Healthcare strategy + technology + building things

I build teams, strategies, and products

I'm Bob Holzer. I spent 30+ years in healthcare IT, mostly at HCSC (Blue Cross Blue Shield), where I built teams and practices that didn't exist before I got there. Now I'm building my own ventures through Next Horizon Innovations LLC.

30+
Years in Tech & Healthcare
21
Years at HCSC / BCBS
3
Teams Built from Scratch
3
Active Ventures

From technology strategy and innovation to the founder's desk

I've spent my career seeing what organizations need before they know they need it, then making the case to leadership and building it.

2024 - Present
Founder
Next Horizon Innovations LLC
Started my own LLC to build products in healthcare, AI, and emerging tech. Three ventures in progress: a synthetic healthcare data platform, a patented safety lighting device, and an open-source AI-powered innovation platform. Different problems, same builder instinct.
2023 - 2025
Sr. Director, Operations Strategy & Innovation
HCSC / Blue Cross Blue Shield
Built and led a new team that combined IT Strategy with Innovation, a structure HCSC hadn't had before. The job was to turn corporate strategy into a working technology plan with milestones people could track and outcomes leadership could see. Owned the 3-year tech plan, delivery roadmaps, the innovation pipeline, and executive reporting.
2016 - 2023
Sr. Director, Technology Exploration / Innovation
HCSC
I pitched the CIO on a new innovation team, got approval, and stood it up from scratch. For seven years, I ran programs covering tech scouting, design thinking, strategic foresight, and hands-on experimentation. Led the enterprise generative AI adoption, served as a founding member of Avaneer Health, and managed experiments in blockchain, AR/VR, and voice biomarkers.
2003 - 2016
Sr. Director, Strategy & Enterprise Architecture
HCSC
Co-led the enterprise data strategy and built the architecture practice from the ground up. A lot of the work was helping leadership see past the big data hype and make decisions grounded in real use cases. Also built and led a new information solutions and architecture team.
1990 - 2003
Developer through Architect
Kemper Insurance / Discover / B.H. Royce Corp
A decade-plus in property and casualty insurance technology, plus consulting and a co-founded startup. This is where I built the foundation in architecture, systems design, and figuring out how technology actually serves a business.

What I'm building now

Taking 30 years of enterprise experience and putting it into products that solve real problems in healthcare, personal safety, and enterprise innovation.

🧬
SynthData Sandbox
Healthcare AI Data Infrastructure
A synthetic healthcare data platform built for the agentic AI era. If you're a healthcare startup building AI agents for claims, prior auth, or clinical workflows, you need realistic patient data to train and test against. But you can't touch real PHI. SynthData Sandbox generates deterministic, auditable synthetic data with native AI agent integration built in.
Synthetic Data Healthcare AI MCP Integration FHIR / OMOP Docker-First
💡
Light Halo
Patented Safety Lighting
A head-worn lighting device that flips the script on personal safety. Instead of lighting the path ahead, it lights up the wearer, creating a visible human silhouette from rear and lateral angles. Runners and cyclists get hit from behind because existing lights illuminate the road, not the person. Light Halo fixes that. Four prototypes built and field-tested. Rated "Highly Patentable."
Patent Pending Hardware Safety Innovation 4 Prototypes Field Tested
🤖
Applied Innovation Platform
13-Agent AI Innovation System
An open-source AI platform with 13 specialized agents that apply Future Thinking, Design Thinking, and Systems Thinking together inside Claude. Built from years of running enterprise innovation. No infrastructure required. Free to use. A full coordinated engagement from intake to board-ready deliverable in days, not months.
13 Agents Open Source Built in Claude DVFA Scoring IFTF Foresight
Explore the platform

What I bring to the table

Strategic thinking, technical depth, 21 years of healthcare payer knowledge, and the track record of actually building the things I talk about.

AI & Innovation

Innovation pipelines, responsible AI governance, generative AI adoption, and technology experiments. I don't just evaluate tech, I run the pilots.

Technology Strategy

Three-year plans, tech radars, delivery roadmaps, and the work of turning a C-suite vision into something teams can actually execute against.

Enterprise Architecture

Solution, data, and information architecture across multi-plan healthcare organizations. I built the EA practice at HCSC from scratch.

Data Strategy

Data platforms, data governance, synthetic data, and the data foundations that make AI work. I led the original big data strategy at HCSC.

Healthcare Payer Domain

21 years on the payer side. Claims, prior auth, provider data, CMS mandates, FHIR interoperability, and regulatory compliance. I know the territory.

Entrepreneurship

LLC formation, business planning, patent development, and hands-on product building. I'm not just advising on innovation anymore, I'm doing it.

The way I operate

01

I see the gap and build the bridge

Three times at HCSC, I saw something missing, made the case to leadership, and built a new team or practice from nothing. I don't wait to be asked.

02

Think big, plan it out, get it done

I connect business strategy, technology, data, and people into plans that actually hold together. Then I structure the path with clear milestones so everybody knows what's expected.

03

Get your hands on the technology

From strategic foresight and signal monitoring to building apps with Claude Code, I stay hands-on. You can't advise leadership on technology you haven't touched yourself.

Interested in working together?

Open to strategy, innovation, CIO advisory, technology leadership, and entrepreneurial work. Based in Chicago, available remote or hybrid.