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e-Patient perspective on evolocumab (that new cholesterol study): beyond the headlines

by e-Patient Dave | Mar 20, 2017

Please cite this post as “by Dave deBronkart, Marilyn Mann and Peter Elias MD” or, on Twitter, “@ePatientDave, @MarilynMann & @PHEski.” Our blog software only allows listing one author but they provided 2/3 of the content. The medical news...

A neurosurgeon confronts his mortality: lessons in statistics and living while you can

by e-Patient Dave | Jan 25, 2014

Here’s a new “must read” for people with a grim prognosis, submitted by Twitter friend @Scanman (Vijay Sadasivam), from the Tamil region of India: How Long Have I Got Left?, by Stanford neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi. Seven years ago that was my...

“Arm” ourselves with information: Health News Review and 2009’s “war on cancer” post

by e-Patient Dave | Dec 31, 2012

Some things are what they call “evergreen” – persistent value, never out of date. Two come together for this year-end post. __________ A lot’s changed since our society was formed in 2009, but year after year a core skill for participatory...

Fact checking at Medicine X

by Susannah Fox | Oct 5, 2012

(A cross-post from susannahfox.com) I had the great honor of being part of the first Medicine X conference at Stanford University last weekend. I presented a sneak preview of new survey results collected by the Pew Internet Project and the California HealthCare...

Fred Trotter: Data, damn data, and statistics

by Kathleen O'Malley | Dec 27, 2011

Why does this blog use the word “damn” so often? A search produces a whopping 38 hits, such as: Fools! Damn fools! And Medical Science (Right, Santa??) Atlantic: Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science “Gimme my damn data!” The stage is being set to enable...

e-Patient Training via TED Talk: “Battling Bad Science”

by e-Patient Dave | Oct 5, 2011

We’ve often said here that when an e-patient wants to be responsible for treatment decisions, it’s essential to know how to evaluate the research about each option. A common mistake is to trust, blindly, news reports about a treatment, or even to trust,...