Accolade Adds Three Renowned Healthcare Leaders to Its Medical Advisory Board

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Oct. 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Accolade, an innovative consumer engagement company dedicated to helping individuals and families get the right care the first time, has added three new members to its Medical Advisory Board. These newest members are:

• Ivor Horn, MD, MPH, Medical Director for the Center for Diversity and Health Equity at Seattle Children's Hospital. Dr. Horn is renowned for her expertise in health disparities, as well as the role of social media and mobile technology in healthcare communications. Dr. Horn has authored seminal papers about research in child health disparities, and her work has appeared in such journals as Pediatrics, Academic Pediatrics and the Journal of Pediatrics. Dr. Horn has been a featured medical expert on the Today Show and Good Morning America Health, and has contributed to features in Parenting Magazine and the Discovery Channel as well as the award-winning parenting blog, MyBrownBaby.com.

• Wayne Katon, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Director of the Division of Health Services and Epidemiology, and Vice Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington Medical School. Dr. Katon is internationally renowned for his research in the prevalence of anxiety and depressive disorders in primary care; the relationship of psychiatric disorders to medically unexplained symptoms; the adverse impact of comorbid depression and anxiety on chronic medical disorders such as diabetes and heart disease; and the integration of mental health professionals with primary care. In recent years, Dr. Katon's research has focused on developing models to improve the care of patients with comorbid depression and diabetes/heart disease. He has authored over 500 peer-reviewed journal articles and three books.

• Leana S. Wen, MD, MSc, Attending Physician and Director of Patient-Centered Care Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at George Washington University. Dr. Wen is the author of the best-selling book, When Doctors Don't Listen: How to Avoid Misdiagnoses and Unnecessary Tests. Founder of Who's My Doctor, a campaign calling for radical transparency in medicine, Dr. Wen has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization, Brookings Institution and China Medical Board. A past National President of the American Medical Student Association, Dr. Wen received her training from Massachusetts General and Brigham & Women's Hospitals, and from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. She is a TED and TEDMED speaker and contributes regular columns for National Public Radio, Huffington Post, Women's Health Magazine and Psychology Today.

Established in November 2013, the Accolade Medical Advisory Board now includes ten prominent physicians representing multiple clinical specialties and regions of the country. The goal of the board is to help guide clinical best practices and continual quality improvement.

Notes Accolade Chief Medical Officer, Alan Spiro, MD, "We're delighted that these talented and accomplished individuals have agreed to join our board. Doctors Horn, Katon and Wen bring to their roles a wealth of expertise, passion and innovative thinking. Their contributions will be invaluable as, together, we look for ways to improve consumer engagement in healthcare and influence better care decisions and outcomes."

About Accolade
Accolade is an innovative consumer engagement and healthcare influence company, dedicated to helping people get the right care while improving their health care experience and lowering costs for large employers, payers and Accountable Care Organizations. Our Accolade Health Assistants^® take the time to get to know individuals, understanding the context of their health care decisions, building trust and influencing decisions as they navigate the complex health care system. By integrating leading technology, analytics and clinical decision support, we're able to create personalized engagement and care plans of action for every client. The result is far better engagement levels, satisfaction, savings and health outcomes than any other solution on the market. Accolade's savings calculation methodology has been found to be valid, reasonable and accurate through separate, independent studies conducted by Dr. Clyde Schechter of The Albert Einstein College of Medicine and by leading global actuarial firm, Milliman.

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SOURCE Accolade