External Advisory Committee

Amit Aysola is a Managing Partner at Create Health Ventures and has over 20 years of consulting, operations, and investment banking experience in the healthcare industry. Prior to joining WHI in 2016, Amit was a Principal at Healthcare Growth Partners, a transaction and strategic advisory firm exclusively focused on the Health IT market. Amit also provided M&A and strategic advisory services at Demeter Financial Group, Robert W. Baird, and Banc of America Securities. Previously, Amit was a Product and Account Manager at Plan Data Management (which was later acquired by The TriZetto Group), where he was responsible for the product management of IT solutions for Medicare enrollment and claims processing, and was a Systems Analyst with the Healthcare Practice at Deloitte Consulting.

Amit holds an undergraduate degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering and a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering, both from the University of Michigan. In addition, he has an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

Ron Elwell is the Founder and CEO of Swoop and IPM.ai. Together these companies have been leaders in applying Machine Learning and other forms of AI to deidentified patient data sets. Specializing in conditions where the majority of the patient population is undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, Swoop and IPM solutions span the product lifecycle, from pre-clinical to clinical to commercial, all aiming to accelerate the correct patient diagnosis and therapy time to market. As a serial entrepreneur Ron brings a mindset of looking for the convergence of seismic technology changes with large markets. It is his belief that advances in ML and AI, along with the growing availability of patient and SDOH data have created an environment where we can dramatically enhance the ability to deliver timely and appropriate care.

Christopher Khoury is vice president of market intelligence and strategic analytics at the American Medical Association (AMA). He leads a diverse team of researchers, analysts, and business professionals focused on assessing and interacting with emerging elements across healthcare, technology, and policy sectors. Christopher has worked in the healthcare sector for over 18 years. He earned an M.B.A. from The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business magna cum laude. Christopher received his B.S. and M.S. from the University of Illinois in Electrical and Computer Engineering and holds an M.S. in biomedical engineering from the University of Wisconsin.

Mary Kratz is the Executive Vice President of the Interoperability Institute, an affiliate organization of the Michigan Health Information Network group. Mary is a leader in the field of biomedical informatics, working at the intersection of interoperability, telemedicine and business development.

As a senior Health Informatics Advisor to the United States Department of State, Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator and Health Diplomacy, Department of Defense HIV/AIDS Prevention Program, Mary implemented health information systems in over 40 countries, primarily low and middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa. An Open Source platform enabled Internet, electronic medical records, collaboration tools and Open Access to a reference library of medical knowledge. She assisted the World Health Organization, International Telecommunication Union, United States Agency for International Development, Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health and the National Academies of Science Institute of Medicine in formulating and articulating policy, position and response to current and emerging technologies and enabling interoperability across a variety of public and private organizational missions.

Starting her career in research and clinical laboratories at the University of Michigan Health System, Mary quickly transitioned into managing complex enterprise-wide computer deployments. She chaired several Standards Development Organization committees for Health Level Seven, Object Management Group and the International Standards Organization. Under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act, Mary was recruited to work for the U.S. Government. She served as a Contracting Officer Representative at the U.S. Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center at Fort Detrick. She was Internet2’s initial Health Sciences Director, implementing next generation Internet for academic organizations in the United States and globally, before taking a position with the U.S. Government. https://mihin.org/mary-kratz/

Dr. Frank Naeymi-Rad is the Chairman of the Board and Co-founder of Intelligent Medical Objects, Inc. He is also a Director of LOF, LLC, Leap of Faith Technologies, Inc, and Leap of Faith Clinic, LLC.

Leap of Faith Clinic is part of the Leap of Faith campus in Libertyville, IL, consisting of three facilities: Leap of Faith Technologies headquarters, an innovation center, and the clinic. The clinic building houses eight clinical practices, including a gastroenterologist, primary care physician, and a chiropractor.

In addition to founding IMO and guiding it to become the premier terminology vendor for EHRs now used by about 85% of all physicians and nurses, Dr. Naeymi-Rad has over 50 scientific publications and holds 11 patents related to EHRs and health enterprise informatics. His entrepreneurial spirit has led to a new vision of medical informatics, embodied by codified semantics and natural language processing to eliminate isolated repositories of information, and enable both patients and practitioners to make better use of health information. His thought leadership in clinical informatics led to his nomination for the Oracle Corporation Smithsonian Award in the category of Medicine.

Armando Pauker is a co-founder and Managing Director of Tensility Venture Partners, a Chicago-based seed-stage fund focused on enterprise software applications of Artificial Intelligence. He has been in venture for almost 20 years investing in hardware and software businesses at a prior firm.  Prior to venture, Armando served in senior management positions at several global technology companies and as a management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton in technology industries. 

Select previous exits include: Duo Security (acquired by Cisco Systems), DocuSign (N:DOCU), FutureSimple (acquired by ZenDesk), BrightCloud (acquired by Webroot), Initiate Systems (acquired by IBM) and YCharts (acquired by LRR Partners).

Armando holds an MBA with High Distinction from the University of Michigan, and he received his BS in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

Laurent leads Cambia’s development of next-generation technology products & solutions that will create a more person-focused approach to health care.

Laurent is a tireless advocate for the health consumer. Whether delivering business transformation or building great products, investing in people and great teams is core to his focus. He is passionate about engineering & technology, laser focused on execution, always with unyielding integrity. Prior to Cambia, Laurent has been on a multi-industry global journey focused on innovation and discovery. He developed breakthrough advanced materials for high performance European automotive applications; held transformational global software and technology leadership roles across oil & gas, broadcasting and energy industries; and has over a decade of P&L leadership roles in health IT products, diagnostic imaging, solution and market development in the US, Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa. Laurent is a Franco-American national, French educated in West Africa, France & Switzerland with two Engineering Degrees in Materials Science from Brown University. Laurent has lived on 4 continents, traveled 6, and currently resides in Seattle. Laurent is married to Amy, proud father of 4 and 2 dogs. He is an avid traveler, runner, cyclist, nordic and alpine skier

Wendi Wright, MJ, JD has more than 16 years of experience as a privacy attorney. She has worked in a variety of industries including healthcare, academia, tech, pharma and insurance. Her many leadership roles have included Chief Privacy Officer for Stanford University, Vice President/Chief Privacy and Security Counsel for Allscripts Healthcare, LLC, HIPAA Privacy & Security Officer/Compliance Officer for Abbott, and Attorney/Chief HIPAA Officer for the City of Chicago. Wendi holds both a Master of Jurisprudence and a Juris Doctor from Loyola University School of Law (Chicago), and is CIPP certified for the US and the EU.

Ed Wu, MD is co-founder and Chief Medical Officer at Recora. In this role, Ed is responsible for innovation, strategy, and clinical initiatives. 

Prior to joining Recora, Ed held Chief Medical Officer roles at The New Jewish Home and Spring Health. He is an internal medicine physician with prior roles at Northwell Health, NYU Langone Health, and Maimonides Medical Center. He has worked with health systems nationwide on clinical innovations that enhance care, quality, and efficiency. At Spring Health, he helped lay the groundwork for a national network of virtual health providers to address mental health care gaps.

Ed received his MD and MBA from Northwestern University and his Masters in Public Health Research from New York University.