HIT Like a Girl Pod: Empowering Women in Health IT

Is your money working for you, or are you just working for your money? Dr. Nkem Ezeamama, CEO of Pheenyx Capital Investment, is an ER physician who discovered that the business of medicine was changing faster than the practice of it. When a private equity firm took over her hospital and began slashing physician hours, she realized relying solely on her clinical income was a risk she couldn't affor...

When a routine physical uncovered a giant kidney tumor, Mariya Filipova’s life and career trajectory were irrevocably changed. Faced with the daunting "standard" medical path of a nephrectomy, she chose to take a weekend to think differently. That single decision sparked an 18-month journey as her own healthcare quarterback, coordinating care across oncology, nephrology, genetics, and computationa...

What if we told you that investing in women's health isn't just the right thing to do—it's the smart thing to do? Marissa Fayer has spent 22 years turning that argument into action. She's the CEO and founder of the global nonprofit HerHealthEQ (deploying women's health equipment across 12 countries, serving 150,000 women) and the for-profit DeepLook Medical (imaging software that sees inside dense...

Less than 1% of healthcare venture capital goes to women's health. This isn't just a funding gap—it's a health crisis that affects 51% of the population. In this powerful kickoff to the "Invest Like a Girl" series, hosts Rebecca Love, Joy Rios, and Grace Vinton pull back the curtain on a system where men (who make up 85% of VC general partners) are making the vast majority of decisions about which...

Healthcare is complicated. But the math behind value-based care? It doesn't have to be. In this episode, Joy Rios sits down with Rachael Jones, CEO of the Sintax division of Lightbeam Health Solutions, for a conversation that weaves together data, dollars, and the deeply human side of healthcare transformation. Rachael pulls back the curtain on what population health actually means and why the "pe...

What happens when patients become the product—and no one asked for consent? In this episode of HIT Like a Girl Pod, Grace Vinton sits down with Andrea Downing, a security researcher and co-founder of The Light Collective. Andrea's journey into patient advocacy began in 2005, when she tested positive for the BRCA1/2 gene mutation at age 30. That moment transformed her from a tech professional into ...

This episode is a call to action—and we have until July 13th. Rebecca Love sits down with Elizabeth Ginexi, PhD—a former NIH scientific program official of 22 years who took early retirement after DOGE restructured the agency. She is now speaking out about a proposed OMB rule that she believes threatens the future of federal funding across every community in America. The rule rewrites the Uniform ...

After a much-needed pause, HIT Like a Girl Pod is back—and this time, Joy isn't doing it alone. Joy Rios reunites with Grace Vinton and Rebecca Love to relaunch the show as a trio: built on joy, fueled by love, and led with grace. In this first conversation, they catch up on where life has taken them—Joy's broken ankle and move to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; Rebecca's deep dive into healthcare AI as ...

In a digital-first healthcare world, who gets left behind? The answer is often the same communities that have always been marginalized. But what if the solution wasn't just to build better apps, but to empower the very people from these communities to become the navigators, the mentors, and the doctors of tomorrow? In this inspiring and urgent episode of HIT Like a Girl, recorded at HLTH 2025, Joy...