Diego Orofino
Founder, Synapse Research Systems
About me
I'm the Founder of Synapse Research Systems and the creator of the Benefit Plan Standard — an open-source initiative to bring structure, transparency, and interoperability to health plan benefit data. Healthcare is one of the most data-rich industries in the world, yet benefit plan information remains fragmented, proprietary, and inaccessible. I'm working to change that.
My day job keeps me grounded: I'm a Principal AI Platform Architect at a behavioral health company, designing AI systems in a highly regulated, data-constrained environment. That's where I see firsthand exactly where the lack of open health plan data creates real friction — for payers, for providers, and for patients.
With 25+ years building enterprise software across healthcare, finance, and government, I'm focused on the infrastructure layer — the open standards and shared data contracts that the industry needs before AI and interoperability can actually work at scale. I write about this regularly on X (@dorofino).
What I'm Building
Open infrastructure for the healthcare data layer.
Benefit Plan Standard
An open-source data standard for health plan benefit information. Today, every payer, vendor, and employer describes the same coverage concepts in completely different formats — making benefits data nearly impossible to compare, integrate, or analyze at scale.
The Benefit Plan Standard defines a common schema, shared vocabulary, and API contract for benefit plan data — so the industry can stop rebuilding data translation layers and start building on a shared foundation.
Open Schema
A machine-readable, versioned schema for benefit plan data — deductibles, copays, networks, formularies, and more.
Shared Vocabulary
Canonical terminology that bridges payer, vendor, and employer data — so everyone is speaking the same language.
API Contract
A standard API specification for querying and exchanging benefit plan data — built for integration, not point-to-point workarounds.
Writing
Long-form thinking on healthcare data standards, interoperability, and the infrastructure layer.
Articles coming soon. In the meantime, I post real-time thinking on X — problems in the healthcare data layer, why interoperability keeps failing, and what open standards can actually fix.
Follow @dorofino on X
"Diego is one of the smartest humans I've ever met."
"From Warner Brothers to Comcast to Jaguar-Land Rover, I've had the pleasure of working on many high profile projects with Diego and his incredible team. Diego is dedicated, incredible to work with, and a true master of innovative platforms. I cannot recommend Diego enough."
"Diego's work ethic, professional attitude and drive are impressive. Diego has a superior grasp of technology. Diego is an excellent resource and all around great person to work with. I highly recommend him."