In our “Why Participatory Medicine” series, leading up to the October 21 launch of the Journal of Participatory Medicine, tomorrow’s guest post will be a special treat for me. It contains a breakthrough insight about participatory medicine, and it’s a perfect example of how social media is enabling a wildfire acceleration of the spread of ideas.

The author is Amy Romano @MidwifeAmy, a nurse-midwife and advocate for mother-friendly maternity care. An expert in research analysis, she manages the Science & Sensibility blog for Lamaze International.

Amy found us through social media, pure and simple: she was out there doin’ her job, chasing interesting chains of followers, and ended up here. She read the white paper and immediately saw that it’s a perfect fit for what she’s up to. Look: social media brought together a growing idea and a constituency that’s ready for it.

Running with the ball herself, she’s now written perhaps the most profoundly innovative post I’ve seen since I first discovered the e-patient movement: she observed that almost everything in the e-patient white paper is about disease. And as the Lamaze people are well aware, a whole lot of healthcare goes on in (what should be) the non-pathological area of maternity and birthing. And those moms-to-be just happen to be in the actively-engaged online demographic: a perfect setup for participating e-patients.

Hold onto your hats, folks. This is a good one. :–)

Update: Amy’s post is here.