It’s one thing when we “talk amongst ourselves” in our own circles; it’s a whole different thing when the message starts popping up in *mass media*, where it reaches people who had no idea.
So it’s big news that we’ve had TWO mass-media developments this week with almost identical titles:
- Fabulous article in the January Angie’s List magazine, Empowered patients receive the best health care
- Last night SPM member Nancy Finn (Twitter @NFinn8421) was on “Nightside” with Dan Rea, on WBZ Radio. She was discussing her book e-Patients Live Longer.  Nancy was thrilled (as was I, listening) that the callers – which that show does NOT screen – all turned out to be e-patients! One was even a regular caller who the host knows well … Dan had no idea the guy had a big e-patient story!
Evidently there are more of us than even WE realized – and with this mass media coverage, we can anticipate more.
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As Dave indicates, it was both interesting and gratifying to hear so many callers indicate that they have firm, positive convictions about patient empowerment and engagement and have had extremely positive experiences collaborating with their health care providers to address their issues.
It was also interesting to learn about how people still run to the ER for minor issues because they do not want to endure the wait time trying to see their primary care doc. Clearly we need more patients and providers to work together to find alternative ways of caring for people in these situations. One ER nurse questioned the value of personal health records brought to the ER with the patient. There was general agreement that we need interconnection preferably nationally among the disparate digital health record systems that exist today, so that all patient health information can be available at the point of care wherever that might be.