I'm Omer Kaplan and this is my /about page.
Instead of going for a traditional about page format which often times ends like a mirror of a LinkedIn profile (this) but less up-to-date, I opted for a format that's a bit more in depth. Have fun!
I'm currently the CPO at Sonara Health where we help people with opioid dependency get access to medication assisted treatment and achieve their goals. People with OUD are often stigmatized and overlooked due to complex patient journeys and multiple underlying conditions.
On the provider side, opioid treatment programs vary widely in how they approach methadone dosing, take-home eligibility, scheduling, and ongoing care decisions. That variation can have a significant impact on patient outcomes, including early dropout from treatment and repeated attempts to re-engage, sometimes up to 5 times, before a patient is able to stay in care for more than six months.
At Sonara, we work with both patients and providers to make treatment more accessible, support better clinical workflows, and bring data-informed approach to care. I believe mindful use of technology, where care is humanized, can reduce harm and help more people stay on a path that works for them.
Since 2006, I've done product work across a range of startups, from social networks to audio and video communications. Solving complex problems in those industries was fun and challenging, but it wasn't until 2018 that I found my calling in healthcare and will always be grateful for the people at Dayton Children's Hospital who opened the door for me.
There's something about not only tackling problems on the technology and workflow side, but also building for populations that other companies might treat as edge cases or leave at the very end of the backlog.
There is something incredibly meaningful and rewarding about keeping the distance between the problems I work on and the impact on people's lives small. I'm not an M.D, and multiple times in my product healthcare carrier I felt that problems my team and I solved made a significant, positive impact for people.
If you're a product person reading this and thinking about transitioning to healthcare, we always need more good people - feel free to reach out.
Culture eats strategy
If I had a portable soapbox I can get on, this would be it. In every organization I've been a part of, whether it's a product trio, a seven-person startup where half of the hardware is at the founder's garage (oddly specific) or a 6,500 employee health system, no matter how good the strategy is - the organization is always as strong as as its leadership alignment and culture.
Culture as a concept can be vague, especially on the leadership level. To me, similarly to product-market fit, culture is more of a moment or a series of moments rather than a checkbox or a company document called "our five culture pillars". When you ask a person in the company, "what's our culture?", they'll tell you. The more consistent those answers are, the clearer the culture is. And when the answers are inconsistent, that tells you something too.
Minimalism
Nothing says "minimalism" more than a 10,000 words /about page, I know.
Over the years I've gotten very good about being mindful about what I need vs. what I have. What I often found was that I have everything I need and having more than that felt like a burden.
I used to be, but not since 2014, if I remember correctly. I used to think that social media was the best way to shorten the distance between myself and thoughts leaders I appreciate, and getting exposure to new and interesting people.
While this was slightly true up to 2014-ish, social networks are now much better at generating noise than surfacing signal at best, or a distraction at worst. I've found much more value in deliberately curating the ideas, people, and communities I actually want to engage with.
One day I may have a SoundCloud to plug in case one of the things I do go viral.
Since I'm not on Social media, check out my Now page to see what I'm up to.
I picked up Chess in 2024 when I was looking for a "fun a relaxing activity to do after work". Two years after I can confidently say that there's in nothing relaxing about Chess, but it's incredibly fun and thought provoking.
I love a lot of things about Chess but two things stand out the most: The never ending learning process, and its rich history where moves we make and strategies we come up with are a result of generations of great chess players that came before us.
I'm now rated ~1400 in Chess.com, feel free to add me!
Other things about me
| # | Thing about me |
|---|---|
| 1 | I love things organized in tables |
| 2 | I use Obsidian to automate and document many aspects of my life |
| 3 | Bulleted list item should be organized in odd-numbers |