Mixed Feelings as a Patient on Day Two of #ePharma

This morning's talk by Judy Sewards says it all. I was ecstatic to be able to share that enthusiasm, the same enthusiasm I felt yesterday.The opening from Judy above as well as Matthew Zachary's patient perspective started the morning with goosebumps. All stakeholders in the crowd were pumped up!Even during some of the more technical conversations, people like Alicia Staley tried to keep the conversation focused on patients - or, at least, keeping in mind that patients were here and able to help.I felt like we had made progress, like patients were FINALLY being valued.As excited as I was about this conference yesterday and this morning, I left this afternoon feeling defeated and upset.When I signed up for this, I knew that I would likely encounter some negative views on people like myself. Being a patient advocate, it's obvious I work for a healthcare system, yes, but my heart is focused on changing healthcare and helping my fellow patients.I tried to not be too upset about all of this getting here.I tried to keep in mind that patients are stereotypically seen as uneducated hypochondriacs going on WebMD to research their symptoms OR as people who think they know medicine and like to boss physicians and pharma around.I tried to keep in mind that this is the first Patients Included™ version of the summit.It worked fairly well until lunchtime, when there was little done to label the food as far as what was or wasn't gluten free. This is especially interesting given that patien...
Source: ePharma Summit - Category: Pharmaceuticals Tags: #ePharma16 Educated Patient empowered patients Engaged Patients token patients Source Type: blogs