A Video About a Patient Who Might Have Too Much Information

A link to a video, the Too Informed Patient came my way several times lately. You can find the curious clip on NPR’s Marketplace site: The Too Informed Patient from Marketplace on Vimeo. — The skit depicts the interaction between a young man with a rash and his older physician. The patient is an informed […]

Posted in Communication, Empowered Patient, Health IT, Ideas, Medical Ethics, Patient-Doctor Relationship, Wednesday Web SightingTagged , , , , , Leave a Comment on A Video About a Patient Who Might Have Too Much Information

On Patient Empowerment and Autonomy

…I think the answer is inherent in the goal of being engaged, and that has to do with the concept of patient autonomy – what’s essentially the capacity of a person to live and make decisions according to one’s own set of knowledge, goals and values.

Autonomy in medicine, which borders on the empowerment idea, can be an aim in itself, and therefore valuable regardless of any measured outcome.

Posted in Communication, Empowered Patient, Neurology, Patient Autonomy, Patient-Doctor Relationship, Social MediaTagged , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments on On Patient Empowerment and Autonomy

Are Doctors Necessary?

Ten years ago, my colleagues and I squirmed in our swivel chairs when a few tech-savvy patients filed in bearing reams of articles they’d discovered, downloaded and printed for our perusal.

Some of us accepted these informational “gifts” warily, half-curious about what was out there and half-loathing the prospect of more reading. Quite a few complained about the changing informational dynamic between patients and their physicians, threatened by a perceived and perhaps real loss of control.

How a decade can make a difference. In 2008 over 140 million Americans…

Posted in Communication, Empowered Patient, Essential Lessons, Health IT, Life as a Doctor, Patient-Doctor Relationship, Public Health, Social MediaTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment on Are Doctors Necessary?

Looking Ahead: 7 Cancer Topics for the Future

Here’s my short list, culled from newsworthy developments that might improve health, reduce costs of care and better patients’ lives between now and 2020, starting this year: 1. “Real” Alternative Medicine. By this I don’t mean infinitely-diluted homeopathic solutions sold in fancy bottles at high prices, but real remedies extracted from nature and sometimes ancient […]

Posted in Future of Medicine, Health IT, Oncology (cancer), Science, Selected TopicsTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment on Looking Ahead: 7 Cancer Topics for the Future
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