Improve Healthcare

Justin Graham, MD, MS, is a senior physician executive and digital health product innovator with over 25 years’ experience in medicine, infectious disease, informatics, electronic health records, and healthcare operations.

Since 2020 Dr. Graham has been the Chief Medical Officer at GYANT, a digital health start-up specializing in complex medical conversational AI. As CMO, Dr. Graham helps lead product strategy and oversees the development and management of the complex set of clinical triage algorithms that power GYANT’s virtual assistant.

Dr. Graham came to GYANT from the Artificial Intelligence business unit at Anthem, one of the nation’s leading health benefits and insurance companies. Previously, Dr. Graham spent 6 years as Chief Innovation Officer for Hearst Health, where he directed the Hearst Health Innovation Lab, a team of product strategists, developers and clinicians. There, he and his team developed innovation strategies for creating new technology and content-enabled solutions to improve patient outcomes and drive efficiency.

Prior to joining Hearst, Dr. Graham was Chief Medical Information Officer at NorthBay Healthcare, and held executive leadership positions in medical informatics at the California Prison Healthcare Receivership and Lumetra. He also consulted as lead physician content designer for Kaiser Permanente’s national electronic health record deployment.

Dr. Graham is a board-certified infectious diseases expert and practiced medicine in the San Francisco Bay Area for 17 years. He holds a Master’s degree in biomedical informatics from Stanford University, a medical doctorate from UC San Francisco, and a biochemistry degree from Harvard University.

Learn more about GYANT 

Great chat with a Dallas area safety leader Mr. Andrew Shapiro! 

Andrew has more than 25 years of experience in leading the development and delivery of effective systems of care to meet customer needs in diverse markets. In his current role, he is responsible for managing non-clinical plan operations impacting members, community stakeholders, and participating providers. He oversees multiple functions and general business operations for Parkland Community Health Plan, including member and provider communications, claims, information system conversions, call center performance guarantees, appeals and grievances, state reporting, and provider network strategy.

"I got into healthcare to make a difference in the lives of others," he says. "Parkland Community Health Plan is in a great position to do just that as we grow our membership base and increase our outreach efforts in the counties we serve."

Andrew believes that a team approach is key to ensuring the success of PCHP. "It's vital that we partner closely with our providers and community partners, and listen to what our members are telling us," he says. "If we can work together to achieve positive, successful outcomes, then we’re doing our job right."

Prior to joining PCHP, Andrew served as vice president at WellCare; Vice President/Chief Operations Officer at Magellan Health, and in senior leadership positions at PSA Behavioral Health Agency and Hamilton Choices.

Andrew holds a master’s degree in business administration, healthcare management from the University of Phoenix and a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Arizona State University.

Learn more about Parkland Community Health Plan

Richard Palarea is the CEO of Kermit, a Baltimore-based healthcare cost reduction and spend management company bringing automation and insight to the high spend category of implantable medical devices within hospitals and health systems. Since it’s founding in 2011, Kermit has saved hospitals more than 200 million dollars and manages 40% of the implantable device spend transacting in Maryland.

Kermit has been recognized in multiple years as an Inc. 5000 company and by the Baltimore Business Journal as a Fast 50 company and a TOP Software Company ranked by local revenue, as well as SmartCEO's Future 50.

Kermit is the recipient of industry awards, including the Federation of American Hospitals' Heartbeat of Healthcare for its work as an innovative partner helping hospitals manage costs during a global pandemic.

Learn More About Kermit

Jacqui Stewart is the Chief Executive Officer of The Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa NPC (COHSASA). She has worked in the public and private health care sectors in South Africa and England. Having qualified as a registered nurse in Cape Town she went on to specialise in Cardio-Thoracic nursing in London. She ran the Heart Transplant Unit at Harefield Hospital, Middlesex for five years.

From there she moved into a variety of managerial roles in quality, capital and service planning in the National Health Service. Between 1996 and 2002, she held director posts at the Family Health Services Authority (FHSA) in Kent and East Kent Health Authority, responsible for primary health care, service development and integration. She moved to a regional role and then became the Director of Career Development and Succession Planning at the national NHS Modernisation Agency, Leadership Centre.

Jacqui has a Master of Professional Studies, Health from Middlesex University, London. She was a member of the South African National Lancet Commission on High Quality Health Systems. In 2019 Jacqui was elected to the International Academy of Quality & Safety in Health Care (IAQS). She is an ISQua Expert and serves on the Accreditation Council of the ISQua External Evaluation Association. She served on the ISQua Board from 2017 to 2020.

In 2005 Jacqui returned to South Africa and joined COHSASA as Chief Operations Manager. She was appointed CEO in 2016. She has experience in standards development, external evaluation and accreditation. As COHSASA works in low- and middle-income countries there is a strong focus on capacity building and quality improvement in all the programmes.

Learn more about COHSASA https://cohsasa.co.za/

In this episode, I spoke to an innovator in Mobile Intelligence - Engage Technologies Group Inc - Founder and CEO - Michael  Boerner. He is blazing a trail with some truly exciting technology to enhance operational workflows across industries and particularly in healthcare!

Michael Boerner is the Founder and CEO of Engage Technologies Group, Inc., and has over 25 years of experience founding and leading technology & media companies.

He is an entrepreneur responsible for innovating a number of short-form, video-based enterprise technologies enabling data-driven video personalization & mass constituent engagement.

Michael’s clients have included: Johnson & Johnson, CVS, Ford, Samsung and UnitedHealthcare, DePuy, Covidien, UPMC, St. Luke’s Health System, K12, Blue Cross Blue Shield MN and the Ken Blanchard Companies, to name a few.

He was appointed by the Governor of Idaho to the Governor’s Coordinating Council for Families and Children as well as served on the board of directors for the National Institute of Marriage, a non-profit entity started by best-selling author, Gary Smalley, to help serve marriages facing crisis. Michael has appeared nationally on CNN, Fox News, ABC Radio Network News, as well as numerous press articles covering his media and technology innovations. Michael’s first press coverage for entrepreneurial creativity appeared on the front page of a Gannett Newspaper when he was 14.

https://engagetg.com/

Thought-provoking discussion on technology-enabled primary care with an innovator!

Thompson Aderinkomi is currently co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nice Healthcare a technology-enabled primary care clinic that delivers all care in the comfort of the patient’s home; contracting directly with small employers. Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton appointed Thompson to the inaugural board of directors for MNsure, the Minnesota Health Insurance Exchange in April 2013. Finally, in 2013 Thompson co-founded Healthcare.mn the Twin Cities premier organization for healthcare entrepreneurs, which has grown to over 2,000 members. From the University of Minnesota, Thompson has earned a B.S. in Economics, an M.S. in Statistics and an MBA from the Carlson School of Management. He has been married for 17 years and has two young sons.

https://www.nice.healthcare/

In this episode, I sat down with a brilliant thinker in physician engagement, and patient experience to discuss strategic approaches to improve care!

Joshua Washington is President of Lee Malveaux - People Strategy and Solutions. As an organizational psychologist, Joshua has spent the last decade helping over 200 medical facilities with their people strategy and performance. He has also trained over 1000 executive leaders, notably developing a 1 to 1 physician coaching program helping medical groups reach top percentile nationally in patient experience.

 With his engaging personality, Joshua is able to quickly connect with everyone he meets. His passion for people development shines through in his work, and serves as the foundation for his success.

Learn more about Joshua and the fantastic things he's doing at https://leemalveaux.com/

Check out his new book "The Mentality of Success"
- https://www.amazon.com/Mentality-Success-Activate-Dreams-Potential/dp/1957369078

Dr. Byrd, is Associate Dean and Chair of the Department of Public Health in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. Dr. Byrd received a BSN from the University of Arizona and worked as a public health nurse for several years in the Tucson area before obtaining her Masters of Public Health from University of California Los Angeles.  

She worked in Cd. Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico for three years with Proyecto Verdad serving very marginalized populations with basic public health needs, and then went to Houston where she received a Dr.PH in Behavioral Sciences and Health Education from the University of Texas School of Public Health, where she worked as a faculty member at the El Paso Regional Campus for almost 20 years. 

Dr. Byrd's research is focused on cancer prevention and screening, especially in the area of cervical and colorectal cancer. She led the development and testing of the AMIGAS program, an intervention to increase cervical cancer screening in Hispanic populations which has been adopted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a recommended intervention.  She was the Director of the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) funded ACCION for Rural West Texas program, which provided free colorectal cancer screening to uninsured people.  Her research has been funded by the National Cancer Institute, CDC and the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).

• AMIGAS - https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/gynecologic/what_cdc_is_doing/amigas.htm
• Cervical Cancer Among Latinas
• American Journal of Health Promotion

In this special episode, I sit down with colleagues and the publisher of Healthcare USA, 10th edition. This particular text is publishing on March 4th 2022 and is designed for college course use in health administration, public health, nursing, and other health professions programs as well as business and public policy. 

This new edition includes a diverse, intergenerational, and interprofessional team of professionals who share how their background and contributions add to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Health Administration and Management Education. Educators, students, and readers glean insights into the new content and exciting perspective of these professionals with nearly 100 years of combined experience in healthcare delivery.

The author team in order are:

• James A. Johnson, PhD, MPA, MSc Medical Social Scientist and Professor, School of Health Sciences, Central Michigan University, and Visiting Professor for St. George's University, Grenada, West Indies
•  Kimberly S. Davey, PhD, MBA, MA - Associate Professor and Director of the Undergraduate Public Health Program, School of Public Health at Samford University
•  Richard G. Greenhill, DHA, FISQua, FACHE - Assistant Program Director, Graduate Certificates and Assistant Professor in the Department of Healthcare Management and Leadership at Texas Tech University Health Sciences center

Checkout the cover and pick up your copy at:
 https://www.jblearning.com/catalog/productdetails/9781284211603

In this episode, I sat down with healthcare philanthropist and innovator, Jacob Beckley. His work in the blockchain and crypto space is making a difference for families of children around the globe suffering with  childhood cancers!

Jacob Beckley is the Founder of CURE Token, chairman of the board for the Beckley Foundation, and the Executive Vice President of Technology, Product and Innovation for Fusion92. Jacob is a philanthropist, senior level innovator and technologist, with twenty-five years of progressively responsible experience in the introduction, development, marketing, branding, new business pitches and development, management and support of mobile/wireless, web, integrated digital and traditional cross-channel campaigns and desktop products for a variety of large top brands.

CURE Token was started as a way to pivot the Foundations fundraising efforts during the pandemic and his efforts are doing a lot of good to end childhood cancer and support families. This approach allowed Jacob a means to tap into the crypto community and convert them into people that care about making the world a better place.

Learn more about Jacob's work: https://www.thebeckleyfoundation.org/