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Sharecare Names Top 10 Social HealthMakers on Multiple Sclerosis

ATLANTA, March 4, 2014 – According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, 2.3 million people worldwide are affected by multiple sclerosis (MS), a chronic condition in which the body’s immune system disrupts nerve function leading to significant physical, cognitive and emotional impairment. To help those struggling with MS, Sharecare, the online health and wellness engagement platform founded by Dr. Mehmet Oz and Jeff Arnold, today announced its Top 10 Social HealthMakers on Multiple Sclerosis, a list of the most influential experts leading online conversations about MS:

  1. Trevis Gleason
    Diagnosed with secondary progressive MS at the age of 35, Gleason has since become a leading voice for people with MS, writing for Everyday Health’s Life with Multiple Sclerosis blog and National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s MS Connection.
  2. Cathy Chester
    A health and wellness blogger for The Huffington Post and An Empowered Spiritblog, Chester is dedicated to patient advocacy after being diagnosed with MS in 1987.
  3. Jennifer LaRue Huget
    Diagnosed with MS in 2001, LaRue Huget regularly blogs about living with MS for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s MS Connection, in addition to being an editor, freelance writer and author of children’s books.
  4. Lisa Emrich
    A professional musician living with MS and rheumatoid arthritis, Emrich writes on her blog, Brass and Ivory: Life with MS & RA, and on Health Central.
  5. Julia Stachowiak, PhD
    Diagnosed with MS in 2003, Dr. Stachowiak is the MS guide for About.com, the author of The Multiple Sclerosis Manifesto, and an epidemiologist who talks openly about living with her disease and aims to help people understand how the latest research around MS might affect them.
  6. John Gever
    Gever is the deputy managing editor at Medpage Today and often writes about the latest clinical studies surrounding chronic conditions such as MS and Alzheimer’s disease.
  7. Nicole Lemelle
    Living with MS, Lemelle created the website My New Normals to chronicle life experiences of people living with MS, educate those who do not understand MS, reassure people with similar plights and inspire everyone to seize control of their lives.
  8. Matt Cavallo
    As a result of his diagnosis with MS at age 28, Cavallo has dedicated his life and career to health care and helping others with chronic illnesses. He also chronicled his physical and emotional challenges with MS in his memoir, The Dog Story: A Journey into a New Life with Multiple Sclerosis.
  9. Stuart Scholossman
    After being diagnosed with MS and realizing how difficult it was to find information on the Internet, Schlossman founded MS Views and News with the mission to collect information concerning MS, foster a comprehensive resource platform and educate the global community of people living with MS.
  10. Richard Cohen
    An Emmy-winning producer and New York Times best-selling author diagnosed with MS at 25, Cohen regularly writes about his experiences living with MS on RichardMCohen.com, and has been featured in AARPNew York Observer and many more publications.

 

For more information about Sharecare’s Top 10 Social HealthMakers on Multiple Sclerosis, go to https://www.sharecare.com/static/top-ten-social-healthmakers-multiple-sclerosis-ms. For more expert tips and tools for managing Multiple Sclerosis, go to https://www.sharecare.com/health/multiple-sclerosis-ms.

MethodologySharecare Social HealthMakers are among the most influential people in health and wellness on the web, driving conversations on the leading edge of many health topics. They address a wide range of issues within specific topic areas while demonstrating consistent impact across multiple interactive channels—such as Twitter, Facebook, videos and blogs. This impact is measured through a proprietary algorithm based on more than 100 individual metrics developed and powered by WCG, the leading digital marketing and communications agency, quantifying topic relevance, syndication, presence and reach. Earlier Sharecare lists have identified Social HealthMakers in diabetes, nutrition, weight loss, heart disease and more.

About Sharecare

Sharecare is a health and wellness engagement platform that helps people to live healthier lives by connecting them to personalized resources including local healthcare providers, high-quality information from experts, interactive programs and clinical decision support tools, including its iOS-exclusive app AskMD. The power behind Sharecare is a unique, social Q&A format that provides the collective wisdom of America’s top experts—greatly simplifying the search for health information – and its scientifically-based health risk assessment, the RealAge® Test, taken by more than 33 million people and validated in peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE as a more accurate predictor of mortality than calendar age and the Framingham Risk Score. Created by Jeff Arnold and Dr. Mehmet Oz in partnership with Harpo Productions, Sony Pictures Television and Discovery Communications, Sharecare allows people to ask, learn and act upon questions of health and wellness, creating an active community where knowledge is shared and put into practice—simply said, sharing care. Launched in 2010, Sharecare is based in Atlanta.

About WCG

Founded and led by chairman and CEO Jim Weiss, WCG is focused on integrated business solutions in the areas of innovation, change and growth for the world’s leading companies and brands. WCG serves clients through a network of offices in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Austin, Los Angeles and London. For more than a decade, WCG’s seasoned professionals have specialized in providing analytics, content, engagement and strategy to a diverse set of clients across the consumer, technology, healthcare and pharmaceutical industries.