Faculty Bios
Jeremiah Alexander
MS1
Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin
Jeremiah Alexander graduated Summa Cum Laude from Texas A&M University in 2019 with a B.S. in Biochemistry. During his time at A&M, he also started and ran a successful millworks company, responsible for multiple projects around Texas. Currently, he is a first-year medical student at UT Austin Dell Medical School.
MS1
Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin
Jeremiah Alexander graduated Summa Cum Laude from Texas A&M University in 2019 with a B.S. in Biochemistry. During his time at A&M, he also started and ran a successful millworks company, responsible for multiple projects around Texas. Currently, he is a first-year medical student at UT Austin Dell Medical School.
Aaron Ali
Co-Founder & CEO
MedtoMarket
As a board certified anesthesiologist, Dr. Aaron Ali has been in practice in the Austin area for over 15 years. He is the CEO of Travis County Anesthesia Association, a private anesthesiology practice providing needed services for the central Texas region. After undergraduate at Texas A&M, he matriculated medical school in 2000 from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, TX and was then accepted into the anesthesiology residency program at Duke University. After finishing his Chief Resident year at Duke, he moved to Austin where he has provided countless anesthetics to a wide variety of cases from pediatrics and heart surgery to obstetrics and plastic surgery. He has worked at all three hospital systems (Seton, St. Davids and Baylor S&W) and has held leadership positions for the Seton Hospital system along with St. Davids.
As an entrepreneur, Dr. Ali is the Co-Founder and CEO of MedtoMarket, Inc., a unique life sciences company working with physicians and medical device companies to bring forth the best healthcare innovations to the marketplace while at the same time providing clinician hands on experience in bioskills lab space to perfect their surgical skills. Their 32,000 SF facility located in southeast Austin has created a healthcare ecosystem leading to collaboration between academia, hospital systems, entrepreneurs and the military. Dr. Ali sits on the boards of KnowRx and StarterHome, both med-tech startups. He serves as a mentor for the Founders Institute and The President's Translational and Entrepreneurial Fund for the University of Texas Health Center in San Antonio.
Dr. Ali served in the United States Army with the 7th/6th Air Cavalry Apache Attack Helicopter Battalion from 1990-96 and was honorably discharged in 1996.
As a father of three sons, Dr. Ali and his wife Dr. Genevieve Ali both reside in Austin, TX and are active community members and philanthropic supporters.
Co-Founder & CEO
MedtoMarket
As a board certified anesthesiologist, Dr. Aaron Ali has been in practice in the Austin area for over 15 years. He is the CEO of Travis County Anesthesia Association, a private anesthesiology practice providing needed services for the central Texas region. After undergraduate at Texas A&M, he matriculated medical school in 2000 from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, TX and was then accepted into the anesthesiology residency program at Duke University. After finishing his Chief Resident year at Duke, he moved to Austin where he has provided countless anesthetics to a wide variety of cases from pediatrics and heart surgery to obstetrics and plastic surgery. He has worked at all three hospital systems (Seton, St. Davids and Baylor S&W) and has held leadership positions for the Seton Hospital system along with St. Davids.
As an entrepreneur, Dr. Ali is the Co-Founder and CEO of MedtoMarket, Inc., a unique life sciences company working with physicians and medical device companies to bring forth the best healthcare innovations to the marketplace while at the same time providing clinician hands on experience in bioskills lab space to perfect their surgical skills. Their 32,000 SF facility located in southeast Austin has created a healthcare ecosystem leading to collaboration between academia, hospital systems, entrepreneurs and the military. Dr. Ali sits on the boards of KnowRx and StarterHome, both med-tech startups. He serves as a mentor for the Founders Institute and The President's Translational and Entrepreneurial Fund for the University of Texas Health Center in San Antonio.
Dr. Ali served in the United States Army with the 7th/6th Air Cavalry Apache Attack Helicopter Battalion from 1990-96 and was honorably discharged in 1996.
As a father of three sons, Dr. Ali and his wife Dr. Genevieve Ali both reside in Austin, TX and are active community members and philanthropic supporters.
Tejwansh Anand
Assistant Clinical Professor
McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin
Tej Anand is an award-winning business-technology strategist, advisor, innovator, educator and practitioner with a passion for conceiving and successfully implementing transformative data-driven strategic initiatives.
As an electrical engineer and computer scientist who specialized in artificial intelligence (AI) research in the late 1980’s, he pioneered commercial data mining, now known as data science. After spending three decades teaching computers how to learn and creating meaning from data for business professionals, Tej embarked on a doctorate program in adult learning and organizational leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University that he completed in 2014. His passion is helping businesses find their edge at the intersection of business, data and technology with a central focus on people.
Tej spent the first 10 years of his career working for technology companies – NCR/Teradata, A. C. Nielsen and Philips Research Laboratories – where his work led to several patents and profitable revenue producing products.
After spending 5 years honing his skills as a technology executive and management consultant, Tej moved over to healthcare where for 15 years, as a senior business-technology executive at Medco and CareCentrix he implemented data-driven technology-enabled business models and processes to lower healthcare costs and improve clinical outcomes. His work led to several patents.
In June 2018, Tej redirected his focus to education. He currently is a Clinical Professor at the University of Texas in Austin and a Visiting Professor at Columbia University. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in leadership, disruptive change, digital technologies, AI, machine learning, cybersecurity and Blockchain. He is advising early stage start-ups on using Blockchain and AI to disrupt healthcare.
Assistant Clinical Professor
McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin
Tej Anand is an award-winning business-technology strategist, advisor, innovator, educator and practitioner with a passion for conceiving and successfully implementing transformative data-driven strategic initiatives.
As an electrical engineer and computer scientist who specialized in artificial intelligence (AI) research in the late 1980’s, he pioneered commercial data mining, now known as data science. After spending three decades teaching computers how to learn and creating meaning from data for business professionals, Tej embarked on a doctorate program in adult learning and organizational leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University that he completed in 2014. His passion is helping businesses find their edge at the intersection of business, data and technology with a central focus on people.
Tej spent the first 10 years of his career working for technology companies – NCR/Teradata, A. C. Nielsen and Philips Research Laboratories – where his work led to several patents and profitable revenue producing products.
After spending 5 years honing his skills as a technology executive and management consultant, Tej moved over to healthcare where for 15 years, as a senior business-technology executive at Medco and CareCentrix he implemented data-driven technology-enabled business models and processes to lower healthcare costs and improve clinical outcomes. His work led to several patents.
In June 2018, Tej redirected his focus to education. He currently is a Clinical Professor at the University of Texas in Austin and a Visiting Professor at Columbia University. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in leadership, disruptive change, digital technologies, AI, machine learning, cybersecurity and Blockchain. He is advising early stage start-ups on using Blockchain and AI to disrupt healthcare.
Matthew Atwood
Founder & President
Lonestar Life Sciences
Matthew Atwood has established a successful career as an innovative medical sales, manufacturing and marketing leader, award-winning keynote speaker, executive publisher of MD420 magazine and host of MD420 Podcast. He is also the President and Founder behind LoneStar Life Sciences, a multi-vertical company with subsidiaries in healthcare (LoneStar MedTech) and agriculture (LoneStar AgriTech). With Matt's unique healthcare experience, he has been able to bridge the gap between healthcare, agriculture, and environmentally friendly technologies for the future of American farming. As a healthcare educator for medical cannabis and a patient advocate for natural phytobiotic (plant-based) alternatives, he has become a lightning rod for the cannabis industry.
Founder & President
Lonestar Life Sciences
Matthew Atwood has established a successful career as an innovative medical sales, manufacturing and marketing leader, award-winning keynote speaker, executive publisher of MD420 magazine and host of MD420 Podcast. He is also the President and Founder behind LoneStar Life Sciences, a multi-vertical company with subsidiaries in healthcare (LoneStar MedTech) and agriculture (LoneStar AgriTech). With Matt's unique healthcare experience, he has been able to bridge the gap between healthcare, agriculture, and environmentally friendly technologies for the future of American farming. As a healthcare educator for medical cannabis and a patient advocate for natural phytobiotic (plant-based) alternatives, he has become a lightning rod for the cannabis industry.
Dr. Indranil Bardhan
Foster Parker Centennial Professor of Management
McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Indranil Bardhan is Foster Parker Centennial Professor of Management in the McCombs School of Business and Professor (by courtesy) at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the INFORMS Information Systems Society. Dr. Bardhan’s current research focuses on healthcare analytics and information technology, and involves close collaboration with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the UT Dell Medical School. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the UT Health system. His research has won seven best paper or runner-up awards and includes more than 70 publications in premier scholarly journals and conferences. Dr. Bardhan teaches in the MBA and MS programs at UT Austin. He holds a Ph.D. in Management Science and Information Systems from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.
Foster Parker Centennial Professor of Management
McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Indranil Bardhan is Foster Parker Centennial Professor of Management in the McCombs School of Business and Professor (by courtesy) at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the INFORMS Information Systems Society. Dr. Bardhan’s current research focuses on healthcare analytics and information technology, and involves close collaboration with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the UT Dell Medical School. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the UT Health system. His research has won seven best paper or runner-up awards and includes more than 70 publications in premier scholarly journals and conferences. Dr. Bardhan teaches in the MBA and MS programs at UT Austin. He holds a Ph.D. in Management Science and Information Systems from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.
Phil Beckett
CEO
HASA
Phil Beckett is currently CEO at HASA, a regional Health Information Exchange based in San Antonio, Texas. Phil joined HASA in September 2015 as CIO to deliver HIE services in Dallas/Fort Worth, north Texas and west Texas. Phil served for the previous 3 years as the Chief Technology Officer and Privacy and Security Officer with Greater Houston Healthconnect.
Formerly trained in biochemistry and metabolism at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, Phil came to Houston as a post-doctoral fellow to study protein metabolism at the Children’s Nutrition Research Center. At Texas Children’s Hospital he developed a rapid amino acid assay used to perform protein clamps and measure insulin sensitivity in children with diabetes. Phil kickstarted his IT career in the neonatal ICU writing interfaces to capture data electronically from monitoring systems around the concept that quality is driven by data.
He cofounded a startup, RosettaMed as a developer for patient data capture applications with interfaces to electronic health records. He led the sale of the company to Kryptiq Corporation and worked there on secure clinical messaging before joining Baylor College of Medicine to lead their clinical information systems implementation (Epic, iSite PACS). Phil joined Healthconnect in May 2012 and served as a pioneer for interoperability in Houston and the Southeast Texas region. During his tenure as CTO, Healthconnect went live in April 2013 when CHRISTUS Health and Legacy Community Health Services became the first organizations connected to the Healthconnect network. Since that first connection, over 280 healthcare organizations have signed on to exchange information through the network; the entire Beaumont MSA hospital community is live and sharing data. Phil introduced and integrated diagnostic image sharing using DicomGrid into Healthconnect with the goal of reducing duplicate tests and reducing patient’s exposure to unnecessary radiation.
At HASA he has continued to expand HIE services through collaboration with community partners and a focus on value and delivery through account management. Phil has a major focus on usability after many years working with physicians – if it isn’t easy they won’t use it – and on patient engagement. He believes that consumers will drive the future of health.
CEO
HASA
Phil Beckett is currently CEO at HASA, a regional Health Information Exchange based in San Antonio, Texas. Phil joined HASA in September 2015 as CIO to deliver HIE services in Dallas/Fort Worth, north Texas and west Texas. Phil served for the previous 3 years as the Chief Technology Officer and Privacy and Security Officer with Greater Houston Healthconnect.
Formerly trained in biochemistry and metabolism at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, Phil came to Houston as a post-doctoral fellow to study protein metabolism at the Children’s Nutrition Research Center. At Texas Children’s Hospital he developed a rapid amino acid assay used to perform protein clamps and measure insulin sensitivity in children with diabetes. Phil kickstarted his IT career in the neonatal ICU writing interfaces to capture data electronically from monitoring systems around the concept that quality is driven by data.
He cofounded a startup, RosettaMed as a developer for patient data capture applications with interfaces to electronic health records. He led the sale of the company to Kryptiq Corporation and worked there on secure clinical messaging before joining Baylor College of Medicine to lead their clinical information systems implementation (Epic, iSite PACS). Phil joined Healthconnect in May 2012 and served as a pioneer for interoperability in Houston and the Southeast Texas region. During his tenure as CTO, Healthconnect went live in April 2013 when CHRISTUS Health and Legacy Community Health Services became the first organizations connected to the Healthconnect network. Since that first connection, over 280 healthcare organizations have signed on to exchange information through the network; the entire Beaumont MSA hospital community is live and sharing data. Phil introduced and integrated diagnostic image sharing using DicomGrid into Healthconnect with the goal of reducing duplicate tests and reducing patient’s exposure to unnecessary radiation.
At HASA he has continued to expand HIE services through collaboration with community partners and a focus on value and delivery through account management. Phil has a major focus on usability after many years working with physicians – if it isn’t easy they won’t use it – and on patient engagement. He believes that consumers will drive the future of health.
Virginia Brown
Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health
Dell Medical School
Virginia A. Brown is an assistant professor at Dell Medical School in the Department of Population Health. She earned her master’s degree in philosophy with a concentration in ethics and public policy and her doctorate in sociology with concentrations in race, class, gender and medical sociology. Her areas of interest include the structural determinants of health, (conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age) and their influence on health and health care outcomes. Through the theoretical lens of historical materialism, she seeks to disrupt how the social and political structures contribute to the formation and reformation of racial bias in health and health care. By incorporating the principles of human-centered design and health care ethics into CBPR (community-based participatory research), she works to engage social service organizations, foundations, researchers and any collaborates who seek to improve the health outcomes of those most affected in Austin-Travis County, Texas.
As a researcher in population health, she looks to combine her work as a clinical ethicist and medical sociologist to expand not only researchers’ understanding of research ethics, but also to enhance the way the ethical review of research (led at UT Austin by the Internal Review Board) extends protections from the individual to the collective. She also teaches an honors course titled Ethics in Medicine and Society to upper-level honors students in the College of Liberal Arts at UT Austin.
She earned her master’s degree in philosophy with a concentration in ethics and public policy and her doctorate in sociology with concentrations in race, class, gender and medical sociology. Her areas of interest include the structural determinants of health, (conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age) and their influence on health and health care outcomes. Through the theoretical lens of historical materialism, she seeks to disrupt how the social and political structures contribute to the formation and reformation of racial bias in health and health care. By incorporating the principles of human-centered design and health care ethics into CBPR (community-based participatory research), she works to engage social service organizations, foundations, researchers and any collaborates who seek to improve the health outcomes of those most affected in Austin-Travis County, Texas.
As a researcher in population health, she looks to combine her work as a clinical ethicist and medical sociologist to expand not only researchers’ understanding of research ethics, but also to enhance the way the ethical review of research (led at UT Austin by the Internal Review Board) extends protections from the individual to the collective. She also teaches an honors course titled Ethics in Medicine and Society to upper-level honors students in the College of Liberal Arts at UT Austin.
Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health
Dell Medical School
Virginia A. Brown is an assistant professor at Dell Medical School in the Department of Population Health. She earned her master’s degree in philosophy with a concentration in ethics and public policy and her doctorate in sociology with concentrations in race, class, gender and medical sociology. Her areas of interest include the structural determinants of health, (conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age) and their influence on health and health care outcomes. Through the theoretical lens of historical materialism, she seeks to disrupt how the social and political structures contribute to the formation and reformation of racial bias in health and health care. By incorporating the principles of human-centered design and health care ethics into CBPR (community-based participatory research), she works to engage social service organizations, foundations, researchers and any collaborates who seek to improve the health outcomes of those most affected in Austin-Travis County, Texas.
As a researcher in population health, she looks to combine her work as a clinical ethicist and medical sociologist to expand not only researchers’ understanding of research ethics, but also to enhance the way the ethical review of research (led at UT Austin by the Internal Review Board) extends protections from the individual to the collective. She also teaches an honors course titled Ethics in Medicine and Society to upper-level honors students in the College of Liberal Arts at UT Austin.
She earned her master’s degree in philosophy with a concentration in ethics and public policy and her doctorate in sociology with concentrations in race, class, gender and medical sociology. Her areas of interest include the structural determinants of health, (conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age) and their influence on health and health care outcomes. Through the theoretical lens of historical materialism, she seeks to disrupt how the social and political structures contribute to the formation and reformation of racial bias in health and health care. By incorporating the principles of human-centered design and health care ethics into CBPR (community-based participatory research), she works to engage social service organizations, foundations, researchers and any collaborates who seek to improve the health outcomes of those most affected in Austin-Travis County, Texas.
As a researcher in population health, she looks to combine her work as a clinical ethicist and medical sociologist to expand not only researchers’ understanding of research ethics, but also to enhance the way the ethical review of research (led at UT Austin by the Internal Review Board) extends protections from the individual to the collective. She also teaches an honors course titled Ethics in Medicine and Society to upper-level honors students in the College of Liberal Arts at UT Austin.
Meredith Butterfield
Principal Scientist
Valkyrie Intelligence
Meredith Butterfield is a Principal Scientist at Valkyrie Intelligence, with experience across multiple verticals, including non-profits, heathcare, education, psychology, and finance. Prior to joining Valkyrie, Meredith worked at Goldman Sachs and ACT performing data science and research to improve consumer-facing digital platforms. Meredith has her PhD in Quantitative Methods and MA in Educational Psychology from the University of Texas. Her dissertation work focused on item selection methods for polytomous computer adaptive testing. She studied Psychology and French at Wake Forest University.
Principal Scientist
Valkyrie Intelligence
Meredith Butterfield is a Principal Scientist at Valkyrie Intelligence, with experience across multiple verticals, including non-profits, heathcare, education, psychology, and finance. Prior to joining Valkyrie, Meredith worked at Goldman Sachs and ACT performing data science and research to improve consumer-facing digital platforms. Meredith has her PhD in Quantitative Methods and MA in Educational Psychology from the University of Texas. Her dissertation work focused on item selection methods for polytomous computer adaptive testing. She studied Psychology and French at Wake Forest University.
Todd Chamberlain
Co-founder & CEO
MedBlox, Inc.
Todd Chamberlain, co-founder and CEO of MedBlox Inc, spent the entirety of his professional career within the healthcare technology, clinical support and life sciences fields. Most recently Todd spent the last nine years at MediRevv, a revenue cycle management and managed services firm, where he acted as Compliance Official, Change Control Chair, & Head of the Technical Services, Infrastructure, Engineering, DevOps, Programming and Project Management Teams. His prior experience included positions directly supporting providers at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in a change control and clinical support team member & researchers at the University of Iowa Department of Biology in an engineering / lab support capacity. It is this non-traditional career progression that has given Todd a 360-degree view of the healthcare landscape, a unique insight into all healthcare’s represented stakeholders, the technical expertise, and an extremely motivated and talented team known for their ability to execute.
Industry Innovation: It is apparent that one of the most difficult industries to support in our country is healthcare. Data sharing, breaches, patient identity management, interoperability, and Artificial Intelligence have left a lasting mark on healthcare, but none of these technologies will reach full potential siloed-off and without national context. How can we simplify the landscape? How can we secure patient information now, plan for the future, and promote information sharing required for innovation? MedBlox is an Iowa health technology company, focused on password-less immutable patient identities based on proprietary behavioral models. MedBlox also facilitates online-to-offline patient engagement & a patient identity validation exchange (x-OPEx) that allows for patient matching and information requests. MedBlox provides a suite of technologies that allow patients to engage providers, suggest erroneous data corrections, share information, collate disparate record numbers and manage provider access. MedBlox adds value to care by removing the burden placed on providers when dealing with possession of health records and compliance, allowing providers to focus on continuity of care, improving quality of life, and empowering patients in active disease prevention. Overall, MedBlox is working to create huge improvements in the healthcare industry.
Co-founder & CEO
MedBlox, Inc.
Todd Chamberlain, co-founder and CEO of MedBlox Inc, spent the entirety of his professional career within the healthcare technology, clinical support and life sciences fields. Most recently Todd spent the last nine years at MediRevv, a revenue cycle management and managed services firm, where he acted as Compliance Official, Change Control Chair, & Head of the Technical Services, Infrastructure, Engineering, DevOps, Programming and Project Management Teams. His prior experience included positions directly supporting providers at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in a change control and clinical support team member & researchers at the University of Iowa Department of Biology in an engineering / lab support capacity. It is this non-traditional career progression that has given Todd a 360-degree view of the healthcare landscape, a unique insight into all healthcare’s represented stakeholders, the technical expertise, and an extremely motivated and talented team known for their ability to execute.
Industry Innovation: It is apparent that one of the most difficult industries to support in our country is healthcare. Data sharing, breaches, patient identity management, interoperability, and Artificial Intelligence have left a lasting mark on healthcare, but none of these technologies will reach full potential siloed-off and without national context. How can we simplify the landscape? How can we secure patient information now, plan for the future, and promote information sharing required for innovation? MedBlox is an Iowa health technology company, focused on password-less immutable patient identities based on proprietary behavioral models. MedBlox also facilitates online-to-offline patient engagement & a patient identity validation exchange (x-OPEx) that allows for patient matching and information requests. MedBlox provides a suite of technologies that allow patients to engage providers, suggest erroneous data corrections, share information, collate disparate record numbers and manage provider access. MedBlox adds value to care by removing the burden placed on providers when dealing with possession of health records and compliance, allowing providers to focus on continuity of care, improving quality of life, and empowering patients in active disease prevention. Overall, MedBlox is working to create huge improvements in the healthcare industry.
Cody Cowley
MS1
Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin
Cody Cowley graduated Summa Cum Laude from Utah Valley University with a degree in Chemistry, emphasis in Biochemistry. He was manager of a parking lot painting company in Midway, Utah before attending Dell Medical School as a first-year medical student.
MS1
Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin
Cody Cowley graduated Summa Cum Laude from Utah Valley University with a degree in Chemistry, emphasis in Biochemistry. He was manager of a parking lot painting company in Midway, Utah before attending Dell Medical School as a first-year medical student.
Andrea Cunha
Partner
Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis
Andrea Rigali Cunha is an accomplished corporate attorney who concentrates her practice on healthcare transactions and regulatory compliance counseling. Assisting providers and owners of financially distressed assets, Andrea's unique blend of general counsel and private practice legal experience provides tremendous value to clients. Andrea combines years working as a bankruptcy partner in a well-known Florida law firm with hands-on experience at a growing health system where she took a lead role in driving transformative acquisitions and advising on regulatory and operational matters.
Partner
Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis
Andrea Rigali Cunha is an accomplished corporate attorney who concentrates her practice on healthcare transactions and regulatory compliance counseling. Assisting providers and owners of financially distressed assets, Andrea's unique blend of general counsel and private practice legal experience provides tremendous value to clients. Andrea combines years working as a bankruptcy partner in a well-known Florida law firm with hands-on experience at a growing health system where she took a lead role in driving transformative acquisitions and advising on regulatory and operational matters.
Ying Ding
Bill & Lewis Suit Professor
School of Information and Dell Med, UT Austin
Dr. Ying Ding is Bill & Lewis Suit Professor at School of Information, University of Texas at Austin. Before that, she was a professor and director of graduate studies for data science program at School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indiana University. She has led the effort to develop the online data science graduate program for Indiana University. She also worked as a senior researcher at Department of Computer Science, University of Innsburck (Austria) and Free University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands). She has been involved in various NIH, NSF and European-Union funded projects. She has published 240+ papers in journals, conferences, and workshops, and served as the program committee member for 200+ international conferences. She is the co-editor of book series called Semantic Web Synthesis by Morgan & Claypool publisher, the co-editor-in-chief for Data Intelligence published by MIT Press and Chinese Academy of Sciences, and serves as the editorial board member for several top journals in Information Science and Semantic Web. She is the co-founder of Data2Discovery company advancing cutting edge AI technologies in drug discovery and healthcare. Her current research interests include data-driven science of science, AI in healthcare, Semantic Web, knowledge graph, data science, scholarly communication, and the application of Web technologies.
Bill & Lewis Suit Professor
School of Information and Dell Med, UT Austin
Dr. Ying Ding is Bill & Lewis Suit Professor at School of Information, University of Texas at Austin. Before that, she was a professor and director of graduate studies for data science program at School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indiana University. She has led the effort to develop the online data science graduate program for Indiana University. She also worked as a senior researcher at Department of Computer Science, University of Innsburck (Austria) and Free University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands). She has been involved in various NIH, NSF and European-Union funded projects. She has published 240+ papers in journals, conferences, and workshops, and served as the program committee member for 200+ international conferences. She is the co-editor of book series called Semantic Web Synthesis by Morgan & Claypool publisher, the co-editor-in-chief for Data Intelligence published by MIT Press and Chinese Academy of Sciences, and serves as the editorial board member for several top journals in Information Science and Semantic Web. She is the co-founder of Data2Discovery company advancing cutting edge AI technologies in drug discovery and healthcare. Her current research interests include data-driven science of science, AI in healthcare, Semantic Web, knowledge graph, data science, scholarly communication, and the application of Web technologies.
Ray Dogum
Host
Health Unchained
Ray Dogum is the producer and host of the Health Unchained podcast. On his show, he interviews leaders in the blockchain/healthcare industry where he covers topics such as: health data integrity management, efficiency improvement opportunities in healthcare administration, and the future of decentralization. He also manages the deployment of enterprise-scale telehealth solutions for Health Systems at American Well, a telemedicine company based in Boston.
Host
Health Unchained
Ray Dogum is the producer and host of the Health Unchained podcast. On his show, he interviews leaders in the blockchain/healthcare industry where he covers topics such as: health data integrity management, efficiency improvement opportunities in healthcare administration, and the future of decentralization. He also manages the deployment of enterprise-scale telehealth solutions for Health Systems at American Well, a telemedicine company based in Boston.
Jeffrey Eyestone
Healthcare AI Advisor
CognitiveScale
Jeffrey Eyestone is CognitiveScale’s Healthcare AI Advisor. In this role, Jeff works with Healthcare organizations (primarily providers/healthcare systems, payers and technology vendors) on their AI journey—from strategic insight into how to develop AI competencies and centers of excellence to more tactical development of AI roadmaps and delivery of AI solutions.
Healthcare AI Advisor
CognitiveScale
Jeffrey Eyestone is CognitiveScale’s Healthcare AI Advisor. In this role, Jeff works with Healthcare organizations (primarily providers/healthcare systems, payers and technology vendors) on their AI journey—from strategic insight into how to develop AI competencies and centers of excellence to more tactical development of AI roadmaps and delivery of AI solutions.
Heather Leigh Flannery
Founder & CEO, ConsenSys Health
Chair, IEEE SA P2418.6;
Co-Founder/Chair, BiHG, IEEE STO;
Co-Chair, HIMSS Blockchain Task Force
Heather Leigh Flannery is the Health Circle Global Lead at ConsenSys and the Co-Founder and Board Chair of Blockchain in Healthcare Global ("BiHG"), a new 501(c)6 trade association organized under the IEEE ISTO that launched in Q4 2018. She chairs the IEEE SA P2418.6 Standards Development Working Group (blockchain in healthcare and life sciences) and serves as the FY19 Co-Chair of the global HIMSS Blockchain in Healthcare Task Force. Ms. Flannery is also an Innovation Fellow at EP3 Foundation, has served as Industry Faculty for the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (US HHS ONC) and is an active consultant, advisor, and keynote speaker.
Prior to ConsenSys and BiHG, she founded and led Obesity Prevention, Policy, and Management, Inc. ("Obesity PPM"), an innovative provider of disease management, population health, research administration, and information technology managed services for health systems in the Americas, and an early adopter of distributed ledger technology.
Ms. Flannery has driven continuous business model innovation via technology early adoption throughout her 25-year career as an entrepreneur, technologist, and strategist. She has consulted in the public sector in the context of international development, and brings a global health perspective to her initiatives.
Ms. Flannery is a broad, lateral thinker who applies complex adaptive systems theory to identify, advance, and course-correct critical paths to progress against large-scale macroscopic challenges, focusing in the health sector since 2006. Due to her personal life experience, Ms. Flannery is intrinsically motivated to impact population health and economic prosperity through non-communicable disease prevention and treatment. She builds mission-driven organizations aligned by shared values: making measurable societal contributions, creating economically sustainable interventions, and prioritizing diversity and inclusion.
Founder & CEO, ConsenSys Health
Chair, IEEE SA P2418.6;
Co-Founder/Chair, BiHG, IEEE STO;
Co-Chair, HIMSS Blockchain Task Force
Heather Leigh Flannery is the Health Circle Global Lead at ConsenSys and the Co-Founder and Board Chair of Blockchain in Healthcare Global ("BiHG"), a new 501(c)6 trade association organized under the IEEE ISTO that launched in Q4 2018. She chairs the IEEE SA P2418.6 Standards Development Working Group (blockchain in healthcare and life sciences) and serves as the FY19 Co-Chair of the global HIMSS Blockchain in Healthcare Task Force. Ms. Flannery is also an Innovation Fellow at EP3 Foundation, has served as Industry Faculty for the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (US HHS ONC) and is an active consultant, advisor, and keynote speaker.
Prior to ConsenSys and BiHG, she founded and led Obesity Prevention, Policy, and Management, Inc. ("Obesity PPM"), an innovative provider of disease management, population health, research administration, and information technology managed services for health systems in the Americas, and an early adopter of distributed ledger technology.
Ms. Flannery has driven continuous business model innovation via technology early adoption throughout her 25-year career as an entrepreneur, technologist, and strategist. She has consulted in the public sector in the context of international development, and brings a global health perspective to her initiatives.
Ms. Flannery is a broad, lateral thinker who applies complex adaptive systems theory to identify, advance, and course-correct critical paths to progress against large-scale macroscopic challenges, focusing in the health sector since 2006. Due to her personal life experience, Ms. Flannery is intrinsically motivated to impact population health and economic prosperity through non-communicable disease prevention and treatment. She builds mission-driven organizations aligned by shared values: making measurable societal contributions, creating economically sustainable interventions, and prioritizing diversity and inclusion.
Kayo Fujimoto, PhD, MS
Sally W. Vernon, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor in Social Determinants of Health,
Associate Professor, Department of Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences, School of Public Health,
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Kayo Fujimoto's research specializes in the development and application of social network methodology, various statistical methods, and deep learning methods to health behavior and public/population health research, including HIV/AIDS & STI, men who have sex with men (MSM) populations, molecular epidemiology, organizational networks, and healthcare delivery systems. As a principle investigator, Dr. Fujimoto has led multiple NIH-funded, multi-site projects related to social networks and HIV/STI risk/preventive behaviors among young MSM populations, and currently serves as a standing NIH committee member for the HIV/AIDS study section.
Sally W. Vernon, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor in Social Determinants of Health,
Associate Professor, Department of Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences, School of Public Health,
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Kayo Fujimoto's research specializes in the development and application of social network methodology, various statistical methods, and deep learning methods to health behavior and public/population health research, including HIV/AIDS & STI, men who have sex with men (MSM) populations, molecular epidemiology, organizational networks, and healthcare delivery systems. As a principle investigator, Dr. Fujimoto has led multiple NIH-funded, multi-site projects related to social networks and HIV/STI risk/preventive behaviors among young MSM populations, and currently serves as a standing NIH committee member for the HIV/AIDS study section.
Daniel Toshio Harrell
Research Associate, Department of Population Health,
Dell Medical School
Daniel Toshio Harrell is a research associate on the Data Integration Team in the Department of Population Health. Daniel is a native Austinite and after living away for a decade, he came home and is excited to contribute to the establishment of the health information exchange in Central Texas.
Prior to Dell Med, Harrell worked as a software test engineer for Hewlett-Packard and was a graduate student in Japan. During his graduate studies, he studied the genetic causes of inherited arrhythmia such as short QT syndrome.
As a research fellow at Nagasaki University-Institute of Tropical Medicine, Harrell helped design and implement health information systems for maternal and child health care clinics in Kenya and Laos. Harrell holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from UT-Austin and a doctorate in medical science from Nagasaki University-Graduate School of Biomedical Science.
Research Associate, Department of Population Health,
Dell Medical School
Daniel Toshio Harrell is a research associate on the Data Integration Team in the Department of Population Health. Daniel is a native Austinite and after living away for a decade, he came home and is excited to contribute to the establishment of the health information exchange in Central Texas.
Prior to Dell Med, Harrell worked as a software test engineer for Hewlett-Packard and was a graduate student in Japan. During his graduate studies, he studied the genetic causes of inherited arrhythmia such as short QT syndrome.
As a research fellow at Nagasaki University-Institute of Tropical Medicine, Harrell helped design and implement health information systems for maternal and child health care clinics in Kenya and Laos. Harrell holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from UT-Austin and a doctorate in medical science from Nagasaki University-Graduate School of Biomedical Science.
Pete Harris
Executive Director
Austin Blockchain Collective
Pete Harris has 40+ years of business and technology experience, focusing in recent years on business applications of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. He co-founded the Austin Blockchain Collective and launched it at SXSW in 2018. The Austin Blockchain Collective has a mission to promote the City of Austin's credentials as a recognized global center of business, innovation and thought leadership in the blockchain technology space.
Pete is also Founder and Principal of Lighthouse Partners, Inc., a boutique consulting firm that works with global IT innovators to create go-to-market strategies for transformational technologies.
Executive Director
Austin Blockchain Collective
Pete Harris has 40+ years of business and technology experience, focusing in recent years on business applications of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. He co-founded the Austin Blockchain Collective and launched it at SXSW in 2018. The Austin Blockchain Collective has a mission to promote the City of Austin's credentials as a recognized global center of business, innovation and thought leadership in the blockchain technology space.
Pete is also Founder and Principal of Lighthouse Partners, Inc., a boutique consulting firm that works with global IT innovators to create go-to-market strategies for transformational technologies.
Brennen Hodge
Founder & CEO
Citizen Health
Brennen Hodge is the Founder & CEO of Citizen Health, a Public Benefit Cooperative owned by patients & physicians. He is building a better way to finance healthcare that is easier, quicker, & cheaper than insurance. Prior to this role, Hodge built software for PBMs and pharmacies that opened his eyes up to insurance manipulation.
Founder & CEO
Citizen Health
Brennen Hodge is the Founder & CEO of Citizen Health, a Public Benefit Cooperative owned by patients & physicians. He is building a better way to finance healthcare that is easier, quicker, & cheaper than insurance. Prior to this role, Hodge built software for PBMs and pharmacies that opened his eyes up to insurance manipulation.
Cole Holan
MS1
Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin
Cole Holan grew up in Houston, Texas and graduated from Emory University with a degree in Chemistry. He founded and managed a social startup that created clean water infrastructure in rural Uganda and Ghana. He now attends Dell Medical school as a first-year medical student.
MS1
Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin
Cole Holan grew up in Houston, Texas and graduated from Emory University with a degree in Chemistry. He founded and managed a social startup that created clean water infrastructure in rural Uganda and Ghana. He now attends Dell Medical school as a first-year medical student.
Brian Jackson
Co-Founder
BurstIQ
Brian Jackson is Co-Founder of the Denver-based healthcare blockchain company, BurstIQ. He is an experienced executive, engineer, entrepreneur, and architect who empowers people and creates unique, innovative solutions. His expertise in building and directing multiple diverse information technology teams is prominent in his work world-wide. Jackson is a partner of numerous consulting firms, as well as he provides executive leadership at multiple companies. He excels in building world-class cross-functional teams, improving efficiencies, and overall technology strategy to move companies forward.
Co-Founder
BurstIQ
Brian Jackson is Co-Founder of the Denver-based healthcare blockchain company, BurstIQ. He is an experienced executive, engineer, entrepreneur, and architect who empowers people and creates unique, innovative solutions. His expertise in building and directing multiple diverse information technology teams is prominent in his work world-wide. Jackson is a partner of numerous consulting firms, as well as he provides executive leadership at multiple companies. He excels in building world-class cross-functional teams, improving efficiencies, and overall technology strategy to move companies forward.
Travis James
Co-Founder & CTO
Tribe Health Solutions
Travis has 25+ years of experience in software engineering development, with emphasis in frontier technologies, such as blockchain. In addition, Travis is highly sought after for architecture advisory and product strategy. His expertise spans multiple platforms such as Microsoft .NET, Apple iOS, Google Android, Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2 and video streaming (e.g. HLS).
Some of his clients have included Microsoft, HP, Kyani, American Airlines, Couchbase, Talko, Joyent and Intuit, to name a few. He has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin.
Co-Founder & CTO
Tribe Health Solutions
Travis has 25+ years of experience in software engineering development, with emphasis in frontier technologies, such as blockchain. In addition, Travis is highly sought after for architecture advisory and product strategy. His expertise spans multiple platforms such as Microsoft .NET, Apple iOS, Google Android, Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2 and video streaming (e.g. HLS).
Some of his clients have included Microsoft, HP, Kyani, American Airlines, Couchbase, Talko, Joyent and Intuit, to name a few. He has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin.
Kristen Johns
Partner
Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP
Kristen Johns is a partner in the Nashville office of Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP where she leads the firm's distributed ledger/blockchain practice. A transactional patent attorney in the firm's Intellectual Property Practice Group, Kristen helps clients protect and maximize their intellectual property assets. Kristen provides counsel to healthcare, life sciences, emerging technologies, aerospace, retail, and manufacturing clients on a broad range of issues, including patent and trademark strategies, data privacy and security matters, cybersecurity and cloud-related issues with a particular focus on issues related to emerging technologies.
Kristen was recognized in the Nashville Business Journal’s Women of Influence 2019 and the Nashville Medical News’ Women to Watch. She earned her J.D. from Saint Louis University School of Law, where she was also the Managing Editor for the Saint Louis University Law Journal, and her undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University’s School of Engineering.
Partner
Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP
Kristen Johns is a partner in the Nashville office of Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP where she leads the firm's distributed ledger/blockchain practice. A transactional patent attorney in the firm's Intellectual Property Practice Group, Kristen helps clients protect and maximize their intellectual property assets. Kristen provides counsel to healthcare, life sciences, emerging technologies, aerospace, retail, and manufacturing clients on a broad range of issues, including patent and trademark strategies, data privacy and security matters, cybersecurity and cloud-related issues with a particular focus on issues related to emerging technologies.
Kristen was recognized in the Nashville Business Journal’s Women of Influence 2019 and the Nashville Medical News’ Women to Watch. She earned her J.D. from Saint Louis University School of Law, where she was also the Managing Editor for the Saint Louis University Law Journal, and her undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University’s School of Engineering.
Anjum Khurshid
Director of Data Integration, Department of Population Health, Dell Medical School
Joint Chair, Austin Blockchain Collective Healthcare Working Group
Anjum Khurshid is the inaugural director of data integration in Dell Medical School’s Department of Population Health. Khurshid is a nationally recognized leader in the fields of population health and health information technology. In 2014, he was appointed to the Federal Advisory Committee on Health Information Technology Policy. In 2016, he was also appointed co-chair of the Task Force on Interoperability Experience formed by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
As a senior strategist for the Louisiana Public Health Institute in New Orleans, Khurshid was involved in health systems transformation projects in Louisiana and across the Gulf South. Khurshid was the principal investigator for the $13.5 million Crescent City Beacon Community program in New Orleans. Under his leadership, the program, which focused on improving diabetes and cardiovascular disease outcomes in the population, won the Health Care Informatics Innovator Award in 2013. He led the establishment of the Greater New Orleans Health Information Exchange, a community-governed platform for data sharing among safety net providers. Khurshid was also the first principal investigator on a $7 million grant to establish a statewide clinical data research network in Louisiana, sponsored by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). He serves as an adviser to PCORI on its Patient Engagement Advisory Panel.
Khurshid is a former director of the University of Missouri’s Health and Behavioral Risk Research Center in the Health Management and Informatics Department, and co-director of Health Systems Analytics Research Center at Tulane University’s Department of Global Health Management and Policy in the School of Public Health. He has worked in the data integration environment in Austin as a strategist and as the director of clinical research and evaluation at the Integrated Care Collaboration.
Khurshid is a faculty member in the Department of Population Health and has previously held faculty positions in the University of Missouri’s School of Medicine and Tulane University’s School of Medicine and School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. He earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from the King Edward Medical University, Lahore and a Ph.D. in public policy and Masters in Public Affairs from The University of Texas at Austin.
Director of Data Integration, Department of Population Health, Dell Medical School
Joint Chair, Austin Blockchain Collective Healthcare Working Group
Anjum Khurshid is the inaugural director of data integration in Dell Medical School’s Department of Population Health. Khurshid is a nationally recognized leader in the fields of population health and health information technology. In 2014, he was appointed to the Federal Advisory Committee on Health Information Technology Policy. In 2016, he was also appointed co-chair of the Task Force on Interoperability Experience formed by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
As a senior strategist for the Louisiana Public Health Institute in New Orleans, Khurshid was involved in health systems transformation projects in Louisiana and across the Gulf South. Khurshid was the principal investigator for the $13.5 million Crescent City Beacon Community program in New Orleans. Under his leadership, the program, which focused on improving diabetes and cardiovascular disease outcomes in the population, won the Health Care Informatics Innovator Award in 2013. He led the establishment of the Greater New Orleans Health Information Exchange, a community-governed platform for data sharing among safety net providers. Khurshid was also the first principal investigator on a $7 million grant to establish a statewide clinical data research network in Louisiana, sponsored by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). He serves as an adviser to PCORI on its Patient Engagement Advisory Panel.
Khurshid is a former director of the University of Missouri’s Health and Behavioral Risk Research Center in the Health Management and Informatics Department, and co-director of Health Systems Analytics Research Center at Tulane University’s Department of Global Health Management and Policy in the School of Public Health. He has worked in the data integration environment in Austin as a strategist and as the director of clinical research and evaluation at the Integrated Care Collaboration.
Khurshid is a faculty member in the Department of Population Health and has previously held faculty positions in the University of Missouri’s School of Medicine and Tulane University’s School of Medicine and School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. He earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from the King Edward Medical University, Lahore and a Ph.D. in public policy and Masters in Public Affairs from The University of Texas at Austin.
David Koepsell
Co-Founder & CEO
EncrypGen
David is an entrepreneur, author, philosopher, attorney, and educator whose recent research focuses on the nexus of science, technology, ethics, and public policy. He has provided commentary regarding ethics, society, religion, and technology on: MSNBC, Fox News Channel, The Guardian, The Washington Times, NPR Radio, Radio Free Europe, Air America, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, and the Associated Press, among others.
He has been a tenured Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Technology, Policy, and Management in the Netherlands, Visiting Professor at UNAM, Instituto de Filosoficas and the Unidad Posgrado, Mexico, Director of Research and Strategic Initiatives at COMISION NACIONAL DE BIOETICA in Mexico, and Asesor de Rector at UAM Xochimilco.
He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Encrypgen, Inc. http://encrypgen.com , the world’s first blockchain-enabled genomic data free market.
Co-Founder & CEO
EncrypGen
David is an entrepreneur, author, philosopher, attorney, and educator whose recent research focuses on the nexus of science, technology, ethics, and public policy. He has provided commentary regarding ethics, society, religion, and technology on: MSNBC, Fox News Channel, The Guardian, The Washington Times, NPR Radio, Radio Free Europe, Air America, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, and the Associated Press, among others.
He has been a tenured Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Technology, Policy, and Management in the Netherlands, Visiting Professor at UNAM, Instituto de Filosoficas and the Unidad Posgrado, Mexico, Director of Research and Strategic Initiatives at COMISION NACIONAL DE BIOETICA in Mexico, and Asesor de Rector at UAM Xochimilco.
He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Encrypgen, Inc. http://encrypgen.com , the world’s first blockchain-enabled genomic data free market.
Florence Lowe
COO
Synerzip
Florence Lowe joined Synerzip in 2017 and is the Chief Operating Officer, responsible for customer success, strategic business development and partnerships, and overall finance and administration. Started in 2004, Synerzip provides agile software product development services for rapid scaling of engineering teams to accelerate product roadmaps with cutting edge technologies in blockchain, machine learning, web development, social apps, mobile, UI/UX, & DevOps.
Prior to Synerzip, Florence led the finance function at InsureTech SAAS company EZLynx, and CyberSecurity startup iSight Partners. She has a deep interest in technology and data; and worked on bootstrapped startups in Dallas, one of which, InsiderEdge, developed an SEC filing research platform. Before turning to startups and high growth companies, Florence worked in financial leadership positions at private equity firm Hudson Advisors, Capital One, AlixPartners and American Airlines. Additionally, Florence worked as a software developer at UBS Warburg, Professional Consulting Services, and IBM Global Services.
Florence has an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, an MCA (Masters in Computer Applications) from Jawaharlal Nehru University and BA (Hons) in Mathematics from the University of Delhi.
COO
Synerzip
Florence Lowe joined Synerzip in 2017 and is the Chief Operating Officer, responsible for customer success, strategic business development and partnerships, and overall finance and administration. Started in 2004, Synerzip provides agile software product development services for rapid scaling of engineering teams to accelerate product roadmaps with cutting edge technologies in blockchain, machine learning, web development, social apps, mobile, UI/UX, & DevOps.
Prior to Synerzip, Florence led the finance function at InsureTech SAAS company EZLynx, and CyberSecurity startup iSight Partners. She has a deep interest in technology and data; and worked on bootstrapped startups in Dallas, one of which, InsiderEdge, developed an SEC filing research platform. Before turning to startups and high growth companies, Florence worked in financial leadership positions at private equity firm Hudson Advisors, Capital One, AlixPartners and American Airlines. Additionally, Florence worked as a software developer at UBS Warburg, Professional Consulting Services, and IBM Global Services.
Florence has an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, an MCA (Masters in Computer Applications) from Jawaharlal Nehru University and BA (Hons) in Mathematics from the University of Delhi.
Timothy Mercer
Director of Global Health
Dell Medical School
Timothy Mercer is the director of global health at Dell Medical School and an assistant professor in the Departments of Population Health and Internal Medicine. He is a primary care physician for the Health Care for the Homeless program with CommUnityCare, Austin’s largest federally qualified health center. He is interested in solving health system challenges to improve access, quality and equity in health for vulnerable populations globally.
Mercer studied biology and philosophy at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. He received a Master in Public Health with a focus in social and behavioral sciences from the Yale School of Public Health and a medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine. He completed a combined internal medicine and pediatrics residency training program at Duke University Medical Center.
Following his training, he served for two years as the medicine team leader for the Academic Model Providing Access to Health Care in Eldoret, Kenya. AMPATH is an academic global health partnership between Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital and Moi University School of Medicine in Kenya and a consortium of North American academic medical centers led by Indiana University. In this role, he held joint faculty positions in the Departments of Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine and Moi University School of Medicine.
At Dell Med, Mercer leads the development of the global health program. Under his leadership, Dell Med has joined the AMPATH Consortium in Kenya. He is also seeking to establish a long-term, mutually beneficial, bilateral partnership with a medical school in Mexico to engage across the trifold academic mission of service, teaching and research to strengthen health systems and improve health outcomes for low-income people in both Mexico and Texas. He teaches and mentors medical students on global health and is also engaging interdisciplinary faculty members from across the campus of The University of Texas at Austin in global health work.
Director of Global Health
Dell Medical School
Timothy Mercer is the director of global health at Dell Medical School and an assistant professor in the Departments of Population Health and Internal Medicine. He is a primary care physician for the Health Care for the Homeless program with CommUnityCare, Austin’s largest federally qualified health center. He is interested in solving health system challenges to improve access, quality and equity in health for vulnerable populations globally.
Mercer studied biology and philosophy at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. He received a Master in Public Health with a focus in social and behavioral sciences from the Yale School of Public Health and a medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine. He completed a combined internal medicine and pediatrics residency training program at Duke University Medical Center.
Following his training, he served for two years as the medicine team leader for the Academic Model Providing Access to Health Care in Eldoret, Kenya. AMPATH is an academic global health partnership between Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital and Moi University School of Medicine in Kenya and a consortium of North American academic medical centers led by Indiana University. In this role, he held joint faculty positions in the Departments of Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine and Moi University School of Medicine.
At Dell Med, Mercer leads the development of the global health program. Under his leadership, Dell Med has joined the AMPATH Consortium in Kenya. He is also seeking to establish a long-term, mutually beneficial, bilateral partnership with a medical school in Mexico to engage across the trifold academic mission of service, teaching and research to strengthen health systems and improve health outcomes for low-income people in both Mexico and Texas. He teaches and mentors medical students on global health and is also engaging interdisciplinary faculty members from across the campus of The University of Texas at Austin in global health work.
Nathan Miller
CEO
Consensus Networks
Nathan Miller is the CEO of Consensus Networks, a blockchain innovations company developing advanced cryptographic data sharing and secure networking solutions. During his time at Consensus, he has guided the company from founding through initial fundraising. He is also leading research efforts on federal grants focused on securing private and sensitive data for the National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense. Prior to joining Consensus Networks, Nate served for over seven years in the U.S. Navy as a submarine officer and qualified nuclear engineer. Nate holds a B.S. from the United States Naval Academy and an M.S. from the University of Notre Dame.
CEO
Consensus Networks
Nathan Miller is the CEO of Consensus Networks, a blockchain innovations company developing advanced cryptographic data sharing and secure networking solutions. During his time at Consensus, he has guided the company from founding through initial fundraising. He is also leading research efforts on federal grants focused on securing private and sensitive data for the National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense. Prior to joining Consensus Networks, Nate served for over seven years in the U.S. Navy as a submarine officer and qualified nuclear engineer. Nate holds a B.S. from the United States Naval Academy and an M.S. from the University of Notre Dame.
Andy Morris
Product Marketing Manager, Machine Learning
IBM
Andy Morris is an experienced technologist and entrepreneur. Andy specializes in identifying compelling use cases for emerging technologies and finding the ideal product-market fit, most recently in computer vision and machine learning solutions. He has also served as a leading author on HPCWire and Enterprise AI News for the IBM Solution Channel, covering the intersection between AI, high-performance computing and big data challenges facing industries and the public sector.
Product Marketing Manager, Machine Learning
IBM
Andy Morris is an experienced technologist and entrepreneur. Andy specializes in identifying compelling use cases for emerging technologies and finding the ideal product-market fit, most recently in computer vision and machine learning solutions. He has also served as a leading author on HPCWire and Enterprise AI News for the IBM Solution Channel, covering the intersection between AI, high-performance computing and big data challenges facing industries and the public sector.
Indira Mysore
Director – Healthcare Community Development
Austin Blockchain Collective
Indira Mysore is a cross-functional global IT leader. She spent 25+ years of her career in diverse functions and leadership roles in IT, spanning several continents (Asia , Europe , North America , LATAM and Australia) in many industries (manufacturing , Technology , Consulting , Chemical, Aerospace & Defense and Healthcare) and multiple business delivery models (global multinationals , consulting , startups , offshore delivery).
Her career includes many Fortune 500 companies such as Compaq Computers (now Hewlett Packard), Royal Dutch Shell , Rothman Paul Mall (now British American Tobacco) , Rockwell Collins (now Collins Aerospace), Hoffmann-La Roche and Indian multinational conglomerate Mahindra Group, where she served in operational , tactical and strategic leadership roles managing strategic initiatives, global programs , global teams and serving global customers.
She spent the last 5 years of her career with Hoffmann-La Roche (Swiss biotech and healthcare), in their diagnostic business division, leading global teams, deploying and supporting global business solutions, leading IT transformation and strategic initiatives. Roche sparked her passion for healthcare and blockchain opened her eyes to how emerging technologies can revolutionize healthcare.
In 2018, she redirected her focus to blockchain and healthcare and passionate about contributing to the healthcare transformation journey. Currently, she is a freelance management consultant. She also serves as the Director of Healthcare Community Development in Austin Blockchain Collective and writes “learning journey” articles in MEDIUM on how various emerging technologies are revolutionizing healthcare value chain and supply chain processes and improving patient experience.
Director – Healthcare Community Development
Austin Blockchain Collective
Indira Mysore is a cross-functional global IT leader. She spent 25+ years of her career in diverse functions and leadership roles in IT, spanning several continents (Asia , Europe , North America , LATAM and Australia) in many industries (manufacturing , Technology , Consulting , Chemical, Aerospace & Defense and Healthcare) and multiple business delivery models (global multinationals , consulting , startups , offshore delivery).
Her career includes many Fortune 500 companies such as Compaq Computers (now Hewlett Packard), Royal Dutch Shell , Rothman Paul Mall (now British American Tobacco) , Rockwell Collins (now Collins Aerospace), Hoffmann-La Roche and Indian multinational conglomerate Mahindra Group, where she served in operational , tactical and strategic leadership roles managing strategic initiatives, global programs , global teams and serving global customers.
She spent the last 5 years of her career with Hoffmann-La Roche (Swiss biotech and healthcare), in their diagnostic business division, leading global teams, deploying and supporting global business solutions, leading IT transformation and strategic initiatives. Roche sparked her passion for healthcare and blockchain opened her eyes to how emerging technologies can revolutionize healthcare.
In 2018, she redirected her focus to blockchain and healthcare and passionate about contributing to the healthcare transformation journey. Currently, she is a freelance management consultant. She also serves as the Director of Healthcare Community Development in Austin Blockchain Collective and writes “learning journey” articles in MEDIUM on how various emerging technologies are revolutionizing healthcare value chain and supply chain processes and improving patient experience.
Lucila Ohno-Machado
Associate Dean for Informatics and Technology
Chair, Department of Biomedical informatics
UC San Diego Health
Lucila Ohno-Machado, MD, MBA, PhD received her medical degree from the University of São Paulo and her doctoral degree in medical information sciences and computer science from Stanford. She is Associate Dean for Informatics and Technology, and the founding chair of the UCSD Health Department of Biomedical Informatics at UCSD, where she leads a group of faculty with diverse backgrounds in medicine, nursing, informatics, and computer science. Also, she is the PI for the California Precision Medicine Consortium for the NIH “All of Us” Research Program.
Prior to her current position, she was faculty at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and affiliated with the MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Dr. Ohno-Machado is an elected member of the American College of Medical Informatics, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the National Academy of Medicine. She served as editor-in-chief for the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association from 2011 to 2018. She directs the patient-centered Scalable National Network for Effectiveness Research, a large clinical data research network covering more than 30 million patients and 12 healthcare systems, and was one of the founders of UC-Research eXchange, a clinical data research network that connected the data warehouses of the five University of California medical centers.
Additionally, Dr. Ohno-Machado was the director of the NIH-funded National Center for Biomedical Computing iDASH (integrating Data for Analysis, ‘anonymization,’ and Sharing) based at UCSD with collaborators in multiple institutions, as well as other NIH-funded consortia and research projects. Her research focuses on privacy-preserving distributed analytics for healthcare and biomedical sciences. She has received numerous awards for innovations in biomedical informatics.
Associate Dean for Informatics and Technology
Chair, Department of Biomedical informatics
UC San Diego Health
Lucila Ohno-Machado, MD, MBA, PhD received her medical degree from the University of São Paulo and her doctoral degree in medical information sciences and computer science from Stanford. She is Associate Dean for Informatics and Technology, and the founding chair of the UCSD Health Department of Biomedical Informatics at UCSD, where she leads a group of faculty with diverse backgrounds in medicine, nursing, informatics, and computer science. Also, she is the PI for the California Precision Medicine Consortium for the NIH “All of Us” Research Program.
Prior to her current position, she was faculty at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and affiliated with the MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Dr. Ohno-Machado is an elected member of the American College of Medical Informatics, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the National Academy of Medicine. She served as editor-in-chief for the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association from 2011 to 2018. She directs the patient-centered Scalable National Network for Effectiveness Research, a large clinical data research network covering more than 30 million patients and 12 healthcare systems, and was one of the founders of UC-Research eXchange, a clinical data research network that connected the data warehouses of the five University of California medical centers.
Additionally, Dr. Ohno-Machado was the director of the NIH-funded National Center for Biomedical Computing iDASH (integrating Data for Analysis, ‘anonymization,’ and Sharing) based at UCSD with collaborators in multiple institutions, as well as other NIH-funded consortia and research projects. Her research focuses on privacy-preserving distributed analytics for healthcare and biomedical sciences. She has received numerous awards for innovations in biomedical informatics.
Aman Quadri
CEO
AMSYS Blockchain/AMCHART
Joint Chair, Austin Blockchain Collective Healthcare Working Group
Aman Quadri, PT, DPT, Cert. MDT, began his career in hardware technology in the 90's eventually selling his small company and moving into healthcare where he earned his Master's and then eventually his Doctor of Physical Therapy. Once in practice, he realized the many issues surrounding antiquated health care technology, decreased patient engagement, and lack of data to make informed decisions that led to starting Transwise, a back office healthcare IT and services company in 2010.
Since then, he has worked as a healthcare consultant, home health practitioner, and worked to help create efficiencies in the health space. In 2017, he joined AMSYS Blockchain as the CEO and was tasked to lead a healthcare project named AMCHART, a suite of technology projects designed to aggregate health data and also to help practitioners bridge the divide between patient and provider interactions. After 18 months, that “project” morphed into a revenue generating company. In Aman’s view, every patient should have 24/7 access to his records, understand what that data means, and be able to share it through permissioned access, while every physician should be able to capture to most insight from the data they receive.
CEO
AMSYS Blockchain/AMCHART
Joint Chair, Austin Blockchain Collective Healthcare Working Group
Aman Quadri, PT, DPT, Cert. MDT, began his career in hardware technology in the 90's eventually selling his small company and moving into healthcare where he earned his Master's and then eventually his Doctor of Physical Therapy. Once in practice, he realized the many issues surrounding antiquated health care technology, decreased patient engagement, and lack of data to make informed decisions that led to starting Transwise, a back office healthcare IT and services company in 2010.
Since then, he has worked as a healthcare consultant, home health practitioner, and worked to help create efficiencies in the health space. In 2017, he joined AMSYS Blockchain as the CEO and was tasked to lead a healthcare project named AMCHART, a suite of technology projects designed to aggregate health data and also to help practitioners bridge the divide between patient and provider interactions. After 18 months, that “project” morphed into a revenue generating company. In Aman’s view, every patient should have 24/7 access to his records, understand what that data means, and be able to share it through permissioned access, while every physician should be able to capture to most insight from the data they receive.
Rama Rao
Co-Founder & CEO
BloqCube
Rama is an entrepreneur who is passionate about developing solutions to accelerate clinical trials. He is currently the CEO/Founder of an innovative Clinical Trials Management and finance company in NJ, USA and has been a speaker at many leading blockchain conferences in the world. He also is an Adjunct Professor of Finance at Fairleigh Dickenson Univ. NJ, where he ran the first seminar on Blockchains for MBAs in 2019. Prior to being an entrepreneur, he was the CFO for Novartis Pharma Russia (2013-2016), where, as a member of the Russian executive team he participated in setting the strategic and operational direction of the Pharma organization in Russia. He also served for a brief period as an interim CEO in Russia.
Rama’s roles over 27 years at Novartis and Eli Lilly, have included being the Global Development Finance Head for Oncology Business, and, Lead Faculty for Novartis’s R&D Finance College - that trained over 150 associates in R&D Finance. He also served as the CFO for Novartis Canada. He has served as a regional finance head for the Novartis Oncology InterContinental Region (seventy-four countries) at its inception. Furthermore, he served as a Financial Advisor in Lilly’s M&A group at their Corporate Finance and Investment Banking Unit, and, helped to set up Lilly’s operations in Africa and India.
He is a member of the CFA Institute, holds an MBA from INSEAD, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, a B.Tech. from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, is bilingual in English & French, and has worked in seven countries.
Co-Founder & CEO
BloqCube
Rama is an entrepreneur who is passionate about developing solutions to accelerate clinical trials. He is currently the CEO/Founder of an innovative Clinical Trials Management and finance company in NJ, USA and has been a speaker at many leading blockchain conferences in the world. He also is an Adjunct Professor of Finance at Fairleigh Dickenson Univ. NJ, where he ran the first seminar on Blockchains for MBAs in 2019. Prior to being an entrepreneur, he was the CFO for Novartis Pharma Russia (2013-2016), where, as a member of the Russian executive team he participated in setting the strategic and operational direction of the Pharma organization in Russia. He also served for a brief period as an interim CEO in Russia.
Rama’s roles over 27 years at Novartis and Eli Lilly, have included being the Global Development Finance Head for Oncology Business, and, Lead Faculty for Novartis’s R&D Finance College - that trained over 150 associates in R&D Finance. He also served as the CFO for Novartis Canada. He has served as a regional finance head for the Novartis Oncology InterContinental Region (seventy-four countries) at its inception. Furthermore, he served as a Financial Advisor in Lilly’s M&A group at their Corporate Finance and Investment Banking Unit, and, helped to set up Lilly’s operations in Africa and India.
He is a member of the CFA Institute, holds an MBA from INSEAD, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, a B.Tech. from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, is bilingual in English & French, and has worked in seven countries.
Justin F. Rousseau, MD, MMSc, FAMIA
Assistant Professor, Departments of Population Health and Neurology
Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin
Justin Rousseau has joint appointments at Dell Medical School as assistant professor in the Departments of Neurology and Population Health, where he is co-director of the Data Core, a centralized team to support access, integration and the use of data to affect health. He is board certified in neurology and clinical informatics. Built on a foundation in systems engineering, Rousseau’s interests in the development, implementation, and use of new technologies in health care are what inspired him to enter medicine. He focuses on how these technologies affect diagnosis, treatment, care delivery and outcomes. Through his work, Rousseau aims to enhance the experience of patients, physicians, researchers and the health care team. He is developing integrative tools to improve clinical data quality, clinical decision support, health care delivery, and the evaluation of intervention outcomes.
Assistant Professor, Departments of Population Health and Neurology
Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin
Justin Rousseau has joint appointments at Dell Medical School as assistant professor in the Departments of Neurology and Population Health, where he is co-director of the Data Core, a centralized team to support access, integration and the use of data to affect health. He is board certified in neurology and clinical informatics. Built on a foundation in systems engineering, Rousseau’s interests in the development, implementation, and use of new technologies in health care are what inspired him to enter medicine. He focuses on how these technologies affect diagnosis, treatment, care delivery and outcomes. Through his work, Rousseau aims to enhance the experience of patients, physicians, researchers and the health care team. He is developing integrative tools to improve clinical data quality, clinical decision support, health care delivery, and the evaluation of intervention outcomes.
David Stefanich
CEO
Rymedi
David Stefanich is CEO of Rymedi, which provides blockchain-based, trusted B2B data transmission infrastructure designed to meet the specialized regulatory and business needs of the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors.
Rymedi enables the collection of sensor and input data throughout the drug development, clinical, manufacturing and distribution chain to provide actionable, electronic information for end users: whether regulator audits, certificates of analysis, inventory tracking, internal process reports, Smart Data analytics, digital health or a multitude of emerging uses.
His ability to draw on enterprise digital technology, leadership and M&A experience have resulted in a track record of impactful transformations and process/platform innovations within the highly-regulated life sciences, finance, IoT and blockchain sectors. His passion is to create companies that deliver innovative growth drivers while creating positive global impact.
CEO
Rymedi
David Stefanich is CEO of Rymedi, which provides blockchain-based, trusted B2B data transmission infrastructure designed to meet the specialized regulatory and business needs of the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors.
Rymedi enables the collection of sensor and input data throughout the drug development, clinical, manufacturing and distribution chain to provide actionable, electronic information for end users: whether regulator audits, certificates of analysis, inventory tracking, internal process reports, Smart Data analytics, digital health or a multitude of emerging uses.
His ability to draw on enterprise digital technology, leadership and M&A experience have resulted in a track record of impactful transformations and process/platform innovations within the highly-regulated life sciences, finance, IoT and blockchain sectors. His passion is to create companies that deliver innovative growth drivers while creating positive global impact.
Bob Teague, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Green Room Technologies
Leveraging technology to improve process and outcome, Bob Teague’s career spans clinical practice and executive leadership in Fortune 50 enterprises and prominent healthcare institutions along with experience in the public markets and entrepreneurial startups.
Bob is board certified in Internal Medicine and Pulmonary Disease, practicing in the Texas Medical Center for 20 years, and has held leadership roles at Compaq, Dell, and Quorum Health Corporation.
His entrepreneurial experiences were financially successful enterprises that were transformative in their markets for respiratory home care, diabetes chronic care management, healthcare interoperability and Medicare Advantage risk management through transitional care and high risk patient management.
Chief Medical Officer
Green Room Technologies
Leveraging technology to improve process and outcome, Bob Teague’s career spans clinical practice and executive leadership in Fortune 50 enterprises and prominent healthcare institutions along with experience in the public markets and entrepreneurial startups.
Bob is board certified in Internal Medicine and Pulmonary Disease, practicing in the Texas Medical Center for 20 years, and has held leadership roles at Compaq, Dell, and Quorum Health Corporation.
His entrepreneurial experiences were financially successful enterprises that were transformative in their markets for respiratory home care, diabetes chronic care management, healthcare interoperability and Medicare Advantage risk management through transitional care and high risk patient management.
Corey Todaro
Senior Segment Lead for Healthcare
Digital Asset
Corey serves as Senior Segment Lead for the healthcare industry with Digital Asset. He has more than a decade of experience working in and healthcare operations and information technology for large multi-national corporations and technology start-ups.
Corey works closely with healthcare enterprises globally, driving adoption and development of smart-contract and digital-ledger based solutions. From payment infrastructure to secure data exchange, Corey is at the forefront of DLT solution design for the healthcare vertical. He was one of the first to introduce DAML, an open-source, intuitive, smart contract language, to technologists and business managers in the healthcare sector who are challenged by the need to share sensitive information and process complex multi-party transactions within the enterprise, and across the industry.
Prior to Hashed Health, Corey served as CTO of Hashed Health, a Nashville-based healthcare blockchain developer. Corey comes to blockchain work with a health of health IT experience, including roles at Martin Ventures, a health IT-focused venture firm, as well as at Vanguard Health Systems (now Tenet Health Corp.), a large multi-market health system, that focuses on the payment innovation, population health, and cutting-edge operational assets.
Senior Segment Lead for Healthcare
Digital Asset
Corey serves as Senior Segment Lead for the healthcare industry with Digital Asset. He has more than a decade of experience working in and healthcare operations and information technology for large multi-national corporations and technology start-ups.
Corey works closely with healthcare enterprises globally, driving adoption and development of smart-contract and digital-ledger based solutions. From payment infrastructure to secure data exchange, Corey is at the forefront of DLT solution design for the healthcare vertical. He was one of the first to introduce DAML, an open-source, intuitive, smart contract language, to technologists and business managers in the healthcare sector who are challenged by the need to share sensitive information and process complex multi-party transactions within the enterprise, and across the industry.
Prior to Hashed Health, Corey served as CTO of Hashed Health, a Nashville-based healthcare blockchain developer. Corey comes to blockchain work with a health of health IT experience, including roles at Martin Ventures, a health IT-focused venture firm, as well as at Vanguard Health Systems (now Tenet Health Corp.), a large multi-market health system, that focuses on the payment innovation, population health, and cutting-edge operational assets.
Mark Treshock
Blockchain Solutions Leader for Healthcare and Life Sciences
IBM
Mark Treshock is IBM’s Global Leader for Blockchain Solutions in Healthcare and Life Sciences. Mark has spent his career helping companies and their customers benefit from digital transformation and is passionate about Blockchain’s potential to transform industries. He has presented on how Blockchain and Analytics can transform the pharmaceutical supply chain at the White House and on Capitol Hill. Mark lives in South Florida and has a MBA from Cornell, a MS in Computer Science from Columbia University, a MPS in Interactive Media from New York University, and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.
Blockchain Solutions Leader for Healthcare and Life Sciences
IBM
Mark Treshock is IBM’s Global Leader for Blockchain Solutions in Healthcare and Life Sciences. Mark has spent his career helping companies and their customers benefit from digital transformation and is passionate about Blockchain’s potential to transform industries. He has presented on how Blockchain and Analytics can transform the pharmaceutical supply chain at the White House and on Capitol Hill. Mark lives in South Florida and has a MBA from Cornell, a MS in Computer Science from Columbia University, a MPS in Interactive Media from New York University, and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.
Sriram Vishwanath
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Texas
Dr. Sriram Vishwanath is a Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Vishwanath received his B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, M.S. from CalTech and his Ph.D. from Stanford University, all in electrical engineering. His research interests include information theory, wireless communications and coding theory. His industry experience includes work at the National Semiconductor Corporation, CA and at the Lucent Bell labs, NJ. He has won a NSF CAREER Award and the 2005 IEEE Joint IT/Comsoc Best Paper Award.
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Texas
Dr. Sriram Vishwanath is a Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Vishwanath received his B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, M.S. from CalTech and his Ph.D. from Stanford University, all in electrical engineering. His research interests include information theory, wireless communications and coding theory. His industry experience includes work at the National Semiconductor Corporation, CA and at the Lucent Bell labs, NJ. He has won a NSF CAREER Award and the 2005 IEEE Joint IT/Comsoc Best Paper Award.
Adam Wiedemann
Project Lead, MyPass
City of Austin
Prior to joining the City of Austin, Adam worked as an engineer and advanced technology researcher for Lexmark International. His background includes development in Robotics, Machine Learning, Internet of Things and Human-Machine Interfaces. He currently serves as Project Lead for the MyPass project.
Project Lead, MyPass
City of Austin
Prior to joining the City of Austin, Adam worked as an engineer and advanced technology researcher for Lexmark International. His background includes development in Robotics, Machine Learning, Internet of Things and Human-Machine Interfaces. He currently serves as Project Lead for the MyPass project.
