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    Zain Ismail

    Senior Director, Insights and Advisory / Co-Host
    AVIA / The Healthcare Rap Podcast

    Zain Ismail is a seasoned health innovator, strategist, and content creator, leading innovation in health systems in Canada, the United States, and East Africa. Drawing on his background and affinity for hospitality, Zain is on a mission to humanize the health system through innovation by implementing novel practices into the health system to improve the patient experience and deliver value. Zain inspires others to join the cause as Co-Host of the Healthcare Rap Podcast by Shift Health.

    Currently, Zain serves as Senior Director, Insights & Advisory at AVIA Health, a boutique membership based digital health advisory firm serving 60 hospitals systems across the United States. In this role, Zain leads research around digital health topics, which include digital front door, disruptors in health, and consumer-facing Telehealth, and serves as the engagement lead partnering clients to develop enterprise-wide consumer digital strategies for some of the nation’s leading health systems, including Rush University Medical Center (Chicago), The Medical University of South Carolina, The University of Kansas Health System, Northwestern Medicine, Indiana University Health and Presbyterian Health Services (New Mexico).

    Before joining AVIA, Zain was a Principal Transformation Consultant at Henry Ford Health (HFH), a 7 billion dollar integrated delivery system headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. He partners with HFH executive and senior leadership to develop and execute enterprise-wide strategic initiatives in digital health, retail health, primary care, specialty service line growth, and talent.

    During the COVID-19 pandemic, Zain led an agile team to set up inpatient surge units. He also developed and marketed new products and services to support Henry Ford’s direct-to-employer clients. Lastly, Zain was appointed to serve as Section Chief of Planning and Strategy for Henry Ford’s vaccine deployment incident command. He was responsible for planning, finance, staffing, and emergency management.

    Before joining HFH, Zain served as Manager of Innovation, Partnerships, Communication, and Development at Erie Shores Healthcare (ESH) in Leamington, Ontario, Canada, where he led the organization in reimagining rural healthcare through innovation and partnerships.

    Outside of his day-to-day roles, Zain is a recognized leader in the health innovation community. He is a board member for Gesher Human Services, He is an Industry Scholar at the Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures, and an Executive Board Member for the Detroit - Windsor Med Health Innovation Cluster (“MedHealth”).

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