For more than fifteen years, Dr. Joshua Seidman has been on a quest to improve health care quality-first by influencing health plans and provider behavior, then shifting to a grassroots approach by activating consumers. In October 2001 Dr. Seidman saw the fusion of his two strategies to improve health care quality in information therapy. Information therapy (Ix) is the timely prescription and availability of evidence-based health information to meet individuals' specific needs and support sound decision making.

Dr. Seidman leads the independent, not-for-profit IxCenter and provides key leadership and direction, applying his extensive experience in strategic planning, product development, research, and education.

Before joining the IxCenter, Dr. Seidman served as senior editor and director of quality initiatives for the Advisory Board Company's consumer health initiative. In that capacity, he played a leading role in strategic planning and product development and provided leadership in the development of quality-of-care information for consumers.

Dr. Seidman has worked for the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) as the director of measure development, guiding NCQA's measure development efforts and overseeing analytical projects related to health-plan-performance measure testing and development for HEDIS . He has also worked at the Advisory Board Company as a consultant and at the American College of Cardiology as assistant director of private sector relations, conducting extensive research and analysis in managed care, quality-of-care issues, and other aspects of the health care industry. In addition, Dr. Seidman has published several book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals on e-health and quality-of-care-related issues.

Dr. Seidman holds a Ph.D. in health services research and a M.H.S. in health policy and management, both from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. His doctoral research involved the development of a tool to evaluate the quality of health information on the Internet and an assessment of what Web site characteristics influenced health information quality. He earned a B.A. in political science from Brown University.

For five years, Dr. Seidman volunteered as president of the board of directors for the Micah House, a transitional house in Washington, D.C., for homeless women recovering from substance abuse.