Professor Kachnowski has taught ehealth and healthcare ebusiness for the past 18 years and authored or co-authored over 120 scholarly works and presentations for the world's leading medical societies and organizations. His research focuses on using statistical models and large databases to demonstrate whether or not healthcare technology in insurance companies improves the access and quality of healthcare around the world. Recent grants include studying the impact of information technologies in the physician's office, hospital, pharmacy, managed care groups, and clinical development organizations.

In 2007 he was awarded a grant from the President of India as a Co-Principal Investigator to study the impact of ehealth vans equipped with remote diagnostic devices on suburban neighborhoods in Chandigarh.

In 2003 he received a Dean's letter of commendation for excellence in teaching from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

Professor Kachnowski was also elected to England's Royal Society of Medicine for his research on an internet based national hemophilia registry.

Mr. Kachnowski may be reached at (212) 543-0107 or at swk16@hitlab.org.

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John joined J&J in September 1997 as VP of Information Management for the worldwide Pharmaceuticals Group. In this position, John was also a member of the Corporate Office of Information Management.

Before joining J&J, John was a Senior VP with Giga Information Group; a research and management consulting firm specializing in assisting senior executives develop strategies for utilization of information technology and pursue e-Business. Prior to this, John was the President of J Hammitt Group, a management-consulting firm acquired by Giga in 1995.

Until 1992, John also held the position of VP Information Systems for United Technologies, an international technology & manufacturing corporation that included leading international business such as Otis, Pratt & Whitney, Carrier, Sikorsky Aircraft, Hamilton Standard, IT Automotive and Norden Radar Systems. In this position John provided leadership to a highly decentralized IM organization 4,500 people. Prior to 1988, John also held the senior management positions of VP IM for Pillsbury and Director, IM for Morton Thikol Corporation.

John has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology and a MBA in Marketing & Finance from the University of Chicago. John has been an active member of community and professional activities, including serving as President of the Society for Information Management (SIM International).

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He writes and speaks frequently about the forces transforming the nation's health care system, and on differences between our system and those in Canada, Western Europe and Japan. He has been listed as one of the nation's most influential health care policy leaders since the 1991 edition of the "Health Care 500."

The Harris firm conducts epidemiological research for federal government agencies and universities, studies of the future of medical education, medical practice, Medicaid and HMOs, and health care research conducted in more than 30 countries. The Harris firm's health care clients include many pharmaceutical and health insurance companies, many hospitals, the U.S. Air Force, the Center for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Mental Health and Aging, the Veterans Administration, the Robert Wood Johnson, Commonwealth Fund, Hartford, and the Kaiser Family Foundations, and many medical schools and schools of public health.

Mr. Taylor has a remarkable track record in predicting election results with great accuracy. In 1970 his British company, in its first election, was the only one of six national polls to predict correctly the Conservative victory. In the 1992, 1996 and 2000 U.S. presidential elections, the Harris Poll under Mr. Taylor's leadership accurately predicted the share of the vote won by the major candidates. (Harris was the most accurate of all the polls in 2000 and 1992.) One person who seems to think well of Humphrey is Sen. Jay Rockefeller. "To say 'Humphrey Taylor is a pollster' is like saying 'Michelangelo does ceilings,'" Rockefeller said at a health care briefing in Washington.

Among his other achievements:

• Author of the chapters on opinion polls in the leading professional books on marketing research in both U.S. and Europe (ESOMAR and AMA).
• Twice winner of the Market Research Society's silver medal for the "best paper" published (in 1997 and 2000).
• Conceived and managed the world's first daily tracking polls (for the Conservative Party in Britain) in 1970.
• Conceived and managed the world's first joint newspaper and TV poll -- The (London) Times/ITN poll, 1972.
• Designed and managed Britain's first exit polls (for ITN), 1971.
• First non-physician to be a trustee of a medical society (certainly in the U.S., possibly in the world).

In 1966, Mr. Taylor founded his own company in Britain. While there, he conducted all of the private political polling for the Conservative Party and was an advisor to Prime Minister Edward Heath and, subsequently, to Margaret Thatcher. He also conducted surveys for most of the largest British companies. In 1970, his company was acquired by Louis Harris & Associates. In 1976, he moved to New York as Chief Operating Officer of Louis Harris & Associates. He was appointed President in 1981, C.E.O. in 1992 and Chairman in 1994.

Mr. Taylor has had overall responsibility for over 8,000 surveys and has personally directed many hundreds of surveys in more than 80 countries for governments, corporations and foundations. He has testified to Congressional Committees and Subcommittees on Social Security, health care cost containment, Medicare, aging, policies affecting disabled people, drug exports, the taxation of employee benefits and privacy. He has made presentations in the White House and on Capitol Hill on these subjects, and on Health Maintenance Organizations, productivity, consumerism, health promotion and disease prevention. He writes a syndicated weekly column. He has written editorial page articles for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and (London) Times. He has been a guest lecturer at Harvard (the Kennedy School and the School of Public Health), Oxford, NYU and U.C.S.F.

Mr. Taylor was Chairman of the Board of the American Health Foundation for 6 years. He is Chairman of the National Council on Public Polls, a trustee of the Roper Center, the Royal Society of Medicine Foundation, Inc., the National Organization on Disability and the American Academy of Ophthalmology (he was recently elected an Honorary Fellow). He is a member of the Advisory Committee for the National Academy of Sciences Office on Public Understanding of Science, and serves on the Council on Graduate Medical Education (COGME).

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Born in Hungary and educated in the United States, trained as a lawyer, and after a clerkship with a Federal District Judge, practiced international commercial law in New York City for six years. In 1974, began a 27-year career at Merck & Co., Inc. as European Counsel. Since 1978, held a broad range of line and staff, general business and marketing positions (rising to Vice President in 1989), focusing (until late 1994) on virtually every aspect of Merck's international business in over 20 countries, including extended assignments in India, Japan and Russia. Responsibilities included Business Development (licensing, acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings and general trouble-shooting), Strategic & Long Range Operating Planning, Economic Affaires & Pricing, Market Research & Business Intelligence, and management of most aspects of Merck's international ophthalmic business.

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As Chief Information Officer at CareGroup, he is responsible for all clinical, financial, administrative and academic information technology serving 3000 doctors, 12000 employees and one million patients. As Chief Information Officer and Associate Dean for Educational Technology at Harvard Medical School, he oversees all educational, research and administrative computing for 18000 faculty and 3000 students.

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