Clinical Advisory Board

WebMD Health Services Clinical Advisory Board

The WebMD Health Services Clinical Advisory Board was established to help strengthen the scientific and clinical foundations of WebMD’s product and services as well as help drive product innovations based on consumer needs.  Board members include well-regarded healthcare leaders who bring a breadth of experience in the fields of medicine, behavior change science, obesity, tobacco cessation as well as health analytics and behavior economics.

Board Members

Dr. Michael Dansinger

Michael Dansinger, MD, is a nationally recognized authority on dietary and lifestyle counseling for weight loss and disease prevention. He is the nutrition doctor for NBC's hit prime time series The Biggest Loser, and a contributor to the best-selling book series based on the show. He has been interviewed about his weight loss experience on the Today show, CNN, National Public Radio, Oprah magazine, Time magazine, Consumer Reports, USA Today, the New York Times, and many other media organizations.

Dansinger holds multiple academic positions. He is the clinical nutrition and obesity editor for the MedscapeJournal of Medicine, an assistant professor at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, a scientist with the USDA Nutrition Research Center, and a member of the division of endocrinology at Tufts-New England Medical Center.

His research on dietary counseling in well known. He published the research study "Comparison of the Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers and Zone Diets for Weight Loss and Cardiac Risk Reduction" in The Journal of the American Medical Association in January 2005. He is currently conducting a clinical trial to determine the effectiveness of the USDA food pyramid and a low-starch version of the food pyramid for weight loss and heart disease reduction. He directs a "Diabetes Reversal Program" where he uses lifestyle coaching to achieve diabetes remission in over 25% of his patients.

Dr. John Foreyt

Dr. John Foreyt is a professor in the departments of medicine, and psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston. He also is the director of the DeBakey Heart Center's Behavioral Medicine Research Center at Baylor. Dr. Foreyt received his BS in psychology from the University of Wisconsin and his MS and PhD in clinical psychology from Florida State University. He served on the faculty at Florida State University until moving to the Baylor College of Medicine. He has served as member of national task force on prevention and treatment of Obesity, NIH, the committee to develop criteria for evaluating the outcomes of approaches to prevent and treat obesity, food and nutrition board, institute of medicine, National academy of sciences; and the expert panel on the identification, evaluation and treatment of overweight and obesity in adults, NIH, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Dr. Foreyt has published extensively in the areas of diet modification, cardiovascular risk reduction, eating disorders, and obesity, including 17 books and more than 300 articles.

Dr. Ron Goetzel

Dr. Ron Goetzel is both the Director of the Emory University Institute for Health and Productivity Studies and Vice President of Consulting and Applied Research for Thomson Reuters.  The mission of the IHPS is to bridge the gap between academia, the business community, and the healthcare policy world – bringing academic resources into policy debates and day-to-day business decisions, and bringing health and productivity management issues into academia.  Before moving to Emory, Dr. Goetzel was at Cornell University. 

Dr. Goetzel is responsible for leading innovative research projects and consulting services for healthcare purchaser, managed care, government, and pharmaceutical clients interested in conducting cutting-edge research focused on the relationship between health and well-being, and work-related productivity.  He is a nationally recognized and widely published expert in health and productivity management (HPM), return-on-investment (ROI), program evaluation and outcomes research.

Dr. David Nash

David Nash is the Founding Dean and the Dr. Raymond C. and Doris N. Grandon Professor of Health Policy at the Jefferson School of Population Health (JSPH) of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Nash is a board certified internist who is internationally recognized for his work in outcomes management, medical staff development and quality-of-care improvement. In 1995, he was awarded the Latiolais Prize by the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy. He received the Philadelphia Business Journal Healthcare Heroes Award in October 1997 and was named an honorary distinguished fellow of the American College of Physician Executives in 1998. In 2006, he received the Elliot Stone Award for leadership in public accountability for health data from NAHDO. In 2009, Dr. Nash received the Wharton Healthcare Alumni Achievement Award.

Repeatedly named to Modern Healthcare’s list of Most Powerful Persons in Healthcare, his national activities cover a wide scope. He served as Chair of a National Quality Forum Technical Advisory Panel and is a member of the Board of Directors of The Care Continuum Alliance (formerly DMAA). Dr. Nash is a principal faculty member for quality of care programming for the American College of Physician Executives in Tampa, Florida, and is the developer of the ACPE Capstone Course on Quality. He also leads the academic joint venture between ACPE and the JSPH.

Dr. Nash received his BA in economics (Phi Beta Kappa) from Vassar College; his MD from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, where he was recently named to the Alumni Council; and his MBA in Health Administration (with honors) from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. While at Penn, he was a former Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar and Medical Director of a nine-physician faculty group practice in general internal medicine.

Dr. Robert Van Eck

Robert Van Eck is the Associate Vice President of Clinical Quality Improvement at Priority Health located in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  He has led quality improvement, disease management, and preventive health initiatives for 16 years.  Many of these programmatic efforts achieved national recognition by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, National Business Coalition on Health, and the Centers for Disease Control.  Under his leadership the plan’s performance for diabetes care, asthma, immunizations, and cancer screening has resulted in top 5% performance nationally.   

Dr. Van Eck completed his undergraduate studies in nursing at Hope College and master’s preparation in Public Administration from Western Michigan University.  Previous experience in acute care and home infusion, along with his tenure at the health plan, has given him broad exposure to the healthcare market place.