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CMIO, Children’s Hospital Colorado
Patrick Guffey is an associate professor of anesthesiology and practices pediatric and obstetric anesthesia. He’s chief medical information officer at Children's Hospital Colorado, as well as performance improvement and informatics officer at the Department of Anesthesiology, University of Colorado. Patrick also serves as medical director of perioperative performance improvement and manages the quality programs for Perioperative Services and the Colorado Fetal Care Center.
Patrick is board certified in clinical informatics, the chair of Epic system's steering board for pediatric anesthesiology and president of the Colorado Chapter of the Health Information Management Systems Society. Patrick's work with Epic centers on the use of perioperative protocols to improve safety and outcomes. He also partners with Epic, GE Healthcare, Codonics and Omnicell to improve interoperability and decrease medical errors. Patrick serves as the medical director of the Anesthesia Quality Institute's Patient Safety Organization, where he helped develop the first national specialty specific reporting system for adverse events.
He’s also a member of the Children's Hospital Association's Patient Safety Team. His research interests center on application of the electronic health record and clinical informatics to improve quality, safety and outcomes. Patrick is particularly interested in using Lean principles, informatics and strong safety cultures to drive highly reliable patient care.
President, Peak Family Medicine
Dr. Joe is the President and Founder of Peak Family Medicine. Dr. Joe knew early on that Family Medicine, in which the doctor sees every kind of problem and person, was his calling. At the age of thirteen, Joe was already working as a hospital volunteer in the Montrose Memorial Hospital lab, learning as much about medicine as he could. After graduating from Montrose High School, he worked as an EMT while in college and during his residency at the University of Colorado, on his few days off, he would moonlight at other hospitals, always planning for the future.
Dr. Adragna is committed to helping people stay healthy, avoiding emergency room and hospital stays, allowing easy access to care, and providing office hours that are convenient for working people and those with children in school. His medical areas of interest include: Musculoskeletal medicine (arthritis treatment), primary care, cardiology, and systems integration and innovation.
Today, Peak Family Medicine has 9 providers and 23 total QHN users and has 11,462 queries in QHN Results in the last 12 months. They have sent 28,580 messages and have received 63,455 total messages in the last 12 months. This includes all result types – ADT, Lab, Radiology, Transcription.
Residency: University of Colorado
CEO, Mercy Care
Lorry Bottrill, Mercy Care CEO, has been a leader in Arizona’s healthcare community for more than 25 years. Mercy Care serves more than 425,000 Medicaid and Medicare Dual SNP members throughout Arizona and manages six contracts serving as the Regional Behavioral Health Authority in Maricopa County and the sole health plan for children in the child welfare system. Prior to her role as CEO, Lorry served as Mercy Care’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer.
Lorry is a Certified Public Accountant. She earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Arizona. In the community, Lorry has served on the board of directors for the Desert Southwest Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation since 2011 and is currently the vice-chair. She’s a board member for Contexture, Arizona’s health information exchange, and for the Foundation for Senior Living. Lorry also chairs the Arizona Association of Health Plans.
In 2019, Lorry was recognized by the Arizona Capitol Times through the Women Achievers of Arizona award. She was named one of Arizona’s Most Influential Women in Business by Phoenix Business Journal in 2017. Lorry was also awarded the Aetna Chairman’s award in 2016. Teen Lifeline honored her with the 2021 Alfredo J. Molina Community Lifeline Award for her extraordinary efforts over the past 25 years in supporting the healthcare needs of her community.
Chief of Addiction Medicine, SummitStone Health Partners
Patrick Guffey is an associate professor of anesthesiology and practices pediatric and obstetric anesthesia. He’s chief medical information officer at Children's Hospital Colorado, as well as performance improvement and informatics officer at the Department of Anesthesiology, University of Colorado. Patrick also serves as medical director of perioperative performance improvement and manages the quality programs for Perioperative Services and the Colorado Fetal Care Center.
Patrick is board certified in clinical informatics, the chair of Epic system's steering board for pediatric anesthesiology and president of the Colorado Chapter of the Health Information Management Systems Society. Patrick's work with Epic centers on the use of perioperative protocols to improve safety and outcomes. He also partners with Epic, GE Healthcare, Codonics and Omnicell to improve interoperability and decrease medical errors. Patrick serves as the medical director of the Anesthesia Quality Institute's Patient Safety Organization, where he helped develop the first national specialty specific reporting system for adverse events.
He’s also a member of the Children's Hospital Association's Patient Safety Team. His research interests center on application of the electronic health record and clinical informatics to improve quality, safety and outcomes. Patrick is particularly interested in using Lean principles, informatics and strong safety cultures to drive highly reliable patient care.
CEO, Adelante Healthcare
Pedro Cons is a thoughtful, visionary leader with expertise in strategy and organizational management.
His diverse leadership and academic experience provides a unique perspective for creating strategic partnerships across corporate, nonprofit and government sectors to better integrate the delivery of services and more effectively address the holistic needs of families and create sustainable, positive change.
Named Chief Executive Officer at Adelante Healthcare in June 2020, Pedro Cons now leads a network of nine community health centers which provide primary healthcare to more than 77,000 individuals across Maricopa County.
Before joining Adelante, he spent more than 14 years at Chicanos Por La Causa (also known as CPLC). Most recently, he served as the Executive Vice President of Integrated Health and Human Services, overseeing CPLC’s primary care partnerships, home healthcare program, behavioral health, HIV testing and case management, 340b pharmacy and a host of other programs across Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas. Other previous roles at CPLC include Vice President of Multi-Family Housing Operations, Vice President of Corporate Strategic Initiatives, Vice President of Human Resources, and Vice President of Recovery and Resiliency.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in social work, a master’s degree in Professional Counseling, and advanced graduate studies in school guidance counseling and marriage, family and child therapy. He has also received training in community mobilization and facilitation methods and has participated in leadership development including the Kellogg Foundation Multicultural Leadership Institute and the Hispanic Leadership Institute.
Medical Director, Mesa County Public Health
Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald is the Medical Director for Mesa County Public Health and serves the Western Healthcare Alliance (WHA) as Community Care Alliance Medical Director. Dr. Fitzgerald leads health management strategies including provider engagement and outreach, quality and utilization reporting, aligned incentives and clinical strategies to effectively manage Western ACO’s attributed patient population.
With over 30 years’ experience in medicine and medical administration, Dr. Fitzgerald brings varied experience. From the hands-on practice of medicine and teaching residents and Physician Assistant students to various administration positions from Managed Services Organizations to Health Plan Medical Director and Chief Medical Officer. He has a wealth of understanding of data, process and quality improvement activities, accreditation requirements for NCQA, practice management, IPA/health plan interface, and physician relationships.
Prior to joining Mesa County Public Health and WHA, Dr. Fitzgerald was the Chief Medical Officer for Rocky Mountain Health Plans. His previous experiences include Assistant Director for a Family Medicine Residency and the Medical Director of Colorado for United Healthcare. He was also the first Medical Director for Physician Health Partners, a start- up Managed Services Organization in Denver, eventually taking the role of Vice President of Utilization Management.
These experiences have left Dr. Fitzgerald with a sense that healthcare is best delivered and managed with the strong influence of local control. The nuance of local variation in the delivery system combined with provider professional expertise is paramount to the community and keeping the population close to their personal support systems.
Dr. Fitzgerald was raised in the Denver Metro area. After High School he enlisted in the United States Army, serving as a Fixed Wing Airplane Mechanic/Crew Chief. After his separation from the military, he completed his undergraduate degree in chemistry and math and obtained his Medical Degree from the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Family Medicine at Mercy Hospital in Denver. He remains Board Certified and still practices medicine part time at a local after-hours clinic in Grand Junction. In his free time, he enjoys fly fishing, hunting, camping, travel, playing the guitar, and especially time with his wife, children, and grandchildren.
Medical Education: Undergraduate degree in chemistry and math and Medical Degree from the University of Colorado School of Medicine
Residency: Family Medicine at Mercy Hospital in Denver
CEO, Rocky Mountain Health Plans (United)
Patrick has been accountable for an array of payment reform, health data exchange and behavioral health services integration initiatives in Western Colorado. He also led the implementation of the Medicaid Accountable Care Collaborative project in western and northern Colorado. Patrick provided oversight of the Medicaid, Full Benefit
Medicare/Medicaid Eligibles, and CHP+ programs supported by the health plan, as well as the CMS Innovation Center’s Comprehensive Primary Care initiative.
Patrick has led several strategic initiatives for RMHP’s stakeholders, including the Colorado Beacon community demonstration, the design and implementation of an aligned payment arrangement with the State of Colorado and physicians to achieve Triple Aim objectives. Further, he served on the Colorado State Innovation Model (SIM) Practice Transformation and Multi-payer Collaborative work groups. Prior to joining RMHP, Patrick held various positions within the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing related to policy development and program management.
Cabinet Executive Officer and Executive Deputy Director, AHCCCS
Carmen Heredia serves as the Cabinet Executive Officer and Executive Deputy Director of Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), Arizona’s Medicaid and CHIP Program, overseeing the provision of acute, behavioral health, and long-term care services; they support more than 2.5 million Arizona residents at an annual cost of $22 billion. Throughout her career, Ms. Heredia has passionately advocated for access to quality health care and education for underserved populations. Directly prior to joining AHCCCS, Ms. Heredia was the CEO of Valle del Sol, a provider organization delivering integrated behavioral health and primary care health as a federally qualified health center and a federally certified community behavioral health center. Ms. Heredia has served on a variety of government task forces and boards, including St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, the Arizona Council of Human Service Providers, the Center for the Future of Arizona, the Arizona Alliance of Community Health Centers, National Council of Behavioral Health, the Phoenix Community Development and Investment Corporation, Contexture Health Information Exchange, and the ASU College of Health Solutions. She is a 2021 Virginia G. Piper Fellow and an alum of the Hispanic Leadership Institute. Ms. Heredia holds a master’s degree in social work from Arizona State University with a concentration in planning and administration.
CIO, UCHealth
Steve Hess is the chief information officer for UCHealth, a nationally recognized nonprofit health care system with operating revenue of $5.4 billion and a workforce of more than 26,000 people. UCHealth includes 12 Colorado hospitals, with about 2,000 inpatient beds and more than 150 clinics in Colorado, southern Wyoming and western Nebraska.
Steve is responsible for the management of information systems across the enterprise, including Epic, an electronic medical record system; The Source, UCHealth’s employee intranet; and My Health Connection, a patient portal.
Previously, Steve was the chief information officer for University of Colorado Hospital, a partner of UCHealth. Prior to joining UCHealth, he was the chief information officer for Christiana Care Health System, one of the country’s largest health care providers.
CNO & VP Operations Engineering, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona
Sheri provides support to the chief medical officer to plan, coordinate and communicate new strategies, tools and systems that improve and streamline the operations of UM, HEDIS outcomes, medical policy and wellness programs. She has oversight for the quality program and chairs the quality management committee, which provides direction and oversight of the organization’s quality management activities related to clinical and non-clinical services. The committee identifies quality improvement programs that result in measurable outcomes and ensures all activities adhere to regulatory requirements under NCQA or URAC and any requirements as an issuer of Quality Health plans.
Sheri serves as the BCBSAZ representative on the Contexture board of directors to influence decision–making and provide insight about healthcare trends and health plan customer issues and concerns, product development needs and service requirements.
Sheri joined BCBSAZ in 1988 and has held numerous executive roles overseeing healthcare quality, healthcare operations, provider capitation arrangements, value-based care program development and medical policy development during her tenure with the organization.
She earned a master’s degree in organizational leadership from the University of Phoenix and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Minnesota.
President, Intermountain Health – St. Mary’s Medical Center
“By using data to drive decisions, rather than decades-old thinking, we are producing tangible cost savings. That’s good for our patients,” he added. His work to strengthen collaborative care and support rural, regional hospitals is another key initiative for Johnson. “St. Mary’s will advance our partnerships with healthcare leaders across our region, even as we help lead the way to improve access and quality for all western Colorado communities,” he concludes.
Johnson and his wife, Trish, are the parents of six active children. They enjoy sports and the abundant outdoor lifestyle of their home in the Grand Valley.
Medical Education: MBA Health Administration, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine; Undergraduate, Brigham Young University
CMIO, Dignity Health
Dr. Donald Kane, FAAP, is the chief medical informatics officer for Dignity Health in Arizona and Nevada. In this capacity, he oversees the clinical IT systems used by physicians, advanced practice practitioners, resident physicians and all other clinical staff. Donald is also an assistant professor of clinical informatics at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix. His primary board certification is in pediatrics from the American Board of Pediatrics, secondarily certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine in clinical informatics.
Donald is a graduate of Des Moines University Osteopathic Medical Center. He completed his training in pediatrics at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. While in clinical practice, he served on active duty in the Air Force for three years at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M. After completing his active duty tour, he practiced as a pediatric hospitalist and then as an attending physician in the Pediatric Emergency Department at Tucson Medical Center.
His informatics career began in 2006 when he joined Cerner Corp. He continued that work with Tenet Health and joined Dignity Health in 2015. In Arizona, Donald participates on the clinical advisory board for Contexture and is actively involved in interoperability around HIE technology for Dignity Health.
CIO, Colorado Access
Paula’s experience includes more than two decades in the Medicaid health plan space, where she created and maintained a successful IT program that met the regulatory, financial viability and quality requirements of the plan.
Prior to joining Colorado Access, Paula served as the chief information officer at Upper Peninsula Health Plan in Marquette, Michigan, a company for which she worked for more than 20 years. While there, Paula led all IT operations for the health plan, managed multi-million dollar budgets and created or improved processes that brought great value to the company. As such, Paula was awarded accolades from the board of directors for “Creative and Innovative Use of Technology to Propel Cost-Effective Business Expansion for the Health Plan” during the plan’s formative years. Paula excels at building strong internal and external partnerships and successfully identifies new areas of business expansion leveraging technology solutions.
Paula received her bachelor’s degree in computer network and systems administration from Michigan Technological University.
COO, UHC Community Plan, UnitedHealthcare
Heidi Kemmer has been the chief operating officer for the United Healthcare Community Plan in Arizona since April 2020. She’s a seasoned managed care executive with over 25 years in the industry, holding a number of positions in network contracting and provider service, operations, and health plan leadership. This includes serving as regional contract and area manager for John Deere Health, vice president of operations and executive director for the UnitedHealthcare Community Plan in Tennessee, national director, community and state provider experience leading several national initiatives impacting provider service and operations; and director, west region operations supporting UnitedHealthcare Community Plans in Hawaii, Washington, California, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona with operations oversight and regulatory change management.
She received her bachelor’s degree from Wichita State University in Kansas and a dual-degree master’s in business (MBA) and healthcare administration from the University of Iowa. Heidi is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives, is active in her local church and community, and enjoys supporting Arizona sports teams. Heidi and her husband, Karl, have lived in Phoenix since 2014, after relocating from Tennessee.
Director of Clinical Outcomes, Every Child Pediatrics
Dr. Meharena has been caring for patients at Every Child Pediatrics since 2011 and sees patients at the Aurora office. She began her role as Director of Clinical Outcomes in May 2020. She recieved her B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Chemistry from Mount Holyoke College, followed by her medical education at Western University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine. She then completed her residency at Children’s Hospital Colorado. She is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics (FAAP).
CMIO, HCA/HealthOne Continental Division
Dr. Mark Radlauer is a 30-year emergency physician and clinical informaticist. He’s the chief medical information officer for the HCA Continental Division and medical director, informatics, for the 600-member CarePoint provider group.
Mark’s focus is providing clinical perspective and input on various information technology-related programs within HCA regionally and nationally, and driving successful, clinically nuanced implementations. He’s particularly interested in improving and maintaining clinician efficiency, which he feels is a significant quality driver. To achieve this, he strives to collaboratively engage clinicians, IT organizations, business leaders and vendors in the organization’s planning, development, communication and implementation processes.
CEO, Spectrum Healthcare
April Rhodes, MBA, LAMFT, is president and chief executive officer for Spectrum Healthcare Group. Through statewide community solutions and focused care, April and her team are meeting the whole health needs of Arizona’s populations.
April has served at the forefront of healthcare and human services management for nearly two decades. Her unique brand of leadership has successfully launched whole healthcare delivery into new heights of innovation, defragmentation, integration and cohesion. As CEO, she draws on skillsets of therapy, open communication and business-mindedness, while balancing vision and risk in this ever-changing healthcare landscape. Under her leadership, Spectrum Healthcare Group in Northern Arizona has successfully launched mobile crisis response to law enforcement and first responders in Yavapai County, providing real time mental health intervention to officers in the field.
April attended Arizona State University and received a Bachelor of Science in family and human development and a Master of Advanced Study in marriage and family therapy, with a strong focus on systemic theories and practices. She’s a Licensed Associate Marriage and Family Therapist and recently completed her MBA at the University of Arizona.
April currently serves as chair for the Arizona Council of Human Service Providers board of directors, Yavapai County Board of Health and the Prevent Child Abuse AZ board of directors. April is considered a subject matter expert on topics relating to leadership, whole person healthcare, value-based purchasing, access to care and community-based services.
VP, Analytics Services and Finance Data & Analytics, Kaiser Permanente
Alexis Sgouros is vice president of analytics service delivery. He leads the IT organization’s analytics delivery team, which supports enterprise analytic platforms and tools, as well as develops and maintains key data assets for the analytic community. He partners with the health plan and care delivery technology services in engaging with stakeholders across the organization, as well as with the chief data office and digital team to align on data technology strategy for Kaiser Permanente.
Since joining Kaiser Permanente in 2001, Alexis has worked in the Northern California, Southern California and Colorado markets and worked his way up through the organization. His past roles include vice president care delivery analytics and Colorado information officer; executive director for IT service and delivery in the Northern and Southern California regions, where had accountability for all business engagement and operations in the 14 hospital areas in Southern California and the 24 hospitals in Northern California; area technology leader at the San Diego Medical Center; and project manager and programmer within the medical record space.
A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, Alexis spent five years working with biotechnology companies bringing new products to clinical trials and to market prior to joining Kaiser Permanente.
Alexis serves on the advisory council of the Colorado School of Public Health. In his spare time, he enjoys staying active and is an avid runner and cyclist. He's married to Marnie, and they have two children.
CEO, Hilltop Community Resources
Mike has worked in a variety of leadership positions within Hilltop for the past sixteen years. Before Hilltop, he worked five years for NeuroCare in California, in neurobehavioral programs for adults with brain injuries. Mike is a graduate of Grand Junction High School. He has an undergraduate degree from Colorado State University and a Master’s in Business Administration from Regis University. Mike started at Hilltop in 1993, coordinating the development of Hilltop’s youth programs.
Mike has been very active in our community, serving on a number of boards including: Grand Junction Economic Partnership, Mesa County Community Corrections, Quality Health Network; Western Health Care Alliance, Grand Junction Chamber of Commerce and Colorado West Mental Health Psychiatric Hospital.
Medical Education: B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Chemistry from Mount Holyoke College
SVP & CIO, Valleywise Health
Kelly Summers is a senior vice president and chief information officer of Valleywise Health (FKA the Maricopa Integrated Health System). He has more than 20 years of transformational senior IT leadership experience and a track record of producing innovative technology solutions and capabilities.
As CIO, Kelly leads the definition, creation and execution of Valleywise Health’s information technology strategies, ensuring alignment to the clinical and business strategies of Valleywise Health. In addition to IT responsibilities, He also provides executive leadership to the clinical engineering/bio-med functions. His passion is to drive the effectiveness of Valleywise Health’s technology portfolio toward industry leading solutions improving the quality, predictability and efficiency of patient care.
Before joining Valleywise Health, Kelly was vice president, information technology, and CIO for Medicis, a leading publicly traded specialty pharmaceutical company. Prior to that, he was a senior IT executive for St. Jude Medical, a multi-national, multi-billion-dollar medical device company where he was initially the vice president and CIO of their largest division (> $3 billion annual revenue) and ultimately was a corporate vice president responsible for global IT shared services across the enterprise.
Kelly began his career in software development with Goodyear Aerospace, where he was part of a highly classified Air Force program developing high-altitude electronic intelligence (ELINT) and reconnaissance mission planning software applications.
He holds undergraduate degrees in business administration and computer information systems and is recognized by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives as a certified healthcare CIO.
President and CEO, Community Hospital
Chris Thomas, FACHE, was named president and CEO of Grand Junction’s Community Hospital in 2008. Prior to joining Community Hospital, Thomas was the executive director and chief administrative officer of ILS Resource Management. Thomas has worked as a healthcare executive for over 20 years. He is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.
Chris has been married for more than 25 years and he and his wife have three daughters and a son. They joke that they have a child who graduated in the class of 2013 and one who will graduate in the class of 2031. In his spare time, he and his family enjoy traveling. Most trips are centered on triathlons in different and exciting locations. In May of 2013, Chris and his oldest daughter competed together in the Ironman 70.3 in Mallorca, Spain. The next year, his middle daughter and he competed together in the Ironman 70.3 in Moselle, Luxembourg.
While at Community Hospital, Thomas has helped move the organization out of extreme OIG sanctions to a strong and active part of the western Colorado healthcare community. Revenue has grown significantly during his tenure and Community Hospital has successfully recruited nearly 50 new physicians in just the last three years. In addition, Community Hospital opened a brand new four-story, 142,000 square foot, state-of-the-art hospital in March 2016.
Under Chris’s leadership, Community Hospital was chosen as the Grand Junction Chamber Business of the Year in 2015 and Daily Sentinel readers selected Community Hospital as the “Best of the West” for medical facilities for four consecutive years from 2016-2019.
Medical Education: Master of Business Administration from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA.
Residency: University of Colorado
President & CEO, Solvista Behavioral Health
Brian Turner is the president and chief executive officer for Solvista Health, the nonprofit community mental health center providing integrated mental health, substance use and primary care in Lake, Chaffee, Custer and Fremont counties in Colorado. Prior to this role, Brian served as deputy director for the Colorado Behavioral Healthcare Council, the statewide advocacy organization for community behavioral health, where he directed a range of programs and efforts focused on strengthening services, increasing funding and improving outcomes for behavioral health in Colorado.
He’s dedicated to advancing purpose-driven, nonprofit organizations and initiatives and has held roles as president for the Colorado Public Health Association, director of Mental Health First Aid Colorado and development director for an international NGO working in education.
Born and raised in Colorado, Brian earned his undergraduate degree in business from the University of Colorado – Boulder and a Master’s of Public Health from the Colorado School of Public Health – Anschutz. Brian and his wife, Sara, an ICU nurse, are parents to two young adventurers and making the most of living in beautiful Colorado.
CAO, Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing
Chris Underwood serves as the deputy chief of staff for the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. He joined the department in 2000 as a statistical analyst. During his time with the department, Chris has held leadership positions in various areas, including developing strategies for systems development and operations for client eligibility, health care claims processing, and health information technology. Previously, he had oversight of the various safety net programs, and projects to maximize federal Medicaid revenue.
CIO, Sonora Quest Laboratories
Sonny Varadan is the Chief Information Officer at Sonora Quest Laboratories, Arizona’s leading provider of diagnostic information services. Mr. Varadan is an established executive with decades of experience leading companies through the monumental opportunity shift technology has created.
As the CIO, Mr. Varadan will meld operations and innovation, while keeping the focus on enhancing the patient experience, making it easier and more convenient for customers to navigate through their journey with Sonora Quest – from scheduling appointments to get their blood drawn, to securely obtaining and understanding their test results on SonoraQuest.com. His focus will be to implement data analytics and machine learning processes to enable decision support systems and automation to assist healthcare providers with population health management for improved patient outcomes.
QHN’s Health Information Exchange Network has received HITRUST certification.
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