Women make up only a small fraction of executives in the healthcare industry. But one place where they do have a striking presence is on social media – they account for 62 percent of Twitter users, 60 percent of DocStoc users and 58 percent of Facebook users.
You’d have no trouble finding thought-provoking women in the every part of the healthcare industry to follow on social media – that’s why it was so hard to narrow this list down to just 12. These women are patients, researchers, executives, investors and innovators who are making waves not just in their respective sectors but on social media as well. Feel free to share others who you enjoy following.
Regina Holliday (@ReginaHolliday) is a blogger, painter and founder of “The Walking Gallery” movement who uses social media to advocate for patients’ rights.
Geeta Nayyar (@gnayyar) is AT&T ForHealth’s first chief medical information officer.
Lisa Suennen (@VentureValkyrie) is a founding partner of healthcare investment fund Psilos Group. On the side, she writes hilarious posts at Venture Valkyrie (a syndication partner of MedCity News).
Linda Avey (@lindaavey) is co-founder of personal genetics company 23andMe and is now focused on Alzheimer’s disease research.
Daphne Zohar (@daphnezohar) is the founder and managing partner at PureTech Ventures, which forms and leads technology and science companies.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Lygeia Ricciardi (@Lygeia) is acting director of the Office of Consumer eHealth at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, a branch of HHS.
Dr. Leslie Saxon (@DrLeslieSaxon) is the chief of cardiology at USC Keck School of Medicine and executive director of the USC Center for Body Computing who tweets about digital health.
Carolyn Buck Luce (@CarolynBuckLuce) is the head of Ernst & Young’s Global Pharmaceutical Sector and an adjunct professor at Columbia University.
Vinny Arora (@FutureDocs), an internal medicine doctor at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago, also runs the Future Docs blog.
Naomi Fried (@Naomi Fried) oversees innovation initiatives at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Melissa Cole (@MelissaColeHTR), a senior consultant for Healthcare Transformation Resources, focuses her tweets on patient safety and health IT.
Lesa Mitchell (@lesamitchell) is the vice president of innovation and networks at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
[Regina Holliday photo from Flickr user health2con]
