Appointed Members of the
Massachusetts Health Information Technology Council
JudyAnn Bigby, MD, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Deborah A. Adair, Director of Health Information Services and Privacy Officer, Massachusetts General Hospital
Meg Aranow, Vice President & Chief Information Officer, Boston Medical Center
Karen Bell, MD, Chair of the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT®)
Lisa Fenichel, MPH, E-Health Consumer Advocate
Jay Gonzales, Secretary of Administration and Finance, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
BIOGRAPHIES
Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Bigby oversees 17 state agencies and serves in the Cabinet of Governor Deval Patrick. Her broad range of experience — as a primary care physician, professor, researcher and health policy expert — gives her unique insights into how the state can best serve the people of the Commonwealth.
One of Secretary Bigby’s top priorities is ensuring the state delivers high-quality and accessible services to Massachusetts residents. Some of the program areas she oversees include health care including the state’s Medicaid program; child welfare; public health; disabilities; veterans affairs; and elder affairs. Since her appointment, Secretary Bigby has successfully implemented many aspects of Massachusetts’ highly successful health care reform law. The state has adopted its first Olmstead Plan to address the long term needs of elders and persons with disabilities in community settings and she championed the creation of the Office of the Child Advocate to improve the state’s child welfare system.
Until her appointment, Dr. Bigby was the Medical Director of Community Health Programs at Brigham & Women's Hospital. She was also Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the school’s Center of Excellence in Women’s Health.
Prior to her appointment she served on many boards and expert panels including the Boston Public Health Commission, the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Assuring the Health of the Public in the 21st Century, and the Minority Women’s Health Panel of Experts for the US Department of Health and Human Services. She was President of the Society of General Internal Medicine, the only national organization representing primary care internal medicine doctors, from 2003 to 2004.
Dr. Bigby holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School.
Deborah A. Adair, Director of Health Information Services and Privacy Officer,
Massachusetts General Hospital
Deborah A. Adair is the director of Health Information Services and the Privacy Officer at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston where she is responsible for the overall management and organization of patient health information for the 902-bed teaching hospital. She has almost 30 years of experience in the health information management field, including evaluation and implementation of computerized information systems and in development, maintenance of and adherence to health care privacy policies and procedures.
Deborah speaks locally and nationally on health information topics including privacy and HIPAA. She received a national best practices award on her work in developing a privacy breach management program from the Health Ethics Trust in Washington, D.C. She has co-authored a book "The Legal Health Record Companion: A Case Study Approach", and most recently contributed to several articles published by the Journal of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) focused on HIT collaboration.
Deborah is a member of the Massachusetts Health Information Management Association (MHIMA). She also sits on the AHIMA Education Strategy Committee.
Deborah was previously a senior instructor teaching undergraduate health care management courses at Northeastern University in Boston for 20 years. She has an MPH from Boston University and a BS in Health Information Administration from Northeastern University.
Meg Aranow, Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Boston Medical Center
Meg Aranow is the Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Boston Medical Center in Massachusetts. BMC is a tertiary care academic medical center that is the principal teaching affiliate of Boston University School of Medicine and a member of Boston Healthnet, a unique partnership including the hospital, the school and 15 community health centers.
Today, Boston Medical Center is recognized as a leader in the use of Health Information Technology.
Additionally, Ms. Aranow has held senior management positions in Healthcare IT organizations at the Boston Public Health Commission, South Shore Hospital, Partners Healthcare System and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Ms. Aranow has a BA from Wheaton College and a MPH from Boston University.
Karen Bell, MD, Chair of the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology
Dr. Bell brings to the Commission wide and varied expertise in health information technology (HIT), quality assurance and clinical practice, in both the private and public sectors. Most recently, she served as Senior Vice President, HIT Services, Masspro, the federally-contracted Quality Improvement Organization within Massachusetts, where she oversaw the development, implementation and distribution of products and services to support adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) within the health care system. Between 2005 and 2008, Dr. Bell was Director, Office of Health Information Technology Adoption, Office of the National Coordinator (ONC), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and, in 2006, served as Acting Deputy of ONC. She was ONC’s representative on CCHIT’s Board of Commissioners from 2006 to 2008.
Prior appointments held by Dr. Bell include Division Director, Quality Improvement Group/Office of Standards and Quality for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) from 2004 to 2005, and Medical Director of Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of Rhode Island (2004) and of Anthem BCBS of Maine (2001-2004). She also has served as Associate Medical Director, Partners Community Healthcare, Inc., Boston; Medical Director, BCBS of Massachusetts; Associate Medical Director, Harvard Community Health Plan/Pilgrim Health Care, Boston; and Deputy and Acting Health Director, Monroe County Health Department, Rochester, N.Y.
She received her medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, and her master of medical science degree from Brown University, Providence, R.I. Dr. Bell has clinical experience as a board certified physician in internal medicine and also was an Associate Professor at the University of Rochester, and Clinical Instructor at Harvard University School of Medicine.
Lisa Fenichel, M.P.H., E-Health Consumer Advocate, Health Care For All of Massachusetts
Lisa Fenichel holds the position of E-Health Consumer Advocate at Health Care For All of Massachusetts. In this capacity, she works closely with the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative’s pilot project, which is computerizing and connecting health records within three Massachusetts communities. She also sits on the Steering Committee and participates in the Multistate Education and Consumer Engagement Workgroup of the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium’s federal-state HISPC (Health Information Privacy and Security Collaboration) grant, working to improve the practices that prevent, promote, and protect health information exchange. In addition, Lisa participates in workgroups of the Markle Foundation and the National Partnership for Women & Families, focusing on consumer education, engagement, and protection. Finally, she has created and convenes the Consumer Network for Healthcare e-Quality, a varied and growing group of patient advocates, consumers, providers, health law attorneys, and other individuals interested in electronic health records issues and their implications for consumers. For the past three years she has held Consumer e-Health Summits, inviting individuals known in the local and national e-health arenas to speak about important consumer issues, and she also runs an e-health luncheon series. Finally, Lisa advocated for the inclusion of pro-consumer e-health language in the legislation that became Chapter 305.
Before working at HCFA, Lisa spent many years as Chief of Consumer Protection and Director of the Voluntary Mediation Program at the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine, the state agency which licenses and disciplines physicians, and as a consumer advocate and mediator for the Office of the Attorney General.
Lisa received a B.A. from Wesleyan University and an M.P.H. from Boston University’s School of Public Health.
Jay Gonzalez, Secretary of Administration and Finance, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Jay Gonzalez serves as Secretary of the Executive Office for Administration and Finance. Prior to his appointment, he served as undersecretary, overseeing the development of Governor Patrick's first-ever 5-year capital investment plan, managing certain aspects of the state's implementation of the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and working with the Executive Office of Transportation on the Governor's historic transportation reform initiative.
As undersecretary, he was also responsible for overseeing collective bargaining with state employee unions. Additionally, through his membership on several important boards and commissions, Secretary Gonzalez has worked on several of the Governor’s key priorities, including expanded Broadband, housing and renewable energy. He has also served as a member of the Board of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority and the Massachusetts Water Pollution Abatement Trust.
Prior to joining the Patrick-Murray Administration, Secretary Gonzalez was a Partner at the law firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP, where his practice focused on public finance. He served as counsel to cities, towns, school districts and governmental entities throughout New England in connection with the financing and development of major capital projects and other governmental programs. He assisted with a wide array of projects, including the construction of schools and other public buildings, land conservation and various other municipal infrastructure improvements.
Secretary Gonzalez graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College, where he received his B.A. in Government. He later graduated cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center. He lives in Brookline with his wife and two daughters.