Dr. Deepak Pahuja is the Chief Medical Officer of Aerolib Healthcare Solutions LLC. He is Board certified in Internal Medicine and has an MBA in Healthcare Management from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst-Isenberg School of Management. Dr Pahuja specializes in innovations in healthcare and serves as the Founder of the Empowering Physician Advisor Show.
“Small and rural hospitals are subject to the same level of regulations as big academic centers.”
Dr Pahuja is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, Fellow of the Society of Hospital Medicine and member of the Audit and Risk Committee of the American Association for Physician Leadership.
His company, Aerolib Healthcare Solutions, is a physician-owned physician-led consulting firm providing Physician Advisor Gap Coverage for hospitals, Clinical and Regulatory Education for providers, Healthcare Analytics and Artificial Intelligence for healthcare organizations.
Phil Polakoff, M.D., M.P.H., M.Env.Sc. is the Founder and CEO of A Healthier We. He is a consulting professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and an affiliated scholar at Stanford University Bill Lane Center for the American West.
He has been in the healthcare industry for forty-five years and has a wide range of experience in clinical services, product innovation, network development, care management, organizational and business enhancement, policy formulation, communications and financing.
“Our current system with health and healthcare delivery is fragmented. We’re inefficient, ineffective, and it’s costly. “
In his first years of practice he was short listed as US Surgeon General. He has experience working with various industries as well which includes being a Senior Managing Director for publicly traded consulting firms, advisor to numerous payers, providers, investors, employers, labor organizations and public entities. He was the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Total Health Advocacy Partners (Thap!).
Dr. Polakoff holds degrees in Medicine/Healthcare Policy Study from Oxford University, an M.P.H in Epidemiology from UC Berkeley, a Medical Degree from Wayne State University, an M.S. in Environmental Sciences from The State University of New Jersey, and a Bachelor’s Degree from Cornell University.
He has published five books, over two hundred articles, and has written a weekly nationally syndicated health column.
“Leadership is both a skill set as well as a personality set to motivate yourself and others to accomplish a purpose that has both a return on investment as well as hopefully, socially meaningful results.”
A humble and effective leader, Dr. Polakoff has produced numerous health-related media productions including videos being aired as “Phil Polakoff MD - Thrive Global.”
Dr. Polakoff has faculty appointments at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and UC Irvine.
Click here to learn more about the Healthier Rural West summit.
Lori Zindl is the President of efficientC, a comprehensive, software-as-a-service (SaaS) that provides healthcare organizations a single solution with unmatched performance.
“Beside your physical building, account receivables are your largest asset.”
Lori began her revenue cycle career in 1985 as a medical bill collector. She was amazed at the amount of bad debt sent to collection agencies which were still owed by third-party payers. She wondered why healthcare providers couldn't get paid by the insurance themselves, a question that ultimately led her to a revenue cycle consulting role.
In 1993, Lori founded her first company OS inc., to support revenue cycle services at hospital’s struggling with their collections. Never one to shy away from innovation, in the late 2000s she spearheaded the development of efficientC – a state-of-the-art claim processing and denial management software used by her own staff and rural hospitals across the country.
When Lori isn’t busy managing the day-to-day operations at efficientC and OS inc., she enjoys spending time on the speaking circuit educating healthcare leaders on revenue cycle best practices.
Diane Calmus is Regulatory Counsel for the National Rural Health Association (NRHA). Diane joined the NRHA staff in 2015. She is one of NRHA’s federally registered lobbyists.
“We really saw the voice of rural Americans saying how important healthcare is to them.”
She previously worked as a legislative assistant to Rep. Kevin Brady, the chair of Ways and Means, where she handled a variety of health care issues with a focus on Medicare policy. She also worked as a health policy fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
Diane earned a J.D. from Michigan State University College of Law and bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Lake Superior State University and psychology from Central Michigan University.
Diane will be part of the NRHA Rural Health Policy Institute February 5-7 in Washington, DC. Act by January 11 to take advantage of discounted registration. You can register by clicking HERE.
Lauren S. Hughes, MD, MPH, MSc, FAAFP, is a practicing family physician and Deputy Secretary for Health Innovation in the Pennsylvania Department of Health. In this role, she creates and leads statewide strategies to improve health and health care delivery for all Pennsylvanians, with a focus on initiatives combatting the opioid and heroin epidemic and transforming rural health care delivery.
“The Pennsylvania Rural Health Model is designed to provide greater financial stability and predictability for rural hospitals.”
Prior to joining the Department, she was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of Michigan where she studied health services research.
“(The Pennsylvania Rural Health Model) also provides rural hospitals with a volume to value pathway to transform how to deliver care to better meet the community’s health needs.”
She holds degrees in zoology and Spanish from Iowa State University, an MPH in health policy from The George Washington University, and a medical degree from the University of Iowa.
Dr. Hughes served as the national president of the American Medical Student Association for one year prior to completing her residency at the University of Washington in Seattle.
She has volunteered through AmeriCorps in a federally qualified health center, worked for Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, and studied medicine and health systems in Brazil, Sweden, Tanzania, and Botswana. Dr. Hughes has also been a visiting scholar at the Robert Graham Center, ABC News Medical Unit in New York City, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, and The Commonwealth Fund.
In 2015, she was named a regional finalist in the White House Fellows program, and in 2016, a recipient of the Women Leaders in Medicine Award from the American Medical Student Association and the Early Career Achievement Award from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. In 2017, she was elected to a five-year term on the American Board of Family Medicine Board of Directors, and in 2018, as a Presidential Leadership Scholar.