A 1995 "pioneer" of the medical internet, Dr. Lundberg was born in Florida, grew up in rural southern Alabama and holds earned and honorary degrees from North Park College, Baylor University, the University of Alabama (Birmingham and Tuscaloosa), the State University of New York, Syracuse, Thomas Jefferson University and the Medical College of Ohio. He completed a clinical internship in Hawaii and a pathology residency in San Antonio. He served in the US army during the Vietnam War in San Francisco and El Paso, leaving as a lieutenant colonel after 11 years. Dr. Lundberg was then Professor of Pathology and Associate Director of Laboratories at the Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center for 10 years, and for five years was Professor and Chair of Pathology at the University of California-Davis.

Dr. Lundberg has worked in tropical medicine in Central America and Forensic Medicine in New York, Sweden and England. His major professional interests are toxicology, violence, communication, physician behavior, strategic management and health system reform. He is past President of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists. From 1982 to 1999, Dr. Lundberg was at the American Medical Association as Editor in Chief, Scientific Information and Multimedia with editorial responsibility for its 39 medical journals, American Medical News, and various Internet products, and the Editor of JAMA. In 1999 Dr. Lundberg became Editor in Chief of Medscape, the world's leading source of online health information and education for physicians and healthcare professionals and the founding Editor in Chief of both Medscape General Medicine and CBS HealthWatch.com. In 2002, Dr. Lundberg became Editor in Chief Emeritus of Medscape and Special Healthcare Advisor to the Chairman and CEO of WebMD. Today, he serves as the Editor in Chief of Medscape General Medicine (www.medgenmed.com), the first and only online, peer-reviewed primary source general medical journal published on www.medscape.com. A frequent lecturer, radio and television guest, and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Lundberg holds academic appointments as a professor at Northwestern and Harvard. In 2000, the Industry Standard dubbed Dr. Lundberg "Online Health Care's Medicine Man".

Since completing her residency training in pathology in 1999, Dr. Elizabeth Burton has garnered rapid acclaim as a leading expert in the field, particularly in her chosen area of autopsy pathology. Dr. Burton is a passionate advocate for the clinical and quality of care value of the autopsy, and has published widely on related topics. Her professional education was at the University of New Orleans (BA), Louisiana State University Medical Center (MD), Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center/Charity Hospital (internship/residency – anatomic and clinical pathology), the University of California San Francisco and the San Francisco Veterans Administration Hospital (National Quality Scholars Fellowship Program), and Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (fellowship – forensic pathology). She currently lives and works in Dallas, Texas, where she holds the positions of Clinical Scholar for Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (Baylor Health Care System); Director, Research Tissue Bank (Baylor University Medical Center); Director of Autopsy Pathology (Baylor University Medical Center); and Staff Pathologist, Pathologists Bio-Medical Laboratories. Dr. Burton is a Fellow of both the American Society of Clinical Pathologists and the College of American Pathologists. She currently serves as a Member on the College of American Pathologists Autopsy Committee (01/01/2005-present).

Dr. James W. Curran graduated from the University of Notre Dame and received his medical degree from the University of Michigan and a master of public health degree from the Harvard University School of Public Health. In 1971, Dr. Curran began his career at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He served in leadership positions in CDC's HIV/AIDS research and prevention activities and reached the rank of Assistant Surgeon General in 1995. He has received numerous awards and fellowships and serves on advisory or review committees for the NIH Office of AIDS Research and the NIH National Institute of Drug Abuse. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science in 1993. Dr. Curran is presently Dean and Professor of Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and Director of the Emory/Atlanta Center for AIDS Research.

Although the violin may be his greatest interest, Tom Delbanco is best known as one of the world's finest -- if not the finest -- proponents of and experts in general internal medicine. Dr. Delbanco's early life, formal education, and training were in New York City at Columbia, Bellevue, Harlem, and Presbyterian Hospitals. He settled in Boston at the Beth Israel Hospital at Harvard Medical School in 1971, where he remains today as Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care. His influence stems from creating what were among the first hospital-based primary care practices, residencies, and fellowships in general internal medicine. One of the founders of the Society of General Internal Medicine, he was its President in 1986-7. A Master of the American College of Physicians and active with the National Public Health and Hospitals Institute and the American Public Health Association, he has directed three Salzburg Seminars and chairs The Picker Institute, evaluating patient perceptions of quality of care. In addition to writing and editing numerous scholarly articles and books, Dr. Delbanco has headed up the "Clinical Crossroads" series -- a monthly, modern clinical pathological conference (CPC) for the Journal of the American Medical Association -- for the past 4 years.

Dr. Gottfried T. W. Dietzel is one of the leading European experts in e-health. He co-ordinates the EHTEL "Healthcare Authorities Group". Up to fall 2004 he had managed the unit "Health Telematics, Information Society, National and International Coordination" in the German Federal Ministry of Health and Social Security. He was one of the co-founders of the Action Forum "Telematics in Healthcare (ATG)" and was Chairman of the G8 -Global Healthcare Applications Project. Being already engaged in the ForumINFO2000 activities in 2002 he became one of the leaders of the German national bIT4health project ("better IT for better health"). He is widely regarded as father of the new German Health Card. From 1991 to 1996 Dr. Dietzel was a member and evaluator of the European Union Healthcare Telematics Programme. Later he was the German representative in the Working Party Healthcare in the succeeding Information Society Technologies Programme (IST "User-friendly Information Society"). Dr. Dietzel studied Law and Political Economics in Köln, Berkeley and Madison. He received his Ph.D. in administration sciences from the School of Government in Speyer. 1979 he held a position as guest professor for "International Health Law" at the University of California, Berkeley. He is author and co-author of numerous reports and publications on e-health and health telematics issues, both on the German and European level. From Sydney to Paris he is a widely recognised speaker. 2004 he received the honorary membership of the German Association of Medical Informaticians, 2005 he was awarded the DROPS-prize for Outstanding Achievements in regard to Smart Health Cards.

Generally recognized as medicine and public health's best young survey researcher, Dr. Karen Donelan is a pure Harvard product (bachelor, master,and doctorate degrees). Dr. Donelan is an academic-turned-entrepreneur, having recently launched a new health services company called Medrock, Inc(www.medrock.com). Dr. Donelan has been a member of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health since 1988, and was Managing Director of the Harvard Opinion Research Program. Prior to that time she held a number of research and administrative roles at Massachusetts General Hospital. Wife of a physician, mother of three, and active in church and community service, Dr. Donelan brings to Medscape an applied interest in consumerization in health care and the impact of electronic communication on the patient-provider relationship.

Dr. Vincent Fulginiti is a renowned physician, pediatrician, academic administrator, educator, and editor with a distinguished research and teaching career at the Universities of Colorado and Arizona, as well as Temple University in Philadelphia and Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Currently Professor of Pediatrics and Preventive Medicine/Biometrics at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, he has served as dean of medicine at Tulane and Arizona and as chancellor at Colorado. Recipient of numerous prestigious awards, particularly emphasizing achievements in pediatrics and infectious diseases, Dr. Fulginiti was the Editor of the American Journal of Diseases of Children for 11 years. An accomplished and prolific author and leading public citizen, Dr. Fulginiti also brings a record of pioneering computerized education for medical students to his new role at Medscape.

After achieving an undergraduate degree from Harvard and a medical degree from Washington University - St. Louis, Dr. Danny Jacobs went on to academic appointments in surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School. In 2000, Dr. Jacobs became Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery, Creighton University School of Medicine. A prolific author who also has an MPH in Biostatistics from Harvard, Dr. Jacobs is the recipient of numerous awards; he serves on the editorial boards of several journals; and he is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. His current clinical activities revolve around an active practice covering the entire spectrum of general and gastrointestinal surgical procedures and the provision of nutritional and metabolic care to hospitalized patients.

Prerna Mona Khanna, MD, MPH, resides in Dallas, Texas, where she is both a Medical Correspondent for CBS Television, and an Independent Medical examiner. Dr. Khanna is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Occupational Medicine, and as an Independent Medical Examiner and is a Licensed Physician and Surgeon in Texas and California. Dr. Khanna also specializes in disaster medicine and has been a member of the Disaster Medical Assistance Team for 7 years. She has been deployed to assist in medical clinics associated with Hurricane Rita, Hurricane Katrina, September 11, Alaska Airlines Crash 261, and Kosovo refugees. She has also participated in earthquake simulation drills in L'viv, Ukraine, and terrorism medicine training in Jerusalem, Israel; and spent 6 months studying the health care system in Switzerland. She received her MD from the University of Illinois in 1991, and completed residencies at the University of California in 1998; Johns Hopkins University in 1997; and St. Mary's Hospital in San Francisco in 1995. She earned her B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University in 1987. Among the leading experts on Health Policy and Management experience, Dr. Khanna has held positions as the Chief of Medical Services in Riverside County and the Medical Director in San Bernardino County. Dr. Khanna's combined expertise in medicine and communications offers worldly insight to international health policy issues.

Brian Klepper, PhD is Founder and President of The Center for Practical Health Reform (CPHR), a broad-based non-partisan effort to re-establish stability and sustainability in American health care. An active author and speaker, Dr. Klepper has been profiled on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, provided health care analysis to CBS Evening News, and published commentary in Medscape, The New England Journal of Medicine, HealthLeaders, Modern Healthcare, Business Insurance, and newspapers around the country. Over the last two years, Dr. Klepper has keynoted more than 50 national health care industry meetings representing leaders from the physician, hospital, health plan, supplier chain, data reporting, actuarial, broker, employer and labor communities. He serves on a variety of boards and panels relating to health care innovation and change. His PhD is from the U of Florida in 1985.

As Vice President of Women's Health for Humana Inc., Louisville, Kentucky, Dr. Mitzi R. Krockover serves as the company's chief healthcare strategist and spokesperson for the company's initiatives in women's health. Previous to her position with Humana, Dr. Krockover was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCLA and the founding Medical Director of the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women's Health Center. A graduate of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Dr. Krockover completed her internal medicine residency at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Krockover has served as a frequent contributor to national publications and broadcast news programs on women's health issues. She brings to Medscape an unusual combination of interests in women's health, managed care, needs of the homeless, and experience in TV education for physicians and the public.

A native of Mexico City and medical graduate of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Dr. Aliza A. Lifshitz trained in internal medicine and clinical pharmacology at Tulane University and the Ochsner Medical Foundation in New Orleans, Louisiana, and in endocrinology at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Lifshitz maintains an active practice in metabolic diseases, endocrinology, and diabetes in Los Angeles, California. But it is activism in women's and Hispanic health issues and both print and broadcast consumer education focusing on Hispanic health information needs for which she is best known -- indeed acclaimed -- in the American West and throughout the US.

Dr. Seng Gee Lim was born in Malaysia, is a citizen of Australia, and currently lives in Singapore. He was educated in Malaysia and Australia and received his medical degree from Monash Medical School at Monash University in Clayton, Victoria, Australia. Dr. Lim is Division Head of Gastroenterology at the National University of Singapore. He is a member of many professional societies and organizations, such as the Gastroenterological Society of Singapore, the Gastroenterological Society of Australia, the Academy of Medicine of Singapore, the American Gastroenterological Association, and the Singapore Society of Transplantation. He is currently working on several research projects involving hepatitis A and B and has published extensively in medical journals around the world.

Donald A.B. Lindberg, MD, Director of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College and received his medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in New York, NY. Before his appointment to the NLM in 1984, he was Professor of Information Science and Professor of Pathology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is internationally recognized as the founder of the discipline known as medical informatics, and he has made notable contributions to information and computer activities in medical diagnosis, artificial intelligence, and educational programs. From 1992 to 1995, he served in a concurrent position as Founding Director of the National Coordination Office for High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President. In 1996, he was named by the United States Department of Health and Human Services Secretary to be the US Coordinator for the G-7 Global Health Applications Project. Dr. Lindberg is the author of three books, many monograph chapters, and several hundred articles. He has received numerous professional, academic, and government awards and three honorary doctorates.

Thomas H. Murray, Ph.D., is President of The Hastings Center in Garrison, New York. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University and his research interests cover a wide range of ethical issues in medicine and science, including genetics, children, organ donation, and health policy. Founding editor of the journal Medical Humanities Review, Dr. Murray is also on the editorial board of several other prestigious journals. He is a charter member of the new WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) Ethics and Education Committee and is a presidential appointee to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission. A past president of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, Dr. Murray is a frequent speaker and panelist, and a prolific author. His recent book, The Worth of a Child, is published by the University of California Press. He is also coeditor of the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Ethical, Legal and Policy Issues in Biotechnology.

A native of Port Shepstone in the Kwa-zulu Natal (KZN) region of South Africa, Dr. Daniel Ncayiyana's education and professional career span three continents -- Africa, Europe, and North America. He attended university in South Africa, but received his medical degree from the University of Groningen in The Netherlands after fleeing arrest for political activities in South Africa in 1963. Dr. Ncayiyana trained in obstetrics and gynecology at New York University from 1970-1975. He is a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Named Editor of the South African Medical Journal by the South African Medical Association while apartheid was still the rule, Dr. Ncayiyana is also Deputy Chancellor and Honorary Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at University of Cape Town.

Dr. Nylenna, a native of Norway, received both his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Oslo. He is a specialist in community medicine and served for many years as a primary care physician and a public health officer. Dr. Nylenna has been Editor in Chief of Tidsskrift for Den Norske Laegeforening, the national medical journal of Norway, since 1987. His research interests include primary care, preventive medicine, communication, medical publishing, and ethics. He has been a member of the International Committee for Medical Journal Editors (the Vancouver Group) for 12 years and helped to found the World Association of Medical Editors. Dr. Nylenna and his wife Ellen, a teacher, have three children.

Ora Paltiel is a clinical hematologist and epidemiologist . She was educated at the University of Toronto (BSc Physical Anthropology), and McGill Universtiy (MDCM Degree and MSc. in Epidemiology and Biostatistics). She completed residencies in Internal Medicine and Hematology at the Montreal General Hospital. She currently lives in Israel where she works at the Hadassah -Hebrew University School of Public Health and Hadassah Medical Center Dept of Hematology. She combines clinical practice with teaching and research in Epidemiology. Her clinical expertise is in the care of patients with lymphoma. Her research focus is Cancer Epidemiology, as well as clinical studies involving quality and outcome of care of cancer patients . Dr. Paltiel teaches Master's Students courses in Cancer Epidemiology, Clinical Epidemiology and Clinical Trials. She is also responsible for Epidemiology teaching for medical students. Apart from being granted Outstanding Teacher awards on several occasions, Dr. Paltiel was named the Outstanding Researcher at Hadassah in 2003.

Dr. Wallace Sampson, a native of Los Angeles, California, received his BA from UC Berkeley in 1952, and MD from UC San Francisco in 1955. He interned at Hennepin County Hospital, Minneapolis, and SERVED two years as a battalion surgeon in the US Army Field Artillery. He was a resident in pathology and then internal medicine at UCLA/Harbor General Hospital. He served a research fellowship in hematology studying marrow toxicity at SF General and SF Children's Hospitals, and nuclear medicine at the UC Donner Laboratory. Board certified in internal medicine, he spent 30 years in hematology-oncology practice in Santa Clara County, Calif., and in 1990 assumed Chief of Oncology at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. He retired in 1997 to form and edit The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine. He teaches the longest running course in alternative medicine from the scientific view at Stanford University, where he is Clinical Professor of Medicine, Emeritus. He is also Stanford's representative to California's Cancer Advisory Council. He was a cofounder and Board Chairman of the National Council against Health Fraud, and a consultant to medical boards and the California Attorney General in anomalous practices.

Suzanne Sims, MD, MPP is an internist in private practice in Palo Alto, California where she serves as both a primary care physician and an admitting attending to Stanford Hospital. Dr. Sims is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and is a Licensed Physician and Surgeon in California. She received her M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School in 1997. She simultaneously received a Masters in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where she completed a Masters Thesis evaluating provider satisfaction in a capitated payment setting. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford University Medical Center in 2001, during which time she interned at Medscape, Inc., New York exploring internet based patient educational materials and contributing articles to MedGenMed. She has broad experience in the various health care delivery systems in the United States. Prior to joining her current practice, where she is a partner, she worked at Ernst & Young, LLP as a Senior Health Care Consultant. She also served as an Emergency Room Attending at the Palo Alto VA Hospital and an Urgent Care Attending at Kaiser Hospital, Santa Clara, California.

Liz Wager is an authority on peer review with a special interest in publication ethics. After a zoology degree from Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom, and some unproductive embryology research, she realized that she was better at writing about science than actually doing it and entered the world of publishing, working as an editor at Blackwell Scientific. She then moved to the pharmaceutical industry, working for Janssen-Cilag and then Glaxo Wellcome. She is a co-author of the Good Publication Practice guidelines for pharmaceutical companies and the European Medical Writers Association guidelines on the role of medical writers in preparing publications. She set up her own company, Sideview, in 2001, which is based in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom. She provides writing, editing, consultancy, and training services for a wide range of organizations, and has run workshops on 5 continents. She is on the ethics committees of both the BMJ and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) and the Council of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). She is also a Visiting Fellow of the UK Cochrane Centre and has published systematic reviews on the effects of peer review and technical editing.

Paul Blumenthal is Professor in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Stanford. He serves as Director of Family Planning Services and Research at Stanford Medical Center.

Dr. Blumenthal is committed to the development and implementation of innovative approaches to reproductive health issues in both the domestic and international arenas. His current research focuses on safety and efficacy studies of contraceptive methods, medical abortion regimens, alternative surgical abortion techniques, and on the development of technologies for cervical cancer prevention and detection. He has contributed more than 70 original articles to the published literature in these fields and many books, chapters, and invited articles.

While maintaining an active practice in obstetrics and gynecology in the United States, Dr. Blumenthal also works in developing countries and has served as a consultant, special advisor, and technical advisor on reproductive health training, service delivery, and research issues for such agencies as the World Health Organization, the United States Agency for International Contraceptive Research and Development, JHPIEGO, Family Health International, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Ipas, and others.

Paul D. Blumenthal, MD, MPH, has disclosed that he has received grants for clinical research from Barr Laboratories and Berlex. Dr. Blumenthal has also disclosed that he receives grants for educational activities from Barr Laboratories and Organon Inc.

Patricia R. Salber, MD, MBA, is senior vice president and chief medical officer of Universal American (UA), Managed Care Division. In that capacity, she oversees quality improvement, pharmacy management, and disease management for UA's Medicare Advantage health plans. Prior to joining Universal American Financial Corp. (UAFC), Dr. Salber was an independent healthcare consultant and principal in PRS Strategic Healthcare Consulting. She provided clinical expertise to health plans and other clients who want to optimize process efficiency and clinical outcomes for populations with a high burden of chronic illness.

Dr. Salber also hosts a healthcare blog, "The Doctor Weighs In," on www.thedoctorweighsin.com. Dr. Salber is a nationally recognized expert on obesity and its relationship to insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and stroke. Other positions include president of the Bay Area Region Leadership Council of the American Diabetes Association and chief medical officer for the Center for Practical Health Reform. Prior positions include founder and chief executive officer of Acelacare, a chronic illness care company; senior medical director for CalPERS and the Center for Health Improvement at Blue Shield of California; and medical director of the Kaiser Permanente-General Motors Team.

Dr. Salber trained at the University of California, San Francisco (medical school, internal medicine residency, and endocrine fellowship). She earned a master of business administration degree from the Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine. She is board-certified in emergency medicine and internal medicine and is a fellow of both the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American College of Physicians. She is a member of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's National Advisory Committee for its Health eTechnologies Initiative, the California Healthcare Foundation's Emergency Department Utilization advisory board, and the board of VBID (value-based insurance design). She co-authored the Physicians Guide to Intimate Partner Violence and Abuse, published in 2006 by Volcano Press. She is a frequent speaker and publishes on topics of obesity and insulin resistance, diabetes and metabolic syndrome, disease management, domestic violence, and healthcare quality improvement.

Howard Markel, MD, PhD, is the George Edward Wantz Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine, Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, and Director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

A prolific writer, Dr. Markel is the author of several books, including The H.L. Mencken Baby Book, the textbook The Portable Pediatrician, and The Practical Pediatrician: The A to Z Guide to Your Child's Health, Behavior and Safety (written with Frank A. Oski and published by W.H. Freeman/Scientific American Books). He is the co-editor, with Alexandra M. Stern, of Formative Years: Children's Health in America, 1880-2000 (University of Michigan Press, 2002) and is the co-editor of a series of books called Conversations in Medicine for the University of Michigan Press. He is also the author of Quarantine! East European Jewish Immigrants and the New York City Epidemics of 1892 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997) and When Germs Travel: Six Major Epidemics That Have Invaded America Since 1900 and the Fears They Have Unleashed (Pantheon/Alfred A. Knopf Books, 2004/Vintage/Random House Books, 2005).

Dr. Markel is a frequent contributor to The New York Times and many other popular and scholarly publications.