Horst Merkle

Vice President,
Continua Health Alliance

Director Information Management Sytems Diabetes Care,
Roche Diagnostics Corporation

Horst Merkle has served as the Director of Information Management Systems, Diabetes Care since 2003. In this position he is responsible for the proposal and the development of key components for the Roche Diabetes Care information management product portfolio with focus on interoperability/connectivity, tele-health and standardization.

This position interfaces with all global and regional functions within Roche Diabetes Care business.
From 1999 to 2003 Horst Merkle was Senior Manager and Director of Business Development Near Patient Testing.  This position involved Roche Diagnostics' accountablilty for the development of new business models and platforms for de-centralized and near patient testing in the hospital critical care environment.

Between 2000 and 2003 Horst served on the executive committee of the Connectivity Industry Consortium (CIC). The CIC developed the accredited POCT-1 standard for Point-of-Care systems interoperability.
From 2001 to 2004 he was a member of "Deutsches Institute für Normung" (German National Standard Organization) special interests group "Medical" called "NAMed".

Although a native of Germany, he has spent most of his professional life in Global Marketing, business and product portfolio development positions.  Horst has been living in the United States since 1997 interrupted by a 2 year engagement in Mannheim Germany. Before moving to the USA he worked for 5 years as the Global Marketing and Portfolio Manager for AVL Medical Instruments in Switzerland. Focus: Critical Care analysis and information management.