About · Qualividence

The Founder

One thesis.
Thirty-four years of evidence.

I am a field sociologist disguised as an executive. My graduate work was ethnographic. I sat in patrol cars. I watched what happened between an officer and a citizen. I documented how quotas and time pressure distorted the numbers the department reported upward. The thesis asked one question. What happens to human truth when it enters a system?

The answer turned out to be the same answer in every market I have worked in since. I sold the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences before IBM acquired it. I valued foreclosed homes during the 2008 collapse while banks ran automated valuation models that could not see the neighborhood. I commercialized Watson. I built the Connected Officer ecosystem at IBM with Motorola Solutions. I ran ecosystem strategy at Verizon, where my team named the Context Gaps in enterprise digital transformation. Every role, the same pattern. The data says one thing. The humans inside the data are saying something else. The organizations that close that gap survive. The ones that do not, break.

The institutions where I did that work measure themselves by survival, not quarterly results. Cleveland Clinic. Advocate Health. Trinity Health. AdventHealth. OSF. University of Chicago Health. Chase. Wells Fargo. US Bank. John Deere. Caterpillar. The State of Illinois. The State of Wisconsin. The City of Chicago. Some of the largest health systems, financial institutions, public sector agencies, and industrial companies in the country. I mention them because QIS is not a new entrant to their world. I have been inside their decisions for three decades.

QIS is the architecture the thesis always needed. It is the system that treats qualitative patient testimony with the same seriousness as any endpoint. It is built for the rooms I have spent my career sitting in.

1990–92

Ethnographic field research on police patrol decision-making. Master's thesis: Police-Citizen Encounters During Routine Traffic Stops. First naming of the contextual bias framework that now informs the QIS architecture.

1993–01

SPSS, Wall Data, Aventail, Internet Security Systems, Cognos. Early commercialization of the analytics, security, and data stacks that three IBM acquisitions later consolidated under one roof.

2002–12

Distressed asset valuation during and after the 2008 financial crisis. The second proof of the thesis. Blind metrics from automated valuation models could not see the neighborhoods they were pricing.

2012–14

Solutionary and NTT. Managed security services across the Midwest. Top-ten-in-company-history deals closed.

2014–19

IBM. Commercialized the early AI and analytics stacks (SPSS, Watson) that industrialized predictive analytics for the global enterprise. Deployed the Connected Officer ecosystem with Motorola Solutions. Hundred Percent Club. Leadership Academy graduate.

2020–23

Verizon. Ecosystem strategy across 5G, MEC, and IoT. The team named the Context Gaps where enterprise models fail to capture edge-case reality. Over $100M in joint incremental pipeline with the major systems integrators.

2024

Sabbatical. Harley across America. Writing. Music. Mentoring. Recovering the voice the next chapter required.

2025

Founded Marc Bulandr Media + AI. Began the work on Contextual Memory AI with Verity Grey. Filed the patent in December.

2026

QIS founded. Qualividence launched as the public platform. ATS demonstration scheduled. Federal Register docket open. The gap finally has a system built to close it.

Giving Back

Pay It Forward is not a principle I adopted. It is how I was raised. Two bodies of work make that visible.

ISU

Twenty-three years on the Illinois State University Foundation Board. The endowment grew from $35M to $175M during that tenure. The work was stewardship. Aligning donor intent with institutional mission. Making sure the numbers served the people the institution was built for.

Give A Note

Board of Directors, Give A Note Foundation. Fundraising Chair. National nonprofit expanding equitable access to music education for students in underserved communities. Music shaped my story. Every kid deserves the same access to what it can do for a life. Give A Note was honored as a 2025 Anthem Awards winner in the nonprofit category.

Recognition

ISU

Inducted into the Illinois State University College of Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, inaugural class 2003.

Book

Acknowledged in Women of Color in Tech by Susanne Tedrick for mentorship and advocacy for women in technology.

March 2026

QIS thesis validated on the record at FDA Rare Disease Innovation Hub / Duke-Margolis RISE Together Workshop by NIH, FDA, and patient foundation leaders.

The Founding Adviser

Jennifer Bulandr lost her father, John, to pulmonary fibrosis in 2002. Nine weeks from diagnosis to death. The gap QIS closes is the gap that killed him. She has spent more than twenty years since building inside the community that lost him.

Read her full story ↓

The Founding Adviser

More than twenty years.
One reason.

Jennifer Bulandr's work in rare disease began with her own family's experience with pulmonary fibrosis.

Pulmonary fibrosis has touched Jennifer's family across multiple generations. Her father, John, was the third member of her family affected by the disease. After he was diagnosed in 2002 and died just nine weeks later, Jennifer became committed to helping patients and families find the support, information, and connection her family did not have.

For more than 20 years, she has worked in the pulmonary fibrosis and rare disease community, with experience spanning patient and caregiver engagement, program development, nonprofit communications, fundraising, and community support.

The Nine Weeks

When John was finally diagnosed, the pulmonary fibrosis had already taken most of his lung function. Nine weeks is not a care window. It is a goodbye window. Every patient and family Jennifer has worked with since has taught her the same thing in a different voice. The signals were always there. The system did not know how to hold them. QIS is the system that does.

From Listening to Learning

In 2003, when there were few places online for people with pulmonary fibrosis to find one another, Jennifer created one of the first online support communities for patients and caregivers affected by idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary fibrosis. At a time when many families were isolated, she built a new kind of bridge between patients, caregivers, and the specialists who understood the disease. She gathered questions from families, brought them to pulmonary fibrosis experts, and shared the answers back with the community in plain language. That early work was patient engagement before the field had a name for it. Jennifer was listening to what families were asking, noticing what they were trying to explain, and helping turn those experiences into information others could use. That same approach helps shape QIS today. People living with serious illness often share important details outside the exam room. QIS is designed to capture those details, organize them with care, and make them easier to understand and use.

The Instrument

The QIS baseline interview instrument and the self-administered survey were built from Jennifer's methodology. The qualitative foundation of the system is constructed from her years of direct conversation with patients and their families.

She is irreplaceable to this work. John is the reason she built it.

The Team

One founder,
and a team built for this.

Marc Bulandr

Founder and Principal

Applied sociologist. 34 years of enterprise technology, analytics, and health systems experience. The architect of the Recursive Triangulation Logic Loop and the Verity system. This work started in 1992. It started with a thesis, a police department, and a question that nobody in the data world wanted to ask: why.

Strategic Advisers

Jennifer Bulandr

Founding Adviser · Patient Advocacy

Communications and patient engagement consultant serving the pulmonary fibrosis community. More than twenty years of work since losing her father, John, to pulmonary fibrosis in 2002. Employee number one at the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. The bridge between patients and specialists since 2003. Built the QIS qualitative instrument. Full story above.

Lisa Krefft, MScLaw, OTR/L, OHP

Clinical and Regulatory Adviser

Thirty-one years at the intersection of clinical therapy, occupational health, wearable technology, AI motion capture, and law. Licensed occupational therapist. Master of Science in Law from Northwestern Pritzker, focused on STEM business law and entrepreneurship. Founder of the WorkWell On-Site Services program, which she built from a single pilot into a 21-location national program over twelve years. Current VP Global Enterprise Solutions at SimpleTherapy. Sr. Advisor for Human Performance at 3MotionAI. Founder of Ergo Health & Safety Innovations. She advises QIS because she has spent three decades auditing whether clinical, technological, and regulatory claims hold up in practice.

Technical Advisers

Jacob Bulandr

Senior Data Science Adviser

Subject matter expert specializing in enterprise analytics, reporting architecture, and data modeling that supports operational and engineering decision making. At QIS, he contributes to shaping how structured data and emerging AI tools work together to surface meaningful context and improve insight. His focus is on helping translate complex datasets into practical intelligence that organizations can trust and act on.

“What makes QIS stand out to me is how we can make the connection between structured data and human input. It creates a framework where AI can support understanding, rather than just automation. This is where real insights come to light.”

Alexis Adams

Strategic Adviser, Data Strategy and Impact

Subject matter expert at the intersection of social science, data strategy, and impact analytics. Her background spans mixed-methods research for the National Science Foundation, graduate training in sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and leadership experience translating complex social and analytic insights for corporate, political, and community-based audiences. As Director of Enterprise Impact and Data Strategy at the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, she brings a rare ability to help teams manage, triangulate, and contextualize data in ways that are accessible and actionable. She advises QIS because she believes the right data, communicated well, has the power to transform organizations and the communities they serve.

“QIS’s capacity to accompany and empower patients on their healthcare journey is striking. QIS’s ability to house and analyze disparate data, marshal collaborative feedback between patient and HCP, and provide AI-driven analysis with human review unlocks a new standard for quality of care while making the entire process clearer and less intimidating for patients and caregivers.”

Usman Fawad

Senior AI Technical Adviser

AI engineer specializing in automation, intelligent systems, and end-to-end product development. At QIS, he is focused on translating the vision into a real platform by building the technical foundation for memory-driven analysis, qualitative intelligence, and AI-powered insight.

“QIS stands out because it does not just generate output. It helps surface the human context behind the data, which is where real insight begins.”

Patient Adviser

Tom Tully

Patient Adviser · Three Lakes 12-20

Tom carries the lived record QIS exists to serve. He watched his father struggle with pulmonary fibrosis for five years before losing him in 2010. His brother was diagnosed in 2021. Tom himself was diagnosed in December of that year and given two to five years to live. After six dry runs to the hospital, he received a single lung transplant in March 2023. He is one of the small percentage of PF patients who reach transplant, who survive the waitlist, who get to keep working on the puzzle. He chooses to spend that time as an active partner with Three Lakes 12-20, the public research foundation focused on advancing therapies for pulmonary fibrosis and interstitial lung disease. He advises QIS because he knows what is missing from the way his disease was first heard, and what would have changed if anyone had been listening for it.

“The integration of feelings and emotions in medical records can be incredibly beneficial. It can improve diagnostic accuracy, enhance patient experience through better clinician trust, and better treatment adherence. Emotional trends can also be used proactively by HCPs to address earlier, timely interventions, which is a great advantage.”

Read Tom's full story ↓

Health Systems Adviser

Tim Markwell, R.T.(R)(ARRT)

Strategic Adviser, Health Systems

Fourteen years in healthcare. Tim is the Director of Clinical Applications and Integrations at Springfield Clinic, one of the largest multi-specialty groups in Illinois, where he runs a portfolio of 115 applications and integrations supporting 3,600 end users across 80 sub-specialty departments. He came up through clinical practice as a credentialed radiologic technologist before moving into systems work, which means he understands both sides of the screen: what the technology has to do and what the clinician at the workstation actually needs from it. He advises QIS on how qualitative patient intelligence integrates into the systems clinicians and care teams already run.

Technology Partner

Persistent Memory Infrastructure

MemVerge

MemVerge provides the persistent memory infrastructure layer that enables QIS to maintain longitudinal context across patient sessions. The QIS memory abstraction interface is built to accommodate MemMachine as the enterprise memory backend for production clinical deployments.

In His Own Words

The puzzle hasn't been solved yet.

Tom Tully · Patient Adviser · Three Lakes 12-20

I was 55 years old, married 31 years, and a father to three outstanding boys, ages 28, 25, and 12. I coached their soccer and lacrosse teams. I had a very successful career in the pharmaceutical industry. I was the lead singer in a rock and roll band. I had a very active, crazy, fun lifestyle. Life was good. And then I found out I have familial pulmonary fibrosis.

My father grew up in the Bronx and put himself through school. He went to school during the day and worked at a gas station at night. He had four boys, including me. He was fairly active in his later years but had noticed some challenges when it came to breathing. He was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis when he was 65 and died from the disease when he was 70. That was a little over 15 years ago. I remember watching my dad struggle to walk down a short driveway just to get his mail. Watching him rely on supplied oxygen was completely distressing for me to watch. I remember him telling me that it felt like he was drowning and could not breathe.

Then in 2019, I began experiencing shortness of breath. Walking, running, and any form of exercise had become more challenging. I was hoping that it was allergies and started to become very concerned. My wife and I started wondering if maybe I was having an issue with my heart, as I was suffering from hypertension. I went through cardiac stress tests, but my cardiac functioning was normal. In October 2021, my brother informed me that he had been diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis. This obviously made me very nervous and concerned. After arranging appointments with a pulmonologist, I began being tested. In December of that year, I was also diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, and my wife and I were told I had 2 to 5 years to live. My good friend and doctor had delivered this incredibly devastating news.

Telling my family about my diagnosis was tough. My Mom and my three sons were especially devastated and completely distraught. After sharing my diagnosis with my family, I was struck by the fact that my three sons, my nieces, and my nephews could all be stricken by this horrible disease called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis that has no known cause and no cure. This is my inspiration to help find answers, so others won't face the battles that I have faced and will face.

The good news of my story is I was considered for having a lung transplant in March of 2023. After 6 dry runs to the hospital, I finally received a single lung transplant. I was approved for a double lung transplant, but as fate would have it, there was a young donor who had a single lung that fit me. It was a lung that was in great condition with clean medical records. My transplant team and I decided to move ahead with the single lung. This thankfully has given me more time to spend with family, more time to spend with loved ones, more time to live.

So here's my next question: how many people here like puzzles? On rainy vacation days, I enjoy solving challenging puzzles with friends and family. We get the puzzle box, pour it out on the table, and then flip all the pieces so they are cardboard side down and color side up. We match like colors. We try to find themes and organize and group the different pieces. It's challenging and fun. At the end, when that puzzle is completed and solved, it's very rewarding.

Pulmonary fibrosis is a puzzle that hasn't been solved yet. So why am I here? Why am I speaking to all of you today? I would like all of your help in solving this puzzle.

I have discovered that there is no stronger ally in solving this puzzle than Three Lakes 12-20. Three Lakes 12-20 is a public research foundation focused on advancing therapies for pulmonary fibrosis and interstitial lung disease. Our mission is to accelerate the development of effective treatments and translational tools by supporting innovative science and bridging promising ideas with clinical validation. 100% of funds raised go towards funding research to find answers and ultimately a cure.

So here is what you can do to help us solve this puzzle: visit the Three Lakes website at threelakes1220.org and consider donating to Three Lakes 12-20. Help us to advance scientific research and support those who are newly diagnosed with this awful disease so they can live better. By supporting Three Lakes 12-20, we can start putting the pieces of this puzzle together. Please help me and Three Lakes solve this puzzle. Let's all work together to create a better future for all those who struggle with the disease.

Tom Tully

Patient Adviser, Qualividence · Partner, Three Lakes 12-20

Data isn't truth.
It's a record of pressure.

One thesis.
Thirty-four years of evidence.

Qualividence is a word we built.

The methodology, in the wider conversation.

How Tech Leaders Are Using Intelligence, Strategy, and Scale to Stay Ahead

More than twenty years.
One reason.