Dr. Yousif Hanna, General Surgery resident, and his company, Oxkair, were recently recognized on Poets & Quants’ list of the Most Disruptive MBA Startups of 2024. Dr. Hanna and his co-founder, Edouard Tessier-Blais, created Oxkair during their time at the University of Oxford while they were pursuing their Master of Business Administration (MBA). Oxkair combines Tessier-Blais’ expertise in healthcare venture capital with Dr. Hanna’s clinical background and commitment to healthcare innovation. Their goal is to address today’s critical administrative challenges in medicine through advanced technology.
At Oxkair, Dr. Hanna and Tessier-Blais use Artificial Intelligence (AI), through what is referred to as Large Language Models (LLMs) and Agentic AI, to help connect information from different sources and carry out complex tasks efficiently. These technologies are used to automate medical coding and claims processing, simplifying insurance interactions for healthcare centers. Their goal is to improve processing and reduce claim denials—key challenges that significantly impact operations and financial sustainability of medical centers. Currently, they are focused on surgery and anesthesiology, two specialties that require precise coordination between medical care and insurance processing.
“Since my undergraduate years at Harvard, I have been deeply drawn to both medicine and entrepreneurship,” Dr. Hanna said. “Over the past decade, I have nurtured this passion by researching healthcare systems and exploring ways to improve healthcare delivery. During my two-year research period in Wisconsin’s surgical residency program, I sought to expand my business acumen to further this mission.”
General Surgery residents at Wisconsin Surgery have two years dedicated to academic development/research development between their PGY2 and PGY3 years. Instead of participating in the typical research development time, Dr. Hanna received support and encouragement from Dr. Sean Ronnekleiv-Kelly, Director of the two-year Career Advancement Program, to follow a non-traditional route of pursuing an MBA and entrepreneurship during his residency. Dr. Ann O’Rourke, General Surgery Residency Program Director, played a pivotal role in approving and facilitating Dr. Hanna’s decision to pursue this degree during his research development years. Dr. Hanna was also inspired by Dr. Daniel McCarthy, Associate Professor in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, who worked toward an MBA during his residency and co-founded a healthcare startup.
“During my second year of research, we began developing our initial product offering,” Dr. Hanna said. “Through numerous iterations and refinements, we have built a functional version that has been tested across various scenarios. We are now seeking our first partnership with a medical center to deploy our solution in a real-world setting and tailor it to operational requirements. This partnership will provide an immediate boost in efficiency to medical administrative workflows while allowing us to gather essential practical insights to further advance our solution.”
Poets & Quants is a website dedicated to covering business schools and publishes more articles, series and videos on MBA programs and management education than any other media outlet in the world. This year, for its 6th annual “Most Disruptive MBA Startups” list, P&Q invited 45 business schools to submit nominations for ventures with “the greatest potential for lasting beyond business school.”