Think Tank members listed in alphabetical order:
Doris T. Barta, MHA
Doris T. Barta is the Director of the National Telehealth Technology Assessment Center (TTAC), one of two National Telehealth Resource Centers. TTAC provides in-depth objective assessments of telehealth technology and publishes the results of those assessments, as well as other pertinent information regarding telehealth technology on their website. TTAC also provides technology showcases during regional TRC conferences throughout the US, and during the COVID crisis, TTAC has provided the Showcases virtually. Ms. Barta has worked in the telehealth field since 1992, serving in the capacity of a telehealth network director, as well as, in the role of fund development for telehealth. Ms. Barta also served as the Principal Investigator for the Northwest Telehealth Resource Center for ten years, to advance the development, implementation, and integration of telehealth through sharing information, leveraging resources and creating a synergistic telehealth community. The NRTRC represents seven western states (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Utah, Washington and Wyoming). Through her wealth of experience in program planning and operations, Ms. Barta continues to assist healthcare organizations, networks, and providers implementing cost-effective telehealth programs serving rural and medically underserved populations, with a special emphasis on program development through shared training and expertise.
Jordan Berg
Jordan Berg is the Technology Assessment Specialist at National Telehealth Technology Assessment and Resource Center (TTAC), one of two National Telehealth Resource Centers. Jordan has over a decade of hands on experience working with the Alaska Tribal Health System and eight years of experience working in telemedicine. Jordan is passionate about working with people, helping them to understand, evaluate, and assimilate telemedicine technology.
Jordana Bernard, MBA, FATA
Jordana Bernard, MBA, FATA is a consultant with over 30 years of experience driving organizational growth and advancement of healthcare delivery through telehealth and other advanced technology innovations. Previously, Jordana was Director, Policy and Public Affairs at InTouch Health where she led policy strategy, regulatory and legislative initiatives to advance telehealth and served as SME across the enterprise and to hospital and healthcare system clients and other stakeholders in the telehealth industry. Prior to InTouch Health, Jordana was Chief Program Officer at the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) overseeing education, accreditation, practice guidelines development and member group programs. Prior to ATA, she held multiple senior management positions focused within the healthcare industry and implemented the first telemedicine network within the Federal prison system. Jordana is an author and frequent lecturer in telehealth policy. She is a Fellow of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) and received an MBA from Marymount University and BS in biomedical engineering from Boston University.
Tim Collins, MPH, MS
Tim Collins is Senior Epidemiologist at the Alaska Native Epidemiology Center, where his work is focused on substance use epidemiology, syndromic surveillance, and modeling neurophysiology in augmented reality. Mr. Collins holds an MPH in biostatistics and epidemiology from the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, and an MS in psychology.
Mike Dowdy
Mike Dowdy is a seasoned healthcare executive with over 25 years of experience with a primary focus on strategy, business development, growth and change management. With roles ranging from VP to CEO, Mike has experience in healthcare delivery systems from a rural setting to the corporate level. Passionate about ensuring access to healthcare for all, Mike has participated on and led local, state, regional and national boards as well as Governor-appointed panels.
Ken Feiler
Kenneth Feiler is CEO of Velocity Healthcare Consultants advising startups and hospitals during these difficult times. Kenneth is an executive coach with The Leadership Advance, coaching executives, chief medical officers and hospital teams throughout the country as well as teaching graduate studies at Denver University. Ken has been a healthcare leader for over 35 years as the President and CEO of Multiple Hospitals, twenty-one years as CEO of Rose Medical Center, a Large Community based Teaching Hospital Owned by HCA, Nashville Tennessee. Ken brings the perspective of a senior hospital executive and the operational challenges and opportunities of combining digital health solutions in the hospital environment and has been known as a forward thinker, utilizing new technologies within the hospital to improve outcomes, and benefit patients, physicians, and staff. His experience with technology and change has given him skills to work with our team on offering new technologies to marketplace.
Douglas L. Moore MD, MPH
Douglas L. Moore MD, MPH is former County Health Officer for Somerset, and Worcester counties in Maryland. Dr. Moore also served as Chief of Public Health and Medical Director for the Yellowstone City-County Health Department and retired as the Chief Medical Officer Billings Area Indian Health Service. Dr. Moore ha over twenty-five years of public health experience working at the federal and local levels, as well as, at the state level as the Pediatric Program Director, Division of Maternal Child Health, West Virginia. He has served on numerous national and state public health tasks and grants addressing the improvement of our public health system.
Costi Sifri, MD
Costi Sifri, MD is Professor of Medicine at the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Medicine and serves as the Director of Hospital Epidemiology/Infection Prevention and Control for UVA Health. Dr. Sifri received his medical degree from the University of Rochester, completed medicine residency at the University of Pennsylvania, and was a clinical and research fellow in infectious diseases and microbiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He has been a member of the faculty of UVA since 2004, where he has served as the Hospital Epidemiologist as well as led the UVA Immunocompromised Infectious Disease Program. Dr. Sifri’s research interests include the exploration of the molecular epidemiology of multidrug resistant Gram-negative bacteria, the contribution of horizontal gene transfer to the spread of resistance genes, molecular mechanisms of microbial pathogenesis and host defense, and the clinical consequences and prevention of healthcare-associated infections. He has led efforts to reduce transmission of healthcare-associated pathogens, supervised infection prevention education and quality improvement efforts, and responded to high consequence emerging pathogens, including carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae, Ebola virus, and COVID-19.
Garret Spargo, MA
Garret Spargo is Aleut/Unangan, originally from the island community of Sand Point in the Aleutian Region of Alaska. He is the Audiovisual and Videoconferencing Manager at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) and serves as the Principal Investigator for ANTHC’s Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)-funded National Telehealth Technology Assessment Resource Center (TTAC). He has filled numerous roles at ANTHC since 2000, during which time he also received his BA from Seattle Pacific University (2005) and his MA in Anthropology from the University of Chicago (2013). He has been actively involved with the American Telemedicine Association’s Technology and Telemental Health Special Interest Groups, and is involved in the development of online learning materials for the revitalization of the Eyak language as a part of the daXunhyuuga’ eLearning Place.
Carl W. Taylor, JD
Carl is an acknowledged leader in the area of innovation in healthcare with combined experience from the private sector, academia, and consulting. As Regional Vice President for Provider Engagement for Humana’s South Florida market, his current work runs from designing value-based provider agreements, to explaining the dynamics of risk, and implementing strategies for thriving in a changing healthcare environment in South Florida. Previously, Carl served as Executive Director of the Center for Strategic Health Innovation at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine where he created some of the earliest population health strategies, including RMEDE a novel remote patient monitoring solution, which won two national innovation awards. Carl also led the development of informatics driven, patient centric health tools for state Medicaid programs. For over a decade Carl served as the Executive Director for the National Center for Disaster Medical Response overseeing both the creation of AIMS and the development of a regional disaster training center that to date has trained over 15,000 healthcare workers. After leaving the Center, he continued to develop a new tool called AMS to allow low- and middle-income countries to have access to disaster management resources. Carl has received commendations for his leadership from both the United States Senate and the Governor of Louisiana for his work in responding to disasters. Carl is a frequent speaker and author on the future of healthcare and pandemic preparedness. He serves on The International Emergency Management Society board for the United States, HHS funded COVID-19 telehealth advisory board, and is a member of the Royal Society of Medicine in London.
Cara B. Towle, RN, MA, MSN
Cara Towle has a master’s degrees in Nursing (University of California, San Francisco) and in International Educational Administration (School for International Training). In 1996, she established the International Medical Services office at UCSF, building clinical and educational telehealth programs reaching Asia, Europe and the Middle East. From 2001 until 2015, she served as the founding Director for Telehealth Services at the University of Washington (UW), creating a new rural telehealth network and a variety of new telehealth programs and services, linking with telehealth networks throughout the 5-state WWAMI region. In 2016, she moved to the UW Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences department to develop innovative telepsychiatry services, including the first billable UW telehealth service and services into the patient home. She is a founding Board member and former Board Chair for the Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center, as well as a founding board member of the Washington State Telehealth Collaborative.
Mark VanderWerf, FATA
Mark has over 30 years of experience in telemedicine and other advanced healthcare delivery solutions as a provider, vendor and successful entrepreneur. Mr. VanderWerf is a regular consultant and mentor to healthcare delivery interests and policy makers worldwide. His roles included: CEO of Telehealth at Banner Health; Vice President of eHealth, OEM and Strategic Relationships at Nonin Medical; Founder and former CEO of AMD Global Telemedicine; Manager of New Ventures for Digital Equipment Corporation and others startups. Mr. VanderWerf is a Fellow of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) where he served as a Board Director, Chairman of the Industry Council and Chairman of the International SIG. He is also a Founding Board Member of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth. Mark is an author and frequent speaker on telemedicine and has supported the implementation of Telemedicine in countries around the world.
Kathy Hsu Wibberly, PhD
Kathy is Director of the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center (MATRC). TRC’s are federally funded to assist with telehealth program development and sustainability in order to increase access to quality care for rural and other underserved populations. Kathy is also Director of Research for the Karen S. Rheuban Center for Telehealth, Assistant Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Medicine, faculty member at the Healthy Appalachia Institute and adjunct faculty member in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Kathy’s public service career reflects close to 30 years of experience in public health, public policy, program development, program evaluation and strategic planning. Kathy is an Appointed Member and Chair of the Rural Health Committee for the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) Board and is Vice President of the Virginia Telehealth Network Board.
Disclaimer:
This document does not represent the opinion of HRSA, FORHP, OAT, ANTHC, the TRCs or any other grant funded entity. It comprises suggestions and opinions of experts in the fields of Telehealth, epidemiology, public health, nursing, hospital administration and policy/regulatory who worked together to comprise this Action Plan for a Pandemic response.
This publication (report, briefing paper, document, etc.) was made possible by grant number GA5RH37463 from the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth, Health Resources and Services Administration, DHHS. For more information regarding this publication, or to learn more about Telehealth, please contact TTAC at www.telehealthtechnology.org, or your regional Telehealth Resource Center or the National Policy Telehealth Resource Center. The twelve regional and two national Telehealth Resource Centers (TRCs) provide assistance, education, and information to organizations and individuals who are actively providing or interested in providing health are at a distance. You can find your regional or national Telehealth Resource Center through the National Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers (NCTRC), which is comprised of all fourteen Telehealth Resource Centers. The NCTRC website is: www.telehealthresourcecenter.org.