Ted Eytan drew our attention to a real-time example of participatory thinking, in the case of his friend Matt, an engineer who’s recently been diagnosed with MS. His post This is what $8,000 worth of drugs looks like tells the story, including videos of two doctor’s very different approaches, and a robust comment stream.

The videos take about an hour and are well worth the time, but as a first pass you can read the post and comments.

Among other things patient Matt draws the distinction between docs who operate like auto mechanics, applying only known solutions, and docs who think like engineers, operating in uncertain situations (like MS) to explore and see what we can figure out.  Highly recommended. Thanks, Ted.

e-Patient Dave

"e-Patient Dave" deBronkart is a co-founder of our Society and past board chair. He survived a near-fatal kidney cancer by being an e-patient long before he'd heard the word. Today he evangelizes participatory medicine, patient empowerment, and patient data access as a keynote speaker and at epatientdave.com.