Conference Details

Karen Ondo
EVP Research Quality

Karen has 30+ years of healthcare technology, systems, business and clinical experience as a result of positions including: VP/CIO of a 49 facility IDN (the sixth largest public healthcare system in the United States that spanned the acute, ambulatory and home health continuum with academic affiliations); Director of Laboratories; vendor management responsible for product design, development and installation of integrated systems; and now Executive Vice President, KLAS Enterprises, a market research and intelligence firm specializing in healthcare IT performance monitoring.  

As VP/CIO organization named in the 100 Most Wired Hospitals and Health Systems, by Hospital & Health Networks (1999, 2000, and 2001).  Previously identified as "one of Healthcare IT's Most Influential People" by Advance for Healthcare Information Executives Magazine; named 1999 South Florida IT executive of the Year by ITEC; SFLHIMSS Chapter President 1998-2002; and served on the HIMSS Board of Directors 2004 – 2007 and current chairman of the HIMSS Foundation. She is currently engaged in various educational, consulting and advisory capacities to assist academic, provider and vendor organizations in the US and Canada. Recent published articles, reports and speaking engagements involve local, national and international settings and is a nine time HIMSS national speaker.

Gayle Harrell
ONC HIT Policy Committee, Former Member of the House of Representatives

Gayle Harrell has over 25 years of experience in healthcare. She has worked as a Healthcare Administrator, managing the Ob-Gyn. practice of Dr. James E. Harrell and was the founder of the Breast Imaging Center, a mammography center specializing in preventive care for women.

Her experience in healthcare made her a leader in setting healthcare policy for the State of Florida during her service a member of the Florida House of Representatives from 2000 to 2008. She served for 6 years as Chair of various Healthcare Committees including the Committee on Health Quality, the Healthcare General Committee and the Healthcare Standards Committee. She also served on the Healthcare Council and the Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee.

In addition, Gayle is a nationally recognized leader in Health Information Technology and was one of four legislators nationally to serve on the National Governor’s Association State Alliance for e-Health. She serves on the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Healthcare Reform Committee and was recently appointed by Republican Leader John Boehner to the national Health Information Technology Policy Committee as established under ARRA 2009 (Stimulus Bill).

This important committee is making recommendations to the Office of the National Coordinator and HHS on the implementation of the HITECH provisions of ARRA 2009 and the expenditure of over $44 billion to promote the use of electronic health records.

Al Amirin
Director of Technical Services for Shands Healthcare

Al Amirin has been with Shands HealthCare since 1983. He has a B.S. degree in Computer Information Sciences from the University of Florida. Mr. Amirin began his career at Shands immediately upon graduation as an application programmer in the hospital information systems group. After a short tenure in the applications area, Mr. Amirin moved to the technical services department where he progressed from a systems programmer in charge of mainframe systems to his current role as the Director of Technical Services.

Current areas of responsibility include the Customer Services, Data Center Operations, Security, Network Infrastructure and Systems Programming departments. These groups provide and maintain the data networks, workstations/printers, server and technical support infrastructure required for virtually all application systems in use throughout the Shands’ facilities, clinics and portions of the Health Science Center.

Roland Garcia
Sr. Vice President and CIO for Baptist Health Systems in Jackson, Florida

Mr. Garcia serves as the Senior Vice President and CIO for Baptist Health System.  With more than 31 years of experience in the healthcare IT field, he has responsibility for establishing plans and directions for Baptist Health technology investments.  Mr. Garcia oversaw the development and opening of the first all Digital community hospital including Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) and documentation resulting in a real time Electronic Medical Record (EMR).  

Prior to joining Baptist Health, he spent 15 years with Baptist Health Care in Pensacola, Florida as Vice President and CIO for that health system serving Northwest Florida and Southern Alabama.  During his tenure there, BHC received numerous awards and recognition for innovation in use of technology including 100 Most Wired, 50 Best Websites across industries, Fortune 100 Best Employers, and Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award. 

Al Davies, MD
CEO of PatientCentral Technologies, LLC.

Dr. Davies’ clinical background is in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology, and Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. He has practiced Critical Care Medicine in major academic centers, private community hospitals, and indigent care county hospitals. He has been a consultant to NASA on the space shuttle, space station and the Mars Mission. In 2004 Dr. Davies founded Medical Center Intensivists, PA, an independent Critical Care practice. He has been the Medical Director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, and was the Director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Duke University. He served as Acting Chief of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Section at Baylor College of Medicine and Chief of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Service at The Methodist Hospital in Houston. He has provided medical care to patients in Tropical Storm Allison, Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike. Dr. Davies gained insight into hospital operations and from serving on hospital committees, including serving as Chair of the Medical Quality Management Subcommittee, Chair of Code Blue Committee, a member of the Biomedical Ethics Committee, and other committees. He participated in the selection and implementation of a major EMR project. He is CEO of

PatientCentral Technologies, LLC (www.PatientCentral.com) which produces health information systems which connect patients to the care surrounding them.

Valerie Purcell, RN, MBA, CPHQ, CSSBB
Vice President of Business Development at PatientCentral Technologies, LLC.

Valerie Purcell has extensive experience in clinical nursing, healthcare administration, risk management, quality management, organizational performance improvement. She has worked at the bedside in the ICU and in the operating room. She has managed the clinical services of a large physician practice, and was the Director of Medical Staff Quality Management at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, a large tertiary care hospital in the Texas Medical Center. These experiences have given Valerie the ability to see patient care processes from multiple perspectives including that of patients, caregivers, hospital administrators, and busy physicians. Valerie was also the Quality Manager for Humana Healthcare Houston. Valerie has been a healthcare consultant in a variety of settings, including compliance programs for academic medical schools, setting up pulmonary rehabilitation centers across the country for Medicare licensure, and as a risk manager and medicolegal consultant providing expertise in circumstances relating to hospitals, patients, physicians and related standards of practice. Valerie has exceptional insight into healthcare processes and the tools required for healthcare organizations to comply with regulatory agency standards Medicare, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, National Committee on Quality Assurance, and others. She is NCQA certified and a certified Six Sigma Black Belt.

Alyson Widmer – Director of Applications/Interim CIO
Ms. Widmer has been at Shands Healthcare since 1991. She has a Diploma in Nursing and a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Georgia State University. Ms. Widmer began her career at Shands Information Services as an application analyst developing a customer service help desk and has held several management roles prior to her current role as Director/Interim CIO. 

Areas of Responsibility:

She is responsible for oversight of clinical, financial and enterprise technology applications. Ms. Widmer is responsible for 116 FTE’s and an operating budget of $14 million. These groups provide and maintain the software applications, workstations/printers, identity and access management all application systems in use throughout the Shands’ facilities, clinics and portions of the Health science center. This support comprises over 15,000 employees, 6000+ desktops/printers and supporting 250+ clinical and financial applications.

Recent/Current Leadership Roles:

• HIMSS Membership
• CHIME Membership

Current Projects/Initiatives:   

• Electronic Document Imaging for the Medical Record
• Clinical Documentation