After six years on the faculty at Washington University, Dr. Gallagher accepted a position at the University of Washington in both the Departments of Medicine and the Department of Medical History & Ethics. In addition to his research, Dr. Gallagher co-directs the Research Subject Advocate Program at the General Clinical Research Center, a program designed to enhance the safety of research participants. Dr. Gallagher also serves as a physician in the General Medicine Clinic at Roosevelt and as an inpatient attending.

Dr. Gallagher’s research first examined how financial conflicts of interest affect the managed care doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Gallagher’s initial research involved inserting unannounced standardized patients in managed care physicians’ actual patient schedules to study how physicians respond to requests for unindicated services. Dr. Gallagher then served as Principal Investigator for a nationwide survey of 1,000 randomly selected members of the general public regarding their attitudes towards financial incentives for managed care physicians. Dr. Gallagher also published an analysis of Federal policies for managed care financial incentives, as well as a focus-group study of physicians’ experiences of financial conflicts of interest in managed care plans.

Recently, Dr. Gallagher’s research focus has shifted to a different conflict of interest in the doctor-patient relationship, namely the disclosure of medical errors. His current work examines patients’ and doctors’ attitudes about medical error disclosure. His focus group study on this topic was recently published in JAMA. At present he is conducting a large survey to understand physicians’ attitudes and experiences regarding communicating with patients, colleagues, and health care institutions about medical errors. His work is supported by career development awards from the Greenwall Foundation Faculty Scholars in Bioethics Program and from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Joe has worked in state government since 1990. Prior to coming to the Department of Health, Joe served as a Senior Health Policy Analyst with the Virginia General Assembly’s Joint Commission on Health Care.  From 1990 to 1998, he was a legislative analyst with the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. In this position, he performed program evaluation and policy analysis for the General Assembly in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of State government administration and management.

Joe received a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from State University of New York at Albany and a Masters Degree in Public Administration from New York University.

Martin Merry brings to his professional engagements a unique background of “Corporate America,” clinical practice and consulting/learning facilitation experience. He received his undergraduate degree in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University, based upon a unique “campus-factory shop floor” collaboration between Cornell and Corning, Inc. He then earned his medical degree at McGill University in Montreal, subsequently completing residency training in internal medicine, with an additional year of psychiatry residency at Dartmouth and Albany Medical Centers. Dr. Merry then practiced general internal medicine for 8 years with a group practice founded by two Mayo Clinic-trained senior partners. During these years he developed the role of Medical Director for Quality, the first designated medico-administrative position at St. Joseph's Hospital in Elmira, NY.

Building upon his medical practice and medical staff leadership experience in responding to both JCAHO and New York State regulation, Dr. Merry began in 1981 a career devoted to consultation and education in the areas of quality, medical staff leadership, and organizational transition. Presently he has worked with more than 1000 health care organizations in each of the 50 United States and internationally. Clients have included hospitals, physician group practices, managed care plans, multi-hospital systems, health care law firms, consulting firms involved in a variety of health management issues, the U.S. military health system (Project Director, US Department of Defense, Civilian External Peer Review Program, 1987-94), and the JCAHO. He has developed educational programs for the American Medical Association, American Hospital Association, American College of Physician Executives, American College of Healthcare Executives, American Medical Group Association, Medical Group Management Association, Veterans Administration, Indian Health Service and numerous state and regional professional associations. His practice keeps pace with vital issues emanating from the emergence of health care’s information and consumer revolutions. He is a recognized communicator of leading edge quality concepts for health care, including Six Sigma, Human Factors Science, ISO 9000 and Baldrige-based systems development. His present areas of focus include governance and leadership issues of organizational transition, physician liaison and leadership development, integration of quality systems into health system/network development, and creative approaches to address the national issue of patient safety. In order to expand his capabilities in these areas he has recently joined with three other senior consultants to form Dynamic Health Systems, an alliance that focuses on health system leadership and innovation.

In addition to his consulting and educational work, Dr. Merry continues in his part-time positions as Associate Clinical Professor of Health Management and Policy at the University of New Hampshire and Senior Advisor for Medical Affairs for the New Hampshire Hospital Association, a position created in 1994 to foster effective communication and collaboration between clinical and managerial professionals as they pursue health systems development.

Quinn was part of the WalMart team that rolled out the innovative $4 generic drug program that is changing the healthcare landscape in America. For this work he was one of the 2007 cowinners of the companies Sam M. Walton Entrepreneur Award. Prior to joining WalMart in 2006 Quinn was Director of Policy for former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. Quinn was responsible for the development of the Healthy Arkansas Initiative that became Healthy America when Huckabee was elected Chairman of the National Governors Association, and was instrumental in the development of the nationally acclaimed ARKids First program that reduced the number of uninsured Arkansas children by half.

In 2002 Quinn was Director of Communications for the successful Huckabee reelection campaign. Prior to that Quinn was Director of Communications for the Arkansas Department of Human Services. Before entering public service Quinn was an award winning television journalist with the CBS TV affiliate in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Quinn and his wife Shannon live in Rogers, Arkansas with their two children.
 

VDH is made up of a statewide Central Office in Richmond and 35 local health districts. These entities work together to promote healthy lifestyle choices that can combat chronic disease, to educate the public about emergency preparedness and threats to their health, and to track disease outbreaks in Virginia.

VDH is led by the State Health Commissioner, Dr. Karen Remley. The State Health Commissioner serves as the principal advisor to Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine, Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources Marilyn Tavenner and the Virginia General Assembly on a wide range of public health issues. Dr. Remley was appointed by Governor Timothy M. Kaine in 2008. Dr. Remley has been involved in every aspect of health care including positions as Vice President of Medical Affairs at Sentara Leigh Hospital in Norfolk, Medical Director of External Quality at Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Virginia and Chief Executive Officer of Physicians for Peace.

Dr. Remley earned a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Missouri, Kansas City; a Masters in Business Administration from Duke University; and an undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri, Kansas City. She is a pediatrician and certified by the American Board of Pediatrics, sub-board of Pediatric Emergency Medicine.
 

Richard is also President and Chief Executive Officer of PatientFlow Technology, Inc., which he co-founded with Professor Eugene Litvak. PatientFlow Technology provides consulting and software services to hospitals to improve patient flow. In addition, Mr. Siegrist is Senior Vice President of WebMD Health Services and was previously Senior Vice President & General Manager of WebMD Quality Services. WebMD is the leading provider of health information for consumers, employers and health plans.

Richard Siegrist co-founded and served as President and CEO of HealthShare Technology, Inc. until WebMD acquired the company. HealthShare provided healthcare information on quality and cost to hospitals and health plans though decision support software and consulting services. He received a US patent (#5,652,842) with his brother Donald for “Analysis and reporting of performance of service providers.”

Richard Siegrist also co-founded Transition Systems, Inc. (TSI), a for-profit subsidiary of Tufts New England Medical Center in Boston that was acquired by Eclipsys. At various times, he served as Vice President of Consulting, Vice President of Operations and Chief Financial Officer for a leading provider of hospital cost accounting and decision support software. Richard began his career in healthcare at New England Medical Center.

Richard received an MBA from the Harvard Business School, an MS in Accounting from the New York University Graduate School of Business and a BA in Political Economy from Williams College.

Mr. Webber currently sits on the Board of Directors of the National Quality Forum, the Leapfrog Group, the Bridges to Excellence organization, and the Center for Information Therapy. He is a member of the Purchaser/Business Advisory Councils for the National Committee for Quality Assurance, the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, and the eHealth Initiative.

Prior to joining NBCH, Mr. Webber was a Vice President for External Relations and
Public Policy at the National Committee for Quality Assurance. In this role, Mr. Webber directed all government relation activities and outreach efforts to the employer and consumer communities. Previous positions also include Senior Associate for the Consumer Coalition for Quality Health Care and Executive Vice President for the American Medical Peer Review Association (currently renamed the American Health Quality Association). Mr. Webber started his health care career in 1978 as an employee of the Washington Business Group on Health (WBGH), rising to the position of Vice President for Public Policy.

Mr. Webber is a frequent speaker and lecturer on health care policy issues. He is a
graduate of Harvard University.