Gautam is a LoyaltyStrategist and Entrepreneur with businesses in the United States, Gibraltar andSouth East Asia. He is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Customer FeedbackSystems LP (CFS North America), a global provider of technology-driven customerexperience Programs for healthcare, financial institutions, retailers, andother service-focused industries. Gautam’sdrive for helping others to build a deeper relationship with customers has ledhim to become a Net Promoter Certified Associate. His passion lies in integrating real world loyalty principlesand philosophies into organization’s sales and service cultures. In partnership with Jagdish M.Chanrai, Director of the Kewalram Chanrai Group, Gautam established CFS Asia in Singaporein 2002. In addition,Gautam serves on the Board of Directors of Customer Feedback Systems(Singapore_ Pte Ltd, Customer Feedback Systems (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, CustomerFeedback Systems (Texas) LP, and Kemchans (Gibraltar) Ltd.

Adrienne Boissy, MD, MA, is the Chief Experience Officer of Cleveland Clinic.  She is a staff physician at the Cleveland Clinic Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis and has a secondary appointment in Bioethics. Before moving into the Chief Experience Officer role, she served as the Medical Director of the Center of Excellence in Healthcare Communication. Her team has created a comprehensive program to strengthen physician and provider communication skills throughout Cleveland Clinic and has trained more than 4,000 staff physicians and house staff to date.
 
Dr. Boissy also guided the development of patient advisory councils across the Cleveland Clinic Health System and is active in the Cleveland Clinic Professionalism Council. She currently serves as Editor in Chief of the Journal of Patient Experience.

As part of her clinical work, Dr. Boissy focuses on ethical issues in neurological disease. She served on the Cleveland Clinic Ethics Committee and is the Assistant Clinical Director in the Center for Neuroethics. She has been published in Neurocritical Care, AAN Continuum and Neurology regarding the humane treatment of critically ill patients and communication challenges in clinical practice. In particular, she has a special interest in the words clinicians choose when conveying information, and the risks and ethics of what she calls “therapeutic mislabeling” versus truth telling.

Dr. Boissy was awarded a Sylvia Lawry Fellowship grant from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and an Arnold P. Gold Foundation grant for humanism in medicine. She also serves on the editorial board of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s Momentum Magazine.  Dr. Boissy also is a Harvard Macy scholar. She has spoken extensively around the country about the patient and provider experience and the impact of effective communication on both.
 
Dr. Boissy attended Boston University and worked in neurobiological research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston. She completed her medical school training at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine and finished her neurology residency and neuroimmunology fellowship at Cleveland Clinic. She completed a master’s degree in bioethics from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland.

Tony Padilla has dedicated his career to improving the patient experience.  He leads UCLA Health’s efforts in fostering a patient-centered culture through its CICARE philosophy.  Mr. Padilla was instrumental in the implementation of CICARE and its success in raising UCLA’s HCAHPS “hospital rating” scores from the 26th percentile in 2007 to the 97th percentile in 2012.  Mr. Padilla partners with teams of patients, physicians, staff and executives to improve the patient experience at UCLA Health.        

Mr. Padilla is responsible for ensuring that CICARE is incorporated into UCLA’s leadership practices, service training, employee selection and onboarding processes. He partners with the entire UCLA team to ensure that patients are true partners at each juncture of their experience. Mr. Padilla also oversees UCLA’s Patient Advisor Program, Patient Liaison Services, Patient Satisfaction Surveys, Language Assistance, “Front Door” services, UCLA’s Patient and Family Guest House, and a volunteer corp. of over 3,000 individuals.   

Mr. Padilla develops and instructs courses in Patient Advocacy at UCLA Extension and has served on the Executive Board of the Beryl Institute and on the advisory boards of University Healthsystem Consortium, The Picker Institute, Press-Ganey Associates.  He earned his B.A. in Psychology from the University of Southern California and his MBA from Pepperdine University

As Mount Sinai Health System’s first Chief Patient Experience Officer, Ms. Myerson is responsible for developing, leading, and fostering a patient-centered culture that provides compassionate, coordinated, and exceptional care across all inpatient and outpatient settings of the Mount Sinai Health System. Ms. Myerson joined Mount Sinai in November 2014 from Press Ganey Associates, where she served as Managing Consultant and Director of Clinical and Operational Consulting. She led teams that worked with health care organizations across the country to improve communication between staff and patients, reduce wait times, and improve care coordination using advanced analytics, performance improvement processes, training and coaching, and change management practices, resulting in improved patient experiences. A dynamic health care executive with 30 years of progressive nursing and hospital leadership experience in clinical and administrative settings, Ms. Myerson is experienced in both community and academic-affiliated health care systems. She has published and presented nationally regarding best practices that improve patient flow, clinical quality, patient-clinician communication, and the patient experience. Ms. Myerson’s clinical background is in emergency, trauma, critical care, and flight nursing; home health; and vascular/transplant/general surgery.
Ms. Myerson holds an MBA in Healthcare Administration and an MS in Healthcare Finance from the Fox School of Business Management at Temple University in Philadelphia, and a BS in Nursing from Pennsylvania State University.

Connie Bonebrake, MSW, LHNA, Senior Vice-President, Chief Patient Experience Office. Ms.  Bonebrake was appointed Carolinas HealthCare System’s first Patient Experience Officer in late 2012.  She is responsible for the development and on-going implementation of the organization’s patient experience strategy across the continuum. She leads a team of consultants who support providers, leaders and teammates as they demonstrate their commitment to put “patients first, always.”  Spiritual Care and Education as well as Language Services are also part of the Patient Experience Division ensuring an ongoing elevation of the importance of culturally competent care. With over twenty-five years of experience in healthcare, sixteen, at CHS, Ms. Bonebrake brings a history of advocacy for patients and families across the continuum of care. She is a licensed nursing home administrator with a Masters in Social Work from UNC-Chapel Hill. Prior to her current role, Ms. Bonebrake served as SVP of CHS Post-Acute Care Services with responsibility for Home Health, Hospice and Skilled Nursing Facility operations. In 2007, under her leadership, CHS became an early adopter of Person-Centered Care and opened a house-hold model facility, Huntersville Oaks.  In 2006, she was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from UNC School of Social Work and in 2010 she was named the Association of Home and Hospice Care of North Carolinas Leader of the Year.

Emily F. Boss, MD, MPH, FACS (nee Rudnick) is the Director of Pediatric Surgical Quality and Safety in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Children’s Center.   She is an Associate Professor of Otolaryngology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and core faculty within the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Services and Outcomes Research and the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality.  Her clinical interests include all aspects of pediatric otolaryngology, however she has particular interest in sleep-disordered breathing (snoring and sleep apnea in children), speech and swallowing disorders in children, pediatric airway disorders, and congenital and pediatric sinusitis.

Dr. Boss’s research focus is on patient experience, health disparities, and surgical outcomes and utilization.  She is a K08 Grantee of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for patient-centered outcomes research evaluating quality of care and decision-making for elective pediatric surgery.  She is also a 2014 American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery Foundation Cochrane Scholar, and is the recipient of a 2014 American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology Career Development Award to explore shared decision-making in pediatric surgery and otolaryngology.   She is the author or co-author of more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and chapters.

Dr. Boss is active in the healthcare quality landscape.  Along with her role as Director of Pediatric Surgical Quality and Safety, she is the physician champion for patient satisfaction in the Johns Hopkins Otolaryngology Department.  She is the surgeon champion for the American College of Surgeon’s National Surgical Quality Improvement Program-Pediatric (NSQIP-P) at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  She also chairs the NSQIP-P Otolaryngology taskforce and participates on the national steering committee representing pediatric otolaryngology.  She is an active member of the AAO-HNSF Patient Safety and Quality Improvement committee, ASPO Safety and Quality and Research committees, AAO-HNSF Guidelines Taskforce, and a quality liaison to the AAO-HNSF Physician, Payment, and Policy advisory workgroup.

In addition to her medical training, Dr. Boss received her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University, and her Master’s in Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

Huw Owen-Reece, MD is Chief Medical Officer for Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix where he was medical director of critical care for four years prior to his current role.  Dr. Owen-Reece received his degree at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School, London, UK in 1988.  He completed his training in anesthesia and critical care medicine there and practiced in the National Health Service at the Royal London Hospital until he moved to the United States in 2005. As a result of working in two countries he has a broad perspective of patient and staff satisfaction. 

Sven Gierlinger is an expert in building an emotionally engaging and innovative culture that drives growth and consumer loyalty through customer satisfaction. He has more than 20 years experience in the hospitality and service industry, including 8 years with The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.
As Chief Experience Officer for North Shore LIJ Health System, Sven is responsible for building an engaging, innovative and collaborative culture that drives organizational growth and customer loyalty through the customer experience. Prior to this he was Vice President of Hospitality and Service Culture at Henry Ford Health System and also played a critical role in the start-up and success of Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital.

Julie currently works for Lovelace Women’s Hospital as the Chief Patient Experience Officer. The CXO is a new position for the organization, with Julie accepting the role in May 2015.  Lovelace Women’s Hospital is New Mexico’s first and only hospital dedicated to women’s health.  Previously, she worked for Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare for 15 years. Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare has 14 hospital sites, over 500 employed physicians, and 17,000 employees.  She served in numerous roles within the system, including front line nurse, charge nurse, Patient Care Manager, Director of Patient Experience and the first Vice President for Patient and Family Experience for the system.  She started her career as a registered nurse in 1996 and in 2010, she received her MBA in Organizational Development and her Doctorate in Business Administration specializing in Leadership in 2013. 

Rick Evans is the Senior Vice-President and Chief Experience Officer for the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Health System, where he leads the organization’s comprehensive effort to improve the patient and family experience. 

Previously, he served as Chief Experience Officer at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA where he implemented programs that helped MGH achieve some of the highest patient satisfaction ratings of any academic medical center in the country.  He also helped to build the organization’s new Referral Management Office, and oversaw the MGH Physician Leadership and Visitor Education Programs.

Over the last 17 years, Rick has held senior leadership positions in healthcare including serving as the Vice-President of Support Services and Patient Centered Care for NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, the Vice-President of Mission Services for the Bon Secours and Canterbury Partnership for Care in Hudson County, New Jersey and also as Director of the St. Francis Hospital Foundation in Wilmington, Delaware. 

Rick is a recognized national expert on patient experience and engagement and is a sought after speaker at events focusing on this important aspect of healthcare.

Rick holds a Masters Degree in Theology from Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora, NY and a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy from Wadhams Hall Seminary College in Ogdensburg, NY. 

Brian obtained a dual master’s degree from Xavier University. After finishing a fellowship in Hospital Administration at University of Illinois at Chicago Medical center Brian joined Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation as Practice Manager for Women’s Health. After four years he was recruited to be COO of Olean Medical Group, a 33 provider multispecialty group practice in Olean, NY and served as COO for four years and then CEO for a year and a half. In 2007 Brian came to Vanderbilt University Medical Center first as Administrator for the Vanderbilt Eye Institute and currently as Director of Patient Access and Experience. In his current system level role he oversees both strategy and operations for improving the Patient Experience with particular emphasis in ensuring efficient access to meet our client’s needs.

Juhan Sonin is an emeritus of some of the finest software organizations in the world: Apple, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has been a creative director for two decades with his work being featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, BBC International, NewScientist, WIRED, and National Public Radio (NPR). Juhan currently lectures on design and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Juhan designs clinical and consumer health software for every application: from desktop to skintop to celltop. He's lead the HIMSS mobile health workgroup, consulted for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the design of Medicare services and national health IDs, co-designed Project Laika (the data interoperability service used in EHR certification), and co-authored a National Institutes of Health (NIH) and California Healthcare Foundation (CHCF)-funded guide book on EHR design.

Tracy Laibson is the director of patient experience for Allina Health. Her team provides leadership, strategy development and performance improvement support for the patient experience of care and patient engagement initiatives at Allina Health. Previously, Tracy managed patient experience data and reporting for Allina Health. Tracy’s passion around enhancing the patient experience stems from personal experiences as a patient, daughter of a patient, mother of a patient and wife of a patient.

Sarah Arnold is a Patient Experience Advisor at Allina Health. Sarah leads the organization’s Patient & Family Partnership Program, a multi-tiered program designed to involve the patient and family voice across the health system. Sarah is responsible for recruiting, screening, coaching, appointing, and supporting the advisors who serve in a multitude of ways including:  Patient and Family Advisory Council, Focus Groups, E-advisor Program, Panel Discussions, Committee & Council participation. Prior to this role, Sarah has worked in leadership roles in the health care field.

While Lynn is new to Northside Hospital and HCA West Florida, she has 39 years of healthcare experience with 25 years in patient experience improvement at Yale New Haven Health in New Haven, CT and then later at Waterbury Hospital in Waterbury, CT.  She possesses a successful track record and holds a regional and national reputation for formulating strategies to achieve improvement in service excellence and patient satisfaction.  Lynn has strong leadership, goal setting and coaching skills.  She supports that measurement is the key to driving results and it is critical to transforming organizational culture.  Lynn has been selected by The Beryl Institute to be an “item writer” for the Patient Experience Certification exam to be released in December.

Lynn has a passion for people development and a strong desire to continue to impact the patient experience – it is a journey that does not end.  She believes that focusing on staff, physicians and team development, the patient experience will change.    Lynn is proud of the results she has experienced using this focused approach and welcomes the opportunity to share it.

Ms. Brenda Johnson is Vice President of Experience and Service Excellence for Dimensions Healthcare System (DHS), the largest not-for-profit provider of healthcare services in Prince George’s County, Maryland.  Dimensions and its member institutions (Prince George’s Hospital Center, Laurel Regional Hospital, Bowie Health Campus, Glenridge Medical Center and its affiliate facilities) provide comprehensive quality healthcare services ranging from prenatal care, behavioral health, rehabilitative services and more.  She joined DHS in July 2012 where she started as Senior Director of Physician Relations & Special Projects for Laurel Regional Hospital.

Mrs. Johnson’s current responsibilities are focused on the overall leadership, design, implementation and sustainability of initiatives to improve service excellence, patient and physician experience at DHS.  In collaboration with clinical and non-clinical teams, Brenda’s efforts focus on improving the overall quality of patient experience and ensuring that all patient experiences at DHS embody the highest degree of service and compassion.  Brenda creates mutually beneficial partnerships with all in-house and referring physicians.  She is responsible for building and strengthening relationships/partnerships with key stakeholders throughout DHS to ensure patient/family-centered program development that meets community health needs and, most importantly, engages the staff and physicians.

Prior to her time at DHS, Brenda most recently served as Director of Destination Medicine Services at the University of Maryland Medical Center.  During her service she developed a brand new service, Destination Medicine Services that provided non-clinical services to patients and their families to ensure positive memorable moments. This new service was built on the foundation of a hospital-wide, multidisciplinary committee charged with creating a culture capable of providing positive patient experiences to a global-based patient population. 

Mrs. Johnson served in several director-level positions at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center over a 14 year period.  Her responsibilities included managing strategy and policy formulation and implementation.  In addition, she led the department of the EMS Coordinator Office and directed all planning and business development activities for the Center.  She also assisted the Vice President with external affairs including legislative and community relations.  

Brenda holds a BA degree in Healthcare Science & Policy and a MS degree in Emergency Health Services from the University of Maryland Baltimore County.  She obtained her MBA from Loyola College in Maryland.

Grew up in Southern Ohio
Received Associate of Applied Science-Dental Hygiene from Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio in 1986.
Received Bachelor of Business Administration-Marketing from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1995
Received Master of Healthcare Administration from the University of Texas-Arlington in 2005.
Registered Dental Hygienist in private practice for over 20 years.  Dental Practice Management and consulting for 7 years before transitioning to health care administration.
Currently working at Cook Children’s Health Care System in the Quality Management department, responsible for all aspects of the patient experience, including staff training, survey data & reporting, coaching as well as involvement in the Family Advisory Council, Multidisciplinary Pain Committee, Patient Care Council, Patient Safety Committee, Quality in Practice and Quality Improvement Council.
Have lived in the Fort Worth area for 16 years.  Hobbies include gardening, woodworking and the Nebraska Huskers.  Go Big Red!!

Patty comes from a diverse health care background which includes both clinical and non-clinical experience. In her over 25 years of experience she has held a variety of roles in areas of Nursing, Health Care Marketing, Community Outreach and Information Technology. Her most recent role at the UPMC is Senior Director of Patient and Family Centered Care, where she is responsible for the development and coordination of activities associated with the facilitation and exportation of the PFCC Methodology and Practice. She holds her Master’s in Business Administration from Carlow University. 

Dr. Greco is a Clinical Psychologist with Nemours Children's Health System and an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Mayo College of Medicine who specializes in direct observation and coaching of physician providers. She utilizes an empirically-based approach, focusing on improving communication and teamwork behaviors that are empirically linked to health care outcomes.

Amy MG Szczesniak, MS, RN is the chief experience officer at Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, NY. The chief experience officer position was formed in 2015 to support the organization’s work to enhance the patient experience. In her role as chief experience officer, Szczesniak oversees patient relations, volunteer services, and spiritual care. Szczesniak has been in healthcare in the Syracuse area for 17 years with various roles such as working as a registered nurse in the cardiac, radiology, and operating room arenas and as clinical nurse specialist for med/surg and orthopedics.  Szczesniak also served as a director of the Office of Patient Experience for 2 years prior to her appointment at Upstate. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Russell Sage College, and a master’s degree in nursing education from Keuka College. Amy has a passion for patient centered care and delivering exceptional patient experiences. 

Doris Lopez  is a Sr. Healthcare Executive with a proven background in managing multi-million dollar operations and transforming corporate culture across hospitals, large-scale practices and non-profit teaching hospitals.

In her role as VP of Patient Experience with Interfaith Medical Center, Ms. Lopez educated the staff in Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS), tying the importance of high performance rating to results and reward.

In addition, she initiated Bringing the Patient Experience Forward, an enterprise-wide initiative designed to enhance the center’s commitment to exceptional employee and patient experiences.

As Administrator of Emergency Services for the SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Ms. Lopez directed a $5M budget, grew patient volume and revenues, reduced costs and improved patient services.

Her roles as Executive Director for the largest cosmetic surgery practice in the US and with a non-profit Federally Qualified Health Center honed her strategic planning skill as she led cross-functional business and medical departments, creating integrated, efficient overall operations.

Taking her expertise beyond the doors of the facility, Ms. Lopez is recognized for building strong community partnerships and promoting responsible health care, leveraging her track record in marketing and public relations to be an effective communicator and community spokesperson. She is dedicated to improving the patient experience, drawing on her experience as a patient advocate and stakeholder liaison and wraps her operational strategies around a patience-centric core.

She is also an Adjunct Professor and active on charity boards and associations.  In 2012, she was honored among Brooklyn’s 25 Most Distinguished Women.

Alan Dubovsky is the Director of Customer and Physician Engagement with The Emory Clinic in Atlanta, Georgia, the outpatient division of Emory Healthcare. Alan is responsible for the patient experience across Emory Clinic comprising over 100 clinical areas delivering over 3 million patient encounters annually. Alan manages the Service Management department, which includes the functions of service process improvement and coaching, Guest Services, Patient Advocacy, Interpretation Services, and Emory Healthcare’s special constituent patient program. Alan also serves as the main administrative champion for all physician engagement efforts for over 1800 providers. Alan joined Emory in 2011 with over 10 years of healthcare experience focused on improving the patient experience.

Christa N. Maruster has more than 13 years of combined management, training and assessment experience. She specializes in assisting top healthcare professionals with improving people experience, providing relationship-based care, and enhancing peer-to-peer working relationships.

Over the last 18 months, Christa has created a strategic plan for all Mount Carmel West Hospital patients to be seen by a leader every day of their hospital stay, exceeding the system standard of one or more visits per hospital stay. As a result, key patient experience metrics have steadily increased. During the seven years prior, Christa designed and developed Sharp Healthcare’s Community Medical Group’s (SCMG) patient satisfaction program from an idea to a robust, multi-faceted program. Under Christa’s direction and targeted efforts, SCMG’s patient experience ratings steadily increased every year. Prior to Sharp Healthcare, Christa served seven years in the U.S. Navy. In this role, she led process improvement events and ensured that aircraft support equipment were serviceable for combat. Christa’s efforts reduced department production backlog by 20% and created a 99.5% equipment availability rate for more than 1500 combat sorties.

Christa has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from National University and a Master of Arts degree in Forensic Psychology from Argosy University. Christa is a certified NAVAIR AIRSpeed Lean/Six Sigma Green Belt and a certified Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Crisis Counselor/Advocate.

Christa and her husband Matt have a two year old daughter, Gia. In her spare time, Christa enjoys baking, crafting and playing with Gia. Christa and her family relocated to Columbus from San Diego, California to be closer to extended family.

Christine’s entire career has been dedicated to women’s and children’s health. She is currently the Director of the Office of Patient Experience at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, where role is to develop and implement strategies that ensure patients and their families have an extraordinary experience.  Since starting at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford four years ago, she has grown the department from a staff of 1 to staff of 25. 

Christine is ultimately responsible for the implementation and sustainability of service standards, gathering patient feedback, patient navigation, corporate partnerships, and many other experience improvement initiatives.  She has been an advocate and the voice of our patients and families during the planning and execution of a 500,000 square foot hospital expansion set to complete in 2017.

Prior to Packard, Christine spent 25 years in the medical device field. She has served as a Vice President of Marketing and Sales and has also worked in strategy and business development. Christine is on various leadership committees and also served two terms as President of the non-profit Professional Women’s Healthcare Alliance (PWHA).

Christine holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Business Administration degrees.

Kara Eaton-Weaver oversees the ongoing transformations throughout the Institute aimed at enhancing patient-centered care and the RPCI experience for all our patients and their families. She facilitates patient advisory councils that encourage patients and families to work in partnership with providers to strengthen communication and propose and participate in shaping hospital policies and services.
Her role encompasses every process that involves patients from their first call for an appointment through treatment, recovery and survivorship. From first impressions and way-finding to technology and clinic efficiency, her goal is to collaborate with both staff and patients to provide an exceptional experience for everyone involved.
Kara joined RPCI in 2008, working first as a Patient Advocate and then became Manager of Patient Relations in 2010. In that post, her team provided a channel for communication and resolution regarding care quality issues. In addition, she enhanced and expanded the Patient Navigation program, offering specific services to remove barriers to treatment.
She has a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from St. Bonaventure University and a Master’s degree in counseling psychology from the University of Pennsylvania at Slippery Rock, Pa. In 2015, Kara was elected to serve on the American Cancer Society Board of Advisors.
Before coming to Roswell Park, she worked as an EAP at Mellon Financial Corporation in Pittsburgh, PA; Sisters Hospital in Buffalo; TANF grant with New York State Department of Health; and Goodwill Industries of Western New York.

Pam Prissel is a manager of Patient Experience for Mayo Clinic Health System Community Practice and helps lead service strategy and transform and shape the patient experience.  The Mayo Clinic Health System is made up of 4 regions with 18 hospitals, over 80 clinics, and numerous other service lines. Pam has been instrumental in leading numerous improvement projects, most recently leading an Enterprise team in the development and implementation of the Mayo Clinic Patient Experience Consultation and Coaching model, aligning practices of Patient Experience leaders and coordinators across the Enterprise and currently leading an experience design community practice project looking at how Mayo Clinic Community Practice transitions patients form hospital to home.
Pam serves as a faculty member for the Mayo Clinic Communication in HealthCare communication course offered to providers, and as a provider coach.   She is certified as a Mayo Clinic Quality Fellow and served as a Mayo Clinic Service Collaborative Coach assisting teams with focused improvement quality service projects.  Pam works with the Mayo Clinic Provider Relations network to provide consultation to hospitals nationally and internationally who seek to develop, enhance or refresh their patient experience.
Pam’s inspiration for working to improve the Patient Experience stems from the loss of her mother, who died as a result of a preventable medical error and her thirty five years of healthcare experience. This experience, together with her professional expertise, served as the catalyst for her firm commitment to improving patient experience
Pam  has worked as a clinician prior to her role in the patient experience -  as a registered dietitian, public health nutritionist,  instructor, behavioral health therapist and Employee Assistance Manager in  business,  healthcare settings and educational settings. She holds a Master of Science in Mental Health Counseling from the University of Wisconsin-Stout with a Bachelor of Science degree in Dietetics, and completed a dietetic internship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. In healthcare, she has enjoyed the privilege of serving patients and working with collaborative teams.

Michelle Giarrusso, BSN, MS, MBA, Director of the PFCC Innovation Center of UPMC, is responsible for projects that result in value improvement from patients’ and families’ perspective and include the full spectrum of new methods, organizational structures and processes. She has over 20 years of experience in clinical (orthopaedic and neuro-oncology) and process improvement, focusing on the Patient Family Centered Care Methodology and Practice, Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing, initiatives improving experiences, outcomes and cost, and program development.

Greg joined Cone Health in Greensboro, NC in 2009 and currently serves as Director of Patient Engagement. He is passionate about cultivating a customer-centered culture and ensuring that every decision the health system makes that has a material impact on patients includes patients in the decision making process. Greg leads the organization’s Patient and Family Advisory Council and is also responsible for partnering with patients to transition the population to one of highly self-activated, self –managed partners in healthcare delivery and consumerism.

Previously, Greg served as Senior Manager of Patient Experience at Cone Health.  In this role, Greg was responsible for addressing organizational Patient Experience opportunities from problem identification through innovation, planning, and execution of improvement initiatives. Greg provided project management and consultation for an organization of 6 inpatient hospitals and 100+ emergency, ambulatory and outpatient areas in close collaboration with senior administrative and physician leadership. 

Greg holds a BS from University of Maryland in Family Studies and a Masters of Social Work degree from Arizona State University.

James is a Creative Director of the 100-person Brand Experience group at Mayo Clinic – a nonprofit, worldwide leader in medical care, research and education. In this group, Designers research, synthesize, map and target the Mayo Clinic patient experience across many touchpoints from mobile to web and the real-world.

James has brought a mobile-centered vision to large-scale experiences that have driven business performance such as on MayoClinic.org with 1.2 billion pageviews and 20% YOY performance. He architected Mayo’s Healthy Living Program digital experience, and has designed “empowered-patient” communities and narrative exchanges which deliver against Mayo Clinic’s core organizational value “the needs of the patient come first”. James is currently leading a team to map and target the Brand Experience of Mayo Clinic.

Grounded in data from analytics and user research, and clear, communicative design, James establishes an intimate team culture of “serious play” through lean UX process, weekly product critique and iterative development. He asks questions like “What is motivating this user? How does this product underline our core business of healing and care? Why is the character of our institution important to our customers?” Through this approach, he brought tier one brands such as 3M, Dow and IBM to the forefront of social communities at Converseon Social Media Agency. His digital healthcare product suite, designed to activate a national network of clinics for IntegraMed, won the eHealthcare Leadership platinum award.

With an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons, he speaks and writes about design, empathy and healthcare, and has recently been published in Fast Company (Empathize like a Doctor, Design like an Entrepreneur), and Tomorrow magazine (Patients of the Future). He spoke at World Usability Day New York, for the User Experience Professionals Association, Delight '13—a User Experience conference in Portland— and Interaction '13 in Toronto about Designing a Compassionate Healthcare Experience and at MinneWebCon '11 about Narrative Tools in Service Design.

Kristen Truman-Allen PhD, RN, PCC is a health care leader serving as Chief Experience Officer at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center in Wyoming.  She brings her experiences as Emergency nurse, Outward Bound expeditionary learning instructor and Organization Development professional into her coaching as a formal leader in organizations.  She earned her Master’s Degree in Nursing Education and a Masters in Human and Organization Systems and in 2013 completed her doctorate in Human Development focused on professional coaching.  Kristen uses metaphor and intuition in her coaching of teams and individuals to help create powerful personal growth. Kristen is the proud mother of four children ages two to 19 and is passionate about living and leading boldly and authentically.  Kristen supports staff, physicians and teams as they transition throughout their work by helping them tap into their purpose, their passion and their intention to achieve the results they want.

Brian obtained a dual master’s degree from Xavier University. After finishing a fellowship in Hospital Administration at University of Illinois at Chicago Medical center Brian joined Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation as Practice Manager for Women’s Health. After four years he was recruited to be COO of Olean Medical Group, a 33 provider multispecialty group practice in Olean, NY and served as COO for four years and then CEO for a year and a half. In 2007 Brian came to Vanderbilt University Medical Center first as Administrator for the Vanderbilt Eye Institute and currently as Director of Patient Access and Experience. In his current system level role he oversees both strategy and operations for improving the Patient Experience with particular emphasis in ensuring efficient access to meet our client’s needs.

Virgie Mosley is a Manager in the Office of the Patient Experience Department for UCLA Health, which includes 4 hospitals with 850 beds, 200 primary and specialty care centers. As a healthcare professional, she has worked in the healthcare industry for many years and has had oversight in patient satisfaction including patient grievances, physician communication, health system operations, volunteer programs, report  methodology and service recovery. She attended the University of Southern California.

Renee Jones is the Director of Patient Experience for The James Cancer Hospital and Richard Solove Research Institute at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center where she leads efforts to exceed patient expectations and provide the best patient experience.  In her role, Renee is responsible for providing patient feedback and coaching to physicians and staff; tracking and trending feedback for improvement, partnering with Quality on process improvement initiatives and managing the staff recognition program. She is also responsible for overseeing a team of patient experience professionals and 500+ adult and student volunteers whose interpersonal skills have a positive impact on the patient experience. Renee has over 25 years’ experience in Customer Service and is a DDI Certified trainer.  In her spare time, Renee enjoys spending time with family and cheering for the OSU BUCKEYES!

Jennifer Sigman is a vibrant leader with 14 years of customer service, management and coaching experience. She is passionate about encouraging and mentoring others to put the patient at the center of their care experience.

Jennifer has been in her role with Mount Carmel St. Ann's Hospital since February 2015. During this time, she has helped lead the team to record high patient satisfaction results. Contributing to these successes, she introduced a new rounding tool for leaders to promote real-time feedback from the patients. For the five years prior to her Patient Experience position, Jennifer worked in three different hospitals developing and implementing Room Service programs for Nutrition Services contractors. In this role, patient satisfaction scores for food services increased significantly, upwards of 80% at one hospital site. Prior to her work in healthcare, Jennifer worked in the hospitality industry in various leadership roles at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Six Flags and restaurants in Central Ohio.

Jennifer has a Bachelor of Science degree in both Business Management and Human Resources Management from Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio. Jennifer also has an MBA from Franklin University.

Jennifer and her husband Mike reside in Delaware, Ohio with their two boys Cameron and Hudson. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling with her husband and spending the weekends taking daytrips with her boys.

Chaise Camp, MA, MS, MA, joined Cone Health as the Senior Patient Experience Manager in January 2012. In December of 2012, Camp, along with a colleague, developed the very successful Mission Control program designed to improve the patient experience by focusing exclusively on the staff experience of the care environment. Inpatient and Emergency Departments undergoing the Mission Control program have, on average, gained 42 percentile points in only six months.

Prior to coming Cone Health, Camp spent years applying his advanced studies in human behavior to improving the lives of those around him. He served as a psychological counselor and has taught at Indiana University and the University of Kentucky. He entered healthcare in 2008 at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky, where he served in dual patient experience and operational roles.

Camp received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Hardin-Simmons University, his first master’s degree in clinical psychology from Abilene Christian University, a second master’s in political science from Ball State University, and a third master’s in international relations from the University of Kentucky. Additionally, he has studied in two Ph.D. programs, at Indiana University and the University of Kentucky, and will have earned an MBA from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro in December of this year.

Kathy Bachman, MHA, BA, LTCA,  has 30 years of healthcare experience and joined the University of Kentucky Medical Center in 2012 as a Patient Experience Manager.  Kathy works with individual departments, leaders, physicians and staff to identify opportunities to improve patient and family experience.   Her area of focus is working with nursing services to provide trainings, coaching, review patient feedback, develop unit specific consultative plans and implementation of best practices. 

Jean Ball, PT, M.Ed., CPHQ

Graduate of Simmons College, 1982, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physical Therapy and a graduate of Endicott College, 2004, with a Master of Education Degree in Organizational Management.

Clinical patient care experience includes acute inpatient care, inpatient rehab, home care, outpatient orthopedics and sports medicine for over 20 years.

Progressive clinical management experience including Director of Physical Therapy for a 160 bed rehabilitation hospital with multiple outpatient clinics including the creation of multiple business plans, budget development, and successful openings of multiple off-site outpatient therapy clinics while ensuring the successful regulatory compliance.

Focused work on organizational culture and performance improvement responsibilities for over 10 years. Formal improvement training in CQI (Continuous Quality Improvement), TQM (Total Quality Management), GE Change Acceleration Processes, IHI High Reliability Training for Rapid Cycle Improvement projects, and Lean for Leaders. Certified as a CPHQ (Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality) in 2009.

For the past five years, responsibility for organization-wide patient/family centered culture, outcomes metrics related to patient experience including HCAHPS, as well as front-line Patient & Family Relations functions. Facilitates and consults with many departments and project teams for standards interpretation and data measurement requirements.  Functions as Improvement Coach to large cross functional teams across the organization.

Presents findings related to organizational performance and risks to a variety of audiences including Board of Trustees, Executive team, Senior Leadership, Manager’s Meeting, and department staff meetings of all disciplines related to progressing a patient & family-centered culture.

Lives in Nahant, MA with husband and three children.

My name is Tonya R. Moore. I’m a 46 year old mother of two and I’ve been married for 29 years. I have been a Stained Glass Artist since 1998. At the age of 37, I was diagnosed with heart failure and in 2013, I became the first patient at Cone Health to be implanted with the Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD). I am a Support Network Coordinator for WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease (helping to set up and run Cone Health HeartSisters Support Group). I am also a Co-Coordinator for a LVAD Support Group for patients as well as caregivers here at Cone. I am in my second year as a member of Cone Health’s Patient and Family Advisory Council. This is a new concept for my health care system but it shows how “patient centered” they are becoming. We have a very dynamic group. This advisory council gives us the opportunity to have our voices heard and to be give patient/caregiver feedback for various projects and changes for our health care system.
  

Dale Shaller has devoted over three decades to the design, implementation, and evaluation of health care quality measurement and improvement programs, with a special focus on listening to the voice of the patient and promoting methods for engaging consumers in managing their health and health care. He has served as a member of the Harvard and Yale CAHPS research teams for 15 years, and has directed the national CAHPS Database since its inception in 1998. Mr. Shaller led the technical assistance team on patient experience for the recently concluded 7-year Aligning Forces for Quality program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He is a co-author of The CAHPS Improvement Guide and numerous other publications related to strategies for measuring and improving the patient experience. He has served on many national health care advisory panels and is a frequent writer and presenter on health care quality and patient engagement strategies.  He received his B.A. from Kalamazoo College and holds a Master's degree in public affairs from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

Lynn Ehrmantraut is the Senior Vice President of Performance Improvement for Avatar Solutions.  She is responsible both externally and internally to set the agenda for Performance Improvement, Research Development, and CAHPS Compliance aimed at improving the patient experience. 
Lynn provides guidance to help the Avatar team share its expertise in measuring and improving the patient experience of care to lead and shape the national conversation.  Internally, Lynn provides oversight and direction to drive partner improvement through products and services that are of the highest quality, meeting regulatory and rigorous research specifications. 
Lynn's training is in Health Information Management. She has 20-plus years’ experience in a variety of acute, behavioral, and sub-acute healthcare settings, focused in the areas of performance improvement, customer service, risk, informatics, and accreditation.  Prior organizations include Eisenhower Medical Center, The Betty Ford Center, and Quorum Health Resources.
She joined Avatar Solutions in 2001, after having experienced first-hand the Avatar products and services available over a span of 10 years. 
Lynn’s MBA is from the University of Phoenix, and she holds an undergraduate degree in Health Information Administration from the College of St. Scholastica.  She is a Registered Health Information Administrator and certified quality professional through NAHQ’s CPHQ certification program.

Kathy Denton has been a facilitator and leader of change and performance improvement for over 25 years in both the private and public  sectors.  The last 18 years she has been at MD Anderson Cancer Center, with the last four years focusing on improving the patient experience.  She has been instrumental in the development of the Patient Experience Program at MD Anderson Cancer Center.  She has a Six Sigma Black Belt; is a Certified Manager of Quality and Organizational Excellence and is a Certified Professional for Healthcare Quality.  She also serves on the Texas A&M University - College of Education and Human Development - Advisory Board.    

James Legault, Director of Clinical Practice Analysis (CPA) and Infection Control (IC), is a graduate of Rutgers University and earned his master’s degree in Business Administration from Syracuse University.  He joined Upstate Medical University back in 1995 in the division of Information Management & Technology.  He transitioned over to the field of Quality when he became Director of Clinical Practice Analysis/Infection Control in 1998.  Prior to joining Upstate, James had worked at Carrier Corporation and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Central New York. 

James is responsible for supporting the quality improvement efforts throughout University Hospital by gathering, reporting and analyzing outcome measures focusing on our 5 pillar model: growth, quality/patient safety, service, finance and people.  James is very involved with quality improvement projects with University Healthsystem Consortium (UHC), and acts as the quality improvement coordinator for Upstate.  James is very active in efforts focusing on patient satisfaction measurement and improvement.  He has been the main contact with Press Ganey Associates and has been responsible for training hospital staff on the use of Press Ganey’s online application tool.  James is on various hospital committees that directly support quality improvement initiatives, as well as institution-wide committees such as the President’s Employee Recognition Awards, Holiday Happenings and Upstate Stars Employee Recognition.  In his spare time, James is an avid tennis player and enjoys competitive racquetball.

Megan is a graduate of Drexel University with a Masters in Nursing Education.  From Selinsgrove,  Pa, she has had a long career within Geisinger Health System, moving from direct nursing care for 18 years everything from cardiac to maternity, to land in a role creating and implementing community health programs for the Women’s Health Service Line.  In the last six years she has been involved in process improvement for the nursing service for pain management, communication, medication reconciliation and education and patient belongings tracking.  She joined the Patient Experience team at Geisinger in March 2014, bringing a wealth of patient perspective and employee education to lead patient centric changes in four hospitals of the  Geisinger Health System.

Jennifer Phillips serves as Virginia Mason Medical Center's innovation director in Seattle. She has been instrumental in introducing experience-based co-design methods to improve patient-family and staff experiences, as well as integrating these techniques into the organization’s approach to improvement based on lean thinking.

She previously developed and led a Project Management Office at Virginia Mason, and prior to that she managed the organization's employee communications program. A newspaper reporter in her humble beginnings, she has since spent many years focused on corporate communications and quality improvement, mainly in healthcare. She serves as internal faculty in innovation, creative thinking, lean production system and experience-based design concepts and methods.

Jennifer has experience managing large-scale organizational projects and events from planning to closure, facilitating improvement teams and workshops, and designing and teaching workshops for adult learners. She has a bachelor’s in journalism and master’s in communications.

Peter Lawson is an analyst with the MetroHealth System in Cleveland, Ohio. Peter’s work with the Office of Patient Experience at MetroHealth is focused on transforming data about patients’ experiences of care into insights that will help the MetroHealth System achieve its vision to be the most admired public health system in the nation. Building on years of experience as an academic researcher, Peter brings together his skills in medical anthropology, public health and business administration to interpret and amplify the patient’s voice so that it illuminates and motivates positive change within the MetroHealth System. Peter’s formal training in quantitative and qualitative analysis is complemented by his ongoing fascination with design thinking, data visualization, and predictive analytics.

Char Ryan, MHA, is currently the Patient Experience and Employee Engagement Officer for the Keck Medicine of USC Health System. Her passion for improving the experience of her colleagues, patients and their families at Keck has developed over her 22 years in healthcare and 13 of those years at Keck.   Char and her team led the implementation of the Keck Service Culture within six months.  Char's responsibilities include sustaining and growing the Keck Culture of Service, communication, patient advocacy, patient and family services/programs, interpretation services, patient and family advisory councils, and satisfaction surveys.  Char will provide an overview of programs and services, as well as tactics, Keck has developed and implemented to exceed our patients' and their families' expectations.

Rachel Biblow is the Senior Director of Patient and Family Services at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). In this role, she has direct oversight for the administrative, operational and financial activities for Social Work services, Family Relations, Language Services, Spiritual Care, and Family Centered Care Programming, including Patient and Family Experience/Satisfaction, as well as the hospital resource centers. Rachel serves on a variety of hospital committees; including the Ethics and Quality Improvement Committees. She is passionate about improving quality, safety and the overall care experience in healthcare. Rachel is an international speaker on Family Centered Care and Social Work leadership and has presented at multiple health systems and conferences.
Rachel is leading the overall design and implementation of an organization-wide patient and family experience strategy, to improve overall patient and family engagement and satisfaction at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Through collaborative efforts, she is establishing the necessary infrastructure, improved systems and processes to drive alignment with CHOP’s leadership principles and the hospital’s core value of Family-Centered Care to improve the overall care experience at CHOP.
Rachel holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, from the Pennsylvania State University and a Masters in Social Work from the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to her work at CHOP, Rachel serves on the Board of Directors for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Philadelphia and Susquehanna Valley, where she also contributes as a volunteer wish-granter. She volunteers through CHOP with Manna and the Ronald McDonald Camp for children and their siblings impacted by cancer. She served on the Children’s Hospital Association executive Steering Committee for Service Excellence and currently joining efforts to launch the Pediatric Forum within the Beryl Institute. She is a member of the Society for Social Work Leadership in Health Care, National Association of Social Workers and the Association for Patient Experience.

Randi Redmond Oster is the multi-award winning author of Questioning Protocol, which helps patients navigate the healthcare system and medical professionals understand the patient perspective. Randi spent the first half of her career in GE working on complex aerospace systems and building profitable financial services businesses. The quality skills gained in GE empowered her to effectively navigate the healthcare system and find opportunities for process improvements, as she advocated for her chronically ill son in the hospital. Today, she is a President of Help Me Health, whose mission is to transform how healthcare providers deliver the patient experience. She is a Malcolm Baldrige Examiner focusing on healthcare and a leading speaker on healthcare reform, shared decision making and patient engagement. www.HelpMe-Health.com

Susan Carter is the Executive Director of the WCA Foundation located in Minnetonka, MN. Susan received her undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS and her Master of Nonprofit Management from Hamline University in St. Paul, MN. She has been working in philanthropy for more than 15 years, most recently at Valspar as its Foundation Manager.

Susan currently resides in Minnetonka, MN with her husband Matt, their two children Justin (13) and Hilary (8) and their rescue Beagle, Nola.

She has served as a Patient/Family Advisor for Allina Health since 2012. In addition to her advisor role, she has served at the executive level as a liaison and is currently serving on the Allina Quality Council which establishes the Allina Health Quality plan.

Susan is compelled to represent the patient voice after a life changing health event claimed her sister and best friend, Pam Taylor.

Shawn Lemerise brings over 12 years of experience in healthcare consulting, project management, change management and operational redesign. Shawn helps oversee CipherHealth’s business development efforts, specifically around strategic relationships and channel partnerships. Prior to joining CipherHealth, Shawn led an integrated team of consultants at a large academic medical center in New York City for VHA, where he focused on clinical utilization and contracting to increase operational efficiency while driving down costs for the system. In addition, Shawn was responsible for executive buy-in throughout the system along with the adoption and integration of various operational and financial analytic tools. Shawn’s experience also includes working at Huron Consulting Group, where he helped healthcare clients achieve their savings goals through strategic sourcing, operational improvements and customized supply chain strategies. He led engagements at various hospitals across the United States, with a special focus on large multi-campus academic centers.

Brad Bostic founded hc1.com to address the critical need for healthcare systems and diagnostic laboratories to deliver an outstanding client experience. Brad has been leading technology enabled services companies with an emphasis on healthcare innovation for the past twenty years.
Under Brad’s leadership as Chairman and CEO, hc1.com has amassed more than 600 client locations spanning five countries and received numerous awards including the Red Herring Global 100, Mira Health Technology Innovation and Excellence, and Companies to Watch Spotlight Award. Brad’s deep experience with business, healthcare, software, and cloud technology has been instrumental in establishing hc1.com as the inventor and leader in healthcare relationship management.

Tracie Clang, Performance Improvement Coach, TruthPoint has over 30 years of operational and management experience in the health care industry. Tracie specializes in organizational engagement and leadership development; assisting organizations in improving performance and the patient experience while sustaining that improvement over time. Tracie’s expertise encompasses working with a broad array of health care organizations, from single practitioner clinics to large health care systems.  Tracie is a trained public speaker with focused efforts in process management, organizational redesign and patient experience improvement.

David is a Principal in Deloitte Consulting’s Life Sciences and Health Care practice.  He leads Deloitte Consulting’s Customer Transformation initiatives for the healthcare provider sector where his work focuses on assisting clients to create a more patient-centric, consumer-oriented healthcare delivery system. David has served in a leadership role on a number of large, complex transformational engagements with large integrated delivery systems, Academic Medical Centers, retailers, technology companies and national and regional health systems.

David is the co-author of The Patient Experience: Strategies & Approaches for Providers to Achieve and Maintain a Competitive Advantage and Are You Ready to Be Ready (for Reform)?. He has also been published on the Center for Health Solutions Blog on the topic of Patient Experience improvement.  In addition to these publications, David is also a contributing writer to:

•    The Quest for Value in Healthcare: A Place for Consumers
•    Going Vertical: Post-Acute Care as an Opportunity for Growth
•    Shared Services for Hospitals: It’s Your Turn. 

In addition to providing consulting services to large integrated healthcare delivery systems, academic medical centers, community and surgical hospitals, David leads Deloitte Consulting’s thought leadership and eminence development initiatives for the health care provider sector and is a noted speaker having presented at Healthcare Financial Management Association’s (HFMA) Annual National Institute, HIMSS2010 (on Patient Experience), Premier, Inc.’s Supply Chain Collaborative Breakthrough Series and numerous regional HFMA Conferences across the country.

David is a graduate of Leadership Pittsburgh Inc.’s Leadership Development Initiative and holds a B.A. from the University of California, a Master's degree from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.B.A. from Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business in Strategy, Finance and Quantitative Analysis. He also sits on the Board of Directors for the Keystone Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and is on the Board of Directors for The Children’s Home in Pittsburgh.

Geri Lynn Baumblatt is an industry expert on shared decision making and patient engagement. For the past 11 years she’s overseen the creation of a large library of multimedia patient engagement, education, shared decision making, and behavior change Emmi programs and interactive phone calls. These programs have won numerous awards including Freddie Awards, the IHA Health Literacy Award, the Frank Netter Award, ClearMark Plain Language Awards, and the 4th Annual Leonard G. Doak Health Literacy Innovator Award.
She also hosts an annual Health Literacy Month blog series on Engaging the Patient. She regularly speaks and serves on health literacy and shared decision making panels for organizations like AHRQ, the Institute for Healthcare Advancement, Health Literacy Missouri, and the Center for Plain Language and recently joined the editorial board of the Journal of Patient Experience. She works with decision scientists, behavior change experts, patients, and clinicians; they draw on their research and experience to create content that helps patients engage in their care. She holds a Masters of Arts degree from the University of Denver.

Having worked with over 500 healthcare organizations and countless patients has given me an invaluable perspective of the quality of care available in modern medicine today. Improving the patient experience, while enticing patients to engage in their care, has been central to my efforts.” With over 14 years experience in healthcare, currently, Samir Batra is the Vice President of Patient Engagement, where he presents strategy and effective use of the Oneview solution, to allow global healthcare providers and their patients to make better decisions. Over the past 9 years, Samir has worked with healthcare technology companies with the singular focus of applying technology to effective clinical and patient processes to forward the patient experience and drive engagement. Samir is an active speaker on utilizing healthcare technology to improve patient care, a Planetree advocate and frequent presenter, he is also involved with the Beryl Institute Advisory Board and the Resource Advisory Council.  He has had the pleasure to speak at some of the following leading forums: HIMSS Patient Engagement Summit, Cleveland Clinic Patient Experience Summit, NY eHealth Digital, and AHA.
 

Frank Forte is the Chief Business Development Officer for TVR Communications.  Mr. Forte drives TVR Communications’ growth by optimizing sales and marketing, building strategic partnerships, and defining the Company’s go to market strategy.  He also has a pivotal role in defining and executing the Company’s Service Excellence vision.

Prior to joining TVR Communications, Mr. Forte was Vice President of Business Development for Rockwood Holdings, and before that he held executive roles in various divisions of Emerson Electric Corporation.  He has a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA.

Marina McDonough is the Vice President of Innovation at Optum.  Ms. McDonough has over 23 years of healthcare experience helping hospital organizations improve financial and operational performance. In her current role, Ms. McDonough fosters collaboration with strategic partners and across multiple business disciplines to bring new solutions to market. Ms. McDonough has been a frequent industry speaker on a variety of hospital revenue cycle topics, is a Fellow of the Healthcare Financial Management Association, member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and has a Master of Healthcare Administration from the University of Minnesota.  

Jason Wolfgang is currently the Director of Product Management at hc1.com. Prior to hc1, Jason was a Software Product Manager for over 10 years. He uses his unique mix of technical and business skills to defining solutions for outlined business problems in healthcare. Jason routinely engages hc1 customers and prospects to understand their needs and how they plan to use hc1 to address specific client retention and patient engagement strategies, and then uses that knowledge to create actionable solutions within the hc1 platform. Jason graduated from Anderson University with a degree in Marketing.