Voting ends Sunday July 31
Patient activists who attend conferences know that it’s been a long climb to get patient voices welcomed. The #PatientsIncluded movement has been around for years, making small dents, but Health 2.0 is one of the best: while they don’t provide stipends to cover travel costs, they
- admit patients and caregivers to the full conference free, even if they’re not speakers.
- have had patients on the main stage (not just in breakouts) since 2008(!)
- since 2010 have added a Patients 2.0 pre-conference, coordinated with our Society, most recently through Past President Sarah Krug of Cancer 101. (Plans aren’t set yet for this year but we do know there’s an informal SPM reception.)
- Oh, and for years they’ve been corporate members of our Society. But that’s not what this post is about.
I’ve been to lots of conferences, and when patients are in the room the difference is palpable. It matters.
Now, for their tenth anniversary, they’re doing something great: in addition to their awards for people in the business (categories for Tech Companies and Health Organizations), they have an award category for Patient Activists of the past decade. (They have another category whose name I love: “Industry Leaders (non-patient”, plus Tech Company.)
To some extent their hosting of a Patient Activist award is predictable, because co-founders Matthew Holt @BoltyBoy and Indu Subaiya @BlueTopaz are both members of SPM, and Indu is a past board member. Regardless, it’s happening!
Regina Holliday’s Facebook post [see screen capture] said it best: “Ready for some serious angst?” Because there are 22 patient nominees. Long gone are the days when people thought that patient activists like Helen Haskell and Regina Holliday were rare!
How to participate
This is not a quick popularity contest – it will take some work.
- The URL to vote is here. (It’s a SurveyMonkey ballot.)
- You’re required and encouraged to vote in every category, but a “no preference” option is available.
- If you don’t recognize a name, Google it, like e-patients do!
- A number of finalists will be named, and invited to come be on the main stage at Health 2.0 this year, Sept. 25-28.
- The conference will pay travel expenses for as many high ranking nominees as budget allows.
- Vendors / companies / brands: Matthew says you can be a well publicized hero by sweetening the patient travel pot, and will be publicly recognized at the event – step up!
Questions? Post ’em here in a comment, so they can be answered for the world to see. That’s efficient.
Again: Vote! And spread the word on on social media … we want lots of events to see this precedent.
To whom this may concern:
My Name is Angelina Ortiz who is a student /miltary spouse/volunteer for wounded warrior soldiers and /mother and lastly a mother who does not want to settle for less and to be able to be heard and voice there concerns without judgement !
This is regarding the article in the Huffpost about a mother and child experience a horrible expierence with being exposed in the hospital with uneducated Doctors but most of all the RNs or PAs that you place you health in there hands to later find out they lied about what I had contracted while
Being admitted for a little more than three weeks ! I had to beg for a CT Scan (only for the reason I have certification in a medical background and I was diagonsed 2 1/2 years ago at a MTF with a rare condition called Pelvic Congestion Sydrome with NutCracker Sydrome Which I already had 4 surgeries for now but my interventional radiologist said I have coil embolizations and securing my stents for the rest of my life 2-5 or sooner for the fact at times the coils dislodge !I knew that it was far more serious of the false reading of a UTI due to the fact if that was the case my body would have taken the initial 3-6 bags of the strongest antibiotic there is and fluids and not to mention the spiking fever were it would not decrease the fever at all ,just bouncing from one of those constant temperatures !
Im listing here the exact tempeture 101.7 then rose to 102.7 Were it was stagnant at 103.1for those 2-1/2 days straight , what I find sad I memorized the readings because that’s how it was for 3 days!
So I had a meeting with my case manager /Has degrees in healthcare administration and her BSN in nursing ! She advised me to be advocate towards patient care especially for being a active duty Army wife who lives in miltary base where the president Barrack ,Obama golfs frequently here on base!
My case manager told me if u decide to be like the rest of the population who doesn’t speak up in terms of their health care issues ,she said if u decide not to speak up about this it would make me feel as I didn’t do my job right!!
I came across an article in the Huffpost where (Diane Pinakiewicz, president of the National Patient Safety Foundation. “Now you have educated people who want to be involved and are no longer passive recipients of care.”)
Please help I don’t know to much in how to appoach this situation!
Thank you
Angelina, I wish we could help, but this is the wrong place to post a request for information like this. You have posted a comment on a blog post about a completely different subject, so nobody who could help you would see it.
Why not contact NPSF, the organization you saw in that Huffington post?