A3:    Evidence-based telehealth technologies to support chronic care

E. Andrew Balas MD PhD is the Director of the Center for Health Care Quality, a policy think tank at the University of Missouri. He also serves as the Director of the European Union Center of Missouri, a multidisciplinary initiative to explore the policy implications of emerging technologies. He holds the Thomas Weil Distinguished Professorship at the Department of Health Management and Informatics, School of Medicine, University of Missouri.

The evidence research conducted by Andrew Balas has focused on empowering patients through informing them. His multidisciplinary projects have identified the effective ingredients of numerous information interventions and advanced the computerization of essential health information, particularly telecare services, patient education, preventive care prompts, and feedback to clinicians. His studies also furthered the controlled clinical testing and cost analyses of emerging health information technologies.

His credentials include over 70 peer-reviewed scientific articles in addition to various textbooks and invited papers. He has published reviews and editorials in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), British Medical Journal, Archives of Internal Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, Healthcare Financial Management, Paediatric Annals, and other periodicals. During the last ten years, he has been responsible for over 4.5 million dollars of externally funded research as principal investigator/project director.

During the last five years, Andrew Balas has given more than 50 invited presentations and keynote speeches in the United States, Brazil, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Spain. As a Policy Fellow, he worked on health care legislation for the Congress of the United States. He has also served on several state government committees, review panels of the National Institutes of Health and Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, and in the leadership of various professional societies.

His papers are cited by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, health systems nationwide, numerous research publications internationally, and the policy recommendations of the National Health Service of the United Kingdom. His contribution has been acknowledged in the Records of the United States Senate. He is quoted in the press including Business Week, Bloomberg News, CNN, Managed Care, National Public Radio, and Reuters.

Andrew Balas developed quality improvement projects for Humana Health Care in Kansas City, Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Group Health Plan in St. Louis, Good Samaritan Health Care System in Phoenix, Scottish Rite Children's Medical Center in Atlanta, and other leading health care organizations. He is an elected Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics.

Prior to his current position, he served as the Research Director of the Institute of Health Informatics and Computing. He was a National Kidney Foundation Fellow in the Registry of the European Dialysis and Transplant Association (London, UK). His educational background includes degrees in medicine (MD), medical informatics (PhD) and applied mathematics (MS).