Challenger Corporation was founded by a physician.
Our founder's singular goal at the time, close to 30 years ago now, was to see to it that other physicians could gain benefits from then-new computing technologies.
In the case of Challenger, the goal was to improve how healthcare education and certification preparation were done. Challenger’s programs, shipped on floppy disks, replaced self-scored study books and conferences.
During that journey from there to here, we met Dr. Gary Goldman, another physician involved in medical education. Dr. Goldman’s take on technology was aimed at how physicians could guide, direct, and even profit from what we now call digital health companies.
For Dr. Goldman, the combination of medicine with powerful computing-based technologies offered a chance for physicians to help direct healthcare innovation towards better practices and away from episodic care and the loss of the practitioner-patient relationship.
In 2018 he founded a closed-end venture capital fund aimed at developing ten early stage companies that met the criteria for improved physician practice individually, or in clinical or hospital settings. That was the Global Health Impact Fund I.
More importantly, Dr. Goldman created an associated network of physicians and other providers to vet and guide the fund companies. This was called the Global Health Impact Network. The network has grown across the globe, and provides a level of mentoring, ideas and commentary that offers an unmatched resource for early stage companies entering digital healthcare.
Challenger is proud to be partnering with the network as their central education partner. The funds and companies with which they partner are important, but the clinician network is everything. If we want to help guide the practice of medicine into something that is healthier for the patient, and healthier for the practitioner, we have to be involved.
Healthcare technology is not going to slow down - it is going to continue accelerating from here because it is being driven by underlying changes in computing power. And with the acceleration of healthcare technology, come opportunities to participate in growing the voices and decisions of practitioners in ways to make a difference.
