Ronald Paulus, M.D., M.B.A.
President and Chief Executive Officer, CareScience

Ronald A. Paulus, M.D., M.B.A., has served as President of CareScience since November 1998. Dr. Paulus served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer from March 1993 to November 1998. From June 1989 to March 1993, he was Vice President of Operations at Salick Health Care, Inc., a national provider of oncology, dialysis and related services, and later served as Managing Director of its INFUSX subsidiary. Dr. Paulus earned his B.S. and M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and his M.B.A. from The Wharton School of Business.

Donna Shalala
Former Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS)

In 1993, President Clinton appointed Donna Shalala as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) where she served for eight years, becoming the longest serving HHS Secretary in United States history. At the beginning of her tenure, HHS had a budget of nearly $600 billion, which included a wide variety of programs including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Child Care and Head Start, Welfare, the Public Health Service, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). As HHS secretary, Ms. Shalala directed the welfare reform process, made health insurance available to an estimated 3.3 million children through the approval of all State Children's Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP), raised child immunization rates to the highest levels in history, led major reforms of the FDA's drug approval process and food safety system, revitalized the NIH, and directed a major management and policy reform of Medicare. At the end of her tenure as HHS secretary, The Washington Post described her as "one of the most successful government managers of modern times." Prior to her role as HHS Secretary, Ms. Shalala joined the Carter administration as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Prior to her role in government, she held tenured professorships at Columbia University, the City University of New York (CUNY), and the University of Wisconsin - Madison. She also served as President of Hunter College of CUNY from 1980 to 1987 and as Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1987 to 1993. Ms. Shalala became the fifth President of the University of Miami on June 1, 2001. Ms. Shalala has more than 25 years' experience as an accomplished scholar, teacher, and administrator. She is also a professor of political science, epidemiology and public health, and education. Currently, she holds the titles of Director of Gannett Co., Inc. (an international news and information company in the print, television, and Internet industries), UnitedHealth Group, Inc. (a diversified health and well-being enterprise), and the Lennar Corporation (one of the largest home-building companies in the United States). She has been selected for ex officio membership in The Florida Council of 100 and Governor Jeb Bush's Select Task Force on Healthcare Professional Liability Insurance, and is a member of the second National Commission on the Public Service (headquartered at The Brookings Institution), and The Florida Breast Cancer Coalition Advisory Board. She also serves as a trustee of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Ms. Shalala was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She received her A.B. degree in history from Western College for Women and her Ph.D. from The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Ms. Shalala has more than three dozen honorary degrees and a host of other honors, including the 2002 UCSF Medal, the 2002 Dick Enberg Award, the Boys and Girls Club Person of the Year 2002, the 1992 National Public Service Award, and the 1994 Glamour magazine Woman of the Year Award. She has been a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow and has been elected to the National Academy of Education; the National Academy of Public Administration; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the National Academy of Social Insurance; the American Academy of Political and Social Science; and the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences.

Lucian Leape, M.D.
Adjunct Professor of Health Policy Department of Health Policy and Management Harvard School of Public Health

Dr. Leape is an Adjunct Professor of Health Policy in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. Prior to joining the faculty at Harvard in 1988, he was Professor of Surgery and Chief of Pediatric Surgery at Tufts University School of Medicine and the New England Medical Center. Dr. Leape is internationally recognized as a leader of the patient safety movement, starting with the publication in JAMA of his seminal article, Error in Medicine, in 1994. His subsequent research demonstrated the success of the application of systems theory to the prevention of adverse drug events. In addition, he has directed research into overuse and underuse of cardiovascular procedures. Dr. Leape has published over 100 papers on quality and safety in healthcare and has been an outspoken advocate of the nonpunitive systems approach to the prevention of medical errors. He has also talked and written widely about the need to make patient safety a national priority. He has testified many times before Congress and served on numerous public and private organizational boards and committees. Dr. Leape was one of the founders of the National Patient Safety Foundation, the Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors, and the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Session on Medical Errors. He was a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Quality of Care in America Committee, which published “To Err is Human” in 1999 and “Crossing the Quality Chasm” in 2001. Dr. Leape’s recent honors include the Distinguished Service Award of the American Pediatric Surgical Association, the Donabedian Award from the American Public Health Association, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator’s Award in Health Policy Research, and honorary fellowship in the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He has been honored with leadership awards from the American Society of Healthsystems Pharmacists, the American Pharmaceutical Association, and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices. In 2002, he was named by Modern Healthcare as one of the 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare. Dr. Leape is a graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Medical School.

Barbara Paul, M.D.
Director of the Quality Measurement and Health Assessment Group, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

Barbara Paul, M.D. is the Director of the Quality Measurement and Health Assessment Group in the Center for Beneficiary Choices at the Centers for Medicare &Medicaid Services (CMS). This Group is responsible for leading the Agency's performance measurement activities both in fee-for-service and managed care. The goal is to provide consumers with quality information to make informed choices in selecting a provider of services, and at the same time, enabling clinicians and providers to use those measures for quality improvement. The Group also plays major roles in the Agency's efforts to promote healthy lifestyles, reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health care, and to use evidence-based information as a guide for providing new benefits to the Medicare population. The Group also has initiated quality improvement projects related to acute and chronic disease management, including end stage renal disease; and improvement activities focused on hospital, home health, and nursing home settings, including the Agency's Nursing Home Quality Initiative, and the refinement of the MDS.

Dr. Paul has been with CMS since February 1999. Previous to her current position, she directed the Physicians' Regulatory Issues Team, an agency-wide group at CMS which is working with physicians to minimize paperwork, reduce administrative burden, improve communications, and create Medicare policies that support physicians in providing care to patients. Her duties included serving as liaison between the physician community and CMS, and advising CMS policy staff and others on agency actions related to reducing regulatory burden.

With the creation, in July 2001, of "Open Door Policy Committees" at CMS, and the naming of Deputy Administrator, Ruben King-Shaw, Jr. as the point of contact for physician issues, Dr. Paul served as Mr. King-Shaw's deputy on this effort from July 2001 to April 2002.

Dr. Paul, who continues as a practicing physician, came to CMS in February 1999, after 12 years in full time Internal Medicine practice in Napa, California. She is a former member of the Board of Directors of the California Health Facilities Financing Authority. In addition, she was active in the California Medical Association, where she chaired their Council on Ethical Affairs and was a member of their Board of Trustees. She is a 1977 graduate of the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and a 1984 graduate of Stanford University School of Medicine.

Suzanne F. Delbanco, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Leapfrog Group

Suzanne Delbanco, Ph.D. is the first Executive Director of The Leapfrog Group. The Leapfrog Group was founded by several of the largest private-sector purchasers and purchasing coalitions. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management and the Health Care Financing Administration also participate. The Group is sponsored by The Business Roundtable. The Group’s goal is to mobilize employer purchasing power to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety and the overall value of healthcare for American consumers. Dr. Delbanco was previously a senior manager at the Pacific Business Group on Health (PBGH) where she worked on the Quality Team. Prior to joining PBGH, Dr. Delbanco worked on reproductive health policy and the changing healthcare marketplace initiative at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. She has also consulted on healthcare insurance coverage in the temporary employment industry, the first statewide survey in California of Medi-Cal beneficiaries, and worked as a community liaison for Kaiser Permanente, during the establishment of one of California’s first County Organized Health Systems. Dr. Delbanco holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy and a M.P.H. from the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley.

Russell Massaro, M.D.
Executive Vice President, Accreditation Operations, JCAHO

Dr. Massaro is Executive Vice President for Accreditation Operations at the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. In this role, he oversees operations for the entire accreditation process for hospitals, healthcare networks, home-care, long-term care, assisted living, mental health, ambulatory facilities and laboratories. Prior to his current position, Dr. Massaro was a surveyor and faculty member for educational programs at the Joint Commission. In addition, he was the president of RPM Health Group, his own management consulting practice, where he specialized in health systems design and development for outcomes management and performance improvement. Previously, he served as deputy commissioner for the New York State Office of Mental Health. In that role, he was the primary architect for New York State’s Mental Health Medicaid managed care program. Also, he was the Medical Director of a multi-hospital system and concentrated on physician leadership and quality management. Along with his administrative and clinical background, Dr. Massaro served as the clinical assistant professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at Albany Medical College and was formerly an adjunct professor of Health System Management at the New School for Social Research. He has taught and lectured extensively on network development and outcomes management in hospitals and managed care organizations. Dr. Massaro received his bachelor’s degree in Biology from Canisius College, Buffalo, New York. He earned his M.D. from State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine. He is an internist and gastroenterologist, and Board certified by the American Board of Medical Management. His residency in Internal Medicine was completed at SUNY Buffalo, and he received his training in GI at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. He is also a Fellow of the American College of Physician Executives.

J. Marc Overhage, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Indiana University School of Medicine Chief Investigator, Regenstrief Institute for Health Care

J. Mark Overhage, M.D., Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine and Chief Investigator at the Regenstrief Institute for Health Care. He also maintains a general internal medicine practice. Dr. Overhage's research focuses on the development of rule-based systems to implement guidelines and protocols. Using these tools, he has completed many large-scale studies that examine the impact of process measures, costs, and patient outcomes. His current efforts in this area include developing and testing hand-held computing devices that deliver decision support and information to providers at the point of care. In another major research endeavor, he has worked with Dr. Clement McDonald, one of the pioneers of medical informatics, to implement an electronic patient record system for the city of Indianapolis. Dr. Overhage serves as an Information Advisor for Eli Lilly & Company. He has more than 15 years of computing experience, including development of one of the earliest commercial object-oriented database systems and real-time data acquisition and control systems. Dr. Overhage is a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics. He received the Davies Recognition Award for Excellence in Computer-Based Patient Recognition for the Regenstrief Medical Record System and served as Scientific Program Chairman for the 2000 AMIA Fall Symposium. Dr. Overhage received an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the Indiana University School of Medicine.

David C. Kibbe, M.D., M.B.A.
Director of Health Information Technology for the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)

Dr. Kibbe is the Director of Health Information Technology for the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). The American Academy of Family Physicians is the national association of family doctors. It is one of the largest national medical organizations, with more than 94,300 members in 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam. Until October 3, 1971, it was known as the American Academy of General Practice. Dr. Kibbe is a recognized leader and author in the areas of clinical quality improvement and healthcare information technologies. He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Contributing Editor to Family Practice Management, the official management journal of the American Academy of Family Physicians. He currently serves as Chairman and Founder of Canopy Systems, Inc., a leading provider of secure, Web-based care management software solutions that improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of patient care. Dr. Kibbe practiced as a Family Practice physician for 15 years before starting Canopy Systems. Dr. Kibbe received his B.A. from Harvard University, his M.D. from Case-Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and his M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin.