Patient Empowerment on About.com

This is the announcement I’ve been waiting to make to you, and it’s finally time to spring it….

I’m pleased to tell you that as of Friday, About.com has launched a new site for Patient Empowerment — and yours truly is the expert behind the scenes.

About.com is owned by the New York Times — and has some impressive credentials:

• About.com is one of the 15 most visited Web sites in the US
• About.com is a top-ten content site
• Every month, 34 million unique visitors in the U.S. (average; Nielsen//NetRatings) and 51 million worldwide (average: About metrics)
• About.com’s content is created by a network of more than 600 Guides. These people are passionate about their topic areas, and have deep expertise and credentials in their fields. Guides make sure our visitors find answers and advice that are personally relevant, credible, and useful – all delivered in a human, accessible voice.
• About.com is a “companion to your news” site, providing depth and breadth behind current topics

A big benefit to those with interest is the fact that we will have an ongoing forum on any topic of interest related to healthcare delivery — the good and the ugly.

Yes, this personal blog will continue. This blog and the one at About.com will cover different topics on any given day, so you’ll want to check them both. Comment on them, too!

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	Join Trisha in the Patient Empowerment Forum at About.com
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	Or link here to empower yourself at EveryPatientsAdvocate.com
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From the desk of (12/1/07)…

Miscellany from the week, not requiring full posts on their own….

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My big news is ready to be sprung! Although, through today’s blog, I’ll announce it “softly” — a bigger announcement is in the works for this week.

You may be familiar with About.com — tens or hundreds of millions of visitors each month go there to learn about 600+ topics of interest ranging from Women’s Issues to Fishing to Poker to Fashion to Football — and now — patient empowerment!

Yes — as of yesterday afternoon, the new About.com Guide to Patient Empowerment was launched — and yours truly is the expert/guide. Take a stroll on over! Let me know what you think! Join the forum so we can chat! And if you ever want to touch base, just link on my name at the top — my email address is right there.

The web address is: http://patients.about.com Why not bookmark it or add it to your favorites?

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An interesting report on the Thursday evening NBC news about differences in the way African American women are diagnosed, treated, provided with preventive medicine, etc…. It actually strikes me as the next revelation in the fact that medical research just can’t be generalized. First we learn that women require different diagnosing and treatment from men for problems like heart disease. Then we’re told that children can’t take smaller doses of adult drugs because “children are not simply small adults.” And now we learn that genetic makeup related to skin color affects the success of diagnosis and treatment as well.

What others are we missing?

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Has anyone else noticed this? Everytime I turn around — for the past several weeks — there have been more ads for health insurance on the TV, in the newspaper. From those plans that “pay you back” to supplemental plans for Medicare…. they must be spending millions if not billions.

Wouldn’t our premiums be lower if they didn’t spend so much on advertising?

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Today is World AIDS Day and it seems there’s not much mention of it in the press. My cousin Tim has AIDS. Tim is in his 50s. As a younger man he was a vibrant and talented actor, appearing in everything from plays to a soap opera in England back in the 1970s. Now, in these later years, Tim is a slave to the medications that keep him alive and by his own estimation, he doesn’t feel like his life has much quality.

My thoughts and prayers are with Tim and others who suffer through such a horrible disease.

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	Want more tools and commentary for sharp patients? Sign up for Every Patient’s Advocate email tips Or link here to empower yourself at EveryPatientsAdvocate.com
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From the desk of (10/20/07)….

In the midst of this week’s craziness (WAY too much on my plate at the moment!) I have a few miscellaneous, but no less important, points and thoughts to share. I don’t want them to get lost, so I’ll just put them all here…. a potpourri of information. This may become a Saturday or weekend habit. Seems like a good idea!

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My friend and colleague Linda Lowen has become the About.com guide for Women’s Issues. Her new guide site launched about one week ago. Of course, women’s issues are people issues, and health care consumerism and patient safety are people issues, too.

If you have interest in a variety of women’s topics, many of which you may not have considered, some of which you’ll want to cheer, and more than a few that might make you go “hmmmm,” then check out — better yet, BOOKMARK — Linda’s new guide site at About.com. I promise you you’ll be fascinated.

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I’m leaving Monday for Sarasota, FL — visiting parents (Happy Birthday Mom!) and teaching three patient empowerment workshops while I’m there. If you’re anywhere near Sarasota and want to come by — the more the merrier! I promise you real tools that can help you. Contact Adult and Community Education for the Sarasota School District.

I do love getting out and speaking to groups — patients and providers. If you have need for a speaker, I keep a speaker resume online. Check it out.

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Speaking of workshops, I spent Thursday evening teaching my “Diagnosis Detective” workshop. GREAT group of people — very participative. On the way out, one of them reminded me of a saying I have heard before: What do you call a doctor who graduated at the bottom of his class? (The answer: “Doctor”) ouch.

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Some of you know I have a “looking for” section to this blog. I get contacted by a variety of people, mostly journalists and producers, looking to make contact with patients to help tell their stories. One posting this week has not been too fruitful, so I’m going to mention it here. If you are anywhere in Central New York State (upstate, not the city!) and are an angry patient who wants to participate in a documentary, the producers would like to talk to you. Learn more on the Looking For…. page.

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A handful of people have asked me about the launch of AdvoConnection. It has been delayed (yes, I really do need to update that blog, too). You’ll know why in just a few weeks — a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! that I can share with you then. I hope.

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Tune in again next week for “From the desk of….” ! (OK. well. maybe.)

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	Want more tools and commentary for sharp patients? Sign up for Every Patient’s Advocate email tips Or link here to empower yourself at EveryPatientsAdvocate.com
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