Dr. Bala Hota Joins Tendo from Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center
Digital health innovator Tendo Systems announced that Dr. Bala Hota, a recognized leader in healthcare quality and risk analytics, has joined as senior vice president and chief informatics officer. Dr. Hota brings more than 25 years of experience at the intersection of healthcare and technology, including innovative work building novel healthcare analytics and informatics systems to improve patient care at Chicago-based Rush University Medical Center and Cook County Health and Hospital System.
@tendo_systems hired @BalaHota as senior VP and chief informatics officer — Dr. Hota is a recognized leader in healthcare quality and risk analytics (formerly at @RushMedical and @CookCtyHealth) #digitalhealth #saas
Dr. Hota completed his residency in internal medicine as well as a fellowship in infectious disease at Rush, where he also later served as chief research information officer, associate chief medical officer, and vice president and chief analytics officer. He was on faculty for Rush’s Division of Infectious Diseases and a professor of medicine. During the height of the pandemic, Dr. Hota co-led the Chicago Public Health Data Hub, a technology project designed to improve public health surveillance for COVID-19. He also served on the executive committee for Pandemic Response Commons, which created a standards-based, collaborative data ecosystem to improve COVID-19 health outcomes. He and colleagues were also funded by the Centers for Disease Control for INSPIRE, a national study of long COVID-19 syndromes.
“We are thrilled to add a leader with Bala’s rich, front-line experience to the Tendo team,” said Dan Goldsmith, CEO of Tendo. “Analytics and informatics are foundational to transforming the healthcare experience, while enabling delivery models that drive better access, quality, and outcomes. Bala’s work with quality and risk assessment models is widely recognized, and his deep experience as both a clinician and technologist will be invaluable as we strive to create seamless and user-friendly experiences for patients, clinicians, and caregivers.”
Dr. Hota previously developed award-winning analytics software for Rush to assess risk adjustment opportunities in documentation gaps. He was awarded a patent for both the algorithm and software, and this work also led to establishing Rush’s Center for Quality, Safety, and Value Analytics. Dr. Hota also served in various roles at Cook County Health and Hospital System over an 11-year span. He was a physician of infectious diseases and became the chief medical information officer – a position he held for five years.
“Joining Tendo is an opportunity to make an even bigger impact by working across health systems to transform the care journey for more patients,” said Dr. Hota. “By working with a select set of early customers, Tendo is creating a space for all of us to deeply understand the complex issues impacting patient experience and collaborate to better solve those challenges. We all know the patient experience needs to be better, and Tendo is charting the path forward.”
Dr. Hota’s appointment comes just months after Tendo hired Dan Ballough as senior vice president of engineering, Peter Thorson as senior vice president of product management, and Jeffrey K. Rohrs as chief marketing officer. The company was also just named to CB Insights third annual Digital Health 150, which showcases the 150 most promising private digital health companies in the world.
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