Speakers

Cheong has been a hands-on leader in Web, Data, and Healthcare IT for 2 decades. His work on Web interactivity at UCSF Medical Center resulted in patented technologies licensed to leading firms including Microsoft, and Oracle.  At IBM, he led teams in developing software for predictive analytics in E-Commerce and Knowledge Management, and implementing IT projects for clients in Healthcare and Financial industries.  He has been in director positions in charge of operating a targeted advertising system, and building and marketing a broadband TV delivery system. He has also been engaged for business and innovation strategy consulting at Konica Minolta, and San Francisco General Hospital.  Most recently, he brought together a team to bridge the gap between AI and the frontline workers with a SaaS system that enables smart collaborations and continuous learning toward organizational goals.  The system is currently serving tens of thousands of patients at multiple Healthcare organizations.

Recognitions: Nasdaq Milestone Maker, StartupHealth Health Transformer, UCSF Department of Medicine 2016 Tech Challenge Awardee, IDG CIO.com Contributor.

Dr. Dyann Daley, MD,  is an experienced pediatric anesthesiologist and child maltreatment prevention executive, specializing in location-based predictive modeling, systems thinking, and development of practical solutions for community-influenced children’s issues.  

Dr. Daley founded and was the executive director of Cook Children’s Center for Prevention of Child Maltreatment in Fort Worth, Texas where she demonstrated the effectiveness of place-based predictive analytics for child maltreatment using spatial risk modeling.  She went on to found Predict Align Prevent, a national nonprofit advancing geospatial machine learning predictions in child welfare, strategic alignment of prevention resources, and implementation of accountable prevention programs to prevent child maltreatment before it happens.  Her organization is committed to open science for social good. 

Jeff Deal is the Chief Operating Officer for Elder Research, the nation's leading data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence consultancy. He has also been the Chair of the Predictive Analytics World for Healthcare conference since its inception in 2014.  In his role at Elder Research, Jeff oversees the operations of the business including contracting, finances, regulatory/legal issues and human resources. Jeff has worked with dozens of clients to understand their business needs and organizational goals and, in the process, has gained insight into organizational obstacles to successful data analytics engagements. His talk on the Top 10 Data Mining Business Mistakes has been well received at prior Predictive Analytics World conferences. In 2016, Jeff and the Elder Research President & CEO, Gerhard Pilcher, published, Mining Your Own Business: A Primer for Executives on Understanding and Employing Data Mining and Predictive Analytics.

Jeff has more than 30 years of experience in business operations, planning, and government relations, primarily in the health care industry. Prior to ERI, he was the president of a health planning consulting business that assisted hospitals and physicians with operational analysis, forecasting, and navigating through complex regulatory processes. Before that, Jeff spent 16 years in hospital administration with responsibility for clinical, support, and planning functions. Jeff has a Master of Health Administration degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and an undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary.

Dan Fisher is VP Life Sciences for Swoop. He was previously a consultant with ZS Associates, where he supported biopharma organizations across the US and Europe. Dan’s experience spans a wide range of sales and marketing business issues, with a core focus in applying analytics to designing and optimize field forces. His work has been recognized with the Innovation Award at a major biotech, where he led machine learning projects in the US commercial organization. He holds an MBA from Vanderbilt University, and a BA from the University of Rochester

Chris is the Chair of Predictive Analytics World Healthcare and the Vice President of Advanced Analytics for OSF Healthcare where he leads a team of data scientists and automation engineers who create and deploy industry leading advanced analytics solutions.  He has more than 16 years of experience working in healthcare and holds a MS in Predictive Analytics from Northwestern University, where he focused on advanced modeling techniques and predictive text mining.

Casey Gentry is a senior manager, engineering at Acxiom. In the past three years, she has risen from an expert analyst, to a team lead, to her current management role. Gentry's expertise includes predictive analytics, statistical modeling, experimental design, and project management. Prior to joining Acxiom, she held analyst positions at Sprint and Hallmark. Gentry received her bachelor's and master's degrees in statistics from the University of Missouri.

Sara Bersche Golas is the senior data specialist at Partners HealthCare Pivot Labs, on the Data Science & Analytics team. In addition to analyzing data from clinical trials, she is responsible for extracting, cleaning, and analyzing longitudinal data used for building predictive models, as well as ensuring data security, and contributing to the study design process, protocol development, and preparation of manuscripts for scientific publication. She joined Partners HealthCare as a clinical research coordinator in 2010, and has been involved in database development and management since 2013. She joined Pivot Labs in 2015. She enjoys continually learning about the data lifecycle in the healthcare system, and is proud to be part of a team committed to realizing the potential for data insights to improve peoples’ experiences in delivering and receiving healthcare.

Chip Hart is the Director of PCC's Pediatric Solutions consulting group and author of Confessions of a Pediatric Practice Consultant (chipsblog.com). Chip's 30 years of pediatric practice management expertise has helped hundreds of pediatricians increase their clinical and financial health. As a dynamic and motivating speaker, Chip leads educational seminars and consults for pediatric professionals nationwide for organizations like the AAP, state chapter AAP programs, the MGMA, and various physician and hospital organizations around the country. Chip was a member of the CCHIT Child Health Work Group and is a member of the CDC Clinical Decision Support and Children's Model EHR format working groups.

Jeff Heaton, Ph.D., is a vice president and data scientist at Reinsurance Group of America (RGA) and an adjunct faculty member at Washington University in St. Louis.  With 20 years of life insurance industry experience, Jeff has crafted a variety of InsurTech solutions using machine learning technologies such as deep learning, random forests, and gradient boosting, among others. Utilizing electronic health records (EHR) data such as FIHR, ICD10, SNOMED, and RxNorm, he works closely with all stages of model development from inception to ultimate deployment.  Jeff is the author of several books and has published peer-reviewed research through IEEE and the ACM. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and Fellow of the Life Management Institute (FLMI).  Jeff holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

 Gaurav's experience as a Principal working with three leading Management Consultancies has led to extensive exposure in multiple industries. Deep understand of both business and technology aspects has led to implementing a wide array of transformational initiatives ranging from operational strategy to change management

Steve has more than 9 years experience as a consultant in the pharma/biotech industry, primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has historically focused on patient and revenue forecasting/modelling at both small and large clients. 

Steve’s experience spans early pipeline, prelaunch and inline issues including indication prioritization, opportunity assessments, M&A due diligence, customer segmentation/targeting and a range of other forecasting-related topics. He has further experience with both qualitative and quantitative market research has helped multiple clients set up their forecasting infrastructures, processes and training programs.
 
Prior to joining IPM.ai / Swoop, Steve spent three years at a large, pharma-focused management consulting firm, and six years with the management consulting arm of a large healthcare data aggregator.

Steve holds an MBA in Finance and Management from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania. He also holds a BS in Biochemistry from The University of Waterloo.

Jamie Netherton is a senior statistical analyst, engineering at Acxiom. In the past three years, she has worked on various analytical engagements in the Healthcare and Insurance industries. Netherton’s expertise includes predictive analytics, statistical modeling, experimental design, and project management. Prior to joining Acxiom, she held analyst positions at Keypath and Hallmark. Netherton received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in statistics from the University of Missouri.

Jorn op den Buijs, PhD is a senior scientist at Philips Research, carrying out research on predictive analytics to predict and prevent emergency hospitalizations in the frail and elderly. Jorn op den Buijs has a Master’s in Biomedical Engineering from the Eindhoven University of Technology and a PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Mayo Clinic Graduate School, Rochester Minnesota.

Gerhard enjoys predictive analytics and data mining, especially related to the areas of Fraud Detection, Financial Risk Management, and Health Care outcomes using various analytical methods, working with people, leading change, and timely management of complex projects. His work experience spans both private and government sectors including international experience.

Gerhard is coauthor of the popular book “Mining Your Own Business”. The book targets executives and senior managers who desire to evolve their organizations with better data driven decisions. The book is designed to have dual purpose as an introduction to the subject of data science and as a useful reference for specific, daily guidance. 

Gerhard previously taught at Georgetown University as an adjunct faculty member in the Math and Statistics Master’s degree program. He has also been an instructor for the three-day SAS Business Knowledge Series course "Data Mining: Principles and Best Practices" and an invited speaker at domestic and international conferences.

Gerhard currently serves on the Institute for Advanced Analytics Advisory Board and George Washington University’s Advisory Board for the Business Analytics graduate program. He was named to the NC State Computer Science Department’s “Hall of Fame” in its inaugural year.  

Karl Rexer founded Rexer Analytics in 2002. He and his teams have built an outstanding reputation providing predictive modeling and analytic consulting to clients across many industries. Recent clients include OneBlood, PwC, Boston Scientific, Redbox, ADT Security, Interamericana University, MIT, Forward Financing, SharkNinja, and many smaller companies. In addition to leading client engagements and hands-on data work, Karl is a predictive analytics evangelist, frequently speaking at conferences, colleges, and other events. He also serves on Advisory Boards for the Business Analytics programs at both Babson College and Bentley University. Since 2007 Rexer Analytics has conducted surveys of analytic professionals, asking them about their algorithms, tools, behaviors and  views. Summary reports from these surveys are available as a free download from the Rexer Analytics website. Prior to founding Rexer Analytics, Karl held leadership positions at several consulting firms and two multi-national banks. Karl holds a PhD from the University of Connecticut.

LOU ROSSITER is Research Professor in the Program in Public Policy, at The College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA. He has published over 50 journal publications on health economics and the role of competition in the financing and delivery of health services.
Rossiter is founder of New Health Analytics, a Richmond-based health information technology company serving hospitals and freestanding surgery centers in 23 states.
Rossiter is formerly the Secretary of Health and Human Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia, formerly professor the Virginia Commonwealth University, and formerly deputy for policy to the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
He has served on the Board of Regents of the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health; the Board of Directors of AcademyHealth; and was the Chair of the Coalition for Health Services Research, the lobbying arm of AcademyHealth, as the Affordable Care Act passed through Congress.

Mohammad is currently a Senior Data & Applied Scientist at Microsoft, and Instructor at Stanford University. He is a former Data Scientist at Apple and previously worked for Samsung, Bosch, General Electric and UCLA Research Labs. He received a PhD in Computer Science from the University of California, Riverside and B.Sc. from University of Tehran. Mohammad is the author of the book, ‘Applications of Mining Massive Time Series Data'. He has also been a keynote speaker at more than 40 Data Summits/Conferences around the globe. 

Alex Thomas is a data scientist at John Snow Labs. He's used natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning with clinical data, identity data, and job data. He's worked with Apache Spark since version 0.9 as well as with NLP libraries and frameworks including UIMA and OpenNLP.

Erich Wohlhieter has been at Amgen over 16 years in a variety of roles spanning research, corporate transformation and strategy, and is currently an Executive Director in Amgen’s Digital Health and Innovation group.

Erich received his Bachelor’s in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and his PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles. 

Ken is trained in population statistics, medicine/dentistry, and law. He worked in clinical practice, data science, care management, and health regulations. Ken was a government official in the US Senate and White House. After that he was Founder/CEO of Advanced Health Solutions and held executive positions at CorSolutions, Matria Healthcare, UnitedHealth Group, and Aetna. Ken held leadership roles in the Maryland State Task Force on Electronic Medical Records, the University of Maryland Center for Health Information and Decision Systems, and Utilization Review Accreditation Commission (URAC). He is a frequent author and speaker, including Handbook of Statistical Analysis and Data Mining Applications; Clinical Integration: Population Health and Accountable Care; Divining Healthcare Charges for Optimal Health Benefits Under the Affordable Care Act. With a team of data science industry experts he leads a certificate program in Healthcare Predictive Analytics at University of California, to train the next generation of health data scientists.

Cal Zemelman serves as a Director at CVP and is in charge of innovation and growth efforts across the firm through a variety of corporate and client engagements. He has designed and developed data science and advanced analytics capabilities in the Cloud for both government and commercial clients. Prior to CVP, he worked with the US Marine Corps leading enterprise business intelligence and analytics teams.

Cal holds an MS in Management of Information Technology from the University of Virginia, along with a BS in Information Systems and Policy & Management with a Minor in English from Carnegie Mellon University.