e-Patients Blog
The blog of the Society for Participatory Medicine. Want to be a contributor?
The Evidence for and Experience of Engaging in Health Care: Jessie Gruman’s powerful speech at ICSI
Ten days ago a post here mentioned the 14th ICSI / IHI Colloquium. I said the Society for Participatory Medicine was well represented, including: Jessie Gruman, four time cancer patient and founding co-editor of our journal, gave an important breakout session, about...
CNN: “10 dumb things you do at the doc’s office”? Discuss.
Additions late 5/30/11: First, once again the comment discussion has colored some people's view, including mine, of this discussion. That's good. Second, in response to comments, I made a couple of edits, striking through the old text, and tonight I discovered the...
Peer-to-peer Healthcare: Crazy. Crazy. Crazy. Obvious.
Here's my simple definition of peer-to-peer healthcare: Patients and caregivers know things -- about themselves, about each other, about treatments -- and they want to share what they know to help other people. Technology helps to surface and organize that knowledge...
Stifling Primary Care: Why does Medicare/Medicaid Still Support the “RUC” Rate Setting Cabal?
This isn't directly involved with participatory medicine, unless you believe that a responsible patient wants to know the best way to do participatory health, and thus avoid the need for health care. Lower costs and keep your family out of the hospital - good deal,...
“All your reviews are belong to us”: Medical Justice is still in business
One of the first posts on this blog that got wider attention was in March 2009: RateMDs.com: Medical Justice’s approach is “repulsive”: ...a company called Medical Justice wants to help doctors avoid consumer ratings, by getting patients to sign an agreement saying...
Safety net populations do benefit from online PHRs: poster at ICSI/IHI Colloquium
The Society for Participatory Medicine was well represented last week at the 14th ICSI/IHI Colloquium. (ICSI is the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement, a small midwestern think tank that's way too poorly known.) SPM members who presented: Jane Sarasohn-Kahn...
This Business of Being Patients Is Far From All We Do
In this vivid talk [start at 5:05], Dr. Victor Montori of the Mayo Clinic tells about what one of his patients must do to address his high blood pressure, diabetes, his weight and the events in his life that compete for his attention. He describes how guidelines-based care and pay-for-performance incentives inadvertently undermine this patient’s willingness to take action. And he proposes that clinicians reorganize the care they deliver to 1) take into account the burden of treatment demands; 2) organize care to minimize disruption and 3) order treatment priorities from the patient’s perspective.
Amazon, now Blogspot: “cloud only” is dead for health.
The comments below add significant thoughts to what I said - be sure to read them. A lot of people are intrigued with using "cloud" applications and storage for personal health data. This week we're seeing what I think is the final nail in the coffin of "cloud only"...
The Social Life of Health Information, 2011
Here it is: my 2010-11 yearbook! Will you sign it? That's how I feel about this latest report from the Pew Internet Project and the California HealthCare Foundation: "The Social Life of Health Information, 2011." It contains all the insights we've gathered over the...
Map the frontier. Bring data. (More coming soon!)
The Pew Internet Project and California HealthCare Foundation will released our latest report on the internet's impact on health and health care tonight at midnight (Eastern U.S. time). It is titled, "The Social Life of Health Information, 2011" (and for those...
Participate in SPM’s glossary project: Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Alphabet Soup
Guest post by medical transcriptionist Kathy Nicholls, member of the Society for Participatory Medicine. This idea grew out of a discussion on the SPM members listserv. To join, see instructions at bottom. The world of health care is filled with abbreviations....
Society for Participatory Medicine Comments on ONC Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2011-2015
We e-patients are an impatient lot, and therefore we may not be big fans of the Five-Year Plan approach to creating change. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT released a draft federal health IT strategic plan in late March, via blog post (the plan...