BrightInsight Adds Two New Members to its Advisory Council

BrightInsight Inc. has appointed Tamara Elias, M.D., and Scott Huennekens to its Advisory Council. 
 
Elias and Huennekens join the advisory council as BrightInsight continues to solidify its position as the de facto digital health platform for biopharma and medtech. The first half of 2022 revealed a new partnership for BrightInsight with Sanofi joining its list of customers. The company also launched the BrightInsight Connected Diagnostics Platform for in-vitro diagnostics and its Digital Disease Management Solution.
 
“We are thrilled to have Dr. Tamara Elias and Scott Huennekens join our Advisory Council, providing insights based on their decades of leadership in digital innovation and adoption in life sciences,” said Kal Patel, M.D., CEO and co-founder of BrightInsight. “Our team and clients will benefit from their counsel as we continue growing internationally and expanding our portfolio of digital health solutions.”
 
Elias has been avidly involved with healthcare for more than 20 years across a spectrum of diverse experiences, beginning with medical school, extending into surgical residency, followed by healthcare strategic consulting, private equity investing, corporate strategy and business development, and product innovation, inclusive of board member positions. Currently, as senior vice president, Strategy and Business Incubation, at Nuance Communications—a Microsoft company—she orchestrates complex processes and initiatives to understand how these two firms’ assets can be used to advance workflows and improve diagnoses across the healthcare ecosystem. In her prior role at Merck she was vice president of Global Partnerships & Innovation, realizing “around the pill” innovations for their stakeholders. Prior to Merck, she served as Aetna’s vice president of Clinical Product Development, as well as vice president, Strategy and Business Development, at BD. Earlier in her career she was a partner at Essex Woodlands Health Partners, a McKinsey manager, and a general surgeon. She currently sits on the boards of Avinger, REVA Medical LLC, and BehaVR.
 
“Digital touches every area of healthcare, including biopharma, which traditionally does not hold expertise in regulated platforms,” Elias said. “BrightInsight plays a key role in meeting biopharma companies where they are to drive value and differentiation for their therapies. I’m excited to join the BrightInsight Advisory Council and work with the team to advance the life sciences industry adoption of digital.”
 
Huennekens is a seasoned medtech CEO, chairperson, board member, entrepreneur and investor, having been in one of those roles for more than 20 startup, growth and public companies with market valuations that have totaled over $20 billion. He currently serves as executive chairperson of Hyperfine, chairperson of Acutus Medical, chairperson of Envista, board member of Nuvasive Inc., and executive chairperson and Investor of Wondr Medical. More than 20 million patients have benefited from the therapies and diagnostics produced by the companies Huennekens has been involved with.
 
“As the medtech industry advances, it’s all about digital with its guiding principle being connectivity that enables collecting and activating data,” Huennekens said. “It is important for medtech to share data across the continuum of care—driving collaboration, enabling better care and reducing costs. To achieve these goals, a regulated digital health platform is needed to ensure medtech and diagnostic companies comply with quality, security, regulatory and privacy requirements. I’m pleased to join the BrightInsight Advisory Council, and to work with the team to continue to advance and customize their offerings for medtech companies.”
 
BrightInsight and its clients completed seven Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) projects in 2021. The company is expanding its footprint around the world with team members located across the United States, Europe, and India.
 
The BrightInsight Advisory Council includes some of the world’s most accomplished healthcare, technology and business thought leaders including Mark T. Bertolini; Karl Hick; Donald Jones; Jeffrey Leiden, M.D., Ph.D.; Diana McKenzie; Kim Powell; Brent Saunders; Meinhard F. Schmidt; Jagjot (JJ) Singh; Bradley Stock; Hemant Taneja; and Elisabethann Wright.
 
BrightInsight provides a global platform for biopharma and medtech regulated digital health solutions. The firm helps companies accelerate time to market for regulated digital health offerings across therapeutic areas, including apps, healthcare provider interfaces, analytics dashboards, algorithms, medical devices, connected combination products, diagnostics and Software as a Medical Device (SaMD). BrightInsight replaces the need for lengthy and complex ‘build from scratch’ implementations by offering configurable software solutions and a proven platform built on Google Cloud under a Quality Management System to support global security, privacy and regulatory requirements.