Speakers
Conference Co-Chairs
Featured Speakers
Sajid Ahmed, Chief Information and Innovation Officer, Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital, South Los Angeles.
He is leading the new hospital’s $70 million health information technology initiative and launching an innovation hub on the 42-acre MLK Medical Center Campus. Mr. Ahmed is a true innovator and pioneer in healthcare information systems. He has unparalleled experience in all aspects of using computer technology and web-based applications to deliver the best quality of medical care to patients, facilitate collaboration among multiple and diverse medical care providers and systems, and increase the efficiency of healthcare environments. He is also a highly respected consultant on innovation, and frequently lectures about entrepreneurism and information technology for healthcare environments.
Mr. Ahmed was formerly the director of health information technology and innovation for L.A. Care Health Plan, the nation’s largest public plan serving more than one million Los Angeles County residents through free or low-cost health insurance programs. He was responsible for coordinating, managing and integrating healthcare information technology and eHealth initiatives among multiple users and partners. This includes all medical care providers, community organizations, government agencies, vendors and other health information technologies. He served as vice chair of the organization’s Technical Advisory Committee. One of his most significant contributions to L.A. Care is the creation of HITEC-LA (Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center for Los Angeles County) for electronic health record adoption and implementation for providers throughout L.A. County.
Suzanne Anderson, President, Virginia Mason Medical Center
Ms. Anderson is the Executive Vice President, CFO, and CIO at Virginia Mason. She has been at Virginia Mason since August 2007. Her scope of responsibilities include—in addition to Finance and Information Systems—the Benaroya Research Institute, Business Development, Supply Chain, and two group purchasing organizations, one within health care and one serving other industries.
Prior to joining Virginia Mason, Ms. Anderson was Vice President and COO at Meaghan Jared Partners, a health care consulting firm. Her client base at Meaghan Jared included mainly academic medical centers.
Currently, Ms. Anderson serves as the Chair of the Executive Board of the National Board of Medical Examiners. Her previous board experience includes the Composite Committee of the United States Medical Licensing Exam (Chair), the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (Chair), the American Board of Ophthalmology, the American Board of Medical Specialties, the Foundation for the Advancement of International Medical Education and Research, and the Foundation for Anesthesiology Education and Research.
Ms. Anderson has an undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame, and a Masters in Business Administration from Vanderbilt University.
Prior to joining Virginia Mason, Ms. Anderson was Vice President and COO at Meaghan Jared Partners, a health care consulting firm. Her client base at Meaghan Jared included mainly academic medical centers.
Currently, Ms. Anderson serves as the Chair of the Executive Board of the National Board of Medical Examiners. Her previous board experience includes the Composite Committee of the United States Medical Licensing Exam (Chair), the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (Chair), the American Board of Ophthalmology, the American Board of Medical Specialties, the Foundation for the Advancement of International Medical Education and Research, and the Foundation for Anesthesiology Education and Research.
Ms. Anderson has an undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame, and a Masters in Business Administration from Vanderbilt University.
Chris Baumgartner, Drug Systems Director, Washington State Department of Health
Chris Baumgartner is the Drug Systems Director at the Department of Health. Prior to his appointment in 2015, he served in various capacities for 10 years, including working for the Department as the Prescription Monitoring Program Director and owning a consulting firm that provided training and technical services to federal and state governments. He also worked for the WA State Department of Social and Health Services as an IT Portfolio Analyst and managed the Prescription Monitoring Program for the State of Maine while with the Office of Substance Abuse.
Mr. Baumgartner has served on the Prescription Monitoring Information Exchange Architecture Governance Body and the S&I Framework for PMP Interoperability with Electronic Health Records. He is currently involved with the Department of Health’s Unintentional Poisonings Workgroup and the Agency Medical Director’s Opioid Dosing Guideline. He has presented at numerous local and national conferences including the past three years at the National Rx Drug Abuse Summit. Throughout his tenure with public health, Mr. Baumgartner has played an active role in a variety of initiatives to promote patient safety and help prevent prescription drug overdose and misuse.
Tim Breaux, CEO, InterCase, LLC
Mr Breaux is a broadly experienced health care and healthcare technology executive. He has managed large, complex technical programs in payers and planned and/or implemented clinical systems in most clinical settings. He has skills and scars in all elements of healthcare technology management and population health management
He has expertise in accountable care, clinical analytics, care coordination and population stratification. He has direct experience in most provider clinical settings and in most health plan operating areas.
He has expertise in accountable care, clinical analytics, care coordination and population stratification. He has direct experience in most provider clinical settings and in most health plan operating areas.
Mr Breaux has led multiple strategic IT planning efforts in healthcare settings, and has launched and managed implementation projects larger than 10,000 workdays on multiple occasions.
He is currently focused on tools to enable effective care coordination between clinical settings for high utilizers.
Mr Breaux holds a Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of the Pacific and an MBA from Portland State University.
Ed Cantwell, Executive Director, Center for Medical Interoperability
Ed Cantwell is Executive Director of the Center for Medical Interoperability, providing membership recruitment and strategic and tactical leadership. Cantwell previously led wireless programs at the West Health Institute. Before joining the Institute, Cantwell served as director of 3M Corporation’s Wireless Business Unit and as chairman, president, and chief executive officer of InnerWireless, which he founded in 2000. Cantwell’s wireless experience began while working for Texas Instruments, where he led a number of high technology businesses and successfully obtained spectrum allocations from the FCC. This started as an incubator project then became SpectraPoint Wireless, where Cantwell was president and CEO. Before founding SpectraPoint, Cantwell held several positions within Texas Instrument’s Defense Systems and Electronics Group, where he helped to develop a variety of communications systems. He also served as an Air Force fighter pilot for 12 years. Cantwell graduated from the University of Michigan’s executive training program and is a graduate of the Air Force’s fighter weapons school. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University.
Most recently the founder of drexio solutions network, Drex has a history of innovation and leadership at top health-systems across the country. As an independent consultant, he now shares his experience in the form of advice, guidance and support to health systems, payers, associations, trusted vendor partners and investors.
Prior to launching his own firm, Drex was co-founder and CEO of NextWave Connect, a healthcare social collaboration solution. He’s also been the CIO at Steward Healthcare (Boston), Seattle Children’s Hospital and Research Institute, and Scripps Health (San Diego). He has also served as an officer in various CIO and CTO roles with the United States Air Force during a highly decorated 20-year career.
Drex has led the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) as Board of Trustees Chair, and has been a Healthcare and Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) National Board Member. He is currently a fellow in CHIME, HIMSS, and the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE).
His mantra: Ask me. I can get it done, or connect you to somebody who can.
Yolanda Evans, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor/Division of Adolescent Medicine, Seattle Children's Hospital
Yolanda Evans, MD, MPH is a member of the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Dr. Evans grew up in Alaska and earned her MD from Oregon Health and Science University and a MPH at the University of Washington. She completed her fellowship in Adolescent Medicine at Seattle Children’s and the University of Washington. Dr. Evans provides care to patients in Seattle, Olympia, Mill Creek/Everett for a variety of concerns including eating disorders, obesity, reproductive health and ADHD. She also has a telemedicine consultation clinic with Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, AK. She served as the Medical Director for Telemedicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital from 2011-2015. Her clinical and research interests are in the areas of technology use to reach adolescent and their families, including the use of telemedicine and videoconferencing for patient care and editor and author of the parenting blog, teenology101.
Cris V. Ewell, PhD, Chief Information Security Officer, UW Medicine IT Services
Dr. Cris V. Ewell is the Chief Information Security Officer at UW Medicine, one of the largest healthcare systems in the Puget Sound region. UW Medicine entities include: Harborview Medical Center, Northwest Hospital & Medical Center, Valley Medical Center, UW Medical Center, UW Neighborhood Clinics, UW Physicians, UW School of Medicine (SOM), Airlift Northwest and other affiliates.
As the senior leader in the Information Security program, Dr. Ewell has strategic and operational oversight for building and managing the information security framework, teams, and programs to decrease exposure, drive awareness, and minimize risk for the organization. Prior to joining UW Medicine, he served as the Chief Information Security Officer at Seattle Children’s, Director of Information Security Operations at the University of Washington, Chief Security Officer for PEMCO Corporation, and Chief Technology Officer for Breakwater Security.
Dr. Ewell holds several information security certifications as well as serving as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Washington and Senior Lecturer at Norwich University. His current research area includes information security risk management and he has a bachelor’s and master’s in Information Technology and a Ph.D. in Computer Information Systems with a concentration in Information Security.
Sheila Green-Shook, MHA, RHIA, CHP, FAHIMA, Director, Health Information Management and Privacy Officer, Evergreen Health
Sheila Green-Shook is the Director of Health Information Management and Privacy Officer at EvergreenHealth, Kirkland, WA. She is actively involved in WSHIMA and has served in multiple roles on the board; chair of advocacy, delegate, two consecutive terms as president and is Chair of advocacy and collaboration. She received the WSHIMA President’s award in 2014 and the Distinguished Member award in 2016. She has served on several AHIMA committees and is on the Program and the Grace Awards Committees. Supporting students is one of her passions; she is the Chair of the Shoreline College HIHIM Advisory Board and an advisory board member for the UW HIHIM program, both the bachelor’s and master’s program.
Bryant Thomas Karras, MD, Chief Informatics Officer, Office of the State Health Officer/Chief Science Officer, State of Washington, Department of Health
Bryant Thomas Karras MD, Chief Public Health Informatics Officer and Senior Epidemiologist at State of Washington Department of Health. He is a Physician, an Engineer and Public Health Informatician. He has a technical, business process, and problem-solving approach with a background in Internal Medicine and Chief Resident (University of Wisconsin), Biomedical Engineering (University of California San Diego), and Medical Informatics (Yale). In 2000 the University of Washington formed the Biomedical & Health Informatics program, and recruited Bryant to develop the UW Center for Public Health Informatics (cphi.washington.edu ) with funding from the UW, CDC, NLM and RWJF. He was the lead of the CDC sponsored competencies for PH Informaticians (www.cdc.gov/InformaticsCompetencies), as well as developing curricula and many continuing education courses. In 2007 the Public Health Laboratories asked for his part time help on a project. Enjoying ‘real’ Public Health practice so much, he joined the Department of Health full time from the University of Washington in 2008. He still guest teaches and now mentors CSTE/ASTHO/CDC Applied PHI Fellows. As Informatics Officer for the State agency he leads the DOH cross divisional efforts to prepare public health for meaningful use and changes to public health practice that statewide Health Information Exchange will bring (www.doh.wa.gov/HealthIT). Bryant is passionate about improving public health’s use of Health Information Technology in Washington state, but also consults up-to one day a week to help Public Health Agencies elsewhere with informatics issues for example the RWJF / PHII Common Ground project. He has been a member of AMIA since 1997 when he was at Oregon Health Sciences University and then a NLM Fellow at Yale University. Dr. Karras is an ISDS board member and has been participating with www.syndromic.org since its foundation (pre 9-11), and had been doing informatics research in since 1995. He joined CSTE when he became a Senior Epidemiologist full time in 2008, and has been active on the Surveillance and Informatics Committee. He served on both the interim and current Biosense2.0/ NSSP governance groups. He has been on several HIMSS Davies Committees. Nationally He serves on the CDC Tiger Team for Meaningful Use, the PHI2014 /16 Planning Committees, and the ASTHO eHealth/Informatics Policy Committee.
This is a critical time for Public Health we need people in HealthIT leadership that can help the field succeed in the years that EHR incentive program - Meaningful Use has left. It is a chance that public health cannot afford to squander. I have both the academic and practical governmental experience to help HIT make informed decisions. My role on the Biosense 2.0 governance and the ASTHO eHealth Committee help me to see the bigger picture nationally. Responsibilities in the State to the Department of Health, the board of the Statewide HIE, and liaison roll to our Medicaid Agency give me a local impact perspective.
Mark Hagland, Editor-in-Chief, Healthcare Informatics
Mark Hagland has been Editor-in-Chief of Healthcare Informatics (www.healthcare-informatics.com) since January 2010. Prior to that, he was Contributing Editor and then Senior Contributing Editor to the magazine, for over ten years. He has spent a quarter century in the health care publishing field, as a writer, editor, public speaker, and author. He has won numerous national and regional journalism awards, and is the author of two books on healthcare quality and efficiency: Paradox and Imperatives in Health Care (2008, with Jeffrey C. Bauer, Ph.D.) and Transformative Quality: The Emerging Revolution in Health Care Performance (2009). He holds a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
Eugene Kolker, PhD, Vice President and Chief Data Officer, Global Technology Services, IBM
Recently Eugene Kolker became the Vice President and Chief Data Officer at Global Technology Services (GTS), the largest business unit of IBM Corp. Eugene’s mission is to leverage data and analytics as strategic business assets of GTS and IBM for data-enabled, better-informed decisions and execution.
Eugene has 27 years of experience in multi-disciplinary data analysis, advanced analytics, and informatics and 17 years of experience in management, business, and community development. Prior to IBM, Gene was Chief Data Officer (CDO) at Seattle Children’s Hospital (SCH). At SCH, he created and led the CDO Analytics Program, which focused on leveraging complex data through analytics and informatics to improve safety, clinical and business outcomes, and customer services, reduce cost, and drive innovation. In turn, this will provide high quality care for consumers with the most effective use of resources and enable healthcare transformation.
Previously, Eugene was the Founder and President of BIATECH Informatics Innovation Center, which was acquired by SCH. He has over 130 publications in 40 different journals and served as the Co-Founder and Executive Editor of the journals “Big Data” and “OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology”. Also Dr. Kolker serves as Adjunct Professor at Northeastern University, Boston and Affiliate Professor at University of Washington, Seattle and New York University, NYC.
In April 2015, Eugene was honored by the HIMSS members to be one of the top three "Innovators" in their HIT Awards, which recognize industry leaders improving healthcare through technology. In May 2015, he was named one of the “Top 16 data-driven geeks to watch” by HIMSS. In June 2015, one of his papers on integrative analysis of personal biomedical data won the first price in the Metabolites Best Papers Award. In October 2015, Eugene was placed into “Top 25 Chief Data Officers” by LinkedIn.
Dan Kurywchak, Chief Technology Officer, California Telehealth Network
Mr. Kurywchak is the Chief Technology Officer for the CA Telehealth Network (CTN). He has developed hundreds of Telemedicine programs worldwide including; the Brazilian Amazon, China, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, South Africa, South Korea, and the United States. He has trained over 800 clinicians and holds two patents in the field of Telemedicine. Prior to CTN, he worked for the University of CA, Davis for over 17 years. He held the positions of Director of Telemedicine Technology and the Director of the Telemedicine Learning Center. Dan later joined the Intel Corporation as a Senior Engineer and was responsible for Telemedicine operations worldwide. Dan is also the founder and CEO of Telemedicine.com, inc.
David LaBrosse, Strategic Partner Manager, NetApp, Inc.
At NetApp Healthcare’s Strategic Partner Manager, David focuses on building partnerships between NetApp and healthcare cloud leaders. In addition to his role developing and launching healthcare cloud services, he frequently advises large and small healthcare customers on cloud services options and considerations.
David brings more than 25 years of experience in healthcare and IT to his current position. He worked at Siemens Medical systems, and spent nearly a decade installing INVISION and OPENLINK solutions in dozens of U.S. hospitals. For more than 20 years, he architected, managed, and sold enterprise solutions and services to verticals including government, commercial, security and healthcare, providing him with the ability to see challenges and solutions from multiple points of view.
David also enjoyed a full-time and part-time military career, serving six years in the U.S Air Force and 16 years as a part-time, data center manager for the Massachusetts Air National Guard on Cape Cod. Ask him about his ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ ride in an F-15 fighter jet.
Matt Levi, MHA, MPH, Division Director, Clinical Operations Center, Care Transformation, & Virtual Health Services, CHI Franciscan Health
Matt Levi directs CHI Franciscan Health’s Clinical Operations Center where some of the health system’s most experienced clinicians coordinate and deliver care throughout the Pacific Northwest. He also leads Franciscan’s Care Transformation and Virtual Health Services that connect care teams and patients across medical campuses and extend care beyond traditional settings and into the home. Matt’s leadership builds on early experiences as an emergency medical technician, community health worker, and director of strategic planning & development for a large medical group and regional health system. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the United Way of Pierce County and as Chair-elect for the Institutional Council of the American Telemedicine Association. Matt holds a Master of Healthcare Administration and Master of Public Health from the University of Iowa.
Sean Murphy, Chief Information Security Officer, Premera Blue Cross
Sean Murphy is responsible for enhancing an enterprise-wide security program that minimizes risk, and further strengthens the health plan company’s security posture. He works closely with Premera’s leadership team to establish and maintain a comprehensive program to protect associates, assets and technologies and mature the corporate culture from security awareness to accountability.
He’s a healthcare information security expert, with more than 20 years of experience in the field. Sean retired from the U.S. Air Force (Medical Service Corps) after achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel. He has served as CIO and CISO in the military service and private sector at all levels of healthcare organizations, but his proudest professional accomplishment was his service as a senior mentor to the Afghan National Police Surgeon General’s Office in 2008–2009 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Joseph C. Nichols, MD, Principal, Health Data Consulting
Dr. Joe Nichols is a board certified Orthopedic Surgeon with a long history in health information technology. He has a wide range of experiences in healthcare information technology on the provider, payer, government and vendor side of healthcare business. He has served in positions in executive management, system design, logical database architecture, product management, consulting and healthcare value measurement for the last 18 of his 35 years in the healthcare industry. He has given over 250 presentations nationally related to ICD-10 and clinical documentation improvement over the past 6 years on behalf of CMS, payers, providers, integrated delivery systems, consulting groups, universities, government entities, vendors and trade associations. He co-chairs the WEDI (Workgroup on Electronic Data Interchange) translation and coding sub-workgroup and has received five WEDI service awards. He is also an AHIMA approved ICD-10 coding trainer. He is currently providing consulting services as the President of Health Data Consulting Inc.
Richard Royer, Chief Executive Officer, Primaris
Richard A. Royer has served as the chief executive officer of Primaris since 2001. He has extensive administrative healthcare experience and is actively involved in several statewide healthcare initiatives. In 2006 he was appointed by the Missouri governor to the Missouri Healthcare Information Technology Task Force and chaired the resources workgroup. He also serves on the board of directors for the Excellence in Missouri Foundation. In his over 35 years of medical business experience he has held positions as chief executive officer at Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, General Hospital; executive director of Columbia Regional Hospital in Missouri; and founder and president of Avalon Enterprises, a medical financial consulting firm. He graduated from the University of Akron, Ohio, with a BS in Accounting, from Cleveland State University with an MBA, and from the Advanced Management Program of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
Rick Rubin, President and CEO, OneHealthPort
Rick is the CEO of OneHealthPort, a health information technology management company based in Seattle. Created by and for the local healthcare community, OneHealthPort solves information exchange and workflow problems shared across healthcare organizations. Among other services it provides, OneHealthPort is the Lead Organization in Washington State for Administrative Simplification and Health Information Exchange. Previously, Rick was a Director for the ehealth division of Siemens Medical Solutions Health Services Corporation and President of the Community Healthcare Connection division for the Pointshare Corporation. Prior to assuming his role at Pointshare, Rick served as the President and CEO of the Foundation for Health Care Quality. Rick is actively involved in the community and has served on a variety of public and private Boards.
Since 2010, Mr. Stevens has lead the health IT consulting firm he co-founded, ARRAHealth. During that time, Mark Stevens also served as a Vice President at Best Practice Partners (BPP), a leader in healthcare training, process re-design and IT optimization solutions serving providers, payers, HIEs and ACOs, where he focuses on strategic partnerships and executive search in health data analytics. Mr. Stevens also served as President and COO of BPP’s accountable care subsidiary, EnableHealth, which he co-founded in 2013. Prior to joining BPP, Mr. Stevens was Vice President of Digital Collaboration Solutions, a health It professional services firm; Senior Director for eHealth Innovation at World Congress, a leader in healthcare conference management; and Executive Director of the Pennsylvania eHealth Initiative (PAeHI), a not-for-profit organization founded in 2005 by Pennsylvania’s leading healthcare stakeholders to promote broader adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) and health information exchange (HIE).
Mr. Stevens currently serves as President-Elect on the board of the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society’s (HIMSS) Central Pennsylvania Chapter, which he co-founded. Mr. Stevens is a past recipient of the Spirit of HIMSS award, and in January of 2016 was named Contributing Editor for Health IT Leaders & News. Mr. Stevens also also an active member of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and serves on its Innovation Conference Committee board. His prior professional experience includes a decade each in public sector management and executive search. Mr. Stevens is active in his community, and serves on the Board of Directors of both the historic Charles A. Melton Arts and Education Center and the Brandywine Valley Business Council.
Mr. Stevens is a graduate of the University of Vermont, and attended graduate school at the University of Massachusetts and Boston University for public affairs and business administration, respectively. Mr. Stevens lives with his wife, son and two daughters in West Chester, PA.
Ravila Helen White is the Director of Enterprise Security Services and Architecture for UHG. Prior to that, she headed up the information security programs for Providence Health & Services, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and drugstore.com. Ravila has more than 15 years of professional IT experience, with experience as a strategist, architect, auditor and a front line information security practitioner.
Ravila is a strong advocate in influencing organizations to choose to do the right things, through her philosophy of "making it better without making it complex".
Ravila carries CISSP, CISM, CISA, CIPP, GCIH and ITIL v3 certifications, with a MSc Information Security from the University of Royal Holloway. She regularly presents at local events on information assurance issues and has been published on a national and global level. She is also a member of the PacCISO and Agora.
Laura Young, Executive Director, Behavioral Health Information Network of Arizona (BHINAZ)
Laura Young is an information technology expert with over 25 years working within the IT industry with a focus on government, non-profit, education and healthcare. She has degrees in Information Technology and Health Services Management. Laura has been a leader in the healthcare IT sector for over 10 years with a specific focus on Clinical IT and HIE systems. She joined Behavioral Health Network of Arizona in January 2013 as the Executive Director. As a subject matter expert on behavioral health information exchange and 42 CFR Part 2, Laura has presented around the country and contributed to a number of publications on these topics. She currently serves nationally as the Vice Chair of the HIMSS Interoperability & Health Information Exchange Committee, and on the eHealth Initiatives Interoperability Workgroup. She also serves on the board of the Arizona HIMSS Chapter.
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