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Patient Zero. Tatiana Fofanova, CEO of Koda Health on dogfooding her own product when her life depended on it.

I've used my own product twice, two years into running the company, I got hit by a car, went to the hospital, got diagnosed with Kidney Cancer all in the same afternoon.

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Episode Description

Tatiana Fofanova, CEO and Co Founder of Koda Health, joins the show to talk about

  • From pediatrics to entrepreneurship, and Tatiana's experience as a founder in residence at Texas Medical Center (TMC)
  • The intersection of the law and health, and building an advanced care planning tool that is patient centric.
  • Becoming "patient zero" for Koda Health after being hit by a car and getting diagnosed with kidney cancer, all in the same afternoon.
  • Designing Koda's go-to-market strategy in health care, and how Tatiana has thought about building out her team in a healthcare startup.

Episode Transcript

Tatiana Fofanova

Co-Founder & CEO at Koda Health

Dr. Tatiana Fofanova is an entrepreneur and clinical scientist who has dedicated her career to patients living with serious illness—she currently serves this population as the Co-Founder and CEO of Koda Health. As an HHMI scholar, she earned her PhD in Molecular Medicine from Baylor College of Medicine, where her work focused on developing experimental treatments for people living with incurable diseases. Since the start of her career, she has been a long-time educator and healthcare advocate for both refugee and unhoused communities. In 2023, she received Cartier’s Young Leader Award for her work in making healthcare more accessible and inclusive for underrepresented communities.

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