Company leader
David Schummers
Co-founder and CEO
Apella
David Schummers is co-founder and chief executive of Apella, a San Francisco company that puts cameras and computer vision in hospital operating rooms. Hospitals use it to record surgical case times automatically and plan schedules, so their surgical teams can take on more cases and still go home on time.
Business
He started his healthcare career more than 20 years ago in finance, covering emerging medical technology companies and large diversified healthcare companies. He moved into operating companies and joined leadership teams that set new standards of care for spinal conditions, gastrointestinal disorders, and cancers.
In 2014 he joined Auris Health, a surgical robotics company, as its first commercial executive. He stayed as it grew from an early start-up to its $5.7 billion sale to Johnson & Johnson in 2019.
At Apella he has taken the product from pilots to hospital-wide contracts. When the company raised $80 million in January 2026, he said customers had "expanded beyond the pilot phase," and Houston Methodist joined that round after putting Apella in more than 200 operating rooms.