Cori Ofstead, MSPH

As the founder and CEO, Ms. Ofstead provides guidance to the Ofstead team and clients interested in medical communications and the quality of healthcare. Her experience in public health, medical research, and business provides a strong foundation for her role as a liaison between healthcare providers, patients, and organizations that make medical devices and pharmaceuticals or provide health-related services.

Early in her career, Ms, Ofstead worked at InterStudy, a healthcare policy think tank, where she coordinated educational conferences related to healthcare policy, treatment guidelines, and outcomes management. She then joined the American Group Practice Association (now AMGA), where she managed a medical outcomes study involving 35 clinics that tracked the outcomes of care for asthma, diabetes, hip replacement, and cataract surgery. During that time, she also served as a member of the Work Group on Computerization of Patient Records. This group produced a lengthy report for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) entitled, "Toward a National Health Information Infrastructure." The report was presented to the Secretary of HHS in 1993, and it helped lay the foundation for computerized medical records and healthcare data privacy initiatives.

Following her work at AMGA, she built the consulting and implementation division of a software start-up company that pioneered the development of automated data collection instruments and software for measuring functional status, quality of life, and clinical outcomes. Ms. Ofstead has directed the design and implementation of dozens of outcomes studies and research projects that evaluated the quality of medical products and services.

Ms. Ofstead has authored several articles and textbook chapters related to infection control, chronic disease management, and medical outcomes. In addition, she has presented at local and national conferences, taught numerous seminars, and developed CE/CME courses. Recently, her research has focused on medical decision-making, with a special interest in patient and clinician non-adherence with evidence-based guidelines. Ms. Ofstead has presented on these topics at events sponsored by the American Lung Association, the Minnesota Department of Health, the University of Minnesota – Rochester, Mayo Clinic, and the Health Educators Conference.

Ms. Ofstead is recognized nationally for her expertise in health risk appraisal and health promotion. She served on the Board of Directors for the Society of Prospective Medicine (SPM), a non-profit organization focused on promoting effective and ethical methods for assessing health risk and improving and extending healthy lives. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Friends of Oxford Pool, a non-profit organization that seeks to enhance health and water safety by providing scholarships for swimming lessons to children from low-income families in St. Paul.

She attended the University of Minnesota, Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, and Walden University, and has earned a BA in Public Health and Medical History and a Master of Science in Public Health. Her clinical foundation is based on 11 years experience working in hospitals, clinics, and research labs, including six years experience as a clinical lab technician. Ms. Ofstead has served as a Visiting Graduate Student in Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Vaccine Research Lab. Her work on influenza vaccination has recently contributed to the national discussion on vaccination policy.