Zebra Medical Vision, the deep-learning medical imaging analytics company, has appointed Ohad Arazi as CEO, succeeding Co-Founder Eyal Gura, who will continue as board chairman of the board. Arazi brings to Zebra-Med extensive leadership experience in healthcare IT and medical imaging, along with a proven track record of driving transformative growth and building value at digital health firms, including McKesson Technology Solutions, Change Healthcare, and TELUS Health. Arazi’s appointment is effective March 1.
 
“Ohad Arazi's appointment is a clear reflection of the strong vector the Zebra Medical Vision team has created, as we’re ready to take on the future after another strong year of product innovation, unique regulatory progress, and customer successes,” said Gura. “Zebra-Med is poised for major expansion in the medical imaging domain, and we're confident that Ohad's unique experience in turning innovative technologies into scalable and impactful products will drive significant growth for us.”
 
“Every CEO dreams of being able to drive the evolution of a company from such a position of material strength. As we expand our footprint in North America, the breadth of Zebra-Med’s products and compelling regulatory advantage will allow us to scale extraordinarily fast,“ said Arazi. “I am thankful for the opportunity to lead one of the most exciting teams in healthcare today, and to leverage artificial intelligence to affect change for the medical imaging industry worldwide.”
 
With the fourth U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for its “all-in-one” AI1 bundle, Zebra-Med provides a one-stop-shop for health providers’ AI needs. From oncology and bone health, through cardiology and acute conditions alerts, to the ICU and ED units. In Q4 of 2019 the company also branched into the orthopedic space with a partnership with Depuy Synthes.

In a Q&A conducted by Gura, and published on Zebra Medical's website, Arazi explains his interest in healthcare and his thoughts about the company's AI1 bundle.
 
Gura: What  attracted you to healthcare?
Arazi: To be quite honest, I stumbled into healthcare by chance when I joined McKesson in 2006. I really didn’t know much about the space when I first joined, but once I was I in, I was hooked! What really captivated me was the ability to leverage technology to directly influence care. I recall observing a cardiac catheterization procedure and realizing it was our software that was being used to guide the physician, as she pulled the catheter through the aorta to the patient’s heart. Over the past 14 years, I’ve remained passionate about developing solutions that bridge healthcare and information technologies. I believe technology can play a tremendous role in transforming outcomes, decreasing cost and enhancing collaboration.  
 
Gura: Digital health is such a big field. Why medical imaging and why Zebra?
Arazi: Medical imaging has been one of the most impactful advances of the past 120 years. Since the discovery of X-rays in 1895, it has fundamentally changed the way we see and understand our bodies and our health. Imaging has revolutionized medical diagnosis and therapy, but there is so much more we can do. The opportunity to harness the full breath of data encompassed within medical images is massive, with artificial intelligence and machine learning serving as the keys to unlock this potential. This includes opportunities for AI to improve access to imaging in areas that are under-served by Radiologists, to automatically detect under-diagnosed conditions, and to support discovery and development of novel drugs and medical devices.  
 
That is what really drew me to Zebra: wanting to be at the nexus of the global movement that will leverage AI in news to deliver better outcomes and improve patient care. Zebra is uniquely positioned to take on this challenge, based on the breadth of its products, compelling regulatory advantage, and unique access to data. 
 
Gura: What do you think will happen with the “AI hype?“ 
Arazi: My sense is that AI in healthcare is rapidly moving out of the hype stage, and is becoming a well established and scientifically validated reality. For example, Zebra was now featured in Nature Medicine Journal, validating the use of CT’s to assess osteoporotic fracture risks. This was based on a five-year retrospective study covering more than 48,000 patients, clearly not hype. 
 
Medical imaging professionals worldwide are accepting AI as a tool that is becoming a standard step in their workflow. This will continue to rapidly evolve as more physicians develop use cases that integrate AI and machine learning into their care and research pathways. My favorite quote on the relationship between AI and the medical community comes from Dr. Curtis Langlotz of Stanford, who famously proclaimed that AI will never replace radiologists, “but radiologists who use AI will replace radiologists who don’t.”     
 
Gura: What differentiates a leader in this new AI-imaging field? 
Arazi: There are a few factors that will define the winners in the imaging AI domain:
It all starts with the ability to recruit and retain top machine learning talent. It takes highly specialized skills to load a large dataset, cleanse it to fill missing data, and analyze it to find patterns and correlations. This talent is sought out by many of the big tech firms, along with top startups, and therefore it’s a highly competitive environment.
 
Access to data will also play a vital role. Successful AI engines must be able to access and curate extremely large data sets, as often they are only using a tiny percentage of the total exam volume because they are looking for specific diagnoses. Zebra had a head start on some other companies seeking to analyze radiology scans, since its connections to the Israeli healthcare system gave it access to data that was difficult for American startups to obtain. This includes not just imaging data, but also longitudinal records going back 15 years that can correlate relationships between images, findings, and outcomes.
 
Additionally, I believe that regulatory expertise is a key differentiator. Like any new healthcare domain, the pace of technological advantages is currently outstripping the ability of the regulators to cope. Therefore, companies that are regulatory experts will be able to emerge as thought leaders, and work closely with compliance bodies and agencies to approve new products, while ensuring they are safe to use. For example, the FDA is paving a streamlined regulatory process for manufacturers who have demonstrated a “robust culture of quality and organizational excellence” through programs like the software “pre-cert” pilot, which Zebra is proud to have been selected to participate in. 
 
Gura: What are the most important things in your experience to health providers and department heads? And how can Zebra address these needs?
Arazi: At the end of the day, digital health is all about workflow and change management. Many novel ideas have died on the vine inside hospitals, because they were not supported by the appropriate levels of training, were not integrated into the clinical workflow, or failed to offer comprehensive support. 
 
In my experience, you have to immerse yourself in the environment of your users to really understand which problems you can solve for them. That is exactly what we intend to do at Zebra, as we expand our presence in North America, invest more in outbound product management, enhance our implementation services, and ameliorate the customer experience. 
 
Zebra was one of the founders of the AI movement in medical imaging, and has been a leader every step of this journey. As the industry matures from hype to reality, the time is right for Zebra to focus on customer growth, as well as maximize the value our technology and insights can bring to users and patients. 
 
I can’t wait to begin spending time with our customers and our partners, and getting to know the incredible team that has taken the company this far. I know we have a big mountain to climb, but I know this is going to be a very exciting ride.