Eric Alper, MD, is Vice President, Chief Quality Officer, and Chief Clinical Informatics Officer at UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester, MA. A practicing internist by training, Dr. Alper became UMass Memorial’s first hospitalist and helped build a program that now includes more than 60 physicians. His career has focused on improving patient safety, quality, and clinical systems, including leadership roles in patient safety, quality improvement, and healthcare IT. He has led major Epic implementations at Lifespan and UMass Memorial, supporting thousands of physicians and employees, and has helped advance clinical decision support, evidence-based order sets, interoperability, patient engagement, opioid prescribing improvements, and electronic prescribing initiatives. As Chief Quality Officer, Dr. Alper leverages health IT to improve patient care, experience, safety, and quality across the organization.

Ed Bathell is the CEO of EmOpti

Sarah is an accomplished healthcare leader with more than two decades of experience spanning nursing, virtual care, clinical operations, and digital health innovation. She began her career at Mayo Clinic, where she held roles across critical care and progressive care settings before helping launch Mayo Clinic’s eICU initiative and its first Virtual RN program. She later joined Biofourmis as Vice President of Product and Clinical Implementation, supporting the development of technology to optimize transitions of care. Today, Sarah serves as Chief Clinical Officer for OutcomesAI, where she leads clinical operations and implementation of healthcare-focused AI solutions designed to improve care delivery, support clinicians, and enhance patient outcomes.

With over 20 years of experience in A/V and UC industries, Michael has held executive positions with some of today’s leading services companies. As President and Chief Operations Officer, Michael drives efforts to expand and enhance Caregility’s offerings, improve operational efficiency and continue its commitment to customer satisfaction. Having served as CEO for Glowpoint and Executive Committee Member, as well as EVP at AVI-SPL, he brings an extensive level of expertise to the role of President & COO.

Ben Cassidy is the Director of Emerging Technology Adoption at Caregility

Steven Dean is the Senior Director of Virtual Care at Inova Health System

Sarah Dutch, RN is the Virtual Nursing Clinical Coordinator at Rome Health

Ashley Edwards, DNP, RN, NE-BC i the Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President of Clinical Services for Rome Health

As CEO of Yorktel, Caregility’s predecessor company, Ron helped establish the firm’s leading position in the videoconferencing market. Under Ron’s leadership, Yorktel began developing a completely new video communications platform created for the healthcare industry, spanning both software and purpose-built point-of-care devices, all designed specifically for the unique requirements of patient care.

Building on this success, in 2019, Caregility was formed to further advance the development of the Caregility Cloud^TM platform and product line. Ron remains CEO of both Yorktel and Caregility.

In this capacity, Ron provides strategic guidance and is responsible for acquisitions, investments and overall business expansion.

Dr. Alim Hirji is an associate professor and respirologist in the Department of Medicine at the University of Alberta. He received his Doctor of Medicine from McMaster University, completed his internal medicine training at the University of Toronto and his pulmonary medicine fellowship through the University of British Columbia. He completed a fellowship in lung transplantation in the Toronto Lung Transplant Program and has a Masters in Epidemiology through the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK. He is the current chair of the Canadian Lung Transplant Research Network, and the physician lead for the provincial Virtual Observation program in Alberta, Canada.

Stephen Hughes is the Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Mary Washington Healthcare. He rejoined Mary Washington Healthcare after a two-year stint serving as the Director of Healthcare IT Policy at the American Hospital Association. During his previous tenure at MWHC, from 2018 to 2023, he served first as Director of IT Infrastructure then as Associate Vice President of Technology.

Stephen has extensive experience in both healthcare and financial technology, and his career includes senior executive positions at health tech start-ups and significant IT consulting engagements. Early in his career, he spent over a decade at the Vanguard Group and financial-tech start-ups before pivoting into healthcare as the Director of Technology Operations at West Jefferson Medical Center in 2013.

Stephen holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Penn State University and an MBA in International Business from the Alfred Lerner College of Business & Economics at the University of Delaware.

Kay Johnson, PMP is the Manager of Digital Health at Infirmary Health.

Danny Kennedy is Corporate Director of Care Innovation at Baptist Health, Arkansas’s largest not-for-profit healthcare system. In this role, he leads strategic initiatives that bring emerging technologies into care delivery to improve access, quality, and operational efficiency. Danny has helped advance Baptist Health’s virtual care strategy, including the expansion of inpatient telehealth, virtual nursing, and observation programs across more than a dozen facilities. Working closely with clinical, IT, and operational leaders, he supports scalable connected care models that reduce clinician burden, improve patient outcomes, and extend Baptist Health’s mission.

Susan joined Caregility in January 2025 as Chief Nursing Officer. In this role, she leads efforts in clinical integration and product support for all customers, vendors, and clinicians. Her focus will be on developing a holistic framework that enhances both clinical care and operational strategies through virtual care delivery models, serving healthcare systems across the U.S. and internationally.

With over 40 years of diverse nursing experience, Susan brings deep expertise spanning critical care, women’s health, palliative care, and executive nursing leadership in both rural and urban community healthcare systems and academic medical centers.

Prior to joining Caregility, Susan served as Vice President of Clinical Integration and Quality Assurance, where she led initiatives in healthcare data analytics and the implementation of software technologies aimed at improving operational efficiency, productivity, and quality/safety outcomes.

Susan holds a Doctorate in Health Administration and a Master of Science in Nursing with a focus on Integrative Health. She is certified as a Nurse Executive and as an Advanced Holistic Nurse. She has presented internationally, published research, and serves as an adjunct faculty member at Drexel University.

Heather Meyers is the Director of Nursing Operations & Digital Health at Allegheny Health Network.

Molly Mobley is a Clinical Informatics Specialist in Virtual Care, supporting both provider and nursing informatics teams. She brings 11 years of nursing experience, with clinical backgrounds in ICU and perioperative/procedural care. She is an active member of the HIMSS NCA Chapter and volunteers with the chapter’s mentorship program. Raised in the least populous county in Virginia, Molly developed an early appreciation for the importance of healthcare access. That perspective deepened through her experience helping care for her grandparents, which ultimately inspired her work in virtual care. Through informatics, she has found a meaningful way to combine her clinical expertise with a commitment to improving virtual care delivery and processes.

Dominick Pahl, MS, RN, CAVRN, is a clinical operations executive specializing in the integration of artificial intelligence within complex healthcare environments. As the Senior Director of Operations at OutcomesAI, he leverages an unparalleled understanding of clinical workflows to act as a key strategic translator between frontline nursing needs and the distinct development workstreams of AI and Engineering teams.

Dominick’s career spans 14 years of clinical and industry leadership, including strategic roles at Biofourmis and Mayo Clinic. As a former Nurse Administrator at Mayo Clinic, he pioneered enterprise virtual care models and served on the integrated physical and digital design team architecting the organization’s hospital of the future.

A recognized industry expert, Dominick co-developed the national Acute Care Virtual Nursing board certification standards, serves as an editor for the Telehealth and Medicine Today journal, and is a former faculty member for the Virtual Nursing Academy. He holds a Master of Science in Nursing and resides in Minnesota with his wife, Nichole, and their four children.

Jack Protetch is a Sr. Program Manager of Digital Health at Allegheny Health Network with over 25 years of healthcare experience and a 10-year focus in telehealth. As operations manager he has led the stroke service line and complex healthcare initiatives involving IT, business, reimbursement, compliance, and regulatory activities. As project director for current and prior AHN federal telehealth grant awards benefiting rural health care facilities, he provides overall management and guidance to ensure sufficient resources are available, the programs meet or exceed stated goals and remains fiscally sustainable post award.

Zeb Ramey is the Director of IT Technical Services at Infirmary Health.

April Saathoff is Vice President and Chief Nursing Information Officer at Johns Hopkins Health System and Adjunct Faculty at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. With more than 20 years of experience in nursing informatics, she brings deep expertise in healthcare technology implementation, workflow redesign, informatics strategy, and interdisciplinary collaboration. She is certified in Healthcare Information and Management Systems and Nursing Informatics, has authored numerous publications, and has presented on a wide range of healthcare technology topics. April is passionate about advancing innovative technologies that support evidence-based practice, improve clinical workflows, and strengthen care delivery.

Corey Scurlock, MD, MBA, is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Equum Medical, which he established to address some of healthcare’s most persistent care-delivery challenges, including clinician shortages, uneven access to specialty expertise, constrained hospital capacity, and fragmented workflows. Drawing on more than a decade of experience building and operating virtual-care programs, Dr. Scurlock has grown Equum from an initial hospital deployment into a national acute-care telehealth platform. Equum integrates physicians, nurses, and other specialists into hospital care teams through digitally enabled clinical models designed to expand access, strengthen the workforce, improve patient flow, and support more resilient care delivery.

Deborah Sherman, MSN, RN is the Assistant Director of Nursing, Clinical Informatics at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Dave Smith is the Senior Director of Digital Innovation at UMass Memorial Health.

Angela Starkweather, PhD, ACNP-BC, FAANP, FAAN, is Dean, Chief Academic Officer, and Professor at Rutgers School of Nursing. A nationally recognized nurse scientist, educator, and academic leader, Dr. Starkweather brings extensive experience in nursing research, advanced practice, and interprofessional education. Her work focuses on improving health, quality of life, and health equity through research on pain and other complex conditions, particularly among individuals diagnosed with cancer. She has received more than $20 million in research support, authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, and has been recognized with numerous honors, including induction as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.