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Health Literacy Implications for Health Care Reform: Workshop Summary (2011)

Chapter: Appendix B: Workshop Speaker Biosketches

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Workshop Speaker Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Health Literacy Implications for Health Care Reform: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13056.
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B

Workshop Speaker Biosketches

Cheryl Bettigole, M.D., M.P.H., is a board certified family physician and the clinical director of a primary care clinic run by the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. In her work for the health department, she has cared for diverse populations of patients at city clinics since completing her residency in 1999. As clinical director, she has worked to improve services for patients of limited English proficiency and to implement a chronic disease management program. Dr. Bettigole is a member of the Health Reform Task Force of the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved and is the President-Elect of the National Physicians Alliance as well as a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Jefferson Medical College, completed her residency in Family Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, and completed her master’s in Public Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she received a Capstone award for her work on interpretation services in a public health clinic setting.

Carolyn Cocotas, R.T., M.P.A., is senior vice president of Quality and Corporate Compliance at F.E.G.S. Health and Human Services System, one of the largest voluntary, not-for-profit health, education, and human services organizations in the country. Previously, she was director of Community Health Innovation at Affinity Health Plan where she directed innovation work in care delivery to the Medicaid population. Ms. Cocotas’ career spans over three decades during which she has held progressively responsible positions in the health care industry, including HHS,

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Workshop Speaker Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Health Literacy Implications for Health Care Reform: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13056.
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U.S. Government Accountability Office, U.S. House of Representatives, National Committee for Quality Assurance, Community Health Plan of the Rockies, Performance Measurement Coordinating Council, and Kaiser Permanente. Ms. Cocotas has a master’s degree in public and health administration from the University of New Mexico.

Harold Fallon, M.D., is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Medical School. His residency training in internal medicine was at UNC. He had further training at the National Cancer Institute and fellowships in liver disease at Yale and biochemistry at Duke. During 15 years on the faculty at UNC he developed a new liver disease program and directed research in liver lipid metabolism. He was Chair of the Department of Medicine at MCV (now VCU) in Richmond for 18 years and was then Dean of the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham. During his academic career he was Chair or President of numerous national medical and research organizations including the Board of Internal Medicine, the Association of American Physicians, the Association of Professors of Medicine, and the American College of Physicians. He was the first Home Secretary of the IOM and was Chairman of the series of annual Conferences on Health Literacy, jointly sponsored by the American College of Physicians Foundation (ACPF) and the IOM. He is retired, but remains active with various activities at the IOM, ACPF, and the Medical University of South Carolina.

Frank Funderburk joined the Division of Research in 2007. He is currently responsible for the strategic planning, implementation, and analysis of a variety of health care research efforts that support and enhance CMS communications activities. He is especially interested in developing data-driven communication strategies that can overcome persistent informational, attitudinal, and motivational barriers to better health care, including those related to health and digital literacy. His research has included evaluation of the effectiveness of a variety of outreach and education campaigns as well as a recent experimental study of direct marketing strategies for improving outreach to vulnerable beneficiaries eligible for but not enrolled in the Low Income Subsidy. He has investigated ways in which health care decision making style can influence beneficiary perception of Medicare programs as well as receptivity to specific outreach and communication activities. His work has helped to inform recent initiatives encouraging adoption of Electronic Health Records and quality initiatives such as the HCAHPS public reporting of consumers’ hospital experiences.

Prior to joining CMS Frank was an Analytic Scientist at the Delmarva Foundation for Medical Care where he directed External Quality Review for Medicaid programs in 9 states and the District of Columbia. He also

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Workshop Speaker Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Health Literacy Implications for Health Care Reform: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13056.
×

worked with states to develop innovative outreach programs to improve the quality of care and the quality of life of people receiving Medicaid.

Frank has over 20 years of health care, health communications, and health policy research experience ranging from basic scientific studies of brain-behavior relationships involved in decision-making to large multi-center clinical trials of new pharmaceutical products as well as national surveys of consumer behavior.

Roopa Mahadevan, M.A., is a Program Associate at the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS). Roopa works on CHCS programs aimed at improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of publicly-financed health care for children and youth through the Children in Managed Care (CIMC) initiative, Healthy Smiles—Healthy Families: Improving Oral Health for Children in California’s Healthy Families Program project, and the CHIPRA Quality Demonstration Grant. Roopa also works on CHCS’ racial/ethnic disparities portfolio, and is a member of its technical assistance team for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Aligning Forces for Quality initiative. She additionally provides programmatic support to the Rethinking Care Program, a CHCS initiative focused on Medicaid’s highest-need, complex adult populations.

Prior to joining CHCS, Roopa served as health care policy coordinator for Silicon Valley Leadership Group, working with Bay Area companies on issues of workplace wellness and health care reform. She has also been a part of research teams at the University of California, San Francisco, and Stanford University, investigating clinical and epidemiological issues related to chronic disease, mental health, and aging. After completing her graduate studies, she was awarded the U.S. Fulbright scholarship to pursue music performance training in India. While there, she participated in diabetes prevention research and community-based health literacy promotion activities for the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, a WHO Collaborating Center for non-communicable disease.

Ms. Mahadevan received a master’s degree in psychology/cognitive science and a bachelor’s degree in biology, both from Stanford University.

Gerald K. McEvoy, Pharm.D., is assistant vice president of Drug Information at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). In addition, Dr. McEvoy has served as editor-in-chief of AHFS Drug Information (AHFS DI), ASHP’s federally recognized drug compendium, for over 28 years. In his capacities as AVP of Drug Information and Editor in Chief of AHFS DI and AHFS DI Consumer Medication information (AHFS DI CMI), Dr. McEvoy is responsible for a variety of publishing and database management projects within ASHP focusing on dissemination of drug information in both electronic and print formats to various audi-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Workshop Speaker Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Health Literacy Implications for Health Care Reform: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13056.
×

ences, including health professionals and patients. Through partnership with various health information vendors and other parties, including the National Library of Medicine, Consumer Reports, and Medscape/ WebMD, ASHP’s professional and patient drug information is available as both referential and integrated data in a wide variety of services and settings. Dr. McEvoy has spoken widely on evidence-based development of drug prescribing information as well as on patient safety, emergency preparedness, and media-neutral publishing and electronic data interchange through SGML and XML data structuring and document tagging.

Dr. McEvoy currently serves on the BMJ Group North American Advisory Board, National Council on Patient Information and Education Board, USP Safe Medication Use Expert Committee, and USP Providers Advisory Forum for Medicare Part D Model Guidelines. Dr. McEvoy also served on an Institute of Medicine Panel on Changing Prescription Medication Use Container Instructions to Improve Health Literacy and Medication Safety and subsequently was appointed Co-chair of USP’s Health Literacy and Prescription Container Labeling Advisory Panel, which he continues to co-chair. In addition, Dr McEvoy is a recognized authority on consumer medication information, testifying before and advising the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on medication safety communication issues involving consumers, advising the Consumer Reports on medication use issues, and speaking internationally on the provision of safe medication use information to consumers.

Before joining ASHP, Dr. McEvoy obtained both his baccalaureate and doctorate degrees in Pharmacy from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and completed a hospital residency at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh. He recently was awarded the Duquesne University Pharmacy Alumni Achievement Award.

Anand K. Parekh, M.D., M.P.H., is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health (Science and Medicine) in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In this capacity, he provides oversight, direction, and coordination of activities pertaining to (1) a range of emerging public health and science issues; (2) the continuum of medical research—including clinical science and health services research; and (3) issues requiring expert medical analysis and advice, particularly those concerning policy, planning, formulation, and presentation of public health issues affecting the Department. Dr. Parekh has worked on a variety of health issues including public health emergency preparedness, pandemic and seasonal influenza preparedness, quality of care improvement, chronic care management, childhood obesity, HIV/AIDS, Lyme disease, and chronic fatigue syndrome. He also chairs the Department’s Medical Claims Review Panel.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Workshop Speaker Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Health Literacy Implications for Health Care Reform: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13056.
×

Dr. Parekh completed his undergraduate studies in political science as well as his graduate school training in medicine and public health at the University of Michigan. He subsequently completed his residency training in the Osler Medical Training Program of the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital. In addition to engaging in health services research at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Parekh has completed separate stints as a research fellow at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and at the Institute of Medicine.

Dr. Parekh maintains a Medical Staff position at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland, and practices at the Holy Cross Health Center—a low-cost adult medicine clinic for the uninsured. He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He also serves on the Board of Governors of the University of Michigan School of Public Health Alumni Society and is a member of the Presidential Scholars Alumni Society and the American College of Physicians.

Susan Pisano is the Vice President of Communications for America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). AHIP is a national association whose member companies provide health insurance coverage to more than 200 million Americans. The AHIP member companies offer medical insurance, long-term care insurance, disability income insurance, dental insurance, supplemental insurance, stop-loss insurance, and reinsurance to consumers, employers, and public purchasers. As Vice President for Communications, Susan acts as a spokesperson for AHIP and is responsible for outreach to member companies, the news media, and other major audiences. She is the primary staffer for AHIP’s Health Literacy Task Force. Ms. Pisano has worked at AHIP since 1987. Before coming to AHIP she was the public relations director at Pacific Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, a local institution that had an HMO affiliated with it since 1985. Susan began her career at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, where she attended Chestnut Hill College (B.A., 1971) and Villanova University (M.A., 1975).

Lee Sanders, M.D., M.P.H., is a general pediatrician and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. A graduate of Harvard College, he completed medical school and pediatric residency at Stanford University and a research fellowship in public health at UCSF and UC Berkeley.

Dr. Sanders’ clinical expertise is in the comprehensive care of children from birth through age 21. His clinical interests include the care complex chronic conditions, child development, and obesity prevention.

An author of numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, Dr.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Workshop Speaker Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Health Literacy Implications for Health Care Reform: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13056.
×

Sanders is a nationally recognized scholar in the field of health literacy. Dr. Sanders was named a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar for his leadership on the role of health literacy in addressing child health disparities. Dr. Sanders’ current research includes an NIH-funded study to assess the efficacy of a low-literacy, early-childhood intervention designed to prevent obesity, as well as locally funded efforts to improve health promotion through child-care centers, WIC offices, and farmers’ markets.

Dr. Sanders currently serves as Medical Director of Children’s Medical Services South Florida, a Florida state agency that coordinates care for more than 10,000 low-income children with special health care needs. He is also Medical Director for Reach Out and Read Florida, a pediatric-clinic-based program that provides books and early-literacy promotion to more than 200,000 underserved children. At the University of Miami, Dr. Sanders directs the Medical Student Pathway in Social Medicine, sponsored by Jay Weiss Center for Social Medicine and Health Equity, which trains students and residents in community-based participatory research.

Sarah Hudson Scholle, M.P.H, Dr.P.H., is a health services researcher and has responsibility for overseeing the development and implementation of NCQA’s research agenda. Her research interests focus on assessing quality of health care and understanding consumer perceptions and preferences in health care, particularly for women and families. Dr. Scholle leads efforts to develop new approaches to quality measurement and evaluation of health care, including comprehensive well care for children and women, care coordination for vulnerable populations, and patient experiences with the medical home. Dr. Scholle’s prior work supported the development of NCQA’s recognition program for patient-centered medical homes and distinction programs for multicultural health care populations, as well as numerous quality measures.

Prior to joining NCQA, Dr. Scholle previously served as Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Scholle has numerous publications in major health services and women’s health journals. She chairs a Health Services Research Merit Review Board for the Veterans Administration Health Services Research and Development Program. She also reviews manuscripts for a variety of journals (including Health Services Research and Women’s Health Issues). She has served on expert panels for the Institute of Medicine and the National Quality Forum. Dr. Scholle received her bachelor’s degree in history and master’s degree in public health from Yale University and her doctorate in public health from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Workshop Speaker Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Health Literacy Implications for Health Care Reform: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13056.
×

Stephen A. Somers, Ph.D., is the president and chief executive officer of the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS), which he founded in 1995 with a major grant on Medicaid-managed care from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In that role, he is responsible for the organization’s growth into a nationally recognized center on improving care for beneficiaries of this country’s publicly financed health care programs, particularly those with chronic illnesses and disabilities and those experiencing racial and ethnic disparities in care. CHCS now receives support from multiple philanthropies, corporate community benefit programs, and the federal government.

Before starting CHCS, Dr. Somers was an associate vice president and program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Prior to that, he was a professional staff member at the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging and legislative assistant to U.S. Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania. Dr. Somers serves as a visiting lecturer at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Dr. Somers earned his Ph.D. in the politics of education from Stanford University.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Workshop Speaker Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Health Literacy Implications for Health Care Reform: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13056.
×

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Workshop Speaker Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Health Literacy Implications for Health Care Reform: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13056.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Workshop Speaker Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Health Literacy Implications for Health Care Reform: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13056.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Workshop Speaker Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Health Literacy Implications for Health Care Reform: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13056.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Workshop Speaker Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Health Literacy Implications for Health Care Reform: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13056.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Workshop Speaker Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Health Literacy Implications for Health Care Reform: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13056.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Workshop Speaker Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Health Literacy Implications for Health Care Reform: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13056.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Workshop Speaker Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Health Literacy Implications for Health Care Reform: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13056.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Workshop Speaker Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2011. Health Literacy Implications for Health Care Reform: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13056.
×
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Health literacy is the degree to which one can understand and make decisions based on health information. Nearly 90 million adults in the United States have limited health literacy. While poor health literacy spans all demographics, rates of low health literacy are disproportionately higher among those with lower socioeconomic status, limited education, or limited English proficiency, as well as among the elderly and individuals with mental or physical disabilities. Studies have shown that there is a correlation between low health literacy and poor health outcomes.

In 2010, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act designed to extend access to health care coverage to millions of Americans who have been previously uninsured. Many of the newly eligible individuals who should benefit most from the ACA, however, are least prepared to realize those benefits as a result of low health literacy. They will face significant challenges understanding what coverage they are eligible for under the ACA, making informed choices about the best options for themselves and their families, and completing the enrollment process. Health Literacy Implications for Health Care Reform explores opportunities to advance health literacy in association with the implementation of health care reform. The report focuses on building partnerships to advance the field of health literacy by translating research findings into practical strategies for implementation, and on educating the public, press, and policymakers regarding issues of health literacy.

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