Focus On Your Best Health

Focus On YOUR BEST HEALTH provides those making health care decisions with a roadmap for successful outcomes. Strategies contained in this book demystify medical care by translating the obscure language of medicine, guiding savvy navigation of the heath care system, and promoting appropriate advocacy – showing where and how to get help. These physicians share their behind-the-scenes knowledge of how the system works to empower their readers.

Focus On YOUR BEST HEALTH provides those making health care decisions with a roadmap for successful outcomes. Strategies contained in this book demystify medical care by translating the obscure language of medicine, guiding savvy navigation of the heath care system, and promoting appropriate advocacy – showing where and how to get help. These physicians share their behind-the-scenes knowledge of how the system works to empower their readers. Glenda F. Newell, M.D. and Brenda B. Spriggs, M.D. draw on their combined clinical experiences from varied settings as academia, private practice, community clinics, and foundation model health plans to deliver practical and effective solutions to problems faced by health care consumers today. Focus On YOUR BEST HEALTH systematizes their passion for teaching patients to take charge and be purposeful about their health care needs. This book, a primer for those who want quality care, provides simple effective approaches that will promote positive results. Drs. Newell and Spriggs share sample vignettes, accumulated over their professional careers, in which coaching and/or advocacy made a positive difference in clinical outcomes for their clients and family members. Focus On YOUR BEST HEALTH combines the attributes of sound coaching and the practical value of a ‘rugged guide’ to patient survival in the medical trenches.

Brenda B. Spriggs, MD MPH MBA has a diverse background in clinical medicine, medical education, and non-profit initiatives. She is a recognized expert in the field of rheumatology and is a seasoned health care professional with a broad range of industry experience as an academic professor, clinician, specialty division chair, health care consultant and lecturer. Dr. Spriggs established a private rheumatology/immunology focused practice while teaching at Children’s Hospital, San Francisco and the University of California, San Francisco, where she was conferred the status of Clinical Professor Emerita in 2006. As a faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco, she served as faculty advisor for the UCSF/N.I.H. rheumatology fellows, liaison for Robert Wood Johnson fellows, and medical school lecturer. As a regional Rheumatology Medical Coordinator, she was charged with implementing the clinical/teaching component of the National Arthritis Act in Northern California and the Central Valley. The two-year pilot project, conducted in clinics throughout the region served as a model for delivery of effective, coordinated rheumatologic care and teaching of residents, community practitioners and allied health professionals. As rheumatology division head at Children’s Hospital, San Francisco, she formalized the division of rheumatology, implementing a robust clinical rotation and facilitating alliances for medical resident training at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the co-author of a number of scientific papers on systemic lupus erythematosus and Reiter’s disease, and has served as consultant and lecturer for the Arthritis Foundation and the Bay Area Lupus Foundation. Dr. Spriggs’ commitment to improving access to timely, quality medical care for health care consumers goes beyond the institutions she has served during her professional clinical career. She has demonstrated her passion for quality health care by serving on numerous health-related boards and has served on an international level as Citizen Ambassador for the Gore/Mbeki prototype delegation of the People to People International program in South Africa. She is the co-founder of Newell & Spriggs Consulting, LLC, a healthcare company dedicated to meeting the evolving needs of patients and all consumers in the healthcare marketplace. The services include health care coaching, advocacy, and workplace wellness programs, customized to increase workforce engagement and productivity. She has served as a board director of the Women’s Foundation of California and is a founding director of One PacificCoast Bank, FSB, organizations that are actively addressing the health, social and economic injustices that affect the most vulnerable in our communities- causes about which she is passionate. Dr. Spriggs is the recipient of numerous awards for teaching excellence, professional achievement and many notable academic honors. Dr. Spriggs received her B.S. in Biology from Fisk University, her M.D. from Meharry Medical College, and her rheumatology training as an N.I.H./UCSF fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. She is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and a Fellow of the American College of Rheumatology. She received a Master’s of Public Health for health care executives from the University of California Los Angeles and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management, Claremont Graduate University.