Our Medical Advisory Board
Svetlana Blitshteyn, MD, FAAN, FANA
Svetlana Blitshteyn, MD, FAAN, FANA is the Director and Founder of Dysautonomia Clinic and a Clinical Associate Professor of Neurology at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. She completed her neurology training at Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Medicine. She currently serves on the NIH RECOVER-Treating Long Covid Neurological Agents committee. Previously, she was appointed as the Clinical Lead for the Autonomic Section Writing Group for the Multi-Disciplinary PASC/Long Covid Collaborative. She was also selected to contribute to the definition of Long COVID for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine as part of a focus group. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and the American Neurological Association. She received 2025 Research All-Star in Neurology recognition for her outstanding contributions to health care research, ranking in the top 3% nationwide; Women of Distinction in Healthcare 2024 Award from the New York State Assembly; 2022 Dysautonomia International Physician of the Year Award and others. Her research focuses on POTS, Long Covid, EDS, and women’s health.
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.
Alexis Cutchins, MD
Alexis Cutchins MD is a board-certified cardiologist with a passion for caring for patients with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders, and other autonomic dysfunctions. Dr. Cutchins graduated from Hamilton College and Emory School of Medicine, where she was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha. Following graduation in 2004 she completed a residency in Internal Medicine at New York Hospital, Weill Cornell, in New York City and an NIH-sponsored research fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease at the University of Virginia. Dr. Cutchins spent the first thirteen years of her career as an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Cardiology at Emory University School of Medicine. There, she held leadership positions in the Anticoagulation Management Service, Emory Women’s Heart Center, and the Emory Midtown Echocardiography Lab. She also trained medical students, residents, and fellows to both recognize and manage POTS. In 2025 Dr. Cutchins left Emory to start Cutchins Cardiovascular Medicine PLLC in New York City. In addition to her work with Standing Up To POTS, she also serves on the board of SAFIRE (Spencer’s Association for Interventional Research & Education) and is a founding board member for the International Society for Mast Cell Activation Syndromes (ISMCAS).
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.
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.
