E-Patient Dave Explains What It Means to Be An E-Patient

Med-blog grand rounds this week is hosted by e-patient Dave, who is Dave deBronkart, a real man who was diagnosed with a renal cell (kidney) cancer a few years back. He’s a terrific speaker and an Internet friend.

By coincidence I was searching for the definition of an e-patient, and came upon it there, in a video of his presentation at the TED (for those of you in the 1990s, that would be Technology, Entertainment, Design ideas worth spreading) “x” – meaning independently-organized meeting held in Maastricht a few weeks ago. Dave and others spoke on the topic of “The Year of Patients Rising.”

Dave explains: An e-patient is empowered, engaged, equipped and enabled. Got it?

In Dave’s bio, he attributes the “e-patient” term to the late Dr. Tom Ferguson, a physician and author who, with Dave and others, founded the Society for Participatory Medicine.

All for today –

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