Cityblock to expand AI efforts with new CTO, board appointees

Cityblock Health, a value-based provider for Medicaid and dual-eligible beneficiaries, has appointed a new chief technology officer. 

With a background in computer science, Alberto Lopez Toledo is tasked with expanding Cityblock’s tech capabilities, particularly in the realm of artificial intelligence. He was previously technical co-founder at Freshly, a healthy meal delivery company acquired by Nestle in 2020. He is also partner and CTO at international VC White Star Capital, which focuses on tech investing. 

“My goal in particular at Cityblock is to apply this scale and rigor, and technology and AI and innovation, that I’ve used in other sectors to ensure that this high-quality care can reach everyone,” Lopez Toledo told Fierce Healthcare. 

Technology is core to Cityblock’s founding. It launched in 2017 out of Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs with the goal of delivering integrated health and social services to historically marginalized communities with complex needs. It already uses AI today, including to alleviate the admin burden for providers, but plans to invest more in R&D in the space. Potential use cases, per Lopez Toledo, include triage, outreach, data digestion and clinical decision support. All of these should keep a human in the loop, he acknowledged. 

“We see AI as a primary lever to protect care quality. Especially right now, many Medicaid programs are under fiscal pressure. Our approach is to build applications that are mostly replacing friction, not necessarily clinicians,” Lopez Toledo said.

Cityblock currently serves more than 100,000 members and works with national and regional Medicaid plans, as well as health systems, in over 10 states. It offers members mobile urgent care and at-home care and connects members to community-based organizations for social services. Cityblock routinely partners with payers and managed care organizations to identify high-risk patients and claims to reduce hospitalizations, acute utilization and medical spend. It does this through its multidisciplinary care teams that include primary care providers, behavioral health specialists, community health partners, nurse care managers, pharmacy navigators and more providers. 

“The opportunity of applying technology and AI in particular to the Cityblock mission today is extremely important, and having access to this high quality healthcare is one of the most democratizing things in society,” Lopez Toledo said.

Cityblock also announced three new board members: Karen DeSalvo, M.D.; Mario Schlosser; and Cynthia Burks. 

DeSalvo was Google’s first chief health officer. She now joins Cityblock’s board of directors to provide clinical and policy expertise, including to Lopez Toledo. Prior to Google, she was assistant secretary for health under the Obama administration and the health commissioner of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Schlosser is Oscar Health’s co-founder and president of technology. He brings payer-focused expertise to Cityblock as the company looks to develop meaningful AI provider solutions. He is also on the boards of Duolingo, global research entity Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology and NYC-based nonprofit Tech:NYC.

Burks was previously chief people and culture officer at Genentech and serves as a board member and advisor to biotech and medtech companies. She brings business and HR experience in healthcare to her new role leading the Cityblock board’s compensation committee. 

“Their combined expertise will support Cityblock’s next phase of growth as we focus on harnessing AI and other technological innovations to solve meaningful problems for patients and providers alike,” Toyin Ajayi, M.D., CEO and co-founder of Cityblock, said in a press release about the appointments. “This comes at a critical time as our healthcare system continues to face mounting pressures from policy changes, provider shortages, and rising and unsustainable costs. I look forward to working with these esteemed leaders in continuing to transform healthcare for vulnerable populations.” 

Cityblock focuses on higher-complexity patient populations at risk of worse health outcomes: 86% of its members are Medicaid or dual-eligible beneficiaries, and three-quarters of them are people of color. More than 8 in 10 members have more than two chronic conditions. Another 6 in 10 have a behavioral health need, and nearly half of members have an identified acute social need.