News & Events

Knowledge Summit 2010

The PeriGen Knowledge Summit provides a unique forum for client colleagues and friends to share thoughts and suggestions for the improvement of perinatal care. Intended to provoke questions about the current state of maternity care, stimulate thoughtful discussion about evolving best-practices, and inspire the delivery of ever-improving patient care, the greatest value of the summit is often realized through the rich exchanges which continue long after its end.

2010 PeriGen Knowledge Summit Speaking Faculty

2010 PeriGen Knowledge Summit Image Gallery

At PeriGen, we recognize that some of the most valuable professional conversations take place over a cup of coffee, during cocktails, or at the dinner table--and we design an aggressive networking agenda with this in mind: 

• On Wednesday, April 21, PeriGen hosted Casino Night aboard the Odyssey, the largest private yacht to cruise the Potomac. Guests enjoyed dinner and dancing, followed by a night of gambling with real croupiers and excellent prizes, which included a laptop, digital camera, and iTouch.  
• On Thursday, April 22, PeriGen hosted a private dinner at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Guests enjoyed a progressive dinner, featuring cocktails alongside the Hope Diamond, dinner in the Rotunda, and dessert in the Oceans Room. Special entertainment was provided by The Phantoms, Georgetown University’s extraordinary student a-cappella group. 
• The 2010 Knowledge Summit marked the inauguration of the PeriGen “Plus One!” Club, a program planned specifically for Spouses, Partners, and Friends. “Plus Ones!” enjoyed their own agenda, which included “The Lost Symbol” Tour of Washington, DC, based on Dan Brown’s best-selling novel, and a trip to Georgetown’s annual open-air French Market. 

The 2010 Knowledge Summit agenda featured several noted authors, who autographed complimentary copies of their latest work, as well as a number of experts and industry leaders who participated in engaging discussions on topics related to global and national maternity care, trends in health information technology, and healthcare reform.  The agenda also included case study presentations delivered by clients.

The 2010 Speaking Faculty included:

Peter Pronovost, MD is an internationally acclaimed leader in patient safety, devising life-saving clinical practices that are yielding dramatic improvements in hospitals across the United States and around the world. He also is a successful leadership innovator, developing ways to motivate health care professionals to change the culture of their institutions in ways that reduce medical errors and hospital-acquired infections.

As one of his most notable contributions, he introduced an intensive care checklist protocol that saved 1,500 lives and $100 million in Michigan during its first 18 months. Dr. Pronovost and coauthor Eric Vohr recently published a new book on patient safety titled “Safe Patients, Smart Hospitals: How One Doctor’s Checklist Can Help Us Change Health Care from the Inside Out.”

He has received a MacArthur Fellowship, commonly known as a “genius grant,” for his work and was named one of the world’s “most influential people” of 2008 by Time magazine.

Thomas Goetz, executive editor of WIRED Magazine and author of “The Decision Tree: Taking Control of Your Health in the New Era of Personalized Medicine.” Thomas will address current trends in health information technology, and predict those that will consume the next decade. Specifically, Thomas will speak about how the concept of increased patient participation has dovetailed with the emergence of cheap and effective technology to make it an auspicious time for healthcare. Attendees will receive a signed copy of Thomas’ work on how to re-think and reshape the notion of health and the healthcare delivery process.

Carol Sakala is Director of Programs at Childbirth Connection, a 92-year-old national not-for-profit organization that works to improve the quality of maternity care. She will discuss Childbirth Connection’s recent work to improve maternity care by engaging diverse stakeholders in strengthening the systems in which this care is delivered. The presentation draws on three recent reports from Childbirth Connection. Carol is lead author of the Milbank Report Evidence-Based Maternity Care: What It Is and What It Can Achieve, which takes stock of the U.S. maternity care system and identifies abundant opportunities for improvement. To chart the pathway to improvement, Childbirth Connection’s Transforming Maternity Care project collaborated for 30 months with diverse leaders from across the health care system. Two resulting direction-setting papers have been released this year: “2020 Vision for a High-Quality, High-Value Maternity Care System” and “Blueprint for Action: Steps Toward a High-Quality, High-Value Maternity Care System.”

Tina Cassidy, journalist and author of “Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born.” Tina will describe the evolution of birth practices throughout history, exploring the physical, anthropological, political, and religious factors that have influenced- and will continue to influence- how women bring new life into the world.  Attendees will receive a signed copy of this fascinating . . . and sometimes startling . . . best-selling book.

Thomas Garite, MD is Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Chairman of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine Foundation, and Director of Research and Education for Obstetrix/Pediatrics Medical Group.  An authority in the field of Obstetric medicine, Dr. Garite is the author or co-author of five textbooks and has published over 100 original journal articles and a similar number of abstracts, chapters and invited articles in his career. Dr. Garite is a past president of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, a twelve year member of its Board of Directors, and a recipient of the Society’s Career Achievement Award.

Anne Santa-Donato, RNC, MSN, is the Director of Childbearing and Newborn Programs for the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetrical and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN).  Anne has over 30 years of experience in perinatal nursing clinical practice, education and administration, and holds a Master's Degree in Maternal-Infant Nursing from the Catholic University of America. In her role at AWHONN, Anne provides oversight for the AWHONN Fetal Heart Monitoring Education Program and for development of nursing continuing education resources and evidence-based guidelines. Anne has also held positions in obstetric and neonatal clinical nursing education and nursing administration at facilities in Washington, D.C., and in the Metro area and has co-authored scholarly publications on fetal heat monitoring, breastfeeding, and preterm birth.

Gerard Burns, MD, is the Chief Medical Information Officer of MedStar Health, a nine-hospital, not-for-profit healthcare system serving Maryland and the Washington, D.C., region. In his role as CMIO, Dr. Burns is instrumental in working with physicians and other clinicians to evaluate clinical vendors, define system requirements, and promote the role of clinicians as agents of healthcare information technology change. With more than 18 years of experience in both health care and information technology, Dr. Burns is a leader in the healthcare IT industry with numerous articles and presentations to his credit. Previously, Dr. Burns served as CMIO at the Hackensack University Medical Center, which under his stewardship, remained one of the nation’s most wired hospitals for over ten years in a row.

Trenor Williams, MD, is the CEO and co-founder of Clinovations, LLC, an organization dedicated to providing advisory services and management consulting to healthcare delivery systems, national associations and government organizations. Dr. Williams leads CPOE implementation, ambulatory EHR strategy, and clinical transformation engagements, and is currently leading inpatient and ambulatory HIT engagements at MedStar Health, Valley Health System and Adventist Health Care. Over the last seven years, he has been the clinical consulting leader for Deloitte Consulting and IBM/Healthlink. Experienced in benefits realization, physician adoption, clinical transformation strategies, consumer market strategy, and working with 3rd party content vendors to develop evidence-based medicine clinical content, Dr. Williams is Associate Editor of the book Improving Medication Use and Outcomes with Clinical Decision Support: A Step-by-Step Guide, which received the 2009 HIMSS Book of the Year Award.

Dan Rode, MBA, FHFMA, is vice president of Policy and Government Relations for the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). His responsibilities include working with federal agencies, representing AHIMA at meetings with members of Congress and their staff, and providing AHIMA members with up-to-date information on legislative, regulatory, and public policy developments that affect HIM. As a spokesperson for AHIMA, he explains HIM practices and the official public policy positions of the association to government agencies and the media. Before joining AHIMA, he worked at the Healthcare Financial Management Association's (HFMA) Chicago and Washington, D.C., offices, where he provided policy analysis and direction for legislative, regulatory, and technical issues affecting HFMA members and other industry groups. Prior to working in association management, Rode spent 20 years in healthcare financial operations management at the University of Minnesota Hospital and Clinic and the University of Utah Hospital and Clinics.

Paul Greve JD, RPLU is currently Executive Vice President/Senior Consultant in the Willis Healthcare Practice. In this role Paul monitors national and state malpractice trends as they affect insurance and risk management. Paul is a consultant to Willis clients on clinical risk management, malpractice litigation, patient safety, benchmarking, and quality issues. He provides risk management and claims management  advice to Willis clients in every segment of healthcare professional liability, including hospitals, physicians, long term care, and miscellaneous healthcare facilities.

Paul has twenty years healthcare industry experience in administrative positions at major teaching hospitals in Ohio. Paul has held risk management and general counsel positions in addition to having administrative responsibility for quality improvement.  He has worked for two malpractice carriers, including The Medical Protective Company.

Paul holds the designation of Distinguished Fellow from the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management and he has also received the designation of Registered Professional Liability Underwriter from the Professional Liability Underwriting Society. He has published many articles on risk management and medical-legal issues and speaks frequently on those topics.

Paul received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and a Juris Doctor from Capital University School of Law.

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