Doug Oliver is a writer, storyteller, social policy expert, and patient advocate in Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated Cum Laude with a Master’s Degree in Social Work from The University of New England, and has had an extensive career in medical social work, health care regulatory compliance,  gerontology, and therapeutic case advocacy.

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In August of 2015, he also became a stem cell patient.

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At age 32, Doug was diagnosed with macular degeneration, a disease that attacks the retina, causing blindness of central vision. He became legally blind at age 45.

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In 2015, after undergoing autologous bone-marrow stem cell therapy in both eyes, he regained much of his lost vision. He received his driver’s license five months later.

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Doug’s story has reached millions, that include international broadcasts, interviews with the national press, and countless affiliate television and news media outlets, catching the attention of Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander, and Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D., who engaged him in helping to craft key patient provisions in the 21st Century Cures Act, galvanizing efforts to boost funding and initiate regulatory reform that provide speedy access to more precise cellular and genetic therapies and precision medicine millions of patients.

 

He describes his passion as being to "unify the brave new world of innovators in the regenerative medicine movement, and inspire others to use our shared desire for hope, health and opportunities for healing".

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