Z. Colette Edwards

Z. Colette Edwards, M.D., M.B.A. leads Insight MD, a healthcare consultancy, which offers program design and implementation, targeted strategic planning and development, innovative product design, consultative data and clinical ROI analysis including benefit design and large claims analysis, health disparities/health literacy/cultural competency consultation, and PeopleTweaker, a coaching service line providing health, wellness, and life coaching and training in health coaching techniques for health professionals and support staff.

Colette is the former Vice President and Senior Market Medical Executive, MidAtlantic and the National Medical Executive for Health Disparities for CIGNA HealthCare. Prior to joining CIGNA, she was a Senior Medical Director at Oxford Health Plans. She began her career as a practicing gastroenterologist and Associate Medical Director for Patuxent Medical Group/Columbia Medical Plan, entities affiliated with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Maryland.

Dr. Edwards has designed and implemented Centers of Excellence programs, employer wellness programs including a module specifically targeted at the government sector, and a pilot oncology case management innovation which integrated provider and carrier resources and patient outreach. She led the development of CIGNA’s national high-risk maternity care management program and launched CIGNA’s MidAtlantic Wellness Council, which brings employers together to brainstorm, share best practices, and improve outcomes for their employees, their families, and the community at large.

Colette was also responsible for reviewing client data and developing recommendations regarding benefit design and clinical programs customized to the special needs of their particular employee populations. Additionally, she wrote a News in Medical Cost Trends newsletter for consultants/brokers and clients on such topics as bariatric surgery, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, coronary artery disease, and the power of integrated benefits.

Dr. Edwards has experience in the development of a provider pay-for-performance model and assessing practices and hospital systems for launching medical home and Accountable Care Organization pilots.

As CIGNA’s National Medical Executive for Health Disparities, she developed and implemented CIGNA's enterprise-wide approach to health disparities. In October 2009 CIGNA was named an awardee of a Robert Woods Johnson Foundation $275,000 two-year grant for the Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change national program, which evaluates interventions aimed at eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities.

Dr. Edwards is the Managing Editor of the Wharton Healthcare Quarterly, the author of a McGraw-Hill text, Gastroenterology Quick Glance, and has a “Her Health” column in Her Mind magazine. She is a member of the Visiting Committee of the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago and the Chair of its Career Develop-ment Committee, the Johns Hopkins AHRQ DEcIDE Expert Stakeholder Advisory Group, the National Quality Forum Steering Committee on Health Disparities and Cultural Competency, the Johns Hopkins Center to Reduce Cancer Disparities Steering Committee, and the Board of Directors of the Maryland chapter of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association, where she is the Director of Market Research.