An Interview with Jawad Shaikh, Avelead Executive Director: “We offer Leadership and Technology to address issues faced by Healthcare Providers, Revenue Cycle Experts, and Health System Executives to provide metric based Results”

“Avelead’s software and solutions are tailored to the specific needs of our customers.”

Continuous technological developments in healthcare have saved countless lives and improved the quality of life for even more. Not only has technology changed experiences for patients and their families, but it’s also had a huge impact on medical processes and the practices of healthcare professionals.

Avelead helps hospitals and health systems implement and optimize clinical, financial, and operational performance through strategic consulting services and software tools for Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Clinically Driven Revenue Cycle (CDRC) systems. By utilizing a well-blended mixture of strong leadership, solid methodologies, and innovative technology, Avelead delivers reliable metrics based results for their clients.

Avelead was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Suwanee, Georgia. Since its inception, the company has implemented EMR and CDRC systems with more than 60 hospitals and health systems nationally.

Jawad Shaikh, Avelead Executive Director, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Q. Why was the company set up? And how did you expand your company and its offerings over the years?

Based on our strong healthcare and technology experience, the company was set up to utilize our expertise around using software tools and metric-based approach to enhance and streamline EMR system implementations. We were then able to expand that to operational efficiencies through stabilization, optimization, and ongoing maintenance offerings. This eventually allowed Avelead to leverage our technology and experience in helping customers span across a larger footprint, and still remain focused on providing superior service that is solution-focused and value-based.

Q. How successful was your first project roll on? Share the experience.

One of our first projects entailed architecting the IT infrastructure for a smart hospital of the future. This involved designing, management of all IT components, and the actual physical move of the major hospital system to a new construction location. Software vendors from multiple organizations, such as Cerner, were engaged and managed to design, build, test, and retrain end users for the new hospital IT systems. With many moving parts and technologies, including physically moving over 150 patients, Avelead’s focus on leadership made it a monumental success.

Q. What kind of responses have you received from your consumers over the years? How have they motivated you to shape your offerings/grow the company?

Our clients have been key and active participants in how our solutions have evolved. They have helped shape the development of our software offerings by focusing on business needs versus the latest technology. The business drives the technology and not the other way around. This approach of engaging clients in the design of our solutions has led to over 60+ successful EMR and CDRC implementations. We are as our clients call us, the Swiss Army Knife of implementation.

Q. Building a culture of sustainability inside an organization is very important to maintain a reputation in the global market. How is it true for your company?

The actual market for Avelead currently is US-based healthcare organizations, both on the Acute Care side and the Ambulatory side. We believe that our reputation is only as good as our last service delivery. We have to stay focused on doing the right thing, at the right time, every time, for every client.

Q. Is your company a ‘leader or a follower’?

Avelead is definitely a ‘leader’ in the marketplace. Our software and service solutions are based on specific problems being faced by our customers today and on a regular basis. These are issues that no one else is addressing. We didn’t just develop the software to ‘check off a box’ on an RFP. Our software was developed on the specific business needs of our customers.

Q. If you have to list five factors that have been/are the biggest asset to your organization, what would they be and why?

Our employees – The backbone of Avelead. They are essential to our ability to provide results to our customers.

Our clients – They drive our success, and they are the reason we are in business.

Our leadership – We strive every day to lead in everything we do , from service delivery to software coding.

Our technology– This is the key to driving the performance of our team, and always based on a foundation of customer needs. It is reflected in everything we do, smarter and better.

Our client’s results – We believe a product must solve a specific problem or it just isn’t useful. Our product solves problems that our clients face every day. Finding that solution defines our deliverables and results for our clients.

Q. What do you feel are the reasons behind your company’s reputation?

Listen, hear, and understand our clients. Many times we understand what our clients need before they do because we’ve been there and have done that. Our track record of success using our methodology and technology to do things efficiently speaks volumes about the efforts we put in delivering solutions. Many times we have been brought in after a series of failed attempts to complete a project with another team. Our focus on the solution-based deliverables, utilizing our software to do things smarter and better, helped us bring those projects in on time and on budget.

Q. Where do you see your company a couple of years from now?

We have doubled in size (both in terms of employees and revenue) over the past two years. We hope to continue that trend.The challenge is to maintain that momentum and continue to develop additional solutions that trend over the next two years. Additionally, we will continue to develop additional solutions (both from a software and services standpoint) that address the true need of our clients. 

Avelead Leadership: A Brief Background

Jawad Shaikh, Executive Director: Jawad is focused on managing strategy and growth for Avelead. Prior to Avelead, Jawad was the founder and senior partner at Accision Health before merging with Parallon Technology Solutions (Vision Consulting). After using advanced integration technologies at McKesson, Nike, DuPont, and United Healthcare, Jawad started Accision in 2001 to help organizations optimize and implement enterprise solutions. In 2010, Jawad made the strategic decision to merge with Vision Consulting, LLC, which later became part of Parallon Technology Solutions. Jawad’s vision for delivering solutions in the form of healthcare technology-specific services and customized healthcare software offerings is already delivering results for clients nationally.

Badar Shaikh, Executive Director: Badar is responsible for overall delivery and implementation services. His technology roots began with network infrastructure at AT&T before bringing his technical savvy mindset to the healthcare industry over 17 years ago. Badar is a motivated self-starter and a team player. His key strengths include leadership, technology, excellent communication skills, exceptional analysis and problem-solving abilities. Badar has a proven track record as a hands-on integration architect for full-lifecycle deployment at major corporate healthcare systems. His areas of concentration have been on developing interface designs and data flows for different systems, such as Cerner, McKesson, Meditech, MedHost, Siemens, while working with customers and vendors alike.

“We believe that our reputation is only as good as our last service delivery. We have to stay focused on doing the right thing, at the right time, every time, for every client.”