Introducing Merritt Widen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Clarity Telehealth, based in San Rafael, Calif.

Clarity Telehealth was founded by an All-Star team consisting of pioneers in behavioral Telehealth, eminent psychiatrist-executives, experienced healthcare industry leaders and world renowned surgeons to address a critical treatment gap in behavioral healthcare.

Over 8 million people undergo major life-changing surgeries in the US each year, and very few have access to the mental health support they need to recover. Such procedures as open heart surgery, neurosurgery, amputation, mastectomy, bariatric and spinal surgeries are highly associated with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and even psychosis brought on by the understandable stress. Untreated mental health issues result in patient non-compliance to treatment plans, higher mortality risk, lower patient satisfaction and poorer surgical outcomes. Clarity develops mental health support programs for specific surgical procedures and patient populations. Services are delivered in the patient’s home by Clarity clinicians, efficiently and stress free, through our comprehensively supported Telehealth system.

Clarity’s mission is to change the way surgery interfaces with mental health in the years to come.

Clarity CEO, Merritt Widen, has been involved with entrepreneurial ventures for over 35 years. An alumnus of the University of Chicago, Stanford and the Harvard Business School, Merritt started Great Lakes Partners, an options and commodities trading house, soon after graduation. It eventually had memberships on the CBOE, Chicago Merc, Amex, Philadelphia Stock Exchange and Kansas City Board of Trade. Merritt launched a boutique investment bank, Heartland Financial Corp. in 1990, which specialized in working with start ups and as court appointed investment bankers/managers for companies in reorganization. As CEO, he worked with companies across a wide spectrum of industries, from high tech to truck parts, medical devices to spring water. His international experience includes working with companies in the UK, Mexico, Russia and Romania. Merritt founded Forefront TeleCare in 2009 which he led for over a decade and is now a national leader in providing behavioral care via Telehealth to seniors in 40 states. He is considered a pioneer and thought leader in the behavioral Telehealth industry.

Joining Merritt Widen is Steven P. James, MD, MBA, a distinguished fellow of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, lifetime fellow of the American Board of Sleep Medicine, and published author of books, scientific journals and presenter at international medical congresses for over three decades. He is a co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Clarity Telehealth and is passionate about enhancing patient access to psychiatric treatment and the continuing advances in neurosciences. Prior to Clarity, he worked within the pharmaceutical industry for over twenty-five years building high performance teams and held both clinical research and Medical Affairs leadership roles in several companies including Eli Lilly & Co., Allergan, Shire, Merck-Serono and Elan Pharmaceuticals. During his tenure in industry, he championed innovative approaches to improving patient diagnosis, recruitment, and clinical outcomes in multiple therapeutic areas including psychiatry, obesity and pain.

A graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, he completed his internship and residency in psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine, New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Stanford University School of Medicine. After completion of his training, he was a research fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) followed by assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine before embarking on his career in industry. He has a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of California, Irvine with a special emphasis in strategic planning.

Introducing Jeffrey Hausfeld, MD, MBA, Chairman of the Board and Chief Medical Officer, BioFactura, Inc., and Chairman and Co-Founder of SoPE (Society of Physician Entrepreneurs) based in Frederick, MD

BioFactura is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops high-value biosimilar (generic biologics) and biodefense drugs using its patented StableFast™ Biomanufacturing Platform, the optimal system for bringing these medicines to market with faster, lower cost, superior-quality manufacture.

Dr. Jeffrey Hausfeld has served on the national board and committees of specialty medical societies since he began his practice in Otolaryngology/Facial Plastic Surgery in 1982. He is an Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery at George Washington University School of Health Sciences and an alumnus of the Yale University School of Medicine.

Dr. Hausfeld is widely published in the medical literature, is the pioneer of innovative laser surgery techniques, is the author of a lay oriented medical book on snoring and sleep apnea, and has appeared on numerous local and national television and radio shows as a medical expert. He has also served as a health care consultant, spokesperson, and executive coach for multi-national pharmaceutical companies, health care firms, as well as the U.S. military. Dr. Hausfeld stepped down from his clinical duties after receiving a Masters in Business Administration from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Hausfeld is presently developing assisted living facilities specializing in Alzheimer’s and dementia care. He serves as a consultant to several healthcare/life science startups in diagnostics, devices, biotech and Health IT. He also serves on the Investment Advisory Board of the Center for Innovation Technology’s Life Science Gap Fund. The fund supports promising healthcare and life sciences ventures in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Dr. Hausfeld is the Chairman and Founder of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs, a global network focused on educating healthcare and life science professionals in Bioentrepreneurship and Innovation. Dr. Hausfeld is orchestrating the Series C Financing of BioFactura and acted as the lead investor in previous rounds. He serves as Chairman of the Board of BioFactura as well as their Chief Medical Officer as the company develops its Biosimilar platform as well as its novel Bio-defense therapeutics.

Joining Jeffrey Hausfeld is Darryl Sampey, PhD, who co-founded BioFactura in 2004 and has guided the venture over the past 15 years from start-up through incubator stages to become a significant biopharmaceutical product development and clinical manufacturing company. As President and CEO, Dr. Sampey manages all strategic and scientific endeavors of the Company.

Before BioFactura, he led both process development and manufacturing teams at Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (HGS) honing his skills developing and scaling up new biologics processes and control strategies. During his tenure with HGS, Dr. Sampey played key roles in the start-up, commissioning, and validation of the company’s first cGMP manufacturing facility and associated development laboratories. Prior to his work at HGS, Dr. Sampey gained industrial experience in the commercial research laboratory designing and optimizing fermentation and product recovery processes for novel vaccines at North American Vaccine, Inc. His work in vaccine research has since progressed to internationally-approved vaccines for whooping cough in infants and meningitis in adults. Darryl Sampey began his career in biotechnology at the University of Maryland graduating first in his class with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering, Magna Cum Laude, and, subsequently earned a Ph.D. in Bioengineering.