Anumana Named to Fast Company’s Next Big Things in Tech 2024

Anumana, Inc.™ is a health technology company from nference and Mayo Clinic Platform, harnessing industry-leading AI and translational science to decode the electrocardiogram as never before – as a deep predictive tool and biomarker of disease – empowering care providers to help patients early.

About Us

Anumana™ is an AI-driven health technology company from nference, building and commercializing AI solutions to improve patient care throughout the cardiac care continuum. Anumana is on a mission to unlock the electrical signals of the heart to power earlier and improved diagnosis, treatment, and interventions in cardiology.

Anumana’s AI solutions are investigational medical devices and have not yet received regulatory approval or clearance. For more information, follow Anumana on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Murali Aravamudan is a serial entrepreneur, inventor and engineer who has built, led and exited several successful media and telecom technology companies. He is the co-founder of nference and the Executive Chairman of the Anumana board.

In 2005, Mr. Aravamudan co-founded and served as chief executive officer of Veveo, a software company that enabled quick, efficient content discovery in input-constrained devices, including televisions and mobile phones. As CEO of Veveo, he established the company’s leadership in its target market segments with more than 100 million device deployments, as well as its innovation of conversational interfaces. His leadership translated into an expanding patent portfolio for Veveo with 95 granted US patents and 70+ pending applications. He helped raise $28M in equity in two rounds from Matrix Partners, Norwest Ventures and Northbridge Ventures. Veveo was acquired by TiVo (formerly Rovi) in 2014 for over $75M.

Mr. Aravamudan founded Winphoria Networks in 2000 and served as chief technology officer until its acquisition by Motorola in 2003 for $200M. Mr. Aravamudan then served as vice president and general manager of the Winphoria division of Motorola’s Global Telecom Solutions Sector. Winphoria pioneered development of the mobile wireless softswitch and instant communications applications for mobile networks. At Winphoria he helped raise $54M in equity in two rounds from Matrix Partners, Norwest Ventures and Northbridge Ventures.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Aravamudan served as vice president and chief technology officer of the communications software business at Lucent Technologies and as department head of communications software research at Bell Laboratories. He was a principal involved in the creation of softswitch, the revolutionary technology for IP-based telephone networks that is today the foundation for next-generation converged voice and data networks.

Mr. Aravamudan has authored 115 US patents and has more than 100 patents pending in the areas of search, personalization, conversational interfaces, machine learning/AI systems, data networking, telephony and, recently, computational biology. He holds a master’s degree in Electrical Communication Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science.

Maulik Nanavaty is an executive with more than three decades of experience in operational and commercial medical device experience in the U.S. and international markets. In addition to his role as Chief Executive Officer of Anumana, he also serves as President, Ventures at nference and Chief Executive Officer of Vimana.

Mr. Nanavaty joins Anumana after 18 years at Boston Scientific, where most recently, he was Senior Vice President and President of Neuromodulation at Boston Scientific, a >$1B global business unit, leading the development and commercialization of microelectronic implantable technologies and software used to treat neurological diseases and other chronic conditions. Prior to this role, Mr. Nanavaty was the President of Boston Scientific Japan, and previously Vice President and General Manager of Interventional Cardiology, Boston Scientific Japan. Prior to Boston Scientific, Mr. Nanavaty spent 16 years in various executive positions at Baxter. Maulik is a member of the board of directors for Rani Therapeutics, a publicly listed biotechnology company.  

Maulik earned a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Illinois and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.  

David McMullin has more than two decades of experience in corporate development, strategic planning, commercialization and operations across multiple sectors in the life sciences industry. In addition to serving as chief business officer of Anumana, he continues in his role of chief strategy officer of nference.

Prior to joining nference and Anumana, Mr. McMullin served as chief business officer of Aldeyra Therapeutics, a Nasdaq listed biotechnology company. Before Aldeyra, Mr. McMullin ran U.S. Internal Medicine at Shire plc, a $1.4 billion rare disease and specialty pharmaceutical company, and was previously the head of Global Commercial Operations at Shire. Prior to his work at Shire, he was the vice president of Global Supply Chain Management and Strategy at Novartis. He holds an MBA with high distinction as a Baker Scholar from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Brigham Young University.

Mr. Palmin has a successful track record of building, financing and operating public/private life sciences companies for 25+ years, having taken 3 companies public. He has been serving as CFO at Anumana, Inc. and CFO Ventures at nference, Inc from April 2024. Mr. Palmin previously served as CFO at Acer Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: ACER) from 2016 until the sale to Zevra Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ZVRA) in November 2023. He took Acer public in 2017 achieving a $330 million peak market capitalization and raised $172 million in pursuit of Acer’s drug development and commercial objectives culminating in OLPRUVA® approval in December 2022. Mr. Palmin also served as Acer’s COO from 2018 until June 2022, and as President, CEO and board director at Acer from 2013 until 2016, having originally built Acer into a venture-backed ultra orphan pharmaceutical company with late-stage clinical products. From 1998 until 2013, he served as President, CEO, Acting CFO and board director at Novelos Therapeutics, Inc. (CEO 2005-2013; Acting CFO 1998-2005). Mr. Palmin built Novelos from a concept into a $500 million peak market capitalization public oncology and infectious disease development company that completed a pivotal Phase 3 lung cancer trial. He then rebuilt Novelos as a public company around a cancer-targeted delivery platform with 3 lead compounds. Mr. Palmin raised $98 million in pursuit of Novelos’ drug development and commercial objectives; and recruited, led and managed executive teams. Overall, he raised $270 million for Acer and Novelos, oversaw 14 clinical studies in oncology, ultra orphan and infectious diseases, including two pivotal Phase 3 trials under SPAs. Mr. Palmin supported multiple pre-commercial activities and the launch of OLPRUVA®.

From 1996 to 1998, Mr. Palmin was a Vice President at Lehman Brothers and from 1993 to 1996, he was an Associate at Morgan Stanley & Co.

Mr. Palmin earned a B.A. in economics and business, magna cum laude, and a M.A. in international economics and finance from the International Business School at Brandeis University. He has also studied at the London School of Economics and the Copenhagen Business School.

Kyle oversees Anumana's global legal affairs, bringing to the company more than 25 years of experience in managing corporate legal operations and compliance functions as well as implementing complex life sciences and other strategic collaborations. In additional to his role at Anumana, Kyle is also SVP, General Counsel at nference, Pramana and Vimana. 

Prior to Anumana, Kyle was Senior Vice President and General Counsel of iboss, a global cybersecurity firm, and previously served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Decision Resources Group (DRG), a global provider of best-in-class healthcare data, analytics and insights products and services. Prior to DRG, Kyle was Senior Vice President and General Counsel for The Princeton Review, Inc., a college admissions and test preparation company.

Earlier in his career, he served as Vice President and Associate General Counsel at Sapient Corporation, a global integrated marketing and technology services company, and Director of Legal Affairs and M&A Integration for ZEFER, a technology implementation and consulting services firm. He began his career as an associate in the health law department of Ropes & Gray, a global law firm. Kyle holds a B.A. with Distinction from the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctor degree, magna cum laude, from Boston College Law School.

Animesh Agarwal has 10+ years of experience in creating products and building businesses, in various areas of the lifesciences and healthcare industry. He is passionate about the democratization of healthcare, and believes that technology is vital to reducing the gaps in cost, access, and quality of outcomes. 

Prior to joining nference and Anumana, Animesh served as the Chief Product Officer of NeuTrace, Inc., an interventional electrophysiology company that was acquired by Anumana. Before that, Animesh worked for a healthcare venture capital investor with investments in pharma, biotech, diagnostics, and healthcare delivery. Animesh is a biomedical engineer with a Bachelors from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, an MS from University of Texas At Austin, and an MBA from The Wharton School.

Dr. Samir Awasthi is vice president of clinical research at Anumana and serves in the same role at nference, where he has been for more than two years. Dr. Awasthi has worked closely with Mayo Clinic, pioneering new AI-enabled algorithms to detect disease in ways never before possible. He is currently leading clinical research projects in areas including predictive analytics, external control arms, post-marketing outcomes assessments, lifecycle management and novel target identification. 

Prior to joining nference, Dr. Awasthi obtained his BS and MEng in Physics and Biomedical Engineering, respectively, from MIT, followed by an MD-PhD from the University of California, Davis, where he completed doctoral research at the NSF Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology (CBST). At CBST, he developed new approaches to imaging adult and stem cell-derived heart cells using nonlinear optical phenomena. He completed additional clinical and research training in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and is board-certified in Psychiatry.

Senior Vice President of Data Science and Engineering

Dr. Rakesh Barve is the senior vice president of data science and engineering at Anumana and serves in the same role at nference, where he has been for almost three years. At nference, Dr. Barve is building the first large-scale, AI-based inference and decision-enabling pharmacological and clinical data platform to enable intelligent and effective clinical care solutions and drug development. He is leading engineering and product teams using AI, statistics and computer science techniques to synthesize scientifically sound knowledge from vast heterogenous volumes of biomedical and clinical healthcare data.

Prior to joining nference, Dr. Barve his undergraduate degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, followed by a PhD in Computer Science from Duke University.

Suzanne Goodman is the Vice President of Regulatory and Quality at Anumana, bringing over 25 years of experience to the team and leveraging a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Duke University.   She has supported a broad range of organizations (large and small medical device manufacturers, FDA, CROs, and consulting firms) with a wide range of medical devices and pharmaceutical development tools. She specializes in startup environments creating software-as-a-medical device (SaMD) and software-controlled electrical-mechanical devices.

Suzanne joined Anumana and nference in May 2022 with the goal of fully developing the Quality and Regulatory teams and Quality Management System to support design and development of world-class, globally-marketed medical devices.    

Dr. Tyler Wagner is vice president of biomedical research at Anumana and serves in the same role at nference, where has been for more than three years. Dr. Wagner has worked closely with Mayo Clinic, developing new AI-enabled algorithms for innovative disease prediction. He is currently leading clinical research projects ranging from early detection of disease to real-world outcomes assessment, and is working to apply machine learning to outstanding questions in multiple therapeutic areas, including cardiology, oncology, and neuroscience.

He is currently leading clinical research projects ranging from early detection of disease to real-world outcomes assessment, and is working to apply machine learning to outstanding questions in multiple therapeutic areas, including cardiology, oncology and neuroscience.

Prior to joining nference and Anumana, Dr. Wagner obtained his PhD in the Weiss lab (MIT) and Densmore lab (BU) where he engineered both an RNA virus and mRNA into multi-functional platforms for regulated gene delivery. He continued with a post-doctorate in the Weiss lab where he explored in vivo regulatory strategies for RNA therapeutics.

Chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Mayo Clinic Advisory Board Chair

Dr. Paul A. Friedman is Chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. He is ABIM board certified in cardiovascular medicine and cardiac electrophysiology, and is an active participant in the MOC process. 

Previously, Dr. Friedman served as Director of the Cardiac Implantable Device Lab, Mayo Clinic. He is a trained electrical engineer, with deep experience in innovation (>40 patents issued, named Minnesota Top Inventor), and scientific research (>250 scientific original publications). He is a committed educator, serving as a director for five national and international meetings, editor of seven textbooks, and author of more than 60 book chapters. He is a frequent visiting professor and lecturer at educational meetings.

Dr. Samuel J. Asirvatham is an electrophysiologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where he is also a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and a Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology. He is a consultant in cardiac electrophysiology and Program Director for the Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellowship and Director of Strategic Collaboration for the Center for Innovation at Mayo Clinic. 

 After completing medical school at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, his internship was at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. Following residency and chief residency at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he did his clinical cardiac and electrophysiology training at the University of Oklahoma near Oklahoma City.

 Dr. Asirvatham serves as Advisory Board Innovation Lead for Anumana.

Co-Director of Artificial Intelligence in Cardiology at Mayo Clinic

Dr. Itzhak Zachi Attia is Director of Artificial Intelligence in Cardiology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. and an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.

Dr. Attia is an experienced machine learning and signal processing engineer with a demonstrated history of working in the healthcare industry, designing studies and data collection pipelines, dataset creation for studies with millions of patients and development of IP in areas of machine learning in healthcare.

Dr. Attia serves as Advisory Board Technical Lead for Anumana.

Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez is the chair of the Division of Preventive Cardiology, Co-Director of Artificial Intelligence in Cardiology, and Director of Research at the Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center, all at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He is currently the co-Chair of the American College of Cardiology’s Advanced Healthcare and Analytics Work Group, whose primary goal is to promote interest and knowledge in machine learning in cardiology.

He earned his M.Sc. degree in clinical epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and a Master's in Business and Administration at Augsburg University after completing his cardiovascular training at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami, and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, in Boston, Mass. His research focuses on cardiovascular disease prevention as well as clinical applications of machine learning in cardiology. He has been involved in numerous population-based initiatives for heart disease prevention in Olmsted County, Minn., and overseas and co-directs an epidemiologic study in the city of Brno, the Czech Republic.

Dr. Lopez-Jimenez serves as Advisory Board Population Screening Lead for Anumana.

Leader, Digital Innovation Laboratory, Mayo Clinic

Dr. Rickey E. Carter has collaborative research interests in the areas of cardiology, diabetes, radiology, health care delivery, and translational science. He actively researches new approaches to the design and analysis of research studies from a statistical perspective. Recently, his interests are extending into digital health through the development and testing of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. 

Dr. Carter leads the Digital Innovation Laboratory at Mayo Clinic's campus in Jacksonville, Florida. This dry lab is a machine learning shared resource that engages in activities ranging from using electrocardiograms for the detection of cardiovascular diseases to performing work design and unsupervised-image segmentation for high-resolution digital representations of tissue samples. The goal of Dr. Carter's lab is to help accelerate discovery and improve care by providing new tools to aid front-line healthcare providers.

Dr. Carter serves as Advisory Board Statistical and Study Design Lead for Anumana.

Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiologist & Professor of Internal Medicine, Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University

Dr. Emile Daoud, a Professor of Internal Medicine at The Ohio State University, Wexner Medical Center, is a highly skilled Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiologist with vast experience in the treatment and management of heart rhythm disorders. With over two decades of practice in invasive electrophysiology procedures, including catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation and implantable electronic device procedures for different cardiac dysrhythmias, Dr. Daoud has gained national recognition in the field. He is a fellow in the American College of Cardiology and a member of the American Heart Association, Heart Rhythm Society, and Cardiac Electrophysiology Society. His clinical and research interests primarily revolve around electrophysiology, specifically focusing on the curative ablation of arrhythmias like atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia.

Dr. Daoud became a part of Anumana's scientific advisory board following Anumana’s acquisition of NeuTrace, where he contributed his expertise to the development of various electrophysiology applications.

Professor, University of Bordeaux & Co-Director, LIRY

Dr. Pierre Jaïs is a Professor at the University of Bordeaux in France, working in the Rhythmology and Cardiac Stimulation Department. He co-manages the LIRYC Institute (Electrophysiology and Heart Modelling Institute), leading the MUSIC EQUIPEX (Multi-modality Platform for Specific Imaging in Cardiology), aiming to improve knowledge and treatment of electrical dysfunctions of the heart. Dr. Jaïs actively participates in both national and international symposia and has authored over 400 articles, primarily centered around electrophysiology and RF catheter ablation. His primary research interest lies in the field of atrial arrhythmias. At present, he is dedicated to advancing the field of catheter ablation for both atrial and ventricular arrhythmias. 

Dr. Jaïs joined Anumana’s scientific advisory board after Anumana’s acquisition of NeuTrace, where he contributed his expertise to the development of several electrophysiology applications. 

Director of Electrophysiology, University of Pennsylvania Health System

Dr. Francis Marchlinski is the Director of Electrophysiology at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. His expertise lies in various areas, including AV node ablation, arrhythmogenic focus ablation, anomalous atrioventricular excitation, arrhythmias during pregnancy, adult arrhythmias with congenital heart diseases, arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, atrial fibrillation, and more. 

Dr. Marchlinski is actively involved in cutting-edge research, contributing to the advancement of cardiology. He is affiliated with Penn Medicine's Cardiac Arrhythmia Program, a comprehensive program that brings together experts from various disciplines to ensure seamless and coordinated care for patients.

Executive Medical Director of the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute, St. David's Medical Center 

Dr. Andrea Natale, a renowned leader in the field of electrophysiology, is the Executive Medical Director of the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute at St. David's Medical Center. With patients seeking his expertise from around the world, Dr. Natale is a dedicated clinician, academician, and researcher. His distinguished career includes serving as the Section Head for the Department of Cardiac Pacing and Electrophysiology and as the Medical Director for the Center for Atrial Fibrillation at the Cleveland Clinic. He has held faculty positions at esteemed institutions like Duke University and Stanford University and has been recognized for his groundbreaking research in the treatment of atrial fibrillation. Dr. Natale's passion lies in restoring his patients' lives by developing innovative approaches and advanced technologies. His contributions to the field have earned him numerous awards and accolades, including the Cleveland Clinic Innovator of the Year and the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute's Bury + Partners Innovation Award.

Dr. Natale joined Anumana’s scientific advisory board following Anumana’s acquisition of NeuTrace, where he contributed to the development of several electrophysiology applications.

Director of Cardiac Arrhythmia Services, Mount Sinai Hospital

Dr. Vivek Reddy is the Director of Cardiac Arrhythmia Services for the Mount Sinai Hospital and the Mount Sinai Health System, and the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust Professor of Medicine in Cardiac Electrophysiology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. 

Dr. Reddy is a renowned electrophysiologist, leading a team of physicians and researchers in developing and testing advanced therapies for cardiac arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardias. Dr. Reddy’s research is paving the way for cardiac patients to receive cutting-edge treatment. With his clinical research team, he has conducted several multinational clinical trials to explore new arrhythmia procedures and technologies. 

Dr. Reddy joined Anumana’s scientific advisory board following Anumana’s acquisition of NeuTrace, where he contributed to the development of several electrophysiology applications. 

Director of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Center & EP Programs, UCLA

Dr. Kalyanam Shivkumar, MD, Ph.D., is a distinguished expert in the field of electrophysiology, specializing in interventional cardiac electrophysiology. With a wealth of knowledge and experience, he is renowned for his contributions to the non-pharmacological management of cardiac arrhythmias. 

Dr. Shivkumar is the inaugural director of the UCLA Cardiac Arrhythmia Center & EP Programs and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Radiology at UCLA. His research is focused on mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias in humans, specifically to the role of autonomic nervous systems. He is an active member of prestigious professional organizations, including the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, and the Heart Rhythm Society. 

Dr. Shivkumar joined Anumana’s scientific advisory board following Anumana’s acquisition of NeuTrace, where he contributed to the development of several electrophysiology applications. 

About Us

Leadership

Murali Aravamudan

Maulik Nanavaty

David McMullin

Harry S. Palmin

Kyle Bettigole

Animesh Agarwal

Samir Awasthi, MD, PhD

Rakesh Barve, PhD

Suzanne Goodman

Tyler Wagner, PhD

Advisors

Paul Friedman, MD

Samuel J. Asirvatham, MD

Zachi Attia, PhD

Francisco Lopez-Jiminez, MD, MBA

Rickey Carter, PhD

Emile Daoud, MD

Pierre Jaïs, MD

Francis Marchlinkski, MD

Andrea Natale, MD

Vivek Reddy, MD

Kalyanam Shivkumar, MD, PhD

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