Quantum Health Announces New Clinical Advisory Boards To Expand Musculoskeletal and Behavioral Health Clinical Support for Members

Quantum Health’s newly added clinical advisory boards will launch in 2024 to expand the company’s strategic clinical guidance for musculoskeletal and behavioral health initiatives, empowering employers, employees and their families to better manage the healthcare journey.

Dublin, OH, August 29, 2023 – Quantum Health, the industry’s leading healthcare navigation and care coordination company, announced today the extension of its clinical advisory strategy and leadership to include two additional advisory boards slated to launch in 2024. These advisory boards will be dedicated to clinical leadership for both musculoskeletal (MSK) and behavioral health. Each advisory board will guide expanded benefits support services and high-quality care options to employer members through clinical, emotional and financial resources that address MSK and behavioral health diagnoses.

MSK conditions affect more than 50 million people across the U.S. and are the foremost contributor to nationwide disability claims, emphasizing the need for improved treatment options. MSK is now the number-one healthcare cost driver for businesses, with one-sixth of employer-sponsored plan dollars attributed to musculoskeletal-related care at $600 billion annually.

Improving access to mental health services through behavioral health benefits is also a top priority for employers’ benefits programs. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, more than 62 million Americans experience mental health challenges, and, of those, an astonishing 55% do not receive treatment. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that this results in an estimated 200 million lost workdays each year at a cost of $17 billion to $44 billion. Both MSK and behavioral health are critically important areas for employers to address, and for this reason Quantum Health has expanded its Comprehensive Care Solutions™ platform to include both MSK and behavioral health in 2023.

“Quantum Health continues to diversify and expand its knowledge base with best-in-class clinical strategy and perspectives to address cancer, musculoskeletal health and behavioral health ─ three of the most difficult health journeys a member can experience. The addition of MSK and behavioral health clinical advisory boards will drive substantial impact to our employer clients and their employees and optimize the member experience, costs and health outcomes,” said Michael C. Sokol, M.D., M.S., Senior Vice President of Clinical Strategy for Quantum Health.

In late 2022, the company formed the Quantum Health Oncology Advisory Board. Given the urgent need to impact cancer care and its increasingly high costs, the board’s first area of focus was to expand industry-leading oncology care options, including access to experts, remote second opinions for the members and their doctors, and support for research trials, genomic testing, clinical collaboration and more.

The addition of MSK and behavioral health advisory boards advances Quantum Health’s mission to not only provide more access to expert resources but drive innovative solution design. These specific chronic conditions are supported specifically because they are among the most challenging and costly conditions employers must address within their benefits programs.

Harlan Levine, M.D., serves as board chair to all three clinical advisory boards ─ oncology, MSK and behavioral health. Dr. Levine is the President of Health Innovation and Policy for City of Hope and has extensive experience in various clinical advisory roles. A pioneer for advances in medicine and modes of care delivery, Dr. Levine will lead the advisory boards in strategic development to support treating these conditions with access to the newest clinical developments and advances.

Quantum Health currently supports members throughout their complex health journey with access to Quantum Health’s Warriors™ and clinical teams dedicated to working with payers and providers to deliver the best possible care. Using Real-Time Intercept®, the company’s proprietary technology model, these clinicians leverage data allowing members a more integrated and streamlined healthcare experience. With the addition of the MSK and behavioral health clinical advisory boards, members gain increased benefits with expanded access to the highest-quality resources and providers, ultimately improving health outcomes.

Advisory Board Chair (Oncology, MSK, Behavioral Health)

Harlan Levine, M.D.

Harlan Levine, M.D., is President of Health Innovation and Policy for City of Hope. He also serves as the board chair of AccessHope™, City of Hope’s subsidiary focused on serving the employer market and making leading-edge cancer expertise available to all, regardless of geography. Before City of Hope, Levine held executive roles at UnitedHealth Group, Towers Watson, and Anthem, Inc. He currently serves as board member and secretary for BioscienceLA; member of the Keck Graduate Institute’s Board of Trustees; and board member for Vida Health, Active Life Scientific and Reimagine Care. He is on the advisory boards of Innovaccer and Laguna Health. In addition, he is a member of the Accessibility and Affordability Working Group for California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and a Senior Fellow for Health Evolution Forum’s New Models of Care Delivery. He is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and licensed by the Medical Board of California.

Quantum Health Clinical Advisory Board Members – MSK

The clinical advisory team for MSK includes leading orthopedic surgeons Benedict Nwachukwu, M.D.; M. Jay Patel, M.D.; and Mark Vrahas, M.D.

Benedict Nwachukwu, M.D., is an orthopedic surgeon and specialist in hip, knee and shoulder surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York; the Co-Director of Clinical Research for the Sports Medicine Institute at HSS; and an Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. He is also CEO and co-founder of Best In Class MD (BICMD), an expert medical opinion company that aims to improve the quality and appropriateness of care by ensuring that expert medical advice is at the center of care delivery. He serves as a team physician with the Brooklyn Nets (NBA), as well as a medical consultant to the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA). His clinical and research interests are focused on returning injured individuals back to their activities and advancing surgical techniques for joint preservation.

Jay Patel, M.D., is a board-certified orthopaedic surgeon at the Orthopaedic Specialty Institute in Orange County, Calif., specializing in total joint replacement and adult reconstructive surgery. His area of expertise includes both primary and revision surgical procedures of the hip and knee. He brings expertise in new surgical techniques, including minimally invasive surgical procedures, anterior approach hip replacement surgery, computer navigation and robotic joint replacement. He trained under several world-renowned orthopedic surgeons, has been involved in research pertaining to computer navigation systems for joint replacement surgery, and assisted in designing multiple orthopedic surgical devices as a member of the Stanford Biodesign Innovation Program. He is an active member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons.

Mark Vrahas, M.D., is a widely recognized expert in orthopaedic trauma and pelvic and acetabular surgery. He is founding chair of Cedars-Sinai Department of Orthopaedics and the appointed Levin/Gordon Distinguished Chair. Prior, he was founding chair of the Harvard Orthopaedic Trauma Initiative and led efforts to foster collaboration among orthopaedic trauma services at all Harvard affiliated teaching hospitals — Mass General, Brigham and Women’s, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Boston Children’s Hospital. He lectures around the world, publishes extensively, and serves as an editorial board member for leading orthopaedic journals.

Quantum Health Clinical Advisory Board Members – Behavioral Health

The clinical advisory team for behavioral health includes leading physicians Gabriel Aranovich, M.D.; Manal Soliman Durgin, M.D.; and Mason Turner, M.D.

Gabriel Aranovich, M.D., serves as Clinical Expert in the Health Tech Program at Cornell Tech. His experience combines clinical psychiatry and health technology, where he has held a number of leadership roles in some of the most innovative companies in the digital mental health space, including HealthRhythms (Chief Medical Officer), Mindstrong (Chief Clinical Officer) and Lyra Health (Medical Director). Prior to joining Lyra, he co-founded The Clinic, a multidisciplinary mental health clinic / health tech accelerator that was acquired by Optum. A board-certified psychiatrist, Dr. Aranovich began his career as a neuroscientist at University of California San Francisco.

Manal Soliman Durgin, M.D., is a specialist in child and adolescent psychiatry and the Medical Director at Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health Florida, serving on Devereux’s National Medical Advisory Committee. She is board certified and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. She has served as a Councilor of the Florida Psychiatric Society and served as Chair of the Child and Adolescent Committee for Florida Psychiatric Society. Since 2009, she has been serving as a member of the Florida Medicaid Workgroup expert panel developing “Guidelines for Psychotropic Medication Use for Children and Adolescents” with and without neurodevelopmental disorders. She was chosen as Behavioral Professional of the Year for Youth (2019) by the Florida Behavioral Health Association.

Mason Turner, M.D., is the Senior Medical Director for Behavioral Health for Intermountain Health, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. His leadership in mental health care focuses on the development and evolution of strategic innovations in behavioral health care delivery that enhance quality of care and clinical excellence and are guided by principles of equity and inclusion of the patient/consumer voice into all aspects of the behavioral healthcare ecosystem. As a clinician, he specializes in addiction medicine, consult-liaison psychiatry and treatment of personality disorders. He has received extensive training in resiliency- and systems-based approaches for improving the mental health and wellbeing of refugees, asylum seekers and torture survivors. Dr. Turner also served as a former Assistant Clinical Professor in Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco Medical School, where he taught medical students, at all levels, the practice of interviewing patients and clinical reasoning skills. He also served as adjunct faculty at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine.