Cinderblocks 2023

 Pre Conference Gathering: May 23, 2023 at 7pm 

An evening of Remembering Casey Quinlan at the Art Studio at 189 Main Street in Grantsville, MD 21536 

Cinderblocks 2023: Conference Day 1

(Still need to register? Do so here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cinderblocks2023-tickets-528642011487?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=escb

We thank our Sponsor: Learning Health Community 

9:00am On Wednesday, May 24 we meet at the white chapel near the Spruce Artisan Village adjacent to Penn Alps and The Cornucopia Cafe. We will have refreshments and a few words from Regina Holliday.

9:30 Jan Russell is on the board of Casa della Fenice, Inc., d/b/a Reflection House, is a new nonprofit organization and the first to establish recovery housing in Garrett County Maryland.  

As a 12-month, Level 2 residential recovery program, Reflection House provides addiction counseling services, and linkages to health and behavioral health services to women with substance use disorder in Western Maryland. 

​Using a social enterprise model, residents receive training in life and relationship skills, job skills and real-world coping skills to support their sustained recovery.

10:00am Josh Rubin, Program Officer for Learning Health System Initiatives at University of Michigan Medical School

10:30 Jan Oldenburg Focused on digital & participatory health. Editor of Participatory Healthcare & Engage! http://janoldenburg.com

11:00am Benjamin Berlin, Patient Health Advocate - Promoting Empowerment, Ownership, for Better Health and Better Living with Peace of Mind

Noon Adjourn for Lunch

1:00pm Gail Zahtz is CEO of WiseCare Health, an integrated healthcare collaborative supporting healthcare organizations in the transformation from fee-for-service to value based care. Zahtz is an internationally recognized expert in value based contracting particularly in areas of applying the latest regulations, contracting successfully with alternative payment models, health equity and maximizing provider compensation. As a subject matter expert, acclaimed international speaker and executive advisor, Zahtz incorporates  an inspirational personal understanding of the patient journey having brought her four children out of domestic violence to then face five years in a wheelchair, eventually legally blind and living in a nursing home basement with late stage cancer. 

2:00pm Alex B. Fair, MS - is the Founder and CEO of MedStartr, Managing Member of MedStartr Ventures, and Organizer of one of the world’s largest communities focused on healthcare Innovation.  He originally trained as a research scientist, first in Physics, then Pathology, publishing original research in cancer and heart disease. In the 90’s he had an idea for a medical expert system that took off so he finished off his last research paper and came into the world of business.  MedStartr is his 7th startup and MedStartr Venture Fund II is his third fund.  His goal is to help thousands of new ideas transform medicine and has helped several hundred already with the events, online platforms, contests, corporate innovation programs, accelerators, and investment funds he has been running since 2010.  

Please see MedStartr.com, MedStartr.vc, and MedStartr.nyc for more information or follow him on Twitter or Instagram as @alexbfair

4pm end of educational conference sessionYou can now hang out in Grantsville and go to one of the many lovely dining establishments

or Attend

6pm-7:30pm Supper Church at Horner Lutheran Church, 415 Horner Church Road, Stoystown, PA 15563. Regina Holliday has been serving at this church for over 2 1/2 years. They began supper church this spring and offer a free community meal every Wednesday.

(There is also usually an art project during the service.)

Conference Day 2, May 25, 2022 begins at 2pm in Grantsville

If you do not want to sleep-in or enjoy morning nature hikes, Regina Holliday and her clergy friends from the Somerset Area Ministries and other folks focused on improving life for people who are sick and struggling will be at DUO in Somerset PA. If you want to see community organizing up close and personal this is a good meeting to attend. 

D.U.O. 

(“Do unto others” conference ) 9am-noon with lunch following

St. Paul Presbyterian, 1845 N Ctr Ave, Somerset, PA 15501

S.A.M. (Somerset Area Ministries) invites clergy, service organizations, non-profits, businesses working with disadvantaged populations, and individuals focused on helping people in our region to a seminar with panels focused on:
9:00 am The Church as a Resource and Help
9:30am Baby/Child Care• Single Parents Resources • Grandparents taking care of grandchildren  • Foster Care • Resources in School
10:00 Food Access
10:30 Behavioral Health • Recovery • Medical Care • Senior Care
11:00 Transportation and Housing
11:30 Hospice • End of Life • Funeral Planning

Conference Day 2, May 25, 2022 begins at 2pm in Grantsville

2:00pm Regina Holliday on lessons learned from the morning event. 

3:00pm Fred Trotter on patient communities and how to do trust online

5pm Marsha Goodman-Wood will sing & play songs 

Marsha Goodman-Wood leads Washington, DC-based kindie (kids+indie) band, Marsha and the Positrons, specializing in fun songs about science and how the world works with positive social messages! Marsha's award-winning songs are playful, educational, and entertaining -- mixing science facts with messages about kindness and friendship. Marsha is also a teaching artist with Wolf Trap and Arts for Learning Maryland and is a former cognitive neuroscientist. Website: www.marshaandthepositrons.com

Special thanks go to Gary Zwick for technical help.

At 6:00 pm concludes our conference day. We will take a group Walking Gallery

photo in front the chapel and spend the rest of the evening at the studio enjoying refreshments. 

 Cinderblocks 2022: Conference Day 1

(Still need to register? Do so here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cinderblocks-2022-tickets-258545706167)

We thank our Sponsor: Learning Health Community 

On Tuesday, May 10 we meet at the white chapel near the Spruce Artisan Village adjacent to Penn Alps and The Cornucopia Cafe.

8:00am Coffee and snacks are provided.

8:30 Opening remarks are by Regina Holliday, conference planner and founder of the Walking Gallery of Healthcare.

9:00am Shawnee Reynolds, Service Coordination, The mission of Garrett County Community Action Committee, Inc., is to improve the quality of life for people in need by empowering them to become more self-sufficient and by providing essential services in collaboration and cooperation with partners.

10:00am Chaplaincy Panel: The importance of Chaplaincy

Cricket Hall, Provider of accidental education & Crusader for Justice and Collective Liberation. (she/fae)

Regina Holliday, Vicar Journey in Faith Lutheran Ministries a four point parish in Western Pennsylvania. 

Pastor Christine Roe resides in central Pennsylvania in her first call, serving a two point parish. She also serves as the chaplain for the candidacy committee for the Allegheny Synod. Also important in her life at this time is walking with people as a spiritual director. Her life before being called to be a pastor was spent for many years serving families with children birth to three in early intervention services.

11:00am Josh Rubin, Program Officer for Learning Health System Initiatives at University of Michigan Medical School

11:30am Brooke Thiele, certified surgical technologist for over 20 years. Mom of 3. Wife of one explains the importance of Organ Donation.

Noon: Park Ranger Brian White will do a presentation on the Casselman Bridge this will involve walking to the bridge.

1:00pm Lunch. We have refreshments in the Chapel but if anyone wants to go to either Cornucopia Cafe or Penn Alps both venues are open. 

2:00pm Hamish MacDonald, Founder and CEO, The Sovereignty Network

"Creating a data economy for patients and those that serve them".

What I would really like to do with this august group of people at Cinderblocks is dig deep, really deep, into what data ownership means in healthcare. Why data access alone is not enough. How we can harness existing laws to advantage patients and those that serve them.

And if we do that, how changing the information flow of an industry can change its power structure - and how that leads to better servicing each of us as people/humans/patients. Not just in healthcare, but as part of an economy where data is the most valuable asset on the planet, yet only a very few profit from the data that we produce from our bodies.

 

There is something deeply unfair about this situation in 2022, and can be redressed by leveraging property law and privacy law to our own benefit. It is time to shift the healthcare data economy to be about us - the people at its core. 

3:00pm Alex B. Fair, MS - is the Founder and CEO of MedStartr, Managing Member of MedStartr Ventures, and Organizer of one of the world’s largest communities focused on healthcare Innovation.  He originally trained as a research scientist, first in Physics, then Pathology, publishing original research in cancer and heart disease. In the 90’s he had an idea for a medical expert system that took off so he finished off his last research paper and came into the world of business.  MedStartr is his 7th startup and MedStartr Venture Fund II is his third fund.  His goal is to help thousands of new ideas transform medicine and has helped several hundred already with the events, online platforms, contests, corporate innovation programs, accelerators, and investment funds he has been running since 2010.  

Please see MedStartr.com, MedStartr.vc, and MedStartr.nyc for more information or follow him on Twitter or Instagram as @alexbfair

PAIN Pitches 2022

We need more Patient Approved Innovations NOW!  MedStartr seeks the best new ideas in medicine approved of by patient leaders like Regina Holliday and Gail Zahtz and the people of the Cinderblocks conference.  Join us for the next stop on the #MedMo world tour at the 2022 Cinderblocks conference, the world's largest gathering of healthcare innovation, patient and patient-centered activists.  MedStartr runs global challenges and pitch contests in 33 cities and always includes patients on our panels of judges because if you aren't making patients happy, then you aren't fixing healthcare right, in our view.  Winners will get into the MedStartr Ventures investment review process that represents the opportunity for $500,000 in funding, acceleration, and partnerships for the teams that pass investor due diligence.  It all starts with getting Patient Approved.  Join us and help decide which teams are most ready for our help NOW!   

4:00pm Dave deBronkart and Ben Merrion workshop on Corsi-Rosenthal Filter boxes. 

5pm end of educational conference session

7pm-9pm The Walking Gallery founder Regina Holliday's 50th birthday party is a 50's theme party open to the public at St. Paul Lutheran Church at 6872 Lincoln Highway near Stoystown, Pa. ( This is 2 miles from the Flight 93 Memorial and 42 miles from Grantsville) 

Conference Day 2, May 11, 2022

On Wednesday May 11 we meet at the white chapel near the Spruce Artisan Village adjacent to Penn Alps and The Cornucopia Cafe.

8:00am Coffee and snacks are provided.

8:30 Opening remarks are by Regina Holliday, conference planner and founder of the Walking Gallery of Healthcare.

9:00am Heather Hanline

Heather Hanline, Executive Director of the Dove Center, will present on the correlation between health disparity and trauma/sexual violence. 

Hanline holds a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology and is a Licensed Clinical Therapist.  She has over 24 years of experience in the human services field, working with trauma victims in a variety of settings.  For the past 19 years, she has followed her passion to end domestic violence and sexual assault with the Dove Center, where she began as a counselor and has spent the past 17 years as the Executive Director.  She is a past recipient of the Governor’s Victim Assistance Award, for doubling the number of individuals served by the Dove Center in her first year of leadership.  She also spearheaded the building of the Dove Center’s combined counseling and shelter offices, which now stands as a permanent symbol of safety and healing.  She has written guest blogs for several statewide organizations, and has originated many innovative programs within the Dove Center’s programming.

10:00am Benjamin Berlin, Patient Health Advocate - Promoting Empowerment, Ownership, for Better Health and Better Living with Peace of Mind

Ben's presentation focuses on the parent experience of someone who doesn’t “fit” the institutional “answers” … not school,  not special Ed,  not this program, not that program, not this mental health diagnosis,  not that mental health diagnosis,  not medicaid …. Etc. He explains the experience of that journey both personally and with stories from other sources.  This is rooted in the voice of the patient as opposed to the (institutional) Dr top/down model.

11:00am Donna Jo Brenneman, Executive Director of Hospice of Garrett County, Donna Jo will speak about the Mission of the local non-profit hospice.

11:30 Amy Edgar will present on Blackbird Health. Seamless, affordable pediatric and adolescent mental healthcare.

Noon Lunch We have refreshments in the Chapel but if anyone wants to go to either Cornucopia Cafe or Penn Alps both venues are open. 

1:00pm Gail Zahtz, Presentation: “The Moments that Matter” Gail Zahtz is CEO of WiseCare Health, an integrated healthcare collaborative supporting healthcare organizations in the transformation from fee-for-service to value based care. Zahtz is an internationally recognized expert in value based contracting particularly in areas of applying the latest regulations, contracting successfully with alternative payment models, health equity and maximizing provider compensation. As a subject matter expert, acclaimed international speaker and executive advisor, Zahtz incorporates  an inspirational personal understanding of the patient journey having brought her four children out of domestic violence to then face five years in a wheelchair, eventually legally blind and living in a nursing home basement with late stage cancer. 

Zahtz has founded and directed dozens of health related companies and initiatives over her career and has won numerous awards including: Top 100 in Health Info Technology, Top 100 International Influencers in Health Online, Healthcare IT News' #HIT100, Recipient Walking Gallery of Healthcare, and Top 50 Most Influential Health Leaders. Her public health education campaigns have also been nationally recognized including being awarded the most influential public education campaign by the National Mental Health Association.

2:00pm Caronne Taylor Bloom, MA Edu., Presents: ‘Creating Connections’.  Advocate and Academic Coach at Children’s Integrated Center for Success, Allentown, PA, will talk about their amazing approach to whole child wellness in children diagnosed on the autism spectrum, ADHD and anxiety and mood disorders.

3:00-3:30 Thomas Vose, Director of the Ruth Enlow Library of Garrett County speaks about Libraries in the time of COVID. 

3:30-4:00pm Ashley Elliott

Ashley will focus on the hurdles patients face overcoming the diagnosis of being an addict while still accessing health care.

4:00-4:30pm Virginia Lorenzi Senior Technical Architect, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital speaks about HL7 and HIT. 

4:30-5:00pm Twila Bender speaking about Mountain Laurel Medical Center but also about the role of the community healthcare worker in rural Maryland.

4:00-4:30pm Virginia Lorenzi Senior Technical Architect, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital speaks about HL7n and HIT

At 6:00 pm we will gather at the Casselman River Bridge for a group shot of The Walking Gallery and the conference attendees.  We will then walk across the historic bridge lit with over 500 luminaries.  We will have our evening in the Chapel; this portion of the conference event is open to the public and does not require tickets. 

7:00pm Marsha Goodman-Wood will sing & play Songs About Science & How the World Works!

Marsha Goodman-Wood leads Washington, DC-based kindie (kids+indie) band, Marsha and the Positrons, specializing in fun songs about science and how the world works with positive social messages! Marsha's award-winning songs are playful, educational, and entertaining -- mixing science facts with messages about kindness and friendship. Marsha is also a teaching artist with Wolf Trap and Arts for Learning Maryland and is a former cognitive neuroscientist.

Marsha and the Positrons are currently working on their third album, and Marsha is also collaborating with a New Zealand based colleague on another science-themed album! This show will feature new songs from both projects, as well as songs from Positronic and Gravity Vacation. Website: www.marshaandthepositrons.com

7:50 Ross Martin will sing and play guitar.  Ross is Dedicated to musical expression of health information, particularly concepts related to medical informatics and health information technology. Ross is fellowship-trained medical informatician and creative force of nature with over 20 years of healthcare industry experience in clinical delivery, informatics, management and strategic consulting, business and product development, market validation, health information exchange, pharmaceuticals, association & non-profit management, government relations and public policy.

8:40pm the final performer will be the fire dancer and physical therapist Aaron Smith.

Special thanks go to Gary Zwick for technical help.