Craig Beam, MBA

Petra

With over 30 years of experience practicing nationally and internationally, Craig Beam is now the Chief Financial Officer of Worksite Labs. Craig has overseen the development and management of a broad range of real estate with a focus on healthcare and institutional projects. His involvement in healthcare development includes the planning and development of hospital, medical office and ambulatory facilities and he is nationally recognized for his ability to lead assignments that are complex in program, finance and construction.

In 1977, Craig started his career as Chief Financial Officer of Concordia Development, a real estate development company based in Southern California. He then founded his own firm, Beam & Associates starting in 1983. At Beam he had overall responsibility for the consulting, development, leasing and brokerage divisions of the firm. He merged this firm with Hammes Company in 1998 which created the largest healthcare project and program management firm in the United States. Craig has worked for major systems including Saint Joseph Health System of Orange, Ascension Health, MedStar and New York Presbyterian as well as academic centers such as Stanford, UCSF and Northwestern.

In addition to his real estate activities he has served on numerous boards including the advisory board to the Director of the National Institutes of Health, UniHealth, Pacificare and Martin Luther Hospital. Craig is past Chairman of the Board of the American Heart Association and is past Treasurer of the World Heart Federation. He is currently a non-physician member of the American Board of Internal Medicine and is a Board Member of AllHealth. In addition, Craig is a frequent speaker on healthcare trends both nationally and internationally and has been recognized for his contributions to the industry being named Trustee of the Year by the California Hospital Association, the Gold Heart Award, the Haddock International Health Impact Award and is an Endowed Fellow of the National Health Foundation.

Craig lives in Orange County with his wife of 33-years. He has two grown children and is expecting a first grandchild (a baby boy!) in June. Craig grew up on a citrus and avocado ranch and continues to grow specialty avocados to this day. These are avocados that you can’t find in stores anymore and they are very popular with friends and family.

Thomas B. Ferrante, JD & LLM, MBA

Foley & Lardner, LLP

Thomas (T.J.) Ferrante is a partner and a board certified health care lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP and member of the firm’s national Telemedicine & Digital Health Industry Team. T.J. focuses his practice on telemedicine, digital health, remote patient monitoring and virtual care, as well as a wide range of transactional and related regulatory issues for health care industry clients. Whether leading a large private equity group through a major acquisition or helping an emerging telehealth startup build a compliant, scalable business model across the United States, T.J. centers his representation around the specific needs and objectives of the companies he assists.

T.J. knows how to create and implement telemedicine programs, including issues such as the corporate practice of medicine, interstate medical practices, remote prescribing, reimbursement, self-referral laws and the anti-kickback statute. He has considerable experience in structuring and negotiating transactions for technology-enabled health care providers nationwide, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic affiliations and financings. He works with leading telemedicine and digital health companies, independent physician practices, retail clinics, physician and dental management companies, medical device companies, private equity firms and venture capital groups and investors. Together, they innovate, execute and flourish.

Known in the industry for his creative solutions and deal-making ability, T.J. draws upon deep substantive knowledge, entrepreneurial solutions, sophisticated negotiation skills and effective project management to meet the critical business and legal needs of both institutional and emerging companies. He is listed as a notable practitioner in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Business Lawyers, which states “He is always accommodating of the rapid pace and demands, and has a rare grasp of the strategic business implications of the law.” (2018)

T.J. frequently speaks at conferences across the country on telehealth, virtual care and health care issues. He has been quoted in industry publications such as Modern Healthcare, mHealthIntelligence, Medpage Today, Health Data Management, Healthcare Informatics and the Tampa Bay Business Journal, among others.

Mitch Krebs

Helmsley Charitable Trust

Mitch Krebs is the Program Director of Helmsley’s Rural Healthcare Program which seeks to improve access to and quality of care in the upper Midwest.

Prior to joining Helmsley, Mitch was principal for Herd Wisdom LLC, a public affairs and advocacy firm he founded. He also served as Assistant Vice President of Media and Community Relations at Avera McKennan Hospital; as Press Secretary for South Dakota Governor, Mike Rounds; and as Public Policy Director at POET. Before shifting careers to public service and advocacy, Mitch had a fifteen-year career as a broadcast journalist, holding posts as reporter, lead anchor, and news director for network television affiliated stations. He continues his love of writing today.

As a staunch advocate for community service, Mitch has spent countless hours volunteering for numerous causes, organizations, and church groups. When he’s not working, Mitch also enjoys playing saxophone with several area rock bands as well as spending time at his “hobby ranch” in rural South Dakota where he lives with his wife, Shantel.

Ann Marie Navar, MD, PhD

UT Southwestern Medical Center

Ann Marie Navar is a preventive cardiologist and an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Her research focuses on optimizing strategies for cardiovascular risk reduction including prospective registries, real-world data, and prospective clinical trials. She is the volunteer lead for AHA’s Doctors With Heart, a telemedicine-based initiative providing free cardiology consults to clinics that treat the underserved, for which she was awarded the AHA’s Meritorious Achievement Award. She is an the Deputy Editor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at JAMA-Cardiology, and a board member of the American Society of Preventive Cardiology.

Walter Panzirer

Helmsley Charitable Trust

Walter Panzirer is a grandson of Leona Helmsley. Raised in California, he adopted South Dakota as his home. Having worked as a first responder in both states, Walter witnessed personally the significant disparities in quality health care available close to home – disparities that demanded attention. Serving as a paramedic, firefighter, and police officer also made him acutely aware of the range of situations encountered by these professionals – from cardiac and stroke events, to individuals facing a mental health crisis.

Upon the death of his grandmother, Walter was to his great surprise named a Trustee of the Helmsley Charitable Trust. He realized the opportunity for investing in better healthcare for Americans in rural communities as well as for supporting communities across rural Africa to build resilience. A passionate advocate for telehealth, Walter is committed to shortening the distance between a medical emergency and life-saving treatment, including outfitting first responders with modern equipment for managing emergencies. His curiosity, coupled with a get-it-done acumen, means that he’s always looking for healthcare leapfrog opportunities that can be readily implemented.

Walter studied business and history at Black Hills State University, and pursued pastoral studies at MidAmerica Nazarene University. An inductee to American Telehealth Association’s College of Fellows as well the South Dakota Hall of Fame, Walter has served on a number of nonprofit and educational boards. He, his wife, and their family own and operate a hunting lodge in rural South Dakota and multiple commercial properties.

Sy Atezaz Saeed, MD, MS

Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University

Dr. Sy Atezaz Saeed has served as the Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University since 2004. He also serves as the Director of the Center for Telepsychiatry at ECU and as the Founding Executive Director of the North Carolina Statewide Telepsychiatry Program (NC-STeP), a state-funded program covering more than 60 hospitals and community-based sites across North Carolina.

Prior to his appointment at East Carolina University, Dr. Saeed served as Professor and Chairman in the Department of the Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria (1995-2004) where he was also the Clinical Director for the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Service NetWork of North Central Illinois, a state-operated network serving people with serious and persistent mental illness in 23 counties and covering 1.5 million lives in north central Illinois.

Dr. Saeed was the founding Editor of the American Association of Psychiatric Administrator’s Journal, Psychiatrist Administrator (2000-2010). He served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Psychiatric Administration and Management (JPAM) from 2011 to 2019. He serves on the editorial boards of several academic journals. He is a fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists, a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Health, London. He also serves on the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP), a think tank for psychiatry dedicated to shaping psychiatric thinking, public programs, and clinical practice in mental health. In 2018 he was elected to the Governing Board of GAP. In 2014 Governor Pat McCrory appointed him to the Governing Board of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine. In 2016, he was reappointed to the board for a four-year term by the governor.

Roy Schoenberg, MD, MPH

American Well

Dr. Roy Schoenberg is President and CEO of Amwell. Since co-founding the company with his brother Ido, Amwell has grown to become one of the largest telehealth eco-systems in the world, digitally connecting healthcare’s key stakeholders – payers, providers and millions of patients in an efficient, modern healthcare experience.

Prior to Amwell, Roy was the founder of CareKey and served as Chief Information Security Officer at TriZetto, following its acquisition of CareKey. In 2013, Roy was appointed to the Federation of State Medical Boards’ Taskforce that issued the landmark guidelines for the “Use of Telehealth in Medical Practice”. Roy is the 2014 recipient of the American Telemedicine Association Industry award for leadership in the field of telemedicine.

An inventor at heart, Roy holds over 50 issued US Patents in the area of healthcare technology, speaks frequently in industry and policy forums, serves on the healthcare advisory board of MIT Sloan, holds an MD from the Hebrew University and an MPH from Harvard. He is a sailor, scuba-diver and, between September and February, a devoted football fan.

Lee Schwamm, MD

Mass General Hospital

Dr. Schwamm is Vice President of Patient Experience and Virtual Care in the Digital Group at Mass General Brigham Health System, a 16-member integrated healthcare delivery organization of academic medical centers, specialty hospitals, community hospitals, a rehabilitation network, health insurance plan, physician network, teaching organization and many urgent care and community care practices. He is also Founder and Director of the Center for TeleHealth at Massachusetts General Hospital where he holds the C. Miller Fisher Chair of Vascular Neurology, and a Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1991, completed his Neurology and Stroke Fellowship training at MGH in 1996 and shortly thereafter began his 20+ years of pioneering work in the digital transformation of care in the field of stroke and other disciplines. Dr. Schwamm is the author of over 500 peer-reviewed articles, serves on the journal editorial boards of Stroke and of Stroke & Vascular Neurology and the International Advisory Board of The Lancet Digital Health, and has chaired many of the current practice guidelines for telehealth-enabled stroke care delivery. He is the recipient of numerous awards for innovation, leadership and stroke advocacy and has an active federally funded research portfolio. His research has been funded by NIH, PCORI, AHRQ, HRSA, CDC, and others.

Scott Shipman, MD, MPH

Association of American Medical Colleges

Scott Shipman, MD, MPH, is Director of Clinical Innovations and Director of Primary Care Affairs at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Dr. Shipman works with a wide range of health system leaders to promote effective innovations in ambulatory care delivery and teaching. He guides AAMC activities promoting emerging high-value ambulatory care models, and leads the organization’s work supporting and scaling effective telehealth efforts in teaching health systems. He founded and guides Project CORE (Coordinating Optimal Referral Experiences), an innovative clinical model that establishes higher quality care and greater efficiency at the interface of primary care and specialty care.

A general pediatrician and health services researcher by training, Dr. Shipman has studied the health care workforce and associated policy extensively. He was the founding medical director for the first physician assistant training program in New Hampshire, and prior to that created the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Pediatric Safety Center, the first of its kind on the west coast. Dr. Shipman maintains a faculty position at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, where he teaches in the master of public health (MPH) program and supports clinical redesign efforts for the Dartmouth-Hitchcock system.

Brian S. Skow, MD, MBA, CPE

Avel eCARE

Dr. Brian S. Skow currently serves as the Avel eCARE Chief Medical Officer. Avel eCARE provides telehealth services to more than 600 facilities across 36 states and has impacted over 2 million patients since their inception in 1993. At eCARE, Dr. Skow provides oversight to a unique breadth of telehealth service lines, including ICU, Pharmacy, Hospitalist, Senior Care, School Nurse, Virtual Consult, Prison Health, Specialty Clinic, Indian Health Services, Behavioral Health and Emergency. In addition, he has served as the Medical Director of Avel eCare Emergency and in this role has logged over 15,000 hours of direct patient telehealth experiences.

In the span since Avera eCARE Emergency’s launch, Dr. Skow has seen the eCARE Emergency program grow to over 220 sites across 16 states.  As an Avel Emergency Physician for the past 18 years, Dr. Skow brings a wealth of emergency department experience to the eCARE team and has stated, “It’s a rewarding experience to serve the underserved populations of rural healthcare, especially in their time of need. This is Emergency Medicine in its purest form.”

Dr. Skow attended Medical School at the University of North Dakota. He completed his Emergency Medicine Residency at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center in Toledo, Ohio. He is a MBA graduate of the University of Sioux Falls Vucurevich School of Business. Dr. Skow was awarded the Certified Physician Executive credential through the American Association for Physician Leadership. He is certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians. His special interests include telehealth, emergency department management, bedside ultrasound, toxicology and critical care procedures as well as serving as an aeromedical physician for LifeFlight.

Andrew R. Watson, MD, MLitt

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

Dr. Andrew Watson, MD, is a fourth-generation surgeon and the eighth surgeon in his family. He is an actively practicing colorectal surgeon specializing in minimally invasive inflammatory bowel diseases and re-operative abdominal surgery. He is the primary colorectal surgeon in the IBD medical home. He actively uses and helps to develop telemedicine at UPMC with a focus on remote patient monitoring. He has personally done more than 500 virtual consults including preoperative, postoperative, telerounding, intraoperative and remote patient monitoring.

He blends his career working for UPMC International, Insurance Services and Health Services Divisions to practice and help envision the transformation of health care, with a focus on remote patient monitoring. He is past President of the American Telemedicine Association.