Barbara Johnston, Executive Director, CA Telemedicine & eHealth Center

A recognized eHealth leader, Barbara has led program development, clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness research since 1995. Barbara's work at the California Telemedicine & eHealth Center is focused on expanding healthcare access for rural and underserved populations through the utilization of Telemedicine/eHealth technologies, telecommunications resources development, and direct funding for CA eHealth network expansion.  Ms. Johnston chaired the committee that developed the "Deploying Ubiquitous Broadband in Rural California to Enhance Economic Development, Education, and HealthCare: A Strategy to Develop a California Statewide eHealth Network" 2005 publication. She serves as a board member for the American Telemedicine Association, the CalRHIO Board, and the California Emerging Technology Board. A frequent speaker on the tangible benefits of eHealth as a key component of comprehensive healthcare delivery services, Barbara has provided commentary to state and federal legislature advocating telemedicine reimbursement and has presented papers at eHealth conferences globally. Ms. Johnston was the principle investigator on the first Kaiser Permanente randomized clinical trial on TeleHomecare and served as COO for an Australian company which developed an eHealth virtual private network. Ms. Johnston has produced several publications on eHealth and has a Master of Nursing Science, and also in Management & Leadership.