Susannah Fox of Pew Research had an important new study published today about the highest cost part of the healthcare budget: patients with one or more chronic conditions. If you care about the suffering of patients with never-ending conditions or the suffering of the healthcare budget, you’ll want to study this report. Check this two minute video summary – it’s excellent:

As with all Pew Reports, though, this one is data data data, an atlas of facts, with virtually no “What can we learn from this?” interpretation. So on her personal blog she posted her summary. I heartily encourage you to go read her post including the already robust comment stream. And as always, she asks for our advice: “What would you tell someone just diagnosed with your condition to do, especially in tapping into the resources available online?” 

If you have something to add there, please do. Help observers understand how this works, from the patient’s point of view.