Advisory Board

The Advisory Board for the Mayo Clinic Center for Health Care Social Media includes representatives from various health care roles, including patients, who have been actively using social media, as well as representatives from other industries whose insights will help support the center’s mission.

Members will provide advice and feedback to leadership of the center and will contribute to advancement of practical social media application in health care.

Patricia F. Anderson (@pfanderson) is the Emerging Technologies Librarian at Taubman Health Sciences Library at the University of Michigan. Her work has focused on health and the Internet since 1995 when she became the design chair and webmaster for the HealthWeb collaboration. Currently, she specializes in emerging technologies, especially with respect to facilitating outreach and support to health care consumers and educators. Her additional professional interests include education, science 2.0, consumer health, health literacy, and community building.

Patricia is active in Second Life and virtual worlds with particular emphasis on its use for individuals with disabilities. In Second Life, she is a co-founder of the Healthcare Education group, as well as the SLHealthy guide to health locations, communities and activities in Second Life. She is committed to accessibility issues and is a member of several instructional and Internet organizations.  Among her publications is the Medical Library Association Encyclopedic Guide to Searching and Finding Health Information on the Web. She is equally active in social media, providing training and advising many units within the UM campus community, providing support to autism community events on Twitter, and actively participating in the #hcsm weekly Twitter chats. She blogs regularly at ETechLib and Cool Toys.

David W. Ballard, PsyD is Assistant Executive Director for Marketing and Business Development at the American Psychological Association and the APA Practice Organization. In this capacity, he designs and directs efforts related to health and well-being in the workplace, monitors the evolving health-care landscape to keep psychology viable in the marketplace, and helps psychologists build, manage, market, and diversify their practices in ways that meet emerging community needs. Dr. Ballard spearheads APA’s Psychologically Healthy Workplace Program, designed to help employers create a workplace culture that promotes employee well-being and organizational performance. Dr. Ballard has provided research and consultation services to government agencies, medical schools, and universities in the areas of public health, prevention, and health care finance and has experience in management, marketing, and consumer research. He is currently on the Board of Directors of the Health Enhancement Research Organization and The Health Project/C. Everett Koop National Health Awards and serves on the National Business Group on Health’s Workplace Emotional Wellness Advisory Board. Dr. Ballard received his doctorate in Clinical Psychology and his MBA in Health and Medical Services Administration from Widener University, where he completed concentrations in organizational and forensic psychology. You can follow him on Twitter, connect on LinkedIn or contact him by email.

Phil Baumann is a registered nurse who believes that health is inherently social. He consults with organizations to bring innovative ideas in social process design and emerging technologies to life. As President of CareVocate, he speaks, writes and conducts workshops on online communications with a concentration on health care and life science. He has built and led communities connecting diverse health care professionals, including the popular #RNchat, the first Twitter chat for registered nurses. His web-based project “Health Is Social” produces public and proprietary content for integrating social media with health care. Phil leads discussions on the roles and ramifications of Web technologies, from society at large to individual health to the business enterprise. He is a member of the Better Health Network of medical bloggers and blogs regularly at PhilBaumann.com, HealthIsSocial.com and RNchat.org. You can follow him on Twitter: @PhilBaumann, @HealthIsSocial and @RNchat, or email him.

Ed Bennett is the Director of Web Strategy for the University of Maryland Medical Center, and is responsible for the public Web sites, intranets and social media activities of the hospital. Ed also blogs at Found In Cache, where he maintains an industry reference – the Hospital Social Network List, which tracks the social media activities of over 800 U.S. Hospitals. Over the past two years, he has spoken at numerous conferences on social media and healthcare, including SXSW and the Mayo Clinic/Ragan Communications Social Media Summit in Jacksonville, FL. Ed is an actively engaged member of the Health Care Social Media Community on Twitter.

Andre Blackman is the Director of Digital Communications and New Media at the American Heart Association’s Mid-Atlantic affiliate. He is an agent of change and innovation within the public health community. He is passionate about the role of new media, mobile technology and other useful innovations as they relate to health communications and public health in general.

Andre has been a featured speaker/commentator on several Public Health 2.0 related conversations around HIV/AIDS, mobile health, health disparities and new forms of health journalism. He has worked alongside organizations such as the Black AIDS Institute, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services and the North Carolina Division of Public Health to educate and promote innovation around important health initiatives and opportunities. You can find his thoughts on public health and innovation through his blog, Pulse + Signal and via Twitter as @mindofandre.

As Senior Manager for Digital Communications at Inova Health System, Chris Boyer develops and implements strategic marketing and business development initiatives that utilize the power of social media and transactional Web to engage Inova’s target market, a diverse population. Since starting with Inova in April 2010, Chris has spearheaded the use of measurable, integrated approaches to promoting health services through the effective use of traditional online search marketing, search engine optimization and social-media optimization. Chris recently led the successful development and rollout of an Emergency Room Wait Times app for iPhone, as well as an online interactive fitness program called “Fit for 50″ with former Washington Redskins star Darrell Green.

Christopher Burgess (@burgessct) is the senior security advisor to the chief security officer at Cisco. Prior to joining Cisco, he served as a senior national security executive for more than 30 years. He has lived and worked in South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Central Europe, and Latin America where he acquired understanding of people, cultures, and societal issues. He is the co-author of Secrets Stolen, Fortune Lost: Preventing Intellectual Property Theft and Economic Espionage in the 21st Century,  and a regular contributor to The Huffington Post which began with his piece, “A common sense approach to social media.” He addresses a number of societal issues such as, hunger, slavery, health, as well as how to keep ones family safe online via his personal blogs: BurgessCT.com and Veritate et Virtute. As an invited speaker, Christopher addresses threats to intellectual property, security aspects of social media, security strategy, security education and awareness and prevention of industrial espionage.

Nick Dawson is the Administrative Director of Physician and Community Engagement for Bon Secours Health System’s largest market. In his role, Nick leads health 2.0 efforts, including regional EMR roll out.  Nick pioneered the role of Director Community Engagement at Bon Secours Richmond Health System. In addition to those duties, he served as Director on the Revenue Cycle team for the 14-hospital system. In the past, he has worked for other multi-hospital systems and been a consultant on staff a major health IT and strategy vendor. Nick is a member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association, speaks nationally, and is often published on the topic of community engagement and patient experience.

“e-Patient Dave” deBronkart was diagnosed in 2007 with Stage IV, Grade 4 renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer). His median survival time at diagnosis was 24 weeks. However, after great treatment and a clinical trial, he had beaten the disease in nine months. Today Dave is actively engaged in opening health care information directly to patients on an unprecedented level, thus creating a new dynamic in how information is delivered, accessed and used by the patient. A year after the diagnosis, Dave was invited to the annual retreat of the e-Patient Scholars Working Group, which consists of medical and lay pioneers who have been demonstrating that a new world of Participatory Medicine is evolving. Dave became an active blogger on e-patients.net and has now devoted himself full-time to healthcare.

John Oliver DeLancey (@jodelancey) is a second-year medical student at the University of Michigan medical school. Before entering medical school, he worked as an epidemiologist for the American Cancer Society. As a physician in training with a background in epidemiology, John has developed an interest in exploring opportunities for social media in the health care field. He is particularly interested in developing a means to facilitate meaningful and open communication both among health professionals and between health providers and their patients. While working as an epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society, John realized how much patients and the public turn to the internet for health information and the importance of directing them to reliable information sources. He believes social media tools, when used responsibly, can provide effective means of communicating with patients and the public.

Lucien Engelen works as the Head of the Regional Acute Healthcare Network at the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in the Netherlands. He advises their board on how changes in healthcare can enhance the participation of the patients. In their Reshape Program, Lucien researches the innovations and changes that are necessary for Participatory Health Care. Combining his previous business experience, he looks at health from both a patient and business perspective. Lucien sees Health2.0 as the most challenging aspect of future healthcare reform. He initiated AYA4, a community for young cancer patients and families to meet and share experiences, as well as AED4, which collects the geo-position data of AEDs for iPhone, iPad and Android apps. He is also an author of three books, and the Initiator & Curator of TEDxMaastricht, which will address health care change. Learn more on his LinkedIn profile, send him a tweet (@zorg20) or visit his blog.

Meredith Gould (@meredithgould) is a sociologist by training and activist by temperament with a wide range of editorial and marketing experience. Since 1990, she has focused on health and wellness issues, especially how health is socially-constructed.  A passionate advocate for using technology to build communities, Meredith participates in healthcare social media (#hcsm), healthcare marketing (#hcmktg) and hospice/palliative medicine (#hpm) conversations on Twitter.  She is the author of seven books, blogs about daily errata at More Meredith Gould and serves in an elected leadership position for the Virtual Abbey, a community (@Virtual_Abbey) of modern monastics committed to the Benedictine tradition. Learn more at http://www.meredithgould.com or send her an email.

David Harlow (@healthblawg) is Principal of The Harlow Group LLC, a health care law and consulting firm based near Boston, Mass. His twenty years’ experience in the public and private sectors gives him perspective on legal, policy and business issues facing the health care community. David assists clients in developing new paradigms for their business organizations, relationships and processes, helping them reach organizational goals in a highly regulated environment, in realms ranging from facilities development to social media strategies to the avoidance of fraud and abuse. His blog, HealthBlawg, is highly regarded in both the legal and health policy blogging worlds.  He also speaks regularly before health care and legal industry groups on the uses of social media.

As Principal of Holtz Communication + Technology, Shel Holtz consults with organizations on the application of online technology to their communication efforts. Hospitals and health care are focus points of his practice. Shel has been an author of six communication-related books. He is a regular conference speaker, mostly on social media-related topics. He is a blogger and co-host of the first communications-related podcast, “For Immediate Release.” Shel is accredited by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and was named an IABC Fellow in 2005. He is a Founding Research Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR).

Matt Katz, MD (@subatomicdoc) is a community-based doctor and partner in Radiation Oncology Associates, P.A. He enjoys sharing how social media can improve cancer care, medicine and life online in general. An advocate for patient education and individualized cancer care, he created CaP Calculator, a web-based decision support tool for prostate cancer. He currently serves as Chief of Radiation Oncology at Saints Medical Center and as Chair of Communications for the American Society of Radiation Oncology. He is exploring how to use technology to promote shared decision-making, to advocate for evidence-based medicine, and to contribute to society at large. Feel free to connect via Twitter, Digg, or Tumblr. If you care to share something, feel free to reach him via email.

Dana Lewis is the Interactive Marketing Specialist at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Wash. She is also the creator and moderator of #hcsm, a weekly Twitter chat on healthcare communications and social media. She co-organizes Social Health, the successful international health ‘unconference’ and serves on the advisory board for South by Southwest’s health track. She is also actively involved on local and national levels with the American Diabetes Association. Dana, a 2010 graduate of the University of Alabama, was named to USA Today’s All-USA College Academic Team in June 2010. She received the Best Non-profit Microblogging Award from the Society for New Communications Research Excellence.

Howard Luks, MD (@hjluks) is an Orthopedic Surgeon who believes that humans are innately social… and as an extension, that health care by nature is social. He entered the intersection of health care and social media long before the pavement was dry. As an early adopter of Twitter, Dr. Luks also runs a blog, a Facebook Page, a YouTube channel and a personal site to educate, to interact and to engage with his patients. Howard serves as the Chief Medical Officer of iMedExchange and FairCareMD and he serves as a Strategic Advisor to many health care start-ups. He is actively trying to engage his colleagues to consider participating in the Health 2.0 movement. This passion finds him frequently speaking on various social media topics as they relate to health care access, quality, HIT and cost transparency — all of which falls under his mantra — “We Are All Patients.”

Bertalan Mesko, MD (@berci) graduated from the University of Debrecen, Medical School and Health Science center in 2009 and started PhD in the field of clinical genomics. He is the managing director and founder of Webicina.com LLC, the first free medical social media guidance service for patients and medical professionals. He speaks at conferences, covers online international events and is a health 2.0 consultant for pharma and medical companies. Healthspottr.com included him in the Future Health Top 100 list. Dr. Mesko is the author of the award-winning medical blog, Scienceroll.com and the educator of the Medicine and Web 2.0 university credit course which is the first of its kind worldwide. He is a member of the Kairos Society.

Egbe Osifo-Dawodu, MD recently joined the Anadach Group from the Innovation Practice at the World Bank Institute, where she was an Adviser. She previously managed the Human Development Group at the World Bank Institute where she was responsible for the World Bank’s capacity building programs in health, education and social protection. She has a relatively unusual background in the World Bank Group having worked on both health policy projects with Governments, and on private health sector projects in emerging economies.

Egbe has over 23 years experience in the health care covering policy, provision and health care financing in Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East and Latin America. She has also taught international health management and finance at local universities in the Washington DC area. Egbe is a qualified medical doctor and a member of the UK Royal College of Physicians. She holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management and an MSc from Oxford University.

Egbe has authored several articles, contributed to books and was the lead author (with Seung Hee Nah) of Establishing Private Health Care Facilities in Developing Countries: A Guide for Medical Entrepreneurs. (World Bank Institute, 2007). She is interested in leveraging the mobile phone platform in health. Anadach recently co-hosted the M-Health Summit in Ghana. You can also her contact by e-mail.

Mark Ryan, MD is a family physician practicing in Richmond. Since finishing medical school in 2000 he has spent his career working in rural and urban medically underserved communities in Virginia, and has recently focused more on medical student teaching. Mark has also worked to provide medical care and support community development efforts in developing nations, with a focus on the Dominican Republic. He has received local, state, and national awards for his teaching and his volunteer work. Mark is interested in how social media can support development of collaborations and partnerships across distances, and how social media can be used to promote patient empowerment, health and wellness, increased access to medical care, and patient-centered care. He is an active participant in the #hcsm and #MDchat Twitter chats, and is a contributor to the Social Media Healthcare blog. Mark’s personal blog focuses on issues of access to health care and health care reform.

Christian Sinclair, MD (@ctsinclair) is a board certified palliative medicine physician and an advocate for health care professionals to enter the social media space. Learning about the power of social media and networking from 5 years of writing and editing for Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog, Christian was one of the youngest board members elected to AAHPM and was a catalyst in leveraging the power of the social network to reverse an FDA decision to ban liquid morphine. With a particular focus (but not limited to) hospice and palliative organizations and medical specialty societies, he founded KLXmedia. He believes doctors, nurses and other professionals can use Web 2.0 to increase collaboration, raise academic standards and promote good health education to other professionals and the public. In addition to blogging, he continues to be active in his medical practice, and can be found hosting #hpm (Hospice and Palliative Medicine) Tweetchat, Palliative Care Grand Rounds (monthly review of best blog posts) and sharing presentations on Slideshare.

Reed Smith is a consulting strategist and thought leader focused on the integration of social computing into hospitals. Much of his work focuses on incorporating interactive elements into current online strategies within hospitals and healthcare organizations. Reed’s hospital experience includes time as a hospital marketing director and overseeing product development for the Texas Hospital Association, where he assembled best practices and case studies from organizations across the country to create a social media guide for hospitals. Prior to healthcare, Reed spent time working in both telecommunications and professional sports. He has also presented at various healthcare and social media conferences around the nation. You can learn more about Reed by visiting i am reedsmith and his LinkedIn profile, or by connecting with him on Twitter.

Hugh Stephens is a fourth year medical student at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, currently performing research into Donation after Cardiac Death to earn his honors degree. Entering medicine with an IT background at a time when social media was first emerging, Hugh has a keen personal and professional interest in this area. In 2010 he co-authored the first Australian social media guidelines for medical professionals: the Australian Medical Association’s Guide to Social Media in the Medical Profession. He has been invited to speak to both healthcare professionals and students about online professionalism and the integration of social media into healthcare. Hugh has recently started Dialogue Consulting, a social media consultancy specialising in building communities through social media, and is a regular at the #hcsmanz tweetchat. Get in contact with him via Twitter, or through his personal website.

Tom Stitt (@tstitt) serves on the Health Track and Accelerator Health Advisory Boards of the South by Southwest Interactive Festival where he is an advocate of making health part of their social media and new technology agenda. Tom has been active in supporting various online health communities, including the weekly Twitter chat known as #hcsm. He is a co-founder of a stealthy early stage medication adherence startup that is focused on building social communities to drive better medication adherence. As a consulting firm principal, Tom has served as a project manager and planner for deploying large-scale, patient-centric interactive television systems at a number of leading health care providers.

Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, FAAP is a board certified, practicing pediatrician, blogger, and freelance writer. After completing her MD and MBE (Master’s in Bioethics) at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, she completed her residency at Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Swanson maintains a busy pediatric practice and writes Seattle Mama Doc for Seattle Children’s Hospital, the first pediatrician-authored blog for a major children’s hospital. Dr Swanson is an official spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics and sits on the Board of Advisors for Parents Magazine. She is called on frequently by the news media for her expertise in pediatric heath and is active in sharing her perspectives on pediatric health issues via social media. Her objective is to illustrate how a growing community of health care providers can empower patients to make informed decisions founded in science. She believes in the power of social media and feels physicians have an ethical obligation to share opinions online. Follow her on Twitter.

Tom Vanderwell graduated with a BA in English and started a career in real estate and lending. He has spent the last 22 years helping people with their residential real estate investments, first on the sales side and then as  a mortgage lender.  Tom and his wife have five kids, two of which they adopted in 2004 from Haiti. Tom is on a Haitian orphanage board and is working on other efforts to help in Haiti via http://alongsidehaiti.org. You can watch an interview with Tom about his patient experiences at Mayo on the Mayo Clinic YouTube channel. Tom thoroughly enjoys how social media makes the world a much “smaller” place and is excited about the opportunity to assist Mayo in using social media to further health care. You can connect with Tom on Facebook and Twitter (@tvanderwell).

Joni Watson is a master’s prepared oncology-certified registered nurse with a passion for healthcare, business, education, technology, and the Venn diagram that brings them all together. As director of the Nurse Oncology Education Program (NOEP), a nonprofit project of the Texas Nurses Foundation, she is responsible for numerous health education programs from educational needs assessment to continuing nursing education creation, development, dissemination, implementation, and evaluation on cancer prevention, detection, treatment and survivorship. Joni works to integrate technology into traditional, online, and mobile continuing nursing education and nursing efforts. You can connect more with Joni at the Oncology Nursing Society’s blog, Re:Connect, or her personal blog, Nursetopia.

Bob West, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department at SUNY Upstate Medical University (Syracuse, NY). He is a molecular biologist and geneticist by training, and has taught medical students for the past 26 years. He currently serves as a Co-Director for a first-year medical student course in Molecular and Cellular Principles of Medicine, as an Advisory Dean to 40 first- and second-year medical students, and as a member of several campus-wide committees dedicated to medical student education. Most recently, his mission has involved educating medical students in the areas of genomic and personalized medicine. A medical elective devoted to this topic (BIOC1205: “Personalized Medicine 101: Digitizing Diagnosis for Doctors”), offered for the first time in the Fall of 2009, was among the first in the nation to offer training to budding physicians that incorporates genomic and personalized medicine into the existing curriculum. He advocates a 21st century healthcare that is predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory for patients. While a scientist and educator by training, Dr. West is also a staunch supporter of Patient Advocacy, and an ardent e-Patient.

Mary Pat Whaley, FACMPE is Board Certified in Medical Practice Management and is a Fellow in the American College of Medical Practice Executives. She has managed private and hospital-sponsored physician practices and ancillary facilities for over 25 years. Her blog, Manage My Practice, provides physicians and administrators with information and resources pertinent to the changing face of healthcare. Mary Pat’s passions include innovation in the medical practice, customer service and social media. Named one of “10 Healthcare Bloggers We’re Thankful For” in 2010, Mary Pat continues to work in her field by managing a practice in Cary, North Carolina. She writes on many practice management topics, including social media and cloud computing and is producing a series of ebooks for healthcare managers entitled “The Smart Manager’s Guides.” She is active on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Kelly Young is an advocate providing ways for patients to be better informed and have a greater voice in their healthcare. Through her writing, speaking, and use of social media, she is building a more refined and accurate awareness of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) geared toward the public and medical community; creating ways to empower RA patients to advocate for improved diagnosis and treatment; and bringing recognition and visibility to the RA patient journey. In 2009, Kelly created Rheumatoid Arthritis Warrior, a comprehensive website about RA. She was the first patient and blogger to attend the American College of Rheumatology Scientific Meeting as a member of the press. In addition to her daily blogs on Rheumatoid Arthritis Warrior, Kelly writes periodically on other websites, including Orthopedic Posterous, WEGO Health, and Health Care Professionals Live. There are more than 7,000 connections of her highly interactive Facebook Fan page. Kelly is the mother of five, a home-schooler, Bible teacher, NASA enthusiast, and NFL fan. You can learn more about Kelly by following her on Twitter or YouTube, or connecting with her on LinkedIn. She created and moderates the weekly Twitter chat on rheumatology topics, which can be followed with the hashtag: #rheum.

Views expressed by members of the Advisory Board are those of the individuals and do not represent the positions of Mayo Clinic or the Center for Social Media.