Monica Oss, MS
Monica Oss, MS
Chief Executive Officer and Senior Associate, is the founder of OPEN MINDS. For the past three decades, Ms. Oss has led the OPEN MINDS team and its research on health and human service market trends and its national consulting practice. Ms. Oss is well known for her numerous books and articles focused on the strategic and marketing implications of the evolving health and human service field. She has unique expertise in payer financing models, provider rate setting, and service pricing. She has led numerous engagements with state Medicaid plans, county governments, private insurers, managed care programs, service provider organizations, technology vendors, neurotechnology and pharmaceutical organizations, and investment banking firms – with a focus on the implications of financing changes on delivery system design.
Prior to founding OPEN MINDS, Ms. Oss served as an executive with a national managed behavioral health organization, with responsibility for market development and actuarial analysis and capitation-based rate setting. She also held a position as vice president of the U.S. risk management and underwriting division of an international insurance company.
Ms. Oss earned her master’s degree at University of Minnesota.
Trina Histon, PhD
Trina Histon, PhD
Senior Principal Consultant in Prevention, Wellness, and Digital Health at Kaiser Permanente's Care Management Institute. She has built an extensive career in addressing prevention, wellbeing, behavior change, and emotional health by translating evidence into practice in healthcare in Ireland and the USA. Dr. Histon has been working in the digital space since 2010. She is currently co-lead for Project Chamai, which is working to deploy an ecosystem of digital mental health tools in Kaiser Permanente to support emotional wellness. Dr. Histon has been invited to act as an expert advisor for numerous organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, National Committee for Quality Assurance, National Quality Forum, Prescription for Activity Task Force, Strategies To Overcome & Prevent (STOP) Obesity Alliance, The Digital Therapeutics Alliance, and The Obesity Society. Dr. Histon is a member of the Society for Behavioral Medicine (SBM), the American Psychological Association (APA), The Obesity Society, NODE.Health, and Digital Medicine Society (DiMe).
Dr. Histon obtained a PhD in health psychology from University College Cork in Ireland.
John Torous, MD, MBI
John Torous, MD, MBI
Director of the Digital Psychiatry Division in the Department of Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a Harvard Medical School affiliated teaching hospital, where he also serves as a staff psychiatrist and assistant professor. Dr. Torous is active in investigating the potential of mobile mental health technologies for psychiatry and has published over 200 peer reviewed articles and five book chapters on the topic. He serves as editor-in-chief for Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Mental Health, web editor for Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Psychiatry, currently leads the American Psychiatric Association’s Health IT Committee, and is a senior member at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
Dr. Torous received an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and computer sciences from University of California Berkeley before attending medical school at University of California San Diego. He completed his psychiatry residency, fellowship in clinical informatics, and master's degree in biomedical informatics at Harvard University.
David C. Mohr, PhD
David C. Mohr, PhD
Professor of Preventive Medicine in the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, with appointments in Departments of Psychiatry and Medical Social Sciences. He is also the Director of Northwestern University’s Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies (CBITs). Dr. Mohr’s work lies at the intersection of behavioral science, technology, and clinical research, focusing on the design and implementation of interventions that harness digital technologies to promote mental health and wellness and explores the use of data from smartphone and wearable sensors to identify behavioral and psychological targets that can be used for intervention. Intervention research seeks to design and evaluate novel methods of using digital technologies that can support patients and providers. Services research uses design and clinical science methods to build and evaluate technology enabled services for mental health that can be sustainably implemented in real-world care settings. Dr. Mohr also leads a postdoctoral training program that co-trains fellows in both clinical science and human computer interaction to establish the next generation of researchers who can work across disciplines. Dr. Mohr’s research has been consistently funded for more than 25 years by the United States National Institutes of Health, numerous other federal agencies, and foundations, resulting in over 290 peer-reviewed publications and more than 25 book chapters.
Dr. Mohr earned his PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Arizona.
Susan T. Azrin, PhD
Susan T. Azrin, PhD
Chief of the Early Psychosis Services Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), where she also leads the Early Psychosis Intervention Network (EPINET), a learning health care system involving over 100 early psychosis care clinics nationwide. Dr. Azrin manages a research portfolio on diverse mental health services topics, including digital mental health interventions, treatment adherence, peer-delivered services, implementation science, and stigma reduction. She also developed and leads the NIMH services research program on improving health and reducing premature mortality in people with serious mental illness. In addition, Dr. Azrin serves as Science Officer for the Mental Health Research Network, a consortium of 14 research centers embedded in healthcare systems.
Dr. Azrin earned her doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Maryland.
Stephen Bartels, MD, MS
Stephen Bartels, MD, MS
Inaugural James J. and Jean H. Mongan Chair in Health Policy and Community Health in the Department of Medicine, Director of the Mongan Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. The Mongan Institute serves as the academic home for 13 centers and over 130 research faculty and research fellows at MGH dedicated to training and research in population and health care delivery team science aimed at achieving health equity and improving the lives of people with complex health needs. The Mongan Institute bridges research spanning data science to delivery science, and evaluative science to implementation science including a variety of disciplines and methods such as epidemiology, predictive analytics, cost-effectiveness, health policy, decision science, health disparities, health intervention, and implementation research. Although the Mongan Institute is based in the Department of Medicine, it includes health services researchers in affiliate departments across MGH including the Department of Psychiatry, Surgery, Pediatrics, and others. Dr. Bartels has authored over 360 publications, mentored over 50 early career investigators, and over the past two decades has led a highly productive research group developing, testing, and implementing interventions focused on complex health conditions and health disparities, co-occurring physical and mental disorders, health care management, health coaching, health promotion interventions for obesity and smoking, aging and geriatrics, automated telehealth and mobile technology, population health science, applied health care delivery science, and implementation science.
Dr. Bartels received a Masters in Clinical Evaluative Science from Dartmouth Medical School and a Doctor of Medicine from University of Virginia School of Medicine
Paul L. Jeffrey, PhD
Paul L. Jeffrey, PhD
Independent consultant specializing in Medicaid pharmacy, formulary development and delivery, value-based care and value-based therapeutics contracts, economics of the pharmacy marketplace, and prescription digital therapeutics. He recently retired from his role as Senior Director of Pharmacy in the Office of Clinical Affairs at the UMass Chan Medical School (UMMS) / Commonwealth Medicine. In this capacity, Dr. Jeffrey served as Senior Director of Pharmacy for MassHealth (Massachusetts Medicaid) and was responsible for the state’s pharmacy benefit for approximately 1.2 million of MassHealth’s 1.8 million members and a budget of $2.3 billion. He also coordinated clinical and business pharmacy relations with the state’s partner Medicaid managed care plans. Dr. Jeffrey is Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health at UMMS and is an invited lecturer at Boston University School of Medicine and Harvard University School of Public Health. He is the current President of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP). Dr. Jeffrey has 20 years of management experience in pharmacy managed care. Prior to joining MassHealth in 2001, he accumulated over 20 years of health system management experience in academic medical centers and has worked as a staff pharmacist in community pharmacy and hospital pharmacy settings. He has contributed many presentations and publications to the field of pharmacy practice.
Dr. Jeffrey received his undergraduate pharmacy degree from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Duquesne University. He completed a residency in Clinical/Hospital Pharmacy at Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Jason Kahn, PhD
Jason Kahn, PhD
Chief Science Officer and co-founder of Mightier. He combines his expertise in developmental psychology and mental health to create video games that help children build emotional strength and the ability to harness their emotions to overcome behavioral health challenges. While obtaining his PhD, Dr. Kahn began his appointment at Boston Children’s Hospital with the Department of Psychiatry and later joined Harvard Medical School as an Instructor. He continues to partner with both universities where he creates and researches new technology to address acute problems in pediatric mental health. Dr. Kahn also serves on the Executive Committee for the Brookline Schools Staff Children’s Center (BSSCC), a program designed to provide childcare services for public school teachers.
Dr. Kahn earned his PhD in education at Tufts University.
Bryan Kohl
Bryan Kohl
20-year technology professional who has spent his career working with start-ups and large organizations such as Bose Corporation and Dell Technologies. Now, as the Executive Director of MindWise Innovations, a service of Riverside Community Care, he leads all strategic, organizational, and business development efforts with a focus on transforming their behavioral health programs (e.g., Signs of Suicide, their evidenced-based suicide prevention program) in an effort to extend their scope of reach and impact across the globe.
Mr. Kohl enjoys playing the drums, spending time with friends, reading, running, and skiing during the winter months. He earned a Master of Science in adult education, instructional design, and multimedia cognition from Fordham University.
Dror Zaide, MBA
Dror Zaide, MBA
Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Eleos Health, a behavioral health VoiceAI company pioneering a new workflow solution that drives operational and clinical efficiency for behavioral health providers. Before Eleos Health, Mr. Zaide served as a drone pilot in the Israeli Air Force for thirteen years, where he rose the ranks and retired as Captain. During his service, Mr. Zaide directly witnessed many of his soldiers struggling with mental health issues such as Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which inspired him to launch the first PTSD workshop for drone pilots. This program has now been widely adopted on an institutional level in the air force, breaking the stigma that has historically silenced soldiers in need of mental health services. While attending University, Mr. Zaide co-founded Givit, a non-profit organization that helps students from low socio-economic backgrounds obtain access to better school supplies, books, computers, and additional resources for a successful academic experience.
Mr. Zaide holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.
Audrey Kern
Brian Pfister, PhD, MBA
Dr. Audrey Kern is board certified by the American Board of Preventative Medicine, the American Board of Addiction Medicine, and American Board of Emergency Medicine. She is currently Global Medical Director at Pear Therapeutics, serving as an expert in substance use disorder and opioid use disorder for the development of digital therapies.
Dr. Kern is an active leader, Distinguished Fellow, and currently serves as the Region III Director representing New England for the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). She has made significant contributions to the field of addiction medicine. As Medical Director for the Addiction Research Center at Dartmouth, Dr. Kern was active in the design and coordination of multi-center trials with a focus on increasing treatment options for alcoholism. During her tenure at the Addiction Treatment Program at Dartmouth, she was a collaborating physician in the Vermont Medication Assisted Treatment Learning Collaborative, helping to pioneer the Hub and Spoke model of addiction health care delivery. In addition, as a member of the Perinatal Treatment Program, she provided specialized treatment for pregnant and postpartum women with substance use disorders.
Dr. Kern earned her Doctor of Medicine degree from New York Medical College and completed her Emergency Medicine residency at Albany Medical Center. She was the recipient of the Air Force Health Professions Scholarship and served in the United States Air Force from 1985 through 1997. During her years of service, she also received the United States Air Force Medal for Meritorious Service.