Anyone who has endured a multiple-day fever — or cared for someone with one — knows how exhausting it can be. Imagine experiencing nine weeks of a mysterious elevated temperature. Then nine MONTHS of what feels like a personal broken thermostat. And clinicians have little to no explanation besides plans for future tests. That’s the […]
Seekers
Wow! How? In-your-face Expertise
This post is part of my LinkedIn series: Wow! How? Health. I welcome comments on either platform. Thirty-three years ago today, on September 5, 1991, activists unfurled a giant, inflatable condom over a U.S. Senator’s house. Don’t believe me? Watch a 30-second news clip or a 5-minute documentary about the action. It was a splashy way […]
Wow! How? Patient Memoirs
In his book, The Long Haul, Ryan Prior writes about his advocacy on behalf of people with ME/CFS: Though I had negotiated a fragile truce with the disease, my deeper fear was that it would eventually fully disable me, just as it had done for so many of my friends…At the edge of my every thought […]
Wow! How? Obesity Treatment
This post is part of my LinkedIn series: Wow! How? Health. Four in ten U.S. adults have obesity, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. That includes 9% of U.S. adults with severe obesity, which is defined as having a body mass index over 40. Shame and stigma compound their health problems. “You wear […]
Wow! How? Learning Health Networks
In 2007, pediatric gastroenterologists began tracking and sharing best practices as they cared for kids with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Their “all teach, all learn” philosophy invited patients and families to participate as key members of the care innovation teams. The results have been astonishing: 82% of patients in the ImproveCareNow network of 100+ […]
Wow! How? Mystery vs. Moms
When her daughter, Sara, transformed from an active teen to a nearly catatonic shell of a person, Eileen Quinn knew she had to take action. Unfortunately, since Sara lives with Down syndrome her symptoms were likely to be dismissed as sad but inevitable. But Quinn had a hunch that her daughter’s rapid decline was not […]
Recent Comments