Dr. Nash is a board certified internist who is internationally recognized for his work in outcomes management, medical staff development and quality-of-care improvement. In 1995, he was awarded the Latiolais Prize by the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy. He received the Philadelphia Business Journal Healthcare Heroes Award in October 1997 and was named an honorary distinguished fellow of the American College of Physician Executives in 1998. In 2006, he received the Elliot Stone Award for leadership in public accountability for health data from the National Association of Health Data Organizations. In 2009, Dr. Nash received the Wharton Healthcare Alumni Achievement Award. Through publications, public appearances, his blog and an online column on MedPage Today, Dr. Nash reaches more than 100,000 persons every month.

Dr. Nash is a consultant to organizations in both the public and private sectors. He has chaired the Technical Advisory Group of the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) for a decade where he helped to pioneer public reporting of outcomes. In early 2011, he was named to the Board of Directors for Endo Pharmaceuticals. In December 2009, he joined the Board of Directors for Humana Inc. He also serves on the Board of Main Line Health – a four hospital system in suburban Philadelphia, PA, where he chairs the Board Quality Committee.

Dr. Kilinc has worked on several projects funded by National Textile Center, NASA, USDA, and US Air Force in a variety of innovative topics in fiber/polymer science, including fabric comfort, high performance fibers/fabrics, advanced materials, fiber extrusion, and antibacterial applications. She has authored one book in statistics and authored or coauthored four book chapters and more than 15 peer reviewed publications. She also holds one US Patent and has two US Patent applications submitted. She is a member of ASTM International, AATCC and AAMI technical committees. Dr. Kilinc serves the Journal of Engineered Fibers and Fabrics as the area editor and the reviewer and the Textile Research Journal as the reviewer. She is currently editing a book titled “Flame Resistant Textiles” for Woodhead Publishing. Dr. Kilinc also currently serves TAPPI Materials, Characterization, and Modeling Committee as the Vice President.

Following a distinguished career in the Pediatric Oncology Branch of the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Walsh was recruited to direct the new Transplantation-Oncology Infectious Diseases Program of Weill Medical College of Cornell University and the New York Presbyterian Hospital. The mission of the Program is to provide leading edge multidisciplinary clinical care, translational research and training in diagnosis, treatment and prevention of life-threatening infections in immunocompromised patients with transplantation or cancer. Current laboratory and clinical investigations include antimicrobial pharmacology, immunopharmacology of innate host defense, and molecular diagnosis of emerging fungal, bacterial and viral pathogens in immunocompromised patients.

David Nash, MD, MBA, is the Founding Dean and the Dr. Raymond C. and Doris N. Grandon Professor of Health Policy at the Jefferson School of Population Health (JSPH) of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. JSPH provides innovative graduate degree programs in Public Health, Healthcare Quality and Safety, Health Policy, Chronic Care Management and Applied Health Economics and Outcomes Research.

Dr. Nash is a board certified internist who is internationally recognized for his work in outcomes management, medical staff development and quality-of-care improvement. In 1995, he was awarded the Latiolais Prize by the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy. He received the Philadelphia Business Journal Healthcare Heroes Award in October 1997 and was named an honorary distinguished fellow of the American College of Physician Executives in 1998. In 2006, he received the Elliot Stone Award for leadership in public accountability for health data from the National Association of Health Data Organizations. In 2009, Dr. Nash received the Wharton Healthcare Alumni Achievement Award. Through publications, public appearances, his blog and an online column on MedPage Today, Dr. Nash reaches more than 100,000 persons every month.

Dr. Nash is a consultant to organizations in both the public and private sectors. He has chaired the Technical Advisory Group of the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) for a decade where he helped to pioneer public reporting of outcomes. In early 2011, he was named to the Board of Directors for Endo Pharmaceuticals. In December 2009, he joined the Board of Directors for Humana Inc. He also serves on the Board of Main Line Health – a four hospital system in suburban Philadelphia, PA, where he chairs the Board Quality Committee.

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Janine Jagger, PhD, is an epidemiologist specializing in injury prevention and control. Early in her career, her research and advocacy focused on brain trauma and motor vehicle safety.

Over the last 20 years, Dr. Jagger has devoted herself to reducing healthcare workplace transmission of bloodborne pathogens. In 1988, Dr. Jagger and colleagues published a landmark study in the New England Journal of Medicine which detailed the characteristics of medical devices causing needlestick injuries, and criteria for protective needle designs. This pioneering research provided the foundation for the development of a new generation of safer medical devices.

In 1991, Dr. Jagger developed the EPINet surveillance system to provide healthcare facilities with a standardized system for tracking needlestick injuries and blood and body fluid exposures; it is now used by over 1,500 healthcare facilities in the US, and in more than 50 countries around the world. The worldwide dissemination of EPINet has resulted in worldwide access to data on the causes and prevention of healthcare workplace exposures to bloodborne pathogens.

In 2002, Dr. Jagger received one of the most prestigious awards in the US: a MacArthur Foundation fellowship. The award is given to individuals who have shown "extraordinary originality" and dedication in their professional pursuits.

Dr. Jagger and a team of colleagues are the inventors of six patented safety needle devices, which were honored with a Distinguished Inventor Award in 1988 by Intellectual Property Owners, Inc., and displayed by the US Patent and Trademark Office in its 1990 Bicentennial Exhibit. In addition to ongoing research and public policy efforts, Dr. Jagger collaborates with and is consulted by government agencies in the US and abroad, private industry, non-profit organizations, and academic institutions in the areas of safer medical device design and the prevention of healthcare-mediated exposures to bloodborne pathogens.

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John Combes, MD, is a Senior Vice President at the American Hospital Association (AHA) and the President of the Center for Healthcare Governance (CHG), an AHA affiliate organization. CHG is a dynamic community of board members, executives and thought leaders dedicated to advancing excellence, innovation and accountability in healthcare governance through education, tool development and research. Dr. Combes also serves as Senior Fellow at the Hospital Research and Education Trust (HRET), and in that role focuses on quality and leadership issues in Patient Safety, End of Life Care and Clinical Performance Improvement.

Dr. Combes received his medical degree from Cornell University in New York and did his post‐graduate training at Boston City Hospital. He is certified in Internal Medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine and has Management Certification from the American College of Physician Executives. Dr. Combes has held several senior management positions at a variety of healthcare organizations. More recently he serves on several national advisory groups on medical ethics, palliative care and reduction of medication errors. He serves as Principal Investigator for an AHRQ national initiative to reducing central line infections through the use of a comprehensive unit based patient safety approach pioneered by Johns Hopkins University.

Currently, Dr. Combes serves on the Boards of the Hospital Sisters Health System, a 13 hospital health system in Illinois and Wisconsin and the West Virginia Medical Institute, a multi‐state Quality Improvement Organization. He also is a member of the Not‐for‐Profit Advisory Council of the National Association of Corporate Directors. He lectures frequently on governance and quality.

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Andrew Webber joined the National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH) as President and CEO in June of 2003. NBCH is a national, not-for-profit, membership organization of 60 purchaser-based coalitions on health, dedicated to improving health, transforming health care, community by community. As President and CEO, Mr. Webber is responsible for overseeing all association activities including value based purchasing programs, government and external relations, educational programs, member communications and technical assistance, and research and evaluation.

Mr. Webber currently sits on the Board of Directors of the National Quality Forum and the combined Bridges to Excellence and Prometheus Payment organizations. He is a Principal of the Hospital Quality Alliance and the Quality Alliance steering committee, and NBCH is a member of the Ambulatory Quality Alliance and the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative. Mr. Webber is also a member of the Purchaser/Business Advisory Councils for the National Committee for Quality Assurance, the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, and the eHealth Initiative.

Prior to joining NBCH, Mr. Webber was a Vice President for External Relations and Public Policy at the National Committee for Quality Assurance. In this role, Mr. Webber directed all government relations activities and outreach efforts to the employer and consumer communities. Previous positions also include Senior Associate for the Consumer Coalition for Quality Health Care and Executive Vice President for the American Medical Peer Review Association (currently renamed the American Health Quality Association). Mr. Webber started his health policy career in 1978 as an employee of the Washington Business Group on Health (currently renamed the National Business Group on Health), rising to the position of Vice President for Public Policy.

Mr. Webber is a frequent speaker and lecturer on health policy issues. He is a graduate of Harvard University.

Over the last 20 years, Dr. Jagger has devoted herself to reducing healthcare workplace transmission of bloodborne pathogens. In 1988, Dr. Jagger and colleagues published a landmark study in the New England Journal of Medicine which detailed the characteristics of medical devices causing needlestick injuries, and criteria for protective needle designs. This pioneering research provided the foundation for the development of a new generation of safer medical devices.

In 1991, Dr. Jagger developed the EPINet surveillance system to provide healthcare facilities with a standardized system for tracking needlestick injuries and blood and body fluid exposures; it is now used by over 1,500 healthcare facilities in the US, and in more than 50 countries around the world. The worldwide dissemination of EPINet has resulted in worldwide access to data on the causes and prevention of healthcare workplace exposures to bloodborne pathogens.

In 2002, Dr. Jagger received one of the most prestigious awards in the US: a MacArthur Foundation fellowship. The award is given to individuals who have shown "extraordinary originality" and dedication in their professional pursuits.

Dr. Jagger and a team of colleagues are the inventors of six patented safety needle devices, which were honored with a Distinguished Inventor Award in 1988 by Intellectual Property Owners, Inc., and displayed by the US Patent and Trademark Office in its 1990 Bicentennial Exhibit. In addition to ongoing research and public policy efforts, Dr. Jagger collaborates with and is consulted by government agencies in the US and abroad, private industry, non-profit organizations, and academic institutions in the areas of safer medical device design and the prevention of healthcare-mediated exposures to bloodborne pathogens.

For eight years (1992 to 2000), he was a member of the editorial board of The New England Journal of Medicine, and, in September 2001, became the journal’s first Editor-at-Large, a position he still holds. He is the prolific author of over 500 publications, the editor of six textbooks and the lead editor of A Guide for Infection Control in the Hospital, already translated into eight languages for free distribution to health care workers in developing countries. His popular book, Stalking Microbes, was published in the summer of 2005. His medical thriller, Labyrinth of Terror, was released in October, 2010.

Dr. Wenzel's research has focused on the prevention and control of hospital-acquired infections, especially bloodstream infections (BSIs) and sepsis. He is a nationally recognized expert on antibiotic resistance and its impact.

Dr. Wenzel is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI), the Association of American Physicians (AAP) and a charter member of the Surgical Infections Society. He is also former president of the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and former councilor of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). He has trained 50 hospital epidemiologists worldwide. From 2006-08, Dr. Wenzel was President of the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID).

Currently, Dr. Combes serves on the Boards of the Hospital Sisters Health System, a 13 hospital health system in Illinois and Wisconsin and the West Virginia Medical Institute, a multi‐state Quality Improvement Organization. He also is a member of the Not‐for‐Profit Advisory Council of the National Association of Corporate Directors. He lectures frequently on governance and quality.

Prior to pursuing her doctorate, she was Manager of Health Affairs for Becton, Dickinson, and Company (BD), a medical device and diagnostics manufacturer in Baltimore, MD. Before going to BD, Amber was a Senior Industrial Hygienist at the U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in Washington, DC. She specialized in regulatory and enforcement issues on the national level, specifically those relating to healthcare. She was the OSHA National Bloodborne Pathogens Coordinator. Amber was an environmental health fellow with the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and holds her Master’s in Public Health from George Washington University and her Bachelors in Psychology from Binghamton University in NY.

Amber will be presenting on behalf of ASP today, presenting her doctoral research publicly for the first time and would like to give all the credit to her doctoral committee at University of Texas School of Public Health, with special and warm thanks to Dr. Janine Jagger from the International Healthcare Worker Safety Center.