by Eric Bersh | Aug 8, 2023
Editor’s note: In her new book, Communicating Through a Pandemic: A Chronicle of Experiences, Lessons Learned, and a Vision for the Future, Amelia Burke-Garcia, PhD, MA explores the many and varied roles that communication has played over the course of this pandemic,...
by Eric Bersh | Jul 12, 2023
Editor’s note: Ibrahim Rashid contracted Long COVID more than two years ago. The experience is propelling his patient advocacy and entrepreneurship, as co-founder of the digital health company Strong Haulers. In this excerpt from his new book, Strong Hauler: Learning...
by Brenda Merriweather | Jun 12, 2023
Editor’s note: The following column by Society for Participatory Medicine board member Brenda Merriweather originally appeared in this space in December 2021. We are excerpting from that column in recognition of “Advancing Health Equity Through Participatory...
by Eric Bersh | May 24, 2023
At the Society for Participatory Medicine, we recognize trust and respect as a two-way relational dynamic essential to our mission to transform the culture of healthcare relationships so people can live their best lives (see our Participatory Medicine manifesto). And...
by Eric Bersh | May 17, 2023
At some point in our lives, we’ll be handed a little sheet of paper from our physician that has scribbled on it the medication we need, how much of it, and how often we should take it. These little slips of paper are power. They tell us that in order to get better, we...
by Eric Bersh | May 9, 2023
After 28 years of nursing I could potentially consider myself an expert in the field. But this perception couldn’t be further from the truth. I still come home from a shift and often wonder and hope that I brought comfort to at least one patient. Did I do enough?...
by Eric Bersh | Apr 6, 2023
I recently posted an article entitled, “In Cancer, Patient-Empowering AI Begins to Change Care, Relationships,” that contained this declaration, “Good medicine needs to become participatory medicine, not least because involving the patient as a partner consistently...
by e-Patient Dave | Mar 28, 2023
The board of our Society for Participatory Medicine has voted unanimously to give the society’s “Doc Tom” award to life member Casey Quinlan, who is in hospice in Richmond VA, as we blogged this month. On Saturday former board member Jan Oldenburg...
by e-Patient Dave | Mar 24, 2023
On Twitter this morning SPM member Stacy Hurt announced that the big pharma conference DIA Global in Boston this June is #PatientsIncluded. Several levels of support are available, including one full scholarship including travel expenses, plus ten free patient...
by Eric Bersh | Feb 1, 2023
Flash back to my article for the Society for Participatory Medicine last year: Let’s Save the Date and Make Patient Engagement Official in 2022. I’m here to deliver some great news: we tied the knot! By the power vested in clinical research, the FDA now pronounces us...
by Eric Bersh | Jan 4, 2023
A few years ago I learned that non-profit organizations MUST have a Scientific or Medical Advisory Board in order to be listed on NIH’s website as an informational resource for patients. Likewise, many foundation grants require a non-profit to have a similar...
by e-Patient Dave | Oct 10, 2022
Join us in Boston, Thursday afternoon, October 20. Oct 20 update: Here is the updated Zoom link. The Society for Participatory Medicine believes that the culture of healthcare is not benefiting everyone equally and needs to change. And healthcare won’t get better...
by John Novack | Oct 6, 2022
Editor’s note: In this excerpt from her latest book, Ducks in a Row, Canadian-based author, Sue Robins explains the power of storytelling for everybody invested in health care—patients and clinicians alike. A well-told story, Robins explains, has the ability to...
by Eric Bersh | Sep 27, 2022
“Lack of effort and persistence” Those words cut like a knife, leaving a deeper wound than any facet of illness my daughter has faced. A provider used those words to describe my 19-year-old daughter Sara, who has lived her entire life with chronic complex medical...
by Eric Bersh | Sep 19, 2022
Active surveillance (AS) for low-risk to intermediate-risk prostate cancer has been “an overnight success” that took 30 years to move from academia to mainstream practices. Since 2014, AS — close monitoring of low-risk prostate cancer with PSA blood testing,...
by Danny van Leeuwen | Jun 13, 2022
Patients, care partners & clinicians can reduce record errors with collaborative notes. Dr. Peter Elias shares his note-writing with collaborative partners. Proem Expecting an error-free medical record seems unreasonable – too many opportunities, too many forces,...
by Eric Bersh | May 5, 2022
We cannot always choose what happens to us in life, but we can choose how we respond and handle it. Take for example, the time that I had a physical examination with my relatively new primary care physician. They did blood work and I received a report, along with a...
by Eric Bersh | Mar 16, 2022
My husband was on a tele-call as I walked past in the background quiet, as if a mouse. He got off his call and asked “So?” I exclaimed “It’s positive!” He could hardly believe it, I acted so calm. I had already intuitively had a sense—I was pregnant. We were ecstatic,...
by John Novack | Feb 3, 2022
Editor’s note: Annie Brewster, MD, founder of Health Story Collaborative, and a friend to the Society for Participatory Medicine, has just published “The Healing Power of Storytelling: Using Personal Narrative to Navigate Illness, Trauma, and Loss.” In this excerpt...
by Eric Bersh | Jan 11, 2022
As a leader in patient advocacy, I am often asked to speak on the topic of patient centricity and patient advocacy from the biotech/pharma perspective. What do we mean by patient centricity or when we say that patients are at the center of what we do or patients are...
Dealing with Medical Uncertainty, Ambiguity, and FrustrationSeptember 13, 2025
Collaboration is the Best Medicine: The Time for Participatory Medicine is NowSeptember 10, 2025
In Memory of Nancy Finn: e-Patient, Advocate, Author, SPM SupporterJuly 16, 2025
A cure for what killed Doc Tom! Can people afford it?June 27, 2025
Learning Health Systems Empower Every American to Actually Make America Healthy Again Together, Part 2May 29, 2025
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