Waiting Room Remedy: Doctor Pays for Delays (The Doctor’s Perspective)
The author, a physician, tackles the problem of long wait times at doctors' offices, offering a solution that shows respect for patients while urging both parties to take responsibility.
View ArticlePresent, Patient, and Accounted For: How and Why Patients Are Present at...
The author describes how an organization for e-patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) evolved to win recognition within the scientific community as an authority on RA patient needs and patient care.
View ArticleA Resident’s View: Eliminating Skin Cancer — Choose Your Own Adventure
Engaging in discussions about the management of benign and complex skin lesions with my patients has taught me more than any reading from the dozens of textbooks or hundreds of articles that laid the...
View ArticleAn Introduction to Self-Care
After a very positive family experience with collaborative care, the author was emboldened to modify her communication with her psychiatric patients in ways that enable them to engage more effectively...
View ArticleCan We Just Choose to Live?
The author describes how, for herself and other cancer survivors, "choosing to live" provides a pathway to survival, and supporting fellow patients/survivors enhances their own wellbeing.
View ArticleUsing Self-Coaching to Improve Life with Fibromyalgia
The author discusses her use of psychological self-coaching techniques to maintain optimum health and functioning while living with fibromyalgia syndrome.
View ArticleListen, Dream, and Change: Using the Power of Patients to Improve Care
We need to make our care more patient-centered. The author illustrates with some examples from his daily practice that we should use the power of patients to achieve the necessary changes. Listening...
View ArticleOne Clinician’s Awakening
I am a nurse. I am a patient. I was sure about which role made me strong and which one made me weak. Which was helpful to others and which was a burden. Then an email arrived in my inbox that would...
View ArticleMe, Myself, & the MRI
The author, using a pseudonym, shares the story of her nerve-wracking cancer screening experience that turned hopeful thanks to a participatory radiologist.
View ArticleEvolving from Patient Zero to Dr. House
I was a "patient zero" -- not as the term is used in infectious disease outbreaks -- but as in describing my level of knowledge entering a mini-med school class where I had to navigate the maze of...
View ArticleMetastatic Breast Cancer: Lessons Learned from My Missed Diagnosis
A woman with terminal metastatic breast cancer shares her story, a cautionary tale about medical mistakes, basic communication failures of clinicians, and her naive faith in a “world class academic...
View Articlee-Patients in Twitter Hashtag Communities
There's promising evidence that Twitter hashtag communities are a force for improvement in medicine -- a force largely driven by patients.
View ArticleSteel Standing: Metal Meets Muscle; A Patient’s Perspective
A family caregiver tells how she helped solve the mystery of her mother's debilitating condition by persistently seeking out published studies and, on the fourth try, finding a surgeon who would listen...
View ArticleIntegrative Medicine’s Pragmatic Mission
Integrative medicine is not about simply studying therapeutic tools that are not traditionally used. It is about understanding how to use the most appropriate tools effectively to enhance health and...
View ArticleA Mother’s Journey to Diagnose Her Daughter’s Rare Disease
Many patients with rare disorders are not diagnosed by doctors, nurses, or researchers, but by a fierce and driven group of detective known as mothers. I know because I am one.
View Article“What Brings You In Today?” Assessing and Addressing Potential Cross-Cultural...
Doctors who start clinical visits with open-ended questions -- encouraging patients to express their health concerns in their own way -- are on their way to achieving successful patient-centered...
View ArticleGoing Digital with Patients: Managing Potential Liability Risks of...
Some physicians are understandably reluctant to receive digital data from patients due to professional liability concerns, yet this means missing patient-generated health data that could be crucial to...
View ArticleBut You Said I Wouldn’t Need Radiation
Which physician would you rather have as a patient? Here a breast cancer survivor analyzes the communication styles of two of her doctors -- the first left her anxious and bereft, while the second...
View ArticleCaseous Swiss Medicine
A medical student recounts a tense situation that occured in an inpatient setting because of the many "holes" in the "Swiss cheese" system.
View ArticleAn e-Patient Awakening: Endometriosis
An anonymous e-patient candidly shares lessons learned after endometriosis surgery.
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