Speakers

Dr. Guohua Cao is an assistant professor of biomedical engineering in the VT-WFU School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA. After receiving his PhD in Physical Chemistry from Brown University in 2005, Dr. Cao has worked as a research assistant professor and as both a postdoctoral scholar and fellow at Brown University and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in cutting-edge research related to biomedical engineering. During this time he received a number of honors including the University of North Carolina’s Postdoctoral Scholar Award for Research Excellence, Outstanding Poster Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer Investigators Meeting in 2007, and Honorable Mention Poster Award from the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) - Medical Imaging Conference in 2009. Dr. Cao’s research is directed at medical imaging, with a focus on developing novel imaging systems and methods based on carbon nanotube field emission x-ray technology. His work on developing carbon nanotube x-ray technologies has been featured in the popular press, such as in Nature, The Economist, Technology Review, Discovery News, and German Public Radio.

Education: B.S. in Electrical Engineering, University of Virginia, 1985
M.S. in Electrical Engineering, George Washington University, 1990

Licensing: Professional Engineer (PE), State of Virginia (since1993)

Professional Background:

1981-1985 U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Arlington, VA. Part Time – Federal Junior Fellow. Assisted Patent Examiners with different aspects of US patent application prosecution.

1985-1995 E-Systems, Melpar Division, Falls Church, VA. Electrical Engineer (1985-1990), Sr. Electrical Engineer (1990-1995). Worked on ground stations of Communications and Intelligence gathering systems for military and other customers. Involved with the specification, design, procurement, manufacture and testing of components and subsystems. Worked with real time operating systems (pSOS, Vertex). Created custom drivers and programmed embedded systems. Designed hardware and associated testing equipment and test procedures.

1995-Date U.S Patent & Trademark Office, Alexandria, VA. Patent Examiner (1995-2000), Primary Examiner (2000-2007), Supervisory Patent Examiner (2007-Date). Responsible for examining and prosecuting US patent applications pertaining to medical devices, specifically, body electrical stimulation devices (e.g. pacemakers, defibrillators, cochlear implants, nerve stimulators, brain stimulators, muscle stimulators, etc.), cardiac monitoring devices (EKG machines), and cardiac assist devices (e.g. ventricular assist devices (VAD), blood pumps, etc.). Currently manage 20 examiner/engineers. Was responsible, along with Examiner Luther Behringer, for prosecuting and granting US Patent 8,000,000 – “Visual Prosthesis” – Greenberg et al (8/16/2011).

Member of IEEE, Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, Philippine American Metropolitan Washington Engineers (PAMWE).

Jason Cole received his BS in Biology from Empire State University in
2005 and MS in biomedical engineering from Binghamton University in 2008. His research in graduate school involved digital signal processing of mechano-myographic signals, which led to a foundational patent and Sonostics, Inc., a start-up company whose products are based on this technology.

Since 2008, he has worked as a regional representative for BIOPAC Systems, Inc., a leader in life science data acquisition and analysis systems. Day to day duties include performing equipment demonstrations and supporting ongoing research of customers in the northeastern US, including academic and clinical researchers as well as pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. His research collaborations have led to co-authorships of several research publications as well as record sales figures for BIOPAC Systems, Inc.

He continues to consult for Sonostics, Inc. on product development issues, such as algorithm development, software design and testing, ergonomics, human factors engineering, business and technology development, market research, fund raising and sales.

CDR Cartwright received BSE in biomedical engineering from Duke University in 1991 where she commissioned as an Ensign in the United State Navy through the NROTC program. She went on to Medical School at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, receiving her MD in 1995. Her first year of surgical training was completed at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth Virginia in 1996. From 1996-1998 she was the General Medical Officer aboard the USS WASP (LHD-1) earning a Navy commendation Medal and completing a Mediterranean Deployment. She then returned to the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth to begin her residency training in urology, which she completed in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania in 2003. From 2003-205 she completed a fellowship in pediatric urology at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario Canada where she was awarded the Student Humanitarian Award by the SickKids Foundation. Her initial staff appointment as a pediatric urologist was jointly at the National Navy Medical Center, Bethesda Maryland, and the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington DC. She has been the sole pediatric urologist at both institutions since her arrival in 2005 through Base Realignment and Closure integration to the newly stood up Walter Reed Military Medical Center, Bethesda. In addition to her clinical duties as a pediatric urologist, from May 2009 to September 2011, she was the Department Head for Graduate Medical Education at the National Naval Medical Center and is Assistant Professor in Surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. She has recently been appointed as the Specialty Leader for Urology for the United States Navy.

Mr. Coller is an intellectual property attorney at Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox in Washington, D.C. His practice primarily focuses on strategic client counseling issues such as preparing product clearance opinions, providing patent validity and infringement opinions, and performing intellectual property due diligence investigations in connection with mergers and acquisitions. He also specializes in complex patent reexamination practice where a co-pending district court litigation or an International Trade Commission investigation exists. Mr. Coller also has extensive experience drafting and prosecuting patent applications. He represents a broad range of clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small start-ups and individual inventors in diverse technology areas, including medical devices.

Prior to joining Sterne Kessler, Mr. Coller worked as a law clerk in the corporate legal group at a multinational software analytics company. Mr. Coller has also worked as a biomedical engineering university research assistant. His research primarily focused on the design and testing of surgical implants, and the development of biosensors for medical and counter-terrorism applications. Mr. Coller holds a J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School and a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Tulane University.

Urvi Shah is a Consultant in the Health Information and Technology practice of OptumInsight’s Provider Solutions.She is responsible for service delivery and for aiding in the development of new project methodologies. She is working on roadmap strategies for payers and providers around their "eHealth Space" as well as participating in and leading the selection, testing and implementation of various systems within the organization. These systems include help desk solutions, clinical EHR solutions and even administrative tools.

Currently, Urvi works on a consumer clinical information system selection for an organization that provides services to individuals with developmental disabilities. It is one of the largest in New York state and she has helped make recommendations around how business processes can be improved and what future state business models should look like. Urvi and her team serve as the intermediary between the client and all vendors and they facilitate the selection of vendor of choice. They also capture business and technology requirements and create and issue a request for proposal on their behalf.

Previously, Urvi was involved in an eHealth Roadmap Strategy project for a prominent community hospital system. She worked on a team that conducted an organization-wide assessment of current state capabilities. Her team involved all major departments and groups in the planning of the future state direction, and from there, developed a three-year roadmap to help them get from where they were today to where they wanted to be. She conducted interviews, facilitated future state sessions and developed their plan moving forward. Using the knowledge that the team gathered, they also presented an ROI case for each of the projects recommended to the organization.

Previous Experience
Prior to joining OptumInsight, Urvi worked for the Revere Group where she was a consultant. She was responsible for developing and presenting deliverables and building methodologies around roadmaps. She also helped create educational materials for her team around health information exchanges and the ICD-10 conversion. She helped develop their roadmap and ICD-10 preparedness project methodology. Urvi participated in implementations, conducted user acceptance testing, conference room pilots and integrated systems tests. She built and executed use case scenarios. She also conducted and presented ROI studies for organizations embarking on new projects. Urvi conducted focus groups with C-level executives and physicians to facilitate the development of a future state vision and strategy for their business. Finally, she also conducted vendor selections and was responsible for request for proposal responses.

Education and Certifications
 Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University
 Undergraduate leadership certificate, Northwestern University