Transforming the Health Care System

Dr. Vidya Raman-Tangella is leading innovation at the country’s largest health care company, helping people live healthier lives through an ongoing transformation of the health care system.

Raman-Tangella heads UnitedHealthcare’s Innovation Center of Excellence, developing breakthroughs with practical solutions for improving health care quality, access and affordability. UnitedHealthcare is a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, which serves more than 132 million people worldwide.

A physician-innovator with more than 20 years of experience in the health field, Raman-Tangella collaborates with diverse partners to develop simpler, more intelligent, and cost effective health care solutions. Her colleagues say she is exceptional with designing ecosystems that drive change in the health care market through the use of data and technology.

Raman-Tangella and her team design, develop and scale breakthrough innovations that help address unmet health needs with holistic solutions. They use Human-Centered Design, outside-in thinking, and co-creation models to create meaningful solutions that deliver lasting value. Deep partnerships internally and strategic partnerships externally enable the team to create multi-faceted, holistic solutions.

As a senior healthcare leader with a passion for personalized health journeys, she previously held an executive role at Johnson & Johnson, where she led the design of integrated and tailored health and wellness solutions for employers and health care plans. She was instrumental in the company’s start-up organization, providing expertise about strategic partnerships and enterprise integration.

“My biggest career leap was entering the world of innovation from a world of clinical medicine,” Raman-Tangella said. “I have since learned that it is possible to have the best of both these worlds, and my daily quest is to find ways to pursue them both. This for me has resulted in a deep passion for the world of personalized health, medicine and health care.” She also says being a woman in her profession is fulfilling and fascinating. “I think women are inherently great at innovation, given their ability to think and apply multiple facets and look beyond the here and now,” she explained.

Raman-Tangella’s desire to address unmet health care issues has led to the development and launch of several innovations, including the Baby Block program, a free online and mobile healthy-baby initiative. Another of her innovations is Solutions for Caregivers, a program for large employers featuring in-person, telephonic, and online resources designed to help caregivers save money and more effectively provide assistance to the people they support.

Raman-Tangella holds a bachelor’s of medicine and a bachelor’s of surgery from Osmania University in India, and a master’s of health administration from Cornell University.