e-Patient Dave

Democratizing Healthcare

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Flaming dissent on the roles of patients – what’s morally right for us(!), part 1

I keep seeing patterns of thought that I frankly think are pretty benighted. With luck, shedding some light on them will help. This one is so STUCK in darkness that I’ve decided to publish a little series on the subject.

First is this editorial about patients in research. Next will be what happened when a researcher I know became a patient/family member. Then will be how this fits into a century-long timeline of progressing toward patient autonomy … which of course requires a matching increase in patient responsibility.

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New position paper: The Digital Health Manifesto

Digital Health Manifesto screen captureIn my years of work to optimize the future of healthcare, with hundreds of conferences and meetings in eighteen countries, people’s focus has shifted as the industry moves forward. For years the focus was on patient empowerment through access to the medical record. Today the greatest attention is on digital health: wristbands like my Fitbit, radical patient-power tools like OpenAPS, and even simple connected devices like my Nokia / Withings wi-fi bathroom scale. Through it all, the unifying theme of digital health is that data enables power – an updated version of “knowledge is power.”

But I’ve also observed that few people are savvy about both medicine and technology, which has led to medical people not seeing the potential and tech people being seriously naive about how complex medicine is, and both parties failing too often to understand that it’s all about behavior change.

One of the few people I’ve worked with who completely gets it is the young, visionary “Medical Futurist” Dr. Bertalan Meskó, at Semmelweis University in Budapest. I had the pleasure of lecturing in his course a few years ago, and we have continued to collaborate.

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Essential e-patient training: the uncertainty of all information

Pexels.com – Creative Commons CC0 license

Below is a long comment I posted Wednesday on my neighbor @KevinMD’s blog. (Most of his widely read blog is articles he’s found elsewhere; he’s cross-posted some of mine.)

The post I replied to is a thoughtful submission by two grad students (one business school, one med school).  Their thoughts are valid but as you’ll see, the issue isn’t apps – this is part of a broader issue that every engaged patient (you!) should understand. Here’s my reply.

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See my cousin @McCullohMD on a special ABC 20/20 Weds night

Wednesday night (Sept 13) at 10pm ET, a special edition of ABC 20/20 will air, promoting a new series called “Good Doctors.” I’m thrilled to learn that my cousin Chris McCulloh, a third year surgical resident, will be featured.

I’d be thrilled to have anyone I know on such a highly visible show, but the extraordinary thing about Chris is that he almost didn’t enter medical school because a few months earlier he fell at home and end up with a spinal cord injury, paralyzing him below the waist.

Well, not only did he enter medical school, he’s a surgery resident now, planning to specialize in pediatric surgery! You’ll see he’s got a “standing wheelchair” and a whole lot of unstoppable e-patient baked in. Check it out! Watch! Be inspired like me! Links:

 

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BMJ Blog picks up the Taxonomy of Burden graphic

Taxonomy of Burden diagramFour weeks ago I posted about this excellent graphic that was published in 2015. Response on social media was nearly at a wildfire level, almost entirely from patients.

I pointed this out in the patient panel discussion group at the BMJ (formerly British Medical Journal), of which I’m a member, and proposed that it become a post on their blog. They accepted the idea, and today it got posted.

A large part of our work in participatory medicine is to build compassion and partnership between patients and clinicians, so I’m thrilled that they accepted a different angle on this post: Can a compelling graphic lead to better care plans? Here’s hoping, because when we better understand each other’s challenges, things can only improve.

bmj-blog-compelling-graphic-screen-caputre

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Welcome to the new site!

In recent speeches I’ve increasingly used my favorite line about not dying: “If you live long enough, things change!”

So it is with this website. As I said the other day, it started seven years ago. At first it was just a blog with a couple of extra pages added, supporting my growing business as a keynote speaker. The blog lived, fittingly, on the home page. But if you’ve just come here directly, look at the menu – this blog’s now on a page of its own.

Why? As I’ve said this year, my work is evolving. After 500 conferences and policy meetings I’m doing more authoring now, more work in academic medicine, more work advising and speaking for corporate clients, large and small. I still love speaking best (nothing’s more fun than a standing ovation), but after seven years it’s time for the blog to move off the home page, to make room for the three dedicated “rabbit holes” a visitor can jump down, one for each of the types of work I do: speaker, author, advisor.

So welcome! Look around, and leave feedback in comments. Here’s to new tomorrows!