Accolade announced the expansion of its care delivery team, strengthening the company's ability to streamline healthcare experiences through physician-led advocacy. Connie Hwang, MD, MPH, joins Accolade to lead population health strategies for employers and health plans. Led by Shantanu Nundy, MD, executive vice president, chief health officer, the care delivery leadership team includes Dr. Hwang, senior vice president, chief medical officer; James Wantuck, MD, senior vice president, associate chief medical officer and co-founder of PlushCare; Kate Rollins, MSN, RN, senior vice president assuming the newly created role of chief nursing officer.

As chief health officer, Dr. Nundy leads care delivery with a charter to develop strategies that restore and improve the trusted connection between members and physicians, expand Accolade's coordination with brick-and-mortar healthcare providers, and improve health equity and outcomes. Dr. Hwang joins Accolade as chief medical officer responsible for executing clinical and population health strategies for customers. She brings extensive experience in working with employer and health plan executives to accelerate clinical innovation, value-based care and care delivery transformation.

Hwang will lead a team of medical directors and clinical analysts, driving clinical outcomes for members and their employers. She will shape the clinical direction of Accolade's products and services, innovating and reimagining existing and future solutions and serve as the primary clinical representative of the company to enterprise customers and health plan partners. As associate chief medical officer, James Wantuck leads the clinical team that supports the Accolade Care solution and contributes to significant strategic initiatives company wide.

He is focused on managing a large and growing group of physicians, therapists, and clinical operations staff with a goal of creating a high performing clinical organization that is viewed as the premier place to work. Dr. Wantuck is a board-certified internal medicine physician, having trained at Stanford University Medical Center and completed his Medical Doctorate (MD) at Vanderbilt University Medical School. He co-founded PlushCare in 2015, building the company from the ground up to include over two hundred physicians that continue to provide high-quality and accessible direct-to-consumer virtual care for hundreds of thousands of patients.

As chief nursing officer, Kate Rollins oversees Accolade's nurses and other clinicians that serve members with empathy and trusted guidance. Rollins' operational team of nurses, pharmacists, social workers and dieticians provide 24/7 nurse triage, case management, expert medical opinion and virtual practice operations. Her team partners closely with customers to implement clinical population health goals, maximize referrals to their digital health solutions if part of Accolade's Trusted Partner Ecosystem, and coordinate member care with brick-and-mortar providers.

Rollins led Accolade's successful application for a three-year accreditation from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) for case management.