Startup Stories: Filling a Cancer Care Gap

Soon after Hil Moss ’22 enrolled at Yale SOM in 2018, a breast cancer diagnosis compelled her to take a year-long leave of absence. When she returned in the fall of 2019, her mindset and aspirations had transformed. Previously, Moss had worked in the business and strategy of arts and culture. Now, she was personally immersed in the world of healthcare, and she wanted to get involved professionally as well.

“I was hearing so much from fellow survivors outlining the problems they were facing in their physical and mental health,” she remembers. “I had one of those middle-of-the-night ‘a-ha’ moments. I knew I wanted to shift my focus.”

The next day, she called Professor Howard P. Forman to ask how she could pursue her new passion. Forman, who became a mentor to Moss, directs the School of Public Health’s Health Care Management program, founded and directs SOM’s joint MD/MBA degree program, and serves as faculty director for the healthcare focus area in the MBA for Executives program. With his guidance, Moss became a joint-degree student, pursuing a master’s degree at the School of Public Health alongside her MBA. By the end of her third year on campus, Moss had decided to create a company that could address the needs of cancer survivors like herself, which can include cardiotoxicity, bone density loss, neuropathy, chronic pain, sleep dysfunction, and fear of cancer recurrence.

“It was too interesting of a problem not to try to solve,” she says.

With physician Justin Grischkan, Moss cofounded what is now known as Oncovery Care, a virtual clinic for cancer survivors. The company, which recently announced a $4.5 million seed financing round and a partnership with cancer care hub Tennessee Oncology, provides nurse practitioners, navigators, mental health professionals, and peer mentors to patients struggling in the transition from acute care to survivorship.

“Survivorship fundamentally has a supply and demand challenge,” she explains. “There is growing demand for cancer care, but a strapped population of primary-care providers who often haven’t been trained in cancer survivorship and a population of oncologists that isn’t keeping up with demand. We can build a care model that is inherently scalable.”

Moss says SOM classes on new ventures and venture capital financing were helpful, especially since she was raising a pre-seed round of funding while still a student.

“Understanding the mechanisms behind all that made me much more equipped,” she says.

Moss also took the Founders Practicum with Jennifer McFadden ’08, associate director of Yale SOM’s Program on Entrepreneurship, and explored on-campus opportunities in the healthcare space. She was a student fellow in the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy, co-chaired the 2022 Yale Healthcare Conference, and interned at a variety of healthcare-related companies.

“My time at SOM was critical to starting this company,” she says. “There’s something a little bit special about being back in school and having the freedom and ability to explore and engage with folks across the ecosystem. I felt very supported as an early entrepreneur.”