Professional overview

Hursh Desai

Healthcare AI strategy, backed by clinical, operational and financial experience.

I’m a Cornell Johnson MBA graduate with a foundation in neuroscience and medical training. My work connects the clinical, operational and financial sides of healthcare with the practical use of AI.

Explore projectsView résumé (PDF, opens in a new tab)

From healthcare to applied AI

Healthcare strategy and operations

At Optum Advisory Services, my work included clinical technology, Epic EHR integration and Medicare Advantage strategy. Medical training and neuroscience research shaped how I approach the systems behind care.

Finance and investment analysis

My Cornell MBA and investment banking experience at Guggenheim Securities added a financial perspective. Private equity work at Dioun Health included healthcare acquisitions, sourcing and financial modeling.

Applied AI evaluation

As an independent consultant, I work with companies supplying expert data to frontier AI labs. Through these contracting partners, I design evaluations and review model outputs for accuracy and reliability.

Education and clinical foundation

I studied neuroscience at the University of Michigan, attended Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine before pivoting from medicine, and earned my MBA at Cornell Johnson.

How I work and case notes

Experience

  1. 2026 to Present · Remote

    Frontier AI Labs

    Project Manager, AI Research & Development

    Independent consulting · through expert-data partners

    • Architect multi-step scoring rubrics for 15+ AI evaluations and refine prompts, improving model accuracy by 50%+.
    • Direct failure-mode remediation for 500+ weekly tasks to reduce hallucination rates and LLM errors.
    • Collaborate with expert-data partners supplying frontier AI labs: Mercor, micro1, Halluminate, Handshake AI, Uber AI Solutions, Outlier, and Alignerr.

  2. 2025 to 2026 · Boston, MA

    Dioun Health

    Private Equity Analyst, Healthcare Acquisitions Group

    • Led origination and financial underwriting for 100+ middle-market home health assets ($5M to $50M+ Adj. EBITDA).
    • Managed end-to-end execution of a $15M bolt-on acquisition, capturing $800K in annualized cost synergies through EMR standardization.
    • Built Aviva Care for Seniors (avivacareforseniors.com), an in-home senior-care brand, end to end for the firm.

  3. 2025 · New York, NY

    Guggenheim Securities

    Investment Banking Associate, Private Equity Advisory

    • Quarterbacked buy-side due diligence and underwriting for middle-market tech-enabled and IT platforms.
    • Led sell-side execution for a sponsor-backed B2B SaaS provider valued at $60M with 115% net revenue retention.

  4. 2022 to 2024 · Washington, DC

    UnitedHealth Group

    Senior Consultant, Optum Advisory Services

    • Led clinical technology integrations for 20+ regional hospital systems and Medicare Advantage growth strategies capturing $10M+ in incremental annual revenue.
    • Modeled CMS-HCC V24-to-V28 reimbursement shifts for 25+ clients, yielding 5x ROI in Year 2.
    • Managed 10+ offshore engineering teams on Epic EHR deployments, reducing 30-day readmissions by 25%.

  5. 2019 to 2022 · Spartanburg, SC

    VCOM

    Medical Student, Osteopathic Medical Training

    • Completed 75% toward a DO degree on a full-ride scholarship before pivoting to healthcare strategy and AI.
    • Supported primary and surgical care at Palmetto Proactive and Spartanburg Regional, driving 20%+ volume growth.
    • Performed diagnostic workups and presented 100+ patient cases across general surgery, family medicine, and pediatrics.

Education

Projects I’m building

These projects put my interests in technology, business building and practical decision-making into use. The ChartAuth link opens its pilot page here; the other two open in a new tab.

ChartAuth

Pilot

Eligibility and authorization readiness for the next care step. A working pilot on fictional records, not a commercial product yet.

Ask me to walk through it in an interview: the problem, the design decisions and what I would measure.

Read about the ChartAuth pilot

FindYourHuman

Live

An early-stage marketplace. Find work or connect with a person who can help. A human-first approach to bringing people and opportunities together.

Explore FindYourHuman

WagerThesis

Launching

Explore markets and test ideas with simulated funds. The project is still being built and currently uses pilot data.

Explore WagerThesis

Let’s talk

I’m looking for Healthcare AI strategy and AI + health roles, and I take on fixed-scope work with health systems and healthtech teams. If you are turning AI into operating results in care, I’d like to hear about it. For my full background, view the résumé. To discuss a role or collaboration, get in touch. For a fixed-scope engagement, book a session or a sprint directly.

Open to: Healthcare AI strategy · AI + health roles · Health system and healthtech teams

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