Raymond Aller, MD

Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
Acute Communicable Disease Control
313 North Figueroa St
Room 222
Los Angeles, CA
USA 90012
Email: raller@ph.lacounty.gov

Biographical Sketch:
SUMMARY Specialist in informatics, laboratory medicine, quality improvement, and public health, with a national scope of broad based experience integrating and directing complex medical service organizations. Professional experience includes a county public health division serving 10 million people, several large hospital, regional, and independent clinical laboratories, and a regional blood bank. Practice has emphasized improving the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of enterprise-wide patient care, particularly through creative applications of information systems in large healthcare organizations and businesses. Focuses on problem solving to develop practical solutions resulting in improved productivity, cost-effectiveness, and quantifiable improvements in quality and safety of patient care. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE LOS ANGELES COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH Los Angeles, CA 2003 – PRESENT Director of Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response (thru 5/07) and Director, Automated Disease Surveillance (6/07 forward), Acute Communicable Disease Control Program Design and oversee mechanisms and systems to • Enhance surveillance of syndromes indicative of disease outbreaks • Interconnect clinical information systems in 32+ hospitals with public health surveillance databases for clinical (32) and laboratory (10) data. • Develop teams and relationships to facilitate response to intentional or unintentional outbreaks. Direct and manage $7 million portion of $27 million CDC bioterrorism preparedness grant. INTEGRATIVE CLINICAL SYSTEMS Vista, CA 2001 – PRESENT Specialized consultative services to a variety of provider, vendor and governmental organizations • Laboratory information systems for resource-poor countries. • Architecture, vocabulary, and integration strategy for communicating private-sector medical information to public health departments (bioterrorism preparedness and general health). • Integration of physician’s office information systems with reference laboratories. • Advocating for expanded use of positive patient identification (barcode wristbands, etc.) • Tools, systems, and change leadership to integrate diverse clinical information resources. MDS LABORATORY SERVICES (U.S.) Nashville, TN 1997 – 2001 Vice President of Medical Affairs and Informatics Provided medical guidance of four regional joint venture laboratory networks, incorporating 40+ hospitals, and expertise in acquisition of new facilities and joint ventures • Designed and implemented national quality indicator monitoring system. • Centralized microbiology with dramatic improvements in test turnaround time. • Designed and integrated information systems solutions for regional networks. • Introduced automation including bar code technology. Medical Director, Integrated Regional Laboratories, Georgia – joint venture with HCA Healthcare • Launched $26M regional hospital laboratory network including core laboratory. • Established standards, methodologies and technical excellence in network covering 16 facilities DENNIS WINSTEN AND ASSOCIATES, Tucson, AZ 1997-2001 Vice President for Clinical Informatics Provided consultant expertise involving design, selection, implementation, enhancement, and the application of clinical information systems. Representative consulting assignments included: • Clinical data repositories and electronic medical records systems. • Medical nomenclature, terminology, and knowledge representation. • Informatics-related design and positioning of diagnostic instrumentation. • Design of clinical and ancillary information systems. • Strategic planning for integration of information systems in healthcare environment. UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER, Salt Lake City, UT 1994 – 1997 Professor of Medical Informatics Responsibilities included improvement of information systems for clinical data management, teaching graduate students, and institutional strategic planning. • Developed interfaces, database, and display components of an electronic clinical data repository, physician medication order entry, and a Web-based display tool. Professor of Pathology Director, Hospital Clinical Laboratories, University of Utah Health Sciences Center, and Vice President, ARUP Laboratories. Responsibilities included productivity enhancement, quality improvement, utilization management, re-engineering, provider education, and development of clinical pathways. • Developed comprehensive database to monitor and improve clinical performance. • Improved efficiency of clinical services. • Improved utilization resulting in savings to the hospital of more than $500,000 per year. LONG BEACH MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER, Long Beach, CA 1990 – 1994 Director, Chemical Pathology and Laboratory Informatics Duties included direction of clinical facilities serving a 600-bed tertiary teaching hospital, with extensive outreach serving a 20-mile radius. • Deployment of computerized physician order entry system. • Enhanced clinical information systems. • Contributed to strategic planning for hospital-wide information systems. • Improved turnaround time while increasing staff productivity by 80%. • Re-engineered laboratory information system function by wraparound technology (bar code, PC scripting, intelligent printers, etc.). JOHN P. BLANCHARD, M.D., INC. PATHOLOGY GROUP, Santa Barbara, CA 1980 – 1990 Clinical Pathologist and Medical Director of Laboratories Responsible for direction of Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital and Santa Ynez Valley Hospital laboratories, an independent laboratory (120 FTE's), the Santa Barbara County Health Care Services laboratory, a clinic (80+ physicians) laboratory and the Tri-Counties Blood Bank serving 14 hospitals and collecting 28,000 units/year. • Selected and implemented dozens of analytical instrument systems, and several ancillary and hospital information systems. • Contributed significant enhancements to Sunquest system, personally modifying software and performing all ongoing maintenance. • Grew independent laboratory by 200%. • Improved clinical turnaround time and service levels. EXAMPLES OF SYSTEMS DESIGNED – IMPLEMENTED - LONG TERM USE • Emergency department syndromic surveillance, and electronic laboratory reporting to LA County Public Health, 2003-present (to date 40 emergency departments live, 20 labs live) • Web-based result reporting and c/s medication order entry, Univ. of Utah, 1995 –in use thru 2005. • Implementation of barcode specimen identification, Long Beach Memorial, 1992 – still in use. • Modified Sunquest system for use in independent lab setting, 1984 – in use until 1992 merger. • Led Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital from punch-card billing system to most complete U.S. implementation of Baxter Delta (now McKesson Series) from 1980 to 1985 – aspects still in use. • Electronic transfer of coded diagnoses from pathology to tumor registry, MGH, 1976 – 1988+. • First online surgical pathology system in US, Mass. General Hospital, 1976, operated 12+ yrs. • UCLA Campus Computing Network Accounting system, wrote 1970, operational 10+ years. TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION Residency: 1976-1980, Resident in Laboratory Medicine and Anatomic Pathology, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Licenses: Physician and surgeon – California (1997) Board 1980, American Board of Pathology, Anatomic and Clinical Pathology Certifications: 1991, American Board of Pathology, Transfusion Medicine 1999, American Board of Pathology, Chemical Pathology PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES AND HONORS include: Honorary Fellow, Association for Pathology Informatics, 2005 Fellow, American College of Medical Informatics, 1991 Fellow, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, 1996 President, HIMSS of Southern California, 2004-5 Chairman, National HIMSS Standards Task Force, 2004-6 HIMSS Public Health Davies Award Committee, 2004-7 Informatics Committee, Association of Public Health Labs, 2006- National Association of City and County Health Officials Informatics Work Group, 2007- Health Level 7 (HL7) standards organization Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED) International Editorial Board, 1994-2000 LOINC (Logical Observation Identifier Names and Codes) Committee, 1997-present Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems (AMDIS), Board of Advisors CDC-Electronic Health Initiative Group Defining Standards for Reporting to Public Health: Chair of Microbiology, Architecture & Vocabulary teams, 2002 Informatics Test Committee, American Board of Pathology 1993-97 Herbert Lansky Memorial Award, College of American Pathologists Foundation, 1988 Chairman, Cerner PathNet Users Group, 1993-4 Chairman, Sunquest Users Group, 1984-1988 PUBLICATIONS 170+ invited articles, 30 books, monographs, and chapters, and 33 peer reviewed papers, focused in the domains of clinical information systems, public health, and laboratory medicine (list available upon request). A monthly column on informatics (and frequent informatics articles) for CAP TODAY, a national medical publication with a circulation of 55,000. PRESENTATIONS More than 100 seminars, workshops, and plenary lectures at national health information technology, public health, laboratory medicine, and transfusion medicine conferences (list available upon request.