Wendy Anne Carr

In her role as one of the Consumer Representatives on the Health Information Infrastructure Advisory Board (HIIAB), Wendy Carr is chair of the AccessMyHealth.org committee. Her perspective on patient-provider communication and supporting role that online personalized health information can play has been shaped by:

• Seven years experience working in a large community health center system working directly with patients, developing  training curriculum and quality improvement project management
• Participation in the Pursuing Perfection RWJ project that developed the Shared Care Plan, a patient-designed PHR for managing chronic disease
• Eight years as a licensed medical interpreter (Spanish/English)
• Current work with the Whatcom Alliance for Healthcare Access, a community collaborative, that strives to educate consumers on their health insurance options and coach them on ways to better navigate the healthcare delivery system

Ms. Carr’s interests lie in creating pathways for ground-level experience to inform policy work by framing the issues as they are experienced, not as they are reported. Her belief is that health information technology will have the greatest impact only when providers and patients partner to create solutions that address their common and distinct concerns and perceived obstacles to quality care and better health care outcomes.  Wendy earned her Bachelors degrees in Spanish and Psychology from Western Washington University.