Reform your own health care: Join the ePatient Revolution.
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The current interactive nature of the internet has radically changed the way in which we obtain, digest and share information. The presence of multiple, high quality, collaborative social tools has in turn lead to the concept of the “ePatient”. Such patient's are equipped, enabled, empowered, engaged, equals, emancipated and experts. The tools available on the internet and other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter allow these patient's to interact with each other and potentially to obtain better care from their physicians.
When I was an intern at Harlem hospital, the internet was in it's infancy and (I think I can safely say) few if any of the patients that I saw would have been considered ePatients. Later in my career I shared the concerns of many physicians regarding the dangers of information which patients had obtained from the internet regarding medical conditions.
Our concerns were that such patients might have easily been mislead by inaccurate, dangerous or poorly interpreted information from unreliable sources. And, while I still have concerns regarding some information on the internet; it is clear that much of the information is very well balanced and that patients who take full advantage of these resources are likely to have considerably better outcomes than those who do not take advantage of such information.
A recent conversation with a new friend on Twitter provided me with an epiphany. She said that a doctor may have to think about a rare condition for a few minutes in a year; but a patient with that same medical condition thinks about it every day. I presume this is also true for patients with chronic conditions or short term medical concerns or pregnancy complications.
More and more often I see patients who have sought out detailed information online before they speak to me in a clinical setting. This type of engagement from newly empowered patients in many cases sets the stage for a much more in depth and comprehensive conversation and is greatly appreciated.
As we debate reforms in the health care system in the United States, it is clear that regardless of what happens in the near future, there are tangible things each of us can do to improve the quality of our own health care.
Recently, Dr. Val Jones of Get Better Health spoke on ABC about what is being called the ePatient revolution. A link to the video as well as links to popular sites for patient empowerment can be found below:
RESOURCES:
Society for Participatory Medicine.
It will be interesting to see if other medical professionals will embrace the type of participatory model being espoused by ePatients. It will also be important to make sure that communities which have traditionally lagged behind in measures of health will encounter a digital divide due to lack of access to the types of technology that makes the aforementioned types of collaboration possible.
