Jeroan Allison, M.D., M.S., Associate Director of COERE,  is Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, School of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).  Dr. Allison is an experienced health services researcher with expertise in developing clinically meaningful process of care indicators and translating clinical practice guidelines into concrete computerized algorithms for measuring performance and delivering data-driven feedback to providers. He is also experienced in the design and use of benchmarks for quality improvement and in the analysis of chart abstraction data and claims data.  Dr. Allison received his medical degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and completed his residency in Internal Medicine, also at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He went on to complete a Fellowship in Medical Informatics at the Marine Biology Lab at Woodshole and participates in the UAB Medical Informatics training program for medical residents.  In addition to his medical training, Dr. Allison received a Masters of Science in Epidemiology at Harvard University School of Public Health.

Eta Berner, Ed.D., is Professor of Health Services Administration in the School of Health Related Professions and a Senior Scientist in the Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and Education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).  She teaches health informatics courses to graduate students in Health Informatics and Health Administration.  Her research interests include (1) Evaluation of the use and impact on quality improvement and medical error reduction of clinical decision support systems and other health information technologies by health professional students and practitioners;( 2) Evaluating the impact of innovative educational approaches, including distance learning and collaborative videoconferencing methodologies.  Her current research project funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is on evaluating handheld decision support systems on patient safety. She has previously received research funding from the National Library of Medicine, the National Board of Medical Examiners, the Bureau of Health Professions, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.  Dr. Berner is a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics and has published articles in leading journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Medical Care, Academic Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. She is the editor of a book entitled Clinical Decision Support Systems: Theory and Practice (1999, Springer-Verlag). Dr. Berner has been a World Health Organization consultant and has served in leadership positions at the national level in professional informatics and health professions educational organizations.  Dr. Berner serves on AHRQ's Healthcare Technology and Decision Sciences Study Section and she is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, the Journal of Healthcare Information Management, and Medical Education Online.

John Bian, Ph.D., a health services researcher, received his Ph.D. in Health Policy and Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is experienced with study designs and analyses in outcomes research, specializing in longitudinal data analysis techniques with retrospective data. One of his current research interests is to understand factors associated with proliferation of free-standing ambulatory surgery centers in the past 20 years and subsequent impacts of this increase on utilization and health outcomes. Prior to his coming to UAB, he had worked five years at the Duke Center for Clinical Health Policy Research. His main responsibility included cost-effectiveness analysis to evaluate competing treatment strategies for stroke care and prevention. Secondary data sources including both Medicare and non-Medicare claims data were used for estimating the treatment effectiveness and costs in these analyses.

Janet M. Bronstein, M.A., Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Health Care Organization and Policy in the School of Public Health and a Scholar in the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She holds secondary appointments in the Department of Sociology and the Department of Political Science at UAB. Her doctorate is in Applied Medical Anthropology. She has been on the faculty of UAB since 1988 and teaches Health Policy and Ethical and Social Issues in Public Health. Dr. Bronstein's research interests primarily focus on health care services for the low-income population. She has conducted several studies of maternity services, and was coinvestigator on the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research Patient Outcome Research Team (PORT) on Low Birthweight in Minority and High Risk Women. She has also studied access, cost and quality of care in the pediatric and the general population covered by Medicaid programs. Dr. Bronstein received her PhD from University of Kentucky and her BA from Brandeis University

Kathleen Brown, Ph.D., R.N., is Professor in the School of Nursing and Investigator in the AHRQ funded UAB Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics (CERTs) of Musculoskeletal Disorders. She is also Deputy Director of the National Institute on Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) funded Deep South Center for Occupational Safety and Health, Director of the occupational health nursing program, and a faculty member in the UAB Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases Center. Dr. Brown is Chair of the Health Status and Function focus area in the School of Nursing Ph.D. program and is a professor in the master's program study option in Outcomes Measurement and Health Care Quality Improvement. Dr. Brown served as a member of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) Guidelines Panel on Low Back Dysfunction and has received NIH funding for back injury prevention clinical trial research. She is a site visitor/evaluator for NIOSH multidisciplinary Education and Research programs, and has served on an Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research panels on Worker Initiatives and on the State of the Science in Musculoskeletal Diseases Research. In addition, Dr. Brown is clinic director of the City of Birmingham Occupational Health Clinic and co-P.I. of the City of Birmingham Good Health Program. Dr. Brown received her Master of Science in Nursing from Boston University and a Ph.D. in Nursing from Case Western Reserve University.

Jeffrey Burkhardt, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor for Healthcare Finance at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He has a Ph.D. in Health Services Organization and Policy, with a finance specialty, and a Master’s degree in Applied Economics, both from the University of Michigan, and a Master’s degree in Management from Troy State University. Current research interests include cost analysis of healthcare services, process modeling and process simulation, and pay for performance. In addition to his educational and research background in healthcare, Dr. Burkhardt has several years of applied healthcare experience, having worked for six years in hospitals as a radiology department director and as an assistant hospital administrator, as well as three years of health insurance sales. Before joining the UAB faculty, his work included studies of the employment market for radiologists, utilization of healthcare services, economic cost comparisons of cancer detection and treatment procedures, evaluation of practice expenses for physician practices, and workload studies of radiology practices. Dr. Burkhardt is a Fellow in the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), Vice President of the Alabama chapter of HFMA, and a member of the International Society for Research in Healthcare Financial Management.

Robert M. Centor, M.D., is Professor in the Department of Medicine and Director of the Division of General Internal Medicine, School of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He is also a Scholar in the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy at UAB. Dr. Centor's research focuses on cost-effectiveness of medical care and the statistical methodology of medical decision making. He has served as President for the Society for Medical Decision Making, Associate Editor for the Society's journal Medical Decision Making and received the Society's Award for Distinguished Service in 1997. He has also served on the American College of Physicians Medical Informatics Committee and on Scientific Program Committees for the following professional societies: American College of Physicians, Society for Medical Decision Making, American Federation for Clinical Research, Society of General Internal Medicine, Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine. Dr. Centor received his medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia, and completed his residency in Internal Medicine also at Medical College of Virginia. He completed a Fellowship in Nephrology at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center.

Shelia Cotten, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She is also the Associate director for the Center for Social Medicine. Her areas of specialization include medical sociology, social psychology, and research methodology. Her research focuses on the social impacts of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in relation to psychosocial resources and health. Dr. Cotten also studies suffering among older adults and how this differes from depression and sadness. She is also experienced in the design and implementation of surveys across a range of modes of administration and populations.

Dr. Cotten completed her undergraduate work at Wake Forest University and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at North Carolina State University. She went on to complete a post doctoral fellowship in Health Administration. Prior to joining the faculty at UAB, Dr. Cotten was a faculty member at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

Marilyn C. Doss, M.A., is Director of Patient/Staff Satisfaction Studies for the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Health System. She directs and oversees all aspects of the satisfaction monitoring systems, including surveying inpatients, outpatients, hospital staff and attending physicians, analyzing, reporting and communicating the results, and following up to encourage use of results for quality improvement. Ms. Doss served on the University Health System Consortium Patient Satisfaction Steering Committee as member and Chair, the Alabama Hospital Association Patient Satisfaction Survey Task Force, and the Alabama Health Care Council Patient Satisfaction Task Force. Past positions at the University of Alabama at Birmingham were with the Comprehensive Cancer Center, during which time Ms. Doss served on several cancer related community boards, as well as authored or co-authored several papers related to the psychosocial aspects of cancer. She is currently Vice-Chairman of UABÕs Institutional Review Board. She has made major presentations on her work in patient satisfaction at regional and national professional meetings, to consumer groups, and to various health provider organizations across the country. She received her B.S. from the niversity of Wisconsin, Madison, and her M.A. from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Carlos Estrada, M.D., MS, is Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Alabama School of Medicine at Birmingham and staff physician at the Birmingham Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC). He serves as Assistant Division director of General Internal Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and is the Associate Director for the Veterans Administration National Quality Scholar Fellowship Program (VAQS), Birmingham VAMC.

Dr. Estrada's research interests are in low-literacy, cultural competency, decision sciences, and evidence-based medicine. He has conducted research on low-literacy among elderly patients receiving anticoagulants, developed low-literacy brochures, and implemented a nurse-led anticoagulation management service. He has also assessed the impact of health literacy on patients with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and determined the readability of patient information brochures offered to them. Dr. Estrada has authored or co-authored over 35 articles published in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Estrada is a Deputy Editor for The Journal of General Internal Medicine and Editor for CME Question Development for the American College of Physicians - Scientific American. He has served as President of the southern Society of General Internal Medicine.

Dr. Estrada received his medical degree from Cayetano Heredia University in Lima,Peru. He then completed his internship, residency in internal medicine, and Chief Medical Residency at Henry ford Hospital. Dr. Estrada received a Master of Science degree in Clinical Research Design and Statistical Analysis at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor.

Rachel Fry, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Division of Preventive Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Fry received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Alabama and her clinical psychology internship at UAB.

Peter M. Ginter, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Care Organization and Policy in the School of Public Health and Professor of Management in the Graduate School of Management at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He is active in research in strategic management and health care organization. He is the author or co-author of eleven books including Cases in Strategic Marketing (1989) and Cases in Strategic Management and Business Policy (1990). He is also co-author of Strategic Management of Health Care Organizations, 3rd ed. (1998) with Duncan and Swayne, The Physician Strategist (1996) with Duncan and Swayne, and Strategic Issues in Health Care Management (1992) with Duncan and Swayne. He is also co-editor (with Duncan and Swayne) of The Handbook of Health Care Management (1998). Pete has published more than 100 articles, papers, and cases in management journals. His articles, for example, have appeared in the California Management Review, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Executive, Business Horizons, Journal of Management Studies, Long Range Planning, Management International Review, Journal of Systems Management, Managerial Planning, Long Range Planning, Public Health Reports, and Public Productivity and Management Review and others. Dr. Ginter received his Ph.D. from the University of North Texas.

Gerald Glandon, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Services Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Glandon has had a distinguished career in research, health administration education, and academic administration. His primary research interests have been technology evaluation (cost-effectiveness of new drug therapies, assessing information technologies, etc.), the economic aspects of aging and aging markets, patient and physician satisfaction assessment and assessment of organizational performance. He has received numerous grants as principle investigator and co-principle investigator including funding from the National Institute on Aging, Searle Inc., Bureau of Health Professions, Illinois Hospital Association, John A. Hartford Foundation and Ortho-Biotech, Inc. He also has extensive publications in such journals as Journal of the American Medical Association, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, Medical Care, Hospital and Health Services Administration, and Health Services Research as well as numerous books and book chapters. Over the years, Dr. Glandon has kept his research and practice skills current by engaging in extensive consulting with academic health centers, external agencies and organizations. These activities have included process improvement, employee satisfaction assessment and reporting, litigation support in health care antitrust and wrongful death cases and nursing organization, quality and cost studies. In recent years he has worked extensively in international health with engagements in Albania, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. He has both developed and delivered management education in these countries and provided health care strategic analysis to Ministries of Health and to individual hospitals. Prior to coming to UAB, he had been Program Director of the Department of Health Systems Management at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago.

S. Robert Hernandez, Dr.P.H., is Professor of Health Services Administration in the School of Health Related Professions at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Hernandez has worked in the health services administration field for more than twenty-five years and has been a faculty member of the Department of Health Services Administration since completing his doctorate. Dr. Hernandez has served as Chair of the Health Care Administration Division of the Academy of Management. He is a member of the Regent's Advisory Council for the American College of Healthcare Executives in Alabama. He has served on the editorial boards of Health Care Management Review, Medical Care Review, Health Services Management Research, and Alabama Journal of Medical Sciences. His research has focused on strategic issues in the health Services industry. He also has studied organizational innovation and change, hospital closure, organizational performance, human resource management, and physician behavior in health care organizations. He has been consultant to many health Services organization on these and other issues. His applied research has been honored by the American Sociological Association and the Academy of Management. He was appointed to the Accrediting Commission for Education in Health Services Administration in 1998. Dr. Hernandez is a graduate of the Masters of Science in Hospital Administration Program at UAB, and received his doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Gustavo R. Heudebert, M.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, and a Scholar in the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Heudebert's research focuses on cost-effectiveness analysis, outcomes research and medical education. Prior to coming to UAB he was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical School. Dr. Heudebert received his medical degree from the Universidad eruana Cayetano. He completed his residency at Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit Michigan and completed his fellowship in General Internal Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Thomas K. Houston, M.D., M.P.H., is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the UAB Division of General Internal Medicine and Director of the Health Informatics Unit for the UAB Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and Education (COERE).

Dr. Houston completed a NRSA fellowship at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where he focused on health behavior, health communication, and informatics. Dr. Houston is currently chair of the Consumer Health Informatics Working Group of the American Medical Informatics Association. His past research includes the use of the Internet to screen for depression and Physician-Patient email communication. Dr. Houston is currently co-PI on an AHRQ-funded research project entitled "Improving Primary Care Patient Safety with Handheld DSS" and is co-PI on a NCI-funded research project entitled "Smoking Cessation Coach: An Internet Tailoring Program."

Meredith Kilgore, Ph.D., holds degrees in Nursing and Political Science from the University of Hawaii, an MSPH from the UAB School of Public Health, and a Ph.D. in Policy Analysis from the RAND Graduate School. He has over fifteen years of experience in critical care nursing and has been involved in health services research for several years. Dr. Kilgore's research projects have included cost-effectiveness studies relating to hospital organization, clinical information systems, technology assessment, cancer treatment, and the design of clinical trials. His current projects include studies on medical malpractice insurance, effects of reimbursement regimes on home health services, quality assessment for cardio-vascular disease, and hospital infection control.

Russell Kirby, Ph.D., M.S., F.A.C.E., is Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Maternal and Child Health in the School of Public Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

Dr. Kirby joined the UAB School of Public Health as professor of Maternal and Child Health in 2002. He is a perinatal and pedicatric epidemiologist trained in the social sciences, with a doctorate in human geography (Wisconsin, 1981) and MS in preventive medicine-epidemiology (Wisconsin, 1991). He was a health statistician for the states of Wisconsin and Arkansas (1981-1991), and on the faculties of the Department of Pediatrics, University opf Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Milwaukee Clinical Campus, University of Wisconsin Medical School. He was elected Fellow in the American College of Epidemiology in 1996.

Dr. Kirby's research interests focus in three major areas. First, he has conducted numerous studies examining the public health implications of health policies and programs, with special reference to perinatal and maternal/child health. Second, he has developed a concept of population health informatics, and begun to explore its ramifications as a platform for population health practice, focusing on database design, quality of databases and data elements in existing population-based information systems, and the role of geographic information systems - all also with special reference to maternal and child health. Public health surveillance activities figure prominently in the conceptual framework for population health informatics. Third, he has developed a broad reputation as a research collaborator, in genetics, clinical research, study design and analysis, resulting in numerous projects, grants, abstracts, and peer-reviewed articles.

Joshua C. Klapow, Ph.D., Director of the Health Outcomes Assessment Unit, and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology (Social and Behavioral Sciences), the Division of General Internal Medicine (School of Medicine), and the Department of Health Care Organization and Policy (School of Public Health) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Klapow teaches courses in health outcomes evaluation and psychometric measurement. His research focuses on the evaluation of health status and quality of life in chronic illness, including the use of multivariate statistical modeling to evaluate change in health status. He has an extensive background in psychometric theory, test design and construction, and patient based assessments of health and functional well-being. Dr. Klapow's work has examined the methodology of functional and statistical evaluations of health status and the role of psychosocial and behavioral factors in determining health outcomes. Dr. Klapow received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of California, San Diego, where he also completed a post- doctoral fellowship in Geriatric Health Services Research.

Mark Litaker, Ph.D., is Director of Biostatistics for the UAB School of Dentistry and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Diagnostic Sciences, with a secondary appointment in the Division of Preventive Medicine of the UAB School of Medicine. Current research interests include evaluation of and adjustment for sample selection bias in longitudinal studies of treatment effects, and statistical models for longitudinal studies of categorical outcomes. Prior to coming to UAB, for nearly 15 years he provided support for a wide variety of research projects at the Medical College of Georgia.

Linda C. Lucas, Ph.D., is Professor and Dean at the School of Engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Lucas was formerly Chair in the Department of Biomedical Engineering (School of Engineering). For the past 15 years, Dr. Lucas' research goal has been to investigate the chemical and physical properties of biomaterials, and to develop a better understanding of the interaction of these materials with the biological environment. In 1991, she received the National Science Foundations Award for Women Scientists and Engineers. In 1996, she developed the concept for the UAB Biomedical Implant Center. This Center brings together researchers from multiple disciplines to work on problems associated with implants and devices. Dr. Lucas directs this center. In addition to her extensive research background and activities, Dr. Lucas is very dedicated to her teaching and training activities and has served as research advisor to over 33 masters, doctoral, and post-doctoral students in the UAB School of Engineering. Dr. Lucas is currently the President of the Biomedical Engineering Society and has also served as the president of the Society for Biomaterials, and Chair of the Scientific Review Committee in IDREF (Implant Dentistry Research & Education Foundation). In 1998 she was induced as a Fellow in the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineers and in 2000 she was inducted as an International Fellow in the Society for Biomaterals. Dr. Lucas sits on several scientific review boards and study sections, and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Implant Dentistry. She received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from UAB and completed her Post Doctoral Fellowship at the Nordisk Institute for Odontologisk Materials Proving, Oslo, Norway. 

David Macrina, Ph.D., is Chair of the Department of Human Studies in the UAB School of Education. He is also Director of the Ph.D. Program in Health Education and Health Promotion in the School of Education and has additional appointments in the UAB School of Public Health, Department of Health Behavior. For his work facilitating health education in schools and communities, Dr. Macrina was awarded the Outstanding Health Education Professional of the Year Award in a university setting by the National Association for the Advancement of Health Education. He serves on the editorial board of the American Journal of Health Studies. Dr. Macrina has been involved in health education research and training activities funded by numerous sources including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Education, Drug Free and Safe Schools and the Alabama State Department of Education. Prior to his work in higher education, Dr. Macrina served as an education director with the New York State Department of Health and the British Columbia Ministry of Health. He currently serves as the chair of the Joint Committee on Quality of Life joint initiatives (including health education and prevention) for the Birmingham School System and UAB. He is also a member of the Birmingham City Schools Drug Free Schools Policy Advisory Committee. Dr. Macrina received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois and public health graduate training from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Wendy Marsh-Tootle, O.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Optometry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) where she directs the Pediatric Optometry Service and teaches at the post-graduate level. Dr. Marsh-Tootle is an experienced vision researcher with expertise in clinical trials, vision screening, and refractive error development. She is principal investigator of the Correction of Myopia Evaluation Trial (COMET) which is a longitudinal study following myopia development in children receiving optical treatments. She is also principal investigator of another longitudinal study, Factors in Nearsight Development (FIND), which seeks to identify children at risk for myopia progression. Dr. Marsh-Tootle received her Optometry degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and completed her residency in hospital-based Optometry at the Veteran's Administration Health Center in Tuscaloosa, AL.  In addition to her clinical trianing, Dr. Marsh-Tootle received a Masters of Science in Physiological Optics at the University of Alabama.

Stephen T. Mennemeyer, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Health Care Organization and Policy in the School of Public Health and a Scholar in the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Mennemeyer's research focuses on such issues as the cost-effectiveness of health care interventions, the quality of clinical laboratory testing and its effects on patient care, and consumer responses to information about hospital quality. He has previously worked for Abt Associates, Inc. as a senior economist and project director, for the Health Systems Agency of Western New York as an economist, and for the School of Pharmacy at the State University of New York at Buffalo as Assistant Professor. Dr. Mennemeyer holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Jacqueline Moss, Ph.D., R.N., is Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Moss has a wide range of experience in adult critical care practice, nursing education, and research. She has a particular interest in healthcare informatics and earned a doctorate in nursing informatics. Dr. Moss has been involved in multiple projects designed to implement new information and communication technologies for use in healthcare practice and education. Prior to joining UAB in 2002, Dr. Moss held an appointment with the National Study Center for Trauma at the University of Maryland in the Human Factors and Telemedicine Research Group. Research conducted by Dr. Moss includes the determination of information needs for trauma and operating room coordination and the use of standardized terminologies in health outcomes management. Dr. Moss received her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, Baltimore

F. Orthner, Ph.D., FACMI, is Professor of Health Informatics, in the Department of Health Services Administration in the School of Health Professions at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He is also a Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at UAB. Through May 2006, he directed the Master of Science in Health Informatics program, as well. Dr. Orthner is a Senior Scientist with the COERE, CECDP (Center for Emergency Care and disaster Preparedness), and CMBD (Center for Metabolic Bone Disease), and a member of the Advisory Committee for the Informatics CORE of the UAB General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) and the Advisory Committee for the UAB Vice President for IT at the UAB Office of the President.

Dr. Orthner teaches graduate-level courses in health and medical informatics. His research interests are in the domain of health or medical informatics, specifically, the communications infrastructure supporting the integration of clinical and administrative information and the automation of administrative processes to improve quality of care. The current focus of his research is in the domain of pre-hospital emergency medicine and disaster management.

Dr. Orthner is a Founding Member of the AMIA (American Medical Informatics Association) and a member of its initial Board of Directors. He is also a Founding Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI), elected in 1984. Dr. Orthner received his Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a Dipl. Ing (M.S.) degree in electronic communications from the Technical University in Munich, Germany.

Sharina D. Person, Ph.D., Director of the Data Management Unit, is Assistant Professor in the Division of Preventive Medicine in the School of Medicine. She serves as biostatistician for the UAB COERE and the UAB Center for Education of Therapeutics (CERTs) of Musculoskeletal Diseases. Dr. Person also holds a teaching appointment in the Department of Biostatistics in the School of Public Health. She has expertise in statistical design and methodology and the application of various statistical modeling techniques to outcomes and effectiveness research, health services research, and quality of care research, and currently serves as the lead biostatistician on several large federally funded research grants for the COERE and other UAB Centers. Dr. Person received her Ph.D. in biostatistics from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Public Health.

Maria Pisu, Ph.D., is a faculty member of the Department of Health Services Administration of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) with a secondary appointment in the Department of Preventive Medicine. She obtained her Ph.D. in Economics from Pennsylvania State University, and worked for two years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a Prevention Effectiveness Fellow. At the CDC, she received training in economic methods for the evaluation of health interventions. She then joined the University of Alabama at Birmingham as a Post-doctoral Fellow in the Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and Education (COERE). Examples of her previous work consist of modeling the cost-effectiveness of hepatitis B accination of prison inmates, and analyzing health care utilization data from a randomized control trial of influenza vaccination of day-care children. Currently, she is working on an analysis of the variation in charges and reimbursements for endoscopic procedures used for colorectal cancer screening, on a study of the cost of adverse events associated with using glucocorticoids in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, and on evaluating an intervention targeted at caregivers of Alzheimer and Parkinson disease patients, and one targeted at physicians of surviving myocardial infarction patients.

Michelle Robinson, DMD, MA, is Associate Professor in Diagnostic Sciences and Director of Dental Informatics at the UAB School of Dentistry. Her dental career has included private practice, teaching, consulting, outreach programs, and working with computer and communications technologies. In her current role, Dr. Robinson is completing her third clinical systems implementation and online curriculum for a professional school. Dr. Robinson is a graduate of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and has a Master's degree in Medical Informatics from Columbia University in New York.

David L. Roth, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He has extensive experience in the multivariate statistical analysis of outcome data from a variety of different academic disciplines and perspectives. He is a funded co-investigator on five different multidisciplinary extramural research grants. He also consults with investigators from Georgetown University and from the University of Alabama on health-related research projects. He has served as a member of the Behavioral Medicine Study Section of NIH. Dr. Roth has particular expertise in structural equation modeling, including the analysis of mediating effects and the extraction of latent variables from multiple observed measures. His own research has examined the psychological and physiological benefits of physical exercise for health promotion, particularly among older adults. Dr. Roth received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Kansas.

Kenneth Saag, M.D., M.Sc., is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology and Director of the Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics (CERTs) for Musculoskeletal Disorders at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).  He obtained his medical degree and did his medical residency and Chief Residency at Northwestern University in Chicago.  He then completed fellowship training and earned a Master of Science degree in Epidemiology from the University of Iowa where he remained on the faculty until moving to the UAB in 1998.  Dr. Saag has written extensively about the epidemiology and drug therapy in rheumatoid arthritis and he also has a special interest in glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis.  He is on the editorial board of Arthritis Care and Research and serves as reviewer for numerous general medical, health services, and rheumatology journals.

Terrence Shaneyfelt, M.D., M.P.H., is Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, School of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He has extensive experience in the development and evaluation of clinical practice guidelines. He also has experience in meta-analysis and survey development. Dr. Shaneyfelt received his medical degree from Louisiana State School of Medicine and is board certified in Internal Medicine. He received a M.P.H. from the Harvard University School of Public Health.

Bryce Sutton, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Economics in the department of Finance, Economics, and Quantitative Methods, in the School of Business at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Sutton received his Ph.D. in Economics at Saint Louis University.

Jan Wallander, Ph.D., has an appointment as a Research Professor of Psychology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He is also affiliated with the Center for the Advancement of Youth Health. He has 25 years of work in developing behavioral measurement methodologies in pediatric populations. His research expertise includes the measurement of quality of life, especially in children and adolescents with chronic illness or disability, and identification of risk and protective factors associated with differences in quality of life. This work has been funded by NIH and CDC. Among 100-plus publications are Koot, H.M., & Wallander, J.L. (2001). Quality of life in children and adolescents: Concepts, methods, and findings. London, United Kingdom: Harwood Academic Publishers, and Frank, R., Baum, A., Wallander, J.L. (2004). Models and perspectives in health care psychology. Washington, DC. American Psychological Association. Dr. Wallander received a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Purdue University. He completed his internship at Brown University and a fellowship in Pediatric Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Wallander is currently Vice President at Sociometrics Corp., Los Altos, CA.

Feliciano Yu, M.D., MHI, MSPH, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Emergency Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's (UAB's) School of Medicine. Dr. Yu is a member of the Center for Health Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and Education's (COERE's) Health Informatics Unit. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in UAB's Outcomes and Health Services Research Training Program in 2005. His main research interest is in the design of clinical information systems and how they impact the quality of health care delivery. He is also a medical informatisist at the Children's Hospital of Alabama. Dr. Yu acts as the liaison between physicians and the information technology staff, as well as provides expert opinion on various clinical information technology implementations at Children's Health System. He also practices pediatric urgent care medicine at the Children's After Hours Clinic.

Dr. Yu received his medical degree from the University of East RMMC College of Medicine (Phillipines). He finished his pediatric residency at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin (Medical College of Milwaukee, Wisconsin). After residency, he practiced primary care pedicatrics briefly and then pursued his interests in medical informatics at UAB. He received both a Masters of Science in Health Informatics and a Masters in Public Health from UAB.