I first noticed two patches of white skin about 10 years ago, when I was 47 years old. The patches were on the inside top of my thighs, symmetrical to […]
Patient and public perspectives
Tamás Bereczky: Patient advocacy and the HIV community
I have been working as a patient advocate, peer helper, treatment literacy trainer and policy advocate in the HIV/AIDS field for more than a decade now. HIV is no longer […]
Dave deBronkart: Can a compelling graphic lead to better care plans?
This graphic was published last year with little fanfare. Recently it appeared on social media in patient circles, and was immediately met with dozens of shares, comments, tweets, and retweets: • […]
Tessa Richards: Patients combat corruption in healthcare
Corruption in health systems has been described as “one of the biggest open sores in medicine.” It occurs in many guises and all countries. Patients may be unaware of the price […]
Paul Buchanan: On being the token patient
Healthcare systems have been built with hierarchies, processes, and models of engagement that are designed to distill policy, research, therapy, diagnostics, treatment, and support down to the patient. The patient […]
Tessa Richards: Patients’ role in making care safer
Patients don’t only access services. They observe them acutely too. As they lie in hospital beds and are “processed” through outpatients and emergency centres they perceive quality and safety at […]
Leo Kroll: My “lived” experience of cancer and psychosis
Susan Sontag’s Illness as Metaphor challenges the notion that we hold responsibility for the illnesses that afflict us. She states: “Theories that diseases are caused by mental states and can be cured […]
Ceinwen Giles: Self-management? I need a PA!
Patient activation, self-management, shared decision-making….all of these sound great in practice. I, personally, would be very happy to self-manage myself. If I could figure out how. I never set out […]
Paul Buchanan: Overwhelmed
Feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes that’s what being a patient is all about. Consultations, appointments, tests, results, advice, and therapy “choices”—what on earth am I meant to do? I’m not sure I […]
Derek Mitchell: MyStoma—putting patients at the heart of service improvements
Some years ago I underwent major surgery for the removal of my inflamed colon. I had suffered from ulcerative colitis for too long and the time had come to make […]