Dr. Brian K. Steele, Chief Medical Officer, Collaborative Health Systems
Dr. Brian Steele joined the CHS team as Chief Medical Officer in September 2021. In this new role for CHS, he will engage closely with provider partners to achieve clinical innovation and excellence. Dr. Steele is board certified by the American Osteopathic Board of Family Physicians. He remains on clinical faculty at the University of Rochester. He most recently worked as a consultant to digital health startups and innovative health plans. He previously worked at Excellus BlueCross/Blue Shield as Vice President Medical Affairs – Clinical Services, overseeing clinical operations, informatics, affordability, quality and value-based care. He was Chief Medical Officer for their Medicaid line of business from 2018 to 2020. He previously worked with Centene from 2016-2018 in specialty markets, as CMO for Envolve New York. Dr. Steele worked with the University of Rochester for 18 years, serving various leadership roles including Associate Chief Medical Information Officer 2010 to 2017, and Associate Medical Director for Primary Care Network. He has extensive experience in population health, analytics, quality and process improvement. He is a graduate of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine where he also completed his internship and family medicine residency. 

Sam Diederich, Senior Vice President, Strategy & Product, Apixio
Sam has more than a decade of strategic management experience within the healthcare industry across a variety of leadership roles, including corporate strategy, product, and growth. Prior to joining Apixio, Sam was the Senior Vice President at Optum, where he led large-scale businesses driving strategy, sustainable growth, product innovation, and industry differentiating partnerships. Sam has dedicated his career to improving the quality of care delivered to members, increasing healthcare affordability, and reducing costs for payers and providers. Using a collaborative and solution-oriented approach, Sam excels at developing new business models to solve meaningful challenges throughout the healthcare ecosystem. Prior to Optum, Sam has held roles at technology start-up TierMed Systems and at IBM. Sam holds degrees in Finance and Economics from the University of St. Thomas’ Opus College of Business in St. Paul, Minnesota.