Richard Lopez, MD
Dr. Richard Lopez, a primary care physician at Atrius Health, serves as Senior Vice President, Population Health and Chief Medical Officer, VNA Care. In this position, Dr. Lopez works collaboratively with senior clinical and executive leadership across a wide range of clinical initiatives. Specifically, Dr. Lopez’s focus includes clinical program development relating to population health, primary care/behavioral health integration, clinical aspects of payer/hospital contracting, medical management including pharmacy P&T, clinical programmatic integration of Atrius Health and VNA Care, and clinical policy and oversight at VNA Care. He previously served as Atrius Health Chief Medical Officer from 2009 – 2015 and VP of Clinical Programs 2000-2009. More than a 30-year veteran of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, Dr. Lopez has made many significant contributions to the organization and is the recipient of Harvard Vanguard’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He also received the Becker Healthcare Leadership Award in 2014.
Dr. Lopez received his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine and completed his residency and internship at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. Dr. Lopez received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Boston University. As a board certified internist, Dr. Lopez has practiced primary care internal medicine at Harvard Vanguard’s Medford practice since 1982. Dr. Lopez serves on the Board of the Risk Management Foundation and several committees including Vice Chair of the Massachusetts Medical Society Committee on Quality of Medical Practice and the Massachusetts Statewide Quality Advisory Committee.
Kristin McGurn, Esq.
Kristin McGurn is a partner in Seyfarth Shaw’s Boston office practicing in the area of labor and employment litigation and counseling. As co-chair of the firm’s Health Law Practice, and a member of the firm’s Health Care Reform Team, Ms. McGurn drives the firm’s interdisciplinary industry thought-leadership, and counsels and defends healthcare employers on a wide variety of business and employment-related disputes, including allegations of discrimination at the MCAD, EEOC and in state and federal court, harassment investigations and retaliation claims, breach of contract and fiduciary duty disputes, drafting and litigating non-competition/non-solicitation covenants, and handling whistleblower investigations and claims. Ms. McGurn has tried many cases to verdict and has briefed and argued appeals in federal and state court. Ms. McGurn’s expertise covers all stages of litigation including project planning, process mapping, case management, motion practice, electronic, expert and other discovery, mediation and trial.
Outside of the courtroom, Ms. McGurn advises clients on the employment law and traditional labor impacts of health care reform. She also has significant experience developing and implementing employment-related training programs and policies on behalf of health care clients and assists employers to conduct reductions in force, cultural assimilation and on-boarding, performs investigations, and implements compliance assessments in areas such as leave management, worker classification and pay practices, and independent contractor, trainee and volunteer status.
Ms. McGurn routinely drafts employment handbooks, contracts and covenants, as well as separation and severance agreements for her clients. Ms. McGurn is a member of the American Health Lawyers Association, and writes for the Labor and Employment and Long Term Care sections. She has counseled, advised and collaborated with a local healthcare industry trade association and its members, for nearly two decades, regularly writing and presenting on employment-related issues impacting the health care industry.
Alexis Finkelberg Bortniker
Alexis Bortniker is a senior counsel and health care lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP.
Her practice focuses on transactional and regulatory matters with an emphasis on counseling health systems, hospitals, and other providers in managed care and physician contracting.
Ms. Bortniker is a member of the firm’s Health Care Industry Team.
John D. Halamka, MD, MS
John D. Halamka, MD, MS is Chief Information Officer of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Chief Information Officer and Dean for Technology at Harvard Medical School, Chairman of the New England Health Electronic Data Interchange Network (NEHEN), CEO of MA-SHARE (the Regional Health Information Organization), Chair of the US Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP), and a practicing Emergency Physician.
Dr. Halamka completed his undergraduate studies at Stanford University where he received a degree in Medical Microbiology and a degree in Public Policy with a focus on technology issues. While at Stanford he served as research assistant to Dr. Edward Teller, Dr. Milton Friedman, and presidential candidate John B. Anderson. He authored three books on technology related issues and formed a software development firm, Ibis Research Labs, Inc. Additionally, he served as a columnist for Infoworld, technical editor of Computer Language Magazine and technology consultant to several startup companies.
In 1984, Dr. Halamka entered medical school at the University of California San Francisco and simultaneously pursued graduate work in Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, focusing on technology issues in medicine. During medical school and graduate training, he continued his business activities and developed Ibis Research Labs into a 25 person software consultancy, specializing in medical and financial information interchange. Ibis was sold to senior management in 1992.
Dr. Halamka served his residency at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in the Department of Emergency Medicine. While at Harbor-UCLA he was an active member of the information systems team and developed a hospital-wide knowledge base for policies, procedures, and protocols. Further, he was instrumental in creating an online medical record, a quality control system, and several systems for medical education. His research focus during residency was building automated triage tools for patients infected with HIV
In 1996, Dr. Halamka joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School and continues to integrate his knowledge of medicine and technology focusing on the use of the Internet to exchange clinical patient data. His research includes security / confidentiality issues, scalability issues, and implementation of standards for exchange of administrative and clinical information. As a clinician as well as researcher, Dr. Halamka uses these tools to improve the care of the patients he treats in the Beth Israel Deaconess Emergency Department. He is also an active teacher, lecturing on both medical and technology topics to the students, residents, and faculty of Harvard and MIT.
As Chief Information Officer at Beth Israel Deaconess, he is responsible for all clinical, financial, administrative and academic information technology serving 3,000 doctors, 12,000 employees and one million patients. As Chief Information Officer and Dean for Technology at Harvard Medical School, he oversees all educational, research and administrative computing for 18,000 faculty and 3,000 students.
Kerry Ann Hayon, MHA
Kerry Ann Hayon, Director, Physician Practice Resource Center (PPRC) at the Massachusetts Medical Society brings more than 12 years of consulting, hospital administration and physician practice management experience to the PPRC. Kerry Ann is a Six-Sigma process improvement expert with extensive experience working with physicians and physician practices in the area of strategy, operations, program development and revenue cycle enhancement with a particular expertise in Cardiology administration. She focuses on providing practical solutions for physician practices in light of the current healthcare environment. Kerry Ann holds a Masters in Healthcare Administration from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
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