NEW MEMBERS: Spring ’18

Brief bios/plugs for new members (extracted from the Introduce Yourself Connect Community)

Katherine Infantes-Cordova, a bilingual patient liaison passionate about improving the patient experience, is eager to take part in eliminating health inequities and empowering patients to be proactive in their health.

Leah Jones has a background in consumer public relations and social media. Her company, Natiiv Facilitation, offers independent focus group moderation, event facilitation, and patient engagement projects. She advocates about fibroids and the challenges people struggling with their weight face in our healthcare system.

Kistein Monkhouse, MPA founded Patient Orator to improve health care by raising the voices of those affected by health care inefficiencies. Currently, Ms. Monkhouse is working on a project to improve the patient experience via a mobile health application.

Esther Schorr and her husband, Andrew, lead Patient Power, a growing online community that provides cancer patients and their loved ones with news that they can use to be active participants in their own healthcare decisions.

Dana Deighton brings professional experience in marketing, membership, and corporate partnerships and personal experience as a caregiver, advocate, and unsuspecting patient as a consequence of cancer.  

Tarah Knaresboro designs voice interaction at Emmi/Wolters Kluwer, where her responsibilities include engaging people in preventive health, helping patients manage chronic conditions, or promoting healthy transitions in care. She is passionate about mental health projects addressing depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, medication adherence, and diabetes management.

Saed Al-Olimat is a pharmacy student at Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA) with professional interests in  better understanding of the microbiome-gut-brain axis and its influences on patient outcomes, nutrigenomics and how it can be utilized to maximize diet plans and be incorporated for preventive intervention(s).

Mary Therese Carey from Australia, has experience as a health/aged care executive with an interest in digital health. She was the inaugural Accreditation Manager for what is currently the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency which was established by the Commonwealth Government to accredit aged care facilities across Australia.

Michael Twomey, from Ireland, is a PhD student with cystic fibrosis. He’s studying how memory recall manifests in the medical appointment setting for patients and carers, primarily in patients diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

Lilly Stairs, an advocate living with multiple autoimmune diseases, currently serves as the Head of Patient Advocacy at Clara Health, a startup company working to connect patients to clinical trials and guide them through every step of the process from finding the trial to coordinating travel and insurance.

MEMBER NEWS: Spring ’18

• Eran Kabakov gave SPM members a  free tutorial on Google Apps on April 24th.
• Claire Snyman has been working hard for our members,  encouraging people to be more participatory in their healthcare, speaking at TED How to save your life in a complex health care system | Claire Snyman | TEDxStanleyPark, and publishing a book ACTIVATE: How to Save your Life in a Complex Health Care System.
• Grace Cordovano, Lilly Stairs, Roslyn Schneider, and Jen Horonjeff were mentioned and quoted in the latest edition of Patient Voices
• Mandi Bishop, Kevin Clauson, Dave deBronkart, Brian Eastwood, Amanda Greene, Graham Grieve, Matthew Holt, David Harlow, Joseph Kvedar, Jan Oldenburg; Lygeia Ricciardi, Josh Rubin, Vera Rulon, Richard Scarfo, and Linda Stotsky all spoke at HIMSS 2018 in March.   
• SPM Members exhibiting at HIMSS included Shane Curd: NantHealth; e-Patient Dave Debronkart: Interoperability Showcase; Bill Esslinger: Fogo Data Centers; Amy Gleason: CareSync; Grahame Grieve: Health Level Seven; Peter Ianance: Sensogram Technologies; Danny Sands: Conversa Health; Mary Quilty: MITRE Corp; Larry Steinberg: Cloud DX; Tina Wellman and Joe Ternullo: Pulse Infoframe.
• Danny van Leeuwen, MaryAnne Sterling, Geri Lynn Baumblatt were on the SPM Panel: Supporting Family Caregivers through Hospital-to-Home Transitions at the 2018 Patient Experience Conference in Chicago.
• Danny van Leeuwen spoke at the Medical Group Management Associations (MGMA)’s Operations Conference in Phoenix on April 23rd about Patient Engagement in a Value-Based World.
• Danny Sands will keynote at the New England Health Executive Network monthly breakfast briefing on May 7th. Then  Joe Ternullo will moderate a panel with Dave deBronkart,  Naomi Fried, and Jan Walker.  SPM members can register for $30 (25% off) with discount code “NEHENSPM,” at http://bit.ly/2Egnl8F.
• Randi Oster will be speaking at The Patient Experience Symposium on May 6-8, 2018 at Revere Hotel in Boston, MA. This annual event is  organized by Bill Doherty and brings together hospital executives, patient experience directors, government representatives, academic and nurse leaders, along with chief technology, innovation and experience officers. Both Patient Experience Institute and American Nursing Association continuing education credits are offered. SPM registering with code “society” receive $200 off: https://www.eiseverywhere.com/px18?discountcode=society 
• And finally, SPM newsletter editor Danny van Leeuwen was nominated for PCORI Board of Governors by Marilynn Mann.