2025 Spring Symposium Agenda

The Intersection of Technology and Care: The University City Science Center Experience

Wendy Nickel
Wendy Nickel joined the Science Center in December 2024 as the inaugural Chief Program Officer. In this role, she leads the work of multiple program areas across healthcare startup acceleration and STEM education initiatives. She is responsible for program strategy, evaluating program scalability, and ensuring that programs advance the vision and mission of the Science Center organization while being at the forefront of innovation in Philadelphia and beyond. The Science Center is a not-for-profit organization which offers programs to support entrepreneurs in developing innovations to address healthcare challenges, promotes a love of STEM among youth in diverse communities, and facilitates inclusive economic growth and development through the healthcare innovation ecosystem.

She has held various leadership positions at the American College of Physicians, the Society of Hospital Medicine, and the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, uniformly working towards improved access to high quality health care. Most recently, Wendy served as President of the Health Care Improvement Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve health equity, quality of care, and access to care through stakeholder collaboration and shared learning in partnership with patients, healthcare professionals, and other constituents. She serves as a Public Board member of the American Board of Medical Specialties and also serves on the boards of Patient-Family Centered Care Partners and the ALS Hope Foundation.

Wendy earned a graduate degree in Public Health and undergraduate degree in biological anthropology from Emory University.

AI in Healthcare – Building Patient Trust

Moderator:

Dustin Hufford, SVP/CIO, Cooper Health DUSTIN L. HUFFORD | Cooper University Health Care

Mr. Hufford previously served as the vice president of Cooper Applications. His health career spans 15 years serving in a number of leadership roles.

Prior to joining Cooper, Mr. Hufford served as chief information officer at Memorial Health Care System, a community hospital in North Western Ohio. After Memorial Health Care was acquired by Promedica Health system, he served as assistant vice president of Revenue Cycle and Business Systems where he oversaw the implementation of Promedica Health’s electronic health records system. He has experience leading large teams within several areas of IT including clinical, revenue cycle, business systems, and technology. In addition to his experience working with health care providers, he has a background in consulting work where he executed IT strategic planning engagements, merger and acquisition evaluations, and post-merger integrations.

Panelists:

Dr. Sandeep Pulim Sandeep Pulim, MD – New Enterprise Ventures

Sandeep Pulim, MD, stands at the forefront of healthcare innovation, blending his medical expertise with a passion for technology-driven solutions to address complex healthcare challenges. As a seasoned physician and social-impact entrepreneur, Dr. Pulim has dedicated his career to transforming patient care through innovative technology and strategic partnerships. Dr. Pulim is an angle investor and currently serves on advisory boards of several health care startups and is currently a member of the AgeTech Committee at The National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC), a 501(c)(3) organization that works to enable access and choice by providing data, analytics, and connections that bring together investors and providers.

Most recently, Dr. Pulim served as the Medical Director and VP of Clinical Strategy & Partnerships at
Biofourmis. In this pivotal role, he was instrumental in developing and scaling acute hospital-at-home
programs, alongside remote post-acute and chronic disease management solutions for health
systems and plans. His efforts have significantly contributed to enhancing patient care delivery and
outcomes.

Dr. Omer Liran, Cedars-Sinai,  Co-Founder, Xaia Health Virtual Medicine | Cedars-Sinai
Dr. Omer Liran is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (CSMC). He is a full-stack developer with decades of experience developing various software including an fMRI statistical analyzer, a behavioral health electronic health record system, research applications, artificial neural networks, and medical extended reality (MXR) software currently being used to treat patients.

Dr. Liran co-directs the Virtual Medicine program at CSMC with the mission of developing, researching, teaching, and delivering clinical interventions using scientifically validated MXR technologies. During this time, he has developed a VR cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and a guided meditation VR application designed specifically to reduce anxiety and pain. In addition, he serves as a co-investigator on three separate NIH-funded VR studies, one of which is using VR software that he developed to study if it can reduce pain in people with gastrointestinal cancers. He also received an NIH grant to study the correlations between demographics, patient reported outcomes, and perceptions of medical VR technologies.

Dr. Nidhal Bouaynaya, Associate Vice President for AI, Rowan University Nidhal C. Bouaynaya, Ph.D.

Dr. Bouaynaya’s research interests are in Big Data Analytics, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Mathematical Optimization. She co-authored more than 100 refereed journal articles, book chapters and conference proceedings, such as IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, IEEE Signal Processing Letters, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine and PLOS Medicine. Dr. Bouaynaya won numerous Best Paper Awards, the most recent was at the 2019 IEEE International Workshop on Machine Learning for Signal Processing.  She is also the winner of the Top algorithm at the 2016 Multinomial Brain Tumor Segmentation Challenge (BRATS). Dr. Bouaynaya has been honored with numerous research and teaching awards, including Rowan Research Achievement Award in 2017 and The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Faculty Excellence Award in Research.

Her research is primarily funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF CCF, NSF ACI, NSF DUE, NSF I-Corps, NSF ECCS, NSF OAC and NSF HRD), The National Institutes of Health (NIH), US. Department of Education (USED), New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJ DoT), US. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Lockheed Martin Inc. and other industry. She is also interested in entrepreneurial endeavors. In 2017, she Co-founded and is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MRIMATH, LLC, a start-up company that uses artificial intelligence to improve patient oncology outcome and treatment response. MRIMath is funded by the NIH SBIR Program.

Lehigh Valley Health Network – Our SDOH Journey: From Measurement to Impact

Dr. Harm Scherpbier is an independent health IT advisor. He is adjunct faculty at the Jefferson College of Population Health, teaching Health Informatics and Population Health Analytics. He is also the CMIO at HealthShare Exchange. He is the author of “Unvendor – Innovate Healthcare with a Diverse IT Stack” – publication April 2025. The book is based on 30 years work in the health IT industry, in roles working for EHR vendor companies, health systems, and health information exchange organizations.

Heather

Steve

UPHS Chester County Hospital – Fluid Dynamics: Adapting Swiftly to the IV Fluid Shortage

Meaghan Harper, PT, DPT, GCS is an EPIC certified Clinical Informaticist and EPIC credentialed educator. She has been working for Penn Medicine- Chester County Hospital Informatics for over two years, organizing both local and system-wide projects. She chairs the system-wide Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy Governance Committee, and is co-chair of her local DEI Council at CCH. Prior to working in informatics, Dr. Harper was an acute care physical therapist for nine years. She graduated from the University of Delaware with her Doctorate in Physical Therapy in 2012 and earned her board certification in Geriatrics in 2021.

Darren Girardeau, MSN, BM, RN, PHRN, FACHE, NEA-BC, CEN is the Senior Director of Nursing for Emergency Services, Nursing Administrative Services, and Emergency Management at Penn Medicine – Chester County Hospital.  His clinical practice is based in Pre-hospital Emergency Medical Services, Emergency, Flight, and Critical Care nursing.  He has been at Chester County Hospital since 2010 serving in several nursing leadership roles.  With emergency preparedness and disaster planning in his wheelhouse, he served as the clinical lead for Chester County Hospital during the international IV Fluid shortage in 2024-2025.

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia – Accelerated Cyber Readiness Planning

Eric Skinkle is the Business Continuity Manager at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), a world class pediatric healthsystem. Eric’s responsibilities include leading the relaunch and oversight of the business continuity (BC) program, including business impact analysis, continuity plans and development of BC Champions. With a career spanning both private and public sectors, Eric has managed major projects including city and school operations continuity, mass vaccination clinics, and election-related work. He holds certifications from BCI, DRII, and FEMA as a Level 1 Professional Continuity Practitioner.

Monique St. John is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Associate Chief Information Officer (ACIO) at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). In this role, Monique supports the organization’s mission and strategic plan with responsibility for the enterprise Information Security program. With over 25 years of experience in technology, security, and service delivery, Monique relies on a collaborative leadership approach to ensure solutions protect CHOP, provide value, and enable the business. She is a trusted advisor, partners with colleagues to manage risk, and strives to balance security with technology innovation.

Bridging Technology, Informatics, and Patient Experience: Innovations & Challenges

Kai Xu, Physician, Assistant Chief Medical Officer, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Kai Xu is a hospitalist and clinical informaticist at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He is an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine and a core faculty in the Clinical Informatics Fellowship. Dr. Xu specializes in the implementation and optimization of electronic health records, as well as the evaluation and integration of emerging technologies to transform clinical care and enhance patient experience. He served as a physician advisor to the design and integration of patient care technologies in the $1.6B Clifton Center for Medical Breakthroughs. Dr. Xu has played a pivotal role in developing institutional guidelines for EHR usage, optimizing clinician workflow, and standardizing clinical care practices. His expertise extends to performance improvement methodologies, with a focus on advancing quality of care and patient safety.

Lori Hulse, MBA, MSW, CPXP Vice President, Patient Experience, Jefferson Health
Lori Hulse is Vice President of Patient Experience at Jefferson Health. Lori brings over two decades of experience in health care operations, performance improvement and patient experience. She has been with Lehigh Valley Health Network for the 10 years; the past four of which she spent developing, expanding, and leading teams to drive improvement in care delivery to our patients, families, guests, and communities. In 2024, LVHN joined Jefferson Health. Lori now leads Jefferson Health’s patient experience, and other key operational teams on the quest for excellence.
Lori joined LVHN as Vice President of Operations for Lehigh Valley Physician Group (LVPG), where she managed operations across multiple specialties. She played a pivotal role in numerous LVHN mergers and acquisitions on LVHN’s growth journey. In 2021, Lori expanded her responsibilities to include patient experience. She oversaw network-wide initiatives, including food and nutrition services, environmental services, guest services, and waste and sustainability.
Under Lori’s leadership, the patient experience team launched a real-time inpatient service recovery program and implemented governance councils to standardize service delivery and improve performance. These efforts significantly boosted LVHN’s HCAHPS “likelihood to recommend” scores and enhanced performance in Patient Centeredness across Leapfrog, Vizient, and VBP programs. Lori’s extensive background includes leadership roles at Penn Medicine, Crozer Keystone Health Network, and Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. She holds a Master of Social Work from Marywood University and an MBA from Widener University.

Megan Nghe, MSN RN is the Director of Patient and Family Experience and Feedback. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
In her role, Megan leads the operations and strategy for the Patient and Family Experience and Feedback program within the Patient & Family Services department and works collaboratively with clinical, administrative and operational leaders throughout CHOP, to advance the Patient & Family Experience, Family Centered Care and to promote the inclusion of the family voice.
Megan began her career at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as a nurse extern and then a registered nurse on the Inpatient Oncology Unit but had leadership roles in several different departments. Megan is passionate about making patients and families feel seen, heard, respected, and cared for and about helping teams incorporate learnings from patients and family feedback and experiences.
Megan received her BSN from Villanova University and her MSN in Nursing Leadership and Health Systems Management, from Drexel University. Megan enjoys collaborating with leaders to ensure that patients and families feel warmly welcomed, cared for by all they encounter, and leave CHOP feeling valued in a way that celebrates them as individuals and is respectful of where they are in their healthcare journey.

Jim Cooper, MBA, CPXP, Enterprise Experience & Hospitality Officer, AtlantiCare Health System
Born & raised where I still live today (Linwood, NJ – just outside of Ocean City)
Studied Kinesiology: Pre-Health Professions while playing football at Temple University as a 2-yr starter
Began in the PX world as an intern at Richmond University Medical Center (Staten Island, NY) while finishing up my MBA in Health Care Administration from Wagner College
Started my career after school as a Data Analyst for PX and Care Coordination
Transitioned into management a year after joining Inspira Health where I most recently finished my time with them as the Assistant Vice President of Patient Experience in March of 2024