Speaker fees are how I fund my work, allowing me to do the research and learning that inform my talks, and allowing my participation on behalf of patients in policy meetings in Washington.
I want to be hired for more speaking engagements, so I’d like to share some feedback I just got.
Today I delivered the keynote address at the 13th annual ICSI/IHI Colloquium. ICSI is the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement, and IHI is the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Both are magnificent organizations of smart caring people devoted to, well, Improvement. :–)
In the audience was Jim Conway MD, Senior VP of IHI, a tremendous speaker himself. Afterward, he wrote:
“Your content was great, your slides most impressive, and your delivery spectacular. I have no doubt – there are many in the room who are in a different place now because of you.”
That’s my purpose in every talk: to leave people in a different condition than when they walked in. My goal is to awaken new possibilities, speaking on behalf of patients everywhere – I’d even dare to say, I aim to leave people with a different view of life.
Kent Bottles MD, President of ICSI, followed up the next day with these kind words:
“e-Patient Dave gave the best keynote I have heard in years at the ICSI conference in the Twin Cities. If you want to learn and cry, book him.”
On May 12 on the ICSI blog Kent’s colleague Gary Oftedahl MD added:
“…shaking those of us in health care up to the need to pay attention, and ‘use’ the expertise and experiences of our patients. I’ve heard no one in over 30 years in medicine who has so passionately and personally captured the essence of this powerful message”
If your organization would like to hire me:
There’s an interesting conference April 6-7 in Bethesda Maryland, sponsored by the National Library of Medicine and the Friends of the NLM: “The ePatient: Digital and Genomic Technologies for Personalized Health Care.” It’s about 70% sold out – almost 350 of the 500 seats are gone.