Winter 2007 Key Contributors

Julie Cantor Weinberg

Boston Scientific

Julie Weinberg earned recognition as a key contributor to the Continua Government Affairs Working Group. Ms. Weinberg's leadership was key in developing content for the internal and external messages on reimbursement policy in the United States. Ms. Weinberg is Director of Government Affairs for Boston Scientific, a Fortune 500 company which manufactures and developers innovative medical technologies. She has responsibility for the development and implementation of policies and strategies addressing federal and state issues of priority concern to the company. Prior to joining Guidant (which was acquired by Boston Scientific in April 2006) in 1998, Julie served for three years as the Associate Director, Employee Benefits Policy at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), the nation's largest industrial trade association. At the NAM, she had responsibility for health system reform and all aspects of health benefits policy, including monitoring the effect of Medicare and Medicaid on private employers.

From 1991 to 1995, Ms. Cantor-Weinberg worked as an analyst at the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), a congressional agency. At GAO, she wrote testimonies and reports on a wide range of health policy issues at the request of various Congressional committees. She is a past board member of the Indiana Medical Device Manufacturers Council and of URAC, a health care accrediting organization. She is also a member of Women in Government Relations, the Tax Coalition, and co-chairs the media relations of the R&D Credit Coalition. She is also the Vice Chair of the IMDMC Government Relations Committee and the Chair of the Continua Health Alliance US Government Affairs Working Group. Ms. Cantor-Weinberg earned a masters degree in public policy from the University of Michigan and is a magna cum laude graduate of Yale University.

Rose Higgins

iMetrikus

Rose Higgins earned recognition as a key contributor to the Continua Use Case Working Group. Ms. Higgins coordinated the analysis which comprehensively mapped device functions to data, supporting the implementation of Version 1 Guidelines. Ms. Higgins also provided key insight and contributions to the overall process and strategy.

As President of iMetrikus, Rose Higgins is responsible for developing the company's strategy, managing day-to-day operations, strengthening the company's infrastructure, developing products and services to meet the needs of new and emerging markets, and preparing the company for the future.

Ms. Higgins has more than 20 years of experience in healthcare including operational management, product development, technical marketing, project leadership, and clinical management. Prior to joining iMetrikus, she served as the group director of product marketing and information management for the Pyxis Corporation, a healthcare automation company and Cardinal Health subsidiary.

Before joining Pyxis, she was an administrative director of medical management at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. She graduated from Carnegie Mellon University (Heinz School) and Duquesne University School of Nursing.

Mark Schnell

Cisco Systems

Mark Schnell earned recognition as a key contributor to the Continua Technical Working Group. Mr. Schnell provided a proactive approach and exceptional effort developing the USB architecture, Use Case technical feasibility analysis and chairing the IPLan team.

Mr. Schnell has an EE degree (BS and Masters) and has spent 14 years in telecom at Nortel and 7 years in datacom at Cisco. His training is HW design. Over the years he has developed numerous boards, chips and systems.

Frank Wartena

Philips

Frank Wartena earned dual recognition as a key contributor to both the Continua Technical Working Group and Use Case Working Group. Mr. Wartena served as Secretary of the Use Case team, accepting the challenge of coordinating the communication between the use case and technical teams while driving requirements development for disease management.

Mr. Wartena is a Research Scientist at Philips Research Europe, located in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. He joined Philips Research in 2004 after receiving his master's degree in Computer Science with honours from the University of Twente, The Netherlands. For the past two years Frank has been active in the personal healthcare domain addressing the whole spectrum from technology to business models. During this time Frank spent three months working at Philips Medical Systems in Seattle, WA. He recently received the Distinguished Scientist 2006 award from the Philips Research Europe management. As side activity he is active in promoting technology amongst high school students by giving workshops on how to program games for mobile phones.

Mr. Wartena is active in both the Use Case Working Group as secretary and in the Technical Working Group's Disease Management Sub-team.