Since 1992, I have advocated for all of us to have the information, support and guidance we need to act to improve our health and get the most from our health care. I believe – and there is considerable evidence to back me up – that we do better when we participate in our care to the extent we are able.
As someone who has been diagnosed with several different types ...
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Dear mobile health app developers,
We—patients and caregivers—need your help to reduce the demands of self care. Mobile health (mHealth) apps have enormous potential to lessen our burdens. But our needs are often only loosely related to what clinicians and/or the evidence expect us to do. Most mobile app developers have ignored this fact by designing tools that primarily reflect the imperatives of ...
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My cardiologist recommended I get a stress echocardiogram so he could rule out the cause of some new symptoms. After I had scheduled the test, I realized that some of my other doctors should have a record of this test. But whose scope of concern would include these troubling symptoms? Probably at least three of them: my primary care physician, my survivorship ...
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Sometimes, angry patients and dissident doctors and nurses warn us about the impending patient revolution – how health care is so unsafe, of such poor quality and so expensive for us patients that we are soon going to rise up out of our beds, go to our windows and, in unison, holler, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”
We’ll riot in the streets, ...
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“Health care costs are sky-rocketing!”
“The percentage of the U.S. GDP devoted to heath care costs is the highest in the world.”
“The cost of Medicare is unsustainable.”
For most of us, the cost of health care (i.e., the dollars required by the system to produce and deliver care) isn’t what brings us the most anxiety.
It’s when we’re patients or helping a loved one find care that so many of us are deeply ...
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Have you ever sat on your bed after being discharged from a hospital stay and suddenly felt – along with the relief of being home – overwhelmed by what you have just been told that you and your loved ones must now do? Similarly, have you ever walked out of an appointment with your clinician and said, “HUH? Exactly what did we agree I am going to do about this ...
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“Here is a prescription for pain medication. Don’t drive if you take it. Call your surgeon if you have a temperature or are worried about anything. Go see your doctor in two weeks. Do you want a flu shot? I can give you one before you leave. If you need a wheel chair to take you to the door, I’ll call for one. If not, you can go home. Take care of yourself. You are going to ...
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“I just love working here!” my nurse told me. “We have great supervision, I have wonderful colleagues – we all help each other in an emergency. The doctors are really responsive and I feel like I am doing important work. I thought I would only stay for a year because oncology is so hard, but I’ve been here ten and I still love it.”
This is what we want to hear ...
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Will we – you and me and our parents and neighbors – be a significant force in quelling the tide of over-testing for the early detection of disease?
When you have had cancer as many times as I have, you become suspicious that there are more cancer cells inside you waiting for some obscure signal to make them leap into action and start multiplying out of control. So you develop a ...
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The outsourcing of work by businesses to the cheapest available workers has received a lot of attention in recent years. It has largely escaped notice, however, that the new labor force isn’t necessarily located in Southeast Asia, but is often found here at home and is virtually free. It is us, using our laptops and smart phones to perform more and more functions once carried out by knowledgeable salespeople and ...
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"A comprehensive and extremely useful roadmap for doctors."
-Eric Topol, MD, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine
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Past 6 Months
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