Verana Health Announces New Hires to Accelerate Growth
Company adds clinical, technology, and business experience to usher in next stage of growth
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Verana Health, a digital health data company that delivers insights from unfiltered healthcare data with integrity to connect the dots between patient care and clinical research, announces several additions to its leadership team who bring experience in technology, science, and business.
The company adds this talent to accelerate growth and further advance healthcare by using high-quality, clinically rich, real-world data from physicians to provide deep analysis into observational and prospective research.
“The experience these individuals bring to the Verana Health leadership team builds on our firm foundation as we enter our next chapter of growth, expansion, and product development,” said Sujay Jadhav, CEO of Verana Health. “Each of these leaders bring their own expertise and impressive credentials to help us accelerate clinical research and improve patient care through higher-quality, real-world healthcare data.”
Shrujal Baxi, MD, MPH named Senior Vice President, Clinical and Scientific Solutions
Shrujal Baxi has joined Verana Health as Senior Vice President of Clinical and Scientific Solutions and will advance the development and use of real-world evidence to improve patient outcomes, healthcare delivery and drug development across the therapeutic areas that Verana Health focuses upon. Prior to joining Verana Health, Dr. Baxi was Head of Clinical Science at Flatiron Health and led the development and use of EHR-derived real-world evidence in oncology. She is a consulting physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Baxi completed her Bachelor of Arts degree, Master of Public Health degree and Doctor of Medicine degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Dominique Connolly, AOCNP named Vice President, Clinical Data Strategy
Dominique Connolly has joined Verana Health as Vice President of Clinical Data Strategy. Connolly is a nurse practitioner with more than 20 years of experience in real-world evidence in oncology, with a focus in optimizing approaches for data curation, as well as building and scaling teams. Prior to joining Verana Health, Connolly served Flatiron Health as senior clinical director for the Research Platforms team, as well as director of Clinical Data Abstraction, where she oversaw the unstructured data processing efforts. She earned a Bachelor of Nursing degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Nursing degree from New York University. She is a licensed Advanced Oncology Certified Nurse Practitioner.
Michelle McGovern named General Counsel
Michelle McGovern has joined as General Counsel at Verana Health, where she works to find solutions that help set the market standard for data privacy in an increasingly complex legal environment. Michelle was previously the Deputy General Counsel at Redesign Health, a venture-backed incubator that, during her tenure, raised $350M, and built, launched and scaled more than two dozen healthcare companies. Michelle also worked at Pfizer, where her roles included supporting clinical trials and pharmacovigilance, building sustainable markets for pharmaceutical products in the developing world, and serving as the North America Legal Lead for Upjohn, Pfizer’s $12B legacy products and generics business. She completed Northwestern University’s accelerated journalism degree program, graduating in four years, magna cum laude, with a Bachelor’s of Science and Master’s of Science in Journalism, and received her JD, cum laude, from Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law.
Almer Mendoza, CPA named Vice President, Controller
Almer Mendoza has joined Verana Health as Vice President and Controller. Prior to joining Verana Health, Almer was VP Corporate Controller for Navis Inc., a leading provider of global cargo handling software which was sold to a private equity firm. He also served as Corporate Controller for Deem, Inc., which he took from startup phase to SEC filing. Prior to Deem, he was VP Finance or Corporate Controller in several public and private technology companies. He started his career as an auditor at Ernst and Young LLP. He earned a Master of Business Administration from Pepperdine University. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Northwestern State University. He is a licensed Certified Public Accountant and a Chartered Global Management Accountant.
Yana Nikitina named Vice President, Engineering
Yana Nikitina has joined Verana Health as Vice President of Engineering and will lead technology strategy and product development. Nikitina brings to Verana Health more than two decades of experience building scalable, compliant, resilient, interoperable products. Prior to joining Verana Health, Nikitina was Director of Architecture at Braintree/PayPal. She previously held several roles accelerating growth with financial technology companies, having served as Senior Director of Engineering with Varo Money Inc. and Director of Engineering of Platform Architecture for LendingClub. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from the University of California at Davis.
“Verana Health embeds clinicians in every step of the process to connect, curate, and analyze data. The clinical expertise we have added to our leadership team will ensure that everything we do is clinician-informed based upon how we can maximize the value of our real world data assets,” said Matthew Roe, MD, chief medical officer of Verana Health. “By focusing upon providers and their patients, our clinical leadership will ensure that the real-world data we curate is of the highest quality and integrity so that providers, life sciences companies, and researchers can synthesize the real world evidence that we develop to accelerate scientific discoveries, advance medical product development, and improve care delivery ”
Verana Health is in a high-growth mode building on partnerships with the American Academy of Ophthalmology, American Urological Association, and American Academy of Neurology. In addition, a recent partnership with Komodo Health will enable Verana Health to expand the depth, breadth, and diversity of its real-world electronic health record (EHR) data sets and offer researchers and clinicians deeper, nuanced insights into patient journeys within the therapeutic areas of ophthalmology, urology, and neurology.
“I am excited to work with each of these leaders to advance clinical trial capabilities, data-as-a-service offerings, medical society partnerships, and data enrichment,” said Jadhav. “This leadership team will drive Verana Health’s success and transform patient care with quality insights from clinically true, unfiltered, real-world healthcare data.”
About Verana Health
Verana Health is a healthcare technology and analytics company entrusted by key medical associations to manage multi-specialty, real-world data at every stage of the analytics process—from entry to evidence. Anchored in ophthalmology, neurology, and urology, the Company acts as a linchpin in the healthcare data ecosystem, normalizing data and enhancing its clinical richness and quality to empower physicians and accelerate research for patients. By curating and applying advanced analytics to real-world clinical data, Verana Health helps life sciences partners enhance evidence generation, reinvent observational and prospective research, and drive innovations in specific disease areas.
