Jose Azar, M.D. serves as the executive vice president, chief quality officer at Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH) since March 31, 2022. In this position, he is responsible for setting the direction and leading HMH’s efforts to continuously improve the safety, effectiveness, efficiency, patient focus and timeliness of the health care provided to all patients and in all care settings. He is a hematology/oncology professor at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. He serves as the Vice-Chair for the Board of Trustees of the Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET) for the New Jersey Hospital Association.
Previously he served as chief quality and safety officer for the IU Health Adult Academic Healthcare Center (IUH AAHC) at Indiana University Health. In this role, he helped deliver personalized excellence in care through an Agile transformation approach, creating a high-reliability culture and co-designing care with patients and care providers. He is also the co-founder and chief engagement officer at the IU Center for Healthcare Innovation and Implementation Science, working to transform health care into a highly reliable system able to deliver safe, high value and personalized care. He has authored two books and numerous articles on the Agile Transformation Methodology. He also co-founded Blue Agilis, a company that has developed and commercialized a digital platform for the Agile Transformation Methodology.
Jose was previously the medical director of quality and safety at IUH AAHC. Prior to that, he served as medical director for quality and patient safety and of inpatient hematology/oncology at the Indiana University Health Simon Cancer Center. He was also director of hematology/oncology at Indianapolis Wishard Hospital.
Jose holds a Doctor of Medicine degree from the American University of Beirut. He is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, the American Board of Hematology and the American Board of Oncology. He is the recipient of the Excellence in Quality and Safety Award from the IU School of Medicine, the Trustee Teaching Award for Excellence in Medical Education and the Shining Star Award from IUH University Hospital and most recently has been named Physician of the Year, from NJBIZ.