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Physician, Teacher, Farmer

Alan Greene emailed this dispatch from Italy: While attending the 16th IFOAM Organic World Congress, Cheryl and I met a delightful man from the Netherlands named Martien Lankester, executive director of Avalon. He is a physician, teacher, and organic farmer. He...

CCHIT, PHR and the Lack of e-Patient Representation

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...

CaringBridge, CarePages: community support sites

This weekend the Associated Press is publishing a story about CaringBridge and a similar site, CarePages. It relates the experience of several users, including my community and family during my cancer adventure last year (see my CaringBridge journal.). Newcomers: if...

Nice Review at Consumer Reports

Orly Avitzur, a neurologist and e-Patient savvy doc, is now a medical editor at the Consumer’s Union/Consumer Reports. She’s written an excellent short review of some of the important developments in what we’ve come to call participatory medicine...

e-Patient stories: several types

Cross-posted (with additions) from my own blog 5/25/08 As I talk to people about “participatory medicine” and patient empowerment, I’ve needed to think out what that term really means when the rubber meets the road – when you (the patient) get...

Participate in defining “Health 2.0”

e-Patients, alert! Time to participate in creating the lexicon. Ted Eytan MD is open to suggestions on his definition of Health 2.0 – he’ll be giving a talk soon and wouldn’t mind some honing, particularly shortening. Here’s the current...

Health Care Consumerism

The Deloitte Center for Health Solutions released a very interesting report on “Health Care Consumerism” which looks at five “zones” of activity: traditional health services, self-directed care, alternative and non-conventional health services,...

Thank you, Dr. Tom

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

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...

When the Patient is a Yahoo

There’s been a lot of talk about Scott Haig’s November article in Time, When the Patient is a Googler: Alan Greene wrote on this blog; it was a hot topic on the NY Times “Well” blog; and Susannah Fox said: I’d love to hear what people...

Recruit doctors. Let e-patients lead. Go mobile.

The Health 2.0 conference was an opportunity to learn about an amazing array of emerging technologies and, for me, to connect them to a bigger vision of what’s happened and what’s next. Here is the text of my remarks, annotated with as many links as I can...
A cure for what killed Doc Tom! Can people afford it?

A cure for what killed Doc Tom! Can people afford it?

Our Society was founded by 11 friends and followers of “Doc Tom” Ferguson, who died in 2006 of multiple myeloma. (If you don’t know his extraordinary vision, see our Doc Tom page, and perhaps our Founders page. I continue to cite him in my speeches,...
More important than Time and Money

More important than Time and Money

Mortality is a fabric more important than money, politics, and belief systems.  We all share the same responsibility of health; the only variable is the time in our life we acknowledge it. Rare/undiagnosed consumer behavior is the most intense example of participatory...

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