{"id":84,"date":"2010-04-12T22:23:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-13T02:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthcamprdu.org\/?page_id=84"},"modified":"2012-03-06T07:13:13","modified_gmt":"2012-03-06T07:13:13","slug":"speaker-bios-201","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/healthca.mp\/rdu\/about\/past-events\/healthcamprdu-2010\/speaker-bios-201\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaker Bios-2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Nick Augustinos, Senior Director of Global Healthcare Solutions, Cisco<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Relevant Links \u00a0::\u00a0 Twitter:\u00a0@naugustinos<\/a>, @ciscoisbg<\/a>\u00a0 :: \u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0 :: \u00a0Cisco IBSG<\/a>\u00a0 :: \u00a0Cisco HealthPresence<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In the Cisco\u00ae Internet Business Solutions Group\u2122 (IBSG), Nick Augustinos is known as \u201cthe father of Cisco HealthPresence\u2122.\u201d As senior director of Global Healthcare Solutions for IBSG, he has guided the care-at-a-distance program through every stage of development. In 2005, it was no more than a concept in a PowerPoint presentation. In 2006, Augustinos, supported by a team of two engineers, oversaw the initial prototype, a humble assemblage of two desktop computers, a camcorder, and a printer. Today, combining Cisco TelePresence\u2122 and Cisco Unified Communications along with medical devices, Cisco HealthPresence has blossomed into a state-of-the-art patient-care delivery system that allows caregivers and patients to interact face-to-face, even though they may be thousands of miles apart.<\/p>\n

Augustinos, a native of Athens, describes himself as the kind of child who would play with a new toy for 20 minutes, then spend four hours taking it apart and putting it back together to see how it worked. Fittingly, he earned degrees in industrial engineering and mechanical engineering from Athens, Greece, and King’s College, University of London, respectively, but his interest in the potential of computing led him to the healthcare field after he earned his MBA from the University of Michigan. Over the past 25 years, he has worked with healthcare delivery systems, insurers, and government\/public organizations, including California Healthcare Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, Blue Cross\/Blue Shield, and Sutter Health.<\/p>\n

Augustinos made his mark with Pacific Health Resources Management in Los Angeles when he was asked\u2014at the age of 28\u2014to take over operations management of CliniShare, a division of UniHealth, in a turnaround situation. He then went into healthcare industry consulting with APM, a leading healthcare management consulting firm at the time, then Deloitte, where he was instrumental in building the firm\u2019s San Francisco healthcare consulting practice and the firm\u2019s analyst program.<\/p>\n

His first Silicon Valley experience in healthcare information technology was with Healtheon\/WebMD, which he joined when it was still small\u2014yet notable\u2014startup. He was drawn to the firm\u2019s IP-based platform that facilitated healthcare transactions and information exchange over the Internet. \u201cThe Healtheon platform connected patients, physicians, insurers, and healthcare institutions,\u201d Augustinos says. \u201cI needed to make this move because this is where the future of healthcare was going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, as an executive of CareScience, Augustinos led the Care Data Exchange division of the company. His work there brought him to the attention of the head of the Cisco IBSG Healthcare Practice of Cisco IBSG, and in 2005, Augustinos joined the practice.<\/p>\n

At Cisco IBSG, Augustinos used his ability to recognize market transitions to develop Cisco HealthPresence. He created the concept, found the funding within Cisco, persuaded a business unit to prototype a solution, and developed several successful pilot projects to test the concept. Among the advantages to patients and providers:<\/p>\n