e-Patient Dave

Power to the Patient!

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Alaska, here comes E! – including a community event in Anchorage, Sept. 18

Alaska eHealth Network logo
AeHN is sponsor of the public event. Click to visit the event page

In my experience nurses often “get it” about patient engagement, which I’d bet (from my own personal experience) can be traced back to the nature of their work: it starts with engaging with the patient, in a caring-based relationship. (Of course I love great doctors too! Here, I’m talking about nursing.)

So it’s not a surprise that one of my most rousing ovations ever (standing O from 4,000+) was from nurse practitioners at their annual convention in Nashville last year. One of the key forces behind that engagement was Deb Kiley DNP, ANP, FAANP, of Anchorage, and she believes in it so much she went back and has been engaging people in the idea in her state. Her intense, committed approach to this work reminds me of Martin Luther King’s famous line “the fierce urgency of Now” in his I Have a Dream speech, which he delivered 52 years ago last week.

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Writings and upcoming events – August (corrected)

Click to visit "#HIT99" results post on EMR & HIPAA blog
Click to visit “#HIT99” results post on EMR & HIPAA blog

Some email subscribers got an unfinished draft earlier today. Sorry for any inconvenience!

Continuing this monthly series: here’s this month’s update on travels, events, and writings.

Social Media Recognition: ranked #17 on the “#HIT99” Health IT social media influencers list

Upcoming travels: 

  • August 13-14 D.C.: RWJF National Leader Summit on Integration of Behavioral Health & Primary Care. Participant.
  • August 30-Sept. 02, Nijmegen, Netherlands (Radboud University Medical Center):
  • September 10, Lancaster PA: Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, 2015 Patient Safety & Quality Symposium. Speaker.
  • September 11-19: speaking tour of Alaska! Multiple events in Anchorage and Soldotna
  • September 23-27, Palo Alto: Medicine X | Ed. Speaker at Medicine X | Ed; attending the whole conference.

New confirmed travel plans:

  • October 29-30, Boston: Connected Health Symposium. Attending as SPM partner.
  • March 14, San Antonio: 2016 Parenteral Drug Association Annual  Meeting. Keynote.

Media mentions:

  • British Journal of Healthcare Computing (HIMSS Europe) Vox Pop posted a conversation with input from me, and from Rosamund Snow, Patient Editor at the BMJ, about the value that patients bring healthcare, and the ongoing efforts to build a sustainable framework for patient engagement.

 

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August: “retreat and think”

Cover of Structure of Scientific Revolutions 50th anniversary edition

For the month of August I’ll be mostly offline, for a period of “retreat and think.” It’s not a full-bore vacation; I can still be reached for anything time-sensitive (see my Contact page) but I’ll be less active online.

This year has already been full of change – Ginny’s knee replacements, Visiting Professor at Mayo, the first Patient Engagement Fellowship, new publications, and most of all, rethinking what “patient” means (and could mean), per the book that made paradigms famous: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (right). Our movement is gaining traction, which means a change agent needs to rethink. This month is good for that (I’m only traveling to one event), so I’m going to dial back the dialog.

September will be amazing.

One reason to retreat now is that on August 28 the calendar flips from empty to packed.

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Writings and upcoming events – July 2015

Like last month, here’s this month’s update on travels, events, and articles (including a first for me!).

In my travels if you’re in the area and want to connect, contact me.

Writings:

  • Do you use online symptom checkers? Go for it but be wise: Last Friday I was interviewed by the Boston Globe (see below) to comment on a new BMJ article. It was such a stimulating topic I wrote a much-mentioned post about it on e-patients.net, and I hope to be writing more

Media mentions:
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“Being heard as possibility”: my talk at #RebelJam15 (Speaker Academy #25)

Helen Bevan 'outwitted' slide
My closing slide, stolen from the NHS’s remarkable Helen Bevan. Video of my talk is below.

This post includes the video, below, of an unusual speech for me: it’s not about healthcare, it’s about speaking – particularly, how to compose your message in a way that people hear (genuinely) as a new possibility for the future, not a complaint about today; and so that they come away from your talk with a new view of life.

In healthcare transformation this is really important, for two reasons. First, a lot of people are just sick of hearing over and over about the problems (which certainly are real!). And second, since most of the problems haven’t budged much in the past 20 years, it begs the question: have we been wasting our breath??

And that leads to the question I blogged last year: “What could be said that will make any difference??”

Then two weeks ago I wrote that Rebel Jam 2015 was about to happen – a full 24 hour, round-the-clock round-the-world webcast event sponsored by RelEvents and conducted by three different groups working to create real change from within the system: Change Agents Worldwide, Corporate Rebels, and Rebels At Work. I said my favorite expression of their approach is to figure out how to “rock the boat without falling out.”

I was one of their speakers, and I just got my hands on the video of my talk. Below. Caution; this may require that you give up some of your ideas on how to make a point and how to create change. It’s my approach, for what it’s worth.

Rebel Jam Webcast – e-Patient Dave: “Being Heard as Possibility: How a patient became Mayo’s Visiting Professor” from e-Patient Dave deBronkart on Vimeo.

Next in the series: #26: To hone your skills, eight great TED Talks

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Upcoming events & media – June 2015 edition

Clip art of newspaper boy
Public domain

This spring I had a couple of cases where people said “I wish I’d known you were coming – we could have had coffee!” (That’s always compelling to me…) So I’m going to try publishing a monthly update (more or less) of upcoming travels, newly added future events, and maybe a few other things. Short & sweet. Thank you to Casey Quinlan, a focused production machine if I ever saw one, for making this happen!

Underway now:

  • June 7-13, Lucerne, Switzerland: IKF’s annual Swiss tour. Multiple keynotes and private meetings.

Upcoming travels & webcasts

Recently added events (stay tuned for details!)

  • Early September: Europe (to be announced)
  • Mid September: 10 day tour of Alaska! These people are getting it bigtime and spreading the word!
  • September 23-24: Medicine-X | Ed Bringing e-patient thinking to the medical education curriculum!
  • November 4, DC: American Psychological Association Presidential Innovation Summit
  • November 11, Sacramento: Transforming Healthcare Summit

My first-ever article in a clinical practice journal where I’m listed as First Author(!)

  • “Open Visit Notes: A Patient’s Perspective and Expanding National Experience,” in ASCO’s Journal of Oncology Practice. It’s open access (free), to allow reading and sharing by patients.
    • Full text, or PDF of the print pages; article extract page here.
    • Thank you to Beth Israel Deaconess OpenNotes team, and to the journal for making it open access.

Recent media mentions: