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Lifestyle & Wellness Site – Healthy Design – Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA | Wellness & Health Designer
WHERE HEALTHY MEETS DESIGN
Live Better By Design
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Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA, HEALTH DESIGNER™

Design Your Healthy and Happy Life™

Welcome to BarbaraFicarra.com a lifestyle destination site to help you live a happier, bolder, healthier and a more stylish life. Barbara explores the intersection between interior design, health, tech, food, travel and art. BabaraFicarra.com explores and celebrates life by design.

A trusted health and lifestyle expert, Barbara’s passion is to inspire and to empower people to take charge of their health by taking action to design a healthy life they adore. Design Your Healthy Life™ (#DYHL).

Any chic interior designer will show you how to create a fabulous home with a few key directions. As your WELLNESS & HEALTH DESIGNER™ I can show you how to design your life in the same way. I empower you design a happy and healthy life + home.

Today’s woman is busy juggling an endless list of responsibilities and often her needs are consistently pushed aside. Together, we can make small tweaks to your everyday routine and create a lifestyle that benefits you.

Living well and taking care of yourself doesn’t need to be a complete overhaul; simple actions can have a big impact – you don’t have to change everything.

Interior design is all about creating a space that reflects your personal style. Health design is about creating your life to reflect who you really want to be. With a few simple flips, a few pops of color, and a few bits of organization and creativity, I will guide and empower you on your journey to design a blueprint to your happier, bolder, stylish, and healthier life and home. (#healthydesign)

Designing a healthy home has key components which are instrumental for living a better life. As a wellness & health designerI help you achieve a healthy living space. Using healthy design techniques, your home becomes a healthy sanctuary.

I’m dedicated and passionate about bringing you inspiration and guidance by using simple healthy design techniques so you can take action to achieve your healthy design goals. Whether it’s to eat a little healthier, move a little more, infuse your home with healthy design elements, or to find out about the latest tech gadgets, and motivating you to be more confident and bolder, I’ll help guide and empower you to design a life + home you love and adore.

As your lifestyle, health and wellness designer (HEALTH DESIGNER™) I will share with you a blueprint for spectacular health with simple healthy design tips to empower you to design a life you love & a home you cherish.

Explore and Celebrate Life Styled by Design™

Health: Everyday Well is healthy design for life and home

Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA, HEALTH DESIGNER

Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA is a registered nurse and lifestyle and health expert offering practical advice for consumers by focusing on health and wellness. Her trademark is simple and useful information from a trustworthy source to help people to take charge of their health.

Barbara is known as a HEALTH DESIGNER™ – she designs ways for people to live a healthier life and empowers people to design their own healthy lifestyle.

Barbara is a leader in the health care industry and has dedicated her work to the following areas:

  • Award-winning broadcast journalist, health educator, mentor, writer, content editor and international speaker
  • Freelance Write/Contributor to HuffPost, DoctorOz.com (Dr. Oz deleted authors page), KevinMD, TED blog, HIMSS, Latin Trends Magazine and other sites
  • Advisory board member at Sharecare.com, health educator and content editor
  • Medical Reviewer/Editor at Sharecare Inc.
  • Founder of Healthin30.com, and creator, executive producer and host of the former award-winning Health in 30® Radio Show
  • Administrative supervisor (clinical and patient care) for the department of patient care and human experience at a large university trauma medical center
  • Former senior director of clinical affairs for Numera Inc, telehealth company
  • Advisory board member for The Master in Science Health Informatics for the University of San Francisco School of Nursing and Health Professions.
  • Inducted into Sigma Theta Tau International, The Honor Society of Nursing
  • President Barbara Ficarra Productions, LLC, executive producer for radio, TV and online
  • Segment news producer and host-network TV
  • Academy of Judges, Chairperson for Sharecare Awards in Association with The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, New York Chapter (the producer of the Emmy®Awards)
  • Author, Emerging Technologies, Textbook, Chapter 4–VR/AR/MR for Springer Publishing (2020)
  • NEW: Producer/Development Coordinator/Content Creator at CNN Warner Media, Turner

Barbara received an Excellence in Journalism Award from ACEP–Awarded work was “Ins and Outs of the ER,” a comprehensive educational piece about what to expect in the emergency department and the challenges of crowding and waiting. Other winners of the American College of Emergency Physicians awards include ABC News and the Fox News Channel. She was invited by Microsoft to judge a series of Innovative Technology Entries for The Imagine Cup 2012. She was a participant team member for TEDMED’s 20 Great Challenges, Improving Medical Communication.

To contact Barbara, please tap or click here.

Read more about BarbaraFicarra.com. YOU BY DESIGN: WELCOME and DESIGN YOUR HEALTHY LIFE

More About Barbara Ficarra

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Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA | Health Designer™- Barbara helps you design your healthy and happy life and home

Bio-Expanded Version

Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA, is a registered nurse, an award-winning broadcast journalist, health expert, lifestyle & HEALTH DESIGNER™, health educator, freelance writer, and international speaker.

Barbara is a producer–development coordinator and content creator for CNN—Warner Media, Turner.

She is a featured writer for HuffPost and contributor to Dr. Oz (Dr. Oz recently deleted the author page). She is a health educator at Sharecare and is on their editorial and advisory board. Sharecare is a health and wellness engagement platform founded by Dr. Mehmet Oz and Jeff Arnold (founder of WebMD). Barbara is the founder of BarbaraFicarra.com, a lifestyle destination site that helps people live a happier, bolder, healthier and more stylish life. She explores the intersection of design, health, tech, and art. Barbara helps design ways to help people live healthier lives and empowers people to design their own healthy lifestyles. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of Healthin30.com, which offers health news and advice from a nurse’s perspective and publishes posts from experts in the health care. (New site coming soon!) 

Barbara is recognized as a leader in the health care industry and she is on the front lines of health care as a registered nurse. She is a top 3% influencer in health and health care. She is a leading voice in health focusing on consumer engagement and empowerment, and she offers practical advice for consumers to take charge of their health. Focusing on health and wellness, she delivers her trademark brand of advice, which is simple, useful and trustworthy information to help empower people to design their healthiest life and feel their best.

Barbara is a contributor to many health sites, is frequently quoted and featured by numerous media outlets, and her TV appearances include: FOX News, NBC, ABC, CBS, FIOS, and WMCN. Barbara contributes to radio at Working Mom Magazine Radio, Greater Media Radio, Health, Wealth and Wisdom Radio, Cayman Islands Radio News, to name a few.

She is published in Latin Trends Magazine, Practice Fusion, TED Blog, HIMSS and has been featured and quoted in  Redbook Magazine and Real Simple Magazine, as a medical contributor and PharmaVOICE, She is a guest blogger for many health sites including, TheHealthCareBlog, KevinMD, Healthcommentary, DrGreene, and HIMSS, Getbetterhealth, and Healthworkscollective.

Barbara is an advisory board member at the University of San Francisco for the Master of Science Program for Health Information Technology. Barbara is former Senior Director Clinical Affairs for Numera Inc.

Barbara is an international speaker. She presents on the latest trends in health and health care issues focusing on professional development, healthy living and wellness, patient and consumer engagement and empowerment, social media, digital technology, including mhealth-mobile health, health apps, gamification, telemedicine, telehealth, leveraging her experience as former Senior Director of Clinical Affairs at Numera. She has presented at the Cleveland Clinic, Scripps, the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, HIMSS So Ca, and HIMSS Arkansas, PIAA in Amsterdam, Ivey Global Health Care Conference in Canada, Cayman Islands Health Care Conference, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, e-Patient Connections Conference, Novartis, and BlogHer to name a few. As a leading voice in health care, Barbara offers practical advice focusing on healthy living, wellness, patient engagement and empowerment, health care social media, health IT, digital technology, (mHealth-mobile health, gamification, telemedicine), and doctor|nurse team.

Barbara began her broadcasting career in radio as creator, host and executive producer of the award-winning Health in 30® radio show, which brought listeners the latest health information and empowered listeners to take charge of their health.

Barbara received a Broadcast Journalism Award of Excellence for Health in 30® from the American College of Emergency Physicians. The winning program, “Ins and Outs of the ER,” explained what patients should expect in the ER and explored the challenges created by crowding. In 2011, Healthin30.com was voted Best Health Blog by Healthline. In 2016 Barbara is named one of the top five women in healthcare with her websites.

Barbara has offered expert advice to a variety of organizations and individuals in health care, including New York Times Health, Time Warner and Novartis. 

She was a board member for the former National Association of Medical Communicators and served on the Academy of Judges for the International Health and Medical Media Awards. She was invited by Microsoft to judge a series of innovative technology entries for the Imagine Cup 2012. She served as faculty for the American Medical Association’s Medical Communications Conferences, has taught classes in media broadcasting, and is a team member for one of TEDMED’s 20 Great Challenges, Improving Medical Communication.

Barbara is also experienced in video production as host and executive producer for Web/TV creating content surrounding the nursing and medical profession. She is president of Barbara Ficarra Productions, LLC, and she is a consultant, mentor, moderator on panels and webinars, writer and TV and Radio personality. She is also an administrative supervisor at a large university medical center, where she covers multiple medical and surgical units, critical care, oncology, cardiology, orthopedics, the psychiatric unit, women’s and children’s services and the emergency trauma department. She is multifaceted in her clinical experience, ranging from oncology to general medicine and surgery.  She is a hospital leader, clinical and administrative manager; she supervises various aspects of patient care; and is a coordinator, problem solver and resource for staff, physicians, patients and families. She always encourages patients and their families to be proactive and take charge of their health.

Barbara is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International, the Honor Society of Nursing, and a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists.

NEW Updates:

Barbara is chairperson and member of the Academy of Judges for the Sharecare Awards.

Barbara has presented on the topic of technology at many conferences. She’s an academic author for Springer Publishing, Emerging Technology for Nurses. Textbook Chapter 4, Virtual Reality (VR) in health care for the Masters-level and Doctoral candidates. This chapter dives into how VR is used in nursing and medical education.

More about Chapter 4: VR/AR/MR

Textbook: Emerging Technologies for Nurses—Implications for Practice Editor: Whende M. Carroll, MSN, RN-BC

Contributors:

  • Clancy, Thomas R., MBA, PhD, RN, FAAN
  • Ficarra, Barbara, RN, BSN, MPA
  • McCormick, Kathleen A., PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI, FHIMSS

Springer Publishing

Ficarra is author of Chapter 4—Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality

This chapter provides a brief historical overview of immersive technologies and summarizes how they are applied in nursing and medical education. It explores how nursing and medical students engage with these technologies in the educational setting. It also examines how these advanced innovations lead to a new course for nurse educators, researchers, and informaticists. Due to the evolution of these immersive technologies, the chapter offers details to expand and transform the role of the nurse leader in nursing education, nursing researchers, and nurse informaticists. The chapter explores the various ways in which virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality (VR/AR/MR) are used in the healthcare setting, specifically exploring how it is utilized with the pediatric population from emergency department visits to inpatient visits. It addresses the nurse’s role in VR/AR/MR use and how nurses engage their patients to help distract them and to help manage their pain and anxiety. —Springer Publishing

Research, interviews and case studies — A small excerpt of chapter 4.

Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality in:

  • Health Care
  • Nursing Education 
  • Medical Education
  • Patient Education

The redesign of nursing, medical, and patient education with immersive technologies

          — Educational Redesign: Changing the Culture 

          — Therapeutic use of VR/AR/MR: Pediatric Population

          — Immersive Technology for Reducing Anxiety and Pain 

          — AR/VR Implications and Contraindications

          — Expanding the Nurse’s Role with the Use of VR/AR/MR

She’s founder of Healthin30.com — newly relaunched!

Intersection of Health + Design

BARBARA FICARRA AND CHRISTOPHER BURNS WELLNESS DESIGN SERVICE 

Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA, Health Designer™ and Christopher Burns Interior Designer --Intersection of Health + Design

Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA, health designer™, health educator and a multidisciplinary creative—intersects health + design. Barbara Ficarra and Christopher Burns, Interior Designer, are here to help you create a beautiful and healthy home.

Get started now on your beautiful newly designed healthy home. Contact Barbara here for more info.


As a health designer™, Barbara designs methods for wholesome and healthy living. She empowers and helps go-getters design their own healthy home and lifestyles.

For more information, please visit Barbara’s portfolio and click here to contact Barbara.

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Photo Credit: Philip Holt, Mad Shot Photography