Speakers

John Christoforo

John Christoforo, President and Chief Executive Officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Health Care and Affiliated Physician Group， a network of approximately 200 Primary Care Physicians and Nurse Practitioners located in the greater Boston marketplace in more than 30 locations. Affiliated Physicians Group is a subsidiary of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and works closely with BIDMC, Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at BIDMC, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital – Needham and the Milton Hospital. John Christoforo is well known in the Boston area health care community. He has nearly 30 years of experience in health care operations, finance, physician network development, facility planning, and quality and service improvement. John was most recently Chief Executive Officer of Radius Specialty Hospital in Boston (formerly Jewish Memorial Hospital). He has also held the positions of Vice President of Ancillary, Support and Facilities at North Shore Medical Center, Senior Vice President at USI Consulting Group, and Chief Operating Officer, within the Hallmark Health System in Greater Boston. He received his MBA with honors from the University of Chicago, and received a BA in Economics from Cornell University.

Andrew X. Zhu

Andrew X. Zhu, MD, PhD, Dr. Zhu is the Director of Liver Cancer Research at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is also a Member of Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center. Dr. Zhu is board-certified in internal medicine and medical oncology, and holds clinical research interests in developing novel treatments for gastrointestinal cancers including hepatocellular carcinoma, bile duct tumor, and colorectal cancer. Dr. Zhu received his medical degree from Beijing Medical University in China and his doctor of philosophy in microbiology from Columbia University in New York City. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital, Yale School of Medicine. After a fellowship in molecular biology at Harvard Medical School, he was a Mortimer Lacher Fellow in medical oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.As a widely published author, Dr. Zhu has served as a principle investigator in many clinical trials in hepatocellular carcinoma, biliary and colorectal cancers. He is the invited reviewer for many medical journals and has lectured extensively on hepatocellular carcinoma and other gastrointestinal cancers. An internationally recognized leader in hepatocellular carcinoma, he has led early efforts of developing several molecularly targeted agents in hepatocellular carcinoma and studying the predictive and surrogate circulating and imaging biomarkers. He is a founding board member of the International Liver Cancer Association, Vice President of CanLiv-The Hepatobiliary Cancers Foundation, Fellow of American College of Physicians, and a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the American Association for Cancer Research. Dr. Zhu serves on the Hepatobiliary Cancer committee of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the Grants Selection Committee of ASCO.

John Cai

John Cai, Ph.D. Dr. Cai is a Senior Health Policy Analyst at Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services in the U.S. He has also many joint affiliations including Adjunct professor of Health Economics at Tufts University Medical School, Adjunct Professor of Economics at China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), Adjunct Professor at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.; Adjunct Professor at Department of Social Management and Policy, Fudan University in China; Senior Research Associate at China Research Center for Public Policy in Beijing; Committee Member of Academic Senate, Gerontological Economic Research Organization in Switzerland; Expert Member of the Advisory Committee for Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Health; Invited Editor of China Health Care journal; and Associate Editor in Chief of China Hospital CEO journal. Dr. Cai received his Ph.D. in Public Policy (Health Policy major) from the Heller School for Advanced Studies in Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University in 1997 and MA in Economics at Fudan University in 1984. He has been involved in teaching, research and consulting work at university, consulting company and government in the field of health economics and health policy over twenty years. He has published extensively in the areas of health economics and health policy, social security, labor and employment, and public finance. Dr. Cai has participated in the design, implement and evaluation of the first comprehensive health care reform plan (Massachusetts) in the U.S. and has also actively involved in the design of recent national health care reform plan in China. He was cofounders and the director of the Institute of Economic Development at East China University of Science and Technology (Shanghai) (1987-1990) and the first Chair at Department of Public Economics at Fudan University (2006-2009). Dr. Cai received 1990 Sun Yie-fang National Economics Prizes-Best Paper Award, 2002 Most Outstanding Abstract Award by Academy for Health Services research and Health Policy Annual Research Meeting in Washington D.C., and 2009 Outstanding Paper Award from Shanghai Social Science Annual Meeting.

Christopher McDougle

Christopher McDougle, M.D., is Director of Lurie Center for Autism, Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Massachusetts General Hospital and MassGeneral Hospital for Children; Nancy Lurie Marks Professor in the Field of Autism, Harvard Medical School.

Dr. McDougle received his B.A. degree in chemistry from Valparaiso University in 1981 (with Highest Distinction) and an M.D. from Indiana University School of Medicine in 1986 (with Highest Distinction). He subsequently completed a residency in psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine (1990) and a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center (1995). After seven years on the faculty at Yale, Dr. McDougle joined the Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM) in 1997 as the Raymond E. Houk Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In September of 2000, Dr. McDougle was named the Albert Eugene Sterne Professor of Psychiatry and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the IUSM. He continued on as Director of the Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, as well. In the fall of 2011, Dr. McDougle became the Director of the Lurie Center for Autism and the Nancy Lurie Marks Professor in the Field of Autism at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. McDougle is an internationally-recognized expert in the neurobiology and neuropsychopharmacology of childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorders including autistic disorder. His research interests also include the etiology and pathophysiology of mental retardation syndromes.

Dr. McDougle has been awarded two Young Investigator Awards from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD), an Independent Investigator Award from NARSAD, a grant from the Theodore and Vada Stanley Research Foundation, a Research Unit on Pediatric Psychopharmacology (RUPP) contract, a RUPP-Psychosocial Intervention (PI) grant and additional research grants from the National Institute of Mental Health for the study of autism and related pervasive developmental disorders.

Dr. McDougle was elected to the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology in 1995, and is now a fellow. He was twice chosen as Teacher of the Year by the Yale Psychiatry Residents. In 2002, Dr. McDougle was selected as a recipient of the 12th Annual Nancy C.A. Roeske, M.D. Certificate of Recognition for Excellence in Medical Student Education from the American Psychiatric Association, and in 2007 he was selected as a recipient of the Annual Irma Bland Award for Excellence in Teaching Residents, also by the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. McDougle was awarded the Frank J. Menolascino Award for Psychiatric Services for Persons with Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities from the American Psychiatric Association in 2009. In 2003, he was appointed Associate Editor of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

Lawrence Hotes

Lawrence Hotes MD, has been a member of the New England Sinai staff since 1987 serving as Physician-in-Chief before being named Chief Medical Officer in 2008. Dr. Hotes is a practicing Endocrinologist and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and American College of Endocrinology. He is also Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine and Rehabilitation Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Hotes is a member of the Board of Directors at New England Sinai Hospital, as well as the board of the National Assoc of Long Term Hospitals, where he is Chair of the Research Outcomes Committee and Physician Committee. He is the author of several articles published in American Journal of Medicine, JAMA and CHEST.

Valerie Hu

Valerie Hu, Ph.D., is Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences as well as a mother of a son with ASD. She redirected her research focus towards autism about 8 years ago and has since published 14 papers on the genes and biological pathways associated with ASD. Dr. Hu received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Caltech and did her postdoctoral research in Membrane Biochemistry and Immunology at UCLA. More information about her research and papers can be obtained at: http://www.gwumc.edu/smhs/facultydirectory/profile.cfm?empName=Valerie%2.... A brief video documentary on Dr. Hu’s autism research can be accessed on the "Model Me Kids Website".

David Gould
Esq, Ficksman & Conley LLP

David Gould, Esq, Ficksman & Conley LLP. Mr. Gould is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers who has limited his practice for over thirty years exclusively to medical legal matters. He is a graduate of Suffolk Law School where he was a member of the Law Review. He has devoted his practice entirely to the representation of the medical community. He has been an active trial lawyer in the defense of medical litigation and represents health care providers before the Massachusetts Board of Registration. Mr. Gould directs a course at the Harvard University School of Continuing Education and lectures to hospitals and medical groups on liability prevention. Mr. Gould has also expanded his practice to represent the health care community in New Hampshire. Additionally, Mr. Gould has been recognized as one of the top 100 lawyers in Boston by Boston Magazine, is listed as a “Super Lawyer” and is listed as one of the “Best Lawyers in America”. He has defended significant medical malpractice actions in the courts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire and is a frequent lecturer to lawyers in methods of trial practice. He is a frequent lecturer of ACMES conferences and legal advisor for ACMES physicians.

Nanette K. Wenger

Nanette K. Wenger, MD, professor of medicine, Division of Cardiology, Emory University School of Medicine. In a legendary career that spans more than 50 years, Dr. Wenger’s steadfast dedication to reducing women’s disability and death from cardiovascular disease has made her one of the country’s most-respected experts on coronary heart disease in women.

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