Dive Brief:

• Forbes recently published its annual list of the top 30 healthcare leaders under the age of 30.

• Many of the people included in the list are involved in efforts to improve healthcare quality or to expand access using technology.

• Others include researchers and patients working on innovative treatments for cancer and other conditions.

Dive Insight:

Young healthcare leaders identified by Forbes seem largely interested in technology, which has been driving major changes in the industry. Their endeavors hope to use telemedicine, mobile apps, drones, and wearable technologies to improve healthcare.

Elizabeth Asai and Elliot Swart earned the top stop on Forbes list. They are the founders of 3Derm, which allows patients to take images of skin conditions and remotely share them with dermatologists. Prarthna Desai, who appears in the fifth spot on the list, works for San Francisco Bay-area startup Zipline, a company that began delivering medical supplies by drone to patients in Rwanda last year. Both of these companies aim to expand medical access, which is in alignment with the healthcare system's move to population health.

“Because of infrastructure deficiencies like impassible or nonexistent roads and supply chain challenges, many remote health centers across the world only receive deliveries twice a year,” Zipline told Healthcare Dive. “Zipline will make it possible for these same clinics to receive deliveries twice a day.”

Carrie Cowardin, who appears third on the list, is a researcher at Washington University focused on Clostridium difficile, an antibiotic-resistant pathogen, and the negative effects of anti-bacterial medicines. This kind of work is not only timely given that antibiotic resistance has become an international problem, but also crucial for the many hospitals that are reportedly unable to adequately control the pathogen.