Robin Farmanfarmaian

Robin Farmanfarmaian Profile

After a medical misdiagnosis put her through multiple unnecessary surgeries as a teenager, Robin Farmanfarmaian made it her mission to empower patients through a tool she did not have during her sickness: modern-day technology. For the past decade she has been at the forefront of the health technology revolution, playing a pivotal role in twelve start-ups within the medical and biotech fields.

Robin’s firm, Robin Starbuck LLC, specializes in business development, sponsorship strategy and conversion, and advising early and mid stage startup companies. She is currently a VP at INVICTA Medical, a device company for sleep apnea, and the COO of Arc Fusion Programs, a cutting edge organization that is bringing together the latest research and advances in health, IT, and biomedicine. She is also Co-founder and former Executive Director of the Organ Preservation Alliance, a non-profit based in NASA’s Research PArk in Silicon Valley. The Alliance is building on recent advances in cryopreservation, ice-blockers, and vitrification to radically extend and enhance organ preservation, thus opening up the future possibility of successful transplants for millions of patients held up on wait lists.

Robin is highly influential in Singularity University where she serves as an adjunct faculty member, conference board advisor, and the founding executive producer of the university’s Exponential Medicine program. In addition to publishing numerous articles in Wired, Forbes, and the Huffington Post
, her book The Patient as CEO: How Technology Empowers the Healthcare Consumer is an Amazon best-seller.

• View Extended/Alternate Bio

  Founder – Entrepreneur – Speaker
  

  Patient & Medical Technologist

  Robin Farmanfarmaian believes that technology can empower patients and make a positive impact in the health and medical field. This position drives her to provide education and resources to leaders, entrepreneurs, physicians, healthcare professionals and innovators to positively impact medicine and healthcare.

  Farmanfarmaian focuses on the future of integrated medicine, the changing role of patients in healthcare decision-making, and how technology will change the way we experience and interact with medical facilities and physicians. She is interested in big data, wearable technology, 3D printing, and access to and the usability of personal healthcare information.

  She has spoken on technology and medicine at many conferences, including Exponential Medicine, Singularity University, Connected Health Symposium, Boston Scientific, Differential Medicine, Medscape CME Videos, Burrill Personalized Medicine, LSA Innovator Summit, Wharton, and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, among others. She is Adjunct Faculty for Singularity University and a contributing writer to Wired, Forbes, Huffington Post
  , MedGadget, Becker’s Hospital, Fierce HealthIT, and has been published in a variety of other online publications.

  Currently Farmanfarmaian is the President of i4j ECO – an Innovation for Jobs conference that explores the future of work and technology. In addition, she is the SVP for the Arc Fusion Summit, a biotech and medtech conference, and Co-Founder and Executive Director for the Organ Preservation Alliance, catalyzing breakthroughs in transplants, organ banking, cryopreservation and tissue engineering. She’s also actively involved as VP of Business Development with INVICTA Medical, a device company for acute care/post anesthesia and sleep apnea, poised to impact hundreds of millions of patients.

  Other work experience includes being one of the founders of the Exponential Medicine Conference – a conference for physicians and healthcare executives on the next 5-10 years in medicine and how technology will be impacting and disrupting healthcare. She was the Co-Founder and Chief Business Development Officer for Morfit, a fitness platform. She was also the Vice President of Strategic Relations for Singularity University, which trains executives and leaders to drive global change & to stay competitive through the use of the convergence of accelerating technology.

  Other previous work focused on pharmaceuticals, health and data, genetic testing, and feedback loops. She served as the Director of Operations for IntelliMedicine, which uses data and technology to improve patient compliance, started HealthTap with the Founder, working with open-source health data and improving patient outcomes through easier access to physicians, worked at Medem with EMRs and patient-physician connectivity, and in 2006, was the nutrition and health advisor at CyGene Laboratories, the world’s first consumer facing genetic testing company.

  In addition, she was an Innovation Host for AndaazTV (20 million viewership in 150 countries).

  Farmanfarmaian is an avid philanthropist in her community. She was a Trustee and a member of the Board of Directors for the San Francisco Ballet, serving as President, Immediate Past President and Opening Night Gala Chair for 5 years. She was on the board of San Francisco Opera’s BRAVO! for 4 years. In addition, she has contributed time to many other charities, including the TEDxSilicon Valley, SPCA, New Scholars, Samasource, World Economic Forum YGL, CCFA and more.

  She serves on the Advisory Board of many early-stage start up tech companies and organizations such as SXSW V2Ventures, AARP, Singularity University, and the Kairos Society. She mentors high school and college-age women interested in entrepreneurship, technology, and healthcare.