The RxBalance Story
RxBalance is a 501-3(c) non-profit organization seeking to accelerate the adoption of evidence-based practices into mainstream medicine.
Our Beginnings
RxBalance founder Lydia Green formerly worked at global medical ad agencies helping companies promote their medical devices and pharmaceutical products to clinicians and patients. She was also an early employee of Epocrates, where she held senior level communication positions for 15 years. Trained in story telling and science, Lydia noticed that her clients viewpoints quickly diffused into mainstream medicine, even when there was little evidence to support their claims. During the late 1990s, she also witnessed how industry involved itself in disease education and clinical guidelines, funding professional medical associations, patient advocacy groups and thought leaders. Overtime, Lydia found herself concerned at the power of the pharmaceutical industry and device industry on healthcare practicees, through domination of the medical information pipeline.
In 2006, while on a brief hiatus from Epocrates, Lydia wrote a series of white papers for the American Medical Association on how pharmaceutical marketing influences physician behaviors. Reading On the Take by Jerome Kassirer and Powerful Medicines by Jerry Avorn set into motion the idea of developing a healthcare communications nonprofit that would promote appropriate drug utilization. Lydia was further influenced by the writings of Arthur Feldman of Temple University School of Medicine whose book Pursuing Excellence in Healthcare explores the important societal role of academic medical centers.
Lydia left Epocrates in 2016 to devote herself full time to RxBalance. One of Lydia’s favorite quotes, from Paul Farmer, MD, is: “I critique market-based medicine not because I haven’t seen its heights but because I’ve seen its depths.”
Board of Directors
Lydia Green, RPh,President
Lydia is a pharmacist, clinical strategist, and medical writer with 30 years experience in pharmaceutical marketing and advertising and mobile healthcare. Her core strengths are understanding how to utilize clinical evidence and message framing to communicate evidence so as to accelerate adoption of healthcare practices and promote behavior change in prescribers and consumers.
She has worked at medical advertising agencies in New York and California. Lydia was an early employee of Epocrates, serving as Director of Corporate Communications and subsequently as Director of Sponsored Content. Prior to Epocrates, Lydia was Senior Vice President, Group Copy Chief, at a global ad agency in Manhattan.
Joe Garamella, Secretary
Joe has more than 30 years of healthcare communications experience as a writer, ad agency creative director and creative consultant for the pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotechnology industries. He believes that the most effective medical communications move healthcare providers and patients into action by touching emotions.
From 2002-2007, Joe was Executive Creative Director at Sudler & Hennessey, one of the world’s leading healthcare agencies. At Sudler & Hennessey, Joe managed a creative department of more than 70 people in generating memorable creative concepts.While there, he led positioning and branding work and reviewed all new creative campaigns to maintain the highest standards of quality. Prior to Sudler & Hennessey, Joe was Creative Director at Sperling Sampson West in San Francisco, a start-up boutique agency specializing in biotechnology clients.
Joe has a BS in Biology from Trinity College-Hartford. He also completed two years of preclinical medical studies at the University of Modena School of Medicine. He lives in New York City with his partner Kevin.
Evelyn Leigh, Treasurer
Evelyn is a medical writer and editor with more than 25 years of experience writing educational and promotional materials for healthcare professionals and the public. With a diverse background in pharmaceutical advertising and natural products consulting, she understands the clinical and regulatory issues surrounding drug marketing and prescribing, managed care, pharmaceuticals, medical and functional foods, and dietary supplements.
Evelyn holds a BA from William Smith College, Geneva, NY, and certification from the California School of Herbal Studies, Forestville, CA. An avid gardener and birder, Evelyn resides in New York.
Advisors
Randall S. Stafford, MD, PhD
Randall Stafford is Professor of Medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and a fellow at the Stanford Center on Health Policy/Center on Primary Care and Outcomes Research. He is an epidemiologist, health services researcher, and primary care internist. Many of his published studies have documented and raised concerns about the so-called “quality gap”—the healthcare system’s failure to consistently implement clinically proven therapies — and have helped shape policy initiatives aimed at improving medical care. His research has also focused on drug costs and patterns of medication prescribing.
Veronica Yank, MD
Veronica Yank is a primary care physician and researcher at Stanford University School of Medicine and the Center of Innovation to Implementation at the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Health Care System. Her research focuses on how to promote healthy lifestyle behaviors among patients, healthcare systems, and communities as well as how to optimize clinical care and patient self-management of chronic conditions such as diabetes, chronic kidney disease, hypertension, and obesity.
Jennifer Harris, MD
Jennifer Harris is a child and adolescent psychiatrist in private practice in Arlington, MA. She is also a clinical instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and clinical supervisor and faculty at the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship Program at Cambridge Health Alliance. Dr. Harris has written about the importance of relationships in child psychiatry, the reasons behind increased diagnosis of juvenile bipolar disorder, use of restraints in inpatient settings and the challenges and rewards of long-term psychotherapy. She has written review articles for the Carlat Child Psychiatry Report on disruptive behavior disorders, non-verbal learning disabilities and the links between callous-unemotional traits and disruptive behavior disorders. Her clinical interests are in long-term psychotherapy and medication use with adults, children and families, with a particular interest in working with parents.
Evgenii Mironichev, BS, MS
Evgenii (Eugene) Mironichev is a software expert who serves as our technical advisor, guiding RxBalance and our academic partners on business strategy, technical workflow, and functional specifications for new digital platforms. Eugene’s current priority at RxBalance is acting as a product management adviser on TalkRx, a new channel of digital medication information. He has a B.S. in Financial Management and an MS in Computer Software Engineering from Penza State University in Russia. Evgenii is a serial entrepreneur with successful businesses whose different B2C and B2B software apps and services are used by Fortune 500 companies.