Ernie Hood - President
Ernie Hood, formerly Vice President & CIO at Group Health Cooperative, is now consulting in the Health Information Technology space and is focusing on Health Information Exchanges, EMR adaption, creating systems of continuous process improvement through the application of Lean principals, and patient portal development. Ernie is currently working with both the Washington State Health Information Exchange and the Washington & Idaho Regional Extension Center.
Education has been a passion for Ernie who has been a lecturer in the Health Information Management Program at Bellevue College since 2009 and has supported education and knowledge sharing through the Washington chapter of HIMSS. Ernie has served on the Board of HIMSS Washington since 2005.
Ernie holds an MBA in Management of Information Systems from the University of Houston and a Bachelor's Degree in History from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Contact information:
Ernie Hood
hood3472@gmail.com
Dave Garets - President-Elect
With 34 years of experience in information technology, Dave joined the Advisory Board in March 2010 to manage the firm’s health care IT research and advisory services. Prior to joining the Advisory Board, Dave served as president and CEO of HIMSS Analytics from 2004–2010, and executive vice president of HIMSS from 2006–2010. Before that, he held positions as executive vice president of Healthlink and group vice president of the Healthcare Industry Research and Advisory Services at Gartner. In addition, he was senior manager in Emerging Practices with First Consulting Group for one year and CIO of Magic Valley Regional Medical Center in Twin Falls, Idaho for five years. Before coming to the health care industry, Dave spent 13 years in various management capacities for AT&T.
Dave is a HIMSS Fellow and served as HIMSS Board Chair in 2004. He also served on the faculties of the CHIME Information Management Executive courses for 11 years and was a Charter Member of CHIME. He is an internationally known author and speaker on health care information strategies and technologies, and was recently elected to the HIMSS 50-in-50, the 50 most memorable and influential contributors to healthcare IT in the last 50 years. Dave earned a Bachelor’s of Business Administration in Marketing from Texas Tech University.
Dave plays multiple musical instruments (guitar mostly) and was a professional musician for 25 years. He collects wine, Australian aboriginal art, and First Nations and Native American carvings, rugs, and pottery.
Contact information:
Dave Garets
hood3472@gmail.com
Drexel DeFord - Past President
Drexel is currently Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Seattle Children's Hospital and Research Institute. In the information services business on the provider side for more than 20 years, he has served as Corporate Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Scripps Health in San Diego, and is retired from the U.S. Air Force (Lieutenant Colonel)where he held various roles, including medical center CIO, CIO at the Air Force's largest healthcare region, and Chief Technology Officer for USAF Healthcare System's worldwide healthcare operations.
Drexel has several publications and presentations to his credit. He is a past member of the HIMSS National Board of Directors, the Virginia HIMSS Board, and a past Chair of the Microsoft Healthcare User Group. A Fellow in both CHIME and HIMSS, Drex has a Masters in Health Informatics from UAB, and a Masters in Public Administration from Oklahoma.
Contact Information:
Drexel DeFord, MHI,MPA
Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer - Seattle Children's Hospital and Research Institute
drexel.deford@seattlechildrens.org
Jason Meaux - Treasurer
Mr. Meaux is a manager at ECG Management Consultants, Inc. in the Healthcare Information Technology (HCIT) practice. Prior to joining ECG, Mr. Meaux worked as a software developer for several companies, including Epic Systems Corporation where he was a Software Developer Team Lead on the Resolute Professional Billing and EpicCare Ambulatory teams.
At ECG, Mr. Meaux has been involved in IT system selections, contract negotiations, revenue cycle diagnostic reviews, provider-based billing implementations, project management, and IT department assessments. He is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS) and has experience with a wide-variety of practice management and electronic health record systems from vendors including Epic, NextGen, GE, and eClinicalWorks. He has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Contact information:
ECG Management Consultants, Inc.
1111 Third Avenue, Suite 2700
Seattle, WA 98101
jmeaux@ecgmc.com
jmeaux@ecgmc.com
Curt Kwak - Secretary
Currently serving the role of a Chief Information Officer at Providence Health & Services, WA region. Responsible for serving the needs of all Western Washington Ministries with Leadership, Collaboration and Communication. Curt's organization is responsible for all IT systems & components responsible for patient care, business delivery and strategic development.
Previously, Curt was the Director of IT Infrastructure and Operations Manager with a proven track record of managing and providing leadership to multiple high technology groups including Network Operations, System and Database Administration, Call Center & Application infrastructure support, Infrastructure Project Management and Technical writing teams. Managed an organization in size up to 77 IT professionals. Owned and managed an annual capital & operating budget of $20Million+. Recognized as a future leader of Western Wireless and chosen to be sponsored to attend the University of Washington Executive MBA program, which was successfully completed in 2007.
Contact information:
Curt Kwak, CHCIO
CIO - Western Washington
Providence Health & Services
Washington/Montana
Ext: x 2-0351
p: 425-254-5351, m: 425-281-4769
Curt.Kwak@providence.org
Chris Deiner-Karr - Programs Chair
Chris has over 35 years of experience in Information Technology. She has worked in many aspects of IT; Operations, Programming, Planning and Project Management to Management. She has worked for Group Health for almost 20 years where she currently works in the Quality & Informatics department as a Sr. Planner. She has worked on planning for many system implementations such as Epic Ambulatory.
Contact information:
Chris Deiner-Karr
Group Health Cooperative
12501 East Marginal Way So.
Tukwila, WA 98168
deinerkarr.c@ghc.org
Mark Williams - Programs Co-Chair - Programs Conducted Outside Greater Puget Sound Area
Mark Williams is the CEO for Elumin Healthcare Solutions; Mark has spent over a quarter of a century in the healthcare IT arena. Today Mark uses that experience and expertise to collaborate with members of his leadership team and the Elumin Healthcare Solutions customer partners to make Elumin perpetually a more agile, customer centric, process driven, and overall better partner to its customers, employees and strategic partners, Allscripts, Cerner, Epic and Siemens.
Prior to Elumin Healthcare Solutions Mark was the VP of Healthcare for Encentuate now part of IBM, a senior an executive with Carefx Corporation, and with Siemens where won multiple awards including Sales Executive of the Year, Employee of the Year, and was instrumental in establishing the PMO office while leading some of the largest implementation projects for Siemens.
Mark is an alumnus of the University of Utah where he studied, Accounting, Economics and Mechanical and Structural Engineering.
Contact information:
Mark Williams
Chief Executive Officer
Elumin Healthcare Solutions
mwilliams@eluminhs.com
mwilliams@eluminhs.com
Claire McCarthy - Membership Chair
Claire McCarthy is a recognized Technology Adoption strategist and leader with twenty five years of health care industry experience supporting people through software implementations and other large scale change efforts. Claire is currently the Epic Organizational Readiness System Director for Providence Health & Services in Renton, WA. Previously, as Director of Organizational Effectiveness for Kaiser Permanente’s enterprise wide electronic medical record deployment, Claire introduced the concept of Technology Adoption to the organization and led a national community of practice focused on preparing users to assume new roles and responsibilities in support of organizational objectives.
Claire has a wide variety of healthcare industry experience, including implementing change at Premier, Inc., Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, Premera Blue Cross and numerous private practice settings. She is co-author of the 2010 HIMSS Book of the Year, Change Management Strategies for an Effective EMR Implementation.
Claire works with healthcare providers and staff at all levels. She advocates for the front line, understanding that developing willingness and ability in people is what makes change successful and produces lasting results. Claire speaks internationally on the topic of Technology Adoption, encouraging health care leaders around the globe to set the stage for benefit realization by investing in the people side of EMR implementation.
Contact Information:
cem820@yahoo.com
Peter McComas - Communications Coordinator
Peter McComas is a founding partner of Peer Consulting, a healthcare information technology consulting firm headquartered in Seattle and serving clients nationwide.
As partner, Peter contributes to the direction and growth of Peer Consulting’s service lines, including Management Consulting; Project Management; Implementation and Upgrade Services (with practices specializing in Cerner, Epic, GE Centricity® Enterprise and GE Centricity® RIS-IC); and Technical Development.
Peter also directs the firm’s multi-disciplinary implementation team and guides clients through major initiatives including computerized physician order entry and enterprise electronic medical record installations. His areas of expertise include strategic planning; systems selection; project management of complex implementations; and the use of healthcare IT to improve patient care and strengthen collaboration among healthcare providers.
Prior to co-founding Peer Consulting in 2001, Peter served in implementation leadership and senior software design roles at IDX Systems Corporation (now GE Healthcare), and also worked in implementation roles involving Cerner, Lawson and McKesson.
Contact information:
Peter McComas, Partner
Peer Consulting LLC
2856 80th Ave. SE
Suite 3
Mercer Island, WA 98040
206-236-1300
petermccomas@peerconsulting.net
PeterMcComas@peerconsulting.net
Shanna Karr - Communications Chair
Shanna Karr joins the HIMSS WA board, bringing fourteen years of healthcare industry experience, much of it in a Health Information Management role. She is currently in the throes of completing her Bachelors Degree in Healthcare Administration with a minor in Health Information Systems. Before re-entering the world of academics, Shanna was employed by Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound for 10 years and contributed to the successful Epic implementation at that site.
Contact information:
Shanna Karr
skarr@peak.org
Dean Cheatham - Newsletter Editor
Dean is currently the Enterprise Manager of Cardiovascular Technology at PeaceHealth where his current focus is strengthening the connection between clinical devices, technology servers and BI tools so healthcare colleagues have easy access to relevant information. Prior to joining PeaceHealth, Dean was with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for ten years, progressing through desktop support, applications analyst, and project management positions to the role of Manager of Ancillary Systems.
In addition to improving healthcare technology, Dean is passionate about effective project management. Believing project management is the lifeblood of any organization’s ability to remain viable, Dean and one of his teams were honored with the 2011 Healthcare Project of the Year Award presented by the 4,400-member Project Management Institute (PMI) of Atlanta.
Contact information:
Dean Cheatham, CPHIMS, PMP
Enterprise Manager, Cardiovascular Technology – PeaceHealth
14432 SE Eastgate Way
Suite 300
Bellevue, WA 98007
clinicalit@live.com
clinicalit@live.com
Sherry L. Reynolds - Advocacy
Sherry Reynolds is currently the Executive Director of the Alliance 4 Health where she is directing the development of a beta project for an alternative health PHR. She has over 15 years of experience as a project director, consultant and engineer in both software development, implementations and the health care industry. She recently won a 2 million dollar demonstration grant to link the EMS system to PHR's and her recent EMR projects have have included implementations at Stanford Medical Center, Swedish Medical Center and Group Health.
She has extensive experience at the Executive level of Government and the Health Care industry and currently sits on the AHIC Successor (A2) Planning Group for the Office of the National Coordinator, HHS in Washington, DC where she is responsible for the creation of a new board and entity to implement Medical Informatics policy on a National Basis. She was also one of the founding members of the Consumer Advisory Group (CAG) for the Puget Sound Health Alliance, a Nationally recognized regional partnership involving Boeing, Washington Mutual, Starbucks, King County, physicians, hospitals, patients, labor, health plans, and others working together to improve quality and efficiency for over 2 million people in the Puget Sound region. In her spare time she is on the advisory board of the Healthy Washington Alliance where she represents the over 300,000 people in Washington State who purchase individual insurance and recently co-founded Sustainable Wallingford as well.
Sherry double majored in bio-medical engineering and engineering management at USC and has a degree in Finance from OSU as well. She has been a member since 2005, is the first legislative chapter advocate for the Washington chapter and has been a board member since 2007.
Contact information:
Sherry L. Reynolds
Executive Director
Alliance 4 Health
s.reynolds@alliance4health.org
Pam Fowler - Advocacy/Volunteer & Scholarship Coordinator
Pamela Fowler is the Senior Director, CA Technologies, where she manages the company's healthcare strategy and go-to-market planning. Ms.
Fowler's career spans over 25 years and has included executive leadership positions in sales, marketing and delivery at EDS/HP, PricewaterhouseCoopers and MedicaLogic/GE Healthcare. She was Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Adaptis, a payer application and outsourcing company and later she assumed responsibilities as Chief Operations Officer of the Washington Technology Industry Association.
Her global reach includes a 2 year expatriate assignment with EDS' joint venture with Lucky Goldstar in the Republic of Korea and an assignment with a New Zealand-based company providing mobile SaaS medical records software to the home health market. She also has managed marketing and community relations at Valley Medical Center, the largest public district hospital in Washington State.
Ms. Fowler earned a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University, a Master of Business Administration from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and has completed studies at the Center for Continuing Professional Education at Harvard School of Public Health.
She is a board member at UW Medicine Health System/Northwest Hospital & Medical Center.
Contact information:
Pam Fowler
Senior Director, CA Technologies
Pamela.Fowler@ca.com
Leanne Hughes-Mickel - Vendor Relations
Leanne has been intrigued by the unique challenges to be faced in Healthcare IT, and by the commitment and professionalism displayed by all who work in the industry since her first healthcare job at Harborview Medical Center over 20 years ago. Since then, Leanne has held positions in insurance companies, other hospitals and healthcare technology organizations. She is currently employed as a healthare IT consultant for Siemans Medical Solutions, engaged with Northwest Hospital. Just prior to Siemans, Leanne held a variety of positions in her 12 years at Adaptis, a healthcare technology and BPO outsourcing company, including Financial Analyst, Software Development Manager, Director of Data Management, and Vice President overseeing onshore and offshore technical and development functions.
Leanne holds a Master of Health Administration degree from the University of Washington and a Bachelor degree from the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, also from the University of Washington.
Contact information:
Leanne Hughes-Mickel
Northwest Hospital & Medical Center
Information Management Services
leanne.hughes-mickel@nwhsea.org
Laura Noble - Vendor Relations
Laura Noble brings over 20 years experience in Healthcare Information Technology. She has spent time in the vendor, client, and consultant sectors of the market, and is driven by a passion for making information systems function to optimize the delivery of care in the clinical setting.
Laura was formerly CEO of Laureate Enterprises Consulting firm, VP of Consulting at IDX (now GE), and is currently CEO of Renaissance Resource Associates, a Healthcare Information Technology consulting firm supplying highly qualified, extremely knowledgeable professionals with 20+ years of experience. RRA offers a wide range of services, from strategic planning, project management and large scale implementations, clinical informatics, process redesign, executive consulting, and meaningful use methodologies.
Her work in HIMMS WA is focused on furthering the communication and education of all Healthcare Information Technology market participants toward the goal of moving the market forward to truly optimized care delivery through the use of information technology.
Contact information:
Laura Noble
Chief Executive Officer
Renaissance Resource Associates
laura@rraconsulting.com
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