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John Whyte
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Biography Highlights
- Dr. John Whyte is a physician and corporate executive with a unique combination of government and private sector work that provides him with an exceptional perspective on wellness, clinical trials, information technology, innovation, and health care services.
Biography
John Whyte, M.D. is currently the Chief Medical Officer, WebMD. In this role, Dr. Whyte leads efforts to develop and expand strategic partnerships that create meaningful change around important and timely public health issues. He has been a leading voice in addressing the COVID pandemic, being named as one of the top 20 health influencers. Dr. Whyte is also a major contributor to iterating digital platforms from simply providing content, to instead playing a pivotal role in connecting to care. He frequently speaks on evaluating digital tools and technologies, assessing their roles in the evolving health ecosystem.
Prior to WebMD, Dr. Whyte served as the Director of Professional Affairs and Stakeholder Engagement at the Center for Drugs Evaluation and Research at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In this role, Dr. Whyte spearheaded numerous efforts to address diversity in drug development programs especially as it relates to necessary changes in clinical trial design. This includes strategies around patient recruitment and acquisition, as well as the use of adaptive clinical trial design and master protocols. Dr. Whyte also helped provide regulatory insight into the potential uses of real-world evidence in regulatory decisions, especially around patient-focused drug development. Dr. Whyte led a research agenda around drug safety issues, including prescription and over-the-counter products.
Prior to this, Dr. Whyte worked for nearly a decade as the Chief Medical Expert and Vice President, Health and Medical Education at Discovery Channel, the leading non-fiction television network. Dr. Whyte developed, designed and delivered educational programming that appealed to both a medical and lay audience. He provided strategic direction, aligning medical and public health interests, viewer demands and corporate funding opportunities. This required the use of targeted multimedia marketing and building brand identity for new products. This included television shows as well as online content that won over 50 awards including numerous Tellys, CINE Golden Eagle, and Freddies. During his tenure, Dr. Whyte grew the business ten-fold in revenue.
Dr. Whyte also served in numerous leadership roles at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. While there, he formalized the process by which the Medicare program determines coverage decisions, including the criteria meant by “medically necessary and reasonable.” He helped determine, evaluate and implement the national Medicare coverage policies on medical items, non-implantable medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and laboratory tests. He also oversaw an ongoing analysis of innovative treatment patterns and activities that improve health care outcomes. He is a recognized expert on various payment policies and models.
Dr. Whyte is a board-certified internist and continues to see patients. He completed an internal medicine residency at Duke University Medical Center as well as earned a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Health Policy and Management at Harvard University School of Public Health. Prior to arriving in Washington, Dr. Whyte was a health services research fellow at Stanford and attending physician in the Department of Medicine. He has written extensively in the medical and lay press, including two best-selling books.
Videos
Media, podcast appearances and interviews
Speaking videos
Topics
Navigating Healthcare & Empowering Patients in the Age of AI
With the sharp rise in interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its rapid evolution and integration into our everyday practices, tension exists between physicians and consumers regarding the role of AI and digital health tools in healthcare. And while innovation is the key to advancing digital health, and a plethora of new digital health tools have the potential to revolutionize healthcare, we must employ them wisely. In this session, Chief Medical Officer of WebMD Dr. John Whyte invites audiences to discuss the most top-of-mind concerns where AI and healthcare intersect, including the following:
- While physicians think of AI and Digital health tools as mainly serving administrative functions, consumers often use these tools to save them a trip to the doctor’s office. Can we strike a balance between these two perspectives and decide on the proper roles of these “smart” tools?
- How do we effectively utilize this collected data to create better health outcomes and inform clinical decision-making to improve patient care?
- What level of collaboration might need to be established between healthcare providers, patients, and technology companies to develop standards and best practices for using this data responsibly and effectively?
- How do we improve or create regulations to foster innovation and ensure patient-centered care?
Innovations in Healthcare
In this presentation, Dr. Whyte will discuss the trends that will influence digital health as a result of the COVID pandemic and increasingly updated technologies. The COVID pandemic has changed the way we evaluate health technologies in four important and distinct ways:
- There will be a greater focus on practicality and less on glitz
- Prevention will take precedence over therapeutics
- Rigorous results matter more than ever
- The consumer will be the focus of the innovation, rather than physicians
In addition to changes brought on by the COVID pandemic, artificial intelligence takes center stage in the innovations and disruption of traditional healthcare. It is not about robots delivering patient care, but rather represents the advances in machine learning and analysis of big data. From his work at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Whyte explains the latest developments in AI – especially in drug and device development and imaging – and describes how they can succeed by disrupting current workflow and processes but not actually being disruptive to patient care. Through entertaining and educating anecdotes, Dr. Whyte helps audiences discern whether AI actually makes health care more productive – and more human.
The Rise of DIY Healthcare
The last two years has seen an explosion in technologies that allow consumers to take control of their health care. Just as people rebuild their kitchen, they now can remodel their bodies. Internet search engines allow you to curate results based on your personalized symptoms and medical history. It also connects the content you consume to care. Instead of having to wait to call a doctor to get an appointment in a few weeks, you can get a telemedicine visit with one more click. You can now order your own lab tests without a doctor’s order and do them in the privacy of your home. Apps can check for skin cancer and determine whether you need new glasses. How exactly does the health community stay engaged with patients when patients increasingly are leading their care management?
As the Chief Medical Officer of WebMD, Dr. Whyte helps audiences identify and understand the latest trends in consumer behavior and explains how developments such as “DIY” in healthcare has many advantages, but it also presents challenges. He describes the convergence of healthcare and retail, and how it impacts quality as well as economic measures. He provides the insights on how to shape the healthcare conversation, especially as it relates to the consumerization that is rapidly occurring.
Mental Health: Resilience vs. Burnout
COVID is an infectious disease pandemic, but the consequences of the 2+ year ordeal, has left a mental health pandemic that needs to be addressed. We have a tsunami of anxiety, depression, and PTSD. How do we utilize existing resources and innovative technologies to address the growing needs of our society?
Dr. John Whyte, a practicing physician and Chief Medical Officer of WebMD, will discuss the impact of the COVID pandemic on mental health including what people are searching online, and explain what we need to do over the next few years to change burnout to resilience.
Books
Take Control of Your Heart Disease Risk
Take Control of Your Diabetes Risk
Take Control of Your Cancer Risk
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John Whyte
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