OnDigitalHealth Consulting

Karl Hess is a Managing Director of OnDigitalHealth Consulting, LLC, a specialized strategy consulting firm which he founded to serve the burgeoning and rapidly diversifying digital health industry, serving clients across the healthcare and life sciences spectrum. Karl also serves as a Consulting Advisor to Novo Holdings, A/S, via its U.S. subsidiary, Novo Ventures, remains a Senior Advisor to Outcome Capital and has recently been named as Startup World Cup Mentor. Karl was formerly a Managing Director with Outcome Capital and led its digital health and HealthTech practices. Having interacted extensively with hundreds of digital health companies over the years, as well as with dozens of their healthcare and life sciences investors, customers and partners, Karl has become known as a leading subject matter expert on the topics of successful digital health business models, commercialization, investment and technologies. From pharmaceuticals to medical devices and software (SaMD), digital health tools and therapeutics and health optimization and population health management platform technologies to entire care delivery ecosystems, Karl has helped design, develop and commercialize dozens of innovative products and services across the healthcare and life sciences industries, representing hundreds of millions of dollars in incremental revenues and more than $20B in value-unlocking transactions. Karl formerly served as Chief Executive Officer of Texas Health Aetna (“TH|A”), a joint venture of Texas Health Resources and Aetna, combining Texas Health's high-quality, local providers, and delivery systems with Aetna's health plan and care management expertise, analytical insights, and health information technology. Prior to his role with TH|A, Karl was formerly CEO of Kalico Partners, LLC, a technology-enabled provider and population health management organization (PHMO), and Chief Digital Health Officer of Collain Healthcare, a former subsidiary of LG CNS. Prior to Collain, Karl held the role of Vice President, Corporate Development at Welltok, Inc., an award-winning consumer activation solutions company that improves people’s total wellbeing. In one of his earliest digital health endeavors, Karl was a key member of the commercial team at Welldoc, Inc., helping to bring Welldoc’s BlueStar platform to market, one of the world’s first, and most successful, digital therapeutics. Earlier in his career, Karl worked for several start-up and Fortune 500 molecular diagnostics, biopharmaceutical, medical technology companies and consulting firms including Genentech, Becton Dickinson and PRTM, principally across product development and management, and market, business and corporate development, licensing and M&A. Over the years Karl has had the opportunity to found / co-found four startups and participate in three successful exits as an entrepreneur and/or advisor and work on and lead projects for 9 of the Top 20 pharmaceutical companies, 11 of the Top 20 medical device firms and 4 of the Top 25 PE firms, and has had global management responsibilities of leading extended teams of up to 500 and $300MM P&L. Karl began his career as a life sciences researcher, conducting pre-clinical cancer and human genetics research at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and biotechnology R&D for what are now several subsidiaries of Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. Notable Achievements: •Has accomplished a peerless and proven track record of maximizing corporate commercial performance and growth via open innovation, product and technology development and management, strategic partnerships, corporate and business development, licensing, M&A, transaction / deal / alliance management excellence. oDirectly responsible for billions of dollars of incremental value creation, and a direct participant in >$20B in transactions, including helping to raise >$650MM in angel and institutional venture capital •Created and managed >100 partnerships, from regional managed care collaborations to multi-year, multi-billion-dollar, global co-development, co-commercialization partnerships and entire ecosystem of 50+ digital health partners, including working w/ numerous F50 partners, across multiple industries oAcross global strategic partnerships, joint ventures, ongoing alliance management, open innovation initiatives, co-development, co-commercialization, co-distribution and co-marketing relationships •Led global product development and lifecycle and portfolio management efforts for dozens of product offerings and services across numerous industries and categories, representing 100’s of millions of dollars of incremental revenues, including all pre- and post-sales support and account management efforts oIntegral part of the commercial team that launched the world’s first prescription digital therapeutic (PDT), Welldoc’s BlueStar •Curated a LinkedIn professional network of 1000's of relevant potential customers and other stakeholders, across the H&LS industries (30K primary connections)