Joe Kiani isn't a household name. But he's setting out to do something that could change the world of healthcare as we know it, reports STAT.
After emigrating to the United States with his family at age 9, Mr. Kiani finished high school in Alabama at the age of 15. Although he initially planned to become a physician, he instead studied engineering at San Diego State University.
Mr. Kiani and another engineer, Mohamed Diab, launched their company Masimo in a California garage in 1989. After a number of trying years, Masimo eventually reached enormous success with its pulse oximeter, which monitors oxygen saturation in the blood. The company went public in 2007.
There's no doubt Mr. Kiani has made his fortune — he makes more than $5 million annually, according to STAT. But he still wants to do more. Mr. Kiani recently started digging deeper into new data about patient death and medical errors.
To solve this ongoing problem, Mr. Kiani decided to start "prodding manufacturers of medical devices and electronic records to open their platforms so all the systems can talk to each other," according to STAT. Over the past five years, he's persuaded 70 companies — including Philips and Medtronic — to sign a pledge to open their platforms.
He also hosts annual summits to encourage hospitals to decrease the number of preventable medical errors. Run through Mr. Kiani's Patient Safety Movement Foundation, the summits attract numerous famous speakers, including former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Joe Biden. Though some have criticized the way in which the foundation gives money to politicians (it paid $315,000 to former President Clinton for a speech in 2014), it continues to host the summits.
"The pledge for open data does make an impact," said Stefan Dräger, CEO of Germany-based medical manufacturer Dräger, according to the report. "Customers are starting to demand it."