Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA

Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA, Lifestyle and HEALTH DESIGNER™ is a registered nurse and lifestyle and health expert offering practical advice for consumers by focusing on health and wellness. Her trademark is simple and useful information from a trustworthy source to help people to take charge of their health. Barbara is founder of Healthin30.com, and BarbaraFicarra.com, a lifestyle destination site to help consumers live a happier, bolder, healthier and a more stylish life. As a HEALTH DESIGNER™ -- Barbara designs ways for people to live a healthier life and empowers people to design their own healthy lifestyle. Barbara's passion is to bring consumers inspiration and to empower them to take action to design a healthy life they adore. Design Your Healthy Life™. (#DYHL)

She is an award-winning broadcast journalist, international speaker, and health educator. She is a contributor to DoctorOz.com and other websites. She is an advisory board member and health educator for the consumer health website Sharecare. Barbara is on the front lines of health care as a registered nurse and a leading voice in health offering practical advice for consumers and health care professionals. Focusing on health and wellness, she delivers her trademark brand of advice which is simple, practical and trustworthy information to help empower people to take charge of their health. Barbara focuses on consumer/patient engagement and empowerment, health care social media, health IT, digital technology, (mHealth-mobile health, gamification, telemedicine), doctor|nurse team and healthy living.

Barbara began her broadcasting career in radio as creator, host and executive producer of the former award-winning Health in 30® radio show.

Barbara is a regular contributor to many health sites, and is frequently quoted and featured by numerous media outlets, and has appeared on FOX News Live, ABC, NBC, FIOS, Working Mother Radio, etc. Barbara is an international speaker at many professional conferences, including Cleveland Clinic, HIMSS Arkansas, HIMSS So Cal, Cayman Islands National Health Care Conference, Ivey Global Health Care Conference in Toronto, ePatient Connections, Scripps, and BlogWorld to name a few. Her presentations range from patient engagement and empowerment, healthy living, health care social media networking, and health IT (mHealth, gamification, telemedicine),leveraging her experience as former senior director of clinical affairs for a telehealth company. She served as faculty for the American Medical Association’s Medical Communications Conferences. She's taught media broadcasting from radio to on-camera techniques to social media, and she is experienced in video production as host and executive producer for Web/TV. She served on the board of the National Association of Medical Communicators, and served on the Academy of Judges for the International Health and Medical Media Awards.

In 2011 Healthin30 was voted best health blog. She was invited By Microsoft to judge a series of Innovative Technology Entries for The Imagine Cup 2012. Barbara was invited to participate as team member for one of TEDMED’s 20 Great Challenges, Improving Medical Communication. She was invited to participate in an online event for the American Public Health Association and talked about engaging women in social media.

She is moderator on panels and webinars. She is President of Barbara Ficarra Productions, LLC and she has been quoted as an expert in health care for multiple journals and magazines including Latin Times Magazine and Real Simple Magazine. Barbara has offered expert advice to a variety of organizations and individuals in health care, including New York Times Health, a telehealth company and Novartis where she consulted on Social Media.

Barbara is a board member for the University of San Francisco School of Nursing and Health Professions Health Informatics Advisory Board. She is a digital health scholar at Digital Health Coalition, and Barbara is an administrative supervisor at a large university medical center, where she covers multiple medical and surgical units, critical care, oncology, cardiology, the psychiatric unit, women’s and children’s services and the emergency trauma department. She always encourages patients and their families to be proactive and to take charge of their health.

Her professional affiliations include the Association of Health Care Journalists, New York Women in Communications, Microsoft Health Users Group, HIMSS (Healthcare Information Management Systems Society) and American Telemedicine Association, and Alliance for Women in Media-NYC Chapter. You can follow Barbara on Twitter @BarbaraFicarra.

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