Independent Director — Diagnostic Services | Clinical Quality, Audit and Network Integrity

Company: Confidential listed diagnostic-services network
Board base: Gurugram, Haryana
Sector: Pathology, radiology and preventive diagnostics
Appointment: Independent Director, Non-Executive
Intended committees: Audit Committee; Clinical Quality & Patient Trust Committee
Time commitment: 26–32 days annually, including Board preparation, laboratory visits and quality reviews
Application deadline: 18 September 2026
Expected appointment: November 2026

Company context

The company operates a national network of reference laboratories, regional processing hubs, hospital laboratories and patient-facing collection centres. It processes routine and specialised pathology, molecular, genetic and radiology tests for individual patients, hospitals, clinicians, insurers and corporate health programmes. Growth is being pursued through owned laboratories, franchise collection centres, hospital partnerships, home collection and selective acquisitions.

The Board is strengthening independent oversight as the company moves from a founder-led diagnostic chain toward an institution whose clinical data, quality systems and acquisition discipline can withstand public-market scrutiny.

Market hint: A large northern India base, hub-and-spoke laboratory network, hospital contracts, home collection and a growing molecular-testing portfolio may suggest several listed or IPO-scale diagnostic groups. No brand, promoter, laboratory count or acquisition is identified.

Board mandate

The director will connect clinical reliability, revenue quality, patient trust and capital allocation. The role is not to interpret individual test results or direct medical practice. It is to ensure that every reported result is supported by validated methods, traceable samples, competent personnel, controlled systems and honest disclosure.

Strategic priorities

1. Establish Board visibility from patient order through collection, transport, accession, testing, validation, reporting, amendment and storage; identify where identity, temperature, timing or manual intervention can compromise a result.
2. Govern test-menu additions through clinical utility, method validation, equipment capability, reference ranges, quality control, demand evidence and reimbursement—not marketing novelty.
3. Create a network quality dashboard covering sample rejection, recollection, turnaround distribution, critical-result notification, amended reports, external-quality performance, complaints and repeat failures by laboratory and franchise.
4. Review hospital-laboratory contracts for minimum volume, pricing, staffing, equipment, working capital, service levels, data access and termination exposure; separate strategic contracts from loss-making volume.
5. Challenge referral, doctor-engagement, health-package and corporate-channel incentives for conflicts, unnecessary testing, misleading discounts and customer-acquisition economics.
6. Protect genomic, pathology and health data through consent, access, retention, secondary use, model training, breach response and patient correction rights.
7. Require acquisition diligence on licences, method validation, quality events, cash collections, related parties, equipment, pathologist dependence, patient data and integration capacity.
8. Review revenue cut-off, unbilled hospital work, franchise settlement, package breakage, doubtful receivables, reagent inventory and equipment-capitalisation with the statutory and internal auditors.
9. Build succession for pathologists, laboratory directors, quality leaders, molecular scientists and regional operations rather than relying on a small founder-clinician group.

Decisions expected at Board level

• Whether a fast-growing specialised test should scale before external-quality and clinical-utility evidence mature.
• Whether to renew a high-volume hospital contract that dilutes margin and creates receivable concentration.
• Whether an acquired laboratory may retain its brand and methods after material quality differences are identified.
• Whether an amended-report cluster requires patient notification, clinician outreach or regulator escalation.
• Whether AI-assisted interpretation can enter clinical workflow while preserving attributable specialist judgement.

Candidate profile

Essential: Former diagnostic, hospital, healthcare-services, medical-technology or regulated laboratory CEO, COO, CFO, quality leader, clinician-executive or healthcare regulator; listed-company Board or Audit Committee experience; direct accountability for clinical-quality, financial-control or network-integration decisions; ability to challenge eminent clinicians and commercial leaders without entering individual diagnosis.

Preferred: pathology or radiology network experience; molecular/genetic testing; healthcare data and cyber governance; post-acquisition clinical integration; Audit Committee chair capability.

Eligibility and conflicts

Active IICA Independent Directors Databank inclusion is mandatory, with the applicable proficiency-test requirement completed or a valid exemption documented. All statutory independence, DIN, KYC, disqualification, tenure, directorship and committee-capacity conditions must be satisfied.

Candidates must disclose relationships with hospital groups, doctors, referring organisations, insurers, laboratory franchises, reagent and equipment vendors, genetic-testing companies, auditors, acquisition targets and competing networks.

First-year outcomes

• One verified network quality system with escalation thresholds and accountable closure.
• Audit visibility over hospital contracts, channel economics, receivables and reagent inventory.
• Board-approved governance for clinical AI, genomic data and report amendments.
• Acquisition gates that protect quality and cash before expansion proceeds.
• Reduced reliance on founder-clinicians through credible clinical and quality succession.