Keynote Speaker

Michelle O'Connor

Michelle O'Connor

MEDITECH, President & COO

As President and COO of MEDITECH, Michelle O’Connor ensures our Electronic Health Record meets today’s evolving industry and regulatory standards, while providing the optimal user experience for our customers. This includes her integral role in developing MEDITECH’s intuitive Expanse user interface and web-based future.

Ms. O’Connor takes pride in maintaining a strong balance between the needs of the business and the needs of her staff, which she sees as closely aligned. She views a passionate and talented workforce as integral to the company’s innovation and personalized customer support. She has been at the forefront of rejuvenating our approach to staff retention through volunteerism opportunities, professional growth, and increased executive interaction with staff, all while maintaining the company’s unique family-oriented culture.

Ms. O’Connor first joined MEDITECH as an implementation programmer in 1988, and soon after pursued a management path overseeing process changes and shaping technical support procedures. As vice president of product development, she was known for her positive approach to problem-solving. In this role, Ms.O’Connor was instrumental in modernizing the look and feel of our legacy applications, overseeing our physician product development, and working towards an agile development platform. Her development experience has driven her passion for understanding user stories and identifying the root cause of any issue, whether it’s a customer requesting a software change or an employee struggling with a process.

Ms. O’Connor is a graduate of Bridgewater State College, with a dual degree in math and computer science.


Helen Waters

Helen Waters

MEDITECH, Executive Vice President

Helen Waters is focused on listening to, acting on, and delivering for the healthcare organizations she serves. As executive vice president, with extensive field sales and operations experience, she leverages her deep understanding of the industry, customers’ needs and concerns to deploy a cohesive approach to communicating who MEDITECH is as a company—throughout the marketplace and around the world.

Previously in her role as vice president of the 5x division, Ms. Waters was responsible for the development, implementation, and service of our MAGIC and Client/Server customers as well as our Home Care division in Atlanta. Ms. Waters also served previously as a regional sales director, helping to solidify MEDITECH’s presence in the Midwest sales region. In addition, she was the lead sales contact for one of MEDITECH’s largest customers, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA).

Throughout her career, Ms. Waters’ strong bonds with customers and dedication to exceptional customer service have made her stand out from the pack. Ms. Waters is always thinking of new ways to increase customer engagement, and to help MEDITECH facilities make the most of their EHR solutions. Reporting directly to the CEO, Helen continuously assesses the healthcare industry, and helps make strategic decisions that impact our future, leveraging her experience and insights into both MEDITECH and the industry.


Hoda Sayed-FrielHoda Sayed-Friel

MEDITECH, Executive Vice President

Hoda Sayed-Friel charts MEDITECH’s strategic direction—including overseeing the evolution of MEDITECH’s Electronic Health Record—and aligns it with Client Services to optimize the customer experience. Ms. Sayed-Friel was promoted to executive vice president in recognition of her proven ability to create, coordinate, and communicate matters of strategy.

Ms. Sayed-Friel is also responsible for our implementation and customer service teams, as well as our business development—building strategic partnerships that provide value to the MEDITECH system. She leverages the collective expertise of the MEDITECH community to address the complex challenges facing healthcare organizations.

With her clinical degree and experience, Ms. Sayed-Friel recognizes the importance of including the healthcare provider’s perspective in systems design, and she has influenced the development and adoption of Advanced Clinical Systems. She has been actively involved in discussions with healthcare providers and consumers to promote care coordination, interoperability, and disease management, highlighting the importance of using information systems to help promote wellness and improve outcomes.

Ms. Sayed-Friel is a leading advocate for the use of IT to improve the safety, quality, and efficiency of healthcare. She has spearheaded both national and local efforts to promote the widespread adoption of EHRs, consulting with national leaders on issues ranging from standards development to successful adoption strategies and serving on the National Academy of Medicine workgroup for Genomics & EHR integration as well as bipartisan committees that guide the government in EHR regulations.

Ms. Sayed-Friel earned a Bachelor of Science from Northeastern University (class of 1980) and before coming to MEDITECH, worked at New England Baptist Hospital in Boston Massachusetts. She has been with MEDITECH for over 31 years and is widely respected for her expertise in the development and implementation of interoperable healthcare delivery systems.


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Ana Navarro

Political Strategist and Analyst

Ana Navarro is a well-known Republican strategist and a political analyst for CNN, CNN en Español, ABC News, and Telemundo. She is also a political contributor on ABC’s The View. The Miami New Times named her a “Republican power-consultant,” and the Tampa Bay Times called her “a sought-after voice in Republican politics and an adviser for any presidential hopeful,” saying, “with confidants Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio she is poised to play a big role in the GOP response to immigration reform and Hispanic outreach.” Respected on both sides of the aisle for her straight shooting and candor, Navarro frequently appears in the media, sought after by Meet the Press, Bill Maher’s Real Time, Anderson Cooper 360, and The View, to name a few. “Ana speaks the truth, and she is willing to speak the truth to power without reservation…She has the ear of lots of elected officials,” said Republican consultant Brett O’Donnell. She is in touch with the political issues people are talking about, and in presentations, she discusses the latest hot button issues in politics, giving audiences an insider’s view of the upcoming elections and a roadmap for where the country is headed.

Navarro most recently served as the national Hispanic co-chair for Governor Jon Huntsman’s 2012 campaign and the national co-chair of John McCain’s Hispanic Advisory Council in 2008, where she was also the national surrogate for the McCain 2008 campaign. She has played a role in several federal and state races in Florida. She served on Governor Jeb Bush’s transition team in 1998 and was his first director of immigration policy in the Executive Office of the Governor.

In 2001, she served as ambassador to the United Nation’s Human Rights Commission, devoting much of her energy to condemning human rights abuses in Cuba. In 1999, she worked in the private sector, representing private and public clients on federal issues, particularly related to immigration, trade, and policy affecting Central America. In 1997, she was a special advisor to the government of Nicaragua and was one of the primary advocates for NACARA (Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act).

Navarro is a graduate of the University of Miami. In 1993, she obtained her BA in Latin American studies and political science. She obtained a Juris Doctorate in 1997. She was born in Nicaragua, and in 1980, as a result of the Sandinista revolution, she and her family immigrated to the United States.