Announcing My Next Chapter: Delivering Impact at Scale Through Oxeon

Clinical leadership is key to reimagining a healthcare system every person can trust

My father was a solo practicing ENT surgeon. His office was right behind the main post office in Manassas, Virginia, across the street and diagonal from Independence Bank. As a kid back in the mid-1980s, I’d help out in my dad’s office during the summer — greeting arriving patients, making reminder calls for future appointments, filing yesterday’s charts, pulling tomorrow’s. Some days he’d invite me to join him in the exam room to act as his scribe, serving as a modern-day AI listening tool. 

Witnessing my dad in action with his patients is one of my greatest memories, and there’s one particularly curious but wonderful habit that has stayed with me: At the end of every new patient visit, he’d disappear for a moment and return with his then state-of-the-art Polaroid camera. He’d ask the patient and any accompanying family or friends to all pile onto the exam chair, and he’d snap two photos, shake them out, and watch them come to life. 

One copy he’d give to the patient. On the other, beneath the Polaroid’s little white frame, he’d make his notes: the patient and family members’ names, ages, and any other interesting tidbits about them — that they played soccer, loved Annie, worked as an engineer at IBM, or were entering the eighth grade. This copy he paperclipped to the patient’s chart.

When they’d return for a follow-up visit, his notes would stir his memory. “Johnny, how’s your soccer team doing?” he’d ask. Or, “Mary, are you still working at IBM?” Or, “Nancy, how was that vacation in Florida you were planning last time you were here?” 

It was a small gesture with a huge impact. It made people feel seen and heard. 

If you look up “people person” in the dictionary, you’ll see a photo of my dad. He was all about bringing people joy and comfort, and in doing so building trust to help make their lives better, easier, healthier, happier. 

So I carry his memory and every little bit of his “people person” DNA as I announce that I’ve accepted the position of Partner at Oxeon — one of healthcare’s most trusted firms powering change through talent, entrepreneurship, and investment — to lead a Clinician Leadership practice. I’m absolutely thrilled.

Why we need clinician leadership now more than ever

It could not be a more opportune time to focus on clinician leaders to ensure organizations pursue wise innovation and experience healthy business growth. Investment in healthcare companies remains strong, with continued focus on innovative care delivery models and data and technology solutions to optimize outcomes and lower total cost of care. As a result, there’s an increasing need for clinician executives who can sit at the center of business, technology, data, and clinical care and marry clinical expertise with business acumen. 

A central component of my new role at Oxeon will be to expand the notions about where and how clinician leaders can have impact. It’s time to reimagine the roles clinician executives can play, beyond traditional titles such as chief clinical or chief medical officer. It’s time to recognize that clinicians can thrive as chief commercial officers, operations leaders, presidents, founders and CEOs, and even investors, as many of my friends and colleagues have demonstrated. It’s time to ensure the clinician voice contributes to strategy, growth, and product innovation. It’s time for clinician leaders to have a seat in the boardroom, and on cap tables. It’s time to help businesses understand that weaving strong clinician voices into the fabric of an organization enables greater sustainability, impact, and growth. 

Ultimately, it’s not about titles; it’s about people with experiences, qualities, and capabilities that drive value. 

At the same time, clinician executives seem to be salivating for support and community. We have an opportunity to bring together outstanding clinician leaders and support their development into outstanding healthcare executives. We can help them understand how to thrive in healthcare organizations, navigate the sometimes complex politics at the executive leadership table, bring their strengths while respecting the expertise of others, and work together in pursuit of a common North Star, making healthcare work better for everyone — patients, providers, and payers alike. 

Together, we build things none of us could build alone — artful, intuitive clinical solutions that improve people’s lives. 

Why Oxeon?

When I shared the news about joining Oxeon with a clinician executive friend of mine, she lit up, told me it was a perfect next step, and asked if I’d heard of the term ikigai. She shared that ikigai is a Japanese concept that suggests you’ll discover your true purpose at the convergence of four key elements: 1) what you love, 2) what you're good at, 3) what the world needs, and 4) what you can be paid for. 

I can’t fathom a more apt philosophical framework for me joining Oxeon! And it parallels my own three Ps that have served as my guiding principle for where to dedicate my time in this next chapter of my career: People, Passion, Purpose. 

At Oxeon, I’ve found my people again. Mission-oriented, smart, curious, fun, scrappy, growth-mindset kind of people. I like to follow inspiring leaders (yeah, talking about you, Sonia Millsom!). I like to surround myself with a passionate team (all of you, Oxeon family!). I want to work with folks like me who want to make people’s lives better, easier, healthier, happier. People. Check.

At Oxeon, I’ve found my purpose. I get to advise clinicians who want to generate impact at scale, while placing clinician executives in positions to create category-defining companies that improve healthcare for everyone. No other search or investment firm is doing this work, especially not with a clinical leader at the helm of the practice. Purpose. Check. 

At Oxeon, I’ve found passion. I’ve realized in my two-year hiatus from full-time work that joy must be my guiding principle in how I dedicate my time. So hard to find, yet so simple to execute. I asked myself: Will it bring me joy? Yes, working at Oxeon is going to make me happy. Passion. Check.

As I embark on the next chapter of my career, it’s proving to be a natural evolution from what’s come before. In Chapter 1, as an academic cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, I had the opportunity to impact the lives of patients one-to-one. I knew my work mattered to them. I felt I was making a difference. But I was itching to deliver impact at scale, to touch so many more lives, and so I took a leap of faith and joined AbleTo, one of the first-ever virtual mental healthcare providers. As Chief Medical Officer, I had the opportunity to learn and grow and help scale a business that changed not only the space, but the very way we think about mental health and virtual care delivery, touching the lives of millions of people across the country. One-to-one became one-to-many.

Now I'll have the chance to have a one-to-many-to-many exponential impact at Oxeon as I focus on developing and positioning the next generations of talented clinician leaders to drive healthcare innovation and growth. As we say in medicine, “see one, do one, teach one.” Now it’s my turn to give back.

I can imagine no better partner for this work than Oxeon. It’s an organization after my own heart. Oxeon’s mission is to reimagine a healthcare system every person can trust. The firm does so in a way that prioritizes deep relationships over shallow transactions, collaboration over silos, and tomorrow’s healthcare over today’s status quo.

By elevating and empowering clinician leaders to gain influence at all levels of the healthcare ecosystem, and by integrating effective clinician leaders into the DNA of healthcare organizations, we can help people feel seen and heard, and we can do it by the millions. My dad would be very proud, but there’s not enough Polaroid film in the world to capture that.

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You can find a link to the official press release on the Oxeon news page!