Tech Tonics: Torrie Fields, The Business of Making Better Memories
{"Image ImageDescription": "A childhood fraught with illness, loss and uncertainty drove Torrie Fields to an adulthood focused on making these experiences better for others.  Torrie sincerely believes that we are all here for a reason and that her reason to is help people have more dignified, less painful experiences at the end of their lives.\n\nHaving learned early in life that you could take nothing for granted and that you really need to show up when things are going in the right direction.  Torrie has parlayed these guiding principles into an accelerated and notable career, culminating in the founding of Votive Health, which she views as a company in the business of making better memories \u2013 by that she means, \u201cThere is an intimate tie between how you die and how people remember you.\u201d Votive Health is also a company focused on using data and people to help manage the care of patients with serious illnesses.  The company, which is now launching, also works firsthand at the intersection of illness, insurance and employment, which is clearly a critical confluence at this currently challenging time of COVID-19.  Notably, David and I recorded this show well before we knew what was coming on the plague front.  This  show seems particularly relevant now.\n\nTorrie\u2019s early career you focused on emergency preparedness and epidemiology with a special focus on systems design.  This skill set served her well through her time at McKinsey and then later, when she somewhat randomly applied for an actuarial program at Cambia Health Solutions, the parent of Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield and several other companies.  The wonderfully kind and very community-minded CEO of Cambia, Mark Ganz, encouraged employees to seek a special project that was meaningful to them \u2013 ultimately this led Torrie to found and ultimately lead Cambia\u2019s palliative care program.  She later joined Blue Shield California to start a similar program. She later joined Blue Shield California to start a similar program.\n\nTorrie discusses the challenges at the intersection of palliative care, end of life vs. the traditional medical and insurance systems, where there are no standard definitions of palliative care, few appropriate payment models, bad program packaging and low prioritization.  Given the current COVID-19 environment, perhaps we will see some changes in that.\n\nWe loved having Torrie on the show, as despite what can be a dark topic, she is a perennial ray of sunshine.\n\nWe are grateful to Manatt Health for sponsoring today\u2019s episode of Tech Tonics\u2014Manatt Health is a multi-disciplinary professional services firm that integrates a full-service law firm with a broad-based strategic business and policy consulting practice to help our clients grow and prosper.  Manatt Health supports the full range of stakeholders in transforming America\u2019s healthcare system.", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 21.0 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2020:04:06 03:40:24", "Image Artist": "Connected Social Media", "Image ExifOffset": "3068", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3206", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3967", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "338"}