GRANDMA NAMES ARE BACK! They disappeared after World War II, but classic turn-of-the-century names like Eleanor, Sharon, Lucy, and Nora are making a comeback!

By 2030, most Americans will access healthcare neither by digging through insurance network directories, nor through Google search, nor via a primary care doc, nor through some bolt on thing your employer bought. Most people will start with chat. Chat will have your medical records and insurance as context. Chat will answer your questions, find appropriate doctors, show prices, and schedule appointments and lab tests. Handoffs will be seamless and your doctors will always receive your full medical records from chat. This will get more powerful as FDA permits AI to take low risk medical actions like prescribing or refilling certain drugs and making certain referrals. Ant is testing a version of this in Guangzhou - screenshots below. People who want to do things the old way will be able to do so. But most people will pick chat. Chat is an important part of the future of healthcare in America, like it or not.

There could not be a more perfect illustration of the fact that tying health insurance to your employer is at the root of all idiocy in US healthcare. GLP-1s probably improve long-term outcomes and reduce costs. And yet no employer can pay for them because their employees will stay just 2-3 years on average. The only solution is a universal individual market with insurers that have incentives to offer great products that maximize retention and long-term outcomes. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

I joined Amazon Pharmacy in 2019 to lead pricing because I wanted my work to really matter. I didn’t know much about pharmacy pricing, or healthcare, for that matter. But, I knew how to build marketplaces and create simple, lovable consumer experiences, even when everything under the hood was wildly complex. I also thought the newly acquired PillPack team was exceptional and that we might have some fun along the way. We kept pulling on that thread — reorienting healthcare around the consumer while working with the existing system — first at Amazon, and then at @GeneralMedicine , which I co-founded with @tjparker and @elliotcohen in 2023 and have led as CEO since. A few years in and it’s working. General Medicine’s store is the only place where a customer can shop for and purchase whatever care they need, from a simple medication refill all the way to finding the right in-person specialist, nationwide, with clear, upfront pricing both with and without insurance. 83% of our customers tell us we’ve helped them address something they had been putting off. A third say it was something they had put off for six months or longer. The business has never been in a stronger position. And we’re just getting started. Earlier this year, TJ — who led our first funding rounds, serves on our board, and has been a co-founder since the beginning — told me he wanted to leave venture, get back into the weeds of operating, and do it with us at General Medicine. Bringing him on full-time was an obvious yes. Figuring out how to organize ourselves to make the most of the opportunity ahead was a harder question. I spent a lot of time thinking about where each of us could have the greatest impact and I ultimately concluded that TJ should join as CEO and that I should move into the CPO role. It’s an unconventional decision, particularly at a moment when the company is doing so well. But, that momentum is exactly why it felt like a unique moment to reorganize ourselves to maximize the opportunity ahead of us. As CPO, I’ll continue to own our consumer business and lead product, engineering, design, clinical and ops and much of the company’s day-to-day work. My focus will remain what it has been from the beginning: building a healthcare experience that puts the consumer first. One of the beautiful things about startups is that when we win, we win together. Titles, roles, and responsibilities are all downstream of organizing ourselves to have the greatest possible impact. There’s no one I’d rather build this with than Elliot, TJ and the rest of the General Medicine team, and I’ve never been more excited about what’s ahead for us. TJ, I’m sure the venture world will miss you, but we’re pretty stoked to have you back in the weeds with us. More to come from us later today.

Washington's dream for healthcare (inspired by Nate Bargatze).

NEW: OpenEvidence launched Patient Take-Homes, letting clinicians turn answers into patient-facing educational materials. Doctors can tailor the content and reading level, then securely share it with patients. This is a good step towards closing the care loop.