HomeAbout TransforMED Consultants

Consultants

Using the Model of Care as a guide, TransforMED has developed ongoing collaborative relationships with a select group of experienced and knowledgable health care professionals. Balancing the family medicine perspective with diversity of experience, TransforMED's consultants work closely with facilitators and staff to provide expert advice, hands-on consultation and tailored training to the National Demonstration Project practices.

Len Fromer, MD
TransforMED Medical Home Model Areas of Expertise:
Redesigned Offices - Patient Satisfaction
Team Approach - Multidisciplinary Team, NP/PA Teams and Collaborative Relationships

Dr. Leonard M. Fromer is a past president of the California Academy of Family Physicians and a member of its board of directors. Dr. Fromer has been the Chair of the Commission on Health Care Services for the American Academy of Family Physicians and serves as a consultant to the American Medical Informatics Association, California Department of Health Services, and World Foundation for Studies of Female Health. He currently is a member of the AAFP Commission on Quality. He is an assistant professor of family medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine and at the Western University of Health Sciences. He also chairs the Medical Leadership Council on Cultural Proficiency in Health Care. Dr. Fromer is a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and a diplomate of the American Board of Family Medicine.

Emily Hill, PA — Hill & Associates
TransforMED Medical Home Model Area of Expertise:
Practice Management - Coding and Billing

Emily Hill, PA, President of Hill & Associates, Inc., has a broad professional background in the health care industry. With more than 15 years of experience as a health care consultant, she has worked with numerous academic and private practices on coding, reimbursement, compliance, and practice management issues. Ms. Hill serves as a representative on the American Medical Association's Correct Coding Policy Committee and the Health Care Professionals Advisory Committee Review Board for the Relative Value Update Committee (RUC). She also serves on a technical advisory work group for CPT and RUC issues for the American Academy of Family Physicians Commission on Health Care Services.

Dr. John Hickner
TransforMED Medical Home Model Area of Expertise:
Quality & Safety - Patient Safety

Dr. John Hickner has been a leader in family practice patient safety research. He was a faculty member of Michigan State University College of Human Medicine for 25 years, working at the small Upper Peninsula Campus, where he divided his time among patient care, teaching, administration, and research. For 15 years Dr. Hickner was medical director of the teaching clinic, later becoming regional medical director with responsibility for a multi-specialty practice with 5 locations, 25 clinicians, and an annual budget of $7 million. Dr. Hickner served as founding Director of the American Academy of Family Physicians National Research Network. Under his leadership, the AAFP-NRN developed a patient safety research center within the AAFP-NRN and performed studies of errors reported by family physicians, their office staff, and their patients.

Suzanne Houck — Houck & Associates
TransforMED Medical Home Model Areas of Expertise:
Information Technology - EHR Implementation
Redesigned Offices - Optimized Patient Flow

Sue Houck is President & CEO of Houck & Associates, Inc. With over 20 years of healthcare experience as consultant, provider, manager, author, and speaker, Ms. Houck has assisted dozens of physician practices with operational improvement, EHR implementation and building patient loyalty. She is also the author of What Works, Effective Tools & Case Studies To Improve Clinical OfficePractice, the first comprehensive book on ambulatory care redesign.

Gordon Moore, MD — Ideal Micro Practices
TransforMED Medical Home Model Area of Expertise:
Access to Care - Open Access Scheduling
Redesigned Offices - Office Efficiency

Dr. Gordon Moore, MD is an innovative solo family physician practicing in Rochester, New York. He has described his practice as a "Norman Rockwell practice with a 21st century information technology backbone." Dr. Moore is also a faculty member of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and holds a part-time administrative position with Strong Health, where he assists other practices in developing lean and ideal systems of care.

Linda K. Shelton, MA — LKS Consulting
TransforMED Medical Home Model Area of Expertise:
Patient-Centered Care Quality & Safety - Quality Assessment and Safety Measures

Linda Shelton has served as Assistant Vice President, Product Development at NCQA and led their work as the advisor and independent evaluator for Pay for Performance in California and Bridges to Excellence. She directed both operations and development of NCQA's physician recognition programs, the Diabetes Physician Recognition Program, the Heart-Stroke Recognition Program and Physician Practice Connections (PPC). Ms. Shelton directed the work of several NCQA advisory panels with national leaders from physician organizations, health plans, employers and government, as well as focus groups of consumers. With that input she developed: the ground-breaking PPC program to recognize physicians who adopt systematic processes and IT; Member Connections, with which NCQA evaluates the ways health plans make information on quality and price transparent to their members; accreditation programs for disease management and PPOs; the use of quantitative measures of clinical quality and member satisfaction in accreditation.

Neil Baker — Qualis Health
TransforMED Medical Home Model Area of Expertise:
Information Technology - Outcome measures (best practices)

Boni Croy — Qualis Health
TransforMED Medical Home Model Area of Expertise:
Information Technology - Chronic Disease Management

Qualis Health is a private, nonprofit organization that works with providers, practitioners, managed care plans, employers, and community groups to successfully implement quality improvement initiatives and manage health care costs and quality. For more than 30 years, Qualis Health has offered its care management, quality improvement/assessment, and health services research services to a wide range of Federal, state, and private customers.

Joseph E. Scherger, MD, MPH
TransforMED Medical Home Model Areas of Expertise:
Access to Information - Website and Lab results online/phone
Access to Care - E-visits

Dr. Joseph E. Scherger is Clinical Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine (UCSD). Dr. Scherger is Director of the San Diego Center for Patient Safety, and Director of Quality Improvement in Correctional Medicine at UCSD. He is a member of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Health Care Delivery Policy Project. Dr. Scherger's main focus is on the redesign of office practice using the tools of information technology and quality improvement. Dr. Scherger has received numerous awards, including Outstanding Clinical Instructor in the School of Medicine at the University of California, Davis, in 1984, 1989 and 1990. In 1989, he was chosen as Family Physician of the Year by the American Academy of Family Physicians and the California Academy of Family Physicians. Dr. Scherger has served on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Board of Family Practice. Dr. Scherger served as Editor-in-Chief of Hippocrates and was the first Medical Editor of Family Practice Management. He has authored more than 300 medical publications and has given over 700 invited presentations.