‪e-Patient Dave deBronkart at TED–Meet the Patient–We Have Valuable Input Too Related to Our Care And It Can Save Your Life

This is a great video as Dave talks about his own information journey and how it helped save his life and get the treatment he needed for the cancer he was diagnosed with.  This is the first time I had seen the actual charts and how his care progressed that allowed him to beat cancer.  I remember back when Dave took on Google Health to evaluate how a PHR could help.  One of the good points made here is that “patient is not a 3rd person” as we hear today in healthcare conversations.

Today with the internet patients have a huge area of impact and when it’s “you” we want all the input when it comes to treatments.  His diagnosis of kidney cancer was a huge shock and there were no symptoms.  When looking for information “trust” is huge today and filtering out what is not relative.  When he did his search it was depressing as there was nothing good in what he found and then he continued to pursue to and his doctor recommended a site that saved his life.  His treatment was found by using a site to where he met other patients who were all networking. 

The Interleukin 2 treatment was found on the web and there were not many facilities giving the treatment and through networking 4 doctors in the US were found who were specialists in the area and nowhere on commercial sites would he have found this information.  This just goes t show the power of patients communicating and supporting patients.  When you look at the chart he shows on how the therapy worked, it’s amazing and how the tumors shrunk.  This is great video and worth a watch and Dave offers some very good advice and his ideas on making healthcare better are something to pay attention to as it can save your life, just like he experienced.  BD 

e-Patient Dave at TED

When Dave deBronkart learned he had a rare and terminal cancer, he turned to a group of fellow patients online -- and found a medical treatment that even his own doctors didn't know. It saved his life. Now he calls on all patients to talk with one another, know their own health data, and make health care better one e-Patient at a time.

‪Dave deBronkart: Meet e-Patient Dave‬‏ - YouTube

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