Early Life
Born in London, and raised in the United States, Dr. Shriram Nene is the son of Indian immigrants who had left India in 1962. Educated in the United States and he developed a passion for science and technology at an early age, and was inspired by the classical renaissance thinkers and inventors like Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Edison, Franklin, Tesla, and Einstein, who could wear many hats and do it well.
During the late 1970’s and early 1980’s when Apple and Microsoft were fledgling start-ups and computers were just coming into homes, Dr. Nene was 13 and he self taught how to program on an Apple IIe. He went on to use these skills, to create a computer software company producing products for real estate agents and educational purposes by the age of 15. At the same time, he taught other students how to program as the president of the school computer science club.
University Education & Professional Experience
He was fortunate enough to be recognized for his hard work and was rewarded with scholarships from Rockwell International, Washington University Scholars Program in Medicine, Fluor Daniels Engineering and University of California Berkeley including an award from the Independent Press Telegram for business entrepreneurship that was presented by Ray Bradbury.
His natural curiosity and quest to be the Renaissance man drove him to the Scholars Program in Medicine at Washington University, St. Louis, a competitive, combined 8 year undergraduate-medical program. He completed his undergraduate studies in 3.5 years and subsequently graduated from Washington University School of Medicine in 1993.
His initial journey was a quest to heal with a different kind of steel (not microchips), so he trained in General Surgery and did a Vascular Surgical Research Fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles. From there he went on to seek training with a fellowship in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at the University of Florida.
After completing his training, he was privileged to practice in Denver as a board certified Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeon in private practice affiliated with three main hospitals and 5 ancillary hospitals. His practice included routine and minimally invasive coronary artery bypass, mitral valve repair, endovascular and open aortic surgery, and thoracic surgical oncology. He was trained as a Da Vinci Robotic surgeon.
Despite a very busy and rewarding career as a Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeon, he still felt that his skills and impact were not scalable as he could only operate on one patient at a time. When the extent of the healthcare issues were evaluated for 7 billion people worldwide, he felt there was greater potential to do good. The thought was to use a combination of his original skillsets as a software/hardware engineer and his skills as a dedicated physician in Cardiovascular Surgery to create a system that could scale medicine.
It was his goal to scale medicine that drove him to India in 2011. Along with his better half, Madhuri Dixit, an accomplished actress and dancer, he created RnM Moving Pictures which is a platform-agnostic, digital media and content creation company. The premise was simple: all screens would converge and that the person who controlled the content would control everything and create impact.
Vision, Mission and Ambitions
Within healthcare, he is still actively involved in the community trying to spur innovation in healthcare delivery and ultimately wants to make a difference in the lives of others and improve the practice of medicine, nationally as well as internationally by empowering the patient and extending the doctor’s reach.
Currently, Dr. Nene is developing a medical platform, ‘Pathfinder Health Sciences’ which is committed to improving lifestyles and lifespans through precision, personalized health approaches using a combination of media, apps, wearable technology and a smart services marketplace. He has also been an active collaborator in the healthcare innovation space and served as a chief medical officer (and a seed investor) at GoQii, a prominent wellness startup. He is also an avid sports enthusiast, who is a strong believer of staying fit and engages in Tennis, and Cross-country running and was a former high school varsity athlete. He continues to challenge himself and has bungee jumped, skied, surfed, hiked, mountain biked, sailed, and is PADI open water dive certified.