Dr. Indra Sandal

Dr. Indra Sandal is the Chief of Innovation at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital & Clinics in Tampa, FL. She has a wide portfolio that includes collaborations with the VHA Innovation Ecosystem (VHA IE), academic and community collaborators, and national innovation leaders. She is the founder of the Veterans Health- MIT Hacking Medicine 2024.

Dr. Sandal has 15+ years of experience leading transformational programs and innovation initiatives across academic, non-profit, and federal sectors. From 2019 – 2022, Dr. Sandal served as the Director of Innovation at the Memphis VA Medical Center and has held several prominent national and local facility innovation roles with VHA IE. From 2020-2022, Dr. Sandal was selected as the VHA Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Executive Management Fellow where she spearheaded the VHA-Uber Health Connect (VUHC) Initiative in 2022. The VUHC Initiative is a collaborative effort between VHA IE, the Veteran Transportation Program, and Uber Health. The Initiative offers rideshare as a supplemental transportation option for Veterans to get to and from their medical appointments and has offered over 145K rides to nearly 25,000 Veterans across 68 VA medical centers since January 2022. Since the beginning of the pilot, the VUHC Initiative has achieved over $111M in cost savings for VA from faster emergency and inpatient discharges and avoiding no-show/missed appointments.

Before joining VA, Dr. Sandal also held prominent research roles including Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City, UT from 2011-2014, and Research Assistant at Virginia Tech from 2005-2011. Her genetics and genomic research outcomes included 17 secured patents, 14 peer reviewed journal publications as lead author, 3 book chapters, and over 50 conference presentations worldwide.

Dr. Sandal currently serves as a faculty member for Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Catalyst program. Dr. Sandal has an M.B.A. from Northwestern University-Kellogg School of Management, a Ph.D. in Biotechnology from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Institute, India, and an M.S. in Life Sciences from Kanpur University, India.

Dr. Sandal is a recipient of the 2023 Service to the Citizen Award, an award that recognizes public servants who demonstrate excellence in their delivery of services that impact the public’s lives. She is also the recipient of the 2023 Dr. Robert L. Jesse Award for Excellence in Innovation for her outstanding work with the VUHC Initiative. The Dr. Robert Jesse award is presented to VA employees who have demonstrated brilliance enabling the discovery and spread of health care innovation that exceeds expectations, restores hope, and builds trust within VA. In October 2024 Dr. Sandal was named one of the MIGTHY25 for her impactful Innovations in Veterans’ health care, a prestigious list that honors military and Veteran changemakers and pioneers.