We had the good fortune of connecting with Alidad Ghiassi and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alidad, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I spent many years in academic medicine, which gave me a strong foundation but also showed me how bureaucratic and slow real change can be. At the same time, healthcare innovation—especially in AI and digital tools—was exploding outside traditional institutions.

I kept seeing practical problems at the bedside that could be solved faster and better, but the system wasn’t built for speed or iteration. I realized that if I wanted to responsibly shape these technologies and ensure they served patients and clinicians—not just scale efficiency—I needed to step outside the academic structure.

Starting my own business was about moving at the pace of innovation while bringing clinical judgment, accountability, and ethics into that process.

What should our readers know about your business?
My business grew out of a very practical problem I saw repeatedly as a surgeon: healthcare delivers incredible technical care, but struggles to scale understanding, trust, and continuity outside the exam room. I spent years in academic and safety-net systems, where the need was greatest and the constraints were real. That experience shaped everything we built.

What sets us apart is that our work is clinician-led and author-controlled. At HIA Technologies, we don’t believe AI should replace clinical judgment or dilute accountability. Instead, we design systems where physicians remain the source of truth—able to control content, context, and guardrails—while technology helps scale education, access, and engagement responsibly.

Getting here was not easy. Leaving a stable academic path meant stepping into uncertainty, learning how to build teams, translate clinical insight into products, and navigate technology, regulation, and business all at once. Progress was often slow and nonlinear. What helped me overcome those challenges was staying anchored to real patient needs, surrounding myself with people who challenged assumptions, and being willing to iterate—sometimes painfully—when things didn’t work the first time.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that meaningful innovation doesn’t come from ideal conditions. It comes from constraint, from underserved and overwhelmed environments, and from listening carefully to the people doing the work on the ground. Another lesson is that credibility matters—especially in healthcare. Trust is earned through transparency, humility, and consistency over time.

What I want the world to know about me and our brand is simple: this isn’t about technology for its own sake. It’s about extending the responsibility clinicians already carry—beyond the clinic walls—using tools that respect patients, preserve professional integrity, and make complex care more human and understandable at scale.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Here you go—same flow, just clean text with no bolding:

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This is the kind of week where the clock stops mattering and the only rules are good conditions, good food, and good energy.

It starts in Southern California with an early-morning surf in North LA County—cold water, a quiet lineup, and that rare calm that only exists when you’re in the ocean before the world wakes up. Afterward, it’s tacos from the best local food truck we can find, a long, unhurried lunch, and real rest. No agenda. No rushing. Just letting the body settle before the road starts calling. If there’s no truck worth stopping for, the stove comes out of the van and lunch gets made right there.

From there, we head east into the Eastern Sierra—wide skies, sharp peaks, and that unmistakable high-desert air. Depending on conditions, we either sneak in a couple of ski runs for the day or lace up boots and disappear into quiet nature hikes—alpine lakes, open ridgelines, and long stretches where the only sound is wind and snow underfoot. Evenings wind down with hearty meals from small, family-owned spots in mountain towns, or van-made food when the mountains decide everything should slow down.

Next comes a reset of a different kind: Joshua Tree. Slower, warmer, more elemental. Sunrise walks through boulder fields, scrambling when it feels right, and afternoons that stretch lazily into golden desert light. Meals are either from a local roadside stand or straight off the van stove—coffee in the morning, something hot and comforting at night, stars overhead while it all comes together.

To close the loop, we head south to San Diego. Warmer-water surfing, longer sessions in the lineup, and hopefully some snorkeling in La Jolla—clear water, kelp forests, and the quiet magic of moving slowly beneath the surface. Between sessions, it’s fish tacos, hole-in-the-wall family restaurants, or one last van-cooked meal overlooking the ocean.

No budget. Plenty of time. A mix of movement, nature, good food, and stillness. The kind of trip that doesn’t just entertain you—it resets you.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are many people and institutions that shaped my path, but first and foremost, I’d dedicate this shoutout to my family—especially my father—who instilled in me a deep sense of responsibility, curiosity, and service. Those values have guided every major decision I’ve made.

I want to dedicate this shoutout to several groups that profoundly shaped my journey. First, the USC Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), where I was exposed early to the power of human-centered technology and interdisciplinary thinking—long before AI became a buzzword in healthcare.

I’m deeply grateful to the HIA Technologies team, whose shared belief that innovation must be clinician-led, ethical, and practical continues to push our work forward every day.

Most importantly, I want to recognize the patients and staff at USC-LAC County General Hospital and the VA healthcare system. Working in underserved, resource-constrained, and often overwhelmed environments taught me where innovation truly matters. These settings don’t need flashy tools—they need solutions that are scalable, trustworthy, and designed for real-world complexity.

That experience shaped my core belief: the greatest growth areas for healthcare innovation are not in ideal conditions, but in the places where the system is most strained—and where thoughtful innovation can make the biggest human impact.

Website: https://www.hia.ai/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alidad-ghiassi-71a304184/

Image Credits
All from my photos

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