Panels

Empowering Patients to Make Better Health Decisions through Effective Information Sharing

With exponentially increasing access to online data and information, patients are now faced with the challenge of decisions based on competing sources of information and often conflicting messages. In this panel, we examine how increased information can empower consumers to make better health care choices, as well as challenges in maximizing effectiveness of the information. Some issues we will address include: user-generated versus institutional information, network effects of social media and online communities, effective information aggregation.

Moderator & Panelist Bios

	Moderator: Deryk Van Brunt, DrPH Dr. Van Brunt is President and CEO of the Healthy Communities Institute. Dr. Van Brunt teaches Health Informatics at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, and conducts research in the area of community health information systems. Dr. Van Brunt has overseen the creation, development and evaluation of clinical and patient-centered information systems implemented in over 500 hospitals and healthcare institutions. He has authored articles and commentaries on health information management and communication technology and serves on several healthcare committees and advisory boards. Dr. Van Brunt received both his MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatics and his DrPH in Health Informatics from the University of California at Berkeley.

	Panelist: Ron Gutman Formerly founder and CEO of Wellsphere, which HealthCentral acquired in January 2009, Ron is now Chief Innovation and Products Officer at HealthCentral . A life-long entrepreneur, Ron has always had a strong passion to make people better off. After starting and growing several businesses in the wine and gourmet-food industries, he studied at Stanford University to learn more about technology, high impact entrepreneurship and health. As a graduate student at Stanford, he was a leader of the Business Association of Stanford’s Engineering Students, and connected with great people throughout the University. He organized a multidisciplinary group of graduate students and faculty from the schools of Medicine, Engineering, Business, Law and Psychology to explore ways to make people healthier and happier. Initially focused on personalized medicine and its potential to significantly improve people’s lives, the group later expanded its research to health information and healthy living. The group spent months conducting extensive research, mostly from the living room of Ron’s home on University Avenue in Palo Alto and formulated a model that uses technology, information, and the power of communities to help millions of people improve their health and well-being. Thus Wellsphere was started, bearing a strong mission to help millions of people improve their health and well being by creating cutting edge web and mobile technologies.

	Panelist: Holly Potter Ms. Potter is vice president of Public Relations for Kaiser Permanente. She oversees efforts to promote the company’s story and achievements through both traditional and social media. In addition, her team is responsible for broad public relations, partnerships and stakeholder management programs that help to build Kaiser Permanente’s reputation among opinion leaders and partners in the health, business, philanthropic, and advocacy communities. An experienced health communications strategist, she has held a variety of leadership positions directing a broad range of communications and advocacy campaigns. She brought to Kaiser Permanente a proven 15-year track record of award-winning public relations programs that influence stakeholders and shift public opinion. In her career, she has advised and partnered with senior executives in the nonprofit, government and corporate sectors to advance policy and promote brand identity. Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente, she ran HTPotter Communications, LLC which served a variety of nonprofit and government clients in California and Washington, D.C. Her former clients include National Campaign Against Youth Violence, California State PTA, Public Health Institute, Drug Policy Alliance, San Francisco Wellness Initiative, Santa Clara County Public Health Department and the White House Council on Youth Violence.

	Panelist: Steve DeMello Mr. DeMello has over 30 years of experience in research, hospital operations, strategic planning, systems management and consulting. He is currently the Director of Health Care at CITRIS (Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society) at UC Berkeley. Prior to joining CITRIS, Steve was Executive Director and Senior Advisor of the Health Technology Center (HealthTech), a non-profit research group and expert network based in San Francisco. Steve also served as Chief Operating Officer of ezboard, Inc., a large first-generation consumer social networking company. His previous positions include serving as Senior Vice President California Healthcare System, President and COO of Alliance Home Care Management, Inc., and Principal at the global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney. He received a BA in Economics from Claremont McKenna College, and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

	Panelist: Amanda Goltz Ms. Goltz is a senior advisor to the national healthcare practice at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, and its policy and business advisory unit, Manatt Health Solutions, in the San Francisco office. Ms. Goltz’s expertise is in healthcare strategic planning for quality and operations, with specific focus in leveraging new technology to create new quality and cost-management utilities for healthcare organizations. Prior to joining Manatt, Ms. Goltz was a program director at Partners Healthcare, the integrated delivery network founded by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, where she led a team to drive system wide quality improvement across a diverse portfolio spanning the care spectrum. At Partners, Ms. Goltz was responsible for the system’s performance in the National Hospital Quality Measures, nursing-sensitive quality, and managing programs to improve clinical effectiveness. Before her role as program director, Ms. Goltz served as a consultant at the International Biometric Group, where her clients included the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Before joining IBG, Ms. Goltz assisted the New York City Health and Hospital Corporation with the selection process for an enterprise information system for emergency care, managing on-site needs assessments in seven emergency departments.