James Beckerman, MD, FACC
WebMD Medical DirectorSpecialty: Cardiovascular Medicine
James Beckerman, M.D. is WebMD Health Service’s Medical Director providing clinical oversight for WebMD’s condition management program and serves on our Quality Oversight Committee. Dr. Beckerman also participates in the Quality Oversight Committee and provides guidance on areas that impact the safety and clinical integrity of our site.
Dr. Beckerman is the WebMD Heart Expert and a cardiologist with the Providence Heart Institute in Portland, Oregon. He served as Chair of the Oregon Governor’s Council for Physical Fitness and Sports and is the team cardiologist for the Portland Timbers Major League Soccer team. Dr. Beckerman is the medical director of Play Smart, a prevention-based cardiac screening program and is the coach-in-chief of Heart to Start, a multi-state 5K training program. He is the author of two books, The Flex Diet (2011) and Heart to Start (2015), which inspire lifestyle change through medical evidence and motivational coaching. Dr. Beckerman graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Medical School and completed his internal medicine and cardiology training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Stanford University.
Breanne Brown, DO, CAQSM, FAAFP
Specialty: Sports MedicineBreanne Brown is a Sports Medicine and Family Medicine physician in Portland, Oregon. She graduated from The Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, Midwestern in 2009 and did her Family Medicine residency in Portland, Oregon with Providence Health and Services. From there she went on to her Sports Medicine Fellowship at Oregon Health and Science University. Post fellowship, Dr. Brown has worked for Providence in the Portland service area practicing a blend of Family Medicine and Sports Medicine.
Breanne is the head physician for the Portland Thorns, the women’s professional soccer team, in addition to working with the United States Women’s National team for soccer. She also serves as an executive Medical Task force member for the National Women’s Soccer League and is the Medical Director for Sports Medicine for Providence in the greater Oregon and Southwest Washington region.
Michael Dansinger, MD
Specialty: Lifestyle MedicineMichael Dansinger is a nationally recognized authority on dietary and lifestyle counseling for weight loss and disease prevention. Dr. Dansinger is the Founding Director of the Diabetes Reversal Program at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, and an Assistant Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. He is the Wellness Director at Boston Heart Diagnostics, is a nutrition and diabetes expert for WebMD Health Services, DietID, Heali, RxDiet, True Health Initiative Media Response Team, and the CDC’s Worksite Health ScoreCard. He is a contributing author to the Culinary Medicine Textbook by Deborah Kennedy, PhD.
His research on dietary counseling is well known. He published the highly publicized 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 (JAMA). He is a panelist judge for US News and World Reports’ “Best Diets” awards and was the nutrition doctor for NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” for 11 years. He has been interviewed about his weight loss experience on the Today show, CNN, National Public Radio, CBS Radio, BBC Radio, Oprah magazine, Time magazine, Consumer Reports, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and hundreds of other media outlets. He lectures throughout the U.S. to medical and non-medical audiences and is represented by the Harry Walker Agency.
Aria DiBiase, MD
Specialty: Cardiovascular MedicineAria DiBiase attended Stanford University School of Medicine and completed training in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford. She is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Medicine and Advanced Heart Failure and Transplantation. She has practiced clinical cardiology and heart failure at Palo Alto Medical Foundation for over 25 years. She has extensive experience in Disease Management and Heart Failure tele-management. She has served on the WebMD Clinical Advisory Board for 8 years.
Jennifer Dressler, RN, BSN, CPHQ
WebMD Director, Clinical ServicesSpecialty: Condition Management
Jennifer Dressler joined WebMD Health Services in 2016. In her role as Director, Clinical Services, Jennifer sets and guides the development of clinical standards and protocol ensuring WebMD meets the highest clinical standards for their programs and tools. This includes leading the Quality Oversight Committee, being a liaison with the Clinical Advisory Board, overseeing the review and accuracy of clinical content. Jennifer is heavily involved in the Condition Management Program overall, its outcomes and Client support. She is also accountable for successful submission of our four NCQA (National Committee for Quality Assurance) and URAC (Utilization Review Accreditation Commission) Accreditations.
Jennifer has more than 30 years’ experience in the health care industry. She earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Niagara University with extensive experience in various clinical settings including Neurological and Medical Intensive Care, interventional cardiology, as well as utilization and case management for health insurance companies. Jennifer holds the Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) certification further demonstrating her commitment to quality and improving health outcomes.
Prior to working with WebMD, she held various leadership roles and positions supporting international insurance stop loss, global product safety for a pharmaceutical company, Medicaid Delivery System and Payment Transformation Services, and state accountability for influencing Medicare star ratings. She has been a member of the New York State and Indiana Nurses Association’s and supports the Colorado Center for Nursing Excellence.
Sabrina Felson, MD
Specialty: Internal MedicineSabrina Felson, M.D., is a physician educator board-certified in Internal Medicine. Her medical practice is at the VA New York Harbor, where she provides primary care to our nation’s veterans. Like any true generalist, Dr. Felson is interested in many facets of medicine and healthcare. She is passionate about diagnosis, the more complicated the better. Dr. Felson also loves to work on clinically informed systems redesign and clinically driven efficiency projects to improve the patient interface with the healthcare system. She developed a navigational tool called the Follow-up Plan for patients to use between face-to-face visits, and spear-headed a project writing life bios to accompany terminally ill veterans throughout their hospitalizations. Dr. Felson is currently preoccupied with reinvigorating the role of the general internist in outpatient medicine. To further this goal, Dr. Felson recently stepped down as Assistant Chief of Primary Care to become the Director of Clinical Innovations in Primary Care at the Manhattan VA.
Dr. Felson is also Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine in the NYU Department of General Medicine. As an educator, Dr. Felson serves as an NYU Firm Chief, a senior faculty mentor for medical students during the medicine clerkship. She continues to professionally guide students choosing to pursue residency in Internal Medicine through the match process. Dr. Felson also supervises a cohort of NYU residents assigned to the VA for their 3-year continuity clinic experience.
Before entering medical school, Dr. Felson lived in Bolivia, where she helped to develop training materials and run workshops for indigenous Aymaran women interested in becoming midwives. She earned a Master’s Degree in History of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before starting medical school at Case Western Reserve University Medical School. Dr. Felson completed her residency training at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and had the honor of serving as senior chief resident before joining the faculty.
John Foreyt, PhD
Specialty: Obesity Clinical PsychologyJohn P. Foreyt received his PhD in clinical psychology in 1969 from Florida State University. He served on the faculty there until 1974 when he moved to Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas. He currently is Professor Emeritus at the Baylor College of Medicine’s Department of Medicine and Department of Psychiatry.
Dr. Foreyt has served as a member of the National Task Force on the Prevention and Treatment of Obesity, National Institutes of Health; 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, National Institutes of Health, NHLBI.
He has published extensively in the areas of diet modification, cardiovascular risk reduction, eating disorders, and obesity. He has published 17 books and more than 380 articles. He is currently a member of the editorial boards of: Eating Disorders; Obesity Research and Clinical Practice; American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine; American Journal of Health Behavior; Obesity and Weight Management; American Journal of Health Promotion; Childhood Obesity; and Nutrition Today.
Dr. Foreyt is an Overseas Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine; a Fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, a Fellow of the Obesity Society, a Fellow of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research and a member of other professional associations. He is a Life Member of the American Psychological Association and an honorary member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Ron Z. Goetzel, PhD, MA
Specialty: Health and Productivity Evaluation ResearchRon Goetzel is a Senior Scientist and Director of the Institute for Health and Productivity Studies (IHPS) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 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 worker health and productivity management concerns into academia. Before moving to Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Goetzel was on the faculty at Emory and Cornell Universities. Dr. Goetzel is responsible for leading innovative projects for healthcare purchaser, managed care, government, and pharmaceutical clients interested in conducting cutting-edge research focused on the relationship between health and well-being, medical costs, and work-related productivity. He is an internationally recognized and widely published expert in health and productivity management (HPM), return-on-investment (ROI), program evaluation, and outcomes research. Dr. Goetzel has published well over 200 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and frequently presents at international business and scientific forums.
Dr. Goetzel was the principal investigator (PI) for a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study examining the relationship between an organization’s culture of health, employees’ health risks, medical costs, and company stock price. Dr. Goetzel served as PI on a five-year project sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) focused on obesity prevention at the workplace. He was PI for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Senior Risk Reduction Demonstration, New Opportunities for Healthy Aging in Medicare, and demonstrations focused on Cancer Prevention and Treatment for Ethnic and Racial Minorities, Chiropractic Care, Vision Rehabilitation, and Health Improvement Incentive Structures for Medicaid Beneficiaries. He also served as PI for the Federal Employee Worksite Health and Wellness Initiative administered by the Office of Personnel Management. For the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Goetzel was PI for a New York City-based project supporting collaboration between the private and public sectors directed at employer health promotion programs. He was PI on two CDC initiatives focused on updating the CDC Worksite Health ScoreCard and building a comprehensive CDC Workplace Health Resource Center. Dr. Goetzel has worked with the Department of Defense (DoD) on two health promotion and resilience training demonstrations for the U.S. Army and Air Force. He supported the Office of the Secretary of Defense as the evaluation contractor for the Healthy Base Initiative focused on managing obesity and tobacco use in the military. Dr. Goetzel is working with the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) in Washington DC supporting the CEO Council on Health and Innovation and an initiative to build partnerships between businesses and public health departments to improve community health.
In the private sector, Dr. Goetzel has led multiple evaluations of health promotion and disease prevention programs at Boeing, Chevron, General Electric, Dow Chemical, Citibank, Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Procter & Gamble, Duke University, University of Michigan, Vanderbilt University, Motorola, Novartis, PepsiCo, Prudential, PPG Industries, Mass Mutual, Whirlpool, and Bristol Myers Squibb. Public sector partners have included King County Washington, Cayuga County New York, and the State of Delaware. Health plan and insurance company collaborators include Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal Employee Program, Health Care Services Corporation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Blue Shield of California, Highmark, American Specialty Health, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Mayo Clinic, and Kaiser Permanente. Dr. Goetzel has also done work with non-profits including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Population Health Alliance, Health Enhancement Research Organization, Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO),Transamerica Center for Health Studies, American Heart Association, and The Health Project. Finally, Dr. Goetzel has established strong working relationships with vendors in the health promotion industry including StayWell, Johnson & Johnson, WebMD, Health Fitness Corporation, Virgin Pulse, HealthStat, and Pfizer. Dr. Goetzel’s international work includes projects with Discovery Health in South Africa, the Ministry of Health in Israel, Social Service of Industry (SESI) in Brazil, and The Health Promotion Board of Singapore.
Dr. Goetzel was a Task Force Member for the Guide to Community Preventive Services (Community Guide) housed at the CDC and is currently the President and CEO of The Health Project, which annually awards the prestigious C. Everett Koop Prize to organizations with credible data demonstrating population health improvement along with business results. He is the former Chairperson for HERO and Jury Chair for The Fries Foundation housed at the CDC Foundation. He has also served on several committees organized by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM). Dr. Goetzel was formerly Vice President for Consulting and Applied Research at IBM Watson Health and Vice President of Assessment, Data Analysis, and Evaluation Services at Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Goetzel was one of the original members of the core development and marketing group at Corporate Health Strategies. Earlier in his career, Dr. Goetzel was the Medical School Education Program Evaluator at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he was appointed to the Psychiatry faculty. Dr. Goetzel earned his doctorate in Organizational and Administrative Studies and his M.A. in Applied Social Psychology from New York University (NYU), and his B.S. degree in Psychology from the City College of New York (CCNY). He is located in Bethesda, MD.
Jeanette Menapace, MPH, RDN, LDN, CHES
Specialty: NutritionJeanette Menapace is a Senior Health Education Specialist with WebMD Health Services. She brings a wealth of expertise with the various roles and education background within the healthcare sector. Jeanette earned her bachelor’s degree in dietetics at The University of Akron. She then earned her master’s in public health from the Consortium of Eastern Ohio Master of Public Health Program through Northeast Ohio Medical University. Finally, she obtained the Certification for Health Education Specialist. Jeanette also worked as an adjunct professor teaching online courses and serving as a tutor for students in the Dietetics/Food Technology Associates Degree Program at Stark State College. She maintains the Wellcoach Certification, Adult First Aid/CPR/AED certificate and is newly certified in the Mental Health First Aid USA. She is a member of her local dietetic association and maintains her membership with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, including the Dietetics Practice Based Research Group. She also continues her involvement with the Ohio Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and Ohio Society for Public Health Education.
During her 12-year tenure with WebMD, she has held various positions that first included a WebMD Health Coach. She worked with hundreds of participants to improve health using behavioral health techniques in the Whole Person Lifestyle, Positively Me, Quit By WebMD, and Condition Management Coaching programs. Currently, she manages the content creation and review of the Group Coaching product materials and virtual webinars for clients. She works with a team of 5 health coaches who create and review content for these programs.
She is also responsible for helping manage accreditation materials. She has been working on accreditation since 2019 and has helped to submit materials for NCQA Health Information Product (HIP), Wellness & Health Promotion (WHP) and Population Health Program (PHP). She also works on the preparing the Utilization Review Accreditation Commission (URAC) submission.
Before joining WebMD Health Services, she worked with another wellness company as a Senior Trainer/Development Specialist and briefly worked for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program through MetroHealth Center for Community Health in Cleveland, Ohio.
Nirmal (Nim)Patel, MD, MPH
Specialty: Preventive MedicineDr Nirmal (Nim) Patel, M.D., is a primary care physician, trained at the University of Manchester in the UK where she received her MD, then at Yale, where she received her MPH. Nim is passionate about high quality, patient centric care delivery, using evidence, data and information technology to improve efficiency at the point of care. She has more than two decades of experience working with senior executives, in developing high performing primary care delivery systems and digital health solutions, that are outcomes focused.
Nim has deep knowledge of the U.S. healthcare system, clinical care, health benefits and her insights inform her approach to strategy, business and markets she has been responsible for. Having worked within the large employer, hospital, managed care and growth company environments, Nim understands the business imperatives of stakeholders and her work focuses on business solutions and timely delivery.
Her differentiated knowledge of clinical operations, evidence-based medicine, care variation and gaps, have enabled her to innovate in the design of optimal primary care delivery systems, which when combined with her strong quantitative skills have allowed Nim and her teams to consistently measure outcomes and success.
Nim is a subject matter expert in telehealth having created first of the kind care-at-a-distance solutions focused on primary care, dermatology, as well as behavioral health, while simultaneously using vast data sets collected, to perform analytics to improve quality and cost of care.
She understands high performing ACOs models, development and deployment of innovative population health software with clinical decision support and telehealth applications for the point of care, to drive affordability and quality.
Nim is a respected thought leader and spokesperson for the businesses she represents. Areas of research, public speaking engagements are notable, she has participated in numerous nationally renowned boards, leadership councils and is often in the media sharing her expertise.
Loren Soeiro, PhD, ABPP
Specialty: Psychology/Behavioral HealthDr. Loren Soeiro joined the WebMD Health Services Clinical Advisory Board in 2016. He is a psychologist and psychotherapist with over two decades of clinical experience. Prior to opening his Manhattan private practice, Dr. Soeiro worked in an outpatient psychiatry clinic in the Bronx, NY, for patients with HIV and AIDS. Along with a multimodal team of psychiatrists, physicians, social workers, and other specialists, he evaluated and planned treatments in both English and Spanish.
Dr. Soeiro was previously employed as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he supervised and trained psychology interns, unlicensed psychologists and medical residents. He specialized in teaching psychodynamic theory and treatment, as well as psychotherapy for diverse populations. Dr. Soeiro also provided training for psychology interns at several other New York-area hospitals, such as North Central Bronx Hospital and the Beth Israel Medical Center.
Dr. Soeiro received his Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Arts degrees in clinical psychology from Long Island University, in Brooklyn, NY. He completed his pre-doctoral internship at New York’s Beth Israel Medical Center; prior to that, he studied psychology at Harvard College.
Dr. Soeiro is board certified as an expert in clinical psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychologists and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Clinical Psychology, as well as a member of the National Register of Health Service Psychologists.
Deborah Shure, MD, Master FCCP
Specialty: PulmonologyDeborah Shure, M.D., is a pulmonologist and consultant in clinical trial design for medical devices, specializing in Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine. She has been on the WebMD Health Services Clinical Advisory Board since 2012, having begun her association with WebMD Health Services with major input into revisions and expansions of the COPD and Asthma Condition Management Solutions products at that time. She values her continued input into these and similar programs during her tenure at WebMD, enjoying working with both her colleagues on the Clinical Advisory Board and the excellent staff at WebMD Health Services. She was honored to be able to participate in the COVID-19 vaccine information effort in 2020 by participating in the WebMD Health Services blog on the subject.
Dr. Shure graduated from Harvard University (BA), Dartmouth Medical School (BMS), and Albert Einstein College of Medicine (MD). She trained in Internal Medicine at Bellevue-NYU where she served as the first woman Chief Resident in Medicine. She trained in Pulmonary Medicine at the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine and remained on the faculty of UCSD for 12 years, followed by faculty appointments at Washington University, University of Mississippi (Professor of Medicine and Director of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine), and University of Texas at Houston (Professor of Medicine and Director, Program for Pulmonary Vascular Diseases).
During her more than 25-year career in academic medicine, Dr Shure became an internationally recognized expert in several areas including pulmonary vascular disease, COPD, bronchoscopy, teaching and mentoring, particularly of women and minorities. Her work in these areas was recognized by many awards and honors including national funding, the Elizabeth A. Rich Award of the American Thoracic Society, the American Thoracic Society Presidential Citation, and President of the American College of Chest Physicians as well as Master Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians. Dr Shure was the first woman to be honored by the College as President and as Master Fellow.
Following her career in academics, Dr Shure spent 7 years as a clinical reviewer for the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) as the sole pulmonologist for the Center where she gained valuable regulatory experience in medical devices and received the CDRH Director’s Special Citation. Drawing on her expertise in clinical practice, clinical research, device development, and regulatory experience, Dr Shure became an independent consultant in the development of medical devices (Cardiopulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine) in 2012. She also has an international reputation in this field and continues to use her clinical and research skills to aid in this work. She values the perspective that medical careers in three areas (academic, regulatory, and business) allowed her to apply to her work with WebMD through the Clinical Advisory Board.
