A

Dennis Acebo is Project Director of the Asian Pacific American Network (APAnet), a communications and information technology resource provider empowering community base organizations (CBOs) who provide human and health services to low-income and recent immigrants in the Asian/Pacific Islanders (APA) community, primarily in Southern California. APAnet is part of a new media consulting company (dja MultiMedia) formed by Mr. Acebo to strategically plan, develop, and implement CD-ROM, internet, and interactive television application solutions for corporations, media entities, and non-profit agencies. He started his career with the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee as a project coordinator in the technology department, followed by a ten year career with GTE in various market planning, project management, and new venture positions which included the California State Lottery, video-on-demand services, and the formation of an interactive multimedia studio.Mr. Acebo served as Vice President of Marketing and Sales for an R&D interactive multimedia software start-up and turned it into a million dollar P&L operation within two years.

Farrokh Alemi, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Health Administration, Cleveland State University. He specializes in quality of care and use of telecommunications in health care. His course on quality improvement is available online at www.csuohio.edu/hca/hca615/index.html. Recently, he focused on developing measures of severity of AIDS and automated methods of collecting patient’s health status information. Dr. Alemi developed a tool for assessing hospitalization risks and advising employees about their health habits. He created systems for teaching decision-making skills to teenagers and for managing cocaine-abusing pregnant patients online. Dr. Alemi is the author of the B.E.S.T. system of artificial intelligence. He has been chairperson and an organizer of the Health Application Section of the Institute for Operation Research and Management Science and is a member of the Science Panel on Interactive Communication and Health.

David Ansley is the Medical Editor of OnHealth.com, a consumer medicine website. Previously, he served as Science Editor and Web Editor of Consumer Reports magazine. He has written and edited science and medical articles for the San Jose Mercury News for10 years and was acting director of the Knight Science Journalism fellowships at MIT for a year.

B

David W. Baker, MD, is Assistant Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology-Biostatistics at Case Western Reserve University and MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Baker was the Co-Principal Investigator for the Literacy in Health Care Study, the first major study of the prevalence of inadequate functional health literacy and its impact on patients’ medical care and use of health care services. He is currently the Co-Principal Investigator for a study of literacy, health status, and use of health care services for Medicare managed care enrollees in the Prudential SeniorCare program, conducted jointly with the Prudential Center for Health Care Research in Atlanta. Dr. Baker’s other research interests include access to care, health care delivery for underserved populations, quality of care, and outcomes research for patients with chronic medical conditions. He was the Associate Project Director for the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research Heart Failure Guideline project. He serves on the Ohio Department of Health Task Force on Access and Quality of Care, and he is currently working with the Ohio Peer Review Organization and the Cleveland Health Quality Choice Program studying variations in hospitals’ readmission rates for patients hospitalized with heart failure.

C

Margaret Cary, M.D., M.B.A., M.P.H., is the first physician to be appointed Regional Director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, overseeing 350 federal employees and a number of public health and social services programs in the Dakotas and Rocky Mountain region. She sees telemedicine/ telehealth as a way to make healthcare information and treatment choices more widely available to patients as well as to healthcare providers. She is on the editorial advisory board for Telemedicine and Telehealth Networks, was a contributor to the Western Governors’ Association’s Telemedicine Action Report, is listed in The Telemedicine 200: Who’s Who in Telemedicine Policy and Programs, and was a member of Colorado’s Telecommunications and Health Care Task Force. Dr. Cary co-hosted "The Health Care Puzzle," a nationally-televised production addressing health-care reform in the U.S. The program was a finalist in the 1995 International Health and Medical Film Competition. The Denver Business Journal has included Dr. Cary in "Who’s Who in Health Care and Biotechnology" for 1995, 1996, and 1997.

Richard L. Cleland is the Assistant Director for the Division of Service Industry Practices. His duties include supervision of the Bureau of Consumer Protection’s Health Care and Weight Loss Products and Services programs. Prior to joining the Federal Trade Commission, Mr. Cleland served as Special Assistant Attorney General and Director of the Division of Consumer Protection in the Iowa Attorney Generals Office. In 1991, Mr. Cleland joined the Commission as a senior staff attorney in the Division of Advertising Practices where he served as lead attorney on numerous cases involving weight loss products and dietary supplements. From February 1996 until March 1997, Mr. Cleland served as Assistant to the Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection for Regional Office Operations.

David Cochran, M.D.,, is Associate Medical Director of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. Dr. Cochran is responsible for the evaluation and oversight of information technology used to support and evaluate clinical care. He oversees Harvard Pilgrim’s automated medical record system, one of the largest ambulatory computer-based medical record systems in use in the United States. Dr. Cochran led the assessment of Harvard Pilgrim’s clinical information systems needs and the selection of its new system. He is currently leading the implementation of that new clinical system. Dr. Cochran is on the Board of Directors of the Computer-Based Patient Records Institute (CPRI) and serves on the CPRI selection committee to evaluate recipients of their award for excellence in computer-based patient records. Dr. Cochran is also responsible for the evaluation and implementation of Harvard Pilgrim’s information technology solutions to support patients in understanding and improving their own health. He participates in the Harvard Pilgrim corporate Internet planning activities. In addition, Dr. Cochran is Vice President for Health Affairs and Chief Medical Officer for Lexant Corporation, a company developing consumer health services delivered over the Internet.

E

John M. Eisenberg, M.D., M.B.A., was appointed Administrator of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) in April 1997. Dr. Eisenberg also serves as the Senior Advisor to the Secretary on Quality, with AHCPR designated as the HHS lead agency for health care quality improvement issues. He coordinates HHS’s work on behalf of the Secretary regarding the President’s Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry and chairs an interagency committee on quality. Since May 1997, Dr. Eisenberg has also been Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health and has served as Acting Assistant Secretary for Health. Prior to his appointment at AHCPR, Dr. Eisenberg was Chairman of the Department of Medicine, Physician-in-Chief, and Anton and Margaret Fuisz Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University. Previously, he was Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and Sol Katz Professor of General Internal Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1986 through 1995, Dr. Eisenberg was a founding Commissioner of the Congressional Physician Payment Review Commission, serving as its Chairman from 1993 to 1995.

Tom Eng, V.M.D., M.P.H., is currently the Study Director for the Science Panel on Interactive Communication and Health. The national 14-member expert panel is developing guidelines and tools for the evaluation of interactive health communication applications. Prior to this, Dr. Eng was a senior program officer at the Institute of Medicine and an American Association for the Advancement of Science Congressional Fellow in the U.S. Senate. He also has worked for the Peace Corps, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and two State health departments on a number of issues related to epidemiology, public health, and health policy.

Agenda

http://odphp.osophs.dhhs.gov/confrnce/partnr98/Biosa-f.htm