An Unwelcome Guest: Living with Chronic Pain
When you have lived with chronic pain for a while you come to know exactly what to do when it shows up in your life–nostrils flared, clamoring to be let in, so noisy you can’t turn him away. Whenever he (or she) shows up, you blame yourself for his appearance. Did you let stress habits way with you? Did you not sleep well or long enough? Did you walk too fast, too long, too soon? Did you eat something you shouldn’t have, or forget to take something you should? The more you fret over what you’ve done that you could’ve done differently the more pain makes its presence known.
You know what you need to do, but taking...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 27, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Alexandra Drane: Woman to Watch in 2014
This week, DW honors Women to Watch in 2014! For this series, we will highlight women in the fields of technology, health, and science that are truly disrupting the status quo. Check out DW’s own Whitney Bowman-Zatzkin’s interview with Alexandra Drane.
After growing up watching her father leverage technology to entice and revolutionize companies, Alexandra Drane launched into her own career in pursuit of using technology to help people live healthier, happier lives. As her fourth startup, Eliza Corporation does just that – making investments in health engagement management to improve health care experiences, reduce c...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 27, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
August 2010 Man of the Month: E-Patient Dave
Richard Davies deBronkart Jr , known by many as e-Patient Dave, is a cancer patient and blogger who, in 2009, became a noted activist for health care transformation through participatory medicine and personal health data rights. In 2010, he became a published author and Disruptive Women in Health Care’s August Man of the Month.
I was a middle-aged guy going through life, as involved with my own health care as I was with my car’s carburetor, which is to say, virtually not at all. And then I found out I was almost dead.
That’s how my interview with Dave started.
Dave was diagnosed in January 2007 with Stage IV, Grade 4...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 27, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
The Last Best Cure: How Simple Tools Can Improve Health and Well-being
My research scientist grandmother used to respond to my complaints of being “stressed out” by asking, “What’s stress? Just a force that holds up a bridge.”
On that one count, I’m afraid she was wrong. Contemporary research points increasingly to the significant negative effects of stress on our physical health, and its role in fueling chronic health problems and autoimmune disorders. Increasingly, science points to the healing powers of our own minds in countering the physical damage stress can cause and improving our health and well-being.
In her book, The Last Best Cure: My Quest to Awaken the Healing Parts o...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 27, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Finding Commonplace on Digital Spaces for Campus Well-being
In the fall of 2015, Colorado State University welcomed its largest and most diverse freshman class in the history of the institution. It is an accolade that has become a pattern on our campus for nearly a decade. While more and more students of color, international students, first-generation students and students from out-of-state choose CSU, it becomes increasingly important that our students find the support they need.
With each new incoming class, we look for new and improved ways to support the consistently growing needs of our students who experience anxiety, depression, and high levels of stress on their way to succ...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 27, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
The Exposing the Silence Project
“Well, at least you have a healthy baby!” is one of the most common phrases a mother who went through a traumatic birth experiences hears. While the friend or family member may mean well and simply be trying to show optimism, he or she is often isolating the deep pain the mother may be going through. As part of my research on maternal health, I came across the photography and advocacy project Exposing the Silence: Documenting Birth Trauma and the Strength of Women across America. The project brings to light a little noticed group of women– women who experienced past sexual abuse that can be triggered during a traumat...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 25, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Quite Simply: UNACCEPTABLE
Last week, my mom stunned me with bad news: A young woman named Tiffany Costa died. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002 and died two weeks ago from stage II breast cancer at just 29 years old. She was metastatic for many years.
Tiffany’s extended family members are dear friends of my mom. I came to “meet” Tiffany because of an email my mom forwarded to me. She was being treated with Doxil. There was (and it would appear there still IS) a shortage of Doxil and she was trying to raise money to have the drugs brought into this country from Europe. The cost was exorbitant. I remember reading the email and I reca...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 25, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
When Size Affects Your Odds
Oncologists are on board in the fight against obesity. And they’ve made it official by issuing their first-ever Position Statement on Obesity and Cancer through the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
That’s especially great news for women—who are twice as likely as men to be affected by the nearly half a million new cases of obesity-related cancers worldwide each year. Not surprisingly, the greatest proportion of them are in North America. (http://ow.ly/FacZg http://ow.ly/Fadcm)
Despite the fact that more American men than women are overweight or obese, U.S. women are disproportionately affected by the obe...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 25, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Fierce Urgency of Now: Family Caregivers and the Future That Is Upon Us
Just before Mother’s Day, I was a guest on an Al-Jazeera news segment focused on the challenges of aging in America. It was my first-ever news appearance, and, later, I proudly showed a recording to my adult daughters when they came by to visit. The segment included a look at how elders are navigating the shoals of old age, sickness, and financial insecurity—a future millions of face, and all of us deny.
One segment featured a mid-life African American woman who had abandoned her retirement dreams to care for her mother, who has Alzheimer’s. As the woman fixed her mother’s wisps of hair, both daughters turned to me...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 25, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Comparative Effectiveness Research: Through the Lens of Medical Innovation
The Top headline of FDA News Device Daily today read, “Comparative Effectiveness Research has Benefits, Risks Experts Say?. Why would Device Daily consider comparative effectiveness to be risky? Many obvious concerns come to mind. There are distinct risks that the process imposed on the device industry may stifle growth. Worries abound related to the direction policy makers may employ such as when studies will be required (e.g., at the early stages of development, or later in the cycle of real-world experience), how studies will be conducted (e.g., by the government or a public/private entity), who will determine the typ...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 25, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
“News (Hot) Flash: Sex, Drugs and Menopause” Recap – 2010 Breakfast Series
Our panel this morning discussed the issues surrounding how the WHI results were interpreted and communicated to women and their health care providers. We recognize that hormones are not appropriate for all women, and look forward to hosting a future panel that highlights alternatives.
The speakers have a variety of backgrounds and experiences (and genders), and we aim to promote diversity of voices.
This was not normal breakfast conversation.
Today was a jolting – and disruptive – talk about what happens to women’s bodies when they age. (Who knew that if you’re menopausal and you don’t take your hormones, your v...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 25, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
The Rocky Road from the Military to the VA
While serving in the military, few think about what comes next. What happens if you are injured and the physical, mental, emotional damage does not go away? Who is tasked to make you “whole” again through health care and compensation? It is a process with which most civilians, and many service members and their families have little familiarity. It is cumbersome, and starts when the individual is still in the service, with a transition program and virtually no follow up by the military.
For the last twenty years, the Department of Labor (DOL) Veterans Employment and Training Services (VETS) has provided grants to the Na...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 10, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Observations of Daily Living (ODLs) and Patient Engagement
By Julie Murchinson. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded program, Project HealthDesign, is pursuing the identification, interpretation and integration of observations of daily living (ODLs). As defined by Project HealthDesign, ODLs are sensations, feelings-thoughts-attitudes, and behaviors that occur in the course of everyday life – such as sleep patterns, diet, exercise levels, pain episodes, and mood – that are not typically part of one’s clinical record, but are critical to managing an individual’s health and guiding their treatment.
During the recent Project HealthDesign workshop, I was struck by the ques...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 10, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Disruptive Woman to Watch 2014: Jen Hyatt
Millions of people struggling with mental illness face something of a Catch 22. They know deep in their psyches that they would feel better if they spoke to someone about how they’re feeling. And yet, taking that step to talk is tough, particularly in a 21st century society that still views mental disorders as a weakness instead of a treatable illness.
Imagine coping with a persistent state of depression. Taking any kind of action can feel insurmountable. It’s no surprise, really, that more than half of those in the United States who have some form of mental illness don’t seek help, or wait for years suffering in sil...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 10, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Campaign on Drug Adherence Marks One Year Anniversary
by Sally Greenberg. Last month the Script Your Future campaign, which is increasing public awareness of the importance of medication adherence, marked its one year anniversary with the help of numerous Disruptive Women in Health Care. At an event in Washington, DC the National Consumers League, which is leading the campaign, convened more than 100 of the campaign’s Committed Partners to celebrate the reach of the first year, honor Partners’ ongoing support for the campaign, and call for renewed commitment to expanding the campaign’s efforts.
Many of our very own Disruptive Women – and a few in training – helped c...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 10, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
