ABC News: The ePatient Revolution
I recently spoke at the first annual ePatient Connections conference in Philadelphia. I’ll be discussing the ePatient revolution (patients participating in their healthcare decision-making using Internet tools) at ABC news channel 8 live this morning with Dave Lucas. During the segment I’ll be referring to several websites that people will want to check out. For those of you who saw the segment, welcome to my website! Here are the links:
1. Doctors answer questions for free at MedHelp.org Did you know that 9 of the top 11 hospital centers in the country offer access to their physicians for free at MedHelp.org? As part of a PR effort, hospitals are volunteering their doctors’ time to make sure that ePatients can get their questions answered by a reputable source.
2. Identify those mystery pills. Thanks to David Hale at the NIH, a new pill identifier tool is now available online. It’s called “PillBox” and it will soon allow you to search its large pill database by describing the color, shape, and letter/number codes printed on the tablet. Eventually, you may even be able to take a photo of the mysterious pill and have PillBox automatically identify it for you! Today, unfortunately, photo resolution on most cell phones and cameras is not sufficient for this feature to work.
3. Read what your doctor is reading. There is so much new medical research - how can a doctor (or ePatient) stay up to date on the latest health news? MedPage Today sends reporters to most of the major medical conferences to summarize key findings for everyone. You can subscribe to MedPage Today news via newsletter, mobile alerts, or Twitter (@medpagetoday).
4. Get motivated to improve your health. There are many online groups devoted to helping people set goals and track them. For weight loss, SparkPeople is a popular destination support group - for other medical conditions, you might want to try some of the trackers and groups at MedHelp.org
I’ll post a copy of the segment on the blog here later today or early tomorrow. So stay tuned!
For more information about the ePatient Revolution, be sure to check out the new Journal of Participatory Medicine.
*MedHelp.org and MedPage Today are partners of Better Health. Better Health has no connection to PillBox or SparkPeople - we just likes those sites. 
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