Clinical roots.
Enterprise reach.

A healthcare operator who connects frontline reality, organizational systems, analytics, and measurable execution.

Saumil J. Patel
Saumil J. Patel, PharmD, MIT Sloan Executive MBA

I started as a pharmacist serving Boston communities. That frontline experience taught me that even excellent clinical care can fail when the operating system around the patient is fragmented, unclear, or difficult to navigate.

Over nearly two decades at Walgreens, I progressed through pharmacy, store, district, corporate, and Director leadership roles. With each step, the scope expanded—from direct patient care to multi-site operations, and ultimately to a 175+ location portfolio with $1.5B+ in annual revenue and approximately 5,000 team members.

The central lesson stayed consistent: sustainable performance rarely comes from heroic individual effort. It comes from diagnosing the system, clarifying ownership, developing leaders, designing practical workflows, and creating accountability around measures that matter.

That approach shaped work ranging from a 9,000+ store operating-model redesign and national COVID vaccine execution to patient-retention analytics, digital adherence improvement, specialty-pharmacy accreditation, and enterprise talent systems. The settings changed; the leadership pattern did not.

I completed the MIT Sloan Executive MBA in 2026 to deepen my capabilities in strategy, analytics, innovation, and entrepreneurship. The program strengthened how I connect operating judgment with data—and how I move from identifying a care gap to testing a new model.

Breakthrough Health is that combination in practice: a part-time healthcare venture developed during the MIT Sloan program to help people with substance-use disorder navigate the Hepatitis C journey from risk identification through testing, treatment, adherence support, and cure confirmation. I remain close to the work by spending one night each week with Hope House clients.

Today, I bring clinical credibility, operating rigor, enterprise-scale leadership, and zero-to-one healthcare innovation to complex organizations that need to improve outcomes and execution at the same time.

I also serve as a strategic advisor to two early-stage health-tech companies—PillPilot and Scriptify—helping connect product strategy with pharmacy operations, clinical workflow, and the realities of scaling healthcare services.

Explore the work