Speaker Bio Information
Keynote Speaker
David A. Jaffray, BSc, PhD
Dr. Jaffray is world-renowned for pioneering state-of-the-art image-guided radiation therapy, advancing the science and practice in medical physics, and for international leadership in clinical data science for oncology. Recruited to MD Anderson in May 2019, Dr. Jaffray serves as the IDSO director and is the institution’s inaugural chief technology and digital officer, bringing more than two decades of scientific expertise and proven skill as an innovator. In this role, he directs the strategic design, acquisition, management and implementation of an enterprise-wide technology infrastructure to safeguard the integrity and availability of the institution’s systems and intellectual property assets. He and his leadership team advance data integration, data governance and data security across MD Anderson’s campuses and its national network, as well as coordinate technology-enabled innovation. He also is a professor with dual appointments for Radiation Physics and Imaging Physics.
Over the course of his career, he has played an important role in bridging the fields of biomedical engineering and medical physics. He continues to facilitate dialog and partnership between these two important disciplines and how they can tackle major health challenges worldwide. For his leadership, Dr. Jaffray was recognized in 2021 as a Fellow of the International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine and in 2022 as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.
Dr. Jaffray holds 47 patents and has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed publications in cancer science and technology, including the development of new radiation treatment machines, the exploration of the fundamental limits of imaging system performance, the development of novel nanoparticle formulations for improved detection of cancer, and challenges in global health.
Presentation
Nora Cox
Nora Cox is regarded as one of the most knowledgeable and effective health care advocates in Texas and beyond. She spent five years in the Texas capitol helping shape health care policy, representing then-Governor Rick Perry in collaborative conversations with legislators, private sector health care concerns and the Texas Health & Human Services Commission. In that capacity, she is credited with leading major reform efforts in Medicaid, overseeing the creation of the state’s health information exchange, and playing a key role in reorganizing the state’s fractured health and human services system.
Since then, she has been an incredibly effective advocate for the modernization of health care delivery in her role as Chief Executive Officer of the Texas e-Health Alliance. She founded TeHA as a non-profit advocacy group in 2009 to give health information technology stakeholders a voice in public policy. Under Nora’s insightful guidance, the Alliance has grown into the state’s leading advocate, for the use of information technology to improve the health care system for patients at every level, from local communities to national level policy.
During the 2017 session of the Texas Legislature, Nora helped broker a cease-fire in a longstanding dispute over the legality of telemedicine in Texas, resulting in the passage of Senate Bill 1107 that removed the final barriers to widespread adoption of the life-saving technology. She followed that up in 2019 with the passage of SB 670 and HB 1063, which significantly expanded Medicaid reimbursement for telemedicine, telehealth, and remote patient monitoring. In 2021, Nora led the passage of HB 4, which made permanent many of the telemedicine and telehealth services that were implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic a permanent part of the state’s regulatory framework.
Nora also holds national roles as the Chair of the Sequoia Project’s Emergency Preparedness Workgroup and as a member of the Advisory Committee for the Center for Telehealth and e-Health Law.
Nora is a highly sought after speaker and commentator on healthcare issues, consulting with entities in numerous states and at the federal level. Her expertise in the utilization of health information technology and the manner in which governments contract for essential services has proven invaluable for state and national leaders struggling to craft effective health care policy.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in government from the University of Texas at Austin and owns a hardcover first editions of Dune and Game of Thrones.
Panel Speakers
Anwar Siraj, MBBS, MS, CPHIMS
Anwar Siraj, MBBS, MS, CPHIMS, is Associate Chief Medical Information Officer at Memorial Hermann Health System. After obtaining a medical degree from the University of Mysore, India and working as a primary care physician, Siraj decided to pursue a full-time career in informatics. As Associate CMIO, Siraj co-manages the informatics operations across the Memorial Hermann Health System. With a primary focus on People, Process and Technology, Siraj is passionate about leveraging information technology and human relationships to provide patient care that has high quality and high reliability and has been doing this since 2006. His personal interests include playing sports, exercising, and carpentry.
Theresa Meadows
Theresa Meadows, MS, RN, CHCIO, FCHIME, FHIMSS, FACHE is the Senior Vice President & CIO at Cook Children’s Health Care System. Cook Children’s is a national award-winning, not-for-profit, integrated pediatric health care system comprised of nine companies. She leads a team of 350+ members through digital transformation initiatives. The IS team currently supports 140 project initiatives that include deploying business intelligence, advanced clinical systems, cybersecurity and enhancing digital experience for patients, employees and clinical staff.
For 20+ years she has lead efforts for incorporating information systems as a mechanism for facilitating process improvement, clinical quality, and efficiency. Prior to joining Cook Children’s her career included serving in roles as a registered nurse in a Cardiac Transplant Unit; healthcare consulting, project management, and leadership positions at a web development company and a large Electronic Medical Record Company. Meadows also served as a Regional Director for Ascension Health Information Services where she not only lead software implementations but was instrumental in the development of Communities of Excellence.
In her current position, Meadows has led the organization through extensive improvements and modernization. In 2012, the organization received recognition as one of the Most Improved Hospitals as part of the “Most Wired” award program and recognized as one of the Information Week 500 innovators. From 2013 to 2021, Cook Children’s has received “Most Wired” designation. Cook Children’s was recognized by Computeworld’s Honors program for their state of the art distributed antenna system implementation. In addition, Ms. Meadows was also named one of Computerworld’s Premier 100 IT leaders for 2013. Ms. Meadows’ department has been recognized as one of the “Best Hospital IT Departments to Work” by Healthcare IT News and by Computerworld as one of the 100 Best Places to Work in IT in 2015. In 2016 – 2019, Meadows was recognized as one of the Most Powerful Women in Healthcare IT and in 2017, 2019 and 2020 is a Finalist for the North Texas non-profit CIO of the year. In 2020, Meadows was recognized with the CHIME Outstanding Service Award for her contributions to the healthcare industry.
Ms. Meadows served as the Co-Chair for the Health and Human Services Healthcare Cybersecurity Task Force. This task force is charged in creating recommendations in improving cybersecurity posture in the healthcare industry. The taskforce delivered recommendations in March 2017. She currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Sector Coordinating Council Cybersecurity Working Group. In 2019, Meadows received the CHIME Federal Public Policy Award for her work with Cybersecurity.
She serves as a member of the Malcolm Baldrige Board of Overseers. Ms. Meadows has published several articles and frequently is asked to speak at conferences around innovation in healthcare technology.
Ms. Meadows has a master’s degree in healthcare informatics from the University of Alabama at Birmingham; a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is an active member of the Children’s Hospital Association CIO Council; is a Fellow in the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS); is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and is a Fellow and previous board member of the College of Health Information Management Executives (CHIME). Ms. Meadows is a graduate of CIO Bootcamp and is a credentialed by CHIME as a Certified Healthcare CIO (CHCIO).
Ferdinand Velasco
Dr. Ferdinand Velasco is Texas Health’s Chief Health Information Officer. He leads the system’s functions responsible for clinical decision support, medical informatics, nursing informatics, electronic health record reporting, quality measurement, and clinical analytics. Through his and his team’s leadership of the implementation of the electronic health record, Texas Health was awarded the Enterprise Davies Award for Excellence in 2013 and has achieved HIMSS EMRAM Stage 7.
Prior to joining Texas Health Resources in 2002, Dr. Velasco served as an assistant professor and physician champion for the implementation of computerized physician order entry (CPOE) at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He simultaneously practiced as a cardiothoracic surgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
A Fellow of the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS), Dr. Velasco served on the North America Board of HIMSS and chaired the society’s Quality, Cost, Safety Committee. Modern Healthcare honored Dr. Velasco as an inaugural member of the Top 25 Clinical Informaticists in Healthcare. He received his medical degree from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine.
Mujeeb Basit, M.D., M.M.Sc.
Mujeeb Basit is an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He specializes in cardiology with a focus on risk optimization.
Dr. Basit earned his medical degree and completed a residency in internal medicine at The George Washington University. He received advanced training in cardiology through a fellowship at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center and in clinical informatics through a fellowship at Harvard University. He joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2016.
Dr. Basit is the Associate Chief Medical Informatics Officer for UT Southwestern Health System. He serves on several UT Southwestern committees, including the Hospital EMR Workgroup, the Hospital Police Committee, and the Enterprise Data Warehouse Committee. He’s a member of the American Medical Informatics Association and the American Computing Machinery.
Dr. Basit’s research focuses on machine learning for advanced clinical decision support, automated anomaly detection of clinical decision support failures, and double-blind clinical trials of digital health systems. He has delivered numerous presentations, contributed to the book Global Health Informatics: Principles of EHealth and MHealth to Improve Quality of Care, and published multiple academic articles.
