Our Team

ALI (Anesthesia Labs, Inc.) is composed of a highly experienced team of medical experts that include leading regulatory consultants, physicians, researchers, physician-scientists, and entrepreneurial visionaries. Collectively, ALI's team members have played key roles in over 400 drug and device development programs.

With this wealth of expertise across multiple disciplines and prestigious academia, ALI is strategically positioned to design and execute the most effective and efficient products in anesthesia. This high-caliber team was specifically sought out for their extensive breadth of industry knowledge and ability to apply their fieldwork and research in the application. ALI specifically seeks to identify and eradicate the multitude of medication errors associated with infusion pumps and develop impactful solutions.

Bill Aldrich

CEO

Bill Aldrich is a seasoned senior Silicon Valley executive with over $400M in exits and 60+ issued patents. Bill has raised over $30M in venture financing for various companies and has held executive and engineering positions at Cardiovascular Imaging Systems, Cartesian Data, CardioThoracic Systems, Integrated Vascular Systems, EndoVx, EndoShape, MedeonBio, ReThink Medical and iHemo Systems. Bill joined ALI to lead the company through commercialization. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the California Polytechnic State University. Bill started his early career in building race cars. In his spare time he likes to fly fish and play tennis. 

Marshall Fryman, MBA

CTO

Marshall Fryman has been involved in the medical space since the early 1990s. As a serial entrepreneur, he founded Futura International, an industry leading EHR company and Novitas Medical, a medical device startup. Futura International specialized in durable medical equipment and orthotic and prosthetic industries. It eventually grew to process over $1 billion in claims annually. Novitas Medical quickly developed a line of unique products and was able to obtain FDA clearance on several class II medical devices for sale into specialty markets. All manufacturing for Novitas was conducted in either Tawain or China.

After leaving Novitas, Mr. Fryman began consulting and worked with Hospira, Inc., an Abbot spin-off, for a number of years before becoming a full-time employee. Hospira went through a number of acquisitions and spin-offs resulting in Mr. Fryman's nearly decade tenure as the Director of Innovation and Interoperability for ICU Medical, Inc. In this role, he was responsible for R&D, Customer Insights, M&A and DevOps activities related to infusion pumps and infusion interoperability.

Sassan Rafizadeh, M.D., Ph.D. 

Co-Founder and CMO

Dr. Rafizadeh is a cardiothoracic anesthesiologist and a Duke University Hospital recent fellow. In addition to his M.D., he holds a doctorate degree in molecular, cellular, and systemic physiology from University of California at Davis and is a recipient of the U.C. Davis Max Kleiber Research Prize for superior scholarly achievement. With over 20 years of basic science and clinical research experience, he has authored multiple publications in top-tier peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Rafizadeh has helped build several successful businesses in the tech and healthcare sectors, most recently as founding C.E.O. of Rejuvenate Healthcare LLC - a healthcare reinsurance plan specific to kidney failure patients, revolutionizing healthcare delivery. Sassan is an avid flamenco guitar player and a 3rd degree black belt in Kyokushin Karate, a full contact martial art.

Inderjeet Julka, M.D.

Co-Founder

Dr. Julka is currently a Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He completed his medical school training in India with high scholarly achievements and extensive surgical experience. Dr. Julka migrated to the U.S. where he finished his formal training in anesthesiology as Chief Resident followed by completion of a fellowship in interventional pain management at UCLA. Dr. Julka brings decades of experience in the medical field to ALI as a co-founder. He has published various research manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals and has contributed to multiple textbook chapters.

Scientific and Clinical Board of Advisors

Adam Flowe, CRNA, MSN  

Duke University Health System

  • Adam Flowe has been the Chief CRNA at Duke University Health System since 2015. He has developed and overseen many patient safety initiatives - including medication delivery practices, software optimization, and controlled substance oversight. His particular interest is using technology (EMRs and devices) to minimize error and augment human behavior. He was educated at the College of William & Mary, UNC Chapel Hill, and UNC Greensboro.

Andrew Shaw, MD

Cleveland Clinic

  • Dr. Shaw is Chairman of the Department of Intensive Care and Resuscitation at The Cleveland Clinic. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, a Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists (UK), a Fellow of the American College of Critical Care Medicine, and a Fellow of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (UK). He also holds a Master’s Degree in Healthcare Management from Vanderbilt University. He has practiced cardiothoracic anesthesiology and critical care medicine for more than 25 years in the UK, USA, and Canada, and has authored 4 textbooks and more than 225 original publications, with an h-index of 70. His clinical practice is cardiothoracic, surgical intensive care, and perioperative medicine. His translational research interests include biomarker discovery in acute illness and injury. His clinical research interests include observational and pragmatic interventional trials of candidate interventions to prevent and treat adverse outcomes following cardiac surgery - in particular the role of intravenous fluid therapy in acute kidney injury. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the US Department of Defense, and private philanthropy. He is the President of the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists and a founding director of the Peri Operative Quality Initiative.

Ashish K. Khanna MD, MS, FCCP, FCCM

Wake Forest University School of Medicine

  • Dr. Khanna is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Vice Chair for Research with the Department of Anesthesiology, a section on critical care medicine at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC. He is also a member of the Wake Center for Biomedical Informatics, the Center for Healthcare Innovation, and the Wake Forest Hypertension and Vascular Research Cardiovascular Science Center. He is the director of the Perioperative Outcomes and Informatics Collaborative (POIC), a large perioperative outcomes collaborative research program and a center of excellence for clinical trials across specialties. In addition, he is a major regional director for the Outcomes Research Consortium, based out of Cleveland Clinic.

    Dr. Khanna is currently Vice Chair for the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) committee on critical care medicine and chair for the abstract review committee on critical care medicine. He is heavily engaged with the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) and currently chairs the research section; is on the steering committee for the anesthesiology section and the Discovery research network oversight committee, along with being a program co-chair for the 2023 congress. He is on the board of directors for the Society of Critical Care Anesthesiologists (SOCCA). His research interests include the prediction of postoperative respiratory and cardiac events on the regular nursing floor, the use of large datasets for perioperative outcomes research, the effects of hypotension in critically ill patients, and the use of novel vasopressors in shock states in the ICU. Dr. Khanna has more than 140 peer-reviewed papers, two dozen book chapters, editorials, and invited non-peer reviewed articles. Dr. Khanna was part of the Angiotensin II in High Output Shock trial and led the publication of this work in the NEJM. This work translated to the US FDA approval of this novel vasopressor.

Hardik Shah, PharmD

Duke University Health System

  • Dr. Shah is a clinical pharmacist at Duke University Medical Center. He specializes in perioperative pharmacotherapy management, USP 797 compounding, and pharmacy automation. He completed his pharmacy training at Temple University and Massachusetts General Hospital before joining Duke. Dr. Shah is a proponent of advancing and leveraging technologies to improve medication safety in perioperative settings. Dr. Shah is an active member of the American Society of Health System Pharmacists (ASHP) where he regularly contributes to topics related to perioperative pharmacotherapy management, medication safety, sterile product compounding, pharmacy procurement, and emergency preparedness.

Hilary Grocott, MD

University of British Columbia in Vancouver

  • Dr. Grocott completed medical school in Canada at the University of Saskatchewan in 1990. After finishing an anesthesiology residency at the University of Manitoba in 1995, he went on to complete cardiothoracic anesthesiology and research fellowships at Duke University Hospital where he later joined the faculty and advanced to tenured Professor in 2006. From 2007-2022, he served as a professor in both the Departments of Anesthesia, Perioperative & Pain Medicine, and Surgery at the University of Manitoba. In 2022, he moved to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver where he now serves as a Clinical Professor of Anesthesia. He has published more than 450 peer-reviewed articles, abstracts, and book chapters on a range of topics related to perioperative outcomes. A frequent consultant to the biomedical industry, he is also considered in the top 5% of scientists worldwide in the most recent Stanford University ranking.

Ian Welsby, MD

Duke University Health System

  • Dr. Welsby trained in London, England was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists in 1994, and joined Duke University faculty in 2000. He is a Cardiothoracic Anesthesiologist and Intensivist with the Division of Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology and Critical Care and the Co-Medical Director of the Cardiothoracic ICU. A Tenured Professor in Anesthesiology and Critical Care, he has a secondary appointment in Medicine (Hematology), with over 120 peer reviewed publications and funding from both NIH and industry to conduct clinical or translational research focused on perioperative coagulation and transfusion medicine.

Frederick C. Cobey, MD, MPH

Tufts University School of Medicine

  • Dr. Frederick C. Cobey is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at Tufts Medical Center and Director of Cardiac Anesthesiology. He completed his medical school at Yale and his residency in Anesthesia at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He did his Cardiac Anesthesia Fellowship at Duke. His academic interests have largely focused on perioperative echocardiography in cardiac surgery. Other work has focused on right ventricular failure following left ventricular mechanical support devices. Finally, he has done work regarding the environmental impact of cardiac surgery.

Frederick W. Lombard, MBChB, FANZCA

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

  • Dr. Lombard is currently an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and the Assistant Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). He has practiced anesthesiology for over 30 years on 4 continents (Africa, UK, NZ, and USA). At VUMC he serves on several departmental and institutional committees, which include the Departmental Quality Measurement and Management Initiative Committee, VUMC Anticoagulation Oversight Committee, and VUMC Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee. He is actively involved in the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists. He was previously on the Patient Safety Committee and is currently on the Clinical Practice Improvement Subcommittee. Dr. Lombard’s research interests include perioperative neuroprotection, postoperative atrial fibrillation, and transfusion medicine. He has received funding from the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research, Society for Cardiovascular Anesthesiologist, Nitrox LLC, BioMarin Pharmaceutical, and Medtronics.

Ronak Shah, MD

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

  • Dr. Shah is an assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania with a clinical focus on cardiothoracic and electrophysiology procedures. In addition to providing intraoperative care for cardiac surgery patients, Dr. Shah is the patient safety officer for the anesthesiology and critical care department. In addition to tracking and investigating all safety concerns, Dr. Shah works with a delegated team to help implement a relevant solution for all safety concerns and events. He also hosts a monthly cardiac QI session where a specific case is selected and discussed amongst staff, leading to changes in practice among the cardiac anesthesiology team. Dr. Shah is also a member of the Pharmacy and Therapeutics and Medication Value committees. Lastly, he serves as the cardiac anesthesiology site Chief at Penn Presbyterian Medical center.

Roman M Sniecinski MD, MSc

Emory Healthcare

  • Dr. Roman Sniecinski is a nationally recognized expert in the field of perioperative coagulation. He serves as the Executive Section Editor for Hemostasis and Thrombosis for the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia. He has completed funded projects in this area for several federal agencies including the Department of Defense. Dr. Sniecinski is also well known for education in perioperative echocardiography, and has chaired this council within the American Society of Echocardiography, and served on this society's Board of Directors. He remains active in several other societies and serves as an examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiology.

Raquel Bartz, MD

Brigham and Women’s Hospital Harvard Medical School

  • Dr. Bartz is the Associate Chair of Critical Care Medicine in the Department of Anesthesia, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She completed residency and fellowship in Internal Medicine (Pulmonary Critical Care) and Anesthesiology. She spent 14 years on faculty at Duke University School of Medicine where she was the Division Chief of Critical Care Medicine prior to her transition to Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard School of Medicine. Dr. Bartz has received foundation, NIH, industry grants and has studied mitochondria, sepsis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and clinical outcomes after surgery. Dr. Bartz has written and published extensively about sepsis, ARDS, and perioperative outcomes. Dr. Bartz is a member of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation. Additionally, she holds degrees in Clinical Informatics and a Masters in Healthcare Administration.

Kamrouz Ghadimi, M.D., M.H.Sc

Duke University Health System

  • Kamrouz Ghadimi, M.D., M.H.Sc. is an intensivist, cardiothoracic anesthesiologist, physician scientist, associate professor and Director of Clinical Research Operations for the Department of Anesthesiology at Duke University School of Medicine and Duke University Health System in Durham, North Carolina, USA. His independently-funded, interdisciplinary research program is based on the perioperative and intensive care management of patients undergoing cardiac and noncardiac surgery, with focus on the treatment of bleeding and inflammation related to shock and mechanical circulatory support and on the modification of pulmonary circulation to optimize end-organ perfusion. In addition to formal clinical research training, Dr. Ghadimi has expertise in prospective biospecimen repository development from human trial participants to facilitate follow-on deep phenotyping for the discovery of novel molecular pathways and biomarkers that could bridge the gaps in knowledge to personalize the assessment of disease progression and long-term safety and efficacy of drug or device-based therapies.

Karthik Ranganathan

BD Alaris

  • Coming soon!

Mark M. Smith, MD, FASE

Mayo Clinic

  • Dr. Smith graduated from the University of Nebraska Medical School after which he completed an anesthesiology residency and Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology Fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. He currently serves as a faculty member at Mayo where he is the Fellowship Program Director for the Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology Fellowship. His research interests focus on perioperative outcomes for patients undergoing cardiac surgery with a specific focus on bleeding and transfusion in this population. He has published numerous studies in this arena and recently completed the first prospective randomized clinical trial assessing prothrombin complex concentrates vs. fresh frozen plasma in patients with cardiopulmonary bypass induced coagulopathy following cardiac surgery.

Engineering Board of Advisors

Steven A. Cummer, Ph.D.

Duke University Electrical & Computer Engineering

  • Dr. Cummer is currently the William H. Younger Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University. He received B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and he joined Duke as an Assistant Professor in 2000. His research spans a range of topics in sensor and system design, remote sensing, and artificial engineered materials. Dr. Cummer has published more than 290 peer-reviewed research papers in these areas. Over his 20+ year career at Duke, Professor Cummer has been the Principal Investigator on research grants totaling more than $24 million from government and industry sources including DARPA, the Office of Naval Research, NASA, the National Science Foundation, and Sony Corporation. He currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of multiple companies and has consulted extensively for industry and IP-related legal cases. He is a Fellow of both the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Geophysical Union.

Corporate Board of Advisors

Andrew Young, MBA

Device Development Strategy 

  • Andrew is President, Co-Founder, and Co-Owner of Invivocure - a cardiology clinical research site in Los Angeles; and CureCentric - a limb salvage and wound care clinical research site in Palmdale, CA.

    Both sites conduct independent, industry-sponsored, Phase I to Phase III clinical research on investigational drugs and devices as part of the FDA evaluation and approval process.

    Andrew was previously CEO of the clinical reference Laboratory, CoreMedica, which he brought out of insolvency, grew and helped position for venture capital. Prior to that, he turned around, grew, and sold a medical media company and diagnostic test distributor, Diabetes in Control, Inc. He is also a Co-Founder and former President of Intellect, an award-winning quality management, workflow software company in Los Angeles that sold to private equity in 2022.

    He has an MBA from UCLA and a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley.

Ben Bedi, M.S., J.D.

General Counsel

  • Mr. Bedi is the founder of EcoTech Law and is a patent attorney with more than 20 years of experience in various aspects of patent law, including prosecution, patent portfolio design, due diligence, and litigation. He has expertise in creating effective strategies which maximize intellectual property asset value and has litigated patent infringement cases in district courts and at the International Trade Commission. Mr. Bedi’s area of expertise includes patent valuations, portfolio analysis, and licensing advice. He provides patent due diligence for clients involved in various corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions and other investments in companies developing innovative technologies. In addition, Mr. Bedi and his team provide full patent support for Anesthesia Labs, Inc. to ensure a legal and IP strategy consistent with the overall business plan.