Medical Quality Assurance Expert Witnesses

Dr. Jeffrey Stone, DO, MPH, FCCWS, specializing in Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine, served as Medical and Fellowship Director for the Hyperbaric Medicine Unit at the Institute for Exercise & Environmental Medicine at Texas Health Dallas from 1992- May 2016. Dr. Stone received his medical degree from Western States University and received a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University. Dr. Stone completed a residency in aerospace medicine at Brooks Air Force Base and a fellowship in hyperbaric medicine and Wound care at the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine. Dr. Stone started visiting nursing facilities in the Dallas Metroplex  in the early 1990's teaching, educating and caring for individuals with chronic wounds. He is one of the first 60 physicians in the U.S. to receive his certification in Wound Care. Dr. Stone currently provides care to patients in acute care, LTAC, long term care facilities SNF and Nursing Home) and outpatient care.

Dr. Stone has been widely published in many medical journals regarding his expertise in Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine. He serves as an Expert Witness for Peer Reviews, Legal Reviews, and Medical Malpractice Cases.

Areas of Expertise: Wound Care and Hyperbaric Oxygen-

• Pressure Sores
• Arterial Ulcers
• Diabetic Foot Wounds
• Acute Traumatic Ischemias
• Decubitus Ulcers
• Non-Healing Wounds, Venous or Arterial or Pressure Related

View Consulting Profile.

Rouzbeh R. Taghizadeh, PhD, is a Regenerative Medicine and Biomedical Engineering Expert offering more than 20 years of expertise as a Scientist, Innovator, and Entrepreneur in the development, processing, manufacturing of tissues, including bone marrow, umbilical cord (blood & tissue), amnion, chorion, placenta, adipose (fat), and other organs for clinical and non-clinical use, while considering the complex regulatory, trade secret, patent claims that arises from these areas.

Litigation Support - Dr. Taghizadeh provides subject matter expertise and expert witness testimony for scientific, technical, regulatory, trade secret and patent claims in the areas of:

Dr. Taghizadeh specializes in adult stem cells, primarily human hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cells, the regenerative cells involved in successful bone marrow and umbilical cord blood transplantations, uniquely positions him to approach science and business with the same keen powers of insight that have consistently reaped success surmounting scientific and medical barriers in the field. 

He earned his Ph.D. in Stem Cell Bioengineering in 2006 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and co-founded AuxoCell Laboratories, Inc. as Chief Scientific Officer in 2008 after completing his post-doctoral training from MIT and the Boston Biomedical Research Institute.

View Dr. Rouzbeh R. Taghizadeh's Consulting Profile.

Kimberly A. Baldwin-Stried-Reich, MBA, MJ, PBCI, CPHIMS, RHIA, CEDS, CPHQ, FAHIMA, has over 30 years of experience in a variety of healthcare settings. She specializes in Healthcare Informatics and HIPAA Compliance.

Ms. Reich holds a Master’s of Business (MBA) from the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, a Master’s of Jurisprudence (MJ) in Health Law and Policy from the Loyola School of Law - Beazley Institute for Health Law and Policy in Chicago, IL and a Post Baccalaureate in Clinical Informatics (PBCI) from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Clinical Informatics Certificate Program.  She is the first Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA) to complete the Johns Hopkins Division of Health Sciences Informatics Certificate Program and certification in EDiscovery. She is the lead author of the 2012 AHIMA publication E-Discovery and Electronic Records, a first of its kind healthcare e-discovery resources. 

Ms. Reich maintains active membership and participates in The Sedona Conference® for Privacy & Security & Electronic Records Production, American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), American Medical Informatics (AMIA), Healthcare Compliance Association (HCCA), Society for Corporate Compliance & Ethics (SCCE), Society for Participatory Medicine (SPM), American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM), Information Governance Initiative (IGI) and Greater Chicago Health Information Management Systems Society (GCCHIMSS).

Litigation Support - Ms. Reich is an expert witness for both defense and plaintiff legal counsel in matters involving HIPAA, e-discovery, and Electronic Health Records Systems fraud and abuse. Her services include thorough report preparation, depositions, and trial testimony. 

Areas of Expertise:

View Kimberly Reich's Consulting Profile.

Spine Surgery and Spine Medicine Consultant

The concepts of evidence-based medicine have been the cornerstone of Dr. Dillin’s education during his spine surgery fellowship in Neurosurgery and Orthopaedic Surgery and the format for decision-making in his subsequent practice. The critical analytic features inherent in the ‘best evidence’ approach to patients have permeated his writing and his lectures, allowing flexible adaptation as the science has changed. Since July 1985, Dr. Dillin has been exclusively devoted to clinical spine, interventional spine, and spine surgery practice. The combination of clinical critical thinking in conjunction with evidence-based medicine practice, allows spine specialty focus on any Independent Medical Evaluations or Medical-Legal Reviews. He is in clinical practice performing spine surgery, spine interventions, and evaluating patients with spine conditions. He is licensed in California, Texas, Arizona, Florida and Nevada. Dr. Dillin was a former partner at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic. I spent 2022-2023 in clinical practice and at the Effective Writing in Health Care program sponsored by Harvard Medical School. The program encompassed online and onsite (Boston) attendance. My study subject was the history of the expert witness in general, and more specifically, the medical expert witness. My capstone project, from the ‘Writing for the Public’, division is attached. This is the narrative account of “The Trial of the Medical Expert Witness.”

Litigation Support - For over 35 years, Dr. Dillin has traveled to refine and acquire the technical skills invested in Spine Surgery and Spine Interventions. His expert witness activity is embodied in his Harvard Capstone, "The Trial of the Medical Expert Witness." Dr. Dillin offers Independent Medical Evaluations and/or Medical-Legal Review, thorough reporting, depositions, and trial testimony as needed.

Areas of Expertise:

Health Law Network (HLN) brings together the range of special talent needed to address most cases involving concerns about the reasonableness of medical billing charges, proper reimbursement, adequacy of clinical documentation, insurance disputes, accuracy of coding and quality of care, as well as allegations of false claims, Medicare or Medicaid fraud, antitrust violations and more.

HLN's mission is to assist attorneys and those involved in the healthcare industry in their search for experienced professionals qualified to serve as Independent Investigators, Compliance Consultants, Expert Witnesses, or Litigation Support Professionals

Litigation Support - HLN's experts have provided expert testimony in administrative and regulatory proceedings, as well as in state and federal courts for civil and criminal cases, for plaintiffs and defendants. HLN offers Peer-reviewed methodologies and Appellate court proven testimony by experienced professionals who have provided consulting services and conducted audits and investigations for hundreds of hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare providers nationwide.

HLN's Consultants: Certified Coding Specialists (CCS and CCS-P); Certified Financial Forensics (CFF); Certified in Healthcare Compliance (CHC); Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE); Certified Healthcare Chart Auditor (CHCA); Certified Professional Coder (CPC and CPC-H); Financial Analysts; Statisticians, See Full List.

L. Lamar Blount, CPA - During 30+ years in serving the healthcare industry, Lamar has provided consulting services for hundreds of clients in over 40 states. Lamar co-authored two editions of books on Billing and Reimbursement for the AMA. 

Lamar has served as an expert in over 300 cases and has been admitted in multiple US District Courts, State Courts and Administrative Hearings. He has testified for and served plaintiffs and defendants, as well as for providers, payors and government clients. He is the president of HLN and provides quality reviews on all of our expert reports. 

Prior to creating Health Law Network in 2003, Lamar was founder and chairman of Healthcare Management Advisors (HMA) from 1990 to 2002. HMA provided compliance, reimbursement, coding, managed care, clinical data and financial management expertise to over 1,600 hospitals and hundreds of other healthcare providers nationwide and internationally. He sold his equity interest in HMA privately in 2002. 

From 1981 to 1990, he was a co-founder and the Audit and Healthcare Consulting Partner for Hyatt, Imler, Ott & Blount (HIOB), which became the 10th largest CPA firm in Atlanta. Lamar was also President of HOSPLAN Micro Systems (an affiliate), which developed and marketed microcomputer-based software for medical records, budgeting, and rate setting to over 600 hospitals nationwide. 3M Health Information Systems purchased HIOB & HOSPLAN.

From 1974 to 1981, Lamar was with the international Big-8 CPA firm of Ernst & Young, where he became a Manager, supervising healthcare audits, Medicare & Medicaid cost reports, rate-setting projects, and financial feasibility studies.

Timothy N. Henry, CPA is Vice President of Consulting Services, managing our team of multi-disciplinary consultants. He has served as a consulting or testifying expert on 200+ cases for Health Law Network since 2012, representing plaintiffs and defendants in Medical Billing and Reimbursement Disputes in multiple U.S. district and State Courts. He has also served in cases involving Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement issues, Medicare fraud, managed care contract payment disputes, life care plan projections, and lost profit and economic damage claims.

Since 1978, Tim has served the healthcare industry as an auditor, consultant, and financial executive. He has served multiple hospitals and multi-provider healthcare systems as Chief Accountant, Internal Auditor, Vice President for Finance, and Chief Financial Officer. These hospitals and healthcare systems included Emory University/Emory Healthcare System, Gwinnett Hospital System, Wesley Woods Center, and Union General Health System. Tim's healthcare provider experience includes responsibility for financial statements, managed care contracts, and the business office, including the chargemaster, facility and professional fee billing, and collections. 

Prior to HLN, Tim worked with founder Lamar Blount in two other healthcare businesses. Tim was a Healthcare Audit Partner at Hyatt, Imler, Ott & Blount (HIOB), which became the 10th largest CPA firm in Atlanta; and he was Vice President of Compliance Services at Healthcare Management Advisors (HMA), Alpharetta, Georgia, which served more than 1,500 hospitals and hundreds of other healthcare providers and organizations nationwide. At HMA, Tim served as the Compliance Officer for multi-campus healthcare providers and directed the firm’s Medicare and Medicaid risk assessment and compliance program engagements.

Tony W. Ulbrandt, MAcc, CFE, is HLN’s Executive Vice President and helps set the firm’s strategic direction. Tony previously served as a Consulting Manager with HLN and has served as a consulting or testifying expert on 200+ cases for Health Law Network since 2013, serving plaintiffs and defendants in medical billing and reimbursement disputes in multiple US District and State Courts. He has also served in cases involving medical malpractice, healthcare fraud, Medicare fraud, Qui Tam lawsuits, criminal sentencing hearings, and lost profit and economic damage claims.

Before HLN, Tony served as a Forensic Accountant with Assurance Forensic Accounting CPAs, where he worked on multiple cases calculating economic damages involving retail/wholesale, manufacturing, food processing, real estate, restaurants, tourism, professional/consulting firms, distribution, and construction. He was also a Senior Accountant with Credo Financial Services, where he performed business valuations and worked on litigation support cases, including lost profit analysis and forensic reconstruction of financial statements. Tony also served as Senior Forensic Accountant at DDS Financial, where he performed on-site forensic analyses and audits. Tony passed the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) exam in 2017 and obtained a BBA in Economics from the University of Georgia and a Master of Accounting from Florida Atlantic University.

View Health Law Network's Consulting Profile.

Gail Fisher, BSN, RN, CNOR, LNC, has over 40 years of experience in the healthcare industry with a primary focus on Perioperative Nursing services. Within this domain, her expertise lies in General, Orthopedic, Trauma, and Cardiac Surgery Procedures.

Ms. Fisher has gained fluency in various nursing surgical specialties, such as Scrub, Circulating, Charge, Cardiac Specialty Coordinator, Informaticist, Educator, and Perioperative Director. Additionally, she spent 5 years as a Quality Improvement Coordinator, conducting retrospective reviews of inpatient medical records and resolving documentation discrepancies for the cardiovascular lab. She has also played a crucial role in large-scale transition and activation projects, facilitating procedural areas and ensuring smooth moves into new healthcare facilities.

For a decade, Ms. Fisher has been dedicated to providing perioperative instruction and expert guidance to over 100 experienced transitioning and new grad nurses. Her unwavering commitment to excellence has made me a valuable asset in the healthcare industry.  She has designed, developed, and implemented a successful surgical technician program. 

Litigation Support - As an expert witness, Ms. Fisher's expertise in AORN standards, guidelines, and workflows is invaluable in providing credible, objective testimony in legal matters related to perioperative practices and procedures. Her extensive knowledge, proficiency, and insider's viewpoint in this domain make her well-equipped to deliver comprehensive support and insights. Additionally, Ms. Fisher's role as a Quality Improvement Coordinator has afforded her the opportunity to develop a high level of proficiency in identifying errors and missing information in patient records

Services:

• Comprehensive medical record review and analysis 
• Expert witness
• Detailed medical chronology, fact summary report with expert opinion for medical legal cases 
• Observation and reporting for defense medical exams 
• Expert witness location, demand letters, merit reviews, and declaration prep 

Skills: Training Course Development · Microsoft PowerPoint · CNOR · Cerner Educator · Cardiac Surgery · Certified Education Master

EXPERTISE IN: 1. The pathobiology, clinico-pathologic correlation, and histopathologic diagnosis of: diseases of the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, colon, rectum, anus, liver, and pancreas. 2. Human neoplasms (cancer) and preneoplastic conditions. 3. Establishing standard of care, causation and cause of death. 

BACKGROUND: 

1. Anatomic Pathology Residency: Washington Univ-Barnes Hospital 1991-94.
2. Oncologic Pathology Fellowship: M.D. Anderson Cancer Center 1994-95.
3. Gastrointestinal and Liver Pathology Fellowship: Harvard-Brigham & Women's Hospital 1995-96.
4. Instructor at Harvard Medical School: 1996-1998.
5. Assistant Professor and Director of Gastrointestinal Pathology Division at UT-Health Science Center-Hermann Hospital, Houston Medical Center: 08/1998 - 12/2000.
6. Staff GI Pathologist and Quality Assurance Director at Caris/Miraca Life Sciences, Dallas TX: 01/2001 - 04/2012.  Dr. Torres was instrumental in creating a unique model of Gastrointestinal Pathology subspecialty-focused laboratory, during his tenure at Caris/Miraca Life Sciences.
7. Staff Pathologist, Anatomic Pathology Division of the North Shore-LIJ Health System, Long Island NY: 05/2012 - 05/2015.
8. Staff Pathologist, Anatomic Pathology Division of Alliance Health Sciences, Dallas TX: 06/2015 - 05/2020.
9. Sole Proprietor of Expert Pathology Consultation Services Laboratory since 01/2020, which provides diagnostic pathology services to hundreds of clinicians of different subspecialties.         

Dr. Keith Chamberlin is an award-winning Anesthesiologist in active clinical practice. Georgetown educated, he is a former Dartmouth Faculty member and current Fellow of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. He is a former Hospital Chief of Staff and Decorated United States Army veteran.

Litigation Support - Dr. Chamberlin is available to serve as an expert witness on cases involving anesthesiology standard of care and causation.  He also has significant medical management experience, having served as the CEO of multiple medical groups and an accountable care organization (ACO). As such, he is also available to serve as an expert witness on cases involving physician credentialling, provider agreements, physician employment contracts, healthcare billing and fraud, safety, quality, etc.

Dr. Chamberlin offers expert witness services to attorneys representing plaintiff and defense. He is an experienced expert witness at both deposition and trial. His services include medical record review, thorough reporting, deposition, and testimony as needed.

Areas of Expertise:

Douglas W. Bowerman, MD, FACP, SFHM, FABQAURP, FAIHQ is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine. In his capacity as a Hospitalist, he provides full-time clinical care to hospitalized patients. Certifications and Associations - Dr. Bowerman is also Certified in Health Care Quality & Management and Fundamentals of Critical Care. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a Fellow of American Institute of Healthcare Quality, and a Senior Fellow of Hospital Medicine. Litigation Support - In addition to providing care for hospitalized patients, Dr. Bowerman operates a private consulting business that evaluates potential Medical Malpractice cases involving the clinical care provided by Hospitalists. Based on assessment of the case, he advises counsel on its merits, and when needed, writes formal reports, gives deposition testimony, and provides expert testimony in court. Dr. Bowerman supports both plaintiff and defense cases. In the twenty years he has offered litigation support services, he has reviewed over 900 cases, given 40+ depositions, and testified in court 10+ times. Areas of Expertise:

Presentations and Publications - Dr. Bowerman has authored several publications and delivered numerous presentations on such topics as Assigning Duty to Hospitalists, Eradicating Errors and Restoring Credibility, the Determination of Brain Death, and Hospitalists as Respected Attending Physicians.