Executive Vice President, UPMC Enterprises; Founder, Abridge

Shivdev Rao, MD is an Executive Vice President at UPMC Enterprises, where he has managed the provider facing portfolio of technology investments and R&D. Shiv has been overseeing R&D efforts at UPMC related to speech in healthcare. He recently cofounded a startup with partners from Carnegie Mellon University’s Computer Science department called Abridge (www.abridge.ai). Abridge is building technologies to help capture and distill insights from speech, voice, and text in healthcare. Dr. Rao is also a faculty member and practicing cardiologist in UPMC’s Heart and Vascular Institute.

Leerom Segal is CEO of Klick Inc. and Klick Health, the world’s largest independent marketing and commercialization agency for life sciences, which he co-founded in 1997.

Known for his unconventional approach to business, Leerom launched his first company at age 12 and co-wrote the New York Times Bestseller THE DECODED COMPANY (Portfolio/Penguin). Most recently, he co-founded Circulation, the pioneer in on-demand non-emergency healthcare transportation.

Leerom has consistently been included on the PRWeek/MM&M Health Influencer 50, and has been named One of the 100 Most Inspiring People in Health, an EY Media & Technology Entrepreneur of the Year, and a Globe & Mail Top 40 Under 40. He was also inducted into PROFIT Magazine's Hall of Fame as the Youngest CEO ever to lead a PROFIT 100 company.

Leerom has spoken at TEDGlobal, Harvard University, Wharton, NASA, Google, Twitter, Summit at Sea, Cannes Lions Health Creativity Festival, and Singularity University’s Exponential Medicine conference. He is a Clinton Global Initiative University Mentor and serves on many boards, including the Google Health Advisory Board.

John Brownstein, PhD, is the Chief Innovation Officer at Boston Children’s Hospital. He is a global leader in HCIT and, in particular, the emerging fields of informatics and big data analytics. He runs a 50-person multi-disciplinary team focused on digital innovations that span clinicians and consumers. His group is supported by a multi-million dollar budget including grants from NIH, USAID, DoD, IARPA, CDC, Google, Skoll and Gates Foundation. His work has pioneered ‘digital epidemiology’- utilizing diverse digital data sources to understand population health. His work is published in over 150 peer-reviewed papers, all focused on new methods and applications in digital health. This work was recognized by the White House with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

He also leads the development of several novel patient facing public health systems, including HealthMap, Vaccine Finder and MedWatcher. The systems are considered premier global public health tools in use by millions of patients each year and endorsed by numerous public health agencies including CDC, WHO, DHS, DOD, HHS, and EU, and has been recognized by the National Library of Congress and the Smithsonian. In addition to research achievements, this translational impact comes from playing an advisory role to numerous agencies on real-time public health surveillance including HHS, DHS, CDC, IOM, WHO and the White House.

Dr. Brownstein is a successful entrepreneur having developed new technologies, started multiple companies and outlicensed technologies. John has extensive experience establishing industry/academic partnerships, including work with Google, Twitter and Uber.

SVP Strategy & New Business Development, Healthcare, Nuance Communications

Peter Durlach is the senior vice president of strategy and new business development for Nuance’s Healthcare Division where he holds a pivotal role in advancing the portfolio of healthcare solutions to align with industry pressures and shifting needs of healthcare clients. Peter helped create the Healthcare division and drive significant growth between 2006 and 2011 and then briefly left the company to act as the Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Prior to Nuance, Peter worked as a consultant, president of Unveil Technologies, Inc. and vice president of marketing and business development at Lernout and Hauspie. Peter graduated from the University of Vermont with Summa Cum Laude honors where he received his B.S. in Business Administration.

CEO, Luminary Labs

Sara Holoubek is the CEO and founder of Luminary Labs, a consultancy that develops strategies and innovation systems to help Fortune 500, government, and nonprofit organizations thrive in the face of change. She is also an active early stage investor. Sara writes and speaks extensively on the intersection of technology, innovation, and humanity. She has been recognized by LinkedIn as a 2017 Top Voice in Technology, Mashable as a female founder to watch, SmartCEO magazine as a 2017 New York Brava award winner, and PepsiCo WIN for her contributions to women in technology. Sara holds a B.A. from the University of Iowa and an M.B.A. from HEC in France.

Sr Manager, Marketing, Amazon Alexa

Emily Roberts leads global partner marketing for Amazon Alexa, including programs that engage developers and brands to build voice-first experiences. In this capacity, she leads design, product marketing, and go-to-market initiatives that enhance customer interactions with Amazon’s products and services. In six years at Amazon, Emily has held a number of roles in marketing and program management across Alexa, Amazon Devices and Amazon Pay. Prior to Amazon, she worked in a number of industries including law, non-profit and healthcare. Emily is a graduate of Santa Clara University. When she’s not hard at work at Amazon, she’s likely enjoying all Seattle has to offer outside: on the slopes, on the water or in the woods.

Founder & CEO, Aiva

Sumeet Bhatia is the Founder and CEO of Aiva, the voice assistant built to improve both patient and caregiver satisfaction. Sumeet has over 10 years of experience delivering enterprise software-as-a-service to the nation's best healthcare institutions. Most recently, he was co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at TigerText, the leading provider of clinical communication solutions for the healthcare industry. Sumeet received his BS in Computer Science and Engineering from UCLA.

Co-founder & President, Orbita, Inc.

Nathan Treloar has served in executive leadership roles in several successful high growth software companies. At Orbita, he's helped create and bring to market healthcare’s first enterprise-grade voice experience management platform for creating solutions that use AI and voice assistants (ie; Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant,) chatbots, and other conversational environments to improve remote patient monitoring, care coordination, education, clinical trials, research and business operations. Previously, Nathan held key executive positions at FAST Search, Microsoft, RAMP, and, Ektron.

Cofounder & CEO, LifePod Solutions

Stuart Patterson is the cofounder and CEO of LifePod Solutions. Stu has successfully led high-tech ventures in a variety of markets: virtual assistants, mobile/online/telephony services & speech recognition/synthesis. Stu managed, supported the growth, restructuring, IPO or sale of: Sidekicks, Ramp (acq. Cxense), Xtone, Gemvara, Nexamp, eQuilibrium (acq. EnerNOC), AgION (now Sciessent), Courion, Scansoft (now Nuance), SpeechWorks (IPO), Voxware (IPO) and Vicorp Interactive Systems (acq. Precision Systems). Stu holds a BA from Harvard College and MBA/MPPM from the Yale School of Management.

Rupal Patel is founder and CEO of VocaliD, a voice AI company that creates custom digital voices. VocaliD’s award-winning technology empowers individuals living with speechlessness to be heard as themselves and brings things-that-talk to life through its uniquely crafted vocal persona. Rupal is currently on leave from Northeastern University where she is a tenured professor in the College of Computer and Information Science and the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. A native of Canada, she earned her bachelor’s degree from University of Calgary, her master’s and PhD from University of Toronto and completed post-doctoral training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Rupal was recently named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative people in Business and her work has been featured on TED, NPR, and in leading news and technology outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Wired, Bloomberg, and BuzzFeed.

Specialist Executive, Life Sciences & Healthcare, Deloitte

Debbie Hays, BSN, RN, MS, is a Specialist Executive in Deloitte’s Life Sciences & Healthcare practice with a focus on Clinical Operations and Corporate Shared Services. She has over 35 years of experience in hospital leadership and healthcare consulting working mainly with integrated delivery systems, academic medical centers, and acute care hospitals. Specific areas of expertise include financial turnaround, clinical/business process reengineering, driving sustainable outcomes, performance improvement, and performance measurement and monitoring. She excels at complex project leadership and management within large healthcare systems with a focus on ambulatory and acute care clinical operations and efficiencies.

Senior Manager, ERT Innovation Lab

For over 20 years, Karin Beckstrom has been driving software product innovation. In both the human resources and pharmaceutical industries, she has taken advantage of new technology and methodologies to create user-driven, flexible products that fit into the clients’ daily workflow. In ERT’s Innovation Lab, she seeks to prove out the value and practicality of new ideas and technology for clinical trials. Karin was recognized by CenterWatch as a 2018 Top 20 Innovator for Clinical Trials.

CEO and Co-founder, Wellpepper

Anne Weiler is CEO and co-founder of Wellpepper, a clinically-validated and award-winning platform for interactive patient treatment plans delivered through mobile, voice, and web experiences. She previously held global product management roles at Microsoft, in new product development and emerging markets. Wellpepper was the grand-prize winner of the Alexa Diabetes Challenge with a voice-powered scale, foot scanner, and interactive care plan to help people newly diagnosed with Type II diabetes.

Michael Docktor is a gastroenterologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and specializes in caring for children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease. He serves as the Clinical Director of Innovation and Director of Clinical Mobile Solutions at the hospital and is passionate about the intersection of technology, design and medicine. Michael believes there is incredible power in thoughtfully designed systems, engaging user experiences and simplicity and strives to help clinicians do their best work in engaging, educating and caring for their patients. Michael is co-founder of Hacking Pediatrics, Dock Health and Health Voyager.

Emerson Sklar is a Tech Evangelist and Solution Architect for Applause. He joined Applause in 2015, and has helped countless companies improve quality across every phase of the SDLC through a human-centric, community-driven approach to testing. Before Applause, Emerson worked for Borland, the Army Intelligence and Securities Command, and the Army Research Lab. Outside of work, he enjoys cooking overly elaborate meals through science, adventure cycling, and volunteering with the Boy Scouts of America.

You may not know Susan Bennett, but you definitely know her voice! Susan is a voice actor and singer whose voice has appeared on hundreds of radio and TV commercials for such clients as McDonald’s, Macy’s, Goodyear, Papa John’s, Fisher Price, and more. She is the voice of Delta Airlines gates worldwide, as well as hundreds of GPS and phone systems, but you probably know her best as the original voice of Siri.

Susan has appeared on nationally televised programs The Mariah Carey Merriest Christmas Special, The Queen Latifah Show, CNN, Showbiz Tonight, The Jack & Triumph Show, the new To Tell the Truth, and she read the Top Ten list for David Letterman!

Check out Susan’s website at www.SusanCBennett.com; or follow her on Twitter @SiriouslySusan, and Instagram @ SiriouslySusan; or check out her Facebook Fan Page, Susan Bennett-voice of Siri.

Moved to Israel after spending five years in Asia – first at a biotechnology startup in Hong Kong; and in various corporate and startup environments in Seoul, Korea, where she also completed a Global MBA at Yonsei University School of Business. Sara holds an Economics degree from Barnard College​ at Columbia University in New York City, where she co-founded the Columbia Chapter of Net Impact, the international nonprofit which strives to orient business principles toward sustainable social goals.

Sara now leads Voiceitt's business development, grant writing, and strategic partnerships. She lives in between New York and Tel Aviv.

Laura Schuntermann is an award-winning marketer, specializing in leading and driving the design and implementation of marketing strategy to increase visibility and drive top and bottom line performance. With progressive years of marketing experience in strategy, digital and brand, she also has deep business-to-business, business-to-consumer and health care marketing experience.

Joining Cigna in December of 2016, Laura is the Global Head of Digital Strategy and Partnerships, responsible for developing and driving integrated digital strategies and social media strategies across all segments; managing B2B lead generation strategies and activities; and identifying and implementing strategic partnerships that complement Cigna's strategic goals and objectives. In 2018, she harnessed the power of voice and artificial intelligence, defining and launching the first-ever global health services skill in partnership with Amazon – Answers by Cigna.

Stacey is a senior communications specialist at Seattle Children’s Hospital providing public relations support, social media management, content management, and project management to the Seattle Mama Doc brand and Digital Health department. She is passionate about finding new ways to reach parents digitally, helping to reduce anxiety and spread timely public health messages.

Maia Ottenstein is a multifaceted designer, passionate about design for positive impact and dedicated to creating user-centered solutions. As a Digital Experience Design Lead for The DICE Group at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Maia works to create innovative solutions for patients and healthcare organizations. Originally trained in product design, Maia values consideration of the full life cycle of a project from the both the context of the end user and the producer.

Yan heads up Klick Labs’ Digital Medicine practice at Klick Health. He and his team recently collaborated with Boston Children’s Hospital on the HealthVoyager medical education and patient experience platform. Yan’s team also introduced the world to the SymPulse Tele-Empathy Device, a ground-breaking medical device that wirelessly records and transmits patient tremors in real time to help foster clinical empathy and better care for the more than 40 million people living with movement disorders in the U.S. alone.

Prior to joining Klick, he founded and ran a digital health marketing agency for 15 years, honing his focus on medical innovation and developing extensive knowledge and understanding of human-computer interaction, gamification, 3D technologies, artificial intelligence, and digital biomarkers.

Yan has been published in Future Healthcare Journal, CEUR-WS.org and cogent Psychology. He was also recognized as a 2017 Top 10 Innovation Catalyst by Medical Marketing & Media magazine and an ELITE Innovator by PM360 magazine.

Jennifer Warner is senior editor at Mayo Clinic's Global Business Solutions where she contributes to content strategy, planning and execution of voice-enabled content projects, health information libraries, web site development and other initiatives. Her health journalism career began in Russia covering President Boris Yeltsin's heart surgery while working for ABC News. She then rode the wave of the dot-com boom as a writer and editor at CBSHealthWatch.com and WebMD and enjoyed a stint as a wine educator in New Zealand before joining Mayo Clinic in 2014.

Robert Stevens is Executive Director and Head of Digital Strategy and Medical Innovation in US Clinical Development and Medical Affairs (US CDMA) where he is responsible to the US Chief Scientific Officer for developing and implementing a transformative digital and innovation strategy for US Medical Affairs. He serves on the Novartis US Pharma Leadership Team, US CDMA Leadership Team, and US Medical Innovation Board.

Robert actively seeks out partnerships with Academia (including Tech Transfer Departments, Accelerators, and Incubators), digital start-ups, large tech companies, and venture capital and private equity firms. He also serves as a mentor to digital health start-up companies through Start-Up Health, Tech-Stars, and Jumpstart Foundry among others. Examples of companies Robert has identified early on and helped develop entries into the pharmaceutical industry include PatientsLikeMe.com, DocuSign, and Figure1.

Some of his core interests include digital virtual assistants, voice- enabled technologies, digital sensor technologies, wearables, AI/ML applications, experiential HCP and patient education through VR/AR/XR, diagnostic Chatbots, digital therapeutics, beyond-the-pill solutions, and other emerging digital and innovative capabilities that can ultimately optimize patient care.

Robert has been with Novartis since 2005 and has held leadership roles in Clinical Procurement and Strategic Alliances. Prior to joining Novartis, Robert was an Associate at Pfizer in Global Development Operations.

Robert received his MBA in Pharmaceutical Management from the Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University and his undergraduate degree from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey where he majored in American Studies.