Newtown Resident Astle Named Advisory Committee Chair for Allied Health Centralized Application Service

PHILADELPHIA, PA (07/30/2012)(readMedia)-- Karen Jacobs Astle, Assistant Vice President of Admissions at Thomas Jefferson University and resident of Newtown, Pa., has been named Chair of the Advisory Committee for the Allied Health Centralized Application Service (AlliedHealthCAS). In addition, she serves as a member of the advisory committee for Occupational Therapist Centralized Application Service (OTCAS).

"Karen is widely viewed as a national expert in the development and operation of centralized application services," says James B. Erdmann, Associate Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs. "She is seen as the go-to-person for designing and operating such services."

To that point, Liaison International, the organization that manages AlliedHealthCAS, OTCAS, and several other centralized application services, invited Astle to present at the CAS Summit in May. Summit attendees represented the various disciplines that use centralized application services. Her presentation, "CAS from the School's Perspective," overviewed the benefits of the centralized application, such as ease of document management, sharing and communication with applicants, and offered suggestions for improvement, such as better communication with users, developing a central core CAS for use in multiple systems and establishing consistent timelines for enhancement to allow user testing.

About Thomas Jefferson University

Thomas Jefferson University (TJU), the largest free standing academic medical center in Philadelphia, is nationally renowned for medical and health sciences education and innovative research. Founded in 1824, TJU includes Jefferson Medical College (JMC), the Jefferson Schools of Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions, Population Health, and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Thomas Jefferson University partners with its clinical affiliate, Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals.