2nd Annual Forum on Remote Monitoring & Home Telehealth: Integrating Process with Outcome

Hilton Boston Logan Airport, Boston, MA
September 29-October 1, 2004

 

 

Speaker Biographies

To view abstracts click here, to view presentations click here.

Pamela Angelus, BSN, MSN
Ms. Angelus is Project Manager for the E-Health and Telemedicine Division at the Imaging Science and Information Systems (ISIS) Center, Georgetown University, Washington, DC. She is responsible for coordinating all aspects of clinical projects within the division. She is currently working with seven different clinical sites across the country on a Diabetes Management project funded through the Department of Defense. Before joining the ISIS Center in 2001, Ms. Angelus worked as manager for the Clinical Research Division in the Department of Pediatrics and Neonatology at Georgetown. She holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Nursing from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Bonnie Britton, MSN, RN
Ms. Britton is recognized nationally as a pioneer in home telehealth. She is an immediate past Board Member of the American Telemedicine Association, and will be the new co-chair for ATA's Home Telehealth Special Interest Group. She has authored numerous telehealth articles, is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences, and has recieved numerous national and international awards for outstanding work.

Samuel G. Burgiss, PhD
Dr. Burgiss is the Director of the University of Tennessee Telehealth Network (UTTN) at Knoxville. Under his direction, UTTN has provided 88,000 patient encounters since the program began in 1995. Dr. Burgiss is Secretary of the American Telemedicine Association and a member of its Board of Directors. He also serves ATA as a member of the Executive Committee of the Business and Finance Special Interest Group and as a member of the Public Policy Committee. For four years, Dr. Burgiss chaired the ATA Home Telehealth Special Interest Group. He is a member of the Coalition for the Advancement of Telehealth. In May, Dr. Burgiss received the ATA's 2004 Leadership Award for the Advancement of Telemedicine. Dr. Burgiss received his BS, MEE, and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University. In addition to ten years' experience in telehealth, he also has 15 years' experience with engineering and marketing development of medical products.

Cynthia L. Cardoza, MS, RN
Ms. Cardoza is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Visiting Nurse Association of Southeastern Massachusetts, Inc., a service of Southcoast Health System, Inc. A graduate of Southeastern Massachusetts University with a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing and a Master of Science degree in health services administration from Salve Regina University, Ms. Cardoza has extensive administrative experience in the home health industry. She is a past President and Board member of the Home and Health Care Association of Massachusetts. She is a member of the Boards of Trustees of Bristol Elder Services, People, Inc. and the Visiting Nurse Associations of New England (VNANE). She is certified by the National Association of Home Care as a home care and hospice executive.

Rhonda Chetney, MS, RN
Ms. Chetney is the Director of Clinical Operations at Sentara Home Care Services in Chesapeake, VA. She has been working in home health care for 18 years and has been involved in the start-up of telehealth projects since 1994. She has successfully implemented telehealth programs at Sentara for CHF patients, wound care, and children with asthma. She has presented at the ATA, the National Association of Home Care, and the American Association of Home Care meetings. Ms. Chetney is Telehealth Department editor for Home Healthcare Nurse Journal. She has written extensively on telehealth.

Malcolm Clarke, PhD
Malcolm Clarke is Senior Lecturer in telemedicine and eHealth Systems in the Department of Information Systems and Computing, Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK. He gained his PhD in medical engineering at Imperial College in 1984, developing and using a computerized 40 lead ECG acquisition system for total body surface potential mapping in ECG stress exercise testing. He then developed an ultrasound system for intra-arterial scanning. He moved to Brunel University in 1989 where he developed and led a Master's program for data communications until 1999. He recently developed the first Master's program in Telemedicine and eHealth Systems. Dr. Clarke is involved in two European-funded research projects, Telecare and eVital. Telecare is developing small devices to allow continuous ambulatory monitoring in the community, with alarms and data being transmitted wirelessly to a monitoring center. eVital investigates the services to support monitoring in the community. Dr. Clarke chairs the American Telemedicine Association's Special Interest Group in Technology.

Barbara Costa, RN, MSN
Ms. Costa has been Compliance Manager at the VNS for the past seven years. Her responsibilities include regulatory and accreditation requirements, performance improvement, grant writing, and grant oversight. She chairs the Utilization Review Committee and serves on the Professional Advisory Committee.Previously, she served as VNS Hospice Director and clinical supervisor.

Adam Darkins, MD, MPH, FRCS
Dr. Darkins is Chief Consultant for Care Coordination at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Office of Care Coordination is a new program office responsible for a major disease management program deployment that incorporates home telehealth. Dr. Darkins trained as a neurosurgeon in the UK and undertook research for his doctoral thesis at UCLA. He established and directed an early telehealth program in the UK that had links with Dartmouth Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. As Medical Director of Riverside Community Health Care, a provider of health care to 300,000 people in central London, Dr. Darkins helped pioneer clinical developments involving new models of care, including telehealth. Since 1997, he has lived and worked in the US. He is co-author of Telemedicine and Telehealth: Principles, Practice, Performance and Pitfalls. He serves on the board of the American Telemedicine Association and on the editorial boards of Telemedicine and E-Health and Telehealth Practice Report.

Susan Dimmick, PhD
Dr. Dimmick is an associate professor in the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine, Knoxville. She is the manager of research and evaluation for the UT Telehealth Network, which facilitates the delivery of health care to rural, underserved clients. Dr. Dimmick has presented and written numerous articles on telehealth outcomes and health care relationship management. She was a USIA Academic Scholar and a Fulbright Researcher and Lecturer in Latin America.

Lawrence Eron, MD
Dr. Eron, a specialist in infectious diseases, has lived and worked in Hawaii since 1994. He served as a consultant in infectious diseases at Inova Fairfax Hospital, Virginia, from 1976 to 1994. During that time, his group pioneered the administration of intravenous antibiotics to outpatients. Dr. Eron graduated summa cum laude in biochemistry from Princeton University in 1966, and magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1971. From 1971 to 1976, he completed his internship, residency, and a fellowship in infectious diseases at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Ann Frantz, BSN, RN
Ms. Frantz has been a cardiovascular nurse for 25 years. Over the last 16 years, she has explored better care methods for cardiovascular patients at home, including telehealth utilization. As an inventor, Ms. Frantz holds three patents for technologies related to home care of cardiac patients. Today, she is pursuing her doctorate in self-care nursing at Wayne State University. She is an editorial board member for Home Health Care Nurse Journal and Progress in Cardiovascular Nursing Journal. Ms. Frantz Ann is Executive Vice President for Noninvasive Medical Technologies, which manufactures the IQ Noninvasive Hemodynamic Monitor and ZOE Fluid Status Monitor.

Peter Haigh, FHIMSS
Mr. Haigh is an authority on communications networking, with expertise in healthcare and more than 30 years' experience in communications and information systems. He holds an MA from the University of Cambridge, where he was a State Scholar. Mr. Haigh is a Fellow of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). He has served as a senior executive with communications network integrators, and as a consultant specializing in network strategy and architecture. At present, he is with Verizon Enterprise Solutions, Healthcare Market Management, and the leader of Verizon's HIPAA initiatives. Mr. Haigh has published several articles in the Journal of Healthcare Information, and he is a frequent speaker on telecommunications issues impacting healthcare. One of his current interests is the use of wireless technology to create mobile healthcare applications.

Kenneth Harper
Mr. Harper has 20 years of software research and development experience. He began his career at the Texas Medical Center, with Baylor College of Medicine and Methodist Hospital. He then spent ten years at BMC Software, developing system management products for the IT industry. Mr. Harper left to form his own company, called eBusiness 1, which focuses on technology-based monitoring solutions for the IT and health care industries.

Vicki Hoak, BA
Ms. Hoak is Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Homecare Association, which represents 250 visiting nurse associations, hospices, home health and private duty organizations. Before joining PHA, she was Corporate Communications Director for Northwestern Human Services, a national behavioral health corporation based in Philadelphia. Ms. Hoak has extensive experience in state government. She was Communications Director for Pennsylvania's Department of Public Welfare and Special Assistant to the Secretary of Transportation. Recently, Gov. Ed Rendell appointed her to the leadership council responsible for overseeing a new Center for Health Careers. Ms. Hoak is vice chair of the State Medical Assistance Advisory Committee. She is a member of the State Bio-terrorism Advisory Committee, the Workforce Committee of the Intra-Governmental Council on Long Term Care, and the State Health Improvement Plan Steering Committee. She is a past President of the South-central Pennsylvania Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association and a former board member of the Capital Region Red Cross.

Jeannie Keene, MSN, ARNP
Ms. Keene is ARNP Care Coordinator for the Innovative Advanced Illness/Palliative Care Project for the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System. Prior to her employment with the Veteran's Administration Health System, she was an assistant professor in the College of Nursing at the University of Florida. Ms. Keene earned her ADN in Nursing from Florida Community College in 1978, her BSN in Nursing in 1982 from the University of South Carolina, and her MSN in Ambulatory Primary Care in 1990 from Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. She is currently a doctoral student in Nursing at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Sheri Kline, GNP, APRN, BC
Ms. Kline has worked at the Gainesville VA Hospital for 14 years. Her responsibilities include telehealth in extended care. For the last two years, she has served as lead care coordinator for two cardiology telehealth projects that she helped create. Her team has begun presenting its findings at national conferences. In addition to the ATA, Ms.Kline is a member of the American College of Cardiology and Heart Failure Society of America. She earned her MSN from St. Louis University in 2001, and her BSN from the University of Florida in 1996.

Rita F. Kobb, MS, MN, GNP-BC
Rita Kobb has been with the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) for sixteen years. From February 2000 until January 2004, she was the lead care coordinator for the Tech Care Coordination Program located in Lake City, Florida. Mrs. Kobb has spoken all over the country about care coordination and home telehealth in VHA. She currently serves as Chair of the American Telemedicine Association's Home Telehealth Special Interest Group. Mrs. Kobb is also the Education Program Specialist for VHA Office of Care Coordination and is the Director of the first national training center for care coordination and home telehealth located in Florida.

Joseph C. Kvedar, MD
Dr. Kvedar is President of the American Telemedicine Association. He is a board-certified dermatologist and Vice Chair of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kvedar is the founding Director of Partners Telemedicine. This is a program of Partners HealthCare System, Inc., an umbrella organization created by Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. Under Dr. Kvedar's leadership, Partners Telemedicine manages remote teleconsultations in all specialties, and coordinates clinical and educational videoconferences and multimedia productions that link health care providers globally. Partners Telemedicine has investigated novel approaches to lower extremity wound care, stroke management, post-operative home care, web-based specialty consultations, remote monitoring of chronically ill patients, and remote echocardiography. The program has benefited patients in 30 countries and pioneered in efforts to bring health care to the developing world. Dr. Kvedar co-authored the American Academy of Dermatology's first set of telemedicine guidelines and served as vice chair of its task force on telemedicine.

Daya LaCavera, RN, BSN
Ms. LaCavera is the Clinical Nurse Manager at Alexian Brothers Home Health, where she has worked for the last ten years. Her responsibilities include program development, coordination of home health and infusion services and the clinical supervisor. She oversees all the writing, development, implementation, and training activities in connection with the CHF telehealth program. From 1994 to 2002, Ms. LaCavera served as Home Health Liaison, and Infusion Coordinator. She earned her BSN degree from St. Xavier University and is currently completing requirements for the MSN degree, also at St. Xavier University.

Betty Levine, MS
Ms. Levine heads the Division of e-Health and Telemedicine at the Imaging Science and Information Systems Center at Georgetown University. Her responsibilities include the design and integration of information systems requirements for the MindmyHeartTM home monitoring and case management project for Congestive Heart Failure Patients and the design, development, and implementation of the MyCareTeamTM Internet-based diabetes management project. Some past telemedicine projects managed by Ms. Levine included telemedicine for hemodialysis patients, deployable radiology for the US troops in Bosnia and Kuwait, and the development of an Internet-based Home Peritoneal Dialysis management system.

Eric Lichtenstein
Mr. Lichtenstein is responsible for the day-to-day operations of Cybernet Medical, a division of Cybernet Systems. He is charged with business development and product design and development. Previously, he did extensive work on gesture recognition technology, in-car navigation systems, and intelligent robotics. While at the University of Rochester, Mr. Lichtenstein was involved in physiological research of primates, and he designed and performed psychophysical research on the nature of color as it is coded in the visual cortex. Mr. Lichtenstein's studies also included robotics, artificial intelligence, visual science, neuroscience, optics, human factors, and computer science and programming.

Jonathan D. Linkous, MS
Mr. Linkous is Executive Director of the American Telemedicine Association. He has over 20 years' experience in the nation's capital working in corporate and public sectors. He was a senior consultant with Issue Dynamics Inc. (IDI), a Washington DC consulting firm specializing in telecommunications and technology policy. While at IDI, Mr. Linkous assisted in the formation of ATA. For five years, he was Executive Director of the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging. His principle interest in this position was in using telecommunications and adaptive technology to assist older Americans and their caregivers. Mr. Linkous was also involved for many years in regional planning and economic development. In his early career, he was active in broadcast and cable television in Ohio. Mr. Linkous holds a Masters of Public Administration from the School of Government and Public Affairs at the American University in Washington, D.C. and a B.S. degree in Business Administration from Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio with additional postgraduate work at the LBJ School of Public Affairs in Austin, Texas.

Marie Mann, MPS-HSA, BSN, RN
Ms. Mann brings a rich backgkround in nursing, medical marketing, sales, managed care and disease management to her role as the National Business Manager, Government and Managed Markets, for Viterion Telehealthcare, LLC, Tarrytown, New York. Her primary role is business development for government, disease management and managed care market segments. Ms. Mann's 35-year nursing career includes critical care, nursing education, and nursing administration in community, tertiary care facilities and occupational health settings. She has healthcare business expertise in medical advertising and marketing and has consulted with medical organizations on marketing, strategic planning, and physician recruitment campaigns. Before joining Viterion Telehealthcare, LLC, Ms. Mann was a national executive with Health Hero Network, Inc., where she moved from initial business and sales responsibilities in managed care and partnership sales relationships to lead the Health Hero initiative to develop business opportunities in government markets. She secured the first VHA contract for Health Hero.

Mia Millefoglie, MSW, MPA
Ms. Millefoglie has worked for 20 years in elder care and health care services. Her experience includes program coordination for the Southern Maine Area Agency on Aging and the Maine Hospital Association. At HomeHealth--Visiting Nurses, she obtained initial funding for telehealth and has worked with clinical staff to expand the use of telehealth throughout the service area and population.

Krisan Palmer, RN
Ms. Palmer has worked for Region 2 Health Authority in a number of nursing and administrative positions for the past 23 years. She is currently the Telehealth Coordinator for the Corporation and has developed a successful and innovative strategy to improve access to healthcare. Ms. Palmer has received numerous awards for innovations in telehealth. Her work has been recognized by many organizations, including the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Research, Industry and Education (2002); the Ontario Hospital Association (2002; 2003); the Canadian Society of Telehealth (2003), and the International Wired Women's Society and Women in Film and Video (2003). Time magazine described her as "one of the country's foremost experts on long distance applications for healthcare, helping to build one of the Canada's most sophisticated telehealth networks."

Lorraine B. Pellegrino, RN, MHA
Ms. Pellegrino has been with the University of California, Davis Health System (UCDHS) for 14 years. In 1997, she joined the Center of Health & Technology. Over the past seven years, Ms Pellegrino has developed telemedicine specialty referral guidelines for health care providers. She has worked at various locations in northern California to assist sites with the assessment and implementation of telehealth and its various applications. She also has served as project manager on various federal and state grants. Ms. Pellegrino has spoken across the country on home telehealth, with special emphasis on training and education needs of all participants. She is on faculty at UC Davis at the Telemedicine Learning Center. She serves as Vice Chair of the American Telemedicine Association's Home Telehealth Special Interest Group, and has been a member of ATA since 2000.

Liz Powell, RN, MN, CRNP
Ms. Powell has many years of experience as an advanced practice nurse, nurse practitioner, nurse educator, and nursing administrator. Currently she is the Vice President of Patient Care Services at the Visiting Nurses Association, Western Pennsylvania, where she is responsible for the home health, private duty, hospice and durable medical equipment functions. She has presented locally, statewide, nationally and internationally on both clinical and administrative topics..

Dena S. Puskin, ScD
Dr. Puskin is Director of the federal Office for the Advancement of Telehealth. She chairs the Joint Working Group on Telemedicine, the federal interagency committee coordinating the development of telemedicine initiatives across the federal government and within the Department of Health and Human Services. Before assuming her current position, Dr. Puskin served as Acting Director of the federal Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP). Before joining ORHP in 1988, Dr. Puskin was a senior analyst for the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission, where she developed the model for annual updates of Medicare payment rates to hospitals. From 1982-1988, she was a senior legislative analyst for the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Association. Dr. Puskin received her ScD degree in Health Policy and Research from Johns Hopkins University, and her MS degree in Community Medicine from the University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Charlene Quinn, RN, Ph.D.
Dr. Quinn is a geriatric nurse and health services researcher. In her current role, she has a primary appointment in the Division of Gerontology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, with a secondary appointment in the School of Nursing. She recently joined the Office of the Chief Nurse of the Baltimore VAMC to assist in the development of clinical and health services research in the local Veterans Medical Center. She participates in numerous NIH and VA funded studies of the elderly and health systems research.

Carol A. Rodat, MA
Ms. Rodat is president of the Home Care Association of New York State, Inc., a statewide, not-for-profit organization representing certified home health agencies, licensed home care service agencies, and long-term home health care programs. HCA is active in state and federal legislative and regulatory affairs. It provides member services to 300 providers and 400 associate and individual members. Before joining HCA, Ms. Rodat was a Contributing Editor of Health System Leader, a monthly letter for the physicians, executives and trustees of integrated health systems. She also served, for almost a decade, as the president of Hospital Trustees of New York State, an organization representing 200 voluntary and public hospitals and their 4,500 trustees. Ms. Rodat has written extensively on the development of health care systems, governance, community health improvement, quality assurance, and emergency preparedness. She holds a master's degree from the University of Oklahoma.

Holly Russo, RN, MS
Ms. Russo has extensive experience in home health care and telehealth. At present, she is working on the implementation of technology tools in screening programs and disease management. Ms. Russo holds degrees in the following: MS, Continuing Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Dartmouth College, 1996; BS, Management of Human Resources, Palm Beach Atlantic University, 1995, and AS in Nursing, Palm Beach Community College, 1983.

Peggy Ryan-Dykes, RN
Ms. Ryan-Dykes is the Associate Administator to the Director of Geriatrics and Extended Care, VA Puget Sound Healthcare System. She is also the VISN 20 Care Coordinator. Ms. Dykes has over 25 years of healthcare experience as a clinician, researcher and administrator. She has co-authored five papers published in peer-reviewed journals, including a recent paper on the application of telemedicine for the diagnosis of cognitive impairments among veterans living in state veteran homes. She has presented and lectured on health technology at numerous state, national, and international professional meetings. She also has served on mulitple long-term, community based, national comittees.

Nina Schneider, BSN, RN
Ms. Schneider is PinnacleHealth Home Care Cardiac Team Manager, responsible for orienting and scheduling nurses, writing policies and procedures, developing job competencies, and evaluating clinicians. She has held this position since 1997. Ms. Schneider created and implemented a home telehealth program for cardiac patients, which led to PinnacleHealth's receiving a 2003 Hospital Association of PA Achievement Award for its Congestive Heart Failure outcomes program. A BSN graduate from Thomas Jefferson University, Ms. Schneider is pursuing a master's in health administration from Penn State. In April, she was inducted into Sigma Theta Tau, an international nursing honor society, for her nursing leadership and her role in implementing a successful telehealth program.

Kimberly Shea, MS, RN
Ms. Shea is Project Director, Impact of Nursing Characteristics Study, College of Nursing, University of Arizona. She has served in that capacity since 2001. Over the last two years, Ms. Shea has published two papers on the measurement of patient outcomes in telehome care. She also has presented at state, regional, and national nursing conferences. Her areas of expertise include the needs of patients, nurses, and family caregivers in telehome care, and the impact of nursing characteristics on patient outcomes. Ms. Shea also is a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona. She expects to complete her dissertation, "Socio-technical Influences on Telehomecare Outcomes," in 2006.

Karen Utterback, RN, MSN, CNA, CHCE
Ms. Utterback is the new Vice President of Clinical Strategy, McKesson Extended Care Solutions Group. Prior to that, she was Vice President of Operations for South Mississippi Home Care. She is a former President of the Board of Directors of the Mississippi Nurses Association and a current member of the Board of Directors of the Mississippi Association for Home Care. She is a member of the American Nurses Association and the National Association for Home Care. She also serves on the Advisory Committee on Regulatory Reform, US Department of Health and Human Services. Ms. Utterback's work has been published in The Remington Report, American Journal of Nursing, and Community Health Nursing.

Mark VanderWerf, BS
Mr. VanderWerf joined AMD Telemedicine in 1991. He was instrumental in changing the Company's focus to telemedicine and was named President in 1994. Prior to joining AMD, Mr. VanderWerf was a New Ventures Manager for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and Assistant Corporate Director for Samaritan Health Services in Phoenix, Arizona. Mr. VanderWerf is an author and a speaker on telemedicine at conferences and universities around the world. He serves on the Peer Review and Awards Committees of the American Telemedicine Association and is a member the Board of Directors for the International Society for Telemedicine. He is the recipient of the 2003 New England Business and Technology Award as one of the top ten technology company managers in the region. Mr. VanderWerf holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin.

Kathryn Votava, PhD, RN
Dr. Votava is Assistant Professor of Clinical Nursing, Economic Evaluation Specialist in the Center for Research and Evidence Based Practice, and former Chief Research Officer of the Community Nursing Center at the University of Rochester School of Nursing. She is a nurse practitioner with over 20 years' experience in home care, health systems management, and health services research. She holds a doctorate in health economics and nursing from the University of Rochester, and she completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School. A major focus of Dr. Votava's research is the application of telehealth applications in home care.

John Wiecha, MD, MPH
Dr. Wiecha is founder and Director of Distance Education for Health (DEH), a unit of the Department of Family Medicine at Boston University Medical Center. For the past eight years, this unit has been active in developing and evaluating innovative uses of telemedicine for patient and medical professional education. DEH has ongoing projects with support from major foundations and from the US Public Health Service and the World Health Organization. Dr. Wiecha has published results of this work in major US and international journals.

Charles Winchell, MPA
Tom Winchell is Telemedicine Program Coordinator for the LSU Health Sciences Center - New Orleans. He has 20 years' experience in telecommunications and networking and has worked with the LSU Telemedicine Program since 1995. He is responsible for the design, operations, and support of the systems, facilities, and infrastructure involved in the delivery of telemedical services. Mr. Winchell has authored and delivered several presentations in the areas of telemedicine and networking.He has testified before the Louisiana Legislature, the Louisiana Public Service Commission, and the US District Court in Baton Rouge.

 

 


© 2004 American Telemedicine Association
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