San Francisco, Calif., February 4, 2014 – The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) today announced the new members of the 2014 California Technology Assessment Forum (CTAF). Fifteen California-based physicians, consumer representatives, and methodologists representing a wide variety of backgrounds, specialties, and perspectives comprise the newly re-constituted CTAF. CTAF Panel members have experience in evaluating and using evidence in the practice of healthcare, as well as expertise in health policy, consumer advocacy, outcomes research, medical ethics, and public health. A full list of CTAF members, with brief biographies, is included below.

“The caliber and stature of this group is a testament to the importance of addressing issues of comparative effectiveness, quality, and value in healthcare,” stated Daniel Ullyot, MD, Chair of CTAF. “We look forward to building on CTAF’s legacy of deliberating and discussing evidence reviews in a public forum to produce actionable information relevant to patients, providers, and health insurers. With its new membership, CTAF is poised to remain a critical part of the efforts to improve quality and value in the health care system.”

The California Technology Assessment Forum, a flagship initiative of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), is dedicated to providing credible, evidence-based information about new and emerging medical technologies and delivery system interventions. ICER recently assumed leadership of CTAF from the Blue Shield of California Foundation, which continues to provide lead funding for the program.

The next public meeting of CTAF will be held on March 10, 2014 at the Mission Bay Conference Center at the University of California San Francisco and will address treatment options for Hepatitis C. Members of the public are invited to attend and can register by visiting www.0310ctafmeeting.eventbrite.com. For more information on CTAF, including further details for the upcoming meeting, please visit the CTAF website: www.ctaf.org

Panel Members

Douglas C. Bauer, MD
Dr. Bauer is Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Biostatistics and Director of Research in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), where he also maintains a general medicine practice. Dr. Bauer received his medical degree from the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver and completed his Internal Medicine residency at UCSF. He went on to complete his Fellowship in General Internal Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. Dr. Bauer has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals on topics related to osteoporosis, endocrine disorders, and aging, including risk factors, diagnostic tests, and treatments. He has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international meetings and educational programs.

Christine Castano, MD
Dr. Castano is the Medical Director of Utilization Management at HealthCare Partners Medical Group in California, where she is responsible for a variety of initiatives to increase the value of care provided to their patients. Previously she served as the Lead Physician overseeing delivery of health care at the Arcadia site, a multi-specialty, primary care and specialty services clinic. Dr. Castano also managed a diverse panel of patients, serving as both Primary Care Physician and Lead Physician Reviewer for Care Management in the San Gabriel Valley region. Dr. Castano is primarily interested in how the initiatives and processes in a large health care system impact an individual doctor-patient relationship, and how to transmit learnings and clinical protocols across a larger system. Dr. Castano serves on the California Association of Physician Group’s Quality Committee, and on the Integrated Healthcare Association’s Technical Measurement Committee, which develops and refines California’s P4P program. Having completed the California HealthCare Foundation’s Health Care Leadership Program in 2011, she has served as an advisor to current fellows in two subsequent cohorts.

Dr. Castano represents HealthCare Partners in the California Improvement Network, and she speaks frequently within HealthCare Partners on a variety of quality and utilization topics. She has been a consistent attendee at the CTAF meetings for the past 5 years, and she develops the information from the presentations and discussions into educational presentations to primary care physicians on the wise use of new and emerging technology. Previously she worked with women’s health and behavioral health programs and on projects in the primary care program at Albert Einstein Medical Center-Jacobi Hospital, Bronx, NY, and at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, WA. Dr. Castano is a graduate of Swarthmore College, a cum laude graduate of Albany Medical College in NY, and was a resident in Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.

Robert Collyar
Bob Collyar became a dedicated patient advocate with his wife’s first breast cancer in 1990. He was made a board member of Breast Cancer Action by its original leader in 1991, and he helped the group take lessons learned from AIDS advocates and apply them to change the traditional view of cancer patients and the organizations representing them.

Bob and his wife Deborah pioneered the concept of cancer patient advocacy specifically focused on the research system, with emphasis on direct involvement at all levels of the process itself. They created the Clinical Trials Information Project generating single page plain language summaries of complicated trial protocols, which led to involvement with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), substantial changes to its Physician Data Query (PDQ) system, and greatly expanded participation of patient advocates across the NCI. He helped develop and lead the NCI Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) advocate program nationally, has worked extensively with the Coalition of Cancer Cooperative Groups and member organizations, served on numerous committees and working groups, and interacted with hundreds of researchers in both professional and social environments. Though starting with cancer, many of his efforts have broadened into other diseases and systemic issues working with government agencies, companies, and providers of all types. Bob is a non-smoker lung cancer survivor, still dedicated to having patients as an integral part of the medical enterprise from the beginning, not just as an endpoint.

Meg Durbin, MD
Dr. Meg Durbin is an internist and pediatrician at Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF), and also serves as the Peninsula Coastal Region Vice President of Care Coordination for Sutter Health/PAMF. She serves on numerous committees related to quality improvement projects at PAMF, including Vice Chair for the Sutter Health Maintenance Committee and Co-Chair for the Sutter Depression Task Force. She contributes frequently to PAMF’s health education efforts, writing articles for the lay press, PAMF’s website, and lecturing on various topics. She is also the Co-founder and member of the HEARD Alliance, a health care coalition developed in response to adolescent depression.

Prior to joining PAMF in 1996, she worked in several San Francisco public health clinics and conducted health services research through UCSF’s Institute for Health Policy Studies. She completed a bachelor’s degree in human biology at Stanford, a health policy fellowship at UCSF’s Health Policy Program after college, a medical degree at University of California, Davis, residencies in internal medicine at San Francisco General Hospital and pediatrics at UCSF, and the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at Stanford.

Marjorie E. Ginsburg, BSN, MPH
Marge Ginsburg is the founding director of the Center for Healthcare Decisions (CHCD), established in 1994 as a non-profit, non-partisan organization committed to bring the public voice to complex healthcare policy issues. Starting with the topic of end-of-life care, over the years she has led CHCD into exploring with the public such third-rail issues as using cost-effectiveness as a coverage criterion, designing employee healthcare benefits when options exceed resources, the priorities of Medi-Cal members if the state is going to cut the budget, deciding what ‘basic benefits’ look like prior to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), prioritizing the components of hospital quality, and identifying the principles for fair cost-sharing within Covered California.

In addition to CTAF, she currently serves on the Board of Directors of National Quality Forum, the Integrated Healthcare Association, and California Hospital Assessment & Reporting Task Force (CHART), and on NCQA’s Committee for Performance Measurement. She is also a member of the Medi-Cal Performance Advisory Committee. In 2011, she served on the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Essential Health Benefits, tasked with developing the principles for implementing coverage under the ACA.

Mary Kane Goldstein, MD, MS
Dr. Goldstein is a Professor of Medicine in the Center for Health Policy/Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research (CHP/PCOR) at Stanford University. She is a geriatrician and health services researcher. Dr. Goldstein is the principal investigator for the NIH/NIA-funded Center on Advancing Decision Making in Aging (CADMA), the Roybal Center at Stanford University. Her area of research expertise is health services research involving medical decision-making and health information technology to improve quality of health care. She leads the Functional Limitations in Aging Research (FLAIR) project studying patient preferences for application to decision analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis. She also leads the ATHENA-Clinical Decision Support (CDS) project, developing and implementing computable knowledge bases of evidence-based clinical knowledge with integration to electronic health record systems for CDS and performance measurement. She has served on the board of directors of the American Geriatrics Society and the American Board of Family Medicine, as well as on many other committees and advisory panels. Dr. Goldstein received a medical degree from Columbia University and a master’s degree in health services research from Stanford University School of Medicine, and she did her residency program at Duke University Medical Center.

Kimberly Gregory, MD, MPH
Dr. Kimberly Gregory is Vice Chair of Women’s Healthcare Quality and Performance Improvement, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Board certified in Ob/Gyn and Maternal-Fetal Medicine, she is a Professor at Cedars with a joint appointment at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Dr. Gregory is a graduate of UCLA (BS, psychobiology), Charles Drew University of Medicine & Sciences (MD), and Harvard School of Public Health (MPH). She completed her internship and residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and her fellowship at USC Women’s Hospital, Los Angeles. She has received federal and foundation funding to support her research interests, which include developing maternal quality indicators, patient safety, obstetrical healthcare utilization, variation and appropriateness of cesarean delivery, and complications of childbirth.

Dr. Gregory has served in various leadership positions including the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the Institute of Medicine Committee on Preventive Services for Women, the Board of Directors for the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine, regional Section Chair for American College Obstetrics & Gynecology (ACOG), and numerous health and public policy committees at both the state and national levels.

Paul Heidenreich, MD, MS, CTAF Vice Chair
Dr. Paul Heidenreich is Professor and Vice-Chair for Quality, Clinical Affairs, and Analytics in the Department of Medicine, and a Professor by courtesy of Health Research and Policy in the Stanford University School of Medicine. He serves as Chair of the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association’s Task Force on Performance Measurement and Vice-Chair of the American Heart Association’s Get-With-The-Guidelines Program. His research focuses on interventions to improve the quality of care for heart disease patients, the use of cardiac imaging to predict prognosis, the cost-effectiveness of new cardiovascular technologies, and outcomes research using existing clinical and administrative data. He is currently examining a variety of health services interventions to improve quality of care and the patient experience of care.

Jeffrey Klingman, MD
Dr. Klingman serves as Chief of Neurology at Kaiser Permanente in Walnut Creek. He also serves on a range of committees, including the New Technology Committee of The Permanente Medical Group, American Academy of Neurology, Movement Disorder Society, California Neurological Association, and American Stroke Association. He is also a Trustee of the California Medical Association, President of the American Heart Association (East Bay), and Past President of the Alameda Contra Costa Medical Association. Dr. Klingman received his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and he completed both his internship and residency at the Los Angeles County University of Southern California Medical Center. Dr. Klingman has coauthored numerous articles, including evidence based guidelines, primarily related to stroke care.

Rita F. Redberg, MD, MSc, FACC
Dr. Rita Redberg has been a cardiologist and Professor of Medicine and Director of Women’s Cardiovascular Services at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) since 1990. Dr. Redberg is currently the Chief Editor of JAMA Internal Medicine (formerly Archives of ) and has spearheaded the journal’s new focus on health care reform and “less is more”, which highlights areas of health care with no known benefit and definite risks. Her research interests are in the area of health policy and technology assessment focusing on the need for inclusion of women in clinical trials and for sex-specific evidence, most recently focusing in the area of medical devices.

Dr. Redberg has had a long standing commitment to women and heart disease and cofounded the UCSF Center of Excellence in Women’s Health in 1997. She was honored to receive the Women’s Day Red Dress Award in 2011 for her leadership in the area of heart disease in women and the Bay Area American Heart Association Red Dress Award in 2010. She served on the Scientific Advisory Board of Women Heart from 2002-2012.

Dr. Redberg is a member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress on Medicare payment issues. She also served on the Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee (MEDCAC) from 2003-2006 and was reappointed in 2012 as its Chair. Dr Redberg is a member of the California Technology Assessment Forum, the Medical Policy Technology and Advisory Committee, and the Food and Drug Administration Cardiovascular Devices Expert Panel, and she is a consultant for the Center for Medical Technology Policy. She gave Congressional testimony four times in 2011 in hearings related to the issue of balancing safety and innovation in medical device approvals. Dr. Redberg worked in the office of Senator Hatch and with the Senate Judiciary Committee on FDA-related matters during her tenure as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow, 2003-2006.

Dr. Redberg has authored several books, including You Can Be a Woman Cardiologist, Heart Healthy: The Step-by-Step Guide to Preventing and Healing Heart Disease, and Betty Crocker Cookbook for Women: the Complete Guide to Women’s Health and Wellness at Every Stage of Life. She has done hundreds of radio, television, and newspaper interviews on health related topics, including being featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, and on National Public Radio and the Today Show.

Dr. Redberg was a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Learning Health Care Committee, which produced the report Best Care at Lower Cost in September 2012. She chaired the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology (ACC) Writing Group on Primary Prevention Performance Measures and is a member of the ACC’s Clinical Quality Committee and serves on its Quality in Technology Work Group. She does comparative effectiveness research and serves on the ACC’s Comparative Effectiveness Work Group, represents the ACC on the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review Advisory Board, and serves on other ACC Committees, including several on appropriate use of cardiac imaging. Dr. Redberg graduated from Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and has a Master of Science in Health Policy and Administration degree from the London School of Economics.

Robert E. Rentschler, MD
Dr. Rentschler received his medical degree from Loma Linda University (LLU) School of Medicine in 1970, and then completed his Internal Medicine residency from 1970-1972 at LLU Medical Center (interrupted by two years of Army medical service to 1974). He completed his Medical Oncology fellowship at the University of Texas’ MD Anderson Hospital, Houston, Texas from 1974-1976. He then served as a full-time faculty member of LLU School of Medicine from 1976-1990, and as Chief of Oncology/Hematology for Beaver Medical Group (BMG) in Redlands, CA from 1990-2005. He retired from active clinical practice in 2005 but continues to work half-time at BMG doing physician recruiting, retention, and patient satisfaction duties.

Alexander Smith, MD, PhD
Dr. Alex Smith is a clinician-researcher at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) who is at the forefront of efforts to integrate geriatrics and palliative care. Dr. Smith’s research program focuses on improving palliative care for vulnerable and dependent elders. He has strong interests in bioethics and improving patient-physician communication. Dr. Smith works clinically on the Hospice and Palliative Care Service at the San Francisco VAMC. Dr. Smith and Dr. Eric Widera co-founded GeriPal, a Geriatrics and Palliative Care Blog, the leading source for news and commentary related to Geriatrics or Palliative Care on the web. GeriPal received nearly 1.5 million page views between 2009 and 2013. Also working with Dr. Widera and Drs. Sei Lee and Mara Schonberg, Dr. Smith launched ePrognosis, an online set of prognostic calculators for the elderly. ePrognosis had over half a million page views in the first week, and over 1 million views between 2012 and 2013.

Michael Steinberg, MD
Dr. Steinberg is Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He also serves as the Executive Vice President for Affiliations and Partnerships of the UCLA Health System. Dr. Steinberg is Chair of the Electronic Health Record Oversight Board (EOB), which strategically directs the implementation of the $360 million UCLA Health System electronic health record initiative, CareConnect. In 2012, Dr. Steinberg was appointed by the Dean/Vice Chancellor as Chair of the Clinical Chairs of the David Geffen School of Medicine.

His clinical activities are directed towards the treatment of cancers of the genitourinary system, breast, head and neck, and the central nervous system. He specializes in the use of novel and technologically advanced treatment modalities such as Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) and Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT). Dr. Steinberg publishes and speaks on issues related to health policy including quality of care, patient safety, evidence based validation of emerging technology, healthcare economics, the value proposition in healthcare, and disparities. He served as the principal investigator for a National Cancer Institute cancer disparity research grant ($3 million) and as a health services research investigator and manuscript author at the RAND Corporation. Dr. Steinberg also serves as the Director of Clinical Affairs for UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Steinberg has been influential on a national level in providing input regarding health policy and economic issues on behalf of patients and his specialty through his various leadership roles. He is the founding Chair of the Health Policy Council of American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and served as ASTRO’s President and Chairman of the board of directors. From 2002 to 2010, Dr. Steinberg served as the radiation oncology representative to the American Medical Association’s CPT Editorial Panel, and he also served two terms on the Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee.

Dr. Steinberg graduated Occidental College Phi Beta Kappa, was elected to AOA at University of Southern California School of Medicine, and completed his radiation oncology residency and fellowship at UCLA.

Daniel Ullyot, MD CTAF Chair
Dr. Dan Ullyot is a retired Cardiovascular Surgeon and Professor of Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He was graduated from Harvard College (BA 1958) and from the University of Minnesota (MD 1963), completed an internship in internal medicine and a residency in general surgery (both Harvard Services, Boston City Hospital), and did his thoracic surgical training at UCSF. He was a research fellow at the Cardiovascular Research Institute just prior to joining the UCSF surgical faculty in 1971. He served as President of the American College of Cardiology (1993–1994) and President of the Western Thoracic Surgical Association (1996–1997). In 2004, he was elected to the Peninsula Health Care District (PHCD) Board, re-elected in 2008 and 2012, and currently chairs the Board.

Gerald Winslow, PhD
Dr. Gerald Winslow is Vice President for Mission and Culture for Loma Linda University (LLU) Medical Center, and he serves as the Chief Culture Officer for LLU’s system of six hospitals. He is also Professor of Ethics at Loma Linda University, specializing in biomedical ethics. Recently, he was appointed the founding Director of LLU’s Institute for Health Policy and Leadership.

He received his undergraduate education at Walla Walla University and his master’s degree at Andrews University. He earned his doctorate from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. He has also been a visiting scholar at Cambridge University, University of Virginia, and the University of Tübingen. For over forty years, he has specialized in teaching and writing about ethics, especially biomedical ethics. His books include Triage and Justice published by the University of California Press and Facing Limits (edited with James Walters) from Westview Press. His articles have appeared in academic journals such as the Western Journal of Medicine, the Journal of Pediatrics, the Hastings Center Report, the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, and General Dentistry. He has presented lectures and seminars at universities and for professional groups throughout North America and in Australia, Europe, Russia, Africa, and Asia. He has served as a consultant in biomedical ethics for major health care systems and for research conducted by pharmaceutical companies.

About CTAF
The California Technology Assessment Forum (CTAF), a flagship initiative of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, is dedicated to providing credible, evidence-based information about new and emerging medical technologies and delivery system interventions. Lead funding is provided by Blue Shield of California Foundation. For more information about CTAF, please visit www.ctaf.org.

About ICER
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) is an independent non-profit health care research organization dedicated to improving the interpretation and application of evidence in the health care system.

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