Magic-Wand Changes for 2026

This week on Lifers, Niyum Gandhi, CFO of Mass General Brigham, and Mike Desjadon, CEO of Anomaly, discuss the financial pressures facing health systems today. They cover why hospital expenses are rising faster than revenue, what health systems actually look for when evaluating startups, and why collaboration matters more than finger-pointing.
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SPONSOR:
This episode is brought to you by Arbiter. As Michelle says: "We don't need another instrument for the orchestra—we need to conduct the orchestra." Backed by one of the largest early funding rounds in health tech, Arbiter creates one real-time source of truth from fragmented healthcare systems, then routes referrals and handles prior auths so patients actually get to care. Learn more at https://www.arbiter.ai/.

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LINKS:
Mass General Bringham: https://www.massgeneralbrigham.org/en 
Anomaly: https://www.findanomaly.com/ 

Lifers: How money really flows in healthcare with Claimable CEO Warris Bokhari & Anomaly CEO Mike Desjadon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxuZ889ww-I 
Sachin Jain Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvtakm7NMnI 

Chrissy Farr’s Website: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/ 
Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ 
Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books 

Lifers with Christina Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr 

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FOLLOW:
Niyum:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/niyum-gandhi/ 
https://x.com/niyumgandhi 

Mike:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-desjadon-4a0a21a/ 
https://x.com/Mike_Desjadon 

Chrissy:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ 
https://x.com/chrissyfarr 

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TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) Preview
(01:24) Intro
(02:28) How Niyum and Mike first met at Mount Sinai
(05:55) Career path and the move to CFO of Mass General Brigham
(11:53) Why choose a career in healthcare
(15:19) Sponsor: Arbiter
(15:50) Current financial state of American health systems
(19:28) Addressing the revenue and expense trend gap
(21:26) The role of AI and technology in productivity
(26:07) Ambient documentation and physician burnout
(29:58) Strategic partnerships versus point solution vendors
(31:40) The evolution of healthcare startups and health systems
(36:31) Advice for founders building in the industry
(40:34) Wrap