News Release — July 31, 2007

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July 31, 2007

Medical Board of California hires new executive director
First woman in Medical Board history to hold this position

SACRAMENTO—The Medical Board of California has hired a new executive director, Barbara Johnston, of Sacramento. She replaces Executive Director Dave Thornton, who retires from state service on July 31. Ms. Johnston begins her new position on August 1.

Ms. Johnston is a registered nurse who comes to the board after serving for four years as the executive director for the California Telemedicine and eHealth Center (CTEC), where she drove development of CTEC as one of six national Telemedicine and eHealth Resource centers. Under her leadership CTEC was able to fund the development of 10 regional eHealth networks that currently provide health services to rural and underserved communities in over 120 rural and remote health facilities across the state.

"The Medical Board of California is confident that Ms. Johnston will be an outstanding administrator and uphold the board's mission of consumer protection," said Medical Board President Richard Fantozzi, M.D. "Her clinical background, combined with her extensive managerial history and cutting-edge experience in telemedicine, made her an outstanding candidate for executive director of the Medical Board of California."

Prior to her position with CTEC, she served as chief operations officer for a private company in Australia that developed a virtual private health network providing access to health services for patients in underserved rural areas. She also serves as a board member for the American Telemedicine Association, which is the leading resource and advocate promoting access to medical care for consumers and health professionals via telecommunications technology and is the largest such trade association the country. She has several years' experience as a clinical nurse, having worked in intensive care, hospice, and home health care. Her clinical and professional career has had at its core strong patient and consumer advocacy roles.

Ms. Johnston received her bachelor's degree in nursing in 1978 from California State University, Sacramento, and master's degrees in science and nursing and leadership and management from Sonoma State University in 1996.

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The mission of the Medical Board is to protect healthcare consumers through the proper licensing and regulation of physicians and surgeons and certain allied healthcare professions and through the vigorous, objective enforcement of the Medical Practice Act.

If you have a question or complaint about the healthcare you are receiving, the board encourages you to visit its Web site at www.mbc.ca.gov or for questions call the Consumer Information Line at (916) 263-2382, or with complaints call (800) 633-2322.

For up-to-date information on board activities, please join our "Subscribers' List" at www.mbc.ca.gov/subscribers.htm.

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