Tag: Medicine X

#PatientsIncluded “Lite”: sort of, maybe, but not really

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 8 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

It’s fashionable these days for medical conference organizers, journal editors and researchers to boast about how “patient-focused” they are whenever they seek perspectives shared by patients with lived experience. But does boasting make it so?

Some of this patient focus has seemed a bit tepid to me. It’s as if they’re saying they want the patient voice – sort of, maybe, but not really. Here’s what I mean by that:  Continue reading “#PatientsIncluded “Lite”: sort of, maybe, but not really” →

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” →