J. Michael DiMaio Named Board Chair of Spectral AI

A familiar face is returning to Spectral AI Inc.’s top management team.

Company Founder J. Michael DiMaio, M.D., has been named board chairman. Having founded the company in 2009, Dr. DiMaio was CEO and board chairman from 2011 to 2020 but left amid a dispute. He rejoined the company in April, filling a vacancy left by board member Michael Murphy’s resignation. He is currently chief of staff at Baylor Scott & White, one of the country’s leading healthcare systems, and has more than 30 years of experience in cardiothoracic surgery. Dr. DiMaio specializes in advanced cardiovascular and thoracic procedures and oversees more than 650 physicians within the organization.

“Our Board of Directors welcomes Dr. DiMaio back to the role of Spectral AI’s chairman,” current Board Chair Richard Cotton said. “Given our needs for the future, the board concluded it was clear Dr. DiMaio’s expertise, leadership style, and deep understanding of our industry and the DeepView System, paired with his deep commitment to patient care and our employees, make him the right person to lead Spectral AI’s next stage of growth. I look forward to supporting him and the rest of the board as they seize the opportunities ahead.”

Cotton will remain on the board as a lead independent director and serve on its Audit Committee.

Dr. DiMaio’s leadership extends to multiple medical organizations, including the American Surgical Association, Society of Thoracic Surgeons, American College of Surgeons, American Association of Thoracic Surgery, American Heart Association, American Burn Association, International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation, American Society of Transplant Surgeons, and the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association.

Dr. DiMaio has authored over 500 peer-reviewed publications and directs a research group that has produced more than 1,000 articles in leading medical journals, including JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Science, and Circulation since 2018. He has also served on editorial boards or as a reviewer for prestigious medical journals and has reviewed grants for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the American Heart Association, and the U.S. Department of Defense. Additionally, he has served on international medical guideline committees. He has been responsible for supervising or negotiating more than $250 million of peer-reviewed funding proposals.

Dr. DiMaio earned his medical degree from the University of Miami and completed his internal medicine, general surgery, and cardiothoracic surgery residencies as well as a NIH-sponsored fellowship at Duke University Medical Center.

“As a surgeon, my passion has always been to improve patient outcomes by providing clinicians with the most advanced tools for faster, more accurate diagnoses. Spectral AI’s technology has the potential to revolutionize wound care, enabling healthcare providers to make critical decisions faster and with greater precision,” Dr. DiMaio stated. “As a founder of Spectral AI and its second-largest shareholder, I am honored to step into the role of chairman and remain committed to advancing innovations that will enhance patient care and ultimately save lives by completing the development of this advanced technology and taking it to market. Our focus will be on commercialization, FDA approval, our relationship with BARDA and developing key strategic relationships. I want to build upon the company’s story and engage with our shareholders in a way that tells them why what the company is doing matters.”

In addition to welcoming back Dr. DiMaio, Spectral AI’s board has also created the Office of the Chairman to assume day-to-day operational responsibilities and support the ongoing clinical development and commercialization of the company’s DeepView System, with particular focus on engagement with BARDA, the FDA, commercialization efforts, and strategic relationships. The Office of the Chairman will be comprised of Chief Financial Officer and General Counsel Vincent Capone, Chief Commercialization Officer Jeremiah Sparks, Interim Chief Operating Officer Stan Micek, and General Manager Louis Percoco, and will report directly to the Board.

With the formation of this new office, CEO Peter Carlson will transition out of his role and from the Spectral AI Board of Directors to pursue other business opportunities. He will remain as a company consultant.

“I would like to thank Pete for his contributions to Spectral AI as CEO, and board member. I would particularly like to recognize his role in leading the company during the completion of adult and pediatric patient enrollment at U.S. burn centers for our U.S. Burn Pivotal Study and his unwavering support for the commercialization of our DeepView Wound Imaging System,” Cotton said.

Spectral AI Inc. is a Dallas-based predictive AI company focused on medical diagnostics for faster and more accurate treatment decisions in wound care, with initial applications involving patients with burns and diabetic foot ulcers. The company aims to revolutionize wound care management by “Seeing the Unknown” with its DeepView System, a predictive device that offers clinicians an objective and immediate assessment of a wound’s healing potential prior to treatment or other medical intervention. With algorithm-driven results and a goal of exceeding the current standard of care in the future, DeepView is expected to provide faster and more accurate treatment insight towards value care by improving patient outcomes and reducing healthcare costs.