Mountain View, California-based chronic disease management company Livongo Health has brought in healthcare veteran Zane Burke as the company’s new CEO.
“With six in ten people living with a chronic condition, the time is right for Livongo’s experiential, fresh approach to improving the quality of life and the health status of people who live with these conditions,” Burke said in a statement.
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“As CEO, my focus will be working with this incredible team to grow the company so that we can create better health and care experiences for our Members, and more appropriately manage the resources consumed in managing those conditions for anyone paying for that care.”
Burke spent more than 20 years at health IT giant Cerner before stepping down earlier this year as the company’s president. Burke was long expected to be the successor to Cerner Founding CEO Neal Patterson and many observers were surprised when he was passed over for the $5.1 billion company’s top job.
During his tenure at the Kansas City, Missouri-based company, Burke was instrumental in winning a $16 billion deal with the Department of Veterans Affairs to switch over from its own internally developed EHR to a Cerner system.
Working alongside Burke will be Jennifer Schneider, who was elevated to the position of president from her previous role as the company’s chief medical officer. As part Burke’s transition into the CEO role, Livongo Founder Glen Tullman will move to the position of executive chairman.
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“Zane spent two decades building relationships with the top health systems in the world. He knows the healthcare challenges facing employers, providers, and those with chronic conditions,” Tullman said in a statement.
“Livongo is growing rapidly with significant opportunities on the horizon. I believe Zane is the perfect person to take the Company to the next level and to lead Livongo through this period of rapid expansion.”
Livongo has raised around $240 million funding, including most recently a $105 million Series E round that valued the company at roughly $800 million. The company was founded in 2014 by Tullman – the former CEO of Cerner competitor Allscripts – and was partially inspired by his son’s struggles with diabetes.
In 2017 the company earned $30.5 million in revenue and has collected a customer roster that includes major healthcare stakeholders and employers like Highmark, Target and Amazon.
Livongo initially launched as a diabetes testing and management tool that helped users manage their condition and live more healthy lives. Over time the company has branched out into other chronic decisions like hypertension and has developed a more sophisticated data platform to more effectively target behavior change.
Earlier this year, the company acquired Chicago, Illinois-based weight loss startup Retrofit helping to boost its headcount to around 500 employees.
Picture: marchmeena29, Getty Images
