Episodes

  • AI in Healthcare: The Leapfrog Opportunity
    Feb 24 2026

    At the Oliver Wyman Health Innovation Summit 2025, Julie Yoo, General Partner at a16z Bio + Health, makes the case that healthcare is uniquely positioned to benefit from AI more than any other industry. She argues that healthcare's historical underinvestment in technology is now an asset, enabling the industry to leapfrog directly to AI-native models of care delivery with unprecedented speed and scale.

    Resources:

    Follow Julie Yoo on X: https://x.com/julesyoo

    Stay Updated:

    If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!

    Find a16z on X: https://twitter.com/a16z

    Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

    Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX

    Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711

    Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg

    Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures

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    26 mins
  • Ambience CEO Nikhil Buduma on AI in Clinical Workflows
    Feb 20 2026

    a16z general partner Julie Yoo talks with Nikhil Buduma, CEO and cofounder of Ambience Healthcare, to discuss how AI is transforming clinical workflows. They cover the early days of deep learning, why Ambience started by running a medical practice before building a platform company, and what it takes to achieve high clinician adoption rates at major academic medical centers. They also dig into the challenge of building products when AI capabilities change every few months, the real ROI that's finally converting CFOs, and why this might be the moment to reimagine the legacy EHR stack.

    Resources:

    Follow Nikhil Buduma on X: https://twitter.com/nkbuduma

    Follow Julie Yoo on X: https://twitter.com/julesyoo

    Read the full transcript here: https://www.a16z.news/s/podcast

    Stay Updated:

    If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!

    Find a16z on X: https://twitter.com/a16z

    Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

    Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX

    Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711

    Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg

    Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures


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    49 mins
  • Building the Marketplace for AI’s Most Valuable Asset
    Feb 17 2026

    a16z investors Daisy Wolf and Eva Steinman talk with Bobby Samuels, cofounder and CEO of Protégé. They discuss the myth that we've run out of data for AI, how Protégé connects healthcare systems and other data holders with the major AI labs, and why real world data beats synthetic data for training models. Bobby also covers the growing demand for eval datasets, expanding beyond healthcare into video and audio, and what he's seeing from the biggest AI companies as they race to acquire training data.

    Stay Updated:

    If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!

    Find a16z on X: https://twitter.com/a16z

    Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

    Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX

    Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711

    Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg

    Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures.


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    39 mins
  • Making Healthcare Affordable for 80 Million Americans
    Feb 5 2026

    Recently, a16z Bio + Health general partner Julie Yoo spoke with Nikita Singareddy, cofounder of Fortuna, and Florian Otto, cofounder of Cedar. They talked about why healthcare affordability is reaching a breaking point, how AI voice agents are transforming patient financial experiences, and what it will take to leapfrog decades of administrative burden in Medicaid—from 30-page paper applications to legacy technology systems built in the 1990s to the real opportunity for giving every American a "five-star healthcare experience."

    Resources:

    Follow Julie Yoo on X: https://twitter.com/julesyoo

    Follow Nikita Singareddy on X: https://twitter.com/singareddynm

    Check out Fortuna: https://www.fortunahealth.com/

    Follow Florian Otto on X: https://twitter.com/flottobrasil

    Check out Cedar: https://www.cedar.com/

    Stay Updated:

    If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!

    Find a16z on X: https://twitter.com/a16z

    Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

    Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX

    Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711

    Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg

    Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures.


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    37 mins
  • Healthcare 2026: AI Doctors, GLP-1s, and Insurance Defection
    Jan 27 2026

    Out-of-Pocket is a healthcare education company founded by Nikhil Krishnan that helps people understand how healthcare works and how to navigate it in practice. In this episode, a16z investing partner Jay Rughani and Nikhil discuss why health insurance is losing its role as the default way people access care. They explain how rising costs are pushing more consumers to pay out of pocket for diagnostics, preventive care, and navigation. The conversation also looks at what this shift means for startups, AI-powered tools, regulation, and access as healthcare continues to move beyond insurance.

    Resources:

    Follow Jay Rughani on X: https://twitter.com/JayRughani

    Follow Nikhil Krishnan on X: https://twitter.com/nikillinit

    Read Out of Pocket’s 2026 Predictions: https://www.outofpocket.health/p/out-of-pockets-2026-predictions

    Stay Updated:

    If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!

    Find a16z on X: https://x.com/a16z

    Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

    Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX

    Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711

    Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details, please see http://a16z.com/disclosures


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    1 hr and 34 mins
  • Building AI Foundation Models for Molecular Design
    Jan 8 2026

    Cofounders Jeremy Wohlwend and Gabriele Corso join the a16z podcast to discuss the launch of Boltz, a public benefit company building AI infrastructure for molecular biology. The conversation explains how breakthroughs following AlphaFold moved the field beyond protein structure prediction into modeling biomolecular interactions and binding strength, why open-source Boltz models saw rapid adoption across pharma and biotech, and how that work is now being productized. They outline the launch of Boltz Lab, a platform that brings protein and small-molecule design agents into scientist workflows, Boltz’s decision to operate as an infrastructure company rather than a therapeutics company, and how AI could reduce early drug discovery bottlenecks by improving molecular design and speeding iteration between computation and the lab.

    Resources:

    Follow Gabriele on X: https://twitter.com/GabriCorso

    Follow Jeremy on X: https://twitter.com/jeremyWohlwend

    Follow Jorge X: https://twitter.com/jorgecondebio

    Follow Zak on X: https://twitter.com/zakdoric

    Stay Updated:

    If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!

    Find a16z on X:https://twitter.com/a16z

    Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

    Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX

    Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711

    Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg](https://x.com/eriktorenberg

    Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.


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    47 mins
  • How AI Cut Healthcare Burnout by 70%
    Dec 4 2025

    In this episode, a16z GP Julie Yoo sits down with Peter McCanna, CEO of Baylor Scott & White Health, to break down how one of America's largest health systems is transforming from a supply-driven "walled castle" to a customer-centric ecosystem, and how it's achieving a 10% operating margin while most hospitals struggle to stay in the black.

    They get into why helping his father navigate healthcare convinced Pete the entire system is fundamentally broken, what differentiates academic medical centers from community health systems, and why traditional hospital economics root out essential services like behavioral health. Peter also explains how ambient AI reduced physician burnout rates by 70%, why AI will eventually replace any job involving human-screen interaction, and what he looks for in startup partnerships beyond just TAM and business fundamentals.

    Resources:

    Follow Peter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-mccanna-784619104

    Follow Julie on X: @julesyoo

    Stay Updated:

    If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!

    Find a16z on X: https://x.com/a16z

    Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

    Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX

    Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711

    Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg

    Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.


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    48 mins
  • The Future of Healthcare Payments: CMS Chief of Staff Stephanie Carlton
    Nov 24 2025

    A labor and delivery nurse who ran Senate healthcare policy now manages $1.7 trillion in federal health spending—and she runs her team like a startup.

    Steph Carlton, Chief of Staff and Deputy Administrator at CMS, reveals the OKRs driving Medicare and Medicaid, why they're killing social determinants funding while building consumer health apps at scale, and how real-time provider data could collapse the 18-month lag between care delivery and payment.

    The team mixing founders with policy veterans is rewriting quality measures around VO2 max and app engagement, not just disease management—because preventing illness years before it happens might finally be worth more than treating it after.

    Stay Updated:

    If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!

    Find a16z on X: https://x.com/a16z

    Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

    Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX

    Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711

    Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures


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    27 mins