About Harris County Health Information Cooperative™(HCHIC)

Harris County Health Information Cooperative ^TM (HCHIC) was founded to implement and evaluate a shared electronic health record system, for record sharing for uninsured, Medicaid, and other patients among all safety net health and mental health providers in Harris County.

Executives

Founder, Executive Director -- Ignacio Valdes, MD, MS Dr. Valdes is a Board Certified Psychiatrist with a twenty year history of working in the healthcare IT arena.  Prior to medical school he worked for IBM and Compaq as a software and quality control engineer as well as his own software company. He is the chair of the American Medical Informatics Open Source Working Group. He is the founder of Linux Medical News, and is a internationally recognized expert on free and open source medical software and interoperability standards. He is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Texas Health Science Center Houston’s School of Health Information Sciences. He completed medical school at Southwestern in Dallas (1998), residency training at the University of Texas at Houston Department of Psychiatry (2001). He has a Computer Science degree from Texas A&M (1985) and Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Houston (1991).

Treasurer -- David Whitten is a senior computer specialist with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in Houston, Texas. He holds a masters degree in computer science and is a recognized expert on knowledge bases and artificial intelligence. He has worked with VistA and its predecessors for more than twenty years while programming for such employers as Houston's Methodist Hospital, the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) as well as the VA. In the artificial intelligence field, he has contributed to the IEEE Standard Upper Ontology working group, written the unofficial FAQ on the Cyc system, and founded the Public Domain Knowledge Bank. He is a longstanding member of the MUMPS Development Committee and cofounded the OpenVistA project and WorldVistA.

Chief Technical Architect -- Fred Trotter Mr. Trotter has extensive experience in development of secure internet applications in healthcare (billing, electronic medical records). He has been Director of Internet Security Services for Uversa, a Security Consultant for multiple hospitals and companies including VeriSign. He previously served as the Computer Services Corporation Project Manager for the Air Force Information Warfare Center. He obtained a BS degree in Computer Science as well as two BA degrees in Psychology and Philosophy from Trinity University (1998).

Board member(p) -- Kim Dunn MD, PhD Dr. Dunn is a leading authority on outcomes management, telemedicine, and the adoption of IT in healthcare. She has extensive experience in large physician practice management and developing training and outcomes delivery to improve quality of care. Previously, she was responsible for Internal Medicine Services for the Texas Prison System where she was instrumental in implementing tele-medicine and outcomes management. She was a founding faculty member of the School of Health Information Sciences where she developed the Applied Health Informatics Programs, established the Research and Development Program for Your Doctor Program, L.P., and served as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs until September 2006. She serves on the UT Medical School Alumni Board and is a past participant in the Center for Houston’s Future Leadership Forum. She holds degrees in Medicine and PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Texas Health Science Center (1990), completed Internal Medicine Residency / Chief Resident (1994).

Board member(p) -- Manfred Sternberg, Former CEO and now Chief Strategist, Bluegate, Inc has been our Chief Executive Officer and a Director since 2001. Prior to 2001, Mr. Sternberg was an investor and board member of several broadband providers in Houston, Texas including our predecessor. He is a graduate of Tulane University and Louisiana State University School of Law. Mr. Sternberg is licensed to practice law in Texas, Louisiana and the District of Columbia and is Board Certified in Consumer and Commercial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Board member(p) -- Jack W. Smith, MD, PhD is dean of The University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences. In addition to his faculty appointment at SHIS, Smith is deputy director of medical informatics and healthcare systems at NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston. His primary research focus is on developing computer support systems for astronaut health, both on earth and in space. Smith received his medical degree from West Virginia University Medical School in 1977 and his doctorate in computer and information sciences from Ohio State University in 1986. He joined the Health Science Center faculty in 1998.

History

Harris County Health Information Cooperative ^TM (HCHIC) was founded to implement and evaluate a shared electronic health record system, for record sharing for uninsured, Medicaid, and other patients among all safety net health and mental health providers in Harris County.