Beyond Automation: Rethinking Healthcare’s Operating Model

Yesterday’s Digital Health New York Summit was a reminder of why New York has become such an important center for digital health innovation.

Kudos to DHNY for continuing to build something our local industry needs: a real community where healthcare leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators can challenge conventional thinking and help shape what comes next.

For me, the highlight was Mark Cuban.

Cuban is refreshingly outspoken. He says what he thinks, including that he likes his life so much that if he were born again, he’d want to come back as himself. (As an aspiring Buddhist, I guess this means no Nirvana next time for Cuban 😊)

But one point particularly resonated with me:

You cannot fundamentally transform a broken system simply by automating it.

AI can make an existing process faster and cheaper. But if the underlying operating model is broken, automation may simply help us scale its existing limitations more efficiently.

Sometimes transformation requires stepping outside the existing system and building a new operating layer from the ground up.

That is what Cuban has done with Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, PBC. Rather than trying to incrementally optimize the traditional prescription drug supply chain, Cost Plus Drugs built a different model: removing layers of middlemen, buying directly, and bringing transparency to drug pricing.

That philosophy strongly resonates with what we are building at Twig Health.

Our thesis is that Care and Quality Management for payers and providers do not just need better software or more AI automation layered onto existing workflows. They need a fundamentally different operating model: a separate, purpose-built care delivery layer designed from the ground up for efficiency, engagement, and measurable impact.

Across our work with health plans and providers, we are seeing the result:

A separate operating layer can create a step change in performance, not just move the needle.

That, to me, is the real opportunity for AI in healthcare.

Don’t just automate the system we inherited. Rethink the system we actually need.

And a special thank you to Digital Health New York for recognizing Twig Health as one of 10 promising companies to watch. We are proud to be part of this community, and even more excited about what comes next.

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