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 […]
Rebel Health
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? Public Access to Research
This is a cross-post from my LinkedIn newsletter. Feel free to join the conversation there or post your thoughts in the comments below. The U.S. National Library of Medicine’s PubMed indexes over 36 million biomedical research abstracts – a searchable trove of evidence that has been available to the public since 1996. It is both a national […]
Wow! How? Drug Interactions
This is a cross-post from my LinkedIn newsletter. Feel free to join the conversation there or post your thoughts in the comments below. People who connect with health peers are able to pool knowledge, track data, and disseminate what they learn. For some, it’s the difference between life and death. For example, Peggy, a woman […]
Wow! How? Diagnosis
“Anne” is a mother I met in my fieldwork who was happy to share her story, but not her name. Her son had become sick very suddenly, complaining of a combination of symptoms that were difficult to pinpoint. Anne took him from one specialist to another, who performed test after test, but they could find […]
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 […]
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