LinkedIn writers publish more than 160,000 articles each week. But which articles should you take the time to read — especially when it comes to healthcare?
LinkedIn parsed through information on healthcare writers, examining factors such as reader engagement and follower growth, and came up with 10 must-know authors.
Here are LinkedIn's top 10 voices in healthcare.
- Louis Profeta, MD. St. Vincent Emergency Physicians (Indianapolis). An emergency medicine physician, Dr. Profeta writes about everything from talking to veterans to end-of-life care. He's most proud of "I know you love me — now let me die," an article he wrote in January. Dr. Profeta calls the emergency room "the only place in the world where every single facet of the human experience comes together. From the rich to the poor, old, young, sane, crazy, powerful, desperate, tragic, elated and on and on, they all come here. It's magical."
- Michelle Chaffee. Founder and CEO of alska (St. Paul, Minn.). Ms. Chaffee founded alska, which strives to offer patients and their caregivers useful tools and support. On LinkedIn, she writes about patient advocacy, senior citizens and the difficulties women face. One of her articles, "Why giant healthcare systems might be getting it wrong," focuses on her experience as a cancer patient.
- Bertalan Mesko, MD, PhD. A self-dubbed "medical futurist," Dr. Mesko's LinkedIn posts are about how technology is changing the face of healthcare. In a recent article, he advocated for STEM learning among youngsters today. "I dedicate my life to finding the latest advances in health technology and understanding how these trends are shaping the present and future of medicine," he said.
- Yasi Baiani. Principal product manager at Fitbit (San Francisco). Ms. Baiani, who writes about innovation, establishing high-power teams and creating the next unicorn in healthcare, is a digital health expert. In the new year, she'll be looking to see how robotics and artificial intelligence change the game. "There's a lot of conversation around AI and machine learning, but I think the progress has been slower than we would like to see," she said.
- Luca Dezzani, MD. Global medical director at Novartis Oncology (Basel, Switzerland). Dr. Dezzani's focus in on clinical research and the drug and biotechnology sectors. On LinkedIn, he recently published a roundup of the "Top 10 pharmaceutical companies 2016." In his free time, Dr. Dezzani enjoys art and opera.
- Mark Hyman, MD. Chairman of the Institute for Functional Medicine (Irvine, Calif.). Dr. Hyman, who also serves as director of the ClevelandClinicCenter for Functional Medicine, is the author of numerous books, including The 10 Day Detox Diet and Eat Fat Get Thin. His LinkedIn posts focus on topics such as how to keep a healthy heart and heal a fatty liver. "What is at the end of our fork is more essential and important than what is at the bottom of our pill bottles," Dr. Hyman said. "Each meal is a chance to heal."
- Chikwe Ihekweazu, MD. CEO of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (Abuja). An epidemiologist, Dr. Ihekweazu's LinkedIn posts are about global health issues and the ongoing strikes in Nigeria's health sector. In his top LinkedIn article, he focuses on just that — the future of Nigeria's public health sector. Outside of his work, Dr. Ihekweazu is the cofounder of TEDxEuston, which helps connect Africans around the globe with projects occurring in their home continent.
- Jacques Kpodonu, MD. Cardiac surgeon at Harvard Medical School (Boston). Dr. Kpodonu isn't limited to writing about cardiovascular issues — instead, he pens articles on genomics, wearables, big data, digital health, precision medicine and blockchain technology. His unique background also influences his writing. After growing up in Africa, Dr. Kpodonu lived in Europe and then moved to North America. "I am constantly reminded every day that I am in a unique position to re-engineer innovation in Africa through my experiences," he said.
- Ola Orekunrin, MD. Founder of The Flying Doctors Nigeria. Since founding the Nigerian air ambulance service The Flying Doctors Nigeria, Dr. Orekunrin writes articles about the business and healthcare sectors in Africa. Her article "6 dead doctors" focuses on one of her passions — improving pre-hospital trauma management in Africa. She described the article as such: "Basically nearly all the physicians in the car had survivable injuries, but died because the ambulance took too long to come, the hospital was not prepared to handle trauma patients and eventually the ambulance ran out of fuel."
- Julie Kliger, BSN. Senior director at Alvarez & Marsal (New York City). Though she writes about improving patient outcomes, Ms. Klinger, a nurse, often writes from the patient's perspective. "The slice of the story I pay most attention to is when someone gets sick and moves from being a person to being a patient," she said. "I write about topics that are 'off limits' with the hope of re-examining why it is off limits in the first place."
Click here to view the full list of LinkedIn's top voices in healthcare.