Thoughts
Perspectives on healthcare innovation, the challenges we see, and what we're looking for in the companies we back.
The Prescription Is the Relationship
A generation ago, filling a prescription meant one thing: the pharmacy down the street. Today a patient can fill the same script a dozen different ways, and new technology is making the choice faster, cheaper, and more confusing all at once. We think the local health system pharmacy should win that choice. Not because we say so, but because of what it can do that none of the alternatives can. Here's the case, and an honest list of what we still have to fix.
Trish Tanner & Mike Anderes
June 22, 2026
100 Health Needs a Year. Three Doctor Visits.
How many times a year do you have a health need? A headache, a new pain, an upset stomach, a night of poor sleep. Research puts the answer near 100, and each one ends in a decision: ignore it, self-manage it, or seek help. New data shows AI now shapes most of those decisions, at a volume exceeding one billion health questions per day.
Mike Anderes
June 15, 2026
What is the Front Door to Healthcare?
In Q1 2026, Amazon, Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and CVS each launched health AI products. 32% of U.S. adults now consult AI before calling a doctor. The front door to healthcare has moved, and health systems need to decide how to respond.
Mike Anderes
June 3, 2026
Physicians Deserve a Better Way to Find Their Next Job
Physicians spend a decade training for their careers, then get asked to make one of the biggest decisions of their professional lives based on a job post, a recruiter pitch, and a carefully curated site visit. Here's why we're backing Tessellate - a company building the tool physicians should already have.
Mike Anderes
May 26, 2026
Where the Operators Lead
Most health system venture funds invest in what looks promising. We're taking a different approach: starting with the problems our health system leaders actually need to solve, and partnering with early-stage companies to address them together.
Mike Anderes
May 18, 2026
Ballad Ventures Thesis
Ballad Ventures partners with entrepreneurs solving the hardest problems in rural healthcare. Here's how we work, what we look for, and why we believe innovation built for places with the fewest resources is the innovation that scales everywhere.
Mike Anderes
May 11, 2026