Dena M. Bravata, ’89, M.D., M.S.
Former Chief Medical officer, Castlight Health
Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer, Lyra Health
Director, Sommetrics
Dena M. Bravata graduated Cum Laude from Yale in the class of 1989. She took a year in Oxford prior to graduation, where she was a Rotary Fellow. She earned her M.D. from Columbia in 1994. After an Internal Medicine Residency and Ambulatory Care Fellowship at Stanford University, earned an M.S. from Stanford in Health Policy in 2000. She spent four years as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Veteran’s Administration Palo Alto Health Care System. She completed her Internal Medicine Residency and Ambulatory Care Fellowship at Stanford University.
Dr. Bravata blended academics and business to build a career as an expert and entrepreneur in medical decision making. She is the co-founder of Lyra Health, where she also served as the chief medical officer from 2015 to 2016. She was the chief medical officer and head of products at Castlight Health from 2009 through 2014. These companies leverage modern data analytics techniques to help patients make informed choices about their health care. They are used by thousands of companies and millions of consumers who want to maximize their health care spending power while getting the highest quality care possible. These companies also deliver technology to providers to enable them to focus on their patients’ outcomes. This dual approach has revolutionized how patients and providers interact, while delivering real and measurable value to insurers, employers, patients and providers.
In medicine, Dr. Bravata was a practicing internist for 16 years in her own private practice and as an attending physician at Stanford University and the Palo Alto VA. As a senior research scientist in Stanford’s Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research and a nationally recognized health services researcher, Dr. Bravata published widely on the clinical effectiveness of a variety of key clinical and public health topics. She has served on the Governing Council of the Stanford-UCSF Evidence-based Practice Center, the board of trustees of the Society for Medical Decision Making, and was an assistant public health officer for Santa Clara County.
Dr. Bravata currently sits on the Aspen Institute’s Healthcare Strategy Group and advises health care technology and services organizations. She has been a judge at Intel Science Fairs, served on several committees and task forces with the Society for Medical Decision Making, and is an Expert Advisor on Emergency Preparedness and Bioterrorism Response.
She is the primary or co-author on dozens of journal articles, books and chapters of books, including a recent report on the current opioid crisis. She has a patent pending for methods relating to Incentivizing Lower Cost Medical Options.
As health care delivery focuses on consumer awareness and provider value, Ms. Bravata’s work at Castlight provided price and quality transparency for millions of healthcare consumers. Lyra Health aims to transform how providers, consumers and companies deliver and manage behavioral health services. For her academic achievements and her continuing efforts to elevate quality of care and transparency of delivery costs in health care, the Yale Science & Engineering Association is proud to honor Dr. Dena Bravata as the 2018 recipient of the Award for Distinguished Service to Industry, Commerce or Education.