Dr. Nimit Agarwal is a geriatrics and internal medicine physician leading the Division of Geriatric Medicine at Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix and the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. He leads the Center for Healthy Aging at Banner – UMC Phoenix and is the associate program director of the Internal Medicine Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program.

Dr. Agarwal is a clinician, educator, researcher and innovator. Before joining Banner Health and the University of Arizona, he was leading a multispecialty group in New Mexico. When he began as a hospital Medicine physician at Banner Health in 2014, he saw an immense need for geriatric inpatient services. As a result, he created a co-management program with his surgical and medicine partners in orthopaedics, trauma, hospital medicine and acute rehabilitation care for providing age-friendly care to our seniors.

He has been able to establish innovative models of care, leveraging the capabilities of the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) to create smart protocols that can assist with identifying gaps in care related to delirium identification, mobility challenges and markers of increased complications during hospitalization of older adults. Dr. Agarwal’s team of geriatricians, nurses, pharmacists, case managers, therapists and nutritionists work in an interdisciplinary model of care called Virtual Acute Care of Elders (vACE).

Under his leadership, Banner – UMC Phoenix became the first hospital in Arizona to receive the Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation from the American College of Emergency Physicians. Banner – UMC Phoenix is also a member of NICHE: Nurses Improving Care of Healthsytem Elders, an international nursing and consultation program designed to improve geriatric care in health care organizations. Banner – UMC Phoenix has ranked in the Top-50 programs per U.S. News and World Report for geriatric medicine annually.

Dr. Agarwal is passionate about bringing artificial intelligence (AI) technology to create a safer hospital environment for older adults. His team is currently working on an innovative Artificial Emotional Intelligence (AEI) capable device called SeVA — Senior’s Virtual Assistant — which will have the capability to predict falls, cognitive changes and act as a constant bedside patient companion.

Dr. Joseph Borawski is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Duke University Medical Center. His current administrative responsibilities include Medical Director of the ED-based Observation Unit as well as Assistant Director of the Division’s Acute Care Research Team. He has several research projects ongoing, including site Principle Investigator (PI) for a large, multicenter heart failure randomized clinical trial as well as site PI for the National Emergency Airway Registry (NEAR). Dr. Borawski completed his medical training at Albany Medical College, NY with subsequent post-graduate training at Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth, VA. Upon completion, he served four year as a General Medical Officer in the United States Navy, first as Battalion Surgeon for 3d Battalion, 2d Marines and then later as Regimental Surgeon for 10th Marine Regiment. After resigning his active duty commission in 2009, Dr. Borawski completed his residency training in Emergency Medicine at Duke University Medical Center, joining the faculty group in 2012.

LaTivia Carr RN, MSN, BS, NEA-BC is a transformational, charismatic leader with well-honed skills in mentoring, coaching, and developing leadership teams. Recognized as an Innovator in Healthcare®, she has a passion for the nursing profession and transitioning newly graduated RN’s into practice within a supportive environment using non-traditional methods. Her fiscally responsible focus on the customer connection as the key to optimizing the patient experience, has yielded excellence in quality and safety outcomes under her leadership as a top decile performer.

Liberty Erfe is an experienced Nurse Manager with a demonstrated history of 20 years working at Riverside Healthcare. Strong healthcare service leader with a Doctorate of Nursing Practice Degree obtained from Governors State University, Illinois where she was honored as “Outstanding Doctoral Student” in 2014.

Liberty Erfe is knowledgeable and proficient in Nursing Leadership, Nursing Education, Physician Relations and Acute Care. She is also detail oriented and skilled in Observation Services, Utilization Review and Care Coordination. With her passion for making sure patients receive the right level of care, she is now the Nurse Manager of the Observation Unit and the Nursing Float Pool at Riverside Healthcare.

Nada Farhat, PharmD, BCPS, BCACP is a clinical pharmacy specialist in Ambulatory Care. She received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. She then completed her PGY1 pharmacy practice residency and PGY2 ambulatory care specialty residency at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Her current practice area focuses on chronic disease management at an Internal Medicine clinic at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, MI. She has had experience working with geriatric patients and has been involved in initiatives to reduce readmissions through a multidisciplinary team approach. Dr. Farhat is board certified in Pharmacotherapy and Ambulatory Care and has authored multiple articles focused on the role of pharmacists in the outpatient setting.

Rebecca Gomez, MD attended medical school at the University of Florida College of Medicine, and completed her residency in Family Medicine at Florida Hospital Orlando in 2011, where she also served as Chief Resident. She has since worked for Central Florida Hospitalist Partners as a hospitalist in Orlando. She has practiced primarily observation medicine, and is currently the Medical Director for the observation unit at AdventHealth Orlando. She is the chair of the Observation Governance Committee, and participates in system-level collaborations on substance use disorder, sickle cell, urinary retention, heart failure, among others. She received the Exemplary Volunteer Educator Award in 2016 from the Florida Academy of Family Physicians for her work with medical students and residents, and has been an invited speaker to several national conferences.

Dr. Greiner graduated from Ross University School of Medicine and completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. He spent one year as an assistant professor and academic hospitalist at the University Hospital and then moved to his current employer, North Memorial Health, where he is medical director in observation services, hospital medicine, and utilization management. Dr. Greiner is also the president of the Twin Cities Medical Society, a component medical society of the Minnesota Medical Association that serves nearly 5,000 members. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and a member of the Society of Hospital Medicine. His interests include physician wellness, the intersection between customer service and healthcare, improving informed consent, and end of life conversations.

Dr. Guarracino is Chair of Emergency Medicine at UPMC Pinnacle. Prior to working at UPMC Pinnacle, he served as Chair of Emergency Medicine and President of the Medical Staff at Carlisle Regional Medical Center. He completed his residency training at Grandview Hospital and Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio where he was a Chief Resident and completed medical school at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Guarracino is Board Certified in Emergency Medicine and earned his Masters of Science in Healthcare Administration from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.

Dr. Guarracino’s areas of interest are evidence-based medicine, ED operations and observation medicine. He has lectured nationally on such topics as ED Throughput and the development of ED Observation Units.

Azmath Hussaini has is a Internal Medicine trained Hospitalist, and Physician Advisor for Virtua Health in Southern New Jersey.

Fellow at Harvard Media and Medicine 2020

Passionate about professional development, and mental health in underserved communities, currently also serves as the Chapter President for the NY/NJ Chapter of American Muslim Health Professionals (AMHP)

Dr. C. Anthoney Lim, is currently the Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine for the Mount Sinai Health System and the Medical Director of the Pediatric Emergency Department and Short Stay Unit at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. He is appointed as an Associate Professor in the Departments of Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics, and Medical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

After graduating from The College of William and Mary, he received his medical degree at Weill Cornell Medical College in 2005. He then went on to complete his pediatric residency at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore and a fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Jacobi Medical Center. He joined the faculty at Mount Sinai in 2017, and in his current role has been involved with planning the expansion of the health system and ensuring consistent and quality emergency care for children across 8 hospitals seeing over 80,000 visits annually. He helped develop innovative approaches to the care of children such as the Pediatric Short Stay Unit, which is the only observation-level care unit for children in the region. His clinical and research interests include asthma and allergic diseases in children, pediatric trauma and point of care ultrasound, pediatric observation medicine and alternatives to inpatient hospitalization.

Amy Lockwood, MSN, ANP-BC, AGANP-BC completed a Master’s of Science and Post- Master’s Certification from the University of Pennsylvania. She has over 12 years of experience in Advanced Practice in Emergency Medicine, and is currently the manager of the Advanced Practice team in the department. Amy has lead the inception of the Emergency Department Observation Unit in her current role, and continues to manage this unit. She has been part of a team of leaders who continue to trial innovated care pathways to increase the efficiency of the Observation Unit.

Chris is an emergency physician with over a decade of senior leadership experience managing and directing emergency department operations. He is formerly the Chief of Emergency Services at Bellevue Hospital in New York and the Chief of Clinical Operations for the Emergency Department at the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora. Chris is currently pursuing an executive healthcare MBA through the University of Colorado and resides in Denver.

Anthony M. Napoli, MD, EMHL, FACEP, has been Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Newport Hospital since 2015. Since assuming the leadership role, Dr. Napoli and his team have transformed the ED reducing door-to-provider times by 75%, and improving patient satisfaction from below the 50th percentile to more than the 90% percentile of like hospitals EDs across the U.S. Their work has been profiled in numerous newspapers, radio, and magazines. These operational improvements set the stage for an Emergency Department capital campaign to fund a $12.5 million renovation and expansion.

Prior his appointment at Newport Hospital, Dr. Napoli served as Treasurer and Finance Chair for the University Emergency Medicine Foundation (UEMF), which serves more than 250,000 ED patients annually. During that time, he also served as the Director of Emergency Department Observation Services at Rhode Island Hospital.

Dr. Napoli completed his Emergency Medicine Residency at the Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University and completed medical school at Georgetown University School of Medicine. He also earned an Executive Master of Healthcare Leadership degree (EMHL) at the Brown University, School of Public Health. He is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Brown University. Dr. Napoli has published more than 50 manuscripts in peer reviewed journals and presented more than 50 abstracts at national meetings.

Lyle has been in the mental health field for 36 years and has been in various leadership roles for the past 25 years. He has been the Director of Psychiatric Services at Billings Clinic since 2008 and has served as a part time instructor in the MHA program at Montana State University Billings since 2009. He is a Licensed Clinical Professional counselor and nationally certified as a mental health counselor. He has been a part of planning for major program and construction projects at Billings Clinic. He has a background in strategic planning and implementation as well as operational management. His dissertation was titled The Impact Of Organizational Leadership Culture On The Performance Of Strategic Management Initiatives. He has served on various non-profit boards and was active in coaching Highschool track and field for 11 years.

Dr. Anusha Smith is a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner with a Doctorate in Nursing Practice. She received her masters and doctorate at The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She currently works in the Duke University Hospital Emergency Department where she is the clinical team lead for the Psychiatric Evaluation Unit in the Emergency Department. She has worked extensively with multiple disciplines to improve and develop policies on the care and management of psychiatric patients in the Emergency Department. She has also developed and taught trainings for nursing, EMS and others on the care and management of psychiatric patients.

Amit Wadhwa is a board certified Emergency Physician who currently serves as the Medical Director for Utilization at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring Maryland. Prior to serving as Holy Cross Hospital's Medical director for Utilization he served as the assistant medical director of a 50,000 visit ED just outside of Washington D.C where he also served as the medical director for the Clinical decision Unit. He has served as a consultant to numerous hospitals to help optimize observation unit performance and has also lectured at the national level regarding Observation Medicine best practices. Additionally, he currently co- chairs the ACPA committee on Observation Medicine In addition to his experience in clinical operations, he has also served as a Consultant for the Delmarva foundation (Maryland's QIO) and has been a Physician accreditor for the Maryland institute of Emergency Medical Services Primary Stroke certification program. He has previously served as the medical director for the Washington D.C's Department of Fire and Emergency Medical services and has held faculty appointments in Emergency Medicine at both the George Washington and Howard University schools of Medicine.