February 11, 2025

HOPPR Welcomes New Leadership to Drive Strategic Growth and Advance Next-Gen AI for Medical Imaging 

 

CHICAGO, February 10, 2025 – HOPPR, a leader in AI solutions for medical imaging, strengthens its radiology expertise, AI ingenuity, business acumen, and entrepreneurial culture with the addition of four industry trailblazers to its executive team.  

 The new team members include Dr. William Boonn as Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Woojin Kim as Chief Strategy and Chief Medical Information Officer, Dr. Melanie Traughber as Chief Operating Officer, and Keith Corbin as Chief Financial Officer. 

 The expansion comes at a pivotal time as HOPPR accelerates its mission to revolutionize radiology with its groundbreaking foundation model and multimodal AI platform for medical imaging. The company’s medical-grade infrastructure and tools for accelerating machine learning and generative AI help enhance diagnostic accuracy, provide real-time clinical insights, and streamline healthcare operations through automated workflow optimization. 

 Expanding Clinical and AI Expertise 

Dr. Boonn and Dr. Kim co-founded two companies: Equium Intelligence, Inc., a healthcare AI startup acquired by Rad AI, and Montage Healthcare Solutions, a provider of search-driven radiology analytics, acquired by Nuance Communications. They provided leadership and innovation at Rad AI, a company pioneering generative AI solutions for radiology. Beyond their entrepreneurial ventures, they bring extensive clinical and academic expertise to HOPPR. 

  • Dr. William Boonn, MD, joins as Chief Medical Officer with over 20 years of leadership in radiology informatics and healthcare technology innovation. A practicing cardiovascular radiologist at Penn Medicine, he also teaches residents and fellows and founded the 3D and Advanced Imaging Lab to enhance clinical access to advanced visualization and quantitative imaging. Before HOPPR, he served as Chief Medical Officer at Rad AI, CEO of Montage Healthcare and Equium Intelligence, and Chief Medical Information Officer at Nuance Communications. 

  • Dr. Woojin Kim, MD, has taken on the role of Chief Strategy and Chief Medical Information Officer. He is a renowned musculoskeletal (MSK) radiologist and an expert in imaging informatics and AI in healthcare. Currently, Dr. Kim serves as the Chief Medical Officer for the American College of Radiology Data Science Institute. Additionally, he is a member of the medical advisory board for several healthcare technology companies and works as a staff MSK radiologist at the Palo Alto VA Medical Center. Dr. Kim is a highly sought-after speaker on AI. Prior to HOPPR, he was Chief Medical Information Officer at Rad AI, co-founder at Montage Healthcare and Equium Intelligence, and Chief Medical Information Officer at Nuance Communications. 

“Bill and Woojin are proven leaders who combine clinical expertise with strategic thinking to drive innovation, ensure quality, and navigate the complexities of the healthcare industry,” said Dr. Khan Siddiqui, CEO and co-founder of HOPPR. “We look forward to leveraging their knowledge and skill sets to help ensure our platform continues to meet the needs of clinicians and advance patient care.” 

Strengthening Operational and Financial Strategies 

  • Dr. Melanie Traughber, DSc, serves as Chief Operating Officer and brings over 20 years of operational expertise in clinical research, medical imaging, and healthcare innovation. She specializes in building teams and processes to bridge clinical, academic, and technological competencies to expand access to medical innovations globally. Previously, at Hyperfine, which built the first FDA-cleared, AI-powered MR brain imaging system, Dr. Traughber led key operational functions, including customer success and clinical science. She also held senior roles at Philips Healthcare, overseeing clinical R&D and product development in MR therapy and imaging. Dr. Traughber’s portfolio includes NIH-funded projects, grants, numerous scientific publications, and multiple U.S. patents in medical imaging. In addition to these roles, she has served as a board member and CEO of Frontier Horizon, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and COO of Eloquence Communications, Inc. 

  • Keith Corbin joins as Chief Financial Officer. With over 30 years of experience driving financial strategies and more than two decades as CFO for venture-backed companies, he has a proven ability to optimize financial performance and navigate complex business landscapes. His expertise includes building scalable financial infrastructures, financial reporting for both public and private companies, investor relations, cash management, and M&A, having successfully led over 15 transactions. His domain experience spans medical devices, manufacturing, software (SaaS), fintech, financial services, and venture capital. Throughout his career, Keith has held leadership roles at Deloitte, Adecco, American Can, Hall Kinion, and Escalon Consulting, where he played a key role in driving operational efficiency and financial growth.  

“With Melanie’s cross-functional leadership and Keith’s financial astuteness, we are well-positioned to bolster our business and deliver exceptional value to our stakeholders,” said Dr. Siddiqui. “Their strategic vision will be instrumental in guiding our company through this exciting phase of growth and ensuring we achieve our ambitious goals.” 

About HOPPR 

An innovative healthcare AI company, HOPPR is the developer of the first medical-grade foundation models and AI platform for medical imaging, enabling real-time engagement with data and seamless integration with clinical systems. HOPPR’s infrastructure supports both clinical and administrative use cases. This breakthrough allows physicians, technicians, and clinical support staff to move beyond static images and work with imaging studies in a dynamic, conversational way for enhanced diagnostic precision and patient care. With a focus on diagnostic accuracy and efficiency, HOPPR is committed to providing healthcare professionals with the tools needed to improve patient outcomes through precision AI. For more information, visit www.hoppr.ai. 

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (Nov. 11, 2024) — HOPPR (hoppr.ai), a leading AI company providing scalable medical grade infrastructure for medical imaging in healthcare and life sciences, has announced a strategic partnership with the University of Miami’s NSF Center for Accelerated Real-Time Analytics (CARTA). This collaboration aims to pioneer the development of tools that will revolutionize the evaluation and deployment of medical grade AI foundational models in healthcare, powering the future of clinical AI applications.

The National Science Foundation-funded CARTA is an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center that unites academia, industry, and government to drive high-impact research in real-time data analytics. By tackling complex challenges in industries such as health care, smart cities, and cybersecurity, CARTA leverages real-time analytics to create smarter, more responsive systems.

As a key academic partner in CARTA, the University of Miami offers a powerful platform for advancing AI research and application. With cutting-edge infrastructure—including one of the nation’s fastest supercomputers—and deep expertise in AI, the University is an ideal collaborator for developing high-impact solutions to real-world challenges. This positions CARTA as a central hub for integrating AI into diverse fields like healthcare, blockchain, and cybersecurity.

A New Era for Healthcare AI

By joining forces, HOPPR and CARTA aim to advance health care through innovative research in AI validation. A critical challenge to commercializing medical-grade AI is the lack of standardized and generalizable AI evaluation. The collaboration will focus on developing standardized tools in medical imaging for evaluating AI models. Reliability and performance are critical to commercializing AI-powered clinical applications. This research will also address challenges related to model degradation and drift, supporting the continuous refinement of medical imaging AI models in clinical settings.

Dr. Yelena Yesha (CARTA)

CARTA's mission is to drive innovation in real-time analytics across multiple industries, including healthcare. By joining the CARTA consortium, HOPPR aims to co-develop a suite of open-source tools that will standardize the evaluation of AI models in health care, particularly in medical imaging. These tools will improve the accuracy, precision, and robustness of AI models used in clinical workflows, helping to ensure they meet regulatory standards and real-world performance needs.

"As health care evolves with AI, CARTA is proud to collaborate with forward-thinking companies like HOPPR. Together, we aim to create tools that can reshape healthcare by enabling more effective and efficient AI applications," said Dr. Yelena Yesha, founding director of CARTA, co-director of the CARTA Miami site, and Knight Foundation Endowed Chair of Data Science and AI at the Frost Institute for Data Science and Computing.  

Dr. Khan M. Siddiqui, CEO of HOPPR, added, "This partnership with CARTA is a pivotal step for us as together we unlock the future of AI in healthcare. By working with top academic minds and leveraging advanced medical grade infrastructure combined with real world data, we are bringing innovative AI solutions to life, ultimately improving patient care and clinical outcomes."

Dr. Khan Siddiqui (HOPPR)

This high-profile collaboration will be promoted by both CARTA Miami and HOPPR, attracting attention from the healthcare industry, AI researchers, and global innovators. With the upcoming unveiling at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2024 conference, the impact of this partnership will be showcased to the world.

About HOPPR

HOPPR is transforming medical imaging by providing medical-grade foundation models and infrastructure that enable real-time engagement with data and seamless integration with clinical systems. This breakthrough allows physicians, technicians, and clinical support staff to work with medical imaging studies in a dynamic, conversational way, moving beyond static images to a more interactive experience. HOPPR’s infrastructure supports both clinical and administrative use cases, and the company will unveil its latest innovations with commercial partners at RSNA 2024. More information is available at https://hoppr.ai.

About CARTA

The Center for Accelerated Real-Time Analytics (CARTA) is a National Science Foundation-funded Industry/University Cooperative Research Center that unites academia, industry, and government to conduct high-impact research in real-time data analytics. CARTA focuses on developing innovative solutions to complex challenges across various industries, including healthcare, smart cities, and cybersecurity. By leveraging advanced analytics, CARTA aims to create smarter, more responsive systems that address real-world needs.

Media Contacts

HOPPR Communications

  • Nancy Yu

    • nancy@hoppr.ai

  • Ehmed Nauman

    • ehmed@hoppr.ai

University of Miami CARTA Communications

  • carta@miami.edu

For more information, please visit https://hoppr.ai and University of Miami CARTA.