Katherine Milkman is an Assistant Professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research relies heavily on "big data" to document various ways in which individuals systematically deviate from making optimal choices. Her work has paid particular attention to the question of what factors produce self-control failures (e.g., exercising too little or eating too much junk food) and how to reduce the incidence of such failures. Katherine has published in leading periodicals...

Attorney David O’Bryon is founder and president of O’Bryon & Company. With more than thirty years of association and government experience, he has served organizations as an executive, consultant, and volunteer. He registered as a lobbyist before the U.S. Congress in 1980 and has been involved in all major federal legislative initiatives for the chiropractic profession since then. He has served as Executive Director of the Association of Chiropractic Colleges since 1996. Prior to forming...

This podcast is about stress in the United States. Depending on an individual’s age, gender, race and ethnic/racial background, stress is a common feature in the lives of many Americans. It can begin early in life for students who worry about such matters as being bullied or worrying about being accepted at the college of one’s choice. Upon completion of one’s formal education, there is anxiety over finding a job and having sufficient income to pay off student debts. Marriage and having...

For the first three months of The Health Crossroad, a new item was added on a daily basis. Negotiations are underway however,with two potential acquirers/partners for the program and site. Until a decision is finalized, new material will be posted either on an irregular basis or not at all. Thank you for your support at The Health Crossroad!

Dr. Jerry Kennedy is a chiropractor, an author, and I’m happy to say, a podcaster, with one of the top-ranked new shows on iTunes in health! Dr. Kennedy’s journey began when he realized the importance of himself in feeling great and reducing pain. Since then, he dedicated his career to helping others understand their bodies. Dr. Kennedy is the author of two books, The Posture Paradox and The Neck Pain Cure. In this interview, through personal anecdotes and great analogies, Dr. Kennedy...

Matt Hendricks is a Principal Consultant at Pharmica Consulting. Matt has worked in life sciences for nearly 20 years, splitting his time between Informatics and R&D Portfolio planning.  Matt specializes in collaboration and decision support with experience as varied as leading an internal usability service to implementing sophisticated mathematical modeling for clinical trial patient recruitment, to building iOS games.  Matt is six sigma certified and has his Masters of Science in...

Dr. Roy Meyer is a seasoned professional of the healthcare system, having spent over 35 years practicing cardiology and internal medicine for Kaiser.  He initially earned his BA at Yale University in Art History before pursuing his medical degree at the University of Alabama Medical School. From there, he continued his training in Chicago before settling in the San Francisco area. Dr. Meyer has long been an athlete and an avid artist, spending much of his free time now playing golf and...

Matt Hall is CEO of Human Care Systems, which he started in 2008 to provide service and support to help clinicians and patients better manage complex diseases. Prior to starting Human Care Systems, Matt co-founded the Kerdan Group, a biopharma and life science consulting firm. Matt has also worked in venture capital and as a consultant at Bain & Company. He has lived and worked in Europe, Asia, South Africa, and the US. Matt holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in Political Economy from...

Dr. Amy Nicole Nayar is an Advocacy & Outcomes Research Leader with a 15-year track record of successfully driving Market Access within the pharmaceutical industry. A passionate patient advocate, Amy Nicole has a natural ability to create patient access right treatment through a combination of persuasive data and win-win partnerships.  Pfizer’s Patient Advocacy & Strategic Partnerships Network grew from 5 to 168 employees across 58 countries under her leadership. A published author in...

This podcast is about music and its relationship to health. Music in one form or another is something that has been in existence for as long as when humans first inhabited the earth. Whether instrumental or vocal, music has served as a primary source of comfort, enjoyment, and inspiration for our species. The stirring power of national anthems provides just one example of the importance that music plays in affecting human emotions.

Dr. Seymour Gers has garnered a tremendous wealth of experience and expertise in healthcare through the last 50+ years as an administrator, physician, and educator in the system. He has held a number of leadership positions in multiple hospitals including Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn, Harlem Hospital Center, the Montrose VA, and Rockland Psychiatric Center, among others. His impressive list of credentials includes positions such as Director of Psychiatry, Co-director of the PTSD...

Dr. Moshe Ben-Roohi is board certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Board Eligible in Pain Management and Electrodiagnostics. His practice focuses on non-surgical, personalized treatments for painful conditions of the spine, joint, tendon and ligament disorders. Dr. Ben-Roohi has helped thousands of people resolve pain and restore normal function without surgery. He commonly treats low back pain, neck pain, spinal stenosis, herniated discs, degenerative disc disease, sciatica,...

Russell Benaroya is the co-founder and CEO of EveryMove, a rewards plan for health that connects health tracking apps, wearables and device data with rewards from health plans, employers and brands.  As he drives a personal mission to improve the lives of 10 million people in 10 years, EveryMove is putting power into the hands of consumers that will fundamentally change the way we approach our “health”care. Previously Russell was the co-founder and CEO of REM Medical, a national healthcare...

Dr. Robyn I. Stone, a noted researcher and leading international authority on aging and long-term care policy, is Executive Director of the LeadingAge Center for Applied Research and Senior Vice President of Research. Prior to accepting this position, she was at the International Longevity Center-USA in New York City where she was executive director and chief operating officer. Previously, she worked for the Federal Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (now known as the Agency for...

Dr. Ashwin R. Patel is a physician economist with a strong research interest in disease management, behavioral economics, and health care quality. In particular, he is focused on translating evidence-based academic insights into the actual delivery of health care. He currently serves as Chief Medical Officer of InquisitHealth. Dr. Patel received his MD degree from Weill-Cornell Medical College and his PhD in Health Economics from the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania....

Dr. George Cernada is Emeritus Professor of Public Health at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Editor of the International Quarterly of Communication Health Education, a journal that he founded. He has extensive public health research, program planning/evaluation, professional training, managerial, and fund raising experience in public, private and academic settings. He spent many years working overseas on public health and population projects that involved implementation and...

Dr. Chris Marker is a leading physician in the area of concussions. After completing his training at NYU in PM&R, Dr. Marker joined the Sport Concussion Clinic in Riverside Ca as Director and has been working at the Community Medical Group of Riverside for 5 years. He is also intimately involved in sports medicine and pain management. Dr. Marker was recently highlighted on the news for his commentary on the death of a student due to concussion. In this interview, Dr. Marker provides great...

Dr. Paula Friedman is a Professor in the Department of General Dentistry in the Harry M. Goldman School of Dentistry at Boston University. A specialist in geriatric dentistry, her research interests focus on health services and specifically on increasing access to oral health care for underserved populations. Activities include conducting oral health screenings for community-based, independently living elders; facilitating oral health in-home consultations for frail, home-bound elders; and...

Dr. Gerry Petratos co-founded and leads Hiteks Solutions as CEO and guides its efforts on unstructured data analytics and the re-use of clinical information to support decision support, clinical documentation improvement, clinical research, and reimbursement. Dr. Petratos was previously director of clinical decision support and Global Head of Healthcare Data Analytics at Roche, where he oversaw data-driven applications of clinical information management in protocol design, graphical medical...

Dr. Navin Singh is a Board-Certified plastic surgeon in private practice and an Assistant Professor of Plastic Surgery in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He also is a clinical assistant professor of Neurosurgery as well as Gynecology. He is licensed in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC and practices at several hospitals, including Johns Hopkins Hospital which has been consistently ranked No.1 in the nation. His research interests include minimally invasive surgery, laser...

Deborah Discenza is a leading patient advocate for babies born prematurely. Combining careers in technology and publishing, Ms. Discenza has initiated several different outlets to raise awareness and education around preemies, including Preemie Magazine, PreemieWorld, and her book The Preemie Parent’s Survival Guide to the NICU which she co-authored with little man Director/Producer Nicole Conn. Her work focuses on providing information to parents in simple terms to enhance health literacy,...

Dr. Thomas Rice is Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and Management in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health where he teaches courses in health economics, research methodology, and current issues in health policy. He served as Vice Chancellor, Academic Personnel for the UCLA campus from 2006-11. His portfolio of published research includes the topics of physicians' economic behavior, the role of competition in health care reform, and managed care. He has testified before the U.S....

Dr. JR Rizzo is a board-certified physician specializing in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He is a researcher at NYU Langone Medical Center and is well versed in exercise physiology and the interplay between physical ailments and medical diseases. Dr. Rizzo received a Bachelor's degree in Neuroscience from New York University and went on to receive an M.D. from New York Medical College, before starting residency training in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Rusk Rehabilitation at...

Timothy Jost is a law professor at the Washington and Lee University School of Law. He is a co-author of a casebook that is used widely throughout the United States in teaching health law. He also is the author of several other key publications, including Readings in Comparative Health Law and Bioethics, along with another book entitled Health Care at Risk: A Critique of the Consumer-Driven Movement. He has written numerous articles and book chapters on health care regulation and comparative...