WebMD Health Services Appoints Michael Sokol, MD, Chief Medical Officer

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May 19, 2016, 08:05 ET

PORTLAND, Ore., May 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- WebMD Health Services today announced the appointment of Michael Sokol, MD, M.S. as chief medical officer. A seasoned physician leader, Dr. Sokol will oversee an advisory panel of leading researchers and clinicians focused on driving continued innovation and wellness solutions for customers' employees and health plan participants. WebMD Health Services, a subsidiary of WebMD, provides customizable wellness programs for employers and health plans.

Michael Sokol, MD, Chief Medical Officer, WebMD Health Services

"It is exciting to be joining a company committed to empowering consumers to better manage their health and improve their lifestyle behaviors and choices," Dr. Sokol said. "I look forward to working with the Health Services team as it focuses on evidence-based solutions that can improve health outcomes and have a positive impact on people's lives."

He will report to WebMD Health Services CEO Ben Slocum.

"We are pleased Dr. Sokol has joined our management team," Slocum said. "He will play a key role in reimagining and enhancing the employee and plan-participant wellness experience with customer-driven innovations, service offerings, and product extensions that build on the foundation of our robust platform and enable our customers to build a culture of wellness that can control costs and sustain meaningful change."

Prior to joining WebMD Health Services, Dr. Sokol was vice president, employee wellness and chief wellness officer at Sanofi. While there, he spearheaded the development, implementation, and measurement of the company's first comprehensive health and wellness strategy. Previously, he was global corporate medical director at Merck & Co., Inc., where he created the company's first incentives-based wellness program, including a customized website, health-risk assessment, disease and lifestyle management programs, and outcomes measures.

Dr. Sokol has been published extensively in peer-reviewed medical literature and serves on the editorial board of the journal Population Health Management. He has held administrative leadership positions at the National Business Group on Health (NBGH), including board positions on its Institute on Innovation in Workforce Well-being and Institute on Health, Productivity and Human Capital.

Dr. Sokol is board-certified in public health and general preventive medicine, and is a fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine. He also holds an academic appointment at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

About WebMD Health Services
WebMD Health Services provides customizable health and wellness solutions for employers and health plans. For more than a decade, our cloud-based platform has helped our customers give their employees and plan participants the support they need to make healthier lifestyle choices. In addition, our health coaching and condition management programs help employees and plan participants achieve health and wellness goals. We also implement team-based and individual wellness challenges that help foster a culture of wellness in the workplace. WebMD Health Services is a subsidiary of WebMD Health Corp.

About WebMD
WebMD Health Corp. is the leading provider of health information services, serving consumers, physicians, healthcare professionals, employers, and health plans through our public and private online portals, mobile platforms and health-focused publications.

The WebMD Health Network includes WebMD.com, Medscape.com, MedicineNet.com, eMedicineHealth.com, RxList.com, Medscape Education (Medscape.org) and other WebMD owned sites and apps.

WebMD®, Medscape®, CME Circle®, Medpulse®, eMedicine®, MedicineNet®, theheart.org® and RxList® are among the trademarks of WebMD Health Corp. or its subsidiaries.

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SOURCE WebMD Health Services