Month: October 2018

Patient Empowerment: The Path to Better-Informed Health Decisions?

Patient empowerment. There’s no single, agreed-upon definition of what it is or how to get to it. But, patient empowerment is generally seen as leading to collaborative, coordinated care. It supports an approach to care that honors the patient’s preferences, values, cultural traditions, and socioeconomic conditions. All of these characteristics are cornerstones of patient-centered healthcare,…

Social POV: Facebook for Patient Engagement

Since its launch in 2004, Facebook has quickly become the most ubiquitous social media platform. From its early days of connecting students on college campuses, Facebook honed its connection-making skills to become one of the easiest ways for people to connect online. In the past few years, it has become apparent that Facebook offers particular…

The Significance of Health 2.0 for Patient Leaders

I had the distinct pleasure of attending and speaking at Health 2.0, one of the industry’s most important health innovation conferences held from September 16-18, 2018 at the Santa Clara Convention Center.  Hundreds of health tech startups and initiatives have been launched, showcased, promoted and catalyzed here in the last dozen years. Health 2.0 is…

Presenting The 2018 WEGO Health Award Winners

Year after year, the WEGO Health Awards remind us just how powerful the online health community is. With over 4,000 nominations and over 30,0000 endorsements, it's safe to say we were able to recognize more Patient Leaders than ever before! We're honored to recognize and celebrate the individuals making a change in healthcare, one tweet, one…

Owning Your Health Identity: New Thinking for New Rights

There’s growing concern that our personal health data, genetic data, and even in some cases our physical cells, are being collected and sold for profit—often without our knowledge or consent. As such, there is a growing belief that we, as individuals, should have the option to claim the right to own our personal health data…