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Ron Harman King, CEODenverA former engineer, corporate PR executive, and newspaper and magazine journalist, Ron has focused his career in the last decade on consumer healthcare informatics – the study of how patients use online information and knowledge for managing their own medical treatments.In graduate studies in IT at the University of Denver, Ron analyzed how patients find and evaluate doctors and treatment options in the information age. He concluded that not just the Internet but also cable TV has upended the practice of medicine in less than 10 years: Whereas physicians once held the monopoly on health care knowledge, today patients increasingly mine the latest in medical research and news to control their own care and destiny. "In the last century," he says, "a patient learned almost everything about her condition and possible treatments in an exam room. Today the process is reversed: patients look for health care information first and health care providers second." Ron is founder and CEO of Vanguard Communications, a Denver-based marketing, public relations and communications firm specializing in growing specialty medical practices. Since 1998, Vanguard has combined the disciplines of online and offline PR, strategic marketing and information technology to bring new patients to physicians specializing in fertility, neurosurgery, urology and oncology from coast to coast. A one-time semi-professional musician, Ron plays three instruments, speaks French, and earned the rank of Eagle Scout at age 14. An avid hiker, bicyclist and skier, he has published more than 1,000 articles on health, fitness and outdoor sports for publications ranging from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (where he was a staff writer) to Outside and Powder magazines. Ron holds degrees from three universities in engineering, journalism and information and communications technology, and a certificate in French studies from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. |
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Tom Lombardo, executive editorAtlantaThe founding editor-in-chief of WebMD, Tom has followed a career path uncannily similar to Ron's. After graduating in metallurgical engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University (where he was a star football fullback), Tom earned a graduate degree in journalism from the University of Ohio.He then spent the next two decades as a magazine editor before assuming the editorial helm in the mid 1990s at WebMD, the world's most widely used health website. Tom left WebMD in 2003 to earn a master's in fine arts in creative writing-poetry from Queens University. His poetry and criticism has been published in Southern Poetry Review, Subtropics, Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, New York Quarterly, and New Letters. For MedMarketLink practices, Tom oversees editorial strategy for both online and offline communications, from media relations to social media to online reputation management for physicians and practices. His team of consulting physician-writers helps plan and develop online medical libraries for medical practice websites. Constantly nourishing his cornucopia of right-brain skills, Tom plays a mean blues harmonica, sings, and jams regularly with Atlanta musicians. Additionally, he has taught courses in Aesthetics and in Creative Writing at the Atlanta College of Art and his nonfiction writing has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. |
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Janna Graber, vice presidentDenverWith a wide range of international experience in print, broadcast and online media, Janna oversees public relations and online publishing for MedMarketLink's clients. Janna comes to the MedMarketLink team after 15 years in journalism and as a co-owner of a tourism communications and promotion firm. In the 1990s, Janna wrote for national publications such as Parade, Outside, Redbook, Reader's Digest, and the Chicago Tribune. Later, she co-founded Go World Publishing & Productions, a multi-media company specializing in travel video, public relations and social media marketing. Under Janna's leadership, Go World video crews filmed in more than 22 countries, while the Go World writing team covered more than 85 countries in the company’s two online travel magazines. Fluent in German, Janna has covered stories in more than 38 countries. She has a degree in International Relations and Sociology from the University of Colorado. |
