“Fasten your seatbelts, raise your tray tables, and clear the runway
if @ePatientDave is your pilot today.”
– Susannah Fox, in a tweet to Patients Like Me 12/16/2011
Professional speaking carries an obligation to deliver distinct value to each audience. I work with my sponsor to understand the audience’s background and interests, the client’s objectives, and the context of my talk within the event. Then I apply years of speaking experience to engage the audience and deliver the message.
After a custom kickoff speech at a private event in 2009 one of my hosts raised two thumbs up and said “Spot on.” A colleague later emailed, “Your presentation was perfect – a great start to our conference. We look forward to [our next] meeting.”
My goal is nothing less than to leave each audience with a new view of life. Feedback from past clients:
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation – Aligning Forces for Quality, November 2011
Audience evaluation: “Very useful or useful”: 98.4%
- “Incredible – he should be at every meeting – the universal man, speaks for all of us.”
- “What about having e-Patient Dave work with us as a Technical Assistance Support? He has a helpful and revolutionary approach.”
- “His energy is contagious!”
- “Important perspective – most important to highlight – for every story he shared you know there are many more…tech powerful for connecting individuals around care issues, life and death.”
- “Good balance of motivation and concrete tidbits and examples of good ideas.”
- “Generated lots of practical ideas and provided good nuggets!”
- “Very engaging, likeable speaker”
St. Louis Business Health Coalition, November 2011 (Coalition of self-insured employers)
- “We could not have found a more perfect patient advocate or a more motivating story-teller.”
- “Phenomenal, I look forward to seeing his vision become the norm in patient care.”
P2 Collaborative of Western New York, October 2011 (Part of Robert Wood Johnson’s Aligning Forces for Quality)
- “Highlight of the conference, unbelievably inspirational guy! Glad I stayed!” (Last talk of the conference)
- “He knocked it out of the park for me. He was progressive, engaging, thoughtful, and really made you think of all sorts of directions we need to be going with technology, policy and health promotion.”
- “I was still thinking what he said days after.”
- “The big point is that one can, without being mortally afflicted, do a great deal to help our doctors do what’s needed.”
- “He was AWESOME. Empowering people is what healthcare should be all about.”
- “Riveting presentation” … “Simply fantastic” … “Dynamic, engaging, and endearing speaker who taught me a lot.”
Levitt Distinguished Lecture, University of Colorado Dept of Family Medicine, October 2011
Audience evaluations:
- Valuable use of time, 4.86 out of 5
- Presenter’s style, 4.81
- Learning objectives were met, 4.83.
Audience feedback:
- “Personal stories, not just tear-jerkers – but fuel for a new vision…”
- “Excellent speaking skills”
- “Engaging and informative”
- “A man who walks the talk and has so much to teach/offer so many”
- “Powerful! Reflecting on 40+ years of practice, I wish I thought this way long ago.”
Organizer’s feedback:
- “You really knocked it outa the park”
- “We have a number of outstanding Levitt Lecturers, but this stands as the best of the best as indicated on the enclosed … it was your soulful, personal connection that resonated with the audience.”
Mayo Ragan Social Media Summit, October 2011
Audience evaluation: 4.82 out of 5.
Ragan Communications CEO Mark Ragan said that “SeattleMamaDoc” Wendy Sue Swanson and I received the first two standing ovations in the 500 events Ragan has produced.Audience feedback:
- “e-Patient Dave’s presentation was incredible.”
- “Loved hearing Dave’s story and how he used any resources he had (esp. social media) to find out about his disease, and then help others. Definitely walked away with the message that healthcare providers need to get in and help in the social media realm, too.”
- “WOW! He was my favorite to listen to! I loved and appreciated his honesty, how he incorporated personal pictures into his presentation and loved his sense of humor — One thing that would have been nice to have were some tissues – his story truly touched my heart!”
Aetna Leaders Forum, September 2011
“That was beyond a home run.” – Mark Bertolini, Chairman and CEO.
We had spent more than an hour together conferring to understand his objectives and define what a “home run” would be.
Military Health System, January 2011
Audience evaluation:
- 4.83 out of 5 on “Quality of this speaker (Knowledge, expertise, teaching ability, effectiveness, relevance, etc).”
- 4.84 out of 5 on ”How well are you now able to complete the learning objective?”:
Ninth National Quality Colloquium, Harvard, August 2010
Audience feedback:
- “Could have been backbone of a cohesive theme for opening session.”
- “May be the most important addition to our thinking.”
- “Superb, real life information.”
Second highest rated plenary speaker (4.65 out of 5), behind Atul Gawande.
Medicine 2.0 Congress, Toronto, September 2009
“As the organizer of the Medicine 2.0 Conference Series I was looking for an enthusiastic, motivating, and emotionally moving keynote speaker. I found him in e-Patient Dave. He delivered a mesmerizing keynote speech that got people talking for hours, days, and months after the event – even made it into a CNN story.
“Dave wowed the audience and set the scene for a patient-focused, participatory meeting. His contributions were not limited to his formal speech, but continued throughout the meeting, through his interactions with other speakers and participants. Dave is a true champion for our cause of openness, collaboration, and participation in health care.” –Gunther Eysenbach MD, publisher, Journal of Internet Medical Research; organizer.
HIMSS (Health Information Management Systems Society) Northern California chapter, 12/8/09
Board member feedback:
- “Mesmerizing speaker”
- “A phenomenal aspect of our program” – Board members
“The Quantified Self” meeting at Wired headquarters, 12/7/09
“e-Patient Dave spoke to our group with the passion and intelligence that characterizes his influential contribution to patient-centered health care and the personal data revolution. It was a highlight of the meeting.” Gary Wolf, Contributing Editor, Wired
“Life changing presentation” – Audience member at Quantified Self, 12/7/09
“When ICSI was looking for a great keynoter to deliver the empowered e-patient, participatory medicine message to a large audience of physicians, we soon discovered that e-Patient Dave was our #1 draft pick. We could not be more pleased” – Kent Bottles, President, Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement
Audience evaluation: 4.9 out of 5
Other audience feedback:
- Comment from attendee at VNA of Care New England, January 2011: “E-Patient Dave really gets it about the future of health care – more should hear his message.”
Mentions in publications and blogs:
- “one of the hottest speakers at health care meetings these days” – Gary Schwitzer’s Health News Review, June 2010
- “a noted activist for health care transformation through participatory medicine and personal health data rights.” – Disruptive Women in Healthcare, Man of the Month, August 2010
- “Testified in Washington as a champion of participatory medicine” – US News Best Hospitals issue, 2009
- “The folks in Washington have taken notice. He’s become a de facto health policy expert.” – Cheryl McEvoy, ADVANCE Perspective, February 2010
- “The quintessential engaged patient” – Health Leaders magazine, “20 People Who Make Healthcare Better,” 2009
- “A recognized online champion of participatory medicine” – Boston Globe
- “Face of the e-Patient movement started by the late Tom Ferguson” – Future Health 100
- “Working his ass off to get us to pay attention to the power of the internet.” – Jay Parkinson MD MPH, HelloHealth
- “A must-follow #Health20 hero on Twitter” – Brian Ahier, “govfresh” open air government blog
Healthcare Transformation and Policy
Healthcare is a complex industry. The simplistic proposals and brutal assertions that have wracked public debate are not getting the job done; and at a deeply personal level, I care very much about whether the job is getting done. Your time, too, will come, when you care.
How can we make care more patient-centered – and more effective – before then?
“Dave deBronkart brings an important perspective to the medical world. Drawing on his own experience, but reaching far beyond that, he is a strong, reasonable, and effective advocate for patient involvement in the care delivery systems.” – Paul F. Levy, President and CEO, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
“Dave’s personal experience with a grave cancer diagnosis, his tireless efforts to seek the best information with which to make decisions about his treatment, and his knowledge and understanding of technology can help us understand more clearly patients’ informational needs and how HIT can support patients in their desire to be more actively engaged in the management and decision-making about their care. We need Dave – and others like him – at the table during key policy discussions to help ensure that patients’ needs are met.” – Eva Powell, National Partnership for Women and Families, Washington DC
