About e-Patients.net

Dr. Tom Ferguson Tom Ferguson coined the term e-patients to describe individuals who are equipped, enabled, empowered and engaged in their health and health care decisions. He envisioned health care as an equal partnership between e-patients and health professionals and systems that support them.

Before Tom’s untimely death in 2006, he was writing the White Paper (PDF) in consultation with the group of advisors he dubbed the e-Patient Scholars Working Group. This site continues the conversations we began with Tom.

	Diagnosed with advanced kidney cancer (median survival 24 weeks), e-Patient Dave deBronkart rapidly learned to use every aspect of empowerment, technology, and participatory medicine to beat the odds. A high-tech marketer for TimeTrade, he’s now an outspoken patient blogger and is patient advisor to PCPCC.
	Susannah Fox is Associate Director, Digital Strategy, for the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and principal author of the Project’s survey reports on e-patients and online health. Susannnah presents her perspective as a researcher and does not advocate for any policy or behavioral outcomes.
	Gilles Frydman is a pioneer of medical online communities and founder, in 1995, of the Association of Cancer Online Resources, the largest online social network for cancer patients. ACOR has served over 1/2 million cancer patients and caregivers.
	Joe and Terry Graedon write consumer health books that deal with drug and alternative therapies, write a syndicated consumer health newspaper column, and host a syndicated public radio show, all called “The People’s Pharmacy.”
	Alan Greene is a Clinical Professor at Stanford University’s Lucile Packard Hospital, Chief of Future Health at A.D.A.M. Inc., co-founder of DrGreene.com, and author of several books, including Raising Baby Green. Dr. Greene has been recognized by Intel’s Internet Health Initiative as one of four pioneering Online Health Heroes “who are developing innovative and compelling new ways to use the Internet to advance public health.”
	Cheryl Greene is co-founder and the executive producer of DrGreene.com. The AMA has called DrGreene.com “the pioneer physician web site on the Internet.” Together Alan and Cheryl have been providing health information and community for parents around the world since 1995.
	Sarah Greene is a publishing and new media entrepreneur specializing in biology, medicine, and health. She is currently chief content officer for Keas, Inc., an internet startup that helps people stay healthy. Previously she directed the web presence of NYTimes.com/Health and the New York Academy of Sciences. She also launched and ran startups Current Protocols, BioMedNet, HMS Beagle, and Praxis Post/Best Practice of Medicine.
	John Grohol is a pioneer in online mental health and founder of Psych Central. Psych Central was recognized as one of the Top 50 Best Websites in 2008 by TIME.com. He co-founded Mental Health Net in 1995, one of the largest mental health portals at that time. Dr. Grohol is the author of The Insider’s Guide to Mental Health Resources Online (Guilford, 2003).
	Dan Hoch is a neurologist based at the Massachusetts General Hospital and is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. An early developer of online resources for patients, Dan helped found Braintalk and is active in the American Academy of Neurology, the American Epilepsy Society, and the American Medical Informatics Association.
	Jon Lebkowsky is a social media expert and strategist, cultural strategist, and social commentator. A web strategy consultant, he also writes about culture, technology, media, sustainability and other topics for various publications, has been blogging regularly since blogs first appeared, and has been involved in web strategy and development since 1992. He was involved in the early 2000s social technology conversations that led to the concept of “web 2.0.” He is cofounder of Social Web Strategies, where he does strategic consulting and coordinates social media planning and web development.
	Charles Smith is Executive Associate Dean, College of Medicine, University of Arkansas for the Medical Sciences (UAMS) and founder of an online health information company, eDocAmerica.