Makers: Jared Dashevsky, MD, MEng
David McCarthy
“Occasionally, you come across someone with a particular talent or expertise and think, “Well, that’s completely not fair.”
In the pop culture world, Kevin Durant, who mesmerizingly blends length and agility in the NBA, comes to mind, as does writer Zadie Smith for her rare ability to mash up cultural, historical, and literary lexicon in an engrossing, complex narrative.
Within healthcare’s creator community, for me, that person is Jared Dashevsky, MD, MEng. A resident physician at Mt. Sinai Hospital, Jared is also the co-founder of the newsletter Healthcare Huddle and a portfolio of associated products, including courses, trends reports, and a new community.
Those abbreviations — MD and MEng — aren’t typos. He has degrees in both medicine and engineering, placing his point of view in the upper-right quadrant of originality and credibility. Few creators can compare. He brings to healthcare a lens and a language perfectly suited for diagnosing the root challenges in today’s healthcare ecosystem and for forecasting where it may, and should, go next. A subscriber audience of more than 30,000 healthcare professionals, including associates and leaders from Kaiser, Ascension, and Northwell, confirms that.
Jared and I chatted asynchronously about his goals for his newsletter, how he thinks about content (while working 70-hour weeks as a physician!), a viral boost from Mark Cuban, and the future of big tech and big retail in healthcare.
In a Tweet, what’s Healthcare Huddle's value proposition?
Healthcare Huddle delivers concise, actionable insights on the latest developments in health policy, digital health, insurance, and business, empowering busy physicians to excel in patient care and influence broader healthcare dynamics.
Who is your ideal audience? What do they care, or worry, about?
When I write my articles, I focus on the physician reader. These are the ones deeply engrossed in their practices and patient care yet find themselves strapped for time to dive into the latest developments in health policy, digital health, insurance, and business. These are the dedicated professionals who strive not only to excel in direct patient care but also to significantly influence healthcare outside the clinical setting. They care deeply about how these evolving areas impact their practice, their patients, and the broader healthcare system. My goal is to provide them with concise, actionable insights that help them navigate these complexities and enhance their practice.
What's been your best piece of content?
My article on Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs Company was one of my most successful articles. There were a couple of things I loved about writing this article, which helped it become so successful (and I measured “success” in regards to page views and clicks).
First, I’m always looking to learn something when I write—and the articles that do the best are the ones from where I learned the most, which usually means my audience will learn a lot, too. For Cost Plus Drugs, I had to learn about the drug supply chain, PBMs, the nuances of cash flows within the supply chain, and more. One of my strengths is simplifying the complexities so I could break down the complexities of the drug supply chain to make it understandable for my audience—which they loved. (Another example would be my article on the Rise and Fall of 23andMe.)
Second, my Cost Plus Drugs article was timely and “hit home,” not only for physicians but nonclinicians, too. Hitting these two populations just naturally reaches a wider audience. Lastly, Mark Cuban got a hold of the article and shared it on his social media, increasing its reach tremendously. Not cheating, just strategic.
You have a rare combination of degrees that I imagine is incredibly valuable in your work. How does that combination inform your content? Is there a dominant lens when you assess the healthcare landscape?
I love this question. I view my educational background as my x-factor when it comes to writing healthcare content.
First, I have a master’s in healthcare systems engineering (a blend of industrial systems engineering with a healthcare focus). With this background, I’m able to view and make sense of the intricacies that define this healthcare system. I see everything in terms of processes all influencing each other, and this helps me better understand and explain what I see happening in healthcare.
Then, I have this clinical background. Obviously, this background is an exclusive background—not everyone can have it unless they go through the four years of pre-med, four years of medical school, and x amount of years of residency and fellowship (a long journey with immense experience). My clinical experiences allows me to be “on the inside.” That is, I’m able to see how policy, digital health, insurance, business influences patients, physicians, and the system at large.
From what I see among people talking about healthcare on social media is they sound like they know that they’re talking about, but from the clinical perspective, they sound out of touch (queue “AI is going to replace physicians!”). For example, by being on the front lines, I see firsthand how slow things move in healthcare and how grandiose ideas being tweeted about would actually never work for the average American patient. Overall, I’d say I provide a blend of these two background, and I really try to keep it even.
Which brands, creators, or thought leaders inspire your work?
Healthcare Huddle was started back in December 2019. At the time, Morning Brew was really the only prominent newsletter, and I drew inspo from them to design and format Healthcare Huddle. Since then, Healthcare Huddle has transformed into its own unique newsletter with its own unique voice. I’m truly inspired by anyone who’s writing in healthcare and providing their own takes on complex topics, since they motivate me to keep going. At the same time though, I do keep to myself with Healthcare Huddle. I feel like I’m in my own little bubble just doing my own thing with my own audience.
“When I write my articles, I focus on the physician reader. These are the ones deeply engrossed in their practices and patient care yet find themselves strapped for time to dive into the latest developments in health policy, digital health, insurance, and business. These are the dedicated professionals who strive not only to excel in direct patient care but also to significantly influence healthcare outside the clinical setting. They care deeply about how these evolving areas impact their practice, their patients, and the broader healthcare system.”
When it comes to creating content, what are your first principles or rules?
I have three rules:
Keep it simple. My content must be written in a simple way. It must be easy to read. You’ll see I sign off every single newsletter with “Keeping it simple, Jared.”
Teach. Each article must teach the reader something. Said another way, I want my readers leaving the newsletter having learned something they didn’t know before.
Consistency: I haven’t missed a newsletter send in years. Every week, readers are getting valuable content. If I’m feeling burned out, I’ll always reuse prior content that’s “evergreen” instead of writing poorly written content. The consistency has added more legitimacy to Healthcare Huddle, in my opinion, especially since I’m working 70-hour weeks in the hospital and still pumping out the content.
How do you decide on a topic? Do you plan your content in advance?
I have a content calendar that I plan a quarter in advance. For example, I have my Q3 content calendar set already. Over time, I compile articles/resources for the topic I’ll be writing about, so by the time I need to start writing the article, I have all my “research” done, I just need to put it together. However, I like to be timely, so when I plan ahead, I try to predict the news. Of course, there’s exciting news every week in healthcare, so if I deem something “very exciting” or “trendy,” I’ll pivot and write on that.
At this point, it doesn’t take me long to write content. As soon as I have a topic in mind, I already know how I’ll structure it. I do research based on the structure and then tie it all together. I pride myself on the system I have in place—it’s very robust and works well for me. I recently did an interview with Creator Spotlight, and there are some more details there.
What tools do you use for your content creation?
I use Notion as my writing tool and content planning. I love it. Great user interface, easy to use.
For research, if I’m writing about something technical, I’ll try to use journals like Health Affairs, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA. But if it’s not technical, then I’ll use whatever I deem trustworthy (e.g., Healthcare Dive, Axios, and STAT). I’ll also use other healthcare newsletters, such as Blake’s Hospitalogy, for research.
For publishing, I use Beehivv, the best platform for creators (I’m not endorsed by them). They just make it so easy for creators to build their own little ecosystem. All my content is hosted on a website that’s designed by Beehivv. My premium membership is run through Beehiiv, which integrates with Stripe. I’m building an educational vertical that will also integrate with Beehivv. It’s just great for keeping everything in one place. Again, keeping it simple.
Do you offer any sponsorship opportunities or other products?
I launched a premium membership called Huddle+ in February. This is a paid premium membership, which includes full access to the traditional Sunday Healthcare Huddle newsletter, an additional weekly newsletter called Inefficiency Insights, a monthly newsletter called Huddle #Trends, and then an educational community (in the works). I also, of course, offer sponsorship opportunities.
This year's goal is to build this Huddle+ community to find who my “True Huddlers” are. So far, it’s going well.
Last question: what is your optimistic-contrarian take on healthcare or health tech in 2024?
The big folks will fall, and the small ones will rise, which sounds like a sci-fi theme. But I think we’ll continue to see big retailers and big tech struggle in healthcare (we already are), and this will catalyze a shift back to independent physicians. There’ll need to be policy changes (specifically with reimbursement) for this to happen, but that’s the feeling I have right now after seeing what happened to Walgreens and Walmart, stuff with non-competes.
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Jared Dashevsky, MD, MEng, is a resident physician at Mt. Sinai Hospital and the co-founder of Healthcare Huddle.
