There’s a really interesting thread at e-patients.net about the use of participatory medicine. There are some really good comments from patients and professionals alike about what lessons can be learned from participatory medicine experiences.

It reminds me of what I wrote about here a couple weeks back about my experience with my son’s asthma attack. Going through the experiences ourselves is definitely the best way to learn about it–even though we would never wish it on ourselves or anybody else.

It also reminds me about the challenges of communicating what we mean by “participatory medicine”–or for that matter “information therapy” (Ix) or “shared decision making” (SDM). That was the subject of the most recent IxCenter white paper, which attempted to bring some ideas to that conversation. Getting over the semantics and communicating about better communication is something we still need to figure out better.

Lots of innovative ideas for how to advance participatory medicine will be shared at our 7th Annual Ix Conference, “WIxRED: Next-Generation Patient-Centered Care.” Among other things, I’m particularly looking forward to hearing from some “real patients” who will be there to share their stories.

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