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The Sequoia Project Annual Meeting 2022
Thank you for attending

A Big Thanks

This Year’s Annual Meeting was a Huge Success

We wanted to send out a big thank you to all of our Sequoia Project members who attended and made this year’s Annual Meeting special. Also we’d like to reach out to all speakers and panelists who dedicated their time to provide wonderful presentations and professional insights. Be sure to sign-up for updates and stay tuned for videos and other announcements following this year’s meeting. We hope you’ll join us again next year.

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Meeting Agenda

Carequality Sessions

Carequality afternoon sessions were included with The Sequoia Project Annual Meeting Registration

SESSION

1

Carequality Keynote:

Alex Mugge, Deputy Chief Health Informatics Officer, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Alexandra Mugge is the Deputy Chief Health Informatics Officer at the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services. She has been with CMS since 2010 and during that time she has worked on multiple CMS quality reporting and value-based purchasing programs, with a focus on health IT.

Alex Mugge

Alex Mugge

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

SESSION

2

Perspectives from ONC

ONC and RCE representatives shared the journey of TEFCA development and implementation, and their vision as the first prospective QHINs move toward designation and go-live.

Micky Tripathi

Dr. Micky Tripathi

ONC (invited)

Dr. Micky Tripathi
ONC

Micky Tripathi is the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he leads the formulation of the federal health IT strategy and coordinates federal health IT policies, standards, programs, and investments. 

Dr. Tripathi has over 20 years of experience across the health IT landscape. He most recently served as Chief Alliance Officer for Arcadia, a health care data and software company focused on population health management and value-based care, the project manager of the Argonaut Project, an industry collaboration to accelerate the adoption of FHIR, and a board member of HL7, the Sequoia Project, the CommonWell Health Alliance, and the CARIN Alliance.

Dr. Tripathi served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC), a non-profit health IT advisory and clinical data analytics company. He was also the founding President and CEO of the Indiana Health Information Exchange, a statewide HIE partnered with the Regenstrief Institute, an Executive Advisor to investment firm LRVHealth, and a Fellow at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.

He holds a PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University, and an AB in political science from Vassar College. Prior to receiving his PhD, he was a Presidential Management Fellow and a senior operations research analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense in Washington, DC, for which he received the Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Medal.

SESSION

3

Supporting Payment and Healthcare Operations in TEFCA

Since TEFCA was published in January 2022, the broader community has turned its attention to further use cases including aspects of payment and healthcare operations.

Zoe Barber photo

Zoe Barber

The Sequoia Project

Paul Wilder

Paul Wilder

CommonWell Health Alliance

Genevieve Morris

Genevieve Morris

Change Healthcare

Derek DeYoung

Derek De Young

Epic

Matt Eisenberg

Dr. Matthew Eisenberg

Stanford Medicine Health Care

Zoe Barber
The Sequoia Project

Zoe Barber has a decade of experience working to advance health IT adoption, health information exchange, and interoperability. She currently serves as Policy Director for the Sequoia Project where she leads the organization’s government affairs and industry relations strategy on the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA), information blocking, and other legislative and regulatory activities impacting the health IT landscape. Previously, she served as Senior Manager of Federal Policy at the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC),NY’s State Designated Entity charged with the governance, coordination, and administration of the Statewide Health Information Network for New York (SHIN-NY). Zoe also worked as a Senior Policy Advisor at the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)on nationwide health information network initiatives. She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the George Washington University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Lehigh University.

Paul Wilder
CommonWell Health Alliance

With over two decades in health IT, Paul L Wilder has held various roles focusing on imaging, clinical informatics and interoperability. As the Executive Director of CommonWell Health Alliance, he runs the not-for-profit trade association devoted to the simple vision that health data should be available to individuals and caregivers regardless of where care occurs. CommonWell members have deployed CommonWell services across its network in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. More than 25k provider sites are utilizing these services daily.

Genevieve Morris
Change Healthcare

Genevieve is a health IT policy wonk who leads Change Healthcare’s interoperability strategy for the medical networks team. Prior to joining Change Healthcare, Genevieve worked as an independent contractor for a number of health IT companies, helping them understand the health IT regulatory landscape and build product roadmaps to meet the needs of individuals across the healthcare ecosystem. Genevieve also served as the Principal Deputy National Coordinator, supporting the development of the information blocking regulation. She also developed the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) policy. Genevieve also served as the Chief Health Information Officer for the VA’s Office of EHR Modernization.

Dr. Matthew Eisenberg
Stanford Medicine Health care

Dr. Matthew A. Eisenberg joined Stanford Health Care in early 2013 and is the Associate Chief Medical Information Officer.  Stanford Health Care is a not-for-profit academic healthcare system with leading edge clinical capabilities that is part of Stanford Medicine. Stanford Health Care seeks to heal humanity through science and compassion one patient at a time and its mission is to care, to educate, and to discover. In his role at Stanford Health Care, Dr. Eisenberg focuses on interoperability and health information exchange as well as government and regulatory reporting, health care analytics, patient reported outcomes and other uses of technology to meet our strategic initiatives.

SESSION

4

Securing Health Information Exchange for the Public Good

A discussion about the principles to secure exchange and the expectations for QHINs and participants

Johnathan Coleman

Johnathan Coleman

RCE CISO

Johnathan Coleman
RCE CISO

Johnathan Coleman currently serves as the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for the TEFCA Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE)and provides SME support to the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT and the Defense Health Agency (DHA). He previously worked as Coordinator for the ONC Standards and Interoperability (S&I) Framework and led several projects including the Data Segmentation for Privacy (DS4P)and Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Data Tagging projects. Johnathan has a BEng in Aeromechanical Systems Engineering from the Royal Military College of Science in UK, maintains professional security certifications including CISSP, CISM and CRISC, and co-chairs the Community Based Care and Privacy workgroup at Health Level 7 (HL7) International.

SESSION

5

TEFCA and Public Health: What’s in it for you?

As the first QHINs prepare to go-live, the RCE is turning its focus on addressing the need to support exchange for public health purposes. This panel featured experts who highlight the specific challenges facing public health data sharing and plans to expand interoperability. 

Debbie Condrey

Debbie Condrey

The Sequoia Project

Rachel Abbey

Rachel Abbey

ONC

Jay Nakashima

Jay Nakashima

eHealth Exchange

Kyle Russell

Kyle Russell

Virginia Health Information

Adam Harrell

Adam Harrell

Virginia Department of Health Office of Emergency Medical Services

Mike Sarkissian

Mike Sarkissian

Virginia Department of Health

Debbie Condrey
The Sequoia Project

Debbie Condrey has over 33 years of experience in information technology, mostly in state government.  Her career began as a math teacher in the secondary education.  She then moved on to an applications analyst position with the Virginia Department of Transportation where she quickly progressed to the Director of IT for the Department.  When the Governor of Virginia made the decision to consolidate all information technology services in Virginia under one Agency, Debbie was named the Director of Customer Relationship Management for the Virginia Information Technologies Agency.  In 2009, Debbie moved on to the Chief Information Officer Virginia for the Virginia Department of Health, where her goal to make a direct difference for the citizens of Virginia truly came to fruition.  Under Debbie’s leadership, key health information tools such as the All Payer Claims Database, the Health Information Exchange (ConnectVirginia HIE) and the Emergency Department Care Coordination Program were implemented.  The latter project achieved interoperability among the 122 hospitals in Virginia and payers in Virginia; a key step toward delivering health care to the citizens at the right time and in the right setting.  In June 2019, Debbie retired from state government and joined The Sequoia Project, Inc as the Chief Information Officer.  In this role, she is responsible for managing and overseeing all IT-related projects for Sequoia and works closely with eHealth Exchange and Carequality.  Her background and heart for public service fit perfectly with the mission of The Sequoia Project – advancing health information technology interoperability for the public good.

Rachel Abbey
ONC

Rachel Abbey, MPH, is a Public Health Analyst with the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Rachel is currently with ONC’s Office of Policy and supports ONC’s public health, emergency preparedness and Emergency Medical Services and health information exchange activities. Before joining ONC in 2013, Rachel served for nine years as the Project Manager for the Montgomery County, Maryland Advanced Practice Center for Public Health Preparedness. Over the span of her career, Rachel has worked at the national, state and local level for almost 20 years in the areas of environmental health, emergency preparedness, violence prevention, maternal and child health and health information technology. Rachel received her Bachelor of Arts in Peace and Global Studies from Earlham College and her Master in Public Health from the University of Maryland, School of Public Health.

Jay Nakashima
eHealth Exchange

Over the past 25 years Jay Nakashima has designed and implemented EHRs, optimized clinical workflow, and spearheaded data exchange.  Jay has worked for health IT vendors, providers, payers, and now leads the eHealth Exchange, the nation’s oldest and largest health information network.  Convening industry and government, the eHealth Exchange is dedicated to addressing the challenges of secure, health information exchange to improve patient care. 

Jay began his career with IBM Asia Pacific headquarters in Tokyo, specializing in technology research and development, but focused the subsequent 25 years on health information technology. After IBM, Jay earned an MBA, served as the CIO of Colorado's largest health plan, Vice President of Product Management for a major EHR vendor, and joined DaVita to align business needs with advanced technology solutions.

At DaVita, beyond the technology side of interoperability, Jay faced on the healthcare landscape, healthcare regulations, health technology standards, and interoperability best practices. In 2018, Jay joined eHealth Exchange as its Vice President and Executive Director. eHealth Exchange is now the nation's largest health information exchange.

In 2018, Jay joined eHealth Exchange as its Executive Director. Convening industry and government, the eHealth Exchange is dedicated to addressing the challenges of secure, health information exchange to improve patient care. eHealth Exchange is now the nation's largest health information exchange. Over the past 25 years Jay Nakashima has designed and implemented EHRs, optimized clinical workflow, and spearheaded data exchange. 

Kyle Russell
Virginia Health Information

Kyle Russell is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Virginia Health Information (VHI), the non-profit organization which operates the Commonwealth's Health Information Exchange (HIE), Emergency Department Care Coordination Program (EDCCP), All Payer Claims Database (APCD) and several other data collection systems. He joined VHI in 2013 and has previously held roles within the organization overseeing strategic partnerships, analytical reporting and program performance. Prior to joining VHI, Kyle managed revenue cycle operations at Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). He holds a Masters of Science in Decision Analytics and a Bachelors of Science in Finance from Virginia Commonwealth University where he was a Dean's Scholar awardee. He serves as adjunct faculty within the VCU Master of Health Administration (MHA) Program, has been published in several academic journals including Health Affairs and sits on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Health Data Organizations (NAHDO) and Covenant Woods Continuing Care Retirement Community.

Adam Harrell
Virginia Department of Health Office of Emergency Medical Services

Adam Harrell, serves as the Associate Director of the Office of Emergency Medical Services and has 11 years of service at the Virginia Department of Health.  He began his career as a Paramedic serving Halifax County, Virginia and later relocated to Fairfax County when he began work with VDH as an EMS Program Representative for the Northern Virginia Region.  In his time with VDH Adam has served as an Educational Specialist, Business Manager, and Associate Director.  

Adam has presented nationally on Virginia’s Emergency Medical Services data programs; many of which serve as a best practice model for state EMS data registries.  He is an active participant and serves as the State of Virginia’s EMS Data Manager with the National Association of State EMS Officials (NASEMSO).

Adam holds undergraduate degrees in management and accounting from Liberty University, a MBA and MPA from Liberty University, a Doctorate of Divinity and is a doctoral candidate in business administration.  In addition to multiple specialty certifications in emergency medical services, information technology, data science/analytics, and project management; he is also an ordained minister and adjunct professor for multiple universities. 

Mike Sarkissian
Virginia Department of Health

A 1995 graduate of the US Coast Guard Academy, Mike began his IT career in 2001 and has primarily stayed within healthcare-related IT since then. In 2016 he graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a Master’s in Information Systems, concentrating on data issues. Since then, he has focused on the intersection and interplay between Data Governance, Management, Architecture, and Engineering concepts. Mike is currently leading VDH’s initiative to migrate its data environment to GCP.

Sequoia Project Sessions

SESSION

1

Welcome and Opening Remarks

The Sequoia Project’s CEO opened the meeting to share the latest developments and upcoming priorities for 2023.

Mariann Yeager

Mariann Yeager

CEO at The Sequoia Project

Mariann Yeager
CEO at The Sequoia Project

Mariann Yeager has more than 20 years of experience in the health information technology field. She currently serves as CEO for The Sequoia Project, a non-profit solely focused on advancing secure, interoperable nationwide health data sharing in the US.  She leads the Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE) effort, in close collaboration with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to develop, implement, and maintain the Common Agreement component of the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) and to operationalize the Qualified Health Information Network (QHIN) designation and monitoring process. The Sequoia Project serves as a steward of independently governed health IT interoperability initiatives, including the RSNA Image Share Validation Program and the Interoperability Matters program, which engages experts from across the healthcare and health IT communities to collaborate to solve discrete challenges to nationwide health information sharing through various workgroups. Ongoing Interoperability Matters workgroups include Information Blocking workgroup, Data Usability workgroup, and the Emergency Preparedness workgroup.  Under her leadership, The Sequoia Project supported, the startup, growth and maturation of two highly successfully interoperability initiatives, the eHealth Exchange and Carequality, which now operate as independent non-profit organizations.  Prior to her tenure at The Sequoia Project, she worked with the HHS Office of National Coordinator (ONC) for five years on nationwide health information network initiatives.  She also led the launch and operation of the first ambulatory and inpatient EHR certification program in the US.

SESSION

2

Awards Presentation

Sequoia’s board chair will present awards to volunteers and staff for exceptional contributions.

Michael Hodgkins

Dr. Michael Hodgkins

Board Chair at The Sequoia Project

Lee Barrett

Lee Barrett

Interoperability Matters Co-Chair

Lee Barrett
Interoperability Matters Co-Chair

Lee Barrett is the CEO and Executive Director of the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC), a federally recognized, standards development organization designed to improve transactional quality, operational efficiency and data security in healthcare. He has served in this capacity since the commission’s inception in 1993.

Barrett works on key initiatives that lay the foundation for health information technology – including support and implementation of important healthcare legislative mandates. He was appointed by Dr. Donald Rucker, National Coordinator of the ONC to the Executive Steering Committee for the ONC Payer + Provider FAST FHIR Task Force, is a member of the HHS Cybersecurity Task Force (405d), and Chair of the National Trust Network Data Sharing and Cybersecurity Task Group.

Prior to his role at EHNAC, Barrett spent ten years leading healthcare professional services organizations including PricewaterhouseCoopers, SAIC, Covansys and Virtusa, and 20 years in senior management roles in payer organizations including Travelers and Aetna. He has held senior leadership positions with the American Dental Association Business Enterprises Inc. (ADABEI), the for-profit, wholly owned subsidiary of the ADA, a provider organization, and facilitated growth and acquisition for several healthcare software/services development companies including MBEXX, Claredi, HealthEC and others.

He has served as chairman of WEDI, and ASCX12N Insurance Subcommittee and currently serves on the eHi Leadership Council, the Safe Identity Board, the Discover Alliance Board, and previously on the DirectTrust and HealthEC boards and provided his expertise to many other industry boards. He speaks nationally regarding security, privacy, ransomware and cybersecurity risk management/assessment and mitigation strategies, tactics and best practices, 21st Century Cures and TEFCA including FHIR and is a sought-after resource for industry media on these same topics.

SESSION

3

Keynote:

Dr. Mary G. Greene, Director of the Office of Burden Reduction & Health Informatics, CMS

Mary Greene, Director of the Office of Burden Reduction & Health Informatics Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), opened The Sequoia Project’s 2022 annual meeting, with a keynote address that highlighted the interoperability priorities and burden reduction activities in Medicare and Medicaid.

Dr. Mary Greene image

Dr. Mary Greene

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

Dr. Mary Greene
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

Dr. Mary G. Greene is the Director of the Office of Burden Reduction & Health Informatics. She is responsible for unifying CMS's efforts to reduce regulatory and administrative burden for beneficiaries and the medical community, enabling the health system to focus on providing higher quality care at lower cost and to foster innovation in health care delivery. She oversees initiatives to modernize regulations, drive interoperability, and improve the adoption and enforcement of HIPAA Administrative Simplification national standards and operating rules, and engages external stakeholders through listening sessions and onsite observational visits.
 
Previously, Dr. Greene served as senior advisor to the CMS Office of the Administrator leading and supporting CMS's burden reduction initiatives. Prior to that, Dr. Greene was the Director of the Governance Management Group in the CMS Center for Program Integrity (CPI), where she led CPI's vulnerability management, program risk assessment, regulation development, strategy development, and performance oversight functions.
 
Before joining CMS, Dr. Greene led strategy and operational support projects to stand up new programs, improve operational efficiencies, build collaborations, and foster professional development. Dr. Greene, a pediatrician and Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, completed her medical education at the Yale School of Medicine, clinical training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Masters in Public Health at the Yale School of Public Health, and Masters in Business Administration at Loyola College in Maryland.

SESSION

4

You Are Here: Checking in on the TEFCA Timeline and Roadmap

Participants heard the latest updates regarding TEFCA, followed by a reaction panel of prospective QHINs. Panelists talked about why they are applying to be a QHIN, what they hope to get out of TEFCA, and what the process has been like so far.

Zoe Barber photo

Zoe Barber

The Sequoia Project

Alan Swenson photo

Alan Swenson

Carequality

Jay Nakashima

Jay Nakashima

eHealth Exchange

Matt Becker

Matt Becker

Kno2

Laura McCrary

Laura MCrary

KONZA

John Blair

John Blair

MedAllies

Dave Cassel

Health Gorilla

Rob Klootwyk

Rob Klootwyk

Epic

Zoe Barber
The Sequoia Project

Zoe Barber has a decade of experience working to advance health IT adoption, health information exchange, and interoperability. She currently serves as Policy Director for the Sequoia Project where she leads the organization’s government affairs and industry relations strategy on the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA), information blocking, and other legislative and regulatory activities impacting the health IT landscape. Previously, she served as Senior Manager of Federal Policy at the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC),NY’s State Designated Entity charged with the governance, coordination, and administration of the Statewide Health Information Network for New York (SHIN-NY). Zoe also worked as a Senior Policy Advisor at the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)on nationwide health information network initiatives. She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the George Washington University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Lehigh University.

Alan Swenson
Carequality

As Executive Director of Carequality, Alan Swenson guides the development and implementation of the Carequality Interoperability Framework, the leading, nationwide trusted exchange framework enabling health data sharing across and among different types of networks and service providers. First implemented in July 2016, the framework now supports the exchange of more than 300M documents a month across more than 4,200 hospitals and 50,000 clinics. Alan also leads Carequality in supporting The Sequoia Project as the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s (ONC’s) Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE). Alan has spent more than a decade focused on health IT interoperability. Before leading Carequality, he helped lead an exponential increase in patient record sharing through direct collaboration with hundreds of healthcare systems and provider organizations, EHR vendors, HIEs, HISPs, PHRs, payers, government agencies, and other digital health platforms. He has also volunteered with The Sequoia Project, National Association for the Support of Long-Term Care (NASL), CommonWell Health Alliance, DirectTrust, National Quality Forum, and HIMSS, among other industry interoperability initiatives.

Jay Nakashima
eHealth Exchange

Over the past 25 years Jay Nakashima has designed and implemented EHRs, optimized clinical workflow, and spearheaded data exchange.  Jay has worked for health IT vendors, providers, payers, and now leads the eHealth Exchange, the nation’s oldest and largest health information network.  Convening industry and government, the eHealth Exchange is dedicated to addressing the challenges of secure, health information exchange to improve patient care. 

Jay began his career with IBM Asia Pacific headquarters in Tokyo, specializing in technology research and development, but focused the subsequent 25 years on health information technology. After IBM, Jay earned an MBA, served as the CIO of Colorado's largest health plan, Vice President of Product Management for a major EHR vendor, and joined DaVita to align business needs with advanced technology solutions.

At DaVita, beyond the technology side of interoperability, Jay faced on the healthcare landscape, healthcare regulations, health technology standards, and interoperability best practices. In 2018, Jay joined eHealth Exchange as its Vice President and Executive Director. eHealth Exchange is now the nation's largest health information exchange.

In 2018, Jay joined eHealth Exchange as its Executive Director. Convening industry and government, the eHealth Exchange is dedicated to addressing the challenges of secure, health information exchange to improve patient care. eHealth Exchange is now the nation's largest health information exchange. Over the past 25 years Jay Nakashima has designed and implemented EHRs, optimized clinical workflow, and spearheaded data exchange. 

Matt Becker
Kno2

Matt is the Vice President of Interoperability at Kno2, where his focus is on improving interoperability across the entire continuum of care. He is responsible for overseeing specific projects aimed to extend interoperability into hard-to-reach markets, and groups not previously part of government incentive programs to drive interoperability, such as LTPAC, behavioral health, EMS and more. Matt actively volunteers and contributes to standards development and rulemaking.He is an elected member of the Carequality Steering Committee. He also participates with CommonWell, DirectTrust™, HIMSS, NASL, PAICO Project, The Sequoia Project, and 360X Referral Management Protocol among other industry interoperability initiatives.

Laura MCrary
Konza

Dr. Laura McCrary is the President and CEO of the Kansas Health Information Network, Inc. doing business as KONZA. KONZA is a nationwide not-for-profit organization that provides a suite of secure technical products and services to assist health care providers and health plans achieve success in value-based payment programs. KONZA products and services include nationwide health information exchange services, data science as a service (DSaaS), clinical alerting, data aggregation, quality reporting and analytics.

Laura completed Post-Doctoral work at Kansas University and a Doctorate of Education from Kansas State University. Laura served as an adjunct professor at Rockhurst University-Helzberg School of Management and taught courses in Health Information Technology and Quality. Laura is former Chair of the National Policy Steering Committee for eHealth Initiative and the Past-Co-chair of the Advisory Board for the Sequoia Project.

John Blair
MedAllies

John Blair, III, MD, F.A.C.S., CEO of MedAllies, is a health care and technology executive with broad experience across the health care industry. MedAllies securely delivers vital health information to impact care by operating multiple nationwide interoperable networks supporting all healthcare constituents. MedAllies focuses on optimizing the adoption and usage of healthcare interoperability for the people, systems and services connected to our MedAllies networks, eliminating information care gaps and fostering a truly interoperable and connected future. We serve more than 700 hospitals, 100,000 providers and dozens of vendor partners bringing together millions for a more fluid healthcare experience. MedAllies operates a Direct Trust accredited Certificate Authority, Registration Authority, and Health Information Service Provider running on the 2015 edition ONC certified MedAllies Direct Solution software. MedAllies is a Carequality Implementor supporting treatment and Individua Access Services. MedAllies is HITRUST CSF certified and is aligning with QHIN requirements with the intention to apply during the first application round.

Dave Cassel
Health Gorilla

Dave Cassel is the SVP of Customer Success and Operations at Health Gorilla. He has 25 years of experience in healthcare technology and was instrumental in the launch of Carequality, where he served as Executive Director for six years. Prior to Carequality, he spent 17 years at Epic, where he led implementation and support for the Care Everywhere health information exchange application.

SESSION

5

From Compliance to Culture: Good Practices in Information Sharing

Co-chairs of the Information Blocking Compliance Workgroup discussed the suite of resources they created to provide guidance on information blocking compliance good practices, challenges in implementation and the importance of developing a culture of information sharing.

Josh Mast photo

Josh Mast

Oracle Health (formerly Cerner)

Matt Eisenberg

Dr. Matthew Eisenberg

Stanford Medicine Health Care

Chantal Worzala photo

Chantal Worzala

Alazro Consulting

Josh Mast
Oracle Health (formerly Cerner)

Joshua Mast, Director and Product Regulatory Strategist, Regulatory Strategy Team: My role involves review legislation and regulation to determine impact to ORACLE Cerner’s products and how our clients may use them for compliance with those regulations as well as educating others on those regulatory requirements. I am currently on the Board of Directors for the Sequoia Project, a Co-Chair and member of the Information Blocking Workgroup for the Sequoia Project’s Interoperability Matters group and will begin serving as the Chair of the EHRA Public Policy Committee in January 2023. My wife and I also have four crazy boys, including nearly three-year old twins, at home to teach us about sharing.

Dr. Matthew Eisenberg
Stanford Medicine Health care

Dr. Matthew A. Eisenberg joined Stanford Health Care in early 2013 and is the Associate Chief Medical Information Officer.  Stanford Health Care is a not-for-profit academic healthcare system with leading edge clinical capabilities that is part of Stanford Medicine. Stanford Health Care seeks to heal humanity through science and compassion one patient at a time and its mission is to care, to educate, and to discover. In his role at Stanford Health Care, Dr. Eisenberg focuses on interoperability and health information exchange as well as government and regulatory reporting, health care analytics, patient reported outcomes and other uses of technology to meet our strategic initiatives.

Chantal Worzala
Alazro Consulting

Chantal Worzala is Principal at Alazro Consulting. An experienced policy expert, she helps technology companies, associations, provider organizations, and patient advocates to understand and navigate the digital health policy landscape. She has a broad range of expertise in federal health programs, digital health innovation and adoption, interoperability, privacy, and administrative simplification, Medicare payment policy, health care quality, and new models of care. Chantal previously served as vice president of health information policy at the American Hospital Association, where she was recognized as a leading voice on digital health policy. Chantal also served as Senior Analyst for the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. She holds a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and an MPA from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

SESSION

6

Demystifying Data Usability: Implementation Guidelines and Next Steps toward Semantic Interoperability

The Data Usability Workgroup is focused on improvements necessary to enable semantic interoperability of health information. During the session they shared a roadmap of implementation guidance for adoption in provider-to-provider health information exchange, provider-to-public health agency information exchange, and healthcare entity-to-consumer information exchange.

Didi Davis

Didi Davis

The Sequoia Project

Dr. William Gregg

Dr. William Gregg

HCA Healthcare

Steven Lane

Dr. Steven Lane

Health Gorilla

Lauren Riplinger

Lauren Riplinger

AHIMA

Matt Doyle

Matt Doyle

Epic

Didi Davis
The Sequoia Project

Mrs. Davis has >25years’ experience in the healthcare industry with emphasis on conformance testing, implementation, development, and management of information technology solutions and healthcare workflow requirements. She serves as the VP, Informatics, Conformance and Interoperability for the Sequoia Project that is a 501©3 not for profit organization based in Washington, DC. Her expertise includes connecting people, processes and technology to improve health care. She is responsible for the operations of 8 testing programs for Sequoia, including the RCE onboarding testing for TEFCA. She leads a group of experts from a wide range of stakeholders across the US to develop specific and pragmatic implementation guidance on improving data quality of the clinical content exchanged among networks and communities in the Data Usability workgroup under the Sequoia Interoperability Matters Forum. She also acts as the subject matter expert supporting the deployment efforts of the Image Exchange Use Case Implementation Guide for Carequality.

Dr. Steven Lane
Health Gorilla

Health Gorilla's Chief Medical Officer Steven Lane, MD, MPH, has worked in Clinical Informatics for over 25 years, most recently as the Clinical Informatics Director of Privacy, Information Security, and Interoperability at Sutter Health, and has been a primary care physician for more than 35 years. Dr. Lane is chairman of the Carequality Steering Committee and a member of The Sequoia Project board of directors. He is also on the Health Information Technology Advisory Committee (HITAC), the HIMSS Interoperability & HIE Committee, and the Da Vinci Project Clinical Advisory Council.

Lauren Riplinger
AHIMA

Lauren Riplinger, JD, currently serves as AHIMA’s vice president of policy and government affairs. In this capacity she is responsible for AHIMA’s advocacy before Congress and various federal agencies. With nearly two decades of healthcare policy experience, Riplinger previously worked on Capitol Hill where she was actively involved in almost every aspect of a congressional office, including serving as chief of staff—a position that requires the ability to quickly synthesize multiple issues and adapt to constantly shifting priorities. Riplinger received her JD from American University Washington College of Law and a BA in economics and history from Vanderbilt University. She is admitted to practice law in New York.

Matt Doyle
Epic

Matt has worked as a healthcare developer for over 15 years, with the last decade focused on interoperability. He is the development lead for Care Everywhere, working with the healthcare community to identify and prioritize projects of strategic value to patients, providers, payers, and more. His team has helped healthcare providers successfully implement a variety of standards-based, interoperable workflows, including real-time chart exchange, electronic closed-loop referrals, disability benefits determination, and international exchange.

SESSION

7

Consumer Voices: The Sequoia Project Elevating Consumer Engagement

This panel highlighted the goals for the newest Interoperability Matters group Consumer Voices.  Information was shared about patient and caregiver experiences trying to access health data. The goal was to shine a spotlight on patient and caregiver stories to spur decision-makers to overcome these urgent challenges starting in 2023.

Bren Shipley

Bren Shipley

The Sequoia Project

Shannah Koss

LivPact

Deven McGraw

Deven McGraw

Invitae

Bren Shipley
The Sequoia Project

Bren Shipley leads strategy and business development for The Sequoia Project. Prior to joining Sequoia, Bren was the Chief Operating Officer for digital health startup Midato Health and previously served as Connecticut’s interim health information technology officer, coordinating a diverse portfolio of Health IT projects, including the development of the state’s Five-Year Health IT Plan across state agencies, multi-stakeholder forums, the state’s HIE, and technology vendors. Bren was instrumental in securing Connecticut’s $45 million State Innovation Model grant funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. She worked across stakeholders to develop operational plans for population health improvement, value-based payment, value-based insurance design, practice transformation, stakeholder engagement, program evaluation and Health IT. Bren earlier directed projects to launch a health equity research institute at UConn Health and worked with Connecticut’s Office of The Healthcare Advocate where she developed a framework for legislative policy action and wrote healthcare policy briefs and legislative testimony to effectuate health policy change. Prior to her public sector and academic work, Bren led operations, sales, marketing, and business development teams for two successful (IPO and acquisition) healthcare technology start-ups. One start-up was a healthcare data management company that connected enrollment, eligibility and financial data of large employers and health plans and the other was a pioneer in the SaaS space, providing a consumer-facing health benefits enrollment platform. Bren began her career at Cigna Health implementing new products, services, and technologies. Bren’s experiences as a cancer survivor and caregiver for Mom catalyzed her work championing patient rights and safety. Bren earned a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Connecticut and a master’s degree in health advocacy from Sarah Lawrence College.

Shannah Koss
LivPact

Shannah Koss is a consumer representative on the Sequoia Project Board, President of Koss on Care LLC, Executive Vice President of Community Development for Livpact Inc., a technology platform, for caregivers and families, that simplifies the processes, communications and logistics of care and daily living.
 
She is an executive healthcare leader with over 30years of achievements in government policy and healthcare, advancing organizations that span the industry -government, fortune 100, consulting, care services and technology companies.
 
Prior roles include Vice president of Avalere Health, Senior Vice President of I-Trax, Vice President of Health Solutions for Voxiva and HIPAA National Practice Executive at IBM. Shannah began her policy career at the White House Office of Management and Budget. Shannah is committed to promoting needed reform in the US health system through better consumer engagement. She has been a consumer advocate since 1980.

Deven McGraw
Invitae

Deven McGraw is the lead for Data Stewardship and Data Sharing at Invitae. Previously, she co-founded Ciitizen, a platform for patients to gather their health information, prior to its acquisition by Invitae.  From 2015-2017, she directed U.S. health privacy and security as Deputy Director, Health Information Privacy at the HHS Office for Civil Rights and Chief Privacy Officer (Acting) of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.  Widely recognized for her expertise in health privacy, she directed the Health Privacy Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology for six years and led the privacy and security policy work for the HITECH Health IT Policy Committee.  She also served as the Chief Operating Officer of the National Partnership for Women and Families.  She advised health industry clients on HIPAA compliance and data governance while a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP.  Deven graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center and has a Masters of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. 

SESSION

8

Interoperability Meets Emergency Readiness: Lessons from the Pandemic

Following on the well-received publication of the Pandemic Response Insights and Recommendations whitepaper, the Emergency Preparedness Information Workgroup discussed a new public health interoperability policy roadmap for adoption by cities, counties, and states.

Debbie Condrey

Debbie Condrey

The Sequoia Project

Nora Belcher

Nora Belcher

Texas e-Health Alliance

Adam Harrell

Adam Harrell

Virginia Department of Health Office of Emergency Medical Services

Debbie Condrey
The Sequoia Project

Debbie Condrey has over 33 years of experience in information technology, mostly in state government.  Her career began as a math teacher in the secondary education.  She then moved on to an applications analyst position with the Virginia Department of Transportation where she quickly progressed to the Director of IT for the Department.  When the Governor of Virginia made the decision to consolidate all information technology services in Virginia under one Agency, Debbie was named the Director of Customer Relationship Management for the Virginia Information Technologies Agency.  In 2009, Debbie moved on to the Chief Information Officer Virginia for the Virginia Department of Health, where her goal to make a direct difference for the citizens of Virginia truly came to fruition.  Under Debbie’s leadership, key health information tools such as the All Payer Claims Database, the Health Information Exchange (ConnectVirginia HIE) and the Emergency Department Care Coordination Program were implemented.  The latter project achieved interoperability among the 122 hospitals in Virginia and payers in Virginia; a key step toward delivering health care to the citizens at the right time and in the right setting.  In June 2019, Debbie retired from state government and joined The Sequoia Project, Inc as the Chief Information Officer.  In this role, she is responsible for managing and overseeing all IT-related projects for Sequoia and works closely with eHealth Exchange and Carequality.  Her background and heart for public service fit perfectly with the mission of The Sequoia Project – advancing health information technology interoperability for the public good.

Nora Belcher
Texas e-Health Alliance

Nora Belcher is the Executive Director of the Texas e-Health Alliance, a non-profit advocacy group that she started in 2009 to give health information technology stakeholders a voice in public policy. The Texas e-Health Alliance serves as the state's leading advocate, from local communities to the national level, for the use of information technology to improve the health care system for patients. Prior to starting the Alliance, Ms. Belcher worked in the private sector as a consultant advising health information technology companies on how to do business with government. She also served in Governor Perry's office for five years as deputy director in the Governor’s Office of Budget, Planning and Policy, where she was responsible for managing the policy and budget issues for the Texas health and human services system. Ms. Belcher holds a bachelor’s degree in government from the University of Texas at Austin and owns a hardcover first edition of Game of Thrones.

Adam Harrell
Virginia Department of Health Office of Emergency Medical Services

Adam Harrell, serves as the Associate Director of the Office of Emergency Medical Services and has 11 years of service at the Virginia Department of Health.  He began his career as a Paramedic serving Halifax County, Virginia and later relocated to Fairfax County when he began work with VDH as an EMS Program Representative for the Northern Virginia Region.  In his time with VDH Adam has served as an Educational Specialist, Business Manager, and Associate Director.  

Adam has presented nationally on Virginia’s Emergency Medical Services data programs; many of which serve as a best practice model for state EMS data registries.  He is an active participant and serves as the State of Virginia’s EMS Data Manager with the National Association of State EMS Officials (NASEMSO).

Adam holds undergraduate degrees in management and accounting from Liberty University, a MBA and MPA from Liberty University, a Doctorate of Divinity and is a doctoral candidate in business administration.  In addition to multiple specialty certifications in emergency medical services, information technology, data science/analytics, and project management; he is also an ordained minister and adjunct professor for multiple universities. 

SESSION

9

Greater Than the Sum: Engaging Stakeholders to Advance Interoperability

The Stakeholder Engagement Workgroup shared its recommendations to engage various stakeholder types in The Sequoia Project’s interoperability work, both within and beyond current membership.

Melanie Marcus photo

Melanie Marcus

Surescripts

SESSION

10

An Outlook for 2023:
Government Affairs Perspectives

The policy and government affairs experts reflected on health care and health IT legislative and regulatory activity in 2022 and explored what to expect in 2023.

Zoe Barber photo

Zoe Barber

The Sequoia Project

Chantal Worzala photo

Chantal Worzala

Alazro Consulting

Lindsey Elkind

Lindsey Elkind

The Sequoia Project

Lindsay Austin

Lindsay Austin

Troutman Pepper Strategies

Zoe Barber
The Sequoia Project

Zoe Barber has a decade of experience working to advance health IT adoption, health information exchange, and interoperability. She currently serves as Policy Director for the Sequoia Project where she leads the organization’s government affairs and industry relations strategy on the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA), information blocking, and other legislative and regulatory activities impacting the health IT landscape. Previously, she served as Senior Manager of Federal Policy at the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC),NY’s State Designated Entity charged with the governance, coordination, and administration of the Statewide Health Information Network for New York (SHIN-NY). Zoe also worked as a Senior Policy Advisor at the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)on nationwide health information network initiatives. She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the George Washington University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Lehigh University.

Chantal Worzala
Alazro Consulting

Chantal Worzala is Principal at Alazro Consulting. An experienced policy expert, she helps technology companies, associations, provider organizations, and patient advocates to understand and navigate the digital health policy landscape. She has a broad range of expertise in federal health programs, digital health innovation and adoption, interoperability, privacy, and administrative simplification, Medicare payment policy, health care quality, and new models of care. Chantal previously served as vice president of health information policy at the American Hospital Association, where she was recognized as a leading voice on digital health policy. Chantal also served as Senior Analyst for the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. She holds a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and an MPA from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

Lindsey Elkind
The Sequoia Project

Lindsey Elkind, Chief Legal Counsel for the Sequoia Project, is an experienced healthcare regulatory attorney with a strong focus in Health IT. She has advised both healthcare providers and non-profits on issues pertaining to policy and compliance with federal healthcare fraud and abuse laws, as well as telehealth, interoperability, information blocking, digital health, privacy, and trust frameworks. She formerly served as Assistant General Counsel for DaVita Inc, supporting its Kidney Care and Integrated Care businesses. Lindsey is focused on supporting nationwide health information exchange, healthcare innovation, and improvements to patient care.

Lindsay Austin
Troutman Pepper Strategies

Lindsay Austin is a Principal in the Washington, D.C. office of Troutman Pepper Strategies. Lindsay has nearly 15 years of congressional and legislative experience coupled with her work as a Washington government relations representative to corporations, industry associations, non-profits, and universities. Lindsay works with clients across numerous sectors, with an emphasis on health care, health information technology, public health, food safety, agriculture, education, and a variety of other policy areas. Combining her political and policy know-how with her Washington and Georgia network, Lindsay excels at developing and executing strategy for clients at the federal level.

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