ISLAMABAD (The Pak Global Pakistan News) – Pakistani-born surgeon-scientist and academic leader Dr. Adil Haider has been named the inaugural Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, a pioneering US medical school designed to integrate engineering, medicine, and data science, according to a press release this week.
Carle Illinois, a collaboration between the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Carle Health, is widely recognized as the world’s first engineering-based medical school. Its curriculum embeds computational thinking, systems engineering, and innovation into physician training. The creation of a Chief AI Officer role signals the institution’s commitment to placing artificial intelligence at the core of medicine, education, research, and clinical practice.
“By establishing the role of Chief AI Officer, Carle Illinois is signaling that artificial intelligence is not peripheral, but foundational to the future of medicine,” said CI MED Dean Mark Cohen. He added that Dr. Haider’s academic rigor, clinical expertise, and entrepreneurial experience will ensure AI is deployed ethically, innovatively, and effectively to improve health outcomes.
In his new role, Dr. Haider will lead the strategic vision, development, and responsible implementation of AI across Carle Illinois. His focus will include AI-enabled medical education, translational research, and clinical innovation. Additionally, he will serve as Medical Director for Research Informatics at Carle Foundation Hospital, aligning AI-driven research with real-world clinical practice.
Dr. Haider said, “I am honored and excited to join Carle Illinois College of Medicine at such a pivotal moment. This is an opportunity not simply to adopt AI, but to define how it should be built, governed, and deployed to improve human health.”
Before joining Carle Illinois, Dr. Haider served for over six years as Dean of Aga Khan University Medical College in Pakistan, during which the institution expanded research funding, entered global rankings, and secured multiple international accreditations including ACGME-International and AACME.
He has also held senior academic and clinical roles in the US at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Haider is an accomplished entrepreneur, founding health tech startups including Doctella, acquired by Masimo, and Boston Health AI, operating across the US, UAE, and Pakistan.
At the University of Illinois, he will also serve as a visiting professor at the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, further bridging medical education with advanced computing and data science.