Category Archive

Portia Brown is the Vice President at Valley Health Page Memorial Hospital located in Luray, Virginia. She has 35 years of healthcare experience to include 30 years in leadership positions working in large and small hospitals, a 1000 bed Veterans Administration hospital, academic facility, and Martin Marietta contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy. “We added a pharmacist to help … Read More

Ray Rogers is the Chief Executive Officer for the National Center for Health Care Informatics (NCHCI) and The Praxis Center for Innovative Learning located in Butte, Montana. Ray serves as the CEO for the NCHCI, a non-profit corporation dedicated to improving the management of health care data, information, and knowledge. His company is leading an effort to develop the Praxis … Read More

David Clayton is the Youth Outreach Coordinator for Families Against Narcotics. David is a person in long term recovery from drugs and alcohol. In his role as Youth Outreach Coordinator, he has had the opportunity to spread awareness on addiction prevention and recovery across the state of Michigan to drug courts, hospitals, local news and high schools all the way … Read More

Danielle Culberson is a Health Information Technology Specialist with the Michigan Public Health Institute.  In this role, Danielle assists providers around Michigan with electronic health record adoption. “Rural health is one of the most important fields within healthcare, but also one of the most overlooked.”  A Michigan native, she received her graduate degree in Health Informatics from the University of Michigan in 2017 … Read More

Brock Slabach is leading the national discussion on quality improvement and alternative payment models in rural health. Brock was recognized for his work in rural health when the National Rural Health Resource Center presented him with the Calico Leadership award last year. “Workforce, vulnerable populations and chronic poverty; we are focusing on all of these topics at the NRHA Rural … Read More

Robert Thorn is the Principal at Summit Healthcare Strategies, where he assists hospitals and healthcare organizations in the identification of and response to market needs. “How do they see us? Are we serving their needs? Are we doing everything we can to optimize the care in the community?” Bob’s experience in telehealth includes serving as Executive Director of TRU PACE, … Read More

Michael Fischer, M.D., MPH & TM has worked for the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) for over 6 years in the Infectious Disease Control Unit (IDCU) and in October of 2017, he took-on the role of Antibiotic Stewardship Expert for the Health Care Safety Group of the Infectious Disease Control Unit at Tx-DSHS. “The biggest predictor has been … Read More

Today we’re having a conversation with Andrea Wendling, M.D., Professor of Family Medicine and Director of Rural Medicine Curriculum at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. “Today’s medical students often say, “I want to care for a community. Teach me how to do that.” I think that’s really exciting.” Dr. Wendling completed medical school at the University of Michigan … Read More

Today we’re having a conversation with Nicole Thorell, MSN, CEN, Chief Nursing Officer at Lexington Regional Health Center in Lexington, Nebraska. Nicole has been at Lexington Regional for ten years, and has been Chief Nursing Officer for four years. Prior to becoming the CNO, Nicole was a staff nurse and Director of Nursing Quality. “The secret sauce is really the … Read More

Today we’re having a conversation with Kelly McGrath, MD, MS, Chief Medical Officer at Clearwater Valley hospital and Clinics where he has served as a rural Family Medicine physician for 24 years.  He is also the Idaho Medical Director for Qualis Health – the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization. “I’ve gone from being a doubting Thomas to a true believer.” Dr. … Read More