Luis Kun, Ph.D.
Dr. Luis Kun is a Senior Research Professor of Homeland Security at the iCollege of the National Defense University where he developed and is the Course Manager for the following curricula: Homeland Security Information Management (HLS), Homeland Security Information Management: Tools & Techniques (HST), Protection of Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets (CIP), Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and Intelligent Agents. He graduated from the Merchant Marine Academy in Uruguay and holds a BSEE; MSEE and Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering all from UCLA. He spent 14 years at IBM, where he developed the first six clinical applications for the IBM PC; was one of the pioneers on bedside terminals for Intensive Care; and a developer of a semi-expert, real-time, clinical decision support system: PC/PATSS. He was also the technical manager of the Nursing Point of Care System at IBM. Dr. Kun was the biomedical engineer in the team of four that developed the first Teleradiology system and the first Picture Archival and Communications Systems to run on an IBM platform. Later he was Director of Medical Systems Technology and Strategic Planning at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in LA. As the Senior IT Advisor to the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) he formulated the IT vision and was the lead staff for HPCC program and Telehealth. He prepared AHCPR’s program descriptions in three consecutive: “Supplement to the President’s Fiscal Years 1997-1998 and 1999 Budgets” published in the President’s HPCC Implementation Plan and a co-writer of the following Committee on Computing, Information and Communication (CCIC) Blue Books: “Advancing the Frontiers of Information Technology”; “Technologies for the 21st Century” and “Networked Computing for the 21st Century”, NSTC/ Executive Office of the President (97, 98 and 99). He co-authored the Reports to the Congress on Telemedicine (1997) and on HIPAA Security. In July of 1997, he was invited speaker to the White House. He was largely responsible for the Telemedicine portion of the bill that became part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Dr. Kun represented the DHHS Secretary at a Pan American Forum of Health Care Ministers on Telecommunications and the Health Care Industry in Mexico in 1997. As a Distinguished Fellow at the CDC (1999-2001) he was the Senior Computer Scientist for the Health Alert Network for Bioterrorism and later the Acting Chief Information Technology Officer for the National Immunization Program (NIP) where he formulated their IT vision on 10/2000.
Dr. Kun has made numerous seminal contributions to the information technology, healthcare and public health disciplines and received many awards including: the 2009 American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering’s (AIMBE) first-ever Fellow Advocate Award which is presented to “a Fellow who has made outstanding contributions to advancing federal policies assisting the medical and biological engineering field”; the “2002 - IEEE-USA Citation of Honor Award”: “For exemplary contributions in the inception and implementation of a health care information technology vision in the United States and the 1998 “Administrator’s Award of Merit” presented by the US Surgeon General: “For exceptional dedication and professional achievement that have greatly enhanced the recognition of AHCPR’s research in the High Performance Computing and Communications Program.” He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). He is the Founding Chair of the IEEE-USA: Critical Infrastructure Protection Committee (CIPC); Founding and current Chair of the Bioterrorism & Homeland Security WG (for the Medical Technology Policy Committee) and Founding Chair of the Electronic Health Record and High Performance Computers and Communications WG (former HCEPC in 1991). He is currently the Associate Editor for Government Affairs for the IEEE EMBS Magazine and Editor of the (2010 4th Edition ) Medical Informatics Section of the CRC Press, Handbook of Biomedical Engineering. Co-editor of Springer’s 2008 Career Development in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. In the summer of 2010 he became Co-Editor in Chief for the new Springer Journal: Health and Technology. He was in AIMBE’s Executive Board and the Board of Directors and is on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Engineering Societies (AAES). He also is an Advisor to many National and International diverse organizations such as: Advisory Board (AB) to Caring Technologies /TalkAutism; AB the Boston Children’s Hospital (at Harvard and MIT) Biodefense Project (Information Systems for Bioterrorism Preparedness project); AB to Spain’s Telemedicine Networks (ISCIII); Member of the Joint WG on Telemedicine; Scientific AB – Medical and Care Compunetics (Netherlands); Chair of the International Committee of Australia’s Asia Pacific Ubiqutuos Healthcare (APuHC), Advisory Committee of Collaborative Communications Summit (Health and IT) He has lectured on medical and public health ß, information technology and biomedical engineering in over 75 countries. He was in the IEEE Computer Science and is in the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Distinguished Visitor Program and is in the advisory board of many magazines and professional journals. He has served as an invited: Conference, track, session, tutorial, special symposia chair and/or publications, speaker / keynote speaker and in conference scientific committees, etc. over 300 times. He is an elected member of the IEEE –Society of Social Implications of Technology Board of Governors (2008-2010), the IEEE – Computer Society Board of Governors (2010-2012) and the International Federation of Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) Administrative Council (2009-2015).
