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Monique tells why she doesn’t see herself as “e”

by | Aug 7, 2008

I’m delighted to present a guest post from cancer patient Monique Doyle Spencer, whose husband found the henna relief for hand-foot syndrome we mentioned yesterday. She is a stitch. To me she’s about as empowered as they get, but she says she’s...

Interview: Mary Matthiesen, Conversations for Life

by | Jul 31, 2008

Mary Matthiesen, founder of Conversations for Life, has 17 years of front-line experience in healthcare, end of life care, and executive leadership. She’s a transpersonal educator, coach, and community facilitator, raising awareness and promoting social change...

Is ANYONE responsible for the whole patient?

by | Jul 29, 2008

The e-Patients Group has been discussing Shannon Brownlee’s book Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer, which tells how the logic of the U.S. healthcare system works against coordination and effective treatment. “Between 20 and...

CCHIT, PHR and the Lack of e-Patient Representation

by | Jun 16, 2008

When Google Health was launched, a few weeks ago, all the onus was put on the privacy issue. So much so that we may have lost focus on other issues that are of real importance to the future of e-Patients (that means you and me and everybody else you know!). For...

Google Releases Google Health

by | May 20, 2008

Google Health launched this week to the public. It is pretty much what everyone anticipated — an online electronic record that people can maintain if they wanted to. Highlights include quick information at your fingertips to your health concerns that you enter...

E-patient Interview: Sheryl Stein

by | May 1, 2008

Sheryl Stein, known to many as “wrekehavoc,” dispenses her wisdom and humor on a 6,000-member online community of parents (using good old listserve technology) and on her blog. In this third edition of our e-patient interviews, Sheryl talks about the power of...

Patients Rating Hospitals? What Next!?

by | Apr 15, 2008

Dr. Robert Wachter has an interesting essay over at THCB entitled, Should Patient Satisfaction Scores Be Adjusted for Where Patients Shop? As health care in the U.S. continues to move in the direction of tailoring itself to patient satisfaction, the question becomes...

Thank you, Dr. Tom

by | Apr 3, 2008

I’m going to express something very personal here, because the community behind this blog is going through a profound transition, and it’s time for an acknowledgement. Many of you who currently read this blog already know this but there will be a new wave...

NON-Practicing Patients

by | Mar 28, 2008

It took me a few days to digest what was troubling me with the New York Times Magazine article. The efficacy of the ACOR groups is based in part on the dual fact that patients and caregivers members of the online communities NEVER behave like they are replacing their...

Health 2.0 and Privacy Lost

by | Dec 3, 2007

In all the hype surrounding the latest Internet bubble, we’re faced with user-generated content and meaningless marketing terms like “Health 2.0” which are used to suggest everything and nothing all at once. Whatever definition of Health 2.0 you can...

Googlers vs. e-patients vs. cyberchondriacs

by | Nov 26, 2007

Tara Parker-Pope’s blog, Well, sparked an outcry last week when she posted, “A Doctor’s Disdain for Medical ‘Googlers’”. Before you read her post and all the comments (275 so far), I recommend reading the actual Time column which inspired it all....

Health 2.0 in The Economist

by | Sep 11, 2007

Health 2.0. It’s all that people can talk about some days in the online health world. It has no definition, though, it’s not much more than the nebulous “Web 2.0,” except topic-specific. The September 6, 2007 edition of The Economist takes a...

Online Patient Groups

by | Jun 13, 2007

Laura Landro’s column in the Wall Street Journal features a series of profiles of online patient groups like MPDinfo.org and ACOR.org, among others. Now seems like the right time to post some data that I’ve been holding back, waiting for the right...

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