Founded in 2009, Forward Health Group, Inc. (FHG) is a leading-edge health care measurement company. We turn fragmented clinical and administrative health care data, stored in multiple disparate systems, into actionable information that can be used to drive population health improvement. Our elegant data visualization delivers Fresh Data™--physician-accepted, actionable data at the individual patient level. FHG's intuitive Measurement Tools reveal population-based, quality-oriented measures of quality and risk that correlate with improved outcomes and lower costs.

The members of the FHG team have deep roots in health care and share long-term connections as friends and colleagues. Take a moment and get to know us.

Michael Barbouche

Michael is a nationally recognized leader in health care data strategy. A mathematician trained in health services research, he has over nineteen years experience, with an acute focus on data. Applying the principles of set theory, he has invented new data models for the health care industry that maximize the harvest and yield of data, regardless of health IT infrastructure. He has developed solutions for some of the most challenging riddles facing health care today, including outcomes, patient attribution, and value of care. Michael played a central role in the evolution of the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality (WCHQ), a pioneer in the public reporting of health care quality measures. A frequent advisor and presenter on health care data, Michael serves on the Board of the National Institute for Quality Improvement Education (NIQIE).

John Studebaker, MD, MS

John is a practicing pediatrician with post-graduate training in medical informatics. He has experience in analyzing and evaluating health information systems and implementing health information systems in clinical settings. John has domain expertise in clinical information systems and strategy and has created novel approaches for integrating medical informatics and health information technology with clinical training. While serving as the medical director for Oklahoma’s largest Medicaid clinic for five years, he was responsible for the implementation of an electronic medical record.

Sean Thomas, MD

Sean is an internist with post-graduate training in medical informatics. Sean has a diverse background that includes medical informatics strategy, implementation and optimization of health information technology. Prior to joining FHG, he was a physician on the Clinical Informatics Team of Epic, a leading developer of Electronic Health Record software. He was the lead physician during the implementation of the EpicCare EHR product at The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii where he was also a practicing Hospitalist, Assistant Professor and Chief of the Division of Medical Informatics for the Department of Medicine.

Joel May

In the early 1990’s, Joel co-founded a children’s educational software company. He designed and developed an award-winning music teaching software product that is still used many schools throughout the US and Canada. In this century, Joel has been an independent web developer specializing in Adobe Flash and Flex. He also works with other front-end and back-end technologies such as HTML5, AJAX, PHP and ASP.NET. Joel enjoys writing software that has colors—stuff that moves and blinks and does things when it’s clicked on. His favorite video game is Space Invaders, but he thinks Pong is pretty good too. When he’s not in front of a computer, Joel enjoys teaching his kids guitar, going on bike rides with them and wishing they wouldn’t grow up so darn fast.

Nancy Sielaff

Nancy graduated from Stanford University in August 1968 with a BA in Psychology, followed by a law degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1983. A seasoned attorney with over twenty-five years of health insurance industry experience, Nancy has served as General Counsel and Associate General Counsel for health insurance firms such as Unity Health Plans Insurance Corporation and United Wisconsin Sevices/Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin. Nancy, according to her husband, is a bit horse-crazy. She owns a small stable, complete with a dozen horses—call Nancy and hit the dusty trail.

James Mattes

When you ask if this is rocket science, James Mattes can help with that. Pulling from fifteen+ years of successful manufacturing, product improvement and development efforts, James’s expertise helps FHG deliver its solutions that keep customers coming back. He has traveled the world working to develop and deliver better solutions to keep organizations running smoothly.

James is a triathelete—so he asks that if you see someone running or biking on the road, give a shout out of encouragement. It always helps.

Joel Walker

Joel has over 13 years of experience in web and data architecture. He has a broad record of success in the field of health care measurement. Joel remains a routine contributor in the evolving landscape of pay for performance. He has created leading-edge platforms that marry the acquisition and visualization of health care data. Trained as an industrial engineer, Joel has been at the forefront of web/data strategy for his entire career. Prior to his work in health care, Joel held positions with Accenture and GS Design.

Barry Wightman

Barry Wightman is a thirty-year marketing veteran of corporate America. With roots in high technology, he spent many years as a sales and marketing executive with StorageTek and Network Systems Corporation, primarily directing company activities in Asia and the Pacific. Subsequently, as a founder of Lion Rock Inc., a technology and marketing consulting firm based in the US and Tokyo, he helped US technology startups develop their Asian markets. Then he co-founded a venture capital-funded aerospace dot-com in 2000 and spent several years as a marketing executive in the aerospace industry. But he chucked it all, went back to school, got an MFA, wrote a novel, began doing voiceovers and published many book and music reviews. Now he’s fiction editor of a Vermont-based literary magazine and he leads a vintage rock ‘n roll band.