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Regina paints Susannah’s jacket; Susannah replies

On the evening of June 7th, SPM member and extraordinary painter Regina Holliday is leading a “Walking Gallery” in Washington, in which dozens of us will wear jackets on which she’s painted one of her visual allegories about healthcare today. She...

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...

Rest in Peace: Personal Health Records (PHRs)

While doing some research the other day on personal health records (PHRs), I came across this article, describing Revolution Health’s announcement — without much media attention — about dropping its PHR at the beginning of 2010. (Disclosure: I worked...

Peer-to-peer healthcare on NPR

To me, there are two types of breaking news in health care: the macro and the micro. Macro health news breaks when there is a natural disaster, a scientific breakthrough, or a new twist in a policy debate (see: “ACOs”). I read up on the facts and try to...

In the End

Three years ago our family was faced with a difficult decision. What is the best care for our mother? We toured all the possible local options, but when it came down to it, there was only one facility* willing to take my mother due to the advanced state of her...

What if information spread more quickly than a virus?

On March 11, the White House hosted an event to mark National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. The event was livestreamed from whitehouse.gov and is archived on YouTube: I have written before about the unique nature of conferences concerning...

The Salzburg Statement on Shared Decision Making

This Thursday at the headquarters of the British Medical Journal in London, an important announcement will be made about patients’ rights to be actively involved in decisions about their treatment. Below is the press release about it. The subject is shared...

“I Am Iron Man”

Guest post by SPM member Regina Holliday. Perhaps because my world-view is shaped by the escapades and explanations of active little boys, I often speak of super-heroes in relation to health care.  I listen daily to tales of poisonous spider bites, DNA mutations and...

Peer-to-peer Healthcare at the White House

It’s hard to say this without sounding like I’m bragging, but that’s not going to stop me: I’m going to the White House tomorrow to talk about Pew Internet Project’s latest research on peer-to-peer healthcare. The White House Office of...

Making Strides Toward Improving Health Literacy Online

This is a guest post by Jessica Mark, healthfinder.gov and Outreach Program Manager, Health Communication and eHealth Team in the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services We all struggle with complex health...

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