Putting Your Tax Dollars to Work: Government Role in Healthcare Innovation

Cindy Hou, DO, MA, MBA, CIC, CPHQ, FACOI, FACP, FIDSA, is the Infection Control Officer and Medical Director of Research for Jefferson Health - New Jersey (JNJ) and an infectious diseases specialist. She is dually board certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases. Dr. Hou has expertise in sepsis, antibiotic stewardship, and infection control. Dr. Hou is the Chief Medical Officer of  Sepsis Alliance and a member of its board of directors; she is also a medical advisor for the Sepsis Innovation Collaborative. Dr. Hou earned an M.B.A. and M.A. from Boston University, a D.O. from the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine, and a BS from Yale University. She has a certification in Infection Prevention and Control (CIC), is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ), and a Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS). Dr. Hou is a fellow for the American College of Osteopathic Internists (ACOI), American College of Physicians (ACP) and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). 

Dr. Gieson has the goal of using host-based methods to mitigate the impacts of emerging threats. He explores epigenetic and real-time monitoring approaches that can dynamically guide healthcare decisions and therapy as well as new methods of increasing patient survival in austere environments using intelligent systems partnered with local care providers. Prior to joining DARPA, Dr. Van Gieson served as the Chief Technology Officer at the National Strategic Research Institute and before that as Director of Biosurveillance and Diagnostics at MRIGlobal. He has also served as Chief of the Diagnostics, Disease Surveillance, and Threat Detection Division within the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and as Principal Professional Staff at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Dr. Van Gieson has served as the Chief Judge on the Nokia Sensing XChallenge and a Judge on the QualComm Tricorder XChallenge on behalf of the XPrize Foundation. He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Biomedical Engineering and a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia. He has published on topics ranging from genomic analysis to autonomous systems.

Runa Hatti Gokhale is a team lead in CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion where she oversees invasive Staphylococcus aureus surveillance and serves as science lead for Agency sepsis activities. She is a Commander in the Commissioned Corps of the US Public Health Service. Runa is board certified in Internal Medicine and Preventive Medicine, and before joining CDC worked as a hospitalist at the Atlanta VA Medical Center, where she continues to attend on the inpatient medicine service. Runa received a BA from Brown University, an MD from Jefferson Medical College, and an MPH from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health.

Kimberly Sciarretta, PhD is the Solving Sepsis Program Manager within the Division of Research Innovation and Ventures (DRIVe), Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  Previously Dr. Sciarretta was a Project Officer within the BARDA CBRN Division, and prior to that, was a technical consultant to multiple US Government Agencies.  Dr. Sciarretta was one of the inaugural members of DRIVe and is leading efforts towards improving patient outcomes for sepsis through strategic interagency activities and critical technology investments with external partners.  Dr. Sciarretta received her PhD from the University of Chicago in Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology.  Her expertise broadly spans medical countermeasure development, biochemistry, synthetic biology, advanced manufacturing and chemical and biological defense technologies.

Dr. Yarbrough is the Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care at the VHA North Texas Healthcare System in Dallas and Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.  He is the national program director for Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine for the Veterans Administration Central Office. He is chair of the Operations Critical Care Committee, Pulmonary Field Advisory Committee, Sleep Field Advisory Committee, member of the Surgical Advisory Board for Critical Care, and Co-chair of the CIS/ARK (ICU Clinical Information System/Anesthesia Record Keeper) Advisory Board.  He is a member of the Tele-ICU steering committee.