Wendy Sue Swanson

Education and training

Swanson was born and raised in Minnesota.

She attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where, in 1996, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology.

For two years, she taught bilingual science and math to middle school children in Oakland, California, with Teach for America. With this experience, Swanson developed an interest in working with youths.

She went on to earn a medical degree and Master of Bioethics (MBE) degrees from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Swanson completed her pediatric residency training at Seattle Children's Hospital in Seattle, Washington. She completed her training in 2006.

Swanson began her medical career at Everett Clinic in Mill Creek, Washington, where she still practices as a community-based pediatrician. Swanson also serves as the director of digital health at Seattle Children's Hospital and a clinical instructor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

In 2009, Swanson started the Seattle Mama Doc blog for Seattle Children's Hospital.

In January 2011, Swanson was named to the Mayo Clinic's Center for Social Media Advisory Board. The goal of the board is to help the health care community "improve care through the use of social media tools like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Swanson is an official spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), a member of the Board of Advisors for Parents Magazine, a weekly medical contributor to NBC affiliate's King 5 News in Seattle Washington, and blogs for The Huffington Post. She has also appeared on The Today Show.

Conferences and keynote speeches

With the popularity of Swanson's blog, as well as her activism in improving physician use of social media, came invitations to speak at health care conferences within the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands.

Seattle Mama Doc blog

On November 11, 2009, Seattle Children's Hospital became the first major children's hospital to host a pediatrician-authored blog. Swanson, now known as the "Seattle Mama Doc," wanted the blog to be an online science-based resource for parents. In her blog posts, Swanson offers general health and safety tips, discusses issues in the media like HPV, vaccinations, sudden infant death syndrome, car seats, and trends in breast-feeding, and shares her own experiences as a parent. "The abundance of online noise invokes fear in all of us when making decisions for our children," said Swanson. "At the end of the day, we as parents just want to do what is right."

Swanson is a proponent of vaccinations, which reduce the risk of contracting diseases like whooping cough, polio and measles. Her interest in social media stems, in part, from a desire to counteract misinformation reported in popular media about the safety of childhood immunizations and other health concerns promoted by people like Jenny McCarthy, Dr. Mehmet Oz and Alicia Stone. "I feel physicians are obligated to be online," Swanson told reporter Carol M. Rostrum. "If celebrities are going to be online, then we educated, practicing physicians had better be there, too."

Swanson uses Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Doximity, and YouTube, as well as the Seattle Mama Doc blog, to educate and inform parents and her adolescent patients. Her goal is to create a non-threatening environment in which to talk about health findings and empower families. She refers patients to peer-reviewed medical information found on sites like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

In 2013, Seattle Mama Doc was named as one of Time's "Best Twitter Feeds of 2013".

"I have all of these tools at my fingertips. I can use them to see where myths are being created, stated facts and allay fears. I can connect in a one-to-many format and engage in people's lives in the manner they choose. When they come to the office and have learned from the information, we can move onto more important discussions."

Mama Doc Medicine

Swanson's book, Mama Doc Medicine: Finding Calm and Confidence in Parenting, Child Health, and Work-Life Balance, was published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in March 2014. The book is organized in four sections: Prevention, Social-Emotional Support, Immunizations, and Work-Life Balance/Mothering. Swanson offers tips and information on a variety of topics from car seats, sunblock, immunizations, fussy babies and tantrums, to emotional support and work-life balance. She also provides reputable online resources for readers wishing to seek further information on the topics covered in the book.

In April 2014, Swanson was a guest on Katie Couric's talk show to discuss her book and share parenting tips.

Virtual Handshake

Swanson's first technological project to be put into practice, the Virtual Handshake, was developed by the innovation group, Digital Health. The group, led by Swanson, studies current social tools and media and then works to develop new tools for physicians and patients. With Virtual Handshake, patients preparing for a doctor's appointment can access curated health information (e.g., PDFs, videos, links and other content) in a HIPAA-compliant encrypted space.

Personal life

Swanson resides in Seattle with her husband, also a physician, and two sons.