Grando - Information Technology for Patient Empowerment in Healthcare

Maria Adela Grando

Maria Adela Grando, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the Arizona State University and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, College of Medicine. She has over 7 years of experience on applying methodologies from artificial intelligence for the development of information technologies to support clinical decision processes.

Dr. Grando holds a Master in Computer Science from Argentina, and a PhD in Formal Languages and Applications from Rovira i Virgili University (Spain). She completed two post-doctoral training research fellowships in Biomedical Informatics at the UK Cancer Research (Oxford University, Edinburgh University and the University College London) and at the Division of Biomedical Informatics at the University of California, San Diego.

Dr. Grandos research at UK Cancer Research was concentrated on building technologies to support the decision process of clinicians. However, in the last 4 years, she has shifted her research towards the deployment of tools to empower patients to make healthcare decisions. Dr. Grando has led multiple projects in the development of tablet-based electronic informed consent systems to engage and educate patients to make better informed decisions when deciding to participate in research studies. In particular, she has focused on building technologies to support patients desire to have granular control over sharing healthcare data for research. Currently, she is spearheading the development of several evidence-based smartphone applications to support behavioral change, including apps for engaging users on self-management activities to improve disease control, and apps for building family management skills to improve parent-children interactions.

Dr. Grando is an active member of the American Medical Informatics Association. She has authored more than 40 publications in the field of medical informatics, including articles in the leading journals in the field.

Ronen Rozenblum

Dr. Ronen Rozenblum is a researcher, lecturer and entrepreneur. He is the Founding Director of the Unit for Innovative Healthcare Practice & Technology and Director of Business Development of the Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston. Dr. Rozenblum has a faculty appointment at Harvard Medical School where he is a health services researcher. He is an expert in patient-centered care, patient experience and engagement, and health information technology. His research, lectures, and contributions have been recognized nationally and internationally.

Dr. Rozenblum holds a Masters degree in Public Health (MPH) and a PhD in Business Administration, Health Management and Economics. In 2011, he completed his post-doctoral research fellowship in patient-centered care, patient experience, quality of care, and medical informatics at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Rozenblum has a wide breadth of expertise and practical knowledge in developing innovative methods and information technologies to enhance patient-centered care, patient experience and engagement. He has trained many clinicians to implement these tools in clinical settings and has presented his work at numerous national and international conferences. He lectures on patient-centered care in a HarvardX course entitled Improving Global Health: Focusing on Quality and Safety at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is a member of the Patient Experience Strategy Committee at Brigham and Womens Hospital, the Medical Advisory Board of the Adult Congenital Heart Association in the U.S., the Abstract Committee of the International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) Conference and the Israeli National Patient Experience Survey Committee.

In addition to his academic pursuits, Dr. Rozenblum has been involved in establishing and managing startup companies in the healthcare industry and has considerable experience in business development and management of such entities.

David W. Bates

Dr. Bates is an internationally renowned expert in using information technology to improve clinical decision-making, patient safety, quality-of-care, cost-effectiveness, and outcomes assessment in medical practice. A practicing general internist, Dr. Bates is Chief Quality Officer at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston where he is also Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine. He is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he co-directs the Program in Clinical Effectiveness. He also serves as Medical Director of Clinical and Quality Analysis for Partners HealthCare.