Hi! My name is John Schrom. I’m a 27 year old epidemiologist-turned-developer, living and working between Minneapolis, Minnesota and San Francisco, California.

I like finding new applications for technology and data.  I have spent the past few years working in two interrelated areas:

Health Technology
Health care is still living in version 0.9.  However, with the advent of Web 2.0 (and beyond), there’s a wonderful opportunity to both bring a lagging industry into the 21st century and improve (or even save) lives.  To be clear, this doesn’t mean implementing electronic medical records in every clinic across the country (that should have been done a decade ago) — it’s about figuring out ways to use social network, web apps, and smartphones to benefit patients.

Open Government
I believe that public officials work for the public.  They should, therefor, be held accountable to the people they’re elected to serve.  With current technologies, there’s no reason why we can’t have an open and transparent government that’s accountable to its constituents through the use of public data.  An accountable government will lead to an engaged population.

In addition to those interests, I am personally interested in theatre, concerts, camping, and traveling. I enjoy meeting and interacting with new people, and I try to find value in every place that I go.