• Gary Reiss was named to the board of advisors at BridgeGate International (Jacksonville, Florida). Reiss is the COO of SUNRx. BridgeGate International is a data integration platform.

• Conifer Health Solutions (Dallas) said Lea Fourkiller was named chief compliance officer for Conifer Revenue Cycle Solutions and Conifer Patient Communications. Fourkiller most recently was a regional compliance director at Tenet Healthcare where she oversaw the compliance programs at 13 hospitals. Conifer Revenue Cycle Solutions and Conifer Patient Communications are operating units of Conifer Health Solutions, which provides services to more than 100 hospitals and health systems nationwide.

• Jim Emerson, PhD, has been named VP of etrials Worldwide's (Morrisville, North Carolina) technology and development functions. Previously, Emerson has served as director of computer resources at KPMG in its New York executive office, VP of technology at Pansophic Systems (now part of Computer Associates), president of RTI Software, and senior VP at Marsh USA. etrials provides eClinical software and services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, and contract research organizations.

• Steve Mertens was named chairman of the board of LifeScience Alley (St. Louis Park, Minnesota). Martens is senior VP of R&D of Boston Scientific. New board members elected include Timothy Frischmon, principal, Furst Group, and James Woodburn, Jr. MD, managing partner, Woodburn Health Consulting. Re-elected were Richard Creager, corporate VP, Beckman Coulter, Charles Montreuil, VP of enterprise rewards, Best Buy, and Stephen Snyder, global marketing director, Cargill. LifeScience Alley is a trade association serving the life sciences.

• James Pebbles was named interim president/CEO of QuadraMed (Reston, Virginia). Peebles has 40 years of healthcare information systems experience, including co-founding two information technology companies in the healthcare sector. QuadraMed provides healthcare IT solutions.

• Dale Clendon was promoted to president of Tri-anim Health Services (Sylmar, California). Clendon has 25 years of medical industry experience, with the last four years as Tri-anim's VP of sales and marketing. Tri-anim is a provider of specialty sales and distribution solutions for healthcare.

• Nathan Gunn, MD, was appointed chief medical officer of Verisk Health (Waltham, Massachusetts) and will manage scientific and clinical research operations, develop and maintain clinical content and intellectual property and oversee the clinical content of Verisk Health software products.

• Michael Kussman, MD, the Under Secretary for Health for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA; Washington), reported his intention to retire from federal service by May 9, ending a 37-year government career. Kussman, who attained the rank of brigadier general while in the U.S. Army, has been with VA since 2000.