About ACCE

Ilir Kullolli is Executive Director of Information Services Strategic Initiatives and Facilities at Stanford Children's Health. Before Stanford, Ilir worked for Kaiser Permanente Clinical Technology, where he was the Regional Director of Clinical Systems Engineering in Northern California. Ilir has also held leadership positions in Biomedical Engineering for Brigham and Women's Hospital (Partners Healthcare) in Boston, MA and Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, CT. Before making the switch to Biomedical Engineering, Ilir worked in Information Technology as Technical Consultant and Project Manager for South End Consulting in Boston. Ilir holds a master's degree in Biomedical Engineering from University of Connecticut and a bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering from Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.

As an HTM/CE and Customer Success Leader, Priyanka Upendra oversees Asimily's products and services' implementation and adoption. As an advocate for patient safety, compliance, and cybersecurity in healthcare, Priyanka draws from over 15 years of experience in the industry. She is an active participant in the industry and standards organizations, serves as President of the American College of Clinical Engineering and Executive Member of Technology Management Council at the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation. She is a frequent speaker on subjects such as healthcare cybersecurity, patient safety initiatives, regulatory compliance, and clinical technology management. Priyanka serves as an adjunct professor with CHIME University and B.M.S College of Engineering teaching biomedical engineering and cybersecurity courses. In recognition of her contributions and accomplishments, she has been awarded by AAMI in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and by ACCE in 2019 and 2020. She was recognized as an AAMI Fellow in 2020 and HTM Leadership Award in 2022. Priyanka's background includes engineering and leadership roles with Philips Healthcare, GE Healthcare, Stanford University, Stanford Children's Health, Stanford Health Care, Intermountain Healthcare, and Banner Health. Her education includes a BS in Biomedical Engineering, MS in Biomedical Engineering, and Doctorate (candidate) in Strategic Leadership and Healthcare Administration.

Kim started his career at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto in 1979. Then in 1991, he joined ServiceMaster of Canada's (later Aramark Healthcare's) Clinical Engineering unit and led the national support and sales activities within Canada. Since 1997, Kim has been the Director of the Regional Clinical Engineering Service Program based out of the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) in Ottawa, Canada from 1997 until his retirement in March of 2023. The regional team provides external services to 19 hospitals at 29 sites in Eastern Ontario. Under his leadership, the CHEO Clinical Engineering Department was selected as the winner of the 2016 International Federation of Medical and Biomedical Engineering (IFMBE)'s outstanding Clinical Engineering Teamwork award. He remains on staff at CHEO presently as a part time consultant. He has contributed significantly in the advancement of the field with international and national publications and has encouraged his team's involvement with Biomedical Engineering programs in the local universities. As a result of his local university involvement, he has been appointed Adjunct Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Ottawa. Kim was the recipient of the 2017 ACCE Advocacy Professional Achievement in Management / Managerial Excellence Award and was made a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada in 2018, a Fellow of the Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society in 2020 and a Fellow of the American College of Clinical Engineering in 2021. Kim serves on three other healthcare related Boards in Canada and holds a Master's degree in Biomedical Engineering from Carleton University.

Katherine Navarro is a Biomedical Engineer with the VHA Office of Healthcare Technology Management (HTM) where she supports the Biomedical Engineering field in the VA from a national level. Katherine has been with the VA in the Healthcare Technology Management field for thirteen years. She began her career in the VA at the Central Texas Veterans Healthcare System in Temple, Texas as a trainee in the VA's Technical Career Field (TCF) Biomedical Engineering program. Upon completion of the TCF program, Katherine moved to San Antonio, Texas and was a Biomedical Engineer at the South Texas Veterans Healthcare System for approximately ten years, supporting the Biomedical Engineering department as a project manager for new medical equipment implementations. In 2020, Katherine began her new role for the Office of HTM, working virtually from San Antonio. Katherine served as the chair of the ACCE's Body of Knowledge Committee from 2017 – 2019 and on the ACCE Board as a Member at Large from 2020 – 2022. Katherine earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from Texas A&M University. She has also earned professional certification in federal program/project management and is a Certified Clinical Engineer.

Michele Manzoli is Manager of Clinical Engineering with Cedars-Sinai, where he supports medical device connectivity systems as well as nurse call, environmental monitoring, clinical communication, alarm management, infant protection, and asset tracking systems. He started his career over 10 years ago in Italy, where he worked in the Medical Device Regulatory Affairs field. He had clinical engineering experiences in Italy, the United Kingdom, and Connecticut, before moving to Los Angeles in 2016. Michele was the winner of the 2015 ACCE Student Paper Competition, and he presented at national and international conferences (AIIC 2012, AAMI 2022, AIIC 2022). Michele earned his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Bologna (Italy), a M.S. in Clinical Engineering from the University of Trieste (Italy) and a M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from UCONN (USA). He is a Professional Engineer in Italy and a Certified Clinical Engineer in the US.

Bhaskar Iduri is currently the IT Director of Clinical Engineering at Sharp Healthcare, in San Diego. Prior to Sharp Healthcare, Bhaskar served as VP of HTM; Quality Assurance at RENOVO SOLUTIONS LLC in Irvine, CA and has been in the HTM field for the past 10 years. Bhaskar is a Certified Clinical Engineer (CCE) and a Certified Healthcare Technology Manager (CHTM). Bhaskar served as chair of ACCE BOK Committee in 2020-2021. He is also a member of AAMI's Technology Management Council. Bhaskar has published articles in AAMI peer-reviewed journal BI&T and, has co-presented at the annual AAMI conference & MD Expo. Bhaskar holds a master's degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Wright State University and a bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University.

Arif is the Chief Biomedical Engineer at VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. Arif is a VA TCF Preceptor for clinical engineers/BMETs, an Adjunct Professor, Biomedical Engineering at University of Connecticut and Lecturer, Biomedical Engineering, Southern California Institute of Technology. Arif has three decades of clinical engineering experience in both public and private sector and has worked at several university hospitals and a large national independent service organization. He is nationally recognized as a resource and educator on codes, standards, accreditation, quality assurance, safety, clinical engineering education and certification. He is a frequent author and speaker at local, national, and international venues. Arif was the Senior Clinical Engineer at Masterplan, and Chief Biomedical Engineer at VA Nebraska and VA South Texas. In 2013, he received the ACCE Professional Development/ Managerial Excellence Award. In 2012, he received the AAMI Leadership Award and in 2022, he received the ACCE Tom O'Dea Advocacy Award.

Ilir Kullolli is Executive Director of Information Services Strategic Initiatives and Facilities at Stanford Children's Health. Before Stanford, Ilir worked for Kaiser Permanente Clinical Technology, where he was the Regional Director of Clinical Systems Engineering in Northern California. Ilir has also held leadership positions in Biomedical Engineering for Brigham and Women's Hospital (Partners Healthcare) in Boston, MA and Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, CT. Before making the switch to Biomedical Engineering, Ilir worked in Information Technology as Technical Consultant and Project Manager for South End Consulting in Boston. Ilir holds a master's degree in Biomedical Engineering from University of Connecticut and a bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering from Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.

Suly Chi has been the ACCE secretariat since 2010. Prior to joining ACCE, she worked as a research engineer at the Brazilian Telecommunication Research Center (CPqD- Telebras) and as a project engineer at the engineering firm ESCA, both in Brazil. Suly earned a bachelor's degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and a master's degree in System Engineering from Boston University.

Jim Panella is Director of Clinical Engineering/IT at University of Illinois Hospital and Health Science System in Chicago, Illinois. Jim received a bachelor's degree in Technical Management from DeVRY Institute of Technology. He started his career in Clinical Engineering 37 years ago at University of Chicago Medical Center and has been a Director of Clinical Engineering for the past 29 years. During his career, he also has had responsibility for many Support Service departments; Equipment Distribution, Patient Transportation, Mail Center Services, and Medical Center Parking where he initiated many process improvements programs. Jim served as ACCE Treasurer in 2015-2019 and as ACCE Secretary in 2014-2015.

Kevin Kreitzman is currently the Director of Biomedical Engineering at Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he has held previous positions as a Senior Clinical Engineer, and more recently of Assistant Director of Clinical Engineering. In addition to Brigham and Women's Hospital, Kevin has also held leadership positions at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, previously serving as their Director of Clinical Engineering. Kevin has both his Master's and Bachelor's Degree in Biomedical Engineering and is a Certified Clinical Engineer. Kevin served as ACCE Advocacy Committee Chair in 2019 – 2022.

As a Senior Engineering Manager in ECRI's Device Evaluation Group, Erin Sparnon leads a team of engineers and analysts in the testing and evaluation of medical devices as well as accident and forensic investigations involving device failures. She also provides consulting services for hospitals and health systems and coordinates with ECRI's risk and patient safety departments to help shape EHR and HIT safety initiatives. Since joining ECRI Institute in 2002, Ms. Sparnon has focused on reducing medication errors through research and education, including dozens of comparative evaluations and guidance articles. She has spoken on infusion safety technologies and medical device integration at several national conferences hosted by groups such as the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). Ms. Sparnon also contributed research to the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority as a Senior Patient Safety Analyst, co-authoring a landmark survey analysis of safety events related to the electronic health record (EHR). This study has received national attention as one of the first large-scale surveys of EHR-related risks and hazards. She also authored studies on errors related to the use of default values in EHR and on errors related to hybrid electronic-and-paper workflows.

Ashley O'Mara, MS CCE, is currently the VA New England Healthcare System Chief Clinical Engineer. Prior to this role she has held various Clinical Engineering positions within the VA Healthcare System. Ashley has both her Master's and Bachelor's in Biomedical Engineering and is a Certified Clinical Engineer. She is currently the President of the New England Society of Clinical Engineering (NESCE).