e-Patient Dave

February 7, 2014 By e-Patient Dave 2 Comments

A new era: the “consumer-patient,” via Inquire Healthcare

A new website launched last month. I’m not involved with the organization, but I almost wish I were, because what I’m seeing is what I hope we’ll see everywhere, for every medical need.

The site is InquireHealthcare.org, a project of the non-profit Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute (HCI3). It’s the first time I’ve seen a new term that I love: “consumer-patients.”

(Some activated consumers hate the term “patient” and some activated patients hate the term “consumers.” My own views are in the glossary of Let Patients Help. Here I want focus on what you get when you mix the best of both – because that’s what they’re after on this site.)

It’s got three things I’ve never seen combined: shopping tools, self-assessment tools, and community activist tools. How’s that for a toolbox to create change? (Again, I wish I were bragging about my own work, but I never heard of them until they launched.) Specifically:

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February 2, 2014 By e-Patient Dave Leave a Comment

Finally! Composite video of my call to action at Blue Button Plus Developer Challenge (New York, July 22)

Last month I blogged that a “lost speech” had finally surfaced. It was my closing speech at an event last July, and said why this moment (this year, this series of conferences) is an essential turning point:

“The event was a conference conducted by our Department of Health & Human Services to educate and encourage software developers about the “Blue Button Plus” initiative. … which is really important for the future of health IT, and not just in America; this innovation initiative will change what patients and families are capable of.”

And I said:
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February 1, 2014 By e-Patient Dave 5 Comments

Video of my AMIA keynote is live

In November I posted about how fun my opening keynote was at AMIA, the American Medical Informatics Association. See that post for tweets from the event and discussion. It was great fun – a conference of 2,000 information science geeks – people who understand data, especially what it’s for and why data quality is important! Boy does it save time when you start from a common view.

This week AMIA’s Jeff Williamson got me the video of the speech. Here it is, with Dr Danny Sands introducing me. (He’s one of the revered figures in the association; they’re also the ones who published his 1998 article on doctor-patient email.) See notes below about what makes this talk different from others. Dr. Sands starts by noting that it was 50 years since JFK’s assassination.

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January 28, 2014 By e-Patient Dave 12 Comments

Speaker Academy #16: Getting paid (being businesslike about cash flow)

Cash is King image from Image: mobilepaymentsworld.com — Image: mobilepaymentsworld.com

Update 4/11/2014: Substantially expanded the section “submit bills electronically”
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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 give a speech 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.

This post is about cash flow – an important part of being responsible for ourselves financially. In earlier posts we discussed getting agreement from your client on the value of your message and the need to get paid: Ratty Boxers, A turning point for patient voices, and Speaker Academy #15: The Contract. This post is about managing how the cash actually gets to you, because many hearts have been broken along that road.

1. For a small business, cash is king

One of the most common causes of small business failure is running out of cash. So if you want to build a business, even a small one, it’s your responsibility to be businesslike about cash flow. On About.com, Scott Allan put it this way:

Cash (Flow) Really Is King

One of the most important lessons entrepreneurs have to learn, often painfully, is that cash really is king. I’m not talking about paper money — I’m talking about cash flow. Simply put, it doesn’t matter how much money is coming in the future if you don’t have enough money to get from here to there.

Don’t plan to spend money you don’t have yet.

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January 25, 2014 By e-Patient Dave Leave a Comment

A new era: the “consumer-patient,” via Inquire Healthcare

Recent posts on other sites, 2/2/14

Finally! Composite video of my call to action at Blue Button Plus Developer Challenge (New York, July 22)

Video of my AMIA keynote is live

Speaker Academy #16: Getting paid (being businesslike about cash flow)

1. For a small business, cash is king

Cash (Flow) Really Is King

[Read more…]

Recent posts on other blogs, 1/25/14