Janet Boachie

[00:00:00] Making Waves in Health Tech is a podcast about health, equity and innovation

[00:00:06] Today we have a real treat

[00:00:08] My co-host Janet is here to tell the story of her journey as a healthcare professional, tech entrepreneur

[00:00:14] and now is a venture philanthropy leader in the health tech space

[00:00:18] I won't give away her whole story but I'll tell you this about Janet

[00:00:22] She has an innovative and entrepreneurial spirit where she sees problems, she also sees solutions

[00:00:30] While she had the ideas and the talent, the sad truth is that venture backed startups do not have a lot of equal opportunity for women

[00:00:38] and especially for black and brown people

[00:00:41] I'm Hilda Martinez from the California Healthcare Foundation

[00:00:44] Our foundation is a strategic investor in health delivery startups

[00:00:49] We are highlighting innovations that make healthcare accessible and affordable

[00:00:54] Janet's story is the story of why we need purposeful representation

[00:00:59] and why the California Healthcare Foundation's Innovation Fund sought out Janet

[00:01:04] and why we invest in health tech that truly reflects and benefits the communities that we live in

[00:01:10] Let's listen in as Janet tells her story

[00:01:20] While my mom, my sister and I were deplaning

[00:01:22] my mom looked at me with her signature bright and cheesy smile

[00:01:26] Are you excited? She asked

[00:01:28] I looked at her and made a face and I thought to myself

[00:01:31] Mom, after 16 hours, two planes

[00:01:35] and now feeling the suffocating humidity

[00:01:38] would I really be excited?

[00:01:40] To be honest, I was exhausted

[00:01:44] But then I saw a blue sign with the word aquaba on it

[00:01:49] a shanti for welcome

[00:01:51] And that's when it hit me

[00:01:53] I was in Ghana for the first time to visit my dearest grandma Georgina

[00:01:57] At that point, I told my mom

[00:01:59] Actually, I'm excited

[00:02:04] After retrieving her luggage, I heard someone calling my name

[00:02:08] and before I knew what was happening, I was in my grandma's arms

[00:02:11] I was so happy to see her

[00:02:14] After we greeted each other, we made our way through Accra, Kumase

[00:02:18] and finally Wemwase, the village where my family is from

[00:02:22] The road to Wemwase was nothing like the freeways I was used to in the San Fernando Valley

[00:02:26] It was rugged and full of roundabouts

[00:02:29] And despite a lay, I couldn't believe the traffic

[00:02:32] So many trucks, cars and trotros

[00:02:35] which are crowded minibuses jostling with people

[00:02:38] all merged into and emerged out of the somewhat complicated hub safely

[00:02:42] I was fascinated by what looked like controlled chaos

[00:02:46] All the different roads met at a central point

[00:02:49] and then each vehicle exited towards its destination

[00:02:52] In the village, my grandma couldn't wait to introduce us to her friends

[00:02:56] She was very popular

[00:02:58] We were saying hello to what felt like every single person

[00:03:02] But you know, it took me years to realize that to me, she was grandma

[00:03:08] but to the village, she was much more than that

[00:03:12] She was an advocate, a community leader

[00:03:15] and the hub of connection and care

[00:03:17] As just one example of her leadership, she helped open Wemwase's first community bank

[00:03:22] She made sure that resources went to places that mattered most in the community

[00:03:27] I was inspired by her entrepreneurial spirit

[00:03:30] her fierce leadership qualities

[00:03:32] and the respect she had earned

[00:03:34] In many ways, she reminded me of one of those roundabouts

[00:03:38] She was a central point of connection, ideas

[00:03:41] and opportunities for the people of Wemwase to come together and flourish

[00:03:47] Wemwase's first community bank

[00:03:52] Wemwase's first community bank

[00:03:56] Wemwase's first community bank

[00:04:01] Wemwase's first community bank

[00:04:03] After we returned to the US, it was hard for my mom to hear about my grandma's lack of access to healthcare in Ghana

[00:04:10] Because of this, my mom and her siblings brought my grandma back to the US for a much longer stay

[00:04:16] But the family was reminded of a harsh reality

[00:04:20] Here in the US, grandma struggled to find care in our fragmented healthcare system

[00:04:25] A healthcare system that replicates oppressive systems and ideologies

[00:04:29] and hinders vulnerable populations from getting the care that they need

[00:04:33] Every single time my mom would take my grandma to the hospital or doctor's office

[00:04:37] they saw first-hand inequities for people of color and immigrants

[00:04:42] In her frustration, my mom decided to go back to school to become a nurse

[00:04:46] It was her way of contributing to a solution

[00:04:49] I started my own journey into healthcare when I saw a pediatrician who looked like me

[00:04:53] She was the first black woman doctor who cared for me

[00:04:56] and she made me feel seen, comfortable and calm

[00:05:00] It was different from the several doctors visits I had as a kid

[00:05:03] Meeting her unlocked the possibility to dream about how I could be a point of safety and connection for others as well

[00:05:10] As a pre-med student, I interned at a hospital in South LA

[00:05:15] During one shift, I took the vitals of a black woman

[00:05:18] She told me she was in pain and asked me to tell her nurse, which I did

[00:05:22] Now get this

[00:05:24] Four hours later when I went back to take the patient's vitals before leaving my shift

[00:05:29] she said the nurse never came to see her

[00:05:33] She never got pain medication and I found it very odd

[00:05:38] My next rotation was in a busy emergency room

[00:05:41] And the most common statement I heard from patients was

[00:05:44] I've been waiting for several hours

[00:05:47] I could sense a collective feeling of worry, frustration and uncertainty from patients

[00:05:52] On top of that, I saw a hereditary nurse and burnt out doctors who truly wanted to see as many patients as possible

[00:05:58] But too many of the patients simply couldn't wait for hours to be seen

[00:06:02] And for the patients who were able to be seen

[00:06:05] Many ended up returning because their medical needs hadn't been fully resolved the first time

[00:06:10] These experiences bothered me

[00:06:12] So I started brainstorming

[00:06:14] How can I help streamline communication and operations within the healthcare system

[00:06:18] especially for those who were not seen and heard

[00:06:23] During my administrative rotation, I came to my supervisor and asked

[00:06:27] Have you ever thought of using social media to bring the community closer to doctors?

[00:06:32] She hesitated but I could tell the idea resonated

[00:06:36] We had the opportunity to be innovative and think outside the box a little bit

[00:06:40] And we discovered most patients had a cell phone

[00:06:43] So we experimented using social media to offer general health-related information to patients

[00:06:50] The idea was success

[00:06:52] And I realized that if I had the right resources, I could make a big impact with even more tech-based solutions

[00:06:59] I knew I had reached another roundabout in my path

[00:07:02] And my next exit would take me into health tech entrepreneurship

[00:07:05] Definitely not what my mom had imagined as a career for me

[00:07:08] My interest was in merging healthcare and technology to specifically benefit marginalized populations

[00:07:26] I kept asking, how can I enhance the patient experience?

[00:07:30] How can I build sustainable trust between the underserved patient population and the healthcare system?

[00:07:36] Most technology solutions at the time did not focus on underserved communities

[00:07:40] And I wanted to find a way to meet patients where they are

[00:07:43] I founded a startup using voice-enabled technology to alert patients with critical and timely information

[00:07:49] Patients could communicate in real-time and get insights on estimative way times of emergency rooms or urgent cares

[00:07:55] Rather than waiting hours at the hospital

[00:07:58] But it was difficult to find investors who aligned with my mission

[00:08:02] They said things like, why underserve populations? There's no money in this market

[00:08:07] At the same time, friends of mine, other entrepreneurs of color

[00:08:12] Were also building companies that were designed specifically for their communities

[00:08:16] And informed by the wisdom of lived experience

[00:08:19] I watched as they pitched in competitions and accelerators

[00:08:22] And saw their brilliant solutions place last time and again

[00:08:26] And then at those same competitions, a non-person of color would come along with a similar solution

[00:08:32] And they would get funding

[00:08:34] Because their focus was not on diverse populations, money could be made

[00:08:38] And this is what investors want

[00:08:41] Look, I understand that a business needs to make money

[00:08:44] But investors should be asking, what are the outcomes we're really trying to achieve?

[00:08:49] Better yet, what outcomes might we miss?

[00:08:53] I entered yet another career roundabout that led me to the California Healthcare Foundation Innovation Fund

[00:08:59] I saw an opportunity to merge what I had learned as an entrepreneur

[00:09:02] To highlight the barriers of developing community-centered tech-enabled services

[00:09:07] I knew I could influence how investors think and how they interact with entrepreneurs, especially entrepreneurs of color

[00:09:14] I'd be joined in a group of very few black women investors who are working to change the conversation in the investment world

[00:09:21] And you know, I'm realizing how much of a pivot that is

[00:09:25] Going from being the entrepreneur, struggling to make the pitch

[00:09:29] To now being the investor

[00:09:31] Yet an insider who can understand what entrepreneurs experience

[00:09:36] Who can support diverse entrepreneurs, provide capital

[00:09:40] Make connections to potential partners, advisors and mentors

[00:09:43] And also share my insights

[00:09:46] We're seeing a shift where more and more entrepreneurs are leveraging their lived experiences to do two things

[00:09:51] One, design tech solutions that challenge current healthcare barriers and improve quality of care

[00:09:56] And two, achieve both profitability and health equity

[00:10:01] These are the people we want to support because they have ideas that serve our communities

[00:10:06] We should be supporting and elevating these entrepreneurs and their solutions

[00:10:11] In healthcare especially, in addition to evaluating economic risk

[00:10:15] We need to consider the risk of missed opportunity

[00:10:18] We can and should take risks on people with ideas to solve big problems in healthcare

[00:10:23] This demands a support from both investors and delivery system leaders

[00:10:27] We need to connect entrepreneurs with the right partners

[00:10:30] And fuel them with opportunities to bring their solutions to the people who need it the most

[00:10:34] I think about my grandma often because

[00:10:43] Not only do I miss my biggest advocate, I aspire to have the same impact as she did

[00:10:49] My work at California Health Care Foundation Innovation Fund brings together entrepreneurs

[00:10:54] Investors, policymakers, payers and providers

[00:10:58] And aligns them in developing innovative ways to expand access

[00:11:02] And achieve positive health outcomes

[00:11:04] Think of it as its own unique digital health roundabout for providing care

[00:11:08] As one can see, my career path wasn't linear

[00:11:12] But each destination brought me a stronger, more diverse, and more capable network

[00:11:18] And new opportunities have brought me to where I am now

[00:11:22] And in this way, I'm more like my grandma than I ever thought possible

[00:11:33] Yes, yes, yes

[00:11:36] It bears repeating, immigrant families are, by nature, entrepreneurial

[00:11:41] We have to be

[00:11:43] And so many have not only survived but thrived

[00:11:47] Imagine if the health tech sector and every sector honestly

[00:11:51] Didn't have such high barriers for inclusion

[00:11:54] People from all places and all walks of life offer ideas and hard work

[00:11:59] That can strengthen communities and build a more equitable society

[00:12:04] You know, I really want us to get there in being able to really support

[00:12:09] Diverse entrepreneurs who are building such amazing solutions that are impacting the health care space

[00:12:16] To be honest with you, when I was writing my story, it was really hard for me not to cry

[00:12:21] One, because when I think about my grandma and the work that she did

[00:12:26] It was very influential

[00:12:29] And I miss her a lot and it just gave me the fuel that she's there in spirit

[00:12:35] When I think about the work that I did at California Health Care Foundation's Innovation Fund

[00:12:41] I'm so proud of it, right?

[00:12:43] I share a lot of joy that myself and my team accomplish what we accomplished

[00:12:49] But what was frustrating for me is that the work that we've been doing

[00:12:53] Is only a dent in the work that needs to be done

[00:12:57] The health equity and technology space, the intersections of those two spaces

[00:13:01] Is a lot smaller than we think it is

[00:13:03] Connecting entrepreneurs with the right partners and the right advisors

[00:13:08] And the right mentors is so hard, right?

[00:13:11] I'm just really happy that within the last couple of years

[00:13:15] There have been organizations along with CHCF that have come together to provide

[00:13:20] Extended support to entrepreneurs who are looking to build

[00:13:24] An impact and disrupt a health tech space or the health care space overall in general

[00:13:28] I really do believe that we can end inequities if we have a collective will

[00:13:32] And if we put our resources behind it

[00:13:35] So overall, if you are an entrepreneur who is looking to build a solution

[00:13:41] Do not shy away from it, it's difficult

[00:13:44] But don't shy away from it because we need your insights

[00:13:46] We need your passion

[00:13:48] We need your lived experience

[00:13:49] We need you to keep this going because there are organizations out there

[00:13:54] That say they want to focus on DEI

[00:13:56] But it's slowly becoming less of a priority and we need to keep moving forward

[00:14:01] Pursue your purpose

[00:14:03] Be an activist, be an entrepreneur

[00:14:06] Change what needs to be changed

[00:14:08] Because we really do need you

[00:14:10] Thank you Janet

[00:14:12] I agree with your optimism

[00:14:14] And I also agree that there is a whole lot more that we need to do

[00:14:18] And we've just started to make a dent

[00:14:22] And then we just say that I am so grateful that you continue to be a leader in this work

[00:14:27] And my partner on this podcast project

[00:14:30] It's been such a joy, man

[00:14:32] It's been truly a joy to work with you on this podcast

[00:14:37] And spend time with you

[00:14:39] And really be your partner in this

[00:14:42] And honestly, I'm very grateful for CHCF

[00:14:45] Because they've been very supportive of me and the fellows overall

[00:14:49] You know, I think everybody shares the same optimism that we have

[00:14:53] And I'm really truly grateful for it

[00:14:56] That's really kind of you Janet

[00:14:58] I do really appreciate those words

[00:15:00] We have so many entrepreneurs to meet

[00:15:02] And I'm so excited that our listeners get to hear from them directly

[00:15:07] For our listeners, please share this podcast

[00:15:10] I'm sure it will inspire someone

[00:15:14] And thank you again, Janet, for sharing your story

[00:15:17] Thank you, Ildo

[00:15:18] Until next time

[00:15:44] Learn more at CHCF.org