# Zohaib Akhtar

MD MPH MBA. Building the neuro-symbolic AI for medicine.

## About

I have spent my career looking for better ways to treat people, first inside hospitals, and now on an exponentially larger scale.

Most of that work changed how care is delivered. At Johns Hopkins (Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, one of the world’s leading academic medical centers.) I started a cancer clinic where every specialist sees the patient on the same day, and treatment delays fell by 60 percent. At Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, a nonprofit academic medical center ranked among the best hospitals in the world.), hypothermia (A core body temperature below 36°C (96.8°F). Anesthesia and cold operating rooms make it common during surgery.) during surgery was common and expected. I found ways to prevent it, because a cold patient bleeds more and recovers more slowly. In Denmark I learned biomedical design (Designing medical devices around patients and clinicians. A Novo Nordisk Foundation fellowship at Aarhus University and the University of Copenhagen.), to see problems through more than a clinician's eyes. And at Northwestern Kellogg (Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, one of the world’s top business schools, known for healthcare strategy.) I studied healthcare strategy: how care is paid for, organized and scaled.

Each of those changes began the same way: noticing what was being missed, and catching it earlier. Chroneme carries that much further. I am building it with my co-founder, Adam Wolfe (Scaled UWM Holdings Corporation to a $16B+ valuation and the largest SPAC IPO in NYSE history. Founder of EASE Compliance Advisors, the largest mortgage compliance company in the US. Led $100M+ in tech-focused venture investments. Advisor to two NBA owners. Played Division I basketball at Michigan State under Hall of Fame coach Tom Izzo before law school.), whom I met at Kellogg. It is an advanced medical system that uses neuro-symbolic AI to deliver better care at scale. It learns from data and reasons with explicit clinical logic, so it notices what matters in a patient the way a physician does, and shows why. It makes caregivers far more capable, and gives people an understanding of their own health, and control over it, that was never possible before.

[Photo: Chron eme With Adam Wolfe, my co-founder]

I also have selfish reasons. People I love lost their health and their lives to medical errors, poor access to care and delayed treatment. I know what it costs when care arrives late.

Outside work I photograph people, cycle and write. I am married to Chenyu Li, and close to my parents, my three siblings and their families, and friends around the world.

[Photo: Aspen, Colorado With my wife, Chenyu Li]

## Work

- Chroneme (https://chroneme.com): The neuro-symbolic AI for medicine. It notices what matters in a patient the way a physician does, and shows why.
- OpenCura (https://opencura.org): Intelligence for everyone. Live global health intelligence across 193 countries, every figure sourced, so the people closest to a problem have the same view as the people furthest from it.
- Rethinking care: One day, all specialities, faster outcomes (Johns Hopkins Medicine). https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/work/mdc
- Parking lot freeze to surgical ease: The prewarming case (Cleveland Clinic, Anesthesiology Institute). https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/work/hypothermia
- Safeguarding preemies: The CareFold case (Biomedical Design Fellowship). https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/work/carefold
- Correlating health and location: The Dropby journey (Johns Hopkins). https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/work/dropby

## Essays

- The part of the Gates interview nobody is answering (31 Aug 2026): https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/post/the-part-of-the-gates-interview-nobody-is-answering
- Adam Wolfe @ Chroneme (25 Aug 2026): https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/post/adam-wolfe-chroneme
- The hospitals that never went digital may get there first (12 Jul 2026): https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/post/the-hospitals-that-never-went-digital-may-get-there-first
- Whom clinical AI serves (26 Jun 2026): https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/post/whom-ai-serves
- Who owns the front door? (13 Jun 2026): https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/post/who-owns-the-front-door
- The only place you can work (8 Jun 2026): https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/post/only-place-you-can-work
- Unexpected findings (Chroneme) (5 May 2026): https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/post/unexpected-findings-chroneme
- Recently (18 Mar 2026): https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/post/recently
- Graduating Kellogg (15 Dec 2025): https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/post/graduating-kellogg
- Dear people of Kellogg (7 Nov 2025): https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/post/dear-people-of-kellogg
- Ethics @ Kellogg (6 Oct 2025): https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/post/ethics-kellogg
- The baggage claim problem of AI in medicine (10 Sep 2025): https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/post/slow-ai
- This will have been a post no one will have read (10 Aug 2025): https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/post/read-nothing
- Healthcare @ Kellogg (17 Jun 2025): https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/post/healthcare-kellogg
- To my sister cohort, EMBA-136 (15 Jun 2025): https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/post/emba136grad
- Maybe not the plan. Definitely a dissertation. (11 Jun 2025): https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/post/not-the-plan
- Brilliance at the border (27 May 2025): https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/post/brilliance_at_the_border
- Gravity at its best (5 Oct 2016): https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/post/gravity-at-its-best

## Contact

za@jhu.edu · https://www.zohaibakhtar.com/contact