Message to Medical Device Companies: Let Patients Help!

Most people would agree the US healthcare system is broken. But what are the solutions? Fix CMS? Overhaul the FDA approval process? The list goes on and on. But what about patients? Equipped, engaged, empowered, and enabled patients. Could these e-patients be the most under utilized asset in today’s healthcare environment?

In this interview with e-patients Dave deBronkart, Hugo Campos, and Bennet Dunlap, they tell us why medical device companies should let patients help…in an effort to open healthcare information directly to patients on an unprecedented level, thus creating a new dynamic in how information is delivered, accessed and used by the patient. This will revolutionize the relationship between patients and health care providers, which in turn will impact the entire spectrum of healthcare.

Interview Highlights with Dave deBronkart, Hugo Campos, and Bennet Dunlap

• What is the e-patient movement?

• Why open access to medical device data is so important.

• What will it take for medical device companies to grasp the e-patient movement?

• How medical device companies can benefit from participatory medicine.

• The personal stories of 3 e-patients: Dave deBronkart, Hugo Campos, and Bennet Dunlap.

• The appeal to medical device companies to take hold of the e-patient movement.

Who are These e-Patients?

Dave deBronkart, known online as “e-Patient Dave,” is the leading spokesperson for the e-patient movement – Empowered, Engaged, Equipped, Enabled. A high tech executive and online community leader for many years, he was diagnosed in 2007 with Stage IV kidney cancer, with a median survival of 24 weeks. He used the internet in every way possible to partner with his care team. Today he is well. And his first book is “Laugh, Sing, and Eat Like a Pig: How an empowered patient beat Stage IV cancer (and what healthcare can learn from it).”

Hugo Campos is a heart patient on a quest for access to the data collected by his cardiac implantable electronic device. Each year, hundreds of thousands of Americans are implanted with pacemakers, loop recorders, and ICDs. However, these patients have no access to the wealth of personalized data that is continuously collected by their devices. Hugo is also the Founder of the ICD User Group, a resource for people living with ICDs, candidates for ICD surgery, as well as their friends and families.

Bennet Dunlap writes the blog Your Diabetes May Vary from the perspective of a parent of two teens with type 1 diabetes. He writes about the various aspects of living with diabetes including: supporting newly diagnosed families as well as diabets care, technology, and advocacy. He and other bloggers view their dialog as a diabetes online community or D.O.C.