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Cancer survivor “e-Patient Dave” is an international keynote speaker on healthcare who consistently earns extraordinary ratings by understanding each audience and working closely with each client to define their unique “home run.” Audiences have ranged from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement to the Danish Patient Safety Association and the Israel Internet Society. His compelling TEDx Talk “Let Patients Help” is in the top half of most-watched TED talks of all time.
Topics:
- Patient Engagement / Patient Empowerment
- Healthcare Transformation
- Facing Death (book: Facing Death – With Hope)
- Inspiration / Motivation / Attitude / Mind Power
- His cancer book: “Laugh, Sing, and Eat Like a Pig: How an Empowered Patient Beat Stage IV Cancer (and what healthcare can learn from it)”
- Meaningful Use (health IT) and personal health records
See videos of past talks, testimonials, and list of past engagements.
Resources:
- For speaker bio’s, jump to here.
- For additional information visit Dave’s page on Wikipedia.
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Dave’s Story
“e-Patient Dave” deBronkart was diagnosed in January 2007 with Stage IV, Grade 4 renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer) at a very late stage. His median survival time at diagnosis was just 24 weeks; with tumors in both lungs, several bones, and muscle tissue, his prognosis was “grim,” as one web site described it.
He received great treatment at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center: his surgeon removed the extensive mess (laparoscopically!), and the Biologic Therapy program helped him participate in a clinical trial for the powerful but severe High Dosage Interleukin-2 (HDIL-2). His last treatment was July 23, 2007, and by September it was clear he’d beaten the disease. His remaining lesions have continued to shrink.
Today: Advocate and Activist
An accomplished speaker and writer in his professional life before his illness, today Dave is actively engaged in opening health care information directly to patients on an unprecedented level, thus creating a new dynamic in how information is delivered, accessed and used by the patient. This is revolutionizing the relationship between patient and health care providers, which in turn will impact insurance, careers/jobs, quality of life and the distribution of finances across the entire spectrum of health care.
“What’s an e-Patient?”
A year after the diagnosis Dave was invited by his primary physician, Dr. Danny Sands, to join the annual retreat of the e-Patient Scholars Working Group. Founded by the late Tom Ferguson MD, a true visionary, the group consists of pioneers, both medical and lay, who have been quietly (and not so quietly) altering the balance of power in healthcare, demonstrating that as the internet brings patients together with information and with each other, a new world of Participatory Medicine is evolving, in which patients become potent agents in creating and managing their own health, in partnership with physicians.
Tom Ferguson said e-patients are empowered, engaged, equipped and enabled. Dave immediately saw himself as a match, became an active blogger on e-patients.net, and took on educating himself as much as he could. He went part-time in his day job in 2009, and left industry entirely in 2010 to devote himself full-time to healthcare.
“This is the first time in my life I’ve felt I have a calling,” says Dave, “something I can’t get away from: it’s what I need to do. I’ve had plenty of fulfilling jobs in a great career, but not a calling. This is it.”
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Bios for speaking engagements:
207 words, December 2011:
Dave deBronkart, widely known as e-Patient Dave, is a cancer patient and blogger who has become a noted activist for healthcare transformation through participatory medicine and personal health data rights. A successful speaker in high tech before his illness, he is today the leading spokesman for patient engagement, attending over 150 conferences and policy meetings internationally in the past two years. He serves as volunteer co-chair of the Society for Participatory Medicine.
An online community leader since 1989, he sought online resources in addition to receiving treatment at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess. He responded well to high-dosage interleukin-2, and today he is well.
In 2009 his blogging about health IT put him on the front page of the Boston Globe and thrust him into DC policy discussions about patient access to medical records under Meaningful Use. He’s appeared in Time, U.S. News, and the HealthLeaders cover story “Patient of the Future.” In 2009 HealthLeaders named him and his doctor to their annual list of “20 People Who Make Healthcare Better.” In 2011 his TEDx talk http://on.TED.com/Dave went viral globally, rising into the top half of the most-viewed TED talks of all time; volunteers have added subtitles in 25 languages. Its tagline is his appeal: “Let Patients Help.”
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118 words, December 2011:
Dave deBronkart, known online as e-Patient Dave, beat stage IV cancer in 2007 and became a blogger, keynote speaker and health policy advisor. He is today the leading spokesman for patient engagement, attending over 150 conferences and policy meetings internationally in the past two years. He serves as volunteer co-chair of the Society for Participatory Medicine.
e-Patient Dave has appeared in Time, U.S. News, Wired, MIT Technology Review, and the HealthLeaders cover story “Patient of the Future.” In 2009HealthLeaders named him and his doctor to their annual list of “20 People Who Make Healthcare Better,” and in 2011 his TEDx talk http://on.TED.com/Dave went viral globally: volunteers have added subtitles in 25 languages. Its tagline is his appeal: “Let Patients Help.”
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75 words:
Dave deBronkart, known online as “e-Patient Dave,” is the leading spokesperson for the e-Patient movement–Empowered, Engaged, Equipped, Enabled. A high tech executive and online community leader for many years, he was diagnosed in 2007 with Stage IV kidney cancer, with median survival 24 weeks. He used the internet every way possible to partner with his care team; today he is well. His first book on healthcare is “Laugh, Sing and Eat Like a Pig.”
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213 words:
Dave deBronkart, better known on the internet as “e-Patient Dave,” may be the leading spokesperson for the e-Patient movement – e-patients are Empowered, Engaged, Equipped, Enabled. A high tech executive and online community leader for many years, he was diagnosed in 2007 with Stage IV kidney cancer, with a median survival of just 24 weeks. He used the internet in every way possible to partner with his care team and beat this unbeatable disease. Today he is well.
In 2008 he discovered the e-patient movement, and began studying, blogging, and speaking at conferences, and in 2009 was elected founding co-chair of the new Society for Participatory Medicine. He was a leading voice in Washington for new federal regulations to require that patients and families have access to their electronic medical records, and is now engaged full time in speaking and advocating for patient engagement. He’s appeared in Time, U.S. News, and the Health Leaders magazine cover story “Patient of the Future.” In December 2009 HealthLeaders named him – and his doctor – to their annual list of “20 People Who Make Healthcare Better,” and in 2010 he released his first book: “Laugh, Sing, and Eat Like a Pig: How an empowered patient beat Stage IV cancer (and what healthcare can learn from it).”
Death spares neither Pope nor beggar. – Portuguese Proverb
[...] “e-Patient Dave” deBronkart is a high-tech marketing executive who has studied technological change (and how people deal with it) for years. In 2007 he succeeded in beating a near-fatal cancer, and has gone on to apply his analysis and communication skills to the new world of participatory medicine. For more information see the About page. [...]
[...] lecturers are Dave deBronkart (aka e-Patient Dave), http://epatientdave.com/about-dave/, and Dr. Danny Sands, http://services.bidmc.org/Find_a_doc/doc_detail.asp?sid=41414547464148, [...]
[...] “e Patient Dave” deBronkart is one of the leading US advocates for patient empowerment and co-founder of the Journal for Participatory Medicine. This entry has been previously published at e-patients.net. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Guest: If Air Travel Worked Like Health Care", url: "http://blog.icmcc.org/2010/01/20/guest-if-air-travel-worked-like-health-care/" }); [...]
[...] on the topic of patient involvement and the patient’s right to their own medical data. As he describes on his website, Dave beat stage 4 kidney cancer thanks to clinicians and staff at Boston’s Beth [...]
[...] e-Patient Dave deBronkart from E-patients.net [...]
[...] accomplished speaker and writer in his professional life before his illness, today Dave is actively engaged in opening health care information directly to patients on an [...]
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