We have an excellent mix of featured speakers and we are looking forward to what they will contribute to this year's symposium. For a brief background on our speakers please read their biographies below.

	Susan Daniels, PhD Susan Daniels is a nationally recognized expert and spokesperson on employment and disability policy. She has 25 years of executive experience in leading Federal agencies, academic institutions and philanthropic organizations through development, change and innovation. Daniels has been a leader in advocacy, human rights and disability activism to achieve social justice and economic parity. Daniels has been a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) since 2001 and is a co-chair (with Richard Hobbie and Gloria Johnson) of NASI's 18th annual conference, Older and Out of Work: Social Insurance for a Changing Economy.
	William Hersh, MD, FACP, FACMI, CPHIMS William Hersh, M.D. is Professor and Chair of the Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology in the School of Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon. He also has academic appointments in the Division of General Internal Medicine of the Department of Medicine and in the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. Hersh obtained his B.S. in Biology from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1980 and his M.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1984. After finishing his residency in Internal Medicine at University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago in 1987, he completed a Fellowship in Medical Informatics at Harvard University in 1990.
	Thomas Horan, PhD Tom Horan serves as founding Director of the Kay Center for E-Health Research. Horan is Associate Professor at the School of Information Systems and Technology, Claremont Graduate University (CGU). Horan has twenty years experience in applying advanced technologies to societal and governmental issues. He has published numerous technical articles, as well as two books on technology applications (Digital Places, 2000; Digital Infrastructures, 2004). Over the last three years, Horan has spearheaded research with QTC Management on disability informatics and related e-health applications.  In addition, his work on application of technology for improving emergency medical response and intelligent transportation systems has also received national funding (e.g., NSF, U.S. DOT). Prior to joining CGU, Horan conducted technology policy research for the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) in Washington, D.C. and served as Senior Fellow at George Mason University. He is a member of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), the Association of Computer Machinery (ACM), and the Academy of Management.
	Bonnie Kaplan, PhD, FACMI Bonnie Kaplan, is Lecturer at Yale Center for Medical Informatics, Yale School of Medicine and also teaches Yale College courses on ethical and policy issues concerning new technologies.  Kaplan is an authority on people's reactions to new technologies in health care and on evaluating applications of computer information systems. She specializes in change management, benefits realization, and identifying and addressing clinician and patient concerns. Kaplan is the author of more than 70 refereed papers and book chapters, as well as numerous other articles and publications. Kaplan's most recent publications concern patients' reactions to using an automated telephone advisory system; a usability evaluation of a web based case for in medical education; issues in evaluating clinical decision support systems and medical informatics applications; a review of people, organizational, and social issues in medical informatics; and an volume of edited papers. Further affiliations include: President, Kaplan Associates, Adjunct Clinical Professor, Department of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chair of the International Medical Informatics Association's Organizational and Social Issues Working Group, and a recipient of the American Medical Informatics Association President's Award. Kaplan has an interdisciplinary BA in math and computer science from Cornell University and a PhD from the University of Chicago.
	Steeve Kay, Symposium Sponsor Steeve Kay's management experience and background in information technology helped him develop the innovative core business and operations models that make QTC the No. 1 national provider of disability evaluations. Kay developed his expertise as a leader and innovator working in the high-tech industry for companies such as Siliconix, Fairchild Semiconductor and Hughes Aircraft. He designed the world’s first solid-state MOS power transistor and spearheaded the development of a new power MOS transistor research project funded by NASA. In 2003, Steeve was named Ernst &Young Entrepreneur of the Year for technology in Orange County and the Inland Empire, California.
	David Lansky, PhD David Lansky, is the Senior Director, Health Program and Executive Director, Personal Health Technology Initiative for the Markle Foundation. Prior to this position, Lansky served as FACCT's president from its inception in 1995. For more than twenty years, Lansky has been a proponent of a more responsive and accountable health care system. He is a nationally recognized expert in accountability and quality measurement and, as a result, has served as a board member or advisor to numerous health care projects and programs. Some of these include the National Quality Forum, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, National Patient Safety Foundation, The Leapfrog Group, and President Bush's 2002 Economic Forum.
	Blackford Middleton, MD, MPH, MSc Blackford Middleton, Director of Clinical Informatics Research and Development, Chairman, Center for Information Technology Leadership, Partners Healthcare System, Harvard Medical School. Middleton received an MD from SUNY-Buffalo, and trained in internal medicine at the University of Connecticut. He earned an MPH in Epidemiology, and Health Services Administration, from Yale University School of Medicine, and an MSc in Health Services Research, focusing on medical informatics, from Stanford University.
	Paul Torrens, MD, MPH, PhD Paul Torrens is Professor of Health Services at the UCLA School of Public Health, he teaches courses in health services organization and financing, health services organization and theory, managerial processes in health service organizations and managed care. Torrens received his M.D. from Georgetown University and his M.P.H. from Harvard University. A physician by initial training, he has had a long career in the two areas of health care management and health care policy.