Health Tech Equity Working Group

Mission: Harness the collective power in federal government to highlight evolving health equity frameworks and address how IT modernization efforts like interoperability, data management, telehealth and more can close gaps and improve health outcomes.

About: The Health Tech Equity Working Group is a group of approximately 25 leaders from across the federal government and industry. These Health Tech Equity leaders will work with GovCIO Media & Research to tackle important conversations around how to bridge the digital divide with data interoperability, data standards, artificial intelligence and more.

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Working Group Insights

Examining Challenges, Solutions in Federal Health Tech Equity

The inaugural Health Tech Equity Working Group report outlines challenges and best practices as the government aims to make health services more equitable.

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Tips to Combat Bias in Health Care for the Technologist

Leaders from our Health Tech Equity Working Group address implicit and explicit biases that threaten equity efforts in health care.

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Working Group Members

Ghelatia graduated from American University with a B.S. in Biology and has an MPH degree with a concentration in Global Health from New York University. Her journey in the health field began with the passing of her father and his immense health complications (with his heart, kidneys, and pancreas) has pushed her to go into the fields of medicine and public health. She is passionate when it comes to advocating education and preventative measures, especially for adolescent populations.

As such, she has dedicated her undergraduate years into researching preventative measures pertaining to juvenile type 2 diabetes. She has spent time in organizations such as Children and Charity International working with students and teaching them topics pertaining to personal health, nutrition, mentorship, etc. Ghelatia has spent the past year working on the KidneyX portfolio and has helped with supporting the launch of the Artificial Kidney Prize Phase 2.

Ghelatia Araia

KidneyX Innovation Fellow, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Ryan Dempsey Argentieri serves as the deputy director of the Office of Technology at ONC. In this position, she supports ONC’s Certification & Testing, Standards, and Technical Strategy & Analysis portfolios. She also leads the coordination of cross-functional programs promoting interoperability and standards harmonization for high priority areas such as public health data modernization and social determinants of health.

Before joining ONC, Ryan was Principal of Silver Mountain Solutions, a global advisory firm focused on the launch of new products and initiatives in cleantech, infrastructure and health information technology, as well as public-private partnerships, focused on environmental preparedness and economic resiliency. Ryan has worked as a founder, co-founder and advisor to more than a dozen start-ups and has a specialization in building public private partnerships in health care and within the built environment. She started her career at United Technologies corporation (now Raytheon Technologies) where she managed both the U.S. and international government relations across the commercial and aerospace/defense portfolio before moving on to lead the company’s integrated building and district level energy solutions work in emerging markets.

Ryan holds a Master of Business Administration from Johns Hopkins University’s Carey School of Business, a Master of Arts in Conflict Resolution, International Relations and Human Rights from the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice at the University of San Diego, and a Bachelor of Arts in Government and Politics with a specialization in Leadership Studies from the University of Maryland. Ryan also earned a Certificate in Conflict Management and Multi-Track Diplomacy from the Center for International Development and Conflict Management (CIDCM) and is pursuing a Certificate in Public Health Informatics from Johns Hopkins University.

Ryan Argentieri

Deputy Director, Office of Technology, ONC

Mr. Danny Dickerson is the Director, Division of Inclusion and Diversity, for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is primarily responsible for overseeing the administration of the Affirmative Employment Programs and managing a robust Diversity and Inclusion Portfolio. Mr. Dickerson has also served as the EDI Senior Policy Advisor, as well as a Reasonable Accommodations consultant.

Mr. Dickerson is also a member of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) training cadre, where he is responsible for conducting training in the areas of Anti-Bullying, Equal Employment Opportunity Compliance, Civil Treatment, and LGBTI training (Safezone).

Previously Mr. Dickerson was a Senior Equal Employment Opportunity Specialist (EEO) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Mr. Dickerson retired from the United States Air Force after twenty years of service. He is married to his high school sweetheart and the father of two wonderful children.

Danny Dickerson

Director, Diversity & Inclusion, NIH

Heather Dimeris serves as the Director for the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth (OAT), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) at U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She is a Captain (CAPT) in the United States Public Health Service (USPHS).

The Office promotes telehealth as a way to deliver health care, and supports the Department of Health & Human Services’ (HHS) telehealth efforts to expand access and improve health outcomes.

Throughout her career, CAPT Dimeris has been committed to expanding health care access to advance the public’s health, particularly in the area of telehealth. Her work included the creation of multiple telehealth grant programs including the Substance Abuse Telehealth Network Grant Program, the Tele-Behavioral Health Network Grant Program, the Telehealth Broadband Pilot Program, the Telehealth Center of Excellence Grant Program, and the Telehealth Technology-Enabled Learning Program.

In response to the unprecedented Public Health Emergency, CAPT Dimeris led the rapid creation of the HHS Telehealth Website in partnership with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Immediate Office of the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness Response. The HHS Telehealth Website, receiving over one million page views in its first year, serves as a resource for patients and providers to obtain or deliver health care services via telehealth.

CAPT Dimeris also created and leads the HRSA Telehealth Workgroup that serves as a resource for rural and underserved communities and provides telehealth-related recommendations to federal and state governments. CAPT Dimeris led the HRSA Telehealth Strategic Plan that allowed HRSA to be an agency-wide leader in the field of telehealth, resulting in over 1,300 HRSA grants that include telehealth. In 2021, CAPT Dimeris received the HHS Award for Distinguished Service for exemplary leadership and innovation in expanding telehealth in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Capt. Heather Dimeris

Director, Office for the Advancement of Telehealth, HRSA

Dr. Kristen Honey is the Chief Data Scientist and the Executive Director of the HHS “InnovationX” team (formerly the HHS Office of the Chief Technology Officer) in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Her team tackles complex challenges by harnessing the power of open data, open science, open source, citizen science, crowdsourcing, prize challenges, and innovative public-private partnerships for public health. She leads small and large-scale partnerships including two $25m dollar partnerships for the KidneyX Innovation Accelerator (KidneyX) the LymeX Innovation Accelerator (LymeX). Dr. Honey also co-leads CancerX, as part of the Cancer Moonshot.

Prior to joining HHS, Dr. Honey served in the White House Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) advising the U.S. Chief Technology Officer (CTO) from 2015–2017 and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) advising the Federal Chief Information Officer from 2017–2018. Dr. Honey earned her Ph.D. at Stanford University in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in the Environment and Resources, School of Earth Sciences and her Ph.D. minor in Civil and Environmental Engineering. She also holds an M.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a B.A. in Human Biology with Honors from Stanford University.

Kristen Honey

Chief Data Scientist, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Dr. Kruchinin is a Small Business Program Coordinator at National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) NIH. In her current position, Dr. Kruchinin serves as the Program Director of the NIAID Small Business Center and a senior program leader and advisor to the director of Office of Research Training and Special Programs (ORTSP) and to the Director of the Division of Extramural Activities (DEA) and provide leadership, coordination, and oversight of a broad range of scientific and managerial activities and processes within the NIAID. Prior to NIAID Dr. Kruchinin served as a Program Director with the SBIR Development Center at the National Cancer Institute, NIH. There, she assisted hundreds of small businesses in the Cancer Diagnostics & Therapeutics field in securing government funding for innovative research and development projects with high commercial potential.

Dr. Kruchinin has formal training and work experience in several cross-cutting science areas. Her research experience covers university, biotechnology industry, and government settings. Before joining NIAID and NCI, she held positions as a manager of the Molecular Diagnostics Application lab at QIAGEN Inc., senior scientist at Motorola Life Sciences and research scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, TN.

Dr. Kruchinin holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Saint Petersburg State University, Russia.

Dr. Natalia Kruchinin

SBIR/STTR Program Coordinator, Program Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

Amanda is the Director of Data and Analytics Innovation with the Office of Healthcare Innovation and Learning (OHIL). She has a primary focus of increasing meaningful use of information to increase access to care, improve equitable outcomes, and improve quality of life.

She has a passion for empowerment, equity, and engagement. She has training and experience in individual and systems change, prevention and holistic care, and health communication. Dr. Lienau has a PhD in Counseling Psychology from The Ohio State University.

Amanda Lienau

Director of Data and Analytics Innovation, VA

Alexandra Mugge is the Deputy Chief Health Informatics Officer at the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, where her team leads the interoperability and health IT efforts for CMS. She has been with CMS since 2010 and during that time she has maintained a focus on health IT policy. Before joining the Office of the Administrator in her current role, Alex served as the Deputy Director of the Division of Health IT, where she and her team lead the overhaul of the Meaningful Use Programs to create the Promoting Interoperability initiatives.

Alex earned her Masters of Public Health from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University where she specialized in Public Health Policy.

Alexandra Mugge

Deputy Chief Health Informatics Officer, CMS

Jessie Posilkin

Customer Experience Portfolio Director, Technology Modernization Fund

Elisabeth has over 25 years of Consulting Services experience, serving both Federal and State/Local Government clients as well as private sector companies. She has led the sales, growth and program delivery of innovative, comprehensive solutions, including data analytics, cloud services and other emerging technologies, and is laser focused on achieving her clients' missions, expected business outcomes, and ultimately the resulting impact to her clients' constituents and customers they serve.

Elisabeth has specialized in complex program management and delivery across the spectrum of systems integration, application maintenance and outsourcing, business process outsourcing, and business transformation programs. She has been recognized for her business operations management capability and delivery of continuous performance improvement results through proactive analytic measurement and reporting. Elisabeth is also known for her commitment to team member career growth and skills development, consistently creating a collaborative, productive work environment to maximize performance and delivery.

Elisabeth is very passionate about supporting charitable organizations including the American Cancer Society, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, The American Heart Association, and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), for which she was part of a team that ran the first NIKE Women’s Half Marathon in DC and raised over $100,000 for continued LLS research.

Elisabeth has two children (ages 23 and 19) and resides in Alexandria, Virginia.

Elisabeth Schmidt

Senior Vice President, Maximus

Katie Webb is the IBM Principal Technology Sales Leader for Veterans Affairs and Defense Healthcare managing strategic client engagements across all of IBM’s portfolio of offerings. Katie is focuses on leveraging IBM’s strengths in the areas of Hybrid Cloud, Data Fabric, AIOps, Zero Trust, and Business Automation to help federal customers solve complex problems in benefits management, cyber security, supply chain, and data integration.

Prior to joining IBM, Katie worked for Northrop Grumman supporting an array of clients, including: the Japanese Ministry of Defense, Navy, DISA, and US Medical Commands and Department of Veterans Affairs. Her experience also includes the work she did for Global Professional Solutions, Nortel, and Federal Resources Corporation. She received her Bachelor of Science from Winthrop University in South Carolina, and an MBA from Virginia Tech where she completed international studies in both Dublin, Ireland and Istanbul, Turkey. Katie has been an active volunteer with both PSI Council and AFCEA. She has been highlighted in Signal Magazine for her hard work and has received multiple past awards, including the “Future Leaders Award.”
When she’s not at work, Katie enjoys spending time with her 3 kids and her husband Bryan. She enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking and kayaking, volunteering in the community, and serving at church.

Katie Webb

Principal Technology Sales Leader for Veterans Affairs and Defense Healthcare, IBM

Meetings

January 19 2023 | 9:00 am - 11:30 am
The Line Hotel DC

Breakfast and two-hour structured working meeting with discussion topics.

May 11 2023 | 9:00 am - 11:30 am
IBM Innovation Studio

Breakfast and two-hour structured working meeting with discussion topics.

October 19 2023 | 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Networking opportunity to meet other innovators within our health IT community in a relaxed atmosphere.

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