HITLAB is excited to announce that Wayne Cafran has joined its Women’s Health Tech Initiative (WHTI) Board of Directors at HITLAB — a key addition that significantly strengthens WHTI’s ability to support women’s health innovations in scaling, maturing, and achieving lasting market impact.

HITLAB is a leading digital health research and innovation organization dedicated to improving healthcare through evidence, collaboration, and emerging technology. By connecting startups, health systems, life sciences companies, investors, and policymakers, HITLAB helps validate, test, and scale breakthrough solutions that improve outcomes and drive measurable impact.

With over three decades of experience, Wayne has helped healthcare organizations navigate major challenges, including mergers, digital transformation, regulatory changes, and restructuring. As a Principal at KPMG, he led healthcare advisory services in the Metro New York regions and advised executive leaders and boards on complexity, risk, and change.

Now, Wayne brings his governance and enterprise-level expertise to HITLAB’s WHTI at a critical time when women’s health innovation is growing rapidly but still faces barriers to adoption and scale.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of EmblemHealth, contributing to the Audit & Finance, Compensation and Quality Committees. He has also been a Board member on private equity and public companies. Additionally, Wayne is a certified executive coach focused on leadership effectiveness and inclusive governance — essential skills as emerging health technologies become operational.

“Diversity and equity have always been core values in my leadership,” Cafran noted. “For too long, women’s health has not received the same level of research investment or strategic focus as other areas of medicine. Even in conditions like cardiac disease and cancer that affect both men and women, differences in how they present and respond to treatment have not been studied or addressed equally. I see a meaningful gap between innovation and sustained impact in women’s health, and I’m joining WHTI to help close that gap — ensuring solutions are supported by the governance, discipline, and long-term strategy they need to truly scale and endure.”

The WHTI, chaired by Divya Verma, Vice President of Business Development at Accord Healthcare US, is a collaborative platform that connects research validation, commercialization strategy, and industry partnerships to accelerate high-impact women’s health technologies.

“Transformational innovation requires more than just vision — it needs governance, strategy, and execution to align,” Verma said. “Wayne has spent his career advising organizations at these critical points. His experience will help innovators turn promising ideas into lasting outcomes that improve lives.”

Wayne holds a BA in Political Science from Binghamton University and an MPA in Health Finance from New York University.

His appointment is an important step forward for WHTI as it continues to expand its role in supporting evidence-driven, scalable innovation in women’s health — ensuring breakthrough solutions have the leadership, oversight, and strategic foundations needed to deliver meaningful and lasting impact.

Please join us in welcoming Wayne to the WHTI Board.