Dr. Alan Dowling, a Weatherhead Affiliate Instructor, consults and researches internationally on health strategy, health information exchange, EHR and PHR adoption, technology-based process innovation and reengineering, and information systems design, adoption and outcome measurement. Additionally, he is an Adjunct Professor at Case Western Reserve University, responsible for graduate courses in health information systems.  He has published and lectured at leading institutions and conferences internationally on the adoption of health information technology, including EHRs and PHRs.  Dr. Dowling has over 35 years experience in health informatics having, as a U.S.A.F. officer, developed the conceptual design for a world-wide DoD EHR in 1975.

He recently served on the federal Office of the National Coordinator – Health Information Technology’s National Alliance Work Group on Defining Health Information Terms (EMR, EHR, and PRH).  He was a member of the Clinton Administration’s Health Care Reform Task Force; the Information Management Task Force of the JCAHO; the Health Information Infrastructure project of the Council on Competitiveness; the Long Range Informatics Board of the National Cancer Institute; the federal National Nursing Minimum Data Set Task Force; and the Boards of the VNAA, Georgetown University’s School of Nursing & Health Sciences, the Healthcare Informatics Telecom Network, Health Matrix, and Clinical Data Management.

Formerly a Partner with Ernst & Young, his positions included Director, Health Care Information Technology, and Director, Global Health Care Consulting.  He previously served as President of HealthMagic, Inc. (an early PHR start-up), as SVP of Covansys’ Health Division, as Executive Director of Noblis’ Center for Health Innovation, and Health Services Administrator and Director of Medical Systems of governmental academic medical center, hospitals and clinics (in which he designed an EMR intended for world-wide DoD use).  

Dr. Dowling also served as an Assistant Professor at the Schools of Medicine and Management, Case Western Reserve University and Adjunct Professor at the School of Nursing and Health Sciences at Georgetown.
His education includes:

• Ph.D. Health Care Management and Management Information Systems, MIT
• M.C.S. Computer Science, University of Dayton
• M.S. Engineering Management (Health Systems), Northeastern University
• A.B. Physics, Holy Cross