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What I Wish I’d Known Earlier…

This summer, I am reflecting and writing about what I wish that I had known earlier about getting good care following active cancer treatment, based on my experience with five different cancer diagnoses and what I have learned from others. If you have been diagnosed...
Medical Errors: Will We Act Up, Fight Back?

Medical Errors: Will We Act Up, Fight Back?

(Originally published on the CFAH Prepared Patient Forum January 16, 2013) Sometimes, angry patients and dissident doctors and nurses warn us about the impending patient revolution – how health care is so unsafe, of such poor quality and so expensive for us patients...

“The Office” Takes on Primary Care

Not really, but check out this new campaign by the Puget Sound Health Alliance aimed at getting the employees of their purchaser members (businesses and labor union trusts) to make better use of primary care.  These videos* will make you chuckle / guffaw / giggle even...

What You Can Do if You See Slipshod Health Care News

Check out Gary Schwitzer of Health News Review on actions you can and should take. Part of a short five part video series. http://www.healthnewsreview.org/blog/2011/07/part-5-of-video-series-what-you-can-do-if-you-see-slipshod-health-care-news.html...

Shared Decision Making in the News

Media coverage of the challenges we face in making good treatment decisions often focuses on and sensationalizes medical errors, catastrophes and risks.  So it was great to see this impressive TV news clip circulated by Gary Schwitzer of HealthNewsReview.org in his...

Kids Talk About What It’s Like to Have Asthma

It is often difficult for adults to give their doctors full and accurate accounts of their illness.  Doing so can be even more of a challenge for kids.  Here is an interesting experiment in which adolescents were given video cameras to capture their experience with...

This Business of Being Patients Is Far From All We Do

In this vivid talk [start at 5:05], Dr. Victor Montori of the Mayo Clinic tells about what one of his patients must do to address his high blood pressure, diabetes, his weight and the events in his life that compete for his attention.  He describes how...

e-Patient Beware: Bad Data, Badly Reported

Here’s an interesting (though oddly titled) post by Jon Richman: Lies, Damn Lies and Pharma Social Media Statistics. It is interesting because it beautifully un-packs misreporting on a topic of great interest to e-patients.  It is oddly titled because while the...

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