Blockchain Opportunities for More Efficient Health Care

Speakers:

Joshua Hakakian, Program Specialist, National Artificial Intelligence Institute (NAII)

Mr. Hakakian is an eight-year Army veteran who served as an Arabic Linguist and Signals Intercept Specialist with two combat deployments. He has a B.S. in Biology with a focus on healthcare. Mr. Hakakian has a strong interest in digital ledger technology, statistics, finance, economics, and game theory, and he has spent the last decade working individually or leading small teams in service-related financial fields. He joined the VA NAII as a Program Specialist to support the noble mission of improving veteran healthcare, veteran lives, and those of their loved ones by using Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies. He is also a Government Chair of the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) AI Working Group and the Government Chair of the ACT-IAC Blockchain Working Group. 

Mr. Oki Mek, Chief Information Security Officer, U.S. Federal Civilian at Microsoft

Oki Mek recently joined Microsoft as Chief Information Security Officer for Federal Civilian. His civil servant career spans nearly 20 years inside the federal government. Oki is also a veteran of the Army National Guard. Oki previously served as the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for Equideum Health. In his U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) roles, he served as the first Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer (CAIO), Acting Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Office of the Secretary, Senior Advisor to the HHS CIO, Chief Technology Officer, Chief Product Officer, and Senior Information Security Manager.

Dr. Jorge Ferrer, Health Informaticist, Department of Veteran's Affairs

Jorge A. Ferrer MD, MBA, FAMIA, FHIMSS has practiced healthcare informatics since 2000 within the U.S. Federal government with expertise in health informatics policy, standards, perioperative care informatics, innovations, interoperability, and blockchain (DLT) in healthcare. Dr. Ferrer serves as a Health Informaticist in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.  He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at UTHealth School of Biomedical Informatics, Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association, and Fellow of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. He is an Editor of Aspects of the Computerized Medical Record, Computers in Health Care, Health Informatics Series, Second Edition, Springer, 2006 and is on the Editorial Board for Blockchain in Healthcare Today journal. He serves in the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) in leadership roles on the Innovation Committee and Chair of the Blockchain in Healthcare Task Force. He is an affiliate member of the American College of Surgeons, member of American Medical Informatics Association and Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. His clinical practice is in the private medical sector in Houston serving as a Texas Medical Board Licensed Surgical Assistant providing surgical assistance in liver transplants and complex surgical procedures.

Moderator:

Mr. Michael Peckham, Managing Director, Federal Advisory at KPMG

Mike retired from the federal government at the end of 2021 after almost 35 years of service. He held various senior level positions at HHS such as the PSC CFO, ReInvent Grants Management lead, and DATA Act Executive Director. 

Joining KPMG in June of 2022 Mike helps transform large scale, complex federal financial organizations. He works with senior federal leaders to assess and understand critical financial management issues and best practices that will modernize and optimize their organizational value. Using human centered design along with other agile approaches, together we identify the right disruptive technologies that will improve efficiencies in financial management, grants management, program management, and shared services.    

With over three decades of experience using approaches such as design thinking, critical path identification, and time management approaches, Mike has consistently delivered effective strategies and tactical methods to assure positive results around process and/or system improvement. 

The only constant in life is change, and by embracing this philosophy anyone can shape the future of their choosing just by being engaged!