Becker's Hospital Review is pleased to honor the following 36 individuals as up-and-comers in the health IT and revenue cycle space.
This list includes leadership from hospitals and health systems across the country, entrepreneurs and executives with large companies who are making their mark. Many of the individuals featured here manage large teams and innovate to improve a healthcare organization's quality, workflow and patient experience.
Becker's Hospital Review accepted nominations for this list and developed the list through editorial review. Individuals and organizations do not pay and cannot pay to be included on this list.
Contact Laura Dyrda at ldyrda@beckershealthcare.com with questions or comments on this list.
Jordan Bazinsky. Executive Vice President of Product and Strategy at Verscend Technologies (Waltham, Mass.). Mr. Bazinsky serves as the executive vice president of product and strategy for Verscend, where he manages the IT company's product portfolio and oversees analytics and marketing with a focus on innovation. Mr. Bazinsky joined Verscend in 2009 and has more than 15 years of healthcare experience, previously holding positions in strategy and new product development at The Advisory Board. He earned an MBA from Cambridge, Mass.-based Harvard University.
Aaron Clifford. Senior Vice President of Marketing for Binary Fountain (McLean, Va.). Mr. Clifford oversees marketing functions including brand strategy and demand generation, for Binary Fountain, a patient feedback management provider. As senior vice president of marketing, Mr. Clifford is also responsible for product marketing and customer advocacy services. Prior to joining Binary Fountain, Mr. Clifford held leadership roles with Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare, including senior director of digital marketing solutions.
Kenneth Colón. Co-Founder and CEO of Izzy Care (New York City). Mr. Colón is the co-founder and CEO of Izzy Care, an artificial intelligence-driven digital health and wellness platform that offers patients access to comprehensive primary care services via an incentivizing token system. The 22-year-old CEO attended the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, where he founded the undergraduate neuroscience organization, won more than $20,000 in awards through the annual McCloskey Business Plan Competition, and assisted in virtual reality and neurophysiology research before leaving his senior year to pursue his business ventures full time.
Alex Coren. Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Wambi (Los Angeles). Ms. Coren not only serves as the co-founder and chief innovation officer of Wambi, a gamified-digital employee performance system powered by real-time patient feedback, but also acts as the co-founder and CEO of the company's affiliate organization, Carepostcard. She is a member of American Organization of Nurse Executives' Corporate Advisory Council and was named the top female student entrepreneur in the country in 2017 by the Global Student Entrepreneurship Awards, a program of the Entrepreneurs' Organization.
Paul Coyne, DNP, RN. Co-Founder and President of Inspiren (New York City). In addition to his role as president and co-founder of the healthcare technology startup Inspiren, Mr. Coyne serves as senior director of clinical informatics and advanced practice nursing at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. He pivoted his career path from investing to healthcare after a stroke forced him to leave a derivative operations role at Goldman Sachs at age 26. By age 30, Mr. Coyne obtained doctorate, master's and bachelor's degrees in nursing from New York City-based Columbia University while simultaneously earning an MBA in healthcare management and a master's of science in finance from Boston-based Northeastern University.
Christopher Frenz. Director of IT Infrastructure at Interfaith Medical Center (New York City). Mr. Frenz has served as director of IT infrastructure at Interfaith Medical Center since 2012 and is responsible for all IT and telecommunication systems at the 287-bed hospital. He is highly experienced in organizational IT and information security, previously acting as chief technology officer for the natural language search startup See-Thru-Search from 2010-12. Mr. Frenz has also authored two computer books and more than 75 technical articles.
Kyle Fetter. Executive Vice President and General Manager of Diagnostic Services at Xifin (San Diego). Mr. Fetter joined Xifin as director of molecular diagnostic services in 2010 and now serves as the healthcare technology company's executive vice president and general manager of diagnostic services. At Xifin, he has overseen and implemented the commercialization, billing and reimbursement processes for more than 70 molecular diagnostic companies releasing high-complexity lab testing services into the healthcare market. In his current role, Mr. Fetter provides strategic direction for molecular diagnostic companies at various stages of commercialization and third-party payer contracting, while also managing the development and commercialization of new web-based software products.
Mudit Garg. Co-Founder and CEO of Qventus (Mountain View, Calif.). Mr. Garg is responsible for overseeing Qventus' strategic direction as co-founder and CEO. The operations management company, which leverages artificial intelligence to help improve workflows, has secured more than $43 million in funding since launching its first customer in 2014. Mr. Garg has co-founded multiple technology companies, including the mobile video advertising platform Vdopia and the group-messaging platform Hive. He holds master's degrees in business administration and electrical engineering from Stanford (Calif.) University.
Caroline Gay. Associate Vice President of Analytics at Lakeland (Fla.) Regional Health. Ms. Gay serves as associate vice president of analytics at Lakeland Regional Health, where she established the health system's analytics division and helped the organization save more than $25 million in financial performance improvements over the last five years. Ms. Gay also implemented a dedicated analytics consultant support system at Lakeland Regional that contributed to a 28.5 percent decrease in central-line infection rates and a 15.2 percent drop in fall rates, along with reduced readmission rates for patients with congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pneumonia.
Grant Geiger. Founder and CEO of EIR Healthcare (New York City). Mr. Geiger serves as founder and CEO of EIR Healthcare, a company that uses evidence-based modular design solutions to improve outcomes for healthcare facilities, providers and payers. Before founding EIR Healthcare in 2015, Mr. Geiger worked at Siemens Healthcare, where he became the company's youngest manager at age 25. He oversaw a $23 million annual capital budget and was invited to join the Siemens Top Talent program, which recognizes the top 1 percent of all employees at Siemens globally.
Katelyn Gleason. Founder and CEO of Eligible (New York City). Ms. Gleason is the founder and CEO of Eligible, a billing infrastructure startup that offers a publicly accessible healthcare application program interface. Since launching Eligible in 2012, Ms. Gleason has raised more than $25 million in funding from major investors including Reddit CEO Steve Huffman and Dropbox founder Drew Houston. She was named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 in Healthcare list in 2015 and featured on Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business list in 2013.
Matthew Gonzales, MD. Chief Medical Information Officer of Providence St. Joseph Health's Institute for Human Caring (Renton, Wash.). Dr. Gonzales began his career as a software engineer before transitioning to the healthcare industry and becoming a palliative care physician. He now serves as chief medical information officer at Providence St. Joseph Health's Institute for Human Caring, where he combines medicine and informatics to enhance care quality and delivery. Before joining the hospital, Dr. Gonzales helped develop a public database that allows clinicians to tailor treatment for HIV patients. He was a recipient of the 2017 Cambia Health Foundation Sojourns Scholar Leadership Program grant, which honors emerging palliative care leaders.
Prabhjot Grewal. Associate Vice President of Revenue Cycle Operations at Montefiore Health System (New York City). At Montefiore Health System, Ms. Grewal oversees strategic pricing, chargemaster and revenue integrity. She is responsible for implementing and maintaining the health system's audit and process improvement divisions, as well as optimizing net revenues. Prior to taking on her current role, Ms. Grewal served as director of revenue management at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. Before that, she was a revenue cycle consultant with Huron Consulting Group and Navigant Consulting, and served as an officer in the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps.
Nicholas Haas. Advisory Senior Manager for Grant Thornton (Chicago). At Grant Thornton, Mr. Haas is responsible for helping clients combine existing and new technologies to enhance revenue cycle performance and efficiency from patient access through denial and follow-up management. Before joining Grant Thornton, Mr. Haas served as a consultant and was executive director of orthopedic services and director of physician integration and practice development at a large nationwide nonprofit integrated delivery system. He is currently working with a large academic medical center to redesign and implement a revenue cycle management solution.
Kari Hall. Vice President of Global Software Services at ResMed (San Diego). As vice president of global software services at ResMed, Ms. Hall is responsible for helping providers that treat patients with chronic diseases adopt connected health technologies. Ms. Hall also helps ensure these providers have the support and education they need to get the most out of these connected health tools. ResMed develops connected medical devices and cloud-based software apps to better diagnose, treat and manage sleep apnea, COPD and other chronic conditions.
David Harvey. Chief Product and Technology Officer for Formativ Health (New York City). Mr. Harvey first co-founded a telecommunications startup in the 1990s that was rolled into Premiere Communications in 1996. He then co-founded MedicalMessaging.net in 2001, which was sold to athenahealth in 2008. He left athenahealth in 2015 and now serves as the chief product and technology officer for Formativ Health, a technology-enabled health services company focused on the patient-provider experience. He also serves on the Georgia Tech College of Computing Advisory Board.
Jennifer Howe. Vice President of Clinical Operations for NSN Revenue Resources (Tampa, Fla.). Ms. Howe helped bring NSN Revenue Resources to fruition by assisting in laying the company's foundation. She previously owned and operated Stat Receivables. Leveraging her experience running a company aimed at management accounts receivables, Ms. Howe helped establish policies and procedures to guide NSN's revenue cycle management solution for ambulatory surgery centers across the U.S.
Bryan Hudson. Director of IT at NSN Revenue Resources (Tampa, Fla.). As the director of IT at NSN Revenue Resources, Mr. Hudson helped build the IT department from the ground up. He assists more than 140 users and 80 clients. Before joining NSN, Mr. Hudson worked as a field support technician for the Detroit Institute for Children and later as a client support analyst and incident manager for Caretech Solutions. Mr. Hudson maintains a side business as a freelance graphic designer and security analyst. In addition to his IT duties at NSN, he handles the company’s graphic designs and manages other high-level projects.
Jennifer Hummel. Senior Vice President of Electronic Data Interchange at Zotec Partners (Carmel, Ind.). Ms. Hummel leads revenue cycle and practice management company Zotec Partners' client implementation, interface development, file management and credentialing efforts as the vice president of electronic data interchange. With experience in electronic data interchange and implementation project management across Zotec's specialties, Ms. Hummel is responsible for EDI enrollment and transactions.
Robert Lord. President and Co-founder of Protenus (Baltimore). Before co-founding Protenus, an analytics platform that uses artificial intelligence to detect data breaches in healthcare, Robert Lord was an MD candidate at Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In 2016, Protenus was named the International Association of Privacy Professionals’ privacy innovator of the year. A fellow at New America, which markets itself as a think and action tank, Mr. Lord also teaches courses on entrepreneurship at Johns Hopkins.
Annie McBride. Vice President of SaaS Strategy at ResMed (San Diego). As the vice president of software-as-a-service strategy at ResMed, Ms. McBride seeks opportunities for partnerships, acquisitions, investments and integrations. She has been managing global portfolios and products for more than a decade related to healthcare software and medical devices. She previously served as ResMed's director of strategic partners and director of global data integration. Before joining ResMed, Ms. McBride was brand manager for Zimmer Biomet's surgical portfolio.
Joe McMurray. Vice President of Patient Experience of Zotec Partners (Carmel, Ind.). As vice president of patient experience for revenue cycle and practice management company Zotec Partners, Mr. McMurray is an expert in all the company's specialties. He is specifically responsible for executing the company's strategic goals related to call center performance and overall patient experience. He also oversees all facets of patient payment posting. Prior to joining Zotec, Mr. McMurray gained experience as executive team director of services and support for WebLink International.
Juan Molina. Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at CareCloud (Miami). Mr. Molina served as the director of sales at CareCloud before transitioning to his current post as the vice president of strategy and business development, where he drives key initiatives and business partnerships that support the company's effort to bring cloud technology to ambulatory care. During his tenure, ambulatory care practices have increasingly used enterprise cloud technology to ease data exchange with hospitals, health systems and payers, as well as integrate that data into clinical, administrative and financial workflows.
Jacob Myers. CEO and Co-Founder of MedPilot (New York City). Mr. Myers is responsible for guiding the growth, client relations and fundraising strategies at MedPilot, a company he co-founded. The patient engagement platform developer assists several healthcare providers, revenue cycle management companies and practice management systems with patient financial care. Before founding MedPilot, Mr. Myers was a revenue cycle management consultant at Healthcare MCR.
Brent Newhouse. Co-Founder and Head of Customer Success at Qventus (Mountain View, Calif.). Mr. Newhouse is the co-founder and head of customer success at Qventus, an artificial intelligence company focused on simplifying healthcare operations. He oversees implementation projects at public, academic and community hospitals across the U.S. Before co-founding Qventus, he served as a business analyst at McKinsey & Co.'s healthcare practice and as a business operations and strategy associate at Google.
Randy Notes. Principal at KPMG (New York City). Mr. Notes is a principal at professional services firm KPMG, where he oversees revenue cycle management projects at major academic medical centers across southeastern Florida and the Carolinas. Mr. Notes provides hospital clients forward-thinking insights, such as incorporating analytics to manage receivables and deploying robotic process automation to manage small balances.
Justin Ohleen. Senior Client Success Manager at DocuTAP (Sioux Falls, S.D.). Mr. Ohleen spent 10 years working on Capitol Hill, including time in the office of the vice president and in Homeland Security, before moving to South Dakota to become a provider relations specialist with Avera Health Plans. In 2016, Mr. Ohleen joined DocuTAP and climbed to the position of client success manager, where he works with the company's larger clients to resolve issues and report on their status. With expertise in growth and efficiency, Mr. Ohleen provides trusted advice to clients and team members on process improvement.
Erin Petrie. Director of Revenue Cycle Management at Regent RCM (Westchester, Ill.). Ms. Petrie is the director of revenue cycle management for Regent RCM, a revenue cycle management company focused on ASC billing services and collections solutions. Before joining Regent RCM, Ms. Petrie served as the surgical services business manager at Oak Lawn, Ill.-based Advocate Christ Medical Center, where she managed revenue cycle and streamlined operations and staffing. She is a certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt practitioner.
Andrew Rainey. Executive Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development at Binary Fountain (McLean, Va.). Mr. Rainey is the executive vice president of strategy and corporate development at Binary Fountain. He brings years of sales, marketing and business development experience to the online reputation management company, including co-authoring the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's book Applying Social Media Technologies in Healthcare Environments. Before joining Binary Fountain, he worked in several industries, including healthcare, government, aerospace and defense.
Raj Ratwani, PhD. National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare at the MedStar Institute for Innovation (Washington, D.C.). Dr. Ratwani is the center director and scientific director at the National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare. His research focuses on promoting usable and safe health IT products, a commitment he also supports as a member of the federal Health IT Advisory Committee and the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality's health IT research committee. Throughout his career he has worked closely with health IT vendors to inform his policy work, including participation on expert panels for research firms and think tanks.
Parag Shah. President of Practice Solutions at Integra Connect (West Palm Beach, Fla.). Mr. Shah is president of practice solutions at Integra Connect, a health IT company that helps specialty practices thrive under value-based care. One of his key accomplishments at the company is developing, launching and scaling its value-based revenue cycle management solution for large specialty physician practices. Before joining Integra Connect, Mr. Shah served as president at Health Prime International, where he developed products related to revenue cycle management, EHRs and practice management.
Abhinav Shashank. Co-Founder and CEO of Innovaccer (San Francisco). Mr. Shashank is the co-founder and CEO of healthcare data platform company Innovaccer. The company, which he launched in 2014, counts more than 25 healthcare organizations among its customers and works with 10,000-plus providers to ease the transition to value-based reimbursements. In 2017, Forbes named Mr. Shashank to its 30 Under 30 Asia list for enterprise technology startups.
Rachel Soper Sanders. Patch Health (Nashville, Tenn.). Ms. Sanders is the co-founder and CEO of Patch Health, a practice management tool for concierge physical therapy services. Ms. Sanders is a serial entrepreneur who, prior to her startup career, worked as an investment banker with Raymond James, leading multiple $100 million mergers and acquisitions deals in the healthcare service sector. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School in Boston.
Ted Stokes. Vice President of Billing Service for WebPT (Phoenix). Mr. Stokes is the vice president of billing service for WebPT, an EHR, revenue cycle management and practice management software vendor for rehab therapy clinics. Mr. Stokes, who boasts 20-plus years in healthcare and more than a decade in revenue cycle management, held various leadership roles at home care equipment provider Apria Healthcare prior to joining WebPT, including vice president of billing center operations and region revenue manager. At WebPT, he supported the company's acquisition of billing and collections firm BMS Practice Solutions, integrated the companies' billing services teams and implemented standardized billing processes.
Emily Vaughn. Blockchain Product Director for Change Healthcare (Nashville, Tenn.). As the blockchain product director for Change Healthcare, Ms. Vaughn oversees the company's blockchain development and integration strategy. She has prior experience assisting startups, small businesses and enterprise companies with cryptocurrency and blockchain adoption. Prior to joining Change, Ms. Vaughn was the head of business development at Los Angeles-based blockchain development company Gem, where she was responsible for the design of a consultative sales strategy for enterprise blockchain development. She also is a founding contributor to Distributed.com and Distributed: Health and the Hyperledger Healthcare Working Group.
Julie Yoo. Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Kyruus (Boston). Ms. Yoo is the co-founder and chief strategy officer of provider search and scheduling solutions company Kyruus. She also served as the company's founding chief product officer for about seven years. Before launching Kyruus, Ms. Yoo held various product leadership roles at Generation Health, a healthcare company focused on managing genetic testing benefits, and Knome, a whole genome sequencing service. She holds an MBA from Cambridge, Mass.-based MIT Sloan School of Management, is a member of the board of trustees for the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council and is a young global leader with the World Economic Forum.