Paige Amidon is the Senior Director, Consumer Reports Health, for Consumers Union (CU), an expert, independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for consumers. CU publishes Consumer Reports and ConsumerReportsHealth.org. Ms. Amidon has held several executive positions at Consumer Reports, from Sr. Director to General Manager. Her current responsibilities include overseeing the organization’s efforts to address today’s number one consumer issue: the delivery of healthcare. As part of Consumer Reports’ commitment to provide high quality evidence-based information to consumers, Ms. Amidon has overseen the launch of ConsumerReportsHealth.org, the growth of the Consumer Reports on Health newsletter to one of the largest monthly newsletters of its kind, and the creation of the Consumer Drug Reference authored by the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists. Previously, as General Manager of Product and Market Development and Multimedia Information Products at Consumer Reports, Ms. Amidon managed Consumer Reports’ premium online and print products, along with directing the franchise, brand, and new product development for the Health, Finance, and Automotive products portfolios. In this role, Ms. Amidon developed new information products, expanding consumer marketing for premium online products, print newsletters, books, and special publications and also expanding newsstand distribution. Previously, as Chief Marketing Officer for ConsumerReports.org, Ms. Amidon launched the second generation of the world’s largest consumer-paid subscription website. A cornerstone of that activity included consumer research on needs, behaviors, and reactions to our introduction of subscriber reactivation programs, paid and natural-search capabilities, an online Web Store, and CR’s community forums, while pioneering direct mail and public relations initiatives. Ms. Amidon has a Master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from New York University.

Rear Admiral Susan Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.A., a champion for improving global health, served as Assistant Surgeon General of the United States, as the first ever Deputy Assistant Secretary of Women's Health and as Senior Global Health and E-Health Advisor in the US Department of Health and Human Services. She has also been a White House advisor on health issues and a Research Branch Chief at the National Institutes of Health. With more than two decades of Federal government service as a leading government health official, Admiral Blumenthal has been a pioneer in bringing major public health issues including global health, women's health, mental illness, and disease and violence prevention to increased public and scientific attention. She was a leader in the 1980's in exposing the inequities in women's health and in the 1990's was the top doctor in the Federal government to stimulate and coordinate new initiatives to move women's health issues to the forefront of our Nation's health care agenda. She established the National Centers of Excellence on Women's Health Program at academic centers across the country and the National Women's Health Information Center. Dr. Blumenthal was also a pioneer in the government in applying information technology to improve health including establishing five award winning health websites and the “Missiles to Mammograms” initiative that transferred CIA, NASA and DOD imaging technology to improve the early detection of breast cancer. Most recently, she has been involved in advancing global health, the national response to bioterrorism and emerging disease threats including pandemic flu. Dr. Blumenthal currently serves as Distinguished Advisor on Health and Medicine at the Center for the Study of the Presidency, where she leads the Center's Health Agenda 2008 that is developing recommendations for the next Administration on health.

Troyen A. Brennan, MD, MPH, is Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Aetna Inc., one of the nation’s leading healthcare and related benefits organizations. In this role, Dr. Brennan oversees all clinical policy and medical management at Aetna. Prior to joining Aetna, Dr. Brennan served as President and CEO of Brigham and Women’s Physician’s Organization from 2000-2006. In his academic work, he served as Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Law and Public Health at Harvard School of Public Health. He has published 240 peer-reviewed papers and four books. Dr. Brennan received his MD and MPH degrees from Yale Medical School, his JD degree from Yale Law School, and his MA degree from Oxford University. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Diamond directs the Health Program of the Markle Foundation and chairs Connecting for Health, a public-private collaborative working to realize the full potential of information technology in health and health care in the United States. Connecting for Health engages more than 100 diverse organizations and institutions in an approach rooted in core values, including achieving medical excellence, fostering patient participation, and protecting personal privacy. Dr. Diamond has testified before Congress on behalf of the Markle Foundation and works with many private sector groups, government agencies, and health information technology bodies. Dr. Diamond played a role with federal agencies and the health IT community in the development of www.KatrinaHealth.org, a secure web site that made prescription medication histories available to doctors and pharmacists caring for evacuees whose medical records were destroyed in the hurricane. Before joining the Markle Foundation, Dr. Diamond was president of U.S. Quality Algorithms® (USQA®), Aetna U.S. Healthcare's performance measurement affiliate. As USQA's president, she led a 400-employee business unit that developed and deployed sophisticated clinical and financial information products and services. Prior to joining USQA, Dr. Diamond was a consultant for Johnson and Johnson Health Care Systems and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Diamond sits on the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Public Advisory Board, the Electronic Health Record Safety Institute (EHRSI) Advisory Board of the Geisinger Center for Health Research, and is a member of the IPRO Advisory Board for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Doctor's Office Quality-Information Technology (DOQ-IT) project in New York. Dr. Diamond earned her dual B.A./M.D. at the Medical School of the State University of New York at Brooklyn and her master's degree in public health at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey of Rutgers University.

Susannah Fox is an Associate Director of the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project. She also contributes to e-patients.net, a multi-author blog about health and health care. Prior to joining the Project, she was the editor of the website for U.S. News and World Report and a researcher during the start-up phase of RealNetworks. Susannah graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in anthropology.

Regina E. Herzlinger is the Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration Chair at the Harvard Business School. She was the first woman to be tenured and chaired at Harvard Business School and the first to serve on a number of corporate boards. She is widely recognized for her innovative research in health care, including her early predictions of the unraveling of managed care and the rise of consumer-driven health care and health care focused factories, two terms that she coined. “Money” has dubbed her the “Godmother” of consumer-driven health care. All her health care books have been best sellers in their categories. Her newest book “Who Killed Health Care?” (2007) was selected by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as one of the ten books that change the debate in 2008. Her prior book, “Consumer-Driven Health Care--Implications for Providers, Payers, and Policymakers” (2004) received the 2004 American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year award for History and Public Policy. Earlier research results were profiled by The Wall Street Journal (November 2002) and Managed Health Care Executive (June 2003, cover). Her July 2002 Harvard Business Review article, “Let’s Put Consumers in Charge of Health Care, ” was an Amazon eBooks best seller. “Market Driven Health Care” (2000) is widely viewed as a transformational work. Readers of “Modern Healthcare” selected her as among the “100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare” each year since 2003 and “Managed Healthcare” named her one of health care’s top ten thinkers. In recognition of her work in nonprofit accounting and control, she was named the first Chartered Institute of Management Accountants Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh. In addition, she has delivered many keynote addresses at annual meetings of large health care and business groups and been selected as one of the outstanding instructors of the Harvard Business School’s MBA Program. Regina Herzlinger received her Bachelor’s Degree from MIT and her Doctorate from the Harvard Business School.

Knowing that the frustrations she and her friends had finding good contractors were not unique, in 1995, Angie Hicks literally set out door-to-door in Columbus, OH, recruiting members and collecting reports from friends and neighbors. Taking the “ask-your-neighbor” approach to a higher level, Angie used the detailed feedback from members as the basis for providing up-to-date, reliable, unbiased ratings and reviews on local services. After the first year, with more than 1,000 members throughout Columbus, Angie had laid the foundation for what would become one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. Over these last 12 years, she has led the list’s expansion from a 100-square-foot-office to an operation that now covers more than 120 major cities across the U.S., serves more than 650,000 consumers and was placed for three years in a row – 2002, 2003 and 2004 – among the Inc. 500 by Inc. magazine, a list of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the nation. All the while, Angie’s keen sense of business and common sense have helped Angie’s List remain a locally-focused service that members say they wouldn’t live without. Over the years, consumers have come to trust Angie to help make the hiring process easier, as well as raise the level of service they can expect from local companies and contractors. In 2007, Angie’s List members directed more than $2.3 billion to contractors found (and/or reported on) through Angie’s List. Angie’s official title at Angie’s List is Founder and Chief Marketing Officer. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in economics from DePauw University, in Greencastle, IN, which named her a 2007 Distinguished Alumni for Management and Entrepreneurship.

Matthew Holt has spent more than 18 years in health care as a researcher, generalist forecaster, and strategist. He's conducted in-depth studies about the health care market, information technology and policy for public release and private clients. He learned from some of the best in forecasting, policy and survey organizations, like Institute for the Future and Harris Interactive. But these days he's best known as the author of The Health Care Blog and as the co-founder of the Health2.0 Conference. For that he's been mostly self-taught!

John Kerry was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1982. In that office, he organized the nation’s Governors to combat the acid rain that was polluting lakes, rivers, and the nation’s water supply. Two years later, he was elected to the United States Senate and he has won reelection three-times since. He is now serving his fourth term, after winning again in 2002 by the largest margin in Massachusetts history. John Kerry entered the Senate with a reputation as a man of conviction. He confirmed that reputation by taking bold decisions on important issues. He helped provide health insurance for millions of low-income children. He has fought to improve public education, protect our natural environment, and strengthen our economy. He has been praised as one of the leading environmentalists in the Senate, who stopped President Bush’s plan to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. John Kerry has never forgotten the lessons he learned as a young man – lessons that have been strengthened in his 19 years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He has learned that America needs the strongest military on the face of the earth – and that America should lead other countries to achieve our goals and the world’s common goals. From his ground-breaking work on the Iran-Contra scandal to his leadership on global AIDS, John Kerry has distinguished himself as one of our nation’s most respected voices on national security and international affairs. As chairman of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, he worked closely with John McCain to learn the truth about American soldiers missing in Vietnam and to normalize relations with that country. As the ranking Democrat on the East Asian and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee, he is a leading expert on that region, including North Korea. In 2003, John Kerry announced that he would be a candidate for president of the United States -- and he went on to mount a come from behind campaign that won the Democratic nomination. The American people reminded him once again that people are the same wherever you go, and he continues in the United States Senate fighting for what motivated him to enter public life in the first place: love of country and the call of duty.

Joseph C. Kvedar, M.D., is the Founder and Director of the Center for Connected Health, applying communications technology and online resources to increase access and improve the delivery of quality medical services and patient care. Dr. Kvedar is also a board-certified dermatologist and Vice-Chair of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School. The Center for Connected Health is developing initiatives in telehealth, remote care and disease and lifestyle management programs. The term “connected health” reflects the range of opportunities for technology-enabled care programs and the potential for new strategies in healthcare delivery. In his role with the Center for Connected Health, Dr. Kvedar launched the first physician-to-physician online consultation service in an academic setting. He is also leading important research into novel approaches for connected health in a variety of medical specialties, including post-operative care in the home, wound care, and remote monitoring of patients with chronic diseases. Dr. Kvedar is a past President and member of the governing Board of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA). Dr. Kvedar is also Chair of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Task Force on Telemedicine. Dr. Kvedar is internationally recognized for his leadership and vision in the field of connected health and the application of communications technologies to improve healthcare to patients. Dr. Kvedar is co-editor of a new book, “Home Telehealth”, which was published in May 2006. He is a frequent lecturer and has authored over 60 publications on telemedicine and connected health. In 2003, Dr. Kvedar was honored by the New England Business and Technology Association for his extraordinary leadership in the field.

Thomas H. Lee, MD, is an internist and cardiologist, and is Network President for Partners Healthcare System, the integrated delivery system founded by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, and Chief Executive Officer for Partners Community HealthCare. He is a graduate of Harvard College, Cornell University Medical College, and Harvard School of Public Health. He is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. His research interests include risk stratification and optimal management strategies for common cardiovascular problems, and improvement of quality of care, with a particular focus on critical pathways, guideline development and implementation, and managed care. Dr. Lee is co-chair of the Committee for Performance Measures of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), and has been the Chairman of NCQA’s Cardiovascular Measurement Advisory Panel since 1996. He is a member of the Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council. He is a member of the Boards of Directors of Geisinger Health System and of Bridges to Excellence. He is a member of the Board on Health Care Services of the Institute of Medicine. He is the Editor-in-Chief for The Harvard Heart Letter and Associate Editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Rizk is a world renowned expert in the healthcare industry, with over 20 years experience working with payors, physicians, hospital systems and pharmaceutical organizations. He is considered a thought leader, providing healthcare organizations with transformational strategies and operational execution expertise. Prior to joining McKesson, Dr. Rizk was the global director at Deloitte Consulting where he led the medical cost and quality management practice across all industries. In this role, he spearheaded the major redesign of medical management models for the largest health plans and providers in the country. Dr. Rizk has also served as chief medical officer and worldwide medical director for Monsanto Corporation. Sought after for his knowledge of the healthcare space, Dr. Rizk has served on multiple healthcare boards, including the National Clinical Advisory Board, the Disease Management Association of America, the National Quality Review and the Managed Care AdvisoryBoard. He was appointed to the Senatorial Inner Circle for Healthcare under President George H. W. Bush. Dr. Rizk has an extensive roster of published works, both in journals and books, including “The Wisdom of Top Health Care CEOs.”

Mariah is responsible for sales and marketing of all Intel products in healthcare, including products designed specifically for healthcare, like the Mobile Clinical Assistant and the Intel Health Guide, as well as marketing initiatives to increase adoption of Intel Architecture based products. Her charter covers business development, product marketing, marketing programs, market development, and direct sales. Mariah was a founding member of Intel's Digital Health Group, and has been with Intel for 13 years, in a number of marketing and general management roles. Prior to joining Digital Health she served as the Worldwide Director for the Intel Inside Program. In that role, she was responsible for program development, global customer engagement and operational deployment of Intel's largest marketing program. Prior to Intel Inside, she was the general manager of Internet Authentication Services, in the Internet Health Initiative, a business she founded in collaboration with the American Medical Association, and then sold to VeriSign in 2001. She has a B.A. in Japanese from Carleton College, and an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Scott Shapiro directs the communications, marketing and branding efforts for HealthGrades, the leading healthcare ratings organization. Mr. Shapiro has honed the public positioning of the company and communicated the value of HealthGrades' healthcare-quality information to employers, health plans, hospitals, physicians and millions of consumers through the news media and other venues. Mr. Shapiro joined HealthGrades in 2005 after serving as a consultant to the company for three years. Prior to joining HealthGrades, Mr. Shapiro managed the New York office of Fenton Communications, the largest public-interest communications firm in the country. At Fenton he created large-scale communications programs for the American Lung Association, HealthGrades and other clients, and helped to write a series of speeches with a former Vice President. Mr. Shapiro joined Fenton after developing and implementing public relations strategies for Bristol-Myers Squibb, LifeMasters Supported SelfCare and others for the New York public relations firm Bratskeir and Company, which had acquired Mr. Shapiro's firm, Schneider Shapiro Strategic Communications. As Schneider Shapiro's president for five years, Mr. Shapiro led teams that: launched cable television's The Health Network; drove viewership for Discovery Health, PBS and The Learning Channel; revitalized American icon Welcome Wagon; made hospital quality a consumer issue for Solucient; and focused attention on environmental and energy issues for Columbia University, Evolution Markets and Cendant Corporation. During a sabbatical from Schneider Shapiro in 1998, Mr. Shapiro served as the communications director for a hotly contested Congressional campaign that wrestled with healthcare, gun control and other domestic policy issues. Mr. Shapiro began his career with the Governor of New York State, serving in several positions before eventually directing a division of the Governor's New York City press office. Shapiro lives in New York City and is a graduate of New York University.

Mr. Shirky divides his time between consulting, teaching, and writing on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. His consulting practice is focused on the rise of decentralized technologies such as peer -to -peer, web services, and wireless networks that provide alternatives to the wired client /server infrastructure that characterizes the Web. Current clients include Nokia, GBN, the Library of Congress, the Highlands Forum, the Markle Foundation, and the BBC. In addition to his consulting work, Mr. Shirky is an adjunct professor in NYU 's graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP ), where he teaches courses on the interrelated effects of social and technological network topology -how our networks shape culture and vice -versa. His current course, Social Weather, examines the cues we use to understand group dynamics in online spaces and the possible ways of improving user interaction by redesigning our social software to better reflect the emergent properties of groups. Mr. Shirky has written extensively about the Internet since 1996. Over the years, he has had regular columns in Business 2.0, FEED, OpenP2P.com and ACM NetWorker, and his writings have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, Wired, Release 1.0, Computerworld, and IEEE Computer. He has been interviewed by Slashdot, Red Herring, Media Life, and the Economist 's Ebusiness Forum. He has written about biotechnology in his “After Darwin ” column in FEED magazine, and serves as a technical reviewer for O'Reilly 's bioinformatics series.

Cass R. Sunstein graduated in 1975 from Harvard College and in 1978 from Harvard Law School magna cum laude. After graduation, he clerked for Justice Benjamin Kaplan of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court. From 1981 until 2008, he taught at the University of Chicago Law School. Before that time, he worked as an attorney -advisor in the Office of the Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice. Mr. Sunstein has testified before congressional committees on many subjects, and he has been involved in constitution -making and law reform activities in a number of nations, including Ukraine, Poland, China, South Africa, and Russia. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Mr. Sunstein has been Samuel Rubin Visiting Professor of Law at Columbia, visiting professor of law at Harvard, vice -chair of the ABA Committee on Separation of Powers and Governmental Organizations, chair of the Administrative Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools, a member of the ABA Committee on the future of the FTC, and a member of the President 's Advisory Committee on the Public Service Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters. Mr. Sunstein is now Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Director of the Program on Risk Regulation. He is author of many articles and a number of books, including “Nudge” (2008) (with Richard Thale)). He is currently working on various projects involving the relationship between law and human behavior.

Joseph L. Ternullo, JD, MPH is associate director of the Center for Connected Health at Partners HealthCare and focuses on policy, contracting, enterprise relationships and corporate-sponsored research. The founder and organizing chair of an annual symposium at the Conference Center of Harvard Medical focusing on critical issues associated with connected health, Mr. Ternullo also serves as a founding board member and vice president of Continua Health Alliance, on the Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital institutional review boards, on the American Telemedicine Association's policy committee and on the Center for e-Health Law legal advisory board. In 2007, Mr. Ternullo was appointed to serve on the American Health Information Community Chronic Care Workgroup, a federal advisory body chartered to make recommendations to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on accelerating the development and adoption of health information technology. He serves as associate director of the Northeast Telehealth Resource Center, a consortium operating through a grant from the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth. Mr. Ternullo has earned degrees from Boston College, Bentley College, Boston University and Harvard and is on the Northeastern University adjunct faculty, graduate computer and information science department, where he teaches healthcare informatics law.

David is responsible for Intel's healthcare device interoperability strategies and the standards development to support those strategies. He leads the newly formed Continua Health Alliance, a large, cross-industry consortium, focused on the establishment of an eco-system of interoperable, personal telehealth systems. Dave has been with Intel since 1993 and prior to establishing the Healthcare Device Standards Group worked on a wide variety of wireless standards. Dave and his team are leaders in many standards organizations throughout the world, including: Health Level Seven (HL7); Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE); IEEE 1073; Bluetooth SIG; WiMedia Alliance; Homeplug Alliance; UPnP Forum; Oasis; WSI; and, the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA). Dave served on the Bluetooth SIG Board of Directors for several years and has authored five research journal articles, four of which focused on breast cancer DNA analysis.