HealtheConnections Announces Population Health Improvement Team
HealtheConnections is pleased to announce the addition of Rachel Kramer, Bruce Hathaway, Mary Carney and Megan Lee as members of its Population Health Improvement team in support of New York state’s Population Health Improvement Program (PHIP). HealtheConnections was recently selected by the New York state Department of Health’s PHIP as a contractor for Central New York. They will receive $2.4 million from the state over two years to work with Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga and Oswego county partners and stakeholders, under subcontract with HealtheConnections, in executing PHIP responsibilities.
The company has built a strong team to support the PHIP grant and to deliver valued services that assist with measurable improvement toward regional health care goals and objectives. HealtheConnections’ Population Health Improvement team will provide the expertise and resources to support regional collaboration around common, data-based priorities, the sharing of best practices, the execution of regional initiatives and the collective advancement of State Prevention Agenda, State Health Innovative Plans and Triple Aim goals.
This team will work closely with Cayuga County Community Health Network Inc. (Cayuga), Seven Valleys Health Coalition Inc. (Cortland), Madison County Rural Health Council Inc. (Madison), Central New York Health Home Network (Oneida), Onondaga County Department of Health (Onondaga) and Rural Health Network of Oswego (Oswego), who will serve as PHIP county agents. They will convene stakeholders around county-specific PHIP priorities and activities and provide data to track progress toward Central New York and state goals. These county agents are currently working toward PHIP goals at the county level and have a solid understanding of the unique needs of their populations and service profiles.
Rachel Kramer, Sc.D., M.H.S., joins the team as director of Population Health Improvement. Kramer brings over 20 years of public health experience in government, nonprofit and academic settings along with formal training in epidemiology and data analysis. Over the past 10 years, she served as the director of the research and evaluation unit for New York state’s Cancer Services Program, working closely with local communities and stakeholders statewide. She also served as an instructor at Sage College’s Graduate School of Nursing and as an epidemiologist/health statistician for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. Kramer earned a Doctor of Science degree in psychiatric epidemiology and a Master of Health Science degree at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and a Bachelor of Science degree at Tufts University.
Bruce Hathaway joins the team as senior population health analyst. Hathaway brings nearly 20 years of experience in population health improvement at the local, state and national levels and strong skills in community/stakeholder engagement, strategic planning and project management. This includes five years with the New York Department of Health as project manager of the state’s Healthy Communities Program and five years as a technical adviser on tobacco cessation, diabetes control and communicable disease investigation. Hathaway was also the project manager of a national “Healthier Communities Initiative” for four years, working for the YMCA of the USA (funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Currently, Hathaway is director of community engagement for the Central New York chapter of the American Cancer Society and in the process of securing his Master of Health Science degree.
Mary Carney, M.P.H., C.H.E.S., joins the team as a population health analyst. Carney brings a passion for preventive health, skills in data analytics, community outreach/education and project coordination and nearly 10 years of experience in public health settings across the country. Currently a public health educator for the Onondaga County Health Department, Carney served previously as the project coordinator for the Women’s Health Initiative at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and held teaching assistantships/internships with the New Mexico State University health sciences department and Southern Area Health Education Center. Carney received her Master of Public Health degree at New Mexico State University and is a certified health education specialist.
Megan Lee, M.P.H., also joins the team as a population health analyst. Lee has worked as a community outreach worker with the Onondaga County Health Department since earning her Master of Public Health degree at State University of New York Upstate Medical University and Syracuse University’s Maxwell School in 2012. Lee coupled her graduate studies with multiple positions and fellowships in HIV prevention, women’s health, tuberculosis control and maternal health. She also completed a fellowship in Borgne, Haiti, at the Alyans Sante Boy Hospital. Lee brings strong analytic, research, grant writing, communication and organizational skills to the team.
About HealtheConnections
In collaboration with Central New York health care providers and stakeholders, HealtheConnections (pronounced “healthy connections”) delivers trusted and valued services which support health care transformation and efficiency initiatives focused on achieving the triple aim of better care, better population health and lower health care costs. HealtheConnections provides unbiased, neutral health information exchange (HIE) services*, electronic health record (EHR) adoption technical and meaningful use advisement services and population health improvement support services for the 11 counties of the Central New York region. The name HealtheConnections represents our commitment to connect and engage Central New York health care physicians, hospitals, public health, mental and behavior health and human services, and other health care providing entities, insurers, businesses and consumers to collaborate to deliver improvement services and initiatives that support regional and New York state’s health information exchange and population health improvement agendas.
*HealtheConnections RHIO is a qualified entity of the State Health Information Network of New York (SHIN-NY)
