When "Putting Patients First" is a matter of perspective

An interesting, vibrant, and on-target discussion took place on Twitter today. Dr. Rob (@doc_rob) and Dave (@ePatientDave) started discussing the event "Putting Patients First" at the National Press, hosted by Dr. Val Jones (@drval).

1. 
   ePatientDave What's wrong w this picture? The event "Putting patients first" has no patients on the panels http://bit.ly/3wc2vh 12 Jul 2009 from TweetDeck
2. 
   ePatientDave Clue: talking *about* pt-centered, w/o pts in the talks, is like Congress talking about suffrage w/o women in the talks 12 Jul 2009 from TweetDeck
3. 
   ePatientDave To be blunt about it, that approach to suffrage took nearly a century (Superb Ken Burns film http://bit.ly/PjuIH) 12 Jul 2009 from TweetDeck
4. 
   doc_rob @ePatientDave What do you want said? 12 Jul 2009 from Tweetie in reply to ePatientDave
5. 
   doc_rob re: Putting Patients First - Women's suffrage is not analogous. People who work with poor and know plight of them are worth listening to. 12 Jul 2009 from Tweetie
6. 
   doc_rob Plus, we are ALL patients in this system. I am a doctor AND a patient. I know MANY patients' hardships, not just one. I love my patients. 12 Jul 2009 from Tweetie
7. 
   ePatientDave @doc_rob Oo oo, the well clued @Doc_Rob is one of the panelists at the (impatient) Putting Pts First! Let's have a blogchat! 12 Jul 2009 from TweetDeck in reply to doc_rob
8. 
   doc_rob Healthcare workers who give a damn and ACTUALLY care for patients have had no voice up to now. I plan on advocating for them. 12 Jul 2009 from Tweetie
9. 
   ePatientDave @doc_rob Seriously, will you host that? Or should e-patients.net host it? You rock! 12 Jul 2009 from TweetDeck in reply to doc_rob

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Dr. Rob is one of the members of the panel at the event. He has been and still is taking an active interest in representing patients. As you can see below, he continues that.

1. 
   doc_rob @ePatientDave It's what I try to do all the time. I'd love to host a real discussion. Understand that not all docs are deaf to their pts. 12 Jul 2009 from Tweetie in reply to ePatientDave
2. 
   ePatientDave Thinking out loud...continuing suffrage thought: imagine male Congress discussing "impact on our process if women vote" 12 Jul 2009 from TweetDeck
3. 
   doc_rob Read http://bit.ly/MdRZQ
   to understand where I come from and what I will say. 12 Jul 2009 from Tweetie
4. 
   ePatientDave @doc_rob I do understand that. It's the "is a proxy sufficient" question. So, dude, git the party started! I'll bring some peeps. 12 Jul 2009 from TweetDeck in reply to doc_rob
5. 
   doc_rob I'll put up a post on the subject tomorrow with the intent on getting discussion and hearing opinions. 12 Jul 2009 from Tweetie
6. 
   doc_rob Nah. I'll do it today. 12 Jul 2009 from Tweetie
7. 
   ePatientDave @doc_rob btw, since the point is to contribute not rant, in our pre-talk we should include finding out what the audience thinks about 12 Jul 2009 from TweetDeck in reply to doc_rob
8. 
   doc_rob @ePatientDave How about me writing a post that says: "Tell me what you think I should talk about in Washington?" 12 Jul 2009 from Tweetie in reply to ePatientDave

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As the discussion continued, others became involved also. For the sake of brevity, I didn't include all the tweets that resulted. Dr. Bryan Vartabedian (@doctor_V) posted "We're All Patients" as a response to the tweets.

1. 
   ePatientDave Yikes: @ "Putting pts first" http://bit.ly/3wc2vh, not only no pt spkrs; Policy Expert=pharma front CMPI http://is.gd/1wbok 12 Jul 2009 from TweetDeck
2. 
   ePatientDave YikesX2: The CMPI "policy expert" warned 1/08 "Internet health searches are dangerous to public health" http://is.gd/1waKh 12 Jul 2009 from TweetDeck
3. 
   ePatientDave He's wrong - @Eysenbach did multi-year study to find "death by googling" and found ZERO cases. http://is.gd/1wbJG 12 Jul 2009 from TweetDeck
4. 
   doc_rob @ePatientDave I was nervous about that as well. Made sure we were free to say what WE felt. 12 Jul 2009 from Tweetie in reply to ePatientDave
5. 
   Doctor_V My thoughts for those who feel @drval 's Washington panel doesn't represent patients http://bit.ly/XjDo8 12 Jul 2009 from TweetDeck
6. 
   Doctor_V Hate it when patients feel we're not on their page http://bit.ly/XjDo8 12 Jul 2009 from TweetDeck
7. 
   doc_rob RT: My thoughts for those who feel @drval 's Washington panel doesn't represent patients http://bit.ly/XjDo8 (via @Doctor_V) - Agree. 12 Jul 2009 from Tweetie

Dr. Rob was true to his word, and posted his response, "Speak to Me" .

I posted one comment in Dr. V's post, and will on Dr. Rob's as soon as I have time. Trisha Torrey, a patient advocate, also posted “Putting Patients First” = No Patients (Time to go clean my room now.)". Mary Shomon (@ThyroidMary) had an excellent comment there. And Dr. Val (@drval) responded very honestly about the good intents of her efforts with this panel. (Thank you, Dr. Val).

Now is your time to respond. Go tell Dr. Rob what you want heard. Speak to him. What do you have to say about this? Do you think patients should be represented by patients? Do doctors count since at some point in their lives they will/are patients, too? Should we work as a team, not as antagonists?

What do you think? Say it. Now is the time.

(I will update with other posts on this topic as they occur. I'm sure there will be more.)