WorldOne Names Healthcare Veteran Kerry Hicks Chairman of the Board

NEW YORK, Feb. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- WorldOne, the global leader in healthcare data collection, insights and intelligence, announced today the appointment of Kerry Hicks as the company's chairman of the board.

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In July 2012, WorldOne acquired Sermo, integrating the largest online physician community in the U.S. into WorldOne Interactive, WorldOne's Global Engagement Group. The merger further expands the company's international network to nearly two million healthcare professionals and bolsters its burgeoning engagement platform. As chairman, Hicks will lend experience and provide counsel to the WorldOne executive team in their mission to make Sermo the most clinically relevant online resource for physicians around the world.

A member of the WorldOne Board since August 2012, Hicks has a long and successful history of over three decades of digital healthcare leadership. As founder, president and chief executive officer of HealthGrades, Hicks led the company from inception to acquisition after more than a decade of success. Today, he continues to serve as chairman of HealthGrades while routinely contributing to numerous business publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNBC, Forbes and Bloomberg Businessweek.

With the goal of offering a greater selection of decision support tools for the worldwide medical community, WorldOne Interactive is harnessing the power of engagement and collaboration to deliver qualitative and quantitative data at the point of care to fit within physicians' existing workflows. Sermo, far more than an exchange of information and ideas for U.S. physicians, will grow into a global platform, equipping physicians to provide better and more efficient care.

"The field of medicine has become increasingly complex, so what better time than now to apply real-world knowledge in real-time so today's physicians can offer more precise diagnoses and treatments, particularly in non-routine cases," said Kerry Hicks. "Taking information and lessons learned in the clinical setting and using Sermo's intuitive tools to reflect this wisdom back to peers will allow physicians to benefit from crowd sourced knowledge that is both actionable and scalable."

"With Kerry Hicks' guidance, we will leverage physicians' extensive experience on the front lines to inform key decision making and improve healthcare delivery," said Peter Kirk, chief executive officer of WorldOne. "There is no one-size-fits-all global approach to medicine, but there can and will be one universal engagement platform where physicians instantly communicate and exchange information that saves lives and reduces costs."

About WorldOne

WorldOne is a leading global healthcare data collection company serving the market research industry for over a decade. Headquartered in New York with 18 regional offices across North America, South America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, WorldOne offers clients online and offline access to medical professionals in over 80 countries through a range of differentiated products and services. WorldOne's network includes over 1.8 million fully verified healthcare professionals spanning 80 countries. 

In July 2012 WorldOne acquired Sermo, the largest online physician community in the United States. The Community platform now brings access to more than 200,000 physician members spanning 68 specialties. Sermo is exclusively available to verified and credentialed physicians who collaborate on cases and exchange observations to improve patient care, discuss drugs and devices and share information on new therapies and innovations.

SOURCE WorldOne