It's no secret that there has been a push, in recent years,
for health care professionals to share more information with their patients and
with consumers in general. Recently, at a meeting of the American Medical
Informatics Association's Annual Symposium, this belief—the belief in the
importance of shared medical informatics—was driven home by the powerful
testimony of a man known as “e-patient Dave.” His real name is Dave deBronkart,
and he shared a moving story about how he survived his stage 4 renal cell
Because deBronkart was diagnosed with cancer in a time
before doctors were sharing a lot of information with patients, deBronkart
didn't know where to turn for help dealing with his bleak prognosis. Finally,
he decided to visit the Association of Cancer's Online Resources website for
help. Quickly, he found all kinds of advice and information he hadn't known
existed, as well as a strong support group that not only encouraged him through
his battle but gave him tips and helped him to know what to expect as his
treatments continued. deBronkart strongly believes that the information and
support he found online saved his life, and he pleaded with the group at the
meeting to continue pushing for information sharing with patients.
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