September 15, 2016
Written by Danny Krifcher
Two decades ago, I was fortunate to find myself at a company that revolutionized everything we knew about communication, media, technology, and by extension, almost every aspect of our lives; that company was America Online. In many ways, the same innovative spirit that brought me there is what brings me to Aledade now as our first Chief Commercial Officer.
The work Aledade is doing to put primary care at the center of medicine, accelerate the shift to value, and usher in this new era of health care is no less revolutionary than those first dial-up connections to the Internet 20+ years ago.
This is a time of great transformation in American health care. The combination of new technology plus new rules of the road, aided by growing consumer awareness of health care economics, means that this industry needs to reinvent itself. And as I saw in the early days of the Internet, those with outside perspectives and a commitment to embracing the future can be powerful agents of change.
It’s this state of change and the potential for positive impact that brought me to the health care industry seven years ago, first at WellBridge, then at Avalere Health, and now here at Aledade.
What makes Aledade so appealing is that for me, our mission is personal. Before he retired a decade ago, my father was a primary care doctor in Pittsburgh who cared passionately for his patients. I remember him answering late-night phone calls, taking the time to listen to his patients and their families, providing them his care and attention when they needed it the most. And, to this day, he continues to teach medical students the art of doing a physical and taking a medical history. He continues to receive letters and calls from people whose lives he touched – and even saved, not to mention the wonderful emails he still gets from his med school students.
Aledade’s model of primary care brings this same type of personal, high-quality medical care to hundreds of thousands of people across America. It’s that vision of what primary care was – and can be again – that motivated me to join Aledade. Because without a doubt, this company has the right team, the right care model, and the deep expertise in everything from technology to regulations to transform health care and improve the health of millions.