– Former Accolade co-founder joins digital-first post-hospital recovery innovator as President and Chief Medical Officer
– Bringing 40 years of clinical, analytics, marketing, management and operational experience, Spiro will help drive Laguna’s product vision and scale customer adoption
– Spiro is first of several high-profile exec team hires as Laguna looks to improve outcomes for patients in transition and obliterate hospital readmissions costs for employers, payers and providers
DENVER, Sept. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Laguna Health, a digital-first recovery assurance company, today announced that Dr. Alan Spiro has joined as President and Chief Medical Officer. A widely recognized and admired healthcare leader and innovator, Spiro brings 40 years of operational and clinical experience to the Laguna Health leadership team as it tackles a chronically underserved and often abandoned leg of the care journey: post-hospital recovery.
Founded in 2020 and publicly launched in May 2021, Laguna Health aims to radically improve care experiences and care outcomes for patients who have moved through a hospital stay and have been discharged home to self-care. Most patients return home from the hospital without professional support, instead supplied with static, paper-based discharge packets, which may contain conflicting instructions or confusing details on medication routines, exercise limitations or when it’s safe to return to work. In part due to a lack of support, more than a third of home-discharged patients transition to higher cost settings over the course of a year.
“Although the U.S. healthcare system excels in its ability to specialize across all types of care, where it struggles is with transitions between different legs of the care journey,” said Dr. Spiro. “Perhaps nowhere is this struggle more palpable than when patients leave the hospital and transition to self-care at home. I’m thrilled to join Yoni, Yael and the team at Laguna, who have a deep understanding of and compassion for this fracture in the care journey.”
Dr. Spiro most recently served as a clinical advisor and fractional Chief Medical Officer for several early and growth stage healthcare companies. Before his advisory and fractional roles, Dr. Spiro was Senior Vice President for Strategy and Analytics and Chief Medical Officer for Blue Health Intelligence. Prior to Blue Health Intelligence and a brief Chief Medical Officer role at Medica, Dr. Spiro was co-founder of Accolade, an on-demand healthcare concierge for employers, health plans, and health systems that he grew from seven employees to 700.
Dr. Spiro also served as Vice President, Chief Medical Officer National Accounts at Anthem, and prior to that was a Partner and leader of the Clinician Section of the Health Management Practice at Towers Perrin (now Willis Towers Watson). He was also a founder of AIM, now owned by Anthem. Upon joining Laguna Health full-time, Dr. Spiro will continue to retain his position of Medical Advisory Board Chair at direct-to-employer primary care provider Eden Health.
“Alan’s unique combination of a physician, entrepreneur, CMO and data expert is rare and incredibly valuable for Laguna as we pursue the digital modernization of post-hospital recovery. He’s been embedded with us in an advisory capacity for many months, and has been instrumental in product design and development and go-to-market strategy,” said Yoni Shtein, co-founder and CEO, Laguna Health. “We’re overjoyed to officially welcome Alan into a full-time leadership role and grateful for the wisdom and vision he brings to the table.”
About Laguna Health
Laguna is a recovery assurance company that leverages digital care and multi-disciplinary clinicians to reduce costly readmissions and shorten recovery time. Laguna assures successful post-hospitalization recovery by combining data, digital care tools, and proven behavioral health interventions to radically reduce negative outcomes. From employers to health plans to providers, the entire healthcare ecosystem now has the ability to ensure every patient recovers with confidence. To learn more about Laguna, visit www.lagunahealth.com
Media Contact:
Nate Hermes | 646-828-9172
Kimberly Dreisinger | 805-350-4421
lagunahealth@hermesprgroup.com
