In this episode, Helen sits down with Dipu Patel, DMSc, MPAS, ABAIM, PA-C, educator, innovation leader, and immediate past president of the PA Education Association. Dipu serves as professor and vice chair for innovation at the University of Pittsburgh PA program, where her work focuses on digital health, artificial intelligence, quality improvement, and preparing clinicians for the future of care.

Before stepping into academic leadership, Dipu spent 20 years in clinical practice and later served as director of clinical pathways at a healthcare technology startup. She breaks down what it takes for clinicians to move from delivering care inside systems to influencing the systems and technologies that define care delivery. Dipu explains why systems thinking matters more than clinical thinking when translating workflows for engineers, why trust is part of implementation, and why ROI in healthcare cannot only be financial.

The conversation explores why PA programs must embed leadership training into curricula, why clinicians need AI literacy now, and why raising your hand for roles outside your comfort zone pays dividends years later.

For clinicians navigating innovation, education, or startup work, this episode delivers clarity on building the future of healthcare.

Mentioned in the Episode:

• Digital Health, Telemedicine and Beyond
• PA Education Association (PAEA)
• University of Pittsburgh PA Program

About Dr. Dipu

Dipu Patel, DMSc, MPAS, ABAIM, PA-C is a clinician, professor, author, and national speaker working at the intersection of digital health, artificial intelligence, and medical education. She focuses on helping academic institutions, healthcare organizations, and professional associations move from reactive technology adoption to intentional system design that supports clinical reasoning, professionalism, and patient-centered care.

With a career spanning clinical practice, academic leadership, innovation strategy, and board governance, Dipu collaborates with institutions to translate emerging technologies into practical, ethical, and sustainable educational and clinical practices. Her work centers on AI in health professions education, digital health strategy, simulation, and systems thinking—ensuring healthcare innovation remains grounded in human-centered care.

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Are you a clinician navigating startup life? The only way to access our private Slack community is by visiting www.theearlyhires.com.

Head to the website to request access and join clinicians who are building, leading, and navigating the realities of early-stage healthcare companies.

Share your challenges. Share your wins. Ask your questions.

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From Underserved Care to Startup Leadership: Why Gap-Closing Translates Across Both Worlds

In this episode, Helen sits down with Dr. Neil Patel, a family physician with more than 20 years of clinical practice and over 15 years as an early clinical leader in healthcare startups. Neil was part of the founding team at Iora Health and later served as Chief Health Officer at Patina Health, carrying lessons across multiple stages of company building, including growth, scale, and closure.

Neil reflects on how his early career in underserved and FQHC settings shaped the way he approaches innovation. He explains why clinicians drawn to community health are often the same people pulled toward startups — not because the environments are similar, but because both require identifying gaps and building solutions where infrastructure is incomplete.

The conversation explores why humility is a core leadership skill, why starting from a blank slate is often the real cheat code to innovation, and how listening like a clinician translates directly into leading teams, products, and organizations. Neil also shares how serving freelancers at Iora expanded his definition of “underserved,” why access to care is one of the most overlooked areas for innovation, and why founding teams work better when responsibility for outcomes is shared.

This episode goes deep on closing gaps rather than chasing solutions — and why meaningful innovation happens when leaders stay humble enough to let patients, teams, and data lead the work.

For clinicians navigating startup life, this conversation offers grounded perspective from someone who has lived multiple chapters — and chosen to start over.

Mentioned in the Episode:

• Latino Health Access

About Dr. Patel

Dr. Neil Patel is a family physician with more than 20 years of clinical practice and over 15 years as an early clinical leader in healthcare startups. He was part of the founding team at Iora Health, an early innovator in primary care, and later served as Chief Health Officer at Patina Health, a geriatric care startup focused on reimagining aging through virtual and home-based care.

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Are you a clinician navigating startup life? The only way to access our private Slack community is by visiting www.theearlyhires.com.

Head to the website to request access and join clinicians who are building, leading, and navigating the realities of early-stage healthcare companies.

Share your challenges. Share your wins. Ask your questions.

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The conversation continues there.

Just because you are doing everything right clinically does not mean the organization will survive.

In this episode, Helen sits down with Katie Davis, a nurse practitioner and clinician executive who has spent more than two decades building care models across hospital systems and early-stage healthcare startups. Katie has served as a founding and early clinical leader in multiple venture-backed companies, helping design and operationalize care for high-risk populations in fast-moving environments.

Katie shares her path from taking a 50 percent pay cut to join her first telehealth startup to spending five years building a clinically successful company that ultimately shut down. She reflects on the hard lessons that came with that experience and how it reshaped the way she leads.

Together, Helen and Katie unpack the shift many clinicians struggle with in startups, moving from being the person who flags every risk to the leader who says yes and figures out how to make it work. They explore the tension between mission and margin, why a growth mindset matters more than perfection, and how failure becomes a necessary teacher when building something new.

Now running her own fractional leadership practice, Health Shift Leaders, Katie is focused on helping clinicians learn the business of healthcare faster and with fewer painful lessons. This conversation is full of honest insight for any clinician navigating startup leadership, uncertainty, and growth.

Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments

• Her first startup built telehealth for skilled nursing facilities before it was commonly done.
• Katie shifted from pointing out obstacles to saying yes and figuring out how to make things work
• Board relationships from her first startup created opportunities years later

Mentioned in the episode:

• HealthShift Leaders
• Y Combinator
• The Heart of Healthcare Podcast

About Katie

Katie Davis is a board-certified adult gerontology acute care nurse practitioner and advanced forensic nurse with over 20 years of experience across hospital systems, health tech, telemedicine, and post-acute care. She has served as a founding and early clinical leader in multiple healthcare startups, building and scaling clinical operations for high-risk populations.

Katie spent five years at her first telehealth startup serving skilled nursing facilities and four years at her second startup, where she was the first nurse practitioner hired and helped scale operations to 15,000 patients per month. She is the founder of HealthShift Leaders, a fractional leadership practice, and is building a new company focused on teaching clinicians the business of healthcare.

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Join The Early Hires Community

Are you a clinician navigating startup life? The only way to access our private Slack community is by visiting www.theearlyhires.com.

Head to the website to request access and join clinicians who are building, leading, and navigating the realities of early-stage healthcare companies.

Share your challenges. Share your wins. Ask your questions.

Start at www.theearlyhires.com.
The conversation continues there.