The Company

 

330 East Liberty, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 :: (616) 834-0993

vCases has a heritage of consistently winning competitive NIH grants awarded to its parent company, NotABook Publishing (now vCases). The company has a history of applying established educational principles to browser-based educational software for middle school, high school, and pre-medical students. The most recent grant awarded to vCases was a $1M SBIR grant for the development of an interactive program designed to put users in the role of virtual clinicians. vCases is now focused on enhancing the diagnostic skills of medical students, nurse practitioner students, physician assistant students, and more. Given the current recognition of the serious problems associated with diagnostic error and the dire need for high quality remote learning tools, we see an enormous potential in a virtual program that uses sound educational approaches to teach and assess diagnostic competency under realistic conditions.

CEO

Keleigh Anders, MS/MFA

Education: MS/MFA, University of Michigan, Biomedical Visualization and Public Health; BS, Alma College, pre-med & illustration

Relevant Background: Deep experience (2002) with the core team developing predecessors of and contributing to the formation of vCases. Former Director of Research & Operations.

Comment about vCases: It has been a privilege to work to bottle the magic contained in the decades of clinical diagnostic experience we have amassed. There’s something of an art to diagnosis and our job has been to scale the sharing of that process for future clinicians. I believe vCases has achieved that goal.


CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER

Paul Howell, PhD

Education: PhD, University of Michigan; MS, University of South Carolina; BS, Allegheny College

Academic Positions: Associate Professor of Geology, University of Kentucky

Relevant Background: 20+ years professional web app development

Comment about vCases:It’s a great pleasure to work on an educational platform for students who really appreciate both the content and how it’s delivered.


FOUNDER & BOARD CHAIR

A. Rees Midgley, MD

Education: MD, University of Vermont

Academic Positions: Sarah Mellon Scaife Fellow in Pathology, University of Pittsburgh and University of Michigan; Professor of Pathology, Founder, Reproductive Sciences Program and Reproductive Endocrinology Program, Director, Center for Human Growth and Development, all University of Michigan.

Relevant Background:  President, Society for the Study of Reproduction; Founder, NotABook Publishing, April, 2000, a for-profit company devoted to motivational web-based publishing; Founder, inDepthLearning, April, 2001, a 501(c) non-profit company devoted to novel approaches for learning; Founder, vCases, August, 2011, a dba of NotABook Publishing.

Comment about vCases: Our instantly accessible library provides a unique way to learn medicine, work up virtual patients, and develop diagnostic reasoning skills. Users and mentors can visualize, analyze, and assess each decision in the path to diagnosis.


SENIOR EDITORIAL ADVISOR

Lewis J. Kleinsmith, PhD

Education: PhD, University of Michigan, Rockefeller University

Academic Positions: Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Emeritus of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan; Guggenheim Fellow, University of Florida Medical School

Relevant Background: Author of several cell biology and cancer biology textbooks; author of educational software and website materials that received awards from the National Institutes of Health and the EDUCOM Higher Education Software Awards.

Comment about vCases: Allowing students to make their own decisions while working up virtual patients, and then providing educational feedback regarding their decisions and conclusions, is designed to help reduce diagnostic error.


CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER

Charles Hodge, MD

Education: MD, Princeton University, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Clinical Training:  Surgery at Presbyterian Hospital- NYC and Yale-New Haven Hospital; Neurosurgery at Upstate Medical University and The London Hospital.

Education Positions: Professor and Chair, Neurosurgery, Upstate Medical University; Member and Vice President of The American Board of Neurological Surgery, Member and President of the Society of Neurological Surgeons

Comment about vCases: For every patient encounter, if the diagnosis is wrong, everything else that happens to the patient will be wrong. Superior diagnostic skill based on history and examination is essential for every physician.


ASSISTANT EDITOR

Bonnie Fauman, MD

Education: MD, Florida State Unversity, Tufts University School of Medicine

Academic Position: Associate Professor Emerita of Psychiatry, University of Michigan

Relevant Background: Editorial board, National Board of Medical Examiners, USMLE; Editorial Board, initial creation of Specialty Board Examination in Emergency Medicine; Editorial Board, Psychiatry Residency in-service Training Examination (PRITE)


ASSISTANT EDITOR

Olubunmi Olorundami, MD

Education: MD, University of Ilorin Faculty of Health Science, MBBS

Clinical Training: Residency at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center – Pediatrics

Relevant Background: Pediatric clinician at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin


ASSISTANT EDITOR

Mirela Bruza-Augatis, MS, PA-C

Education: MS in Physician Assistant Studies, Pace University; BS in Physician Assistant Studies, Pace University; BA in Chemistry, SUNY Geneseo

Academic Position: Assistant Chair at Seton Hall University Department of Physcian Assistant Studies, prior Clinical Preceptor for physician assistant students in the Pace University–Lenox Hill Hospital Physician Assistant Program

Relevant Background: Clinical practice in endocrinology and family practice


ASSISTANT EDITOR

Kamran Husain, MD


BOARD MEMBER

Jane Wilson Coon, RN, PhD

Education: BSN, University of Michigan; MS, U.C.L.A.; PhD, UCSF

Academic Positions:  Assistant Professor Emerita of Psychiatry and Nursing Faculty, University of Michigan; Previously: University of Toronto, Associate Professor, Chairman, Basic Undergraduate Program.

Relevant Background:  Founding Treasurer, Canadian Counicil of Cardiovascular Nurses; Sigma Theta Tau (International Nursing Honor Society).

Comment about vCases:  Simulation has been demonstrated to be an effective way to teach and doing it virtually adds a wholly new dimension.


Attorneys: Bodman, PLC, headquarters in Ford Field, Detroit, MI

Accountants: Curtis, Bailey, & Exelby, Ann Arbor, MI