1997 Partnerships for Networked Consumer Health Information Conference

Biographies Of Conference Speakers - S

Karen Sarpolis, MD/MBA

Dr. Sarpolis graduated from Northwestern University and then went on to pursue one of the most unusual options in the combined degree program at the University of Illinois--the MD/MBA It was at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, one of the nation's leading computer centers, that she first explored the Internet.

While training in surgery, she contributed several research papers and presentations in the areas of trauma and orthopedics, winning awards and recognition for her work. Later, she founded Genne Healthcare Technologies, Inc., which specializes in Internet applications for medicine and healthcare. Genne sponsors the award-winning Internet site, A Forum for Women's Health, as a public service.

Samantha Scolamiero

Ms. Scolamiero is a patient advocate in medical informatics who draws on four years experience as founder of the BRAINTMR email list. In 1996 she received a Health Online Distinguished Achievement Award and co-organized the AMIA Health Evaluation Working Group's consumer health colloquium. She recently established T.H.E. BRAIN TRUST, Inc. a nonprofit organization which will promote and improve online communications for patients and professionals concerned with neurological disorders.

Donna E. Shalala

Donna E. Shalala, US Secretary of Health and Human Services, has been a scholar, educational administrator, and a public servant for her entire career.

She was confirmed by the US Senate on January 22, 1993 to lead the Federal Government's principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. With a Fiscal Year 1997 budget of approximately $353 billion, and 59,000 employees, HHS administers a wide variety of programs including Medicare, Medicaid and almost all of the federal welfare and children's programs.

As Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1988-1993, she was the first woman to head a Big Ten University. Prior to that, she served as President of Hunter College at City University of New York for eight years, and as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research at the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Carter Administration.

A leading scholar on the political economy of State and local governments, Dr. Shalala has held tenured professorships at Columbia, CUNY and Wisconsin. From 1962-1964, she served in the Peace Corps in Iran.

Secretary Shalala has a long history of forging public/private partnerships. From 1975 to 1977, she served as director and treasurer of the Municipal Assistance Corporation, the organization that helped reverse New York's financial collapse. She has been a Director of the American Stock Exchange, TIAA-CREF and M & I Bank of Wisconsin.

As a member of the Committee for Economic Development, she contributed to bipartisan reports on the basic health, welfare and educational needs of our youngest children.

At the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Shalala administered the nation's largest public research university. During her tenure at UW, she helped to raise over $400 million for the university's endowment and spearheaded a $225 million State-private partnerships program to renovate and add to the university's research facilities for its world-class scientists.

In 1992, BusinessWeek named her as one of the top five managers in higher education. An expert on TQM, she is considered one of the most experienced and successful managers in the country.

Since taking the helm at HHS, Secretary Shalala has shifted the focus of the Department to the everyday needs of all Americans. She is a leader in the administration's efforts to reform the nation's welfare system and improve health care while containing health costs. She is also carrying out management restructuring and reform at HHS under the Vice President's initiative to "reinvent government," aimed at improving efficiency and service to constituents.

In announcing her appointment, then-President-elect Clinton noted her "astonishing leadership abilities and her love of mountain climbing. Of all the mountains Donna Shalala has scaled. HHS may be the highest."

Barry Silverman, PhD

Dr. Silverman is Director of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and a Joint Professor of Engineering Management and Computer Medicine at George Washington University. He is the author of over 70 journal articles, 12 books/proceedings, over 100 technical reports, and 7 copyrighted software systems. He is a Fellow of IEEE, AAAS and the Washington Academy of Science. He is on the board of several journals in the intelligent systems and human computer intelligent systems and human computer interaction fields and is listed in Who's Who in the World.

Lisa Simpson, MB, BChb

Dr. Simpson, a pediatri0cian and public health administrator, was appointed Acting Administrator of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, after the February 14 departure of AHCPR Administrator, Clifton R. Gaus. She is now Deputy Director of AHCPR. She has been with AHCPR since 1995, serving first as a Senior Advisor to the administrator. She became Acting Deputy Administrator in August 1995, and then was appointed to Deputy Administrator in September 1996.

During her tenure at AHCPR, Dr. Simpson has promoted research that enables physicians to improve clinical effectiveness, fosters partnerships between patients and clinicians in medical decision making, and focuses on issues related to women and children.

Dr. Simpson is also active in national efforts to improve clinical performance measurement through her work with the NCQA (National Committee for Quality Assurance), the JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organization), and the AMA (American Medical Association).

Prior to her service at AHCPR, Dr. Simpson was a Senior Policy Analyst in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health. She was a Fellow at the Institute for Health Policy Studies, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco from 1991 to 1993; and was the Director of Maternal and Child Health for the State of Hawaii from 1988 to 1990.

Dr. Simpson is board certified in pediatrics and is a member of adjunct faculty at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. She received a doctorate of medicine (MB, BCh) from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland and a Masters of Public Health from the University of Hawaii.

Shoshanna Sofaer, DrPH

Dr. Sofaer is a professor at George Washington University and studies how best to provide consumers with information to support their choice of health plans and providers. As a Co-Principal Investigator on the Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Study, an AHCPR project to develop the next generation of consumer satisfaction surveys, she leads a team organized by the Research Triangle Institute that is developing information interventions to feed survey results back to consumers.

Ann Solari - Twadell

Ms. Solari-Twadell is currently the Director of the International Parish Nurse Resource Center and Congregational Health Services at Advocate Health Care in Park Ridge, Illinois. In her capacity as the director of Congregational Health Services she works with local congregations offering a health promotion/disease prevention program focusing on encouraging individuals to be better partners in the management of their health. Ann received her Bachelors of Science degree in Nursing and her Masters in Nursing from Loyola University. She received a Masters in Public Administration from Roosevelt University. Both institutions are located in Chicago, Illinois. She is currently enrolled in the doctoral program in nursing at Loyola University as a part time student.

Max E. Stachura, MDM

Dr. Stachura is the Director of the Medical College of Georgia Telemedicine Center. He joined the Center in 1995 after 14 years at the MCG Hospital and Clinics and at the Augusta VA Medical Center as Chief of the Section of Metabolic and Endocrine Disease in the Department of Medicine. Dr. Stachura came to MCG in 1981 after eight years on the faculty of the University of Chicago. He obtained his MD in 1965 from Harvard Medical School.

His background includes 15 years of NIH and or VA Merit Review funded basic research, directorship of endocine disease-related outreach programs for patient care and education as well as health professional development. Dr. Stachura is the author or co-author of numerous research publications, abstracts, book chapters and texts. His clinical practice involves general endocrinology with special interests in pituitary disease and diabetes mellitus. His current academic focus is health services delivery and barriers to access.

Dr. Stachura obtained his MD in 1965 from the Harvard Medical School and his clinical training at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He was the recipient of an NIH Research Career Development Award. After eight years on the faculty of the University of Chicago, he came to the Medical College of Georgia in 1981.

Mary Ann Stump, RN

Mary Ann Stump is Senior Vice President, Quality, Outcomes and Consumer Education for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. In that capacity, she is responsible for policy development and implementation of quality- and outcomes related initiatives including Continuous Quality Improvement, patient provider shared decision making, and development of select networks (e.g., the Cardiac Network and State Health Plan). A past president of MN Healthcare Quality Professionals (MHQP), she is actively involved in state and national health care quality- related efforts.

Marie Sullivan, MSW

Ms. Sullivan, O.P. Sinsinawa Dominican Sister, is founder of the Sullivan Center, Inc., a nonprofit social service center. The center maintains a computerized clearinghouse (14 other agencies online), offers financial aid, conducts financial planning and nutritional classes, and offers employment counseling and seminars. Ms. Sullivan has an MSW from St. Louis University.

Peter Szolovits, PhD

Dr. Szolovits is Professor of Computer Science at MIT and heads the Clinical Decision Making Group at the MIT Lab for Computer Science. He teaches and conducts research on artificial intelligence and its application to medicine.

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