Meet the Speakers

The Robert C. Watzke, MD Professor in Retina Research, Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (BCE), Professor of Biomedical Engineering (BME)

Dr. Michael D. Abramoff, MD, PhD, is an is an ophthalmologist and computer scientist at the University of Iowa, with a joint appointment in the College of Engineering, a fellowship-trained retina specialist, computer scientist, and entrepreneur. He is an IEEE Fellow, and an ARVO Gold Fellow.  In 1989-1990, he did a postdoc at the RIKEN neural networks research lab in Japan. As an expert in machine learning and image analysis, Dr. Abramoff was one of the original developers of a widely-used open-source image analysis app, ImageJ. His research has been continuously funded since 2004 by National Eye Institute, the Veterans Administration, the Beckman Foundation and other federal, state and philanthropic funding agencies in the U.S. and Europe.

Principal Investigator, National Telehealth Technology Assessment and Resource Center (TTAC)

Jordan Berg is the Principal Investigator for the National Telehealth Technology Assessment and Resource Center (TTAC), one of two National Telehealth Resource Centers. TTAC provides in-depth and objective assessments for all types of telehealth technology. Jordan has over sixteen years of combined experience working with the Alaska Tribal Health System and in telemedicine. Jordan is passionate about working with people, helping them to understand, evaluate, and assimilate telemedicine technology.

Chief Telehealth Officer, University of Mississippi Medical Center

After completing medical school in India, Dr. Chandra earned a PhD in Life Sciences from Indiana State University that was followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and Medical Center. This was followed by clinical training in Internal Medicine with specialization in Critical Care from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. While working as a Tele critical care physician, he developed a passion for Telehealth as a transformative modality for delivering cost effective health care. Prior to his current role, Dr. Chandra was the enterprise wide Medical Director of Telehealth at Northwell Health which is the largest health system in the state of New York. During the COVID pandemic, he led the Tele critical care response at Northwell Health and demonstrated that out of state providers can effectively contribute to patient care via Telehealth.

In his current role, Dr. Chandra provides strategic direction to the Center for Telehealth and the Center for Excellence and ensures alignment with all three mission areas of UMMC. 

As a lifelong learner, Dr. Chandra recently finished his MBA from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. In his free time Dr Chandra enjoys integrating into the culture of Mississippi and embracing its unique blend of Southern hospitality and traditions.

Director for Medical Education in Artificial Intelligence​, Assistant Professor, Medical Center Line, Center for Biomedical Informatics Research, Division of Hospital Medicine, Stanford Department of Medicine

Jonathan H. Chen MD, PhD leads a research group to empower individuals with the collective experience of the many, combining human and artificial intelligence approaches to deliver better care than either alone. Dr. Chen continues to practice medicine for the concrete rewards of caring for real people and to inspire this research focused on discovering and distributing the latent knowledge embedded in clinical data.

Before his medical training, Chen co-founded a company to translate his Computer Science graduate work into an expert system for organic chemistry, with applications from drug discovery to an education tool for students around the world. His expertise is regularly featured in popular press outlets with over 100 publications in leading clinical and informatics venues and awards from the NIH, National Library of Medicine, American Medical Informatics Association, International Brotherhood of Magicians and more.

In the face of ever escalating complexity in medicine, informatics solutions are the only credible approach to systematically address challenges in healthcare. Tapping into real-world clinical data like electronic medical records with machine learning and data analytics will reveal the community's latent knowledge in a reproducible form. By delivering this back to clinicians, patients, and healthcare systems as clinical decision support, he aims to uniquely close the loop on a continuously learning health system.

Executive Director, Stanford ARISE (AI Research and Science Evaluation) Network

Dr. Ethan Goh is a healthcare executive and physician scientist with a background in clinical AI research, product development, and commercial strategy.

At Stanford, he leads multi-center, grant-funded evaluation and implementation of Large Language Model applications within healthcare, with publications in Nature Medicine and JAMA Network. His work has been covered in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN.

Dr. Goh is a Founding Editorial Board member and Associate Editor at BMJ Digital Health & AI, and serves as a keynote speaker and co-chair at academic and industry conferences—including HIMSS, the Stanford AIMI Symposium, and AMIA.

Prior to academia, Dr. Goh practiced Internal Medicine and founded a digital health Q&A startup that provided expert medical answers to millions of users. He later served in formal roles within the NHS and the Ministry of Health, where he helped shape national health policy and regulatory frameworks.

Dr. Goh holds a medical degree from Imperial College London, and a Masters in Clinical Informatics and Management from Stanford University.

Innovation Portfolio Manager, Duke Institute for Health Innovation (DIHI)

Alifia is an Innovation Portfolio Manager at Duke Institute for Health Innovation (DIHI) , where she leads the coordination, management, and implementation of externally funded projects focused on advancing safe, effective, and responsible AI/ML adoption in healthcare. These projects bring together domain experts, community representatives, and academic leaders to cultivate an ecosystem that promotes safe, effective, and responsible diffusion of AI/ML in healthcare. Her other projects use innovative data science techniques to help solve challenging clinical problems.

She leads the coordination and management of the Health AI Partnership (HAIP), a national, multi-stakeholder initiative focused on advancing best practices for trustworthy adoption of AI in healthcare delivery. HAIP now includes more than 25 participating health delivery organizations, from academic medical centers to federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), as well as critical ecosystem partners such as OCHIN, AMA, American Medical Association (AMA), American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), and others.

She also leads the coordination of HAIP's AI Adoption Acceleration Program, known as the Practice Network, a first-in-the-nation initiative providing technical and implementation assistance to safety net health organizations. This pioneering program supports under-invested health centers in navigating the opportunities and challenges of AI adoption in clinical care.

A trained pharmacist from India, Alifia earned her MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business in 2019. She has held research leadership roles at Duke and Stanford and previously managed clinical research operations for Duke’s Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences. Her long-term goal is to use technology to make healthcare more effective and safe.

Senior Clinical AI Informaticist, California Telehealth Resource Center (CTRC) and OCHIN

Erin Hickman, MD, MS is board-certified in pediatrics and clinical informatics. She currently holds dual appointments at OCHIN as a Senior Clinical Informaticist and at Randall Children’s Hospital as a Pediatric Hospitalist. She is a former National Library of Medicine Fellow in the Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology at Oregon Health & Sciences University (OHSU). Erin received her M.D. from the University of Vermont (UVM) and M.S in Clinical Informatics from OHSU. Following medical school, she completed an internship and residency in pediatrics at Phoenix Children's Hospital/Maricopa Medical Center. Her interests include improving provider efficiency, reducing note bloat and supporting physician wellness. Erin’s current work focuses on leading clinical AI initiatives, and leveraging data to understand provider EHR tool usage, patient populations served, and opportunities for system optimization

Director, Southwest Telehealth Resource Center (SWTRC)

Dr. Krupinski is Professor and Vice-Chair of Research at Emory University in the Departments of Radiology, Psychology and Bioinformatics. She received her BA from Cornell, MA from Montclair State and PhD from Temple, all in Experimental Psychology. Her interests are in medical image perception, observer performance, decision making, human factors, and the interface between humans and computers and how that impacts clinical decision-making efficacy and efficiency. She is Past President of the American Telemedicine Association, Past Chair of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine, Past Chair of the SPIE Medical Imaging Symposium, President of the Society for Education and the Advancement of Connected Health, and President of the Medical Image Perception Society. She is Editor of Telemedicine Reports and the Journal of Imaging Informatics in Medicine.

Development Director, Wai’anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center (WCCHC)

Chrissy Kuahine is the Development Director at Wai‘anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center (WCCHC), a federally qualified health center serving a predominantly Native Hawaiian and rural population in Hawai‘i. With over three decades of experience spanning health information systems, clinical operations, and technology access, Chrissy leads innovative projects that integrate AI into community-based healthcare. Her current work includes deploying AI-powered tools such as ambient clinical documentation (DAX), predictive analytics, and TytoCare’s remote diagnostic platform to support chronic disease management and improve patient outcomes. Chrissy also drives strategic efforts to expand broadband availability, promote digital skills training, and prepare the healthcare workforce for technology-driven care. She is committed to making sure emerging tools like AI are accessible, practical, and responsive to the needs of underserved populations. Chrissy brings a grounded, community-based perspective to the use of AI in healthcare, informed by hands-on experience in supporting both patient care and system transformation.

Clinical AI Informaticist and Medical Director, OCHIN

Michael Lieberman, MD, MS, earned an AB in Human Biology and a BS in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. After working for IBM as a systems engineer, he received his MD degree from the University of California at San Diego. He then completed his Internal Medicine residency at Oregon Health & Science University, and practiced academic general internal medicine at Stanford University and the Palo Alto VA. He returned to OHSU to complete a research fellowship in Medical Informatics and earned a Master’s in Medical Informatics at OHSU.

As a physician informaticist, he has worked in the field of electronic health records, decision support, and performance measurement using electronic health data for over fifteen years. He has held informatics leadership roles for both EHR vendors and healthcare provider organizations. Clinical quality measurement using EHR data has been an area of focus throughout his career. While at GE Healthcare, he oversaw the development of a provider facing quality reporting system from aggregated EHR data. At OHSU he developed a clinical quality reporting program that distributed quality measure dashboards to providers via the EHR. He has chaired, co-chaired, and participated in numerous NQF committees and panels related to electronic clinical quality measurement. He currently teaches courses on healthcare quality and databases in the informatics program at OHSU. He is a practicing general internist and is board certified in Clinical Informatics.

Director, Center for Improving Patient’s Health with Informatics

Dr. Michael Matheny is the Director for the Center for Improving the Publics’ Health with Informatics and Professor in the Departments of Biomedical Informatics, Medicine, and Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is also a part-time primary care physician, physician scientist, board certified in internal medicine and clinical informatics, and Associate Director of HSR&D VINCI at the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System VA, Nashville, TN.  He is an elected fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics and elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation.  He received MD from the University of Kentucky, an MS in Informatics from Massachusetts Institution of Technology, and an MPH from Harvard University.  

Dr. Matheny co-edited the seminal healthcare AI National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Special Publication titled “Artificial Intelligence in Health Care: The Hope, the Hype, the Promise, the Peril” in 2019.  Dr. Matheny’s work has also focused on developing and adapting signal detection and machine learning methods for post-marketing medical device surveillance and for probabilistic phenotyping, natural language processing, and risk prediction modeling primarily among patients with acute kidney injury. Dr. Matheny has successfully competed for extramural funding as a single or multiple principal investigator from the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and the NIH National Heart Lung and Blood Institute as well as Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. 

Population Health & Data Science Lead, Duke Institute for Health Innovation (DIHI)

Mark is the Population Health & Data Science Lead at the Duke Institute for Health Innovation (DIHI), where he leads interdisciplinary teams of data scientists, clinicians, and machine learning experts to build technologies that solve real clinical problems. Together with his team, he has built tools to transform chronic disease management within an Accountable Care Organization and detection and management of inpatient deterioration within hospitals. He has integrated dozens of data-driven technologies into clinical operations and is a co-inventor of software to scale machine learning applications and real-world evidence generation across health systems. He leads the DIHI Clinical Research & Innovation scholarship, which equips medical students with the business and data science skills required to lead health care innovations. He co-leads Health AI Partnership, a learning collaborative to advance the safe, effective, and equitable use of AI software within healthcare delivery organizations. 

He and his team have published in top technical, clinical, and management venues. Their work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, MIT Technology Review, Wired, and STAT News. He has served as an expert advisor to national organizations, including the American Medical Association, AARP, American Board of Family Medicine, White House Office of Science, Technology, and Policy, and the National Academies of Medicine. In 2024, he was nominated by the Government Accountability Office to serve as a member of the Health Information Technology Advisory Committee (HITAC). Also in 2024, he testified before the US Senate Finance Committee during a hearing titled ‘Artificial Intelligence in Health Care: Promise and Pitfalls.” He serves on the board of Machine Learning in Healthcare (MLHC), the premier computer science conference exclusively dedicated to healthcare. He was named a STAT Wunderkind in 2020 for his efforts to responsibly build and integrate AI into clinical practice. He obtained his MD and Masters of Public Policy at Duke University as a Dean’s Tuition Scholar and his Bachelor’s of Science in Mathematics from UCLA, where he was awarded the Charles E. Young Humanitarian Award, the top honor for community service. 

Compliance, Privacy, and Regulatory Affairs Lead, Datavant

Alya Sulaiman leads compliance, privacy, and regulatory affairs at Datavant. As Chief Compliance and Privacy Officer, she drives Datavant’s compliance and privacy strategy and provides expertise on healthcare’s evolving regulatory framework for data access, use, and interoperability. Alya has substantial experience with digital health product counseling, and has worked with leading technology companies to guide the development, launch, and support of new software products and services. She also has deep expertise with artificial intelligence governance in healthcare, including guiding AI risk assessments and mitigation plans, vendor oversight, and training of key stakeholders. Before joining Datavant, Alya was a partner at McDermott Will & Emery, where she helped innovators and healthcare companies address their AI, interoperability, and data strategy needs. Alya also previously worked at the intersection of healthcare and technology as corporate counsel and the director of health policy and regulatory affairs for Epic. Earlier in her career, she held roles leading privacy and legal functions at Manifest MedEX (formerly known as Cal INDEX), a multi-specialty healthcare provider, and an innovative software analytics company. 

Executive Director, California Telehealth Resource Center (CTRC)

Sylvia Trujillo is a healthcare policy, AI, and digital health strategist with a proven track record of driving innovation, efficiency, and market adoption of emerging healthcare technologies. With over 20 years of experience in regulatory affairs, healthcare payment models, and technology-driven transformation, she has played a pivotal role in removing barriers to evidence-based digital health adoption and ensuring that providers can implement cost-effective, scalable solutions with strong ROI.

As Vice President of Policy & Regulatory Affairs at a leading health IT organization and Executive Director of the California Telehealth Resource Center (CTRC), Sylvia advises healthcare stakeholders (providers, health plans, innovators) on navigating regulatory and payment challenges for AI, remote physiological and therapeutic management (RPM), telehealth, and other digital health solutions. She specializes in establishing sustainable revenue models, reducing inefficiencies, and ensuring reimbursement success for digital health services.

Previously, at the American Medical Association (AMA), she played a key role in the development of payment and regulatory frameworks that directly influenced Medicare and commercial payer policies paving the way for adoption of telehealth, remote monitoring, and AI enabled health service solutions. As a key contributor to the Digital Medicine Payment Advisory Group (DMPAG), she played a driving role in integrating digital health into mainstream medical coding conventions and removing obstacles that slowed innovation.

A decisive leader, Sylvia is focused on accelerating the adoption of AI and digital health that meet needs through sustainability and optimized efficiencies and improved health outcomes.

Program Director, Pacific Basin Telehealth Resource Center (PBTRC)

Christina Higa, PhD, is the Program Director of the Pacific Basin Telehealth Resource Center (PBTRC), supporting Hawaii and the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands. Based at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, she is also an Associate Faculty Specialist with the Social Science Research Institute.

Born and raised in Hawaii, Christina is dedicated to improving healthcare access and outcomes across the Pacific. Her work emphasizes technology-driven solutions for chronic disease management and patient support, focusing on `ohana (family) involvement and community engagement. She began her career as a satellite radio operator for the Pan Pacific Education and Communication Experiments by Satellite (PEACESAT), aiding health, education, and emergency telecommunications. She was also part of the early team that launched the Hawaii State Telehealth Access Network (STAN).

Christina values strong partnerships across the Pacific and is committed to advancing digital technology, literacy and connectivity to expand telehealth access for all communities.

Program Director, Great Plains Telehealth Resource and Assistance Center (gpTRAC)

Jonathan Neufeld, PhD, is Program Director of the Great Plains Telehealth Resource and Assistance Center (gpTRAC), a federally funded technical assistance program housed at the University of Minnesota Institute for Health Informatics. The Center provides telehealth training and consultation to healthcare providers and programs interested in implementing, evaluating, and enhancing all types of telehealth services in the Great Plains region.

Dr. Neufeld has consulted on a wide range of projects related to rural health and telehealth over the past 15 years. He has presented at regional and national conferences and published peer-reviewed articles in the fields of telemedicine, clinical decision support tools, mental health services evaluation, and clinical outcomes.

Program Director, Northwest Telehealth Resource Center (NRTRC)

Nicki Perisho, BSN, RN is the Program Director at the Northwest Telehealth Resource Center (NRTRC), supporting telehealth expansion across a seven-state region, AK, ID, MT, OR, WA, WY & UT. A recognized expert and national speaker, she highlights telehealth’s role in reducing costs, improving quality, enhancing patient experience, and supporting healthcare staff.

Previously, she led a rural hospital’s telehealth program, overseeing delivery, expansion, and innovation. With a background in critical care, she intuitively supports best practices in telehealth. She has testified before Congress and is pursuing a Master of Public Health as a rural health policy fellow at UC Berkeley.

Program Manager, Northeast Telehealth Resource Center (NETRC)

Reid Plimpton joined the NETRC team in 2019, after having previously worked within MCD Global Health as the Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey Project Coordinator for the past 4 years. Reid is originally from New Hampshire, and has lived in Maine since completing his Community Health Sciences B.S. degree at the University of Maine at Farmington in 2014. Mr. Plimpton completed his Master of Public Health with honors from The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in June of 2019. He is passionate about the telehealth field and its capacity to improve access to healthcare and quality of care for rural and underserved areas, along with policy research and development.

Reid loves to learn about and work with the NETRC’s regional partners and stakeholders, and to dive into assisting both existing and new telehealth programs across the Northeast and beyond. Reid’s hobbies include: spending time with his family, friends, and his dog Abby; along with golfing, reading, coaching & other community volunteer work, and being outdoors.

Manager of Health Information Technology and Cybersecurity, Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County (CCALAC)

Candice Rowland is the Manager of Health Information Technology and Cybersecurity Programs at the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County (CCALAC), where she has served for over 13 years. She leads strategic efforts to connect health center members with education and resources that will help them successfully navigate their Health IT initiatives, improve their EHR optimizations, strengthen their cybersecurity infrastructures, and more. Candice is deeply committed to protecting patient privacy and ensuring health data is both accessible and secure. In an era increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, Candice champions informed decision-making, and balancing innovation with responsibility. Candice received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Grand Valley State University.

Principal Investigator and Puerto Rico Liaison / Southeastern Telehealth Resource Center (SETRC)
Chief Executive Officer / Georgia Partnership for Telehealth

GPT is a nonprofit organization committed to advancing healthcare improvements through the establishment and ongoing support of telehealth programs nationwide. With over two decades of experience in telemedicine program development, healthcare policy, state and local government affairs, and public relations, Suleima has spearheaded transformative health initiatives across diverse sectors. In addition to her role at GPT, she serves as the Principal Investigator for the Southeastern Telehealth Resource Center (SETRC), where she serves as the liaison to the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

In this capacity, Suleima collaborates with a range of stakeholders, including state and federal agencies, healthcare systems, public health organizations, educational institutions, and technology companies, to design and implement telemedicine solutions that enhance access to care. She also provides technical support and strategic guidance to organizations seeking to expand telehealth services in underserved communities.