E192 | How Clasp Is Transforming Healthcare Recruitment and Retention

E192 | How Clasp Is Transforming Healthcare Recruitment and Retention

Healthcare has a workforce crisis, but what if the real problem isn't staffing? In Episode 192 of the Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show, Michael Stamatinos sits down with Tess Michaels, Founder and CEO of Clasp, to explore a bold new approach to solving one of healthcare's biggest challenges: attracting and retaining clinicians before they ever enter the workforce. With more than 3 million clinical positions sitting unfilled across the United States and student loan debt surpassing $1.7 trillion, health systems continue to rely on sign-on bonuses and short-term incentives that often fail to improve long-term retention. Tess believes there's a better way. Drawing inspiration from the ROTC model, Clasp pioneered "Loan Linking Hiring," an innovative approach that connects healthcare employers with future clinicians while they're still in school. Instead of paying large bonuses upfront, employers invest in student loan repayment over time, creating stronger loyalty, improving retention, and helping clinicians begin their careers with greater financial confidence. Throughout the conversation, Tess shares: • Why the healthcare workforce shortage is really a retention problem • How student loan debt influences where clinicians choose to work and how long they stay • Why traditional sign-on bonuses often create more turnover than loyalty • How Clasp partners with leading health systems including Northwestern Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Novant Health, and OhioHealth • The psychology behind long-term employee retention • Lessons learned from building a venture-backed healthcare company over the past eight years • The hardest moments of entrepreneurship that rarely make the headlines • How immigrant parents, education, and purpose shaped her leadership journey • Why investing in people earlier changes the future of healthcare This episode is about far more than recruiting. It's a conversation about leadership, innovation, trust, financial wellness, workforce strategy, and designing systems that create better outcomes for both clinicians and patients. If you're a healthcare executive, hospital leader, HR executive, workforce strategist, investor, entrepreneur, clinician, or simply passionate about the future of healthcare, this is an episode you won't want to miss. Learn more about Clasp: https://www.clasp.com/ [https://www.clasp.com/] Connect with Tess Michaels: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tessmichaels/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tessmichaels/] ⏱️ Timestamps 01:15 The healthcare workforce crisis: 3 million open clinical roles 03:05 Meet Tess Michaels and the origin of Clasp 04:25 Growing up in a family of physicians 06:00 Leaving Goldman Sachs and private equity to become a founder 08:00 The insight that led to Clasp 10:40 Why healthcare's staffing problem is really a retention problem 14:25 How Loan Linking Hiring works 15:40 Why sign-on bonuses fail 18:55 Real stories of clinicians whose lives changed 21:10 How health systems justify the investment 24:00 Winning the first healthcare customer 25:30 Building Clasp over eight years 26:15 The hardest part of being a founder 28:50 How Tess's immigrant family shaped her leadership 31:15 A message to the next generation of clinicians 33:30 Where to learn more about Clasp 34:10 Final thoughts 📣 LIKE, COMMENT & SUBSCRIBE If this conversation moved you, challenged your thinking, or sparked an idea, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for more episodes with healthcare leaders who are not just thinking differently, they’re building differently. About the Show The Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show is hosted by Michael Stamatinos, a nationally recognized connector, strategist, and advocate for innovation with purpose. Each week, Michael interviews healthcare leaders who are driving meaningful change—highlighting stories of access, resilience, equity, and transformation. The AHI Show started with the idea of wanting to highlight stories of what healthcare innovation truly looks like in action. Our mission, highlight real people who are really innovating within healthcare. Guests include healthcare entrepreneurs, providers, payers, and professionals from the investment community. We showcase little wins as well as valuable lessons learned from setbacks through these interviews. The real innovators in healthcare are often the ones in the trenches doing the work with razor-sharp focus. We find these innovators and bring their stories to light. 🔗 Michael’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstamo [https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstamo] 🎧 Subscribe for more episodes that move beyond theory and into the heart of what’s really possible in healthcare. Join our group, Advancing Healthcare Innovation Forum on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7056196/ [https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7056196/]

E191: John Fryer | The Healthcare Shift That Will Impact 100 Million Americans

What if the biggest challenge in healthcare isn’t creating more innovation…but actually getting it into the hands of the people who need it most? In this episode of the Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show, Michael Stamatinos sits down with John Fryer, Chief Growth and Corporate Development Officer at Lumeris, to explore one of the most important questions facing healthcare today: How do we scale access to care without losing the human connection that makes healthcare work? Primary care is facing a defining moment. Millions of Americans struggle to access basic preventative care. Physicians are stretched thin. Health systems are under increasing pressure. And AI is entering healthcare faster than ever before. But technology alone won’t fix the problem. John shares how Lumeris is helping redesign the future of primary care by combining value-based care, artificial intelligence, clinical expertise, and new operating models that allow physicians to spend more time doing what they do best: caring for people. In this conversation, we discuss: • The conversation with Cerner founder Neal Patterson that changed the trajectory of John’s career • Why healthcare attracts people who want to solve incredibly difficult problems • Why trust and relationships still determine whether healthcare transformation succeeds • The difference between healthcare innovation and actually deploying innovation at scale • How AI can make healthcare more personal, not less human • Why rural America represents one of the greatest opportunities for healthcare transformation • How we redesign care around patients instead of around legacy systems • Why the next generation of healthcare leaders needs creativity, courage, and a builder mindset John also shares powerful stories from the front lines, including how AI helped create a meaningful connection for a 90-year-old patient experiencing isolation and why the future of healthcare depends on pairing technology with empathy. Healthcare transformation does not happen through technology alone. It happens when the right people, partnerships, incentives, and trust come together around a problem worth solving. This is a conversation about the future of primary care, the role of AI, and the leaders building what comes next. Learn more about Lumeris: https://www.lumeris.com/ [https://www.lumeris.com/] Connect with John Fryer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenni-blendu-gudapati-phd-mba-rn-2049072a/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenni-blendu-gudapati-phd-mba-rn-2049072a/] 📣 LIKE, COMMENT & SUBSCRIBE If this conversation moved you, challenged your thinking, or sparked an idea, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for more episodes with healthcare leaders who are not just thinking differently, they’re building differently. About the Show The Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show is hosted by Michael Stamatinos, a nationally recognized connector, strategist, and advocate for innovation with purpose. Each week, Michael interviews healthcare leaders who are driving meaningful change—highlighting stories of access, resilience, equity, and transformation. The AHI Show started with the idea of wanting to highlight stories of what healthcare innovation truly looks like in action. Our mission, highlight real people who are really innovating within healthcare. Guests include healthcare entrepreneurs, providers, payers, and professionals from the investment community. We showcase little wins as well as valuable lessons learned from setbacks through these interviews. The real innovators in healthcare are often the ones in the trenches doing the work with razor-sharp focus. We find these innovators and bring their stories to light. 🔗 Michael’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstamo [https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstamo] 🎧 Subscribe for more episodes that move beyond theory and into the heart of what’s really possible in healthcare. Join our group, Advancing Healthcare Innovation Forum on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7056196/ [https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7056196/]

E190: The Patient Story AI Still Can’t See | Jenni Gudapati, PhD

What happens when the healthcare system has all the data…but still misses the patient? Dr. Jenni Gudapati, PhD has spent nearly three decades asking that question. She started her career as an emergency room and critical care nurse in rural America, where she saw the same patients returning again and again. At first, they were labeled “frequent flyers.” Then one patient changed everything. The patient wasn’t coming to the ER because the system lacked clinical information. She was coming because nobody had stopped long enough to understand her story. That moment reshaped Jenni’s entire view of healthcare. Since then, she has gone on to: * Build an award-winning graduate healthcare leadership program at Boise State University * Help develop national conversations around health equity and quality standards through CMS advisory work * Lead discussions around value-based care, population health, and healthcare transformation * Co-found Healthy Insights AI to help healthcare organizations better understand the complete patient story In this episode of the Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show, Michael Stamatinos sits down with Dr. Jenni Gudapati to discuss why healthcare transformation requires more than data, dashboards, and technology. They explore: 05:00 What working as an ER nurse taught Jenni about the gaps in healthcare 08:00 The patient story that changed the trajectory of her career 14:00 Losing her father because of a preventable care coordination failure 17:00 Why hospitals and insurance companies aren’t the “bad guys” 21:00 The future of value-based care and Medicare Advantage 23:00 Why healthcare data without context creates problems 25:00 Building Healthy Insights AI 31:00 Why great nurses see things algorithms miss 34:00 Working on national healthcare policy conversations 37:00 Developing the next generation of healthcare leaders 40:00 Building relationships that create healthcare transformation Healthcare does not have a shortage of information. It has a shortage of understanding. And sometimes the most important data point is the story nobody thought to ask for. Learn more about Healthy Insights AI: https://healthyinsights.ai [https://healthyinsights.ai] Connect with Dr. Jenni Gudapati: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenni-blendu-gudapati-phd-mba-rn-2049072a/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenni-blendu-gudapati-phd-mba-rn-2049072a/] 📣 LIKE, COMMENT & SUBSCRIBE If this conversation moved you, challenged your thinking, or sparked an idea, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for more episodes with healthcare leaders who are not just thinking differently, they’re building differently. About the Show The Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show is hosted by Michael Stamatinos, a nationally recognized connector, strategist, and advocate for innovation with purpose. Each week, Michael interviews healthcare leaders who are driving meaningful change—highlighting stories of access, resilience, equity, and transformation. The AHI Show started with the idea of wanting to highlight stories of what healthcare innovation truly looks like in action. Our mission, highlight real people who are really innovating within healthcare. Guests include healthcare entrepreneurs, providers, payers, and professionals from the investment community. We showcase little wins as well as valuable lessons learned from setbacks through these interviews. The real innovators in healthcare are often the ones in the trenches doing the work with razor-sharp focus. We find these innovators and bring their stories to light. 🔗 Michael’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstamo [https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstamo] 🎧 Subscribe for more episodes that move beyond theory and into the heart of what’s really possible in healthcare. Join our group, Advancing Healthcare Innovation Forum on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7056196/ [https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7056196/]

E189: George Hsu Quit Building For Others. Then He Took On MedTech Giants

George Hsu, Founder and CEO of Aulea Medical, joins host Michael Stamatinos on the Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show to discuss how a single-use urological device is reshaping OR efficiency, reducing infection risk, and expanding access to care in rural communities across the United States. He didn't set out to disrupt an industry. He just refused to accept a broken process. George Hsu spent 15 years deep in medical device R&D, at companies like Thoratec (acquired by Abbott) and Outset Medical (went public). He knew how to build things. He knew how to make the technology work. What he didn't know was that one day he'd walk into an operating room, watch a urological procedure collapse under the weight of outdated equipment, and decide, right there, that enough was enough. That moment became Aulea Medical. And Aulea Medical became Valoxion. In this episode, Michael Stamatinos and George Hsu break down what's actually happening before a urology patient even hits the table, why single-use devices could be the smarter economic play for health systems under cost pressure, and how a small team is quietly reaching rural communities that the big players have written off entirely. BPH affects half of all men by their 50s. Most of them don't know there are real options. George is building the answer, one physician relationship at a time. IN THIS EPISODE George Hsu is the Founder and CEO of Aulea Medical, the company behind Valoxion, the first and only all-in-one single-use system for urological procedures. Before founding Aulea, George spent over 15 years in R&D at respected early-stage medtech companies including Thoratec (acquired by Abbott) and Outset Medical (IPO). He built Valoxion to address the inefficiency, infection risk, and access gaps baked into standard urology OR workflows. Michael Stamatinos and George Hsu cover: ➤ The OR chaos that lit the fuse for Aulea Medical ➤ Why health systems saving money on reusable equipment may be doing the math wrong ➤ How Valoxion reaches rural communities the major device companies won't prioritize ➤ The psychological and operational weight of running a lean startup in medtech ➤ What building a company with purpose actually looks like from the inside ⏱ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 — Introduction: Who is George Hsu and what is Aulea Medical? 3:32 — From R&D engineer to founder: What triggered the switch 6:49 — How the Bay Area shaped George's risk tolerance 10:31 — How George landed in urology 12:05 — What a urology OR looks like before Valoxion is in the room 17:09 — The question every medtech founder gets: "Isn't everyone's product simpler and safer?" 19:06 — What it feels like watching your device used on a patient for the first time 21:26 — The pressure that never turns off when running a startup 25:23 — Playing David against Olympus, Boston Scientific, and Stryker 28:12 — BPH: where's the real bottleneck, awareness or access? 31:27 — Making the cost case for single-use devices to a stretched CFO 34:41 — Where to follow George and Aulea Medical 36:20 — What George would tell his 32-year-old self https://www.auleamed.com/ [https://www.auleamed.com/] 📣 LIKE, COMMENT & SUBSCRIBE If this conversation moved you, challenged your thinking, or sparked an idea, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for more episodes with healthcare leaders who are not just thinking differently, they’re building differently. About the Show The Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show is hosted by Michael Stamatinos, a nationally recognized connector, strategist, and advocate for innovation with purpose. Each week, Michael interviews healthcare leaders who are driving meaningful change—highlighting stories of access, resilience, equity, and transformation. The AHI Show started with the idea of wanting to highlight stories of what healthcare innovation truly looks like in action. Our mission, highlight real people who are really innovating within healthcare. Guests include healthcare entrepreneurs, providers, payers, and professionals from the investment community. We showcase little wins as well as valuable lessons learned from setbacks through these interviews. The real innovators in healthcare are often the ones in the trenches doing the work with razor-sharp focus. We find these innovators and bring their stories to light. 🔗 Michael’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstamo [https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstamo] 🎧 Subscribe for more episodes that move beyond theory and into the heart of what’s really possible in healthcare. Join our group, Advancing Healthcare Innovation Forum on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7056196/ [https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7056196/]

E188: The Hidden Reason Your Prescription Costs So Much with Miriam Paramore

Why does the same prescription cost $15 at one pharmacy and $56 at another? And why does almost nobody standing at that counter know about the savings that could change everything? In this episode of the Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show, host Michael Stamatinos sits down with Miriam Paramore, founder and CEO of RxUtility, operating advisor at Goldman Sachs, limited partner at 7wire Ventures, and one of the most experienced operators in the history of healthcare technology. This is one of the most honest and human conversations the show has ever produced. Miriam has spent 40 years building the infrastructure of American healthcare. She helped write part of the Affordable Care Act. She led enterprise strategy at Emdeon and helped take the company to a $1.2 billion IPO. She served as President of OptimizeRx on the NASDAQ. She has sat in every room that mattered in this industry. And then she watched her father navigate the system she helped build. Jack Paramore was a preacher who left the family farm to devote his life to serving others. He gave Miriam a necklace with an ampersand on it for her 50th birthday, along with a handwritten poem that read, "This is an AND moment, not an ending." When Jack got sick with kidney failure, heart failure, and severe melanoma in rural North Carolina, with no transportation coverage and $500 a month too much to qualify for Medicaid, the system failed him at every turn. In this episode: → The story of Jack Paramore, the preacher who left the farm, and what his life taught Miriam about what it means to be of genuine service to other people → How a napkin sketch in a Congressional cafeteria became healthcare law → Why a drug that costs $600 for a patient in their deductible phase can cost their employer $300 for the exact same bottle, and who is collecting the spread → Why almost 15% of all prescriptions in the United States are now being paid in cash, and why most consumers have no idea cash is often cheaper than using their insurance → The six different price points that exist for a single prescription drug and why the system keeps consumers from ever seeing all of them at once → Mimi, RxUtility's AI companion for prescription pricing, and how it answers the one question every patient deserves a straight answer to: what does this drug actually cost me today? → What Miriam sees in the first five minutes when a founder walks into a room and does not have what it takes https://rxutility.com/ [https://rxutility.com/] Follow Miriam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miriamparamore/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/miriamparamore/] 📣 LIKE, COMMENT & SUBSCRIBE If this conversation moved you, challenged your thinking, or sparked an idea, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for more episodes with healthcare leaders who are not just thinking differently, they’re building differently. About the Show The Advancing Healthcare Innovation Show is hosted by Michael Stamatinos, a nationally recognized connector, strategist, and advocate for innovation with purpose. Each week, Michael interviews healthcare leaders who are driving meaningful change—highlighting stories of access, resilience, equity, and transformation. The AHI Show started with the idea of wanting to highlight stories of what healthcare innovation truly looks like in action. Our mission, highlight real people who are really innovating within healthcare. Guests include healthcare entrepreneurs, providers, payers, and professionals from the investment community. We showcase little wins as well as valuable lessons learned from setbacks through these interviews. The real innovators in healthcare are often the ones in the trenches doing the work with razor-sharp focus. We find these innovators and bring their stories to light. 🔗 Michael’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstamo [https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstamo] 🎧 Subscribe for more episodes that move beyond theory and into the heart of what’s really possible in healthcare. Join our group, Advancing Healthcare Innovation Forum on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7056196/ [https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7056196/] Timestamps: 01:18 Introducing Miriam Paramore and RxUtility 04:30 Miriam responds and why she does this work 05:35 Jack Paramore, the preacher who left the farm 10:24 Jack's healthcare journey and how the system failed him 13:17 What fuels Miriam's mission to make medicine affordable 15:55 The Affordable Care Act, the napkin, and how healthcare law actually gets made 23:26 What drew Miriam to the prescription affordability problem specifically 28:57 Explaining RxUtility like you are standing at the pharmacy counter 33:46 Why this information has been hidden for so long and who benefits 37:40 The RxUtility business model and who pays 39:41 Mimi, the AI companion built to surface the best drug price for every patient 41:02 What Miriam looks for in founders as an investor and advisor 43:03 What she would tell her younger self 44:06 How to connect with Miriam and follow RxUtility