Somesh Nigam, Ph.D., is senior vice president and chief informatics officer at Independence Blue Cross (Independence). He oversees the Informatics division, which provides data, analytics and business reporting tools to serve Independence customers and stakeholders.

Nigam leads Independence’s cutting-edge data initiatives, collaborations, and partnerships to help improve the quality of patient care and lower costs. He provides strategic direction to the Informatics organization to drive innovation and support the emerging needs of our business as health care reform transforms our industry.

Nigam is the driving force behind Independence’s move to unleash the power of big data and predictive analytics to help solve many of the most challenging health care problems facing our country and region. Under his leadership, Independence is teaming with top institutions such as Penn Medicine and New York University and NYU Langone Medical Center to research innovative ways to keep people well, lower health care costs, and provide superior care.

Nigam’s team championed research about medical costs and hospital utilization for patients seen in patient-centered medical homes (PCMH), which have been published recently in leading peer-reviewed journals. Independence was among the first and most ardent supporters of the PCMH program, a rapidly growing model for improved, more coordinated health care.

Prior to joining Independence, Nigam was vice president of health care informatics, scientific, and clinical affairs for the Medical Device and Diagnostics Division at Johnson & Johnson. In this role, he created a new enterprise-wide health informatics capability to drive research on clinical outcomes and health economics. His previous experience at Johnson & Johnson includes serving as director of innovation implementation in the Corporate Information Technology group. Before joining Johnson & Johnson, he cofounded an eBusiness start-up company, Vinimaya.

Nigam is the author of numerous published articles, and he has spoken widely at national conferences and forums on the subject of health care analytics and big data. He also serves on the New York University’s Science Advisory Board. In October 2013, the Philadelphia Business Journal honored Nigam as the Emerging Executive of the Year for achievements in health care data analytics.

Nigam holds Ph.D. and a master of science degree in biochemical engineering from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology.