e-Patient Dave

June 21, 2014 By e-Patient Dave 7 Comments

On this day in history: Susan B. Anthony was found guilty – of voting

“Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.” – Marie Shear, 1986. See other feminism quotes on the Wikiquotes page.

Recent speaking clients know that I often note the parallels between the patient movement and other cultural revolutions – the women’s movements, civil rights, gay rights, disability rights. (I mention disability issues less often, but it was disability advocate Ed Roberts who said in the 1990s, after years of struggle: “When someone else speaks for you, you lose.”)

As anyone who’s heard me speak knows, I don’t get overtly “radically” about it. But I’ve been at this long enough now that I do see patterns. And the patterns teach me that the way people see things now may not be how we’ll see them in the future … and it’s up to us all to speak the truth as we see it.

So when I returned from the week’s travels, my eye was caught today by Wednesday’s “This Day in History” in the Boston Globe:

In 1873, suffragist Susan B. Anthony was found guilty by a judge in Canandaigua, N.Y., of breaking the law by casting a vote in the 1872 presidential election.

The Feminist.org blog has a great post about it – here’s how they say they would have covered it, if they’d been around back then: [Read more…]

June 18, 2014 By e-Patient Dave 10 Comments

Nurse Practitioners: the best kept secret in healthcare

[Click to open PDF] Nurse Practitioner infographic from AANP.org/all-about-NPs

I’m speaking this morning at the annual meeting of Nurse Practitioners in Nashville. (5,400 of them!) I’ll have more to say after the event, but for now, check out this infographic. It’s one of the best information-packed posters I’ve ever seen … which is an indication of the professionalism and competence of the organization.

From Wikipedia:

Nurse practitioners manage acute and chronic medical conditions (both physical and mental) through comprehensive history taking, physical exam, and the ordering of diagnostic tests and medical treatments. NPs (within their scope of practice) are qualified to diagnose medical problems, order treatments, prescribe medications, and make referrals for a wide range of acute and chronic medical conditions.

Everyone these days talks about the shortage of primary care providers – ironic, because people with better access to primary care have better outcomes (duh). And nurse practitioners do exactly that, in many different settings. In an increasing number of states, they’re finally being authorized to practice independently.

Check it out!

June 16, 2014 By e-Patient Dave 21 Comments

“The Big Ugly” meets Speaker Academy #19: What’s up with expense checks??

This is the latest in the Speaker Academy series, which started here. The series is addressed to patients and advocates who basically know how to speak on a subject but want to make a business out of it. I’ll try to be clear to all readers, but parts may assume you’ve read earlier entries.

I’m really not happy to be writing this, but push has come to shove. Two thirds of my expense reimbursements are past due, and fully a third of them are more than 90 days out. I’ve seen some people stretch payments at times, but I’ve never seen anything like this.

The stories I’ve been getting about “gosh, sorry, there’s nothing we can do about it” or “gosh, the only person who can write checks went on vacation” or “we only print checks on Thursdays and she was out when she came back from vacation” are familiar, but this year they’re much more common. What’s up, healthcare? Is The Big Ugly coming home to roost?

I wrote about The Big Ugly last year:

… something I’m starting to call The Big Ugly – a wave of suffering that will happen as the medical industry contracts, and everyone tries to find ways to maintain their income. Unfortunately when an industry shrinks, everyone can’t maintain the same income. As anyone knows who’s seen an industry die (like mine, typesetting; or steel in America, or what Detroit went through), it’s painful. Good people get hurt, and organizations fight for survival.

It’s interesting, because the people I work with, for the event are good and almost entirely on time with paying my fees. But expense reimbursements? They seem to go through a different approval and payment process. I mean, things get lost in the expense rabbit hole, and even my good-to-work-with friends are unable to extract them.

[Read more…]

June 2, 2014 By e-Patient Dave 6 Comments

Speaker Academy #18: Client Honor Roll – great and valued business partners

In #16 I said “For a small business, cash is king.” This is especially true for patients who are trying to build a small business in speaking, with no financial backing. In this post I want to “spotlight the spotless” – my clients who have honored our partnership by paying every single invoice within the agreed time of 30 days. Thank you!! A couple of foonotes before we start:

Date range: This is for events starting January 2013 and ending April 2014. (This May’s events haven’t reached 30 days yet.)
- I hope to dig back earlier, but before 2013 I was in survival mode and my records were sometimes not accurate. Meanwhile, clients – if you remind me that you paid promptly I’ll be glad to include you – just let me know!

Special honor: Some clients are so great that they’re in a special category – they paid on-site or EARLY! (And they reimbursed my out-of-pocket expenses promptly.) So I’ll start with them:

[Read more…]

May 14, 2014 By e-Patient Dave 1 Comment

Patient Voice Institute launches

On May 14, PVI founder Pat Mastors closed the Health 2.0 “HX Refactored” conference by announcing PVI. See the hxr2014 Twitter archive here.
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As regular readers know, I’ve been running a series called Speaker Academy, to share with other patients some of my methods as a voice of the patient. I do this because

The audience for patient voices has expanded dramatically in the past few years. Conferences and policy meetings need more patient voices.
Medicine (the profession and the policy world) need to hear from more diverse voices
Hundreds, if not thousands, of patients and family want to be effective voices in fixing or transforming healthcare. But wanting to do something is a far cry from being effective at it. We need to develop professional skills among patient voices.

And that’s what’s behind the launch today of the new Patient Voice Institute, “gathering and sharing the wisdom of patients.” Check out the rich set of information on the website.

This is a logical next step, a maturing of, the excellent Patients Included initiative started by @LucienEngelen at Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands. He’s the crazy Dutch innovator who produced the TEDx conference where I and many other patients gave speeches.

“Never forget that a small group of
thoughtful, committed people
can change the world. Indeed,
it’s the only thing that has.” – MargaretMead

Conceived and brought to life in just a few months by Pat Mastors and Diane Stollenwerk, with copious work by Diane’s colleague Emily Henry, PVI intends to bring professionalism and a reliable brand to the world of incorporating patient voices in medical work.

[Read more…]

Sharecare and Blue Button Host Twitter Chat to Help Consumers Take Control of Their Personal Health Information

“Never forget that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that has.” – MargaretMead

“Never forget that a small group of
thoughtful, committed people
can change the world. Indeed,
it’s the only thing that has.” – MargaretMead