A Global Perspective

Moderated by COACH President, Shelagh Maloney, a respected panel of international e-health leaders – Richard Alvarez (Canada), Richard Granger (the United Kingdom), Robert Kolodner (US), Otto Larsen (Denmark) and Dr. Ian Reinecke (Australia) – will speak about the pressing issues they have faced, and how they addressed them, in implementing national e-health initiatives in their respective countries. Hear about the unique challenges each country had to overcome and the important lessons that were learned along the way. Don't miss what promises to be a lively and interactive session.

Announcing e-Health 2008 Keynote Speakers:

Bill Crounse, MD
Senior Director, Worldwide Health
Microsoft Corporation

Bill Crounse, MD, is Senior Director, Worldwide Health for the Microsoft Corporation. He is responsible for providing thought leadership, vision, and strategy for Microsoft technologies and solutions in the healthcare provider industry. He is also responsible for working with industry partners and healthcare organizations to help them benefit from using Microsoft technologies and solutions as an essential platform for line-of-business applications in the healthcare industry. Dr. Crounse travels nationally and internationally to evangelize the use of information technology as a way to improve care quality and safety, and the satisfaction of those who provide and receive it.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Dr. Crounse was Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Information Officer for Overlake Hospital Medical Center and the Overlake Venture Center in Bellevue, Washington. He is also a founder of a company that worked in partnership with Microsoft to improve connectivity between physicians and their patients. In addition, Dr. Crounse was Vice President and CIO for Overlake Hospital Medical Center, a not-for-profit community hospital honored by Hospitals and Health Networks as one of the nations “most wired” and most innovative hospitals.

Dr. Crounse is a frequent keynote speaker at national and international conferences and healthcare leadership events on the application of information technology in medicine and e-health initiatives. He is also an expert on the growing consumer movement in healthcare and employer perspectives and issues in the provision of healthcare benefits.

Dr. Crounse is known locally and nationally for his work in medical communications. He has written and produced dozens of articles, audio-casts and videos for http://ww.microsoft.com/healthcare  and is the primary contributor to Microsoft’s Health Blog http://blogs/msdn.com/healthblog  . He has been a medical writer/editor for the Microsoft Corporation’s employee Intranet site, and was Medical Editor for KIRO-TV, Channel 7 (CBS) in Seattle. He has also served as a physician broadcaster and medical editor for KOMO-TV (ABC Seattle), ABC Network News (The Health Show), Lifetime Medical Television (Physicians Journal Update), The Discovery Channel, and Medical News Network.

Dr. Crounse, a residency trained family physician, is a graduate of the Medical University of Ohio. He practiced medicine in Seattle for 20 years. Prior to joining Overlake Hospital in 1995, Dr. Crounse was a physician and medical executive with Virginia Mason Medical Center and Group Health in Seattle.

Mike Lipkin
World-Renowned Motivator & Communicator

Mike Lipkin is a Toronto-based speaker, author, motivator and persuasion coach who has worked in twenty-two countries with over 1,000,000 people. He is also the President of Environics/Lipkin, the specialist motivation and persuasion company in the Environics Research Group, one of Canada’s largest and most sophisticated research houses.

Born in the UK and raised in South Africa, Mike immigrated to Toronto in 1987. By combining Environics’ Social Values Research with his personal expertise and experience, he provides people with the confidence and insights to connect with others at the deepest level. Mike makes the complex simple. He helps people “get it” immediately. Specifically, Mike provides people with The Personal Best Practices to embrace change while motivating others to do
the same.

Mike has also authored four best-selling books: Your Personal Best: The 12 Personal Best Practices to Help You Live at Your Highest Level (2002), Luck Favours the Brave: How the Five Social SuperTrends can make you very, very successful (2003), On Fire: The Art of Personal Consistency (2004), and his newest book, Keeper of The Flame: How to Inspire Others on the Cusp of Change (2006).

Last year, Mike was voted Best Speaker by meeting planners in by Meetings West, Meetings South, Meetings MidAmerica and Meetings East magazines.