A scientific journal article written primarily by patients about their health condition has been downloaded over a million times. We reached this milestone after years of activism, advocacy, and demands for justice. The internet supercharged everyone’s ability to connect with information and with each other. The crucible of the pandemic then forced us into new […]
Solvers
Wow! How? Gleevec
When Norman Scherzer’s wife, Anita, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in 1994, he found that the most up-to-date information was being traded among patients who were connecting via email. When a new test, a new drug, and a new clinical trial were all developed at the same time, Scherzer helped organize the […]
Wow! How? End of life
What if I told you that a key health care metric grew in a positive direction, from 24% to 31% in 15 years? What if I then told you that a big part of the change was driven by people inspired by personal experiences, not clinical training? Most Americans tell survey researchers they don’t want […]
Wow! How? False Boundaries
This is a cross-post from my LinkedIn newsletter. Feel free to join the conversation there or post your thoughts in the comments below. Every single day, Emily Kramer-Golinkoff takes 30+ pills, plus insulin, and engages in hours of breathing treatments. She is a sought-after expert on patient-driven scientific discovery, having co-founded a nonprofit, Emily’s Entourage, that pursues breakthrough therapies for […]
Wow! How? Home inventors
Hot springs have always been therapeutic destinations, but it was a father, desperate to relieve his child’s pain, who invented the home spa. Candido Jacuzzi, a mechanical engineer, and his wife, Inez, tried everything to help their son, who was suffering from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Hydrotherapy helped immensely, so Candido set to work, eventually building […]
Transforming research participation
Below is a letter I wrote in response to Tania Simoncelli’s article, “From Bedside to Bench and Back,” (Issues in Science and Technology, Summer 2023). Read all the responses here. Biomedical research has blind spots that can be reduced, as Tania Simoncelli writes, by “centering the largest stakeholders in medicine—the patients.” By focusing on rare […]
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