Health IT In Government - "Improving Health Care Through Technology"

• Using Technology To Improve The Delivery of Healthcare & Patient Information

• DoD & Civilian Case Studies on Pushing The Point of Care Closer To The Patient

• How To Insure Patient Data Security

• A Look At Transferring Patient Informations & Records From Different Branches of Service

• Setting Standards For the National Health Information Network (NHIN)

Panelists:

Dr. Karen Bell Director, Office of Health IT Adoption, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology - HHS

Theresa Cullen CIO - IHS/HHS

Charles Hume DCIO - MHS

Gail Graham Dir. Health Data & Informatics - VA

Patti Obermaier Partner, Federal Systems - Unisys Corporation

Jason Kimrey - Intel Corporation

Max Peterson Vice President of Federal Civilian Sales - Dell

Jim served over 27 years in the federal government. He served as Senior Advisor to Governor Ridge in the White House Office of Homeland Security (OHS). He provided advice to OHS on the National Strategy and Information Management in support of the OHS mission. From February 1998 until December 2002, Jim also served as the Vice Chair of the Federal Government CIO Council overseeing numerous governmentwide IT initiatives. He was also a member of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board.

Prior to this, from August 1997 until April 2002, Jim was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information Systems and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Department of the Treasury. He provided oversight, strategic planning and management direction on over $3.0 billion in annual information technology and information infrastructure programs within Treasury and its fourteen Bureaus. Jim also served as the Acting Assistant Secretary for Management for the Treasury Department from January 20, 2001 until February 8, 2002. In that role he provided oversight of all Treasury bureaus and served as the principal policy advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary on matters involving the internal management of the Department and its bureaus. Jim received the Secretary Certificate of Appreciation on February 12, 2002 for his efforts during this transition period.

Prior to his Treasury positions, Jim worked for 15 years at the U.S. Secret Service where he held key IT management positions, including the Chief of the Communications Division, providing world class telecommunications in support of Secret Service tactical and operational requirements.

Jim has extensive public speaking experience and frequently serves as a featured speaker at industry events. He has developed, and currently teaches part-time, a graduate level course on Information Systems Security and Risk Assessment at the University of Maryland. Jim was given the Stanley J. Drazek Excellence in Teaching Award in 1998 by the University of Maryland.

Jim has an undergraduate degree in Business Administration and Computer Science and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Maryland with an area of concentration in Information Systems Management.

Dr. Bell joined the Federal government in October 2004 after developing multiple successful payer contracting models that provided financial support for the adoption of clinical health information technologies (HIT) in the delivery system. Dr. Bell's work with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services focused on supporting health information technology adoption through contracts with the Quality Improvement Organizations in every state. A previous position with Partners Health Care in Boston provided the opportunity to work with a number of the physician groups affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

She graduated from Pembroke College and Tufts University School of Medicine and trained at the Harvard teaching hospitals in Internal Medicine. She spent two years at Toronto General Hospital in Canada and finished an infectious disease fellowship at the University of Chicago before accepting an appointment at the University of Rochester and the Department of Public Health in Rochester, NY. While in Rochester, Dr. Bell was a principal investigator on the Medicare Demonstration Project that led to coverage of influenza vaccine for Medicare beneficiaries.

When first relocating to Boston, she held an appointment at Harvard Medical School, teaching in the second-year core curriculum, while practicing as an internist at MGH and serving as a Medical Director at Harvard Community Health Plan. She maintains licensure in both Massachusetts and Maine, and continues to reside in Massachusetts with her husband, a cardiologist at MGH.

Her current work includes development, implementation, and coordination of strategies to incentivize adoption of HIT and personal health management tools; oversight and evaluation of an HIT certification process; and identification and documentation of methods to assess HIT use as well as the costs and benefits of interoperable technologies

Background
Mr. Hume is a retired Colonel in the Army Medical Service Corps, having served in a variety of positions spanning 27 years of military service, with a concentration of experience in medical information technology and healthcare administration. Most recently, he was the Chief Information Officer for the Army Medical Department where he was the principal advisor to the Army Surgeon General on all aspects of information management and information technology. Prior to that assignment, he served as the Deputy Chief Information Officer for the MHS, the position he has now returned to as a Department of Defense civilian.

Education
Mr. Hume graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in History from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1982. In 1992 he received his Master's Degree in Computer Science from California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo. He graduated from the US Army Command and General Staff College in 1993.

Professional Affiliations
Mr. Hume is Board Certified in Healthcare Administration and a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. He is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems. He is also a member of the Order of Military Medical Merit.

Mission
The mission of the MHS is to enhance the Department of Defense and our Nation's security by providing health support for the full range of military operations and sustaining the health of all those entrusted to our care. The MHS provides medical care for 9.2 million beneficiaries through a $37 billion dollar healthcare system, consisting of a worldwide network of 70 military hospitals, 411 military health clinics, 417 dental clinics, and the Department's extensive private sector healthcare partners.

Ms. Graham represents the Department of Veterans Affairs on a number of national and international organizations, including the American Health Information Community (AHIC), Federal Health Architecture (FHA), and the Board of Directors of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) Foundation for Research (FORE). Ms. Graham was voted one of the 100 most influential people in health care by Modern Healthcare magazine in 2005 and 2006 in recognition of her central role in expanding the use of information technology in health care. She is a Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA).

Prior to this position, Patty served as the practice director for the Unisys CRM practice. Her primary focus was to ensure that the CRM practice produced high-quality deliverables that met and exceeded the client's expectations. In addition to practice delivery, she was also responsible for business development and staff management.

Patty has more than 15 years' experience helping executives at federal government agencies and Fortune 500 companies improve business operations. A specialist in business strategy and customer relationship management, she has worked in a variety of industries such as health care, insurance, financial services, manufacturing and the federal government.

Prior to Unisys, Patty served as vice president of Collaborative Relationship Services at Collaborex, Inc., where she was responsible for the strategic direction, practice development and services management for Collaborex's customer relationship management practice group. In addition to her practice development responsibilities, she was responsible for business development, and her efforts resulted in obtaining the company's largest client, DuPont.

Before her tenure at Collaborex, Patty was president and co-founder of The Alleris Group, a leading customer relationship management consulting firm. Working with Fortune 500 and leading national and international firms such as Bausch & Lomb, Bell Atlantic, CIGNA, IMS Health and Market Measures, she helped increase their profitability by as much as 20 percent by developing and implementing customer loyalty strategies.

Patty received her master of business administration degree at the Colgate Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. She also holds a bachelor of science degree in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has served on the board of the MIT Enterprise Forum of Washington and Baltimore, and currently serves on the board and as the Vice Chairman of RISE Business (Research Institute for Small and Emerging Business).