14th Public Health Leadership Forum -- Speaker Biographies

The Promise and Pitfalls of Transforming Health through Technology and Information

Speakers

Henry L. Dorkin, MD, FAAP
President, Massachusetts Medical Society

Dr. Dorkin is Director of Pulmonary Clinical Research Programs as well as Co-Director of both the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Center and CF Therapeutic Development Center, all at Boston Children’s Hospital. He is currently Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, a position held since 2002. An MMS member since 1982, Dr. Dorkin has served the society in many capacities.  He has served as Chair of the Task Force on EHR Interoperability and Usability as well as a member of the Task Force on Opioid Therapy and Physician Communication. Dr. Dorkin has been a member of the Board of Trustees, the Organized Medical Staff Section, and many MMS committees. Dr. Dorkin is a Past President of the Suffolk District Medical Society.    

In addition to his clinical responsibilities at Boston Children’s Hospital, Dr. Dorkin has held several voluntary positions with local, regional, and national medical and health organizations. He is currently a member of the Pediatric Assembly of the American Thoracic Society (ATS), AAP Pulmonology Section and the CFF National Medical Advisory Council.  Dr. Dorkin has been on the CFF Professional Education Committee since 1991 and is currently its Chairman, a position he has held for over 20 years. A cum laude graduate of the Lehigh University, he holds a B.S. in Chemistry and membership in Tau Beta Pi, the National Engineering Honorary Society. He earned his M.D. at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed his pediatric internship and residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. His Fellowship in Pulmonary Disease was at Boston Children's Hospital.

Steven Ringer, MD, PhD 
Chair, Committee on Public Health, Massachusetts Medical Society

Dr. Ringer is the former Chief of the Division of Newborn Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. After a long career in Massachusetts, he transitioned to Chief of the Division of Neonatology at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH. His public health interests have focused internationally in several developing countries, and locally in a long record of working closely with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in a number of areas related to perinatal health.

Dr. Ringer attended Brandeis University. He received his medical degree and PhD from Case Western Reserve University. He completed his pediatric residency at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland and his fellowship in neonatal perinatal medicine at the Joint Program of Neonatology of Harvard Medical School.

Harold Cox
Moderator

Harold Cox is Associate Dean for Public Health Practice and Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences at Boston University School of Public Health.  He is a member of the Massachusetts Public Health Council, Boston Public Health Commission, and chair of the statewide Regionalization Working Committee that is exploring methods to improve public health service delivery in Massachusetts. At Boston University, Cox manages the newly-formed Activist Lab, which seeks to engage the school in real world public health.  Trained as a social worker, he has extensive practice experience with mental retardation, HIV/AIDS and governmental public health.

John Auerbach

John Auerbach is president and CEO of Trust for Americas Health (TFAH), where he oversees TFAH's work to promote sound public health policy and make disease prevention a national priority. Over the course of a thirty-year career he has held senior public health positions at the federal, state, and local levels. As Associate Director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) he oversaw policy and the agency’s collaborative efforts with CMS, commercial payers, and large health systems. During his six years as the Commissioner of Public Health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, he developed innovative programs to promote health equity, combat chronic and infectious disease, and support the successful implementation of the state’s health care reform initiative. As Boston’s health commissioner for nine years, he directed homeless, substance abuse, and emergency medical services for the city as well as a wide range of public health divisions.

Mr. Auerbach was previously a professor of practice in health sciences and director of the Institute on Urban Health Research and Practice at Northeastern University; program director of one of the country’s first community health centers; and director of a clinical training program at a tertiary care safety-net hospital.

Monica Bharel, MD, MPH 
Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Public Health

Dr. Bharel became Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in February of 2015. As Commissioner, she is responsible for implementing the state's response to the opioid crisis, as well as leading the Department’s efforts in reducing health disparities, finding public health solutions for health care reform, developing innovative solutions using data and evidence-based practices, and other health care quality improvement initiatives. Dr. Bharel comes to DPH widely recognized for her dedication to health care for underserved and vulnerable populations. She previously served as the Chief Medical Officer of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, the largest nonprofit health care organization for homeless individuals in the country.

Dr. Bharel has served on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, Boston University Medical School, and Harvard School of Public Health. She was previously at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Medical Center. She has practiced general internal medicine for 20 years in neighborhood health centers, city hospitals, the Veterans Administration, university hospitals and nonprofit organizations. She received her Master of Public Health degree through the Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy. She received her medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine and completed a residency and chief residency in internal medicine at Boston City Hospital/Boston Medical Center.

John Moore, MD, PhD

Dr. Moore is a physician and technologist passionate about empowering patients to take the lead in their care. His expertise is in building tools to help patients build self-efficacy through improved collaboration with clinician coaches. He is the CEO of Twine Health, a start up focused on improving the experience, clinical outcomes, and cost of chronic disease care. He received a PhD from the MIT Media lab where he developed and studied technology-supported apprenticeship as a new paradigm of patient-clinician collaboration. Dr. Moore received both an MD and a BS in biomedical engineering from Boston University and, prior to attending medical school, served as a Fulbright Scholar

Josh Nesbit

Josh Nesbit is the Chief Executive Officer of Medic Mobile, a nonprofit organization founded to improve health in the hardest-to-reach communities. The open-source Medic Mobile software helps over 19,000 community health workers provide care for more 10 million people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Health workers use the software to support safe pregnancies, increase coverage for childhood immunization, deliver lifesaving treatments for children, monitor stock levels for essential medicines, and track disease outbreaks. In 2014, Medic Mobile received a Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.

Before co-founding Medic Mobile, Mr. Nesbit studied global health and bioethics at Stanford University, where his qualitative research focused on pediatric HIV/AIDS in Malawi. He is an Ashoka Fellow, PopTech Social Innovation Fellow, Echoing Green Fellow, and Rainer Arnhold Fellow. He has served on the Board of Directors for IntraHealth International and Developing Radio Partners. Mr. Nesbit was selected by Devex as one of 40 Under 40 Leaders in International Development, received the Truman Award for Innovation from the Society for International Development, and was named by Forbes as one of the world’s 30 top social entrepreneurs. In 2016, he received a Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award. Along with his colleagues, he envisions a more just world in which health workers are supported as they provide care for their neighbors, universal health coverage is a reality, and health is secured as a human right. 

Adam Landman, MD, MS, MIS, MHS

Dr. Landman is Chief Information Officer at Brigham Health, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an attending emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH).  He is an expert in information systems development and implementation.  He led a three-year, $7 million custom software development project to move BWH Emergency Department clinicians from paper-based to electronic documentation.  Recently he helped oversee the implementation of Epic and several critical laboratory information systems.  Dr. Landman also created the BWH Digital Health Innovation Group to spur hospital use of digital technology as well as facilitate appropriate use of digital tools by clinicians, innovators, and researchers.  As CIO, he is currently responsible for the stabilization and optimization of the EHR, all other hospital information systems, and digital health innovation.  

Dr. Landman received his MD from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and trained in Emergency Medicine at UCLA Medical Center. He was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at Yale University, where he also received his masters of Health Sciences. He completed graduate degrees in Information Systems and Health Care Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University.

Yuri Quintana, PhD 

Dr. Quintana is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He also holds a position of Director, Global Health Informatics in the Division of Clinical Informatics, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Yuri Quintana's research is focused on developing innovative technologies that empower communities of professionals and consumers to collaborate on a worldwide basis. Dr. Quintana conducts research and teaches on topics of global health information systems, global e-health applications, clinical informatics, consumer health informatics, mobile health systems, online learning systems, and serious games for health and wellness.

Previously he was at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, where he developed of international education and informatics programs in pediatric oncology. He led the development of Cure4Kids, an online pediatric cancer education and collaboration Website used by over thousands of health professionals worldwide; online systems used for international collaborative clinical trials; and Cure4Kids for Kids, a community outreach education program to educate children and communities about cancer and healthy living.

Juan Estrada

Juan Estrada is a Senior Advisor for the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) TeleHealth Episodic Care Program and Program Director for MGH TeleNeurology. He advises on the design and execution of community hospital oriented programs, and leads the development of internal software applications for MGH TeleHealth. He is interested in saving lives and transforming healthcare through innovative technologies and business models. Mr. Estrada holds advanced degrees in Bioengineering and Telemedicine as well as in Healthcare Business Administration.

Lisa D’ Ambrosio, PhD

Dr. D’Ambrosio is a Research Associate at the MIT AgeLab with 20 years of experience as an instructor and researcher. Her research focuses on questions around decisions that impact later life, including decision-making around financial planning and preparedness, transportation and mobility, and technology adoption. Recent work includes a study of people’s visions of themselves as they age, research on caregivers’ interest in adopting new technologies, and the challenges families face around financially preparing when a loved has Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. She is an author of and contributor to numerous peer-reviewed publications which range across a number of different disciplines and fields, reflecting the nature of the MIT AgeLab. She is a contributor to and co-editor with Dr. Joseph F. Coughlin of Aging America and Transportation: Personal Choices and Public Policy, and she has taught social science research design and methods in MIT’s Systems Engineering Division. Prior to coming to MIT, Dr. D'Ambrosio was a Research Analyst at the US Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Volpe National Transportation Systems Center. Dr. D’Ambrosio earned her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and her A.B. from Brown University.