As a child growing up in Ethiopia, John de Souza witnessed the grim reality of poverty — families wishing for rapid death for their sick children because a cure was out of reach socially and financially. Fast forward a number of years to when he was able to emigrate to the U.S. and was accepted to Harvard Medical School. But he could not fulfill his dream of becoming a doctor due to his then inability to get a green card.

John’s journey sounds like the stuff of a Michael Lewis book: he started off wanting to become a doctor, but found his way to MIT, Goldman Sachs, and today is successful financial tech entrepreneur. Yet he ultimately did find his way back to healthcare and has spent the largest part of his time in the field trying to match people with information and with other people with whom they can share knowledge and experience.

John is currently President, Consumer Division of MedHelp International, Inc., a company that pioneered the field of consumer health information and communities on the Internet, long before WebMD, Microsoft or Yahoo.

Today you can see an example of one of the amazing uses for MedHelp’s technology through this video.

Tags: david shaywitz, dnanexus, Health, health care, health insurance, health science, health sciences, health-it, Healthcare, information technology, insurance, John de Souza, lisa suennen, MedHelp, medical care, medical research, Medicine, obamacare, tech tonics, technology and health, treatment, VC, venture capital, venture valkyrie
 
Posted in: Audio Podcast, Healthcare, Tech Tonics