Building what's next in healthcare & AI

Where strategy meets invention

I'm Bob Holzer — a healthcare IT strategist turned entrepreneur, with 30+ years connecting technology vision to business outcomes. Now channeling that experience into ventures that push healthcare forward.

30+
Years in Tech & Healthcare
21
Years at HCSC / BCBS
3
Teams Built from Scratch
2
Active Ventures

From enterprise architecture to the founder’s desk

A career spent identifying what organizations need before they know they need it — then building the teams, strategies, and systems to make it real.

2024 — Present
Founder
Next Horizon Innovations LLC
Launched my own LLC to build products at the intersection of healthcare, AI, and emerging technology. Currently developing two ventures — a synthetic data platform for healthcare AI and a patented safety lighting device.
2021 — 2024
Technology Strategy Lead
HCSC — Blue Cross Blue Shield
Led three-year strategic planning for the CIO and operational leaders, reporting through the COO. Built tech radars, delivery roadmaps, and executive reporting frameworks that connected corporate strategy to technology execution across the enterprise.
2016 — 2024
Innovation & Emerging Technology Lead
HCSC
Pitched, won funding for, and built an innovation team from scratch. Managed a full pipeline of experiments across AI, blockchain, process mining, and strategic foresight. Led the enterprise generative AI rollout and spearheaded a multi-payer healthcare startup investment.
2003 — 2016
Senior Director, Enterprise Architecture
HCSC
Built the enterprise architecture practice from the ground up. Established the data architecture team, led the big data platform strategy, and defined solution architecture standards across five Blue Cross Blue Shield plans.
1993 — 2003
IT Professional
Kemper Insurance
A decade in property & casualty insurance technology, building foundational skills in architecture, systems design, and the insurance domain.

Building at the frontier

Turning 30 years of enterprise experience into products that solve real problems in healthcare and personal safety.

🧬
SynthData Sandbox
Healthcare AI Data Infrastructure
A synthetic healthcare data platform built for the agentic AI era. Healthcare startups building governed AI agents need realistic, compliant data to train against — without accessing real patient information. SynthData Sandbox delivers deterministic, auditable synthetic data with native AI agent integration.
Synthetic Data Healthcare AI MCP Integration FHIR / OMOP Docker-First
💡
Light Halo
Patented Safety Lighting
A head-worn illumination device that redefines personal safety lighting. Instead of lighting the path, Light Halo lights up the wearer — creating a visible human silhouette from all rear and lateral angles. Featuring a novel hinge mechanism and intentional design choices that earned a “Highly Patentable” assessment.
Patent Pending Hardware Safety Innovation 4 Prototypes Field Tested

What I bring to the table

A rare combination of strategic vision, technical depth, healthcare domain knowledge, and entrepreneurial drive.

Technology Strategy

Three-year planning, tech radars, delivery roadmaps, and connecting C-suite vision to executable technology plans.

Enterprise Architecture

Solution, data, and information architecture across multi-plan healthcare organizations at enterprise scale.

AI & Innovation Leadership

Innovation pipelines, responsible AI governance, generative AI rollout, and emerging technology evaluation.

Data Strategy

Unified data platforms, data governance, synthetic data generation, and the data foundations that make AI actually work.

Healthcare Payer Domain

21 years in payer-side healthcare — claims, prior auth, provider data, CMS mandates, FHIR interoperability, and regulatory compliance.

Entrepreneurship

LLC formation, business planning, patent development, MVP execution, and turning enterprise expertise into market-ready products.

The builder’s mindset

01

See the gap, build the bridge

Three times at HCSC, I identified what was missing, made the case to leadership, and built new teams and practices from scratch. I don’t wait to be asked.

02

Think holistically, execute precisely

I connect business strategy, technology, data, and people into coherent frameworks — then structure the path to get there with clear milestones and accountability.

03

Make the future tangible

From strategic foresight and signal monitoring to hands-on prototyping with Claude Code — I bridge the gap between where technology is going and what organizations can do about it today.

Interested in working together?

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