{"id":18308,"date":"2016-02-26T09:00:55","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T14:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pmedicine.org\/epatients\/?p=18308"},"modified":"2016-02-26T00:04:45","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T05:04:45","slug":"why-i-joined-spm-and-why-maybe-you-should","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2016\/02\/why-i-joined-spm-and-why-maybe-you-should.html","title":{"rendered":"Why I joined SPM – and why maybe you should!"},"content":{"rendered":"
Guest post by John Hoben, who joined our Society in 2014 and has been a major contributor to discussions on our member listserv. He recently joined our board of directors. He has a particularly great story – he actually met Doc Tom long ago! – and I asked him to capture it here for our occasional Why I Joined SPM<\/a>\u00a0series.<\/em><\/p>\n In July 1995, Faulkner & Gray Publishing (now Thomson Reuters) asked me\u00a0to edit and co-author a new annual series on health care resources and the Internet.\u00a0 This invitation led me to attend The Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands where I met “Doc Tom” Ferguson, whose followers, after his untimely death in 2006, founded our\u00a0Society for Participatory Medicine (S4PM or SPM).<\/p>\n Fast forward nearly two decades to the NYeC annual session (New York eHealth Collaborative) in Manhattan.\u00a0 Good fortune led me to\u00a0attend a presentation by Tom’s friend Alan\u00a0Greene MD, of DrGreene.com<\/a> (the first physician website recognized by the AMA), then with\u00a0Scanadu, where the last 30 seconds was a public service announcement for S4PM, of which he’s one of the co-founders<\/a>. This\u00a0led me to re-engage with the participatory movement through this excellent not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization.<\/p>\n What I’ve found within S4PM are hundreds of bright, talented, passionate people practicing\u00a0\u00a0patient advocacy and real participatory medicine.\u00a0 It’s an honor, privilege and blessing to be part of this effort to realize improved quality of life and improved\u00a0clinical outcomes at lower costs, particularly in the USA.\u00a0 While the governing board and membership majority hail from the States, members are actively volunteering from all continents (except Antarctica, for now).\u00a0 Energetic volunteers have stepped forward from India, South Africa, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia to name a few.\u00a0 The Society’s journal\u00a0http:\/\/www.jopm.org<\/a>\u00a0is growing in content and stature.\u00a0 Medical academies and other respected\u00a0public policy organizations are seeking out partnerships with the Society.<\/p>\n Membership is open to anyone and everyone with a passionate desire to see true participatory medicine practiced worldwide.\u00a0 Dues are structured at 8 cents per day ($30 annually) with a lifetime membership option equivalent to 10 years of dues.\u00a0 Numerous corporate transparent\u00a0sponsorship opportunities are also available.\u00a0 S4PM even has a scholarship fund for those interested in applying to have the $30 annual fee waived.\u00a0 Will you please consider joining us<\/a>\u00a0to make this vision a reality?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Guest post by John Hoben, who joined our Society in 2014 and has been a major contributor to discussions on our member listserv. He recently joined our board of directors. He has a particularly great story – he actually met Doc Tom long ago! – and I asked him to capture it here for our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4147],"tags":[165,7356,7799,169,7630,7580,7728,7347],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-18308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-why-i-joined","tag-health-care","tag-new-york","tag-new-zealand","tag-participatory-medicine","tag-resources","tag-scholarship","tag-sweden","tag-usa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n