by e-Patient Dave | Mar 11, 2011
It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. Sherlock Holmes, in Scandal in Bohemia I’ve been reading Jack Wennberg’s new book Tracking Medicine, which is about his...
by David Harlow | Feb 23, 2011
The Health Research Institute at PricewaterhouseCoopers released a report today entitled Putting patients into “meaningful use.” It begins with the anecdote I’ve blogged about previously regarding a diagnosis by Facebook in lieu of a PHR, which some...
by e-Patient Dave | Feb 23, 2011
ABCNews.com has posted a great new piece by Roni Zeiger MD, “The Biggest Wasted Resource in Health Care? You.” Subtitle: How Your Internet Research Can Help Your Relationship With Your Doctor. It’s well reasoned and clearly written, and continues the...
by e-Patient Dave | Feb 22, 2011
Our next guest post from SPM member Gangadhar Sulkunte (Twitter @gangadhargs). See also his family’s intense personal e-patient story from 2009. Gangadhar has responded to his experience by becoming participatory, even seeing where we need to participate in...
by David Harlow | Feb 16, 2011
There is a growing recognition within the medical-industrial complex that the patient is a key element of the enterprise, and that patient satisfaction, patient experience, patient engagement, patient activation, patient-centeredness are very important. Some research...
by e-Patient Dave | Feb 15, 2011
We in the “open health” community need to add to this new wiki. Who’s better than the Society for Participatory Medicine?? Specifically: Last week Aman Bhandari (@GHIdeas – Global Health Ideas) tweeted about something that’s exciting...
by e-Patient Dave | Feb 2, 2011
This page is obsolete. For blog posts, see the https://participatorymedicine.org/epatients/GuestPosts page. Articles for our Journal of Participatory Medicine: see guidelines here.
by e-Patient Dave | Jan 30, 2011
Researching recently I wound up looking at where we were two years ago –Â February 2009, just as the Society for Participatory Medicine (SPM) was forming. Fascinating to see what topics were live then and are still relevant today – this community has...
by e-Patient Dave | Jan 22, 2011
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...
by e-Patient Dave | Jan 20, 2011
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...
by e-Patient Dave | Jan 18, 2011
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...
by Jon Lebkowsky | Jan 17, 2011
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...
by e-Patient Dave | Jan 5, 2011
In December the Society for Participatory Medicine’s executive committee appointed health law attorney David Harlow to represent the Society in public policy matters. Regular readers of HealthBlawg::David Harlow’s Health Care Law Blog know what a...
by e-Patient Dave | Dec 29, 2010
Kent Bottles MD is one of the best healthcare thinkers I’ve met. Yesterday he completed a two-part tour de force on The Health Care blog titled “The Difficult Science.” Here are part 1 and part 2. This is about “how do we know what we think we...
by Susannah Fox | Dec 28, 2010
Jessie Gruman’s Journal of Participatory Medicine commentary, “Evidence That Engagement Does Make a Difference,” reminded me of a talk delivered by Alice Tolbert Coombs, M.D., last September: As you listen to Dr. Coombs’s chilling story about...
by e-Patient Dave | Dec 22, 2010
What do we (patients) call ourselves? This is a deep subject that’s been debated a lot. (If I were Susannah Fox I’d toss in a dozen worthy links here:), but I’m short on time. Please add some in comments.) There is indeed power in the words we use,...
by e-Patient Dave | Dec 20, 2010
Headline and body edited Oct 6, 2013: the original post talked about “practice variation,” but that was bad wording. The problem is unwarranted practice variation: variation that, when studied, is not warranted by actual differences between cases....
by e-Patient Dave | Dec 12, 2010
All, if you have a story where you were affected by being involved (or not) in a medical decision, please see my request at “Help Me Represent You” below. Same if you have points you want me to bring to this seminar’s attention. I feel extremely fortunate...
by e-Patient Dave | Dec 1, 2010
Social media brings unexpected connections, which lets us combine thoughts and forces. This summer we connected with “Rheumatoid Arthritis Warrior” Kelly Young (see her great post here, Learning to use my mother-of-a-patient voice), which led to being...
by Jon Lebkowsky | Nov 26, 2010
I spoke recently at a summit organized by Consumers Union’s Safe Patient Project, and learned in detail about the persistence and prevalence of hospital-acquired infections and other safety risks. Hospitals are not as safe as they should and could be, and...
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