The board of our Society for Participatory Medicine has voted unanimously to give the society’s “Doc Tom” award to life member Casey Quinlan, who is in hospice in Richmond VA, as we blogged this month.

On Saturday former board member Jan Oldenburg presented Casey with the printed and mounted proclamation. It’s now beside her bed [see photo above]. It reads:

“Doc Tom” Ferguson (1943-2006) envisioned health care as an equal partnership between e-patients and health professionals and the systems that support them. It is his spirit and his work that led to the creation of this Society in 2009.

The annual “Doc Tom” award honors the contributions of  someone who exemplifies Doc Tom’s vision and has worked to make it reality.

Mighty Casey exemplifies Tom’s vision of patients sharing knowledge and transforming healthcare. She brought the full force of her personality and mind to assertively spreading the word through social media, patient communities, conferences, podcasts, non-profits, and academia.

SPM recognizes and thanks Casey for being a “force of nature” in pursuit of a better world of healthcare for everyone.

As noted earlier, we’ve opened a CaringBridge page for Casey, where her support team will post status updates. You can subscribe there to get notifications and to leave words of support, memories, etc. Anyone can view; posting comments requires free registration.

Few people are widely recognized as “heroes of the revolution” in healthcare. Casey surely is one, and I for one am grateful to have witnessed her power and outrage amid good nature.