Advisory Board
Our Medical Advisory Board consists of ten individuals who’ve achieved recognition in the field of intestinal rehabilitation and/or complex disease management. As board members, they are committed to the goals of the LIFT-ECHO Project to improve outcomes in intestinal failure by ‘democratizing knowledge’. The Board collectively strive to design each teleECHO clinic with the goal of maximizing participant learning and satisfaction. The Board also sees an important role to analyze the impact and reach of LIFT-ECHO to achieve maximal benefit for clinicians and their patients.
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Kishore R. Iyer, MBBS, FRCS, FACS
Director, Adult and Pediatric Intestinal Rehabilitation and Transplantation, Mount Sinai; Surgical Director, Pediatric Liver Transplantation; Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine; Project Lead, LIFT-ECHODr. Kishore Iyer is Director of Adult and Pediatric Intestinal Rehabilitation & Transplantation at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, Surgical Director of Pediatric Liver Transplantation, and Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Kishore trained in general surgery and pediatric surgery in the UK where he worked with Dr. Adrian Bianchi and developed his early interest in short bowel syndrome and the use of intestinal lengthening procedures. He pursued research at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London, winning the 1996 British Association of Pediatric Surgeons Prize for his pioneering work identifying phytosterols in soy-based lipid emulsions as a potential cause for parenteral nutrition-associated liver disease in patients with intestinal failure.
Kishore is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
Kishore trained in transplant surgery at Chicago and Omaha, working as a liver and intestinal transplant surgeon at Omaha for almost 4 years. He was responsible for establishing and directing the intestinal rehabilitation program, the first of its kind nationally, in Omaha, before moving to Chicago to establish and direct the intestinal transplantation and rehabilitation program at Northwestern University/Children’s Memorial Hospital.
He serves on the Pediatric Committee and the Policy Oversight Committees of UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing) and is Chair of the International relations Committee of UNOS. He is also a past member of the Board of Trustees of the Oley Foundation, a large support group and information resource for patients with intestinal failure.
His current clinical and research interests are in the areas of surgical management of intestinal failure, intestinal transplant and TPN associated liver disease, as well as in mathematical modeling for complex medical decision-making.
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Joan Bishop
Executive Director-General, Financial and Policy Concerns, The Oley Foundation; Conference Coordinator, The Oley FoundationJoan Bishop is Executive Director and Conference Coordinator for the Oley Foundation—a national non-profit organization that provides information and support to patients with intestinal failure and consumers of parenteral nutrition. She has been with Oley since 1985—nearly its inception—and has served in many capacities, including the growth and development of the organization.
As Executive Director, Joan handles a multitude of tasks to keep Oley running and growing. She is responsible for budget planning, building relationships, advocacy efforts, fundraising, board development, and coordinating the annual conference. She is dedicated to fulfilling the Foundation’s mission and welcomes all ideas, comments, and criticisms.
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Anthony Bonagura, MD
National Medical Director for Transplantation and Congenital Heart Disease, Optum; Senior Medical Director, Optum OperationsDr. Anthony Bonagura has worked at Optum since August of 2013 as National Medical Director for Transplantation and Congenital Heart Disease and has been the Senior Medical Director for Optum Operations since 2017.
Before coming to Optum, he worked for Aetna Insurance Inc. since September 2000. In his time with Aetna, he has worked as a Patient Management Medical Director for the Northeast Region and as the Medical Director for The National Medical Excellence TM Program, which is responsible for administering the transplant benefit for Aetna's members. He was also involved in the formulation of Aetna’s clinical programs, particularly those related to Oncology and Cardiology. He served as Aetna's liaison to the Pennsylvania Medical Society and has chaired the Mid-Atlantic Quality Review Committee.
He maintains Board Certification in Internal Medicine and licensure in the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and is a member of the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and the American Society of Transplantation.
Prior to working at Aetna, he was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Temple University School of Medicine in the Department of General Internal Medicine. At Temple, he was involved in medical education and patient care along with responsibilities related to utilization management and shared risk programs for the University Hospital. Dr. Bonagura completed a residency in Internal Medicine in 1993. He graduated from SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine in 1990.
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John K. DiBaise, MD, FACG
Professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine; Consultant, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Mayo Clinic in ArizonaJohn K. DiBaise, MD, is a Professor of Medicine and a Consultant in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona. Dr. DiBaise has published over 200 original articles, reviews, chapters, books and editorials. In addition, he is an active clinical investigator and educator focusing on gastrointestinal motility and nutrition-related disorders. He is a Fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology and an active member of the American Gastroenterological Association, the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, and the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. He is currently Associate Editor of the American Journal of Gastroenterology and recently completed serving as Associate Editor of Nutrition in Clinical Practice. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. He completed his Gastroenterology and Hepatology fellowship at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and his postgraduate training in Internal Medicine at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, Iowa. Dr. DiBaise received his medical degree from the University of Nebraska College of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska and his undergraduate degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
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Lisa Metzger
Editor of the Lifeline Letter, The Oley Foundation; Director of Community Engagement, The Oley FoundationLisa Metzger is the Editor of the Oley Foundation’s bimonthly newsletter and the foundation’s Director of Community Engagement. Previous to joining the Oley staff in 2007, Lisa worked in book and magazine publishing. She has both professional and personal experience with parenteral nutrition treatment. Lisa was twice on home parenteral nutrition herself due to hyperemesis gravidarum in the late 1980s. As a result, she connected immediately with the Oley Foundation’s mission.
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Ronald Potts, MD
Quality Improvement Medical Director, Kaiser Permanente National Transplant Services; Chief Medical Officer, INTERLINK COE Networks and ProgramsDr. Ronald Potts is Quality Improvement Medical Director for Kaiser Permanente National Transplant Services and Chief Medical Officer for INTERLINK COE Networks and Programs. Now in his third career, Dr. Potts has been playing these two roles for the last 10 and 12 years respectively, involving quality oversight of contracted transplant facilities and programs in both solid organ and blood and marrow transplantation for Kaiser nationally, and for both Interlink’s Transplant Program and CancerCare initiative.
He is a graduate of Stanford University and the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine with post-graduate training at the University of California, Irvine. His clinical career spanned the rise of Emergency Medicine as a recognized specialty in which he was very active beginning in 1973 with practice at Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Portland, Oregon, and as clinical director for Kaiser’s affiliated Emergency Medicine residency program at the Oregon Health Science University. He led the development of the pre-hospital care system (911) in the tri-county area around Portland and participated in the development of the innovative Oregon state-wide trauma system.
In his 2nd career and up to his retirement in 2005, he served executive roles within the Kaiser Permanente Medical Groups including Executive Medical Director for two of Kaiser’s 8 regions. He retired form KP Northwest as medical director of Quality and Systems which involved quality systems development and management, population health management, health services research, physician education, leadership development, legal medicine, and other related healthcare improvement endeavors.
He currently serves on several committees of the NMDP and ASBMT, and is a team member of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Biological Innovation project on the financing of high-cost durable therapies. He has spoken to many groups in the solid organ and blood/marrow transplant fields about quality assessment and payer interests. He and his wife Karen are classical pianists performing two-piano works for audiences here and abroad.
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Michelle M. Spangenburg, MS, RD
Director of Education and Research, the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN)Michelle Spangenburg is the Director of Education and Research for the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) in Silver Spring, Maryland. She is also an active member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, American Society of Association Executives, and North Carolina Dietetic Association. After receiving a BS in Dietetics from James Madison University, she completed her Masters in Human Nutrition at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Prior to working at ASPEN, she served as Principal Dietician, Supervisor and Dietetic Internship Director of the UC-Davis Health System in Sacramento, California. Over the course of her career, she has received numerous honors, awards, and scholarships recognizing her work in clinical nutrition.
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Kelly Anne Tappenden, PhD, RD
Professor and Head of the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition, University of Illinois-ChicagoDr. Kelly Tappenden is Professor and Head of the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Tappenden’s research program focuses on intestinal failure, mechanisms of intestinal adaptation and patient malnutrition. For these contributions, she has received multiple awards, published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and delivered over 400 invited lectures. Dr. Tappenden served as the 33rd President of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition in 2008-09, Chair of the Nutrition, Metabolism and Obesity section of the American Gastroenterology Association Institute from 2009-13, and represents the American Society for Nutrition on the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Currently, she is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition.
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Marion F. Winkler, PhD, RD, LDN, CNSC
Associate Professor, Alpert Medical School of Brown University; Surgical Nutrition Specialist, Department of Surgery and Nutritional Support Service at Rhode Island HospitalDr. Marion Winkler is Associate Professor at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She practices as a Surgical Nutrition Specialist in the Department of Surgery and Nutritional Support Service at Rhode Island Hospital and has over 35 years of experience in nutrition support. Dr. Winkler received a BS in Nutrition from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio, an MS in Allied Health and Clinical Dietetic Research from the University of Connecticut, and a PhD from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (now Rutgers University). She is a Past President of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN). Dr. Winkler currently serves as President of the ASPEN Rhoads Research Foundation. Additionally, she serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (JPEN) and Topics in Clinical Nutrition. She speaks nationally and internationally on topics including malnutrition, short bowel syndrome, and enteral and parenteral nutrition. Dr. Winkler's current research focuses on the quality of life of home parenteral nutrition dependent patients.