2-26-10 Community E-Newsletter/Call

Wow, what a winter with all this snow. Hoping you'll winter the development efforts with us and support this incredible movement through till the spring-like flowering of the world's first ever, unbiased, free license and dynamic medical/health knowledge base.

This article serves as E-Newsletter as well as proposed agenda topics for today's OurMed Community telephone call. As we go forward with a newly signed contract with Blueliner, we are looking to organize the Content Committee in more detail. In constency with our mission, our non-profit community approach seeks your unbiased contributions to medicine and consumer knowledge on healthcare.

 

Time: Friday (Today!) : 2 - 2:45pm EST

Call in Number : 712-775-7000  Passcode : 634011#

If you would like to opt out of these emails, please let me know. Thank you for your continued interest in the OurMed initiative--we couldn't make this happen without your participation and are grateful for you pitching in!

Greg Miller, Executive Director at OurMed.Org         (212) 740-1850

Watch our OurMed YouTube Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqgYfFxEkLk

Content Reorganization - Non Allpathic Systems
Stephen Press, a doctor of Chriropractic Medicine, has suggested that we group health and medicinal treatments that fall outside of "allpathic" or conventional disciplines into a "Non Allpathic System" category displayed in the left side bar. We'd like to hear from you if you think this is a good idea for the current site.

Seeking: Chair--Content Committee
John Volpe came up with the following Job Description for the OurMed Content Committee Chair. Please review and edit as appropriate:

OurMed.org is a non-profit organization dedicated to the development and dissemination of world-wide, unbiased health care information to medical professionals and lay personnel. We are currently engaged in a web development project to upgrade our current website to a state-of-the-art platform utilizing the best of Wiki and Content Management System (CMS) technologies. We are looking for a dynamic volunteer to chair our Content Committee and lead a talented group of medical and scientific professionals to define and implement a Content strategy for our new website. The website project will last approximately six months and will require approximately 5 hours per week time commitment. Initially, the time commitment may slightly exceed 5 hours per week but as the project progresses we expect the time commitment to be no more than 5 hours weekly. The project will be run virtually requiring weekly conference calls and during the course of the project several in person meetings at our New York City offices located in the Columbia University medical complex in upper Manhattan.

We are looking for volunteers who:

- Share OurMed’s vision to become a leading provider of free, unbiased, world-wide health-care information Possess a broad knowledge of medicine and/or science

- Are comfortable working with technology and website development projects Can provide the leadership to manage and motivate a volunteer team of professionals

- Are very articulate and can work well with medical, technical and other professionals

- Have the time to commit to the project Ideally, the Content Committee Chair would be someone from the medical /scientific community with broad experience in medicine, science, medical research, administration, technology, teaching or a related field.

- Previous experience working or writing for Wikipedia, Medipedia or related medical websites, professional journals or comparable endeavors would be a major plus.

- Knowledge of Wiki technology and or CMS would be helpful.

E-Newsletter - Seeking enhancements
Each week, Greg Miller has been compiling articles, suggestions and news about issues related to OurMed's mission and development. Recently he has uploaded all contacts into a GoogleGroup which streamlines his weekly invites. Going a step further, he has set up an HTML email, messaging and marketing account with Constant Content with a special non-profit discount. The next step would be to derive a template to be used in monthly or perhaps weekly emails. If there is any intersest to using freely licensed pictures and to compile articles similiar to the ones over the past year, please get in touch with Greg.Miller@ourmed.org Thanks!

OurMed's Technology Update
Last week, the community call overwhelmingly had the concensus to have the Media Wiki software upgraded. Greg committed to go on a fact finding mission to give the community an update on this progress. Sergey Chernyshev, an expert in upgrading MediaWiki software was consulted. (201)777-0273 (sergey@webtechnoologyconsulting.com). Although Sergey is a paid consultant, he looked at our MediaWiki setup and assertained that our version 1.12 is several iterations behind the mews ones but the age of our wiki is not so out-dated that it will cause any problems in the upgrade. With 200 pages and 100 useraccounts, the size of the database is relatively light. The largest problem that we may encounter are hiccups with the "custom extensions" that may or may not work in the newer versions. Several of the extensions are relatively standrardized but some (paypal and moneybookers for example) may need to be reprogrammed. There's a very good chance that the extensions will simply work under the new version and Sergey was of the mindset that we should just try to upgrade.

In order to safely upgrade the MediaWiki software, it is best that we migrate the old files from the 3ix.com site to the new godaddy server. Effectilvey we will have a backup of the files. Backing up the files to a local harddrive is also recommended. Stan Kachnowski reported that some programmers in India were tasked with doing the migration but Stan doesn't know when they will do it.

Three weeks ago, Blueliner, a top notch web development and marketing firm signed the OurMed Phase Two contract with OurMed and Vincent Navarro will be heading up the Technology Committee. As they meet, it will be important for the content committee to organize how the medical content will be grouped and organized. The best way to understand that is to actually experiment creating articles either by copy and pasting or by sourcing articles as you would an academic or article for public. use. As always, we pledge to honor anyone that puts in over 100 hours of volunteer work as a Founding Framer.

A new look for OurMed...Logo ideas?!
Blueliner will be helping to rebrand OurMed but will be taking suggestions from our community. Richard Knipel (Wiki user "Pharos") suggested a new look for OurMed's logo. Last week Richard's proposed a dark red spiral which was (sorry Richard) largely shot down by the community. This week Richard has once more suggested a logo (included in the email). By the way, who can help upload it to this page - Do we have to be system operators to upload images??

The Pepsi Refresh Grant Project Update - Voting Starts March 1st
Oleta McHenry, former accountant for the Wikimedia Foundation that made Wikipedia and current OurMed Board Director and Treasurer, had the original idea to apply for this grant and has a strong network to tap for votes.

Greg Miller, OurMed Executive Director, in addition to having written 54 proposals to major Foundations in January, created the application with the below chief elements in the description.

Online voting for the project is the key driver for success. Oleta suggested that Susan Gardner, Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director, might be able to rally votes with her community. We aim to have as many folks from the community vote every day for OurMed.

There are many elements to this grant proposal including budget details and organizational specifics but the main thrust of the grant proposal is:

Description of Project Plan:

The "Democratization of Healthcare Information" project seeks to further the development of our free Medical Encyclopedia that has been a “Wikipedia Model” for health information. Our plans go beyond the public wiki approach and include a physican verifiable mechanism that will offer an accurate, non-partisan and free source of information that users can trust.

Working with the former head of Wikipedia and reform minded healthcare professionals, we are convinced that our revolutionary proposal has attracted the most innovative technology partner in the world that will enable all health and wellness participants to sort through unreliable, outdated and irrelevant information.

Addressing the need to improve disparities throughout the healthcare system, user ratings will establish dynamic standards of accuracy andl allow location-specific queries of the most effective drug and treatment options.

Recruitment of Healthcare Professionals
Vanessa Moore, has been diligently coming up with a lot of tech and medical writers over the past 6 months. We'd like to check in with the community on ideas to further expand our network of OurMed pioneers.

The OurMed Symbiosis Project
Following up from the last few weeks, Richard Knipel, President of the New York City Chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation and member of OurMed's content committe created a five-part plan to jumpstart Ourmed by developing positive symbiotic relationships with existing open content communities.

We will examine the first two points here.


 * 1. Ensure our MediaWiki and WYSIWYG configuration is compatible with Wikipedia
 * 2. Import high quality health and medical topics articles from Medpedia.com: Featured articles and Good article

Building content on OurMed one article at a time – What to write about?
Changes or additions can be made easily with our WYSYWIG editor (what you see is what you get), making it much easier than Wikipedia and cutting the volume ramp up rate to the new site significantly faster.

At times posting new material my be difficult to give attributions for so it may be easier to publish previously published work Alternatively, you can choose content from one of the many free content ("copy left") sites such as much of the content on:

1. Medpedia.com 2. NIH's PubMedCentral.gov from the National Library of Medicine 3. Wikipedia.org 4. GanFyd.org (original medical wiki site that says Medpedia copied them and boasts 2000 site visitors per day) 5. PubMed.org 6. Medline.org 7. Open.Michigan.edu 8. Others?

Accounts with OurMed – Has everyone got one? What’s your ID? Have a Talk Page?
OurMed's accounts are free, easy to get and really make you apart of the community. Be one of the early pioneers to own one.

Click here to get started now: http://ourmed.org/index.php?title=Special:Userlogin&amp;type=signup&amp;returnto=Main_Page

Once you have one, you can share your background with the community by filling out a bit about you on your Talk page.

Posting on OurMed.Org
Now that you have an account--Use it to nudge the OurMed movement forward! You can write about nearly anything, just keep your comments about new ideas,health and medicine.--It's really important that OurMed gets off the ground using a communities collaborative approach to building it, just as Wikipedia did nine years ago.

Please click on this link to make a small post about whatever's on your mind. You can suggest articles, design or features that you'd like to see on the site. http://ourmed.org/index.php/New_Ideas_for_Site

Most Active Authors in past month have been:


 * Gmiller Savealife D Joiner Bluestar Forneymiller T1 Skywalker Jrzeth Greg.Grossmeier

Pharmaceutical Industry Support Undesirable Yet Accepted by Directors of Residency Programs
Source: Medscape Medical News

February 22, 2010 — Most directors of internal medicine residency programs feel that industry support is not desirable, but many accept it nonetheless, according to new research published February 22 in the Archives of Internal Medicine. "Over the past 2 decades, the impact of pharmaceutical industry marketing on the professionalism and prescribing practices of physicians has gained national media attention," write Laura L. Loertscher, MD, MPH, from the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues. "Interactions with the pharmaceutical industry are known to affect the attitudes and behaviors of medical residents; however, to our knowledge, a nationally representative description of current practices has not been reported."

The goals of this study were to determine current attitudes of program directors toward pharmaceutical industry support of their residency programs, whether directors accepted such support, and any potential associations between program characteristics and the acceptance of industry support. In 2006 to 2007, 381 internal medicine residency program directors were surveyed by the Survey Committee of the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine. They were asked whether their programs accept support of any kind from the pharmaceutical industry and, if so, why.

Those who said yes were asked about specific forms of support, including food for conferences, educational materials, office supplies, drug samples, and unrestricted educational funds, as well as types of industry involvement, such as direct contact with residents. In all, 236 program directors (61.9%) responded to the survey. Of these, 132 (55.9%) reported accepting support from the pharmaceutical industry. However, most of the program directors (n = 170 [72.0%]) expressed the opinion that pharmaceutical support is not desirable. The most common forms of industry support included food for conferences (90.9%), educational materials (83.3%), office supplies (68.9%), and drug samples (57.6%). In addition, 74.2% of the programs that accepted industry support allowed direct off-site contact with residents, and 40.2% allowed direct on-site contact. Of the programs that accepted industry support, 92 (69.7%) did so because of lack of other funding. Other reasons for accepting industry support included popularity with residents (40.9%), important educational value other than financial support (28.0%), ease of attainment (26.5%), and being encouraged by the department chair or administration to accept the support (19.7%).

The survey also found that 79 programs (59.8%) cited more than 1 reason for accepting industry support. The proportion accepting industry support was much lower among programs with a program director who believed it was unacceptable (22.7%) than among programs with a director who believed it was desirable (72.7%) or not desirable but acceptable (71.2%). Half of the time, the final decision to accept support was left to the program director's discretion. Other final decision makers included the chair of medicine, the hospital administrator, or an institutional oversight committee. In addition, acceptance of pharmaceutical industry support appeared to be associated with a lower rate of program graduates passing the American Board of Internal Medicine. The study also found that 153 programs (64.8%) had established written guidelines to address the issue of potential influence from the pharmaceutical industry, but that only 69 (29.2%) had educated residents specifically about this issue. Residency programs were much less likely to receive industry support when the program director held the opinion that industry support was "never acceptable" (odds ratio, 0.07; 95% confidence interval, 0.02 - 0.22), and programs located in the southern United States were more likely to accept pharmaceutical support (odds ratio, 8.45; 95% confidence interval, 1.95 - 36.57) compared with programs in the northeastern United States. A limitation of the study is that responses were obtained via a volunteer survey, and therefore the residency programs of those who responded could be different from those who did not complete the survey.

The authors also point out that the degree to which programs rely on pharmaceutical funding requires clarification, as does the association between geographic location and acceptance of pharmaceutical support. "The influence of pharmaceutical industry support on medical education warrants further investigation," the authors write in their conclusion. "Although all of the underlying reasons are not yet fully elucidated, it is clear that, in the face of attention around conflict of interest with pharmaceutical support, internal medicine residency program directors have taken a less permissive stance and acceptance of industry funding has declined. Nevertheless, more than half of the residency programs surveyed continue to accept some form of industry support."

This study was supported in part by the Mayo Clinic Internal Medicine Residency Office of Educational Innovations as part of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Educational Innovations Project. Dr. Loertscher has disclosed no relevant financial relationships. Arch Intern Med. 2010;170:356-362.

Researchers With Financial Interests Show Strong Bias Toward Favorable Conclusions
Source: Medscape Medical News

February 23, 2010 (Crystal City, Virginia) — An analysis of published reports on the antidiabetic drug rosiglitazone (Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline) shows that researchers with ties to industry were more likely to conclude that the drug did not increase risk for myocardial infarction (MI) than those with no industry ties, according to a study presented here at the Preventive Medicine 2010: the Annual Meeting of the American College of Preventive Medicine. The new analysis — presented as a poster by Mohammed Hassan Murad, MD, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota — comes in the midst of a media maelstrom over a senate report, released on the weekend, which concluded that there are serious health risks associated with rosiglitazone that were not appropriately handled by the US Food and Drug Administration or the manufacturer.

In the case of rosiglitazone, there is an ongoing debate over a possible association between the drug and the risk for MI; many articles have been published on both sides of the issue. The debate provided an ideal scenario from which to compare researchers' conclusions and their associations with companies involved in the manufacturing of antihyperglycemic drugs. Dr. Hassan Murad and colleagues conducted a review of 202 articles contributing to the controversy for a possible association between the risk for myocardial infarction and the use of rosiglitazone in patients with diabetes. The objective of the Mayo Clinic team was to examine the extent to which study findings could be explained by the researchers' financial relationships.

Articles that were selected for review addressed the findings of 2 studies — a meta-analysis of small trials and a subsequent larger trial, which largely contributed to the rosiglitazone controversy. The aim of the study authors was to characterize the prevalence and effects of conflicting relationships and to examine the extent to which the position taken in the report could be explained by the researchers' conflicting relationships. Two reviewers who were blinded to the financial relationships of the researchers evaluated each article and classified it as being favorable (supporting the argument that the drug does not increase the risk for MI), neutral, or unfavorable. Among the 202 reports that were evaluated, 107 (53%) had a conflict of interest statement and 90 (45%) had a conflicting financial relationship. Importantly, among researchers who concluded that rosiglitazone does not increase risk for MI, 91% had financial relationships with antihyperglycemic agent manufacturers and 86% had relationships with rosiglitazone manufacturers. Among articles representing unfavorable reviews, only 25% of researchers had financial relationships with antihyperglycemic agent manufacturers (odds ratio, 32; 95% confidence interval [CI], 8.7 - 117.2) and 18% had relationships with rosiglitazone manufacturers (odds ratio, 41.5; 95% CI, 10.9 - 157.4).

"Disclosure rates of conflicted financial relationships were misleadingly low, despite their clear and strong linkage with [researchers'] expressed views," the study authors write. "These findings underscore the need for further progress in reform for the scientific record to be trusted. The quality of care that patients receive is clearly affected by these findings." The study demonstrates the problematic pairing of researchers with financial interests in a company and studies involving that company's product, said David L. Katz, MD, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center in New Haven, Connecticut. "If the reseacher has a direct financial interest in the item being studied, the reseacher — who, unlike the funder, is responsible for interpreting the data, will share the funder's bias," said Dr. Katz, who was not involved in the meta-analysis. "The trend in the literature indicates that most people do not adequately resist this inclination."

When the study is backed by high-quality methodology, however, the facts borne out from the methods should be solid enough to speak for themselves and override any researcher biases, Dr. Katz told Medscape Public Health &amp; Prevention. "The stronger the methodology, the more potential bias on the part of the researcher it can bear, because one measure of strong methodology is its capacity to overcome and minimize any influence of bias." Dr. Katz noted, however, that the driving motivation behind most research is to test some kind of theory or conclusion, and that in itself could constitute a bias. "There is always some bias. I would not waste my time doing a study, no matter who funded it, where I had no 'preference' regarding the outcome," he said. "Another name for that preference is . . . bias." The study received no funding. Dr. Murad and Dr. Katz have disclosed no relevant financial relationships. Preventive Medicine 2010: the Annual Meeting of the American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM): Poster abstract 212694. Presented February 19, 2010.\

Pioneer Bios
Just like the Wikimedia Foundation that created Wikipedia, OurMed will mostly be driven by volunteers. In addition to the occasional business or technology consultant, the profile for OurMed’s volunteer community will be talented professionals that want to make bring forward the OurMed mission to the end-goal of having a global impact.

To incentivize our founders, we have created the Founding Framer Program. To date, the following folks are eligible and working toward a goal to volunteer more than 100 Communty hours:

Vincent Navarro (OurMed Tech Committee Chair)
212 444 2633

vnavarro”at”pipeline.com

Research Specialist @ Weill Medical College

Online Database Manager @ Scientists Without Borders

I have done basic science research for over 15 years in the area of prostate cancer. During this time I have had the privilege of working on the development of monoclonal antibodies targeting prostate cancer from concept through clinical trials. This has afforded me a keen insight into development process of therapeutic drugs. In addition, a strong interest in computers has seen me pursue a graduate degree in computer science in addition to my undergraduate in Chemistry. As a result I have designed and developed a clinical trials management system in my laboratory. I am currently the Online Database Manager for Scientists Without Borders. There, I am responsible for the administration of the database and development of the web portal.

Eileen McGinn, MPH (OurMed Content Committee)
MPH/Certificate in Aging, qedeileen”at”aol.com

Worked in international health and development for 25 years, including several years living in Africa and Asia. Currently PT Research Manager for Nathan Kline Institute, working on the interrelation of poverty and mental health and health equity for persons with disabilities. PT tutor for immigrant high school students at Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day High School. Volunteer work for many different agencies, including health, disability, immigrant, women's, peace, international. Have written for various websites on health issues. Especially interested in translating technical work into comprehensible language, community-based participatory research and the Capabilities Framework for development and justice.

Geoff Hayden, MD (OurMed Content Committee)
Geoffhayden”at”gmail.com 615.479.6499 (Cell)

I am a practicing Emergency Physician, splitting time between NYC and South Carolina. I have been in academic practice since 2005 (Residency at Vanderbilt University, Fellowship at University of Pennsylvania), with an emphasis on resident education and emergency ultrasound. My interest in OurMed.org stems from a dissatisfaction regarding the abysmal state of preventive care and a general lack of health care coverage in the U.S. I see OurMed.org as an essential resource to connect patients to health information and health providers.

I imagine my role with OurMed.org in terms of producing content, recruiting other physicians for ongoing contribution, and assisting Greg with the development of a user-friendly, comprehensive clearinghouse of useful health care information.

Geoffrey E. Hayden, MD, FAAEM, FACEP

Adjunct Clinical Professor Vanderbilt University Medical Center Department of Emergency Medicine Nashville, TN Piedmont Medical Center Emergency Department Attending

222 South Herlong Ave Rock Hill, SC 29732

Vanessa Moore (OurMed Recruitment Committee)
MVanellen”at”ourmed.org 914-665-4534 (home) 914-751-9758 (cell)

Vanessa Moore is a native New Yorker who brings 7 years recruiting experience to the Ourmed recruitment effort. She would like to leverage her experience recruiting volunteers to Ourmed, a forward thinking and progressive approach to disseminating unbiased healthcare information to the public. She has worked in both corporate and nonprofit settings including a consulting engagement for the Department of Education and most recently at the Westchester Independent Living Center, an advocacy group for people with disabilities. She studied Social Sciences at the Lincoln Center campus of Fordham University.

Dr. Stephen Press, DC, PhD, CCSP, FACSM, FICC, ICSSD (OurMed Content Committee)
A practicing Chiropractic physician (33 years). Was chief physician for the "Unified Team" (former USSR) at the XVIth Winter Olympic Games in Albertville, France in 1992. Founded the World Governing body for sports Chiropractic known as "FICS", for Fédération Internationale de Chiropratique du Sport, now headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland at the Maison Internationale du Sports, and administered in Toronto, at the World Federation of Chropractic offices. I served on the Medical commission of two IOC recognized World Sports Governing bodies; 1st as Chairman for the Fed. Int'l de Roller Sports, and then as Vice-Chairman for FIDE (Chess). Founded the website IAOCO.org, and co-founded WikiChiro.org. Today, I serve as advisor for the International Sports Chiropractic Association, which is the liaison body interacting with the World Olympian's Association. I speak, English, French, Russian and Spanish, play the cello and clarinet, compete in pool, and follow biblical archeology and do artist blacksmithing, making swords and medieval armor as hobbies.

John Volpe (OurMed Tech Committee)
johnvolpe1”at”yahoo.com 516-221-4692

My background is primarily in accounting, finance and business operations, primarily in the financial services industry. While I'm not a technical professional, I have participated in and managed numerous technical and business projects, primarily involving financial systems. I also worked as a management consultant for a Virginia based company that I did consulting work for the federal and state governments. I am currently retired. In addition to playing tennis and engaging in other physical activities, I volunteer my time and an Account Director with an NYC based organization that provides service grants in the form of a volunteer project team that manages strategy, financial, marketing and development projects for non-profits. My interest in this project is really from the perspective of someone who is a consumer of medical information and is interested in the efficient delivery of medical information to the public.

Richard Knipel, OurMed Content Committee
I have been a volunteer for Wikipedia and other free culture efforts for several years, with a special focus on outreach initiatives to New York area cultural institutions, such as Wikipedia classes at the New York Public Library, museum photography with Wikipedia Loves Art, and urban photography with the TOPP nonprofit with Wikis Take Manhattan. I have served as President of the nonprofit Wikimedia New York City since September 2008. I hope to bring these experiences in helping to build Ourmed into an innovative and rich online healthcare community along the wiki model.

Elise Passikoff, OurMed Tech Committee
From a background in print and educational publishing, I entered the online world as an editor and technical writer at a start-up software company. There I learned the tools of the trade and gained valuable experience in writing, editing and posting online content. In 2000, I moved to the New York Academy of Sciences [www.nyas.org], where, first as online producer and then as web senior project manager I led the development, implementation, and maintenance of complex online projects, including the ground-breaking website Scientists Without Borders scientistswithoutborders.org].

Greg Miller, OurMed Executive Director
at OurMed greg.miller@ourmed.org 212-740-1850

Have 17 years of Corporate Finance and Marketing experience for Fortune 500 companies including nine years abroad (Germany, England and Japan). I've been here in New York since 1996, always passionate about developing new brands, ideas and products. Did Marketing Analysis for ANA, a Japanese Airline, Finance for Cablevision's HD Satellite business and Revlon. Since 2005, I've been inspired by non-profits, created New York's Dance Parade and have worked on OurMed since the Fall of 2008. I'm inspired by the transparent, non-profit approach to the democratization of healthcare. OurMed has a small office at Columbia Medical Center's Audubon Business and Technology Building--Come by and visit us!

3960 Broadway (Entrance on 166th Street) Suite 301 o (212) 740-1850 c (917) 627-7155 greg.miller@ourmed.org

Watch the OurMed Presentation: http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0Ad4ohgeyfGzCZGRoNnFuNW1fMzljMmh2OW5jdw&amp;hl=en

Florence Devouard
OurMed Board Member fdevouard@anthere.org

Florence Devouard served as one of the elected representatives to the Wikimedia Foundation Board starting June 2004, and was the Chair of the WMF Board from October 21, 2006 until July 16th, 2008. Florence was born in Versailles (France). She grew up in Grenoble, and has been living since then in several French cities, as well as Antwerpen in Belgium and Tempe in Arizona. She holds two masters, one in Agricultural Sciences (a 5-year degree in agronomical engineering (Diplome d'Ingénieur Grande Ecole) from ENSAIA and the other a postgraduate degree (DEA) in Genetics and Biotechnologies from INPL.She has been working in public research, first in flower plant genetic improvement, and second in microbiology to study the feasability of polluted soil bioremediation. She was employed until 2005 in a French company, to conceive decision-making tools in sustainable agriculture. She is now a consultant in Internet Communication Strategy. She joined the Wikipedia adventure in February 2002 and is known as a contributor under the pseudonym Anthere. Florence is 39, and lives in Clermont Ferrand with her husband Bertrand and her three children, Anne-Gaëlle aged nine, William eleven and Thomas two. On May 16 2008, Florence was made a knight in the French National Order of Merit, proposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as "chair of an international foundation"

Alex Fotopoulos
OurMed Board Secretary alex@broadwaylawoffices.com

Alex Fotopoulos has served on the board since October 2008. He attended Rutgers College in New Brunswick, NJ and then received his Juris Doctor degree from Southwestern University in Los Angeles, California in 1990. He has experience as a litigation attorney and as an entrepreneur. He has held held positions as an attorney and as part of the management team of such high technology companies including AT&amp;T Wireless, T-mobile, Nextel, Metricom, GTE Internetworking as well as small local start-up ventures. He is a licensed Attorney in New York, New Jersey and California.

Stan Kachnowski
OurMed Board Chair swk16@hitlab.org

Stan Kachnowski is one of America’s distinguished scholars in health-care information policy and management having taught e-health and health-care e-business for nearly 20 years. He has authored over 100 scholarly papers and presentations for the world’s leading journals and societies in health-care technology management, informatics and e-governance. In 2003 he was elected as a Fellow in the Royal Society of Medicine in the United Kingdom for his research with the National Health Service in using handhelds to track patient data. In 1996 he was elected to the US-based College of Healthcare Information Management Executives. Stan is currently a visiting professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India.

Oleta McHenry
OurMed Board Treasurer Newsgirl_fl@hotmail.com

Oleta McHenry was born in Washington D.C. and grew up in Ohio. After graduating high school, she briefly attended Wright State University in Dayton, studying Political Science. She transferred to St. Petersburg College in St. Petersburg, FL and received her A.A. degree in Liberal Arts. Oleta earned her B.S. in Accounting from Florida Metropolitan University in Clearwater, FL in 2006.

Oleta worked for the Pulitzer prize winning newspaper, St. Petersburg Times as a circulation manager. After receiving her degree in accounting, she worked briefly in the insurance industry before joining the Wikimedia Foundation as the fulltime accountant of record. While at the Wikimedia Foundation, Oleta helped put in place accounting practices that would help the company in growth and development. She did not follow Wikimedia to San Francisco and now works for a large medical supply company managing the General Ledger for several regions within the United States. Oleta resides in St. Petersburg, FL and works as an accountant.