I’m having a weird, visceral reaction to all of the recent brouhaha surrounding the term “e-patient.”
For some reason, semantically speaking, the term is slipping in to derogatorium. Up there with “cyberchondriac,” which definitely is derogatory. It’s kind of like research—one day, omigod, it’s Mecca; the next day, it’s the scab on a rotting wound.
Whatever. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ll never forget the moment the promise of genetic testing shook me to my core. I’ve been thinking about that day a lot lately, particularly as I and my colleagues have observed the debate over the effectiveness and legality of consumer-directed personal genome providers, such as 23andMe.
A few years ago, I was attending an event near Buffalo, NY, for the Hunter’s Hope Foundation, run by Hall of Fame NFL quarterback Jim Kelly and his wife, Jill, to support families affected by Krabbe disease and related neurodegenerative disorders. The foundation was named after the Kelly’s son, who was diagnosed with Krabbe in 1997 and died at age 8. Read the rest of this entry »
The most profound change in mental health treatment is upon us. This major step forward in treating mental illness is on par with laws that challenged racial discrimination against the African American community in the 1950s, so says the president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. Carol Bernstein.
It will allow more people to get treatment, provide better treatment, and go a long way toward eliminating stigma so prevalent in this area of medicine.
Yet, you certainly wouldn’t know we’re on the precipice of such fundamental change.
I’m “pleasant.” My neck is “supple.” And I’m neurologically “intact.” Whew…glad to hear that.
Although the compliments were nice, more interesting was from whom they came and why I was now reading them.
For the first time in my life, I was reading what a doctor said about me, in the form of a medical record being sent to my primary care doctor. Inexplicably, the physician, a Johns Hopkins immunologist, mailed me a copy. Wow. How could I have lived this long, and dealt with so many doctors, and never once read what those health professionals had thought. Read the rest of this entry »
Call it a silly, useless curse. I get sucked in to trying to find patterns and connections anywhere I can. Most of them are silly and useless. Occasionally I find ones that actually make some sense, if only to me.
As a healthcare marketer who also geeks out on reform, genetics and the e-patient movement, I can’t help but try to wrap healthcare up into a single cohesive package of connection and meaning. That’s what marketers do.
So, when it comes to that monster and what it all means, where it starts, what’s important and how to condense it to its core—where the patterns and connections are—I see P’s. Read the rest of this entry »
A lot of people are smashing mad and hurling some serious vitriol when it comes to the new health reform law. We have a few questions about that:
Here’s one more: Do any of us trust ourselves to fully comprehend each of those 2,409 pages of baffling, profuse legislation that make Beowulf look like Green Eggs and Ham? We’re pretty sure few politicians would admit the anger of the masses wasn’t based on substance.
Or would they? Could they? Read the rest of this entry »
As controversy erupts over the suggested text of the fifth edition of the DSM, or Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the American Psychiatric Association’s bible for diagnosing and classifying mental illness, I’m reminded of an old friend.
This friend gave me comfort by allowing me to see mental illness in an entirely different light. It may be wise for others to call on this friend as they make light of the DSM-V’s new classifications, such as Temper Dysfunctional Disorder with Dysphoria, Hypersexual Disorder, or Binge Eating Disorder, as nothing more than an attempt to “pathologize” all of us. Read the rest of this entry »
So much for the government wanting people to quit smoking. Seems the FDA has some concerns about the new electronic cigarettes on the market. Why? Get this: They contain nicotine and may contain small amounts of carcinogens.
Keep in mind, more than 4,000 different chemicals have been found in tobacco and tobacco smoke, including more than 60 chemicals that are known to cause cancer.
Electronic cigarettes—or e-cigs—resemble real cigarettes, with a red-glowing tip and smoke-like puffs of odorless vapor, and with each drag deliver a dose of nicotine similar to a real cig. E-cigs don’t contain the cancer-causing chemicals and carcinogens found in real cigs, say the manufacturers. Read the rest of this entry »
Last week, I was part of a group judging hospital and healthcare organization marketing campaigns for a national awards program.
I left disgruntled. Not because of the experience itself. The coordinators were great; the other judges were thoughtful, thorough and serious about their roles. There was a nice camaraderie.
But the work we were judging was predictable and unmemorable. For me, at the center of “why” were three things:
I’d planned on writing a brilliant post after last week’s 9th Annual ePharma Summit in Philadelphia. I wanted to explain why this statement made by one of the conference’s speakers always makes me bristle.
“Content remains King.”
Someone else’s brilliant post beat me to it, though (h/t Phil Baumann). Still, I have more, probably less brilliant, stuff to say on this irksome, but important, topic.
First, most of us have heard some version of the content-is-king quip. Few of us understand what it really means. So many seem clueless about the power of content. Hardly anyone in pharma knows how to do it well. Finally, and most important—and I did say something along this line at the conference: Content without context is just a bunch of rubbish. (And, by the way, bad content without context should be rammed down someone’s throat.) Read the rest of this entry »
