1997 Partnerships for Networked Consumer Health Information Conference

Biographies Of Conference Speakers - A-C

George B. (Peter) Abbott, MD

Dr. Abbott is the Acting Deputy Director of Health Information and Strategic Planning, of the California Department of Health Services. He also is the Acting Chief of the California Center for Health Statistics and the State Registrar of Vital Statistics. His permanent position is the Chief of the Office of County Health Environmental Health Agencies and County Indigent Care Services.

Linda Adler

Ms. Adler is a project manager for the Interactive Technologies Group at Kaiser Permanente, Northern California. She is responsible for computer application development in the areas of member communication and decision support. She recently served as the Project Director for Kaiser Permanente evaluation of the shared decision making programs. She is the co-author of the IPDG Directory of Consumer Health Informatics and currently serves as a communication consultant for a variety of projects.

Susan Alpert, PhD, MD

Dr. Alpert is Director of the Office of Device Evaluation (ODE) at the Center for Devices & Radiological Health, Food & Drug Administration. ODE is responsible for pre-market evaluation of medical devices. Dr. Alpert joined FDA in 1987 as a Medical Officer in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. She received her BA in Biology from Barnard College, Columbia University, her PhD in Medical Microbiology from New York University School of Medicine, and her MD from at the University of Miami School of Medicine. She is trained in Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases.

Margret Amatayakul

Ms. Amatayakul is Executive Director of Computer-Based Patient Record Institute (CPRI), a non-profit membership organization committed to providing a neutral forum for creation of solutions to computer-based patient record development and implementation.

Alan Andreasen, PhD

Dr. Andreasen, Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean at the Georgetown University School of Business, is the author of 10 books and over 100 articles and proceedings papers. Expert in application of marketing to non-profit organizations and social problems.

Marcos Athanasoulis, MPH

Mr. Athanasoulis has been Vice President of Engineering, Research and Development at Windom Health Enterprises since January 1995. Trained in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Mr. Athanasoulis has implemented computerized health information systems for a decade, including California's statewide lead-prevention information tracking system and electronic surveillance systems. Mr. Athanasoulis manages Windom's research and development on methods of health information interoperability; he has published many papers in the health field and oversees integration of technology across the Windom Health product lines.

Edward Bergmark, PhD

Dr. Bergmark has been the president of Optum since its inception in 1990. With a strong background in behavioral health, employee assistance, and managed care, Dr. Bergmark has positioned Optum as a market leader in health and human risk management. Since 1990, Optum has broadened but not altered its original mission: to deliver the information individuals need to make appropriate decisions about their health and well-being.

Robert G. Blank, PhD

Dr. Blank is a consultant on new business development, strategy, and health informatics consultation for consumer and professional services and markets. Previously, he was Director of HealthCare Content for AT&T Personal Online Service, responsible for the design and acquisition of content for AT&T HealthSite, an Internet-based consumer health information service, and has been the catalyst for AT&T's initiatives in health care. Dr. Blank's primary focus has been new business development, conceptualizing and designing services for consumers, professionals, and healthcare institutions. In 1992, he created an operating system for healthcare demand management. In 1994, he directed an intensive expeditionary market assessment of 350 top healthcare executives to understand their needs, and developed a cohesive strategy for integrating AT&T's services and competencies to provide information technology solutions to improve the quality of clinical care, while reducing costs. He led an enterprise modeling initiatives for reengineering a major integrated Healthcare Delivery System. Prior to AT&T, Blank was with the Bell Laboratory's Human Performance Technology Center developing and consulting on cognitive engineering in information system design, organization design, and quality processes. His training is as a Psychologist.

Eugene Boostrom, MD, DrPH

Dr. Boostrom is a public health physician. He is a preventive medicine specialist (MD, University of Illinois, Chicago and DrPH, UCLA). He has 25 years of experience in international public health in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. He has been with the World Bank since 1988 first with the Africa Technical Department. Since November 1996 Dr. Boostrom has been with the Human Resource and Poverty Division in the Bank's Economic Development Institute. Dr. Boostrom has a long-standing interest in technology communications and training.

Jo Ivey Boufford, MD

Dr. Boufford was appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health in November 1993 by HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala.

As the Principal Deputy, Dr. Boufford was the principal advisor to Philip R. Lee, MD, the former Assistant Secretary for Health, and until October 1995 served under his leadership as the Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Public Health Service. HHS has eight agencies: the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR); Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR); Centers for Disease Control (CDC); Food and Drug Administration (FDA); Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Indian Health Service (IHS); National Institutes of Health (NIH); Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA); and 18 program and staff offices including the National AIDS Program Office (NAPO); Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP); Office of International Health (OIH); Office of Minority Health (OMH); Office of the Surgeon General (OSG); Office of Women's Health (OWH) and the ten PHS Regional Offices. Since a Departmental reorganization, the Office of the Assistant Secretary has become a staff division in the Office of the Secretary and provides senior public health policy and science advice to the Secretary, and continues to manage the spectrum of program offices. Prior to her appointment, Dr. Boufford served as Director of the King's Fund College, London, England, from May 1991 to September 1993. The King's Fund is a royal charity dedicated to the support of health and social services in London and the United Kingdom. The College provides management and organizational consulting and educational services to senior managers and health professionals in the National Health Service and local authorities. From October 1989 through May 1991, Dr. Boufford served as a Visiting International Fellow in Comparative Health Systems at the College.

Dr. Boufford served as President of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) from December 1985 until October 1989. She joined HHC as Vice President for Medical and Professional Affairs in March 1982 and was made Executive Vice President in May 1985. HHC is the largest municipal hospital system in the United States with eleven acute care hospitals, five long term care facilities, and over fifty community clinics and responsibility for the New York City Emergency Medical (ambulance) Service.

Prior to her appointment at HHC, she was Director of the Residency Program in Social Medicine at Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center in the Bronx, New York, a unique residency training program to prepare pediatricians, internists and family physicians for inner city primary care practice with a community focus. Dr. Boufford did her pediatric residency training in the Social Pediatric Residency Program at Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center, Bronx, New York. She is board certified in Pediatrics. In 1979-1980, she was awarded a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship at the Institute of Medicine in Washington, DC. She has served as a member of a number of national advisory panels in the United States on undergraduate and graduate medical education and health personnel. She was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine in 1992. She received an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from the State University of New York, Brooklyn, New York, in May 1992.

She holds an academic appointment at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in voluntary clinical status as Associate Professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Social Medicine and of Pediatrics.

Dr. Boufford attended Wellesley College for two years and received her BA (Psychology) magna cum laude, and her MD, with distinction from the University of Michigan and the University of Michigan Medical School.

Patricia Brennan, RN, PhD, FAAN

Dr. Brennan is currently Moehlman Bascom Professor, School of Nursing and College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Brennan recently was professor of nursing and systems engineering and sociology at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Brennan received a Masters of Science in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD in Industrial Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Following seven years of clinical practice in critical care nursing and psychiatric nursing, Dr. Brennan has held several academic positions. She developed and directed "ComputerLink", an electronic network designed to reduce isolation and improve self-care among home care patients. Dr. Brennan is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics. She is Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Naomi C. Broering, MLS, MA

Ms. Broering is Executive Director at the Houston Academy of Medicine Texas Medical Library. She was previously Director of Biomedical Information Resources Center and the Medical Center Librarian at the Dahlgren Memorial Library, Georgetown University IAIMS Project where she integrated information systems supported by the NLM. She is known for developing the miniMEDLINE, the Library Information System and the Knowledge Network at Georgetown. She focuses on the use of information technology to improve library services and currently is involved in use of the WWW and networked consumer health information.

Ms. Broering is a distinguished member of the MLA Academy of Health Information Professionals and President of the Medical Library Association. She was a Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) and also the Medical Library Association (MLA) for five years. She was awarded the Special Library Association's 1987 Professional Award for her work on IAIMS, and MLA's 1986 Frank Bradway Rogers Information Advancement Award for her contributions to the application of technology in the delivery of health care information, for developing the Library Information System and the miniMEDLINE SYSTEM used by over 40 libraries. She has written extensively on information management in the health sciences (over 100 articles and 2 books). She serves on the NLM's Biomedical Library Review Committee, reviews grants for Department of Education's Library Program, and participates in the Institute of Study Panels of Medicine.

She earned an MLS degree in Library and Information Science from UCLA, and an MA and BA (with honors) from California State University at Long Beach. She received a (1966-67) fellowship from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for postgraduate work at UCLA where she was also a doctoral candidate in the History program, and was also an evening law student. She was the Hospital Librarian at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles and she was Assistant Librarian at the Walter Reed Hospital, Head of Readers Services at the Veterans Administration in Washington, DC.

Michael S. Brown

Mr. Brown is President and Principal Consultant for MSB Associates. He has 24 years of strategic planning development, and marketing experience in the healthcare and medical communications field.

Mr. Brown is the author of FIND/SVP's ground breaking market analysis report, "Consumer Health and Medical Information on the Internet", in which he was first to identify the unique demographics, psychographics, and online behaviors of consumers. He is now writing the follow-up to that publication and is co-directing FIND/SVP's newest study, The American Interactive Healthcare Professionals Survey.

Hugh M. Brownstone

Mr. Brownstone, Vice President of Strategic Business Development at IMS America, creates new businesses through a combination of acquisition alliance and new development. His current focus is the nexus of the Internet, healthcare informatics and consumer empowerment. He has served on many advisory boards and industry projects including the Uniform Board of Directors. DOD's MHSS 2020 and the Conference Board's International Council on the Management of Innovation and Technology. Mr. Brownstone holds an MBA from the Wharton School and a BA from Cornell University.

E. Loren Buhle, Jr., PhD

Dr. Buhle is the creator of OncoLink and many of the resources on cancer available on the Internet. Dr. Buhle is now an Associate Director of Information Management at Smith Kline Beecham in charge of Intranets, Internet and knowledge of engineering. He was formerly on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania.

Warren B. Buhler

Mr. Buhler is coordinator of the Informatics 2000 initiative at the InterAmerican Development Bank. He has worked on several strategic reforms for the IADB and the World Bank, and with numerous public and private organizations in the developed and developing worlds. While working for the U.S.Goverment, he developed the management discipline of "Information Resources Management" and wrote the legislation governing U.S. Computer and Information Management.

Rick J. Carlson

Mr. Carlson is President and CEO of HealthMagic, a healthcare technology company headquartered in Denver. HealthMagic provides health care information products and services to members of managed care organizations through a variety of mediums including the Internet. Mr. Carlson specializes in strategic, governance, and legal services to the healthcare industry and, in particular, to the managed care sector. He formerly served as Vice Chairman of Age Wave Health Services, located in the San Francisco Bay area.

Prior to his commitments with Age Wave Health Services, Mr. Carlson was "Of Counsel" to Epstein Becker & Green, P.C., a law firm with offices in twelve cities across the U.S., and with special expertise in the health, labor and employment areas of practice.

From 1987 to 1990, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of NewHealth Centers/PPP Inc. PPP had as its mission the development and establishment of Primary Prevention Program Centers, state-of-the-art risk assessment systems housed in facilities provided by health care organizations under license. He continues to serve the company as a Special Advisor and sits on the board.

He has also served as a consultant in the health policy, health futures and health enhancement fields, with a special emphasis on trends and market factors affecting organizational and new product and service development.

Mr. Carlson joined the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies (currently Interstudy of Minneapolis, Minnesota) as a research attorney in 1968. While with the Institute, he became one of the prime architects of the "Health Maintenance Organization Program" (HMO), drafting legislations which initiated the health maintenance organization movement across the country.

As a direct result of his insights into the possibilities for health and human services reform in the United States, Mr. Carlson was invited to be a Visiting Fellow at the "Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions" in Santa Barbara, California.

During his 18-month tenure at the Center, Mr. Carlson published The End of Medicine, a seminal book in the health field. He also organized and chaired two major conferences on "Law-and-Justice" for the Center. His activities in this area led to a second major book in 1976 on the U.S. correctional system for the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration entitled, The Dilemmas of Punishment.

While living in California, Mr. Carlson served as chairman of the California governor's Council on Wellness and Physical Fitness. He was also the first director of the California Trend Report Project sponsored by the Naisbitt Group, publishers of The Trend Report. In addition, he has acted in a consulting capacity to major institutions in the healthcare industry, such as the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Associations of America, the America Hospital Association, the Health and Human Services Administration, the Mac Arthur Foundation and others. Mr. Carlson has generated over 40 scholarly publications including additional books, The Frontiers of Science and Medicine and Medicine & Future Directions in Health Care, The Future of Work and Health (with Clem Bezold and Jonathan Peck) and For Your Health with Brooke Newman.

Karen A. Chapman, MD, MPH

Dr. Chapman is the Director of the Center for Health Information, Division of Public Health, Georgia Department of Human Resources. She is responsible for public health informatics, community health planning support, and vital events' registration and statistics. Additionally, she is the project director for the Georgia Information Network for Public Health Officials project. The Georgia INPHO project was the recipient of the 1995 National Information Infrastructure Award in the Health Category.

Caroline M. Clancy, MD

Dr. Clancy is an internist and health services researcher who directs AHCPR's Center for Primary Care Research. Her research interests include strategies to involve patients as "co-managers" of their care.

Linda Cooperstock, MPH

Ms. Cooperstock received her MPH degree from the University of Michigan. Ms. Cooperstock served as the tobacco control officer for the Missouri Department of Health for six years. She is currently the Planning/Coordination Manager for Integrated Technology Services at the University of Missouri-Columbia and the coordinator of the IAIMS (Integrated Advanced Information Management Systems) project. Her interests are in community and consumer access to health information electronically.

Molly J. Coye, MD, MPH

Dr. Coye served as Senior Vice President of the Good Samaritan Health System, a non-profit, integrated health care system, and the largest provider system in the Santa Clara Valley until January 1996, when the System was acquired by Columbia /HCA. She was responsible for the operation of four hospitals, the Visiting Nurse Association and the Good Samaritan Medical Foundation, a managed care delivery system including a multi-specialty group practice and an IPA serving 70,000 HMO members. Dr. Coye has previously served as the Director of the California Department of Health and Human Services, Commissioner of Health for the State of New Jersey and Head of the Division of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Dr. Coye is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Public Administration, is the author of two books on Chinese history and serves as a Trustee of the China Medical Board.

Des Cummings, Jr., PhD

Dr. Cummings is CEO of the Development Division of Florida Hospital including Celebration Health and the RDV Sportsplex. He received a PhD in educational leadership and management with emphasis in statistical forecasting. His leadership is focused on designing and developing health enhancing services that meet the needs of the whole person. He has had experience in developing two PHOs, a demand management program, disease management program, and a comprehensive patient communication system. Dr. Cummings is leading a team of health professionals in designing health enhancing strategies into every segment of the Celebration City community.

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