A factor that’s too often overlooked, by both providers and patients, is that “Clinicians can no longer go it alone.” That’s #6 in the “Seven preliminary conclusions” presented in Chapter 2 of e-Patients: How they can help us heal health care, aka the e-Patients White Paper.

When everyone accepts that, participatory medicine will become a blindingly obvious solution.

I gently suggested to the radiologist, after he explained my films, that his office had misdiagnosed my child. No, I didn’t want him to be defensive; it was not a personal criticism. Rather, I wanted him to be aware. What’s to lose by referring a patient like that to a large medical center? (except for her life, which I didn’t say).

He was unaware of this week’s Gina Kolata Science Times article on MRI’s. He promised to read it. The reversal of the flow of knowledge was awkward for both of us.

In my (and their) experience, the docs are just too busy for such inessentials. We want them to see that they are too busy NOT to be aware of the e-medicine community.

Our relationship with my daughter’s surgeon changed considerably after I had looked up his credentials (from a different website than that of the hospital) and discovered that he had graduated from Yale and Johns Hopkins. It changed even further when I found out from our certified case manager that the discount rate for clinic visits was ridiculously low, $50/visit or something. Meaning the docs were probably dismayed and disgusted at the idea that a patient would want more than a twenty minute visit, even on something like a cancer surgery.

It’s all in opening up the flow of information — both ways.

Can we find a way to have visibility (and even open participation) into these processes? There may be many many minds out there that are more than happpy to contribute.

The time has come to treat the multiple developments that the internet connectivity have brought to the modern world of medicine with a little more scientific clarity. I think the Journal may be one of the tools necessary to bring that change.

I’d like to reiterate Alan’s call but make it more e-patient centric: if you are an empowered patient or you are empowering patients with one the many incredible internet resources that you have created we would love to have you participate in either the Journal, the Society or preferably both.

Alan