Founders Circle

The Founder’s Circle is made up of the founders of the Society, but the group has no current formal role within the Society. (Specific individuals within the Founder’s Circle may, however, have a role within the Society as an active member, officer or board member.)

Tom Ferguson envisioned health care as an equal partnership between e-patients and health professionals and systems that support them.

Before Tom’s untimely death in 2006, he was writing the White Paper (PDF) in consultation with the group of advisors he dubbed the e-Patient Scholars Working Group, which grew into what has beome the Society for Participatory Medicine.

Founders Circle

Dave deBronkart was diagnosed with advanced kidney cancer (median survival 24 weeks) in 2007. e-Patient Dave rapidly learned to use every aspect of empowerment, technology, and participatory medicine to beat the odds. A high-tech marketer for TimeTrade Appointment Systems, he’s now an outspoken patient blogger and is patient advisor to PCPCC. In early 2009 his attempt to move his personal health record data from his hospital into Google Health made front-page news in the Boston Globe and led to widespread discussion of patients’ involvement in their medical data. He has since been to Washington several times to discuss the subject with policy groups, and continues to advocate for participatory medicine.

Susannah Fox is Associate Director, Digital Strategy, for the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and principal author of the Project’s survey reports on e-patients and online health. Susannnah presents her perspective as a researcher and does not advocate for any policy or behavioral outcomes.

Gilles Frydman is a pioneer of medical online communities and founder, in 1995, of the Association of Cancer Online Resources, the largest online social network for cancer patients. ACOR has served over a half million cancer patients and caregivers.

Joe and Terry Graedon write consumer health books that deal with drug and alternative therapies, write a syndicated consumer health newspaper column, and host a syndicated public radio show, all called “The People’s Pharmacy.”

Alan Greene is a Clinical Professor at Stanford University’s Lucile Packard Hospital, Chief of Future Health at A.D.A.M. Inc., co-founder of DrGreene.com, and author of several books, including Raising Baby Green. Dr. Greene has been recognized by Intel’s Internet Health Initiative as one of four pioneering Online Health Heroes “who are developing innovative and compelling new ways to use the Internet to advance public health.”

Cheryl Greene is co-founder and the executive producer of DrGreene.com. The AMA has called DrGreene.com “the pioneer physician web site on the Internet.” Together Alan and Cheryl have been providing health information and community for parents around the world since 1995.

Sarah Greene is a publishing and new media entrepreneur specializing in biology, medicine, and health. She was chief content officer for Keas, Inc., an internet startup that helps people stay healthy. Previously she directed the web presence of NYTimes.com/Health and the New York Academy of Sciences. She also launched and ran startups Current Protocols, BioMedNet, HMS Beagle, and Praxis Post/Best Practice of Medicine.

John Grohol is a pioneer in online mental health and founder of Psych Central. Psych Central was recognized as one of the Top 50 Best Websites in 2008 by TIME.com. He runs two large online support communities, Psych Central Forums and the neurological support groups at NeuroTalk. Dr. Grohol is the author of The Insider’s Guide to Mental Health Resources Online and has served on the editorial board of the journal CyberPsychology, Social Networking and Behavior since its inception. He is also the founding president and a fellow of the International Society for Mental Health Online.

Dan Hoch is a neurologist based at the Massachusetts General Hospital and is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. An early developer of online resources for patients, Dan helped found Braintalk and is active in the American Academy of Neurology, the American Epilepsy Society, and the American Medical Informatics Association.

Jon Lebkowsky is a social media expert and strategist, cultural strategist, and social commentator. A web strategy consultant, he also writes about culture, technology, media, sustainability and other topics for various publications, has been blogging regularly since blogs first appeared, and has been involved in web strategy and development since 1992. He was involved in the early 2000s social technology conversations that led to the concept of “web 2.0.” He is cofounder of Social Web Strategies, where he does strategic consulting and coordinates social media planning and web development.

John Lester joined Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life, in 2005, bringing experience in online community development as well as a background in the fields of healthcare and education. Previously, John was the Information Systems Director for the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he pioneered the use of the web in 1993 to create online communities supporting patients dealing with neurological disorders. As a Research Associate in Neurology at Harvard Medical School, he also created online collaborative education environments for professors and students to advance the case-based teaching method in medical education. John leads Linden Lab’s customer market development in Education and Healthcare. He acts as a strategist and evangelist for people using Second Life in teaching, academic and healthcare research, medical education, simulation, and scientific visualization.

Danny Z. Sands 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.