Conference Organizers

d.health Co-Chairs

PROFESSOR AVI SEIDMANN PhD

Simon Business School

Professor Avi Seidmann is a Chair Faculty at the Simon Business School, University of Rochester (Information Systems, Operations Management & E-commerce), and has been awarded several prestigious prizes for his Outstanding Research & Software Development projects. He has over 30 years of proven experience in developing and implementing complex information systems around the globe. Seidmann has consulted with many of the leading industrial and service corporations and presented numerous research and executive seminars on four continents. His research was cited twice on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, and he was granted several prestigious prizes at international conferences for publishing outstanding research papers in the areas of information systems, information economics and electronic commerce.

Professor Seidmann is the author of over 100 research articles, which appear in many of the leading scientific journals, and has been the founding department editor on interdisciplinary management research and applications in Management Science for 10 years. His current research and consulting activities include medical informatics, electronic commerce, online auctions, information systems, health care management, business process design, project management and optimal resource allocation, strategic manufacturing systems, information economics, stochastic processes and performance modeling for capacity planning and pricing.

Shelley Lyford

President & CEO, West Health and the Gary & Mary West Foundation

For more than a decade, Shelley Lyford has been advancing Gary and Mary West’s philanthropic endeavors to lower the cost of healthcare and enable seniors to successfully age in place with dignity, quality of life and independence. Under her leadership at West Health, which includes the Wests’ nonprofit, nonpartisan foundation, applied medical research institute and policy center, the organization is advancing innovative affordable healthcare and supportive service models for seniors.

Since 2006, the Gary and Mary West Foundation has awarded more than 518 outcomes-based grants totaling nearly $211 million to advance senior-focused models of care, healthcare research, policy and advocacy initiatives. As President and CEO of the Foundation, Lyford also serves on its Board. In addition, she is Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for Civica Rx, a not-for-profit generic drug company that will help patients by addressing shortages and lowering the high prices of lifesaving medications. Lyford is also board chair for the Gary and Mary West Senior Dental Center; a board member of Generations United; and sits on the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation’s Board of Directors.

PROFESSOR RAY DORSEY MD

University of Rochester Medical Center

Dr. Ray Dorsey is the David M. Levy Professor of Neurology and Director of the Center for Human Experimental Therapeutics and Center for Health and Technology at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Dr. Dorsey is helping investigate new treatments for movement disorders and improve the way care is delivered for individuals with Parkinson disease and other neurological disorders. Using simple web-based video conferencing, he and his colleagues are seeking to provide care to anyone anywhere. Most recently, Dr. Dorsey helped to develop a new iPhone mobile app called mPower, which allows patients with Parkinson’s disease to track their symptoms in real time and share this information with researchers. The mPower app was developed using ResearchKit, a software development framework designed by Apple. It was unveiled in March of 2015 during Apple’s “Spring Forward” product launch event in San Francisco, which was followed live by a global audience.

Dr. Dorsey previously directed the movement disorders division and neurology telemedicine at Johns Hopkins and worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Company. He completed his undergraduate studies at Stanford University, medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, and business school at the Wharton School. Dr. Dorsey’s research has been published in the leading medical, neurology, and economic journals and has been featured on National Public Radio, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.