Executive Committee

The Society’s Executive Committee sets the overall agenda of the Society and leads the organization in its day-to-day activities. It is made up of Board Members and two members-at-large selected from the general membership of the organization. The current executive committee is:

• President – Sarah Krug (ending 9/2013, then becomes past president for 1 year)
• President-Elect – Michael L. Millenson (3-year term, president beginning 9/2013)
• Past President – Danny Sands (ending 7/2013)
• Treasurer – John Grohol (ending 7/2015)
• Secretary – Nancy Finn (ending 7/2014)
• Member-at-Large – Hugo Campos
• Member-at-Large – Larry Chu
• Communications Director – Michael L. Millenson
• Board Chair – Alan Greene

Dave deBronkart

“e-Patient Dave” deBronkart was diagnosed in January 2007 with Stage IV, Grade 4 renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer) at a very late stage. His median survival time at diagnosis was just 24 weeks; with tumors in both lungs, several bones, and muscle tissue, his prognosis was “grim,” as one website said.

He received great treatment at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. His last treatment was July 23, 2007, and by September it was clear he’d beaten the disease. His remaining lesions have continued to shrink.

An accomplished speaker and writer in his professional life before his illness, 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.

Alan Greene, M.D.

Dr. Alan Greene is a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine, the Founding President and the Co-Chairman of the Society for Participatory Medicine. He is on the board of directors of Healthy Child Healthy World and the Organic Center. He is the author of many popular health and parenting books including Raising Baby Green and Feeding Baby Green.

He has been featured in the New York Times and has appeared on CNN, The TODAY Show, Good Morning America – NOW, and NBC Evening News. Dr. Greene was honored as one of “the 100 most creative and influential innovators working in health care today” and was named the Children’s Health Hero of the Internet by Intel. He is the Founder of the pioneering consumer health website DrGreene.com that has touched millions of lives since its inception in 1995.

John M. Grohol, Psy.D.

John M. Grohol, Psy.D. is the CEO and founder of one of the leading mental health networks, Psych Central. He founded Psych Central in 1995 as one of the first mental health sites available that offered information about the symptoms and treatments of mental disorders, including interactive screening quizzes and self-help tools. Psych Central was recognized by TIME.com as one of the 50 Best Websites of 2008.

Before focusing full-time on Psych Central in 2006, he worked for a number of e-Health firms, including drkoop.com, HelpHorizons.com and Steve Case’s Revolution Health, helping them with their own mental health centers and understanding the power and usefulness of online self-help support groups.

Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board for the journal CyberPsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is an active researcher in the area of online behavior and technology’s effects on human behavior. He won the Distinguished Professional Contribution to Media Psychology award from the American Psychological Association’s Division 46 in 2011, and is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists. He is also a founding board member of the Society for Participatory Medicine and is its current treasurer. He is the author of The Insider’s Guide to Mental Health Resources Online (Guilford) and blogs regularly at PsychCentral.com.

John received his doctorate in clinical psychology from Nova Southeastern University in 1995 and his undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware. He lives with his wife and six cats north of Boston.

Sarah Krug

Sarah Krug is CEO/Executive Director of CANCER101, a patient advocacy organization she has been on the board of for two years, in a quest to help patients and caregivers navigate their cancer journey.  Driven by the passion to make an impact in patient care and engagement, Sarah has held a variety of roles within healthcare.

She previously held the position of Global Education Director in the Medical Education Group at Pfizer, focused on establishing global health care improvement strategies and medical education standards worldwide. She also established the Global Investigator Initiated Research Program at Pfizer.  Prior to joining Pfizer in 2001, Sarah spearheaded the development of the Pediatric disease management clinical pathways and conducted clinical research at Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center. She is also on the board of the Cancer Patient Education Network, and serves as Research Chair.

David Lansky, Ph.D.

David Lansky, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, oversees the efforts of the Pacific Business Group on Health to improve the affordability and accessibility of high quality health care.

Previously, Dr. Lansky was Senior Director, Health Program and Executive Director, Personal Health Technology Initiative for the Markle Foundation. He also served as President of the Foundation for Accountability (FACCT) from its inception in 1995. For more than twenty years, he has been a proponent of a more responsive health care system in which consumers are partners in their care and help shape the delivery of care. Dr. Lansky has been appointed to the HIT Policy Committee, which will make recommendations on the implementation of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure and electronic health record in accordance with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Additionally, he serves on the California Health Information Exchange Advisory Board. A nationally recognized expert in accountability and quality measurement, Dr. Lansky has served as a board member or advisor to numerous health care projects and programs. Some of these include the National Quality Forum, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, National Patient Safety Foundation, The Leapfrog Group, and President Bush’s 2002 Economic Forum.

Prior to FACCT, Dr. Lansky was a senior policy analyst for the Jackson Hole Group during the national health reform debate of 1993-94. He also led the Center for Outcomes Research and Education at Oregon-based Providence Health System. In this capacity he was responsible for outcomes research, measurement of consumer satisfaction, health risk and health status assessment, development of electronic member and patient records, and communicating with purchasers and the larger community about health care quality.

He received his doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley and his undergraduate degree from Boston University.

Deborah Linton

Deb Linton has 7 years of experience researching and applying social technology to health care settings. She most recently ran a domestic and international hackathon series as a Developer Challenge Manager at Health 2.0, coordinated Patients 2.0, and also acted as the Managing Editor of the Health2News Blog. She’s been involved in research related to online communities, mobile health, and adapting medical interventions to 3-D virtual worlds.  Prior to working for Health 2.0, Deb worked for the Center for Connected Health and acted as a grants manager for the Partners Healthcare and Siemens Medical Solutions Research Council where she helped to promote initiatives in informatics and technology. She is currently enrolled at the UC Berkeley School of Information and her current interests center around UX/UI, digital sociology, and augmented reality. She can be found @pingDeb.

Danny Sands, MD

Danny Z. Sands, M.D. is senior medical informatics director for Cisco, where he provides both internal and external health IT leadership and helps key customers with business and clinical transformation using IT. His prior position was chief medical officer for Zix Corporation, a leader in secure e-mail and e-prescribing, and before that he spent 13 years at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where he developed and implemented numerous systems to improve clinical care delivery and patient engagement.

Sands earned his baccalaureate at Brown University, a medical degree at Ohio State University, and a master’s degree at Harvard School of Public Health. He did residency training at Boston City Hospital and an informatics fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is an assistant clinical professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and maintains a primary care practice in which he makes extensive use of health information technology.

Sands is the recipient of numerous health IT awards, sits on the board of the American Medical Informatics Association, and has been elected to fellowship in both the American College of Physicians and the American College of Medical Informatics.

Charles W. Smith, M.D.

Charles W. Smith, M.D. is the Founder, Chairman, and Medical Director of eDocAmerica, and is a board certified family physician with over 25 years of experience in practice.

He is the executive associate dean for clinical affairs at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and is professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine where he has been serving since 1989. In his role at UAMS, he also serves as the medical director for UAMS Medical Center and the physician director of medical informatics at the University. In this role, he is responsible for initiating and implementing software programs to assist physicians in the provision of care at UAMS. He is also responsible for the oversight of the quality of medical care provided at UAMS.

He has served as a national leader in family medicine, as editor of the American Family Physician, a national journal for family physicians, and has also served as the president of the American Board of Family Practice, which is the national certifying body for family physicians.

He recently served as the chair of the Group on Faculty Practice, a national organization of medical school faculty practice plans within the American Association of Medical Colleges. He is author of numerous medical journal articles and is co-author of a medical textbook, ‘The Handbook of Family Practice.’ He continues to conduct an active practice and holds regular office hours in the Outpatient Center of the University of Arkansas. His areas of special interest and expertise include sports medicine and fitness, skin disorders and stress-induced disorders.

Smith did his medical training at the University of North Carolina and, after practicing in Muscatine, Iowa, became director of resident physician training in Dayton, Ohio at Wright State University. In 1986, he relocated to Huntsville, Alabama, where he served as the chair of family medicine and dean of the School of Primary Medical Care at the University of Alabama in Huntsville a branch of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He came to Little Rock in 1989 to assume his current position at UAMS.

Indu Subaiya, M.D.

Indu Subaiya, MD, MBA is co-founder of Health 2.0: User Generated Healthcare, a
first-of-its-kind forum showcasing emerging companies in vertical search, social networking applications and web-based tools for consumer healthcare. Most recently she was Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Physic Ventures, a consumer health and wellness investment fund. Prior to that she served as President of Etude Scientific, a consulting firm providing strategy, market assessment, and due diligence services to biotechnology and consumer healthcare companies. Indu also was Vice President of Healthcare and Biomedical Research at Gerson Lehrman Group where she facilitated due diligence research in the life sciences sector for investment fund managers. Earlier in her career she served as Director of Outcomes Research at Quorum Consulting, Inc. where she conducted Phase III-IV quality of life and pharmacoeconomic studies and advised life science clients on commercialization and reimbursement strategies. Indu received her MD from Stony Brook University School of Medicine at the State University of New York, an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and a BS in Science and Technology Studies from Cornell University.

Marcus Thygeson, MD

As Vice President for Medical Services, Marcus Thygeson leads the medical director team at Blue Shield in support of our mission to ensure all Californians can access high-quality affordable health care. Dr. Thygeson’s team supports medical management; physician group performance improvement; medical, pharmacy and payment policy; and members appeals. Prior to joining Blue Shield, Marcus lead the Center for Healthcare Innovation at Allina Hospitals and Clinics in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he focused on promoting community health improvement, care delivery redesign, clinical and health services research, patient engagement, professional development and well-being, and the practical application of systems thinking to healthcare improvement.

Prior to joining Allina, Marcus served as the Corporate Medical Director and Vice President for Consumer Health Solutions at HealthPartners, where he focused on promoting health and wellness programs, shared decision-making, and value-based benefit design. Prior to joining HealthPartners, Marcus held a series of medical leadership and entrepreneurial jobs, including Medical Director for Definity Health, Chief Medical Officer of Mywayhealth, and a number of medical management positions at Alta Bates Medical Center, in Berkeley, California. From 1996 to 2000 he served as the Medical Director from Alta Bates Medical Group. Marcus also co-founded Mediphonics, an innovative, patented service for facilitating scheduled telephone appointments for physicians and patients.

Marcus received his B.S. summa cum laude from the University of California at Davis, and is a graduate of Harvard Medical School. He received his medical training at Virginia Mason Hospital, where he was Chief Medical Resident, and at the University of California San Francisco. Marcus is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology.

Michael L. Millenson

Michael L. Millenson, president of Health Quality Advisors LLC, is a nationally recognized expert on improving the quality of American health care with more than a decade of consulting experience. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book, Demanding Medical Excellence: Doctors and Accountability in the Information Age, and he holds an adjunct appointment as the Mervin Shalowitz, M.D. Visiting Scholar at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Earlier in his career, he was a health-care reporter for the Chicago Tribune and was nominated three times for a Pulitzer Prize.

Millenson has testified before Congress, lectured at the National Institutes of Health and the Harvard Business School, and served as a faculty member for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. He has written for publications ranging from the British Medical Journal and Health Affairs to USA Today and World Book Encyclopedia, and he is a regular contributor to health care blogs. Millenson also serves on the board of the American Medical Group Foundation and on the editorial boards of Quality and Safety in Health Care and the American Journal of Medical Quality.

Nancy Finn

Nancy B. Finn is a health care journalist and thought leader on the impact of digital communication on organizational behavior in healthcare and patient care. She is the author of e-Patients Live Longer, the Complete Guide to Managing Health Care Using Technology, which targets baby boomers, senior citizens and individuals who suffer from chronic conditions to help them become empowered, engaged e-Patients.

Ms. Finn has also authored Digital Communication in Medical Practice targeted at a physician audience, and two books on business and digital communication: The Electronic Office and Writing Dynamics. She also writes a health care blog www.healthcarebasicsinfo.com.

Ms Finn is the Founder and President of Communication Resources, a consulting organization that offers advice and training workshops on the management of patient information and the transition to patient-centered care. She has been on the faculty of several universities in the Greater Boston area including: Boston University, Bentley College, Suffolk University and Leslie University.

Ms Finn is on the Board of Overseers at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA, the Executive Board of Society of Participatory Medicine, and the Health Advisory Board of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council and a member of the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium. She holds a Master’s degree in Education and a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Boston University.

Hugo Campos

Hugo Campos is a thought-leading crusader in the e-Patient movement. He is passionate about participatory medicine, connected health, and patient empowerment through the use of technology. After fainting on a train platform in 2007, two misdiagnoses, and the urgent implant of a cardiac defibrillator, he realized how crucial it is for patients to fully engage in their own health care. Campos advocates for the rights of patients with pacemakers and implantable defibrillators to gain electronic access to the data collected by their devices.

“Everything changed,” said Hugo Campos, reflecting on the day in 2007 when he fainted on a subway platform, just miles from home.

Two misdiagnoses later plus the urgent implant of a cardiac defibrillator awakened a passion in Campos: to fully engage in his own health care and collaborate with health care providers in any and all decisions – and, in the process, inspire other patients to follow suit.

In the months following his device implant surgery, Campos launched a blog, founded the ICD User Group, and embraced a brave new world of patient advocacy through social media. He is passionate about participatory medicine, connected health and patient empowerment through the use of technology. Campos advocates for the rights of patients with pacemakers and implantable defibrillators to gain electronic access to the data collected by their devices. He believes that access is crucial to getting a complete picture of one’s health and can even help spark better health outcomes.

In 2011, he shared the story of his journey from patient to consumer of health care to patient rights crusader at TED-X Cambridge. He has been interviewed by numerous U.S. and international publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, NPR, Technology Review, Slate, O Estade de S. Paulo and MedGadget Espanol.

Larry Chu, MD, MS

Larry Chu is a practicing physician who runs the Anesthesia Informatics and Media (AIM) lab at Stanford University. He is an Associate Professor of Anesthesia on the faculty of the Stanford University School of Medicine.

He is the Executive Director of Stanford Medicine X, a conference that aims to explore how emerging technologies will advance the practice of medicine, improve health, and empower patients to be active participants in their own care. When not organizing conferences, Dr. Chu studies how information technologies can be used to improve medical education and collaborates with researchers in simulation and computer science at Stanford to study how cognitive aids can improve health care outcomes. Dr. Chu also has an NIH-funded clinical research laboratory where he studies opioid analgesic tolerance and physical dependence.