Rising Stars

Saurabh Sinha

President &CEO, eMids

Nashville, TN

Age: 39

What is unique about the healthcare industry in Nashville?

Nashville has a strong concentration of healthcare providers and healthcare services companies, and has the unique ecosystem to foster innovation, in care quality and care costs. 

What traits have helped you succeed?

Focus, perseverance and team-building.

What opportunities are most valuable to you that NHCC provides?

The opportunity to hear and interact with industry leaders is the most valuable ongoing activity that I participate in. I recently completed the NHCC Healthcare Fellows program and felt it moved the needle for me in terms of both my personal development and increased awareness of healthcare.

What do you read every day?

Industry, technology and management related publications are of interest to me. A few examples include Harvard Business Review blogs, Modern Healthcare and LinkedIn Pulse.

What is one word that describes your job?

Dot-connector

What is your hope for the future of healthcare?

Three things: 1. That we cure chronic conditions like diabetes, kidney diseases, colitis and Crohns. 2. Healthcare is fast becoming unaffordable to us and our country. I hope in next few years we start flattening, if not bending, the cost curve. 3. That consumers become the real buyers of healthcare services, and therefore effect on it all characteristics of consumer-driven industries in terms of quality, cost and service. 

 What legacy do you hope to leave? 

My team and I would like to be known as having built a company that helped healthcare entities innovate toward better quality, lower cost and excellent customer service. 

Mark Harris

Founder & CEO, NextGxDx

Franklin, TN

Age: 34

How did you get your start in Nashville?

I came to Nashville for Vanderbilt. I had come up with a business idea, and had offers to go either to the East Coast or the West Coast. What kept me here was the fact that mentors showed a lot of interest in what I was doing, and I was offered a slot in a local startup accelerator program. \

Why is Nashville a good place to start a career in healthcare?

If you want to be in healthcare, this is where you need to be. There's just no place better than Nashville to see the entire healthcare picture for advancement and get connected nationwide.

What is unique about the Nashville healthcare industry?

The business community is very supportive of entrepreneurs. People are willing to sit down and have a meal with you, and then connect you to people that can help. A newcomer's ability to work their way through the network and get assistance is very unique in Nashville.

What traits have helped you succeed?

Being humble and willing to understand what I don't know, and then being open to learning from that.

What do you read every day?

Does email count? Aside from that, I scan a number of lab- and genetics-focused industry reports, such as DARK Daily and GenomeWeb. I also read Nashville Business Journal weekly, and Fast Company monthly.

How are you advancing the industry?

We are bringing transparency to personalized medicine. Personalized medicine itself is transforming the industry, but one of the pieces that has held it back is the non-efficient and nontransparent healthcare market. My company is shedding light on comparing cost and quality for labs, thus allowing personalized medicine to advance more rapidly than it would have without us.

Debbie James

President & CEO, Vivere Health

Franklin, TN

Age: 50

In your opinion, what is unique about the healthcare industry in Nashville?

Nashville is home to a caliber of leaders and innovators that are heading national programs, leading publicly traded companies, influencing healthcare policy and sparking innovation throughout the industry. And unlike other major cities I've lived, we work together on healthcare challenges. This concentration of thought leaders and entrepreneurs in the same place can create powerful sparks that change our way of thinking. It is an exciting time to be here!

What traits have helped you succeed?

My career was built on a foundation of accountability, responsibility and results. I surround myself with the smartest team members I can find who have the same driving force to be disruptive thinkers and deliver results that others have not been able to achieve.

Who do you turn to for advice?

Almost everything I needed to know to be a successful leader, I learned at ExpressScripts. I still keep in contact with a group of leaders from ESI that I turn to if I need another opinion. I have also developed some incredible relationships since moving to Nashville – healthcare leaders involved in the NHCC. In addition, I am a member of the Women Presidents' Organization, a membership group for women presidents of multimillion-dollar companies.

What opportunities are most valuable to you that NHCC provides?

Being able to tap into a brain trust of people who have grown similar businesses. The Council helps us stay abreast of new and emerging business trends, reimbursement forecasts, and policy discussions. Council discussions and events always involve top leaders discussing relevant issues.

What do you read every day?

I try to read the Wall Street Journal highlights every day, along with the daily email from the Nashville Business Journal. But the only thing I read absolutely every day is business email!

What is your hope for the future of healthcare?

My hope is that leaders continue to use disruptive thinking to continually improve the delivery of healthcare with the patient at the center.