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February 18, 2015 By e-Patient Dave 19 Comments

I’m 65! That’s really old (you’ll be amused) – and I love it.

Birthday candles (source: Wikipedia) — “Birthday candles”. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

^{Updated – see modified population graphic}

Some people moan about adding years. I love ’em. Today I’m 65, and I want lots more! I wanna get old!

We the old and many
are coming for you!

Did you know more than half the humans who’ve ever been 65 are alive today? That’s partly because medicine keeps saving people like me, who tried to die in middle age. Thanks, medicine; now get ready for lots of us getting older, happily, with chronic conditions. (I myself have slightly elevated blood pressure, and I’m just emerging from “obese.”)

Like my classmate Jay Pollack, who posted on Facebook that he’s getting a pacemaker because medicine saved him twice in ten years.

Have you thought about my question last September about taking care of all the old people? Or how about Pew Research’s new book Next America, which depicts among other things how America’s classic “age pyramid” is becoming rectangular? Each band in the graphic is a five year age group. We used to have very few 80+, and now it’s commonplace: (Graphic modified 10pm ET)

[Read more…]

February 16, 2015 By e-Patient Dave Leave a Comment

Daily Digest: Data passports, narrow networks, and more

Data passports: In the absence of health IT interoperability, some systems have started using “patient passports” for complex cases. It’s a start. Maybe next, patient passports for all? Here’s a Wall Street Journal piece that tells the story: “Patient ‘Passports’ Make Sure People With Complex Cases Are Heard”

Narrow networks, narrower choices: Affordable insurance plans are no guarantee that you’ll find a provider that takes your plan, and is near your home. As the health insurance industry adds millions of new customers via ACA Marketplace plans, it’s turning out to be a contentious relationship for some folks. The NY Times’ Elisabeth Rosenthal breaks down the issue: “Insured, but Not Covered”

Wisdom of children’s books: The always-worth-reading Susannah Fox thinks that healthcare can learn a lot from one of her favorite children’s books. After reading her post, we’re in agreement with her perspective. “What healthcare can learn from Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel”

Deep dive into Twitter on measles outbreak: Our SPM friend Mark Harmel has a terrific post up on the Symplur blog looking at the Twitter data surrounding the #measlestruth conversation kicked off by Dr. Bryan Vartabedian and Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson to support the idea of vaccinating kids against measles. “Did #MeaslesTruth Create a New Form of Twitter Communication?”

Why Anthem hack is potential horror: A very cautionary piece on NPR about the black market for personal data shows that health IDs, particularly Medicare information, is worth a bundle to the bad guys. The real horror here is the lack of cyber-security sophistication on othe part of healthcare industry IT overlords. “The Black Market for Stolen Health Care Data”

John Oliver on “Last Week Tonight” takes on pharma [WARNING: use headphones if you’re at work!]: The weekly HBO news-comedy host takes on pharma marketing in a very funny, but very NSFW (Not Safe For Work), examination of the marketing juggernaut that is the pharmaceutical industry. “Marketing to Doctors”

February 11, 2015 By e-Patient Dave Leave a Comment

New BMJ article: “From patient centred to people powered: autonomy on the rise”

I’m thrilled to say that the BMJ, formerly the British Medical Journal, has just released a new article I wrote about the “social movement” aspect of our work, including the rationale for listening to the patient perspective.

Intended for medical audiences around the world, it’s part of a big, 21-article multimedia “Spotlight” supplement that will be in Thursday’s print edition; it was all released online yesterday. Over on the e-patient blog I posted the full list of articles, including the names of other members of our Society for Participatory Medicine who are in this issue. Big participation, big visibility!

This supplement, appearing in one of the world’s top medical journals, may well be the biggest moment yet in the history of our movement. It’s got hours of reading and listening, with contributions from eight countries, if I counted correctly.

Those of you in my generation – the era of many social movements – will relate to the parallels with what’s happening today: a whole class of people whose voice has been considered “not worthy” is speaking up, demonstrating capability, and pushing back when we’re told to “stay in our place.” :-)

Is it time for a new scientific field?

[Read more…]

February 10, 2015 By e-Patient Dave Leave a Comment

I’m on Medicare! Here’s how I made it easy.

Here’s the punch line: Get a good insurance agent. Mine is Wendy Reed Johnson [right]. She didn’t cost me a thing, and saved me a ton of angst.
________

For years in my cost-cutting edition series I’ve been blogging about my experiences as a highly activated shopper for medical services, most recently six months ago when I announced:

Six month countdown to Medicare!
What do I need to know?

Well, it’s six months later, I’m turning 65 this month, so on the first of the month I went on Medicare. (In some situations you can wait, but I opted not to, so I had decisions to make.) Considering how much I blogged in that series about insurance shopping in the past, including the difficulty of figuring out the right plan for my needs, you can imagine that I was anticipating more misery. But Wendy asked the needed questions, laid out all my options, and in short, made it easy.

I highly recommend that before you approach 65 you hunt for a Wendy. Find someone who’s a delight to work with – for you, because people are different – and who, when you ask questions, is happy to hear them and can answer in a way you understand.

IMPORTANT: Medicare is not one big system that you just sign up for. It still has many many options and flavors. Plus, you have to pick one plan to cover doctors, another to cover hospitals, and another for prescription drugs. Frankly, I refuse to get into explaining here the perverted and needlessly complicated terminology (Part A, Part D, blah blah blah). I prefer to pay my agent to understand it. (Except I don’t have to pay her.) [Read more…]

February 4, 2015 By e-Patient Dave Leave a Comment

Coming to Switzerland. Add an event?

Special invitation to Swiss readers! This is an opportunity to book an event this June at a greatly reduced price compared to my usual rates. Because it’s Switzerland. :)

Early in 2011 two extraordinary invitations arrived. The first was to speak at TEDx Maastricht, hosted by my now-good-friend Lucien Engelen at RUMC. It was an amazing TEDx, mostly about patients, with most speakers being what I now call “actual sick people.” Lucien gets it, and the experience was mind-blowing (and changed my life).

The other was from a couple with a consulting business called IKF, in Lucerne, Switzerland. They completely see the e-patient future, and every spring since then they’ve invited my wife Ginny and me to come back. We don’t make much money on it, because they got me when this was all brand new, and c’mon, it’s Switzerland, and the scenery is just unbelievable… I teach a half day session in the e-health course they teach at the university, and they organize a few speeches in the area at greatly reduced prices, for any sponsor. That covers the costs with a little left over.

Because they were sponsors way back in the beginning, in my price policy they qualify for the “BFF” discount, which we extend to everyone who books something as part of this annual trip. They were also the ones who told me I had to write Let Patients Help … so they could translate it into German for use in a textbook! So I wrote it and they translated it. (I’m not kidding – this is the kind of change-oriented visionary I love to do business with. Wouldn’t you??)

(They also had Lucien write a section – no coincidence there!)

This year’s trip is June 7-13. If you’d like to sponsor an event – a speech, a private consultation, whatever – please contact andrea.belliger at ikf.ch who is coordinating.

February 3, 2015 By e-Patient Dave 1 Comment

Daily Digest: Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Ready, set, DIGEST! Here’s today’s harvest of what we think is worth reading, participatory-medicine division:

Bob Wachter, who is one of the founders of the Society of Hospital Medicine and the hospitalist movement, has a great blog called Wachter’s World. Here’s the latest post, an interview with Andy McAfee, self-tagged “technology optimist” and associate director of the Center for Digital Business at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. It’s a terrific conversation about the intersection of tech and humanity, in medicine and elsewhere. “My Interview with ‘Technology Optimist’ and 2nd Machine Age Coauthor Andy McAfee“
One of our favorite primary care MDs, Dr. Peter Elias, is an SPM member who teaches regularly, and well, on many topics, including using technology tools to enable better doctor-patient communication. In this post, which is essentially a report from the front lines of family practice by someone who knows, Peter tells us why he keeps teaching: to achieve a state of what he calls reflective competence. “I teach to remain a learner“
Leonard Kish is a terrific writer and thinker on health IT. He’s the one who coined the phrase “patient engagement is the blockbuster drug of the 21st century.” Here’s his review of Dr. Eric Topol’s latest book. “8 Takeaways from Topol’s Latest: ‘The Patient Will See You Now: The Future of Medicine is in Your Hands’”
Forbes.com writer Dan Munro put up a provocative post this morning, quoting something said at the Clinton Health Matters Initiative event last week in southern California. The title speaks for itself, and Dan’s take on it is solid. “Founder Of Oscar Health: ‘A Lot Of People In This Industry Are Just Evil’“
NPR Morning Edition had a great piece this morning about a group of patients literally going for a TKO on Parkinson’s. Our MedX friend Sara Riggare has been in what she calls “Parkinson’s fight club” in Portugal recently, so this resonated for us. “Fight Parkinson’s: Exercise May Be The Best Therapy“
For those of us on the healthcare beat, understanding science and research reports is critical. It’s also not easy, which explains why major media outlets get the science, and therefore the story, wrong sometimes. One of the best sources for news analysis on medical and health science stories is Health News Review. They had a funding challenge last year, and had to shut down for a while, but they’re back, and better than ever. Here’s their analysis of recent headlines about a nasal spray that’s targeted at treating Alzheimer’s disease. “Nasal spray shows promise as treatment for Alzheimer’s disease“
And today’s humor is an oldie but goodie from Allie Brosch, the cartoonist behind Hyperbole and a Half. Here, she shares the new pain scale she created, which we think is both (a) funny and (b) more accurate than the pain scale you’ll see in common clinical practice. “Boyfriend Doesn’t Have Ebola. Probably.“