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How Reception Areas can Open Doors to Better Health

How Reception Areas can Open Doors to Better Health

by | Mar 7, 2022

Editor’s note: Moyez Jiwa, MD, founder of The Journal of Health Design, and The Health Design Podcast, believes that we can improve outcomes for patients as soon as  today by simply paying attention to the small details that needlessly undermine those outcomes. In...
Playing the Waiting Game While Living with a Rare Disease

Playing the Waiting Game While Living with a Rare Disease

by | Mar 1, 2022

In 2004, at age 17, I was diagnosed with an adult-onset muscle disease called limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2B (LGMD2B). My diagnostic journey began 10 months prior, the result of a routine blood test after a car accident which yielded concerning biomarker...
Getting “unstuck” after a life-changing medical diagnosis

Getting “unstuck” after a life-changing medical diagnosis

by | Feb 3, 2022

Editor’s note: Annie Brewster, MD, founder of Health Story Collaborative, and a friend to the Society for Participatory Medicine, has just published “The Healing Power of Storytelling: Using Personal Narrative to Navigate Illness, Trauma, and Loss.” In this excerpt...
Building a Framework for Authentic Patient Centricity

Building a Framework for Authentic Patient Centricity

by | Jan 11, 2022

As a leader in patient advocacy, I am often asked to speak on the topic of patient centricity and patient advocacy from the biotech/pharma perspective. What do we mean by patient centricity or when we say that patients are at the center of what we do or patients are...
Healthcare as a Meeting of Two Experts

Healthcare as a Meeting of Two Experts

by | Dec 20, 2021

When I was training to become a clinical psychologist, my supervisors gave me several pieces of great advice. One told me that the psychologist or therapist is the expert on mental health treatment and research but the patient or client is the expert on their own...
Linnea Olson: An Appreciation of a Giant

Linnea Olson: An Appreciation of a Giant

by | Dec 15, 2021

Pioneers of medical progress are lauded in published articles and by their professional peers. But it is often the patient advocates, particularly those who demanded better treatment, spearheaded clinical trial advances, and bravely took on institutions and standards...
The Power of Storytelling

The Power of Storytelling

by | Nov 8, 2021

In the fall of 2020, in the depths of the pandemic, I attended the Philadelphia Inquirer Telling Your Health Story Conference from the safety of my home. I had volunteered to do the Story Slam at the end of the conference and planned on presenting a piece about caring...
Social Work and The SPM Manifesto: It Just Makes Sense

Social Work and The SPM Manifesto: It Just Makes Sense

by | Oct 4, 2021

Navigating youth and their families through what is often a complex mental health system is a job that is frustrating but also an honor.  As a licensed social worker, my compass through the journey is guided by a group of core values. The National Association of...
Innovation, Local Persistence

Innovation, Local Persistence

by | Oct 4, 2021

Innovation is not like switching on a lightbulb for the world. Rather it’s local iterative, persistent steps. Thoughts from the Patient Experience Symposium. Listen to the podcast here https://health-hats.com/pod144/ Proem As I left the Patient Experience...

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