Michael D. Abramoff, MD, PhD

Michael D. Abramoff is a computer engineer, fellowship-trained retina specialist, and neuroscientist. A Fellow of IEEE, and ARVO Gold Fellow, he is the Robert C. Watzke, Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Iowa, with a joint appointment in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Abramoff is also Founder and Executive Chairman of Digital Diagnostics Inc, that was the first in any field of medicine to get FDA clearance for an autonomous AI, as well as sustainable nationwide reimbursement, where the AI makes a medical decision without human oversight. In primary care, it instantaneously diagnoses diabetic retinopathy and macular edema at the point of care. He is past editor of the journals IOVS and IEEE Transactions in Medical Imaging, and editor of AAO’s Basic and Clinical Science Course (BCSC) on AI, Nature Scientific Reports, past Program Chair for ARVO, co-founder and treasurer of FDA’s Collaborative Community of Ophthalmic Innovation. He developed an ethical foundation for medical AI instrumental to the design, validation, and regulatory and reimbursement pathways for autonomous AI, and the randomized controlled trials and other studies that showed autonomous AI increases clinician productivity and satisfaction, health equity, patient outcomes and access, and lowers cost. The author of over 430 peer-reviewed publications in this field, his work has been cited over 50,000 times (h-index 86), and is inventor on 27 issued patents and many patent applications, and has been funded continuously since 2004 by the National Eye Institute (R01s), CDC, Veterans Administration, and other federal, state and philanthropic funding agencies. Dr. Abramoff has mentored dozens of graduate engineering students, ophthalmology residents, and retina fellows.

Tasneem Dohadwala, MBA

Tasneem Dohadwala is the Founding Partner of Excelestar Ventures, where she and her team are active investors in founders that exhibit compelling promise in medical technology, deep technology and beyond. Previously, her experience included working in financial services on the sell-side at Lehman Brothers and Matrix Partners. Notable investments during her time at Excelestar Ventures include Augmenix (acq. by Boston Scientific), nVision (acq. by Boston Scientific), Altiostar Networks (acq. by Rakuten),  Conformal Medical, Instylla, Brixton Biosciences and Terecircuits.

At her helm, Excelestar Ventures has been named one of the top 100 Women-Led Businesses in Massachusetts by The Boston Globe. Tasneem is a graduate of Wellesley College and Harvard Business School.

Prashant Samant

Prashant Samant believes in the power of social enterprise and leads the Akido Labs team towards its vision for a transformed healthcare experience for all. Over his career, Prashant has worked with some of the world’s most notable private, public, and non-profit organizations, including Peugeot, Orange S.A., Stanford University, Roshan Telecom, Liquidnet and Doctors without Borders. Along with his Akido co-founders, Prashant founded the USC Digital Health Lab, developing innovative tech solutions for some of Los Angeles’ most pressing issues in public health, including homelessness. 

Delia Silva, PhD

Delia Silva is a Managing Director and Partner in L.E.K. Consulting’s Boston office. She joined the firm in 2014 and specializes in the life sciences and pharmaceutical sector, with a focus on growth strategy and organization and performance, both in the U.S. and globally. Delia has extensive experience across a number of therapeutic areas and product modalities, including neuroscience, rare disease and infectious disease. She has helped clients, from clinical-stage biotechs to big pharma, through organizational scale-ups and design, launch planning, portfolio growth strategy, market entry assessments, due diligence, commercial strategy, and go-to-market modeling.

Delia holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a B.S. in chemistry from Boston University.

Kanishk Tantia

Kanishk is a panel director for the HBS Healthcare Conference, and an RC year student at HBS. He has spent six years working as an AI engineer with Microsoft, collaborating with Microsoft’s key healthcare clients including Siemens Digital Health and Humana on enterprise software architecture and solution design. He is also passionate about AI equity and access in healthcare, and about ensuring that technological tools are used safely, effectively, and ethically.