Advisory Board Members
Michael Fleming | Janet Marchibroda | Blackford Middleton
David Merritt | Archelle Georgiou | Ted Wiegand
Michael Fleming, M.D., F.A.A.F.P.
Michael Fleming, M.D., a family physician in Shreveport, La., serves as a founding director and as Senior Medical Editor for Antidote Education Company, a medical education provider targeting primary care physicians. Dr. Fleming is past president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, serving as President of the 94,500 member organization in 2003-2004. He has also served as Speaker of the Congress of Delegates of the AAFP, and as Board Chair of the AAFP Board of Directors. He presently serves as the founding Chair of FamMedPAC, the Academy’s political action committee.
Active on numerous committees for the AAFP, Dr. Fleming has addressed issues in the areas of obesity and fitness, prevention, health education, finance and insurance, governance and member participation. He has also served as a trustee of the AAFP Foundation, the charitable arm of the Academy.
Presently, Dr. Fleming participates in international activities promoting medical education and primary care worldwide. He serves as the public member of the Board of Directors of the American Dietetic Association, a member of the Board of Directors of the America On the Move Foundation, as well as advisory boards and panels to the health information technology industry.
Dr. Fleming is assistant clinical professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Louisiana State University Health Science Center and in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Tulane University Medical School.
Dr. Fleming attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, and received his medical degree from Louisiana State University in Shreveport in 1975. He completed a family practice residency in Shreveport, LA. He is board certified by the American Board of Family Practice and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
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Dr. Blackford Middleton, MD, MPH, MSc
Blackford Middleton is Corporate Director of Clinical Informatics Research & Development, and Chairman of the Center for IT Leadership at the Partners Healthcare System, and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Middleton’s work focuses on the design and implementation of integrated clinical information systems, with special focus on electronic health records, technology assessment, and patient-centered informatics, in both commercial and academic settings. He was Medical Director of Information Management and Technology at Stanford Health Services, 1992-1995, and Senior Vice President for Clinical Informatics and Chief Medical Officer for MedicaLogic/Medscape 1995-2001. Dr. Middleton has served as expert consultant to the Leapfrog Group, IOM, CMS, NCVHS, AHRQ, NCQA, the NRC, as well as several hospitals and health systems, venture firms, and several private companies.
Dr. Middleton serves on the Board of Directors of the Healthcare Information Management & Systems Society (HIMSS), the e-Health Initiative, and is a member of the HealthTech IT Working Group. Dr. Middleton is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Medical Informatics, and of the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society.
Dr. Middleton studied Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He received an MD from the State University of New York School of Medicine at Buffalo, and was trained in internal medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Sciences Center. He received a Masters in Public Health degree from the Yale University School of Medicine with a dual concentration in Epidemiology, and Health Services Administration. His Fellowship was at Stanford University, where he received his Master of Science degree in Health Services Research, focusing on medical informatics.
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David Merritt
David Merritt is a project director at the Center for Health Transformation. The Center, headed by former Speaker Newt Gingrich, is a collaboration of public and private sector leaders dedicated to transforming health and healthcare in America. Mr. Merritt leads CHT’s projects on Health Information Technology, the Uninsured, and Consumer-Driven Healthcare. He works extensively with key policymakers, the media, and private sector leaders to transform our healthcare system, particularly through the adoption of health information technology. As an advisor to Speaker Gingrich, he works closely with members of the Center on strategic planning and consulting.
Mr. Merritt is a frequent speaker with Center members, as well as with state and industry leaders, such as the Southern Governors Association, Citigroup, the National Conference of State Legislators, and many others. He was recently appointed by Virginia Governor Tim Kaine to serve on his Health Information Technology Council.
Mr. Merritt was formerly with America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the national trade association representing nearly 1,300 members providing health, long-term care, disability, dental and supplemental insurance to more than 200 million Americans. He spent nearly five years directing the association’s educational programs, with a primary focus on federal legislative and regulatory issues, including several advanced programs on HIPAA, HSAs, and the Medicare Modernization Act. Prior to joining AHIP, Mr. Merritt held several positions with the Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars, including managing the congressional internship program on Capitol Hill.
Mr. Merritt earned his Master’s degree in Political Science from Loyola University Chicago in 1999. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University in 1996, where he studied public policy and communication and served as the opinion editor of the student newspaper.
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Archell Georgiou, MD
Dr. Georgiou is the president of Georgiou Consulting and is a well-recognized leader in healthcare with a passion for empowering individuals to be responsible healthcare consumers. Her expertise is focused on consumer-centered care and leveraging communication, information and technology to influence decisions and buying behavior.
Archelle works with large organizations to design and execute integrated strategies that promote simplicity and effectiveness in the healthcare system. She draws from 12 years of experience as an executive with UnitedHealth Group. At United, she served as the chief medical officer and developed the business and clinical strategy that replaced medical necessity review with a new health management system. She also served as the CEO of United's care management business and as medical advisor to United Health Foundation.
Archelle conducts a regular healthcare segment on Fox TV News in the Twin Cities. In addition, she is on the board of directors for WomenVenture and the Society for Women's Health Research.
Archelle received her MD degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and completed her residency in Internal Medicine. She spent the first five years of her career practicing internal medicine in Northern California.
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Ted Wiegand
Ted Wiegand is the Executive Director of the Hillcrest Management Services Organization, a for-profit developed by Warren Hospital to manage hospital-owned and independent physician practices, physicians billing services and develop additional services to be marketed to physicians. Mr. Wiegand directs all aspects of the organization, and presently manages seven family medicine practices with nine office sites, one pediatric practice with two sites and one OB/GYN practice with two sites. These practices have a combined total of 28 physicians. The billing service presently has 18 clients with gross billings of over $25,000,000.
Prior to becoming Executive Director of the Hillcrest MSO, Mr. Wiegand consulted extensively for both the Warren Hospital and in the private sector. As a Health Care Operational Management Consultant with Warren Hospital, he transitioned a large hospital-owned physician practice into new facilities and improved the management of the practice. As a Consultant for Roseberry Surgical Associates, L.L.C., Mr. Wiegand provided onsite management of a new freestanding ambulatory surgery center. He acted as Interim Administrator coordinating the hiring of a permanent management staff and clinical staff.
As the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Doctor’s Hospital, he established efficient and effective operations reducing costs of a 263 bed, full-service community hospital. Prior to his work at Doctor’s Hospital, Mr. Wiegand served as Administrator and Chief Operating Officer at Shore Memorial Hospital in Somers Point, NJ.
Mr. Wiegand earned his M.B.A. from Monmouth College, West Long Branch, NJ in 1982, and his Bachelor’s degree from Richard Stockton State College, Pomona, NJ in 1977. He is also a member of the American Association of Healthcare Executives and the Medical Group Management Association.
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Special Consultant:
Janet Marchibroda
Janet Marchibroda, MBA leads the eHealth Initiative and its Foundation as Chief Executive Officer. Ms. Marchibroda also serves as the Executive Director of Connecting for Health, a public-private sector initiative funded and led by the Markle Foundation and supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation which is designed to catalyze actions on a national basis to create an interconnected, electronic health information infrastructure. Prior to the eHealth Initiative, Ms. Marchibroda co-founded and served as Chief Operating Officer for two health care information organizations, one which focuses on providing patient safety and compliance information to physicians and the other--a Bertelsmann AG subsidiary--which focuses on providing electronic publishing services to the payer community to better meet consumer information needs. She also served as the interim Chief Operating Officer for the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS).
Prior to NCCS, Ms. Marchibroda served as the Chief Operating Officer of the National Committee for Quality Assurance, an organization devoted to evaluating and improving the quality of health care for Americans--where she was responsible for accreditation of healthcare organizations; certification of healthcare information services; development and delivery of education programs; development of the national healthcare quality measures (HEDIS) database and related report cards and other information products; and administrative functions such as strategic planning, human resources, finance, development and administration. She holds a B.S. in Commerce from the University of Virginia and an MBA with a concentration in organization development from George Washington University.
Technology Council
The Center is fortunate to have Technology Council partners equally committed to improving the quality of care for patients. Our Technology Council provides guidance, funding and materials to make community connectivity a reality by sending top representatives to Advisory Board meetings hosted by the Center.
Intel
David Whitlinger serves as the director of Healthcare Device Standards and Interoperability for the Intel Corporation in its Digital Health Group. Mr. Whitlinger is responsible for Intel's healthcare device interoperability strategies and the standards development to support those strategies. He is currently leading a large, cross-industry consortium, the Continua Health Alliance, focused on the establishment of an eco-system of interoperable, personal telehealth systems. Mr. Whitlinger has been with Intel since 1993 and prior to establishing the Healthcare Device Standards Group, he worked on a wide variety of wireless standards. As a result, Mr. Whitlinger and his team are leaders in many standards organizations throughout the world, including: Health Level Seven (HL7); Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE); IEEE 1073; Bluetooth SIG; WiMedia Alliance; Homeplug Alliance; UPnP Forum; Oasis; WSI; and, the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA).
IBM
Dr. Richard Bakalar is the Chief Medical Officer for the Information Based Medicine EBO worldwide team in IBM’s Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Nuclear Medicine and brings strong clinical and program management experience in advanced health system analysis and design. Captain Bakalar (US Navy, retired) was the Navy's Surgeon General Executive Assistant for Telemedicine initiatives beginning in 1995 and is the current President-elect of the American Telemedicine Association. He completed 26 years of active duty service in the US Navy prior to joining IBM in March 2003. Dr Bakalar has coordinated medical process re-engineering, best practices, applied technology, and project management. Dr. Bakalar is the senior medical domain consultant for IBM's information based medicine interoperability practice, clinical decision intelligence and enterprise medical imaging advanced PACS solutions.
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