What I Do

I have spent three decades at the intersection of patients, healthcare, media, advocacy, policy, and the people trying to explain one of those worlds to another.

I came to it from an unusual direction.

I was diagnosed with brain cancer at 21 and spent the next thirty years finding out how the machinery actually works. Along the way, I built a national patient organization, created and hosted hundreds of hours of healthcare media, advised companies and leadership teams, spoke on stages around the world, wrote a book about the American healthcare system, and built a fairly large audience of people who care about what happens inside it.

That is the useful part.

I am not translating patients for you. I am one, and I learned to read your side of the table.

Here are the ways organizations work with me ⬇️

Strategy & Advisory

Bring me the problem that does not fit neatly inside one department.

It may be patient experience, market positioning, communications, reputation, policy, advocacy, stakeholder engagement, or a perfectly good idea that became something else after twelve departments touched it.

I work with leadership teams, boards, healthcare companies, life sciences organizations, agencies, nonprofits, and startups that need an outside perspective from someone who understands both the patient experience and the machinery behind it.

Sometimes that means pressure-testing a strategy before it launches. Sometimes it means figuring out why something is not working. Sometimes it means sitting in a room with senior leadership and saying the thing nobody inside the organization can comfortably say.

Half-day and full-day advisory sessions are available. What comes back is a written assessment with findings and recommendations you can actually circulate, not a deck that gets forwarded twice and never opened.

Message & Narrative Review

You have a campaign, patient support program, coverage story, advocacy initiative, website, portal, executive narrative, or stack of materials that tested fine internally.

Internal testing is often the problem. Everyone in that room already knew what the words meant.

I pressure-test messaging from the outside: what lands, what sounds corporate, what is confusing, what nobody will believe, what you forgot to explain, and what may actively irritate the people you spent the money trying to reach.

This can be a standalone review or part of a larger strategy engagement.

Executive Visibility, Media & Brand Partnerships

Sometimes you do not need another campaign. You need the right person saying something worth hearing in the right place. I work with organizations, executives, brands, and agencies on healthcare conversations that need credibility, reach, and an actual point of view. That can include executive interviews, sponsored editorial programs, podcast partnerships, thought-leadership campaigns, live conversations, audience amplification, and custom media built around an issue or initiative.

My audience has been built over decades across healthcare, patient advocacy, policy, media, and industry. I am protective of it, which is precisely why the right partnerships work.

If you are trying to put an executive, idea, initiative, or issue in front of people who matter, tell me what you are trying to accomplish. We can figure out whether there is a credible way to do it.

Hosting, Moderating & Custom Media

I have been hosting healthcare media since 2007, across hundreds of long-form interviews and millions of streams. I started doing this when podcasting was still a thing people had to explain at parties.

If you are building a series, running a live event, moderating a panel, conducting executive interviews, or trying to produce something on camera that does not sound like six people approved it in Microsoft Word, I can help.

There is an enormous difference between putting people in front of microphones and getting them to say something worth listening to. Almost nobody thinks to ask about that part.

Keynotes, Concerts, & Main Stage

I speak to healthcare, life sciences, corporate, academic, policy, and patient audiences about the American healthcare system, patient power, survivorship, advocacy, leadership, and what happens when the people a system was built for finally understand how it works.

I also perform.

Keynotes, keynote concerts, fireside conversations, moderated programs, and main-stage appearances are booked through my agent.

Tell me what the room is, who will be in it, and what you want them thinking about when they leave. I will make the introduction.

Books at Scale

We the Patients: Understanding, Navigating, and Surviving America’s Healthcare Nightmare can become part of the program rather than something sitting on a bookstore table.

Bulk purchases are available for conferences, leadership meetings, board distributions, employee programs, patient programs, medical education, advocacy initiatives, and organizational events.

The Robert A. Winn Excellence in Clinical Trials Award Program put roughly 400 copies into the hands of clinical trial investigators at events in Chicago and Atlanta.

Books can also be paired with speaking, moderated conversations, educational programs, executive sessions, or other engagements.

There is a version of that which works for your organization.

Getting In Touch