e-Patients Blog
The blog of the Society for Participatory Medicine. Want to be a contributor?
What people living with disability can teach us
The Pew Internet Project recently issued a short report noting that people living with disability are less likely than other adults in the U.S. to use the internet: 54%, compared with 81%. The first question many people ask when they hear that is, Why? The second is,...
SPM’s response to the PCAST recommendation on Health IT
Click the image to view the letter we submitted last week to ONC, commenting on the December 10 report of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) about health IT. The response was driven by SPM policy chair David Harlow and approved by...
Found on the Net: “Why Steve Jobs will be the ultimate e-patient”
I have a Google Alert for "e-patient," and sometimes I'm surprised what it catches. Tonight it was this: 3 Reasons Steve Jobs Will Be The Ultimate e-Patient Steve Jobs' medical leave sets the stage for the upcoming revolution in the production and delivery of medical...
Tips for understanding studies (Health News Review)
Update 1/22: this was originally in our "Found on the Net" sidebar, but it's attracted enough comments that it belongs in the mainstream. I was researching the coverage of statins on Health News Review, the great e-patient resource we've often covered, and I stumbled...
Is the culture finally budging?? Time reports that patients who google can help doctors
Thanks to friends Kavita Patel and Brian Ahier for pointing out this sign of shifting winds, in yesterday's Time online:Â Googling Symptoms Helps Patients and Doctors. It's a watershed moment, because the last physician column I saw on this was the unpleasant 2007Â When...
The kind of thinking to look for
There are several stages in becoming an empowered, engaged, activated patient - a capable, responsible partner in getting good care for yourself, your family, whoever you're caring for. One ingredient is to know what to expect, so you can tell when things seem right...
The Complete Guide to Self Tracking
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, sponsor of the e-Patients White Paper that was the genesis of this blog and the Society for Participatory Medicine, is sponsoring a partnership of the Institute for the Future and The Quantified Self to build a The Complete Guide to...
BMA warns against letting patients have access to their electronic records (BMJ)
Update 3 pm ET: Thanks to Gilles Frydman for pasting in, in a comment below, the BMA's actual statement, which as he says isn't nearly as paternalistic as I thought from reading the BMJ piece. Need to discuss how this happened. _______ According to the British Medical...
The Decline Effect: Is there something wrong with the scientific method? (New Yorker)
A recurring theme on this blog is the need for empowered, engaged patients to understand what they read about science. It's true when researching treatments for one's condition, it's true when considering government policy proposals, it's true when reading advice...
‘Some Worms Are Best Left in the Can’ – Should You Hide Medical Errors?
From Medscape Medical Ethics: Consequences aside, from a strictly ethical perspective, if a patient doesn't realize that his physician made a mistake, should the physician fess up?... Before you jump to conclusions (as I did!), look at the article's three parts. It's...
Doctors often use treatments with little scientific support
According to Reuters, physicians often base treatments on expert opinion or anecdotal evidence. Only one in seven treatment recommendations from the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) -- a society representing healthcare providers and researchers across the...
Journal of Participatory Medicine: Top Ten Articles
From the editors of our society's journal, the Journal of Participatory Medicine: As we close out Volume 2 of JoPM, we're pleased to look back at how the journal has grown. We published a total of 23 articles in 2010. We published our first two podcasts. In...
