Clinical Innovation Summit

William Haas, MD, MBA

Physician

Born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina, Dr. William Haas has established himself as a leader in the fields of integrative and functional medicine. Not afraid of breaking the mold, Dr. Haas also earned his MBA while attending medical school at East Carolina University, one of the nation’s top primary-care training programs. He is board-certified in both family medicine and Integrative Medicine. In addition to his integrative medicine training, Dr. Haas is a candidate for certification with the Institute for Functional Medicine.

Currently, Dr. Haas practices telemedicine and consults with various healthcare startups. He is also co-founder of OvulifeMD, a digital education platform focused on helping women naturally optimize their fertility. Prior to his current positions, Dr. Haas served as the Chief Medical Officer for Essential Health Solutions, a healthcare IT company that was acquired for its work on brining personalized medicine direct to the consumer.

Prior to his career as a physician, Dr. Haas worked as strength coach and personal-trainer, holding the highest certification with the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Previously an avid triathlete, Dr. Haas now enjoys competing in kettlebell sport competitions. Fitness and nutrition remain central to both his personal and professional practice.

Michael A. LaRocco

Director
Office of School Transportation

Mike has more than 27 years of experience in school transportation as a Director of Transportation at Hamilton Southeastern Schools, Family Development Services – Head Start for Marion and Hamilton Counties, Center Grove Community Schools, and the Indiana Department of Education. He was hired at the Indiana Department of Education in April 2009, originally to lead the Motorcycle Rider Education Program and Driver’s Education for secondary schools. In July 2010 he was given the responsibility for school transportation with the promotion to Director of the Office of School Transportation.

Mike holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and Master’s degree in Business Administration. Mike has served in the United States Army for eight years, is married to his wife of 31 years, Connie, who is retired school teacher, and has a son Eric who is working in his field of information technology.

Kayur Patel, MD, FACP, FACPE, FACHE, FACEP

Chief Medical Officer
Proactive MD

Dr. Kayur Patel, is a Practicing Emergency Department Physician. He is trained and boarded in both Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine. Dr. Patel is also a highly experienced physician executive. He has over twenty years of practical experience in Healthcare management.

This includes serving as the;

1. Former Chief Medical Officer of a 278-bed Community Hospital in Terre Haute
2. Former Director to Health Care Excel, An Quality Improvement Organization for Indiana
3. Currently he also serves as consultant to KEPRO, the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO)

Dr. Patel is a frequent speaker on the subject of quality in healthcare. His focus has been on improving methodology in care delivery to ensure Right Care at the Right Time at the Right Price.

Rajiv Sharma, MD

Physician

Dr. Rajiv specialized in his medical training in Gastroenterology at the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York. He learned under the mentorship of Dr Richard G. Farmer who has pioneered the field of Gastroenterology and had previously served as the Chief of Gastroenterology and Chair of Medicine at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic in, Ohio. Training with Dr. Farmer went outside the hospital which included “healthy pizza teaching sessions” to understand the digestive system. After New York, Dr. Rajiv moved to Indiana to initiate a Gastroenterology practice. He was attracted to Indiana because of the commonplace agricultural communities that made him feel at home. The Hoosier kindness and acceptance makes him feel at home.

As fate would have it, one of his children was diagnosed with a serious health condition that brought an icicle into Dr. Rajiv’s heart. He had to pay very close attention to every food molecule that was consumed. The food and nutrients had to be ultra clean, nontoxic and free of impurities. This triggered Dr. Rajiv to connect back to his Eastern roots and use healthy food ingredients with an integrative approach for healing the body. He was inspired to write his first book on gut friendly probiotic recipes “Pursuit of Gut Happiness” in 2014. The book was a big success in the local communities in Indiana and Kentucky. Dr. Rajiv also performed healthy cooking events in the community that bring attention to healthy eating habits in the community. Dr. Rajiv has been featured on TV with 6abc news, 14News, WTHI, WTWO; Radio with Sirius XM Health/NYU Langone, McGill University’s Dr Joe Schwarz radio show; Newspapers such as Courier & press, Tribune Star, Wabash Valley health, apart from being invited as a guest speaker at many local universities. He was featured on national podcasts that get replayed all over the USA and Internationally in France & Australia. He always advocates clean healthy food options in local hospital physician dining areas.

Every day he strives to educate and empower people to lead a clean life by eating clean foods.