Fellows Spotlight: Bo Bartholomew – Fellows Class of 2013, CEO of EvidenceCare and Managing Partner of Rockmont Investments
Bo Bartholomew is CEO of EvidenceCare and Managing Partner of Rockmont Investments. Bartholomew leads EvidenceCare’s effort to create the first ever Clinical Marketplace within the EMR for every doctor to have real-time access to clinical best practices while treating patients. He also serves on the board of Healthcare Value Analytics, ProviderTrust, and OMNY Health with the goal of bringing healthcare’s next generation of technology to the forefront.
What inspired you to go into healthcare? Tell us about your career journey.
My journey into healthcare was initially uncertain, as I began college on the pre-med track with the intention of becoming a doctor. After I quickly realized I wanted to do anything but medicine, my path took an unexpected turn when I joined the Army Corps of Engineers after paying for school with an ROTC scholarship. I found myself involved in combat and construction engineering, an experience that led me away from medicine.
After leaving the army, I was interviewed for a job to help build a hospital, despite having minimal knowledge about hospitals. I got hired due to my expertise in construction equipment and construction. My involvement expanded when I volunteered to listen in on interviews and ended up helping interview the entire team. When the hospital opened, I was asked to stay on and help run it. And so, I found myself kind of back into healthcare through a very inadvertent route. And once I became a hospital administrator, I never looked back. I've been in health care ever since.
I think a lot of people, when they first think of healthcare, they think of doctors and nurses, and we need those more than ever. Right now. But then you get exposed to a big industry, and you can realize there's a lot there. And everybody's needed to help.
What are you focused on now?
Currently serving as the CEO of EvidenceCare and Managing Partner of Rockmont Investments, I wear two hats, leading investments in FinTech and health tech while actively participating on multiple boards.
In terms of what I'm focused on, I'll answer the question in two ways. Personally, I wake up every day pursuing the integrity of people, places and things. In everything I do, both for profit and not for profit boards, etc. I believe we need to pursue integrity of everything we are involved in and help our friends become their most flourishing self. Whether that's employees, colleagues, clients, or organizations. My focus is not only on the growth of businesses but also on pursuing the integrity of people, places, and things.
In healthcare, I am dedicated to identifying ways technology can bring efficiency by leveraging platforms like AI. My team and I invest in AI businesses, emphasizing responsible and beneficial use rather than mere adoption. We are at a seminal pivot point in healthcare due to the abundance of AI to do things faster.
What problem do you most want to solve in healthcare?
At a macro level, the problem I am most passionate about solving in healthcare, a realization illuminated during the Fellows program, involves the misalignment in the industry. Healthcare companies are often incentivized financially to promote products and services, creating a payment structure that doesn't holistically align with the well-being of the individual. Both government initiatives and companies are striving to restructure and align incentives with better patient outcomes and care. The current landscape, marked by a pivotal moment due to the abundance of AI, allows for faster processes. However, the challenge remains in ensuring the right information reaches the right place in the right way, a crucial aspect that needs attention in advancing healthcare efficiency and effectiveness.
How did the Fellows program influence your life or career?
The program provided a platform for diverse healthcare leaders to engage in dialogue, uncovering issues and solutions. When you bring the leaders of so many different sectors of healthcare into one room, with a healthy, safe dialogue, you can really uncover a lot of issues, and a lot of solutions. I think that in a broad healthcare perspective, when you get providers, payers, tech companies, private equity, legal services, etc, all in one room, you really can see all sides of an issue no matter what it is. So, that has benefited my healthcare career.
The networking aspect opened doors, allowing me to connect with over 30 individuals who have influenced and supported me in various capacities. These individuals have either invested with us, our clients or our colleagues. This program has absolutely opened doors to a lot of markets for companies just to build the relationship. But more than anything, being able to pick up the phone and call people to say, “Hey, I need to understand how you all view this.”
Two other Fellows alumni work with me. It's fantastic to kind of have that level of camaraderie day to day but also across the healthcare landscape.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
I’ve received two valuable pieces of advice. The first is a set of mantras from my mentor, Clayton McWhorter, who has now passed. McWhorter emphasized: Act like an owner. Be prepared. Finding and be a mentor. Pay it forward. Everybody who knows him well knows these four mantras. I heard these often when we spend time together daily confounding a company. I used to have these mantras framed on my wall. I think about these in everything I do.
More recently, a retired health systems CEO, David White, shared advice over dinner one night, and as he said this, the entire table just froze. Everybody was like, “What did you just say? Can you repeat that?” We all wrote it down. I find it true for anyone in a leadership position. It was “The gates of success are patrolled by the dragons of fear and doubt.” If you stop and ponder that, anyone in a leadership position wakes up every day with fears and doubts. But we must slay those before leaving the house or we won't be able to lead well. And that piece of advice, more than ever, has freed me to try to overcome fears and doubts, to slay them, and then have the freedom to pursue success. This has been a piece of advice that has spoken loudly to me the last couple years.
Tell me something about yourself that isn’t on your resume.
I am passionate about leadership and am actively involved in a not-for-profit board called the Nashville Fellows Program. This program aims to train college graduates to become leaders and addresses the need for leadership in various sectors, including businesses, churches, and government. It’s important to me that we shape the next generation of leaders.
