e-Patient Dave

Power to the Patient!

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Speaker
    • Corporate & associations
    • Healthcare
    • Videos
    • Testimonials
  • Author
  • Advisor
  • Schedule
  • Media
    • Recent coverage
    • News coverage 2010-2014
    • Book mentions
    • Press resources
  • About
    • About Dave
    • Boards & Awards
  • Resources
    • Patient Communities
    • For Patients
    • For Providers
    • Speaker Academy
  • Contact

March 18, 2010 By e-Patient Dave Leave a Comment

Visitor from the future – with millions of cousins

headliner-march-2010b
Click to view article (PDF)

I was interviewed for the March issue of MM&M, a medical industry marketing magazine. The title they chose is “Visitor from the future.” Indeed – but this time traveler has millions of cousins.

As our country (and world) plan the next generation of healthcare, I urge people to look at what e-patients are doing – and use it as a lever, to improve care and economic efficiency. Heaven knows we could use it.

The article arose from a talk at the ePharma Summit in February. I was the guest of Klick Marketing, a Toronto company that develops superb web sites for consumer engagement, including patient engagement sites for drug companies. I spoke as the “voice of the patient,” within a keynote by Klick’s Brian O’Donnell about engaging with activated patients.

I wanted to make clear that although it seems futuristic, it’s real today. So the first words out of my mouth were “I’m here as a specimen from the future.” MM&M editor-in-chief Jim Chase was there , and this interview resulted.

ACOR logoTruly and literally, that future is here. The article cites that ACOR (my patient community) reaches 1.5 million patients a week, and that’s just one e-patient site; there are many more. (The Society for Participatory Medicine hopes to publish a list this year, to help people find peers.)

Smart planners and policy people realize this future is present. Activated, engaged patients use every tool  at their disposal – the only thing limiting the number of e-patients is public awareness. When people realize what patients can do, and then disease hits, bam: instant ‘e.’

How ironic: Washington is spending tens of billions of stimulus money encouraging physicians to adopt health IT, and observers still wonder whether they’ll do it: “What’s in it for them?” Believe me, patients don’t need persuading. Just give us valuable tools. (That’s why I like what Klick does.) The only requirement is “patients first” – at October’s e-Patient Connections conference, magnificent diabetes blogger Kerri Sparling (SixUntilMe) said it perfectly: “Keeping me alive should be your priority – not selling to me.“

E-patients are here – empowered, engaged, equipped, enabled, educated.  And motivated. Government, industry, everyone – please partner with us. It’s the participatory thing to do.
______________

My speech was similar to October’s “Engage Authentically.” Here’s video, courtesy of Kru Research, producer of the conference. (For other videos see our Speaking page.)
Part 1:

Part 2:

Back to top

Filed Under: Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Click to learn about Antidote’s clinical trial search engine:

Subscribe by email

Thanks! Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Copyright © 2023 e-Patient Dave. All rights reserved.