Panelists

Dr Sonu Menachem Maimonides Bhaskar, MD PhD PD (Stroke/Neurology), is an award-winning clinician-scientist, board director and academic neurologist with a specialisation in vascular neurology & neuroradiology; and a researcher with a strong focus on global health, clinical neurology and health systems, with a proven track record in governance, policy-making, social innovation, and systems-level growth & strategy. Dr Bhaskar is the Founding Director of NSW Brain Clot Bank – a flagship world’s first initiative established with funding from the NSW Ministry of Health in partnership with NSW Health Pathology, local health districts (LHDs), comprehensive stroke centres, NSW State-wide Biobank and medical research institutes in NSW. The NSW Brain Clot Bank, housed within NSW Health Pathology, is conducting ground-breaking research into the prevention and treatment of strokes.

Dr Bhaskar has several years of leadership and governance experience, in initiating and delivering systems change, in senior leadership and executive roles at academic, healthcare and research organisations, and not-for-profit boards and international consortia. Dr Bhaskar leads national and international initiatives on reducing health disparities with a focus on vulnerable populations and under-resourced settings. During the COVID19 pandemic, Dr Bhaskar is leading the Pandemic Health System REsilience PROGRAM (REPROGRAM) international consortium formed to champion the safety of healthcare workers, policy development and advocacy for global pandemic preparedness and action. Dr Bhaskar has been featured on Sydney Morning Herald, 9 News, Reuters Health/Medscape, Rotary Down Under and ABC News-MSN. He is the two-time winner of the recently awarded prestigious 2019 European Academy of Neurology Investigator Award and 2020 Rotary Vocational Excellence Award. Dr Bhaskar is passionate about advocacy and leadership for social impact and innovation, rooted in diversity, inclusion, community, and belonging.

Dr. Boyle is a pediatric emergency medicine physician and a federally-funded health services researcher who focuses on development and testing of telehealth for emergency care in prehospital and disaster settings. Her NIH-funded research program uses simulation and mixed methods for stakeholder-led intervention design, and various clinical research methods, including clinical trials, to test interventions. She has also examined factors influencing telehealth utilization on a regional and national level. Dr. Boyle is an expert advisor to the Massachusetts Emergency Medical Service for Children (EMSC) Program, the Region 1 Disaster Health Response System (RDHRS), and the National Emergency Telecritical Care Network. She is currently leading development and implementation of an ASPR-funded regional disaster telehealth system in New England as a national model of how to rapidly expand access to clinical specialists during large-scale, no-notice disasters.

Dr. Catherine R. Counts is a second generation EMS professional who, after taking an ambulance to show and tell in kindergarten, was hooked. Dr. Counts has since transitioned this interest into a career focused on the patients and providers in the prehospital setting. She also has research interests in quality improvement and patient safety, and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest care, and advanced airway management in the prehospital setting.

Given the crossover between her background in public health and her expertise in EMS, she specializes in the mechanisms by which providers are changing the way healthcare is delivered in the prehospital setting. She receives funding from the Medic One Foundation and the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN). Additionally, she serves as the Research and Quality Improvement Manager for Seattle Medic One.

Charles Doarn serves as the inaugural director of UC’s Space Research Institute for Discover and Exploration. In addition, he is a Research Professor and the MPH Program Director in the Department of Environmental and Public Health Sciences, Division of Public Health, University of Cincinnati (UC), College of Medicine. He also has academic appointments at the full professor level in Political Science at UC, Aerospace Medicine at Wright State University, and Emergency Medicine at George Washington University. He currently provides subject matter expertise in aerospace medicine to NASA’s Chief Health and Medical Officer and serves as the co-chair of Federal Telehealth Working Group for the U.S. Government. Doarn has worked closely the NATO, the Department of Defense, and the Department of State as a Fulbright Specialist.

As the Editor-in-Chief of the Telemedicine and e-Health Journal (since 2005, Doarn is a recognized leader in telemedicine and telehealth as a scholar and teacher, having published 6 books, over 400 manuscripts, editorials, federal reports and 46 book chapters. Doarn is an editor of the 4^th edition of Space Physiology and Medicine: Evidence to Practice (ISBN 978-1-4939-6650-9); an editor of A Multinational Telemedicine System for Disaster Response: Opportunities and Challenges. NATO Publication (ISBN 978-1-61499-727-6); an editor of Engineering, Life Sciences, and Health/Medicine Synergy in Aerospace Human Systems Integration. The Rosetta Stone Project. NASA SP-2017-633. (ISBN 978-1-62683-044-8); and Telemedicine, Telehealth, and Telepresence: Principles, Strategies, Applications and New Directions. Editors. R Latifi, CR Doarn, RC Merrell. Springer, New York. ISBN 978-3-030-56916-7. 2021.

Professor Doarn is a fellow of the ATA and the Aerospace Medical Association, a member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), an Honorary NASA Flight Surgeon, and recipient of the Astronaut’s award, the Silver Snoopy for his work in Telemedicine for NASA worldwide. In May 2016, Professor Doarn was recognized by the ATA with the 2016 Individual Leadership Award for his efforts national and international in telemedicine. He and his co-authors were recognized with the IAA’s 2018 Luigi Napolitano Book Award in the Life Sciences.

Jessica Easterday, MBA, BSN, RN is the Clinical Manager of Virtual Care at Gundersen Health System in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The telemedicine program has grown to 40 specialties, including pre-hospital, ambulatory and inpatient services, as well as an on-demand direct to consumer platform. Gundersen Health System serves patients in rural Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. Jess enjoys the challenges of change management and the promotion of health by providing the option for more frequent touchpoints between patients and healthcare providers. Jess can be reached at jeeaster@gundersenhealth.org.

Avital Graves, MBA, MHA, NRP, manages the Montgomery County Fire Rescue Service Mobile Integrated Health program. Her team’s efforts focus on targeting high-utilizers of the EMS and hospital systems in Montgomery County. She is also heavily involved in efforts towards creation of a Restoration / Stabilization Center. Avital is currently assessing how Fire/Rescue and Public Safety can collaborate with behavioral health crisis services with the end goal of hospital diversion, treatment in place, and live tele-mental-health support for those experiencing a crisis, including people experiencing a substance use disorder, those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and mental health episodes. Avital is a paramedic and has been a part of MCFRS since 2002, joining the MIH team in 2019.

Abbey Gregg, PhD, MPH is an assistant professor in the Department of Community Medicine and Population Health and the Institute for Rural Health Research at the College of Community Health Sciences. Her research focuses on improving access to care and quality of care for underserved populations. Gregg earned her doctoral degree in Health Services Research, Administration, and Policy in 2017 and her Master in Public Health in 2011 from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. From 2016-2017, she was a Buffett Early Childhood Institute Graduate Scholar and she also has several years of experience as a public health practitioner in a local health department and social service agency.

Battalion Chief Ben Kaufman is a paramedic and registered nurse and is assigned to the Emergency Medical and Integrated Healthcare Services Section of the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS) in Maryland. As participants of the ET3 program, MCFRS recently added both alternative destination and telehealth options and is working towards expansion of the program to include nurse triage at the 911 center.

Dr. Sharad Sharma is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Director of Virtual Reality Laboratory at the Bowie State University. He has received Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Wayne State University, Detroit, MI in 2006 and M.S. from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI in 2003. He has won the "2018 USM (University System of Maryland) Board of Regents "Faculty Award" for Excellence in Research and Scholarship.

Dr. Sharma is an expert in modeling and simulation of human behavior for emergency response and decision making with focus on multi-agent systems (MAS), multi-user virtual reality (MUVR), and mobile augmented reality systems (MARS). He is interested in merging data science and virtual reality for advanced visualization. He specializes in performing virtual evacuation drills for evacuations and terror events in Multi‐User Virtual Reality (MUVR) environments such as subway, airplane, bus, mega-city, and university campus. His work also focuses on using virtual reality and augmented reality as a tool for learning, training, and education in several applications, including healthcare and evacuation. He has developed and evaluated Virtual Reality Instructional (VRI) modules/Game-Theme based Instructional (GTI) modules for training and education in immersive and non-immersive environments.

Dr. Yu is currently an Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering at Purdue University and a Certified Professional Ergonomist (CPE). He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine and a Summer Faculty Fellow at the Air Force 711^th Human Performance Wing. His current research links the areas of human performance, sensors and devices, workplace intervention design, and systems engineering with applications in improving the safety in healthcare environments for both patients and medical professionals.