Archive for the ‘positive patterns’ Category

Designing for Better Health

March 3, 2010 · Filed Under positive patterns · 2 Comments

This is a banner week for people who think good design contributes to better health.

On Monday, DiabetesMine and the California HealthCare Foundation launched the 2010 DiabetesMine Design Challenge. Last year the contest garnered more than 150 entries and awarded a grand prize, a “most creative” prize, and a kids’ category prize. I can’t wait to see what people come up with this year — please help spread the word.

Today, Project HealthDesign announced the five winners of their two-year grant and mentorship program aimed at encouraging the use of observations of daily living (ODLs) into clinical practice. Read more

Panelist questions for ONC’s 2/25 hearing on EHR patient safety issues

February 20, 2010 · Filed Under medical records, policy issues, positive patterns, reforming hc, trends & principles · 15 Comments

I wrote last Wednesday about some background material for a panel I’ll be attending Thursday, as part of the government’s process to encourage adoption of electronic medical records. In the current administration all such discussions are wide open to the public. Here are the questions we’ll be asked – I’d welcome your input. Read more

The e-Patient Salute

February 12, 2010 · Filed Under positive patterns, pt/doc co-care · 3 Comments

Can you SEE the E?

Participatory Medicine in Time magazine

February 1, 2010 · Filed Under news & gossip, positive patterns, pt/doc co-care, pts as teachers, reforming hc, trends & principles · 2 Comments

Re Time’s article “Group Therapy” in the February 8, 2010 issue, arriving on newsstands now:

Time’s freelance reporter Bonnie Rochman contacted our Susannah Fox to discuss her remarks at the Institute of Medicine last October. Read more

Health 2.010: New Year, New Era

January 16, 2010 · Filed Under Why PM, positive patterns, reforming hc, trends & principles · 8 Comments

This is a guest post by Lucien Engelen (Dutch Twitter friend @Zorg20), who was featured in October’s The internet is changing healthcare – video from Reshape09. Here, he takes it to the next step, moving from health 2.0 to “health 2.010”. I love it! - Dave
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Making Healthcare Better through Participatory Medicine

December 10, 2009 · Filed Under Why PM, net-friendly docs, positive patterns, pt/doc co-care, reforming hc · 3 Comments

There’s new validation that participatory medicine is an idea whose time has come: the co-chairs of the Society for Participatory Medicine (my primary physician Dr. Danny Sands and I) are on this year’s list of 20 People Who Make Healthcare Better, an annual feature of HealthLeaders magazine.

Photo courtesy of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

With Dr. Sands in an examining room at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (photo courtesy of BIDMC)

We want to acknowledge some of the pioneers who paved the way. Danny said an email that “people like e-patients.net founder “Doc Tom” Ferguson, Tom Delbanco, Warner Slack, and others started it. I’m standing on their shoulders. I only helped you start yourself.”

Our Bodies Ourselves: support this pioneer of empowered, participatory healthcare

December 5, 2009 · Filed Under Why PM, e-pts resources, policy issues, positive patterns, pt/doc co-care, reforming hc, trends & principles · 8 Comments

Some people think e-patient ideas are new. They’re not. I’d like to give credit to a noble antecedent, and ask for your support.

Shortly after I discovered this blog (February ‘08) I recognized two strong precedents from earlier in my life: Dr. Benjamin Spock’s Baby Book (opening words: “Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do,”) and Our Bodies, Ourselves.

Dr. Spock was published a few years before me. Our Bodies, Ourselves came along a year after I graduated college.

About its origins, Wikipedia says:

Health News Review launches new site with improved e-patient training

December 4, 2009 · Filed Under e-pts resources, positive patterns, trends & principles · 5 Comments

Gary Schwitzer on the cover of Minnesota magazine

There’s a new resource for a vital e-patient skill: reading health news responsibly. It helps us be smarter before we bring new findings to the attention of other patients and our providers – not to mention smarter for our own benefit.

When “Doc Tom” Ferguson defined “e-patient” in the 1990s, “Educated” wasn’t one of his e’s. (He said “empowered, engaged, equipped, enabled.”) But today educated is increasingly true: The internet makes it feasible for ordinary people to become seriously educated. And this new site will help.

Health News Review is easily the best website around for training e-patients how to scrutinize health news. They regularly review news stories about health issues, and give concrete details on why some articles are great and others stink – sometimes dangerously so. I consider it a “must read” site.

Today site editor Gary Schwitzer launched a new version of the site, with a section dedicated to the ten things he says should be covered in every responsible story about a treatment:
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A new blog worth noting: “Evidence In Medicine”

November 23, 2009 · Filed Under e-pts resources, positive patterns, understanding statistics · 5 Comments

Understanding medical research, at some level, is a fundamental e-patient skill. As we start digging for reliable new information, we have to learn to separate quality from questionable. (If you think medical journals are academically pure, you’ve got learning to do.) A new blogger has emerged who’ll be a big help: David Rind, MD. Read more

MITSS: Much-needed support after medical errors

November 15, 2009 · Filed Under Why PM, ethics, hc's problem list, positive patterns, pt/doc co-care, reforming hc · 2 Comments

Ten years ago this week, 11/18/99, Linda Kenney was scheduled for ankle replacement surgery. She woke up three days later in the ICU. Her chest had been cut open. She was in the hospital ten days.

And nobody talked about what had happened.

What had happened is that the nerve block administered to her ankle (a local anesthetic) had accidentally entered her blood. It quickly hit her heart, which was promptly anesthetized and stopped pumping.
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