Welcome to today's episode where we have the distinct privilege of speaking with Lisa Suennen, Managing Partner of American Heart Association Ventures, who was just featured in Forbes 50 Over 50 and we couldn't be more thrilled to congratulate her on this well-deserved recognition! This honor celebrates Lisa's extraordinary impact as a true powerhouse in healthcare innovation and venture capital. With over 35 years of experience at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and investment, Lisa brings an unparalleled perspective on how we can transform healthcare delivery and outcomes. At American Heart Association Ventures, she leads a multi-fund platform that's investing in the future of healthcare across the entire spectrum—from cutting-edge medical technologies to addressing critical social determinants of health.
Her career has spanned multiple dimensions of the healthcare ecosystem:
Lisa Suennen, Managing Partner, American Heart Association Ventures
Megan Antonelli, Founder & CEO, HealthIMPACT Live
0:01 Welcome to Digital Health Talks. Each week we meet with healthcare leaders making an immeasurable difference in equity, access, and quality. Hear about what tech is worth investing in and what isn't as we focus on the innovations that deliver. Join Megan Antonelli, Janae Sharp, and Shahid Shaw for a weekly no BS deep dive on what's really making an impact in healthcare.
0:30 Megan Antonelli: Hi everybody. Welcome to Digital Health Talks. This is Megan Antonelli, and I am so excited to be here with Lisa Suennen. I've known Lisa for many years and she is now the managing partner at American Heart Association Ventures. And we're so excited to have her here today. She was just featured as a Forbes over 50, person, and that is an amazing honor. And I am excited to have her on the show and hear about all of the incredible work that she's been doing at AHA Ventures and how that ties up to healthcare innovation. Hi Lisa.
1:04 Lisa Suennen: I'm great. It's so nice to see you and, and sort of see you anyway, see you on the screen, right, right, you know, the way it is now, right, although we have seen each other at many a conference, right?
1:17 Megan: We have indeed. We have indeed. Yeah, so, but it is, you know, it's such an interesting time as we have kind of, you know, I think just, and I always go back to it, but since the pandemic, where we've had this kind of digital explosion, if you will, within healthcare, where we, where I feel like we're no longer saying, oh, we're so risk averse, or we're not implementing tech in the same, you know, as fast as everybody else, that there's been an adoption sprint. And now we're here and it's a question of what's working and what's not, and who needs more help and where the help needs to be, right? And you've always had your finger on the pulse of all of that. So tell us a little bit about what you've been doing at AHA Ventures and, you know, where you see all this is, going.
2:05 Lisa: Yeah, so I've been at AHA Ventures full time now for, you know, since January of 2024. So, you know, going on a year and three quarters, And of course I've been affiliated here for a long, long time, helped start the very first fund back almost 10 years ago, Cardiation, and. You know, we've had a couple of years of significant expansion. We had cardiation running, it's in its second fund and it focuses mostly on medical devices and the traditional sectors of medical devices. All of our work and all of our funds and activities, circles around heart and brain health. So that's their focus. we had also started about 6 years ago a social impact fund that invests in things around the social determinants of health. , that is now raised, it, it continuously raises and invests and supports, companies, both for-profit and not for profit. so that's invested now probably about $35 million against, you know, maybe 50 something million dollars raised, and we are continuously expanding that. We have started in the last year, Go Red for Women venture fund focused on women's health, by which I mean heart and brain health for women and all of the associated conditions that contribute to heart and brain health. So that can be autoimmune disorders, it could be certain gynecological disorders, it could be, Things like, you know, gastrointestinal disorders, things that contribute to heart and brain health or the lack thereof. And then we've also started a venture studio just to co-create or create new organizations, new companies, for-profit organizations that can solve problems that have not been fully addressed out in the field. so we're excited. we are still involved with Medtech Innovator, we're still involved with a lot of organizations really trying to Engage at the front of the field in across all the sectors, although biotech is not one we're focusing on yet, here at HA Ventures.
4:11 Megan: Yeah. Yeah, well, that med device and the medtech innovator group is great and the the work that they're doing there and what's coming out of it. But to go back to like with Cardiation, what are, what are some of the, you know, companies or success stories that have come out of there?
4:27 Lisa: Well, one success story is Bardy that was exited. I mean, the fund has not had a lot of exits like in keeping with most of healthcare. The exit timeline is quite long. but, we've invested, in, companies around sleep, so like Wesper, which is a home, apnea monitoring company, and then, Invicta or excuse me, Restera, which is treatment for sleep apnea. , we've invested in a whole bunch of, you know, different organizations that address everything from, congestive heart failure and valve disease and neurological conditions. So really pretty broad based and willing to, to support both PMA and and 510K type devices, really a strong fun, great team.
5:23 Megan: Yeah, yeah, I know it is. It's amazing. I mean, having been, I think to my first scientific sessions, maybe now, I guess it was maybe 4 or 5 years ago, I guess for in terms of just the expanse of what it covers, you know, and, you know, and certainly the traditional, you know, pharmaceutical players and biotech players are there, but even watching the change over the last 4 years, right, where it was very much, you know, pharma dominated to now. Being, you know, much more of the technology, the digital health players, my device, you know, lots of interesting. I mean, I think that intersection of device and digital is now becoming very real, you know, we talked about it forever and ever and it really wasn't a thing, starting to be a thing, right?
6:12 Lisa: And you know, so one of the companies in Cartiation, for instance, is Bioink. It's got a biosensor, wearable sensor for glucose monitoring, not unlike some of the others that are out there, except that it's incredibly sensitive and specific and it also has some interesting ability to measure things other than glucose. So, You know, we're doing partnering through that company with other analyte type organizations and it also has a kind of cool feature that it lights up in different colors based on, you know, whether you're in the range or not in the range, so easy for people to follow.
6:51 Megan: Yeah, there's some really great stuff in that intersection. Yeah, yeah, I know, it's amazing. And then on the social determinants of health side with the social impact fund, I mean, you know, and I think it's such a You know, important sort of, you know, public health concern and, and the, you know, sort of whether the diversity and the equity around heart health that You know, there's a lot of potential there. Are there, what, what are the companies like there? Are there some stars in that portfolio or, you know, also I just think that there's been some, there's interesting movement that's happening like social determinants of health, SDOH kind of became this like thing that everybody was talking about for a while. And then there was this little bit of pushback of like, how is it gonna impact the providers? How can They collect more data. They already do so much. And now as we have these new AI ambient tools that are able to collect some of this data and maybe process what we can do with it, there's a whole, you know, I think there's a new potential. Are are you seeing that, in any of the companies or even just
7:56 Lisa: Yeah, I mean, we're seeing some of it on the social determinant side. I think there's a lot of reticence to. Adopt AI in the clinical realms yet, you know, I mean, it's very much powering through the administrative side of things, but when it comes to real patient data, real patient information, real patient care, it's going a lot more slowly and that might be a good thing, considering it's not, you know. Fully perfect, not that anything's perfect and everybody always says, yeah, well, doctors make mistakes too. That's true. But I think having eyes on patients generally tends to improve the use of the data. But we've made investments in lots of interesting tech platforms in the social impact fund like PaS Suite is a really good example. , it's a tech-enabled service so it helps people become and get trained and certified as, community health workers and then as a network that payers and providers can use to equip community health workers to serve their patients well and effectively. it's really grown quite a lot, mostly on the west coast at this point, but really both serves two of our, we have three focus areas in, in the social impact. One is healthcare quality and access, improving that. One is economic empowerment, which is things like workforce creation, job upskilling, and a variety of things that are more around financial supports to help people be able to afford healthcare or afford, you know, to live in a world where they can be healthier. And then the third area is food security and nutrition security. So Pasuite actually touches the quality and access side of things and improves access to community health workers, which help in underserved communities, but it also improves economic empowerment because it creates jobs for people getting them, you know, trained up as community health workers. So it's a really nice example. For us. We've also had a similar investment and a similar kind of idea called a company called Oen Health that trains barbershops and manicurists, barbershop workers, manicurists, etc. to be community health workers similarly and do hypertension testing for people who are coming in. So they get, people get access to trusted. Health advisors effectively, you know, the community health workers that are the people that would otherwise be coming to get their hair done or their nails done, but also those people, the barbers and others get another source of income, you know, so it's a really.
10:30 Megan: Yeah, that, that's so interesting. We, you know, I, a friend of mine who also works in healthcare, we're always talking about how You know, when you go to the hospital or you go to the doctor's office, you're not getting the services that you actually want to get at them, right? You're getting things that you typically, right. Typically, it's, you know, I have to get my shots, I have to get my vaccines, I have to get my various tests. It's not, you know, and then you go to the spa or the wellness center or wherever where you get your massage and, you know, maybe various other injections, but they're they're different, you know, different and, and very much, You know, sort of what you want. And if there were those, you know, sort of models where they're coming together, and I think we're seeing that here at least in California, we've got a few sort of primary market, primary care that are really leaning in that wellness vein where they also have, you know, pickleball courts, you know, and physicians, but so the, But it is, that's such a great, you know, give people healthcare where they are, you know, which is, you know, and, and it's also, you know, I mean, we've watched a lot happen with the retail pharmacies and kind of their efforts in that area that have been less, you know, some more successful than others, I guess.
11:47 Lisa: Yeah, well, you know, it's, it's, it's really an interesting problem to get. I mean, trust is so important. Healthcare. That's why I think the clinical side of AI is slow to to happen because people don't fully trust that. And, you know, both trust and dignity and treating people with, you know, real sensitivity and personal respect is so critical, and particularly so with, well with all people truly, but with populations that are not accustomed to it, it's particularly so, right.
12:21 Megan: Yeah, I know. And I think that, that intersection of kind of the the trust and the risk and what's involved makes everyone quite cautious when it comes to understandably so, for sure. but it is, it's, you know, I think, you know, that you do, you trust your hairdresser, you know. See them a lot more frequently, that is for sure. And have certainly a lot more in depth conversations for better or for worse, right? But then, of course, that third, the third piece of this, which is the the women's go Red for Women, which is my favorite. And you know, and I think ties to your leadership in healthcare, which, you know, you've been known for with CSweetener and and everything you've done to kind of build the mentor community among women in digital health and, and, and, you know, sort of the investment community certainly. , how, you know, tell me about sort of how that's gone and how that's been, and I was, and I, you know, Nancy Brown and the organization of the American Heart Association is amazing and the group of sort of advocacy and women, groups, involved are incredible, And yet it is also an organization that's very based in Texas, that, you know, I mean we're certainly headquartered in Texas, but we are national and international.
13:46 Lisa: We're in I think 90 countries or something like that, and we have staff in every single state and I think, you know, we're not a political organization, we're extremely bipartisan and, and really focused on only one thing, which is improving. You know, health and hope for everybody and, and particularly focused on heart and brain health. And so for us, caring about women, 51% of the population is, you know, not something to avoid. It's something to, to, to really lean into. And we have a long how to go Red for Women initiative at AHA to educate women about heart health, about brain health, about taking better care of themselves, what to worry about when you go to the doctor, what to ask about, what to think about. And so it became very natural for us to start a fund focused on that, same idea, but thinking about funding the companies that will serve the women who are asking these questions, right? And so we We're still raising it, but we've already started investing. We've actually made our first investment, we haven't announced it yet. we will in a couple of weeks and it's very much in line with our mission to improve access and quality and care and and services, for, for women in categories that are often overlooked, or underserved or misdiagnosed or, you know, whatever they may be, so. , I think you'll see, probably this year, you'll see at least 2 or 3 investments from us that are spanning device, diagnostics, services, tech, you know, the whole range of things, really thinking broadly about how you Not just serve women, but serve serve health care through the women's lens, so you're better taking care of people and if those, you know, companies, the advances they make and the the research they, you know, build off of and all the things and help everybody, men and women, that's great, you know, but we want to make sure that the things that are differentiated in women, the things that are disproportionately experienced by women are Or I tend to, you know, particularly.
15:54 Megan: Well, and it is, I mean, I think that it's been, we're seeing so much, obviously with the, you know, focus on menopause and and and the focus on women's health, in general, that there's this kind of media buzz around it as well as lots of different, you know, various types of, you know. Companies where you can get that, you know, that specialized health right? from like Winona or Miti or Maven Clinic, and that there's been a number of different models coming into play that, you know, sort of serve serve that audience better or serve that demographic better. But yet, still struggling a bit. What is your sort of thoughts on that kind of market and, and where, you know.
16:40 Lisa: Yeah, I mean, if you're asking me specifically about menopause, I mean, I think it's been, it's been interesting. I mean, the good, the great news is that we're openly talking about it as a thing, it's not behind the curtain anymore, right? and since every single woman alive who reaches, you know, middle age will experience it, you know, it shouldn't be some big secret. , I am really grateful for that, and I think the companies that are standing in, you know, out in front of that field, there's a lot to thank them for. I think the business models have been really hard to find, and, you know, we haven't yet backed a company in this space. We'd love to find one that we feel is got a long term sustainable business that can be very profitable and can be, you know, really effective in In serving the population and while there are some that are making great strides, we just haven't, you know, found the right the right.
17:39 Megan: You know, yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I don't know, I feel like it's Matthew Hall talks about it a lot on the LinkedIn, right, on the socials, but you know that the primary care model. It is hard for both, you know, if you're if you're addressing the whole population, it's hard. So if you take 51% and you're helping, helping them, that figuring out how to monetize that and make it sustainable is tough. But because the field where it's very much about services right now. The drugs you use to treat people are mostly generic. There are no devices. The diagnostics are, you know, so that's a place where there's a lot of advantage. You know, a lot of innovation coming forward, I think for like home diagnostics and the like right now. but until there's A really good payment structure for all this stuff and a really good construct to, to make a difference in treatment. I mean, diagnostics are only as good as the, you know, as the treatment changes, right? The treatment's only as good as, as it's works and, you know, gets to the right people. So you really have to think about. How you leverage technology and services. To achieve those objectives in a way that can be profitable, it's very tough.
18:54 Lisa: Right.
18:55 Megan: Absolutely. Yeah, I know, and it is there's one of the great things that I've seen about the, the tech and the sort of developments actually doing the competition with the American Heart Association is around the You know, kind of devices designed for women. So kind of the, the, the cardiology, you know, the meters and the things that are the bras. I think it was Blooming Health one year that participated, you know, where you really realize that these technologies and devices were designed for men and there are. You know, ways to improve them that make them much more accessible for others.
19:33 Lisa: I mean we're really interested in the field of which you know is basically a form of heart disease that is microvascular disease in women that causes You know, myocardial infarction and you know, and things of that nature, which is very much not detectable on the normal means of looking for heart disease that when you go to a cardiologist. So, you know, we're thinking about how do you, look for new diagnostics, look for new interventions that can make a difference for people. I had a friend who had this experience very recently. You know, had, had an MI that was based, you know, from that microvascular disease. Nobody saw it coming. She was very young and, you know, getting somebody to pay attention to her that way has been really challenging.
20:20 Megan: Mhm. Yeah, no, I, it is, and I think that, you know, I mean, that goes back to the sort of trust and the trust that isn't there and that the, you know, part of it is that they that because certain populations and certain conditions have been overlooked for various reasons, you know, so. There's, it's a bigger piece than just technology and it's it's education of the physicians as well. It's broad, you know, cultural problems. So yeah, we're getting there, we're getting there step by step, right? sometimes two steps forward, one step back, but, you know, hopefully we get there. So we always talk about, you know, we have a female founder series, we talk to a lot of female, innovators and founders, And you know, try to provide some funding for advice, but as you're having worked with all many of them through your various career stages, you know, what are your thoughts, particularly now as the as the landscape has changed maybe a bit and there's sort of more attention being focused on women's health, but also just opportunities for funding and the challenges that might be there.
21:28 Lisa: You know, I think Well, women's health, by the way, if you look at the companies, the vast majority of them are founded and run by men. So it's not a women's health equals women's founders' thing. I mean, women founders come in every part of, of healthcare, and so I, you know, I think I encourage women to do what they're passionate about, whether it has to do with women or not. we don't make men sit in a box looking at only their, their own types. Look, I mean, it, you'd be lying to people if you said it isn't harder. You know, it's harder to raise the money, it's harder to get the respect among the funding community. I think that you have to be incredibly resilient, incredibly, confident without being arrogant that you're doing the right thing and just go straight at it, you know, that's all you can do and, Find your people, you know, the people who believe in you, who are willing to give you that first dollar, you know, to support what your, your needs, willing to support you in your efforts, find your mentors, find your, you know, your coaches and, and really Commit because it's a long haul no matter what kind of entrepreneur you are, but for women it sometimes takes more, but we're used to that, we're used to doing more than others, and, this is no different, you know, you don't get any special credit for any being of any particular group, I think in, in healthcare you got to really try hard. It's a lot of work.
22:59 Megan: Yeah, no, no joke and healthcare is one of the harder ones. So thinking more broadly beyond just women, innovators and, and founders, you know, what are some of the key elements that as we kind of walk into this AI transformed healthcare world that you're looking at in terms of Whether it's the, the tech or the business model, what's important, what's important, what's what's important
23:26 Lisa: I think what's important is why. Why, what is the thing you're doing? AI for the sake of AI is not interesting at all to me. there's a lot of companies out that are doing, you know, AI for very, very nichey things, also not interesting to me. niche things get, you can't spend a lot of money on them because they're gonna get rolled up into something else and, and the high valuations associated with them right now because it says AI are, you know, absurd. so, real differentiation in the outcome of the, of the technology. The technology, it's I I kinda like think about it like the internet. , when the internet came out for those are old enough to remember, it was the only thing people talked about the internet, the internet, the internet, the internet, you know, these are companies that were about the internet and nobody ever talks about that anymore, but it's ubiquitous. The internet is ubiquitous. We would not be talking today for it not for the internet, right? And we were it not for the investment made around the development, but it became more or less a tool that isn't differentiated anymore. A utility in effect. And I do think there's something to be said for how we're gonna be experiencing AI. It will be everywhere, it'll be ubiquitous, and it will be a few players, you know, that are constantly improving the utility. The application of that utility to good outcome is essential. Now we've done OK on the administrative side, making a difference, getting, you know, stupid workout and things like that. But on the clinical side, we still have a lot of work to do to get the data that goes into the internet or AI in this case, to be good and so the, the, the output of it is good. I mean, I keep seeing articles about how, you know, oh. AI performs well on medical tests, you know, like doctors do. Good, that's good, but does it perform well on patient intervention? not great yet. It's pretty weak and until it's more reliably capable of doing that, we need to have people in the loop. So I think any AI that improves the work of people to do more and better for patients is great, potentially. I think we need to prove it and validate these algorithms. One of the things AA is doing is developing a validation suite for cardiovascular and brain health algorithms for companies to go in and check them against more objective data. , and I think, you know, the business model needs to be about the service that comes out the other end, not the technology itself.
26:02 Megan: Right. Yeah, I mean, I think that's such an important point in that right now, it's almost like the AI is there and it has this promise, but it actually is creating more work. In some cases than less because you have to check it and the requirements to check it, certainly within healthcare, maybe it's not as important on my blog post, but ultimately in healthcare, it is, you know, and so it'll help people find rare disease in a way that we couldn't before and think there's definite positive applications.
26:33 Lisa: Absolutely. And the, and the promise is, is there. We're just not quite there yet.
26:37 Megan: So, on that, we also do a segment called Five Good Things. We like to talk, we always like to end on the, what are, what are you most excited about? What is the thing when you look at healthcare and you say, this is why I'm still in it. This is the good thing that's coming, or that's happening now. OK, 5, You don't have to give me 5. You only have to give me 1.1.
26:58 Lisa: Actually, despite the fact that I really like ice cream and pizza, I'm pretty excited about the, the focus on good nutrition that's happening right now. I mean, I don't care where you sit in the political spectrum, better eating equals better health, and I think that's a positive. I'm also excited about the efforts to,, advance the field around dementia and Alzheimer's and brain health generally. That is gonna be the, the crisis of the next 25 years, as people age, and we have to do better on the caregiving front. We have to do better on the diagnostic and treatment front. And so I'm glad there's a lot of people digging into neuro and truly trying to crack the code there.
27:45 Megan: Yeah.
27:46 Lisa: And the other thing I'd say, I'll give you one more. I'm seeing some really cool stuff in, in rehabilitation from stroke. , so people who've had strokes, but it's been a long time, more than 6 months, when they used to think that you were done getting better. we're seeing a lot of interesting products to demonstrate that you can get better later and recover function, and I think that is all about the intersection of technology and devices and nerves and, you know, brain stimulation, things are really cool bioelectric medicine opportunity there, very, very powerful.
28:18 Megan: That, I mean, that actually sums up what I love about the American Heart Association and the scientific sessions conference having been You know, a hymns, you know, devotee and the health and vibe where we talk a lot about the systems that support healthcare and the infrastructure that makes health care, you know, money pass and your, you know, appointments get made. When you go to the American Heart Association meetings, it's really about the, you know, the medicine, the intersection of what is helping patients and helping physicians and clinicians diagnose and and treat, patients in such a way that. , it's very exciting and the broad base of it in that, you know, basically cardiology and stroke covers basically everything.
29:02 Lisa: Yeah, yeah, no, it's. It's exciting to watch, you know, science marches forward and hopefully we will continue to reap the benefits of it on the entrepreneurial side of things.
29:13 Megan: Yeah. Well, it's very exciting to have you in that role and to get a chance to speak to you, you know, almost 2 years in, and I, I hope I'll see you both at health and at.
29:25 Lisa: Well, you know, I'm unavoidable. But I do appreciate the opportunity to be on your show, Megan, and I, you know, look forward to the next opportunity to speak.
29:35 Megan: Absolutely. Me too, Lisa. Take care and thank you everyone for listening. This is Megan Antonelli signing off of Digital Health Talks by Health Impact Live.
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