Richard B. Lanman

Lanman retired from Guardant Health on December 31, 2019. He continues his historical ecology research and publications, while also serving on the Board of Biolase, Inc., WeTree, Inc., and as an Advisor to Forward Medical, Inc. and Guardant Health, Inc.

Lanman has also published on historical ecology, establishing novel physical evidence that the North American beaver (‘’Castor canadensis’’) was native to virtually all of California. A 2018 book by environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb explored how a cancer geneticist ended up researching beaver and salmonids. In early 2020 Lanman presented a scientific study based on ancient DNA sequencing of salmonid remains from archaeological excavations at Mission Santa Clara which extended the southern limit of historic spawning range of Chinook salmon, to San Jose, California.

In September 2014, Lanman joined Guardant Health, Inc. where he served as Global Chief Medical Officer. Guardant's first diagnostic test, Guardant360 enabled sequencing of the DNA in patients’ advanced cancers with a simple blood test, as an aid in treatment selection for targeted therapy or immunotherapy without the need for repeat invasive tissue biopsies. This non-invasive test was approved by Medicare to help identify targetable mutations in most solid tumor cancers in 2019. Lanman also collaborated with National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers to validate and test the clinical utility of two other Guardant products: GuardantOMNI™, a blood test that can predict response to immunotherapy in lung and colon cancer, and LUNAR, a test for early stage cancers and also for the early detection of cancer. Guardant Health went public in October, 2018.

After working in two companies to improve prediction of risk for cardiovascular events, Lanman joined Veracyte, Inc. in 2008 as Chief Medical Officer. Veracyte develops minimally invasive diagnostic tests utilizing genomics. Veracyte's initial genomics tests improved the diagnosis of thyroid nodules and lung nodules without resorting to surgery. Lanman was also principal investigator in a study validating Veracyte's third genomics test to improve diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis versus other idiopathic interstitial pneumonias. Veracyte, Inc. went public in October, 2013.

In 2005, Lanman joined a second preventive cardiology biomarker company, diaDexus, Inc., as Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. DiaDexus developed a test for lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2), the first FDA-cleared biomarker test to predict risk of stroke. His published work established a clinical cutpoint and contributed to a meta-analysis establishing elevated Lp-PLA2 levels as a risk for both coronary heart disease and stroke. DiaDexus completed a reverse IPO via merger with VaxGen in 2010.

Next, in 2000, Lanman joined Atherotech, Inc., a cardiovascular biomarker diagnostic company that had developed the Vertical Auto Profile- or VAP-expanded cholesterol and lipoprotein test, to improve prediction of risk of heart attack and stroke. As Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President, Corporate Business Development, Lanman initiated studies investigating the technology's clinical utility, and published validation studies on the VAP test's unique lipoprotein (a) (Lp(a)) cholesterol measurement and other lipoprotein biomarkers. Atherotech was privately acquired by Behrman Capital.

In 1995, Lanman left physician practice management to start Adesso Healthcare Technology Services as Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Adesso offered an alternative to a cost-cutting approach by health maintenance organizations (HMOs) that had been using primary care physicians as gatekeepers, limiting access to specialty physician care. Under Adesso, patients could be referred to specialist physician networks, such as cardiologists or ophthalmologists, without preauthorization. In return the specialist networks contracted directly with health insurers, and instead of fee-for-service, the specialists were reimbursed utilizing severity-adjusted case rates for each episode of care. This novel reimbursement model plus physician performance profiling, incentivized specialists to control costs via adoption of minimally invasive procedures and/or medical management over invasive procedures. Adesso filed for an IPO in early 2000, however, the public offering succumbed to the stock market crash that year.

Lanman moved from Kaiser Permanente to take a position as Chief Medical Officer and Sr. Vice President at San Jose Medical Group (SJMG), in San Jose, California from 1993 to 1995, managing over 130 employed physicians with a focus on medical quality and cost initiatives. San Jose Medical Group was named the "most effective managed care medical group in the country" in 1996 by The Advisory Board Company, and Lanman educated other integrated delivery systems on reducing overall healthcare costs by focusing on medical quality improvement, especially hospitalization costs.

Lanman began his medical career as an attending psychiatrist at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California in 1985. After two years of practice at Kaiser in Santa Clara County, he was appointed Chief of Psychiatry, and then, as Chief of Quality, encouraged adoption of less invasive procedures and improvements in diagnosis in other specialties, culminating in a book chapter he authored on variation in physician practice patterns and hospitalization rates for children with asthma across Kaiser's 14 hospitals in Northern California.

After obtaining his M.D. from the Northwestern University School of Medicine in 1980, Lanman began his medical internship at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, then in July 1981 began another medical internship at the University of California San Francisco Moffit Hospital. From 1982 to 1985 he completed his residency in psychiatry at Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, also at UCSF. He became a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in 1990. During medical school and residency, Lanman authored journal articles in cardiology and psychiatry, including a book chapter.

Dr. Lanman married Alanna Purcell in 1978 and they raised five sons in Los Altos, California. His avocation is historical ecology, and he also enjoys hiking, biking, snow skiing, and flyfishing. Lanman is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Association for Cancer Research, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, the Trumpeter Swan Society, and the Salmonid Restoration Foundation.

Dr. Lanman's honors include induction to the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society at Stanford University in 1976. He was also selected as one of ten psychiatry residents across the country to be an American Psychiatric Association Leadership Fellow in 1982, and then selected from over 400 psychiatry residents to serve on the American Psychiatric Association Board of Trustees from 1983 to 1985.

Lanman was born at an U.S. Army Hospital in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany, in 1955. He is the son of American Indian art dealer and author Martha Lee Hopkins Lanman Struever and Lieutenant Richard Burnham Lanman Sr. Lanman grew up in Munster, Indiana where his parents had a hardware store. At age 11, his father died from leukemia. Lanman graduated Phi Beta Kappa at Stanford University, with a B.S. in Chemistry in 1977.