NEHEN’s Founders in Profile

John Halamka, MD
CIO, CareGroup; Chairman, New England Healthcare EDI Network (NEHEN)
Role: Halamka was one of the conceivers and founding members of NEHEN. He is an evangelist as well for the creation of regional networks for exchanging patient information.

Besides his duties at CareGroup, which is a member of NEHEN, and NEHEN itself, Halamka serves as associate dean of the Harvard Medical School, overseeing data management of Harvard’s hospital clinical trials.

John Glaser
VP, CIO, Partners Healthcare System
Role: Glaser also helped conceive NEHEN. At the time of the formation of NEHEN, Glaser had been attempting to guide Partners towards its own method of complying with new federal data accountability standards. With the help of Computer Sciences Corp., he developed the Internet protocol-based middleware concept that would later become the foundation for NEHEN’s method of exchanging data between hospitals and payment organizations.

Greg DeBor
Partner, Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC)
Role: DeBor and CSC had already begun working on an electronic transaction system for Partners Healthcare System hospitals and clinics when he joined Halamka and other Boston medical leaders around a table on Bourbon Street in February 1998. CSC has since gone on to become a major player nationally in helping institutions create systems that exchange data securely and comply with federal regulations.

Laurance Stuntz
Principal, Global Health Solutions, Computer Sciences Corp.
Role: Stuntz developed the middleware architecture, based on the Internet’s TCP/IP protocols, for the NEHEN gateways. He was on the project from its beginning and continues to monitor, maintain and fine-tune NEHEN’s data exchange software.

Keith Worthley
Manager, Electronic Data Interchange, CareGroup
Role: Worthley manages the day-to-day support of NEHEN and information exchange engines. He also serves as CareGroup’s NEHEN administrator, responsible for NEHEN-related servers. As administrator, Worthley manages the development and expansion of NEHEN functionality at CareGroup.

Kristofer T. Karas
Technical Security Engineer, CareGroup
Role: Karas is responsible for ensuring the security of computer systems on CareGroup’s network. For NEHEN he orchestrated the network vulnerability assessment efforts of the NEHEN gateway, advising the server team owning the box on how to secure it.

Elliot Stone
Executive Director and CEO, Massachusetts Health Data Consortium
Role: Stone organized the Affiliated Health Information Networks of New England project—of which NEHEN is a member—to help health plans and providers achieve standards required by the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Rich Shoup
Former CIO, Tufts Health Plan
Role: Shoup was CIO for Tufts and was one of the original Bourbon Street Coalition members. He was active in NEHEN’s early days helping develop the protocols necessary for the payer members of the NEHEN network to communicate. Tricia Trebino has succeeded him at Tufts.

Debra Spaight
Former CIO Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare
Role: Spaight, another original member of the Bourbon Street Coalition, worked with the other four founders to develop the payer protocols that launched the NEHEN network. The current CIO at HPHC is Louis Gutierrez.

Christopher Macmanus
Former CIO, CareGroup
John Halamka’s predecessor at CareGroup was involved in NEHEN’s formative stages before his departure from CareGroup at the end of 1998. Macmanus is currently senior vice president for information technology at Catholic Health Initiatives.

Carole Cotter
CIO, LifeSpan
Although Cotter was not at the New Orleans conference, LifeSpan was one of the five founding partners behind NEHEN.