Highlander Health Launches to Modernize Clinical Research and Patient Care
Co-founded by Amy Abernethy and Brad Hirsch to optimize clinical research and advance personalized care through learning labs, investments and philanthropy
DALLAS - September 10, 2024 - Highlander Health, a firm advancing evidence generation and personalized health care for the new era of medical innovation, today announced its launch. Composed of Highlander Health Institute and Highlander Health Partners, the group was co-founded by industry veterans Amy Abernethy, M.D., Ph.D., and Brad Hirsch, M.D.
Abernethy and Hirsch have joined forces to create flexible, high-quality approaches to generating critical insights, through the integration of research into day-to-day care. The ultimate goal is to improve treatments and enable individualized patient care.
“We’re not shying away from big problems,” said Amy Abernethy, co-founder of Highlander Health. “After more than five decades in health care, and seeing the industry’s challenges from all angles, Brad and I are more optimistic than ever. Our experience — across academia, at companies small and large, and at FDA — illuminates the bold solutions needed. And what’s more, how best to assure the commercial viability and utmost impact of any one solution.”
Highlander Health is powered by Highlander Health Institute, a public interest platform and Highlander Health Partners, an investment arm. The co-founders will closely direct and support the activities of both entities using full-system know-how to progress the learnings and technology crucial to advancing evidence generation and care.
Highlander Health Institute will provide grants to health systems while partnering with other ecosystem players to move forward with modern and streamlined evidence generation. The resultant clinician-led learning labs will create and test solutions, with work transparently conducted and results broadly shared.
Highlander Health Partners is a health care-focused investment firm that supports its businesses with capital, counsel, and resources to ensure portfolio company success. An evergreen fund that invests internal capital toward long-term value creation, the firm is focused on technology enablement in growth and middle-market companies across health care.
“There is an enormous opportunity to improve clinical research and care, particularly at their intersection,” said Brad Hirsch, co-founder of Highlander Health. “We’ve shown success in this regard at Duke, Flatiron, SignalPath, and Verily, but we’ve only scratched the surface. Our investments, and our shoulder-to-shoulder collaboration with portfolio company management will catalyze new businesses, capabilities, and opportunities among new and traditional players alike.”
Abernethy continued, “During the last decade, companies have innovated elements of the vision, but the approaches have been siloed. It’s time to build connected solutions that work across care settings, that streamline not only a treatment’s evaluation and approval but also its widespread adoption — all with an eye on what patients and providers need to flourish in an age of biological breakthroughs.”
Projects are already underway and more details will be shared at the STAT Summit in Boston, October 16-17. You can also learn more by visiting the Highlander Health website at highlanderhealth.com
About Highlander Health
Highlander Health is focused on advancing evidence generation for the new era of medical innovation. Through an investment portfolio and a platform for learning across care settings, Highlander Health is on a mission to modernize clinical research and care — toward flexible approaches, unlocked capacity, and faster and greater patient impact. Learn more and join in our work to move evidence generation forward at highlanderhealth.com.
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