Virtual Healthcare in the Mainstream
2022 Speakers
The speaker list is not final and subject to change.
Rahul Sharma, MD, MBA, FACEP
Professor and Chair
Department of Emergency Medicine,
Executive Director, Center for Virtual Care
Weill Cornell Medicine
Professor and Chair
Department of Emergency Medicine,
Executive Director, Center for Virtual Care
Weill Cornell Medicine
Dr. Rahul Sharma is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine and the Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Virtual Care at Weill Cornell Medicine. He also serves as the Emergency Physician-in-Chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and as the Chief and Medical Director for the New York-Presbyterian Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Enterprise. In addition, Dr. Sharma currently serves as the full-time faculty representative to the Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) Board of Fellows and as a board member for the New York State Board for Medicine. He is the past President of the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Medical Board.
Dr. Sharma is a national leader in the fields of emergency medicine, health care operations, telemedicine and virtual health care, and innovation. Since 2016, he has founded and launched several innovative programs, including the award-winning Emergency Department Telehealth Express Care and the Center for Virtual Care at Weill Cornell Medicine. Most recently, he led efforts to transform emergency medicine health care delivery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Sharma has been recognized with several awards, including a Top 25 Innovator by Modern Healthcare, a 2020 Notable in Healthcare by Crain’s New York Business, and he received the 2020 Innovative Change in Practice Management Award from the American College of Emergency Physicians. His has been an invited guest speaker at several national and international programs, including the National Academy of Medicine. He serves as a fellow for The New York Academy of Medicine. Dr. Sharma’s work in leadership and innovation has been featured in several publications, including The Wall Street Journal, NEJM Catalyst, and JAMA.
Dr. Sharma earned a combined MD/MBA in Health Management from Tufts University School of Medicine and completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at NYU/Bellevue Hospital, where he served as Chief Resident.
Dr. Sharma is a national leader in the fields of emergency medicine, health care operations, telemedicine and virtual health care, and innovation. Since 2016, he has founded and launched several innovative programs, including the award-winning Emergency Department Telehealth Express Care and the Center for Virtual Care at Weill Cornell Medicine. Most recently, he led efforts to transform emergency medicine health care delivery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Sharma has been recognized with several awards, including a Top 25 Innovator by Modern Healthcare, a 2020 Notable in Healthcare by Crain’s New York Business, and he received the 2020 Innovative Change in Practice Management Award from the American College of Emergency Physicians. His has been an invited guest speaker at several national and international programs, including the National Academy of Medicine. He serves as a fellow for The New York Academy of Medicine. Dr. Sharma’s work in leadership and innovation has been featured in several publications, including The Wall Street Journal, NEJM Catalyst, and JAMA.
Dr. Sharma earned a combined MD/MBA in Health Management from Tufts University School of Medicine and completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at NYU/Bellevue Hospital, where he served as Chief Resident.
Colleen Young
Online Community Director
Mayo Clinic Connect
Online Community Director
Mayo Clinic Connect
Colleen Young is a social innovator and online community strategist. She is internationally recognized for her expertise in building online health communities that thrive. Clients include Mayo Clinic, College of Family Physicians Canada, Canadian Virtual Hospice, Heart & Stroke Foundation, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, EURODIS, and more. Using strategic community management approaches, Colleen has developed a proven framework to help health and patient organizations build online communities that work.
Neesha Ramchandani, PhD, PNP, CDCES
Faculty, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner
Yale University School of Nursing
Faculty, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner
Yale University School of Nursing
Neesha Ramchandani, PhD, PNP, CDCES is a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in Diabetes and on the faculty at Yale School of Nursing. She also does telehealth diabetes care with an endocrinologist who is based in NYC. She received an AB in Chemistry with a minor in Psychology from Dartmouth College and her Masters of Science in Nursing from Yale. She also has a Masters in Medical Sciences from Boston University. In September 2019 she completed her PhD from NYU Meyers College of Nursing, where she assessed what gets in the way of optimal diabetes self-management during emerging adulthood and what these individuals think may help them to do better. Clinically, Neesha believes in empowering patients to do their best with their self-management. She is very interested in using technology to improve both diabetes care and access to care. She has published many papers on diabetes technology, including the first paper in the literature on insulin pumps from the time of diagnosis of type 1 diabetes without any additional agent and the first paper on why people do not use CGM. She also spent 4 years involved in closed loop/artificial pancreas research. Neesha has presented her work around the world, including in the United States, many countries in Europe, Turkey, South Africa, and Israel.
Krishna Juluru, MD
Presidential Innovation Fellow
National Institutes of Health
Presidential Innovation Fellow
National Institutes of Health
Dr. Juluru is a Presidential Innovation Fellow detailed to the National Institution of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) at the NIH. In this capacity, he helps advise and leads digital health initiatives within interagency teams in federal government and private sector. Previously, he led informatics programs at large academic medical centers, including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Cornell Medicine. He serves on national professional society Informatics committees and is Associate Editor for Informatics of the journal, Radiographics. The themes of his more recent publications have been on integrating artificial intelligence solutions into clinical workflow. Dr. Juluru earned a BS in Applied Physics from Yale University, MD from Johns Hopkins University and completed fellowships in magnetic resonance imaging and imaging informatics.
Bryan Arkwright, MHA
Faculty
Wake Forest University School of Law
Ohio University
Faculty
Wake Forest University School of Law
Ohio University
Bryan is a trusted thought leader, researcher, and advisor in the telehealth and digital health industry. Bryan serves as a Principal with Impact Advisors, Founder and Chief Research Officer of Cromford Health, Adjunct Faculty with Wake Forest University School of Law and Ohio University College of Health Sciences and Professions and is on the Editorial Board for the peer reviewed journal Telehealth and Medicine Today where he also serves in an International Ambassador capacity. Bryan has published over 30 different Telehealth and Digital Health focused articles, research papers, and book chapters and speaks nationally and internationally 5-8 times per year. Bryan’s international experience includes pro-bono and paid work in 16+ countries.
Bryan has a Bachelor’s degree from Ohio University, a Master of Health Administration from Medical College of Virginia / VCU, and a Six Sigma Black Belt from the American Society for Quality.
Bryan has a Bachelor’s degree from Ohio University, a Master of Health Administration from Medical College of Virginia / VCU, and a Six Sigma Black Belt from the American Society for Quality.
Evan Hellman, JD
Senior Counsel
Foley & Lardner, LLP
Senior Counsel
Foley & Lardner, LLP
Evan M. Hellman is a member of the firm’s national Telemedicine & Digital Health Industry Team and Health Care Practice Group. Based in New York City, Evan counsels high-growth companies and entrepreneurs in the health tech space, delivering practical, actionable advice to help clients flourish. Evan’s experience helps clients see around corners and anticipate regulatory, compliance, and transactional issues so they can continue to move their businesses forward no matter what issues arise as their operations grow and evolve.
Evan advises on regulatory and transactional issues for a range of health care clients, including health-tech start-ups, major academic medical centers, community hospitals, nursing homes, physician groups and other provider entities. His advice involves telemedicine and digital health operations, corporate practice of medicine compliance, scope of practice rules, licensing, permitting and change of ownership issues, fraud and abuse compliance, and HIPAA. Evan also advises clients on the development and operationalization of new business initiatives, governance, and transactional matters including mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and other strategic affiliations.
Evan advises on regulatory and transactional issues for a range of health care clients, including health-tech start-ups, major academic medical centers, community hospitals, nursing homes, physician groups and other provider entities. His advice involves telemedicine and digital health operations, corporate practice of medicine compliance, scope of practice rules, licensing, permitting and change of ownership issues, fraud and abuse compliance, and HIPAA. Evan also advises clients on the development and operationalization of new business initiatives, governance, and transactional matters including mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and other strategic affiliations.
Lorian Hardcastle, JD
Assistant Professor
University of Calgary
Assistant Professor
University of Calgary
Lorian Hardcastle is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Calgary, with a joint appointment to the Department of Community Health Sciences in the Cumming School of Medicine. She is also a member of the One Health Consortium, O’Brien Institute for Public Health, and Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board at the University of Calgary. Lorian obtained her JD with Health Law and Policy Specialization Certificate from Dalhousie University, and her LLM and SJD from the University of Toronto. She also completed a fellowship at the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University Law Center.
Peter Greenwald, MD
Vice Chair, Clinical Strategy and Innovation, Emergency Medicine
Associate Professor, Clinical Medicine
Weill Cornell Medicine
Vice Chair, Clinical Strategy and Innovation, Emergency Medicine
Associate Professor, Clinical Medicine
Weill Cornell Medicine
Dr. Peter Greenwald is an associate professor of clinical emergency medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. Within the Department of Emergency Medicine, Dr. Greenwald serves as Vice Chair of Clinical Strategy and Innovation, director of telemedicine and director of telemedicine quality assurance. Dr. Greenwald received his bachelor’s degree from Williams College, his medical degree from the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center and completed his residency at what is now Montefiore Health System. Subsequently, he received his master’s degree in biostatistics and research design from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
Dr. Greenwald is fascinated by the educational and human factors of telemedicine. Through the Department of Emergency Medicine’s center Center for virtual Virtual careCare, he trains Weill Cornell Medical College students in the basics of telemedicine. He is interested in how telemedicine can help physicians better meet the needs of all patients and how telemedicine tools will allow emergency medicine to expand beyond constraints of time and location. He believes that provider-to-provider and provider-to-patient consultation will increase the availability of high-quality care globally. Alongside his international partners, Dr. Greenwald is currently exploring how these same tools have the potential to dramatically increase specialty education in areas where the scarcity of specialist mentors makes such training challenging.
A national leader in the field, Dr. Greenwald led the early implementation of telemedicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, which began offering virtual urgent care and express care – an in-the-ED telemedicine service – in 2016. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and under Dr. Greenwald’s direction, Weill Cornell Medicine pioneered several virtual-care innovations, including the deployment of telemedicine as “electronic PPE” in the emergency room and an enterprise-wide post-ED telemedicine safety net for discharged COVID-19 patients. Dr. Greenwald was instrumental in rapidly and remotely training physicians from an array of specialties to respond to a 20-fold increase in virtual urgent care volume, and in creating educational materials that were disseminated across the enterprise supporting the expansion of telemedicine in all specialties.
Dr. Greenwald is fascinated by the educational and human factors of telemedicine. Through the Department of Emergency Medicine’s center Center for virtual Virtual careCare, he trains Weill Cornell Medical College students in the basics of telemedicine. He is interested in how telemedicine can help physicians better meet the needs of all patients and how telemedicine tools will allow emergency medicine to expand beyond constraints of time and location. He believes that provider-to-provider and provider-to-patient consultation will increase the availability of high-quality care globally. Alongside his international partners, Dr. Greenwald is currently exploring how these same tools have the potential to dramatically increase specialty education in areas where the scarcity of specialist mentors makes such training challenging.
A national leader in the field, Dr. Greenwald led the early implementation of telemedicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, which began offering virtual urgent care and express care – an in-the-ED telemedicine service – in 2016. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and under Dr. Greenwald’s direction, Weill Cornell Medicine pioneered several virtual-care innovations, including the deployment of telemedicine as “electronic PPE” in the emergency room and an enterprise-wide post-ED telemedicine safety net for discharged COVID-19 patients. Dr. Greenwald was instrumental in rapidly and remotely training physicians from an array of specialties to respond to a 20-fold increase in virtual urgent care volume, and in creating educational materials that were disseminated across the enterprise supporting the expansion of telemedicine in all specialties.
Dana Schinasi, MD
Medical Director, Digital Health
Attending Physician, Emergency Medicine
Ann & Robert Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Medical Director, Digital Health
Attending Physician, Emergency Medicine
Ann & Robert Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Dana Aronson Schinasi, MD is an attending physician in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. She is the Medical Director of Digital Health at Lurie Children's Hospital. In this role, she is responsible for leading the clinical, quality, education, research, and advocacy initiatives within Digital Health programs, working collaboratively with the Vice President of Digital Health to oversee strategy, policy development, organization, education, and direction for all institutional digital health activities. Dr. Schinasi has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and given many national and international presentations on digital health topics.
Dr. Schinasi received her undergraduate degrees in Economics and Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan, where she went on to obtain her Medical Degree. She completed a residency in Pediatrics at the University of Chicago, followed by a fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, during which time she completed a certificate program in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania. While on faculty, she completed the Executive Fellowship in Innovation Health Leadership at the Arizona State University College of Nursing and Health Innovation. She is currently working towards her master’s in Health Informatics at Northwestern University, with a Health Administration Informatics specialization.
Dr. Schinasi received her undergraduate degrees in Economics and Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan, where she went on to obtain her Medical Degree. She completed a residency in Pediatrics at the University of Chicago, followed by a fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, during which time she completed a certificate program in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania. While on faculty, she completed the Executive Fellowship in Innovation Health Leadership at the Arizona State University College of Nursing and Health Innovation. She is currently working towards her master’s in Health Informatics at Northwestern University, with a Health Administration Informatics specialization.
Michael Maniaci, MD
Chair, Division of Hospital Internal Medicine
Mayo Clinic
Chair, Division of Hospital Internal Medicine
Mayo Clinic
Michael J. Maniaci, M.D. is the Enterprise Physician Lead for the Advanced Care at Home program as well as the current Medical Director of Mayo Clinic Hospital in Florida. His previous leadership positions include the Chair of the Division of Hospital Internal Medicine in Florida, the Associate Chair of Inpatient Practice for the Department of Medicine in Florida, the Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program, the Associate Medical Director of the Mayo Clinic Multidisciplinary Simulation Center, and the Medical Director of Patient Experience in Florida. He currently holds the academic rank of Associate Professor of Medicine in Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.
He received his M.D. from Saint Louis University Medical School in 2003. He completed his residency training at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in 2006 and is boarded in Internal Medicine. He then completed a one-year Chief Residency program at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in 2007. Following this, he joined the Hospital Internal Medicine Practice at Mayo Clinic in Florida.
He has a passion for innovation and technology in the medical field. He is recognized as leader in faculty development for the teaching of simulation medicine and has had several invited professorships to teach faculty development in simulation both in United States and throughout Asia. His current focus is developing the Advanced Care at Home program and the Care Hotel program, Mayo Clinic’s first expansion into the virtual home hospital and surgical aftercare realm.
He received his M.D. from Saint Louis University Medical School in 2003. He completed his residency training at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in 2006 and is boarded in Internal Medicine. He then completed a one-year Chief Residency program at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in 2007. Following this, he joined the Hospital Internal Medicine Practice at Mayo Clinic in Florida.
He has a passion for innovation and technology in the medical field. He is recognized as leader in faculty development for the teaching of simulation medicine and has had several invited professorships to teach faculty development in simulation both in United States and throughout Asia. His current focus is developing the Advanced Care at Home program and the Care Hotel program, Mayo Clinic’s first expansion into the virtual home hospital and surgical aftercare realm.
David McSwain, MD, MPH, FAAP
System Chief Medical Informatics Officer
University of North Carolina Health
Main Principal Investigator, SPROUT-CTSA Collaborative Telehealth Research Network
System Chief Medical Informatics Officer
University of North Carolina Health
Main Principal Investigator, SPROUT-CTSA Collaborative Telehealth Research Network
S. David McSwain, MD MPH is a Professor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and the System Chief Medical Informatics Officer for UNC Health in North Carolina, leading the integration of health IT and digital tools into clinical practice for their statewide health system. With over a decade of experience in digital health transformation, he has led the development of numerous health system-level innovations and national collaborations focused on optimizing both the patient and clinician experience with health care. He is the Co-Founder of the SPROUT (Supporting Pediatric Research on Outcomes and Utilization of Telehealth) national telehealth research collaborative, the Main Principal Investigator for the NIH/NCATS-funded SPROUT-CTSA Collaborative Telehealth Research Network, and was the inaugural recipient of the American Telemedicine Association National Champion Award in 2018. Dr. McSwain earned his Bachelor of Science in Biology and Psychology from Duke University, including a concentration in Neuroscience. He completed his MD and MPH in Health Policy and Administration as well as a combined residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at UNC Chapel Hill and his fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Duke University. He earned board certification in Clinical Informatics in 2021.
Junaid Razzak, MD, PhD
Vice Chair, Research
Professor, Emergency Medicine
Weill Cornell Medicine
Director, Center of Excellence, Trauma and Emergencies
Aga Khan University
Vice Chair, Research
Professor, Emergency Medicine
Weill Cornell Medicine
Director, Center of Excellence, Trauma and Emergencies
Aga Khan University
Dr. Razzak is an accomplished researcher, with a wealth of research experience in emergency medicine, medical informatics and public health and is one the few NIH funded researchers in the area of global emergency medicine. In 2021, he was recruited to Weill Cornell as the Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine from Johns Hopkins University, where he served as the director of the Center for Global Emergency Care and as a tenured professor of Emergency Medicine and International Health. He also worked at the NIH as a visiting scientist, leading NIH’s Collaborative on Emergency Care Research in LMICs (CLEER). Additionally, Dr. Razzak has published more than 130 peer reviewed manuscripts on topics ranging from emergency care and vulnerable communities to innovation and technology. Currently, as part of his focus on global health, Dr. Razzak is working with Aga Khan University in Pakistan to establish the Center of Excellence in Trauma and Emergencies.
Jeremy Brown, MD
Director, Office of Emergency Care Research
National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Director, Office of Emergency Care Research
National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Jeremy Brown, M.D., is the Director of the Office of Emergency Care Research, NINDS where he leads efforts to coordinate emergency care research funding opportunities across NIH. Additionally, Jeremy is the primary contact for the NINDS Exploratory and Efficacy FOAs and also serves as NIH's representative in government-wide efforts to improve emergency care throughout the country.
He is also the medical officer for the SIREN emergency care research network which is supported by both NINDS and NHLBI. In addition, he is the medical officer for several other grants focused on emergency care. Jeremy also serves as the point of contact for the NINDS Exploratory and Efficacy Funding Opportunity Announcements prior to joining NIH in 2013, Jeremy served as research director in the George Washington University's Department of Emergency Medicine, where he founded an HIV screening program and received three NIH grants focused on a new therapy for renal colic.
He is also the medical officer for the SIREN emergency care research network which is supported by both NINDS and NHLBI. In addition, he is the medical officer for several other grants focused on emergency care. Jeremy also serves as the point of contact for the NINDS Exploratory and Efficacy Funding Opportunity Announcements prior to joining NIH in 2013, Jeremy served as research director in the George Washington University's Department of Emergency Medicine, where he founded an HIV screening program and received three NIH grants focused on a new therapy for renal colic.
Kristin L. Rising, MD, MSHP
Director of the Jefferson Center for Connected Care
Professor of Emergency Medicine
Thomas Jefferson University
Director of the Jefferson Center for Connected Care
Professor of Emergency Medicine
Thomas Jefferson University
Dr. Rising is Founding Director of the Jefferson Center for Connected Care and Professor and Director of Acute Care Transitions in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. Her mission is to transform the patient voice into evidence-based interventions that are designed to address unmet needs that impact health outcomes of vulnerable individuals and communities. She completed medical school at the University of California San Francisco, emergency medicine residency training at Boston Medical Center, and received a Masters of Science in Health Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Rising has led grants from numerous foundations, the NIH, PCORI, and AHRQ. Her current research portfolio includes addressing patient uncertainty related to seeking care, promoting vaccine confidence among vulnerable populations, and developing novel approaches to reduce the impact of social determinants of health on patient outcomes, with a specific focus on disparities in telehealth use. Current funding most relevant to telehealth disparities includes PCORI funding to host a national consensus conference focused on addressing disparities in telehealth uptake in September 2022, a grant from the Mayors Fund of Philadelphia to explore barriers to digital readiness among Hispanics in Philadelphia, and funding from the AHIMA Foundation to develop a digital readiness screener to be integrated into clinical care. She has been on multiple national expert panels, including being an ongoing member of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid’s expert panel for Quality Measurement and is on the editorial board for Academic Emergency Medicine.
Alex Sigaras, MS
Assistant Professor of Research in Physiology and Biophysics
Weill Cornell Medicine
Assistant Professor of Research in Physiology and Biophysics
Weill Cornell Medicine
Alex is an Assistant Professor of Research in Physiology and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine. He develops software solutions for the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine and Institute for Physiology and Biophysics with projects spanning over healthcare system design, LIMS and pipeline design for computational genomic analysis. His research interest focuses on data visualization and interaction of healthcare and genomic data using new emerging technologies including augmented and virtual reality such as HoloLens, Oculus Quest and Google Glass.
A Fulbright scholar recipient, Alex earned his masters in Computer Science from Columbia University. While at Columbia, Alex worked as a researcher at Prof. Allen’s Robotics Lab focusing on medical robotics for surgery and brain computer interfaces.
As an undergrad, Alex gave numerous invited talks on his research to universities and conferences including the prime minister of Greece and chairman of Microsoft Bill Gates. Parallel to his studies, Alex worked at Microsoft’s education division helping universities transition to the cloud and as a technical editor in a computer magazine.
A Fulbright scholar recipient, Alex earned his masters in Computer Science from Columbia University. While at Columbia, Alex worked as a researcher at Prof. Allen’s Robotics Lab focusing on medical robotics for surgery and brain computer interfaces.
As an undergrad, Alex gave numerous invited talks on his research to universities and conferences including the prime minister of Greece and chairman of Microsoft Bill Gates. Parallel to his studies, Alex worked at Microsoft’s education division helping universities transition to the cloud and as a technical editor in a computer magazine.
