Tag: we are all patients

My blog post in the British Medical Journal!

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 34 Comments

Allow me to share with you this thrilling sight, dear heart sisters!  It’s the Twitter page of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) plus its Tweet about my BMJ blog post called Why Physicians Must Stop Saying: “We Are All Patients“ that was published today. 

A big “thank you” for this goes to Dave de Bronkart (some of you know him better as ePatient Dave). Dave is a sneaky sort of guy who, unbeknownst to me, sent the BMJ editors a link to my recent Heart Sisters post called “We Are All Patients.” No, You’re Not. The editors then contacted me to ask if I’d also write something for them, and here we are!

Can I just say – – – WOW!!      🙂

.

“We are all patients.” No, you’re not.

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 70 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

patientI read recently about a conference on breast reconstructive surgery following mastectomy, to which not one single Real Live Patient who had actually undergone breast reconstructive surgery following mastectomy was invited to participate. This is, sadly, yet another example of “Patients Excluded” health care conferences – in stark contrast to the growing number of notable conferences that have garnered the “Patients Included” designation.*

The result of attending a “Patients Excluded” conference is just as you might imagine: hundreds of people working in healthcare getting together to talk at each other about caring for people who aren’t even at the table. Or, as one physician arguing for  “Patients Excluded” conferences protested:

“I already hear patients’ stories all day long in our practice. Why should I have to listen to patients at my medical conferences?”

Continue reading ““We are all patients.” No, you’re not.” →