Ian McGuinness
VP, Business Development
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Q: What was your big break?

• My big break was the opportunity with Hired Brains as I finished school, to do something very different in the area of data analytics, from continuing along my planned financial career path. Consulting in the area of Business Intelligence, I developed technical skills through work in the energy, insurance, and CPG sectors that I have built on through my career, and first gained exposure to BioPharma.

Q: What’s the best and/or worst part of your job?

• The best part of my job is that I get to work with bright people solving complex problems in Life Sciences, and knowing it will ultimately have a positive impact on patients’ lives. Healthcare is changing dramatically and we are sprinting ahead to innovate new solutions for our customers every day. I’m no fan of airport delays.

Q: Who is the person you admire most in your area of work?

• Leroy Hood, M.D., Ph.D., President of the Institute for Systems Biology, is one person. He’s a tremendous researcher of fundamental biology and genomics who has paired the science with commercial success in a number of Biotech startups. Check out his lecture My Life and Adventures Integrating Biology and Technology.

Q: What’s the view like from your office/work area?

• I just traded a SoCal beachfront view of the Pacific Ocean for the beautiful skies over Santa Fe, NM. It’s fun to experience the window in time that goes with watching the seasons change.

Q: Where did you go to college? Did it help you prepare for your career?

• I concentrated on Political Science at the University of Chicago and loved the school. My critical thinking skills are infinitely better for having studied there.

Q: What books are you reading?

• I’m working my way through the physics and time trilogy by Roger Penrose. Mark Twain’s collected letters and stories are fun while on the road. Reading the Tintin books right now with my sons at night makes my day.

Q: What was your greatest professional challenge?

• Really, I think it was freelance consulting early in my career. Not often getting to stay with a project long enough to understand the anthropology and landscape of a company. It was frustrating.

Q: Where will you be in five years?

• Close to 40. Seriously, probably deeper into Biotech via greater commercialization of genomics and personalized medicine with the move towards biomarkers.

Q: If you were to write a book, what would the title be?

• Wow, I guess, maybe “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Numbers”

Enter YWCA’s TechGYRLS program, a girl’s technology and science summer camp. TechGYRLS seeks to break the cycle of poverty and bridge the gender gap in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Girls at camp will have hands-on learning experiences by building and programming robots; creating and editing a short video; learning how physics affects sports; going on GPS scavenger hunts; building geothermal models, and creating their own solar ovens. Campers will also have traditional experiences including swimming, hiking, team-building, and horseback riding.

On Thursday, April 28th Dr. Roger Jones, COO of Qforma, was honored at the New Mexico Business Weekly’s Who’s Who in Technology reception in Albuquerque, New Mexico. While there, Roger crossed paths with Melanie Madrid, Director of the YWCA’s TechGYRLS program. The YWCA’s TechGYRLS program is the only one of its kind in New Mexico. One out of every four girls in New Mexico lives in poverty and the challenges are enormous.  Melanie stated, “as these girls grow up and develop career goals, expanding their vision and offering hope is critical for improving the quality of their lives.” By the end of the night, Qforma donated 3 scholarships to be awarded to 3 middle school girls in New Mexico based on financial need.

If you know a middle school girl from New Mexico who might be interested, please contact Melanie Madrid at (505)254-9922 for more information.

Whether you root for the Yanks or the Sox, one thing both sides can agree on is that when it comes to sponsoring little league teams, it’s time to bury the hatchet and support the kids no matter the name.

Qforma is the proud sponsor of the Yankees baseball team (our Yankees are Texans). They just finished the regular season with a record of 9 wins, 4 losses, and 1 tie. After the regular season, all teams are seeded based on their record and participate in a post season tournament, similar to how college sports works. The double elimination post season tournament is what determines the league winner. The playoffs kick off on Saturday, May 7 at 8:00 am when the Yankees play the Angels.

Stay tuned and we will keep you posted as to how the Yankees finish the post season tournament. Go Yankees!

The pilgrimage starts daily at 4:45 am on Alan Post’s farm south of Albuquerque, NM. Fast-forward 20 minutes and he has already started pedaling his bicycle, in year-round darkness, the 10 miles, to connect with the Rail-Runner commuter train headed to Santa Fe. For most, Earth Day observance constitutes extra effort to sort plastic, and metal or maybe try a commute with alternative or public transportation. For some, like Qforma programmer, Alan Post, reducing his carbon footprint is an every day effort.

With the sun slowly rising to his right, Alan, his bike, computer, and daily supplies embark on the 70 mile, 1.5 hour ride north. Qforma’s Santa Fe office is a quick 50 pedals from the train station, so we won’t even count that as part of the commute.  After a quick shower, he’s ready to work at 8am.

Still not impressed?  At 4:30 pm he repeats the above, only this time towards the equator, pedaling the long way home, an extra 10 miles through the Bosque.  In the summer that still leaves enough daylight to spend some time working on the farm.

Seeing as this is Qforma, and we love stats, let’s break it down.

• 7,500 miles annually by bike
• 33,600 miles annually by train
• 41,100 miles total yearly commute
• 0 gallons of gas

Yeah, that’s what we thought you’d say.

A corporate culture of staying strong in both mind and body can make the difference in sustaining that competitive edge to muscle past the competition. But, starting in their late 30s to early 40s, most adults lose a quarter pound of muscle every year.² How can you preserve your muscle mass?  Exercise regularly and eat enough protein after working out.

Use It or Lose It

Research shows that weight training is the most effective exercise for maintaining and building muscle mass.  The American Heart Association recommends that all healthy adults do 8 to 10 strength training exercises at least twice a week that incorporate all six of the muscle groups; chest, shoulders, arms, back, abdomen, and legs.  Weight training also improves bone mass, balance, and blood sugar levels in persons with Type 2 Diabetes.

Protein Power

Studies demonstrate that as we age, our bodies need more protein, especially those proteins rich in the amino acid leucine.

Studies demonstrate that as we age, our bodies need more protein, especially those proteins rich in the amino acid leucine. Amino acids are the tiny building blocks of protein that build muscle tissue. Protein researcher Wayne Campbell of Purdue University recommends that we eat 20 grams of quality protein (high in amino acids and low in saturated fat) at each meal. Quality protein can be consumed in foods such as whey (in milk), poultry, tofu, Greek yogurt, nuts, and eggs. Research has found that whey is particularly high in leucine, as compared to other proteins. Eating protein up to two hours after strength training has been shown to increase muscle tissue synthesis.

Bottom line:

The new perfect pair are exercise and protein…after hitting the gym.

^1,2,3 Nutrition Action Health Letter, April 2011

Jed Crandall- by Eric Swanson

Congratulations to Jed Crandall on becoming the second recipient of the Qforma Lectureship Award. Jed is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of New Mexico where he teaches and does research regarding privacy and security for personal computers. He landed at the University of New Mexico because of his love for the Southwest and the Department of Computer Science’s reputation. UNM’s Computer Science Department has “interesting and innovative research often crossing interdisciplinary boundaries,” says Jed. This semester Jed is teaching “Introduction to Cybersecurity”, reviewing traditional security ideas, network security, privacy, Internet censorship, and cryptography. Jed’s teaching style is more “hands on” than the traditional lecture. “Instead, I try to do lab assignments and then challenge the students to teach me something.  The best way for students to learn is through experience,” says Jed.

One example of such a lab assignment is recounted below in Jed’s own words.

Last year, I gave the students an assignment that didn’t preclude ‘cheating’ in the instructions.

“The first part was to flip a coin 100 times and write down 0 for heads and 1 for tails. The second part was to find addresses for 190 random restaurants in Albuquerque and write down the last digit of the restaurant’s address.  While I made it clear that the students wouldn’t be ‘bad people’ if they made the numbers up without doing all the hard work, the majority of the class actually did flip a coin and look up restaurants.  I think they thought I was going to tell them what kind of coin they had and what kind of food they liked. What we did with the data instead was to use hypothesis testing and other statistical methods to find the ‘cheaters’ in the class. There were probably about half a dozen students who just sat down and wrote one hundred 0′s and 1′s as randomly as they could without actually flipping a coin and then did the same for the restaurant addresses, at random choosing 1 through 9, one hundred and ninety times. This was perfectly okay given how I specified the assignment. Using properties analogous to Benford’s law, we were able to find which data sets were made up.  I’m really fascinated that data can be analyzed in that way.”

The Lectureship Award is an ongoing Qforma endeavor. “Qforma takes pride in sponsoring these talented individuals like Jed and his students at the University of New Mexico where they combine creativity and a passion for science to develop innovative solutions to real life challenges” says Roger Jones, Chairman, COO and CSO of Qforma. This fits in with Jed’s future vision, “to run a program where UNM students can get involved in working on real problems for human rights organizations and other non-profits that are under [virtual] attack. I envision that students would gain a lot of practical skills that could be applied in any sector.”

Qforma, today announced its first-ever Qforma Computational Thesis / Dissertation Award, in the amount of $5,000, has been presented to Nicholas Dylan Pattengale, who received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of New Mexico (UNM) in Albuquerque at commencement ceremonies on May 15.

The Qforma Award is presented to a UNM School of Engineering student from either the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department or the Computer Science Department, for the most outstanding computational master’s thesis or Ph.D. dissertation within that academic year. Dr. Pattengale’s award-winning dissertation is entitled “Efficient Algorhythms for Phylogenetic Post-analysis.”

“In reviewing the candidates for this award, we considered the technical depth, sophistication and innovation of their work, the importance of the problem that the dissertation addressed and the impact it is likely to have on the field of computer science,” said Stephanie Forrest, professor and chairman of computer science at the University of New Mexico and research professor at the Santa Fe Institute.

Dr. Pattengale’s dissertation was superb on all three counts, and we are delighted that he was chosen to receive the first Qforma Dissertation Award.

Qforma also funds a $5,000 Lectureship for an extraordinarily promising junior faculty researcher in Computer Science at UNM, which was awarded to Shuang Luan, Ph.D. last fall. The Lectureship and Thesis / Dissertation competitions, which will be held annually, support the quality of UNM educational programs by attracting top talent to the school.

“At Qforma we create intelligent data software solutions for the healthcare industry based on technology developed at Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico,” said Roger D. Jones, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Qforma. “We believe it is important to support students who share our passion for computer science, here in the state that has
already made such significant contributions to the field, and we are pleased to honor Dr. Pattengale with the first Qforma Dissertation Award.”

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“Many of Qforma’s customers are looking to right-size their field forces in order to maximize effectiveness in the current environment,” said Al Reicheg, Chief Commercial Officer of Qforma. “Jim is an important addition to our growing team. His extensive background and expertise in sales force analysis and other relevant areas, coupled with Qforma’s novel solutions, will be an asset to our clients who are striving to increase efficiency and productivity in their operations.”

In his new position, Kearney is responsible for developing and implementing customized project plans and specifications for Qforma clients.

Kearney comes to Qforma with 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, the last decade of which was spent in a series of positions of increasing responsibility in the areas of field sales operations and analysis. Previously, he was Director, Sales Operations & Analytics for EKR Therapeutics, Inc. (formerly PDL BioPharma, Inc.) Kearney previously held management positions with Sandoz, Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

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“Judy’s two decades in healthcare consulting and her focus on improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of care make her a valuable addition to the growing Qforma team,” said Al Reicheg, Chief Commercial Officer of Qforma. “Her background in strategically driving healthcare providers’ profitability through service, process and operational improvement will be an asset to our customers.”
In her new position, Stein is responsible for delivering strategically valuable, actionable insights, through products, to Qforma customers, in the ever-changing world of healthcare delivery. She develops and implements customized project plans and specifications for clients. Judy partners with Qforma customers throughout the solution process, from development through implementation and training. She leverages her healthcare domain experience to exceed client expectations.

Stein joins Qforma with more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare domain, including performance analysis and strategy. She has partnered with hospital staff and physicians on various value-improvement, leadership and growth initiatives that have resulted in major improvements for both patients and providers. Stein began her healthcare consulting career with Bain & Co., in partnership with Baxter Healthcare Corporation, where she was successful in increasing the quality of care while decreasing the cost, coincident with sweeping changes in diagnosis reimbursement. She most recently served as Senior Manager at GE Healthcare, Performance Solutions, where she led service line growth and operational improvement analyses for hospitals and healthcare systems. Working with senior executive and physician leadership, strategic and operational plans were adopted.

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