As 2012 starts up, I have a feeling that patient engagement’s time is here. The movement is credible and has become tangibly real. Consider these 2011 tidbits:
- In January Time had its first article about a googling patient who helped a doc nail the right diagnosis.
- In April, TEDx Maastricht was the first TED event to be heavily patient-centered, with many presentations by e-patients and empowering physicians
- July’s e-patient tour of Spain, resulting in the Spanish translation of the e-patient white paper
- In the government section, the US Department of Health & Human Services had a four-city road show about consumer engagement – “Putting the ‘I’ in Health IT”
- In August the “SCAD sisters” were featured in the Wall Street Journal and have since become internationally famous
- September:
- The twenty-patient e-Patient Bill of Rights pre-meeting at e-Patient Connections
- The first e-Patient Boot Camp, presented as a Master Class in the Netherlands at UMC St. Radboud
- In October the Mayo Clinic held its first e-patient day – with five unknown e-patients (not just the usual cast of stars)
- December’s news of mega-blogger (and new cancer patient) @Xeni’s rude awakening to the poor state of health IT, and the need to take the reins ourselves: one of her scan CDs contained images that were rather obviously “some dude’s.” (On Twitter she referred to it as “the #ghostpenis.”) Then she had a horrid first MRI experience, which led quickly to the start of a “My First MRI” patient training initiative.
- In a matter of days she became a full-fledged engaged patient, thoroughly on top of her data – within a week she was helping docs read her scans on her Mac, because they couldn’t view them on their own machines
- She ditched the rude MRI shop and got her next one in a much nicer place.
There’s more, but suffice it to say, 2010 looked nothing like that. e-Patient is finally beginning (just beginning) to show up in the mainstream. And 2012 looks to be stronger.
