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Heads-up on EMR usability discussion

On April 21 I’ve been invited to testify again on behalf of patients at a meeting organized by the Office of the National Coordinator for health IT.  As we did here twice last year, let’s discuss what the meeting should here. Here’s the document they...

SPM on the Air: People’s Pharmacy (NPR)

Joe and Terry Graedon, long-time friends of “Doc Tom” Ferguson, produce The People’s Pharmacy, a website and radio program on NPR. Last Saturday’s program was about the Society for Participatory Medicine, which they helped to found in 2009....

TEDMED End Of Life videos are up

Last October we posted about two great TEDMED talks related to death. The videos are now up. The empowered, engaged patient cannot ignore this issue. Patients who’ve faced death will know why these talks on death are about being alive. It’s not a paradox;...

The Salzburg Statement on Shared Decision Making

This Thursday at the headquarters of the British Medical Journal in London, an important announcement will be made about patients’ rights to be actively involved in decisions about their treatment. Below is the press release about it. The subject is shared...

“I Am Iron Man”

Guest post by SPM member Regina Holliday. Perhaps because my world-view is shaped by the escapades and explanations of active little boys, I often speak of super-heroes in relation to health care.  I listen daily to tales of poisonous spider bites, DNA mutations and...

The discovery of practice variation: follow the data

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. Sherlock Holmes, in Scandal in Bohemia I’ve been reading Jack Wennberg’s new book Tracking Medicine, which is about his...

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