kindness

Speak up, stay safe: How much do we love the fact that Consumer Reports is getting involved in the patient safety movement? We love it LOTS. One of the e-patients on the CU team, Kathy Day, is quoted in this piece that advises being proactive and persistent when you’re in the hospital. “The surprising way to stay safe in the hospital”

Physician, test thyself? Here’s a piece from the NY Times Well blog that asks if MDs are getting their own DNA tested. The author is an MD and bioethicist who breaks down the topic really well. “Doctor, Have You Had Your DNA Tested?”

Life is risk, act accordingly: Shared decision making, risk, and medicine. Dr. John Mandrola talks about doctors as “choice architects.” “The medical decision as a gamble”

Culture clash [WARNING: graphic topic]: The NY Times talks about a cultural norm in many countries, female genital mutilation, and how that’s showing up in western medical offices. “Effects of Ancient Custom Present New Challenge to U.S. Doctors”

Medicine as kindness: Einstein College of Medicine in New York CIty has a heartwarming story on their blog about Project Kindness. “For Patients, What Makes a Great Doctor?”

$500K+ for an EHR system, and they’re still faxing like it’s 1999: Both Dave and I are fierce advocates for frictionless data access for patients *and* clinical teams. We – all of us – still have a long way to go, sadly. “Doctors Find Barriers to Sharing Digital Medical Records”

Eat at your own risk: Dr. Brad Nieder, tagged as the Healthcare Humorist, with our Tuesday nugget of funny – since both Dave and I travel on the speaking circuit ourselves, we know from road food and regional diners and dives. “Americana in Los Angeles & Atlanta“

TGIF, friends! Here’s our Friday Festival of Fun for e-patients and health policy wonks far and near.

Keeping family medicine alive – at a truck stop: Rob Marsh MD of Raphine, Virginia, was named Country Doctor of the Year in 2014. Where does he practice? At a truck stop. What was his gig before country-doctor? The US Army’s Delta Force. “Virginia doctor tries truck-stop medicine to keep family practice alive”

#GMDD (“Gimme my DaM data”), Irish edition: It seems that patients everywhere are struggling to figure out the data-access issue. Our friends in Ireland are having the same conversation that we’re having here in the US. From the Irish Times: “Medical Matters: Charting progress: who owns patients’ medical notes?”

Kindness training in medical school: A core driver of transforming medicine, and the healthcare delivery system, is medical school. The Wing of Zock blog, published by the Association of American Medical Colleges, is a great source for insights on transformation in academic medicine. Kindness training in medical school? Why … YES. “Kindness Beyond Curriculum”

Patient Portal ideas: One of the blogs that’s chock full of discussion about all things health IT is HITECHAnswers – here’s a short post with some ideas for patient portal. Which in our experience have yet to be delivered in truly meaningful ways, to patients or clinical teams. “Searching for Creative Patient Portal Solutions”

Change at the FDA: FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg is moving on. She’s faced many challenges well – compounding pharmacy safety, Ebola. Here’s hoping her successor will also bring a special focus on tech, because tech is the biggest enabler patients have had since the internet itself. NYTimes: “FDA Commissioner Dr Margaret Hamburg to Step Down”

Doctor By Day, Comedian By Night: For your Friday funny-bone, here’s a doctor who’s become a movie star. Usually, it’s an actor playing a doctor who becomes a movie star. Ken Jeong started as an internist with an off-hours comedy habit. You might know him from his breakout performance in “The Hangover.” Here’s his “my big break” story from NPR: “Doctor By Day, Comedian By Night“

Daily Digest: Speak up, stay safe + 6 Tuesday info-treats

Daily Digest: Truck-stop family medicine (LOVE this!) and 5 more