This piece may be four years old, but it continues to be a hot topic amongst clinicians moving into industry. Understanding the “CMO” archetypes continues to be important because otherwise new clinical hires into digital health won’t know what kind of role they’re signing up for.
One of the simplest explanations comes from Maven’s chief medical officer Dr. Neel Shah, who uses the analogy of the “inside cat” and “outside cat.” Shah shared his views on the topic at an event this week about the importance of clinical voices. Most CMOs, in his view are outside cats, meaning they focus on external processes like sales and communications. A smaller group are inside cats, and are deeply embedded in the operations and the product. A very select few are inside cats who can be allowed outside to roam from time to time, because they can be trusted to always return home. Shah, in case you’re wondering, views himself as a wandering cat.
Geisinger and Scrub Capital’s Dr. Jonathan Slotkin believes there are 3 key archetypes instead of 4: Operator clinician, product/platform clinician, and population/payer clinician. The former lives in the world of ClinOps and speaks the language of finance; the product clinician can turn clinical insight into repeatable products and workflows; and the population or payer clinician lives in contracts and outcomes, stitching together plan design to delivery and risk.
What’s also changed in the past four years is that top clinical operators like Dr. Reena Pande have taken up roles in executive search, as more digital health companies have realized how imperative it is that they get this role right. A bad clinical hire can set them back months. It’s also no longer good enough to hire the person with the best pedigree and years of training, particularly at the early-stages. Hiring well, and then integration into the company culture is crucial. But most physicians can be shown the ropes, particularly as the training gets them very familiar with the idea of adapting in high stress environments (ever heard of a “code blue?”) As physician-turned-product leader-turned venture capitalist Rebecca Mitchell explained on the panel, the key is to ask the question of whether the clinician has started something - anything. It doesn’t have to be a tech company; but they do need to have a builder mindset, meets humility.
With that, here’s a resurrection of the piece. I’d love to hear your takes on the types, and if you’ve worked with any fantastic chief medical officers in the past. I’d also love to learn your strategies for hiring the best clinicians: What’s worked, what hasn’t worked, and what insights you can share with other operators in the space.
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