On Tuesday, Uber Health announced the hire of its first chief medical officer.

Dr. Michael Cantor, a board-certified geriatrician, has more than 20 years of leadership experience, having served as CMO at companies such as Intuition Robotics, Bright Health and CareCentrix.

WHY IT MATTERS
At Uber Health, he'll be in charge of building innovative tools for patients, clinicians and care coordinators. The company noted that Cantor's experience designing clinical programs for older adults and vulnerable populations makes him well-suited to help bridge gaps in care.

Cantor will be tasked with leading development of new technologies and partnerships to expand access to care and help improve population health management for providers, payers and benefit-manager organizations.

In a note on LinkedIn, he said the new job is an opportunity to help "increase access for patients across the continuum of care" and "add a clinical perspective and ensure that patients are getting the holistic care and services they need."

THE LARGER TREND
In announcing Cantor's hire, Uber Health announced some big recent growth – a 71% increase in gross bookings from Q4 2020 to Q4 2021. The company now has 3,000 healthcare customers, officials said. It has also developed a series of strategic partnerships in recent months, with startups such as Papa, Scriptdrop and ModivCare.

ON THE RECORD
"I've seen first-hand how important leveraging transportation is in both improving clinical outcomes and creating care systems that allow patients to live independently in their community," said Dr. Cantor in a statement. "That's why I'm excited to join Uber as the team continues to build relevant solutions that aren't just more efficient for healthcare providers, but also help bring care more directly to patients at home on a community-wide scale."

"We're proud to welcome Dr. Cantor to our team," said Caitlin Donovan, global head of Uber Health. "With his expertise, Uber will be able to take an important next step in addressing holistic needs across the healthcare ecosystem. Coupled with our strategic partnerships across the industry, Uber Health is now better positioned than ever to scalably address issues that make healthcare frustrating, inefficient and expensive for patients and providers."