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Conference Details

DATE: April 30th

TIME: 8:00am-3:00pm

LOCATION: Wuesthoff Health System Homecare and Hospice 8060 Spyglass Hill Road Melbourne, FL 32940

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Tina Menna
Director of CIS, Bay Medical Center

Tina is an innovative leader responsible for coordinating and implementing the hospital's response to the development, training, implementation, coordination and evaluation of information technology within the system. She acts as a catalyst, assisting in the change processes required, to develop a global, integrated, automated patient care and administrative system. Tina serves as a liaison between Clinical departments and Information Services to insure that the needs and issues related to information systems used in the clinical areas are communicated clearly, so that the innovation, initiation and integration of information technology application support can continue to move forward.

Professional and Educational affiliations:

• Chair, Board of Directors,  Florida Center for Nursing
• Member, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society
• Member, American Nursing Informatics Association
• Member, American Organization of Nurse Executives
• Member Florida Organization of Nurse Executives
• Florida Hospital Association: Past-President, Florida Society of Healthcare Education & Training Board
• Board of Directors, Emerald Coast Hospice
• Nursing & EMS Advisory Board member, Gulf Coast Community College

James Shaffer, M.D.
Medical Director, HealthFirst eICU

Dr. Shaffer is a native of Youngstown, Ohio. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Malone College located in Canton, Ohio. He graduated from the Ohio State University College of Medicine where he went on to complete residencies in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. He then remained at Ohio State where he completed fellowships in Pulmonary and Critical Care medicine in addition to serving as Chief Medical Resident.

Upon completion of his training Dr. Shaffer settled in Florida where he joined a large multi-specialty group to practice Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep medicine.  After four years in private practice, he chose to dedicate his career to the development of a comprehensive critical care program wherein remote ICU management could serve as a fulcrum for on-site ICU care. In preparation for this dual clinical and administrative role, he completed his Masters in Health Administration at the University of Florida. He assumed the role of Medical Director of the Health First eICU in April 2004.

In July, 2006, Dr. Shaffer launched Critical Care Associates, Brevard County’s first group of dedicated intensivists. This group of intensivists provide 24/7 coverage serving in both the eICU and five of the six ICUs across Health First’s three hospital system.

Dr. Shaffer has been the author or co-author of several peer-reviewed publications as well as guest speaker for a variety of audiences on the topic of Remote Intensive Care Unit surveillance and management

David Barnhart
CIO, Director, Information Technology, Wuesthoff Health System

David started at Wuesthoff in Application support in 1994. He developed the helpdesk and application programming and web development groups. During his career at Wuesthoff he has managed many application integration projects with clinical and financial focuses. David has lead Information Technology for Wuesthoff Health System since 1998 through the development of a sister hospital and many other changes to the health system. He is an advocate of Team work and proponent of the 5 Rights of Information Technology: “The Right information to the Right person at the Right time at the Right place on the Right device.”

Theresa Skinner
Clinical Informatics Coordinator, Wuesthoff Health System

Theresa’s love for computers and data started in 1979 as an Application Analyst for Rockwell International at the Kennedy Space Center. When Rockwell lost the Shuttle processing contract in 1984, Theresa took a voluntary lay-off to pursue her childhood passion of becoming a nurse. Theresa started her nursing career as a staff nurse for a busy 10-bed Medical Intensive Care unit. After almost 10 years of bedside Intensive Care/Pediatric Intensive Care experience, Theresa came to Wuesthoff in 1996 as a Case Coordinator for Wuesthoff Brevard Homecare. 

As the Homecare Information System Project Manager for Wuesthoff Brevard Homecare, Theresa led the implementation and data conversion of the inSync/PtCT software solution for initiation of PPS Home Health in 2000. In 2002, Theresa transitioned to the Information System Department to put her implementation experience to work with the building, testing and training skills needed to assist with rollout of electronic clinical documentation for the opening of Wuesthoff Medical Center Melbourne. As a board-certified informatics nurse,
Theresa provides on-going user and informatics support for various teams and committees throughout the enterprise and maintains up-to-date knowledge of trends and advances in the field of Nursing and Healthcare Informatics.

Cindy Kolombo
Manager, Clinical Informatics, Wuesthoff Health System

Cindy has been working at Wuesthoff as a nurse for more than 30 years. She was a bedside nurse for 15 years working in Med/Surg, ICU and PACU. Since completing a computer science degree in 1992, she has been involved in Clinical Information Systems.Cindy has lead many clinical application projects including ED provider computer order entry, nursing and clinical ancillary department computer documentation and a variety of clinical interfaces. She received her nursing informatics board certification in 2004.

Monica Tremblay, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Florida International University of Miami

Monica Chiarini Tremblay is an Assistant Professor in the Decision Sciences and Information Systems Department in the College of Business Administration at Florida International University in Miami. Dr. Tremblay is currently working as a co-investigator in two Veterans Administration, Health Services Research and Development funded studies: "Using Knowledge Discovery Strategies to Identify Fall-related Injuries in the VA", and "Using Text Mining to Differentiate Between Post Traumatic Stress Disorder  and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom Veterans". She is a co-investigator in “Consortium for Healthcare Informatics Research”, a national initiative for the Veterans Administration, Health Services Research and Development. Dr. Tremblay has published papers in several leading academic journals as well as contributing a book chapter in the area of electronic health records. Dr. Tremblay has presented her research at numerous national and international conferences, as well as participated in several expert panels, including: “Bridging the Disconnect between Healthcare Providers and Information Technologists” at Claremont Graduate University (2010), The Association for Community Health Improvement and “Making an Impact: Evidence-Based Community Benefit”.

Christi Rushnell
VP of Information Technology/Chief Information Security Officer Health First, Inc.

Ms. Rushnell is a 19 -year veteran of Health First. Over the years, Ms. Rushnell has concentrated on providing technical expertise to the various departments that bills and collects revenue throughout Health First. She has managed numerous projects, including installation of the Patient Accounting Hospital Information System, the Health First Enterprise Master Person Index, and Y2K activities for the patient business functions within Health First. Beginning in June 2001, Ms. Rushnell took the role of HIPAA Compliance Manager for the organization. In this role, she also assisted in compliance throughout the Brevard County community by assisting smaller physician organizations with their HIPAA compliance activities while ensuring compliance for the Health First integrated network. Beginning in 2006, Ms. Rushnell became the Vice President of Information Systems for Health First Health Plans. In 2008, Ms. Rushnell took on the responsibility of the strategic planning process, project management office and the process engineering processes throughout the Health First organization. And in 2009, Ms. Rushnell assumed responsibilities for the Information Technology division of Health First, Inc, responsible for over 500 applications, 6000 devices and 8000 users of information. Within the last year she successfully planned for and implemented a move to a managed services contract for the Health First Technical Infrastructure Services with the Harris Information Technology Group, HITS. Ms. Rushnell serves as the Chief Information Security Officer for Health First and is well versed in Information Privacy and Security Rules and Regulations.