget Act and Medicare Plus choice plans first hit the market (Yes, I know I’m dating myself!), I helped retirees choose new plans so they could access lower out-of-pocket costs and better care management programs. I built nationally recognized wellness programs that incentivized individuals and their families to test for early disease identification. I was also at the forefront of the telehealth movement, helping health plan members gain access to specialist expertise and avoid misdiagnosis through virtual second opinions. These programs all helped people navigate our incredibly complicated healthcare system ―and resulted in better outcomes.
Trevor has instilled this same level of enthusiasm for healthcare innovation in the Oxeon team. In fact, over the past few months, I’ve learned that everyone at Oxeon shares both his strong entrepreneurial spirit and his unshakeable dedication to improving access to quality healthcare — which is why they’ve been able to build a company that exists at the vanguard of healthcare innovation. I can’t imagine a more exciting company to lead — or one where our potential impact is so profound.
Having operated throughout the healthcare ecosystem, from startups to a Fortune 100 insurance provider, I’m energized to make an impact across our core businesses: search, investment and venture studio. I’m also eager to ignite change through collaboration with the thousands of healthcare leaders, entrepreneurs and investors in Oxeon’s vast network.
Three Areas Ripe for Innovation
As we get started, I see three big areas where Oxeon and our partners are uniquely positioned to help fix what’s broken in healthcare: ensuring access to high-quality care, rewarding value rather than volume and identifying promising leaders with fresh perspectives and new voices to accelerate change.
Access to high-quality healthcare is fundamental. Innovation in healthcare is only meaningful if we use it to prioritize health equity and extend innovative solutions to underserved populations. Today, 49% of U.S. counties don’t have an OB-GYN, and 23% of people — from urban neighborhoods to rural areas — don’t have internet access and therefore can’t benefit from telehealth. I’ll never forget how difficult it was at the start of the pandemic to ensure that the most vulnerable patients that my company, Iora Health, served got the care they required. There were many who didn’t have cellphones or Wi-Fi. For the most vulnerable, we deployed health coaches with Wi-Fi-enabled iPads directly to these patients’ homes to check in, conduct patient visits and maintain a human connection in their time of need.
Oxeon Venture Studio is confronting these types of challenges by expanding high-quality health options at critical moments and for many harder-to-reach populations. We’ve launched nine companies to date, including Quilted Health, focused on women’s health and maternity care; Hopscotch Health, which is expanding access to care in rural settings; Strive Health, which improves care of chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease; and Eleanor Health, expanding options for mental health and addiction treatment. Our newest company, Empassion Health, supports providers and their patients with advanced illness. This mission is near and dear to me. I was an end-of-life caregiver for my mother-in-law, aunt and close friend — who all died of cancer at young ages. Sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with these women and their families as they stopped treatments and tried to pass with dignity was heart-wrenching and frustrating. We must do better.
Doing better requires prioritizing value over volume to deliver better outcomes for patients. As Chief Growth Officer at Iora Health, now part of One Medical, I saw, firsthand, value-based care’s impact on patient care. We spearheaded the creation of financial growth models to scale value-based care, and our success helped demonstrate the model’s enormous market potential. Oxeon also has been at the leading edge of this movement, helping to build successful leadership teams at Iora, Landmark, Oak Street Health, among others who are advancing value-based care — with many more opportunities ahead of us.
Finally, to bring real change to healthcare, we must bring more diverse perspectives to the leadership table — and especially from people who’ve experienced problems firsthand. I know this to be true. As a woman of color from an immigrant family, too often I’m the “only one” in the room. Women make 80% of healthcare decisions in America but are vastly underrepresented at healthcare leadership tables and in the venture capital space as the market develops new offerings. This must change dramatically if we’re ever going to affect meaningful change.
What I’ve witnessed as the lone diverse perspective at these often-homogeneous leadership tables isn’t the only factor driving my passion for health equity. As a working mom of two teenage daughters, and as a caregiver for older relatives, I’ve experienced healthcare delivery from multiple vantage points. I understand from personal experience the level of quality care required for a mother with a high-risk pregnancy. I saw the continuous care and consultation needed for my daughters with severe food allergies in order to reduce their day-to-day risks. These experiences have informed my views as a healthcare consumer ― and my contributions at leadership tables. Fixing healthcare requires new leaders with these types of experiences and perspectives to spot gaps and surface opportunities that simply don’t emerge when we stick to limited networks.
From the start, Oxeon has been committed to bringing more women and people of color to leadership positions. Our Break into the Boardroom program, in partnership with Deerfield Management and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, has helped women, including me, get recognized and selected for boards. We also serve as a vital connector to networks of funders, and we help innovators build leadership teams that get their ideas off the ground or take them to the next level. I look forward to expanding access to capital for people of diverse backgrounds and experiences. I’ll make it a priority to continue diversifying our team at Oxeon and cultivating the mutual trust, respect and understanding that we need to broaden our perspective and capture new opportunities.
Let’s Get Started!
As I jump into the CEO role, I’m honored Trevor has entrusted me with building on his legacy and leading Oxeon forward. It takes real courage for a founder to say it’s time for another leader. I have deep admiration and respect for what Trevor and the Oxeon team have created, and I am excited to build on that strong foundation. I am also incredibly thankful for my personal team: my partner Geoff (my rock) and my daughters Anita and Veronica (our trees), who have been my biggest champions throughout my career. I’m motivated by the urgency of our challenge and the huge scope of our opportunity. Our trusted industry relationships and the five core values of our company underpin everything we do. The Emotional Intelligence (EQ), Grit, Intellectual Curiosity, Collaboration and Spirit of Generosity that each Oxeon team member brings to their work each day couldn’t be more aligned with my own leadership philosophy and personal beliefs ― and with the vision I have for Oxeon’s future.
Today, more than ever, healthcare needs faster innovation, bolder reimagining and new, diverse leaders. Trevor and Oxeon have been at the vanguard of bringing transformative change to healthcare for a decade. Now, we’re poised to build on those accomplishments ― connecting people and ideas to drive even greater impact. Thank you to everyone who has partnered with us in our success so far. We’re just getting started.
