Wellbe Creates National Advisory Board of Nine Leading Healthcare Transformation Experts

Wellbe, the leading provider of Integrated Care Delivery solutions for hospital service lines, has brought together nine nationally-renowned healthcare experts to form an Advisory Board. The Board members will contribute their insights to define a new framework for a value-driven service line, and the group will drive a new paradigm of thinking on clinical and business transformation in response to payment reform and other industry trends.

The Board will provide a multidisciplinary outlook on the fields of Orthopedics and Neurosurgery and its implications for patients and providers. Members will contribute their clinical best practices, financial knowledge and operational expertise to advance the applications for Wellbe’s Integrated Care Delivery.  The Advisory Board members are:

·          C. Lowry Barnes, M.D., Adult Reconstruction Surgeon in Arkansas

·          Kristi Crowe, MPT

·          David A. Fisher, M.D., Adult Reconstruction Surgeon in Indianapolis

·          Kathleen Gillespie, RN, MBA, NE-BC

·          Richard Iorio, M.D., Adult Reconstruction Surgeon in New York

·          Jeffery Masciopinto, M.D., Neurosurgeon

·          Eula Ramroop, MsHA

·          Scott Springman, M.D., Anesthesiologist

·          Phillip Swain, PT, MBA

“We chose our multidisciplinary Advisory Board members from positions across the care continuum - including surgeons, nursing, anesthesiology, physical therapy and hospital administration - to gain insights into how we can better manage the total episode of care,” said James Dias, Wellbe’s CEO.  “This is an unrivalled team of innovative thinkers and visionary clinicians, whose insights into the intersection of medical best practices and business savvy will be a valuable input to our company strategy.”

Dr. Iorio said, “I am honored to participate on a board of peers I hold in the highest esteem. We are all excited by the opportunity to provide Wellbe with our collective view on how the patient-as-consumer movement and value-based care payment reform will affect the healthcare industry and Wellbe’s clients across the country.”

Biographies:

Dr. Barnes is Chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at UAMS and Director of the Musculoskeletal Service Line. He also holds the Carl L. Nelson, M.D. Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery. Barnes graduated with honors from the UAMS College of Medicine and was a founding managing partner of Arkansas Specialty Orthopaedics. At St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center he has served on the board of directors and as president of its Physician Hospital Organization. Barnes is a member of the Knee Society, Past President of the Arkansas Orthopaedic Society, the Southern Orthopaedic Association and the Society for Arthritic Joint Surgery. In addition, he is Vice President of MidAmerica Orthopaedic Association and serves as Treasurer for The American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons.

Kristi Crowe leads Sg2’s orthopedic and spine service line team and directs the development of intelligence, forecasting, and analytics interpretation in orthopedics, spine, and rehabilitation.  As a thought leader and national educator, she offers expert insight on payment innovation and guides leadership teams in developing strategic growth plans, ambulatory strategies, and physician alignment initiatives.  With 20 years of health care consulting, management and clinical experience, Kristi helps hospital and health system executives and suppliers maximize their current orthopedics strategies and prepare for the future to appropriately succeed in an increasingly value-based environment.

Dr. Fisher is a practicing orthopaedic surgeon from Indianapolis. He has more than 28 years of experience and annually performs more than 500 total joint replacement procedures. Dr. Fisher is devoted to providing the best possible service to his patients and has maintained a massive outcomes data repository throughout his career. His dedication to outcomes collection and analysis has led to prominent roles such as: Director of the Total Joint Service at Methodist Hospital, Director of the Total Joint Center at the Indiana Orthopaedic Hospital, Past-President of OrthoIndy, and serving as a consultant/designer/advisor for several orthopaedic manufacturers and healthcare organizations.

Kate Gillespie, RN, MBA, NE-BC is the executive administrator for the Virtua Joint Replacement Institute and AVP of the Orthopedic Service Line, where she oversees operation and financials for this successful program. Kate is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt with expertise in operational efficiency and lean methodology. She received her ANA certification in Nursing Administration and her MBA in Health Administration. She has been with Virtua 20 years starting out as a staff nurse, moving into nursing management and then administration. As a Six Sigma Black Belt, Kate has led quality and financial projects, and co-led multiple Kaizen projects.

Dr. Iorio is the William and Susan Jaffe Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at New York University Langone Medical Center Hospital for Joint Diseases and Chief of Adult Reconstruction at NYU Langone HJD. He co-founded Labrador Healthcare Consulting Services and the Value Based Healthcare Consortium in 2015. He is a member of the Board of Directors for LIMA, the Lifetime Initiative for the Management of Arthritis.  Dr. Iorio is a national expert in physician and hospital quality and safety and a leader in the implementation of alternate payment paradigms in orthopaedic surgery.  He is a graduate of Harvard University and Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Iorio has published over 150 papers, 22 Book Chapters and participated in 23 funded grants.

Dr. Masciopinto is a practicing neurosurgeon with a focus on spine care.  He has 16 years of experience in single specialty and large multi-specialty group practices.  Jeff has been integral in developing a multi-specialty spine center within his current large group practice.  The focus of the spine center is to provide efficiencies and best practice implementation throughout the continuum of care for spine disease.  The goals are to maximize patient and provider satisfaction as well as provide cost savings, and to collect data to allow for economic and quality outcome analysis.

Eula Ramroop, MsHA is a visionary leader who has over two decades of healthcare administration experience.  She was recruited to CHI Franciscan as the Regional Associate Vice President of the Orthopedics, Spine and Podiatry Service Line in Tacoma, Washington.  She previously served in outreach, development, operations and service line leadership roles at UCSF Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente Southern California, and UCLA. She has led multiple performance improvement initiatives that resulted in value-based care with high quality, cost savings and physician alignment.  Eula earned her bachelor’s degree from UCLA and a master’s degree in health administration from Cal State Northridge with honors commendations.

Dr. Springman is a practicing anesthesiologist and has 30 years of experience in both academic and private practice medicine. He strongly believes that focusing on the entire procedural experience for patients will help both patients and healthcare personnel go beyond the basics of effective medical care. Scott’s work in implementing electronic medical records and developing pre-procedure medical guidelines gives him a unique insight into the entire process.

Phil Swain, PT, MBA has worked in the healthcare arena for the past 20 years. Phil attended the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Therapy.  He earned his MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His career began as a physical therapist at Upland Hills Health, which turned into progressive healthcare management roles including Therapy and Wellness Center Director and Director of Physician Clinics. In 2012, Phil assumed the role of Director of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation at Meriter-UnityPoint Health. In this role, he is responsible for oversight of Meriter’s Orthopedic Service Line, Orthopedic Clinic operations and all therapy services.

About Wellbe (http://www.wellbe.me)
High-performing health systems use Wellbe’s Integrated Care Delivery to move from fragmented silos of care to value-driven service lines. Our web-based platform enables patients to participate as partners in their care while giving providers the ability to coordinate and monitor large patient volumes more effectively. Wellbe's track record at hospitals across the U.S. shows that engaging patients in a coordinated plan of care that's based on Connected CarePaths™ across the continuum results in reduced episode costs, higher patient satisfaction, fewer readmissions, and improved outcome scores.