Mario Danek, QNovia

Mario Danek is CEO of QNovia, a behavior change platform focusing on smoking cessation product. Essentially the problem with smoking cessation nicotine products is that they don’t deliver the “hit” of a cigarette as quickly as a cigarette or a vape. Mario’s new vape-like product delivers a nicotine replacement therapy (think like Nicorette gum) just…

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The rising cost of mental illness

From a Mark et al. (2026) paper published in Health Affairs last week: …from 2000 through 2021, mental health and SUD nominal spending grew from $40.9 billion to $139.6 billion. Mental health and SUD accounted for 4.5 percent of all medical services spending in 2000 and 5.5 percent in 2021. Real per capita mental health and SUD spending grew…

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Why Pure DTC Doesn’t Work in Healthcare, Per Muse Capital

Rachel Springate, general partner at Muse Capital, said the next wave of healthcare startups will be driven by consumer demand — but pure direct-to-consumer models rarely work. Companies like Midi Health, Mavida Health and Mahmee are showing a different path: starting with patients, collecting outcomes data, and integrating with clinicians, payers and the broader healthcare…

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