Tag: Carly Medosch

It’s not what you do. It’s who you are.

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 3 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters

In 2015, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote about virtues in his column called “The Moral Bucket List”.  But he was actually writing about two different sets of virtues: our résumé virtues and our eulogy virtues.

The résumé virtues are what you do: the workplace skills you’d talk about when job-hunting.  The eulogy virtues are who you are:  what people will say about you at your funeral — whether you were kind, brave, generous, funny, honest, trustworthy, etc. Both types of virtues are important and worth pursuing, but as David reminds us, only eulogy virtues have lasting value and legacy.  But depending on who’s doing the asking, it seems those résumé virtues appear to be far more important to certain people.    . Continue reading “It’s not what you do. It’s who you are.” →

How a $5 Tim Hortons gift card changed my life

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 12 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters 

I settled in at the impressive boardroom table of a chic downtown ad agency, where I’d been invited to review a new patient website that this agency had created for its client, our provincial Ministry of Health.

This agency wanted to know if an average patient like me seeking online health information would be able to easily navigate this website while looking for answers to some common questions. My assignment as a Patient Voices Network member that morning was to noodle around the site in response to a dozen or so search prompts that the young agency hipsters seated around me would provide. When I hit the “Search Health Topics” tab, it revealed a pull-down menu with many diagnoses listed. But I noticed immediately that “heart disease” was oddly missing from the health topics pull-down. I did, however, see that the diagnosis of “hemorrhoids” was up there. What kind of health website for patients forgets to list our #1 killer? Continue reading “How a $5 Tim Hortons gift card changed my life” →

My open letter to “Patients Included” conferences

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 39 Comments

different red chair

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Dear medical conference organizers,

Thank you so much for inviting me to participate in your conference later this year. It is a real honour to be asked to help represent the patient voice at your prestigious event. I know that inviting patients alongside your impressive international roster of well-respected physicians is new to you. So congratulations on your interest in the  increasingly important “Patients Included” movement sweeping through medical conferences. By the way, here are the five qualifications your event requires in order to meet those Patients Included criteria.

But as I once wrote to patient blogger (and conference speaker) Carly Medosch:

“I can no longer afford to be ‘honoured’ by any more medical conference invitations.”

Allow me to explain:
 Continue reading “My open letter to “Patients Included” conferences” →

Patient bloggers at healthcare conferences: ‘real’ journalists?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments
Like some of my most deliciously niggling inspirations these days, this one started on Twitter. Arthritis patient advocate, speaker and a Stanford University Medicine X e-Patient Scholar Britt Johnson tweeted this:
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To which patient advocate, speaker (and also a Stanford University Medicine X e-Patient Scholar Carly Medosch who blogs at Chronic Carly) responded:
 
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It was Carly’s observation that caused one of my eyebrows to flick skyward, unbidden.

Continue reading “Patient bloggers at healthcare conferences: ‘real’ journalists?” →