Building in Healthtech: Product Strategies for Innovators
04/30/25 • 46 min
From scaling D2C mental health platforms to driving value-based care models, Omar Mousa has seen it all. In the latest episode of “Hard Problems, Smart Solutions: The Newfire Podcast,” Omar joins host Brendan Iglehart, Staff Healthcare Architect at Newfire, to unpack the challenges and lessons from building healthtech products at every stage of growth.
Omar, who most recently served as VP of Product and Engineering at Ventricle Health, shares his perspective on product-market fit, go-to-market experimentation, and making smart build-vs-buy decisions in healthcare.
Brendan and Omar discuss Omar’s experiences across various health tech companies, the lessons he has learned about product development in the sector, and the challenges of navigating both direct-to-consumer and clinical product environments. The conversation delves into topics such as the importance of focusing on core business areas in build versus buy decisions, the role of technology in enhancing patient care, and strategies for effectively engaging patients in value-based care models. Omar also shares his thoughts on the evolving landscape of health tech and the impact of AI on handling unstructured data. Tune in to gain strategic insights on scaling health tech operations and developing impactful healthcare products.
00:00 Introduction to Hard Problems, Smart Solutions
00:38 Guest Introduction: Omar Mousa
01:37 Omar's Career Journey in Healthcare Technology
08:40 Challenges in Healthcare Technology
15:51 The Role of AI in Healthcare
17:51 Navigating Healthcare's Complex Stakeholder Mix
22:47 Gathering and Utilizing User Feedback
24:03 User Feedback and Instrumentation
24:53 Patient Reported Outcome Measures
25:32 Build vs Buy Decisions in Product Development
27:03 Challenges of Buying All Solutions
28:37 Pitfalls of Building All Solutions
30:01 Advantages of a Hybrid Approach
30:27 Stages of Company Growth and Product Strategy
32:26 Considerations for Buy Decisions
36:13 Considerations for Build Decisions
37:34 Navigating D2C vs Clinical Product Development
39:02 Improving Patient Engagement in VBC Workflows
43:21 Final Thoughts and Contact Information
From scaling D2C mental health platforms to driving value-based care models, Omar Mousa has seen it all. In the latest episode of “Hard Problems, Smart Solutions: The Newfire Podcast,” Omar joins host Brendan Iglehart, Staff Healthcare Architect at Newfire, to unpack the challenges and lessons from building healthtech products at every stage of growth.
Omar, who most recently served as VP of Product and Engineering at Ventricle Health, shares his perspective on product-market fit, go-to-market experimentation, and making smart build-vs-buy decisions in healthcare.
Brendan and Omar discuss Omar’s experiences across various health tech companies, the lessons he has learned about product development in the sector, and the challenges of navigating both direct-to-consumer and clinical product environments. The conversation delves into topics such as the importance of focusing on core business areas in build versus buy decisions, the role of technology in enhancing patient care, and strategies for effectively engaging patients in value-based care models. Omar also shares his thoughts on the evolving landscape of health tech and the impact of AI on handling unstructured data. Tune in to gain strategic insights on scaling health tech operations and developing impactful healthcare products.
00:00 Introduction to Hard Problems, Smart Solutions
00:38 Guest Introduction: Omar Mousa
01:37 Omar's Career Journey in Healthcare Technology
08:40 Challenges in Healthcare Technology
15:51 The Role of AI in Healthcare
17:51 Navigating Healthcare's Complex Stakeholder Mix
22:47 Gathering and Utilizing User Feedback
24:03 User Feedback and Instrumentation
24:53 Patient Reported Outcome Measures
25:32 Build vs Buy Decisions in Product Development
27:03 Challenges of Buying All Solutions
28:37 Pitfalls of Building All Solutions
30:01 Advantages of a Hybrid Approach
30:27 Stages of Company Growth and Product Strategy
32:26 Considerations for Buy Decisions
36:13 Considerations for Build Decisions
37:34 Navigating D2C vs Clinical Product Development
39:02 Improving Patient Engagement in VBC Workflows
43:21 Final Thoughts and Contact Information
Previous Episode
How Standards Drive Innovation
In this episode of Hard Problems, Smart Solutions, host Will Crawford, Head of Advisory Services and CTO at Newfire Global Partners, converses with Dr. Paulo Pinho, a practicing physician and seasoned health informaticist. Dr. Pinho shares his diverse career journey, combining clinical practice, payer technology, and entrepreneurship.
In this episode, you will gain insights into:
- Why interoperability remains elusive despite decades of effort (hint: legacy systems + fragmented incentives).
- How standards like SNOMED, LOINC, and ICD-10 evolved and why they often fall short for real-world care.
- What clinicians really need from AI tools (and why trust, not just tech, is key to adoption).
- How ambient listening and NLP are reshaping clinical documentation and enabling better decision-making.
- Why data equity matters and how biases in healthcare documentation can quietly undermine even the best machine learning models.
- Concrete examples of innovation: from COVID test standardization to fall risk modeling using multi-source data.
00:00 Introduction to the Podcast
00:18 Meet Dr. Paulo Pinho
00:36 The Evolution of Healthcare Standards
02:44 Challenges in Data Standardization
06:32 Advances in Medical Knowledge
12:23 AI in Healthcare: Opportunities and Challenges
23:54 The Role of Coding Systems in Healthcare
26:19 Success Stories in Healthcare Technology
40:04 Equity and Access in Healthcare
43:31 Advice for Clinicians and Non-Clinicians in Health IT
48:35 Conclusion and Future Topics
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/hard-problems-smart-solutions-the-newfire-podcast-613467/building-in-healthtech-product-strategies-for-innovators-90343713"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to building in healthtech: product strategies for innovators on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy