There’s very little that substitutes for experience; how much better to learn from the experience of a mentor than through the pain of avoidable mistakes.
Dr. Jeremy Corbett is a board certified emergency physician, charismatic telehealth business leader and founder of RocketHealth. As a doctorpreneur, Jeremy brings not only clinical expertise to the table, but an acute understanding of the ways in which our healthcare systems work for – and sometimes fail – patients.
In his role as the Chief Health Officer for Envolve PeopleCare, Jeremy leads a team at the forefront of transformative mHealth. As RocketHealth’s founder, he’s on a mission to transform the way insurers, clinicians, and individuals manage chronic disease.
RocketHealth enables users to check the pulse of their population’s health in real time. The proprietary software curates biometric data, identifies specific members who require intervention and immediately mobilize nurses, coaches, and case managers for action. RocketHealth eliminates waste, improves health outcomes, and slashes medical spend by utilizing today’s data rather than last month’s claims.
Before launching RocketHealth, Jeremy served as Chief Health Officer for Nurtur/LiveHealthier following two years as Chief Medical Officer at Kentucky Spirit Health Plan. His first exposure to the startup world came when he served as Chief Medical Officer for a private equity backed biomedical venture headquartered in Orlando, FL.
Jeremy completed medical school at the University of South Florida and residency at the University of Kentucky, where he served as Chief Resident in Emergency Medicine. He is a partner with Central Emergency Physicians in Lexington, KY and holds licensure nationwide. In his current role with EPC, Jeremy is responsible for clinical product development and innovation across Centene’s behavioral and physical health platforms as well as the Envolve Center for Health Behavior Change.
Jeremy lives in Lexington, Kentucky where he makes his home with wife Cassie and their three children, spending days split between the baseball field and a ballet studio.
Where did the idea for RocketHealth come from?
The company name was one I’ve always loved. Starting a health technology company made the most sense. If I had started a restaurant, it would have been named RocketHealth. The genesis for launching RocketHealth was a question I was asked one day while working for a small health startup out of Orlando, FL. A colleague asked me what I’d need to keep patients from rolling into the emergency department for preventable visits. I told him I’d need real-time biometric data and a communication platform for quick engagement. Twenty-four months later we launched the company.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
I start each day the same way, with some time in front of my favorite window thinking, reading and praying. Like most, my days end too quickly and contain fewer hours than needed; I struggle with saying no and have worked hard recently to block out roughly 8 hours/week for next-level thinking. The RocketHealth team is spread out across three cities, so we utilize 2x/week all-hands calls, as well as Flow, a communication platform that has added a great deal of efficiency to our days.
How do you bring ideas to life?
I take tons of showers. Why do you think more clearly in there? Everyone who’s taken a shower has had a great idea. It’s what you do when you get out that matters. My greatest success has been in hiring great people; doers who see the multitude of steps needed to get from an idea to execution.
What’s one trend that really excites you?
The rapid commoditization of wearables and mHealth technology is bringing us to a point in time where there will be very little difference between in-hospital and outpatient care. Those with the best platform for meaningful engagement and the smartest algorithm for predicting illness are poised to do some great things.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
I’m always willing to listen to someone’s idea. People are by nature incredibly adept at solving problems. Solutions seem to come from sources you’d never expect. I’ve found that casting a wide net in terms of friends and colleagues has allowed for an expanded perspective, as I seek to grow RocketHealth and solve some extremely large healthcare questions.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Find men who are winning in their lives at home with their family as well as in the office and beg/borrow/steal their time. Buy them lunch. Ask questions. There’s very little that substitutes for experience; how much better to learn from the experience of a mentor than through the pain of avoidable mistakes. If you find a man who states that fast failure is a sign of success, don’t add him to the list of “lunches to buy.”
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on?
People don’t want those around them to succeed. It brings all of the insecurities and “should haves” most people bury deep beneath a layer of status quo living to the surface.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
I read biographies. Good ones, bad ones. God made people so incredibly and innately fascinating. I’m reading Teddy Roosevelt’s right now and just finished Phil Knight’s. Love them.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business? Please explain how.
I’ve been dogmatic about maintaining clear definitions of what we do, how we do it, where we bring value and why our product is needed. People have enough complexity. I believe we’re at the beginning of a season where clients will be expecting simplicity, curated services and intuitive interaction where complexity and one-size-fits-all used to reside.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
I failed to appropriately gauge the amount of time required to truly DO what we created RocketHealth to do. Accordingly, I failed to bring others on board until we were already falling far behind our product roadmap metrics and were in jeopardy of losing clients. My second hire was the best I’ll ever make and immediately righted the ship.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Why hasn’t anyone figured out how to make coffee less stain-tastic? I can’t bring myself to drink it out of a doll’s straw, and yet it’s nearly 2017 and here we are at this enamel crossroads.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? On what and why?
We recently purchased walkie-talkies for the boys. The entire family now has call-names, and we’re enjoying having our private conversations available to any neighbor who also happens to be dialed in to channel 1 (the only channel my boys can seem to find).
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
My team loves Flow. It’s brought calm to chaos from a conversational standpoint and has also allowed for greater accountability for each of us. Up until recently we had no way of tracking timelines, dialogue between teams and final product reviews. Duplicative work drives me crazy and Flow has helped us to maintain momentum at a critical time in our growth curve.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
The Art of Influence by Chris Widener. I’ve read it yearly since 2010 and have gifted countless copies. It’s a business parable revolving around core character competencies every successful man and woman possesses. As with most repeat reads, I find something new and/or convicting with each review.
What is your favorite quote?
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Henry Ford
Connect:
www.rocket-health.com
Jeremy on linkedIn: Jeremy Corbett
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.