e-Patients Blog
The blog of the Society for Participatory Medicine. Want to be a contributor?
Patient Designed: Top 3 things hospitals can do today to be more participatory
The Society for Participatory Medicine, through its founders and mission, has a strong belief in the expertise of its patient members - many of whom identify as providers or journalists or have expertise in HIT, health economics and other areas. Patients, often...
How WebMD May Unfairly Influence Your Health Choices — Through Search
Go ahead and type in virtually any health or mental health condition into Google. Heck, even try a popular medication or two. Time and time again, you'll notice a reliable trend -- 2 or 3 of the top 10 search results are nearly always going to be WebMD. But not...
Breaking news: New Orleans health chief Dr. Karen DeSalvo Named to Head ONC
As we've said endlessly here (and in Washington), one of the key enablers of better healthcare is access to information. For that subject there's no more important job in the world than America's National Coordinator for Health IT, who runs ONC (Office of the National...
Matthew Katz on 23andMe: “Return to Sender, Genome Unknown: Seven Reasons I Will Return My Personal Genome Kit”
Radiation oncologist Matthew Katz is a lifetime member of SPM who blogs regularly for the American Society of Clinical Oncology and Mayo Clinic Social Media Health Network. In this guest post he offers his view of 23andMe, the personal genomics service that's in the...
My Reasons for Thanksgiving: On The Ultimate Loss of Control, Unclear Diagnoses, and Being a Patient
As we know participatory medicine is based upon mutual respect: the clinician respecting the self-knowledge, experience, and wisdom that the patient brings to the collaboration and the patient respecting the knowledge, clinical experience, wisdom, and technical skills...
Thanks from the Philippines
In this guest blog post, member Beatrice Tiangco describes some of the pain and suffering in the Philippines after the typhoon and expresses her gratitude for the SPM, local community and overall support. Beatrice Tiangco is a practicing Medical Oncologist from the...
Susannah Fox: Field Guide to Pew’s new report “The Diagnosis Difference”
Susannah Fox of Pew Research had an important new study published today about the highest cost part of the healthcare budget: patients with one or more chronic conditions. If you care about the suffering of patients with never-ending conditions or the suffering of the...
For whose benefit do boards certify? (Updated!)
Update Nov. 26: great news! In today's NY Times is Gynecologists May Treat Men, Board Says in Switch! Their reason for the change is still totally doctor-centric - even the mention of patients is about "the doctor-patient relationship," not about the patients' best...
Regina Holliday: The Walking Gallery film
Regina Holliday and her Walking Gallery project are featured in a new short film. Here it is: The Walking Gallery of Healthcare from Eidolon Films on Vimeo. How a movement begins...
e-Patient Manifesto: “Patients Included”
In 1517, Martin Luther nailed his “Ninety-Five Theses” to the wooden doors of Wittenberg Cathedral, sparking a global reformation of the Christian faith that’s still going on today. In the 1950s and 1960s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. worked to drive inclusion for all in...
Mobile, social, health, care
A clinical trial in Kenya confirmed that human kindness is the secret ingredient to health and mobile phones are an ideal delivery system. Well, that's my interpretation. Here's the gist: Taking your meds is essential to maintaining your health when you live with a...
Summit on Identifying Family Caregivers on Medical Records – by Suzanne Mintz
Below is a guest post by Suzanne Mintz, founder Family Caregiver Advocacy about a summit where patients and caregivers were an integral part of the healthcare redesign process. More and more you will see us featuring meetings and conferences that include patients and...