e-Patients Blog
The blog of the Society for Participatory Medicine. Want to be a contributor?
Profound illustration of effects of stress on well-being
A friend writes: If you ever needed an example of the mind's influence on disease, please see the figure at the bottom of page 3 here: Impact of exposure to war stress on exacerbations of MS. Wow.
When someone can read your medical records, is that “social networking”?
I have a fairly geeky abstract question about one aspect of the e-patient world. It's not pivotal for issues of empowerment, access to care, etc, but as my friends and I keep learning about participatory medicine, the topic of social networking keeps coming up. And...
Action! $300 Million to Actively Promote Participation & Improve Care
Cross-posted from my own blog. Laura Landro, in Wednesday's WSJ, wrote a great article, "Finding a Way to Ask Doctors Tough Questions" about the fact that it remains difficult to challenge health professionals about any aspect of the work they do. Thanks to Laura, I...
Boston Globe Kills Health & Science Section
In a sign of the times of the struggling newspaper business, The Boston Globe has axed its health and science section. Strangely, the Globe's medical blog makes no mention of the cut, despite the end of 25 years of specialty, focused reporting on the sciences and...
RateMDs.com: Medical Justice’s approach is “repulsive”
At the Connected Health conference in Boston last year, where I spoke with my physician Danny Sands, I heard the visionary Clay Shirky speak. He gets it in spades about patient empowerment. In passing, he cited one of the most absurd ideas I've ever heard :–) ... a...
I’m putting my data in Google and HealthVault
Cross-posted from my own blog a week ago. I've decided to go ahead and put my data in Google Health and MicroSoft HealthVault. (Note: MicroSoft HealthVault is a different kind of thing from Google Health. About the only thing they have in common is that I can put...
Rare Disease Day 2009
Today is Rare Disease Day 2009. Join us in recognizing the reality of rare disorders and celebrating the beauty in the eyes of children living with rare disease and those who have lost their lives.
MedPage: Negative Data on Seroquel Suppressed by Drug’s Maker
Update January 2011: Be sure to read the comments, which have links to many valuable resources. This item today, from MedPage, underscores the importance of having our eyes open about the human frailties in the research process that our lives can depend on. ORLANDO,...
Live Blogging the Boston Summit on Transforming Healthcare
Tonight in Boston a series of speakers are presenting views on the coming transformation of healthcare. (See the web at http://hilforum.com/transforminghealthcare/) Here’s the speaker list— Opening remarks - Steven Wardell, President, H.I.L. Forum and Summit...
Participatory medicine might have reduced this tragedy
Healthcare is complex. Worse, our healthcare delivery systems are immensely complex. Sometimes things go wrong. The long and difficult story below was submitted to me by a stalwart former member of my kidney cancer group on ACOR.org. I'm reproducing it here with her...
Why Technology is No Longer Optional in Public Health
Andre Blackman has posted an important essay about mobile tech's potential in health care -- and the imperative to not miss this cluetrain.
Medpedia: Who gets to say what info is reliable?
Unless you've been offline since Wednesday, you know that Medpedia has gone into public beta. I have a concern about the reliability of their model, based on my personal experience and the self-education I've been doing for the past year. I want to lay out the...