Joel Balzar, Sr. Director, Technical Implementations 
It is my pleasure to introduce Joel Balzar, our Senior Director of Partner Implementation. Joel has spent the last five years getting all of Xealth’s wide variety of partner community companies up and running, with all the connections they need to deliver great patient care and excellent provider experiences. In daily practice, this means he gets to be an architect, a project manager, a counsellor, a designer, and sometimes a detective all in one day. He is a trusted source of knowledge, expertise and know-how amongst our customers, our partners and our internal team, always available to answer any question or jump in on a project – there is no such thing as a dumb question to Joel, and he is always quick to pitch in. On the rare occurrence that he can’t be found, he is probably on vacation, hiking a remote, exotic mountain trail with no cell coverage. – Cynthia Church, Chief Strategy Officer
What convinced you Xealth is “the Place to Be”?
I came to Xealth from one of the largest EHR companies, which is this massive machine that I felt like a cog in the wheel of. You kind of do what you do there, you master it & then you just keep doing that same thing for years. As such, I was looking for something totally different… but something where my decade of work at said EHR company would still be useful. I was also looking to join a organization where I wouldn’t be as boxed into one specific role. I thought a smaller company & maybe a startup would fit that bill – and would be a fun totally different challenge. When I was searching for places to apply, I came across one of those “best companies to work for” and Xealth was near the top of the list, it was in Seattle & was in the Health sector. That being said, what sealed the deal for me was meeting the people at Xealth during my interview process (shout out to Caitlin B. & Annlin who interviewed me & ate lunch with me respectively).
What has your experience been with our company culture?
I think we have a crew of passionate, positive/fun folks, who together create a totally unique culture. When everyone descends on Seattle for QBRs or our annual gathering, it’s always so fun (big props to our admin & leadership teams for planning!). I think our teams are flexible and willing to help out, whether it’s just answering a quick question or jumping in to cover while someone’s out. There are so many folks who get that, at the end of the day, we have customers who are providing life-saving care & we have to do whatever it takes to support them/try to deploy workflows that make their lives easier.
What have been your biggest accomplishments on our team?
I’m terrible at keeping track of these things… but here are some highlights that come to mind:
- Back in my implementation days, deploying the initial Medline Surgery Kit use case at Providence – where we enabled the shipment of antibacterial pre-surgical soaps & COVID safety protocol information to patients ahead of their upcoming surgeries.
- In my current role, one of our recent partner implementations enabled a cool use case focused on helping connect rural/less technically capable patients to remote patient monitoring devices. I like use cases that help bridge SDOH & allow advances in tech shine.
- Generally all the work I get to do with Partners is something I’m proud of. Xealth has awesome product features that I get to enable our partners to use through our API. It has a huge impact for our health systems & their patients. It’s fun to get to play a part in that process & meet all of our vendor partner teams.
Who are some of your biggest inspirations within the company?
I admire so many folks internally for both professional & personal reasons. Working with Paige & Cynthia on the partner team is a dream. They’re both smart as a whip & they’re so strategic in how they keep up with what’s happening in the industry and how we should position ourselves in it. I would tap Sam H., Caitlin B. & Mandy H. to organize and streamline every aspect of my life based on how efficient & process oriented they are. Kris K. has cool street style & I’d let him dress me. Iryna is the coolest cucumber under pressure. Vern, German & Bri are who I would have curate my social media diet… youths. I could go on…
What’s the most unique part about working here?
Xealth has a pretty flat structure, so I think the most unique thing to me is that I can go to whoever I need to for help/to get answers. Our executive team seems to love answering questions from our internal teams and I enjoy that ‘open door policy’ where everyone is approachable & willing to engage/have a conversation.
How have you grown professionally while on our team?
Over my 4.5 years at Xealth I’ve slowly been given the opportunity to own a portion of our operations with Partners. That opportunity has pushed me to think outside the box, take both internal & external feedback, and try to continuously improve/get better at what I do. It’s reinforced how important building strong relationships and communicating over & over (& over) is key to success.