Our Medical Advisory Board
Svetlana Blitshteyn, MD
Svetlana Blitshteyn, MD, is a Board Certified Neurologist and Director of Dysautonomia Clinic where she provides consultations for patients with autonomic disorders. She is also the Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Blitshteyn completed her neurology training at Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Medicine and is a member of the American Academy of Neurology and American Autonomic Society. Dr. Blitshteyn has spoken at national and international conferences, including at the World Health Organization, and has been the Principle Investigator on a number of important research studies, including POTS and autoimmunity. She co-authored a popular patient handbook called “POTS - Together We Stand; Riding the Waves of Dysautonomia” and has been interviewed by numerous media outlets, including US News and World Report, New Scientist and Medscape. Dr. Blitshteyn has been a recipient of numerous awards, including Patient’s Choice Award 2019 from Dysautonomia Support Network.
Linda Bluestein, MD
Board-certified anesthesiologist, integrative pain medicine physician and former ballet dancer, Linda Bluestein, M.D., has dedicated her life to treating those afflicted with hypermobility disorders. She founded and co-hosts the podcast, “Bendy Bodies with the Hypermobility MD”, and is a former co-host of the podcast “Hypermobility Happy Hour”. Dr. Bluestein is widely published, considered an expert on hypermobility disorders, and has lectured internationally. Dr. Bluestein contributed two chapters for the book, Disjointed – Navigating the Diagnosis and Management of Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders.
As a leading specialist in connective tissue disorders, Dr. Bluestein helped create the first online EDS CME (Continuing Medical Education) program with the non-profit organization, Chronic Pain Partners, for whom she also serves as a volunteer medical consultant. As an assistant professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Central Wisconsin, Dr. Bluestein directed the RISHI Healer’s Art Program.
Artur Fedorowski, MD/PhD
Artur Fedorowski, MD/PhD, has specialist training in both internal medicine and cardiology and Senior Consultant and Head of Syncope and Dysautonomia Unit, Dept. of Cardiology, Karolinska University Hospital and associate professor of Cardiovascular Medicine in the Department of Clinical Sciences at Lund University in Sweden. He earned both his medical degree and doctorate of philosophy from Wroclaw Medical University in Poland. Dr. Fedorowski has published more than 170 scientific papers and two books in his main areas of interest, which include syncope, orthostatic hypotension, cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction and autoimmune cardiovascular diseases. Dr. Fedorowski is associate editor for Frontiers in Neuroscience, guest editor for Frontiers of Cardiovascular Medicine, and reviewer for approximately 60 medical journals. He is also a member of the Task Force Group of European Society of Cardiology for Syncope Guidelines.
Michael B. Goodkin, MD, FACC
Michael B. Goodkin, MD, FACC, retired from private practice as a non-invasive cardiologist after 36 years. He is double Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiology. Dr. Goodkin became interested in postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) after his daughter was diagnosed with the disorder in 1996. He treated more than 400 POTS patients prior to retiring in 2016, and is spending his retirement working tirelessly to improve physician education about POTS to ultimately improve patient care. He is particularly interested in novel treatment regimens for POTS, including osteopathic manipulation and somatosensory therapy.
Andrew J. Maxwell, MD, FACC
Andrew J. Maxwell, MD, FACC, is a Board Certified Pediatric Cardiologist and Pediatrician. He received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins Medical School, followed by a Residency in Pediatrics at The University of California at San Francisco, and Fellowships in Pediatric Cardiology at Lucile Packard Children’s and Stanford Hospitals, and in Thoracic Organ Transplantation at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He established his own private practice, Heart of the Valley Pediatric Cardiology, in 2001. His research interests include study of endothelial control of vasomotor tone, nitric oxide, pulmonary hypertension, sports cardiology, dysautonomia, Ehlers-Danlos, and Mast Cell Activation Syndromes. For this work, he received an American Heart Association Bugher Award for Research in Molecular Biology and was an American College of Cardiology Young Investigator Award finalist. He has published many articles and book chapters and gives national and international presentations on these subjects.
Gregory A. Plotnikoff, MD, MTS, FACP
Gregory A. Plotnikoff, MD, MTS, FACP, is the Founder and Medical Director at Minnesota Personalized Medicine, a micro-practice dedicated to serving patients suffering from mystery, complexity, and severity despite extensive medical evaluations. Dr. Plotnikoff brings to this work a broad background with board certification in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, as well as advanced training in medical acupuncture, Kampo (traditional Japanese herbal medicine), hospital chaplaincy, and mind-body medicine. He is the recipient of multiple local and international awards for his work in cross-cultural and integrative medicine. These include early career distinguished achievement awards from both Carleton College and the University of Minnesota Medical School. Dr. Plotnikoff is the lead author of over 60 publications in the medical literature and 23 medical textbook chapters. His 2003 article on vitamin D deficiency and chronic pain is one of the most highly cited articles in the history of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings. He is the co-author with Mark Weisberg, PhD, of the book Trust Your Gut: Get Lasting Healing from IBS and Other Chronic Digestive Problems Without Drugs.
Jill R. Schofield, MD
Jill R. Schofield, MD, is the Founder and Director of the Center for Multisystem Disease. She graduated from the University of Colorado School of Medicine and completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. In 2014, she described the association of autonomic disorders in the antiphospholipid syndrome with Dr. Graham Hughes in London. She then completed two years of training in multispecialty autoimmune disease and thrombosis at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She is a founding and active member of the MASTerMinds International Listserv for physicians treating patients with mast cell activation syndrome and its numerous comorbidities. She was the course co-director of the 2nd Annual Workshop on Mast Cell Activation Syndrome and Comorbidities which received CME accreditation. She has published numerous research papers and regularly presents her work at national and international meetings. Dr. Schofield was the recipient of the Dysautonomia Support Network Patient’s Choice Game Changer Award in 2019 for her work in the use of immunoglobulin therapy in autoimmune dysautonomia. Her primary interests include antiphospholipid syndrome and the emerging fields of autoimmune dysautonomia and mast cell activation syndrome. She has developed considerable expertise in searching for the underlying cause of dysautonomia in both adults and children who fail to improve with conservative therapies.
