Scientific Advisory Board

Michael F. Roizen, MD, is the cocreator of the RealAge Test and the cofounder of RealAge, Inc. He currently serves as both the chief wellness officer of the Cleveland Clinic and the chairman of its Wellness Institute. He is board certified in internal medicine and anesthesiology. Dr. Roizen is 65 calendar years old, but his RealAge is only 43.8.

His first general-audience book -- RealAge: Are You as Young as You Can Be? -- became a New York Times #1 best-seller, was named Best Wellness Book of 1999 by Books for a Better Life Awards, and has been translated into more than 20 languages. It was followed by a series of successful RealAge books coauthored by Dr. Roizen, including The RealAge Diet, Cooking the RealAge Way, and The RealAge Workout. In 2004, he published The RealAge Makeover, an update of the original RealAge book. Dr. Roizen then teamed up with Mehmet Oz, MD, to create their series of best-selling YOU books, which began with YOU: The Owner's Manual and now includes YOU: On a Diet, YOU: Being Beautiful, YOU: The Smart Patient, YOU: Staying Young, YOU: Having a Baby, and their latest, YOU: Raising Your Child.

The always-busy Dr. Roizen is past chairman of a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee and a former editor for 6 medical journals. He has published more than 165 peer-reviewed scientific papers, 100 textbook chapters, 30 editorials, and 4 medical books; he has also received many U.S. and foreign patents. Dr. Roizen has given more than 1,400 lectures to professional medical groups and has been recognized with more than 20 professional lectureships. He is based in the Cleveland, Ohio, area, where he lives with his wife, pediatrician Nancy Roizen, MD. They have two grown children who are also pursuing medical careers.

Mehmet C. Oz, MD, manages multiple lives. He is host of The Dr. Oz Show, vice chair and professor of surgery at Columbia University, a member of the RealAge Scientific Advisory Board, and director of the Cardiovascular Institute and Complementary Medicine Program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Oz has authored more than 400 original publications, book chapters, and medical books and has received several patents.

Heart surgeon Oz is also the author of the award-winning Healing from the Heart and the coauthor -- with Dr. Roizen, the other half of the "YOU Docs" team -- of a string of New York Times #1 best-sellers, including YOU: The Owner's Manual, YOU: On a Diet, YOU: Staying Young, YOU: The Smart Patient, YOU: Being Beautiful, YOU: Having a Baby, and their newest, YOU: Raising Your Child.

Previously, Dr. Oz was a featured health expert on The Oprah Winfrey Show for many seasons and also served as chief medical consultant to Discovery Communications. His medical work has been honored by Time, Esquire, Harvard (his alma mater), the World Economic Forum, Hippocrates, Castle Connolly, and others. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, Lisa, and their four children.

Keith Roach, MD, is chief medical officer of RealAge and a long-standing member of its Scientific Advisory Board. Dr Roach was part of the original scientific team put together by Dr. Roizen that developed and patented the RealAge Test. In addition to his RealAge duties, Dr. Roach is an associate professor of clinical medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University; he is also an associate attending physician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Dr. Roach, who is board certified in internal medicine, has a deep interest in disease prevention, cost-benefit analysis, and geriatric health care. He has lectured widely, presented and published frequently, received many honors, and contributed to several books. In addition to practicing medicine, he continues to teach one day a week at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, where he’s an award-winning physician/professor. Dr. Roach is based in the New York City area, where he lives with his wife and three children. His calendar age is 46, but his RealAge is 38.6, thanks in part to his early-morning triathlon training. To date, Dr. Roach has completed 24 triathlons and counting!

Dr. Mike Clark is currently the chief science officer for Sharecare, RealAge's partner in health, and the chief executive officer of the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). Dr. Clark is the creator of NASM's exclusive Optimum Performance Training™ (OPT) model which is used by 10's of thousands of health and fitness professionals with millions of clients worldwide. Since joining NASM, Dr. Clark's innovation and leadership have redefined the organization as a global leader and authority in education for fitness, sports performance, and corrective exercise, and he was named the "Health and Fitness Visionary of the Year" by Men's Health magazine.

Dr. Clark's evidence-based OPT approach is also the foundation behind the fitness programming provided to the entire Sharecare community. His model and easy to use approach was integrated onto Sharecare.com and was launched last January by Dr. Oz himself by promoting it in his Move It and Lose It challenge to get America healthy. This revolutionary, free online diet and exercise program is currently used by millions worldwide and Dr. Clark was the innovation behind the derivation of it, how it was executed, and the lessons the program teaches participants about living a healthy lifestyle.

Dr. Clark is a noted lecturer and author who frequently lectures at scientific conferences. He has authored 3 scientific textbooks, over 40 chapters, and multiple peer-reviewed scientific papers in the areas of sports medicine, sports performance, and fitness. Dr. Clark also has written 2 consumer books. Academically, Dr. Clark has helped spearhead the development of several accredited online health science education programs, including a BS program, 2 Master's Degree Programs, and one Doctoral program.

Clinically, Dr. Mike Clark is recognized as one of the top Sports Medicine Professionals. He's entering his 11th season as the team physical therapist for the NBA's Phoenix Suns. He has also served as a sports medicine professional for 2 Olympic Games. Finally, Dr. Mike Clark has served as a sports medicine specialist for numerous pro teams and his list of athlete-clients includes MVP's, All-Stars and Champions from the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS and the Olympics.

Education:
Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT)--Rocky Mountain University
Master of Science (MS)-University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Bachelors of Science (BS)-University of Wisconsin LaCrosse

Dr. Steve Edelman is the founder and director of Taking Control of Your Diabetes (TCOYD), a not-for-profit organization with the goal of teaching and motivating patients in diabetes self-care. Since 1995, TCOYD has reached hundreds of thousands of people living with diabetes through a variety of education portals including national conferences, publications, television, and community programs.

Dr. Edelman is a professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) and the Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System of San Diego, and the director of the Diabetes Care Clinic, VA Medical Center. He received his internal medicine training at the University of California Los Angeles, and completed his clinical endocrinology fellowship training at the Joslin and Lahey Clinics in Boston, Mass., as well as a research fellowship at UCSD.

With strong interests in education and patient advocacy, Dr. Edelman has written more than 200 articles and five books. He has won numerous awards for teaching and humanitarianism and was recognized by San Diego Magazine as a Top Doctor eight out of the last nine years, an honor only achieved by a handful of physicians. In addition, he has been named Teacher of the Year amongst over 400 faculty members at UCSD numerous times. In 2009, he was awarded Diabetes Educator of the year by the American Diabetes Association. He received a Distinction in Endocrinology award from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists in 2011, and was recently named in US News and World Report amongst the top 1% of endocrinologists in the US.

Of all his accomplishments, however, Dr. Edelman is most proud of his compassionate, smart and successful daughters, Talia and Carina.

James H. Fowler is Professor of Medical Genetics and Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. With a PhD from Harvard, his work lies at the intersection of the natural and social sciences, with a focus on social networks, behavioral economics, evolutionary game theory, political participation, cooperation, and genopolitics. James was recently named a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, one of Foreign Policy's Top 100 Global Thinkers, and Most Original Thinker of the year by The McLaughlin Group. His research has been featured in numerous best-of lists including New York Times Magazine's Year in Ideas, Time's Year in Medicine, Discover Magazine's Year in Science, and Harvard Business Review's Breakthrough Business Ideas. Together with Nicholas Christakis, James wrote a book on social networks for a general audience called Connected. Winner of a Books for a Better Life Award, it has been translated into twenty languages, named an Editor's Choice by the New York Times Book Review, and featured in Wired, Oprah's Reading Guide, Business Week's Best Books of the Year, and a cover story in New York Times Magazine.

In his spare time, he loves movies, spicy food, and traveling, and lives in San Diego with his wife and two sons.

John La Puma, MD, is a long-time member of the RealAge Scientific Advisory Board and author of ChefMD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine: A Food Lover’s Road Map to Losing Weight, Preventing Disease, and Getting Really Healthy. Before writing his first book, he coauthored The RealAge Diet and Cooking the RealAge Way with Dr. Roizen.

A graduate of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Dr. La Puma completed the first postgraduate fellowship in the country in medical ethics and general internal medicine at the University of Chicago. But then -- long fascinated by the relationship between food and health -- Dr. La Puma took a break from his medical career and cooked for 4 years at chef Rick Bayless's famous Topolobampo/Frontera Grill. (He had already completed the professional cooking curriculum at The Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago, a division of Le Cordon Bleu.) Since then, he has combined his two areas of expertise -- food and medicine -- to found California’s Santa Barbara Institute for Medical Nutrition and Healthy Weight, a division of CHEF Clinic™ (Cooking, Healthy Eating and Fitness Clinic). Now based in Santa Barbara, Dr. La Puma practices preventive internal medicine, directs the institute's executive coaching program for weight loss and health, and shares his healthy-eating recipes at www.drjohnlapuma.com.

Pediatrician Jennifer Trachtenberg, MD -- known to her patients as Dr. Jen -- serves as chief pediatric officer of RealAge. She is a nationally recognized parenting expert and the author of Good Kids, Bad Habits: The RealAge Guide to Raising Healthy Children and The Smart Parent's Guide to Getting Your Kids Through Checkups, Illnesses, and Accidents: Expert Answers to the Questions Parents Ask Most. Dr. Jen has practiced pediatric and adolescent medicine for more than 14 years and maintains a successful private practice in New York City.

She is also an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and a mom. Dr. Trachtenberg has appeared on NBC's Today show and CNN's Headline News and has been widely interviewed by magazines and newspapers and on the radio. She has written articles on various health and parenting topics, including child development and childhood obesity. She and her husband live just outside of New York City, where they are raising their three children.

Charles Tuchinda, MD, MBA, serves as Chief Innovation Officer of Healthcare for Hearst Business Media, Vice President of Innovation for Zynx Health, and Vice President of Innovation for First DataBank.

At Hearst Business Media, Dr. Tuchinda focuses on evaluating new businesses, building new product lines, gathering competitive intelligence, and developing market research across the healthcare industry. He works closely with First DataBank, Zynx, and the Map of Medicine to identify how better "information" and better "delivery" can improve healthcare for all.

Dr. Tuchinda completed his residency training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and is board certified in internal medicine. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School, his MD from Johns Hopkins, and a biomedical engineering degree from Harvard.

He enjoys running, hiking, and skiing, and lives in the San Francisco bay area with his wife and two daughters.

Skin specialist Amy Wechsler, MD, has a rare combination of skills: She is board certified in both dermatology and psychiatry. As a result, she brings an unusually insightful approach to the RealAge Scientific Advisory Board and to her dermatology practice in New York City. Intrigued from the start by the mind-body connection, Dr. Wechsler did her undergraduate work at Duke University and earned an MD from Cornell University Medical College. She is affiliated with New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and SUNY Downstate Medical Center, and she is a member of the American Academy of Dermatology, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Dr. Wechsler wrote her first book, The Mind-Beauty Connection, shortly after joining RealAge’s Scientific Advisory Board. She appears frequently on television and in print, including on the Today show and in the New York Times, Marie Claire, Elle, and O, The Oprah Magazine. She and her husband live in Manhattan, where they are raising two children.