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Conversa Health Names Entrepreneur and Former U.S. Veterans Affairs CTO Peter Levin to Board of Directors; Adds Three New Advisors [Global Data Point](Global Data Point Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The company also appointed three new executives to its board of advisors: Mark Tomaino, a senior industry executive at New York investment management firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe (WCAS); Colin Watts, president of Weight Watchers Health Solutions; and Andy Weissberg, co-founder of DotHealth and managing partner at Digital Publishing Partners. "Peter Levin brings 20 years of invaluable experience gleaned through service at senior levels of leadership in federal government, the private sector and in academe," said West Shell III, Conversa CEO and co-founder. "Of greatest immediate value to Conversa are his contributions as the designated lead for health record modernization in the second largest cabinet agency in the U.S. government -- a capacity in which he pioneered what has become the most widely used personal health record in the country." Before founding Amida -- an IT firm that focuses on data and data security -- Levin served with the Veterans Affairs agency, where he led the creation and inter-agency development of the Blue Button personal health record (PHR). Now used by millions of people, Blue Button services provide button-simple access to personal data and are being institutionalized in several federal agencies and in many leading-edge private companies. Also with the Veterans Affairs agency and as part of the Obama Administration's Open Government initiative, Levin led creation and implementation of the open source electronic health record custodian (OSEHRA.org), and delivery of the first clinical components of the integrated electronic health record with U.S. Department of Defense (the iEHR and VLER programs). Before joining the Administration, Levin was a venture partner with Ventizz Capital Partners and a non-executive director of the open source network security company Astaro AG (acquired by Sophos). A Carnegie Mellon alumnus, he is also an adjunct senior fellow with the technology and national security program at the Center for a New American Security, a consulting professor with the Department of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at Stanford, and the executive director of HealthGuide, which provides a consumer app to enable better living through data. "Conversa has the key attributes of a startup postured for success," Levin said. "The company has the most experienced leadership team I've come across in the digital health space. They are developing solutions that leverage patient-generated health data to improve doctor-patient communication and collaborative decision-making between visits. And they are seeing great success through their first active pilot with GreenField, and have many exciting partnerships on the near-term horizon." Collectively, the new appointees bring a wealth of outstanding and proven industry expertise to Conversa, which provides Digital Checkup solutions for physicians to help them successfully deliver value-based care by monitoring the health of all patients in their practice. By collecting, analyzing and managing patient-generated health data, Digital Checkups help physicians stay connected with their patients between visits, identify problems earlier, improve patient outcomes and strengthen doctor-patient relationships. Mark Tomaino brings an insightful understanding of what type of companies are driving healthcare's transformation through deep expertise in business development, M%7EA, legal and finance. In 2010, he joined Welsh, Carlson, Anderson and Stowe, a private equity firm with $20 billion under management, as an investor lead in the healthcare IT industry. Earlier in his career, he served as head of corporate development at The TriZetto Group, where he was responsible for M%7EA, strategic alliances, joint ventures, investments and capital raising activities. Prior to TriZetto, he held a variety of senior strategy, business development and legal roles, including general counsel at Bausch %7E Lomb Surgical. He holds an M.B.A. from The Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California at Irvine, a J.D. from the Albany Law School of Union University, and an A.B. in English and Economics from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. Colin Watts brings a broad range of experiences in general management, marketing and innovation from leading consumer and healthcare companies. Before becoming president of Weight Watchers Health Solutions, he served as Chief Innovation Officer at Walgreens, where he was in charge of the Corporate Innovation Division. Earlier in his career, he had significant senior leadership roles at Johnson %7E Johnson as president of McNeil Nutritionals Worldwide and McNeil Consumer Healthcare Worldwide, where he was responsible for building businesses such as Tylenol, Motrin, Imodium and Splenda. He also had various marketing roles early in his career at both Johnson %7E Johnson and Nabisco. Watts earned a B.A. from Brown University and a joint M.B.A./Masters of International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania. Andy Weissberg brings over 20 years of marketing and business development experience in the healthcare, electronic media, e-learning and information services industries. In addition to being a co-founder and managing partner at Digital Publishing Partners, he co-founded DotHealth, one of the companies seeking to operate the .HEALTH new top-level domain registry. Earlier in his career, Weissberg was general manager for Advanstar's Life Sciences Group, where he developed and commercialized ModernMedicine.com -- a leading clinical and practice management decision-support, CME and knowledge resource for physicians and healthcare professionals. Levin, Tomaino, Watts and Weissberg join Conversa's executive team, which includes co-founders West Shell III (CEO) and Dr. Phil Marshall, MPH (Chief Product Officer); Dr. Danny Sands, M.D., MPH, FACP; and Anna-Lisa Silvestre, MPH (Chief Marketing Officer). The team brings decades of successful Health IT experience from Kaiser Permanente, WebMD, Healthline Networks and Press Ganey. Conversa's distinguished advisory board consists of industry thought leaders and innovators, including Adam Bosworth (Salesforce, Google), Dr. Brad Bowman (WebMD, Healthgrades), Ann Mond Johnson (ConnectedHealth), Dr. Chuck Kilo (Oregon Health %7E Science University), Brad Lawson (StayWell), Clare Martorana (Everyday Health), Mark Tomaino (Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe), Colin Watts (Weight Watchers) and Andy Weissberg (Digital Publishing Partners / DotHealth). Conversa Health is privately held and based in San Francisco and Portland, Ore. (c) 2014 GlobalData Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |