As mentioned briefly in yesterday's post, there are many people that have taken up the cause of "patient empowerment". I listed three general areas with links to their webpages so that you can find out more. It is very helpful to know that you are not alone - and that the struggle is worthwhile. If there is one thing that I have learned it is that "misery truly does love company"!
As an academic very active in research, I attend many conferences. In fact, I will be attending a conference tomorrow on our topic - patient voices! These are a great forum for sharing ideas and reporting on work in progress. Often a question following a conference presentation can open one's eyes to innovation that the researcher never thought about. It is also very useful to see what others are doing and learning from their ideas.
The big reason for a conference, really, is to network. It is so motivating to find others with like ideas and strategies; research networks often get their start from conferences.
In the Internet world, blogs are beginning to fill this very important void of "topic depth" in our communication.
While it is very easy to search for definitions on the Web, it is very difficult to engage in discussion on a topic in some depth unless you are connected to a group. Blogs are helping with this connection - to find people with siimilar goals. In this way, very serious debate can get started leading to progressive change!
Over the next two days, I will list the top 20 or so blogs that are thematically related to Patient Destiny. All of these blogs are medical or health related and they all focus on empowering the patient. Some look at very specific areas and some concentrate on technology as a means to an end.
5. eHealth
6. Your Health
Have a look at some of these blogs and let me know which ones you think are most relevant and why. I want to share this information with all of you in order to keep you informed and assist you with your health decisions. The best way to do that is to have you report on the relevance of these materials - what ideas you like and those that you do not find useful.
Tomorrow, I will report on my conference and provide another ten blogs sites!
Agreed... it is nice to see others in this space dedicated to the patient destiny. The Patient eXperience (pX) is so far behind the rest of the world in terms of using web tools for communication, collaboration. Most industries seek customer experiences (cX) to maintain market share and increase satisfaction of their clientele. Those in the healthcare system that "get it" will go a long way towards keeping patients happy, connected, loyal, and less likely to wander in today's era of transparent pricing and choice.
Caleb Decker
can also be reached at calebdecker@gmail.com
Posted by: Caleb Decker | March 05, 2007 at 11:57 AM
It is nice to see other health/public health/health technology type bloggers out there that are focused on the patient. I find that on the public health side atleast, people have been extremely slow jumping into this medium of exchanging ideas and developing community.
You may already know about this, but TrustedMD has set up a phenomenal community of health bloggers. Some very well known people have joined the community and it continues to grow - here is the site:
http://trusted.md/
Posted by: Aman | February 24, 2007 at 07:04 AM