Dr. George Poste is the Director of The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University (ASU). This is a major initiative combining research groups in biotechnology, nanotechnology, materials science and advanced computing. In 2008 he also assumed the post of Chief Scientist, Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative (CASI) at ASU. This new program will integrate expertise across the university in research on synthetic biology, ubiquitous sensing and healthcare informatics for personalized medicine.

In addition to his academic post he serves as Chief Executive of a consulting company, Health Technology Networks, that specializes in the application of genomic technologies and computing in healthcare.

Dr. Kenneth R. Pelletier is a Clinical Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, at the University of Arizona School of Medicine; and, a Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco (UCSF). At the University of Arizona, he is Director of the Corporate Health Improvement Program (CHIP) which is a collaborative research program between CHIP and 15 of the Fortune 500 corporations. Also, he is Chairman of the American Health Association and is a Vice President with Healthtrac Incorporated.

Prior to these positions, Dr. Pelletier served as Clinical Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine; was Director of the Stanford Corporate Health Program (SCHP); and, Director of the NIH funded Complementary and Alternative Medicine Program at Stanford (CAMPS). From 1974 until joining the Stanford University School of Medicine in 1990, Dr. Pelletier held a dual appointment as an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Psychiatry, University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco (UCSF).  

Dr. George J. Isham is responsible for quality, utilization management, health promotion and disease prevention, research, and health professionals’ education at HealthPartners. Dr. Isham is a founding board member of the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement, a collaborative of Twin Cities medical groups and health plans that is implementing clinical practice guidelines in Minnesota. He is past co-chair and current member of the National Committee for Quality Assurance’s (NCQA) Committee on Performance Measurement which oversees the Health Plan quality measurement standards. He has served on the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) Task Force on Community Preventive Services and on the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) Advisory Board for the National Guideline Clearinghouse. He has served on the Institute of Medicine’s Board on Population Health and Public Health Services and chaired the committee that authored the report Priority Areas for National Action, Transforming Health Care Quality. Epidemic of Care, published in April 2003, with co-author George Halvorson, is Dr. Isham’s examination of the impending health care crisis with suggestions on ways to solve it.

Paul H. Keckley, Ph.D., is Executive Director for the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions (“the Center”), a part of Deloitte & Touche USA LLP. In this role, Dr. Keckley provides strategic guidance on the development of Center research and thought leadership. Dr. Keckley brings to Deloitte 30 years of experience in academic medicine and the private sector. He is regarded as a primary expert in health care economics, health policy and trend analysis.

Prior to joining Deloitte, Dr. Keckley served in several key roles at Vanderbilt University. He was the Executive Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Evidence-based Medicine (VCEBM), Associate Professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and an Associate Professor of Health Management at the Owen Graduate School of Business. He continues to teach in the Schools of Medicine and Business on an adjunct basis.

Jim Woodburn, MD is the Chief Executive Officer for Woodburn Health Consulting LLC, based in Deephaven, MN. The company focuses on transforming health care through accelerating consumer-centered and consumer-driven systems change.

Dr. Woodburn was Chief Medical Officer for MinuteClinic from 2005 to 2007. In his role as Chief Medical Officer, he worked with the CEO to develop strategic plans and eventual acquisition by CVS/Caremark Inc. He was also responsible for the clinical integrity and quality for medical care provided by MinuteClinic. He developed new clinical services and strategic relationships with national health systems and providers. He also cultivated relationships with the physician community in cities and states where MinuteClinic expanded. He recruited and supervised collaborative physicians in each location and assisted MinuteClinic in becoming an in-network provider with insurance companies in new markets. Finally, he served as the clinical spokesperson for MinuteClinic nationally.

J. Michael McGinnis is a long-time contributor to national and international health policy leadership, now Senior Scholar at the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and Executive Director of the IOM Roundtable on Evidence-Based Medicine. He is also an elected member of the IOM. He previously was Senior Vice President at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), and, unusual for political posts, held continuous appointment through the Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton Administrations, with responsibility for coordinating activities and policies in disease prevention and health promotion.

Programs and policies created and launched at his initiative include: the Healthy People process setting national health objectives, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (with USDA), the Ten Essential Services of Public Health, the RWJF Health and Society Scholars Program; the RWJF Young Epidemiology Scholars Program; and the RWJF Active Living family of programs.

Internationally, he chaired the World Bank/European Commission Task Force on post-war reconstruction of the health sector in Bosnia, and worked both as field epidemiologist and state coordinator for the World Health Organization’s successful smallpox eradication program in India.

Debbie Stern is currently Vice President of Rxperts, a managed care consulting firm, where she is responsible for designing and implementing comprehensive programs to meet the needs of managed care clients. Debbie is a nationally recognized speaker, meeting facilitator and consultant for a wide variety of clients, including the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, health plans, PBMs, specialty pharmacies and technology companies, with a focused perspective on issues related to the management of specialty pharmaceuticals.

Previously, Debbie was the Director of Pharmacy Services at Prescription Solutions, a pharmacy benefit management (PBM) company in Costa Mesa, CA. Debbie was responsible for managing all aspects of pharmacy benefits for her clients, including operations, clinical services, outcomes management, budgeting and forecasting and personnel management. Prior to joining Prescription Solutions, Debbie was involved in the start-up operations of Preferred Solutions, a PBM in San Jose, CA. As the first pharmacist at Preferred Solutions, Debbie was responsible for setting up the clinical, client services, claims administration, contracting and finance departments.

In addition to her managed care experience, Debbie spent five years in the pharmaceutical industry and ten years in retail pharmacy. She has a BS degree in pharmacy from the University of Cincinnati and is actively involved in the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, where she recently completed a two-year term the Board of Directors.

Sara R. Collins is assistant vice president for the Program on the Future of Health Insurance at The Commonwealth Fund. She is an economist whose responsibilities include survey development, research and policy analysis, as well as program development and management for the Fund's health care coverage and access program. Prior to joining the Fund, Dr. Collins was associate director/senior research associate at the New York Academy of Medicine, Division of Health and Science Policy. Previously, she was an associate editor at U.S. News & World Report where she wrote articles on economics and health care. She was also a senior health policy analyst in the New York City Office of the Public Advocate. She holds an A.B. in economics from Washington University and a Ph.D. in economics from George Washington University.

John Gorman is President and CEO of Gorman Health Group, a company he founded in 1996 (under its predecessor name, Managed Care Compliance Solutions) to provide Medicare regulatory compliance advisory services to healthcare payers. Under John’s leadership, Gorman Health Group has since emerged to become the leading consulting firm in Medicare managed care, providing thought leadership along with expert strategic, operational, financial, and other professional services to the healthcare industry, including an array of leading-edge business process outsourcing solutions.

Mr. Gorman and his team of more than 65 senior-level consultants are considered by many in the industry to be the go-to source for understanding the regulatory and business implications of the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) and the introduction of the Medicare Part D prescription drug program. John and his team are largely credited with having spearheaded the creation and design of the Medicare Advantage PPO product, and for being early advocates for plans having diverse product portfolios. John also has been instrumental in foreseeing the emergence and growth of Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans and Medicare Savings Accounts.

John is a dynamic, engaging, and highly-regarded speaker -- known for his on-the-mark insights as well as his candid, no-nonsense, cut-to-the-chase style. John speaks at dozens of healthcare industry conferences each year, reaching thousands of senior healthcare executives and professionals nationally. In 2000, John received Best Speaker Award for the National Managed Health Care Congress, the nation’s largest annual convention of the managed care industry.

John is regularly quoted in the trade press and the national media, including the The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and serves on the editorial advisory boards of several industry publications. He is also frequently sought out by the investment community for his insights, analyses, and predictions about the evolving Medicare managed care market.

In addition to founding Gorman Health Group, John was a founding partner of Leprechaun, the industry’s leading HCC (Hierarchical Condition Category) management outsourcing company, which finds and recovers upwards of $100 PMPM for Medicare Advantage plan clients.

Prior to founding his own company in 1996, John served as Assistant to the Director of HCFA’s Office of Managed Care, where he provided day-to-day management and served as the external liaison for the Medicare and Medicaid managed care programs during their period of greatest growth. During the 1993 debate on national health care reform, John was chief lobbyist on health care financing issues for the National Association of Community Health Centers, an organization of Federally-funded primary care clinics for the medically underserved. Prior to that, he served as Press Secretary and Staff Director for U.S. Representative John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), then-Chairman of the Government Operations Committee.

David Nash is the Dr. Raymond C. and Doris N. Grandon Professor and Chairman of the Department of Health Policy at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Jefferson is one of a handful of medical schools in the nation with an endowed professorship in health policy.

Dr. Nash, a board certified internist, founded the original Office of Health Policy in 1990. From 1996 to 2003, he served as the first Associate Dean for Health Policy at Jefferson Medical College.

Dr. David Brailer was appointed the first National Health Information Technology Coordinator by Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson. Dr. Brailer is recognized as a leader in the strategy and financing of quality and efficiency in health care, with a particular emphasis on health information technology and health systems management.

Dr. Brailer recently completed ten years as Chairman and CEO of CareScience, Inc., a leading provider of care management services and Internet-based solutions that help reduce medical errors and improve physician and hospital-based performance. While at CareScience, Dr. Brailer led the company in developing groundbreaking inventions with major research institutions, establishing the nation’s first healthcare Application Service Provider (ASP) and creating the first care management business process outsourcing partnership.

Tom Williams was appointed Executive Director of the Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA) in April 2004. IHA is a statewide leadership group of California health plans, physician groups, and health care systems, plus at large academic, business/purchaser, consumer and pharmaceutical and technology industry representatives interested in healthcare issues. He serves as the organization’s chief executive officer, is a member of the Board of Directors, and is actively engaged in management of its statewide Pay for Performance initiative.

Williams has extensive executive level experience with medical group management, HMO administration, managed healthcare and health insurance. His more than twenty years in the field includes experience with mergers, acquisitions and general management of health care organizations. Prior to joining IHA, Williams served as a consultant to private healthcare companies in business development, medical management and healthcare information technology.

Williams was an executive at Aetna, Inc. from 1989 through 2002. From 1996 through 2002, Williams headed Aetna’s ten states, West Region and served as board President of its California HMO. Prior to this position, he served as Senior Vice-President of Aetna’s Specialty Health business group based in Hartford, Connecticut. Before Aetna, Williams was an executive at Maxicare, a national HMO and administrator of a multi-specialty physician group.

Williams has served on numerous private company and non-profit boards. He was an active member of the California Association of Health Plan board from 1996 to 2002 and headed its public policy committee. He was board chairman of Human Affairs International, a behavioral health management company from 1992 to 1996. He is co-founder and former President of the Ace Foundation, an organization dedicated to serving at-risk youth. He is also a board member and former President of the East Bay Regional Parks Foundation.

Williams received a bachelor degree from University of California at Santa Barbara in biology and earned master’s degrees in business and public health from the University of Hawaii. He is currently a doctoral student at the University of California at Berkeley in public health with a focus on quality improvement in healthcare.

Williams is a frequent speaker both in California and nationally on the subject of managed care, healthcare information technology and quality improvement in healthcare and related subjects.

Contact Information:
Phone: (510) 208-1740
Fax: (510) 444-5842
Email: Twilliams@iha.org
Website: www.iha.org

Since its formation in 1996, Dr. Mark Smith has led the California HealthCare Foundation in developing initiatives aimed at improving California's health care financing and delivery systems. CHCF projects have helped advance public reporting of quality data on hospitals, health plans, and nursing homes; promoted research and development of Internet technology solutions for improving health care delivery; monitored changes in insurance markets; and informed the public and policymakers on important California health policy issues.

Smith is a member of the Institute of Medicine and serves on the board of the National Business Group on Health. He has served on the Performance Measurement Committee of the National Committee for Quality Assurance and the editorial board of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

A board-certified internist, he is a member of the clinical faculty at the University of California San Francisco and an attending physician at the Positive Health Program for AIDS care at San Francisco General Hospital.
Prior to joining the California HealthCare Foundation, Smith was Executive Vice President of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and previously served as Associate Director of the AIDS Service and Assistant Professor of Medicine and of Health Policy and Management at Johns Hopkins University.

Mark Smith received his M.D. from the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Peter Lee, JD, the Chief Executive Officer of the Pacific Business Group on Health (PBGH), oversees the organization’s efforts to improve health care quality, moderate costs and work collaboratively with other groups to achieve these goals.

PBGH is a nonprofit business coalition comprised of more than 50 large private and public sector employers.  Together these purchasers of health insurance spend billions annually to provide coverage to approximately three million employees, dependents and retirees.  In addition, PBGH operates PacAdvantage, a small group purchasing pool providing health coverage to the employees of over 8,000 of California’s small businesses.  PBGH plays a leadership role in an array of health care quality initiatives, that includes providing consumers with standardized comparative quality information and developing methods to assess and communicate the quality of care delivered by health plans, hospitals, medical groups and physicians.

Mr. Lee is a member of the boards of the National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA), the National Business Coalition on Health, the National Quality Forum and is the co-chair of the Consumer/Purchaser Disclosure Project, a national effort to promote better transparency of health care providers’ performance.  He also is a member of the CalRHIO Board of Directors, which is leading California health information technology adoption and interoperability.  Mr. Lee has served on the Institute of Medicine’s Crossing the Quality Chasm Summit Committee.  Mr. Lee is a frequent speaker, testifies regularly at the national and state levels and has written on a broad array of health care quality issues.  Prior to joining PBGH, Mr. Lee was the Executive Director of the Center for Health Care Rights.  Previously, Mr. Lee was an attorney with the Los Angeles firm of Tuttle & Taylor.  He received his law degree from the University of Southern California and his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley.

Margaret E. O' Kane is the president and founder of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to improve health care quality. Under Ms. O’Kane’s leadership, NCQA has developed broad support among the employer and health plan communities; most Fortune 500 companies will only do business with NCQA Accredited health plans and nearly all use Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) data to evaluate the plans that serve their employees.

Ms. O’Kane was named Health Person of the Year in 1996 by Medicine & Health; in 1997 she received a Founder’s Award from The American College of Medical Quality, and in 1999 she was elected as a member of the Institute of Medicine, an independent body that helps shape national health care policy. In 2000, Ms. O’Kane received the Centers for Disease Control’s Champion of Prevention award, the agency’s highest honor. In 2005, Ms. O’Kane was named one of Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Women in Health Care, and she has previously been voted one of the nation’s “100 Most Powerful People in Health Care.” Under her leadership, in 2005 NCQA received awards from the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, the American Diabetes Association and the American Pharmacists’ Association.

Ms. O’Kane is a sought-after public speaker, regularly addressing audiences across the country on topics such as pay-for-performance, the value of accountability and the need to expand measurement in health care. She grants about 75 media interviews a year and has been a guest on the Today show, CNN, NBC, ABC and NPR and is regularly quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and other major daily papers.