Welcome to my journey through eHealth...
                                      ...for better patient care and provider collaboration!

A little about me...  I am Doctor of Health Administration (DHA), an accomplished global sales and marketing executive, a published author and an industry speaker with strong connections and ties to both the healthcare and life sciences industries.  


In February 2010, I successfully completed my Doctorate - focusing on the ramifications of web-based health assessment tools on consumer health behaviors and health outcomes.

The results of my study have given me great insights on how web-based media can and should be used to better communicate with patients and ensure their well-being, and how physicians and other stakeholders can be integrated into the process.

Outside of my academic life, I have spent a great deal of time working within the  Pharmaceutical Industry. For part of that time, I had also spent my evenings managing a large cardiology practice in Brooklyn, New York.

Serving as both a vendor and customer for my pharma clients gave me a unique perspective of how little the health care and life sciences worlds really knew about each other, as well as the other key stakeholders that played such a big role in the physician practice and medical market access model - these being private and government insurers, pharmacies, distributors and hospitals. 

Simply put...I recognized none of the players working together really understood each others business...and that would hurt us years down the road after the rep visits got old and the budgets got cut and the time to deliver value would be upon us...but where would this value come from? I am not sure too many people asked this question 8 years ago. But I did. 

And when I did, I saw the value...and as a result I decided to go back to school and get my terminal degree - Doctor of Health Administration. I did this not only to complicate my life for five years of coursework and study research, but to truly understand the innerworkings and underpinnings of the health care continuum. I am so glad I did this, and encourage everyone dreaming of getting their degree - bachelor's, master's or doctorate - to JUST GO FOR IT!

Upon completion of my studies, I realized that we can continue to accept models where if one stakeholder wins ten others lose or we can look for better models that unite and align objectives and profits so that every winner breeds a winner - particularly the patient!

I see a common bond of the internet as a potential support and collaboration tool that could allow all stakeholders to collaborate in and deploy a reimbursable, unified medical team model that opens communication, uncovers issues, empowers patient communication, care, education, disease managment, refferal and appointment management, and health and medication monitoring and outcomes management  - where we can break down our individual care silos, and come up with a win win model for better, equitable "all hands in" patient care!

Dissertation: Ramifications of Web-Based Health Assessment Tools on Consumer Health Behaviors and Outcomes. By Susan Dorfman