If you haven’t already, please watch this, which is the best concise introduction to e-patients and participatory medicine I’ve seen:

Susannah Fox mentioned this video six weeks ago, in a quickie post in our “found on the net” sidebar. But that was just about the video itself. I have a couple of points to add:  

First, in my world this guy Kevin Kruse seems to have come out of nowhere, and he seems to have chops. (I have no business relationship with him – he’s covering my expenses to speak at his event, but no fee.) This video is a skillfully conceived, scripted, and produced bit of communication; it nails the issues squarely, accurately and with citations for his numbers, in a very short time. Artfully done.

Second, this whole thing raises the question of what his conference is about. He says it’s about something other conferences don’t focus on – connecting with e-patients. And, as the video suggests, that means participatory medicine.

When the conference was first announced it wasn’t at all clear why the world needed yet another fall conference, but what an interesting speaker list he’s compiled – see the full list. Definitely doesn’t seem to be “the usual suspects” focusing on their products. And it includes some people with serious social media chops: Rohit Bhargava (about whom we happened to write the other day), Lee Aase (god of social media at Mayo Clinic), etc.

(Obviously the author keynoters Thomas Goetz and Jason Hwang are big names, but every conference tends to have some headline names. You only get distinctiveness points for the “who else did you invite”s. :–))

The big fly in the ointment is that this is a wicked pricey event – so pricey that no ordinary patient can afford to attend; the only ones in the audience will be people in the industry! Ironic. Perhaps that will evolve as time goes by.

BUT, my point in this post was that Kevin’s done a terrific job of communicating in that short video. And I wanted to draw your attention to this conference, which does appear to be not “just another conference.”

Wouldn’t we love to see a conference evolve that’s devoted to the art (and science) of Participatory Medicine!