BERWYN, PA — AscellaHealth has appointed Asad Shoostry as chief technology officer, creating the executive role as the pharmacy management company shifts toward a connected technology platform spanning its pharmacy, specialty, patient-support, and group purchasing operations.
Shoostry will oversee AscellaHealth’s technology strategy, including the AscellaOne platform, digital group purchasing organization capabilities, enterprise data architecture and systems supporting the company’s pharmacy and patient-services businesses.
The appointment comes as AscellaHealth works to consolidate data, workflows and services that have operated across separate healthcare systems. Its strategy includes application programming interface integrations, a governed healthcare data lake, Microsoft Fabric, shared analytics and an architecture intended to support additional services as the business expands.
“Healthcare does not need another disconnected point solution — we have plenty of those,” Shoostry said. “What we need is a better way to connect pharmacy, medical and specialty data to the decisions that determine access, reimbursement and total cost.”
AscellaOne uses a modular architecture designed to let clients add individual capabilities without replacing their existing technology environments.
The underlying data architecture is intended to combine information from multiple healthcare and operational sources so it can be validated and used for applications, analytics and artificial intelligence. The platform brings together pharmacy network services, financial assistance, rebate management, patient support and other cost-management functions.
AscellaHealth also plans to use the architecture to support its expanding group purchasing and network businesses.
Chief Executive Officer Dea Belazi said creating the CTO position reflects the increasing connection between the company’s technology investments and its broader business strategy.
“As AscellaHealth grows, technology cannot simply support the business — it has to become part of how we create value for our clients,” Belazi said.
Shoostry brings more than two decades of technology and leadership experience, including work with CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Kaiser Permanente, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
At AscellaHealth, his responsibilities will include platform development, data strategy, architecture and technology delivery. He holds a bachelor’s degree in management information systems from the University of Toledo and PMP, TOGAF and ITIL certifications.
Shoostry said a priority will be connecting data that healthcare organizations have traditionally evaluated separately, including pharmacy and medical claims, specialty treatment information, eligibility, pricing, reimbursement and patient-support activity.
“A modern technology stack is not the outcome,” Shoostry said. “The outcome is whether we can help a client see where cost is occurring, understand what is driving it and act sooner.”
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