In the healthcare industry, important decisions are made in conversation.
Rarely is an appointment made, a prescription filled or a treatment plan approved without input from multiple sources — a medical professional, an insurance provider or the patient.
SaaS healthtech organization, Cohere Health is no stranger to solving multi-faceted problems with a collaborative approach.
“What’s most important is a clear and open communication line,” said Thadeo Salido, VP and medical director of clinical strategy and innovation.
To build — and continuously improve — a software that streamlines healthcare and allows patients to get the care they need more quickly, strong communication from multiple experts is mission critical. What unites the team at Cohere Health is a two-pronged approach to collaboration: a shared commitment to one goal and an openness to questions, disagreements and fresh ideas from anyone on the team.
“I am a clinician, and some of my coworkers may come from the technology or data science world, but we are all working towards the same goal,” said Salido.
WHAT THEY DO
Using a combination of AI and machine learning, evidence-based clinical expertise and real-time analytics, Cohere Health digitizes and streamlines the prior authorization process. Cohere Health’s software ultimately results in less friction and faster turnaround for both providers and patients.
The goal is to leverage modern technology to transform typical obstacles in healthcare into easier pathways to faster solutions. One practical example, Salido pointed out, is improving the prior authorization process for faster admittance into inpatient care. By using smarter tools that process information in clinical documents and present the most relevant information to providers, Cohere Health can help patients get the care they need, all while constructing a “holistic picture of the patient” for easier decision-making.
“I am a clinician, and some of my coworkers may come from the technology or data science world, but we are all working towards the same goal.”
“Starting with a well-established diagnosis with set criteria, we are actively looking for ways to simplify the approval process for a hospital inpatient admission when a patient presents with chest pain or other equivalents of a heart attack,” Salido explained, sharing one specific application of the Cohere solution.
Team members across Cohere Health are constantly sharing their expertise in medicine, data science and software engineering to make medical data actionable.
“This enables our team to make informed decisions regarding the optimal care pathway for patients to get the right care at the right place and at the right time,” Salido said.
One day, humankind may rely on a technological panacea that accurately diagnoses patients and automatically provides the necessary care with the computing speed of a typical application. But in the present day, the team at Cohere understands that making healthtech software that genuinely works is a complicated process that demands mighty, consistent teamwork.
“Building solutions to move the needle in healthcare requires technology, clinical and operations teams to be working in lockstep with complete trust in their complementary expertise,” said Ben Barone, manager of machine learning at Cohere Health.
Modeling Coherence in the Workplace
Even the name of Cohere Health projects a strong sense of unity and togetherness in the company’s overall vision. This unity is echoed by leaders like Barone, who understands how collaboration is key to the culture at Cohere.
“A core value at Cohere Health is to respect and trust the insights, intelligence and thoughtfulness of those we work with,” said Barone.
The machine learning team works frequently with clinical experts to take difficult and nuanced medical concepts and build AI models capable of recognizing them. On the machine learning team, Barone explains, biweekly, project-specific readouts are held between cross-functional team members to stay aligned on goals, temperature check for any potential issues and give one another credit for their hard work.
“A core value at Cohere Health is to respect and trust the insights, intelligence, and thoughtfulness of those we work with.”
Understanding how one’s work directly impacts the greater, cross-functional team, is central to the Cohere team’s values, and Barone goes the extra mile to familiarize his team with their collaborators’ work — and the people behind it.
“It’s crucial that the engineers building these solutions intimately understand the workflows and pain points of the teams they’re supporting and trust the insights provided by experts from each of those teams,” said Barone.
Keeping That ‘Small Company Feel’
What distinguishes the team at Cohere Health is a top-down commitment to reach each milestone as a team. For Senior Director of Analytics and Operations, Ashley Masterson, communication, feedback and transparency — in both directions — are the foundation of Cohere’s continued success.
“Alignment and working relationships are strongest when teams are connected across all levels,” Masterson said. “The more rungs that are connected, the stronger the ladder is.”
“The more rungs that are connected, the stronger the ladder is.”
Masterson, like Barone and Saldio, practices a philosophy of collaboration that encourages disagreements and fresh perspectives for the sake of expediency. With over 700 employees and more growth on the horizon, Masterson is focused on maintaining the startup culture that has led to Cohere’s success thus far. Moving quickly, being unafraid to make mistakes and welcoming everyone’s input are the startup qualities that guide the company forward into steady growth.
“By bringing together diverse perspectives and expertise, we can drive innovation and problem-solving, ultimately leading to better outcomes for our customers and the business,” said Masterson.
A Cohere employee can expect to be regularly in and out of readouts and feedback and debriefing sessions, which allows team members to speak up early and often about issues or conflicts as they arise. To maintain a healthy feedback culture, the leadership at Cohere goes the extra mile to represent a healthy approach to feedback in the workplace.
“Something I encourage my teams to lean into is to assume positive intent first,” said Masterson. “When you take this approach to a differing opinion, it completely changes how fruitful that exchange of ideas or perspectives is.”
Salido agreed.
“By modeling positive behaviors and attitudes, I set the tone for the organization and inspire others to do the same,” he said.
No matter how many employees make up the growing team at Cohere Health, a sense of community, connection and collaboration — from one rung of the ladder to another — will remain the central pillar of this organization.
