April 22, 2017
by Neel Desai, M.D.
Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, MBE, FAAP, a.k.a. “Seattle Mamma Doc”
Pediatrician Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson, Chief of Digital Innovation and author of the Seattle Mama Doc Blog for Seattle Children’s Hospital, has monthly global readership. She is working to revolutionize health communications by using social and digital media to bridge the gap between parents and doctors. As the first pediatrician to blog exclusively for a leading children’s hospital, she works diligently to offer patients and parents relevant, practical and timely health information in accessible online formats. Dr. Swanson speaks in the U.S. and internationally on physician use of social media, digital health, and innovation in advocacy and public health.
Dr. Swanson founded Digital Health at Seattle Children’s in 2013, leading a team in innovation by testing and creating new digital tools to leverage the wisdom of patients, families and providers.
She is an executive committee member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Communications and Media. She is on the Board of Advisors for Parents magazine and is a platinum fellow on the board for the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media. She is a weekly medical contributor with NBC affiliate KING 5 News in Seattle and is a practicing pediatrician with The Everett Clinic. Dr. Swanson is an advocate on the topic of vaccines and she was named a CDC Childhood Immunization Champion in 2012. She was named to TIME Magazine’s Best Twitter Feeds of 2013.
Her first book, Mama Doc Medicine: Finding Calm and Confidence in Parenting, Child Health, and Work-Life Balance was published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in March 2014, and is a Gold Award Recipient of the Mom’s Choice Awards.
Dr. Swanson’s creative use of diverse 21st Century media communication platforms–to spread her message in healthcare in a unique and global way–makes her our Medical Artist of the Week.
For more about Dr. Swanson and her work, check out the following resources:
Recent video of Dr. Swanson discussing 2016-7 Influenza Immunization Recommendations:
Twitter : @SeattleMamaDoc
Facebook: Seattle Mama Doc Facebook Page
Blog: Seattle Mama Doc Blog
Virtual Handshake: Virtual Handshake
Virtual Handshake TM, launched in 2014, giving patient families information about the doctors and care team they’ll meet during visits, as well as education and tips to help before, during and after their appointment or hospital stay. Her team has also created digital peer-to-peer education, along side pharmacist and hepatologist expertise, for liver transplant patients and their families in and out of the hospital to support understanding in necessary medications and care after transplantation.:
