Curriculum Vitae

Mark H. Spohr, M.D.

PO Box 6984 Nationality: USA
Tahoe City, California 96145 Marital Status: Married,
USA two (adult) children
Birth: 28 February 1948

Education:

University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, M.D. 1975
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, BS Electrical Engineering 1970

Work Summary:

2007-2010 World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. P5 Senior Technical Officer IER/HSI/HCI (Information, Evidence and Research / Health Statistics and Informatics / Health Care Informatics)

2004-2006 Routine Health Information Network (RHINO) Coordinator.

Medical Informatics, Inc. - International Health Consulting in health policy, planning, monitoring and evaluation and health information systems.

2003-2004 John Snow, Inc., Senior Technical Advisor, USAID Measure Evaluation

1992-2003 Medical Informatics, Inc., Managing Director: Consultant to the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, World Health Organization, and US AID. Health policy, planning and disease burden in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Ethiopia. Health care information system consulting in private and public sector in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Design and development of desktop and mobile health applications.

1994-1996 Strategic Planning Consultant for health care information systems to Medsoft, a division of Deluxe Corporation

1985 1994 Founder and President, Pacific Medsoft, Inc., a computer software company which specialized in financial and clinical information systems for health care.

1976-1985 Design and development work in the field of health care informatics. Clinical medical practice in the specialty of emergency medicine.

Skills Summary:

Senior Technical Officer for World Health Organization in Geneva in the Information, Evidence, and Research cluster. Work on standards for health data interchange and work with countries on policy to design and implement health information systems for management, monitoring and evaluation.

Consultant to international development agencies in health planning, international health monitoring and evaluation and information technology. Extensive experience in policy, planning, and cost effective health care resource allocation. Special interest in burden of disease as the foundation of health planning and policy formulation for cost effective resource use. Designed and implemented an innovative computer model of burden of disease and cost effective resource optimization.

Extensive experience in the design, development and deployment of health care information systems including policy, planning, communication, standards, and data warehouses for monitoring and evaluation.

Specialist in routine health information systems and the use of routine health information in program planning and management.. Extensive experience in monitoring and evaluation of health systems in developing countries.

Work with the US Government President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in writing two revisions of the Inventory of Anti-retroviral Therapy Information Systems and a white paper on Informatics Technology for Use in HIV/AIDS Treatment in Resource Poor Settings has given me a deep understanding of the challenges of preventing and treating the three interrelated diseases HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria.

Designed complete, integrated health care software systems for financial and clinical information. Full range of executive management skills and successful entrepreneurial experience. Managed software development, deployment, and training of desktop and mobile computer applications.

Designed and developed computer software that calculates disease burden (DALY), treatment costs, and costs to prevent disease with an emphasis on modeling capabilities for information use in policy, strategy, and program development. It incorporates non-linear optimization techniques to recommend allocation of resources for maximum return for a given set of resources based on cost to treat and cost to prevent information.

International work in monitoring and evaluation, health policy and planning, and health information systems in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Nigeria.

Information Technology Skills:

Proficient in design and development of desktop, Internet connected and mobile computer applications.

Proficient in computer productivity tools: word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, graphics, and database. Proficient in Internet applications and data warehouse techniques.

Work Experience:

Executive Management and Information Systems Design and Implementation

Skills and experience include the full range of entrepreneurial strategic product and company development and executive management necessary to design, develop, and deliver fully functional integrated information systems. In addition, strong technology skills in software design, database design, project management, and programming. Platforms included Windows, networks, client-server and mobile platforms. Executive management skills cover the full range of company management and growth issues as well as long term strategic vision and planning.

1996 to the present time: Developing mobile data collection and decision tools (with corresponding desktop and Internet components) for use by health care professionals. This effort started in 1996 and has progressed through successive technology advances from PDAs through smartphones.

Earlier (1985) I founded Pacific Medsoft, Inc. to provide state of the art health care information systems to health care practitioners. Recruited and managed a group of talented programmers, trainers, and support personnel that designed, developed, and customized financial and clinical information system software. Also responsible for strategic planning, corporate and financial management, software development, and market analysis and development. This company was acquired in 1992 by Deluxe Corporation.

International Public Health, Monitoring and Evaluation, Health Planning, and Information Technology Experience:

World Health Organization 2007-2010

Senior Technical Officer (P5) for World Health Organization in Geneva in the Information, Evidence, and Research cluster. Work on standards for health data interchange and work with countries on policy to design and implement health information systems for management, monitoring and evaluation.

Ethiopia HIS Strengthening 2005-2006 (UNDP)

Under a contract with UNDP, conducted an appraisal, stakeholder consensus process, redesign, and implementation of the Ethiopia national health information system focusing on a minimal data set of core indicators and emphasizing use of data at the district and facility level as well as collection and analysis of data at higher levels for policy, planning, monitoring and evaluation.

Bangladesh World Bank HNPSP Pre-appraisal and Annual Performance Review 2004-2005

Provided information systems and monitoring and evaluation technical assistance to the Pre-appraisal mission and the Annual Performance Review mission.

Routine Health Information Network (RHINO) 2003-2006

Coordinator of the Routine Health Information Network (RHINO) which is primarily supported by the USAID MEASURE Evaluation project. RHINO provides information and resources to developing countries to support strengthening of information systems and use of data. Develop and maintain the web site (www.RHINOnet.org) and manage workshops and organizational development.

John Snow, Inc. – USAID MEASURE Evaluation 2003-2004

Senior Technical Advisor working with USAID MEASURE Evaluation as a monitoring and evaluation specialist providing support to USAID global health projects. Specialized in health care information technology. Worked with the USG PEPFAR (AIDS Emergency Plan) project to evaluate information systems to support treatment programs and monitoring and evaluation. In addition, managed the Routine Health Information Network which provides information and resources to countries to strengthen their routine health information systems. During this time, worked on health information systems in Nigeria, South Africa, and Ethiopia in addition to global PEPFAR work with US GAC and CDC.

Papua New Guinea – SWAp Development 2003 (Asian Development Bank)

A member of a three person team tasked with planning ADB loan participation for the Papua New Guinea Health Sector Development Program. Planned aid to PNG using the Sector Wide Approach (SWAp). Tasks included planning the Monitoring (Performance Monitoring Framework) and Planning (Medium Term Development Strategy and Medium Term Expenditure Framework) aspects of the sector assistance program. Activities under this contract included extensive technical assistance to the National Department of Health Monitoring Technical Committee and the Planning Technical Committee as well as detailed recommendations to the ADB on the design of their assistance.

Papua New Guinea – Monitoring and Research Branch Assistance 2002
(Asian Development Bank and the Government of Papua New Guinea)

Worked with the National Department of Health Monitoring and Research branch and with representatives of the AusAID to prepare the annual health sector review data analysis. As part of assistance prepared a Burden of Disease (DALY) study for PNG.

In addition, I designed and installed a national data warehouse which made their health status and health services delivery databases available on a web server with Internet access. This has greatly improved use of their health information for monitoring, policy and planning. Improvements were also made to the data procedures and software which will improve the timeliness of data.

US Agency for International Development
MEASURE Evaluation – 2001

Health information system and public health management and organization specialist on a team to perform a five year review of the USAID MEASURE Evaluation project and make recommendations for the next five year contract period. This was a wide-ranging review that involved meeting with USAID staff and all partners (both within MEASURE and related partners outside MEASURE. Travel to USAID countries in Africa (South Africa and Kenya) to assess performance of the project in the field. US Trade Development Agency – 2000-2001
Asia Health Care Information Technology and the Internet ConferencePrepared a desk study then located and qualified thirty-two health care information technology projects in twelve south Asian countries (Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam). The focus of the Bangkok conference was that countries at widely varying levels of development could benefit from appropriate health care information systems to enable the efficient allocation and delivery of resources.

Malaysia
National Health Plan - 1992-1993 (Asian Development Bank)
National Health Plan - 1997 (Government of Malaysia)
National Health Plan evaluation - 1999 (World Health Organization)

The Government of Malaysia uses a formal National Health Planning process with a five year planning cycle. Worked on measuring disease burden, health system evaluation, health planning and training since 1992.

Primary responsibility has been the development of a disease burden measurement and analysis tool to use in the health planning process. Designed and developed computer software and procedures to calculate disease burden using the “Days of Healthy Life Lost (DHLL)” method first described by the Ghana Health Assessment Project and later used in the Philippines. The software also calculated cost to prevent and treat disease and used non-linear optimization to calculate resource allocation. In July 1997 the disease burden calculation was updated to the DALY method. Designed and developed DALY software and provided technical assistance in collecting data and calculating the disease burden.

Puerto Rico 1998-1999 (consultant to the Department of Health through the private sector)

Designed a health care information system for the Medicaid administrative agency ASES. System was designed for point of care data collection of patient demographics, clinical, and encounter information. Provides real time feedback to practitioners on best practices using evidence-based medicine and incorporation of direction from the central Medicaid agency. Emphasis was placed on cost effective medical practice through rational drug prescribing using a cost-effective formulary and appropriate diagnosis and treatment protocols.

System design included a problem oriented medical record and patient medical and encounter information to be stored in a data warehouse. The data warehouse is to be used for health planning and administration. The entire system was designed to use Internet protocols and tools in a “thin client” model for rapid deployment and training and ease of updating and maintenance.

Ethiopia 1997-1998 (The World Bank)

Provided technical assistance to local World Bank consultants in the preparation and analysis of a burden of disease study. The results of a household health survey were analyzed and disease burden was calculated (using DALY). The results were presented and reviewed by a group of local and international experts at a formal session. The final report was used to prepare health sector development programs.

Pakistan 1995-1996 (The World Bank)

The Pakistan Social Action Program Project emphasizes training and continuous monitoring to improve results. Analyzed disease burden from several sources of data including a national health survey and regional studies. This was used as part of health planning training for Federal and Provincial health officials.

Performed health planning training consisting of planning methodologies, organization and management, the public health perspective, human resource planning, and planning and measurement tools.

Sri Lanka 1995 (The World Bank)

Worked with local consultants, World Bank staff, and international consultants to prepare a national disease burden study. The “Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY)” method was used.

The study was used during the Appraisal Mission for the Health Services Project to the Ministry of Health of the Government of Sri Lanka. The information proved valuable in refining and verifying the cost effectiveness of the project.

1976-1984 Health Care Information Systems and Medical Practice

After graduation from medical school in 1975 and completion of my internship I practiced emergency medicine in Sacramento, Bishop, and Truckee in California and in Reno and Incline Village in Nevada, USA.

During this time I also worked on health care information systems designing and programming clinical information systems (drug interactions and problem oriented medical records) and physician financial and insurance systems.

Honor Societies:

Sigma Tau (National Engineering Honor Society)

Alpha Epsilon Delta (National Medical Honor Society)

Professional Group Membership:

American Medical Informatics Association

American Public Health Association

Global Health Council

Publications:

Evaluation and Correction of Manometer Systems with Two Degrees of Freedom, Journal of Applied Physiology, Vol.27,5,1969

The Computer and the Practice of Medicine: An Overview, Proceedings of Computer Faire V, 1980

Three Medical Applications Programs, Proceedings of Computer Faire VI, 1981

Selecting a Desktop Computer for Your Medical Office, Proceedings of Computer Faire VI, 1981

Hyperthermia from a Near Hanging, Annals of Emergency Medicine, Vol.11,No.3, Mar. 1982

The Physicians Guide to Desktop Computers, by Mark H. Spohr, M.D., Reston Publishing Company, 1983, 212 pages

White Paper: Informatics Technology for Use in HIV/AIDS Treatment in Resource Poor Settings, Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator 2005

President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief Software Inventory Report, Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator 2004 and 2006