Health Systems Innovation Council Meeting – Q1 2026

Dr. Brant-Zawadzki is currently the Vice President of Clinical Research Administration, Center for Accelerating Technology and Life Sciences Translation (CATALiST), and Addiction Services at Hoag Hospital.  Formerly, he was Hoag’s Senior Physician Executive, facilitating business and strategic relationships with specialist clinicians, overseeing a platform for programmatic care that integrates specialized services with population health. He also served as the Executive Medical Director of the Pickup Family Neurosciences Institute, where he held the Sandi and Ron Simon Endowed Chair, helping Hoag transform health care strategy, focusing it on specific health conditions using a program driven, physician led, multi-disciplinary team approach, measured by patient focused outcomes.

Dr. Brant-Zawadzki has a BA from Stanford, and earned his MD from the University of Cincinnati, graduating first in his class. He trained in diagnostic radiology and in interventional neuroradiology at Stanford. He spent six years in the Department of Radiology at UCSF, he also held an Adjunct Professorship at Stanford until 2023. Dr. Brant-Zawadzki has authored over 250 papers, numerous textbooks, serves on a variety of editorial boards for professional journals and sat on numerous professional organization boards and committees. He lectures internationally. He is a Fellow of the American College of Radiology, and is a Gold Medal recipient from the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, and from the American Society of Neuroradiology.

He earned the Certificate in Leadership for Health Care Transformation from UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business. He is a founder of, and consultant to, a number of companies in the biotech and radiology fields.

Kenneth Tang is the CEO and Co-Founder of Precidx, a healthcare data optimization company building the performance and data access layer for digital pathology and medical imaging. Through its Precidx Optimization Platform (POP), the company enables faster access, reduced storage costs, and scalable infrastructure for large-scale imaging datasets while preserving native files.

Precidx is working with leading health systems and industry partners to enable scalable digital pathology infrastructure.

Kenneth holds an M.S. in Biotechnology, Enterprise from The Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. from the University of California, Irvine, and has conducted research in quantitative imaging at UCSF and UCI.

• 18+ years of experience in biomedical imaging and medical device innovation
• Co-inventor of stimulated Raman histology (SRH) at Harvard and technology leader behind the NIO Laser Imaging System
• Led development of Invenio’s imaging platform and AI capabilities from early innovation through clinical implementation
• Experienced in translating advanced imaging and artificial intelligence into practical tools for hospital workflows
• Worked closely with leading physicians and health system partners to support early adoption and commercialization

Dr. Sharief Taraman, is dual board-certified in Neurology with special qualifications in Child Neurology from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and Clinical Informatics from the American Board of Preventive Medicine.

Dr. Taraman was the former Division Chief of Pediatric Neurology at Rady Children’s Health Orange County and University of California-Irvine. He remains an active member of the medical staff and the Sharon Disney Lund Medical Intelligence, Information, Investigation, & Innovation Institute at CHOC.

He is a Health Sciences Associate Clinical Professor at UC Irvine School of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics and UC Riverside School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry & Neurosciences as well as an Affiliate Professor at Chapman University, Dale E. and Sarah Ann Fowler School of Engineering.

Recognized globally as an innovator and specifically an advocate in the field of pediatrics, Dr. Taraman has been involved with the development of multiple FDA designated breakthrough devices, awardee of the prestigious National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation grant and is an advisor to Board of Directors for the International Society for Pediatric Innovation.

Currently, he is the Chief Executive Officer at Cognoa and formerly served as the Chief Medical Officer leading the clinical trials that led to the FDA authorization of Cognoa’s lead product, Canvas Dx, the first and only FDA authorized AI based diagnostic device for autism for children 18-72 months old with concern for developmental delay.

Dr. Taraman is active in the community having previously served as a past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Orange County Chapter, board member of AAP-California, and committee member for the development of the AAP National CHILD health registry. He continues to volunteer on the Irvine Unified School District Medical Advisory Board, with the Capistrano Unified School District and Girl Scouts of Orange County.

Dr. Taraman graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Michigan having majored in Biochemistry. He completed his medical education at Wayne State University School of Medicine and went on to complete residency training in Pediatrics and Pediatric Neurology at the Detroit Medical Center and Children’s Hospital of Michigan.

Dr. Paul Sheehan joined ARPA-H in February 2023 from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he was a Program Manager in the Biological Technologies Office. His research at that time focused on leveraging developments in synthetic biology to detect and address threats to human health, including novel pathogens in the environment and microbial imbalances in the gut.

Before joining DARPA, Sheehan spent 16 years at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory where he worked first as a research scientist and then as the head of surface nanoscience and sensor technology. He holds a doctorate in chemical physics from Harvard University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Research Council. His papers have received over 18,500 citations and have been spotlighted in outlets such as the Economist and the New York Times.