Meet the Judges:
Steve Aylward, Microsoft, General Manager, Solutions & Strategy, U.S.
Health & Life Sciences
Steve Aylward is Microsoft’s General Manager of Solutions & Strategy for the U.S.
Health & Life Sciences (HLS) team. Steve joined Microsoft in 2006 after thirteen
years at Siemens Medical Solutions (SMS) where he was the Vice President and
National Sales Director responsible for Revenue Cycle Solutions.
At Microsoft, Steve is responsible for solution development, strategy, and strategic relationships for a $2.3
billion business that spans healthcare providers, health plans, the life sciences, and Health & Human
Services in the U.S. His efforts are part of Microsoft’s continued and growing commitment to enabling the
healthcare industry to realize its potential for improved quality and safety, and reduced costs through the
use innovative technologies.
At Siemens, Aylward gained an in-depth knowledge of the need for providers, health plans, and other
healthcare parties to collaborate and connect for better health outcomes through his five years as
National Sales Director for Siemens’ subsidiary Healthcare Data Exchange (HDX). His experience there
dovetailed with many of the key business issues currently facing healthcare today: clinical collaboration,
the need to better leverage the information contained in electronic health records to improve health, and
the increasing demand for consumers to take ownership of their health. Prior to Siemens, Aylward was a
consultant with the firm of A.T. Hudson & Co of Los Angeles, CA managing projects in the areas of clinical
and administrative simplification.
Aylward holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and grew up in
Mountain View, California. He maintains various trade association relationships with the Healthcare
Financial Management Association (HFMA), Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS),
and American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). His local community service activity
includes serving on the Board of Directors for TechImpact, a not-for-profit business that provides
technology services to small and emerging not-for-profit organizations as well as serving on the Board of
Directors of the American Red Cross for Southeastern Pennsylvania. Aylward was also recently appointed
as a Trustee to Paoli Hospital’s Foundation. The Foundation is the fundraising organization for Paoli
Hospital, a member of the MainLine Health System in suburban Philadelphia.
From a personal perspective, Steve and his wife are residents of Malvern, PA and have two daughters
currently attending college. He is a lifetime member of the UCLA Alumni Association and actively
supports the university’s educational and athletic programs through the Chancellor’s Circle Program.
Bill Crounse, MD
Senior Director, Worldwide Health
Bill Crounse, MD, is responsible for providing worldwide thought leadership, vision,
and strategy for Microsoft technologies and solutions in the health industry. Prior
to joining Microsoft, Dr. Crounse was Senior Vice President, CIO and Chief Medical
Information Officer for Overlake Hospital Medical Center and the Overlake Venture
Center in Bellevue, Washington. He is also the co-founder of a technology company
dedicated to improving information exchange and connectivity between physicians
and their patients.
Dr. Crounse is known internationally for his work in medical communications and information technology.
He was the executive producer, creator and host of the on-line video series Microsoft Health Tech Today.
He is the founder and primary contributor to Microsoft’s HealthBlog. He is also known for his work in
television broadcasting through the many years he was affiliated with ABC Network News, Lifetime
Medical Television, Discovery, Medical News Network and other outlets. Prior to joining Overlake Hospital
in 1995, Dr. Crounse was a physician and medical executive with Virginia Mason Medical Center and
Group Health in Seattle. He received his B.S. Degree at the University of Puget Sound and is a graduate of
the Medical University of Ohio. As a board certified family physician, he practiced medicine in the Seattle
area for 20 years.
Clifford Goldsmith, MD, Health Care Strategist
Clifford Goldsmith, Managing Director for the US Provider Industry, develops
and delivers Microsoft’s business strategy for the Microsoft field as they
engage with healthcare providers. Dr. Goldsmith brings a unique experience
to Microsoft as a physician who also has over twenty-eight years of know-how
envisioning, designing, developing, and selling high-performance technology
solutions for the healthcare industry. He specializes in technology for shared
accountability for health.
Dr. Goldsmith has been with Microsoft’s Healthcare team for more than 15 years. In his tenure with
Microsoft Corporation he has served in several roles before his current one including Health Care
Strategist for the North East US, Managing Consultant in Microsoft Consulting Services for Healthcare and
a national Health Plan Strategist. Dr. Goldsmith has focused on numerous areas of healthcare information
technology including accountable care organizations and patient centered medical homes, healthcare
analytics, pharmaceutical clinical trials, medical devices and embedded systems, agents for home care,
patient engagement, Microsoft’s Physician Digital Dashboard and Clinical Portals.
He has also served as Chief Medical Officer of Aptima Corporation, where he led a team in transitioning
well-tested concepts on human-centered engineering from aviation and the military into healthcare. Prior
to joining Microsoft in 1998, Dr. Goldsmith was the co-founder of LINK Medical Computing, which
produces a commercial product for integrating medical devices with Hospital Information Systems.
Before LINK, he worked for Harvard University’s Department of Medicine and the Center for Clinical
Computing, developing and managing various aspects of the HIS for both Beth Israel and Brigham and
Women’s Hospitals. During this appointment, he pioneered full, remote access electrocardiograph (ECG)
integration HIS and implemented it at the Beth Israel Hospital. He was a founding member of Microsoft
Healthcare Users Group (MSHUG) and joined the HL7 (Health Level 7) Committee in its early years.
Dr. Goldsmith received a B.S. and a M.D. from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. He has
practiced clinical medicine and also worked for the National Center for Occupational Healthcare, Division
of Epidemiology, Johannesburg, South Africa, where he designed, developed and supported software for
clinical research, including pulmonary function and surgical pathology databases.
Dr. Goldsmith has actively participated in Massachusetts health initiatives including the MHDC, eHC and
the recent efforts on affordable, available health insurance. He has worked with HIMSS, AHIP, CCOW and
HL7 committees.
Gareth Hall, Director, Microsoft Worldwide Health
Having run a large IT team in the UK National Health Service (NHS) for several
years, Gareth joined Microsoft in 2002 to work with the UK NHS account team,
then moved to run the Windows Server business in the UK. Since December
2010, he has been at Microsoft HQ in Seattle, initially responsible for marketing
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure as part of the Server and Cloud team and most recently with responsibility
for leading the mobility in health business, as part of the Worldwide Health team.