e-Patients Blog
The blog of the Society for Participatory Medicine. Want to be a contributor?
Crowdsourcing the Definition of Participatory Medicine
"Crowdsourcing: the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call." Jeff Howe Or in other words Participatory Outsourcing. There is clearly a growing...
Blogging to Save a Father’s Life
Yesterday, RocketBoom founder Andrew Baron took to the blogosphere to round up support in his efforts to get a rare drug approved for use in treating his father. His father was diagnosed with a very bad form of cancer called multiple myeloma and his dad's doctor...
Complex Patient Choices on Life or Death
“There are certain choices patients make that I have never understood, choices that from my perspective as a doctor seem to undermine their very chances for survival. Or at least undermine the efforts doctors, nurses and even complete strangers make on their behalf....
Spellchecker
"I noticed that my spellchecker doesn’t recognize 'subprime'. […] I am guessing that will be remedied soon. "in the Beginning" Stephen J. Dubner; 09/30/2008 This is so true! Just like e-patient and participatory medicine! None of these terms have made their way into...
“When physicians are ready to promote patient empowerment / engagement, what do we want them to do?”
Ted Eytan has a post by this name. It's a question asked of him by Ann Barber, MD. I couldn't be happier! His post and the comments have gotten lively. I posted about Chapter 2 of e-Patients: how they can help us heal health care, which includes the seven preliminary...
Mobilizing Support for the CIS
I just heard from Gary Kreps, Professor of Health Communication at George Mason University and e-patient pioneer, reporting about drastic cutbacks to the Cancer Information Service programs. Excellent up-to-date information is an important foundation for Participatory Medicine. The National Cancer Act mandated that the National Cancer Institute provide the latest cancer information to the general […]
Health 2.0 Northeast Meeting Review
I along with e-Patient Dave, Dan Hoch and Danny Sands, attended the second Health 2.0 Northeast meeting in Cambridge, Mass. on Tuesday night (Oct. 7, 2008). It was an initially well-attended event, with up to 150 people who came out to network (old-school style!) and listen to some presentations on local startups. Please consider […]
Patient Power: Andrew Schorr
Andrew Schorr's recent comment also merits a separate post: I am a 12-year leukemia survivor and very grateful to the ACOR community members who helped me numerous times along the way. I have dedicated my life to creating community online and also, in a supplementary...
Response to Tara Parker-Pope’s “You’re Sick. Now What?”
Christine Gray's comments on the New York Times open thread merit a separate post (updated on 10/7/2008): Five years ago, when many pediatric hospitals were unaware of or unwilling to acknowledge the capacities of online medical support groups, my thirteen-year-old...
Revolution Health Gets Gobbled Up By Everyday Health
As previously discussed, Waterfront Media acquired Revolution Health in a deal the New York Times valued at $300 million. Waterfront Media is a Brooklyn-based company that runs Everyday Health.com and represents many condition-specific health sites (including PsychCentral.com). Case joins Waterfront’s board of directors. Expect massive staff reductions at the Revolution Health offices in D.C.
New York Times Health Section
The New York Times published an amazing array of health articles yesterday, each one of which is worthy of a discussion on this blog (and not just because we were mentioned in this one). But I also want to take a minute to appreciate the entire online Health section of the Times, which consistently grabs […]
Taxpayer Access: The NIH Public Access Policy
“Taxpayer access” – the principle that American taxpayers should have free, timely, public access to the results of publicly funded research – would change the public access to scientific articles, and put critical biomedical research into the hands of those who need it.