Advisory Committees 

Dr. Elizabeth Regan is chair of the Department of Integrated Information Technology and associate professor of Health Information Technology at the University of South Carolina. She is also an adjunct professor in the Arnold School of Public Health. Prior to joining USC in July 2011, she served as chair of the Department of Information Systems, College of Business, at Morehead State University, Kentucky, for 11 years, and as the Elmer and Donna Smith Endowed Chair in Health Systems Management for two years. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Northeast Kentucky Regional Health Information Organization (NeKY RHIO), of which she is a founding member and first board chair. The RHIO also serves as the Regional Extension Center for Eastern Kentucky. Dr. Regan served five years on the Coordinating Council for the Kentucky State Health Information Exchange and on the faculty of the University of Kentucky Medical School Rural Physician Leadership program. She was recently appointed to the national HIMSS Innovation Committee.

Dr. David Patterson is Director of the Health and Demographics Division of the South Carolina Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office. He oversees the office’s statistical and research units and its systems development initiatives, which include projects such as the SC Integrated Data System and the South Carolina Health Information Exchange (SCHIEx). Dr. Patterson has over twenty years’ experience in SC state government and served as South Carolina’s Health Information Technology Coordinator from 2009 – 2014. 

Dr. Tom Reichert’s research interests include advertising and mass communication content and effects. He’s written or edited several books about major issues and concerns regarding the uses and effects of advertising on professional practice and culture. His research has appeared in a variety of journals including Journal of Advertising, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, and Journal of Communication. Reichert’s teaching specialties include an array of advertising courses including management, media planning, principles, and media sales. He has also taught a range of communication courses including organizational communication, persuasion, political campaign communication and public speaking. Reichert is a member of several editorial review boards including Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. Before joining the University of South Carolina, he was a faculty member at the University of Georgia, University of Alabama and the University of North Texas.

Dr. Cui Tao’s background is in clinical informatics and computer science, and her research interests include ontologies, standard terminologies, semantic web, information extraction and integration, machine learning as well as applying these technologies to clinical and translational studies. Dr. Tao is a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

Dr. Eric Poon is Chief Health Information Officer for Duke Medicine. He also practices primary care internal medicine at the Durham Medical Center as part of Duke Primary Care. In his capacity as CHIO, he is responsible for the visioning and strategic planning of clinical and analytic information systems that impact patient care, research and education. His research interests have revolved around the use of health information technology to improve the quality of care and patient safety in both the ambulatory and hospital settings. 

Dr. Rick Zimmerman is Associate Dean for Research at Wayne State University’s College of Nursing. His research interests include HIV/STD/Teen pregnancy prevention, models of health behavior change, and methods to improve validity of self-reports of sensitive behaviors.

Dr. Karami is an Associate Professor of Quantitative Methods/Business Analytics in the Department of Management, Information Systems & Quantitative Methods in the Collat School of Business at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Before joining UAB, he served as an Associate Professor in the School of Information Science (School) at the University of South Carolina (USC). He was also the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Information and Communications, a Faculty Associate in the South Carolina SmartState Center for Healthcare Quality (CHQ) at the USC Arnold School of Public Health, and Social Media Core Director in the USC Big Data Health Science Center (BDHSC).