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UPDATE: See my new website: MTBIFacts.com to get the facts about mild traumatic brain injury and "post concussion syndrome."
MedFriendly.com was founded by Dr. Dominic Carone in October of 2001. While he was a graduate student, Carone noticed that there was a huge need for an online medical resource that would help the average person easily understand complex medical terminology. He was frustrated with medical dictionaries that defined complex medical terms with other complex medical terms.
Dr. Carone put his thinking cap on and had an idea - the creation of a website in which all complex medical terms used in a definition are explained within the definition. No longer would people need to flip through hundreds of pages to find out what all of the complicated terms in a definition meant. Although it would be a life's work, Carone dutifully began the task at once. He picked up some books on how to create websites and got to work.
In 2000, Dr. Carone experimented with web page publishing on sites that offered free web space. In October of 2001, he decided to create his own dotcom website and MedFriendly was born. By March of 2002, over 500 medical terms were listed on MedFriendly and other companies began to advertise on it. By May 1, 2002, there were 1000 medical terms on MedFriendly, and by July 26 of 2003 there were over 2000 medical terms listed. The last few years have seen the continued addition of medical terms, but additional features were added as well such as the measurements section, hospital index , doctor and physician directory, message board, blog, and the AskMedFriendly section.
Dr. Carone personally creates every entry and places them on MedFriendly. He uses his knowledge of anatomy, physiology, neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry, chemistry, biology, pharmacology, pathology, and other sciences to create the entries. His love of knowledge, which began during his undergraduate studies at Le Moyne College (where he graduated summa cum laude), makes it easy and enjoyable for him to create the entries for MedFriendly. One of his main intellectual influences at Le Moyne College was Dr. Vincent Hevern.
Dr. Carone sometimes uses the assistance of his wife, Pamela Carone, who is a Registered Nurse, in determining the content for certain entries. Pamela created the name "MedFriendly," helped create the MedFriendly icon, provides valuable consultation, edits entries, and has helped shape the overall look of the website.
Dr. Carone occasionally receives assistance regarding design issues from his brother, Michael Carone, a mechanical engineer employed at The Mathworks. In addition, Dr. Jennifer Selden, a neuropsychologist, has edited information on MedFriendly and helps promote the site to others.
Dr. Carone is currently employed as a neuropsychologist and assistant professor at SUNY Upstate Medical University, where he is also a clinical assistant professor. He assesses adults and children (beginning at 5) with a wide variety of acquired and developmental brain disorders.
Dr. Carone completed a 2 year post-doctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology from 2003-2005 in the Department of Neurology at SUNY Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences on August 29, 2003. While there, he trained with Drs. Ralph Benedict (a board certified neuropsychologist) and Dr. Mark Gunther (a neuropsychologist). In addition to seeing patients, he conducted research at the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center, where he works with Dr. Benedict and Dr. Robert Zivadinov in studying the effects of regional gray and white matter atrophy on cognition (i.e., thinking) and emotional functioning in patients with multiple sclerosis. This research involved the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain.
Dr. Carone completed his neuropsychology internship at
The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center on June 30, 2003. There, he was trained by two board certified neuropsychologists, Dr. James Scott and Dr. Russell Adams.
Dr. Carone completed graduate training at Nova Southeastern University, where he earned his Ph.D. Specifically, he was a student in the Neuropsychology specialization program at Nova Southeastern University's Center for Psychological Studies. There, he trained under three board certified psychologists (Dr. William J. Burns, Dr. Wiley Mittenberg, and Dr. Charles Golden), two of whom are board certified in clinical neuropsychology.
Dr. Carone defended his dissertation, entitled "A Comparison of Three Cognitive Screening Measures in a Traumatic Brain Injured Population," on April 11, 2003. His dissertation was chaired by William J. Burns, Ph.D. The other committee members were Stuart Gold, Psy.D., Ph.D., and Wiley Mittenberg, Ph.D. Carone graduated Nova Southeastern University with a 4.0 grade point average.
Dr. Carone has presented his research at national conferences. He has authored numerous publications, including the following:
- Carone, D., (2008). Children with moderate/severe brain damage/dysfunction outperform adults with mild to no brain damage on the Medical Symptom Validity Test. Brain Injury, 22, 960-971.
- Tjoa, C.W, Benedict, R , Dwyer, M., Carone, D., and Zivadinov, R. (2008). Regional specificity of magnetization transfer imaging in multiple sclerosis. Journal of Neuroimaging, 18, 130-136.
- Carone, D.(2007). E. Strauss, E. M. S. Sherman, & O. Spreen, A Compendium of Neuropsychological Tests: Administration, Norms, and Commentary (3rd ed.), Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 2006. Applied Neuropsychology, 14, 62-63. [Book review].
- Carone, D. A., Benedict, R. H. B., Zivadinov, R., Singh, B., and Ambrus, J.L. (2006). Progressive cerebral disease in lymphomatoid granulomatosis causes anterograde amnesia and neurogenic personality disorder. Journal of Neuroimaging,16, 163-166.
- Carone, D. A., Benedict, R. H. B., Dwyer, M. G., Cookfair, D., Srinivasaraghavan, B., Tjoa, C., and Zivadinov, R. (2006). Semiautomatic brain region extraction (SABRE) reveals superior cortical and deep gray matter atrophy in MS. Neuroimage,29, 505-514.
- Carone, D., Benedict, R., Munschauer, F., Fishman, I., Weinstock-Guttman, B. (2005) Interpreting patient/informant discrepancies of reported cognitive symptoms in MS. Journal of the International Neurological Society,11, 574-583.
- Benedict, R., Zivadinov, R., Carone, D. Weinstock-Guttman, B., Gaines, J., Maggiore, C., Sharma, J., Tomassi, M., and Bakshi, R. (2005). Regional lobar atrophy predicts memory impairment in multiple sclerosis. American Journal of Neuroradiology,26, 1824-1831.
- Benedict R.H., Carone D. (2004). Brain atrophy, cognitive dysfunction, and emotional disturbances
in multiple sclerosis (pp. 137-166). In R. Zivadinov and R. Bakshi (Eds), Brain and Spinal Cord Atrophy in
Multiple Sclerosis (in press). New York: Nova Science Publisher.
- Benedict RH, Carone D., Bakshi, R. (2004). Correlating brain atrophy with cognitive dysfunction, mood disturbances, and personality disorder in multiple sclerosis. Journal of Neuroimaging, 14(3), 36S-45S.
- Simpson, M., Carone, D., & Burns, W. J., Seidman, T., Montgomery, D., & Sellers, A. (2002). Assessing Giftedness with the WISC-III Versus and the SB-IV. Psychology in the Schools, 39, 515-524.
- Carone, D. (2002). Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (a.k.a. Lou Gehrig’s Disease): The Most Frequent form of Motor System Disease; Psychologist Can Help. National fact sheet published by the Association of VA Psychologist Leaders.
- Demsky, Y., Carone, D., & Burns, W. J. (2000). Assessment of visual-motor coordination in 6-to 11-year-olds. Perceptual and Motor Skills. 91, 311-332.
- Carone, D., & Barone, D. P. (2001). A social cognitive perspective on religious beliefs: Their functions and impact on coping and psychotherapy. Clinical Psychology Review, 21, 989-1003.
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