Dena Puskin, ScD, Director, Office for the Advancement of Telehealth ("OAT")

Dr. Puskin is the Director of the Federal Office for the Advancement of Telehealth and chair of the Federal Joint Working Group on Telemedicine.  Prior to her current position, Dr. Puskin was the Acting and Deputy Director of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP).  Prior to joining ORHP, Dr. Puskin was a senior analyst at Congress’s Prospective Payment Assessment Commission, where she analyzed medical economic issues related to rural hospitals and specialized hospitals in the U.S. --psychiatric, rehabilitation, and chronic disease hospitals --  and developed the annual  update factor for Medicare hospital payment rates.  During her career, she has also served as a senior legislative analyst with the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Association; the Research Director at the Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency; and as Assistant Professor of Community Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.  Dr. Puskin received: (1) Sc.D. degree  in Health Policy and Research from Johns Hopkins University; (2) M.S. degree in Community Medicine from the University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry;(3) B.A. and M.A. degrees in Biology from Boston University.