Leveraging Telehealth to Expand Access to High-Quality Care

Anthony Barrueta
Tony Barrueta is senior vice president of government relations for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. in Oakland, California. He oversees development of Kaiser Permanente’s public policy positions, in collaboration with senior leadership throughout the organization, to ensure that Kaiser Permanente maintains a common voice in support of the interests of the organization, its members, and the communities it serves.

Barrueta holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Boston College and a law degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Helen Burstin, MD
In January 2018, Helen will assume the role of executive vice president and chief executive officer of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies. She formerly served as chief scientific officer of the National Quality Forum. Helen is also a professorial lecturer in the department of health policy at George Washington University School of Public Health and a clinical associate professor of medicine at George Washington University, where she serves as a preceptor in internal medicine.

She is a graduate of the State University of New York at Upstate College of Medicine and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Bechara Choucair, MD
Bechara is senior vice president and chief community health officer for Kaiser Permanente where he oversees Kaiser Permanentes national community health efforts and philanthropic giving activities aimed at improving the health of its 11.8 million members and the 65 million people within the communities it serves.

A family physician by training, he holds a medical doctoral degree from the American University of Beirut and a masters degree in health care management from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Patrick T. Courneya, MD
Patrick is the is executive vice president and chief medical officer for National Health Plan and Hospitals Quality at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, CA. In this role, he oversees Kaiser Permanentes national quality agenda, helps ensure the organizations members and communities receive the best quality and service Kaiser Permanente offers, and advocates for the advancement of evidence-based medicine and proven innovation for the industry.

He holds a medical degree from the University of Minnesota and is board certified in family practice.

Susan Dentzer
Susan is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation, a national, nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization composed of stakeholders from across all key sectors of health care. Formerly, she served as senior policy adviser to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was editor-in-chief of Health Affairs, and was the on-air health correspondent for the PBS NewsHour.

She earned her bachelors degree from Dartmouth College and was a Neiman Fellow in health policy at Harvard University.

Neil C. Evans, MD
Neil is the chief officer for the Office of Connected Care in the Veterans Health Administration within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He is also an active clinician, managing a panel of patients in the primary care clinic at the Washington D.C. Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

He holds a medical degree from Johns Hopkins University and is board-certified in both internal medicine and clinical informatics.

Jason C. Goldwater
Jason is a senior director at the National Quality Forum where he oversees activities related to the evaluation of electronic clinical quality measures as well as projects focused on the use of electronic health to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of health care.

He holds both bachelors and masters degrees from Emerson College and a masters degree in public administration from Suffolk University.

Donna Kinzer
Donna is the executive director of the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission where she has led her staff and the field through transitioning Maryland hospitals to global budgets, adapting Maryland’s quality improvement programs to the new model, developing new payment policies, analyzing potentially avoidable utilization for hospitals, and implementing broad stakeholder input approaches.

She holds a certificate in business administration, is a certified public accountant and holds a bachelors degree in accounting and business/management from Towson University.

Bernadette C. Loftus, MD
Bernadette has served as associate executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group (TPMG) since it legally affiliated with The Permanente Medical Group of Northern California in 2008. She joined TPMG in 1991, and since then she has held a number of roles, including TPMG board member and assistant secretary to the board; and physician-in-chief of Santa Clara Medical Center.

She holds a medical degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland.

Brian Marcotte
Brian is president and CEO of the National Business Group on Health, the nation’s only non-profit organization devoted exclusively to representing large employers’ perspective on national health policy issues and helping companies optimize business performance through health improvement and health care management.

He holds a masters degree from the University of Toldedo.

Mark Miller
Mark is the executive director of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), an independent congressional agency established to advise Congress on issues affecting the Medicare program. Previously, he served as assistant director of health and human resources at the Congressional Budget Office and as deputy director of health plans at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Mark holds a doctoral degree in public policy analysis from the State University of New York.

David Mitchell
David Mitchell is the founder and president of Patients for Affordable Drugs. He has an incurable blood cancer called multiple myeloma. The price of his current drugs is $450,000 per year. Like millions of others, David needs innovation and new drugs for his survival, but he believes drugs dont work if people cant afford them.

After more than 30 years at a D.C. policy communications firm, he retired in December 2016 to devote his full energy to helping change policy to lower prescription drug prices.

Mary Reed
Mary is a research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research. Her research interests include the impacts of patient- and clinician-facing health information technology use on clinical care, quality, and outcomes.

She holds a doctorate in public health from the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Institute of Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco.

Neal Sikka, MD
Neil is an associate professor at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and the chief of the Innovative Practice & Telehealth Section at the GW Medical Faculty Associates.

He earned his medical degree at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine and is board certified in emergency medicine.

Sabrina Smith
Sabrina is the interim CEO of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA). She brings 20 years of cross-industry experience in healthcare, academic, and non-profit management settings to this role.

She holds a doctorate of health administration from the Medical University of South Carolina, a masters degree in health administration from the University of Colorado.

Silvia Trujillo
Sylvia is a senior Washington counsel with the American Medical Associations Government Advocacy Group in Washington D.C. where she provides legal analysis on health care and life science federal legislation and regulations on topics such telemedicine and remote patient monitoring, physician-industry relations, Medicare coverage, and a cross-section of Food and Drug Administration drugs, biologicals, and medical device regulation and safety issues.

She holds a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley, and a masters degree in public policy from Harvard Universitys John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Dennis Truong, MD
Dennis is the regional telemedicine/mobility director and Northern Virginia assistant physician-in-chief for the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group. In addition to hands on and virtual patient care in the Kaiser Permanente Tysons Corner Medical Center, he has helped with the genesis and development of Kaiser Permanentes innovative five local clinical decision units.

He holds a medical degree from Michigan State University and a physician executive MBA from the University of Tennessee.