IHA - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Director of Operations
• Operations Director
• Program Manager

Atin Patel is an operations director, program manager, and business analyst with broad and deep experience in program design, development, and deployment for clients in the life sciences, healthcare, and digital-health industries. He is best known for his work supporting innovators, entrepreneurs, and executives by (1) identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) essential to their missions, visions, and objectives; (2) creating business intelligence (BI) dashboards, scorecards, and reporting templates essential to their revenue development, operating efficiencies, and earnings growth; and (3) applying analytics, visualization, and reporting (AVR) capabilities to identify and bridge competitive performance gaps. Patel has a practical understanding of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the industry-facing role of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). He has formal training from the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences in FDA, CMS, and AHRQ principles and practices around (1) medical product, service, and solution safety and efficacy; (2) health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) including practice-based research (PBR) toward evidence-based medicine (EBM); and (3) post-market surveillance through real-world data (RWD) and real-world evidence (RWE) registries. Patel helps senior executives, middle managers, and field personnel optimize market access, messaging, and engagement under fee-for-service (FFS) payment and value-based payment (VBP) systems-supporting proof-of-value and preemptive market leadership strategies, tactics, and operations under volume-based and value-based healthcare (VBHC) systems, He has a broad and deep understanding of coding, coverage, and reimbursement strategies; as well as real-world data (RWD) and real-world evidence (RWE) collaborations, value-based contracting (VBC) and outcomes-based payment (OBC) agreements, and community-impact initiatives. He follows standard-setting organizations (SSOs) and updates of major code sets including ICD-10-CM, ICD-10-PCS, DRGs, HCPCS Level I (CPT), HCPCS Level II, NDCs, HCCs and RAFs, APCs, ASCs, SNOMED, and LOINC. His background in the Biosciences enables him to help clients navigate the PROQOLID database of 2,300 clinical outcome assessment (COA) instruments and patient-reported outcome (PRO) surveys. Patel has designed and managed hub services for Fortune 500 companies-overseeing highly specialized patient-support call centers focused on health insurance coding, coverage, and reimbursement as well as patient engagement, education, and empowerment. In serving clients like Olympus and Danone, he has reconceptualized, reengineered, and redeployed mission-critical patient-support operations-managing the design, development, and deployment of program charters, project plans, Gantt charts, information and communication technology (ICT) systems, business processes, standard operating procedures [SOPs], and performance standards. He has developed mission-critical content for a broad range of internal and external audiences, including patients, healthcare professionals (HCPs), healthcare provider organizations, third-party payers (TPPs), third-party administrators (TPAs), health plan sponsors and healthcare purchasers (e.g., fully-insurance and self-funded employers and unions), health services researchers, public health policymakers, biopharmaceutical companies, medical device innovators, and HealthTech pioneers. Patel holds a Master of Business and Science degree from The Claremont Colleges and a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Biology from the University of California at San Diego.

Job Titles:

• Associate Professor at the UAMS Center for Health Literacy
• Law Expert

Professor Trudeau is a subject matter expert (SME) on plain-language legal writing and a key opinion leader (KOL) on health literacy, informed consent, and risk communication. He teaches a broad range of professionals and students how to communicate legal and health information in ways that both engage patients and better protect healthcare organizations. Trudeau speaks and consults on (1) improving informed consent practices, (2) creating clear legal documents that people can understand, and (3) developing novel ways to improve health outcomes while reducing organizational risks. Recent speaking engagements included (1) the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), (2) the Institute of Medicine (IOM), (3) the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and (4) the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. He was the first lawyer ever to be appointed to (1) the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine's Roundtable on Health Literacy and (2) the FDA's Risk Communication Advisory Committee. Trudeau has a dual appointment at both the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, William H. Bowen School of Law. In this dual role, he teaches (1) health literacy courses for all UAMS health programs; (2) law and medicine for medical students; and (3) clear legal writing for law students. His expertise is on the intersection of health literacy, plain language, and the law. In his role as an Associate Professor at the UAMS Center for Health Literacy, Trudeau (1) conducts empirical research on clear health communication, (2) drafts healthcare documents, and (3) teaches health law and communication courses to medical students and students in other health professions. In his role at Bowen, Trudeau teaches Research, Writing, and Analysis I & II. Prior to this, he taught legal writing to over 1,500 students during a 13-year tenure at the Western Michigan University - Thomas M. Cooley Law School. In 2012, Professor Trudeau published the first U.S. study to measure the public's preferences for legal communication. He recently received a grant from the Legal Writing Institute, the Association of Legal Writing Directors, and Lexis/Nexis for an international study on plain language communications. In his free time, Professor Trudeau is an avid golfer and ultra-runner. He has run 12 marathons and 3 ultra-marathons. He is anxious to return to form and run his first race in Arkansas.

Job Titles:

• Senior Vice President, Insights Delivery

With more than 30 years of experience in world-class brand development, communications, and public affairs, Vesely is supporting the responsible transformation of the U.S. healthcare system by applying skills honed at the highest levels of global politics. Beginning as a journalist in Czechoslovakia in the late 1980s, Vesely was actively involved in the overthrow of the communist regime. He subsequently served as Press Secretary for the Czech Embassy in Washington DC and Senior Policy Advisor to the President of the new Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel-assuring the revitalized nation embodied the best of democratic principles. In recognition of his role in the reconstruction of a democratic nation, he was granted a full scholarship to study with Peter F. Drucker at the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management within the world-renowned Claremont Colleges. He is one of the few individuals worldwide to receive a letter of recommendation from Drucker himself. Upon graduation, Vesely joined a boutique management consulting firm specializing in preemptive market leadership strategies for companies at the convergence of the healthcare, business-to-business, and information technology (HC-IT-B2B) sectors. Quickly advancing to Partner, he was instrumental in the Company's growth for acquisition by an investor-owned X-as-a-Service (XaaS) cloud-based platform development company. Heading the management consulting practice for that organization, Vesely provided guidance to a broad range of healthcare clients interested in (1) adopting impartial health-related data standards, (2) understanding evolving scope-of-practice laws, and (3) implementing new code sets in support of provider-agnostic healthcare research, management, and commerce.

Job Titles:

• Director of the Horowitz Center for Health Literacy

Dr. Cynthia Baur became the Director of the Horowitz Center for Health Literacy in January 2017. Prior to coming to UMD, Dr. Baur worked for 17 years in communication leadership roles with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in Washington, D.C. Most recently, she served as the Senior Advisor for Health Literacy in the CDC Office of the Associate Director for Communication and CDC's Senior Official for the Plain Writing Act implementation. During her federal tenure, she led multiple initiatives to define best practices and guidelines in health communication and health literacy. She was the first manager of the Healthy People health communication objectives and the editor of the U.S. National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy. At CDC, she created CDC's health literacy website, which provides tools and online training to improve health literacy and public health, and she is the co-creator of the CDC Clear Communication Index, a set of scientific criteria for creating clear public communication materials. Her approach is based in communication science and focuses on providing diverse audiences with information in ways they can understand and use.

Job Titles:

• Senior Lecturer on Health Literacy, Education, and Policy / Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences / Harvard University

Dr. Rima Rudd has been a member of the faculty in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences [with its various name changes] for over 25 years. Her research and teaching initially focused on the design and evaluation of community based public health programs. The influence of Paulo Freire's pedagogy and community based participatory models helped shape her work in evaluation studies, community organizing, health promotion, participatory materials development, and model program development. In the mid 1990s, Rima Rudd began to focus her research studies on health disparities and literacy related barriers to health information, health programs, and health care. Dr. Rudd drafted the first national call to action, served on the Health Literacy Committee at the National Academies of Science, and developed the first population based measure of health literacy. She has written and contributed to multiple health policy reports, white papers, and research studies related to health literacy in public health, medicine and dentistry. She developed health literacy courses for health professionals at HSPH, with Veterans Affairs, with the Centers for Disease Control, and for state adult education professionals. Dr. Rudd is currently engaged in research and policy projects in the U.S. as well as in Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, and the U.K. She is expanding the concept of health literacy with attention to the skills of health professionals, the demands of health texts, the expectations regarding tasks to be undertaken, and the context within which people function and interact. Rima Rudd is a founder of and leader in the burgeoning field of health literacy studies and has won multiple awards for her contributions.

Job Titles:

• Life Science Expert, Scientific
• Vice President of Analytics, AI and Analytics

Ed Silverman is a life science expert, scientific problem-solver, and biomedical communications specialist who offers world-class competencies in data analytics, scientific collaboration networks, and evidence-based criticism of biomedical publications. Silverman's ability to create breakthroughs and best practices in data science and drug development stems from strong bench-science capabilities and a translational mindset. He has not only advanced the fields of differential gene expression, monoclonal antibody development, and memory retention and loss; but also developed a novel assay for measuring anti-fungal properties, a method for assessing the brain impact of cellular telephones, and a market-leading system for assuring the commercial success of groundbreaking biopharmaceuticals. With training in molecular biology, genetics and epigenetics, and biochemistry, Silverman manages clients in the BioPharma and MedTech industries and oversees the Within3 team focused on Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), Market Access drivers, and Real-World Evidence (RWE) development toward value accountability. An relentless knowledge seeker and practiced public speaker, Silverman previously served as an adjunct professor of Biology at Chapman University; won a Baxter Postdoctoral Fellowship at the world-renowned California Institute of Technology (CalTech); and is widely recognized for his skills in medical writing, data analytics, and visualization technologies. A committed father of three, former Eagle Scout, and advocate of Boy Scouts of America and Girl Scouts of the USA, Silverman holds a PhD in Biological Sciences from City of Hope Graduate School of Biological Sciences and an undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology from Johns Hopkins University.

Job Titles:

• Senior Research Analyst and Strategic Project Director for HealthIQ

Evelyn Chuang Gerace is a CxO-level quantitative researcher, analyst, and strategist-and pioneering contract engineer-with more than 25 years of experience evaluating and reengineering stakeholders' financial relationships to optimize economic, clinical, and humanistic outcomes (ECHOs) of care. In the early 1990s, as a senior research analyst and strategic project director for HealthIQ, Gerace applied her market-leading understanding of third-party payment drivers in formulating revenue-optimization strategies and developing pioneering business plans for Healthcare 100 companies-ensuring biopharmaceutical, medical device, and healthcare provider organizations would thrive during the transition from indemnity health insurance plans to managed care plans. In the mid 1990s, Gerace assured quarter-over-quarter earnings growth for FPA Medical Management, a risk-bearing managed care organization (MCO) by co-designing Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) and Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) service offerings; developing clinical, financial, and administrative scorecards and dashboards; and then running technology-enabled multivariate analyses across claims databases, identifying and managing key performance drivers across a $500 million book of business, and 600,000 capitated members. In this role, Gerace ran analytics in support of acquisition strategies; pioneered risk-sharing and gain-sharing contracts between self-insured employers, health plans, and regional healthcare provider organizations; and developed quantitative models to support M&A offers, facilitate shared-risk contracts, negotiate rates, audit performance, recover shared-risk settlements, and position contracting parties for improved clinical, financial, and administrative performance over time. She also accelerated the growth of a market-leading health plan by performing industry analyses, due diligence based organizational performance reviews, and scenario-based valuation appraisals of hospitals, medical groups, and other healthcare entities. Her research work extended from longitudinal claims analytics to quantitative reviews of member Independent Practice Associations (IPAs), ambulatory care facilities, specialty medical groups, and freestanding clinics-all in support of direct-to-employer contracts and quality-assured participating providers. Extending from physician report carding and in-depth service-line analyses to pro-forma financial statement development for business plans, her quantitative analyses were central to the MCO's market-leading PPO-network development, capitated contracting, and fee-for-service negotiating strategies. In the early 2000s, Gerace served as Director of Operations for an oncology management group at the world-renowned City of Hope, overseeing a broad-range of operating margin and clinical outcomes determinants including facility management, human resource management, business and clinical process development, information system selection and oversight, and more. In a concurrent role, she served as the Manager of Business Development for the City of Hope hospital, running reimbursement forecasts, net present value (NPV), and internal rate of return (IRR) analyses in relation to new business opportunities ranging from new staffing and medical practice acquisition models to new clinical service lines (e.g., building new treatment centers and acquiring new imaging technologies). Following her time at City of Hope, Gerace co-engineered CxO and VP dashboards and ran high-level analytics for seven senior executives (including the Vice Presidents of Marketing and Sales)-working closely with the information technology teams in running quantitative analyses to support global market reviews, scenario-driven business planning, marketing strategies, capital equipment leasing models and supply pricing, territory realignments, compensation and commission schedule development, and other mission-critical initiatives. Over the past 15 years, Gerace led an International Arts business, developing an online brand and revenue stream so strong that it grew quarter over quarter even through the Great Recession. She rejoined the original HealthIQ leadership team in 2018, committed to building 360-degree impact accountability into value-based contracts to help critical health industry stakeholders achieve the Triple/Quadruple Aim of reduced per capita costs, improved population health, and enhanced patient/provider experiences. Gerace earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with a minor in Social Ecology from the University of California in Irvine. She holds an MBA in Finance and Healthcare from the University of Southern California.

Job Titles:

• Expert
• Insurance Specialist
• Reimbursement Manager

Heather Soss is an insurance specialist, medical-records expert, and talent-development professional with nearly 20 years of experience training insurance-billing, data-entry, and customer-service personnel in how to use education-based strategies to (1) promote patient engagement, activation, and adherence; (2) verify insurance benefits, secure prior authorizations, and improve reimbursements; and (3) source, price, and coordinate delivery of best-in-class healthcare products, services, and solutions. At ReimbursementIQ, she (1) increases billable case volume by applying skills in call center management, insurance verification, prior authorization, medical necessity documentation, and appeals; (2) enhances operating efficiencies by applying knowledge of business process reengineering (BPR), flowchart design, template development, system automation, and quality assurance; and (3) improves team member engagement, competencies, and productivity by assessing their motivation, knowledge, and skills and by applying enterprise resources to better support their well-being, productive capacity, and socioeconomic status. Prior to joining ReimbursementIQ's insurance, sampling, and fulfillment helpline-supporting two lines of medical foods-Soss (1) supervised, trained, and developed healthcare administrators for multisite clinical practices; (2) audited medical charts and operative reports to assure coding integrity and regulatory compliance; (3) investigated, appealed, and reversed denied insurance claims; (4) educated patients in health-insurance terminology, insurance-plan selection, and self-advocacy fundamentals; and (5) delivered practice-building administrative services to high-volume/high-value clinicians to protect and enhance patient volume and healthcare provider (HCP) engagement. Before entering the healthcare sector, mastering electronic health records (EHRs), and gaining a formal designation as a highly proficient medical biller in the early 2000s, Soss earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in special education from Michigan State University, with an emphasis in education for the hard of hearing. In her time away from reimbursement helplines, Soss enjoys life as a military spouse (married to an active-duty serviceman) and as the mother of two wonderful boys, ages five and ten.

Job Titles:

• General Manager

Offering more than 30 years of market, corporate, and product development experience for pioneering healthcare companies, Jan Alvarado has led ReimbursementIQ, a third-party payment consultancy (in its various corporate forms), since 1991. With P&L responsibility, a background in cross-functional program and project management, and a demonstrated track record of optimizing organizational performance through M&A events, she has over 25 years of experience securing highly favorable, precedent-setting coverage, coding, and reimbursement policies on behalf of healthcare providers, health industry manufacturers, and patient advocacy groups. Alvarado offers broad and deep knowledge of healthcare finance, healthcare administration, and healthcare delivery systems-and she specializes in assisting pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, medical food, and healthcare service companies with the development and implementation of creative pre- and post-launch strategies, operations, and tactics that minimize third-party payment challenges and facilitate patient access to worthy new treatment modalities. Her market access skills include legislative policy analysis, third-party payment analysis, strategic reimbursement planning, coding analysis and acquisition, insurance verifications, eligibility determinations, prior authorizations, strategic coding, insurance billing, insurance claims management, payment precedent-setting, reimbursement optimization, and denial management. Having worked on groundbreaking healthcare finance, administration, and innovation projects for startups, small to mid-sized business (SMBs), and multinational corporations (MNCs), Alvarado has managed strategic planning programs, new product development projects, reimbursement helplines, patient assistance programs, and insurance billing operations to benefit not only client-company shareholders but also other critical constituencies. She provides mission-critical strategic guidance to a broad range of stakeholders concerned with ensuring cost-effective and medically necessary care is properly covered, coded, and reimbursed. Alvarado holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Irvine, is involved in a broad range of value-related innovations, and is an industry pioneer in 360-degree impact analytics.

Job Titles:

• Program Director / Project Director / the Institute for Healthcare Advancement

Janet Ohene-Frempong (o-HEN-ee frem-PONG) is a plain language and cross-cultural communication consultant with over 25 years of experience advancing theory and practice in patient and provider communications. As President of J O Frempong & Associates, Inc., she offers a broad range of services designed to support providers of information, service, and care in their effort to give people information that they can easily access, understand, and relate to. With the goal of promoting health literacy through effective communication, she has conducted workshops and created plain language solutions for a wide range of health industry stakeholders, including health and human services agencies, health insurance companies, hospitals and health systems, biopharmaceutical companies, medical publishers, and schools of medicine, nursing, and allied health. A national conference speaker and workshop facilitator, Ohene-Frempong is co-author of Literacy, Health and the Law: An Exploration of the Law and the Plight of Marginal Readers within the Health Care System, a monograph for health system and pharmaceutical industry administrators and risk managers. She co-authored a chapter entitled "Health Care for African Americans" in Rethinking Ethnicity and Health Care, a discussion of the role of marginal literacy as a barrier to optimal care. Ohene-Frempong was Director of the nation's first Health Literacy Project at the Health Promotion Council of Southeastern Pennsylvania, was a founding member of the Clear Language Group, and has served on several national advisory committees. She was the fourth recipient of the Health Literacy Hero Award from the Institute for Healthcare Advancement to recognize efforts in advancing the field of health literacy, and was the second invited Blum Visiting Scholar, nominated annually by the Maxwell & Eleanor Blum Patient and Family Learning Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is currently a Strategic Partner with the Institute for Healthcare Advancement, a not-for-profit, private operating foundation devoted to promoting health literacy at the national level.

Jann Keenan has advocated for the health and welfare of patients for more than 25 years, leading the design, implementation, and evaluation of comprehensive social marketing campaigns with health education theory at their core. As an advocate for Plain Language transformations in large organizations, she helps senior leadership teams create the objectives, strategies, policies, structures, systems, processes, and standards that lead to clear and effective communications and enhanced health equity. As a mentor to newcomers in the field of health literacy, she offers training that equips participants to "hit the ground running"-including a high-demand three-day advanced Plain Language writing workshop. As a Plain Language Project Director and Public Health Educator, she promotes clear communications to improve patient outcomes. As a featured speaker, she has presented at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Health Groups, Joint Commission, Harvard University, Joint Commission, Kidney Fund, World Pharmacology, and more. Keenan developed the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) curriculum for shared decision making and led a national train-the-trainer program which resulted in 800 health professionals gaining certification as trainers in shared decision-making. Her health literacy articles have been published in American Family Physician, Vascular Health & Risk Management, Correct Care, and Pharmaceutical Executive. She is highly skilled in Plain Language writing and design for print and multi-media materials-with a focus on communications that can support the Triple/Quadruple Aim of reduced per capita costs, improved population health, and enhanced patient and provider experiences. She writes and produces MP3s and DVDs for HHS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and Maryland Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). A proponent of medical adherence and compliant OTC product labeling, Keenan (1) creates nationally recognized booklets, posters, newsletters, and curricula; (2) designs websites, kiosks, and exhibits (e.g., for Pfizer, Yale, NLM, and Brigham & Women's); (3) delivers comprehensive social marketing campaigns with health literacy at their core; (4) runs focus groups so clients know their approach is spot on; and (5) introduces solutions to health disparities. In honor of her work toward improved health policy and practice, Keenan received Maryland's Governor's Award, Maryland's Black Legislative Caucus, and Maryland's House of Delegates Citations. In 1995, Keenen formed a health literacy consultancy called The Keenan Group, in Maryland. In 2006, she opened a second office in New York. She received her EdS in instructional design from Indiana University and later received IU's Distinguished Alumni Award for making exemplary contributions to her community and the nation through professional service, public service, and civic activities. She has since received Health Literacy Hero Awards from IHA and Maryland's Horowitz Center for Health Literacy.

Job Titles:

• Reimbursement Manager

Bilingual in Spanish and English, Jessica Gonzalez is a customer acquisition, customer engagement, and customer service expert with a background in value-engineering, operations reengineering, and revenue cycle management in the healthcare, hospitality, and restaurant sectors. She spent three years with the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) Candlewood Suites hotel chain, which applied best practices from the Residence Inn and Summerfield Suites chains to the extended-stay hotel sector. In her work as a front-desk night auditor and guest inquiry and reservation specialist, Gonzalez gained keen on the service expectations of rate-sensitive business travelers and other corporate transient travelers with longer hotel stays than the typical business traveler stays of one week or less-and learned the top-line and bottom-line benefits of maintaining higher occupancy averages (lessons directly applicable to fee-for-service [FFS] hospitals, health systems, and integrated delivery networks [IDNs]). She also learned how to drive earnings growth through the right balance of average daily rates (ADRs) with revenue per available room sold (RevPAR), ensuring higher occupancy and market penetration through word-of-mouth and repeat customers. Prior to working at IHG, Gonzalez served as a Restaurant Manager for a Subway Franchisee in the high-volume Disneyland region, protecting and enhancing Subway Restaurant's culture, competencies, brand equity, revenues, operating efficiencies, earnings growth, risk mitigation, and competitiveness by focusing on key performance indicators (KPIs) and tracking performance dashboards, scorecards, and other management reports. With over a decade of experience in business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing, finance, and operations, Gonzalez can quickly identify performance challenges, protect key accounts, and reengineer front-office and back-office business processes to protect and enhance patient and provider satisfaction, lifetime value, and referrals (e.g., positioning practices to report on real-world results [RWRs] using clinical outcome assessment [COA] tools, validated patient-reported outcomes [PRO] instruments, and net promoter scores [NPS]). She is familiar with major code sets including ICD-10-CM, ICD-10-PCS, DRGs, HCPCS Level I (CPT), HCPCS Level II, NDCs, HCCs and RAFs, APCs, ASCs, SNOMED, and LOINC-and she keeps up with the literature on challenged subpopulations and levers that improve economic, clinical, and humanistic outcomes (ECHOs). In running patient-support programs under both fee-for-service (FFS) payment systems and value-based payment (VBP) systems, Gonzalez applies breakthroughs, best practices, and benchmarks from outside sectors-ensuring patients receive the caring, personalized, and reliable service levels to which they have become accustomed in activities of daily living (ADLs). Gonzalez grew up in Southern California, studied at Cypress Community College, and continues to live, work, and volunteer in the region-focusing on improving health literacy, health equity, and social determinants of health (SDOHs) for historically disenfranchised subpopulations. She is an advocate for regional, state, and national improvements in health-related quality of life across urban, suburban, and rural settings.

Job Titles:

• Adjunct Professor
• Manager and Research Associate at the University of California
• Vice President, Insight Implementation

Mariam Eghbal-Ahmadi is a principled, discerning, and compassionate value strategist who has worked with Within3 and predecessors for nearly two decades, transitioning from managing global business operations to identifying high-impact, next-generation health industry solutions that empower clients to achieve performance jumpstarts or turnarounds-all while helping to improve the human condition. Skilled in mobilizing transdisciplinary and cross-functional teams around mission, Eghbal-Ahmadi applies advanced qualitative research, analytics, and strategies to design market-leading features and benefits into clients' next-generation products, services, and solutions. She has an uncanny ability to see what has already happened that has yet to have full impact, and she is known for her resiliency and willingness to roll up her sleeves to get any task completed. Because of her relentless focus on quality, timeliness, and effectiveness, her clients gain groundbreaking insights and capabilities that empower them to establish new gold standards in market, corporate, and product performance. Internally, Eghbal-Ahmadi has broad and deep knowledge of the Within3 insights management platform and wields it to help to help life science clients (e.g., biopharmaceutical) gain critical insights pre- and post-launch. As Managing Director of Market Analytics and Strategic Intelligence, she (1) oversaw corporate operations in the U.S., India, and the Czech Republic; (2) expanded data harvesting capabilities into emerging digital marketing channels; and (3) broadened marketing content collection through new provider networks in emerging European markets (outside EU5). As Director of Operations, Program Director, and Project Director, she designed and oversaw competitive intelligence initiatives on behalf of BioPharma, MedTech, and Healthcare organizations. Eghbal-Ahmadi has been serving as an adjunct professor since 2013, at the California State University, Los Angeles, College of Business and Economics; and she is a lecturer in the Master of Science in Healthcare Decision Analysis (HCDA) Program at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy and Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy. A dedicated parent and charitable advocate for healthy families and human empowerment, she has volunteered on adult health literacy initiatives, invested in the emotional development of foster children, and donated to a broad range of non-profit causes ranging from research institutes to food pantries. Eghbal-Ahmadi was previously a Laboratory Manager and Research Associate at the University of California, Irvine, Departments of Anatomy and Neurobiology and Pediatrics. She has numerous scientific, technical, and medical (STM) publications; holds a Master of Science Degree in Biology and Neurobiology from the University of California at Irvine; and earned an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management.

Job Titles:

• Associate Professor of Medicine
• Co - Investigator
• Member of the Project RED Research Team
• Member of the Video Images of Disease for Ethical Outcomes ( VIDEO ) Consortium
• Professor of Medicine

Dr. Michael Paasche-Orlow is Associate Professor of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Paasche-Orlow is a general internist and a nationally recognized expert in the field of health literacy. Dr. Paasche-Orlow is currently a co-investigator with five funded grants that examine health literacy including two intervention studies evaluating simplified information technologies for behavior change among minority patients with a range of health literacy levels. Dr. Paasche-Orlow is a member of the Project RED research team, a nationally recognized model to re-engineer the process of hospital discharge to improve the safety and efficiency of transitions of care. Dr. Paasche-Orlow is also a member of the Video Images of Disease for Ethical Outcomes (VIDEO) Consortium and the chief quality officer for Nous Foundation (ACPdecisions.org). Dr. Paasche-Orlow's work has brought attention to the role health literacy plays in racial and ethnic disparities, self-care for patients with chronic diseases, end-of life decision making, and the ethics of research with human subjects. Dr. Paasche-Orlow is the Associate Chief for Research for the Section of General Internal Medicine at Boston Medical Center and the Associate Program Director for the Boston University School of Medicine General Internal Medicine Academic Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program.

Job Titles:

• CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Advancement
• President and Chief Executive Officer / the Institute for Healthcare Advancement

Michael Villaire is the CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA), a nonprofit healthcare public charity dedicated to improving health literacy and empowering people to achieve better health. Villaire produces the IHA's annual Health Literacy Conference, has written numerous articles on Plain Language communications, and lectures nationally on related topics. He is the co-author of the textbook Health Literacy in Primary Care: A Clinician's Guide and the easy-to-read, self-help book What To Do When Your Child Is Heavy. An adjunct faculty member at Brandman University in Irvine, California, he teaches a health literacy course for the Master of Science in Health Risk and Crisis Communication program. Villaire's background includes 20 years as an editor in healthcare publishing, assuring the quality of peer-reviewed journals in hospital administration and nursing, news magazines for physicians, and innovative online healthcare portals. He helped redesign and launch several scientific, technically, and medical (STM) journals, and managed the development of a multimedia, interactive curriculum in critical care. Villaire earned a Bachelor's degree in English and Communications from Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan. He earned a Master's Degree in Science, Organizational Leadership, and Management from the University of La Verne in California, with a Master's thesis focused on the adequacy of patient education materials in community clinics.

Job Titles:

• Chief Operating Officer and VP of Business Development / the Institute for Healthcare Advancement

Nicholas C. Collatos is a publishing industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience contributing to the betterment of society by conceptualizing, launching, and growing groundbreaking publications in scientific, technical, and medical (STM) and consumer markets. Committed to advancing global health literacy, plain language communications, and culturally competent care, Collatos leads community-benefit analyses, strategic planning initiatives, and public-private sector alliances-leveraging IHA's content development and syndication, transdisciplinary convening, and technology commercialization capabilities. In relation to IHA's content development and syndication efforts, Collatos identifies categories of customers interested in health literacy, plain language communications, and cultural competency (HL/PL/CC); characterize key business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2B) personas; researches and maps the buyer journey; conceptualizes and designs print and digital publications; develops highly targeted marketing plans and materials; coordinates print and digital content production; oversees inside sales and contract sales organizations (CSOs); and manages content distribution through print and digital channels. In relation to IHA's convening-related efforts, Collatos conceptualizes, designs, and promotes market-leading conferences in support of industry leaders, program managers, and professionals focused on health literacy, plain language, and cultural competency topics (as well as community care, healthcare, and self-care endpoints). In relation to IHA's commercialization efforts on behalf of strategic allies and their products, services, and solutions, Collatos tracks industry breakthroughs and best practices; evaluates market drivers, trends, and disruptive forces; characterizes viable markets and market segments; develops and implements strategic marketing plans and strategic sales plans to increase market size, market penetration, and market share; engages industry influencers and practice leaders; leverages transmedia channels; refines commercialization pathways; and drives demand through VIP selling. Collatos has a BSc in Business Management from California State University in Northridge.

Peeler leads Within3's innovation efforts, focused on network analytics, content analytics, and impact analytics. He pioneered the use of technology-enabled network analytics-using advanced algorithms and machine learning to identify and map relationships among various key opinion leaders (e.g., science KOLs, market access KOLs, and outcomes-focused KOLs) in support of legitimate healthcare breakthroughs and best practices. His deliverables help Health Economics, Medical Affairs, Market Access, HEOR/Value, and Benefit Plan Design experts build product awareness, market access, and real-world evidence (RWE) in support of the proper use of novel healthcare interventions, such as new pharmaceuticals, biologics, medical devices, medical foods, healthcare services, and self-care interventions. Peeler's peer-reviewed articles have appeared in scientific, technical, and medical (STM) journals on genetics, evolution, climate change, natural language processing, and network analysis. He has contributed to text books on biomedical semantics, evolution through hybridization, and business communications-and he holds a patent in network analytics. Keeping Within3 and its predecessor at the forefront of healthcare data science since 2006, Peeler and his team recently earned the Company a Cool Vendor designation from Gartner (one of only five Cool Vendors in all of the Life Sciences). As an undergraduate at the University of Georgia, Peeler double-majored in Biology and Genetics. He received his Master of Business and Science (MBS) from the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences in Claremont, California, where he focused on strategy, leadership, management, entrepreneurship, and product innovation. An amateur magician and stand-up comic with a penchant for brewing beer, Peeler quips that he was Time Magazine Person of the Year in 2006 (the year of "You"). He was featured in OC Metro's "Forty under 40" issue in 2013 and enjoys woodworking, 3D printing, and not overanalyzing in his cherished roles as father and husband.

Job Titles:

• Chief Financial Officer
• Chief Technology Officer

Siddharth Baikar leads highly targeted IT management and governance reviews, digital transformation initiatives, and financial jumpstart and turnaround programs to improve the real-world performance, outcomes, and impacts of enterprise-grade startups, small-to-midsized businesses (SMBs), and lead business units in world-class multinational corporations (MNCs). He serves innovators, entrepreneurs, and executives within the healthcare, education, and social-service sectors-designing, developing, and deploying information and communication technology (ICT) improvement programs and business process automation projects that enhance corporate culture, competencies, revenue, operating efficiencies, earnings growth, risk mitigation, competitiveness, scalability, salability, speed to favorable liquidity events, and investor-related enterprise performance. In recent projects, Baikar evaluated IT management and governance frameworks used by new ventures, SMBs, and MNCs; identified opportunities to jumpstart the top and bottom lines; and helped selected clients transition from on-premises to cloud-based or hybrid systems. Along the way, he shared mission-critical ISO 27001 Information Security Management standards, EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) HIPAA-HITECH insights, implications, and imperatives with leadership teams and frontline personnel accountable for maintaining client intellectual property (IP) and patient protected health information (PHI). He also supported a Fortune 500 client's damage-control priorities around a privacy and security breach associated with hackers on the dark web. Familiar with Excel-based modeling in the fields of finance, economics, and epidemiology; Baikar has (1) reengineered financial analysis, forecasting, and budgeting tools used by founders, investors, and financial-services organizations; (2) tracked market drivers, trends, and disruptive forces and their economic implications for key clients; and (3) sourced incidence and prevalence figures across multiple disease states-applying real-world data (RWD) and real-world evidence (RWE) to support medical policy, program, and product evaluations. Baikar is skilled in (1) reviewing historic and pro-forma financials in support of M&A planning; (2) running meetings with key personnel to better understand COGS, SG&A, and EBIDTA levers; and (3) preparing organizations for successful financial and due diligence audits. He is committed to improving bookkeeping, tax accounting, and finance department missions, visions, objectives, strategies, policies, structures, processes, and standards. He has (1) developed and managed activity-based costing (ABC) and activity-based pricing (ABP) tools for fair and profitable price-setting; (2) reduced days sales outstanding (DSOs) by correcting and semi-automating invoicing after reviewing master service agreements (MSAs) and statements of work (SOWs); and (3) worked with corporate leadership and frontline personnel to identify opportunities to improve organizational efficiencies and effectiveness. Baikar holds a Computer Engineering Diploma from the Vidyalankar Institute of Technology; a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Information Technology from Xavier Institute of Engineering; and a Master of Science degree in Finance and Financial Management Services from the Drucker School of Management at The Claremont Colleges. Concerned with mental health literacy, mental health equity, and social determinants of mental health in disenfranchised populations, Baikar is currently studying asset management, angel and private equity investing, and charitable giving among mental health advocates in the U.S. and abroad. He plans to become a leading mental health startup matchmaker-connecting nonprofit innovators and for-profit entrepreneurs in the mental/behavioral health industry with strategic donors and funding sources.

Job Titles:

• Director of Operations

Susan Horn has more than 25 years of experience developing and implementing third-party payment strategies for health industry pioneers leading cutting-edge pharmaceutical, biologics, medical device, food-as-medicine, acute care, group practice, and alternate site markets. As ReimbursementIQ's Client Operations Director, she supports senior managers in developing go-to-market strategies for new medical products; trains leadership teams, market access professionals, and patient access specialists; and oversees payment precedent-setting projects, reimbursement helplines, and compassionate care programs. With more than 10 years of revenue cycle management experience for durable medical equipment (DME), home healthcare (HHC), and home infusion companies, Horn is an expert in capitated contracting, value-based purchasing, coverage policy solicitation, new code acquisition, insurance billing strategies, claims denial management, and more. Her career highlights include securing coverage for a category-creating Orphan Drug for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID) that enabled children with the "Bubble Boy Disease" (adenosine deaminase deficiency) to live normal lives; establishing payment precedents (under both medical benefits and pharmacy benefits) for medical foods essential to the survival of children with failure-to-thrive diagnoses; and winning denial-related appeals centered on drugs' off-label uses in treating cancer patients. Horn holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Welfare from California State University at Long Beach and earned supplemental credentials in geriatric health optimization.

Job Titles:

• Expert
• Managing Director / Central IQ, Inc.

Synthia Laura Molina is an expert in market, corporate, and development-and she currently focuses on value creation at the convergence of the healthcare, education, and social services sectors. With three decades of experience as a tech-savvy, content-producing program director, earnings driver, and social benefit strategist, she is skilled in (1) accelerating market, corporate, and product development by clarifying mission; (2) creating and measuring what matters; and (3) empowering talent with purpose, competencies, and enabling technologies. Prior to realigning with the xIQ Family of Companies-a company Molina co-owned in the 1990s-Molina founded Central IQ and Mission Accomplished, where she delivered industry analysis, strategic planning, and business development services to help healthcare pioneers lead emerging markets. Molina developed strategy, leadership, and general management expertise through progressive positions in quality control, laboratory sciences (microbiology and chemistry), quality assurance, regulatory affairs, R&D, marketing research, product development, product management, marketing management, sales, sales management, business development, operations management, and various C-Suite roles. In the early 2000s, as CEO of ABC Coding Solutions, she secured federal review of the company as a national standard-setting organization for HIPAA-compliant codes representing allied and public health, nursing, complementary and alternative medicine, and other integrative healthcare practices. In the mid-1990s (while serving as a corporate director, strategic advisor, and content developer for HealthIQ-a health economics, reimbursement strategy, and hub service pioneer subsequently acquired by Elsevier and Parexel), she directed the Drucker MBA program at The Claremont Colleges and helped the Drucker School achieve even greater national prominence among management education programs. Between 1990 and 1995, she served as Director of Marketing Research and Vice President of Industry and Business Development for HealthIQ, supporting more than a dozen brand-name BioPharma and MedTech companies and facilitating the growth of Quantum Health Resources from startup to $200 million in revenue. In the late 1980s (while completing her graduate studies), she was hired to save over a million lives and resolve a catastrophic international crisis for Baxter Healthcare Corporation and the American Red Cross, involving hundreds of production lots of HIV and Hepatitis-tainted blood products. She audited dozens of plasma donation centers and blood banks in relation to quality assurance practices. She drafted the companies' quality transformation roadmaps to assure product and patient safety-and she made CxO level recommendations essential to rebuilding worldwide trust in the Baxter and ARC brands. In the mid-1980s (while pursuing an MBA), she was hired to resolve a devastating FDA 483 letter and co-led a regulatory affairs, quality systems, and new product development turnaround for Ioptex Research, Inc., supporting its nine-figure acquisition by Smith & Nephew. In the early 1980s (while completing her undergraduate studies), she managed quality engineering projects in the quality control department and science laboratories of a newly acquired Johnson & Johnson subsidiary. Molina's consulting engagements have included corporate planning and product/portfolio optimization initiatives for brand-name companies (such as Abbott, AmerisourceBergen Corporation, Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, and Philips Medical Systems), and for market-transforming information technology and electronic commerce companies (such as Manhattan Associates, WebMD, and VeriFone). Molina has written dozens of articles in health industry trade publications and is a go-to resource for healthcare authors, speakers, and the press. An author, public speaker, and subject matter expert on health industry and corporate evolution, Molina has presented at dozens of health industry conferences on topics such as strategic management, product portfolio evaluation and planning, health economics, outcomes research, disease management programs, performance and outcomes-based payment systems, gain-sharing initiatives, health-related data standards, consumer-driven healthcare, health information system interoperability, and social HMOs. A University of California Alumni Scholar and recipient of the 2004 Distinguished Alumni Service Award at Claremont Graduate University, she earned honors in the Premedical Science programs at the University of California at Berkeley and Pomona College, holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management and Organizational Behavior from the University of La Verne (completed while working full time in the health industry), and was ranked first in her class in the Drucker MBA program at the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management, near Los Angeles. She currently serves on the Drucker Industry Advisory Board and does volunteer TV camera work, content development and syndication, and career coaching.

Job Titles:

• Senior Vice President, Insight Analytics

Page has more than 30 years of experience creating and delivering industry-transforming strategic intelligence solutions to conscious capitalists in the health, education, and social-service sectors. In his past career in the U.S. intelligence community, Page led critical global intelligence operations on behalf of multiple strategic-analysis organizations in the U.S. and abroad-facilitating the responsible spread of democratic principles worldwide and contributing to global gains in human wellbeing, productive capacity, and socioeconomic development.

Job Titles:

• Industry Expert, Volume - to - Value ( V2V ) Transition Specialist
• Value Strategist and Strategic Advisor

Zenobia Walji is a MedTech industry expert, volume-to-value (V2V) transition specialist, and global marketing strategist with 25+ years of leadership and organic-growth experience serving leading multinational corporations (MNCs) within and beyond U.S. markets. She has held local, national, and global leadership roles in strategic planning, marketing, and sales-navigating both fee-for-service (FFS) payment systems and capitated, value-based contracting (VBC) environments for brand-name medical device companies including Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, and Stryker. Walji's ability to drive top-line and bottom-line growth (e.g., for established or acquisitive new [$100M], mid-sized [$500M] and large [$2B] medical device businesses) was developed through multidisciplinary, cross-functional, and trans-geographic headquarter roles in the U.S. and