Hero Creates Advisory Board as Company Accelerates Growth Plans

NEW YORK, Jan. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hero, the market leader for digital in-home care, focused today on medication management, has created an Advisory Board comprising recognized leaders who bring a depth of experience and insights to the company. The company's Advisors include experts from the private sector and academia, who will contribute knowledge and expertise to further enable Hero to accelerate its growth plans.

"Hero delivers digital in-home care intended to help extend the lifespan and independence of every person with a chronic medical condition, and our Advisory Board members will play an important role as we further scale our platform, said Kal Vepuri, CEO and founder of Hero. "To date, Hero has created the first end-to-end medication management service, which improves medication adherence, benefitting patients while reducing costs in the healthcare system," added Mr. Vepuri.

Hero's Advisory Board members have experience that reaches across medicine, science, public health, finance, commercialization, regulatory affairs, and healthcare. They will work closely with the company's leadership to advise on matters relating to Hero's growth and continuous innovation in the in-home health category.

Hero's Advisory Board members:

Roy Beveridge, M.D., is part of Avalere's Commercialization and Regulatory Strategies team as senior advisor. He is a medical oncologist who has been in practice for more than 20 years. He most recently served as chief medical officer of Humana where he led clinical policy, population health and clinical quality initiatives. Dr. Beveridge has held similar roles for US Oncology and McKesson Specialty Health. Much of his recent work is focused on social determinants of health and improving the health of the underserved population. He has also published more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts.

Brad Fluegel, M.P.P., was most recently the Senior Vice President-Chief Healthcare Commercial Market Development Officer for Walgreens Co., currently Walgreens Boot Alliance. He was responsible for all commercial healthcare activities, including sales and contracting, biopharma relationships, retail clinics, clinical affairs, new service development and market planning.  He joined Walgreens in October 2012 after previously serving as executive in residence at Health Evolution Partners. Before that he was executive vice president and chief strategy and external affairs officer of Wellpoint (now Anthem), among the nation's largest health benefits companies.

Barry Katz, B.S. Chem., B. Pharm., is a clinical pharmacist, serial entrepreneur, and founder and president of EnvisionRxOptions, a pharmacy benefit manager, which successfully sold to TPG and later to Rite Aid. He has experience in retail pharmacy, managed care, Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial benefits. He serves on several advisory boards in the healthcare and pharmacy space.

Ravi Thadhani, M.D., M.P.H., is the Chief Academic Officer for Mass General Brigham (formerly Partners HealthCare) and Professor of Medicine and Academic Dean at Harvard Medical School, both in Boston, MA. He has 25 years of experience in executive academic medical administration, clinical and translational investigation, and clinical development and regulatory strategies for therapeutics, devices, and diagnostics.

Tim van Biesen, Ph.D., M.B.A., is the head of Bain's Global Healthcare Practice. Prior to joining Bain, he was a senior research scientist at Abbott Laboratories. Tim's areas of expertise span the full range of healthcare subsectors, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, payers, providers, and services. Tim has published more than 30 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals including Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, and the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Ira B. Wilson, M.D., M.Sc., is Professor of Health Services, Policy & Practice, Professor of Medicine, and Chair of the Department of Health Services, Policy & Practice at the Brown University School of Public Health. He has three broad areas of research: medication adherence, health services research related to HIV care, and physician-patient communication. He has developed new self-report adherence measures, conducted clinical trials of interventions to improve medication adherence, and worked with large commercial and Medicaid pharmacy claims databases on medication adherence.

Phyllis Yale, M.B.A, currently serves on the board of directors of Bristol Myers Squibb, BlueCross BlueShield of Massachusetts, DaVita Healthcare, and Aledade. Previously, she chaired the boards of Kindred Healthcare, Blue Cross, National Surgical Hospitals, and Value Options Inc. as well as NeighborCare and Pediatric Services of America. She has extensive experience in compensation, governance, compliance, and finance committees. Phyllis is an advisory partner in the Boston office of Bain & Co. She joined the company in 1982.

About Hero

Hero is a leading digital in-home care platform delivering the first end-to-end medication management service for individuals and caregivers. Hero's solution includes its award-winning smart pill dispenser, medication management app, automatic refills, and live support. Since launching in 2018, Hero has dispensed more than 70 million medications. Hero is used as a care management solution for individuals, caregivers, medical providers, payers and other healthcare stakeholders.

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SOURCE HERO