e-Patient Dave

Power to the Patient!

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“Better Health: Everyone’s Responsibility” – resources for today’s conference

Patients Included badge
Click to view Lucien Engelen’s “Patients Included” story on LinkedIn

Conference logoFor years we in the participatory medicine movement have been talking about the need to involve patients in all aspects of medicine – not just our own cases but even in the design of the whole system. The movement is exemplified by the Patients Included badge at right, created by Dutch health visionary Lucien Engelen.

Today I’m speaking at a truly extraordinary healthcare event in Hartford – it’s completely about, for, and aimed at  the public – us ordinary people:

  • The title is right on target: “Better Health: Everyone’s Responsibility”
  • The event is scheduled from 12:45-8, so people only have to take a half day off work
  • Admission is $35 including dinner(!!), or $10 without(!!)

Over 500 local people (aka patients) are attending. For more, see the event’s website.

In my talk I’ll mention various resources participants can look up, to learn more about the movement and boost their own abilities.  I’m going to publish this post now, and through the day I’ll add various things as they come to mind.

BIG thanks to the event’s organizers, the CT Partners for Health partnership and its founder Qualidigm. Here are some starter links: [Read more…]

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You have some BIG new rights under HIPAA. Explained in a *clear* video from ONC

For easy sharing with providers and friends, this post is available at the short URL dave.pt/NewHIPAArights

OCR HIPAA flyer excerptLast month in “You can ask to see or get a copy of your medical record & other health information” we reviewed an important document [click the image at right] from the Office for Civil Rights that every e-patient should know about – and sometimes carry a printed copy, because many providers don’t know about it. That post’s headline tells the story: you can ask.

Now, as part of the continuing rollout of health reform in the age of “e,” there’s a new video from ONC, the people in HHS who run health IT policy. Here’s a text summary of the items in the video above.
[Read more…]

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Speaker Academy #11: Introducing ourselves (workshop begins!)

At six weeks, my granddaughter’s already practicing her confident introductory handshake :-) (Photo: Jon L’Ecuyer. All rights reserved.)

As this series has progressed and I’ve chatted with some of you, I’ve thought we really ought to get to know each other. So, this post is a “lecture,” and the exercise will be to discuss in the comments. To participate:

  • If you have an “about” page on your site, or any other description online, link to it in a comment below.
  • If you don’t have one yet, you will. :-) So git to work: draft something in a comment, and we’ll all offer suggestions.

Don’t hold back thinking your current status isn’t good enough – that’s why you’re in school! Empowered people act, knowing they may need to learn and adjust.

Some tips on your intro as a conference speaker:

  • The tone can be professional-sounding, academic-sounding, casual, playful, edgy, confrontational – it’s your first impression on people. Be yourself, as you want them to think of you.
  • Start with the single most important thing you want them to know. At first you only have one moment of their attention.
    • It’s no tragedy if they read it and say “Nope”!  You’re not trying to make everyone like you – you’re trying to find a good fit.
  • Then you can flesh it out with more info, if there’s reason to.

Here’s an important tip my dad (VP of Sales at a division of 3M) taught me about resumes:
[Read more…]

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Speaker Academy #10: Take off your stupid badge.

Photo with skewed badge, July 2013Don’t do this. Just don’t.

Not only do you look dopey in person, you look permanently dopey on video.

This was a pretty good talk, but look. This is the equivalent of having spinach in your teeth and not knowing it. So this will never be a high-value video.

Before you take the stage, take off your stupid badge!

Next in the series: #11: Introducing ourselves (workshop begins!)

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Speaker Academy #9: Your website, with video

Screen grab of NeHC talk on my site
The first video of a talk I gave (click to visit on my site)

Edited a day later: This entry has advice but see also related post wondering how to convert DVD to YouTube.

_____________

People ask me constantly how I get gigs – how I approach conference organizers, which events they should approach, to apply as a speaker.  I don’t know, because I don’t approach them – I have never had success doing that. (I’m not saying you shouldn’t – I’m just saying I have no answers, because it never worked for me.)

100% of my marketing has been:

  • this website, plus
  • word-of-mouth testimonials:
    “This guy was good. Hire him.”

I’ll have more to say about the website in the future but here are the fundamentals.

You need a website, or at least a blog, or at least a web page somewhere.

Why? [Read more…]

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Speaker Academy #8: My way’s not the only way, but speaking skills matter.

So far this series hasn’t looked at specific speaking methods, but it will. This short entry touches on that, and one other point.

The other point is that my approach is not the only way to get there. Anything that works for you is fine with me.

Among patient speakers, the most conspicuous example of not-Dave is the amazing Regina Holliday, who among other things is giving a master class in September at the Stanford Medicine X conference.

Regina Medicine-X graphic

Speaking skills count

Regina’s method’s different from mine, but she brought an essential skill: she’s an accomplished storyteller (which shows up in her blog posts) and had extensive speaking experience in high school. Reviewing a draft of this post, she wrote:

My senior year in high school I qualified for regional competition in Lincoln Douglas debate, domestic extemp, foreign extemp, original oratory, poetry, humorous interp, dramatic interp, monologue, humorous duet and dramatic duet.

Two takeaways:

  • Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t be who you are. If something works for you, good!
  • If you haven’t had training or mentoring, see if you can get some, to develop yourself.
    • As I said yesterday, I had to attend forty events before I got paid a cent – let’s see if we can shorten that! The point is that no matter how “right” your message is, you’re responsible for delivering it effectively.

Other successful speakers: were you trained or mentored? By whom? Or did it just come naturally to you?

Next in the series: #9: Your website, with video