PALO ALTO, Calif.– VISTA.AI today announced the appointment of Daniel Hawkins as President and CEO. The company is pioneering AI-driven MRI image acquisition enabling any MRI technician to consistently produce high quality scans for complex indications quickly, efficiently and affordably. Daniel joins Vista.ai at a pivotal time following FDA clearance and confirmatory early commercialization of the company’s initial product focused on Cardiac MRI (CMR). Over time, the company plans to launch brain, spine and other indications to round out a suite of AI-driven MRI capability.
A serial entrepreneur and leader with more than 30 years of MedTech experience, Daniel has held marketing, business development and managerial roles in established and early-stage companies including Guidant (Abbott vascular), Intuitive Surgical where he drove initial market creation for the DaVinci surgical robot, and Shockwave Medical where he invented the core technology and served as CEO. A prolific inventor, he is named on over 160 medical device and digital health patents and applications.
“We invested in Vista early on as it has the potential to transform healthcare access and costs,” said Bruce Armstrong, Partner at Khosla Ventures. “We are thrilled to have Daniel at the helm of this company. His demonstrated experience in developing new markets, establishing product-market fit and driving foundational go-to-market strategies and results make him the ideal leader.”
“I am excited to join the outstanding team responsible for Vista’s transformational AI-based MRI technology. This is an important time for the company and I’m looking forward to leading our efforts to bring this much needed technology to market,” said Daniel.
He continued, “Over 40 million MRI scans are performed each year in the U.S. alone and wait times to receive a scan are often very long and scan quality can be quite variable. Most often, this is due to systemic shortages in MRI technicians with particularly acute needs for those trained to conduct complex scans in specialties like cardiac, brain and spine. Vista software is designed to eliminate those issues, enabling completion of high-quality complex and specialty scans by virtually any MRI technician, faster, better and more consistently than ever before. The team at Vista is looking forward to bringing this powerful capability to providers and patients worldwide.” (IANS)
