After earning a bachelor’s degree in the areas of electronics and automation, Bill joined a network integration company as a systems engineer working on the completion of the Cheng-Yu Freeway communication and toll system.

He joined Johnson & Johnson Medical China (JJMC) in 2001 and played a key role in establishing the JJMC Technical Service Center (TSC). The center is one of 13 Ethicon Endo-Surgery (EES)-certified service centers worldwide, supporting not only the China market but also such regional markets as Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. In addition, it covers all the medical franchises in China, including Cordis, EES, DePuy Codman, Advanced Sterilization Products, Inc. (ASP) and Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Inc.

Bill joined the ValuMetrix® Services China team in 2008 with a focus on developing business in China. After participating in extensive training that included performing Work Process Analysis (WPAs) at several United States hospitals, Bill helped ValuMetrix® Services enter the China market and develop a Chinese model for the ValuMetriX® Services offerings.

Since then, Bill has been involved in more than 10 WPAs in China and one Lean project. He has also helped developed Process Excellence (PEx) online analysis tools that are now available, helping China take significant steps toward improving its healthcare system through the use of PEx and Lean methodology.

A graduate of Case Western Reserve University with a Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology, Claudia began her career as a medical technologist with University Hospitals in Cleveland, specializing in blood banking. She had a long tenure with the NCH Healthcare System in Naples, Florida, advancing to a senior management position and serving several years as Laboratory Manager at NCH’s North Collier Hospital.

After completing her graduate work (earning an MBA from the University of South Florida), she moved to DSI Laboratories, where she switched to operations, managing DSI’s couriers and outpatient service centers. She was named Director of Operations, responsible for assuring that efficient and effective processes were in place for each phase of the operation while also overseeing cost accounting in the laboratory.

When DSI engaged ValuMetrix^® Services to develop new ways of managing both costs and quality, Claudia led the new initiatives and went on to join ValuMetrix® Services as a Lean Consultant in 2004.

Since joining ValuMetrix^® Services, Claudia has been a leader in teaching Six Sigma and mentoring Six Sigma projects while also leading Lean initiatives in healthcare facilities throughout North America. She also has been instrumental in developing the integration of instrumentation and process, helping laboratories improve their process when implementing new equipment.

Dan has been an avid practitioner of Lean since his certification as a Green Belt in 2002. He gained substantial experience from his ten years in the diagnostics manufacturing industry at a Johnson & Johnson plant in South Wales. During that time, Dan was a driving force for improvement which saw the plant reduce its production lead time for highly sophisticated immunoassay products from 69 days to 16 days.

Dan also played a major role as a Lean project leader in a $128 million project that included the Lean design of a green-field diagnostics world class manufacturing facility.

In January 2009 Dan made the move from industry to ValuMetrix^® Services, where he has continued to deliver the highest level of Lean implementation, facilitation, mentoring and coaching Lean project teams in healthcare establishments including hospitals, private laboratories and blood donation production facilities.

Since joining ValuMetrix^® Services, Dan has also achieved transformational results in a blood donation services value stream, the Lean design of a large private laboratory, and substantially increased patient throughput in a hematology and thrombosis clinical setting.

Dan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Exercise Physiology.

David joined Ortho Clinical Diagnostics in 2002 in the internal Process Excellence department, where he worked on several projects in reagent manufacturing and other areas of production. These projects resulted in major reductions in cycle time and helped to eliminate errors in product tracking and identification. As a manager in Ortho’s supply chain, he continued to lead internal improvements that lowered inventory and reduced lead time.

Since joining the ValuMetrix^® Services team in 2008, David has led implementations across a wide range of areas in the healthcare industry, from clinical laboratories to the OR pre-admission process.

He has also worked on ValuMetrix^® P3 Solutions^® (Process + Product + People) assignments connected to the implementation of the VITROS 5600™ analyzer in clinical laboratories. With this new tool in the Ortho arsenal of resources, David works in partnership with the marketing and sales groups to make recommendations and provide training to implement Process Excellence improvements designed to optimize the use of Ortho’s products. For Ortho customers, this translates to increased laboratory capacity, reduced waste and improved quality.

For David, “Lean is the beginning of the journey; it is not an end.”

Jamie is a certified medical technologist with expertise in chemistry, special chemistry, hematology, microbiology, blood bank, coagulation, virology, immunology, phlebotomy molecular diagnostics and RIA.

He graduated from Augustana College with a bachelor’s degree in Medical Technology and related minors in Chemistry and Biology. Jamie started his career working in a hospital setting in the evenings. He later served as a supervisor in the departments of immunology and special chemistry for a large reference laboratory, as a medical technologist, and as a senior medical technologist for the Laboratory of Clinical Medicine. He has also worked as a supervisor for the Nichols Institute and as an Immunology Specialist for MAWD Laboratories. He has been working in laboratories and healthcare since 1981.

During his career with ValuMetrix^® Services, Jamie has been instrumental in creating and defining innovative ways to apply the principles of Lean and Six Sigma to the healthcare environment. He has led multiple Lean projects across large healthcare organizations in North America, Australia and Europe, including focused projects in laboratory, emergency department, patient flow, surgery, blood donor centers, molecular and reference laboratories.

Jamie has completed many healthcare design projects that have enabled customers to build better facilities that support a Lean environment of continuous improvement. He is able to work toward both enterprise and bench level solutions and improvements and help customers understand how the department/hospital layout can directly affect overall staff performance.

After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rider College in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, Jo Ann completed graduate work in virology, immunology and clinical pharmacology at the College of New Jersey. For more than 10 years, she performed complex immunohematology reference work in the world-renowned Philip Levine Reference Laboratory Blood Consultation Service at Ortho Diagnostics. She also held positions in quality assurance and field technical support.

Jo Ann also worked as Marketing Director for Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems, Consulting and Services, where she was instrumental in expanding the Surgery Consulting and Operations Solutions service lines.

Jo Ann’s 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry encompasses both marketing management and health care technology. She has served in a variety of marketing and product management roles at several health care companies. Her technical background includes experience as a medical technologist and an assistant supervisor of a blood bank/transfusion service for a mid-sized community medical center. As a marketing executive for several diverse product lines, she developed and implemented product launch strategies, provided product training, directed marketing communication and promotional plans, and managed product inventory.

Jo Ann now utilizes her experience to lead the worldwide marketing efforts of ValuMetrix^® Services, the division of Ortho Clinical Diagnostics that combines the tools and methodologies of Six Sigma, Lean Thinking and Design Excellence to drive dramatic improvements in all areas of healthcare business performance.

An active member of the American Association of Blood Banks, Jo Ann has co-authored several key papers that were presented at annual meetings and is a frequent speaker at educational programs and events.

A graduate of the University of Miami, where he earned both Bachelor of Science and master’s degrees in Industrial Engineering, Lewis began his career as an industrial engineer. After leading numerous improvements in medical device manufacturing, he moved along the value stream toward the customer, driving Lean improvements in materials management, quality systems and, now, the hospital environment.

Since joining ValuMetrix^® Services, Lewis has led teams to improvements across the hospital setting, including Laboratory Services, Operating Room, Central Sterile Processing, Pharmacy, Diagnostic Imaging, and others.

Drawing from his own management experiences, Lewis has been a pioneer in addressing the challenges of “managing in a Lean environment.” In addition to project management and change management at the department/process levels, he works with senior executives to align their strategies for deploying Lean improvements and changing culture across the larger organization.

After graduating from Denison University with a Bachelor of Science in Biology, Martha began her career as a Medical Technologist in Naples, Florida. She served as the manager of the local community blood center and transfusion services for a number of years and then became the Laboratory Administrative Director of DSI Laboratories, part of the NCH Healthcare System, overseeing operations for two hospital laboratories.

During her tenure as Laboratory Director at DSI, the lab partnered with ValuMetrix® Services in 2002 on a full Lean transformation project. Martha served as Champion for the project, which saw the lab cited as one of the successful pioneers in applying Lean to the laboratory.

After such a successful project, Martha joined ValuMetrix^® Services as a consultant in 2008. She now serves as a project leader for laboratory assessments and a team member of Lean implementation projects throughout North America using Process Excellence principles and tools.

She also frequently lectures on Lean and Six Sigma at healthcare conferences.

“Going through change is a major and sometimes stressful process, but the results are phenomenal and empowering,” she affirms.

Meghan received a bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University. She first joined Ortho Clinical Diagnostics as a Process Excellence engineer in worldwide operations, where she was responsible for utilizing Lean and Six Sigma tools to increase productivity, profitability and quality. She helped develop critical methods for capturing performance metrics and production control data to be used in improving efficiency in manufacturing and also developed inventory-tracking systems for use in the supply chain. She worked on numerous Six Sigma projects where root cause analyses were done to improve quality and first-pass yield.

Her broad experience includes training team members in the use and benefits of Process Excellence tools and mentoring both Black and Green Belt candidates to certification.

Since joining ValuMetrix^® Services in 2005, Meghan has driven significant operational improvements in laboratories worldwide. She used her passion on integrating and optimizing people, equipment and processes to help develop ValuMetrix^® P3 Solutions^®.

Meghan also has extensive experience in applying automation to laboratory services and works to design and implement automation systems that will meet the ever-increasing challenges of the laboratory. She leads customers on "the correct path to automation," helping them understand what they can expect from automating processes and utilizing Lean thinking in their processes and systems to achieve their goals.

A highly accomplished, motivated consultant and trainer, Norka’s 20 years experience spans corporate, manufacturing and healthcare environments as well as academia, illustrating her ability to work effectively with diverse international cultures and across broad occupational spectrums. She is an experienced facilitator in the development of strategic objectives, performance measures and goals, aligned with company vision, mission and key business objectives.

She has developed and delivered virtual online training on Lean 5S, Six Sigma Awareness, Project Sponsorship and Analytical Primer. Norka has also developed and delivered Six Sigma Yellow Belt Training tailored to the healthcare community.

A strong advocate of knowledge sharing, Norka has delivered presentations on Six Sigma and Change Management at professional conferences including: ValuMetrix^® Services Executive Seminars and Workshops, Society for Health Systems/American Society for Quality Conference, XXXIX Mexican Pathology Congress, Lab Quality Confab on Quality Management in Diagnostic Medicine, International Congress on Occupational Risk Prevention, American Society of Safety Engineers and the National Safety Council. She was also the recipient of the LabCorp 2009 Corporate Billing Achievement Award for Process Excellence – the first time the award was ever given to a non-LabCorp employee.

After earning two bachelor’s degrees at the University of Puerto Rico, Norka earned both Master of Science in Engineering and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

With a Bachelor Science in Biology and an MBA in Finance and Health Services Administration, Rodney has worked in public, private, corporate and government sectors, running organizations of all sizes. During the past 13 years he has provided direct oversight in management positions in the areas of quality improvement and performance, the blood bank, the core laboratory and microbiology.

He has served as a CAP-trained inspector and played significant roles in TJC, AABB and FDA regulatory and accreditation preparation inspection processes.

Rodney’s expertise has also been put to use as an active material and resource panelist for Advance for Medical Laboratory Professionals as well as an Editorial Advisory Board member for CLMA.

A graduate of Slippery Rock University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Medical Technology, Rick received his medical technology certification from St. Vincent Hospital School of Medical Technology. He began his laboratory career in a supervisory role in the Clinical Chemistry Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Laboratories. He joined Ortho Clinical Diagnostics in 1999 as a Regional Health Systems executive, focusing on large integrated delivery systems.

During his tenure with ValuMetrix^® Services, Rick has been instrumental in leading the teams that bring operational transformation to clients. Rick works closely with healthcare executives around the world to create customized project solutions using the power of Lean, Six Sigma and Lean facility design. He serves as an instructor and leader for Champion and Leadership training and serves as an executive mentor aiding in designing the overall strategy and tactics for the cultural journey of Lean healthcare enterprises.

He has been instrumental in helping healthcare organizations develop the vision, goals, and strategies for enterprise-wide Process Excellence deployment and helps align the goals and scorecards to sustain the process improvement results.

In addition, Rick has played a key role in developing Lean facility design initiatives for healthcare executives looking to expand or build new healthcare facilities based on Lean concepts.

Shana is a board certified Medical Technologist with over 20 years laboratory experience and 4 years providing instruction at a Minnesota professional practices university. Prior to joining the VALUMETRIX^® team in the summer of 2006, Shana had the opportunity to participate in VALUMETRIX^® supported lean initiatives in her Minnesota hospital system laboratories, first as a team member and then as team lead. She then led her peers in several internal initiatives, including pharmacy, billing and referral testing. Since joining VALUMETRIX^® Services, Shana has successfully led initiatives and coached teams to realize enterprise level, transformational change. She has developed teams and leadership in Laboratory Services, Surgical Services, Pharmacy, Patient Admissions, Business Operations and others. Shana’s passion for ensuring the future of quality, affordable healthcare includes educational content to address the significant challenges faced in staff engagement, managing and leading in a lean environment and change management in a cultural revolution. Shana is experienced in coaching and mentoring to drive change, at all levels, from the bench to the boardroom, as organizations align their strategic plans for financial security, growth, quality and continuous improvement.

Susan has more than 35 years experience working in and with transfusion services, donor centers, clinical laboratories, emergency departments, central sterile processing and hospital systems. She received her Specialist Blood Bank (SBB) certification in 1977 and an MA in Organizational Management in 1992. For more than 20 years, she managed the Immunohematology Consultation Laboratory for Blood Systems, Inc., Scottsdale, Arizona, providing education, training, quality assurance testing, and problem solving for more than 1,000 hospitals in a 19-state region and for 23 United Blood Services donor centers.

From 1994 until January of 2002, she provided consulting services on work process redesign and other strategies for success at donor centers, transfusion services, and clinical laboratories. In 2002, Susan became a full-time member of the ValuMetrix^® Services team.

Susan has been on the leading edge of the educational efforts in Lean and Six Sigma methods, presenting more than 600 programs all over the world on such topics as competitive positioning, change management and Lean Six Sigma. She has received numerous awards for her contributions to the area of transfusion medicine and for her innovation and leadership in process improvement.