Speakers

Douglas W. Hanto
M.D., Ph.D.

Douglas W. Hanto, M.D., Ph.D., is Chief of the Division of Transplantation within the Department of Surgery and Clinical Director of the Transplant Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), and Medical Director of the Advanced Vascular Care Center. He is also the Lewis Thomas Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Dr. Hanto received his M.D. from the University of Arizona College of Medicine, and his Ph.D. in Surgery from the University of Minnesota. He completed his surgical training, research fellowship, and transplant fellowship at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Dr. Hanto led the creation of the Transplant Institute at BIDMC, including planning the organizational and financial structure and strategic planning for the clinical, educational, and research aspects of all of organ transplantation at BIDMC. Dr. Hanto is an active clinical transplant and hepatobiliary surgeon and has been involved in the training and mentoring of surgery residents and transplant fellows for more than 20 years. He has had a longstanding interest in the post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLD) that occur after transplantation. Dr. Hanto uncovered the clinical syndromes associated with PTLD, their association with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), the morphological features that correlated with clinical presentation, and demonstrated that they were polyclonal B-cell proliferations that could evolve into monoclonal B-cell proliferations—resulting in improved techniques for preventing and treating these diseases. Dr. Hanto’s laboratory research is currently focused on the ability of carbon monoxide (CO) at low concentrations to be protective in rodent and large animal models of ischemia-reperfusion injury and delayed graft function, allograft rejection and survival, and in hepatic regeneration. He has shown in a pig kidney transplant model that low-dose inhaled carbon monoxide is able to prevent ischemia reperfusion injury, manifest as delayed graft function and a Phase II clinical trial has been initiated. Dr. Hanto also has an interest in health care disparities in transplantation and along with Dr. Keren Ladin, a Ph.D. candidate in Health Policy at Harvard University, is investigating the role of social networks and other factors in these disparities. Dr. Hanto is an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Transplantation and serves on the editorial board of Transplantation and World Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery. He is a director of the American Board of Surgery and serves as Chair of the Ethics Committee of the Transplantation Society (International). Dr. Hanto has served on the recent HMS task force that revised the faculty promotion and reappointment criteria, and currently serves on the Subcommittee of Professors and on the Standing Committee for Conflict of Interest. He has published over 200 articles, book chapters, editorials, and reviews.

John Halamka
MD

John Halamka, MD, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Chief Information Officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Chief Information Officer of Harvard Medical School, Chairman of the New England Healthcare Exchange Network (NEHEN),  co-Chair of the national HIT Standards Committee, and a practicing Emergency Physician. As Chief Information Officer at CareGroup, he is responsible for all clinical, financial, administrative and academic information technology serving 3,000 doctors, 12,000 employees and one million patients. As Chief Information Officer and Associate Dean for Educational Technology at Harvard Medical School, he oversees all educational, research and administrative computing for 18,000 faculty and 3,000 students. As Chairman of NEHEN he oversees the administrative data exchange in Massachusetts. As CEO of MA-Share he oversees the clinical data exchange efforts in Massachusetts. As Chair of HITSP he coordinates the process of electronic standards harmonization among all the stakeholders nationwide. He is an advisory editor of North American Journal of Medicine and Science and honored educator/speaker of ACMES.

Peter Libby
MD

Dr. Libby is the Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He also serves as the Mallinckrodt Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His current major research focus is the role of inflammation in vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis. Concepts that have evolved from his scientific work have changed thinking about how this common disease begins, the mechanisms that link risk factors to altered biology of the arterial wall, and the pathophysiology of the thrombotic complications of atherosclerosis including myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke.  Clinical application of these discoveries has led to tests that can predict cardiovascular events and identify individuals who can benefit from therapies not otherwise indicated. His areas of clinical expertise include general and preventive cardiology.  He is perennially named as one of America’s Top Doctors in the Castle-Connelly rankings, and was one of 25 cardiologists listed as a Top Doctor in 2010 by Boston Magazine. An author and lecturer on cardiovascular medicine and atherosclerosis, Dr. Libby has published over 300 original research reports in journals including Circulation, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, New England Journal of Medicine, Science, and Nature. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Eighth edition of Braunwald’s Heart Disease. Dr. Libby has also contributed the chapter on the pathogenesis, treatment, and prevention of atherosclerosis to many editions of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. He has held numerous visiting professorships and has been selected to deliver over 70 major named or keynote lectures throughout the world. Dr. Libby has received numerous awards and recognitions for his research accomplishments.  Dr. Libby received the Distinguished Scientist award (basic domain) from the American College of Cardiology in 2006.  Recent major recognitions include the Fernandez-Cruz Prize in 2008 (Madrid), and the inaugural International Teacher Award from the Brazilian Society of Cardiology in 2009, the Lucian Award for Circulatory Diseases from McGill University and the International Okamoto Award for Basic Research on Vascular Diseases in 2010.  He has been awarded the Gold Medal of the European Society of Cardiology and the Basic Science Prize from the American Heart Association in 2011.

Dr. Libby’s professional memberships include the Association of American Physicians, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and elected honorary memberships in the British Atherosclerosis Society and the Japan Circulation Society. He has served as the President of the Association of University Cardiologists. He also served in many roles as a volunteer for the American Heart Association, including chairman of several research committees and member of the executive committees of the Councils on Arteriosclerosis, Circulation, and Basic Science. He has frequently served as a consultant to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), including a 5-year term on the Board of Scientific Councilors. He was the recipient of a MERIT Award from the NHLBI..Dr. Libby has a particular interest in public education regarding heart disease, and served as the initiator and principal medical advisor to the acclaimed public television documentary series, The Mysterious Human Heart, which received an Emmy award.  Dr. Libby writes a cardiovascular blog, “Consults-Experts on the Front Lines of Medicine”, for the New York Times website (http://consults.blogs.nytimes.com). He is also the co-founder of a non-profit organization The International Partnership for Critical Markers of Disease (http://www.cmod.org/) to promote the development, evaluation, and appropriate clinical utilization of biomarker. Dr. Libby earned his medical degree at the University of California, San Diego, and completed his training in internal medicine and cardiology at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women’s Hospital). He also holds an honorary MA degree from Harvard University, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Lille. He is the honored speaker and educator of ACMES hospital management course and advisor of the society.

Ursula Kaiser
MD

Dr. Kaiser is Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kaiser received her medical degree and completed her clinical residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Endocrinology at University of Toronto Medical School in Canada.  She joined the Division of Genetics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in 1990 to pursue research in pituitary hormone regulation.  She was appointed to the faculty at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 1993 and to her current position as Chief, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2007. 

Dr. Kaiser has an active research program focused on the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying the neuroendocrine regulation of reproductive development and function. Dr. Kaiser’s research has received continuous NIH support for over fifteen years.  She is the Principal Investigator of several NIH R01 grants as well as the Associate Director of the Harvard Reproductive Endocrine Sciences Center, an NIH U54 Specialized Cooperative Center in Reproduction and Infertility Research.  She is also the Program Director of the NIH-funded Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) program to train junior faculty in women’s health research.  Dr. Kaiser is also an active clinician, focusing on neuroendocrinology and reproductive endocrinology.  Dr. Kaiser is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and is the recipient of the Ernst Oppenheimer Award of the Endocrine Society and the A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award at Harvard Medical School.She is an advisor and executive member of ACMES, she is also advisory editor of North American Journal of Medicine and Science.

Vikas P. Sukhatme
MD, PhD

Vikas P. Sukhatme, MD, PhD. Dr. Sukhatme is the Victor J. Aresty Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Chief Academic Officer and Harvard Faculty Dean for Academic Programs at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC).  He is also Chief of the Division of Interdisciplinary Medicine and Biotechnology in the Department of Medicine at BIDMC and a member of both the nephrology and hematology-oncology divisions in that department.   Following a doctorate in theoretical physics at MIT, he attended the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology and graduated from Harvard Medical School cum laude in 1979.  After clinical training in internal medicine and nephrology at Massachusetts General Hospital, he pursued an immunology fellowship at Stanford.  He was a Howard Hughes investigator at the University of Chicago from 1985 to 1992, after which he was recruited to Harvard.  Dr. Sukhatme’s research - detailed in over 200 articles - has spanned numerous basic science and clinical arenas, including the discovery of a family of mammalian transcription factors induced by extracellular growth and differentiation cues, and studies on the function of several genes important in kidney cancer and in polycystic kidney disease.  He has conducted research - interdisciplinary in nature and often collaborative – on disorders that affect blood vessels in the areas of tumor angiogenesis, toxemia of pregnancy, sepsis and vascular leak.  He and his colleagues have elucidated a major mechanism of statin-induced myopathy. His major current interest is in tumor metabolism and tumor immunology and on “outside-the-box” approaches to therapies for advanced cancer.  Additionally, he is active in Harvard-wide efforts with the Harvard Catalyst in promoting translational research, especially in the area of “novel translational technologies”.  Finally, he is a co-founder of a not-for-profit organization, GlobalCures, whose goal is to conduct clinical trials on promising therapies not being pursued by the for-profit sector, with a first focus on cancer.

Charlie Baker

Charlie Baker, Jr. was a cabinet official under two Massachusetts governors, spent ten years as CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and was the Republican candidate in the 2010 Massachusetts gubernatorial election. During his tenure as CEO, the company had 24 profitable quarters in a row and earned recognition from the National Committee for Quality Assurance as its choice for America's Best Health Plan for five straight years. Baker was invited to join the board of trustees of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Baker also serves on the board of directors of the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center.

Jianren Mao
MD, PhD

Jianren Mao is the Richard J. Kitz Professor of Anaesthesia Research at Harvard Medical School, Harvard University and a board-certified anesthesiologist and pain medicine specialist.  Dr. Mao is the Vice Chair for Research at the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the director of the MGH Center for Translational Pain Research.  Dr. Mao is an associate editor for Pain and Anesthesia & Analgesia (Pain and Analgesic Mechanisms), and an editorial board member of the Journal of Pain, Molecular Pain, and Journal of Neuropathic Pain.  He is a reviewer for over 35 professional journals and was a section editor for Pain Medicine (translational research) for 9 years.  He has served on a number of grant-reviewing study sections including U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, Canadian Research Council, Austrian Science Foundation, and Danish Council for Strategic Research.  Dr. Mao has authored or co-authored over 130 publications and 75 abstracts and published, as a sole editor, three books. Dr. Mao is an active advisor and executive member of ACMES, he is also advisory editor of North American Journal of Medicine and Science.

Peter Holden

Peter Holden, President and Chief Executive Officer of Jordan Hospital Systems, Inc. and several of its subsidiaries. Peter has over thirty years of experience in Hospital Administration and has a reputation for superb leadership and a history of achieving outstanding results in diverse healthcare organizations. He served as President and CEO for CARITAS CHRISTI HEALTH CARE SYSTEM, INC, GOOD SAMARITAN HOSPITAL and VITALNET GROUP before he joined Jordan Hospital system 2007. His Experience Includes: CARITAS CHRISTI HEALTH CARE SYSTEM, INC. (Boston); President & CEO, Caritas Holy Family Hospital; President & CEO, Caritas Good Samaritan Medical Center; Vice President, System Operations, TRIHEALTH, INC. (Cincinnati, Ohio); President and Chief Operating Officer, GOOD SAMARITAN HOSPITAL (Cincinnati, Ohio); President and Chief Executive Officer, VITALNET GROUP (Buffalo, New York); Vice President, Management and Planning Services, HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK STATE MANAGEMENT AND PLANNING SERVICES INC. (Albany, New York); Chief Executive Officer, CLIFTON FINE HOSPITAL (Star Lake, New York). Major Accomplishments: While at CARITAS CHRISTI HEALTH CARE SYSTEM, Peter orchestrated a financial turnaround from a $14 million dollar annual loss and default on bonds to a $6 million dollar annual gain in just over three years. He reversed a medical staff exodus to build the largest active staff in hospital history through recruitment, retention and establishment of a healthy and collaborative culture. He also, initiated ongoing fundraising efforts and conducted a successful capital campaign to support major expansion and modernization programs. At TRIHEALTH, INC. and GOOD SAMARITAN HOSPITAL (Cincinnati, Ohio) Peter consolidated the management, operations, staff and clinical programs of three large institutions into an efficient integrated healthcare delivery system and also created an open heart cardiovascular program at Bethesda North Hospital. He improved operating and clinical systems which improved hospital performance resulting in an $80 million dollar increase in fund balances. The hospital was recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the nation’s “Top 100 Hospitals”.

Pages