e-Patient Dave

Power to the Patient!

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Inspiring things people are doing during #StayHome and social distancing

A big part of succeeding against this unknown nasty virus will be not going crazy for however long it takes. And while we have plenty to worry about, life goes on …. and didn’t you just KNOW it would happen?? Amid all the crazy concerns, people are coming up with wonderful contributions to each other and society. Check these out.

1. Father-daughter dance challenge

From Chris Starkey & daughter Brooklyn, in Denver, this appeared last Monday. It has 11 million views in its first week, for good reason. (To hear all the audio you may have to click through and and see it on Facebook.) (Some email subscribers may need to click the headline to see the videos.)

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“HIPAA: You aren’t a Covered Entity if you don’t bill electronically”

[Readers who are familiar with HIPAA can skip to the tweets below.]

Recently there’s been a lot of discussion about how the 1996 HIPAA law, whose regulations govern health data privacy (and access), is not sufficient for today’s world of apps and digital everything. For instance, the regs say docs & hospitals generally have to be careful with your medical records – but apps and wearables like Fitbits didn’t exist at the time, so HIPAA says nothing about what apps learn about you, nor what such companies do with it. Same for sites like Facebook and Amazon’s ever-listening Alexa. So everyone in the field agrees HIPAA needs to be replaced.

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Thanks for eight great years, Kristin

Anyone who’s worked with me in the past eight years has gotten to know Kristin Gallant, the terrific assistant who’s helped with all my administrative and customer service work since 2013. With a workload that’s ranged as high as seventeen speaking events in a month, she’s been rock solid, indispensable.

Our working relationship has also been a perfect example of flexible hours, virtual office, apps, and “cloud everything,” enabling each of us to stay on top of things regardless of which time zone I was in. A professional executive assistant and bookkeeper before we met, she adapted hours as her growing kids’ school hours changed, often screen-sharing as we juggled tasks, client communication, and administrative housekeeping. And as a “cancer kicker” herself, she’s understood exactly what this work is about.

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Principle 11: Beware “eminence-based medicine.”

This truth makes a lot of people uncomfortable, but it’s essential for superpatients to understand.

Next in the series of fourteen foundation truths about Superpatients.

After my cancer my earliest work in learning about medicine was about evidence-based medicine. Not long after, someone told me about the opposite: “eminence-based medicine,” in which people look not to evidence but to whoever is considered the leading authority.

That’s not a joke. It’s profoundly unscientific, but a reality. I’ll give you just two examples, one a century ago and one a few years ago, with the same bottom line:

Beware anyone who behaves arrogantly
if you ask a reasonable question.
Even a doctor. Even a good doctor.

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