Unlocking
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High-Quality,
Continuous
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Care

Updoc's mission
Updoc's mission
Our mission is to usher in a new era of healthcare where physicians and Clinical AI agents work side by side.
how we do it
By extending the reach of evidence-based medicine, patients receive timely, high-quality interventions when it matters most.
how we do it
Updoc's beliefs
We believe AI's role in healthcare is not to replace doctors, but to amplify their impact.

Leadership

Sharif Vakili, MD, MBA, MS

Sharif Vakili, MD, MBA, MS

Chief Executive Officer
Ashwin Nayak, MD, MS

Ashwin Nayak, MD, MS

Chief Technology Officer
Kendal Dinsmore, MBA

Kendal Dinsmore, MBA

VP, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance
Kristen Nayak, MD

Kristen Nayak, MD

Medical Director
David Dupee, MD, MBA

David Dupee, MD, MBA

Director of Clinical Affairs

Investors & Advisors

Andy Conrad, PhD

Andy Conrad, PhD

General Partner, S32; Founder and Former CEO, Verily Life Sciences (Alphabet)
David Barrett

David Barrett

Sr. Advisory Partner for Polaris
Elijah Yi

Elijah Yi

Vice President at Cathay Innovation
Gary Swart

Gary Swart

Operating Partner, Polaris Partners
Ian Tong, MD

Ian Tong, MD

Chief Clinical Officer Foresite Capital
Kevin Schulman, MD, MBA

Kevin Schulman, MD, MBA

Professor of Medicine, Stanford University; Deputy Director, Clinical Excellence Research Center
Navid Farzad

Navid Farzad

Managing Partner, Frist Cressey Ventures
Robert Califf, MD

Robert Califf, MD

Former Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Robert Gabbay, MD, PhD

Robert Gabbay, MD, PhD

Former Chief Scientific and Medical Officer, American Diabetes Association
Simon Wu

Simon Wu

Head of US Investments at Cathay Innovation
William H. Frist

William H. Frist

Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader; Founding Partner, Frist Cressey Ventures
William Shrank, MD, MSHS

William Shrank, MD, MSHS

Co-Founder & CEO, Aradigm; Former Chief Medical Officer, Humana; Former CMO, UPMC Health Plan
our story

UpDoc was founded by physicians who experienced first hand the growing disconnect between what medicine knows how to
do and what the healthcare system is actually able to deliver.

01

Sharif and Ashwin first met during medical training, where they quickly saw that one of healthcare’s biggest challenges was a limited capacity to maintain high-quality care in between appointments. There was little to no infrastructure to support patients in the day-to-day needs of managing their health – they were essentially on their own.

02

The two of them witnessed the RPM industry emerge as a potential solution with initial promise, but ultimately failed to change care. RPM centered on data collection and billing compliance without clear integration into physician workflows. The result: more data without better care. At the same time, providers were strained by burnout, staffing shortages, and ever increasing demand.

03

They envisioned a thoughtfully designed, physician-prescribed AI system that could close this gap – extending clinicians' reach while preserving the doctor–patient relationship.

04

Their platform would need to:

  • Comprehensively serve patients with chronic conditions who need help the most

  • Integrate seamlessly into cliniciansʼ existing EHR workflows, becoming a natural part of their day

  • Provide high quality care that democratizes the latest evidence-based medicine

  • Set the standard for trust within the healthcare ecosystem, with input from medical societies, patients, health systems, regulators, and technologists

05

They knew the solution needed to be practical and grounded in clinical reality, so they drew on their training and expertise in medicine and AI to build a platform that achieved this.

And UpDoc
was founded

Our Principles

Patients Come First

Every decision, from design to deployment, begins and ends with the patient.

Quality, No Compromise

We build FDA-regulated systems that prioritize safety, transparency, and clinical integrity.

Simplicity That Scales

Clinical AI meets patients where they are, with the tools and systems they are comfortable using.

Physician-Led by Design

Built by clinicians for clinicians, with deep respect for real-world workflows and constraints.

Rigor Over Hype

We focus on creating clinical impact and don't get distracted by buzzwords.

Accountability Always

From engineering to clinical operations to leadership — responsibility is at every level.

UpDoc Quality Policy

UpDoc is committed to the development of safe and effective patient care products. UpDoc strives to exceed customer expectations through its never-ending pursuit of quality.

UpDoc defines itself by the quality of its products, enabled by the application of its quality programs and continuous improvement.

UpDoc is committed to ensuring the Quality Policy and Quality Objectives are compliant with FDA 21 CFR Part 820, ISO 13485, and other applicable standards, as well as maintain the effectiveness of the Quality Management System.

David Barrett

Sr. Advisory Partner for Polaris

Dave is Sr. Advisory Partner for Polaris. He joined the firm in 2000 after his first career as a technology operating executive and entrepreneur, and has served the firm as a Managing Partner of five funds.

He has served on many healthcare and enterprise technology boards and has a particular interest in AI-native platforms that transform the patient/provider/payer relationship and enable the next generation of care. He’s been a founding investor or served as chair of many of the companies he’s partnered with, and currently serves as Chair of Proof and QuellSecure.

Dave has been a guest lecturer at Harvard, HBS, and MIT, an advisor to Mass General Brigham World Medical Innovation Forum, and a founding member of the Microsoft Advisory Board.He serves on the Board of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, on its investment committee, and as an advisor to its venture investment efforts.

He holds a B.S. from the University of Rhode Island, where he serves on its Board of Trustees and as Vice Chair of its Foundation Board of Directors.

He also serves on the Rhode Island Governor’s Executive Council for Economic Development & Innovation.

Simon Wu

Head of US Investments at Cathay Innovation

Simon leads the US investment efforts at Cathay Innovation, a global venture capital firm managing nearly $3B in assets. As the first hire in Cathay’s San Francisco office over a decade ago, he helped establish the firm’s US presence and has focused on early stage AI and technology investments across enterprise, healthcare, and consumer markets. His investments and board experience include Chime, Generalist, Sidecar Health, Qualified Health, Skan, Range, and Trifacta (acquired by Alteryx), among others.

‍

Prior to Cathay Innovation, Simon worked at VMware and in technology investment banking at UBS. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, as a Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholar. In 2020, he was named one of Venture Capital Journal’s 40 Under 40 Rising Stars in Venture Capital.

Elijah Yi

Vice President at Cathay Innovation

Eli is a Vice President at Cathay Innovation, where he focuses on healthcare, life sciences, and AI investments from the firm’s San Francisco office. Since joining Cathay in 2023, he has led the firm’s investment efforts at the intersection of computation, health, and biology. He is proud to have backed the UpDoc team since its seed round and works closely with companies across Cathay’s healthcare portfolio.

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Prior to Cathay, Eli was an early employee at a precision medicine startup, where he helped develop genomics algorithms supporting personalized medication selection. He later held investing roles at Lux Capital and Draper Associates.Eli holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS from Wheaton College.

Ian Tong, MD

Chief Clinical Officer Foresite Capital

Ian Tong is a healthcare executive with two decades of operational and strategic experience in digital health transformation. He currently serves as Chief Clinical Officer at Foresite Labs and Venture Partner at Foresite Capital Management, where he incubates and invests in companies at the intersection of care delivery and data science. He was recruited to these roles by Foresite founders Jim Tananbaum and Vik Bajaj.Prior to Foresite, Ian was President and Chief Medical Officer at Doctor On Demand and Included Health, where he helped scale the digital health platform from early seed stage through merger and pre-IPO, building enterprise partnerships with Fortune 100 companies including Walmart, Comcast, HCA, and Humana.Ian has spent two decades as a mentor and faculty member at Stanford Medical School, where he previously served as Chief Resident of Internal Medicine. He serves on the boards of UpDoc, Thyme Care and Sollis Health, as well as the Family Caregiver Alliance, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Ian earned his MD from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.

William H. Frist

Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader; Founding Partner, Frist Cressey Ventures

Senator William H. Frist, MD is a heart and lung transplant surgeon, co-founder of the Vanderbilt Transplant Center, and a former United States Senate Majority Leader, representing Tennessee in the U.S. Senate from 1995 - 2007.Today, Senator Frist serves as Chairman of the Global Board of The Nature Conservancy, the largest conservation organization in the world, and is building dynamic, value-driven healthcare companies through his partner roles at Frist Cressey Ventures and Cressey & Company.

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He is also actively involved in humanitarian and philanthropic communities, founding and chairing the community collaborative NashvilleHealth, SCORE – the Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education, and global health non-profit Hope Through Healing Hands.He and his wife Tracy live on their historic farm Old Town in Franklin, Tennessee

Navid Farzad

Managing Partner, Frist Cressey Ventures

Navid is a Managing Partner with Frist Cressey Ventures. Before joining FCV in 2019, he served as a partner with Morgan Noble Healthcare Partners, a Washington, D.C. based firm investing in companies determined to transform the delivery of healthcare. Prior to Morgan Noble, he was with Enhanced Healthcare Partners, a healthcare-focused private equity firm based in New York, as well as Lehman Brothers in the health care investment banking division, Ernst & Young’s Transaction Advisory group and Arthur Andersen’s health care practice.

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Currently, Navid serves as a director or observer on the boards of the Nashville Health Care Council, Praia Health, Thrive Health Tech, Lynx, Bicycle Health, Carta Healthcare, RightMove, DexCare, Vim, Oshi Health, Visana Health, Chamber Cardio, Knit Health, Aradigm and Qualified Health. He also serves on the board of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and the advisory board of The Hilltop Institute, a research and data analytics organization dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of communities.Navid holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and a BA from Loyola University in Maryland.

Kevin Schulman, MD, MBA

Professor of Medicine, Stanford University; Deputy Director, Clinical Excellence Research Center

Kevin Schulman is a Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and Professor of Operations, Information and Technology at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He serves as Deputy Director of Stanford's Clinical Excellence Research Center and is one of the most cited health economists in academic medicine, with more than 500 peer-reviewed publications.

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Dr. Schulman's work spans healthcare economics, payment reform, and technology-enabled care delivery. He was principal investigator of the Stanford clinical trial published in JAMA Network Open that provided the foundational evidence for Remote Patient Intervention, and is a co-author of the NEJM Catalyst paper establishing UpDoc's AI-driven payment framework.

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He holds an MD from New York University School of Medicine and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Gary Swart

Operating Partner, Polaris Partners

Gary Swart is an Operating Partner at Polaris Partners, the venture capital firm that led UpDoc's founding investment round, where he invests in technology and healthcare companies from the firm's San Francisco office. He has served on the boards of companies across enterprise software, marketplace platforms, and health technology.

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Prior to joining Polaris, Gary was CEO of Upwork (formerly oDesk) for nearly a decade, building it into the world's largest online workplace with more than $1 billion in work transacted through the platform and more than ten million registered freelancers. He guided the company through its merger with Elance to form Upwork in 2014.

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He holds a BS in Business from the University of Maryland.

Andy Conrad, PhD

General Partner, S32; Founder and Former CEO, Verily Life Sciences (Alphabet)

Andy is a General Partner at S32, a venture capital firm investing at the frontiers of technology.

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Prior to S32, Andy founded and served as CEO and Executive Chairman of Verily, Alphabet's life sciences company. He also held leadership roles across Google's innovation ecosystem, including GV, X, DeepMind, Google Cloud, and Google AI, and continues to serve as an advisor to Google.

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Before Google, Andy was Chief Scientific Officer of LabCorp. He previously co-founded the National Genetics Institute, which grew rapidly before its acquisition by LabCorp.

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Andy holds a BS in Neurobiology and a PhD in Cell Biology from UCLA.

William Shrank, MD, MSHS

Co-Founder & CEO, Aradigm; Former Chief Medical Officer, Humana; Former CMO, UPMC Health Plan

Will Shrank is Co-Founder and CEO of Aradigm, a company focused on expanding access to novel therapies. He is a physician executive and healthcare leader with deep expertise in value-based care, population health, medication adherence, and healthcare policy.

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Previously, Dr. Shrank served as Chief Medical Officer of Humana, where he led clinical operations and population health strategy, and as CMO of UPMC Health Plan. He also held senior leadership roles at CVS Health and served as Director of the Research and Rapid-Cycle Evaluation Group at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, where he helped design early value-based payment models. He later served as a Venture Partner on the Bio + Health team at Andreessen Horowitz.

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Dr. Shrank began his career as a practicing internist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and as an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. He holds an MD from Cornell University Medical College, an MS in Health Services from UCLA, and a BA from Brown University.

Robert Gabbay, MD, PhD

Former Chief Scientific and Medical Officer, American Diabetes Association

Robert Gabbay served as Chief Scientific and Medical Officer of the American Diabetes Association from 2020 to 2024, where he led the ADA's scientific agenda, oversaw the Standards of Care, and advanced innovation in diabetes care delivery. Previously, he was Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of Joslin Diabetes Center, overseeing care for more than 25,000 patients with diabetes. He is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School.

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Dr. Gabbay is an endocrinologist and health services researcher with more than 35 years of experience focused on chronic disease management, patient-centered care, and diabetes registries. He has received funding from NIH, AHRQ, and CMMI.

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He holds a BSc from McGill, a PhD from the University of Wisconsin, and an MD from SUNY Brooklyn.

Robert Califf, MD

Former Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Robert Califf served twice as Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, first under President Obama in 2016 and again under President Biden from 2022 to 2025, making him one of the most experienced regulatory leaders in American medicine. Between his FDA tenures, he led medical strategy at Alphabet, helping shape strategy and policy for Verily Life Sciences and Google Health.

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Dr. Califf is a cardiologist and clinical trials expert who founded the Duke Clinical Research Institute, one of the world's largest academic clinical research organizations. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has led major initiatives in clinical evidence generation, data science, and healthcare quality.

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He holds an MD from Duke University School of Medicine.

Kristen Nayak, MD

Medical Director

Kristen is a practicing primary care physician with expertise in chronic disease management, digital health, and population health informatics. As the Medical Director of UpDoc, she drives the clinical excellence behind the platform’s ability to deliver evidence-based medicine at scale.

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She is a co-investigator on the landmark RCT that first demonstrated the efficacy of Remote Patient Intervention and has publications in JAMA Internal Medicine and American Family Physician. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine.

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Kristen completed her family medicine residency at Stanford and holds an MD from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine.

David Dupee, MD, MBA

Director of Clinical Affairs

David is a practicing psychiatrist and clinical innovator with deep experience at the intersection of medicine, technology, and health system design. He previously led clinical strategy at Flock Health and served as Director of Strategy at Stanford’s Brainstorm Lab. He is Adjunct Clinical Faculty at Stanford University School of Medicine and served as Chief Resident during his psychiatry residency at Stanford Health Care.

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He holds an MD and MBA from Yale University and a BA in Biology and History from Cornell University.

Kendal Dinsmore, MBA

VP, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance

Kendal brings more than 20 years experience in regulatory affairs, quality leadership, and operations across biotechnology, medical devices, and software-as-a-medical-device (SaMD). He has guided early and growth stage companies through FDA regulatory processes and quality system development. Prior to UpDoc, he served as Vice President of Regulatory and Quality at Mahana Therapeutics and held senior regulatory, quality, and compliance roles at Counsyl (Myriad Women’s Health), Complete Genomics, and Specific Technologies.

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Kendal holds an MBA from Pepperdine and a BA in Biology from Sonoma State University.

Ashwin Nayak, MD, MS

Chief Technology Officer

Ashwin is a physician-engineer with deep expertise in machine learning and clinical informatics. He is a leading AI researcher with publications in major academic journals including JAMA Internal Medicine and Nature Digital Medicine.

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Ashwin built the first Remote Patient Intervention (RPI) system, one of the earliest implementations of Clinical AI integrated directly into care delivery. He is the co-founder and CTO of UpDoc and a Clinical Assistant Professor at Stanford where he currently practices as a hospitalist.

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He completed his internal medicine residency at Stanford, holds an MD from the University of Illinois College of Medicine, and an MS in Clinical Informatics Management from Stanford.

Sharif Vakili, MD, MBA, MS

Chief Executive Officer

Sharif is a primary care physician, serial healthcare entrepreneur, and former VC at Polaris Partners, where he served on the boards of biotechnology and health services companies.

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Sharif pioneered Remote Patient Intervention (RPI), an AI-driven care model first validated at Stanford and published in JAMA Network Open. His work helped establish the field of Clinical AI. He is the co-founder and CEO of UpDoc, serves on Stanford's clinical faculty, and teaches at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

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Sharif completed his medical training at Stanford, holds an MD from Johns Hopkins, an MBA from Harvard, and an MS and BS in Biology from Yale.