Eileen Tanghal, Founder and Managing Partner of Black Opal Ventures, joins an impressive panel at ViVE to discuss the business case for prioritizing health equity.
Photo from ViVE
This year ViVE was held in Nashville at the end of March. ViVE brings together industry leaders in healthcare and technology for a multiday event. Founder and Managing Partner of Black Opal Ventures, Eileen Tanghal, served on a panel entitled “The Business Case of Health Equity”. The other panelists included Fadesola Adetosoye from McKinsey & Company, Elizabeth Boudreau from Amazon Web Services, Fritz Desir from AWSM Venture Studio, and moderator, Dr. Fatima Paruk, the Chief Health Officer at Salesforce.
Health equity has become a hot topic, with studies showing the potential economic and social benefits due to "lower health-care costs, longer and healthier lives, and increased productivity and living standards”. Despite this, it is difficult to show that these initiatives deliver returns on investment, a critical factor in ensuring large-scale investments in health equity initiatives.
Together, the panelists discussed the importance of health equity and what initiatives their firms are taking. Eileen spoke about the ways in which Black Opal Ventures supports portfolio companies in realizing the lack of diversity on teams and fixing the problem. Furthermore, for startups, she emphasized the importance of reducing bias when building the product itself, whether this be AI algorithms or medical devices.
Following where and to whom the capital goes often coincides with large scale change. At Black Opal Ventures, we are pleased to play a part in bringing capital to companies that we believe will not only make significant financial returns, but also meaningfully tackle health equity problems. Reducing health disparities and promoting health equity has immense potential for the bottom line, while also contributing to a healthier and more just society.
ViVE is a leading digital health and healthcare technology multi-day conference bringing together industry leaders. Black Opal Ventures aims to improve health outcomes for all by investing in companies at the collision of healthcare and technology.