Rock Health and Dr. Ivor Horn, former Chief Medical Officer at Accolade, have partnered on a new research initiative on diversity in digital health. Dr. Horn is working on an ongoing basis as an academic and pediatrician to address inequities in healthcare.
“Right now, there is no means of baselining the racial and ethnic diversity of leadership at digital health startups,” the Rock Health team wrote. The initiative will include a national survey for leaders of healthcare technology startups that will capture and report aggregate data on:
- Personal demographics (race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation)
- Company size and funding
- Individual experiences related to barriers to building their company
In order to ensure that the survey response rate is high enough to be representative, Rock Health is encouraging survey participation among its portfolio companies. Other investors who share a commitment to bringing new, actionable information to the digital health sector include McKesson Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Flare Capital Partners, and Venrock.
To preserve the confidentiality of respondents, all results will be shared in aggregate. The survey does not ask for respondents’ names. All individual responses will go through a de-identification process and will be kept confidential with Dr. Horn.
“With accurate diversity data and qualitative insight from individual experiences, we hope to work toward addressing disparities in entrepreneurial leadership, non-capital support, and funding,” said the Rock Health team. A full report of aggregate findings will be publicly available in Fall 2020.
Leaders—people with the title Manager and above—at a U.S.-based digital health company are asked to complete the survey. Investors and entrepreneurs who would like to get involved can email diversityinitiative@rockhealth.com.
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