Maverick Ventures’ Ambar Bhattacharyya on the future of health care

Maverick Ventures’ Ambar Bhattacharyya on the future of health care

Ambar Bhattacharyya is managing director at Maverick Ventures, a $400 million venture capital fund based in San Francisco which invests in health start-ups. His health-care portfolio firms include six IPOs and four unicorns (start-ups valued at $1 billion or more). Bhattacharyya — who currently sits on the board of directors of Artemis Health, Docent Health, Centivo, and Cityblock Health, and serves as a board observer at Collective Medical Technologies and — recently spoke with CNBC ahead of the upcoming event on March 30 focused on health innovation. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.   Bhattacharyya: Over the past few years, we have seen the rise of telemedicine both as a standalone platform, and also a technology that providers leverage to expand their reach. We were early backers of companies like Hims & Hers and that have changed the paradigm of how hundreds of thousands of people access health care – in a virtual-first way. Going forward, we see several new waves of telemedicine acceleration. I expect health systems to reexamine how they are using telemedicine to extend their reach beyond their four walls. There has been a buzz word about 'the digital front door' for hospitals