Innovative solutions that unlock the power of data and improve productivity.
2020 Velos Annual vMeeting
Accelerating Research
Sept. 15-16, 2020 - Velos Meeting
Sept. 17, 2020 - WCG’s Advanced Coverage Analysis Workshop
Speakers
Sonia Abrol
Vice President-Software Development & Operations
WCG Velos
Sonia Abrol has 21+ years of experience designing, developing and managing enterprise products in healthcare. As a founding team member of the Velos eResearch suite, she helps define product strategy and cutting-edge technology. In addition to leadership duties, she serves as an SME on the Velos suite of products, offerings for collaboration, compliance, and interoperability. Her expertise includes EDC and bio-specimen management systems, and FDA and HIPAA compliance.
Rehan Anwar
Director - Software Quality Engineering
WCG Velos
Rehan Anwar has more than 20 years of experience in quality, customer management and project delivery in technology solutions for clinical research and healthcare. His key strengths are a tremendous can-do attitude, diligence, attention to detail, a commitment to customer happiness, and a deep determination to deliver. He has overseen many versions of the products at Velos, across many technologies and developed by multiple teams of software engineers. A key aspect of his work with customers has been creating an environment where difficult problems can be reexamined with a fresh perspective, and solutions can be tailored uniquely for a customer within the bounds of process, time, resources, and technology.
Irina Arzhintar
Clinical Trials Coordinator at Children’s Cancer Centre
Monash Health
Irina Arzhintar is a Clinical Trials Coordinator with oncology/haematology nursing background and more than 10 years of experience in clinical trials. Her current role is a lead Clinical Trials Coordinator at Children’s Cancer Centre, Monash Health. She feels privileged being a part of a multidisciplinary team that always has child’s best interest at heart and concentrates on better patient outcomes.
Leticia A. Blea
Director of Research Operations & Finance
Parkland Health & Hospital System
Leticia Blea is the Director of Research Operations & Finance for Parkland Health & Hospital System in Dallas, TX, one of the largest public health systems in the nation. She has deep expertise in strategic planning, pre–/post–award grant management and compliance, clinical trial billing, contract negotiations, training development, and technology upgrades.
Prior to joining Parkland, Leticia was the Director of Grants & Research for Grady Health System in Atlanta where she led the redesign of the grants and research infrastructure consisting of transforming Grady from a high to low-risk auditee, successfully negotiating the system’s first Federal Indirect Cost Rate, deploying a new enterprise resource planning and project management system, serving as key subject matter lead for implementation of the Epic Clinical Research Module, and strengthening the Grady and Emory research partnership. Most recently, Leticia led the successful implementation of the Velos eResearch Clinical Research Management System (CRMS) at Parkland in collaboration with internal and external partners and stakeholders.
Leticia brings more than 19 years of comprehensive experience in the world of grants and research?across industries from techie startup and consulting to established government, hospital, private and non-profit sectors.
Leticia holds a dual B.A. in Political Science and Modern Languages from Providence College and earned her Masters of Public Administration from Troy State University while living in Okinawa, Japan. After 20 years spent overseas and coast to coast, she returned to her hometown of Dallas, TX where she enjoys life with her 14-year-old son.
Harry Chahal
Director, Professional Services and Product Integrations
WCG Velos
Harry Chahal has more than 20 years’ experience leading multi-disciplinary teams in healthcare software technology development, sales, delivery, and after-sales service. A founding team member of Velos and the Velos eResearch suite, he plays a key role in devising marketplace solutions and implementing enterprise-class products. His expertise spans regulatory software, clinical trials, information technology, and electronic medical records. Prior to his current duties, he managed business operations of the Velos eCardo business unit and Velos IT operation.
Jacquelyn Evans, MD, FRCP(c), FAAP
Executive Director
Children’s Hospital Neonatal Consortium
Dr. Jacquelyn Evans is the Executive Director of the Children’s Hospital Neonatal Consortium and was a founder of and the CHNC Board Chair from 2008 – 2018. Dr. Evans is a neonatologist who received her medical degree from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia and was on the faculties in the departments of pediatrics of Dalhousie University, the University of California San Francisco and the University of Pennsylvania during her career. In 2019 she retired from her position as the Associate Division Chief, Neonatology, and Director of the CHOP Newborn Care Network Quality Improvement Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to work fulltime with the CHNC.
Sharanjeet Hundal
Technical Services Engineer
WCG Velos
Sharanjeet Hundal manages WCG Velos IT hosting operations as well as integrations with WCG IT. He also serves as a Database and Implementation Specialist and leads the Velos DevOps installations-streamlining team. His eight years of expertise in technical implementation go to devising critical solutions for WCG Velos customers.
Suresh Kumar
Chief
WCG Velos Asia-Pac
Suresh Kumar, a PMP-certified Project Manager, leads project teams to successfully deliver Velos solutions at client sites. He claims 25+ years of IS/IT and project management experience, of which 15 have been in healthcare.
John Mallett
Director of Data and Analytics
Children’s Hospitals Neonatal Consortium (CHNC)
John Mallett serves as Director of Data and Analytics for the Children’s Hospitals Neonatal Consortium. John has spent more than five years working with CHNC’s clinical database, focusing on data input tools, reporting and data quality. Previously John worked at Children’s Hospital Association (Child Health Corporation of America), Vizient (VHA), Paventia Health and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Areas of focus included supply chain, quality improvement collaboratives as well as education and networking. John attended Culver Military Academy and Purdue University.
Carolyn Mallory
IT System Application Specialist
Parkland Health and Hospital System
Carolyn Mallory lives in Dallas, Texas and has been in Healthcare for 30+ years working for Parkland Health and Hospital System. Prior to joining the Information Technology Department she spent 10 years working for the Community Oriented Primary Care Administration Office. She transitioned to the IT Department where she has worked for more than 20 years. Her Job roles included IT- Sr. Application Analyst, IT Team Lead and being promoted to IT Manager overseeing 23+ Infrastructure Systems, but over the years she realized her true aspiration was to take her IT experience and work with Clinical Research. She took a position working as an IT System Application Specialist supporting the Epic Clinical Research Module, Epic Beacon Oncology Module, and supporting the CTMS Velos System. She is Certified in the following Epic Modules: Clinical Research, Research Billing, ADT, Prelude (Registration), and Resolute Professional Billing.
Matthew Mayo
Associate Director-Shared Resources
University of Kansas Cancer Center
Prof. Matthew Mayo is Founding Chair of the Department of Biostatistics & Data Science at The University of Kansas Medical Center, and Associate Director-Shared Resources for The University of Kansas Cancer Center, an NCI-designated cancer center. He has spent a quarter-century in academic medicine focused on clinical trials related to smoking cessation, obesity, cancer and cancer prevention, and has led development of multiple NIH-funded biostatistics and data management-related cores.
Amanda Miller
Manager-QA & Development
WCG PFS Clinical
Amanda Miller is a quality specialist working with a full range of research sites—large academic and non-academic medical centers, dedicated research facilities, and community hospitals—to meet administrative needs. Her expertise includes clinical research, budget development/negotiation, coverage analysis development, claims review, and coverage analysis quality assurance. Specialties include developing and negotiating budgets for research sites at academic medical centers, and developing coverage analysis and budgeting policy for clinical researchers at all levels.
Diane Moyer
Director of Training and Instructional Design
WCG ePharmasolutions
Diane Moyer is the Director of Training and Instructional Design for WCG ePharmaSolutions. Her focus is on designing, developing, and delivering training for the software WCG offers to support the drug development process and improve client clinical trials. She has more than 15 years of experience identifying and executing outcome-oriented organizational development strategies to improve global talent capabilities and translate strategies into results.
Some of the software platforms she has specialized in include: Clinical Trial Management Systems, Electronic Data Management Systems, Investigator Payment Systems, Learning Management Systems, Document Management Systems, and many others. Her focus is on addressing skills gaps and driving improvement in performance, productivity, and growth.
She manages all aspects of global product training activities, including planning, development, and implementation. She also oversees the hiring, management, and supervision of personnel and provides metrics on training effectiveness.
Dinesh Pal Mudaranthakam
Director-Research Information Technology
University of Kansas Medical Center
Dinesh Pal Mudaranthakam is Director-Research Information Technology, Co-Director-Investigator Initiated Trials (I.I.T), and a Teaching Associate in KUMC’s Department of Biostatistics and Data Science. Previously he was a Senior Software Developer in the pharmacy department of Cerner Corp.
Kimberly Olsen-Wilson
Associate Project Manager
WCG Velos
Kimberly Olsen-Wilson specializes in new-project implementations and account management. She puts previous research experience to work for clients that includies IRB regulatory submissions, clinical and preclinical research and research management, contracts, budgets and Medicare coverage analysis.
Adam Pape
Systems Analyst
Versiti
Adam Pape is a Systems Analyst at Versiti. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. He began working with Versiti/BloodCenter of Wisconsin in 2015 where he was immediately involved in the implementation of Velos. After the successful launch of the software, he currently provides support for the current users while also continuing the growth of Velos across the entire organization. In his spare time, Adam is an adventurous person who recently traveled to Apostle Islands in Wisconsin as well as Pictured Rocks in the upper peninsula of Michigan.
Ajit Parmar
Application Support Manager
WCG Velos
Ajit Parmar serves as an Application Support Manager with WCG Velos. With a background in IT software engineering and development, his responsibilities include software development; applications support management; process management; L3 escalation and prioritization of escalated tickets; skillset identification and problem decomposition techniques.
Michael Peters
Director-Customer Success
WCG Velos
Michael “Mick” Peters joined WCG Velos in November 2019 as Director of Customer Success. Mick has worked to build and support software in the life sciences for 35 years, including 15 years in the CRO world and, most recently, 20 years as Vice President at TOPAZ, providing software to the pre-clinical animal trials market. He has worked many roles—from developer to sales, QA to Marketing, product manager to implementer and trainer—working with universities, hospitals, pharmaceutical and biotech companies worldwide.
Mike Porreca
Manager, Clinical Trials Office
Boston Medical Center
Mike Porreca brings over a decade of research administration experience in both higher education and hospital settings. As manager of the Clinical Trials Office (CTO) at Boston Medical Center (BMC), Mike is responsible for overseeing the lifecycle of clinical trials. Our office serves as a central resource for Principal Investigators, study staff and departments involved in clinical research and for sponsors seeking to conduct clinical trials at Boston Medical Center. Our CTO pre-award and post-award team supports and advances BMC's mission by providing leadership and expertise in Research, Finance and Administration.
Harriet Stein
President
Big Toe in the Water, LLC
Harriet Stein, President, Big Toe in the Water LLC, is known for engaging, interactive programs that quickly teach people why paying attention matters. She is an RN who spent 20 years in Pharma conducting clinical trials, then transitioned into a global role supporting the learning needs of clinical operations specialists. At Johnson & Johnson, she taught mindfulness techniques to more than 5,000 colleagues. She launched Big Toe in the Water nine years ago to spread mindfulness techniques in the workplace.
Nicole Stephens, PhD, CCRP, CLSSGB
Regulatory Coordinator at OptumCare Cancer Care and
Chair, SOCRA Southern Nevada Chapter
Dr. Nicole Stephens earned her PhD in Biomedical Sciences/Oncology through the UNM School of Medicine. She conducted pre-clinical lung toxicology and oncology laboratory research for 20 years. She established a Women’s Health Research Center for the UNM Health Sciences Center which became an NCI GOG reference lab. While researching the molecular basis of HPV infection and cervical cancer, she coordinated a phase II HPV vaccine trial. This “bench to bedside” experience inspired her to move into full time clinical oncology trial administration at the NCI-designated UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center. As an NCI grant administrator and Regulatory Manager, she relied on Velos eResearch daily for 11 years.
Chris Sullivan
Manager, Research Information Systems
Boston Medical Center
Chris Sullivan brings over 13 years’ of experience as a business-oriented technical professional with a successful track record in operations improvement and hands-on management experience in healthcare technology settings.
As manager of the Research Information Systems at Boston Medical Center (BMC), Chris is responsible for overseeing the applications utilized by the BMC Research community. Collaborating with the business owners, Chris’ team works to identify both technical and functional based solutions for research related initiatives – while leading in the identification, selection, implementation, and configuration of existing and new systems.
Ron Thornton
General Manager, WCG Velos
Senior Executive, WCG
Ron Thornton serves as the General Manager of WCG Velos and also serves on the Senior Executive Team of WCG Clinical. Prior to Velos, he most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of TOPAZ Technologies. Mr. Thornton has 30 years of software sales and management experience and served for several years at a Big Four firm. His expertise includes global business development and strategic business operations. His personal center of influence boasts a network of accomplished leaders and innovators across diverse corporate cultures. Mr. Thornton graduated from Washington and Lee University with a degree in Accounting and Business Administration.
Mary Lou Watson
Research Administration
Upstate Medical University
MaryLou Watson is the State of New York Research Foundation Clinical Research Fellow, and is the Director of Clinical Research Initiatives at SUNY Upstate Medical University.
In those capacities she supports all aspects of clinical research campus and system-wide, securing opportunities for collaboration and innovation, instituting best practice, and identifying challenges and corresponding solutions.
Prior to this position Ms. Watson directed Upstate Medical University’s Department of Neurology Research enterprise. The departments’ research portfolio included all major neurological disease presentations.
Concurrently Ms. Watson worked with the international ALS Consortium, working with approximately 150 academic research institutions world-wide, teaching and implementing gold standard clinical research practices and principals, while developing outcome measures for this body of research.
Ms. Watsons’ research interest is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
She is certified by many credentialing research organizations, and is licensed by the State of New York as a Registered Respiratory Therapist.
Jonathan Zung, PhD
Executive Vice President
WCG
Jonathan Zung, PhD, assumed the EVP role in June 2018 following 25+ years of executive leadership in pharmaceutical development and services. He has worked in oncology, immunology, cardiovascular disease and other therapeutic areas. Most recently he was group president, Clinical Development & Commercialization Services, for Covance Drug Development, where he led a global team of more than 8,000 employees in 60 countries spanning all phases of development (Phase I–IV), along with global market access services. His resumé includes stints at UCB, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer. He serves on the board of directors of the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC).