Nasim Afsar

Dr. Nasim Afsar, MD, MBA, is a healthcare executive whose career encompasses clinical medicine, health system leadership, and technology innovation. Afsar has nearly two decades of experience in healthcare leadership, with expertise in operations, finance, digital transformation, and market strategy. She earned a bachelor's degree with honors from California Institute of Technology in biology and art history, an MD from University of California, Davis, completed her residency in internal medicine at UCLA, and received an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Afsar's transition from bedside physician to global health executive was influenced by her early recognition that impacting healthcare systems required leadership roles focused on quality, safety, operations, finance, and technology. Her health system career includes leadership roles at two major California academic medical centers. At UCLA Health, she served as associate chief medical officer and chief quality officer, where she led initiatives in population health, quality, safety, and patient experience. As chief quality officer for the Department of Medicine, she led population health initiatives, including the program "Mind the Gap," which addressed care gaps in the system. At UCI Health, Afsar served as chief operating officer, overseeing more than $1 billion in revenue and 3,000 employees, and driving growth in patient volume, surgeries, and tertiary care transfers. She led a 10-year financial planning initiative, launched telehealth and hospital-at-home programs, and directed emergency response efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, including building a mobile field hospital, deploying large-scale testing, and establishing a high-volume vaccination program.

Afsar was named the first chief health officer at Cerner Corporation, a global healthcare technology company. Following Oracle's acquisition of Cerner, she continued in that role, leading business units such as the Health Transformation Office, product strategy, and global market strategy and entry. She established a marketplace for third-party partnerships and chaired the Oracle Health AI in Healthcare, Retail in Healthcare, and Payers Steering Committees. Throughout her tenure, Afsar advocated for the use of data to advance health equity, emphasizing the importance of clean, usable, trustworthy data and the need to understand social determinants of health alongside claims data, research, operations, and community risks.

Afsar's influence extends to national health policy, with collaborations involving the White House, National Quality Forum, National Academy of Medicine, and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. She has served on several boards, including Fight CRC, the Patient Safety Movement Foundation, the Oracle Health Foundation, the Tiger Institute, and the Society of Hospital Medicine, where she served as president. Afsar is the author of "Intelligent Health: The Movement to Unify Data, Harness AI, and Empower People to Thrive," which explores the importance of unifying health data and applying artificial intelligence to improve outcomes, reduce costs, and enhance patient care. She is recognized for her contributions to healthcare leadership, digital health, and health equity.