Dr. Tom FergusonTom 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, Editorial for the Pew Internet & American Life Project and principal author of the Project's survey reports on e-patients and online health. Photo by Ralph Alswang.

Gilles Frydman is Founder & President of the Association of Cancer Online Resources, the largest online support group for cancer patients.

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 co-founder of DrGreene.com, pediatrician, and author. The AMA has called DrGreene.com the pioneer physician web site on the Internet. 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. Together Alan and Cheryl have been providing health information and community for parents around the world since 1995.

John Grohol is a pioneer in online mental health and founder of PsychCentral.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 an author and web strategist who went digital when he saw the social potential of connected computers in the late 1980s. Since then he's been involved in online community and social network development, net.activism, web development, and web strategy. He is co-founder of Social Web Strategies, a consultancy based in Austin, Texas.

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.