Executive Leadership

Hemant Virkar is a visionary with a cause. His cause is global health and he strives to improve the quality of care and its availability by infusing technology into the healthcare sphere. He is the founder of Digital Infuzion, a healthcare-IT firm dedicated to providing informatics and enterprise solutions to research centers and healthcare organizations around the globe through IT innovation. He has 30 years of experience as an executive and technical expert. In addition to leading Digital Infuzion since its inception, he served ten years as president of a technology company where he restructured business operations to achieve a 55 percent reduction in operating costs, a consistent 40 percent growth rate in revenue, and an increase in the revenue base from $1 million to $14 million. Mr. Virkar has built large-scale enterprise systems for a variety of customers, such as the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI); World Bank, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). He also holds a seat on the U.S. Technical Advisory Group of Sub-Committee 7, is a member of the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) Industry Advisory Board, and is active in other related organizations with similar overarching missions.

Mr. Gupta is Digital Infuzion’s Group Vice President and COO, reporting to the CEO. Mr. Gupta joined Digital Infuzion in 2002 and in 2010 he was named Group VP of Operations. As a Group VP, Mr. Gupta is responsible for providing oversight and leadership to the execution of projects to achieve the company’s vision/mission. Mr. Gupta’s expertise is in architecting and implementing custom software applications using a wide range of programming languages, software tools and development methodologies, operating systems and hardware. Since 1998, Mr. Gupta has been involved in developing web-based clinical research management information systems for various Institutes and Centers at National Institutes of Health (NIH). Mr. Gupta is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from V.J.T.I. (Bombay University) and a Master’s degree in Management Information Systems from University of Maryland.

Ms. Curtis has substantial experience in development, implementation, and maintenance of sophisticated cost accounting systems and utilization of cost allocation methodologies. Her professional certifications include Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), and Certified Government Financial Manager (CGFM). Her experience with federal government contracting includes project management, client relations, and financial and project reporting preparation. With more than 37 years of experience working with private- and public-sector organizations, her expertise includes general accounting, tax preparation, financial reviews, financial auditing, investigative fraud audits, audits for compliance with federal regulations, and design of accounting and financial management systems. Ms. Curtis has ensured accurate and timely financial and statistical reports at Digital Infuzion, through her keen oversight of budget, tax, and audit activities, as well as accounting system controls and standards. While working at the Department of Labor (DOL), she uncovered fraud committed by a contractor who was using the same social security number to duplicate payments under multiple names. Ms. Curtis currently directs the financial plans and accounting practices for Digital Infuzion.

Dr. Stephan Bour brings more than 20 years of experience as a scientist in bioinformatics, computational biology, high performance computing, infectious diseases research, program management, software development, IT governance, IT executive management, and IT capital planning. He has more than 13 years of experience working as a scientist and executive manager at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). His expertise comprises translational research and knowledge management systems to solve complex biological problems; this encompasses data standardization, harmonization, modeling, and semantic integration.  As Digital Infuzion’s Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Bour injects strong scientific and medical expertise into Digital Infuzion's projects and proposals, develops meaningful relationships with the academic community, and advises on issues pertaining to the state and evolution of basic and clinical research focus, discoveries, and methods. Among his accomplishments, Dr. Bour has published 39 scientific papers; managed and performed development and deployment of software, algorithms, databases, user interfaces, and statistical tools; and, as the CIO of the third largest Institute of the NIH, managed complex enterprise-level technology programs focused on clinical and health research. Dr. Bour is the recipient of multiple NIH awards for his work bridging science and technology. He is an active member of the CDISC Protocol Representation Group.

Mr. Beresny brings over twenty years of health informatics, healthcare management, technology development, and consulting leadership in the areas of public health, biomedical research and healthcare delivery. He is an ardent and transformative leader, having created, deployed, and grown new businesses, products and services through his business development, marketing, corporate development and operations leadership. In his role as Vice President, Marketing and Business Development, Mr. Beresny leads Digital Infuzion’s corporate growth including market strategy, corporate branding and marketing activities, in addition to oversight and execution of corporate business development activities. Mr. Beresny’s professional experience crosses many sectors of the health industry, including providers, payers, BioPharma, clinical research, biomedical research, medical device manufacturing and government. Prior to Digital Infuzion, Mr. Beresny led health informatics and biomedical IT business development and strategic capture for ICF International. At ICF Mr. Beresny managed a client project portfolio including NIH, FDA, the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG) and other Operational Divisions within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). John also served as a principal subject matter expert and lead health market/health IT strategist contributing to ICF’s health strategy and corporate development initiatives. Prior to ICF, Mr. Beresny founded and managed bVero Systems, a boutique-consulting firm, assisting technology and services companies clients with strategic marketing, product strategy and health market entry strategies. Mr. Beresny is also co-founder of BioFortis, a medical research data management and bioinformatics company that commercialized technology from Johns Hopkins Medical Institutes to enable research collaboration and accelerate data integration for translational medicine and biomedical research. Mr. Beresny graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Molecular Biology and a minor in Applied Economics and Management. Mr. Beresny also holds an M.B.A from University at Buffalo (State University of New York) School of Management, with certifications in Healthcare Systems Management and Marketing Management. Mr. Beresny is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS) from HIMSS and holds a PMP certification from the Project Management Institute.

Nancy Nurthen serves as the Vice President, Digital Health Strategy and Innovation at Digital Infuzion and is an accomplished leader with extensive experience designing, implementing, and overseeing enterprise-wide digital health solutions in alignment with key business objectives. Nancy works closely with Digital Infuzion senior leadership by developing strategic and operational plans to build and scale DIFZ’s consulting services and product offerings in the healthcare and life sciences sector. Nancy shares our values, focus on innovation, and commitment to making a meaningful impact on world health. Prior to joining Digital Infuzion, she was at the Department of Health and Human Services, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Office of Emergency Management (OEM), where she served as Director of the Fusion Division. Her professional roots span roles in the Federal government, most notably serving in key roles at the OEM and the Department of Defense, Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). Nancy’s 11+ years of experience serving these agencies advanced her reputation as a well-respected subject matter expert and strategist who delivers customized solutions in bioinformatics, clinical informatics, health surveillance, health situational awareness, and health outcomes solutions. Nancy earned her MPH in Epidemiology from the George Washington University and her BS in Health Sciences from James Madison University. She has earned several certifications and awards, published articles on biosurveillance, and attended the Federal Executive Institute’s leadership development program.

Dr. Stark is a computational scientist who has pioneered new methods of analysis and visualization of biomedical data drawing upon her triple expertise, including academic training and many years of professional experience in biological research, mathematics and software development. Holding a Ph.D. in biology from Yale University and having conducted postdoctoral research in the Center for Cancer Research at MIT, Dr. Stark brings over 17 years of research experience at the bench to inform her approaches to data analysis. She has over 25 years of management and technical experience in genetics, gene expression, neural development, cell biology, mathematics, statistics, bioinformatics, computational biology, algorithm development, project management, database design, systems analysis and software development. Dr. Stark founded Digital Infuzion’s computational biology department and led the Research and Development (R&D) initiative for Digital Infuzion’s self-learning bioanalytics tool, GeneBrain^®, originating its concept and directing the software development. Current R&D efforts include creating intuitive visualizations of complex data and analysis as a method for making results of sophisticated mathematical algorithms interpretable to those with no mathematical training. Her work and the work of her department have expanded Digital Infuzion’s portfolio of patent applications. Prior to coming to Digital Infuzion, she founded and directed a computational biology department for Linden Bioscience to combine analysis of multiple ‘omics’, amplification methods and probe design. She also headed R&D for gene expression at Alphagene, the first commercial provider of spotted cDNA microarrays. She is currently the director of Digital Infuzion’s computational biology department and is responsible for the management of its independent R&D team, a multidisciplinary group focused on applying and extending cutting-edge mathematics to the analysis of biomedical data. She is also a member of the Gerson Lehrman Group Council of Healthcare Advisors and is a frequent ad hoc reviewer of grants and contracts for NIAID (the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease) within the NIH, in the areas of bioinformatics, systems biology and computational biology.

Mr. McCartan has been an industry leader and pioneer in designing, architecting and realizing software systems and solutions since early 2000. He was educated at the University of Missouri and is an expert software development specialist. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Applications Developer (MCAD), Certified Professional Developer (MCPD), and Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS). He has over 15 years of project management experience applying advanced software development lifecycle models such as the Rational Unified Process (RUP), Agile and Iterative development. For Digital Infuzion, Mr. McCartan leads the System Integration and Technology Services Group. In that capacity, he is responsible for the design, architecture, and development of the platform that supports RegistryNXT!, a redesigned system that operates four lysosomal storage disorder disease registries. On this project, Mr. McCartan manages all of the teams involved, including those that perform contract management, project management, quality assurance and software development, using both on-shore and off-shore resources. Mr. McCartan has led the software development departments of numerous companies, including ACNeilsen, NFO Healthcare, Ajilon and Information Resources. During Mr. McCartan’s employment at NFO Healthcare, he designed, architected, implemented, and managed a complete health care electronic survey authoring and data collection application. At Digital Infuzion, Mr. McCartan is responsible for all disciplines of the software development lifecycle, including architecture, design, planning, project management, quality assurance, support, deployment and hosting.